I Ended Up Stroking Her Head
"Put that filthy hand away right now."
The chilling, crystal-clear warning slipped from Hwangbo Suyeon's lips. At those words, Paeng Mugum's massive raised hand froze in midair. The air around the restaurant entrance, packed with onlookers, turned ice-cold in an instant, as if by magic.
"And what's this?"
He scanned the girl in white martial robes who had suddenly stepped in front of me, blocking his path, looking her up and down. The scowl creasing Paeng Mugum's brow gradually smoothed out. Then, recognizing her, he flashed a sleazy grin. The mockery curling his lips was blatantly provocative.
"Ah, well, if it isn't..."
Paeng Mugum opened his mouth in a jeering tone.
"None other than Hwangbo Suyeon, the greatest prodigy of our academy?"
Though from the same prestigious great family, he was just a mediocre warrior. His voice dripped with petty jealousy toward this promising young talent and the arrogance of an instructor.
"Cadet Hwangbo Suyeon."
He tilted his chin up, looking down at her as he continued.
"Don't butt into adults' business and get hurt. Step back quietly."
It was a blatant warning disguised as advice.
"Unless you want to drag the precious reputation of the renowned Hwangbo family through the mud in a dump like this."
He shot a contemptuous glance my way.
"What's in it for you, defending a pathetic literature teacher's ass?"
The phrase "pathetic literature teacher's ass" spat from his mouth was an insult aimed at me, but the situation spiraled wildly in an unexpected direction. That arrogant, reckless remark had struck Hwangbo Suyeon's ultimate reverse scale—fatally, absolutely.
Woooong.
A low, heavy vibration tore through the air. It wasn't an illusion. The eerie resonance started at Hwangbo Suyeon's feet and spread outward. A ferocious, massive blue aura began swirling around her body.
"You really shouldn't run your mouth like that."
Her lips parted slowly, releasing a voice like shards of ice.
"For an academy instructor to spew vulgar trash worse than some back-alley thug."
Her tone carried a rage scraped from the depths of hell.
She took a step forward.
Thud!
The moment her small foot hit the packed earth, it cracked like a spiderweb. Overwhelmed by her presence, Paeng Mugum's smug face stiffened for a split second.
But Paeng Mugum was an experienced warrior from one of the Five Great Families too. His fragile pride and inferiority complex wouldn't let him tuck tail and retreat before a mere academy freshman girl.
"Ha! This is just ridiculous."
Paeng Mugum forced a hollow laugh, feigning composure.
"A spoiled little flower grown in a greenhouse."
He ground his teeth, summoning his fury.
"You dare flap your gums without fearing heaven and earth?!"
Shing!
With a roar of rage, he yanked the massive Paengsan Sword from his back in one fluid motion.
Whoosh!
His huge frame exploded forward at blinding speed, belying his size. Dust erupted from where he'd stood, scattering everywhere. The Paengsan Sword cleaved the air in a massive arc, plunging toward Hwangbo Suyeon's crown.
It was an overwhelming, destructive strike—like splitting a mountain. No finesse or technique—just brute force and weight to crush the foe.
I gasped and instinctively stumbled back. A normal guy like me would have his bones pulverized and organs ruptured just from grazing that iron slab.
But Hwangbo Suyeon didn't flinch. Her eyes grew even colder. She simply rooted her feet firmly to the ground, her lower body steady as rock. Then, lightly clenching both fists, she prepared to meet Paeng Mugum's colossal slash barehanded.
No way...?!
A chill raced up my spine. I knew instinctively what this insane genius girl was about to do.
The nonsense I'd blabbed in class earlier. Those crude modern physics terms—she was about to demonstrate them in real combat.
The Paengsan Sword's gleaming blade hovered a hair's breadth from her pale forehead. In that razor-edge moment of utmost tension, time itself seemed to slow.
Hwangbo Suyeon used her planted feet as a base, pivoting her entire torso around her dantian and waist like a spinning top. The extreme rotation unleashed her compressed power.
The tremendous "centrifugal force" from her spinning body. That physical energy surged from her dantian, up her waist in a vortex, contracting her back muscles, through her shoulder, and exploding into her extended right arm.
Perfect power transmission, channeling everything from her soles into one fist. At the final impact...
Suyeon's small fist twisted in a helical spiral, ripping through the air with a tearing whoosh.
The exact theory I'd spouted: "Hwangbo family's fist art—loading centrifugal force into a straight line."
That power struck the Paengsan Sword's blade dead-center.
CLANG!
A thunderous boom like lightning striking. No human fist and blade could make that sound. It was the explosive crack of a cannonball shattering a castle wall's stone.
Crack-crack!
A horrifying metallic rupture echoed across the restaurant front. An unbelievable sight unfolded.
Paeng Mugum's prized Paengsan Sword. A fist-indent cratered its thick steel blade's center, cracks spiderwebbing out.
Shatter!
Unable to endure, the blade exploded into fragments, scattering through the air.
"Wha—what...?"
The horrific recoil jolted Paeng Mugum's massive body backward several stumbling steps. His eyes bulged, veins ready to burst.
His hand clutched only a mangled half-shard. One punch. A battle-hardened instructor from Haebuk Paenga, one of the Five Great Families. Shattered by a girl's bare fist before she'd even shed her youthful scent. His beloved weapon lost.
Clang.
The trembling hilt slipped from his grip, thudding limply to the dirt.
Thud.
His knees buckled, collapsing him to the ground. Lips quivering, unfocused eyes filled with sheer terror and shock. His dignity as a Haebuk Paenga warrior, his will to fight—utterly broken. Total loss of fighting spirit.
The surroundings fell deathly silent. The cadets who'd been murmuring moments ago were overwhelmed by the surreal scene, barely breathing.
"Insane..."
I couldn't close my gaping mouth. I alternated stares between the slumped Paeng Mugum and Hwangbo Suyeon, frozen mid-punch. My heart pounded wildly.
The brain-fart bullshit I'd whipped up before lunch, just to sound smart. That shallow mishmash of modern physics and wuxia terms, crude and baseless. She'd perfectly comprehended and executed it in seconds.
"You're a real crazy genius..."
I was awestruck, chills prickling beyond admiration. This monstrous talent turned even my garbage ramblings into perfect martial arts. What if she took my offhand "black hole" or "quantum mechanics" and invented space-time-ripping techniques? Terrifying.
As the chaos settled, the gathered cadets began whispering in horrified awe at the dazed Paeng Mugum.
Only then did Hwangbo Suyeon withdraw her fist and relax her stance. The menacing blue aura enveloping her faded like mist. Gone was the icy genius master's aura that had mercilessly pulverized the Paengsan Sword.
She turned to me, eyes meeting mine. Then she trotted over with quick, eager steps.
The moment she stopped before me, I panicked again. Her cheeks flushed peach-pink, her face beaming with excitement as she looked up.
"Teacher! Did you see?!"
Her lips curved into a bright smile. Her big eyes sparkled like a puppy's, proudly awaiting praise after fetching a ball perfectly. Hard to believe this was the face that had just swung the fist shattering steel.
"When I struck just now!"
She poured out words in thrilled excitement.
"Just like you taught, I twisted my waist axis to maximize centrifugal force!"
She proudly tapped her waist with both hands.
"And at the final moment the fist connects, I wrenched my wrist hard, driving the spiral rotation straight in!"
She clenched and unclenched her small fist, chattering nonstop about the cheat theory she'd just demonstrated.
"You were right a hundred—no, a thousand times over, Teacher!"
Her voice brimmed with infinite respect and joy toward me. That bubbly tone. That pure, earnest expression desperate only for my approval.
The lofty lady from a prestigious family, always so cold and aloof. Seeing her completely disarmed, smiling innocently up at me... My rational brain short-circuited.
Without thinking. Purely on instinct. My hand moved before my reason could catch up.
"Haha, yeah."
A soft, praise-filled voice slipped out.
"That was brilliant, Suyeon. A perfect strike."
Smooth.
I naturally, without hesitation, placed my broad right palm on her round crown. And stroked her soft hair gently.
The utterly modern, habitual "good girl" pat I'd give my young niece in my past life for a job well done. That unconscious act...
Detonated defenselessly in the heart of this conservative wuxia world, strict on gender propriety and status divides. On the forbidden treasure of one of the Five Great Families, Hwangbo Sega, no less.
"......!"
In an instant, Hwangbo Suyeon's excited chatter halted mid-sentence. Her whole body froze like her pressure points had been sealed. Her snow-white face flushed crimson, like ripe rubies. The red tide surged from her nape to her ear tips.
Her wide eyes gazing up shook violently, like an earthquake. The unfamiliar touch on her head. Breath caught, she froze solid.
And in that moment, I too felt the fine, soft texture of her hair and her warm scalp under my palm. Lightning chills shot up my spine.
I realized the insane blunder I'd just made.
You idiot Yeon Woon-ryong! Have you lost your damn mind?!
Alarms blared in my head.
Patting a Five Great Families' forbidden jewel on the head?! In front of a crowd?! That's begging to lose your arm!
I yanked my hand back like it'd touched a hot coal, flailing awkwardly in the air.
"Uh... ahem! Cough!"
Think of something, brain—quick!
"Ah! Right!"
I clapped exaggeratedly, desperately scrambling.
And out came the most classic, cowardly, illogical excuse.
"I-I left a super important book in the classroom!"
No time to take it back.
"I-I'll eat later! You go ahead!"
The words barely left my mouth before I spun on my heel. Without looking back, I bolted toward my rundown quarters at full sprint. Legs blurring in desperate flight. Heart hammering like it would burst. Knees wobbling, but I couldn't stop.
This brutal, godforsaken murim survival saga of mine. Sensing the massive backlash storm ahead, I swallowed a silent scream of despair the whole way.