The Wolf Among the Sheep Has Appeared #4
After the kids headed out for street patrol, Youngsa High felt strangely hollow and lonely. The man known as Captain, Kang Cheolmin, walked down the quiet hallway and stepped into the control room.
“Captain, I just brewed some coffee. Want a cup?”
His former student and junior, Moon Hyunah—homeroom teacher of Class F—held out a steaming paper cup. Kang Cheolmin could only let out a heavy sigh.
“It’s Instructor, not Captain. The kids call me that, but do you have to do it too?”
“Why not? It suits you. Besides, I was still basically a kid just a few years ago, remember?”
She slid her index finger under the eyepatch covering her eye, lifting it slightly to study his expression, then let out a soft chuckle. Her gaze stayed fixed on the monitor, where real-time location data from the students’ smartwatches was constantly updating.
She took a sip of the slightly bitter Americano and tilted her head at the cluster of red dots concentrated in one area. It was the special team currently patrolling near the abandoned factory where Yeomra had last appeared.
“Do you think Jinrihyeon was right? That the Judge is one of ours at Youngsa High?”
“How should I know? Things had finally quieted down, and now this.”
It had been roughly ten years since the Awakening phenomenon began. Countless incidents had occurred before superhumans became part of everyday life. The illegal armed group known as the Villainers—formed mostly by the first graduating class—was just one example.
Captain Kang Cheolmin felt a wave of exhaustion as he thought about the endless problems that kept cropping up among the students.
“Back in my day, all I thought about after school was ditching self-study to hit the PC bang. These kids are out here forming armed groups and attacking people. The generation gap is no joke.”
Kang Cheolmin was a man from the old world, an ordinary person who had never Awakened. That was why the current era still felt slightly questionable and absurd to him. He had been brought in as an instructor to mold the students into something like military weapons, yet the more he watched them, the more he saw that they were still just regular kids.
“Training superhuman soldiers is all well and good, but honestly, I wish the students could just act like students.”
“Captain, are those female hormones kicking in with age? Since when do you talk like that? Weren’t you the one they called the Demon Instructor back then?”
“That was… my first time teaching kids, so I was clumsy about everything…”
“I’m joking. I never thought the Captain back then was wrong. We Awakeners are wolves, after all. Wolves among sheep. So it’s best to grab those reins tight while you still can.”
Moon Hyunah’s eyes traced the students’ location markers with keen interest. To her, every single one of them was a beast that could bare its fangs at any moment.
“That Judge is definitely connected to Youngsa High, right? The only people who knew about Yeomra and Samajun were us. Yet he slaughtered them in such a brutal way.”
The Judge had detailed knowledge of both Youngsa High and police internal information. His crimes mostly occurred after school hours in the afternoon or on weekends and holidays. Therefore, Moon Hyunah had concluded that the murderer known as the Judge was one of the students.
“It’s probably someone from Class D.”
“You think?”
“Captain, you know better than anyone that the standard for dividing Class D and Class F isn’t something simple like family background. The real criterion is a certain ‘potential.’”
As Moon Hyunah said, the line between D-class and F-class came down to one thing: the possibility of becoming an uncontrollable variable.
“To put it bluntly, the possibility of becoming a heinous criminal, terrorist, villain, or monster. The Class D kids all exceed fifty percent on that scale, so if the Judge is among us, it makes sense that he’d be from D-class, doesn’t it?”
Her eyes stopped on one particular red dot.
“Don’t you think it’s Ha Namjin? So many people around him have ended up dead. Yeomra, Samajun, those loan sharks—there was more than enough motive for Ha Namjin to kill them. And now Seo Gaeul’s disappearance fits the same pattern.”
“You’re saying Ha Namjin had sufficient motive to make Seo Gaeul disappear?”
“Exactly. Ha Namjin lost both parents in the N Mart incident, right? That gives him more than enough reason to hold a grudge against the Seonam Group. So he took his revenge by killing Seo Gaeul—”
“Hyunah, you’re right that the bastard Ha Namjin is capable of anything and might have already done it. But I don’t think he’s as bad as you believe.”
Back when Kang Cheolmin was still a cold-blooded soldier, he remembered the child soldiers he had met on the battlefields of impoverished third-world countries. Ha Namjin reminded him of them. The only difference was in their eyes. Those two eyes that shone like stars. When Ha Namjin looked at people, there was hope in his gaze.
“Think about No Leftovers Day. Who would’ve believed those kids could pull something like that off? Even I, their instructor, couldn’t do it, but that guy saw the possibility. That’s the kind of person he is.”
A person who could see hope in others couldn’t possibly be the Judge who stole everyone’s possibilities. Instructor Kang Cheolmin believed that, and he desperately wanted it to be true.
But even he couldn’t help agreeing when Moon Hyunah said, “Still, Ha Namjin is weird, isn’t he? That’s why he’s always under special observation,” and replied, “That’s true.”
“There’s no one here. I thought the remnants of the Villainers might be hiding somewhere nearby.”
Class D president Jeong Uiseon clicked his tongue in disappointment as he searched through the abandoned factory where Yeomra’s group had once hidden.
I was continuing the detailed search with him in a two-man team, but there were so many questions burning in my mind that my mouth practically itched from the effort of staying silent.
The biggest question was this:
As far as I knew, Class President Jeong Uiseon was the perfect guy—popular, academically gifted, handsome, and the son of a high-ranking prosecutor. His skills as an Awakener were excellent too. If you ignored the part about his powerful father, he was so similar to me in popularity, grades, and looks that it was understandable people might mistake us for twins.
So why was a guy like that living a double life as the serial killer known as the Judge?
“Class President, if the Judge killed or kidnapped Seo Gaeul, what do you think the reason would be? If you were in his shoes, why do you think you might have done it? Take a guess.”
The class president smiled brightly, as if I had just told him a fascinating story.
“Hmm. Probably because of some corruption or dirty secrets tied to the Seonam Group? The Judge only targets criminals, after all.”
“But Seo Gaeul hasn’t done anything wrong. Even if the Seonam Group committed crimes, she has no personal connection to them. Doesn’t that make the Judge’s actions contradictory?”
“No connection? Do you really believe that? Some people would disagree. Can someone who’s lived off bread bought with dirty money truly claim innocence?”
“So you’re saying the Judge might support collective punishment. That Seo Gaeul should pay for the sins her father’s company piled up—is that what you mean?”
“It’s just my personal opinion. Still, this kind of discussion is fun. I’m an INTP, you know. I love debating random topics, but I’ve been bored because I didn’t have anyone worth talking to.”
Jeong Uiseon smiled again. It was the kind of smile that explained exactly why the girls were so crazy about him. At the same time, I finally understood how this guy operated.
“Namjin, I have a question too.”
“What?”
“You called me the Judge earlier. Why did you think that?”
“It’s simple. The Ramen Lady only said the Judge was someone ‘related’ to Youngsa High. She never specified ‘student.’ It could’ve been a teacher, a staff member, or a student. But you immediately declared it had to be a student.”
“Did I say that?”
“If you were the Judge yourself, the answer becomes obvious. Above all, you’re like me. Whether you realize it or not, people have a ‘line.’ You know?”
Yeomra had told me I smelled just like him. The scent of people who never hit the brakes they were supposed to and crossed that line.
Having survived in a ruined world, I had no such line left to protect. So it was only natural that Yeomhun had judged me as similar to himself.
I was sensing that same thing from Jeong Uiseon—the model student, the beloved class president, the proud son. This guy was the same kind as me. I had felt it from the very first time we met.
I hadn’t understood why I got that impression, but the moment he started talking about the Judge, my doubt turned into certainty.
“There’s a look in your eyes that only people who’ve crossed the line have. The kind that sees humans as nothing more than numbers or objects. People like that can kill without hesitation. Just like you.”
A serial killer. The bastard who murdered the loan sharks and ruined my kidnapping plan. The one who took care of Yeomra and Samajun, completely destroying my brilliant “using the boiler freely even in the ruined world” strategy.
That bastard was standing right in front of me.
“Class President, do you still support the death penalty?”
The smile vanished from Jeong Uiseon’s face. He pulled a fountain pen from his pocket. The moment I recognized it as a type of Bogu, the serial killer spoke.
“Namjin, can’t we just pretend we don’t know anything—for both our sakes? It looks like we’ll find the missing Seo Gaeul soon. Why don’t we join hands instead? I think we’d make excellent partners.”
“Why would you finding Seo Gaeul be good for both of us?”
“You’re the bereaved family of the N Mart arson case. Before they died, Yeomra and Samajun told me the Seonam Group was connected to that fire. In other words, they were the masterminds behind it.”
“The Seonam Group was behind it?”
“Aren’t you curious why they did it? Why a corporation would commit such an act. Who benefited most from that arson, and who suffered the greatest loss—”
“I don’t give a damn about that. First, take my anger.”
“What? Anger?”
“Because of you! Do you know how much I suffered?!”
I charged forward at full speed, pouring every ounce of the vow I had made to kick this Judge bastard right in the groin the moment I met him.
“Namjin Kick!!!”
A kick moving at 120 kilometers per hour. But the leg I had swung with all my strength was stopped cold by Jeong Uiseon’s hand.
Thud.
A perfect low block. Was this guy a Taekwondo black belt?
“Namjin, such an obvious attack—”
“Namjin Punch!!!”
Baaang!
My fist slammed into the murderer’s face while he was still talking. If a kick doesn’t work, use your fists! That’s called improvisation!
Watching Judge Jeong Uiseon tumble to the ground with a loud crash felt incredibly refreshing.
“Kwahahat! As expected, I’m a genius!”