Chapter 149
Chapter 149
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 149
Chapter Title: Part 2, Chapter 12
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Yeo Hu-hee crouched in her room, replaying the earlier events in her mind.
She had wanted to kill the kids who brought Lee Sa-byeok here, but Woo Ji-yoon had struck first, so she hadn't gotten the chance.
When Lee Sa-byeok's face was revealed earlier, the situation had been so tense that her hands shook.
Of course, she wouldn't have actually killed the girl, but feeling intense disgust instead of pleasure when attacking someone was a first for her.
That very sense of enjoyment had only fueled the disgust even more.
'Yuhui...'
Lee Sa-byeok's voice, hoarse and desperately calling for her amid the chaos. She had thought that what she was doing would ultimately protect Lee Sa-byeok.
During the Abyss Project, when she had been the weakest, she wanted to teach Lee Sa-byeok the way she had survived.
In the hope that if she became the strongest, Lee Sa-byeok might warm up to her a bit.
It had all been her delusion.
Lee Sa-byeok's way of surviving was different from hers, so her actions had only brought countless enemies to Lee Sa-byeok.
She had believed all this time that everything was for protecting Lee Sa-byeok, but upon reflection, she realized she'd just been using her as an excuse for her own selfishness.
Yeo Hu-hee wrestled with her personal desires and her feelings for Lee Sa-byeok.
Should she abandon all her plans for Lee Sa-byeok's sake and work to improve Abyss's image?
But she had too many irons in the fire to drop everything now.
She had painstakingly recruited capable Awakeners.
If they scattered without warning, they could turn into her enemies.
'I'll just keep Lee Sa-byeok with me all the time. Then we can be together, and I can protect her, right?'
A fleeting idea popped into her head, but she dismissed it as no better than Moon Se-rim's idiotic thinking.
Come to think of it, Moon Se-rim had suggested something similar earlier.
But keeping someone who thought and acted independently by your side forever was absurd.
Especially with Lee Sa-byeok, who would get frustrated and slip away at every turn.
She couldn't keep her there without locking her up, and if she did that, plenty of people would rise up against it.
Even if she locked her up, Lee Sa-byeok would undoubtedly escape.
People underestimated her as an unawakened, but she was no pushover.
Then a sudden question arose.
'Lee Sa-byeok confiding in Moon Se-rim is way too suspicious...'
Moon Se-rim was currently the strongest in attack power, but given Lee Sa-byeok's personality, she wouldn't have told her anything—too unpredictable where it might lead.
Even her trembling earlier felt suspicious now.
Back in the true Abyss days when there was nothing, Lee Sa-byeok hadn't flinched even in front of the overseers.
The ones harassing her were just half-baked first-time Awakeners, not top-ranked powerhouses.
Yeo Hu-hee, racking her brain and digging into the oddities, suddenly clamped her mouth shut and let out a guttural scream.
"No way, that crazy bitch!!!"
If her hunch was right, every thought circuit firing in her head right now could be Lee Sa-byeok's design.
Ever since her awakenings stopped, the girl—who had always been cunning—had grown even sharper, making it a plausible theory.
Before, she'd used every physical means to survive; now, she might be exploiting emotions the same way.
Realizing it might be Lee Sa-byeok's intent made all the nagging dissonances click into place.
She had nearly drowned in massive self-loathing like Moon Se-rim, pondering redemption or plotting to imprison her.
Underestimating Lee Sa-byeok had been a grave sin.
She'd looked weak lately, like a kitten, forgetting she was a feral cub with the grit to tear into overseers bare-handed.
Yeo Hu-hee bolted toward where Lee Sa-byeok was probably pretending to whimper pathetically in her room.
§ § §
Didn't I say after this, only the easy stuff was left?
I waited for Yeo Hu-hee's group to come to me.
I'd figured she'd notice something off and come first—and sure enough, she did, grabbing me by the collar.
"Be honest. You did it on purpose! You totally meant to! I was racking my brain wondering how I could lose track of you. You just deliberately slipped out of my sight!!"
Yeo Hu-hee yelled, then burst into tears from sheer frustration. She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and opened her mouth again.
"And fuck, what kind of convincing is that dogshit method!!!! Have you no pride?"
Yeo Hu-hee was sharp as hell. I'd hoped my acting would sell it, but it apparently fell short of full buy-in.
"You make it so it pricks our consciences to even say 'don't hate me' or 'forgive me.' Why..."
But she seemed even more shocked than I'd anticipated—her hands trembled as she gripped my collar.
"You could've just said 'watch out, your revenge is backfiring on you!!!'"
Yeo Hu-hee started shaking me by the collar.
"Then you'd just torment the kids who messed with me even sneakier. And I'd end up paying for it that way. Scary."
"Don't give me that weak shit... Is that the face of someone who's scared?"
What was my face like?
I'd run out of energy for more acting, so changing my expression didn't even occur to me.
I regretted not at least shaking, but since she'd caught on that it was partly intentional, honesty seemed best.
"I'll tell you one thing."
I took Yeo Hu-hee's hand and placed it against my throat.
"If you squeeze here, I'm dead. Without constantly struggling to survive, dying would be easy for me."
I clasped her hand over mine and squeezed, letting out an exaggerated gag.
"If a second-time Awakener holds a grudge against me, I'm done. And that's not all. If our bad rep means B to D-Class kids lose out on national perks, who do you think the B-Class kids will take it out on first?"
"..."
"Honestly? Even if someone comes at me with malice, I'm not that scared. If they wanna kill me, I don't particularly wanna dodge. Living in constant vigilance is too fucking exhausting."
Yeo Hu-hee freaked out and tried to pull her hand from my throat, but I gripped it tight, holding it in place.
"Capsule awakenings don't work on me anymore, I've mastered puking, and grinding gates for a chance at awakening? That's been years."
A weird, inexplicable laugh bubbled up. Maybe because it didn't fit the mood, Yeo Hu-hee's face soured.
"Save the self-pity for later—you guys keep hunter-ing your way to glory. Me? I gotta blend in with normals now."
I usually didn't share my situation with others.
Talking about it stirred up emotions, and that dragged in anxiety and negativity.
Still, I brought it up because I wanted these kids—who kept crushing my tiny hopes for life—to rethink.
"What you're doing is basically telling me to just die."
I let go of Yeo Hu-hee's hand.
I'd expected a barrage of rebuttals, but for once, she was meek. She just stared at me silently.
While she sorted her thoughts, I pulled out my phone and played the video I'd saved from before.
"You sneaky fuck... You kept evidence?"
Yeo Hu-hee, lost in thought, snapped to at the video and let out a hollow laugh.
Her face twisted in displeasure at the evidence, she shut off the screen and pinched her forehead.
"If you want leniency, just do what I say."
Her dazed eyes focused at that, lips curling into a smirk.
"You weren't fearless—you just had no will to live to begin with? Explains why you threw yourself into gates so recklessly."
Yeo Hu-hee gnawed her nails, then snatched my phone and deleted the evidence. How'd she know the passcode?
"Sorry, but it's backed up to the cloud. Deleting it does nothing."
"Fuck, you think I wouldn't expect that from you? I'll do whatever you want, so never show me that video again."
Yeo Hu-hee fumbled around, grabbed a water bottle, and chugged it.
She breathed slowly for a moment, crushing the plastic bottle before speaking.
"Looks like you wanna live a bit now, at least. You've still got the will to talk me down."
Then she got mad again out of nowhere and chucked the empty bottle at me. It crumpled pathetically on the floor.
"You're thrashing to stay alive, but acting like nothing matters if you die. Don't peddle pity with weird bullshit."
Yeo Hu-hee ground her teeth and spoke. Then she reached out and touched the scar on my neck out of the blue.
"Expulsion? Withdrawal? Apology? Whatever you want, I'll do it. What consequences do I even care about? Fuck this shit."
Good, it was veering compliant. I'd worried if talk of extreme stuff like confinement came up.
"Apology or expulsion is a given. But you and me, we gotta do something about the violence."
"You too?"
"Yeah, I lash out with hands first when pissed. That's how we grabbed that guy together last time, you psycho. No one's taking my sob stories anymore because of you."
"You enjoyed it back then. I knew you would."
"That's for you, me, and Moon Se-rim to sort out yourselves. Enjoy that shit outside? You're fucked. Might as well play acoustic guitar."
I picked up the acoustic Lee Ji-hyun gave me and strummed a familiar tune.
"Fucking psycho. Total nutjob."
Yeo Hu-hee stared at me like I was insane, pressing her eyelids with her wrists.
"...And it's kinda melodic in the middle of this."
I nodded and plucked the final string.
The quiet room filled only with guitar melody. Yeo Hu-hee, head bowed, buried her face in my shoulder and spoke.
"I'm sorry, Sa-byeok."
She sighed and spoke again.
"I'm sorry..."
Yeo Hu-hee convinced.
If she was crying, she'd taken a real hit.
Convincing the others would be easy once Yeo Hu-hee was on board.
She was the loudest voice in the group, always dragging out the negatives.
I inwardly sighed in relief at her compliant side.
"Where'd you learn guitar?"
"Self-taught."
"You don't hate me?"
"Forgiveness is easy? I got beat."
"You took it on purpose. Feels like I'm more hurt. But if you start acting right now, you won't hate me?"
"Dunno. How would I know how I'll feel?"
"Then teach me guitar."
When I refused, she subtly shifted topics.
"Sure. But I don't know chords. Gotta go by feel."
Teaching her guitar lightened the heavy emotions from before.
"Sa-byeok, smile normally once while playing guitar, not scary like earlier."
I gave a half-assed smirk, staring at her anxious weird request.
"You're pretty. Just smile like that."
Yeo Hu-hee smiled strainedly, looking super tense.
* * *
Yeo Hu-hee was somewhat resolved through talk, but Moon Se-rim was the real issue.
No matter what I said, her response boiled down to "sorry."
'Sorry, I'll get revenge for you for sure.'
'First, I'll round everyone up and get revenge. You wanna do it? Sure... But if you're gonna revenge on me too, can you skip ignoring me or hating me and just hit me instead?'
'Sorry, really sorry. You can beat me to near death. Really sorry.'
She kept apologizing in circles, vowed to fix this somehow, and a night passed.
She'd apparently agonized alone, and the result? 24/7 surveillance.
I'd thought Yeo Hu-hee would rein her in fine, but it'd be annoying for a while.
I opened the dorm door and checked next door.
A hulking figure crouched there.
"..."
"...Good morning. Sorry, Sa-byeok."
Moon Se-rim's curls frizzier than usual in the morning. She avoided my eyes, staring at the floor.
Woo Ji-yoon appeared behind me, making a disgusted face at Moon Se-rim planted like a guard dog by the door.
"What the hell is this displeasing shit first thing... What kind of face is that to show up with? Just die already."
"What can I do? Separate from my death penalty sins, Sa-byeok's unawakened, so she needs 24-hour protection. I'm second strongest after Seol Do-yoon now, so it's my duty."
Her words implying Woo Ji-yoon's drop in pecking order soured her mood, wrinkling her nose.
"Bullshit. I'm the top dog."
Catching the irritation, Moon Se-rim nodded frantically in agreement, surprised.
"...Right. Sa-byeok, she's the top. But you still need to take me along. Might look shameless, but it feels right."
I shut the door, and Woo Ji-yoon locked it.
"What's she hovering for without shame? Psycho. I'll guard you from now on. I'm plenty strong."
"You're doing it too."
Woo Ji-yoon was starting to catch Moon Se-rim's vibe. Maybe I'd dug my own grave.
I'd acted bold to stoke their anxiety, so I'd need to show reliability for a bit.
Dressed for school, I opened the door—Moon Se-rim was gone.
『Going to the bathroom. Call if attacked. 010-XXXX-XXXX. Really, really sorry. Gotta go quick, wait exactly 2 min. Don't go anywhere first.』
I picked up the note on the floor and read it.
'Don't wait for this.'
Factoring in when it was left, I waited five extra seconds and stepped out.
As I started walking, Moon Se-rim came back from the bathroom in the distance.
Yeo Hu-hee was with her—they were arguing from the morning.
"Thick-skulled bitch, so your conclusion is stalking? For real?"
"Stalking? What's that? Anyway, I gotta hurry, you psycho fuck. Someone could've come kill Sa-byeok while I was gone!"
"It's not like a ninja's always glued to Sa-byeok, and Woo Ji-yoon's there—logically, who kills in that short time?"
"No ninja, but an assassin could be lurking."
"Oh yeah? Hey~ look, Sa-byeok got killed cuz you went to the bathroom~"
Yeo Hu-hee spotted me, smirked, then nodded mockingly at Moon Se-rim.
"Overstepping hard from the thick skull, huh."
Cursing but panicked, Moon Se-rim scanned around for me.
I limped exaggeratedly toward Moon Se-rim.
"Hey, I got hurt cuz you went to the bathroom~ What now~"
"Moon Se-rim's trash. Even goes to the bathroom."
Woo Ji-yoon checked my note and snickered from the side.
"No, fuck..."
Moon Se-rim saw me walking fine and muttered curses under her breath.
Luckily, the 24/7 clingy bullshit wouldn't last long.