Chapter 58
Chapter 58
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 58
Chapter Title: Hair-Trigger
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While Lily and Crow showered together, Scardi sat on her own bed, smoking irritably.
It was rare to see her this rattled. Even when angry, her style had always been to crush the target ruthlessly without betraying a hint of emotion...
"Hoo..."
Scardi sighed in annoyance, rubbing her forehead. Her mind was completely filled with those two.
One was Crow. The other was Lily.
Ever since their reunion, the atmosphere between them had been off. Of course, Scardi had some concerns about Lily, and she knew her current approach was the best.
Lily was exploiting Crow's guilt. The fact that the young, weakened Lily had suffered because of him meant Crow already owed her a massive debt.
So what did Lily want in that situation?
As far as Scardi could tell,
Lily was guiding Crow to feel a sense of kinship with her.
That the two of them alone had suffered in this world,
that everyone else had abandoned them,
but they cared for each other in that sticky self-comfort.
"..."
Scardi's mood soured. Still, she didn't step in.
She had a gut feeling that if she touched Lily rashly, Crow's resentment would turn toward her.
To Crow, that cunning woman was his one lifeline.
She was the one who'd showered him with favors and become his pillar, but Lily was wedging herself into that stable bond, using old affections and psychological pressure to manipulate Crow.
In a word,
it fucking sucked.
Scardi and Lily were taking completely opposite approaches.
While Scardi gave Crow hope for survival and showed him power and authority he could rely on,
Lily stimulated him into sharing pain within their exclusive bond.
Just as she was burning up inside alone like this, Crow and Lily—fresh from their shower—stopped by her room on the way back and knocked on her door.
Knock, knock—
Exactly twice.
In that instant, Scardi hurriedly stubbed out her cigarette in the ashtray and opened the door with a calm expression, as if nothing had happened.
"Crow."
The Crow greeting her was the polar opposite of her composed demeanor—drenched in a bleak, worn-out aura. Lily stood beside him.
"How's your condition? Did that bitch Orca pull some crazy stunt again?"
Lily maintained her usual enigmatic blank expression, only slightly lifting one corner of her mouth. Was she calling that a smile? It came off more like an awkward grin that sent chills down the spine.
It felt like something inhuman mimicking human behavior, mechanically twitching its muscles. That woman, even a bit shorter than Crow, kept stirring waves in Scardi's mind.
"Thank you for taking care of Oppa all this time. I think I misunderstood you."
An unexpected thank-you.
Eyes like an inanimate object, impossible to read.
"So you can even say thank you, huh."
"Yes. I try to be as polite as possible to people who care for and look after Oppa. Please take good care of us from now on."
Her expressions felt both familiar and alien. Everything that came out of Lily's mouth gave the impression of being detached from this world.
Scardi thought back. She hadn't seemed this way before—or had she been hiding it all this time, playing the saint?
Maybe she'd started gradually revealing her true self since arriving at the prison.
"Still, no smoking."
Lily tilted her head slightly and smiled again. Cigarettes were now the only thing giving Crow any relief, yet Lily so casually tried to cut them off.
"I believe you're not forcing Oppa. But his body's in such bad shape, so things like cigarettes need to be avoided."
Scardi pulled a cigarette from her pocket and put it in her mouth. From a height two heads above Lily, she took out her lighter and lit it herself.
Flick—
"Is that so."
"Yes."
The two stared straight at each other.
Neither showed any sign of backing down.
"...If it's okay, I'll call you little sis."
"Call me whatever's comfortable."
"Little sis, cigarettes aren't that bad. Looking at Crow's condition, the problem isn't the smokes—it's the brutal treatment from the guards right now."
"Is that right?"
Scardi couldn't understand why Lily had come to her room out of nowhere to stir up trouble like this. Even if it was to check her, the inconsistent actions and rapidly shifting psyche made the woman even harder to grasp.
"Lily, enough... Without that, it's even harder. Why won't you listen to Oppa..."
"I'm sorry. I just wanted to say it once. But thinking about it, you might be right, Scardi. You probably know more about cigarettes than I do."
Crow had listened to their exchange until he couldn't take it anymore and stepped in himself,
but outwardly obedient to Crow, Lily refused to yield her words or stance.
"...Still, it's weird. The smell of Oppa's cigarettes is definitely different from yours, Scardi."
The smoke was bitter. Scardi inhaled deeply, savoring Lily's speculation calmly.
It was impossible to distinguish the trace drugs mixed into the cigarettes by smell alone. That's why Lily's chatter could only amount to guesses or woman's intuition.
Even so, it didn't change the eerie sharpness of her instincts. Lily knew too much. How?
"Anyway, if you smoke, I get sad."
Lily said, gently caressing Crow's cheek. Even with Scardi right there, quietly smoking and watching, she spoke those embarrassingly intimate words as if it were nothing.
"Because... when we kiss or something... it'll smell like cigarettes. Like today."
The crazy bitch.
Pretending innocence while blatantly provoking.
Scardi and Lily could vaguely read each other's thoughts. Precisely because of that, neither acted rashly.
They just kept this distance,
reading each other's emotions.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
"Hic... Sniff... Sob..."
Even amid everyone's tough times,
one woman in particular was sobbing hysterically in the bathroom.
Several people had already witnessed her bawling, but she herself was oblivious to being caught. Whenever someone approached, she'd pretend to be shitting, curling up to hide.
"Fucking bastards... Sniff..."
Im Deok-soon, a 23-year-old living in Seoul, was quite detached from the prison's happenings. She had just two months left on her sentence.
A little more endurance, and she'd be out. But prison life, feeling like an extension of her gloomy school days, was especially tormenting for someone as dim and naive as her.
Of course, she was undeniably a powered individual. Not flashy like body enhancement or shooting fire from her fingertips—just something that made daily life a bit easier...
"Once I, I get out... I'll expose everything. Fucking bastards..."
But it was surprisingly influential.
She could manipulate internet networks. She only vaguely understood how she did it.
She was terrible at explaining, so multiple researchers had thrown up their hands in defeat. She didn't even know what parts were inside a computer or how the online world worked.
She just made it do what she wanted.
Others had to make new accounts or change IPs after a 30-day ban from a site, but Deok-soon didn't need to.
If she wanted to post, she could. Even spam. If she felt like it, she could flood every site with her worthless posts in hours.
It might seem useless. But she'd been a notorious villain in the underbelly. Unsatisfied with community sites, she'd dipped into sexual territories.
She'd uploaded tons of Crow deepfakes and composites to overseas sites. Stuff like thrusting a dildo of fitting size over his photos, squirting fluids messily—that was just a fraction.
Every time comments praised him sexually, Deok-soon felt proud.
So she wasn't the only one turned on by Crow! He was the problem, casually showing off abs or sweat without realizing how hot it was!
Unlike those fake nice guys ranting that women should approach first these days, a sweet-boy arousal genius like Crow, who comforted everyone's hearts, definitely existed.
That's why she'd praised his body in a distorted voice, thick and lewdly. All for a simple wank.
Fucking Korean law discriminated against women even after powers manifested. What a lamentable injustice.
"Hng... Sniff..."
Today was especially sad. No jerk-off time to quell her urges in this prison, and it had been days since her sloppy first sex with Crow.
Plus, Scardi—who claimed to protect her—roomed her with that bitch who kicked her around calling her a pig,
and that thug bitch yanked her hair and punched her whenever she got the chance.
Poor soft-hearted Deok-soon found it so hard to endure in a prison full of villains.
"Hey, pig. What're you doing?"
And the timing was goddamn perfect.
She'd holed up in the bathroom on purpose to kill time...!
"This bitch bails mid-massage and shits for 30 minutes. Wanna die?"
One of Creep's gang remnants, who subtly tormented Deok-soon, strode into the bathroom!