Invasive Species
#Previous chapter has been updated. Recommended to reread for a pleasant experience. #Seonha's POV.
“Yah!!! Lee! Yeon! Woo!!!”
Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap!
It was like four short knocks on the door of misfortune.
—Stranger
*
—Miss.
Shake, shake.
—Miss.
—…?
—You should sleep in bed. It's bad for your waist.
—……Yeah.
—Were you having a good dream?
Dream…
I often have the same dream when I sleep face-down.
A shy boy secretly doing something naughty and running away…
Ever since that day.
—…Yeah. A dream.
For now.
*
The dream I'd longed for so desperately came true one day, all of a sudden.
No, it was stolen.
“……”
The treasure I'd screamed for months to obtain had rolled into someone else's hands without any warning.
Seeing those lips wetting his cheek with saliva without permission, for the first time, I thought there might be times when killing someone is necessary.
Who is she?
I have information on all the heroines. It's probably not much different from what Yeonwoo, the player, has.
And within the bounds of not crossing human lines, I've taken appropriate measures to isolate the heroines.
Sorry to disappoint him—he probably thinks he's holding his own—but I don't start fights I can't win. I win first, then fight.
In the end, it's just a matter of time. His side is my place in the last chapter.
……
But.
What is this in front of me? From her alien appearance to her actions.
—Squeeze…
My head heated up. My mouth went dry, and my lower belly tightened sharply. Losing the arm I'd hooked around him was nothing compared to it.
“That's a violation of school rules.”
I pried the thief off. And pointed out her crime.
It's not about guiding a classmate whose future I don't care about.
From this moment, it's to engrave into that empty head the cause of the countless penalties she'll have to bear.
It won't ruin Yeonwoo's daily life. Sending heroines abroad or hanging them on the flagpole—half warnings, half bluffs. I haven't actually done it yet. I could if I wanted, but that would clash with my plan to return to our old daily life with Yeonwoo as is.
Just this time, she needs a taste of bitterness.
Even if this mischief isn't her will but Yeonwoo's scheme, the task remains the same.
In that case, I'll plant a warning in Lee Yeonwoo too.
Let him etch in his mind once what kind of destruction comes back to him from skin touching any woman other than Seonha.
“……”
The small woman's bright, round eyes looked up at me.
……
What face will she make to beg? What excuse will she spin for sexual harassment?
“I didn't kiss him.”
She didn't bow her head. With a face devoid of even a handful of pretense, she calmly lied to me.
“……”
What threw me off wasn't her words, but that expression. I can usually read a person's inner thoughts from their face alone. With only fourteen facial bones at most, they can't fool me completely. Until now.
“I didn't kiss him.”
On that brazen face offering up her lips, I couldn't find even a drop of falsehood. Was I seeing things earlier? It's enough to make me doubt my sanity.
…
No more dealing with her. Incommunicable beast. Just remove her from sight.
“Wait one minute. Prepare to disappear from school.”
No witnesses.
No one was there.
Something that couldn't happen by mere coincidence.
“I didn't see anything either.”
Even the victim became my witness.
*
Yeonwoo was trying to raise favorability, and as always, I interfered.
Strangely, every interference failed.
The swapped love letter. The heavily shaken carbonated drink. The bug model in the locker.
All of them.
…
I'll grant your wish. So Yeonwoo hates you. Yeah, honestly, I prefer that side too.
The snack bar owner saw the name tag "Yegrin" and handed over ramen laced with laxatives. If I were a guy, no matter how pretty, I wouldn't embrace a girl who shit on her uniform skirt.
—Yeonwoo's childhood friend? Can I trade ramen with you? That one's all sold out.
—Sure thing. I'm nice like that. Here, Hyun-jik.
Slurp slurp slurp!
—Kyaaaaah!
—Y-Yeonwoo…! H-Help me…!
—Get lost, you shithead fuck!
…
Enough.
Her existence itself is utterly repulsive.
Remove her quickly.
After that, my legs didn't stop moving.
—Click-clack-click-clack
I checked the CCTVs I'd installed throughout the school. From the building across, I found one capturing the multipurpose room faintly.
But at the moment she ran toward us, a fly landed, blocking the view.
—It's her.
—Y-Yes…! Oh dear, what brings you to call, Miss Seonha?
I called the vice principal I'd bought off. Suddenly, last year's scandal of stealing answer sheets for his nephew at the same school erupted. I didn't even know about it. An audit from the education office stormed the school.
—Click-clack-click-clack
They convene the school violence committee. The principal's authority doesn't even need a victim's report. Pin a hard-to-escape false accusation. Spend money to gather witnesses affirming the false charge. Truth doesn't matter. Even the innocent must weep to drop the sin from their hands. Repeat until exhaustion. Eventually, they'll pick up the sin themselves. As I sipped the tea the principal offered, the moment I uttered that bizarre name "Yegrin," two students and a parent with blood pouring from their heads burst in. The committee will be busy for a while.
—Click-clack-click-clack
—Click-clack-click-clack
Beyond that, various administrative penalties within the school framework.
I wanted to end it fast. I didn't want to carry this feeling longer. I dashed like a filly with its tail on fire.
. . . Two days passed.
Enough.
Enough to accept that little Yegrin's luck deviated wildly from the average.
No longer dismissible as coincidence.
Every harm I directed at her miraculously missed her alone.
“……”
It's like being bewitched by a goblin. Or is she really a goblin? Am I being toyed with by one?
Laptop.
The file that stopped updating the moment Yeonwoo arrived, clock frozen— she doesn't exist in it.
“……”
If there were a character description, it might read like this.
[All situations flow in her favor.]
That chilling hypothesis's final proof: In the student council room on the third floor, I pulled back the slingshot string taut. The target is the girl sitting beside him, lifting her bangs.
—Whoosh!
The pellet flew, but a crow swooping in took the hit instead and plummeted.
—Thud
Yeonwoo entered the school first. She picked up the fallen crow, stroked it. Looked up, spotted me by the window. Made a V-sign with her fingers, flashed it at me with a smile.
“……”
It's been a while. This world being scary.
*
I was washing my face in front of the bathroom mirror.
“Hi.”
Someone called from the side.
I wiped the water, and there she was—the kid I hated seeing—waving cutely.
“……”
“Hi?”
“……”
She greets me so innocently despite being ignored.
I wanted to splash water on that face.
Yeah, let's do that.
—Twist
I turned the faucet I'd just locked. The water that had been wetting my hands and face until moments ago wouldn't come out, like a lie.
...Getting petty. Let's turn off the bathroom lights too. They wouldn't turn off.
“Hm-hmm~”
As if the water cutoff announcement had nothing to do with her, she twisted the faucet. Water poured out again, gushing.
By the time her cute hands were all scrubbed clean, another announcement came.
“……You. What kind of person are you?”
“Me? Right now, a hand-washer…”
How does she give answers like that?
No sign of mocking me.
“…Hey. What do you want?”
“Wh-what I want? You'll buy it for me?”
Her ears perked up. A face with absolutely no malice.
“Then can you buy me 10 Poké-món breads???”
“That's it? Really all? I don't want to talk to you again, so say it all at once.”
“Anything?”
“Anything.”
“I want a spaceship. It's my dream.”
“Fine. Even I can't get that easily.”
“R-Really?! You'll buy it?! Then I'll give you my piggy bank I was saving for the spaceship!”
“No need. Just disappear instead. Forever. From our side.”
“Disappear? Our?”
“From Yeonwoo's side.”
“Huh? Don't wanna.”
“Why not? You said spaceship is your dream.”
“Riding a spaceship with Yeonwoo is my dream.”
…
Those aren't lying eyes. That's why I hate it more.
“Do you know how much I'm overlooking you right now?”
“…”
“Want to get chased out with nothing? Or grab my hand now?”
“…Hm, I like this school, and Yeonwoo's here.”
“Someone who likes Yeonwoo that much—what have you been doing all this time?”
“Dunno.”
“Pardon?”
“I don't know either. Why I didn't look for Yeonwoo, I don't get it. Yeonwoo's the best in the world to me. And Yeonwoo likes me the most too.”
…
Foolish words from a fool's mouth anyway. Ignore them.
Still.
“Can't let that last part slide?”
“What?”
“That Yeonwoo likes you the most.”
Yegrin tilted her head.
“…”
I can't say it out loud, but I'm right. Evidence too. Five years. Five years staring only at me. That time I can't voice. The five years only we two know in this world.
“Wanna bet then?”
“…?”
“Rock-paper-scissors, ten rounds. Win even one, and I'll let it go.”
…
“Why?”
“The goddess of love is on my side!”
“Sigh, childish… Why should I play such a stupid bet?”
“Then I'll think whatever I want.”
“Go ahead. Annoying. Yes, negotiations failed. Soon you'll come to me first.”
Irritating.
I turned my back to leave the bathroom.
“This world exists for me and Yeonwoo.”
Those words grabbed my ankle.
…
“Do it.”
“Huh?”
“Rock, paper…”
I lost. All of them.
*
I returned to the classroom. She's stuck to Yeonwoo, chattering away. In my seat.
“……”
What happened?
That was my seat.
Feels like a bad nightmare.
A nightmare of being chased by a scary monster.
“…”
Is the monster me?
The monster that kidnapped Lee Yeonwoo to its castle.
Is this the scenario where the hero, backed by the world, comes to slay the monster?
“……”
I hate it. That script is crap.
Fine if I'm the monster.
If I hold onto him by force. Eventually, he'll embrace the monster first.
Just kill all the heroes who come until then.
I pulled a pistol from the flower pot. Loaded a bullet.
“……Should I kill her…?”
Lucky, huh?
If I shove the barrel deep in her mouth and pull the trigger.
How does a lucky person survive?
“……”
I didn't shoot.
Just kidding.
I couldn't do such a thing.
…
If I kill that kid here.
You'd find this world too scary.
Much more than a mean high school girl bullying.