Chapter 39: A Sloppy Tail

Startled, Jin-yeop turned around to see Noh Young pushing through the people in the department store, running towards somewhere.

At the sudden chase, people murmured and stepped aside, and amidst the parting crowd, someone screamed and fell to the floor.

Jin-yeop hurriedly followed Noh Young and soon stopped beside him.

“What is it?

What’s wrong?”

“What are you doing wearing something like that?”

At Noh Young’s incomprehensible words, Jin-yeop narrowed his brow.

For some reason, one foot of the fallen man was frozen in ice.

“Hey, you can’t use your skill in a crowd like this.”

Jin-yeop stared at Noh Young with an expression of disbelief, but without answering, Noh Young strode over and stepped on the back of the man who was struggling to break the ice stuck to his foot and run away.

“Ugh!”

“Who are you?”

“Why, why are you doing this?

I’m an ordinary person…!”

“Oh, really?”

“…”

“Then why were you following me and taking pictures?”

The man, who had been desperately waving his hands with a frightened face, clamped his mouth shut at Noh Young’s accusation and only darted his eyes around.

Only then sensing something was wrong, Jin-yeop asked Noh Young.

“Pictures?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s not like I’m not used to being photographed, why go this far?”

Jin-yeop tried to dissuade Noh Young, who seemed furious, and attempted to melt the ice stuck to the man’s foot.

But Noh Young quickly grabbed Jin-yeop’s hand.

“That’s the thing.”

“…”

“Don’t you think I’d find it strange, since it’s happened more than once?

That bastard uses a skill while taking pictures.”

Noh Young stomped on the man’s body as he started struggling again.

The people surrounding them began to murmur.

“The moment our eyes met, he used a stealth skill.

What kind of bastard is this?”

“…”

“Voluntarily or not?

When I ask, tell me, is this guy more intimidating than me?”

“Hey…”

“What?

I’m right, aren’t I?”

Jin-yeop pushed aside Noh Young, who wore an innocent expression as if asking what he said wrong, and knelt on one knee beside the man.

The man quickly averted his gaze from Jin-yeop.

“Were you taking pictures of me?”

“No!

What are you talking about?

Quickly release this…”

“Then who were you taking pictures of?”

“…”

“Regardless of who it was, you shouldn’t take pictures of others without permission.”

“…”

“You seem past the age where you need to learn that from society.”

Muttering this, Jin-yeop examined the man, then quickly reached for the pocket where a phone was slightly sticking out.

“Ah, no!”

“Let me check.

If it’s a misunderstanding, I’ll compensate you fully.”

Jin-yeop snapped coldly and quickly turned on the phone.

At this, the man, his face flushed bright red, suddenly started shouting.

“See this!

Can an Awakener do this to an ordinary person?

Do you think money can do anything!”

“You’re not an ordinary person.”

Jin-yeop snorted and showed the dungeon authorization app on the phone screen to the man.

“So, so, does that mean it’s okay between Awakeners?

You’re A-class, but I’m not.”

“Is there a rule that says A-class Espers shouldn’t get angry about having their picture taken anywhere?”

“…”

“Who sent you?”

Looking at the gallery screen, Jin-yeop hardened his face.

There were dozens of photos stored there of Jin-yeop and Noh Young walking side by side.

Not only that, searching the entire gallery, there were also many photos of him with Eun-ru.

All the photos were of Jin-yeop with someone else.

Only scenes that looked quite affectionate, at that.

“It seems I was wearing it after all.”

“See?

Wasn’t I right?”

“Have I become this dull?”

“…”

“To the point where I couldn’t even notice a stealth skill?”

Dozens of photos taken were absurd, but the fact that he hadn’t noticed being followed so persistently was even more unpleasant.

It was true that he had been buried in all sorts of thoughts since leaving the hospital.

Especially since the presence of Lee Eun-ru had filled his mind, making it hard to think of anything else.

Even so, not noticing someone taking photos specifically chosen to be his weaknesses was clearly his own fault.

At the same time, Jin-yeop immediately realized who had sent this man.

There was only one person who would do this to him right now.

As Jin-yeop narrowed his brow and gripped the phone tightly, Noh Young quickly snatched it from his hand.

“Don’t break it.

It’s evidence.”

“…Should I kill him?”

“See?

I told you, it’s much better to tell me.”

Noh Young looked at Jin-yeop, who was muttering with a murderous gaze, and shook his head as if he knew it.

Jin-yeop met the man’s eyes and spoke quietly.

“I don’t care if you target me.”

“…”

“But dragging in someone completely unrelated is going too far.”

“…I was just doing as I was told.”

The man, who had been asserting his innocence quite confidently until just before, quickly changed his attitude at the murderous aura emanating from Jin-yeop.

The man’s face, swallowing his saliva, was pale with fear.

“Did he tell you to get evidence of me having an affair?”

“Not exactly, but…”

“…”

“He said to take pictures if there’s someone who looks close…”

The man squeezed his eyes shut and spilled out the instructions he had been given.

Jin-yeop gritted his teeth and spoke.

“How much of a pushover must he think I am to send a bastard like you to take pictures?

Now I’m curious what that bastard’s face looks like.”

“…”

“Sending such a sloppy bastard…”

“Hey, Jin-yeop.”

“No, it’s obvious who it is.”

Before Noh Young could stop him, Jin-yeop reached out to grab the man by the collar.

At that moment, security guards who had been dispatched due to the commotion in the middle of the department store ran over.

Jin-yeop stopped his hand, which had been quickly reaching out to grab the collar, and clenched his fist in the air.

Then he immediately reached down and melted the ice that had frozen the man’s foot solid.

“Causing such a disturbance here…”

“I’m sorry.

It seems there was some misunderstanding.”

Jin-yeop smiled at the security guards and helped the man to his feet.

Then standing beside him, he whispered very quietly in his ear.

“Stealth skill.”

“…”

“If you don’t want to use it without two legs, behave yourself.”

“…”

“As you said, I’m A-class, so burning off those two legs wouldn’t bother me one bit.

Do you understand?”

The man quickly nodded as if he understood, and stepped forward, bowing his head to the security guards and starting to apologize.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.

I, I took pictures recklessly out of misguided fan sentiment, and then!

I’m sorry for causing a disturbance.

Yes.”

The security guards recognized Noh Young and Jin-yeop standing behind the bowing man, whispered something among themselves, gave a brief warning, and left.

The people who had gathered dispersed as the situation ended rather anticlimactically.

Noh Young approached the man, who was still bowed over and repeatedly apologizing, put his arm around his shoulder, and smiled.

“Now, shall we go somewhere quiet and continue our conversation?”

***

Jin-yeop canceled the dinner plans, saying they should probably postpone it to another day.

Then, while Noh Young had the man cornered, he bought a suitable bottle of wine and offered it as a gesture of apology.

But what was this situation now?

Incredibly, Jin-yeop ended up drinking that wine at Noh Young’s house, together with the man who had been tailing him.

“Joo-yeon-ssi, I really don’t think this is…”

“I agree.”

Noh Young agreed with Jin-yeop, but Joo-yeon, humming a tune regardless, cheerfully pulled the cork and nonchalantly poured wine into each of their glasses.

Even into the glass of the man who had been dragged, bewildered, to Noh Young’s house.

“What’s your name?”

At Joo-yeon’s question, the man flinched and moved his lips.

The man was just as baffled by this situation.

He had been caught tailing and nearly killed, yet the place he was dragged to for a ‘quiet conversation’ was the home of the people he was tailing.

How could he have anticipated this?

Not only that, the table was laden with food.

Dishes that would have taken considerable effort to prepare, at that.

“Joo-yeon-ssi, I truly appreciate the invitation, but this feels like too much trouble.

I’ll come back another day.”

“We’ve known each other for more than a day or two, Jin-yeop-ssi, why are you so formal?”

“…”

“Come to think of it, you really can’t speak casually.

We’re all the same age.”

“…”

“Ah, how old are you?”

Joo-yeon again asked the man without hesitation.

The man felt like crying.

In fact, while Jin-yeop had gone to buy wine, Noh Young had contacted Joo-yeon at home.

He explained the situation roughly, saying he might have to come in alone today, but Joo-yeon insisted he bring the man home with him.

Noh Young refused, saying it was nonsense, and Jin-yeop agreed, but in the end, they couldn’t overcome Joo-yeon’s stubbornness and came home with the uninvited guest.

But both of them had roughly figured out why Joo-yeon wanted them to bring the man home.

“Why are you just thinking and not answering?”

“Yes, yes?”

Startled, the man lifted his head, and Joo-yeon, meeting his eyes, smiled.

“Twenty-eight years old.”

“…”

“Name is Park Se-hoon.”

“Uh, how…”

“What?

You did something that reckless for just a million won?”

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