Between the Original Protagonist and the Original Heroine
When Baek Seo-jin failed to answer, Han Se-hee felt a creeping sense of wrongness. Even through the eyes of an eleven-year-old, something about him was off. He couldn't even bring himself to say that he would never forgive the villains who had kidnapped his brother.
She herself had lost her parents three years ago, and not once in all that time — through every tear she had shed — had she ever forgotten them. And when she learned that they hadn't actually been killed by monsters in a dungeon, but by the betrayal of a comrade they had trusted, she had nearly come to hate herself for lacking the courage to take a life and avenge them. If it hadn't been for Baek Seo-jun, she almost certainly would have blamed and despised herself for it. But thanks to him, she could watch and wait, trusting that Pi Woo-jae, the man who had destroyed her parents, would receive the punishment he deserved.
So why couldn't Baek Seo-jin even say that he couldn't forgive the villains who had taken his brother? No — even before that. Why was there not even a hint of longing for Baek Seo-jun?
"I don't know."
That was what came out of Baek Seo-jin's mouth. But it didn't mean he didn't know what he wanted to do to the villains who had dragged his brother away. If he had meant that he hated them so much he wanted to kill them with his own hands, yet couldn't bring himself to commit murder and so had no idea what to do — Han Se-hee would have understood that. That was exactly how she had felt.
But Baek Seo-jin brought up Baek Seo-jun instead of the villains, and kept talking about him.
"Hyung is a bad person. Before the villains kidnapped him when he was ten, he never even ate with us. He never went out shopping with us either. He just shut himself up in his room."
Han Se-hee had plenty she wanted to throw back at him, but she didn't interrupt. She waited for him to keep talking. And Baek Seo-jin pressed on as if seized by some compulsion, as though he had no choice but to say it.
"After hyung disappeared, everything got better. Mom and Dad don't get irritated because of him anymore — they always smile now. And the people who used to whisper about him are gone too."
He seemed to be losing more and more of his self-control.
"Dad and Mom were so happy he was gone. They said there was no more brat left to give them grief. That he'd caused them trouble right up until the end."
Hearing this, Han Se-hee's loosely clenched fists began to tremble.
That's so cruel.
She thought she understood now why Baek Seo-jun never went home. If even his little brother thought like this, she could imagine how terribly their parents must have treated him. She couldn't even picture her own late parents looking at her that way, and as a girl who had grown up loved, Han Se-hee found it almost impossible to believe parents could be like that at all. To a child her age, the very idea was so horrific it made her skin crawl.
"Hyung disappeared and... everything got better... so why did that noona take his side?"
"What noona?"
"The one named Seomun Ye-jin."
Han Se-hee immediately searched for the person Baek Seo-jin had named. The name had been trending on the internet portal's front page, but she had never looked it up, so she hadn't known who it was. Articles she had scrolled past without much interest now filled her screen — articles about what the Baekho Guild had done to Seomun Ye-jin, mobilizing women's organizations against her.
So the Baekho Guild did this too.
The Kangin Guild had stepped in to set things right, and had even forced the Baekho Guild to pay Seomun Ye-jin compensation. And from the name Kim Ho-jun appearing beside her in the photos, Han Se-hee immediately recognized him as Baek Seo-jun.
The person standing next to Seo-jun Oppa.
She clicked on a photo of Seomun Ye-jin and lost herself for a moment. It was a picture of her wearing a women's hunter outfit reminiscent of racing gear, smiling with her whole face.
She's beautiful...
Looking at that bright, lively smile, Han Se-hee couldn't help but be impressed. Seomun Ye-jin was even the same age as Baek Seo-jun. Four years older than herself, she already boasted a well-developed figure and an overwhelming beauty that made it hard to look away.
"This unni named Seomun Ye-jin... she went through something terrible because of the Baekho Guild."
"No... that can't be."
Denial spilled from Baek Seo-jin's lips once more. But again, Han Se-hee didn't interrupt. She waited to hear what he would say.
"Mom and Dad... they couldn't have done anything wrong... so why would the Kangin Guild..."
Hearing that, Han Se-hee caught the contradiction. Even a child could tell that something didn't add up. Baek Seo-jin was strange right now — strange in a way that went well beyond ordinary stubbornness.
"This idea that your parents didn't do anything wrong... that's not going to change, is it?"
"It won't change. No. Even saying it could change is wrong. There's no way..."
Watching him mutter that the instant the words left her mouth, Han Se-hee felt something deeply twisted. But there was no way she could fix it, and honestly, it frightened her. This wasn't like watching other kids her age stubbornly insist they were right. Clinging to a worldview this warped was something else entirely. And more than anything, the way he was so determined to think badly of Baek Seo-jun — her benefactor — left her with nothing but a bad feeling.
"Seo-jin."
"Ah, yeah... Se-hee. Sorry. I got too emotional, didn't I?"
Baek Seo-jin's expression returned to its usual mildness as he apologized. Having let the emotions he'd been bottling up spill out into the open, he seemed awkward about the atmosphere — but inwardly, he looked like he was hoping for something. That Han Se-hee would tell him he was right.
"I'm sorry. I don't think we can be friends."
That was what she said to him instead.
"W-why?"
"Seo-jin, I just can't relate to you at all."
Han Se-hee lowered her head.
"I want to become a healer who treats people. And... I want to make sure no one else has to be sacrificed the way my mom and dad were."
A dream she had held since she was eight years old, three years ago. Even if it had been partly revised after learning that a comrade's betrayal, not just monsters, had been involved, the core of that dream had never changed.
"I don't want to pretend to be close with someone I can't understand. Please understand."
At her words, Baek Seo-jin bit his lip.
"I don't know. I don't know... but... Se-hee. Then... could we at least be acquaintances?"
"Acquaintances?"
"Yeah... not someone I'd introduce as a friend. Just someone I hang out with."
"...I'll think about it."
That much seemed acceptable. Of course, she had no desire to genuinely get close to Baek Seo-jin, so she would simply keep an eye on him from the side. If she didn't, she was afraid the Baekho Guild might do something terrifying to her the way they had to Seomun Ye-jin. If she put complete distance between herself and Baek Seo-jin, they would probably retaliate at a similar level. Just hanging out together wouldn't even be a lie, so it was a reasonable compromise.
And there was another reason as well.
Seo-jun Oppa.
Because she might meet her benefactor again. What was carved into this young girl's heart was, for now, simply admiration for a man with a story far too tragic.
Pi Woo-jae's sentence was, of course, death. No matter that he was an SS-class hunter — the crime of murdering a fellow SS-class hunter and a healer could not be forgiven. The fact that he had ambushed and tried to kill a fellow SS-class hunter in order to rape the healer, then killed the healer as well when the resistance proved too fierce, was judged as especially heinous.
"No! I can't die!"
His crime from three years ago having been so easily exposed, Pi Woo-jae screamed and thrashed, fighting for his life — but his death sentence did not change.
"Die."
"L-li..."
I carried out his execution myself.
An SS-class hunter's soul. Decent quality.
A sharp tentacle pierced through Pi Woo-jae's heart. His breathing cut off in an instant, and his soul was absorbed into me as a source of energy.
No need to show her the actual killing.
But I should at least let Han Se-hee know that the execution had been carried out.
So she wasn't the original novel's official heroine for nothing.
The way Han Se-hee had carried herself in that conversation with Baek Seo-jin showed a remarkably firm sense of self for a child.
I should at least make sure the Baekho Guild doesn't try anything against her.
The relationship between the original protagonist and the original novel's official heroine had become completely different from the source material. Baek Seo-jin would soon come to think of Han Se-hee as his childhood friend. Even now he probably figured they could grow close gradually — but Han Se-hee would never go along with what he imagined.
I hadn't intended it, but the situation had turned out even better than expected. For the original protagonist, a one-sided delusion had begun.
Four years passed in the blink of an eye, without any major incidents.
"Seo-jun!"
Seomun Ye-jin — one day shy of nineteen, a legal adult by tomorrow — called out to me first thing in the morning.
"I'll be an adult tomorrow too! I'm becoming an adult!"
"Congratulations, young lady."
"Hehe~ Seo-jun~ Starting tomorrow, we can finally make passionate love!"
I congratulated her first thing in the morning. At my words she beamed and threw herself into my arms, and I smiled and held her right back. If she became an adult tomorrow, she would finally be able to do all the things she had been looking forward to for four years — and she was already delighted about it.
And on my smartphone, the following article appeared.
One of the original novel's heroines, Lee Ha-yeon, had come home to Korea.