Chapter 14: Baby & Toddler Program (1)

Where the Ogre was, there was a woman with red hair tied in a ponytail and wearing a black suit.

“…Wh-Why did this b*stard die in one hit…?”

The woman muttered in a bewildered voice.

I almost didn’t recognize her because of the strangely rough atmosphere, but when I looked closely, it was the woman I met at the soup restaurant a few days ago.

“Cough, cough!”

“S-Suhyeon…!”

The red-haired woman turned her gaze at the sound of coughing up blood.

“Oh, it’s that…”

Her wide-open eyes narrowed sharply.

“Blood…”

The red-haired woman’s face, who took out her cell phone and said something, gradually blurred.

Han Suhyeon lost consciousness.

---

When he opened his eyes, he was in a hospital.

The broken ribs were completely healed.

Whether it was a side effect or something, his head was throbbing and he felt nauseous.

He took off his patient gown and looked at his chest.

He rubbed his chest with his hand to feel the broken ribs.

It’s really healed cleanly.

“Ahem…! Ahem!”

He heard a clearing of the throat and looked up.

The red-faced red-haired woman quickly looked away.

“…It seemed like a serious injury. So, the healer in my party treated it first.”

“Ah. Thank you. May I ask your name…?”

The red-haired woman handed over a business card, still avoiding my gaze.

[A-rank Hunter Yeom Haneul]
[Affiliation: Flame of Upheaval]

“My name is Yeom Haneul.”

“Ah, yes. I’m Han Suhyeon. I’m an F-rank hunter.”

“Huh? F-rank? What do you mean…”

Yeom Haneul, who made a dumbfounded expression, looked at me.

Her eyes, which were looking at my face, gradually went down and eventually fixed completely on my chest.

“…Mr. Han Suhyeon…? C-Could you please… put on your clothes properly…”

“Ah. I’m sorry.”

Only after I put on my top did Yeom Haneul look at me straight.

“First of all. I’ve grasped the general situation through that person’s skill.”

“Skill?”

Yeom Haneul pointed behind her.

I saw Yu Ayeon trembling in the corner of the hospital room.

Yu Ayeon was giving off the atmosphere of a loner who met the school bully.

Yeom Haneul glared at Yu Ayeon without saying a word.

“Hiiiik…!”

Yu Ayeon jumped out like a bullet and handed me her cell phone.

The cell phone contained a video of me fighting the Ogre.

Various effects, including a dynamically moving camera angle like in a movie, were quite amazing, but there were also questions.

Yu Ayeon fidgeted and avoided my gaze.

“Ayeon. Let’s talk about it later.”

“Yes, yes…”

When Yu Ayeon returned, Yeom Haneul spoke again.

“Mr. Han Suhyeon. I’ll ask you straight to the point.”

“Yes.”

“Would you like to join my party, Flame of Upheaval?”

---

“If you ever change your mind, please contact me.”

Yeom Haneul smiled strangely and left the hospital room.

Yeom Haneul did not take her eyes off Han Suhyeon until the moment the door of the hospital room was completely closed.

Yu Ayeon did not like the sticky gaze that looked at Han Suhyeon.

But Yu Ayeon couldn’t say anything to Yeom Haneul.

What could she, a mere civilian, say to Yeom Haneul, the number one A-rank hunter?

Even if it was on the internet, no one in reality would speak harshly to the number one A-rank hunter.

Because of that.

Yu Ayeon couldn’t understand the man in front of her even more.

“Wh-Why did you refuse…!”

“Huh? Why?”

“Y-Yeom Haneul’s Flame of Upheaval… j-just five people are on par with large guilds…! It’s the best party in the country…!”

“I know. I just heard the explanation.”

Yeom Haneul was also embarrassed when Han Suhyeon refused the offer outright and said something similar to Yu Ayeon.

But his opinion was firm.

“I don’t have any plans to belong anywhere yet.”

Han Suhyeon muttered with a strange look in his eyes.

It was an indescribable look, filled with complex emotions such as regret and longing.

It was not a matter that she could do anything about when he said it himself.

“By the way. Did they solve the backflow?”

“Ah, yes. Yeom Haneul closed the gate herself… She said she came here as soon as she solved it… but she’s gone…”

“Then can I rest a little now…”

Han Suhyeon was about to lie down, but he straightened up and looked at Yu Ayeon, who was hesitating.

“By the way. Ayeon.”

“Yes, yes…”

“That video. What happened?”

Han Suhyeon thought that Yu Ayeon was a special awakened one who had awakened a bizarre skill that made a clicking sound regardless of the time.

Eun Manager also said that the skills of special awakened ones are mostly useless except for a few special ones.

Because there was nothing special about her skill when he checked it on the subway.

This meant that Yu Ayeon was not fully revealing her skill and was hiding something.

Han Suhyeon glared at Yu Ayeon, who lowered her head.

---

It’s hard to open my mouth.

Ever since I was little, I couldn’t easily make friends.

And when I was in middle and high school, I was even beaten and bullied.

Still, I somehow got into a good university and got a job, and I used to work for a large corporation.

But even after becoming an adult, dealing with people was always difficult.

Especially in front of men, I became completely timid.

Still, with the passage of time.

I was able to open my mouth in front of people.

The fact that I could speak naturally, which was nothing special to others, made me very happy.

I had a hopeful thought that my future life would get better as time passed.

But.

After awakening this skill.

My life was completely ruined.

From the first day of work after awakening, I was accused of being a molester.

I stammered and denied that I wasn’t.

But people surrounded me and cursed, abused, and pointed fingers at me.

Soon the police came and grabbed my arm with rough gestures and dragged me to the police station.

The people watching filmed me being dragged by the police.

And that day, a video titled “s*x offender dragged by the police” was uploaded to iTube.

For the first time in my life, I was taken to the police station.

Somehow the false accusation was cleared.

But the eyes of the people looking at me were not the same as before.

The witch hunt was persistent, and my personal information was quickly exposed.

The thread-like human relationships that I had maintained were completely severed.

The moment I entered the company building, everyone’s attention was focused on me.

It’s like looking at a disgusting criminal.

I bowed my head and walked, looking only at the floor as much as possible.

I was afraid of people’s gazes.

Even during work hours, the clicking sound was heard.

My colleagues, who I thought I had become close to, smiled understandingly.

But their eyes contained an undisguised contempt and deep disgust.

I went to the Hunter Association with a desperate heart.

I was only registered as a special awakened one, and there was no other countermeasure.

I tried to come up with a countermeasure on my own.

But it was all meaningless.

Every time I went somewhere, I was accused of being a pervert or a molester.

The police came every time and I was able to explain it somehow.

But stress accumulated every day.

Every time such a thing happened, I couldn’t speak more and more.

I became reluctant to go outside.

Eventually, except for the days when I went to work.

I was completely confined to my house.

It was so frustrating, scary, and sad to live.

I thought about dying.

I wrote a suicide note.

I hung the rope.

I stood on the chair.

My hand holding the rope trembled.

I closed my eyes.

I jumped off the chair.

My breath was blocked.

And the pain continued.

Flashbacks passed by.

Memories of being bullied at school.

Memories of being cursed by my boss.

Memories of being dragged to the police station.

Memories of being looked at like a criminal.

Even in the flashbacks, happy memories did not come to mind.

Just before I passed out.

The rope snapped.

Even while vomiting and crying in the pain of being choked.

I thought I was glad to be alive.

I didn’t even have the courage to die.

Even if I feel like I’m going to die, I live because I’m afraid of dying.

I received a notice of dismissal from the company.

The reason was that the people around me were uncomfortable and the male employees were very uncomfortable.

I argued, showing the work performance I had achieved.

But their thoughts were already firm.

I got on the subway dejectedly.

And I was once again accused of being a molester.

I held back, held back.

It exploded.

It was so sad and pathetic.

Why did I awaken such an ability.

While despairing.

While crying.

He suddenly appeared.

He quickly resolved the incident that had always made my heart stuffy and painful.

He was different from the people who always used violence, laughed, and cursed with disgusting gazes.

It was the first time someone looked at me with worried eyes.

I was captivated by him and approached him to thank him.

He smiled kindly and even complimented my body.

It was also the first time I had heard a compliment from someone.

I had a lot of bad memories because I was always hit by girls who said my breasts were too big.

After becoming an adult, women envy my big breasts, but men, as always, looked at my breasts disgustingly.

Hearing a compliment about my body from a man.

I felt a thrilling pleasure that penetrated from the top of my head to the tip of my toes.

Not only that.

He supported me in the subway shaking from a huge impact.

Even when he encountered the disaster of a gate backflow nearby, he was calm.

Every time I saw him.

My heart kept pounding.

I thought I couldn’t leave him in such a dangerous place, so for the first time in my life, I took the courage to hug him and run away from the monster.

Even though my breasts inevitably touched him, he didn’t show any discomfort, but rather blushed slightly.

He was different from other people.

Every time I saw him smiling at me with warm eyes, who everyone avoided and hated.

I felt like the stuffy lump in my heart was being washed away cleanly.

I couldn’t laugh after awakening.

I’m not happy even when I watch comedies.

I even received psychiatric treatment.

I think I laughed more during the few hours I met him than I laughed in the past few years.

When I see him, I keep laughing.

I have happy imaginations.

My empty heart was filled with his smile.

Such a he headed to a dangerous place.

When everyone else was running away, he alone went forward.

He helped the fallen child.

He smiled kindly as if to say not to worry.

He threw himself at an Ogre twice his size without hesitation.

My legs wouldn’t move.

My body told me to run away.

In the face of the Ogre’s fear, I couldn’t easily move my legs.

But.

When I saw him, who was dealing with the Ogre, suddenly slammed into the floor and flew away, coughing up blood.

My body was moving.

No.

No.

No.

You can’t die.

Running more desperately than ever.

I caught him with my whole body.

The Ogre moved strangely and rushed as if it wasn’t over yet.

Suhyeon, was he fighting such a monster?

Yu Ayeon felt death at that moment.

As when she attempted suicide, flashbacks came to mind.

The same painful memories as last time filled my head.

But at the end.

No more painful memories appeared.

Han Suhyeon filled my head.

It was a very short time.

But that short moment with him was so happy.

If I die with such a memory at the end.

I thought it wouldn’t be a bad death.

When the flashback was completely over and I came to my senses, the monster was killed by Yeom Haneul, who appeared.

She called a healer and healed the unconscious Han Suhyeon.

And she told me to take him to a nearby hospital and left for the battlefield again.

Even though the healer healed him, my head was filled with worries about him.

I stayed up all night with my eyes open because he didn’t open his eyes for half a day.

I didn’t have much trouble because I didn’t sleep much originally.

I didn’t even think about going to work, which I used to think about mechanically every morning.

Because I don’t have to go to work anymore.

After a long wait, he opened his eyes.

He questioned about the skill.

What expression would he make if I told him all the contents of the skill?

If he found out that the skill was not just a clicking sound, but that it was actually captured in videos and photos like a real camera.

And that I could transfer the photos and videos stored in my head to a device whenever I wanted.

I felt like Han Suhyeon would also look at me with a disgusting and uncomfortable expression like other people.

Even if the skill is activated regardless of my will.

Because no one would be happy to know that I was secretly filming him.

Especially if the other person is of the opposite s*x.

And while being with him.

The clicking sound was heard several times.

When I ran with him in my arms like a prince carry.

When I was in a position to cover him, etc.

There were many revealing poses in his photos and videos stored in my head.

I had to hide the contents of the skill to maintain a good relationship with him.

But I had already saved the video of the battle with the Ogre on my cell phone to explain the situation to Yeom Haneul.

The evidence came out.

Yu Ayeon made up her mind.

It was worse than death to have a relationship with Han Suhyeon break down after trying to get away with it.

Even if I get cursed, even if he looks at me with disgusting eyes.

…Even if I can’t see him again.

I wanted to clear up this misunderstanding.

After transferring his photos and videos stored in my head to my cell phone.

I handed him the cell phone.

The moment he saw his picture, he froze.

“…”

“…”

Tell all of the skills.

I closed my eyes tightly.

I couldn’t bear to look him straight in the eye.

A short silence was like an eternity.

I won’t be able to see him again.

The contact information that I exchanged by chance will soon be deleted.

What kind of expression is he making when he looks at me?

Anger? Disgust? Contempt? Disappointment?

I don’t know which of the four it is.

But it must be one of the four.

Because everyone since I awakened the skill.

Always looked at me with one of those expressions.

Thinking that he would look at me with such an expression.

My heart ached as if it was being torn apart.

I felt like I was going to cry.

“…Ayeon.”

“…”

“Ayeon.”

“…Yes.”

“Open your eyes.”

Between the blurry scenery soaked in tears.

I saw him smiling brightly.

“This. Is this a really interesting skill?”

Since Yu Ayeon awakened her skill.

It was the first expression she saw.

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