The Tough Guy Hides the Villainess

045 – Four Steps Back for One Step Forward

045 – Four Steps Back for One Step Forward

Ing-ing’s cloud body was cool like a chilly pillow.

It might feel a bit cold in winter, but it was perfect for hugging as the weather started to warm up.

Seo Ga-eul brought Ing-ing to the back of the boy’s head like a pillow.

━Gyui-ing.

Steam rose.

The boy’s forehead was burning hot, as if you could fry an egg on it.

“What on earth did he do to get hurt this badly?”

Seo Ga-eul used the concept of 「Restoration」, which she had acquired when breaking the chains, to heal the wounds on the boy’s abdomen and thighs.

Since it was a newly manifested concept, its grade was low, making complete healing impossible, but it was better than leaving the wounds untreated.

“… … .”

In fact, the boy’s expression softened considerably, making him look more bearable.

Only then did Seo Ga-eul get slightly angry.

“Why do I have to take care of you?”

Seo Ga-eul tried to release her anger by pulling the boy’s nose this way and that, but seeing that the boy still showed no signs of waking up, she thought it was just as well.

“Looks like he’ll be out cold for about a day.”

Crack-.

Seo Ga-eul broke the chains that bound her hands and ascended to the surface.

The dark night sky felt strangely awkward.

The lukewarm breeze that began to carry the scent of summer, and the sound of insects crying here and there, all unfamiliar felt and gave her a strange feeling.

It was funny how vividly she felt the sensation of stepping on the shabby yard with her bare feet.

All these things would normally not even catch her eye. She never cared about how insects cried or what season existed between spring and summer.

Seo Ga-eul thought she was like a newborn baby. Perhaps her old self had died in that basement, and she was reborn now.

Thinking such trivial jokes she wouldn’t have made just a few months ago, Seo Ga-eul entered the house she had always imagined.

It was the boy’s house.

Creak, creak-.

First, she was surprised by the wooden floor of the living room, and then by the astonishingly messy scattered items.

Can people really live in a place like this─. As she marveled at that, Seo Ga-eul’s eyes caught a family photo hanging in a frame.

“His mom is beautiful, but he doesn’t resemble her at all.”

Even Seo Ga-eul, who was harsh in her evaluations of appearances, found the woman beautiful. She wondered if they all used to live noisily in this house, and entered the boy’s room.

It was an ordinary room, not what one would expect from the room of a notorious kidnapper.

If you were to look at the room of an average Korean boy from top to bottom, this would be it.

An old bed. A computer. A bookshelf-.

“What the heck is this.”

Seo Ga-eul retracted her assessment of the room as ordinary.

The books on Han Nam-jin’s bookshelf were peculiar.

“The Little Prince”

“The Little Prince”

“The Little Prince”

“The Little Prince”

“Why did he buy so many copies of the same book? Is he a real perverted lunatic?”

Even though each book had a different cover and publisher, it was beyond Seo Ga-eul’s understanding.

“Just how deeply was he moved by ‘The Little Prince’?”

Suddenly, Seo Ga-eul realized she had never read “The Little Prince” herself.

Seo Ga-eul was good at studying but hated reading books.

“That guy told me something about the rose of The Little Prince.”

Since she had some free time for a change, Seo Ga-eul decided to read a book. Just reading a book seemed boring, so she thought it would be perfect to fill the bathtub with water and take a bath while reading.

Swoosh-.

As she filled the tub with warm water and slowly immersed her body from her toes, she felt all the fatigue and irritation wash away.

‘Is taking a bath really this pleasant?’

If she could escape from this kidnapping and confinement and return to her normal life, she could enjoy such a pleasant bath every day.

However, Seo Ga-eul quickly denied her own thoughts.

This happiness ironically came from deprivation, absurdity, and unreasonable confinement. In the vast freedom and indulgence, she would not be able to enjoy such pleasures.

Knowing this well, Seo Ga-eul was angry.

To quell her anger, Seo Ga-eul focused on the letters in front of her.

The book was still uninteresting.

# # #

“Is it okay?”

Baek Yeoul felt a bit anxious as she looked at the empty seat next to her for the second day. It had been two days since the fierce battle with the class president.

Her partner and classmate, Han Nam-jin, had not come to school. It seemed his injuries were still very painful.

‘I guess I should visit him today.’

Baek Yeoul thought as she looked around. Ever since the fact that the class president was a terrifying murderer had unknowingly spread, the classroom atmosphere had changed.

“……”

“……”

The classmates had become aware of how dangerous they could be to each other and were on guard.

Fear and distrust were evident in their eyes.

It could be said that the dark side of a once-popular friend had left a deep scar on the sensitive hearts of the students.

Suddenly, Baek Yeoul wondered what it would have been like if Han Nam-jin had been there. He would have made the class laugh and be lively without caring about others’ opinions.

‘Tae-seong, Chang-sik, and Deok-soon also seem to have suddenly become busy.’

Baek Yeoul had always hated going to school.

Because of Seo Ga-eul, she was ostracized and wished every day that the school would collapse.

But for the past few days, going to school had been so much fun that she woke up automatically every Monday morning.

A student who transferred in one spring day was Baek Yeoul’s source of fun.

Baek Yeoul thought she had no choice.

There was no other way but to go to Hanamjin’s house, take care of him, and persuade him to come back to school quickly.

‘Would he be happy if I go?’

Baek Yeoul, lying bored on the sickbed, thought of the boy who would be delighted and happy to see her visit, and she couldn’t help but let out a foolish laugh.

“Mureung-hoohoot-.”

Gasp-. Baek Yeoul quickly covered her mouth.

How could she make such a strange laugh?

It was the backlash of “misfortune” that she was gradually getting used to controlling over the past few days.

Anyway, Baek Yeoul decided to visit the boy after school today.

With that feeling, after school-.

Baek Yeoul, now starting to get used to the alleys and familiar walls, arrived at the boy’s house.

And the moment she opened the door─.

“Jin, if you eat this, you’ll get better soon. I’ll feed you.”

She was greatly surprised to see a girl arguing with the boy lying in bed. The boy was one thing, but the girl was terrifying.

“Yu, Yu Yeoreum!”

Baek Yeoul couldn’t understand why the girl, who was shooting lasers from her eyes, was at Hanamjin’s house. She couldn’t understand even more why the girl was feeding the boy porridge with a spoon.

“Bbangdaeng! You’re here! Save me! She’s trying to kill me! Guaaak!”

The boy screamed, struggling.

Soon, Baek Yeoul ran over and hid Hanamjin behind her back.

“Wha, what are you doing!”

“I’m just giving him something to eat.”

“Something to eat?”

Baek Yeoul looked at Yu Yeoreum’s pot.

And the grotesqueness of its contents made her dizzy.

“Wha… what did you make it with?”

“Multivitamins, protein, eel, and dried centipede─.”

Baek Yeoul felt fear at the contents of the pot.

It was something more terrible than when her mother lectured on how to make “solitude.”

# # #

Two days after dedicating herself to treatment because of the pain.

For some reason, Yu Yeoreum came to my house after school and started taking care of me, but it was rather a taste of death for me.

First of all, Yoo Yeoreum had no idea how to cook.

None at all!

“Jina, the problem is that you’re weak. So you need to eat this and get stronger. I put in everything that’s good for you.”

“Yeoreum, have you ever eaten something like this?”

“No, ever since I acquired ‘photosynthesis,’ I haven’t eaten food. Should I say I can’t eat…?”

“Hey! If you can’t eat it, how can Hanamjin eat it! Hanamjin! I’ll make dinner tonight! Trust me! Throw this trash away! Throw the whole pot away!”

For some reason, Baek Yeoul also came to our house and shouted like an angry raccoon. Of course, to the sturdy and agile Yoo Yeoreum, who was like a black puma, Baek Yeoul posed no threat at all.

There’s no other way. If we stay like this, it will never end.

I grabbed Yoo Yeoreum’s pot and gulped down all its contents.

Leaving food behind goes against my motto.

“Ugh! Finished!”

“Hanamjin, you must be really sick! Eating all that! You must be out of your mind!”

“I’ll make it again tomorrow.”

Baek Yeoul looked at me in shock, while Yoo Yeoreum nodded in satisfaction.

Then she patted my back, and it felt like being hit by a volleyball player.

Anyway, I was feeling awkward because of the girls who had come to my house uninvited.

If they found out that Seo Gaeul was in the basement next door─.

No, what if Seo Gaeul found out about them?

Fortunately, Seo Gaeul seemed unaware of the commotion above and remained calm.

In fact, Seo Gaeul had been unusually quiet these past few days.

But she wasn’t being honest.

A few days ago, before I lost consciousness and collapsed, I had some important evidence in my bag, but after I regained consciousness, it was nowhere to be found.

The evidence was obtained from Captain Jeong Eui-seon’s secret base. If my memory is correct, it was documents proving the connection between the N-Mart incident and the Seonam Group.

━Documents? I don’t know anything about that. Did Ing-Ing eat them?

Why would gourmet Ing-Ing eat documents?

It was definitely Seo Gaeul’s doing, but she kept denying it, leaving me no way to pursue it further.

The problem was that Captain Jeong Eui-seon’s secret base, where I had obtained the photos, had burned down completely.

It contained all kinds of information, but when I went back, it was all gone without a trace.

━Keng-Keng-Keng-!

At that moment, a strange sound was heard from somewhere.

Having read “The Little Prince” often, I knew this was unmistakably the sound of a red fox. What could a red fox be doing in a neighborhood with so many abandoned houses?

‘It’s Seo Ga-eul! Seo Ga-eul is making a fuss right now!’

The problem was that Baek Yeoul, who was confronting Yoo Yeoreum, reacted sensitively to this sound.

“I just heard a fox’s cry. Not a cat’s cry, but a fox’s cry. What could a fox be doing here? Does a fox live around here?”

How did she know it was a fox’s cry? Baek Yeoul always had a knack for surprising me.

Is she an onion?

Peel and peel, and there’s always something new.

“We have to catch the fox!”

With a clatter, Baek Yeoul ran off somewhere with chopsticks in hand. Yoo Yeoreum, who was watching, chuckled. It wasn’t easy to see Yoo Yeoreum laugh.

With a hint of laughter, Yoo Yeoreum said,

“Starting tomorrow, I’m going to be involved in the exploration and subjugation of the ‘Villainers’. I was going to think about it a bit more, but seeing you fight the ‘Judge’ made me realize a lot.”

“Realize?”

“That power must be used in the right place. I want to use my power for the right cause. I can’t just hide because it’s dangerous.”

If the fight between Yoo Yeoreum and the ‘Villainers’ starts again, Yoo Yeoreum’s safety might be at risk.

With the kidnapping plan being postponed, this was the worst.

There’s no choice.

We have to move up the kidnapping plan.

“Yeoreum, do you have time tonight? I’ve been lying down for a long time, so I want to take a walk around the neighborhood for rehabilitation, but it’s a bit much to go alone.”

“Tonight? Is this a date invitation?”

Yoo Yeoreum chuckled as if she had heard something amusing.

But seeing that she didn’t outright refuse, it seemed my handsome face was helping.

As time passed and both Yoo Yeoreum and Baek Yeoul disappeared into the evening,

I prepared for a rare outing and went to find Seo Ga-eul in the basement.

“You look great! Having girls come over to take care of you must be nice, huh? You said you loved me like a rose, but you actually like all girls, don’t you?”

Today’s Seo Ga-eul was the most irritable she had been in days.

I said to Seo Ga-eul,

“The kidnapping of Yoo Yeoreum is today. A roommate will be coming, so keep that in mind.”

“…Suddenly?”

Suddenly-.

Indeed, it might feel too sudden, just as Seo Ga-eul said, but isn’t life a series of improvisations!

And the timing, which no one could have predicted, was a golden opportunity for the kidnapper.