Reunion (3)
I went down to the parking garage, got into the Spotted One, and headed to the meeting place.
Cho-a had rolled out a brand-new Bugata.
The car alone outclassed mine by 500 million won...
Feeling like I'd already lost, I left the Spotted One parked in front of Cho-a's house and climbed into the car Cho-a had brought out.
"Babe~ you made it?"
"My head hurts, Cho-a..."
"Huh?"
"Call me Boss. Every single time."
"Tch... You talk casual with Park Gi and Jae-hyeong..."
Cho-a put on a pouty expression...
If you imagined that tone and those gestures coming from an average adult man, your whole body would probably break out in goosebumps.
But looks were looks. Cho-a's puppyish face, like some sheltered young master raised on love, actually made that way of talking fit him disturbingly well.
I had nothing to say to that retort.
In the very end, Ji-hoon and Tae-oh had been like family to me, sure.
But before that, the one person I could lean on had been Cho-a and Cho-a alone.
"Haah... Fine, permission granted."
"Really!? I was just testing the waters~ Knew it, our Boss was an easy woman after all~"
"....."
I ignored Cho-a and checked out the car.
It really was stunning inside and out, the way a car at that price ought to be.
We were making our way down a narrow local road when Cho-a suddenly floored it.
"...?"
"Why are all these small fries tailing us? They're killing my date vibe."
This crazy bitch—no, crazy bastard—was currently trying to shake off the security detail.
Putting myself in the security team's shoes, wasn't this a pretty dangerous-looking situation for me...?
This doesn't look much different from a kidnapping.
And against the one and only Tiger in Korea, at that...
I was certain that Jong-hyeon wouldn't hesitate to put a hole in Cho-a's head.
"Hey! Are you insane? Slow down, you're gonna get a hole in your head?"
"C'mon~ Boss, here? In Korea?"
BANG!!!
Cho-a, having watched the side mirror explode from a warning shot, slowed the car right down.
"Ah... the repair bill..."
"Don't screw around in front of Jong-hyeon. If he decides you're a threat, his trigger finger is real light."
Cho-a smiled, apparently pleased with a Team 7 that put civilian safety on the back burner when it came to protecting me.
"Heh heh, I like 'em~"
"Back in the day, I'd have just sicced Tiger on you."
"Really? That much?"
"Yeah, and I'd bill you for the repairs."
"C'mon~ this thing barely costs anything~"
As the car settled into a slower pace, Cho-a slowly opened up, as if he had a lot he wanted to say.
"Honestly, I was super glad I was born a guy?"
"... I'll give you that."
"The way muscle packs on so much faster was insane. It made me wonder if that bastard Mild used to show off his strength with a body like this."
Choria Sharapova.
This crazy bitch had never been able to adapt to my high-intensity training.
But through real combat, she had bloomed her overwhelming talent more than anyone.
Having felt that talent firsthand, Cho-a had started pushing herself to the absolute limit at a slightly late age, and she'd climbed up to that position.
Even recently I'd caught myself indulging in the same delusion.
What would have happened if Cho-a had been born a man, with the same conditions as me...
"But this body has one fatal flaw."
"... What?"
I asked back seriously, wondering if Cho-a had some grave chronic illness.
But after hearing the answer that came out of his mouth, it didn't take long for me to mentally file him in the same tier as Park Ji-hoon.
"I see a woman, and I don't get turned on."
"......"
"Boss, do you get turned on when you see a guy?"
"...Are you insane?"
"Me, though? Seeing Boss is the first time in my life I've gotten turned on?"
I'm fucked.
This crazy bastard... was genuinely dangerous.
Suddenly Cho-a was staring at me with a weirdly lewd look, resting a hand on my thigh.
Precisely because I was afraid of this exact shit, I'd worn a buckle-free sports bra as underwear even in this hot weather, with tight boxer briefs and long sweatpants over them.
Cho-a's hand slipped between my thighs, slowly inching up toward the Y-zone...
"So soft~"
A skin-crawling sensation shot through me and I snatched Cho-a's fingers, fast.
This crazy bastard clearly needed an urgent lesson in the pecking order before he crossed a hard line.
"Choria Sharapova."
"...Yes?"
"If you insist on crossing that line... I'll make sure you remember the past."
I meant it seriously... but maybe it was because of how I looked. Unlike before, Cho-a was openly coquettish.
Park Ji-hoon had been the same way in the past...
He'd seen my young-looking body and mouthed off like a goddamn fool.
Then after my picture-perfect flying knee kick nailed him, the pecking order had begun to sort itself out.
Look what we've got now...
Cho-a seemed all but certain he'd win if he fought me.
"Tch, so mean~"
Even so, the way he was watching me, gauging me with a snake's eyes, I felt like prey for the first time in my life, and it made my skin crawl.
This was going to be a fight over who eats and who gets eaten... but with my ass on the line, I was ready to stake my life on it.
This crazy bastard was a serious carnivore, and the moniker Tiger suited his personality better than anyone else's.
If he tested the waters lightly and decided the situation was in his favor, he might just take my ass at any moment.
To preemptively prevent that situation, I spoke in complete earnest.
"Get out."
"Boss?"
"Looks like... you took me lightly because of how I look now, Choria..."
"Ah, no, it's not... I was just really happy to see you..."
"Get out. I'll take your measure. Whether you're good enough to get away with this... whether you're fit to stay by my side."
"You won't regret it...?"
Look at this bastard...?
Already in his head, Cho-a had decided he could handle me if we went head-to-head.
Probably because of the café incident at our last meeting...
"You've really grown, haven't you...?"
We got out in an empty lot with no one around, and before I knew it, Team 7 had surrounded us.
Off in the distance, Kim Tae-oh and Park Ji-hoon were eating popcorn and keeping a wary eye. I really wanted to beat the absolute shit out of them.
"If I win, is Boss's first time mine?"
"Haah... If I win, just restrain yourself, Cho-a."
"You're not saying no? Ah-heh."
"Because I don't think I'll lose."
Cho-a let out a scoff, looking at me as I spouted words no different from my pride-bloated past.
"C'mon~ if I lose, I'll give Boss the whole Gwangsu Gang~ Nah, I'll give it to you even if I win~"
"Don't need it. If you win, wrap everything up and join HSW."
"Oh? If that's the deal, just say so~ I'm always okay with that~"
Cho-a, who had been loosening up with a smile on his face, spoke.
"Things are gonna be pretty different from the past, you know?"
"I might be weaker 'for now' than I was in the past...?"
Cho-a, understanding exactly what I meant, let out a snort.
"... C'mon~ don't lie. In a woman's body? You're saying later on you'll be even stronger than before...?"
"See for yourself..."
Cho-a removed the leather glove from his right hand, then took off the armlet with the fishing hook attached.
"...?"
"Can't have Boss getting hurt~"
"...Getting cocky, are we?"
At first I'd just been planning to smack him around a few times...
But if he was going to provoke me like that, I guess I'd have to get serious.
I tossed the knuckles I'd had in my pocket into the air.
The instant they hit the ground, as if signaling the start, Cho-a's expression sharpened and he closed in fast.
"Let me show you just how big the gender difference really is..."
Cho-a threw a punch.
Ha...
A fist with such overwhelming speed and destructive power that even seeing it, my body nearly couldn't react.
It grazed the side of my head, the friction pulling out a few strands of hair.
Cho-a stared at his own hand, as if he hadn't expected me to dodge.
Watching him, I took the hairband from my wrist and tied my hair back.
"Whoa... Sh-should I go serious?"
The speed grew even faster, as if that had truly been a joke just now.
A single hit seemed life-threatening, so I kept my distance and dodged.
Absolutely. His speed alone was overwhelming, beyond even Cho-a's past self who had once been top-tier.
But...
Maybe it was from moving so violently after a long time, but my body was starting to heat up.
"Heh-heh..."
"....."
Something was wrong.
I, who knew the limits of a female body better than anyone, had thought even the Boss had a chance.
Even though I'd never known his exact limits back then...
But... even so... there's no way in hell that kind of reaction speed is possible...
I tried mixing fakes into my movements, but seeing the Boss's pupils track my hands and arms sent chills all over my body.
On top of that, the Boss was predicting my next move just from my posture, my waist, my footwork, and getting ready to move in advance...
And most of all... that blood-chilling smile the Boss used to wear in my past life, the one I'd always seen from right beside him...
The Boss seemed to be at peak mood.
When the Boss gets into that state... all restraint disappears...
We'd only exchanged a few blows, but the Boss had already adapted to my speed. The dodging pattern shifted from front-and-back to side-to-side.
Just like the Boss said, I'd been arrogant. Way too arrogant.
When I'd never even been able to graze the hem of his clothes in my past life...
The Boss reached out as if to check the power loaded in my arm...
Those hands, which had looked soft as down... were starting to look a little different.
Maybe the Boss had fully analyzed my movements, or maybe he'd just adapted...
He suddenly burst forward.
"Take a few hits... Cho-a..."
A punch that looked light... had no business moving that fast.
I finally understood that yesterday's high kick hadn't been serious.
Realizing it this late... was way too late...
BANG!
This was fun.
I'd never put everything I had into barehanded combat in my life, except when I was beating the hell out of Park Ji-hoon.
Cho-a's fist extended in a simple, straight line.
As concise and simple as it was, the speed was nothing to scoff at.
Even so, this body's reflexes moved me out of the punch's way.
Moving on instinct, without passing through the brain...
I dodged left and landed one on Cho-a's right jaw.
BANG!
Cho-a's follow-up punch was hidden by his arm, out of sight.
But Cho-a's stance, the angle of the attack... the habits of his movement painted themselves in my head.
I dodged lightly at a diagonal, rose up, clenched my left fist tight, and landed another.
BANG!
Destructive power?
I'd known this body's limits and abandoned that notion long ago.
I simply used this decidedly inhuman body's staggering precision.
And, like Cho-a in the past, I overwhelmed my opponent with speed that far outpaced everyone else.
Of course, in pure speed, the current Cho-a was overwhelmingly faster...
But Cho-a must have realized the damage wasn't all that big after all.
He started demanding close-quarters combat even more aggressively, but
he still couldn't touch my body. Instead, it was me, with the shorter reach from physical disadvantages, who kept landing more hits.
After I'd driven dozens of shots into Cho-a's face, the damage finally seemed to pile up and become a burden. He went for a high kick.
Letting even one of Cho-a's attacks through would be near-fatal damage,
but honestly, by this point I wasn't even confident I could take a hit if I wanted to.
My eyes had not only adapted to Cho-a's movements, but with my overwhelming brainpower added on top, I could predict his next action.
Cho-a's leg, trying to rise by streamlining most of the preparation for a flash high kick.
I smoothly placed my foot on top of Cho-a's thigh, using the rebound to widen the distance.
His high kick, which he'd thought was his decisive blow, was simply blocked. Cho-a's pupils swayed, deeply shaken.
"Boss! I've lo—"
No, Cho-a...
Even a pet tiger, I'd taught you, if it bares its fangs at its master, you have to pull them out...
I slipped past Cho-a's guard and drove my fist into the opening.
BANG! BANG! BANG!!! SMASH!!!
If there was one advantage to having small hands,
it was that the impact radius was tiny, so the person getting hit would hurt like a bitch.
CRACK! CRACK!
Cho-a's guard broke open.
WHAM! WHAM! CRACK! SMACK!!
Now even his legs were about to give out, so I grabbed the back of Cho-a's head and smiled.
"B-Boss...?"
If there was one good thing about Cho-a turning into a guy...
it was that I didn't feel the slightest hesitation about beating the shit out of him.
I proceeded to bury a knee kick right into Cho-a's face.
Blood smeared onto my thigh. I let go of Cho-a's head,
and he crumpled forward.
"A one-trick weapon user running his mouth without a weapon? The hell?"
Honestly, if Cho-a, with that speed and strength I hadn't predicted at all, had been armed...
Knuckles, my ass... I was certain I couldn't have won unless I'd brought a blade.
Cho-a had regained his senses at some point, sitting there in a daze.
His face had swollen to three times its normal size.
He touched his own face, and...
tears began to well up in his eyes.
"So mean... so mean... In thirty years... h-heug... the first time I see you..."
"....."
"H-heuuuug... I-I was just so happy to see you... hic!"
Cho-a's face hurt so much he couldn't even bring himself to wipe the tears away...
"How could you do this... you always just took Park Gi and Jae-hyeong along with you... even back then, do you know how hurt I was..."
Cho-a wept bitterly, pitifully searching for his precious weapon.
With trembling hands and eyes that could barely open, he searched the ground for that pure-white weapon...
Now that I thought about it, that was the same design as the last one I'd ever gifted him.
Even when it got broken or loose, he'd always carried it carefully, treasuring it until I gave him a replacement.
When I found Cho-a's glove and handed it back, Cho-a snatched it from my hand.
"All the time, you'd go off and play, leaving me out when I was always right beside you... heug. In the end you threw everything away and went all the way to Korea... hic... you went."
I couldn't do anything but fidget and fret, watching Cho-a speak between hiccups.
"Cho—"
"Park Gi and Jae-hyeong... I'll kill them..."
"Hey... Cho-a?"
"I'LL KILL THEM!!!"
The situation had spiraled somewhere very strange.
They say whoever cries first wins, right...
I hadn't realized that applied to guys too...
Off in the distance, Tae-oh and Park Ji-hoon, who'd been watching while eating popcorn, sensed things going weirdly sideways. They casually got on their motorcycle and finished their preparations to bolt.
I approached Cho-a, who was sobbing more sorrowfully than I'd ever seen, clutching his sand-dusted weapon tightly in both trembling hands.
"Heug... I don't need any of it... heuuuug..."
Suddenly Cho-a hurled the weapon he'd once cherished into the grass.
"Cho-a?"
"Boss, you go too! Just leave me behind and go with them, same as before!!!"
"I'm sorry..."
"Don't... need it. Heug. Disappear... heuaa... heu-heug."
A headache was coming on from Cho-a's unrestrained wailing.
Now that I thought about it, I wasn't one to call Tae-oh trash. I myself was genuine, irredeemable garbage, hazardous-waste level.
Cho-a had spent practically an entire lifetime looking only at me, and I'd just called it family, hadn't even given him proper attention, and in the end, I'd left him behind and gone away.
Without even promising a next time...
"D-Do you know how happy I was... you're always just thinking about running away... heuuug."
For the first time in my life as Si-yoon—
No, for the first time across all my lives—I went down on my knees.
"I'm sorry."
"....."
"I'm sorry... Cho-a..."
"Heug... Go away."
When I pressed my forehead to the ground, Cho-a flinched as if startled, stealing a glance at me.
"In the past, too... you were the only place I could lean on... I must've been out of my mind for a bit."
"Hnng... really?"
"Of course!"
"Sniff... Then... just hug me tight once..."
I hesitated a moment, but with Cho-a's face rapidly crumbling again, I emptied my head and hugged him tight.
Why'd he have to be born looking like this again...
His appearance was seriously just too adorable. He was a man, but the sight of him crying didn't feel jarring at all.
The moment I hugged him, I felt Cho-a trying to bury his nose in my chest...
And the arm wrapping around my waist was a bit...
Still, I pretended not to notice and concentrated on soothing Cho-a.