Jung Hayan (2)
“Hey, buddy. If you don’t want that hand broken, you’d better let go.”
“Huh?”
Crack!
“Aaaaaaagh!”
“Ah!”
I couldn’t quite make out what had happened.
The instant a massive shadow swallowed his face, I’d reflexively shut my eyes.
But the scream I heard was real.
When I opened my eyes, Park Deokgu was standing there, looking down in silence, while Yoo Seokwoo had collapsed to the floor, shrieking.
“Deo, Deokgu?”
“Uuugh….”
“What kind of trash even is this guy? Like I said, it ain’t broken yet, so quit your whining.”
“Aaaagh….”
A huge hand sliced through the air once more. The blow landed squarely on Yoo Seokwoo’s head, and with a dull thud, he was driven down into the floor as if he’d been struck with a club.
The sight was so unreal it almost looked staged.
“Gahhhh! A… ahhh….”
“Don’t bawl like that. I barely hit you, didn’t I? Anyone looking at you’d think you just gave birth or something.”
A large foot rose, and Yoo Seokwoo’s body lifted briefly into the air.
Deokgu had kicked him with his foot.
Watching him smash into the wall made me worry, briefly, that this might actually become a serious incident.
“N-now it’s fine, so please stop. You’ll hurt him. De-Deokgu.”
“Ah….”
The way his eyes turned down toward me was oddly frightening.
Still, it was only natural that he wouldn’t stop if I didn’t tell him to; Yoo Seokwoo might really die if this went on. He was curled up on the floor, shaking like a leaf.
“Don’t worry too much, ma’am. I just pushed him with my foot. This guy’s always whining about every little—”
That wasn’t all.
Several people who had heard the commotion came running over after hearing Yoo Seokwoo’s screams.
“Stop it!”
“…….”
“What do you think you’re doing? Seokwoo, are you all right?”
“I-I’m fine….”
The most eye-catching of them was, of course, Lee Jihye. She had come with a small group, and now she was sending us a rather flustered look.
“W-what is the meaning of this? Violence is prohibited inside the shelter.”
“That man harassed Hayan. That was all I did—hit him once.”
“Is that true?”
“I saw it with my own eyes.”
“Ah… no, that’s not—”
“What?”
“O-of course, there’s room for misunderstanding about me grabbing Hayan’s arm, but… I, I only meant it as a mistake….”
“Your mouth’s still working, huh?”
“P-please stop. Deokgu Oppa. As I said, violence is prohibited here. Even if Seokwoo did something wrong, if we start swinging our fists without hearing both sides, it could create tension among the members. T-this isn’t right. First we need to figure out who’s actually at fault.”
“…….”
“Did you really grab Hayan’s hand and sexually harass her, Seokwoo?”
“N-no, no, absolutely not. I-I never had such an intention.”
“What Deokgu Oppa saw was….”
“I-I think there may have been some misunderstanding. I, I did tell Hayan how I felt, that’s true, but I thought she agreed with my feelings, and I… I suppose I was mistaken, and that’s how this happened….”
“Is that true?”
“Y-yes, yes… it is.”
“Tell me exactly what you said, one more time.”
“I told Hayan I wanted to get closer to her, and s-she did say something positive, so… I must have misunderstood.”
“Hayan, please be clear. Is what Seokwoo just said true?”
Different gazes all converged on me. Of course I wasn’t getting used to this.
The looks from the people around us were anything but friendly.
It was obvious at once that I had no one on my side here.
My arms and legs began to tremble with tension, and just as I was looking around in a daze, Lee Jihye’s face came into view, watching me as if to say, Go on, speak.
For some reason, the words wouldn’t come out easily.
“I-it’s true. B-but after that, Se-Se-Seokwoo… he, he kept yanking my arm and saying things like, if I wanted to live well here, I should… t-that kind of thing… I, I was a little shocked….”
“Please say it properly, Hayan. I can’t really hear what you’re saying. Take your time and explain.”
“Th-then….”
“So Seokwoo did say he wanted to get close to you, and Hayan, you did agree to that, is that right?”
“What? Y-yes… but I didn’t know he meant it like that….”
“I asked whether it was true or not.”
“I-it’s true. B-but….”
“Listen, Hayan.”
“Yes?”
“Wasn’t it Hayan who did something that could be misunderstood, and Hayan who left room for that misunderstanding? Come to think of it, ever since you arrived here, you’ve been sticking close to Seokwoo all the time. Am I wrong?”
“That’s true, but… it was only because… Se-Seokwoo was the one who approached me first….”
“This happened because there was a problem with your conduct to begin with.”
“No… I, that is….”
“Are you just going to deny it after creating a situation anyone could misread? Deokgu Oppa, too. How could you hit someone without properly checking the whole story first….”
I turned my head slightly to look at Park Deokgu, and his face, too, had gone a little flustered.
He was probably wondering whether he’d made a mistake.
“Is what that bastard’s saying true, ma’am?”
“I-it’s true that he did say he wanted to get closer to me, but… b-but….”
My head was a mess.
I couldn’t think of how to deal with this sudden situation, or where I was supposed to start untangling it from.
The expressions fixed on me were enough to make my face burn, and tears were starting to pool in my eyes.
“Do you think crying will solve it?”
“I-I’m sorry. I… I….”
“It’s not a problem you can fix by saying sorry. Especially not when the atmosphere around here is already so bad… Deokgu Oppa, too… of course I’m grateful that you stepped in to help a woman who seemed to be being hurt, but you still can’t act without hearing the full story first. This time, I think you were a little… careless.”
“Ugh….”
“When it isn’t clear who the victim is and who the offender is….”
“I-I’m sorry.”
“It’s not me you should be apologizing to, is it?”
“Apologize properly to the victim, Seokwoo.”
“I-I’m so— so sor—….”
“What on earth is going on?”
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
“What on earth is going on?”
I was the one who’d asked the question, so I could answer it.
It was a perfectly convenient situation.
I’d expected something to happen sooner or later, but not like this.
Honestly, I hadn’t imagined I’d land a prize this big.
Park Deokgu looked a little flustered, while Jung Hayan was crying so hard she looked as if she might flood the whole floor.
Of course she was wronged.
At a glance, the victim and the perpetrator were obvious.
Well, whether Jung Hayan had really tried to use some bastard named Yoo Seokwoo or not wasn’t my concern, but the fact that she’d been driven into a corner was important enough on its own.
The first to speak after seeing me was Lee Jihye.
“You came at just the right time, Kiyoung Oppa. Right now—”
“Have you lost your mind?”
“What?”
“Have you lost your mind, Jihye?”
“W-what do you mean…?”
“Do you think this is some neighborhood playground? Why are you shouting so loudly? Did it not occur to you that the bastards outside might hear us? Just because we’re cleaning up the perimeter regularly doesn’t mean they can’t come this way at all.”
They all looked as if they finally realized what mistake they’d made.
“Ah… well, I mean, the situation is….”
“I saw enough from far away to know roughly what happened, Jihye. Like you said, when it still isn’t clear who the offender is and who the victim is, ganging up on one person like this would scare me too. And what exactly is going on right now?”
“But clearly the one at fault is that woman….”
“Jihye, can you really say for certain that Seokwoo did nothing wrong?”
She probably couldn’t claim that she was certain.
The moment she said it out loud, she’d be the one responsible instead of Yoo Seokwoo.
A hesitant look flickered across her face.
She looked uneasy, flustered.
“And from Hayan’s reaction, it doesn’t seem like that’s the case anyway… more importantly, Hayan isn’t that kind of person. I can guarantee it.”
It was shameless. Utterly shameless.
I was saying something absurd.
Even as I said it, I felt like laughing at how ridiculous it sounded.
Simply shielding her by saying she wasn’t the type to do that might have been tremendously reassuring to Jung Hayan.
But not to anyone else.
When had I ever even seen her, to claim I could vouch for her like this?
I had no basis for it at all, other than the fact that her nature was to be a pure supporter.
The truth is, I had a great deal to say.
To begin with, blaming the victim in a sex-related crime was itself an error.
Lee Jihye, a woman herself, could hardly not know that. The reason she’d so brazenly taken Yoo Seokwoo’s side was probably because she wanted to exclude an outsider and strengthen the cohesion of the people already on her side.
Or maybe she’d intended to screw over Jung Hayan from the very beginning.
I could have gone point by point, dismantling it all with logic, but here, a little forceful insistence could work just as well.
No, it couldn’t fail to work.
Because…
I’m the one in power.
I was the authority here.
My words carried more weight than anyone else’s in this place.
“Hayan isn’t that kind of person.”
“Ah… th-that….”
Jung Hayan, wiping away her tears and looking toward me, and the people staring at her with openly hostile eyes—the contrast between their expressions was stark.
They probably thought this situation was unfair. I’d appeared out of nowhere, taken control, barked orders, and shown blatant favoritism toward one person.
And yet, I wouldn’t be the one they hated.
I let my gaze drift toward Jung Hayan.
A woman favored by someone in power.
She was the kind of character everyone would resent at a glance.
Especially people like Lee Jihye.
“Everyone gathered together just to make a mess of things like this… honestly. Yoo Seokwoo, you’d better get treatment first. But once that’s done, I’m going to ask again, in detail, exactly what happened. For now, get Seokwoo moved.”
“Y-yes, sir.”
“Jihye, clean this place up and make sure everyone can get back to work. It’ll be time for Hyunsung to return soon. The fuss just now might draw monsters in, so Deokgu, do a light patrol around the area.”
“A-alright, Hyung.”
“And… Hayan, come talk to me for a moment.”
“Yes.”
A few people muttered among themselves; Lee Jihye was biting her lip, and Yoo Seokwoo looked anxious enough to snap.
I could see exactly what they were thinking.
Though I could hear a few faint whispers, no one dared openly challenge my actions.
“What’s with that woman….”
“She’s obnoxious.”
They’d find a better target than me.
“Let’s go.”
“Ah… yes.”
Someone easier to tear into than the person holding power.