The Changed Thing 2
Deciding to check how everything had changed.
"Heh heh. The SS-class hunter power..."
Upon verification, Baek Hyeong-won, who had arrived at the scene late, was smiling bitterly at the fact that he had lost the power of the SS-class hunters in vain.
Han Se-hee’s expression darkened at Baek Hyeong-won’s words. It was only natural. Who could possibly find it pleasant to hear someone say they felt sorry for the person who had killed their parents?
Especially since the victim had been an eleven-year-old girl, Baek Hyeong-won’s remark had been spoken right in front of a child who had just lost their parents.
"Um... Se-hee-ya..."
Han Se-hee already seemed to harbor a poor impression of Baek Seo-jin, but Baek Seo-jin approached her cautiously, refusing to give up.
Will she make a decision?
Right now, I was simply an observer.
Since I held no ill will toward Han Se-hee, I offered her kindness. But from this point forward, depending on her choice, I might turn hostile toward her.
If she truly accepted Baek Seo-jin as a friend and played the role of the original heroine like in the original story, she would become my enemy.
The only difference would be that she was merely an obstacle to be destroyed rather than a target to be annihilated.
"You... seemed surprised?"
Baek Seo-jin spoke with concern. The situation around them appeared chaotic, but he had chosen to comfort Han Se-hee first.
He had turned friendly toward anyone who thought he was not a bad person, so his surprised expression was only natural.
"Yeah..."
"Can I talk to you for a moment?"
Baek Seo-jin seemed eager to speak with Han Se-hee. But she did not answer immediately and instead surveyed her surroundings.
"Here?"
"I’ll take you somewhere quieter. We can talk there."
Baek Seo-jin asked again, and after a moment of silence, Han Se-hee nodded.
"Yeah."
"Thank you!"
Baek Seo-jin looked relieved that she had agreed to hear him out, but there was still no trace of goodwill in Han Se-hee’s eyes.
It felt as if she was trying to figure something out.
Figure it out.
Han Se-hee would likely want to know many things about me and Baekho Guild through Baek Seo-jin—my relationship with the guild, how she felt about Pi Woo-jae’s actions, and more.
I quietly watched what would unfold.
"Is this place okay?"
The place Baek Seo-jin had brought her was a storage room tucked away in a corner of Baekho Guild.
It was a spot few people visited, making it ideal for a quiet conversation.
"Yeah."
"I’ll cast a soundproof barrier so no one can hear us. Is that fine?"
Han Se-hee looked slightly startled when Baek Seo-jin mentioned using the skill to create a soundproof barrier with magic.
"You already know that skill?"
"Yeah. I practiced it."
Baek Seo-jin spoke with a hint of embarrassment, as if hoping for praise from Han Se-hee.
Anyone who didn’t know him might mistake the earnest young man for the fresh-faced protagonist of the original story in his early days as the original heroine’s hero.
But Han Se-hee’s reply was flat.
"I see."
Han Se-hee ended the conversation with that single word and continued.
"What did you want to say to me?"
"Um... it’s about Pi Woo-jae."
The moment Pi Woo-jae’s name—the name of the murderer who had killed her parents—escaped Baek Seo-jin’s lips, Han Se-hee’s small hands clenched into fists.
She hated Pi Woo-jae for killing her parents, wished he were dead, yet because she was naturally gentle, she felt guilty about taking a life. In the end, she had chosen not to kill herself.
Even in this harsh world, I had promised to handle it fairly so she could feel at ease, without forcing an eleven-year-old to commit murder.
So that’s why he brought up Pi Woo-jae here.
I decided to watch Baek Seo-jin’s childish outburst closely and waited to see how much Han Se-hee would expect from him.
"Pi Woo-jae... you’ve known him since you were young, right? That’s why I thought you’d be quite shaken. If Choi Kang-in mentioned investigating at Kangin Guild, it might mean the culprit is almost certain. But... there’s still no proof, so can you wait for the results?"
Baek Seo-jin’s words could sound cruel to Han Se-hee, but they were not wrong.
Since concrete evidence of Pi Woo-jae’s guilt had not yet been revealed, he was simply keeping an open mind to the possibility of innocence.
That’s the right thing to say... but how shameless.
He applied the principle of innocent until proven guilty to himself but the principle of guilty until proven innocent to others.
And the problem was that Han Se-hee was hearing it in a way that did not sit well.
"You called me here to say that?"
"I-I thought you seemed troubled by Pi Woo-jae’s case..."
Baek Seo-jin spoke carefully, glancing at me. His humble, hesitant demeanor had the effect of lowering the listener’s guard.
But Han Se-hee did not seem swayed by it at all.
It felt as if something was troubling her.
"I’ve known since the beginning that Pi Woo-jae is the culprit."
Baek Seo-jin was startled by Han Se-hee’s cold words.
"What?"
"Grandpa Choi Kang-in told me the person would be arrested."
"Ch-Choi Kang-in-nim?"
"Yeah. And... Oppa Ho-jun also..."
Since Baek Seo-jin was present, Han Se-hee referred to me by the alias Ho-jun instead of Baek Seo-jun, as promised in secret.
"Ho-jun... No way, Kim Ho-jun?"
"Yeah. It’s Oppa Ho-jun."
Baek Seo-jin lowered his head after hearing Han Se-hee’s confirmation, as if trying to control his emotions.
He seemed to be comforting himself, telling himself it was bad to get angry... then spoke to her.
"Did that person not treat you roughly?"
Concern filled Baek Seo-jin’s voice. He seemed certain that I had been rough and threatening toward Han Se-hee.
"What are you saying? Oppa Ho-jun is so kind."
"K-kind? That’s impossible..."
Baek Seo-jin could not accept Han Se-hee’s words. He could not recall kindness in the image of Kim Ho-jun who had faced him head-on without showing subservience to his own parents.
Well, if he thought logically, he might imagine it with Seomun Ye-jin beside him.
But Baek Seo-jin refused to acknowledge that possibility, unwilling to see his parents as wrong.
"Don’t say that. Oppa Ho-jun is my benefactor."
From Han Se-hee’s warning toward Baek Seo-jin, I sensed that quite a few things had changed from the original story.
In the original, she was always pure and gentle.
The kind, gentle, smiling healer heroine Han Se-hee who treated everyone—her young self had painted an image of how she would grow in the future. But it was different from the original story’s version that continued to send kindness toward Baek Seo-jin.
It was also influenced by the fact that she had learned her parents’ killer was not a monster but a human.
"...I understand. Sorry."
Baek Seo-jin readily backed down, sensing that Han Se-hee would never yield. After he stepped away, Han Se-hee looked at his face and said.
"Seo-jin."
Baek Seo-jin brightened at the sound of his name from her lips.
"Yeah, what is it?"
"I also had something I wanted to ask you, so I wanted to talk separately."
"What is it?"
Baek Seo-jin’s mind was filled more with hope of becoming closer to Han Se-hee than with curiosity about what she might ask. But the name she mentioned caused his expression to harden instantly.
"I lost my parents... and it was so hard. I will never forgive the person who harmed them. What about you?"
"Me?"
"Yeah. You said your brother’s name was Baek Seo-jun, right? How do you feel about the villains who kidnapped him?"
Baek Seo-jin could not answer immediately to the question Han Se-hee had asked.
I knew the reason.
To that guy, my existence is just something that doesn’t matter even if it’s gone.
Even if his thoughts might change later, right now, in Baek Seo-jin’s mind that had not yet left his parents’ home, all the discrimination his parents had shown was being whitewashed.
He thought the one who discriminated against me was me for pulling away first while committing bad deeds, and that the memories of me being taken by villains were vague, yet he denied them as wrong memories.
He had become so obsessed with rationalizing that his parents were not bad that he completely turned away from the truth and believed his rationalizations were the truth.
Many people might find it hard to understand logically, but such people were surprisingly common in reality, so it was nothing surprising.
He probably had no thoughts about villains like So Gang-seok.
"I can’t forgive a bad brother!" was not the thought in his mind. Instead, he focused on "It’s good that the bad brother disappeared and my parents became happy."
But right now, he could not answer that thought of his.
Instinctively, he felt vaguely that his thoughts were wrong, and standing before Han Se-hee who said he could not forgive the person who killed his parents, he wondered how he would be seen.