The Government (1)
"Thank you. I swear I'll repay this kindness."
Yujin's voice drifted in from beyond the door. I couldn't see her, but I could picture her bowing her head low.
...Still. I really do need to settle accounts with those government bastards.
The sheer shamelessness on their faces had been something to behold. I'd known they were garbage from my previous life, but I never imagined they'd gamble with a family's lives for sport.
Death is the one thing you don't come back from. Yujin would want revenge — and I, who knew their habits better than anyone, was certain of it.
They were going to throw her away. No. They were going to kill her.
Yujin would never have survived. That was why I'd never seen her in my previous life.
The thought still made my blood boil. The government had gifted me no shortage of bullshit last time around, and my chronic anger issues had their fingerprints all over them.
I hadn't planned on becoming a Hunter. But after watching what they'd done to Yujin, following in my previous life's footsteps was starting to look necessary.
A purge. The Association needed a purge.
"Oppa, who is it?"
I was in the middle of a perfectly wholesome daydream about how to wreck them this time around when Chaewon appeared in her pajamas, gazing up at me with those wide, innocent eyes.
"Uh. Nobody."
"Nobody, my foot. I heard a woman's voice."
Sharp ears on this one.
I scratched my head.
"You know those part-timers? It's them."
"What?"
Chaewon's half-lidded, sleepy eyes snapped wide open.
"Why would they come over at this hour?"
"Well... there's a reason."
Her lower lip was starting to poke out. I felt the danger immediately. Chaewon with that expression was... not a good sign.
"Oppa. I think those people are scammers."
"Scammers?"
"Anyone can see it's weird! Who shows up at a regular noodle shop in maid outfits and offers to work for free? That's completely... not right in the head."
Coming out of Chaewon's mouth, it sounded even more suspicious than it already was.
Come to think of it, I never actually explained any of this to her.
Not that I could just lay it all out. How was I supposed to tell her I was the S-rank Hunter they were always hunting for on the news, and that Yujin's group were scouts who'd come looking because they already knew?
"Oppa. You're hiding something from me."
Chaewon crossed her arms.
A cold sweat slid down my back. Chaewon, whose obliviousness was the stuff of legend, picking now of all times to grow a brain...
No. Getting out of this was the priority. Even if she kept pressing, I had nothing I could say. And I was a terrible liar by nature.
"Ah, that's right!"
I slapped my palm as if a brilliant idea had just struck me.
"There's a new show dropping on Netflix today. I should go watch that."
I delivered my masterstroke and headed for my room.
Chaewon, however, had clearly made up her mind.
She darted in front of me.
"Answer me."
She blocked my path, eyes gone ice-cold.
"Can't we just let this one go?"
"Why?"
"...It's hard to talk about. There are such things as adult circumstances, little sister."
Chaewon's face flushed red as she clearly started imagining what those circumstances might be. A long silence stretched between us. Then she dropped the nuclear bomb.
"If you don't answer, I'm not eating starting today."
"Chae — Chaewon! You can't do that!"
What do I do?
My little sister usually felt like sunlight, but when she got angry she was terrifying. She had any number of ways to make her displeasure known, and of all of them, the one I feared most was a hunger strike.
Chaewon still needs to grow... she already gets teased for being short.
I wiped the sweat off my face.
"Please spare me the hunger strike. I really can't stand seeing that."
Her lip jutted out a full mile.
This... this was a very bad sign. I wiped my damp hands on my clothes.
"Then just tell me."
"That's..."
I was completely stuck. I let my gaze slide off to the side.
Chaewon looked faintly stunned.
"...Why. Why won't you tell me?"
She stepped closer. Those round eyes looking up at me...
That's my little sister, and she is genuinely adorable.
How had I ever done something so unforgivable to a kid this cute?
If I could use my ability just once, I would kill my previous life's self without a second's hesitation.
Ah. This is not the time.
I still needed a decent excuse. I looked at Chaewon. ...But staring at that wide-open, innocent face, I couldn't get a single lie out of my mouth.
We stood there looking at each other in silence. Chaewon was the one who broke it.
"...Seriously. Oppa's been weird lately."
"Me?"
"Yeah. You're being stupid. It's annoying."
She stomped off, making as much noise as possible to advertise how angry she was — and then slammed her door with everything she had.
I stood there like a stump for a long time.
"I'm fucked."
And in that exact moment, an old saying floated up uninvited.
Oh, you know how it is. I went over to watch the neighbor's house burn down — and wouldn't you know it, my own place was on fire too.
I'd been so busy worrying about everyone else, I hadn't noticed my own house going up in flames.
I remind myself of the reason I came back. Often.
Life only gives you one shot. If you've turned that one shot into two, failing is not something you get to forgive yourself for.
And I had already screwed it up faster than anyone. Even last time around, it hadn't been this bad.
"......"
"Chaewon...?"
"Don't talk to me. I'm not talking to Oppa anymore."
She hadn't said a single word since yesterday.
"Please eat something... I made your favorite Egg Drop sandwich."
"...Don't want it."
"...!"
I collapsed to the floor under the sheer force of the blow.
"I'm not eating. It's a hunger strike. Until you tell me, I am absolutely not eating."
I clutched my chest. It felt like my heart was about to fall out.
"...Do you have any idea how much nutrition is in an egg? At least eat a fried egg before you go. What if you collapse?"
"......"
"Hmm? I'm begging you. You're already short — if you don't get enough calcium, you could start getting dizzy spells."
"......"
Chaewon put on her socks in silence. She headed for the front door without so much as a glance back. Her walk still said she was furious.
"Chae — Chaewon."
I reached after her with the most pathetic expression I had. She was unmoved.
"Strawberry milk — what about strawberry milk? You should at least drink that. You're always complaining to me about your chest being sm—"
"Yah!"
"!"
Chaewon's face went scarlet. Tears were already welling in her eyes.
"You... I really, really hate you."
"Chaewon...?"
Watching my little sister cry felt like taking a hammer to the skull. Five times.
The door beeped. Chaewon bolted for school like she was fleeing a crime scene.
It felt like someone was carving my heart out with a knife.
I hadn't felt this kind of fear killing the worst villains alive. I hadn't felt it raiding extinction-class monsters.
"This is all..."
How had it come to this?
I asked myself the question. The quiet lake of my life had gone from a ripple to a wave, and the wave had just come down on my head.
"It's those sons of bitches. I'd chew them up and still not feel better."
This was all because of the government. Those bastards. If they hadn't pulled their bullshit, none of this would have happened.
My face twisted into something demonic. I clenched my fist hard enough that my hands shook.
And I made up my mind.
Today, the Association disappears from the map.
A spacious café. Yujin and I took a table by the window.
"...How on earth did you arrive at that conclusion?"
Yujin stared at me as if I'd grown a second head. I had just finished unloading every last worry about Chaewon, along with my plan to wipe the Association off the face of the earth. She was the only person I could talk to about any of this — the only one who knew who I really was.
She rubbed her forehead like someone nursing a migraine.
"Seonghun. You're joking, aren't you?"
"I'm not joking."
From the moment those Association people learned my identity, my relationship with my little sister had started going sideways. If this kept up, there was no point in coming back at all. I needed to set things right.
Yujin looked at me for a long moment. Then she spoke, carefully.
"I think you're misunderstanding something. Even if you destroy the Association right now, that won't fix things with your sister."
I crossed my arms and nodded, slowly.
...She's right.
Had I lost my mind that badly over Chaewon? I couldn't even think through the basics. She was correct — smashing the Association today would not change a single thing between me and my sister.
But.
The Association had been trash last time around, too. And then there was what they'd done to Yujin. Wouldn't it feel good to take them out while I was at it?
I took a sip of my americano.
"There's also your situation, Yujin. Those Association bastards are probably already making more victims as we speak. Think of it as prevention—"
"Seonghun."
"Yes?"
"I'll handle my own revenge."
Her expression was resolute. Not a crack in it.
...Of course she would.
I smiled, bitter. The Association had held her sister's life over her head. Of course she'd want to take that revenge with her own hands. And I had just tried to snatch that chance away from her.
"I'm sorry. That was out of line."
Yujin was a strong woman. That was how she'd lasted as long as she had inside the Association.
"No. You were only saying it for my sake."
A faint smile touched her mouth.
"Thank you for listening today. I'll be going, then. I need to make dinner for my sister."
I glanced at the time. Evening had snuck up on us. I shot up from my chair.
Should I grab some fried chicken on the way?
A bribe might take the edge off Chaewon's mood, if I was lucky.
"Seonghun. Wait a moment."
Yujin called me back.
"What is it?"
I looked at her, puzzled.
"About Chaewon. I have a plan."
"A plan?"
"Yes. Your sister is sulking because you don't have a justification to tell her anything right now. Isn't that right?"
I nodded.
"Then it's simple. We create a justification."
"How, exactly?"
"...It'll work."
"What?"
She'd trailed off at the end. I hadn't caught it.
"...I'll become your girlfriend."
I stared at her, brain completely empty.
A confession? Out of nowhere?
I had not seen a sudden confession coming. Then again, I was decent-looking and reasonably popular, so it wasn't that shocking. And objectively speaking, Yujin was pretty. It might not be so bad.
I was well on my way down that particular daydream when she spoke again, her face faintly pink.
"Seonghun. I don't mean actually becoming your girlfriend."
"I mean we act. In front of Chaewon."
"Ah... yes. That."
"Then you'd have more than enough of a reason to tell her, wouldn't you?"
I sat there, dazed, turning it over.
...She's right.
No matter how I looked at it, this was a pretty good idea.
The front door beeped.
"Chaewon, you're home?"
I greeted her with the brightest smile I had.
"Hmph!"
Chaewon ignored me completely, kicked off her shoes, and stepped inside — then stopped dead. Someone was sitting in the living room.
"Oppa? What's going on?"
I offered an awkward smile.
"Say hello. This is my girlfriend."
Yujin rose from the sofa and spoke to Chaewon.
"Hello. We've run into each other a few times, haven't we? Let me introduce myself properly. I'm Im Yujin — Seonghun's girlfriend."
It was Yujin, out of her office wear and in a comfortable crewneck sweatshirt.
"G-girlfriend?"
Chaewon eyed her with deep suspicion, then turned to me.
"Oppa. Is this real?"
I nodded hard enough to rattle something loose.
"That's right. She's my girlfriend."
"Then why didn't you tell me earlier?"
"Well. I wanted to introduce her properly."
Chaewon looked from me to Yujin and back again. Then she leaned in close and whispered.
"Oppa. What did I always tell you?"
What did she always tell me?
I rewound. Mostly it had been about food she wanted to eat.
"That all women are foxes?"
The line she'd hammered into me. Fortunately, it came back without much trouble.
"That's right. Look at her. She's got fox written all over her face."
Chaewon's lip jutted out a mile. She did not approve.
I flicked Yujin a small hand signal. She nodded.
"Ah, Chaewon. I heard you like tteokbokki, so I bought some. Would you like to eat with us?"
The trump card, played.
"...I don't have an appetite."
"There's far too much for just the two of us. Let's eat together, all right?"
Chaewon nodded like she had no choice in the matter and headed for the table.
"Having such a cu.te little sister like Chae.won must make you so happy."
Yujin, sitting beside me, gave my arm a small, mechanical pat. It was stiff in a way that was deeply unlike her.
Why does she seem so awkward?
Yujin was a gifted actress. I'd assumed that if she played girlfriend, Chaewon would buy it without a second thought. But this fidgety, hesitant version of her...
People said acting came from experience, didn't they? If she couldn't pull off this kind of performance, did that mean...
Has she never dated?
There was a saying about that. Women who were too pretty, and how men somehow never worked up the nerve to approach them.
Come on. With that face? No way she's never dated.
I was shaking my head when she spoke.
"Seonghun. How many children do you think we'll have?"
I nearly spat my drink across the table.
That was not a sentence that belonged in her mouth. And from the look on her face, she didn't even seem to know what she'd just said.
At that point, I was certain.
This woman had definitely never dated in her life.