NOVEL NEXT Chapter 22
022 – Target the Scorpion Syndrome #2
Smack!
I slapped Seoga-eul’s thigh, which was pale white, with a fly swatter.
Awakened ones have muscles that are over twice as hard as ordinary people, but very few can train their skin’s toughness, so hitting a large area had surprisingly good effects.
“Ah! You crazy bastard!”
After being beaten by me repeatedly, Seoga-eul finally lost her composure and let out another loud scream.
Of course, no one but me would listen to her hysterical screams.
Regional imbalance. Wealth gap. Low birth rates and redevelopment failures.
For me, these symbols of misfortune turned out to be a blessing in disguise. That’s how luck and misfortune are just a paper apart.
Anyway, I had a duty to protect, defend, and also nurture Seoga-eul.
“You crazy bastard, I’m going to kill you! I really will!”
Hiss-hiss.
Seoga-eul glared at me, breathing heavily.
In front of her, words began to float up.
*「Name: Seoga-eul
Status: 《Intense Hatred》 – Weak with severe dehydration and confused due to hatred.」*
This was the first glimpse of emotion from Seoga-eul towards me.
I felt more joy and a strange thrill from this emotional gap than from her blatant temptation to pull down the blanket for me to see her white skin.
It felt like she finally allowed her heart to open to me!
Is this love? Do people gradually progress like this?
Anyway, there was only one thing I needed to do.
“Seoga-eul, I’m going to save you! You must live!”
I forced water from the PT bottle into Seoga-eul’s mouth.
Glug glug glug.
“Mmph, ugh!”
“You have to drink! Finish it all! You must live!”
It was no surprise that Seoga-eul, who hadn’t had a single drop of water since last night, had severe dehydration. An awakened person’s active metabolism requires more water than an ordinary person’s.
“Mmph, ugh, you crazy bastard! Ugh!”
Glug glug glug.
I stuffed three 1.5-liter PT bottles worth of water into Seoga-eul’s mouth. Having drank so much, she should be able to manage without water for about a day now.
Of course, as Seoga-eul struggled to reject my kindness, her face, body, the blanket, and the floor all got soaked, but that was a problem I could easily solve.
“Now I should give you some food.”
Having drank water, it was time for a meal.
It seemed wise to bring a few extra sets of clothes to change into.
With that in mind, I decided to head home for now.
“I’m going to kill you! Aaaaah! Aaaaah!”
# # #
“It’s really quiet.”
Though I imagined Seoga-eul would be causing a commotion in the next door basement, our house was entirely calm.
In fact, if I strained my ears, I could faintly hear her scream, but it was a sound only an awakened person with sensitive senses like mine could barely catch.
Even if someone wandered around the area, it seemed unlikely that others would hear the sounds, so I allowed myself to relax.
Ding dong.
At that moment, someone rang our doorbell.
My heart sank.
Timing was everything when making ramen, and now someone was at the door during this critical moment?
Ding dong.
“I’ll go.”
Creak, screech.
When I opened the front door, I saw a man in a suit with several others behind him.
Their posture was upright and proper, suggesting they were not ordinary people.
There was a strong smell of metal.
Police? No, they weren’t exactly cops, but they clearly resembled them. What business could they have with me? I had no idea.
“Who are you?”
I asked the guy wearing a fedora and big sunglasses.
His face was mostly covered, but for some reason, he felt somewhat familiar.
“I’m Kim Jang-dong, an officer from the newly established National Intelligence Service’s Superhuman Management Office.”
What? Officer Kim Jang-dong?
My regular client Kim is here?
Should I be glad, or is it awkward—?
“Do you recognize these people?”
Kim Jang-dong handed over several pieces of paper as he walked into my yard. It showed a picture with the words “Wanted – Kim Tae-yang” written on it.
I recognized that face.
One of the loan sharks who visited my house.
“We’re investigating the places these loan sharks visited before they were murdered. You’re aware they died, right? The news stirred quite the commotion.”
“I know.”
“Do you happen to know anything? The murderer possesses outstanding physical abilities, able to overpower and brutally kill three adult men armed with weapons. That makes him an awakened one.”
“Oh, I see.”
“Hanam-jin. You’re a student at Yeongsa High School, right? Given your grudge against these loan sharks, you’d be a prime suspect. Perhaps you are the ‘Judge’? A psycho killer who only targets criminals.”
Kim Jang-dong is way off base here.
I was in a bit of a predicament because the loan sharks had died. I was going to ask them for information on the kidnapping techniques they used.
If I had managed to extract information from those guys, I wouldn’t have even considered my punk-ass plan of climbing all the way up to the 40th floor of a corporate headquarters.
Kim Jang-dong opened his narrow eyes and took out a business card to hand over to me.
“Contact me if anything happens.”
“Sure.”
“Oh, by the way, there’s a student named Seoga-eul in your school, right?”
“Uh?”
“Do you know anything about that student?”
I was a bit startled.
Why did the topic of conversation suddenly drift towards Seoga-eul?
Was he planning to ask something about her disappearance or kidnapping? Just as I was pondering how to respond, a woman who appeared to be an assistant said, “Team leader, that’s not—” as she lightly tapped Kim Jang-dong on the side.
“Oh, it was nothing. You were cooking ramen, huh? The smell is wafting throughout the house. Enjoy your meal.”
Kim Jang-dong suddenly changed his attitude and, with his shoes on, left my home. Only when everyone had hurried out of the house, and there was no more sign of activity did I finally feel relieved.
It felt as though my lifespan had been reduced by five years. But it was too early to relax.
I first checked under the table and in the corners of the house.
“There it is. A listening device.”
I had a rather troublesome history with Kim Jang-dong planting listening devices in my house whenever he made requests like ‘please whip me with a whip.’
It seemed the habit hadn’t changed since then. There were a total of five collected listening devices, but the last one was hidden in a tricky spot, which took a bit of time to find.
# # #
“Damn, the ramen is burned.”
The sudden visit had made me lose an hour’s worth of time.
What if Seoga-eul got mad because she was hungry? I heard that women get really nasty and violent when they’re hungry, according to Mitube.
I hurriedly grabbed the ramen pot and headed to the basement next door.
Creak, screech—.
As I opened the basement door, I found Seoga-eul sitting much more modestly than I expected. However, there was a strange atmosphere around her.
Her face was flushed, and her breath was labored. The way she squirmed, tensing her thighs suggested some oddly alluring energy.
What’s this? Activate my IQ 140 brain!
Conclusion!
“Are you perhaps wanting to go to the bathroom?”
“I’m going to kill you!”
*「Name: Seoga-eul
Status: 《Intense Fury》 – She’s genuinely furious!」*
Seoga-eul was truly angry. At that moment, I felt as if something within my head had burst like a fountain.
So that’s it.
Since I had just forced her to drink a lot of water, according to the law of mass conservation, a similar amount of water would be saved inside her body, and that water would definitely want to come out.
“Gaeul, holding it in will get you a urinary tract infection.”
“Yaaah! Aaaah!”
Seoga-eul’s face turned red like autumn leaves as she began thrashing about again, making me feel rather unnerved.
She must have been really hungry too.
“Fine, fine. Here, eat this first. It’s your food. Spam ramen with ssamjang.”
“Who eats this crap? Do you enjoy tormenting me? You bastard! Is it your pleasure to make me suffer with food? Perverted bastard!”
I’m not tormenting you.
I even specially added spam to today’s ramen.
However, Seoga-eul kicked over the pot as if I had done something unsatisfactory, dumping my carefully prepared ramen all over the floor.
Splat.
“Serves you right!”
“……”
Veins bulged.
In an instant, a vein popped on my forehead.
One of the people I despise the most is someone who carelessly wastes food. But the opponent was Seoga-eul.
I figured it wouldn’t be too bad to let it slide once. Just as Seoga-eul had given me a second chance, I wanted to give her one too.
“Gaeul, you and I are going to be seeing each other for a long time. We’re meant to be soul partners, best friends. Since we’ll be close, let’s drop the egos.”
“Shut up!”
“I already did! Back in sixth grade! When my mom tricked me into thinking she was buying me pork cutlets!”
“You lunatic!”
Hmm, now that’s a sweet curse.
I cleaned up the spilled ramen and left the basement.
It felt like I was increasingly seeing Seoga-eul’s ‘bottom.’
But love, they say, also becomes stronger when revealing and understanding each other’s scars and hidden aspects, right? In reality, that’s just how I started liking Seoga-eul more.
Still, I had to admit it honestly.
As an instructor or in education, I was a complete novice. I found myself concerned over how to arrange the curriculum going forward.
If the loan sharks were still alive, they would have taught me how to handle kidnapped hostages properly.
I didn’t know who the true ‘Judge’ was, but it was a real bastard to disrupt my plans. If I ever meet them, I’ll surely kick them in the balls.
Wait, what if the ‘Judge’ is a woman? How would I kick her in the balls when she doesn’t have any?
It was a night filled with serious thoughts on various matters.
Anyway, the important thing is the curriculum.
So, I went home and binge-watched all ten episodes of the movie “The Perfect Instructor,” which had left a strong impression on me.
In this movie, the hostage falls in love with the captor.
That’s the ultimate form I’m hoping for.
“The phenomenon where the victim sympathizes with the captor. They called it the Scorpion Syndrome. Aren’t I smart? I researched hard for you.”
“It’s Stockholm Syndrome, you moron! Aaaaah!”
Yeah. This was the recollection of the beginning of our story.
We’ve finally made it to this point.
“Then, Gaeul, you have to keep the house safe today too.”
I shouldn’t be late.
As long as Officer Kim Jang-dong was keeping an eye on me, it would be best to be cautious in everything I do. So, I slowly closed the iron door and headed to school when Seoga-eul shouted.
“Hey!!!!”
“What?”
I opened the iron door and asked again.
Could it be an urgent need? Did she need to go to the bathroom?
“Is the bathroom urgent?”
“Thanks to you, I awakened a new concept last night. ‘Yojosuknyeo’ (graceful lady). So, I don’t need to go to the bathroom anymore. You must have wanted to see me in an embarrassing state, but that’s too bad, isn’t it?”
Awakened a new concept? In the end, I’ve trained Seoga-eul and made her stronger! My methods must be somewhat right!
Just as joy flooded my thoughts, Seoga-eul, who had regained a considerable amount of composure in her expression, looked at me with her narrow eyes and said.
“You said you want to train me, right? Fine. Just as easily as that. But there’s a condition. If you fulfill this condition, I’ll cooperate well, but if not, I won’t help either.”
“A condition?”
I was overjoyed! It felt like Seoga-eul’s and my hearts were finally facing in the same direction! No matter what happens, Seoga-eul liked me too.
Just like the heroines in The Perfect Instructor!
“What’s the condition?”
“Do you know Yu Yeoreum?”
“Yeoreum? Of course. She’s my best friend.”
“Go kidnap her and bring her to me.”
…
I had never seen anything like this in the movies.