Chapter 102 ….
The Civil Servant Who Hid His Power Possesses Too Well
What does he know to be acting like that?
My thoughts churned in a complicated mess.
I didn’t have to play along with this truth game, but if I dodged the question now, that would just make him imagine something else.
For example…
That I have a hidden skill.
If it went that far, it would be troublesome.
I reminded myself that Choi Woojin’s skill was limited to sight and hearing at best.
Even if he saw me inside the unregistered dungeon, all he would’ve seen was me hugging a slime.
“…Yeah.”
When I admitted it readily, Choi Woojin’s eyes narrowed.
“I asked the slime to help me talk to the hackberry tree.”
“You talked to it directly?”
“Not exactly… I asked it to deliver my words to the tree.”
“What did you say?”
Choi Woojin leaned back against the plastic chair, never taking his eyes off me.
He looked like a hyena watching prey.
Like he was saying: Just die nicely and become my meal.
Since I’m bad at lying, I lowered my gaze briefly and pressed my hand against the table.
So hard that my fingertips turned white.
“I said… even if things don’t flow according to human will, human will itself still has meaning just by existing.”
At times like this, it’s best to mix in the truth.
Repeating exactly what I had told the hackberry tree, I slowly raised my head and looked at Choi Woojin.
“My parents had good intentions, but things didn’t go the way they wanted. Even so, their good will had meaning simply by existing.”
My mother’s will.
Its meaning.
That meaning… was Choi Woojin himself.
Choi Woojin looked at me with a strange expression, as if he understood.
I broke eye contact and spun the hangover cure bottle on the table.
The bottle’s tip pointed toward him.
I looked at Choi Woojin and said,
“My turn.”
“…Alright.”
“When did you find out I’m my mom’s daughter?”
Now the gun was pointed at him.
The playful smile vanished completely from Choi Woojin’s face.
He clenched his jaw, then spoke.
“…In high school.”
“…?”
What?
That’s way earlier than I expected.
“When I was in high school? Back then you—”
“No. When you were in high school.”
As soon as he said that, he put his smiling mask back on.
But I was thoroughly confused.
When I was in high school, wasn’t he in middle school? He knew me back then? How?
Leaving me in confusion, he spun the hangover bottle again.
And just as the bottle’s tip narrowly passed between us—
Someone grabbed it.
“…!”
The woman who picked up the bottle looked down at Choi Woojin and said,
“Looks like our officer goes out and buys ice cream himself.”
It was Pi Sowon.
With a stick between her lips, she blew out a stream of white smoke.
Right into Choi Woojin’s face.
…She smoked?
Choi Woojin frowned briefly, then plastered his bright smile back on.
“You know I like Investigator Lee Yuji.”
“…You? Did you?”
“You know I said I wanted to work with Investigator Lee Yuji during the interrogation. Very specifically. I fell for her the moment I saw her.”
Choi Woojin smiled at me.
Goosebumps rose all over my body.
Come to think of it — he already knew my mom was Han Seongye back then!
Scrape—
Pi Sowon shoved the stick into her pocket, dragged over a chair, and sat down.
“Right. Then I guess I interrupted your date. Didn’t I?”
“Exactly. It’d be even better if you left.”
Is this a battle between an unshakable queen and a plain bad-tempered jerk? What is this?
I couldn’t think of a way to stop them, so I just watched with an awkward face.
“Hearing you say that makes me want to stay. I have this habit of doing the opposite whenever I hear a criminal bastard talk.”
Pi Sowon stared at Choi Woojin with her signature piercing gaze.
Was that the same look she had when shooting?
A woman who looked like that down the sights… what did she feel when she had to quit shooting?
Suddenly, I remembered how it felt leaving the corporate team… leaving the training center.
When I was packing my things and saying goodbye to the coach, he didn’t even look at my face.
“Fuck, I’m seriously tired. Because of someone.”
Like he was talking to someone else — just swearing for me to hear.
“Criminal? That’s harsh. I just went there to buy some medicine.”
“Just? I don’t buy it. The great Daeyoung Guild’s grandson just happened to be at an illegal item trade site, and now suddenly you’re helping Investigator Lee Yuji catch villains? Not convincing.”
“Then are you saying I went there to bury Investigator Lee Yuji?”
Choi Woojin grinned.
In that instant, all my thoughts vanished.
I jumped to my feet.
This is bad.
If these lunatics keep fighting, Pi Sowon might pull a gun, and if she does, Choi Woojin might lose it and use his skill, and then both of them might end up killing each other!
So…!
“Maknae! Go buy ice cream and bring it to your seniors!”
“…?”
“…?”
The two of them stared up at me like I’d lost my mind.
“I was just giving the junior some discipline! From now on! Stop driving foreign cars! Take the subway when possible! If you’re late, a taxi is fine but…! That’s what I told him!”
I smiled sheepishly and plopped back into my seat, looking up at Pi Sowon.
“I did well, right…?”
…Right.
I’m drunk.
Even before awakening — and after — I could usually hold my liquor.
But come to think of it, the Hunter Investigation Unit was full of heavy drinkers.
There were C-rank, B-rank, A-rank monsters whose bodies were fundamentally different from mine.
It was obvious, but…
Why am I suddenly this drunk?
“The table… was it always this high up…?”
“…Did it not occur to you that you’re under the table?”
“Under? I’m on top though…”
“…Ha.”
The sound of Pi Sowon’s sigh was my last memory.
* * *
I’m screwed.
The moment I opened my eyes, that was the only thought in my head.
My fragmented memories quickly returned.
“Taxi! Where do you live? Where’s your house!”
“My house? My house… uweegh—”
I… threw up on someone.
Fuck.
It’s almost certain that someone was Pi Sowon.
The voice ringing in my ears had been hers the whole time.
“Since when did you start drinking this damn much?”
“You didn’t even look at me once! You just kept emptying soju glasses! And you call us partners? I was upset, so I drank! Because I was upset!”
“Who’s the one upset here, seriously… this is really…”
Did I really talk down to my direct superior?
Ha.
Do I need to submit my resignation tomorrow?
I wiped the moisture from my eyes and pushed myself up.
Resignation aside — my body feels completely dried out. I’m dying of thirst.
“…?”
But the moment I sat up, the furniture wasn’t mine.
I slowly turned my stiff neck like a creaking machine.
And beneath the bed I’d been lying on—
A woman curled up like a shrimp.
It was Pi Sowon.
Don’t tell me… this is Pi Sowon’s house?
At that moment, her last words came back to me.
“Let’s talk tomorrow when you wake up.”
And my bold reply surfaced too.
“Don’t worry! I’ll tell you everything!”
