Don't Be Intimidated by the Insignificant. I'm Here (1)
Kim Sihyun…
I had lost count of how many times I had been betrayed.
I had met him first. I had loved him more than anyone.
Even if it meant throwing everything away, I had wanted to stay by his side.
— Lee Suhyeon, go home with this man.
— Lee Suhyeon. Don't you ever show your face in front of me again.
How could you do this to me!?
At first she had wondered if it was because he hated being pitied. The way he had pretended not to know her when they reunited after so long. She had assumed he simply did not want her to see him reduced to working a pathetic part-time job at a café.
Pretty as he looked, he was still a man. There was not a single man alive who wanted the woman he liked—no, the woman he loved—to see him looking so shabby.
But that had not been it.
— You fucking bitch.
…He had already given his heart to someone else.
That Heavenly Dragon, of all people.
So all this time you were out looking for some girl better than me?
Trembling with betrayal at the thought, Suhyeon slipped quietly into the house.
It was far too late, though.
“Lee Suhyeon!”
Her mother, Na Heejin, stood waiting in the living room with her arms crossed.
“…”
Suhyeon tried to avoid her mother's eyes and slip past into her room. Heejin caught her by the arm—and the moment she saw her daughter's ruined face, she cried out in horror.
“Suhyeon! What happened to your face!”
Slap!
“…It's nothing.”
Suhyeon shook off Heejin's hand and answered coldly.
“Your face looks like this and you call it nothing!”
“…”
“Lee Suhyeon!”
Even as Heejin raised her voice and pressed her, Suhyeon ignored her and walked straight into her room.
A few days later, that morning, Heejin learned through the mother of one of Suhyeon's acquaintances that there had been a disturbance at a café involving her daughter.
Which was why she now stood outside Luminous, eyes sharp as she scanned the interior.
She called him a beggar, didn't she…
Suhyeon had recognized one of the part-timers, the woman said—and he had shut her daughter out completely, cold and consistent the whole time.
A beggar who has the nerve to work a café job like this…
Poisoned with malice, Heejin strode into the café without a second's hesitation.
“Welcome~ This is Café Luminous!”
Areum, a new hire who had only just started, greeted her with a bright smile.
Heejin did not bother answering. She only shot Areum a look of pure contempt and marched straight toward her. Faced with that murderous presence, Areum flinched despite herself—but still forced the words out in a trembling voice, as if she had to say something.
“Um, ma'am? Your order…”
Before Areum could finish, Heejin snorted and closed the distance until she was right in the girl's face.
“You.”
“…Yes?”
“You put your hands on my daughter, didn't you!?”
“Hiiik—!”
At the sudden verbal assault, Areum recoiled in pure terror and stumbled backward. Watching the girl shake, Heejin clicked her tongue.
Hmm… no. My daughter would never lose to a clueless little thing like this…
She turned her head—and her gaze landed on another part-timer, working in silence.
Sihyun.
I feel like I've seen him somewhere…
Heejin tilted her head for a moment, then dismissed the thought. That was not what mattered right now. Finding the bastard who had hurt her daughter was what mattered.
“Hey. You there.”
She called out in an arrogant tone.
“…?”
At the sudden address, Sihyun stopped what he was doing and turned to look at her.
And then—
“…!”
His face drained white in an instant.
That face was one he could never forget, no matter how hard he tried.
— A beggar like you dares greet someone like her?
On the day of middle school graduation, even though he and Suhyeon had already grown distant, he had still wanted to say goodbye—because they were going on to different high schools. Heejin had stepped between them and humiliated him just like that. Unlike her, Sihyun remembered every detail with perfect clarity.
Catching the shift in his expression, Heejin spoke as if she had finally found the culprit.
“It's you, isn't it?”
“Pardon? I'm not sure what you mean…”
His pretense of ignorance only confirmed it for her. This was the one who had tormented her daughter. And so—
“A lowly little part-timer dares lay a hand on my daughter…!”
She was already raising her hand in fury when a voice cut in.
“What the hell? Who's this ajumma?”
Yuri, who had just arrived at the café, scowled as she stepped between them.
“What? Ajumma? Are you talking to me?”
“What, is there anyone else around here worth calling ajumma?”
“You little bi—!?”
Yuri ignored Heejin's sputtering and turned to Sihyun.
“Hey. You know this ajumma?”
“…No.”
“Hmm… That so?”
Yuri saw right through the awkward, forced calm in Sihyun's voice—he was lying. For now, though, she decided to play along. First priority was dealing with the bitch who had dared try to hit what was hers.
Yuri took a step closer, locking eyes with Heejin.
“Ajumma. I'm asking nicely. Get lost.”
Being dismissed by some little girl sent Heejin's temper flaring; her eyes went wide.
“This brat dares—! To me!? Do you have any idea who I am!?”
She tried to crush the girl with her status. Yuri only stepped in closer and laughed in her face.
“Dares? Pfft.”
“So? What are you, exactly?”
That leisurely, thoroughly contemptuous sneer pushed Heejin over the edge.
“Hey! You looking to die!?”
She shouted even louder, driven by pure spite. Yuri did not so much as blink.
“Go ahead. Try it.”
“This bitch is really…!”
Nearly out of her mind with rage, Heejin reached out to grab Yuri by the hair—
Saaaaa…
—and froze solid without meaning to.
Yuri's cold blue eyes were filled with a killing intent and pressure that felt as if it could pierce straight through a heart. Instinct spoke for her.
This girl was a genuine lunatic.
Truly dangerous.
Yuri looked down at the frozen woman with open disdain and smirked.
“Well? If you're not going to do anything, hurry up and get out.”
Heejin ground her teeth and glared daggers, then spat out a line straight out of a third-rate villain.
“You people… you're going to regret this!”
She spun on her heel and fled the café as if running for her life.
“Ah! Of all times, where the hell did Driver Kim go!?”
Outside the café, Heejin seethed as she scanned the surroundings. She had never planned to storm in alone. Whoever had left her daughter's face in that state was clearly no ordinary maniac; walking in by herself had been an enormous risk. She had meant to go in with her chauffeur—but he had vanished, saying he needed to take an urgent call. After waiting as long as she could, she had finally risked it alone.
The result: she had found a prime suspect, only to run into an even more dangerous lunatic and nearly lose ten years off her life.
Still… I really have seen him somewhere…
Walking slowly toward where the car was parked, Heejin turned over the face of the boy from the café in her mind. Then it hit her.
Ah—that pretty little boy!
The café uniform cap and the black mask had kept her from recognizing him at once.
It's him. The one who used to chase after Suhyeon…
Her acquaintance had said as much, and she had been stupid enough to forget.
Beggar.
That one word alone should have told her immediately why her daughter had come home so late with that look on her face.
That girl… I thought once she got to college she'd never look back and finally live properly!
From the day she had forcibly kept her daughter from seeing that boy, Suhyeon had started walking a completely twisted path.
— Lee Suhyeon! What is this report card?
— …
It began with her quitting the studying she had always done diligently without being told. And even though she was still a minor—
— Lee Suhyeon? Why is this coming out of your pocket?
— Because it's mine, that's why it's in my pocket.
— Hey! Lee Suhyeon, snap out of it!
— …
—she started drinking and smoking without a second thought. No amount of coaxing or scolding made a difference.
— Suhyeon, life is just like that sometimes…
— Get a hold of yourself! How many years has this been going on!?
The more she tried, the more her daughter rebelled and spun further out of control. Once high school started, she even began hanging around those worthless bugs people called delinquents. Heejin had come to regret not simply leaving her daughter alone to do as she pleased.
And yet—mercifully—one day, after some major incident with those no-good boys, something seemed to click. Suhyeon had started studying again, late as it was, and gotten into a respectable university, if not the absolute top. Heejin had just begun to breathe a little easier when this happened all over again.
Don't tell me she's going to drop out and start running with thugs again…
She could not help worrying about her daughter's future. She was just thinking she would have to do something—anything—when a voice suddenly called out.
“Hello there!”
Heejin startled and looked up.
“Hehe…”
Standing there was a guy with dyed blond hair, wearing a cheap-looking black suit that sat awkwardly on him, smiling at her with a greasy, sly grin. He looked exactly like the kind of thug Heejin had just been picturing.
No—he looked like the very definition of one.