Chapter 24: Once Full Body, Once Face, Once Chest, and..

It was just for a brief moment.

The moment his friend looked so pretty that he lost the thread of his reason.

But as they say, spilled water cannot be gathered back.

"...Huh?"

"Eun-ha-ya, I mean, this is..."

He knew that his heart had been swaying toward her for some time.

Back in their first and second years of high school, she was a victim of a sex crime, living a devastated life only to smash dungeons.

seeing her in such a precarious state back then, Jin-wook was too busy holding onto her because he didn't want to lose his most precious friend; he had no room to feel romantic affection.

Also, having seen the good, the bad, and the ugly of her, Jin-wook had no fantasies about her.

Even after her precarious mental state stabilized...

At some point, he had been looking at her just like any other guy friend.

That was why, even when he caught glimpses of her in her underwear, or saw her wrapped only in a towel, or accidentally saw her bare chest, he could naturally scold her, telling her to stop stripping even if it was her own house.

Up until then, his friend didn't look like a member of the opposite sex.

But everything changed after that day.

He thought he wouldn't see her as a woman.

But the memories of that night, albeit belated, imprinted the fact that she was indeed a woman onto him.

Even if he tried to look at her the same way as before, it just wasn't possible.

Although they were both drunk, Eun-ha was Jin-wook's first woman.

And occasionally, when he looked at Eun-ha, he couldn't help but overlap the image of his friend with the woman he had held in his arms.

"S-Sorry. I'll get going first."

Jin-wook couldn't stop Eun-ha from standing up and running away.

The kiss that happened suddenly due to his impulsive acceleration.

And the expression she showed afterward was something Jin-wook, who had known her for so long, was seeing for the first time.

It seemed unforgettable.

Because it was the first expression Hwang Eun-ha had made in front of him as a woman.

"Haa, haa..."

The situation from earlier kept overlapping before my eyes.

Thinking I was confessing my inner feelings to Jin-wook again, feeling a bit shy, and smiling bashfully...

Before I could even gather my wits, the moment he kissed me kept replaying in front of my eyes.

And not just simply replaying—it came accompanied by memories of that time I had buried deep in the past.

'No, not this memory.'

How far had I run?

On a secluded rural road.

I stopped running and collapsed onto the ground.

Kiss.

An act of affection where a man and a woman who love each other share their love.

But to me, it was an act where scum who saw my appearance restrained my body to plunder me, coveting me regardless of my will.

But Jin-wook is...

'Snap out of it, Hwang Eun-ha. Jin-wook isn't those trash from back then.'

He is the person who sacrificed for me for 5 years, the most precious person to me now.

Not just a normal relationship, but my dependency on him has grown so large...

That I feel like I can't escape anymore.

'Please, don't think like that.'

A wound left on a person's soul is like an indelible stigma to that person.

Something that will never be erased, nor will it ever heal.

But just because it can't be erased doesn't mean it can't be covered.

Either by gouging out the part where the brand is, or covering it with another brand or tattoo.

"UWAAAAAAAH!"

To erase the precarious past me that still rises like smoke through the memories and dominates me.

I screamed to vomit out these emotions inside, but nothing changed.

At that moment.

Perhaps because I was standing in the middle of the road blocking the way.

A car horn blared loudly from behind. Turning my head, I saw a luxury car stopped behind me with its high beams on, looking this way.

"What the hell, aren't you gonna mo—..."

But perhaps because my mind was half-blown away by the memories of the past.

I was staring blankly at the luxury car.

Until the door clicked open, and a man in a high-end suit got out and recognized me.

"You... Hwang Eun-ha?"

And the moment the man recognized me.

The color began to slowly drain from my world, which had been at least somewhat colorful.

With a sinking feeling in my heart, I began to stare at the man.

"Is it really that Hwang Eun-ha?"

"Yoon Seok-chan..."

I quietly muttered the name of the bastard I didn't even want to remember, and naturally began to radiate telekinesis.

To me.

The guy who was my worst nightmare and simultaneously left an eternal, indelible stigma on me.

"Why are you here?"

My reason cooled down coldly.

Yet, I gritted my teeth and asked him.

Yoon Seok-chan looked at me and spoke as if welcoming me, giving a light greeting. "What, you still lived in this area?"

"I thought I'd never see you again since you transferred back then. This is fate too, right?"

He doesn't realize the weight of the sin he committed and pretends to be friendly.

"Right?"

"You... shouldn't you be in prison?"

"Mm, well, I was young back then..."

Yoon Seok-chan walked toward me cautiously and extended his hand.

The hand of the guy who assaulted me when I strongly refused, saying no, saying I hated it.

The hand of the guy who tore my clothes and tried to rape me forcibly was now asking for a handshake.

"I was sorry. Really. But since I was a juvenile offender underneath the age of criminal responsibility, it ended with just 2 years of protective disposition. That's just how the law is, apparently."

Shouldn't someone who trampled on a person's soul pay a corresponding price?

Then you shouldn't be here.

You shouldn't be asking me for a handshake so naturally like this.

"Anyway, I was really sorry. I've been looking for you. Inside the juvenile detention center, I desperately realized how crazy what I did was."

"..."

"I wanted to apologize by doing whatever, whether it be money or anything else, if you needed something later."

While saying that.

You shouldn't naturally hold out your phone to me.

Yoon Seok-chan.

"So, I'm asking this cautiously, but could we perhaps exchange contact info?"

To me, the victim, whose body and heart you trampled on, causing me to live like a wasted person for almost 3 years.

You shouldn't do that.

"...Hwang Eun-ha?"

"Yoon Seok-chan."

No wonder things were going too easily, starting from quitting being a Hunter.

Is this what they call Saeng-ong-ji-ma (Irony of fate)?

"I... still curse you."

Before I knew it, uncontrolled telekinesis was slowly radiating into the surroundings.

Without even thinking that I shouldn't use my power here, I began to tear up everything on the surrounding earth.

The soil making up the ground.

The straw from the wide rice paddies piled up beside it.

Even the expensive vehicle Yoon Seok-chan drove.

"It's been 3 years."

"...What?"

"The time I lived unable to commit suicide after being trampled by you."

"What are you saying all of a sudde—"

"And the time I endlessly regretted not killing you back then."

At my hand gesture, everything I held flew to the right, tearing the earth.

Yoon Seok-chan's vehicle was slammed onto the ground, torn like a piece of paper, and simultaneously caused a massive explosion due to the fuel inside.

Unable to withstand the wind pressure, Yoon Seok-chan, a mere civilian, screamed "Kuack!" and was blown sideways.

"You shouldn't have appeared in front of me."

With the empty rice paddy, now instantly set ablaze by the car explosion, behind my back.

I walked quietly toward Yoon Seok-chan, staring at him.

"I remember every single word you said back then."

Glass shards that had flown out from Yoon Seok-chan's car gathered around me and began to float.

Shards sharp enough to cause immediate death if a normal person were hit wrong.

Yoon Seok-chan, wearing an expression that realized something was wrong, shouted at me, "F-Fuck, don't come!" and started backing away.

"You grabbed my neck and said you'd teach me what feels good."

But that was brief.

A long piece of glass embedded itself in his foot, and Yoon Seok-chan began to scream.

"You tied me up so I couldn't move, asking if I didn't know since I used to be a guy too, and stripped my clothes."

I didn't want to hear his voice even a little bit more, so I ripped off his necktie and forcibly stuffed it into his mouth.

"You laughed at me asking if I was really a man, and forcibly took off my panties saying let's check if the current me is really a woman."

While he bled profusely from his foot, I pressed his body, trying to crawl away, onto the ground with telekinesis until just before it snapped.

"And the last thing you said came as a shock to me."

But I wasn't stopping there.

Threatening a civilian using abilities is a felony punishable by up to death, but I didn't have the reason left to care about such things.

"You said I looked tasty enough to make you believe that me being a man was a lie."

Just as he did.

I grabbed his neck.

In a state where I might snap Yoon Seok-chan's neck and accidentally kill him if I misadjusted my strength even a little.

"So, I'll teach you what feels good too."

Behind me, soil, burnt straw, and ashes gathered and clumped together.

Soon, influenced by telekinesis, they combined strongly to create a harpoon as thick as a tree branch.

I aimed that harpoon near his flank.

"But this time, it's not you, but me who feels good."

"You, Hwang Eun-ha, do you know what you're doing right now? This is a felony! It's attempted murder using abilities on a civilian, you crazy bitch!"

He seemed to be trying to say something, so I removed the tie with telekinesis and threw it aside.

He grabbed my wrists with both hands, struggling, and shouted at me until blood burst from his throat.

But the difference in physical ability between a civilian and a Hunter is an absolute gap.

My forehead, which used to hurt from Jin-wook's finger flicks...

Had become strong enough that even if Yoon Seok-chan punched my face, the bones in his hand would crack instead.

My wrists, which he told me to keep still if I didn't want them broken back then, had become strong enough not to budge even if he tried to twist them with both hands.

And possessing this strength, I threw one word at Yoon Seok-chan.

"So?"

"...What?"

When he made a flustered expression.

I recited one sentence with a cold voice.

"Yours was attempted rape too."

"Crazy..."

"I won't kill you. Since you stopped at an attempt, shouldn't I stop at an attempt too?"

"F-Fuck..."

I let go of Yoon Seok-chan's neck and took a step back.

Did he find some hope in the phrase 'attempted murder'?

But to trample his hope completely, I threw my last words.

"But, if you die in the process, I guess it can't be helped."

"Hwang Eun-ha, you..."

"Don't you remember? Those are the words you spat out. When I asked what if I died while doing it."

And as the harpoon I created with telekinesis pierced his hand...

Yoon Seok-chan screamed again, unable to endure the agony incomparable to before.

...Shouldn't have thrown away the tie.

"H-Hwang Eun-ha. I was really sorry. I will never, gurgle, appear in front of you again. I'll live quietly in atonement for the rest of my life. I won't ever play tricks in front of you again. So please..."

"I told you, it's attempted murder."

But whether he begged or not.

I pulled out the harpoon and shot it again, this time tearing halfway through his forearm.

With blood gushing out and the pain, Yoon Seok-chan couldn't even speak properly anymore.

"I said I won't kill you. If you die, it's just that you couldn't endure it."

"Kuh-huk, kuh-huk..."

"But, you might really die if you get hit by this, Seok-chan-ah. There's still one shot left."

Saying that, I put a little more telekinesis into the harpoon to make it harder.

He probably doesn't know.

What the number of times I'm stabbing him right now is related to.

"You really don't know? Why I'm attacking you four times."

"Guekk, guekk..."

"You took photos of me. Once full body, once face, once chest. And..."

I inhaled briefly.

A wound that hadn't healed for a long time.

And the wound that would never heal in the future gouged me as I spoke the words.

"Once down there. Total of four times."

But, having already lost my reason, filled with hatred and vengeance to return exactly what he did...

I endured the pain coming back to me.

And tried to return what he did to him.

"Hwang Eun-ha!"

Just as I was about to deliver the final blow.

Jin-wook's voice came from behind.

And...

The moment I was hit on the back of the neck by someone's hand and my body was paralyzed instantly.

"Time to sleep now."

With those words, mana dug into my body, and I lost consciousness.

If I hadn't lost my reason...

No, if I hadn't flinched upon hearing Jin-wook's voice at that moment, it was an attack I wouldn't have suffered.

"Jin-wook-ah..."

The last thing I saw was...

Jin-wook's expression, looking like he was devastated.

But for some reason, my heart, which had been coldly frozen, felt at peace just by seeing his face.