Chapter 109

Chapter 109

After getting into the passenger seat, Oh Yoori casually asked, “So, where are you taking me?”

“You didn’t know that when you got in?”

“Well, I’m pretty sure Team Leader Seon won’t hurt me.”

That sounded nice but also a bit concerning.

“I appreciate the sentiment, but aren’t you being a bit too trusting? What if I’m some weirdo?”

“I keep my guard up all the time. Actually, I might be overly cautious. I’ve had a lot of rough experiences in life.”

“Then why are you so sure I won’t hurt you?”

“How could I not trust someone who barges into a thug’s den bare-handed to help two kids with no ties to them?”

“…I guess you have a point there.”

Honestly, even I would pretend to trust someone if they were a crazy person standing in front of me.

If someone with a gun at their waist said, “Could you just follow me for a second?” you’d have no choice but to follow along.

But it seemed Oh Yoori wasn’t thinking so negatively.

“Above all, I already know what kind of person Team Leader Seon is.”

Come to think of it, didn’t I say something similar before?

“Gyeoul said she believed in me because you told her about me, right?”

“…You can think of it that way if you want.”

As if she had caught onto something in my words, Oh Yoori turned her head with a disappointed expression and suddenly continued with another question.

“Now, please answer my question. Where are we going in this car?”

“Where else? We’re going to the hospital.”

Oh Yoori then looked at my neck, which was covered in gauze and bandages, and said, “Hospital? Is it because of that injury on your neck?”

“No, I’m going because I’m dropping you off.”

If that wasn’t the case, I wouldn’t have brought you along, would I? I could just go to the hospital myself.

“I feel fine, though. I’m not hurt at all right now.”

“You just got choked by Ban Seong-cheol and were kicked in the gut by one of those jocks. We should get you checked at the hospital to see if there are any aftereffects.”

“I don’t know. I feel like there’s no aftereffect… Hmm, maybe we should just have a look?”

Oh Yoori boldly lifted her hoodie to check her own abdomen.

At that moment, I was about to give her a lecture about how girls shouldn’t do such things in front of guys who aren’t family when I noticed her belly.

It was bruised a dark shade of blue.

I sighed slightly, feeling sorry for her.

“…Ouch, that must hurt a lot.”

“Uh… that’s strange. It didn’t hurt that much.”

“You just got kicked square in the gut by a burly guy without any protection and rolled on the floor. You can’t be fine. I’m actually more worried that you might have a problem with your organs right now.”

If it gets messed up and there’s internal bleeding, that could be a serious issue for you, Yoori.

“Come on, organs? I don’t think it’s that serious. If it were that bad, I wouldn’t just be sitting here…, huh?”
“If it was such a serious injury, I wouldn’t just be sitting here… huh?”

Suddenly, Oh Yoori gasped, staring blankly at her abdomen as she muttered.

“It hurts.”

It seemed that she had just started to feel the pain now that she acknowledged her injury.

“Usually, in tense or exciting moments, the brain can temporarily forget about pain. And when the injury is recognized, the pain…”

“Uh, how much does it hurt?”

Oh Yoori hurriedly interrupted me with a slightly trembling voice.

“Well, it varies by situation and person. It’s hard to give an exact number or metric.”

“But roughly, can you guess?”

How should I put this?

“Um, I’d say it’s about ‘Ugh, it hurts!’ level?”

Her face turned pale as she trembled while saying that.

“I think it’s more than that.”

“Why? How much does it hurt?”

“Like, ‘Kyaaa! Please help! Hah, I promise… I’ll be good from now on. …Please!’ to the point of wanting to bang my head and faint?”

“Damn…!”

Shocked, I shut my mouth and drove the car toward the hospital.

Though it sounded lighthearted, judging by her sweaty and heavy breathing, that pain was no joke.

Wishing for her pain to lessen, I said with concern.

“I’ll get you to the hospital as fast as I can, so just hang in there a little longer!”

Oh Yoori, apparently struggling with the extreme pain, was tearing the leather seat.

“The secret base is about 320 degrees north from my house…”

What the hell, this is real.

*

Fortunately, her organs weren’t injured.

“I wasn’t just pretending to be hurt. It’s embarrassing, a bit.”

“Nobody would think you’re just pretending, so don’t worry.”

How could anyone think she was pretending when she was saying what she wanted to say with a face full of agony while a knife was about to pierce her throat?

“Here, eat this.”

“What is this?”

“It’s a banana latte. You must be hungry on an empty stomach, but since your stomach is shocked, start with this to settle it.”

“Thank you.”

Oh Yoori started to carefully sip the hot latte after blowing on it. I followed her lead and drank my latte too.

When her cold body warmed up with the temperature of the hot latte in the night air, Oh Yoori spoke.

“Team Leader Seon.”

“Yes, do you have something you want to say?”

“I have a lot to say… a lot.”

She looked at me with her red eyes and opened her mouth.

“Why did you help me?”

I took a sip of the latte and answered straightforwardly.

“I wanted to.”
“I’m sorry, but that’s not a sufficient reason.”

…No, why is everyone looking for reasons? I just did it because I wanted to.

“At our first meeting, you made a strange threat. And even when I offered help, you refused it. You disregarded what we had already discussed and acted unilaterally, causing a real nuisance. The intent was for Team Leader Seon to act in the way I wanted, which makes it even worse.”

“What way were you hoping for?”

“I wanted to publicize the issues with Girl 100 and then follow up by leaking information to ensure the waves wouldn’t die down.”

“Is that all?”

“That’s all.”

“No, you need to add one more thing.”

“…What are you referring to?”

You forgot the most important part, didn’t you?

“You want to protect me and Ye Han-na from being affected by this, right?”

“…”

What she hesitated to say was indeed the essence of the matter.

“If you really intended to use us more actively, you would have had a lot more options. You said you could trust me, right? Then asking for help would have been totally reasonable. But instead, you chose to shoulder all the burdens and take on huge risks for Eunbyeol.”

Oh Yoori shook her head.

“That’s because I’m full of the arrogance that I can do everything on my own.”

“No, it’s because you have the strength to carry everything yourself rather than placing the burden on others.”

“…”

“I think people like that need a reward, so I tried to help a bit.”

At this point, I thought I had explained enough, feeling somewhat satisfied as I looked at Oh Yoori.

But her reaction was a bit off.

I expected her to have a somewhat understanding expression, like, “Ah, I see!” but instead, she was making a face so twisted it looked like she was about to burst into tears.

“…Every time… Every time…”

With a painfully sad look in her eyes.

“…Every time, you do this!”

Oh Yoori pointed to the scars on my neck and said.

“You show up like that, push yourself too hard, and then smile as if it’s nothing, and you think I’ll just be grateful? You think if you took all the risks for me and said, ‘I just tried to help a bit,’ I would think, ‘Wow, I got lucky with this sucker?'”

…Isn’t a little happiness possible?

“No! Absolutely not! There’s no way that could happen!”

“…”

“When I see you like that, I’d rather you just got hurt instead!”

“…”

“Please… please think about the person who has to helplessly watch your back like that!”

Where did her proud poker face and acting go? Oh Yoori was staring at me, unable to hide her heated breaths.

Even though her emotions were pretty far removed from what I was feeling, looking at Oh Yoori like this made me feel proud.
It was an emotion quite detached from what I truly felt, but seeing Oh Yoori like that made me feel proud.

The typically expressionless, pessimistic kid who always drew lines between herself and others had grown to genuinely worry about someone. That brought me joy.

So I smiled softly and called out her name from my memories.

“Chunja.”

Upon hearing her old name, Oh Yoori responded with a blunt tone.

“It’s already been 2 years since I changed my name… huh?”

Tears began to spill from her eyes, which were quivering like they were about to burst.

“…Do you remember?”

“Yeah, embarrassing as it is, I just thought of it.”

Oh Yoori wiped away her overflowing tears with her sleeve and said.

“…Why did it take you so long to remember?”

Cut me some slack, Yuri.

It might be a 2-year-old incident for you, but for me, it’s a 12-year-old one! I mean, I’ve gone through so many events in between; I could forget for a moment, right? Plus, names and appearances have changed a lot since then.

Her very small height, reminiscent of early elementary school days, her long black hair down to her waist, and thick-rimmed glasses were all far removed from her current image. Above all, her personality had changed drastically. Back then, she was negative, speaking in informal tones without a hint of politeness.

I had plenty of excuses. But bringing them up would only make me look desperate as an adult. So I said it plainly.

“I’m sorry. I never imagined you’d change so wonderfully.”

I placed my hand on her head and gently patted it, just like those moments when I comforted her before.

“You’ve become a wonderful person, just like I said back then.”

Oh Yoori, who had been wobbling her mouth, finally opened it with great difficulty.

“Ugh, b-but… I’m like Taeyang, you know…”

I said to her.

“Much more than I am.”

Oh Yoori grabbed the hem of my shirt with trembling hands.

Then she buried her head in my chest and cried.

“…Ugh, waaaah.”

I was foolish in my childhood, without even a status window.

Not just foolish, but ignorant, reckless, and arrogant too.

Using the name of goodwill as an excuse, I often meddled in things with insufficient ability, and it was common for me to mess things up.

Yet I was convinced that the other person needed me, which I found embarrassing even looking back.

There was a child who said they wanted to be someone like me.

Not someone who ran away or turned a blind eye, but someone who could face things seriously with an open heart.

I was negative about that. Naturally, such an assessment was an overestimation, and I thought I wasn’t exactly a good person for anyone to look up to.

However, seeing Oh Yoori in front of me made me think that perhaps that ambition wasn’t entirely wrong.

“I’m going to be a wonderful person. Just like Taeyang.”

Well, she definitely had become a much more wonderful person than I was back then.

---

Support me by donating at least $10, and you'll have the right to request any novel from Novelpia (excluding 19+ content) using a newly developed tool.