The Tough Guy Hides the Villainess

038 – Strong Women Generally Have Weaknesses #4

038 – Strong Women Generally Have Weaknesses #4

“Ow!”

Baek Yeoul, who was grilling Vienna sausages while holding a heavy iron wok, screamed. Hot oil splattered and tormented the back of her hand.

Even for Baek Yeoul, who was an awakened one, wok cooking was tough.

It consumed her stamina and dedication in an extraordinary way.

Baek Yeoul’s mother, Dang Hwayeon, who had been watching her for a while, clicked her tongue.

“My daughter, but she’s really clumsy, clumsy.”

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“Of course, my cooking would seem clumsy to you, Mom! You’ve lived in the kitchen for almost 30 years, and I’ve only been doing this for, what, a month!”

“Not the cooking.”

“Not the cooking?”

“It’s about the boy, right?”

Flinch.

Baek Yeoul’s body trembled. She looked like a raccoon caught stealing food from a shelf by the homeowner.

Dang Hwayeon sighed deeply with narrow eyes as she looked at Baek Yeoul.

“Is it one of the boys who came to our house back then? There were three boys, right? Which one of them is it? Is it the most handsome one? What was his name─.”

“It’s… it’s not like that!”

Baek Yeoul turned off the stove and stopped cooking.

Even though they were mother and daughter, talking about boys felt somehow embarrassing.

However, Dang Hwayeon had a more daring side than her daughter Baek Yeoul thought.

“No matter how deliciously you cook and bring it to him a hundred times, do you think the boy will fall for it? To seduce a man, you have to target his weaknesses well. Every man has a ‘weakness’.”

“Weakness?”

“Did I ever tell you about the time your father came into our house as a living-in son-in-law?”

“…Wait, Dad was a live-in son-in-law…!?”

“Where do you think all the money for your father’s business came from? It all came from my family. Your father did the business, but with my family’s capital, it was ‘Baek’ and ‘Dang’!”

“You said you were an orphan! You said I didn’t have any maternal relatives!”

“…Well, there were circumstances. Anyway, the important thing is to target the weaknesses well. You have to know how to pinpoint what a man wants.”

Swoosh-. Dang Hwayeon picked up a nearby chopstick and threw it. Watching it dangle from the kitchen pillar, Baek Yeoul felt dizzy.

Her mother felt like a different person.

However, this side of her mother, who had always seemed like a lady in a greenhouse, also felt reassuring.

So Baek Yeoul asked her mother.

“But, but that boy already has a girl he likes.”

“So, did they get married?”

“No, they’re students, what marriage…”

“Then what’s the problem?”

“Isn’t it a problem? But she’s pretty and, and popular.”

“Your dad also had a girl he liked before. She was a sly fox, but strangely popular. Do you know how I took your dad from her?”

“I don’t know! Honestly, I don’t really want to know!”

“I used that girl’s ‘weakness’ to bring her down. No matter how strong someone is, if there’s even a tiny needle-sized gap, they will fall. You don’t need to be better than her.”

“Then, what should I do?”

“Make her worse than you. It’s even better if you get rid of her. You can poison her drink, or stab her in the neck with a needle while she’s napping.”

“I see!”

“Shall we start practicing throwing chopsticks?”

“…Huh? Why do I need to practice throwing chopsticks to attract a man?”

“Yeoul, didn’t you understand what I just said? You need to chase away the other foxes. Since you’re my daughter, you’ll surely master ‘chopstick throwing’ quickly.”

Baek Yeoul felt her mother was slightly unfamiliar, but at the same time, she felt a surge of courage. Somehow, she felt confident that she could do it.

So Baek Yeoul stopped cooking and threw a chopstick at the pillar.

Of course, because Baek Yeoul was terribly unlucky, not a single chopstick hit the pillar.

# # #

Seo Gaul’s story came to mind.

Yu Yeoreum had a ‘weakness’ related to the orphanage.

Since then, I had also investigated the orphanage to some extent. But just searching on the internet didn’t bring up any relevant articles or information.

I couldn’t even find its location.

In the midst of that, when Yu Yeoreum’s foster brother, Yu Taeyang, first brought up the orphanage, I felt like the goddess of fortune was smiling at me.

Because of the dazzling light, I couldn’t see the goddess’s face, but it must have looked like Seo Gaul’s face.

“It was after mom had a miscarriage with her second child. She was having a hard time. To comfort her loss, dad suggested adopting a child. So we often visited the orphanage.”

Yu Taeyang said that was the first time he met 7-year-old Yu Yeoreum.

“But adopting isn’t something you decide as easily as bringing home a puppy, right? Becoming a family is something you need to decide carefully. So we got to know Yeoreum for three years.”

From age 7 to 10, Yu Taeyang’s family often met with Yu Yeoreum and built a friendship. Back then, Yeoreum liked to laugh and play actively.

“But when the orphanage closed due to financial difficulties and the children were scattered, Yeoreum’s personality changed a lot. We brought Yeoreum home then, thinking maybe she hit puberty early…”

Adoption and Closure of the Orphanage.

Yu Taeyang thought that Yu Yeoreum’s personality had changed after going through such events. He seemed to want to say a few more words, but soon closed his mouth.

“What about the location of the orphanage?”

“If it’s about the location, I have a business card. But if you go there now, the site will probably be empty.”

I carefully put the received business card into my pocket.

It was a more beneficial time than I expected.

Grrr— After a luxury sedan roared like a lion and left the neighborhood far behind, I was finally able to enter the basement.

“Pervert, do you know what time it is? It’s 21:40. If you’re planning to come home like this, how about throwing away the watch on your wrist?”

Seo Ga-eul, sitting cross-legged on the old mattress, spat out a cold retort at me. The strange thing was that he had accurately guessed the time.

There shouldn’t be a clock in this basement, right?

“Thanks to someone who wanders around without keeping time, I’ve acquired the concept of ‘time.'”

Seo Ga-eul added a remark as if he could read my mind.

The concept of ‘time.’

It’s better than nothing, but I don’t think the training and discipline that future Seo Ga-eul asked of me meant to acquire such concepts.

Still, the fact that I had acquired a new concept was something to be happy about.

“Aren’t you anxious, having kidnapped me? If it were me, I would have been too anxious to even go to school. What would you do if I escaped or screamed for help from the people around?”

Seo Ga-eul seemed to have been really bored all day, expressing more complaints than usual. Ing-ing was lying beneath him like a cushion.

━Gyu-ing… .

Poor Ing-ing.

While I was away, Seo Ga-eul had to endure his hysterics all alone. Today, I thought it would be good to add sausages and bacon to the ramen that Ing-ing would eat.

“I didn’t come back late from playing. I went to Yu Yeoreum’s house.”

“Really?”

Seo Ga-eul stopped his rapid-fire questions.

He crossed his arms and slightly raised his chin, taking on a haughty posture as if he had regained his composure.

“What did you do there?”

“We watched adult videos together. When Yu Yeoreum gets excited, she shoots lasers from her eyes. Seo Ga-eul, the weakness you mentioned about Yu Yeoreum is indeed adult videos, right?”

“Huh? Adult videos? What is that? What are you talking about? What does her weakness have to do with anything?”

“And I met Yu Yeoreum’s mom and brother. I thought they might be from a troubled family since they came from an orphanage, but they were much more harmonious than I expected.”

A stepmother who looked strict but seemed deeply affectionate and devoted.

A brother who cherished her like a biological sibling.

The room of Yoo Yeoreum seemed like a happy place filled with the girl-like dolls she desired. As she recalled that time, Seo Ga-eul twisted her lips into an unnatural smile.

“Doesn’t it look harmonious? So, you’re saying I should kidnap her.”

“Really?”

“If I can’t be happy, then I should drag others down with me.”

I couldn’t help but admire Seo Ga-eul’s way of thinking. Was she really such a wicked girl back then? The future Seo Ga-eul’s self-deprecating remark about being the ‘worst b*tch’ wasn’t an exaggeration.

“Why are you like this? Why do you keep hurting yourself?”

“What do you mean? How am I hurting myself?”

“If you treat others badly, your own inner self will get hurt just as much.”

“Huh? That’s funny. Hearing that from a kidnapper is just disgusting, you know?”

“You’re not really that kind of person. You’re not being ‘Seo Ga-eul’ at all. Just because you’re unhappy, you think you can drag others down too? You know that’s not what you truly want.”

My goddess, Seo Ga-eul, was a kind-hearted person, like a fairy descended from the heavens. Knowing her true nature made the current Seo Ga-eul seem unnatural to me.

However, after a few days of behaving quietly, Seo Ga-eul suddenly erupted in anger as if a switch had been flipped.

“What do you know about me? What kind of person do you think I am? You only fell for my appearance in the end. You only saw the act I put on. Isn’t that right?”

Her voice was cold.

━Gyu-ing… .

The toy lying beneath her bottom flew up to her face, rubbing against her, but Seo Ga-eul swatted it away like an annoying fly.

“Get away.”

━Ing-ing-ya-ing… .

About two weeks after Seo Ga-eul’s kidnapping, she was still focused on scratching me, getting irritated, and trying to hurt me.

Was the Scorpion Sidrome also a lie?

“I finally understand the feelings of the Little Prince, who wanted to be close to the rose yet also wanted to leave her side. Seo Ga-eul, you are the best in the world to me. At the same time, you are the worst in the world.”

“Huh? The Little Prince? “What nonsense is this?”

“I’ll definitely bring Yoo Yeoreum here, just like you said, so don’t worry.”

After presenting Baek Yeo-ul’s lunchbox in front of Seo Ga-eul, I headed to my room.

It was a night filled with many thoughts.

My biggest concern was how to end the day with what kind of adult film—that was it.

Ding-dong, ding-dong-.

At that moment, Seo Ga-eul’s call bell rang.

Despite thinking she wouldn’t talk to me for a few days after what just happened, she was calling for me.

But I was a man among men.

I had no intention of being swayed by a woman’s emotions.

Going to find Seo Ga-eul, wagging my tail like a happy puppy?

That would only certify me as a fool.

So instead of responding to Seo Ga-eul’s call bell, I put my hand in my pocket to do what a man must do.

“Sapling Orphanage”

The address on the business card handed to me by Yoo Taeyang was visible.

If I leave now, I should be able to arrive in time.