Chapter 141. You Guys Seriously Need to Be Beaten Half to Death
Chapter 141. You Guys Seriously Need to Be Beaten Half to Death
"Alright, everyone! I hope you all have a fun and meaningful campus life ahead! Cheers!"
The senior class president's lively voice filled the space, and the clinking of glasses echoed around the table.
"Cheers!"
Laila lifted her glass carefully and toasted with everyone.
But after that first toast, she didn't bring the glass to her lips.
Hehe... this was the perfect social grace of a girlfriend at a drinking party!
She smiled inwardly.
Laila maintained the posture of a perfect girlfriend anytime, anywhere.
"Heehee..."
Laila's table soon filled with laughter, and cheeks grew rosy one by one.
Among them, Park Hyo-jung's face was especially red.
She was the classmate who had first approached Laila, a younger friend.
"Big sis... are you a foreigner by any chance?"
Park Hyo-jung, swaying slightly from the alcohol, asked with wide, round eyes.
Laila thought for a moment at the question, then nodded gently.
Come to think of it, the otherworld was technically a foreign country...
"Yes, but now I'm Korean."
"Wow, then... you naturalized! I've only heard about it, never met anyone around me who did... if you don't mind me asking, what made you..."
Park Hyo-jung blurted out her question, then suddenly shut her mouth and bowed her head.
"Ah, I-I'm sorry! In foreign countries, private stuff like that... it's rude to just ask, right...? I'm still not quite used to that..."
Laila found that side of Park Hyo-jung adorable and smiled brightly.
"It's okay. Actually, the man I'm going to marry is Korean. So I followed him here."
In that instant, Park Hyo-jung's eyes grew soft and dewy.
"Wow... following a boyfriend and even naturalizing... that's amazing... Actually, I..."
Park Hyo-jung, tipsy, chattered about this and that.
Laila felt like she'd somehow gained a little sister.
"But actually, when I first saw you, big sis... I thought you were the Unknown Hunter! Same name, and your looks were so similar to what I'd heard..."
Then she burst out laughing by herself.
"Hahahaha! But there's no way someone like that would go to college! What would she need a degree for~ And in the first place, tons of foreigners have the exact same name!"
Laila wore an ambiguous smile and scratched her cheek lightly.
"Right...?"
If asked outright whether it was true, she would answer, but she didn't want to bring it up first.
She had no desire to press others with her status, nor to walk around drawing stares.
"Yeah! When I first saw her, I thought she was the Unknown Hunter too!"
When he looked around, several others giggled and nodded.
Under the slightly dim lighting, with alcohol warming their heads.
Even within a shared suspicion glimpsed in that moment, they logically dismissed it themselves and laughed it off.
No way, that's absurd.
Just someone who looked like her.
Why would someone like that be here?
Even in that atmosphere, Laila matched their reactions with a smile and without a hint of discomposure.
Every time she lifted her glass.
She deliberately angled her fingers just slightly, so the ring on her ring finger glinted softly.
She expressed through action that she was a body 'already spoken for.'
And yet...
There were always people who pretended not to see that.
A few seniors who had been circling the tables accepting drinks for a while now.
"Hey, the new students here got close already? Can I have just one drink too?"
Their eyes were reddened from intoxication, and their tone carried a peculiar confidence mixed with the influence of alcohol.
Laila thought, Still, they're seniors... and poured them a glass.
But as he accepted the drink, he smirked and said.
"Oh... newbie, do you have a boyfriend?"
"Yes, senior."
"Don't be so stiff, just call me Hoon comfortably~ The others all call me big bro or Hoon, you know~"
Laila folded her eyes gently and smiled.
But she drew the line firmly.
"No, I'm fine."
Whether he noticed or not, he smoothly rambled on with stories that were hard to tell if they were self-praise or grumbling.
"This time, my father at the company..."
"Ah seriously, the professor is so fucking annoying... hah~ giving us some bullshit assignments..."
"Last semester the exams were completely shitty too..."
A tone laced with profanity.
Gestures jabbing at the air.
A distance closing unnecessarily.
Hmm...
Just as she was about to express displeasure.
Fortunately, someone from another group of seniors at a different table.
Observing the mood, he quickly grabbed him.
"Hey, hey. You're seriously wasted."
"Haha... sorry about that. This guy looks way too drunk..."
"Everyone, eat comfortably. Sorry."
They fumbled awkwardly and took him away, and the mood around them grew heavy for a moment.
"Euuu... I know big sis is pretty!"
Park Hyo-jung clung to Laila's forearm with both hands and spoke with exaggerated gestures.
At her voice, the subdued atmosphere slowly began to ease again.
Some more time passed, and the class president, having finished paying the bill, stood in the center.
"Thank you to all our classmates who joined us for OT today! Those going for round two, go ahead, and those heading home, please get back safely! See you all when the semester starts, everyone!"
The OT ended with applause, and people rose from their seats one by one.
Some were hailing taxis, others were looking up nearby bars.
On the way outside.
Park Hyo-jung, already quite drunk, staggered.
She spoke to Laila with her eyes half-closed.
"Big sis... how are you getting home...?"
"I'll just take a taxi."
Saying this naturally, Laila steadied Park Hyo-jung by gently holding her shoulder.
"Heehee... I'm taking a taxi too..."
"Let's go together. I'll drop you off on the way."
"Euh... i-is that okay? Heehee... then I'll hitch a ride..."
Supporting her arm as if holding her up, she went outside and stepped toward the sidewalk to catch a cab.
"Oh? There you are?"
A familiar voice.
Familiar to the point of being sick of it.
The seniors who had kept sticking around the table earlier.
Their faces flushed bright red, one holding a cigarette, they approached this way.
"You guys aren't going for round two? I heard the others are going?"
Laila answered with the utmost courtesy.
"No, we're going to head home."
Yet they didn't back off easily.
"Ayy~ don't be like that! Her father is pretty famous in the industry. He's even involved in hunter-related stuff, and he's even personally close with several professors. You guys should have at least this level of connections if you want an easier time getting a job later, you know?"
One of them smirked drunkenly, and another kept staring intently at Laila with a grin.
They're truly revolting people...
Laila endured the nauseating cigarette smoke wafting up and forced the corners of her lips upward.
"Seniors, I think it would be better if you looked after our classmates inside. We'll be going now."
She tried to turn her body while supporting Park Hyo-jung.
And at that moment.
Someone grabbed Laila's sleeve.
"If you come to round two, the professors sometimes drop by too. Good to get your face stamped, isn't it?"
In that split second,
an intensely violent disgust spread throughout Laila's entire body.
A powerful urge to slap his cheek right then and there surged up.
But she gritted her teeth.
Because if she slapped him with these feelings as they were, he would die.
"Senior!"
She turned her head, about to say just one word.
Just then, beyond her gaze, she saw a figure walking over.
Tall height, broad shoulders.
Wearing a mask and a cap pulled down low, but Laila recognized him instantly.
Her Hero.
In that moment, the cold feeling dissolved and a smile seeped in.
Heehee... you were worried after all and came.
The corners of her mouth smoothly lifted.
In contrast, the seniors flinched naturally as that large shadow approached.
"Laila, I parked the car over there. Want to go ahead first?"
Hero... you're really angry...
Laila nodded and led Park Hyo-jung.
She was already dozing off.
But then one of them frowned and spoke.
"Excuse me. Can't you see we're talking here?"
Silence.
Song Hoon quietly exhaled.
"That hand."
"?"
"I want to crush it to a pulp... but I'm holding back because there are too many eyes watching..."
But indeed, excessive drinking had numbed reason.
"No, what the fuck... who the hell are you to take our department's juniors away..."
"Th-this person is her boyfriend."
Though spoken softly, it was saturated with an unyielding line and fury.
At the killing intent creeping out, they swallowed their breath and turned their heads away.
"Ah... boyfriend... I see..."
Even so, they clicked their tongues.
One of them pulled out a cigarette, tapped it, and lit it.
"Let's go."
Just as Laila and Song Hoon turned their backs to walk away.
Words heard from behind.
"Hoo... what kind of thug-looking bastard is a boyfriend... all frontin' with that tough guy act..."
And right after.
"Keuheuheu... thugs always make a ton of money running loan shark businesses. With a face like that, they'd pay a lot for just one night, don't you think?"
Snickering, vile laughter.
"Hyaa~ with a face like that, how much would it cost to bang her once?"
"Heh heh... your part-time job wages wouldn't even come close."
At that moment, her Hero turned his body back around.
"Yo, Hero!"
And Song Hoon strode toward the seniors with large steps.
"Wh-what?"
"You really need to get your asses kicked."