I Said, Don't Mess With Me.
After being hurt in that ugly incident, Yoon-seo had started to think of herself as dirty.
So I parked in front of Yoon-seo's place to take care of her.
The house I'd set Yoon-seo up with had bright light spilling out of it, but one room stayed dark.
While taking a drag on my vape, I turned on my phone and sent Yoon-seo a message.
- I'm out front. Come out.
The read receipt popped up, and a moment later Yoon-seo stepped outside without a word.
She was wearing a dress and looked completely wrecked, like she hadn't slept a wink all night.
Yoon-seo seemed to be wrestling with something; she hesitated in front of my car.
She couldn't bring herself to open the door and just stood there faltering for a while. I couldn't watch it any longer, so I reached over and touched the dash screen to open it for her.
"....."
"What are you doing? Get in."
"Okay..."
I took Yoon-seo and got the car moving.
"Did you look up the video?"
I asked without any hesitation, and Yoon-seo flinched before nodding slowly.
"Wow, you must've seen every porn video you'll ever need to watch in your life, huh?"
"....."
Yoon-seo looked at me as if she was about to choke up.
As if to ask how I could say something like that...
"Don't worry. Those bastards didn't spread the video anywhere because they wanted to try and reel me in."
Hearing what I said, Yoon-seo bit her lip and clenched her fist tightly.
"What? Are you sorry you got me mixed up in this?"
".....Yeah."
"Ah-hah, I was actually a little hurt, you know? Because you didn't tell me about it even though I'd been right next to you saying I'd grant your wishes."
"Sorry..."
Right now, it's difficult for me to offer Yoon-seo any kind of comfort.
Since I've never experienced sexual intercourse in this body.
I can't even build any kind of common ground with her.
I thought that if I tried to offer words of comfort with this body too often, I might end up hurting her even worse.
Because that's what happened to me once.
So I didn't say much else and made a left turn onto the expressway.
I spoke to Yoon-seo, who was silently staring at her own fingernails.
"Open the glove box in front of you. There're snacks."
"I don't want any..."
"No, I mean, hand them to me."
"Ah... okay."
Yoon-seo opened the glove box and took out a snack.
She went to hand it straight to me, so I looked at her with a frown.
"I'm driving?"
"...Should I... open it for you?"
"Shouldn't you be feeding me?"
"Okay..."
Since we were on the expressway, I started properly stepping on the accelerator to enjoy the speed.
The car began to go faster and faster.
Yoon-seo stiffened at the sudden increase in speed and looked around.
I started accelerating even more, and the 'Illytion Special Freedom'—my Spotted One—surged forward as if to show off exactly why it was a hypercar.
Kyaaaaang!!!!
In the blink of an eye, the Spotted One reached a speed where the cars ahead looked like they were moving slowly.
"Isn't this... way too fast..."
When I drove the Spotted One easily past 200 kilometers per hour as if I was going to blow past 300, Yoon-seo was terrified.
The vibration from the excessively high speed made both me and Yoon-seo uneasy.
"Si-yoon!!! Si-yoon!!!"
When I floored the accelerator, easily broke past 300, and pushed the car toward the far end of the gauge, we were going so fast we'd overtake the cars ahead in an instant.
Terrified, Yoon-seo squeezed her eyes shut and gripped the safety handle tightly.
I checked the speed camera ahead, took my foot off the accelerator, and slowed down.
"Well? Exhilarating, right?"
"Are you, are you insane?!"
"What's the big deal? That stretch has the longest gap between surveillance cameras, so we probably weren't caught."
"....."
I took Yoon-seo, who was still looking drained, and headed to a movie theater I had already reserved.
"A movie?"
"The new Jurassic Universe came out. We have to see it."
"Ah..."
When we got to the theater, before getting out of the car, I put on sunglasses and a mask.
Then I turned on my phone and showed the pre-booked tickets to the employee at the counter.
Yoon-seo still hadn't said a word.
She was slumped over and giving off this depressed vibe, but maybe because we'd gone for a drive, she seemed better than before.
I went to the counter and ordered nachos, grilled butter squid, original popcorn, a cola, and a grapefruit ade.
When I tried to carry the armload of stuff, Yoon-seo spotted me and came over to help carry it.
We were sitting in our reserved seats.
Yoon-seo still hadn't opened her mouth, and I didn't really try to start a conversation with her, either.
I was eating popcorn while watching the ads on the giant screen when Yoon-seo beside me started fiddling with her fingernails.
"Hey, Yoon-seo."
"Hm?"
"Do you like dinosaurs?"
"...They're okay?"
"Yeah? Then after the movie, you wanna play a quiz game? If you answer the questions, I'll buy you a car."
"Huh...?"
Right as we were almost finished with the popcorn, the movie started.
On the screen, a person appeared who was controlling a multitude of dinosaurs.
A trainer commanding countless raptors in the midst of a warzone.
The spectacle that kicked off right from the start reminded me of a certain game famous for the line, 'I am the Swarm.'
"Did you know I got a love call for the role of the main character's son's girlfriend?"
"...Really?"
While I was filming My Love Was a Gumiho, some Hollywood directors must have seen the footage of me acting, because I'd gotten a casting offer.
Of course, I'd turned them all down. And that movie there was one of the ones I rejected.
"That's not the role for me."
If they told me to do the kind of acting where I shriek and run away like the female lead in the movie right now, honestly, I wouldn't be confident at all.
I think if you told some random guy passing on the street to do it, he'd shriek way better than me.
By the time the movie had gotten well underway,
The T-Rex, now nothing more than a loser-like combat-power measuring stick, finally unleashed its might.
GWOOOOOOOAR!!!
People panicked and started blasting away with the rifles they were holding, but the T-Rex ignored the bullets and chewed them up.
"Geez, it's an era where they can even resurrect dinosaurs, and bullets, which would've gotten that advanced by now, are just bouncing off it? What, are they shooting rubber bullets?"
"Even nowadays they can punch right through steel plate, so unless it got lodged in muscle, hitting its bones would shatter them. That's total bullshit."
"Come on. No matter how its bite force is over 6 tons, it's not some kind of industrial cutter. How does it bite a military vehicle in half?"
When I quietly criticized the movie, Yoon-seo cautiously countered.
"Since it's the future... wouldn't the dinosaurs be stronger, too?"
"That's a statement that reminds me of George Lucas. Sure, I guess in the writer's head, it could be possible."
"Yeah... Because showing things that are impossible in reality is what makes fiction appealing..."
Seeing Yoon-seo focus on the movie after she said that, I thought it'd been a good idea to talk some nonsense.
The directing itself was flashy and grand, but the story never escaped its stock formula: a villain rotten to the core, and one powerful dinosaur taken down by an even stronger dinosaur.
Although, I guess the image of dinosaurs taking over the urban center where civilians lived left an impression?
When the movie ended, I put my sunglasses and mask back on.
"Was it fun?"
"Yeah... it was fun."
After we threw away our trash and got on the elevator, Yoon-seo looked at me.
"...?"
When I looked back at her, Yoon-seo dodged my eyes and didn't say a word.
She kept silent until we got into the car together.
I drove the car and headed to the Polloshe Center.
"Huh? I haven't even given you the quiz yet."
"A quiz? Ah... the questions?"
I smiled at Yoon-seo, who was looking at me and nodding.
"I already asked you, though? You said it was fun."
"...? Huh?"
There were lots of pretty sports cars, but she couldn't quite bring herself to pick one, so I showed my face to the employee and yelled to give me the most expensive one.
In the end, Yoon-seo picked one out for herself.
"Not bad. Can't compare to my Spotted One, though. Heh-heh."
After I told them to send the car to Yoon-seo's place, I looked at Yoon-seo, who was still standing there stunned, and gave her a sly smirk.
"Now you really can't run away, can you?"
"I was never... planning to run away to begin with..."
Getting into the Spotted One, I took out a snack and ate it.
Crunch.
Yoon-seo hesitated for a long time. She didn't open her mouth until we arrived in front of her house.
"...What exactly... is your identity?"
She was doing much better than at the start.
Yoon-seo's question did feel a little late, but still, I'd killed people without the slightest hesitation.
I could understand if she avoided me.
In a way, I'm nothing more than a murderer.
Justice? For a person who's killed another person? There's no such word for it.
No matter how bad the person they kill, a killer is still just a killer.
No amount of good deeds changes that.
"If you hear it, you won't regret it?"
Yoon-seo swallowed hard. She seemed to be deep in thought for a moment, then nodded slowly.
"Honestly... I don't care what your identity is. Whatever kind of person you are. Even if it turns out you're a total psychopath and a serial killer... even if the person who reached out a hand to me wasn't justice."
I smiled as I watched Yoon-seo looking down at me with a serious expression.
"Yeah? You're still curious, even then? About what kind of person I am?"
"Honestly... it isn't that important."
"Then I'll let you know. My real identity is a genie who grants wishes without any conditions, just for having my lamp rubbed."
For the first time that day, Yoon-seo showed me a smile.
"Okay... That's good enough, Genie."
After I dropped Yoon-seo off at home, I headed straight back to my place.
When I was parked in the parking garage for a minute getting ready to go up, I got a call from Jong-hyeon.
"Hello?"
-"Young lady, the Korean Tiger you asked about. I've figured out all the information on him."
"Oh? Already?"
I quickly skimmed through the email Kang Jong-hyeon had sent.
A Korean Tiger, the only one they say exists in Korea...
He maintains an extreme level of secrecy, and even the other Tigers call him 'Spider' without knowing anything about his personal identity.
And yet, Jong-hyeon was the one who'd managed to dig up his information.
I scrolled through the info on the one who'd recently swallowed up the Gwangsu Gang.
Lee Seong-min looked at his phone for a moment.
"....."
"...? What? Who is it?"
"It's... Kim Si-yoon."
"Huh...?"
A silence hung in the air for a moment, then the man looked at Lee Seong-min.
"What?! How did she find out?"
"I don't... really know either..."
The moment he answered the call, Kim Si-yoon's uniquely charming voice rang out.
-"Hey there?"
"....."
-"I knew you were watching me, but I didn't know you'd figure out my number, too. That's wild."
"You... who are you?"
-"Look me up on Green Window. Why bother asking."
"...How."
-"Hm? Ah, I've got a lot of capable people under me."
That confident voice... that way of speaking.
To the man, it felt incredibly foreign.
-"But... you're a Tiger... and you're the same age as me? Han Su-ho? What are you? Who are you? I'm getting really damn curious about this now."
"....."
-"If you stay put right there, I was thinking of stopping by tomorrow. But if I come, your subordinates... they'll all die."
The man called Su-ho felt a smile bloom on his face the more he listened to Kim Si-yoon.
"Heh-heh."
-"You're laughing? Was that funny to you? I was being pretty damn sincere."
"You know what kind of person I am and you still want to meet me? You seem confident in your skills...?"
-"Hm? You're not seriously thinking of fighting me, are you? I'm a woman...?"
"I have some past experience with that. I'm not the type to let my guard down just because it's a woman. Heh-heh."
-"Well, shall we set a place, then? You're not on Taebaek's side anyway."
Su-ho paused at Kim Si-yoon's words.
".....How did you know that much?"
-"I've got a hunch about a few things, that's all. Let's just be straight with each other."
"...What are you trying to say?"
-"Hmm... I'm good at feeling things out and talking around the point, but I don't like doing that, so I'll tell you straight. I'm Kang Han-seong."
"!!!!!"
-"Who are you?"