SRW | Chapter 29

“Wait…wouldn’t it actually be better to have someone else clean the huge villa instead of just us two? Sounds way more convenient…”

As someone who’d never cleaned a room in my life, Kim Jaeyoung’s suggestion sounded tempting. But I shook my head. I needed to minimize how often he used his abilities to prevent his skill level from increasing.

“Hey, Kim Jaeyoung. Jaeyoung.”

“Yeah, Eunsoo.”

“Let’s keep it just the two of us. You and me, nobody else.”

“Just us two?”

“Yeah. We’ll clean together, eat together, sleep…wait no, we’ll sleep separately.”

“…Okay.”

Watching Kim Jaeyoung smile softly while giving such a docile response made goosebumps rise on my arms. He loved it when I emphasized “just us two.” Whenever I wanted to control him, I’d say embarrassing things like this. Seeing him get unusually flustered always made me feel awkward too.

“Let’s get some sleep before we leave. Who knows when we’ll get to rest after we set out.”

As I flopped onto the couch, Kim Jaeyoung draped a blanket over me.

Right then—

BANG BANG BANG!

Someone frantically pounded on the science lab door. Before I could tell them to enter, a bloodied male student shoved the door open and collapsed onto the floor with a crash.

“H-help me…”

His body was so battered it looked like he might stop breathing any second. When his blood threatened to stain our prepared backpack, Kim Jaeyoung swiftly lifted the bag onto the bed. Then he frowned while checking if any blood got on it. Typical of him to worry about the bag getting dirty while a person was dying right in front of us.

“What the hell happened?”

“M-monsters… cough! Everyone’s in danger…! Please help…!”

The collapsed student was one of the cafeteria’s Awakened. Seems monsters had attacked. Were there a lot of them? Or had that humanoid monster reappeared? If an Awakened had fled here in this state, what condition were the others in? The faces of Hwang Sooyeon and Bear, who’d been kind to me, flashed through my mind.

“…Damn it, right before we leave too.”

Hwang Sooyeon had healed me when I was near death. Bear had kept believing in me even when everyone else pointed fingers. I’d planned to leave without saying goodbye, thinking they’d be fine, but this didn’t sit right with me.

“How many? What do they look like?”

“Cough! O-one… Never seen it before… Wears a mask… cough!”

“Wow, that bastard again?”

If it was that humanoid monster, the newly Awakened wouldn’t stand a chance. I sighed and looked at Kim Jaeyoung. He stared down at the guy on the floor with complete indifference until our eyes met, then furrowed his brows and lowered his head. Though he clearly wasn’t thrilled, he seemed to be waiting for my decision.

“…Let’s help them. One last time.”

As always, Kim Jaeyoung nodded without complaint. After stretching lightly and steadying my breathing, I kicked the gasping cafeteria student.

Thud!

“Guhk!”

“You heartless bastard. I don’t know your name, but I remember you pointing an axe at me.”

“……”

“If Hwang Sooyeon’s unharmed, I’ll bring her back. Try not to die before then. Or better yet, just die.”

As I stepped out while hurling insults, the guy on the floor grabbed my ankle, staining the hem of my new tracksuit with red blood. Damn disgusting. I shook him off with a kick, but he grabbed my ankle again.

“Gah!”

This time, Kim Jaeyoung stomped on his arm. With a sickening crack, the guy screamed in pain.

“…Why the hell are you grabbing him?”

Especially when I’ve got a psycho attached to my side.

The Awakened student clutched his mangled wrist, writhing before speaking in a desperate voice:

“I… I… What if I die alone…?”

“And?”

“Cough! Just…leave one person… cough cough!”

Had he gone crazy facing death?

“…If it’s just one monster, you can handle it alone, right Kim Jaeyoung?”

This wasn’t out of pity. Seeing the cafeteria people would be awkward, and they probably wouldn’t appreciate my help anyway. Kim Jaeyoung could solo one humanoid monster, and it’d be better to avoid their judgmental stares by not going at all.

Kim Jaeyoung had turned icy the moment someone else touched me. The bloodstain on my pants seemed to bother him too.

“…Can’t do it.”

“Don’t lie.”

“Come with me.”

This grown man was whining like a kid. I grabbed both his cheeks with my hands. Kim Jaeyoung pouted adorably with his face squished. How could someone look this cute even when their face is being mushed? When I grinned, his furrowed brows relaxed slightly.

“It’s better if the cafeteria kids don’t see me, dumbass.”

“……”

“I’ll wait for you.”

Kim Jaeyoung reluctantly nodded. As he trudged out of the lab, I patted his back a couple times. Then he reached out and intertwined our fingers. Guess he really didn’t want to go. When I swung our clasped hands playfully, he finally smiled with his eyes closed. Seemed to cheer him up a bit. Complicated yet so simple.

After Kim Jaeyoung left for the cafeteria, I stepped over the twitching cafeteria guy and lay back on the couch, closing my eyes. Kim Jaeyoung would return while I napped. Whether that guy died in the meantime wasn’t my problem.

‘We should leave as soon as Kim Jaeyoung gets back.’

Once the two of us left Seoul, we’d escape all the scenarios from my dreams. Despite all the twists and turns, my efforts to change the future might have actually succeeded. The process didn’t matter as long as the result was good.

“……?”

As I was about to fall asleep, I sensed movement. I ignored it at first, thinking the dying guy was flailing, but something felt off. A cautious rustling sound reached my ears, too careful for someone on death’s door.

I opened my eyes.

“You motherf—!”

The guy who’d seemed moments from death earlier was now holding a globe high above his head.

“Ahhh!”

He smashed the globe down toward me. It split in two as I rolled off the couch onto the floor. I tried to get up immediately, but his kick to my stomach was faster.

“Die! Just die, Sun Eunsoo!”

I curled up to minimize the damage from his kicks. Aside from the wrist Kim Jaeyoung had crushed, he looked perfectly fine. No deep wounds. So all that blood had been fake. Why go this far? What grudge did he have against me?

While taking the hits, I scanned my surroundings for something to turn the tables. I was decent at hand-to-hand combat and confident against one opponent, especially with his wrist broken.

Just as I reached to trip him, the door burst open. A group rushed in, four of the cafeteria’s Awakened and…Nam Jinsu, a non-Awakened.

The Awakened immediately surrounded me. They weren’t armed, so they probably wanted to knock me out rather than kill me. I couldn’t take on five Awakened alone, so I pretended to pass out while looking for an escape route…until the door slammed open again.

“What the hell is going on here?!”

It was Bear’s voice. He tried to step toward me, but Nam Jinsu, who was standing by the door with a large sack, blocked his way.

“Stay out of this, Kang Deokho!”

“I knew something was wrong, but this…?!”

“We’re doing this for everyone’s sake, so stop acting righteous and scram!”

“Eunsoo-sunbaenim!”

Nam Jinsu and Bear grappled. Though both were non-Awakened, Bear, being an ex-athlete, had the advantage.

“Hurry! Kim Jaeyoung might come back any minute!”

“Knock Kang Deokho out!”

When Nam Jinsu struggled against Bear, one Awakened punched Bear, sending him crashing into the wall.

“E-Eunsoo…sunbaenim… cough!”

Bear tried getting up, but Nam Jinsu kicked him down again. Nam Jinsu seemed thrilled to finally have the upper hand against someone he could never beat before.

“You arrogant bastard! Acting all righteous! You always thought you were better than me!”

Bear’s focus was fading fast. This looked bad…he might actually die. As I crawled toward him, the Awakened grabbed my hair. Realizing I wouldn’t stay down easily, they started targeting my head.

My vision darkened.

“Nam Jinsu! Stop and stuff Sun Eunsoo into the sack. Grab that backpack too.”

“What about the motorcycle? It’s parked outside.”

“Take it. Otherwise Kim Jaeyoung will get suspicious.”

Now I understood. They didn’t want to lose a powerful Awakened like Kim Jaeyoung either. They planned to fake it so it looked like I’d left him behind.