HRDH 14

Chapter 14

“Uh, Seyeon. Where are you going?”

“I’m going to eat. I’ll give you some duck.”

Myeong A-jin immediately lost interest and went back to focusing on her food.

She’s the type who goes crazy over any kind of incident… I thought she’d follow me out of curiosity, but surprisingly, she didn’t.

“Hey, I’m coming too.”

“Do whatever.”

Instead, Jung Sumin followed.

I walked over to Yeon Jaehyun, who was picking up a lunch tray and spoon that weren’t even his.

“You okay?”

“Uh… yeah.”

His voice was calm.

‘He’s really good at acting.’

Even though he’s not actually that nice of a guy.

“Jung Sumin, bring some tissues.”

The soup that had soaked Yeon Jaehyun’s shirt was dripping onto the floor.

I planned to wipe him down a bit and take him out.

“What am I, your servant?”

“Don’t start rebelling just because you’ve grown a bit older.”

Tsk. Clicking his tongue, Jung Sumin went to get tissues anyway.

“I’ll return the tray and spoon, so just stand here and wait.”

“Um… you don’t have to help.”

“Want to die? Just stand there.”

Yeon Jaehyun’s resistance lasted exactly one second.

After handling Jung Sumin for nine years, this level was easy.

Besides, since he had to keep up his loser act, he couldn’t really talk back to me.

I returned the tray, then scrubbed Yeon Jaehyun with the tissues Jung Sumin brought and took him to a nearby restroom.

“Wash up a bit here. I’ll bring your gym uniform. I’m opening your locker.”

“Okay.”

After pushing Jung Sumin and Yeon Jaehyun into the boys’ restroom, I headed to the classroom.

‘What number was Yeon Jaehyun again?’

It wasn’t that I forgot—I never knew his locker number in the first place.

In the end, I started searching through his desk and bag.

‘There’s got to be something with the number on it.’

I wanted to just open lockers at random and check, but there were too many eyes in the classroom.

“…!”

Then I found a small knife with the Association’s mark boldly attached to it in the front pocket of his bag.

The kind used by White Killers. I’d only seen it on the news or online before, so seeing it in real life was strange.

‘Is he trying to hide it or not?’

I quickly put it back before anyone else could see and zipped up the pocket.

After digging around for a while, I finally found the crumpled paper we’d received during class assignment. It was badly wrinkled, but I could still confirm the locker number.

I found the locker without trouble, grabbed his gym uniform, and hurried to the restroom. Yeon Jaehyun was gone, and only Jung Sumin was standing there.

“What? Where’s Yeon Jaehyun?”

“In the stall. Give it to me. I’ll take it.”

Oh, so he took off his uniform.

‘Well, I guess it would feel gross to keep wearing it.’

After waiting outside, Yeon Jaehyun came out dressed in his gym clothes.

“Thanks for helping. I really would’ve been fine…”

There he goes acting like a loser again.

It gave me goosebumps. Just how much training did the Association put him through to act like that?

‘A loser stands out in their own way… but no one would ever guess that this kind of loser is a White Killer.’

Back in middle school, Yeon Jaehyun had almost had his identity exposed several times. The Association had been frantic every time.

If it was discovered they were exploiting a minor like this, the government would have a perfect excuse to come after them. Heads would roll.

But stop Yeon Jaehyun’s White Killer activities? What a waste that would be!

There are never enough White Killers. That’s true in any country, any region, any era.

It’s not easy to create a human weapon strong enough to fight monsters.

But Yeon Jaehyun had shown insane one-man-army performances since middle school.

Thanks to him, the Korean branch of the White Killer Association was relatively free from manpower shortages compared to others.

They’d even gained international advantage, mocking other branches at global conferences that wanted to know their secret. With Yeon Jaehyun alone, they must’ve gained every possible benefit.

In the end, the higher-ups—who didn’t want his activities stopped but also didn’t want him exposed—put their heads together and came to a serious conclusion…

Hide your strength and pretend to be weak.

They’d originally tried to stop him from attending school altogether, but the Association president barely blocked that idea and forced a compromise.

In <Not a Killer>, that process is described quite comically, but if you think about it calmly, they’re completely insane.

‘Illegal employment, overwork, even cutting off his education.’

And now they’re telling him to act like a loser so he won’t get caught.

If he gets bullied, that’s his problem. The Association doesn’t care about his school life.

‘Ugh, those vicious bastards.’

That’s why I helped him. I felt bad for him.

“Hey! You can’t just not come back! I even cleaned up your trays!”

“You probably ate all the duck instead.”

“Yeah. Thanks!”

After brushing off Myeong A-jin’s whining and finishing afternoon classes, it was time to go home.

I said goodbye to Jung Sumin and got into the car, but Seo Jinhyung—who I expected to be there—wasn’t.

“Where’s my brother?”

“Oh, the young master said he had something to do separately…”

Damn it.

‘What business could he possibly have?’

An unexplained sense of anxiety struck my chest.

There had been no sign of anything that morning.

‘…It can’t be, right?’

When I got home, Mom was watching TV in the living room.

“You’re back?”

“Yeah.”

“Come here, Seyeon. The neighborhood next to ours is in chaos.”

“Don’t be dramatic.”

I answered coldly while getting water from the kitchen, but Mom scolded me.

“How can you say that when someone died?”

“Who died?”

I replied casually and walked into the living room.

The news was on TV.

—It has been confirmed that an A-class White Killer and a B-class White Killer died during a mission…

“…What?”

“Oh my. They’re saying it was an accident. How awful. If it were one person, maybe, but two at the same time…”

Wait, what?

My heart dropped.

My breathing quickened, and my mind went blank.

I suddenly turned my head and stared at the stairs leading to the second floor.

‘Could it be Seo Jinhyung?’

In <Not a Killer>, Seo Jinhyung sometimes disguised his murders as accidents.

So I couldn’t be sure whether that news was true.

“…Did Seo Jinhyung come home?”

“No, I haven’t seen him. Now that you mention it, where is he?”

“……”

Knock knock.

After sitting downstairs for a long time thinking, I came to Seo Jinhyung’s room and knocked.

Obviously, there was no answer.

Click.

I carefully opened the door to check if anyone was inside.

For someone trying desperately not to see a corpse, it was a surprisingly bold move.

“Hey… Seo Jinhyung.”

My tiny voice trembled.

I couldn’t move my gaze freely, afraid I might see something by accident.

My nails dug painfully into my palms.

Leaving the door slightly open, I swallowed dryly and stepped inside.

“Damn…”

I’d woken up in this room just this morning—why did it feel so unfamiliar?

After hesitating, I walked over to the neatly made bed and sat down heavily.

Naturally, memories of last night resurfaced.

Seo Jinhyung had suggested we lie down and hold each other. I’d looked at him like he was insane.

But in the end, I’d pretended to give in and lay down.

‘And then I slept like a baby.’

His warm, broad embrace had been far more comforting than I expected. So much so that negative emotions and thoughts couldn’t even function properly.

Even though he’d been the cause of them in the first place.

I leaned over and lay down on his bed. The blanket against my cheek was soft and still plenty fluffy.

But the unpleasant anxiety wouldn’t go away.

After that day, Seo Jinhyung’s unexplained outings increased.

The times we went to and from school together gradually decreased, and lately we’d been riding in separate cars entirely.

We hardly ran into each other at home either, so my suspicion kept growing.

No matter how desperately I searched online, though, I couldn’t find any more bad news about White Killers.

‘Am I overreacting?’

In this country of exam hell, the second year of high school isn’t exactly a leisurely time.

Especially for someone like Seo Jinhyung—a wealthy family’s only son with heavy responsibilities.

But lately, not only had therapy stopped, I could barely exchange a proper word with him.

It even started to feel like he was avoiding me.

‘If only Seo Jinhyung were the only problem.’

Things were still awkward with the protagonist, Yeon Jaehyun.

Even though I’d saved him from being bullied and tried talking to him like we were close, the invisible wall between us was too solid.

And on a recent pop quiz, I got a score I’d never seen in my life.

‘Nothing goes my way. Damn it…’

Whenever I clutched my head in frustration, Jung Sumin’s followers would pester me.

Are you two dating? Does Jung Sumin have a girlfriend? Give us his number. Or at least introduce us… blah blah blah.

This hell had been going on for three weeks.

Slide.

I opened the classroom door with a gloomy face.

“…?”

It was noisy from early morning.

‘This is the kind of energy you only see at lunchtime.’

A crowd had gathered around the back of the second row—Jung Sumin’s seat.

“A White Killer trainee? That’s seriously awesome!”