NOVEL NEXT Chapter 52
Chapter 52. Reunion (4)
The man, unable to withstand the pain, tried to close his mouth.
“I told you not to bite.”
Lee Mi-a slapped the man’s cheek with her palm.
Bam!
The sound of her hand striking his cheek was like a percussion instrument.
With the following series of attacks, several of his teeth broke free from his gums.
Seeing him becoming more and more bloodied, Yoo Ji-han told her, “Stop.”
“He ignored my words.”
“More importantly, he’s already passed out.”
The man’s eyes, lying on the ground, were unfocused.
He had fainted from the overwhelming shock.
Yoo Ji-han sighed deeply.
‘Nothing has changed.’
She appeared to be a very fragile woman on the outside.
But as a Rank 2 Hero, Lee Mi-a acted with more audacity and aggression than many men.
It was no exaggeration to say that the force of her slap could almost cause shock death to her opponent.
“Looks like you killed someone.”
Lee Mi-a stared at a middle-aged woman collapsed in front of a vegetable shop.
Anticipating her next move, Yoo Ji-han quickly said, “Don’t kill her.”
“Why not?”
“The Hero Department will be here soon. We need to extract all the information we can.”
There were too many things to figure out—where that beastman came from, how many companions had crossed over to Earth with him.
Lee Mi-a’s eyes expressed her dissatisfaction with this plan.
“Do you think this trash will be of any help?”
“It might be even more helpful because it’s trash.”
Intruders who sell out their companions to save their own lives are common.
If they bait him with the promise of saving his life, they could extract sufficient information.
*
A few minutes later, police and Hero Department personnel arrived in the bustling area.
“What the….”
One police officer swallowed hard as he looked at the unconscious man.
Blood splattered on the ground and broken pieces of teeth littered everywhere.
It was easy to guess what had transpired here.
“Serves him right.”
For one who killed a human for no reason, this was merely a light punishment.
The intruder needed a much stronger penalty than this.
“Thank you for your hard work.”
The police officer saluted Yoo Ji-han and Lee Mi-a before taking the unconscious intruder away.
The corpse of the deceased woman was loaded into an ambulance and taken somewhere.
Lee Mi-a’s gaze was locked on the departing ambulance.
“They should’ve come a bit earlier.”
After Yoo Ji-han stayed behind with Lee Mi-a, he surveyed the area.
By now, a crowd of onlookers had gathered.
He heard snippets of their conversation.
“Isn’t that Kim Hyun-tae’s party?”
“Lee Mi-a? Is that really her?”
“Seriously?”
More and more people began to recognize the already famous Lee Mi-a.
However, no one approached to ask for autographs or tried to get close.
Thanks to her known personality, which was quiet yet incredibly rough.
“Let’s move for now.”
Due to the increasing number of onlookers, Yoo Ji-han took Lee Mi-a and moved to another location.
Though it was a somewhat sudden meeting, it seemed necessary to have a bit of conversation.
However, a place that was open like a café was a bit difficult.
He needed a space where they could have a conversation more freely.
‘Is there nowhere to go?’
The place he chose was…
The karaoke room on the first basement floor.
Yoo Ji-han approached the karaoke reception desk and handed over his card.
“One hour, please.”
“….”
The karaoke owner silently processed the payment.
Then, returning the card to Yoo Ji-han, he pointed to a paper hanging on the wall.
[No affectionate acts are permitted inside the singing practice room.]
The poster warned that affectionate acts inside the room were prohibited.
It was a message implying that they viewed the two as a couple.
“Uh….”
With a slightly dumbfounded expression, Yoo Ji-han said, “We’re not a couple.”
“Well, that’s fine.”
“….”
As he took back the card, Yoo Ji-han stole a glance at Lee Mi-a’s face.
She still wore her expressionless demeanor.
‘She’s not angry, is she?’
He worried that he might have unintentionally offended her.
If he knew the Lee Mi-a he was familiar with, she could very well fume silently while keeping a straight face.
“Please enter room number four.”
The two entered the designated room and sat on the plush chairs.
In the dark karaoke room where the ceiling lights were off, the only thing illuminating the interior was a large monitor displaying lyrics and song searches.
After briefly surveying the room, Lee Mi-a asked him, “Are you going to sing?”
“No. I just couldn’t think of a better place to talk comfortably.”
Yoo Ji-han looked at Lee Mi-a.
“So… It’s been quite a while.”
“Yeah. A little over a month, right?”
“I think so.”
The two had spent the last seven years together, seeing each other nearly four times a week in Kim Hyun-tae’s party.
And today was their first meeting since Yoo Ji-han left the party.
Having been together on-site every time, simply being apart for over a week felt like a long time.
“Lee Mi-a, what were you doing around here?”
“Just shopping for a bit. I was going to go to the mart since we’re out of food at home.”
Lee Mi-a’s house was a bit far from this bustling area.
Knowing this, Yoo Ji-han found her presence here quite unexpected.
‘She used to love eating.’
She usually had a significant appetite.
She could easily devour about ten servings of pork in one sitting.
If she were an ordinary person instead of a hero, she would already be a pig by now.
“Did you just think something rude?”
“I didn’t!”
“Your expression seems a bit….”
How did she figure it out?
Clearing his throat, Yoo Ji-han changed the subject.
“By the way, have you been well?”
“Yeah.”
“And how are Kim Hyun-tae and the other party members?”
“They’re the same as before.”
He asked her the basic greetings.
It seemed meaningless to worry about someone who was already part of a greatly successful party, but it was something to ask out of courtesy.
“I heard there’s a new party member.”
“…….”
“When I officially left, I saw that Guild Master Park Joong-seob quickly made that new member a full party member, so he must be pretty decent.”
“Maybe.”
Mentioning the new party member, Lee Mi-a showed a lukewarm reaction.
‘Is something wrong?’
Her personality was such that she’d clearly express what she liked and disliked.
If she threw an ambiguous reply, it meant there was something on her mind that bothered her.
‘Not my business.’
But Yoo Ji-han didn’t delve too deeply into it.
As someone who was no longer part of the same party, it wasn’t something he needed to concern himself with.
“Do you know about this?”
“……?”
“That vampire we met the other day in the MA?”
“Kazimir?”
“Yeah. I met him today, and he’s now a member of the Hero Department. He’s working as a researcher at the institute.”
“Interesting.”
Lee Mi-a showed interest when she heard Kazimir was working as a researcher in the Hero Department.
“I heard that thanks to his research, several rare diseases that were previously hard to cure have been resolved.”
“That’s great.”
“After all, stopping Kim Hyun-tae back then was the right choice.”
Back when Kim Hyun-tae’s party encountered Kazimir in the MA.
Kim Hyun-tae had ignored Kazimir’s request to talk and tried to kill him.
At that moment, it was Yoo Ji-han who stood in front of Kim Hyun-tae.
“Kim Hyun-tae was yelling like crazy.”
“I can understand. The party missed the intruder we had encountered before right in front of our eyes.”
Yoo Ji-han had to protect Kazimir, who was surrendering even against the order of his party master.
Because of that, Kazimir saved his life, and thanks to the vampire’s involvement, several patients with rare diseases regained their health.
Although for not following orders, Yoo Ji-han ended up hearing complaints from Kim Hyun-tae for nearly a week, he could confidently say it was worth it in the end.
“After that, the others have been a bit more annoyed with you.”
“I know.”
“…….”
“But it wouldn’t have changed much, even if that hadn’t happened.”
Though he hadn’t directly heard the story from Park Joong-seob, it was undoubtedly Kim Hyun-tae’s and Park Joong-seob’s will that had primarily led to Yoo Ji-han’s expulsion from the party and guild.
And it wasn’t merely because they saved Kazimir’s life.
“Now I’m in a new guild.”
“I know.”
“You already know? How?”
“Current told me. Said you joined a guild called Sweet Fun.”
Lee Hyun-jae, the head of management at Keroes, had also informed Lee Mi-a about Yoo Ji-han.
Lee Mi-a gazed at Yoo Ji-han and said, “Are you happy in your current party?”
“I’m very happy.”
“……!”
His immediate reply, without a second of hesitation, surprised Lee Mi-a.
“You really like it, then.”
“That’s right.”
“More than Kim Hyun-tae’s party?”
“Honestly, yes.”
“……I’m glad to hear that.”
If Yoo Ji-han were still in Kim Hyun-tae’s party, it would have been an unimaginable answer.
Knowing this fact made Lee Mi-a smile bitterly.
Seeing him do better than before after leaving the party somehow gave her a sense of relief.
In an hero party, lives are at stake, and they share life and death.
Thus, even if a hero has some complaints, they often become attached to their affiliation and hesitate to switch parties…
Clearly, expelling Yoo Ji-han from the party back then was the right choice.
“Plus, I became the party leader.”
“The party leader? You?”
“I was sort of pushed into it when the guild master gave it to me.”
“The party leader….”
Lee Mi-a murmured as she looked down at the table.
“That suits you well. Party leader.”
“Really?”
“Your judgment on-site has hardly ever been wrong. It makes sense for you to take on that role.”
“I was just lucky.”
“That kind of luck doesn’t come to everyone.”
She expressed her honest feelings in a calm tone.
She remembered the times when judgments based on sampling were accepted by the party, leading to successful outcomes.
‘Unexpected.’
Hearing her say something like this was a first for Yoo Ji-han, making him feel a little embarrassed.
Suddenly—
A white background appeared on the silent karaoke monitor as a video began to play.
For a moment, in the brightened room, Yoo Ji-han, who was looking at Lee Mi-a’s face, said, “You still have something on your body.”
“…….”
There was something resembling red liquid splattered in her hair.
It seemed a drop of blood had splattered onto her hair while she was attacking the intruder just moments ago.
Given how brutally she had been hitting him, it was no surprise.
“Do you have any tissues or a handkerchief?”
“I do.”
“Please pass one to me.”
Yoo Ji-han took the white handkerchief and wiped away the bloodstains on her hair.
When he was still in Kim Hyun-tae’s party, he had always carried a dedicated towel for Lee Mi-a in his bag to clean off any dirt that got on her.
“I wonder if you’ve been taking care of yourself since then.”
“……Are you looking down on me?”
“Of course I am. You always make a mess, and I had to clean it up.”
With a very honest answer, Lee Mi-a pouted, seemingly displeased.
“Since leaving the party, you’ve become kind of cocky.”
“If you don’t want to hear that, then just try to fight a little less roughly.”
As Yoo Ji-han brought the handkerchief to her face to wipe her bangs, she closed her eyes.
‘I still can’t believe it.’
It was hard to imagine that a person like her would fight like a madwoman the moment a battle started.
Even knowing her for seven years, Yoo Ji-han still found himself unaccustomed to her wild transformation.