### Chapter 299 – Room 204, Mission Room – ‘Hotel Cinema’ (21)
—
– Lee Eunsol
As I gazed at the baseball team boy, Kim Ji-ho, approaching with a face as red as a ripe persimmon, I started to wonder.
Should I accept this confession or not?
Refusing outright felt a bit daunting. That dumb guy from the morning and this tall, built baseball player were of a different danger level. If this dude decided to charge at me, could the surrounding students really stop him?
…
I made my decision.
“Ji-ho sunbaenim….”
“Ha, Han Yoori! I’m sorry for coming a second time! But… I just couldn’t help but let my feelings for you grow stronger and stronger, even when I was practicing because I kept thinking of you…”
Wow, this guy is something else!
Hearing Ji-ho struggle over his words made it hard for me to breathe. I could feel just how crazy he was about Yoori.
He could hardly breathe, right? Yoori, what on earth have you been doing?
“My coach told me to give it another shot… Ah, no! I didn’t come because of the coach! I—”
“Take it slow. Just speak slowly; I’m listening.”
I unintentionally blurted that out out of exasperation, but it only made the boy’s face turn an even deeper shade of red.
“Sorry… Can you… can you go out with me?”
With the kindest smile I could muster, I held his hand and stared into his eyes.
“So, is today our Day One?”
“U-Uwahhhhh!”
Ji-ho screamed and fell backwards. Seriously? He came to confess and is surprised that I’m accepting it?
Why did I end up accepting?
To outright refuse this guy, who was obviously strong physically, was a bit intimidating, and given the way the story was twisting with the title ‘Enchanting Girl,’ it seemed like tons of psycho “confession killers” would be jumping on me next.
So, I think I really needed a good reason or a bodyguard to say no!
Turns out, that was a pretty solid selection. The baseball boy left with tears in his eyes and an awkward hug, promising to meet after class.
When I turned back to the classroom, I noticed the atmosphere had shifted.
The girls around me had started giving me laser beam glares. What on earth is happening here? Then I heard a snappy remark.
“Congratulations! Yoori now has a boyfriend?”
“… Thanks.”
“Oh, are you guys in your first day phase?”
“…”
“This is way too cute, right?”
“For sure! I’ve never heard Yoori sound so squeaky!”
Guys, is this some kind of elementary school power struggle? Seriously, you think I wouldn’t be able to handle this kind of lame banter? Was that girl’s name Kim Eun-hye or something?
“Did you really hear that? Eun-hye, you might be a bit deaf. Ask your boyfriend to check your ears! Oh wait, do you even have one?”
The girl in front shot me a glare that could slice. What’s your deal? Am I gonna drop dead if you glare at me? Who do you think you are, Medusa?
Suddenly, another girl from across the way jumped in.
“Last month, Ji-ho sunbaenim confessed to someone, and she rejected him, right?”
I recalled her looking annoyed whenever the baseball player showed up. So this wasn’t his first confession?
“Yeah, that happened.”
“Things are different this time. Is it because Ji-ho got a professional offer?”
“…”
“Wow~! Yoori, you’re amazing! You must be super poor or something? You need a rich husband.”
So it sounds like you’re saying you’re not truly interested and are just out here trying to catch a payday? Sorry, I’m slow on the uptake, but can someone explain what’s wrong with that?
Sorry, sis, but I’m a little cynical about life now. When you grow up, you’ll understand that in adult relationships and marriages, you gotta think about jobs and money too.
And even if Kain’s house was poor? It’s natural to want to find a good partner.
“Just say what you really think! Are you all—”
— Thud!
Before I could react, someone grabbed my shoulder tightly. Looking to my side in confusion, Saerom, who had been trailing me since morning, stood there. Seeing her frozen face made me sigh.
Wait, don’t tell me she likes that baseball player too—
“Shut your mouth!”
Right now, this girl seemed completely different from the one I saw in the morning.
It wasn’t just that she swore. There was an indescribable oppressive aura surrounding her, making a few kids sway on their feet.
… Is this really a natural reaction?
Saerom demolished the surrounding chatter with just one sentence, and then she forcibly pulled my arm as she started dragging me down the hallway. I couldn’t resist; the force was too intense.
“What’s going on? Why are you suddenly—”
A quiet voice slipped into my ear.
“You just made a mistake.”
… Suddenly using formal speech?
“What do you mean?”
“Ha… You really don’t get it, do you? Even in school, you’ve been suppressing yourself far too much. I was wondering why you seemed so off since this morning.”
What did I even do? Suppress? Something felt off since the morning?
“You should go home right now. You’ll understand eventually, and think about how to handle things.”
“…”
“You’ll go home now! I’ll make up an excuse for you!”
I truly don’t comprehend what’s happening here. What kind of turn is this taking?
*
– The Theater
—
“What? What’s going on suddenly?”
Kain was completely lost in the situation. His companions around him mirrored his confusion.
“What on earth did she mess up? And why the sudden order to go home?”
At Elena’s words, Songee nodded along. Just then, Ahri’s expression darkened.
“… I think I might know what’s up.”
“What?”
“Is it really this kind of storyline? I thought it was overboard how seductive the atmosphere felt….”
*
– Lee Eunsol
As confusion clouded my mind, I gathered my belongings in the classroom. Given that I had just argued with the girls, I had a good excuse to leave.
But where’s my home address again?
Chuckling lightly, I asked Saerom, who at that moment whispered back about how I should try to control myself and recited my address. When I checked the location on my smartphone map, I felt a bit startled.
“Do I live here?”
Walking out of the classroom and stepping into the hallway, I slowly started to gain clarity.
…
Awakening is like shedding a skin.
Cracks develop in the layers I had wrapped around myself, infusing my mind with knowledge that’s hard to articulate. An evil breath, too vile for the common folk to understand, filled my insides.
Seriously? Is this the storyline?
“Uahhh… Grandpa! You should’ve held on just a bit longer!”
If only Grandpa had figured this out! Everything escalated so quickly that I, arriving second, caught on first. What should I even do now? How to proceed?
“Yoori!”
Walking across the gymnasium in a confusion about what to do next, I spotted Kim Ji-ho, my “Day One boyfriend,” waving enthusiastically and running toward me like he was a lost puppy.
As I awkwardly waved back, shock hit me when this robust baseball boy filled my field of vision, with an urge I had never imagined flooding my soul.
So that’s what it was! That’s why ‘Han Yoori’ always wore a facade at school! It must’ve been because she couldn’t handle this loathsome impulse.
“Yoori! What’s with that bag?”
“… I’ve got a headache today, so I’m going home early.”
“What? No way! I was going to tell you after class!”
“What do you mean?”
“Today, I’ll walk you home!”
“…”
“I, I heard you live in a dangerous place. Normally you walk home with Saerom, right? But she’s not around today!”
“…”
“Don’t get me wrong! I didn’t snoop around about you; it just happened to come up in conversation….”
“So you’re saying you want to walk me home?”
“Yes!”
I couldn’t help but murmur under my breath.
“Such determination.”
Did that come off too biting? The boy, flustered for a moment, jumped to some wild interpretations, trying to defend himself.
“Don’t misunderstand! I wasn’t thinking weird stuff! I’m just genuinely worried for you! So….”
“Got it. I’ll wait, so go tell the coach.”
Honestly, I had no thoughts about the baseball player intending anything questionable while accompanying me. Frankly, that seemed trivial compared to the questions I had about my own impulses.
More than anything, I wanted to see the extent of my newly awakened urges.
Ji-ho chatted with the coach, then shortly returned with a big smile. What kind of coach allows a promising player to skip training to walk his girlfriend home? But whatever.
While walking around the gymnasium and observing the “young students,” I picked up a sweet scent in the air. My wildly racing heart made it clear just how much my thirst had intensified.
…
The thirst grew even stronger when I saw the enthusiastic boy grabbing my hand.
…
About 20 minutes later? As we passed through the alley outside the school, I ultimately found myself stopping dead in my tracks. I simply couldn’t handle it anymore.
“Ji-ho sunbaenim.”
“Yeah?”
“Time to head back.”
“What? We haven’t even reached your home yet! We’re almost there—”
“Turn back.”
“Y-Yoori?”
I firmly grabbed Ji-ho’s arm to stop him and stared into his eyes. Initially embarrassed, he soon wore a dazed expression.
“Turn back.”
“… Alright.”
*
An angelic girl with an ethereal beauty passed down that alley, and the boy leaning against the wall suddenly snapped back to reality. Why did his angel-like girlfriend tell him to go back?
Maybe he felt embarrassed to show her his poor home. After concluding that, he starting pondering what natural approach he could take next time.
Suddenly, he realized that on his arm where Yoori had tightly gripped him were several deep blue bruises.
“Yoori is stronger than she looks?”
*
– Lee Eunsol
I ran toward home like a madman. After continuously passing through dangerous and shabby alleys unfit for a girl like me, I finally spotted the rundown shack at the end of the alley.
“Hu-huh! Hello!”
“…”
In front of the house stood a potbellied man who looked a bit out of it.
“Ah, hey! You, you! Your name is Yoori, right? Ah, I’ve seen you around. Do you… do you need money?”
… If I were my previous self at school, I’d feel pretty threatened right now. Should I have brought Ji-ho here? If that robust baseball player had been by my side, this bum wouldn’t have had the guts to even look at me.
As it stands, he was just a freakish degenerate, a pathetic vagrant who has lost everything after endless failures. But even so, he was a grown man. For a high school girl, that’s high risk, and it wouldn’t be easy to escape this without supernatural powers.
So, I used those supernatural powers.
— Click!
In the moment my brooch clicked, a blue butterfly floated through the air and flew toward the vagrant. The man was just beginning to register what was happening when he was suddenly down on the floor in less than five seconds.
There was no worry or anxiety over using the brooch. The “Enchanting Girl” plot allowed for using such powers. I had already cast hypnosis, more or less.
— Ding!
“Gangdong Police Station—”
“Hello, there’s a strange man lying on the ground here.”
If this jerk dies here, it’ll be a hassle. After giving a quick report, I entered the ramshackle place. Seriously, a high school girl living in a setup like this is just absurd.
But…
She must have chosen it on purpose. Only in such a place would hunting be easier.
There were no parents or family around. If I had anything resembling that, it would just be Saerom still at school.
Instead, the stuffy smell of blood and gut-wrenching innards tainted my senses.
… What a lie.
My stomach didn’t churn; rather, I felt an uncontrollable urge rise. Since stepping out of school and shedding my facade, my hunger had never felt stronger.
Turning blankly to check the mirror.
I saw two red lights glowing like blood emerging from the darkness.
Suddenly, I felt a stirring in my school skirt.
The primal traces slithering out from between my legs brushed the floor lightly.
… I’m so hungry.
This thirst and hunger can never be satisfied by human food.
I realized that I was the “pursuer,” not the “pursued.”
「Enchanting Girl」
「Enchanting」
「」
.
.
.
「The 21st Century Kumiho Saga」
—
And that’s how it goes!
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