The Second Member (2): Baek Ji-an's Five Stages of Rage
Baek Ji-an's anger comes in five stages. Extreme Minor Rage, Minor Rage, Medium Rage, Major Rage, and Extreme Major Rage.
Extreme Minor and Minor are as minor as their names suggest. The level she showed earlier when I teased her—she either lets it slide or pays me back once and it's over. Hell, it's barely even worth calling anger. But things change starting from Medium Rage.
It's like switching from WWE to UFC. Medium Rage kicks in if she texts me and I don't reply for over an hour. From there, it involves physical action. Once, on a rare day off, I was napping hard when she suddenly stormed the house. I nearly shit myself.
Medium Rage takes all day together, doing whatever she wants and playing with her nonstop to calm down. But even that aggressive invasion was nothing but cute tantrum compared to the next stage.
Major Rage and Extreme Major Rage. At this point, I had to leave my fate to the heavens.
Once, Baek Ji-an roughly asked, "You hiding some girl at home?" and I shot back, "What if I was with a girl like you said? What then?" That was the day Major Rage exploded.
How do I know it was Major? Easy. From Major Rage on, her eyes start glowing with a fucking terrifying red light.
"I'm asking why your bed smells like perfume I've never smelled before."
Yeah, just like now.
"It doesn't smell like this on you. It's someone else's scent. A woman's scent. What's this? Why does your bed smell like this?"
Baek Ji-an pressed on with questions, her eyes leaking red light.
"Did you sleep another woman in your bed?"
Unlike the leaking light, her matte red eyes stared me down like death itself, questions relentless.
"Huh? I'm asking, Kang Jinseong. Did you sleep a woman in your bed?"
No, this wasn't questioning—it was an interrogation. She couldn't contain her overflowing emotions, mana-mixed light spilling from her eyes. A seriously dangerous sign. For her, not me.
"You... got a girlfriend?"
A broken, pathetic emotion choked her voice as it forced out.
"Just three months. Just three months without seeing you. And you got a girl in that time?"
The matte red eyes fixed on me trembled, her body starting to shake.
"This never happened before. You were gone longer than this sometimes, and I waited alone just fine. Why, why all of a sudden..."
Moisture mixed into Ji-an's voice. Shoulders hunched, breathing ragged, head dropping low.
I was certain. This surpassed Major Rage—Extreme Major Rage. A level even I'd never seen... no, beyond anger entirely.
Major Rage was chaos before, but if Extreme Major blew up, it'd be a national disaster.
In hunter society, those whose personal power eclipses groups are called S-rank hunters. Untouchable by non-S-ranks, they're walking calamities in human form.
And Baek Ji-an was one such S-rank hunter. If her emotions ran wild and she lost control, horrors would follow.
I'd just finished organizing my explanation in my head. Sitting on the bed's edge, I knelt on one knee before her huddled, shaking form.
"Baek Ji-an. Ji-an. Look at me."
I gently wrapped both hands around her clenched, trembling fist and called her name.
"No girlfriend. Still single as fuck."
And I said what she probably wanted most right now.
"...Really?"
Her shaking stopped at my words. She finally lifted her head to meet my eyes. Those watery eyes, fixed only on me, looked so pitiful. Hell, what's the point of being an S-rank acting all fierce like a beast? She looks just like she did as a kid right now.
I let out a hollow chuckle inside. To reassure her, I continued.
"You know I've never even had a situationship. Think I'd snag a girlfriend in just three months?"
"...It's not impossible."
"...If it were that easy, I'd have one by now."
"Jinseong, do you want a girlfriend...?"
I called out her absurd overestimation, but suddenly Ji-an's face paled.
Shit, mistake.
Right now, she's a bomb ready to blow at a touch—needs kid-gloves handling, but I blurted an NG word without thinking.
"No, I mean hypothetically! And where would I find time for a girlfriend? Too busy scraping by. No one's even into me anyway!"
I frantically shook my head, scooping up my fuckup.
"Then why does your bed smell like a woman? Your bed should only smell like you, Jinseong..."
Ji-an whined in that small, watery voice from our childhood, timidly trailing off.
Seeing that exact same look, I softly lifted the corner of my mouth.
"I can explain everything. So no crying, okay? Listen?"
"I'm not crying. No tears fell yet, so not crying. And... yeah, I'll listen."
She grumbled a bit at my words, a little offended, then nodded faintly.
Whew, narrowly extinguished the rage before Extreme Major. But putting out a fire means clearing all embers. "Even dead fires reignite" for a reason—I started explaining to stamp them out...
"First, put some clothes on. Hard to talk staring at you like this."
I told Ji-an to dress first. No matter the urgency, chatting wrapped in just a towel is bullshit.
*Bang—*
"Put on the pajamas...... Huh?"
I pulled pajamas from the closet for her, left the bedroom, and waited on the living room sofa. But who came out wasn't Baek Ji-an in pajamas.
"Wh-what the hell is that...!"
"Wanted to wear this more than pajamas. Got a problem?"
Out of the bedroom, Baek Ji-an wore only my crisp white dress shirt.
Lucky her frame's small, so it covered below. But shorter than a miniskirt—problematic. And terrifying not knowing if she had underwear on.
She seemed seriously pissed, wanting to fuck me over for real.
Normally, I'd smack her back and yell, "Baek Ji-an, what the fuck are you doing half-naked in a guy's house alone? Get properly dressed now!"
But that'd reignite the embers I'd just put out. Couldn't risk it.
"Sigh."
All I could do was grab the blanket from the sofa and wrap it around her waist.
Swoosh.
"......"
"You're a handful, seriously. You wanna tease me that bad?"
"......Yeah."
"Yeah. Here we are. If you weren't stronger than me, your ass would've been beat to hell. Thank your S-rank stars, Baek Ji-an."
"......Hmph."
Now she's huffing and sprawling. Anyway, blanket secured—no catastrophe. Time to explain.
"A lot happened in the three months you were gone. I'll tell you everything, so you can clear the misunderstanding."
"Fine, spill. What the hell happened?"
And so, side by side on the living room sofa, I told Baek Ji-an all about the past events.
*
"...And that's how it went."
I told Baek Ji-an everything from the three months she was away. Hit by the Grim Reaper's curse shattering my mana circuit, awakening the Safe House unique ability, registering Yoo Seo-ah as the first member, rescuing and healing her, getting the Full Bloom ability, testing its power—everything.
Even summarized, it took a solid three hours.
But necessary to clear her misunderstanding.
"There, misunderstanding cleared, right?"
Three hours of story—must be cleared. I turned, thinking that.
"......Hey. Kang Jinseong. Wanna die?"
For some reason, my childhood friend Baek Ji-an was grinding her teeth in utter fury.
"Why? I explained everything..."
"Yeah! Explained! It was just an explanation! Misunderstanding's not cleared at all!"
"What."
I thought recounting would clear it, but nope.
"You totally let Yoo Seo-ah sleep in your bed! Twice!!!"
"No, to save Seo-ah, I had no choice..."
"Again! 'Seo-ah' again! Why call Yoo Seo-ah 'Seo-ah'? Not 'Team Leader' like before?!"
"Her team's disbanded now, she's not team leader anymore..."
"Ugh! That's not convincing! Why get closer after disbanding? Should've just bye!"
"I thought so too, but it didn't go that way. Weird, huh."
"Weird my ass?!"
Baek Ji-an scowled, brow furrowed, ripping into me. No red light, so not Major— I could respond casually.
"And the worst part!"
Suddenly, she leaned in close.
"Huh?"
"That official Safe House member thing—why's Yoo Seo-ah first? Should've been me first!"
I had words for this.
"I planned you first! But you were gone!"
"Then do it now! Make me a member too—gonna get all the healing massages and healing body services!"
Member registration applicant detected.