The Thug Hides the Villainess

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041 – The Wolf Among the Sheep #3

Everyone at Sprout Foster Home was happy.

Thanks to corporate sponsorship, they lived without any shortcomings. Celebrities frequently came to volunteer, and every day felt like a festival.

Sometimes they had to endure painful injections or odd experiments, but at least they never had to worry about going hungry, so they were all cheerful kids.

One day, as the children were going about their lives, they discovered a cat starving to death in the backyard of the foster home.

It was that summer, who was quite popular among older siblings and the younger ones, who strongly proposed that they keep it.

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

It wasn’t just any cat; it was a monster cat.

Perhaps it had some concept of a “tail.”

The cat was said to have followed the kids and adults very well.

Suddenly, I thought of my friend Ying-ing.

Monsters typically harbor hatred towards nearby creatures, but sometimes, there are kind monsters like Ying-ing.

Days that seemed to promise happiness for everyone continued until one day.

There were reports that injecting the children with drugs or drawing their blood was becoming more frequent. The adults’ faces were increasingly filled with anxiety and irritation.

“I only just found out that the parent company plans to shut down the ‘Foster Home.’ It was seen as a budget-eating facility with no results, so they were going to close its doors.”

Thinking that they might lose their jobs, the teachers at the foster home had no choice but to hastily push through various tasks.

They started to reduce the food given to the children or punish them harshly without reason or even sometimes went for days without letting them sleep.

“Awakening comes from the children’s strong desires. They were trying to push us into a state of deprivation to make us awaken.”

It was a familiar method.

The only difference was that the training I was doing with Seoga-eul was similar to what was now being done to me.

“The problem arose that day.”

An unfamiliar car was said to have glided into the foster home. It was black and shiny, drawing everyone’s attention.

What surprised everyone more was the girl who stepped out of that vehicle.

“At first glance, she looked like a princess. Although she was a girl around my age, it seemed like we lived in different worlds. Even at my young age, I thought, if there were protagonists in this world, she would be one.”

That princess-like girl got along well with the children at the foster home. The kids liked her and even told her about their secret “cat.”

But that day, the cat scratched the princess-like girl fiercely, and that led to chaos at the foster home.

Everyone at the foster home was punished.

They were locked in a dark and gloomy basement, forced to endure a punishment without knowing when they would be released.

“At first, everyone cried and sobbed. But as time went on, there was no sound left. They didn’t even have the energy for that. That’s when the problem occurred. The cat—”

The monster cat, which was also trapped in the dark room, caused trouble.

Unable to withstand the stress of hunger, it began to attack the humans.

That’s what monsters do.

Just like an awakened person consumes more calories than an ordinary human, monsters easily feel hunger and thus attack humans.

Imagining how the starving monster cat could attack the humans in that dark room wasn’t hard for me.

“That day, Sister Summer saved us with a light-like aura… If it weren’t for Sister Summer, I would have either been eaten by that cat or died.”

The Sprout Foster Home was ultimately shut down, and this incident was buried under powerful pressure.

Someone with great power must have covered it up.

“Do you know who it is?”

“I don’t know.”

“Then what about the people behind the ‘Billunners’ giving orders?”

“…Is that a thing?”

Looks like these guys at the bottom are clueless.

I should’ve caught that “Pinocchio” earlier. But I felt like I would meet him again someday, so I wasn’t in a rush.

# # #

When I returned home, Ying-ing was already there.

Did this guy have a homing instinct? Regardless, it was clear that Ying-ing recognized this place as “home.”

“You adorable creature!”

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

I absentmindedly licked it, surprised to discover that it tasted like grape-flavored cotton candy.

“Delicious? So this is your flavor, Ying-ing! It’s quite addictive!”

—Grrr…

Of course, Ying-ing seemed quite displeased with being licked and began to squirm in annoyance.

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

If I ran out of food and was on the verge of death, I would have thought of eating Ying-ing.

But what about the opposite?

“Ying-ing, would you also try to eat me if you get hungry?”

—Ying-ing-yaing.

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

Isn’t that a pretty cool friendship?

As I was about to lock Ying-ing in the basement, I found Seoga-eul sleeping peacefully on the mat.

When she was in a foul mood, she was unbearably rude, but seeing her like this, she looked just like an angel.

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

Breathless, she woke up immediately.

“What is it? What’s going on?”

“I just came back from the foster home, and it seems they definitely had Yu Yeoreum’s ‘weakness’ there. But I won’t use this ‘weakness’ you mentioned. I’ll go my own way.”

“……”

Seoga-eul opened her narrow eyes.

Maybe she was still drowsy or just uninterested in what I was saying; she snatched Ying-ing from me and hugged it like a cushion.

“What do you mean by your own way?”

“I’m going to kidnap Yu Yeoreum with adult videos.”

“Well, good luck with that. You’ll get yourself killed by Yu Yeoreum in the end. You should know by now that she’s ruthless. She’s a merciless one.”

“Seoga-eul, did you want me to know about what happened at the foster home?”

“Who knows. But you probably figured it out, right? How many people suffered just because I got scratched by a cat. Not to mention, since you kidnapped me, you won’t be going down easily.”

The “princess” who got scratched by the cat was indeed Seoga-eul. And it seemed she thought the troubles that arose were due to her being scratched by the cat.

But was it really because of Seoga-eul?

What if someone hadn’t suggested keeping a monster cat? What if the adults hadn’t abandoned the children at the foster home?

What if they never conducted secret experiments in the first place?

No, I thought such speculation was pointless.

Regardless of who made what choice, this world is irrationally and absurdly destined to perish.

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

Thus, our trivial choices weren’t important.

What mattered was how to resolve the big problems we would have to face going forward.

In the future, Seoga-eul had insisted she could fix everything. And I, too, believed in her words without a doubt.

On that rainy day, Seoga-eul had asked me:

“Have you ever regretted anything in life? If you could go back in time, what would you do?”

Perhaps this question was something Seoga-eul wanted to ask herself.

And she likely wanted to add this:

“What if you could prevent or fix the things you regretted by going back in time?”

“What’s that? If that were possible, would I be here doing this? I just want to sleep.”

With that, Seoga-eul pulled the old blanket over her face and fell fast asleep once more.

# # #

“Did you not sleep well last night?”

Nudge.

As someone poked my side, I snapped awake to see the red-eyed figure of Bang-dae glaring at me. It seemed he hadn’t slept well either.

“You didn’t sleep either?”

“I was throwing chopsticks.”

“Chopsticks?”

“…There’s such a thing! Hey, did you hear what the captain said earlier? We are going to be deployed into the field starting this afternoon! Are we going to fight again with that Yeom Hoon guy? Huh?”

A strange light flickered in Bang-dae’s bloodshot eyes. It was something I could call fighting spirit or madness.

This guy looked like a Viking warrior craving battle.

I recalled the lesson I had half-heartedly ignored about how our “No Leftover Day” team had raised the public’s support for the students of Yeongsa High by defeating “Yeomra.”

So, they were going to carefully select some teams to patrol outside the school and perform operations to regulate or capture “unregistered awakened ones.”

“The quickly arranged schedule might be hectic, but I hope everyone gives it their all. Based on your actions, the instructors will award points, and the team earning the most points will get a deep kiss from me.”

The police sister would be playing the role of instructor for this patrol and order maintenance. The boys were fired up about the possibility of receiving rewards from her.

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

“I hope I get a ‘treasure’ if all goes well.”

“I’ll show you my chopstick throwing skills!”

“…I don’t want to fight…”

The friends from “No Leftover Day” were also excited about the practical lessons.

Anyway, as we were about to leave the school for the field, the police sister grabbed my neck.

“Wait, you will be assigned to a special team for this mission.”

“Me?”

Not part of “No Leftover Day”?

Just what was going on when someone placed a hand on my shoulder.

“Jina, it’s our first time doing something together since our debate.”

It was Dong-yi-seon, the class president of Class D.

“Jina, hello.”

Yu Yeoreum from Class F waved at me.

She looked quite cheerful.
And next to her was Wang Ja-hyeon, who was scowling at me.

“What is this all about? How annoying.”

Yu Yeoreum from Class F and Wang Ja-hyeon.

Class D’s Jeong-ui-seon and me.

As everyone’s gaze focused on this strange line-up, the police sister chuckled.

“You guys are a special team, so you’ll be given different missions. You have to play a big role in searching for the missing Seoga-eul and taking down the ‘Judger.’”

They put the kidnapper, who was me, on the search team for Seoga-eul.

Was it coincidence or fate?

It was just then as we were exiting the school.

“If we find Seoga-eul, we might end up confronting that ‘Judger.’ They are accused of taking Seoga-eul.”

Class D’s homeroom teacher Jeong-ui-seon spoke up.

“Is it true that the ‘Judger’ is a student from Yeongsa High? If so, that would be chilling. A murderer hidden among the students. Just like a wolf among the sheep.”

I replied to that.

“I think I know who it is. The ‘Judger’ is you, right, Class President?”

“Me?”

Jeong-ui-seon was greatly shocked. Then he burst into laughter as if hearing a funny story.

“Jina, you really crack me up.”

“Jin, that’s hilarious.”

Yu Yeoreum also joined in giggling. Wang Ja-hyeon was the only one expressing dissatisfaction with a remark of “What kind of nonsensical joke is that?”

I wasn’t joking.

Honestly, I was somewhat uncertain, but that last conversation had revealed everything.