Chapter 54: Not Bad…

My legs hadn’t fully regenerated below the knees yet.

Walking was difficult.

So I crawled towards Seo-jun.

Did she know I wasn’t a threat, no matter what I did?

She lifted me up and sat me back on the sofa.

Upbeat music was still playing on the TV.

A brief silence, her gaze, and the lingering smell of the man’s blood.

I broke the silence.

“You know you’re just like the villagers you hated so much?”

“Don’t compare me to those people.”

“I’m not comparing you. I’m saying you act just like them.”

“You’ve done far more horrible things than they ever did!”

“I know. So what?I’m not disgusted like you.I solved everything. I killed all those people who should have been dead a long time ago, so what’s there to regret?”

“You’re so proud of yourself. Happy you solved everything? You explode anyone who gets in your way instead of asking them to move, you tear apart the girl who wanted to be your friend because she’s annoying, you kill all the defenseless doctors and nurses at the hospital.”

“Yeah, I went and solved everything.But you haven’t solved anything. You’re still acting like those villagers you hated so much.”

“Solved? If that’s what you call solving…!”

She stopped mid-sentence.

“The man lying there… he was my foster father. He wanted to adopt me.
I told him I couldn’t be a replacement, but… you killed him without a word, just like you did with my neighbor.”

“He was your foster father, and the first thing you say after seeing him die is… ‘Let’s have a cup of coffee’?”

“He’s dead. That’s that.I tried to get revenge, but you stopped me.”

Or maybe my attack was too pathetic to even register as one.

“You’re no different from those thugs who tried to force me into prostitution.Or the neighbors who tried to turn me into a drug addict.Or the people who burned my dog alive and ate it.”

“How am I similar?”

“You killed Si-hyun “unni.” And you don’t even remember.I remember everyone I killed. They’re all staring at me, whispering to me.”

Seo-jun scoffed, as if I was talking nonsense.

“But you… you’re just… horrible.Helping me? What help? You abandoned me, and now that I’m back at school, you suddenly see me as a human being?”

“You were probably just a horrible villain not even worth remembering.A disgusting person wearing a mask, killing innocent people. You probably became like this because of that person.”

“Stop talking Did you start thinking like her after getting some lessons from that you call “noona”? You knew exactly what was happening in the basement of the research facility, but you didn’t do anything to stop it. You were just a dog guarding the research facility, wagging your tail, wanting to be like her.”

“Right, we tried to help you, the one who wouldn’t talk properly, just grinned, wouldn’t tell us who she was, locked herself in her room cutting her arms, shooting up drugs, and drooling.”

I didn’t know any of that.

All I knew was that she was the despicable person guarding the research facility.

“And this is your answer? This proves you’ll never be happy.”

“……I was happy.”

“Ha, as if. We were unhappy in the village. We just had each other to lean on. We weren’t happy.”

Seo-jun continued, lamenting.

“We weren’t normal back then either, but this is too twisted.”

“How is it twisted?”

“Just look in the mirror. Where’s your brown hair? Do you think you’re normal with that flowing white hair and that face that shows nothing but sadness?”

“How do I look sad? I’m always smiling.”

“That’s why you look sad. Just because you curl your lips and raise your eyebrows doesn’t mean you’re smiling.”

“Then was I truly smiling before you left?”

“…….”

“You don’t remember. There’s no need to remember a powerless
stuck in a village! No need to care!”

“So you’ve been doing all this… just to get some attention!?”

“I wasn’t sure if it was right, but I was right, wasn’t I? Because you came. Because you’re looking at me!”

“No one in their right mind would want this kind of attention!”

“What’s normal? Luring kids into a research facility, locking them in the basement, and conducting human experiments… I don’t think that’s normal.”

“It’s just a part of it. We can fix it someday.”

“Why not fix it now? I already suffered. I’ve been through enough. So it’s okay. It’s fine.”

“Will you please listen when I’m talking?”

“I told you, didn’t I?That I could help you.”

“I don’t need your help.It’s ridiculous that you’re offering it now, when I actually needed it.”

“Oh, yeah? Is that why you caused that scene at the bank?”

“Yes. Hye-yeon… at first, she was just angry like you, but after a while, she became docile.”

Seo-jun’s lips trembled.

I thought she would punch me soon.

Hoping that getting hit would make me feel better, I continued.

“She’s just… a girl who can’t do anything properly. Honestly, it’s pathetic that someone who awakened her ability by taking drugs made from squeezing lab rats like me, thanks to her wicked father, is acting like that.”

My legs had fully regenerated below the knees.

“At first, she was all about justice, what’s right and wrong… then I doodled on her stomach, and she started crying. Making such a fuss over having her limbs cut off.”

Sometimes, I didn’t know what I was saying.

“Someone else had dozens of limbs cut off and didn’t even flinch. It’s not like she died, or had her skull opened and electrocuted.”

Just random words, driven by emotions.

“Do they even look like the same person? People like that… they’re always hoping to die. They wish they would just wither away and die, or be locked up in a basement and dissected like me… Ow!”

Seo-jun slapped me mid-sentence.

I felt something rolling around in my mouth, probably a dislodged tooth.

“Shut up. I didn’t come here to listen to your.”

So I spat at her.

“Why? You’re slapping me instead of thanking me for sparing your life? Heh. What great story are you going to tell me? About how your parents died in that village?”

I couldn’t quite remember how they died.

They were very kind people.

I comforted her back then.

She didn’t cry, but she looked like she was about to.

Anyway, after I scoffed and said those things, Seo-jun put down her sword, lunged at me, and started punching me.

It didn’t hurt much.

It just made it hard to talk while getting punched in the face.

With each punch, something crunched or cracked, accompanied by a bit of blood and blurry vision.

I tried to attack Seo-jun while she was distracted, but my attacks were burned away by her light.

When her punches slowed, her face mangled and bones showing, I spoke.

“Seo-jun.”

“What.”

“You know it’s pointless.Talking, hitting me…”

I regenerated all my wounds and gathered the teeth from my mouth, tossing them somewhere, pretending to engage in a compassionate and dignified conversation.

Then I spoke the words that had always been on my mind, the words she was probably thinking too.

“How did things turn out like this?”

“……I just… wanted you to stop.To just stay somewhere, to stop doing these crazy things.”

“That’s not going to happen.”

“Right, it’s not.”

“I was trying not to use your hand, but…”

Seo-jun picked up the sword she’d dropped and plunged it into my neck.

Then, splattering my blood all over the room, she stabbed and slashed at my chest, torso, arms, thighs… everywhere.

The wounds pulsed, blood gushing out like fountains, but they regenerated instantly.

“There’s one more thing I can’t do myself.”

And I’d already done everything I needed to do.