Chapter 70
Chapter 70
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 70
Chapter Title: Dorm Room Counseling
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After finishing training, back in the dorm.
Saebyeok Lee roughly tossed Seol Doyun's luggage bundle back into the room.
"Noah, why'd you suddenly change course like that? You wanna end up as a dissected awakening specimen or something?"
"I've always been on this track. Think about it—A-rank. The association president's attention would be all over us."
"You could've just dialed it back to C-rank, you asshole."
"Truth is, seeing you so hyped while packing your stuff kinda pissed me off."
"You don't have balls in your gut. Fuck off."
"Saebyeok, why are you so mad?"
Saebyeok flung herself onto the bed and messed up her hair wildly. Seol Doyun approached the curled-up Saebyeok on the bed and gently straightened her tangled locks.
Knock knock knock.
A small knock came at the door. It creaked open, and a little kid slipped in cautiously.
"Hey, guys... you asleep?"
Kyungseop Lee, who'd snuck over, hurried inside and scanned the room.
There was Saebyeok buried under the covers, and Seol Doyun combing Saebyeok's hair.
Good thing he hadn't come while they were fighting. Last time he'd shown up during a fight, he'd gotten hit and bolted.
"You look like hell. Bad dream? Come sit here."
Seol Doyun smiled and patted Saebyeok's bed.
Kyungseop nodded, wiping his runny nose on his sleeve as he approached Saebyeok's bed.
"No, no, no. Wanna go to Seol Doyun's bed instead? Kyungseop?"
"Why are you crying? Here, blow your nose."
"I'm seriously gonna kill you."
When Kyungseop's snot got on Saebyeok's short-sleeved tee, she shot up and snatched it away.
Instead, she unrolled some tissue, twisted it tight, and plugged his nose.
Kyungseop grabbed Saebyeok's arm as she plugged his nose and started bawling.
He couldn't cry loudly, so he squeezed his eyes and mouth shut tight.
"Ugh! Hey! Don't grab my arm with your snotty hand!"
"Saebyeok, he's crying—don't be so harsh."
Seol Doyun, who'd stepped a foot away from Kyungseop, started edging back to his own spot.
"Go to Seol Doyun. I'm no good at comforting people."
"Can't you pat me like last time? It really helped."
"What the hell? Get lost and go to him. He might even give you a kiss."
"Really...?"
Seol Doyun, mid-sip from his black tumbler, spat out a bit of water.
"...Cough. I can do counseling. You know that, but there's a small consultation fee."
Seol Doyun used to counsel the kids for free sometimes.
But then he started charging, saying it was about respecting his time.
"Anyway. Sniff, I brought it. Here's all my money...."
Kyungseop handed Seol Doyun a crumpled, snot-stained one-thousand-won bill and a grubby five-hundred-won coin that looked picked up off the street.
"What's the problem?"
Seol Doyun pocketed the cash in his bitch-proof five-hundred-won safebox.
He plopped down in a chair with a smile and handed Kyungseop the Choco Pie Saebyeok had tossed aside.
Kyungseop munched on the Choco Pie, tears streaming down again.
"Sniff, ugh. Dad, I miss him. Waaah."
"You miss your dad?"
"Yeah... I miss him, but I hate him. Can't forgive him. But I miss him...."
"Aw, it's normal to feel both at once. You miss him a lot?"
"Yeah...."
Urp. Blech.
Saebyeok pulled the covers over her head and barely swallowed down her churning stomach.
"You okay if Saebyeok's gonna puke?"
"She pukes all the time. She's fine. Keep going."
Seol Doyun's counseling session continued.
"The painful, scary stuff... you get used to it. But every time it hurts, I think of the dad who abandoned me, and it gets worse.... I wanna kill the overseer, kill my dad too.... Waaah."
"You seem really stressed. Even talking about killing people. Here, have some warm tea and calm down."
Seol Doyun dropped a brown rice green tea bag into his tumbler of hot water, shook it, and offered it to Kyungseop.
"If I die here, would Dad even know? Hic, would anyone grieve for me?"
"Can't guarantee about your dad, but Saebyeok would be sad."
"Sob, really? You?"
"Hm, of course me too."
Seol Doyun smiled as he sorted the money in his metal box.
He rolled a bundle of one-thousand-won bills tight with a rubber band and tucked it away.
"Honestly... earlier in the gate, I kinda wanted to just die.... But I was scared... if I did, the other kids might all follow."
"...."
"Sniff. So I held on. Real tight."
Seol Doyun, who'd been half-ass replying, rested his chin on the chair arm and fell thoughtful.
"They say just not going insane is impressive, but I'm gonna win this! Sniff. Thinking about our situation just crushes me more, makes my head go weird, so please help me. Sniff. I don't know what to do...."
"You want methods over comfort?"
"Y-yeah... but comfort me too. Consultation was one thousand five hundred, comfort's five hundred extra...."
It was easy to forget that the kids who hadn't snapped here all had tougher minds than normal.
Kyungseop always seemed to be crying and shaking, like he'd just deny reality and sink into depression, but his mental fortitude was stronger than expected.
"There are a few ways to endure awful situations."
"Sniff, like what?"
"Resignation, avoidance, and denial."
"Huh?"
Kidding. Seol Doyun laughed and rephrased.
"One is finding happiness in daily life, another is making a goal to distract you, and the last is convincing yourself the bad stuff is actually good."
"That's hard.... How do you endure it?"
"Just keep pushing forward. Don't dwell on the rest."
*Poof*, depression gone like magic.
Seol Doyun twisted a tissue and tossed it over the tears Kyungseop had spilled on the floor.
"Got it... still, spilling it out helps a bit. Sniff."
Kyungseop cried a while longer, then got up.
Saebyeok, who'd been silently watching the two talk, finally spoke.
"Kyungseop."
"Yeah?"
"Take this and share with your roommate."
She rummaged in the bed and chucked him a chocolate bar, some sweet-and-sour snacks, whatever she grabbed.
Kyungseop cradled the armful of scavenged snacks, his face much brighter than before.
As the door clicked shut behind Kyungseop, Saebyeok spoke up.
"Hwang Gitae seems kinda unstable lately."
"Yeah."
Saebyeok recalled how Kyungseop's roommate, Hwang Gitae, had gotten noticeably gloomier these past few days.
The reason the usually quiet Kyungseop looked so distraught was probably Gitae's shaky mental state rubbing off.
"At least once we're not guinea pigs anymore, the ones cracking from exhaustion should drop off."
"Yeah, whatever. Let's hustle till we drop. I'm tired of babysitting whiners."
Saebyeok had given up on everything. Sick of endless false hopes, she figured rather than banking on things magically working out, she'd back the enthusiastic Seol Doyun—and whether they died or survived, it'd sort itself somehow.
Saebyeok walked to Seol Doyun's desk and scanned the notes he'd jotted down.
"So, what about contacting that human rights group? Success?"
"Hm, turns out the association president preemptively bought off any groups that could threaten him."
"Thought he was just playing around, but when'd he do that?"
"Probably his competent secretary, the one with the personal life dirt on him."
Saebyeok froze for a sec, frowning.
Seol Doyun was blackmailing Secretary Min Jicheol under the alias Noah, so if the secretary was bought off...
"You crazy bastard, that's a win. Why beat around the bush? But why bother buying off human rights groups?"
Just leak that kids without guardians are getting sacrificed in this horrific project—that should do it.
"No need, really. But a few NGOs kicking up a fuss won't take down the association president, who's in bed with megacorps."
"So you had the secretary dodge the president's suspicion?"
"Yep, check this."
Seol Doyun showed Saebyeok his list.
Small companies now aligned with greedy Kim Woosung after getting hooked by him, and megacorp lists.
One megacorp looked familiar: CSK Media. The rich Yoo siblings' family company she frequented lately.
"Later, we get the bought-off NGOs to collect evidence, flip it to media outlets turning on the president—should be a show. I'll handle that. What about you?"
"Keep tanking the association president's value. So other megacorps can spit out Kim Woosung. Guy's got no loyalists around him—just his own sleazy kind."
"So you're secretly scaling up those hunter markets you're running through proxies to eat Woosung's pharma alive?"
"Yep."
"Got enough cash to bulk up?"
"?"
Seol Doyun tilted his head, and Saebyeok tossed him the dented metal box under her bed holding all her savings.
They'd made a killing lately selling smuggled drugs at markup to rich normies eyeing hunter life.
"What's this?"
"Money, your favorite."
"Hm... my entire fortune?"
She'd been saving hard, but he hadn't expected it for himself.
"You nuts? Giving away my blood money? It's a loan."
Saebyeok fiddled with her bangs.
"Loan means pay back with results."