The Tough Guy Hides the Villainess

041 – A Wolf Among the Sheep #3

041 – A Wolf Among the Sheep #3

Everyone at the Saesak Orphanage was happy.

They lived without want, thanks to corporate sponsorship. Celebrities often came to volunteer, making every day feel like a festival.

Sometimes they had to get painful injections or undergo strange experiments, but at least they never went hungry, so they were all happy children.

One day, the children found a cat starving to death in the backyard of the orphanage.

It was Yeoreum, who was popular among the older kids and younger ones alike, who strongly insisted on raising it.

“It was a strange cat. It had three tails.”

It wasn’t just a cat, but a monster cat.

Did it even have a concept of “tail”?

The cat said to be very affectionate towards people and children.

Suddenly, I thought of my friend, Yingying.

Monsters generally hate other living beings, but sometimes there are kind monsters like Yingying.

Those happy days seemed like they would last forever.

But then, the injections and blood draws for the children became more frequent. The adults’ faces grew more strained and irritable.

“I only found out later, but the parent company was planning to shut down the orphanage. Since it wasn’t producing results, they were going to close the facility that was just consuming the budget.”

Fearing they might lose their jobs, the teachers at the orphanage had to hastily push through various tasks.

They reduced the children’s meals, punished them harshly for no reason, and even kept them awake for days.

“Awakening comes from a child’s strong desire. Those people pushed us into deprivation and poverty to force our awakening.”

It’s a familiar method.

The details are only slightly different, but the training I’m giving Seo Ga-eul now is similar.

“The problem occurred that day.”

They said a car that no one had seen before slid into the orphanage. It was a shiny black car that caught everyone’s attention.

What surprised everyone even more was the child who got out of that car.

“She looked like a princess at first glance. She was a girl around my age, but it seemed like she lived in a different world. Even to my young eyes, I thought if there was a protagonist in the world, it would be her .”

That princess-like girl played well with the children of the orphanage. The children liked her and even told her about their secret, the ‘cat’.

But that day, the cat scratched the princess-like girl hard, and because of that, the orphanage was turned upside down.

Everyone in the orphanage was punished.

They were locked in a dark, pitch-black basement and had to endure a punishment with no idea when they would be released.

“At first, everyone sobbed and cried. But as time passed, no sound could be heard. They didn’t even have the energy for that. That’s when the problem occurred. The cat─.”

The monster cat that was locked in the dark room with them caused a problem.

Unable to withstand the stress of hunger, it started attacking humans.

That’s what monsters are like.

Just as an awakened person consumes more calories than an ordinary human, monsters also feel hunger easily and therefore attack humans.

It wasn’t hard for me to imagine how the monster cat, starved for days in the pitch-black room, attacked humans and what happened.

“That day, Summer unnie saved us there. She emitted something like light…. If it weren’t for Summer unnie, I would have been eaten or killed by that cat by now.”

The Sprout Orphanage was eventually closed, and this incident was covered up under strong pressure.

Someone with great power buried it.

“Do you know who that was?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then, is there someone behind the scenes giving orders to your ‘Villainers’?”

“…Is there such a thing?”

These guys are at the bottom, so they don’t know.

I should have caught that ‘Pinocchio’ guy from earlier. But I didn’t feel too rushed because I had a feeling I would meet him again someday.

━Gyuing.

When I got home, Yingying had already returned.

Does this guy also have a homing instinct? Whatever it is, it was clear that Yingying recognized this place as ‘home’.

“Cute little guy!”

I hugged Ing-ing’s fluffy body and rubbed my face against it. Ing-ing smelled fresh like grapes.

I absentmindedly licked it, and to my surprise, it tasted like grape-flavored cotton candy from its cloud-like fur.

“Delicious, huh? Ing-ing, this is your flavor! “This is quite addictive!”

━Grrr… !

Of course, Ing-ing squirmed and made an annoyed sound, clearly not liking my licking.

Suddenly, I remembered that Ing-ing was my emergency food.

If I ran out of food and was on the brink of death, I thought I would consider eating Ing-ing.

But what about the opposite?

“Ing-ing, if you get hungry, will you try to eat me?”

━Eng-ing-yay-ing.

“Right, we are each other’s emergency food.”

Is it okay to have such a friendship?

As I entered the basement to let Ing-ing go, Seo Ga-eul was sound asleep on the matrix, snoring softly.

When she was being spiteful, she was endlessly rude, but seeing her like this, she looked just like an angel.

I slowly raised my hand and pinched Seo Ga-eul’s nose.

She woke up immediately, seemingly uncomfortable with her breathing.

“What’s up? What is it?”

“I heard a story at the orphanage. There’s definitely a ‘weakness’ of Yoo Yu-reum there. But I don’t plan to use this ‘weakness’ you mentioned. “I’ll do things my way.”

“… … .”

Seo Ga-eul opened her narrow eyes.

Whether she was sleepy or just uninterested in my story, she snatched Ing-ing from me and hugged it like a cushion.

“What do you mean by your way?”

“I’m going to kidnap Yoo Yu-reum with adult videos.”

“That sounds like a great plan. You do you. But in the end, you’ll probably get killed by Yoo Yu-reum. You know well by now that she’s merciless. She’s a ruthless one.”

“Seo Ga-eul, did you tell me about the orphanage because you wanted me to know about what happened there?”

“Well, I guess you’ve figured it out roughly, right? How many people suffered because I was just scratched by a cat. Not to mention, you even kidnapped me, so you won’t die easily.”

The ‘princess’ who got scratched by the cat was indeed Seo Ga-eul. And it seemed she thought that such events occurred because she was scratched by a cat.

Did it really happen because of Seo Ga-eul?

Going further back, what if no one had suggested raising a monster cat? What if the adults hadn’t abandoned the children at the orphanage?

If we hadn’t been conducting secret experiments from the beginning?

No, I thought such assumptions were useless.

No matter what choices anyone made there, this world was destined to end irrationally and absurdly.

Destruction was fair to everyone. It meant no one could escape it.

Therefore, trivial choices were not important to us.

What mattered was how we could solve the major problems we would face in the future.

Seo Ga-eul of the future had assured that she could fix everything. And I also believed her words without a doubt.

On that rainy day, Seo Ga-eul said this to me.

“Have you ever regretted anything in your life? If you could go back to the past, what would you do?”

Perhaps this was something Seo Ga-eul wanted to say to herself?

And she would have wanted to add this.

“If you could go back to the past and prevent or fix the things you regretted?”

“What are you talking about? If that were possible, would I be here like this? I’d rather sleep.”

From noble mtl dot com

Whoosh-. Seo Ga-eul pulled the old blanket up to her face as if she was annoyed with me and started snoring softly.

# # #

“Didn’t you sleep last night?”

Poke-.

Someone poked my side, and when I came to my senses, I saw Bread, whose eyes were bloodshot, staring at me. It seemed Bread hadn’t slept either.

“Didn’t you sleep?”

“Throwing chopsticks.”

“Chopsticks?”

“…There’s such a thing! More importantly, did you hear what the captain said earlier? He said we would be deployed in actual combat from this afternoon! Do you think we’ll fight someone like Yeom Hoon again? Huh?”

A strange light flickered in Bread’s bloodshot eyes. It was something that could be called fighting spirit or madness.

This guy had the expression of a Viking warrior thirsty for battle.

I recalled the lesson I had half-listened to.

This time, our “No Leftovers Day” had defeated “Yeomra,” and the citizens’ support for the students of Yeongsa High had increased?

So, they said they would patrol outside the school with a few strictly selected teams to show performances like cracking down on or arresting “unregistered awakeners.”

“It’s a hastily arranged curriculum, but I hope everyone does their best. The instructors will give points based on your actions, and the team with the most points will get a deep kiss from this sister.”

The police sister took on the role of instructor in this patrol and public order maintenance exercise. The male students’ enthusiasm was heightened by the prospect of receiving a reward from her.

“Friends! Let’s all do our best this time!”

“I hope this goes well and I get the ‘Bogu’.”

“I’ll show you my chopstick throwing!”

“…I, I don’t want to fight….”

The friends from ‘No Leftovers Day’ were also excited about the practical class.

Anyway, as I was about to leave the school for the practical, the policewoman grabbed me by the neck.

“Wait, you will be part of a special team for this mission.”

“Me?”

Not ‘No Leftovers Day’?

When I was wondering what was going on, someone put a hand on my shoulder.

“Namjin, this is the first time we’re doing something together since the debate.”

It was Jeong Eui-seon, the class president of Class D.

“Hi, Jin.”

Yoo Yeoreum from Class F also waved at me.

Her expression was quite bright.

And next to her was Wang Ja-hyun, frowning at me.

“What is this about? So annoying.”

Yoo Yeoreum and Wang Ja-hyun from Class F.

Jeong Eui-seon from Class D and me.

As everyone’s eyes focused on this strange lineup, the policewoman chuckled.

“Since you are a special team, you will be given a different mission. You will be responsible for searching for the missing Seo Ga-eul and subduing the ‘Judge’.”

Putting me, the kidnapper of Seo Ga-eul, in the search team for Seo Ga-eul.

Coincidence or fate.

It was when we were leaving the school.

“If we find Seo Ga-eul this time, we might run into that ‘Judge’. The ‘Judge’ is suspected of being the kidnapper of Seo Ga-eul.”

Jeong Eui-seon, the class president of Class D, said.

“Is it true that the ‘Judge’ is a student of Yeongsa High? If it’s true, that’s creepy. It’s like having a murderer hiding among the students. A wolf among the sheep.”

I replied to that.

“I think I know who it is. The ‘Judge’ is you, class president.”

“Me?”

Jeong Eui-seon was greatly surprised. And then he laughed as if he had heard a funny story.

“Namjin, you’re really funny.”

“Jin, you’re hilarious.”

It was Yoo Yeoreum who burst out laughing together. Only Wang Jaehyun expressed dissatisfaction, saying, “What kind of nonsensical joke is this?”

I wasn’t joking.

Honestly, I was unsure, but the recent conversation revealed everything.