NOVEL NEXT Chapter 20
020 – Abduction, Like Angry Waves Hitting a Cliff #3
I wrapped Seoga-eul’s limbs tightly and covered her entire body with a blanket.
Seoga-eul gimbap complete!
Struggle, struggle, struggle-.
It wasn’t easy, as Seoga-eul thrashed around fiercely.
“Ugh! Ugh!”
But it was a futile resistance.
A weakened Seoga-eul couldn’t resist against me, an awakened one.
The difference in physical abilities between a non-awakened and an awakened person is like that between an elementary school student and a high school student.
“Seoga-eul, the full moon really was your weakness.”
“…!”
Seoga-eul, you’re mine!
With Seoga-eul gimbap slung over my shoulder, I jumped off the office building’s terrace.
Just before hitting the ground, I activated my newly learned “Air Jump,” resetting my position and kinetic energy, making the landing astonishingly easy.
All that was left was to vanish into the darkness. Just as planned, I sprinted toward the next house, where no one lived!
According to my investigation, the adjacent house had a pretty sturdy basement, and there couldn’t be a better place than that to imprison Seoga-eul.
After arriving at the basement of the neighboring house, I placed Seoga-eul in that old, moldy-smelling location.
“…!”
Under the flickering light, Seoga-eul, tightly bound with tape, glared at me with red eyes. If looks could kill, I’d already be dead ten times over.
“Don’t blame me too much. I wanted to act like a gentleman too. But Seoga-eul, you didn’t cooperate.”
I captured and imprisoned Seoga-eul in a place known only to me.
It felt like a dream come true.
I did it, Hanam-jin!
“Seoga-eul, I’ll first loosen your mouth, so you have to be good. I want to be friends with you. If you follow my words, I’ll become an angel, and if you don’t, I’ll become a devil.”
“…….”
“If you understand my words, nod your head.”
Nod-nod.
Good. Is this what it feels like to be on the same wavelength?
I genuinely felt a connection between us.
Squeak-.
I peeled off the tape from Seoga-eul’s mouth.
The moment I did, she lunged at me like a carp, biting my ankle.
Crunch-!
“Aaaah! You crazy girl!”
It really hurt! My ankle might break!
“Let go! I said let go!”
Smack! Smack!
I had no choice but to hit Seoga-eul’s head to save my leg, and maybe because she was beaten, she collapsed to the floor.
“You bastard! Perverted bastard! Let me goooooo!!!”
Seeing Seoga-eul scream, bleeding from her mouth and nose, I instinctively realized how ridiculous the task I had taken on was.
Actually, the abduction was not the goal, but the process.
What Seoga-eul had commissioned me for was not ‘abduction’ but ‘training.’
In other words, this was just the beginning.
“Aaaah! Help! Somebody help me!”
Seoga-eul opened her bloodied mouth and screamed around.
Very, very loudly. But I knew well that yelling would accomplish nothing here; no one would hear.
“Seoga-eul, there’s no point in screaming for help. And I’m the one saving you. Later, you’ll thank me.”
# # #
Ding ding-.
The alarm on my smartwatch rang.
7 AM. It was about time to go to school.
I had spent the entire night in that basement of the neighboring house, where I was keeping Seoga-eul.
I intended to have a conversation with Seoga-eul and discuss the future direction, but she was extremely uncooperative.
She screamed for help until she realized it was pointless and then completely closed her mouth.
It was as if she was expressing with her whole body, “I won’t talk to you.”
Typically, in cases of abduction, one would expect fear to make someone cooperate, but Seoga-eul did not.
She was unflinching and proud.
It felt like there was a massive pride stick inside her white skin, making her absolutely unbreakable.
In such a situation, I would expect to see some emotional turmoil, but there was none to be found.
How strong was her heart?
A woman of iron?
It seemed that training Seoga-eul would take a bit of time.
Could I do enough training in about a year before the end of the world that would satisfy Seoga-eul, my client? Would I really receive the reward of ‘soft and squishy’?
The future would be the key.
Crackle-.
I first wrapped Seoga-eul’s two fists tightly with black tape.
Thinking back to when she threatened me with a palm-out “Come closer, and I’ll kill you!” in the bathroom, it was clear her abilities came from her palms, so I needed to neutralize them first.
Swish-.
I also shackled her arms and legs with chains and a collar.
This neighboring house had originally been a dog-breeding facility, but it had been abandoned after the government banned eating dogs.
Thanks to that, I could procure excellent chains and a sturdy basement for free.
“…….”
Throughout this entire process, Seoga-eul didn’t utter a single word.
What a tough nut.
“You want to escape? Try blooming your abilities anew. You’re a multi-ability holder, right? You’re special, so if you want to escape, you have to train rigorously. Do some meditation and yoga too.”
Perhaps Seoga-eul could become the key to stop the upcoming ‘destruction.’ At least that’s what she believed when she commissioned me.
More importantly, I needed to get ready for school quickly.
With Seoga-eul’s disappearance last night, there would surely be quite a commotion at both school and in the world, right?
I shouldn’t be late today, or I might end up being a suspect.
“I’ll leave this PT bottle here. Drink it if you get thirsty. If you need to take care of business, figure it out yourself. I’ll clean it all up for you, Seoga-eul; I’m ready to accept everything about you.”
“…….”
With that, I somewhat tidied myself up and headed to school.
It wasn’t late, but not necessarily early either, so a few students were already sitting in the classroom, and something caught my eye immediately.
My seatmate, Baek-Yeoul.
Her hair─.
“Pink?”
How could someone’s hair be pink?
She sure knows how to surprise me first thing in the morning.
“D-Don’t look!”
Having seen my reaction, Baek-Yeoul covered her hair with both hands.
“What flavor?”
“Yaaaaah!”
She exclaimed loudly, making a ruckus.
But seeing Baek-Yeoul acting like a fool made my mood a bit lighter. Honestly, abducting Seoga-eul was a huge gamble for me, making it hard to settle my excited heart.
“So, was there anything unusual yesterday?”
Baek-Yeoul asked me.
Unusual? A whole lot happened.
“Nothing happened.”
“Really? I thought Wang Ja-hyeon’s group would definitely try to cause some trouble. Always keep your guard up; they might annoy you for no reason. Speaking of which…”
Baek-Yeoul hesitated.
“Can I come over to your house again today?”
“My house?”
“You mentioned it in the group chat yesterday. There’s going to be another practice soon, so I thought we could strategize together—”
Did I say something like that in the group chat? I had no time to check my phone last night while I was busy with my important mission.
More importantly, she wants to come over today?
No way. That’s off-limits because Seoga-eul is in the neighboring house.
If Seoga-eul screams, it might be heard in my house.
“It doesn’t seem like I can have you over today.”
“Why?”
Why? Why would I say that? Has Baek-Yeoul always been this inquisitive? She looked at me with eyes like a detective piercing into a case.
“Hey, Baek-Yeoul. Didn’t you cause a ruckus yesterday?”
Just then, a girl with her hair dyed yellow, looking like she was ready to have fun, approached us. The same girl who had splashed hot chocolate on me last time.
“What’s up with your hair? Are you unhappy with society or something?”
Swish-.
The girl reached out toward Baek-Yeoul’s peculiar pink hair.
“Don’t touch!”
Baek-Yeoul growled like an angry raccoon. I was surprised by her attitude, and the yellow-haired girl seemed taken aback as she stepped back.
Baek-Yeoul showing such courage? But the girl laughed as if Baek-Yeoul’s attitude was amusing.
“What’s up with that? Who do you think you are? What if I touch it?”
“If you touch it… I’ll get mad! If I get mad, you have no idea what might happen! Do you want to be unhappy all day? If I write your name with this red pen, your luck will be terrible all day long!”
Swish-.
Baek-Yeoul threatened the yellow-haired girl with a red pen.
All eyes were on us in that situation.
“Name: Kim Jin
Status: {Embarrassment and Anger} – Angry because Baek-Yeoul feels like she’s being dismissed. Wants to show her mettle and solidify her ranking among girls in front of everyone.”
“Go ahead and try.”
Swoosh-.
The girl ruffled Baek-Yeoul’s pink hair with her colorful nails. In an instant, Baek-Yeoul’s hair was a complete mess.
But she didn’t stop there; she knocked Baek-Yeoul’s hand cream and pencil case from her desk to the floor.
Thud thud thud-.
“So, what are you going to do?”
“You! Just wait!”
Baek-Yeoul retaliated by writing Kim Jin’s name with her red pen.
And that was that. Nothing happened.
What sudden confidence did Baek-Yeoul find?
Did she get contaminated by hair dye or something?
Crash-!
Just then, it seemed that a baseball broke the window, hitting Kim Jin on the head.
Thwack-!
“Ack!”
Kim Jin, being an awakened person, didn’t get seriously injured from getting hit, but as she stumbled when losing her balance, she stepped on the hand cream that had fallen to the floor.
“Whoa!”
She wobblingly stumbled and then crashed down—Kim Jin, the delinquent girl.
The real issue was that her already short skirt rode up, exposing her white thighs and buttocks.
Despite her glamorous look, her underwear was quite innocent.
“W-Who are you staring at, you brats! Aren’t you going to look away?”
Kim Jin startledly pulled her skirt down and shot a killing glare at Baek-Yeoul. But after perhaps sensing something was off with Baek-Yeoul’s gaze, she quickly turned her head and left.
“How boring. Baek-Yeoul, you’ll regret this later!”
Right, you usually avoid crazy dogs out of fear.
As Kim Jin rushed out of the classroom with a bright red face, Baek-Yeoul, who had previously been roaring, turned to me and said.
“Did you see that! Did you see? I was able to apply my concept! My ‘bad luck’ became level 2! I think I can control my bad luck to some extent!”
Baek-Yeoul applying a concept?
I had no idea what happened yesterday, but it was impressive. Maybe the experience from the office party gave Baek-Yeoul a big change of heart.
Rattle-.
At that moment, the door opened, and Captain Kang Cheol-min walked into the classroom.
“As you all know, there was an incident last night.”
Why is he talking like this as soon as he walks in?
He was definitely going to bring up Seoga-eul’s abduction.
“Hanam-jin, what were you doing causing trouble outside the school!”
“Who, me?”
“Those videos that are trending on Starby—you know that students from Yeongsa High School have a duty to maintain their dignity, right? You’re sentenced to 20 hours of community service as punishment.”
Starby?
Oh, he must be referring to the incident where I made Sa Ma-jun apologize and got a glimpse of the model girl’s panties.
Getting 20 hours of community service for something so trivial is such bad luck! But at least I’m not being called out for the abduction of Seoga-eul.
That feeling of relief lingered until after school.
Worried about leaving Seoga-eul behind, I felt distracted all day. It’s like I finally understood why husbands with new brides want to leave work early.
‘For the daughter of a global conglomerate to be kidnapped, the world seems too quiet.’
It was strange that no one was talking about Seoga-eul’s disappearance or kidnapping.
“Nam Jin, is this really you?”
“This video! Amazing!”
Everyone seemed more interested in the useless videos from the office party.
The day passed by as if nothing had happened.
No matter what, I wanted to get back to Seoga-eul to check on her, but unfortunately, I had to serve 20 hours of community service due to causing trouble.
Picking up garbage around the school.
Yet, I unexpectedly met someone during the service.
“You’re Yu Yeoreum, right?”
“Yeoreum.”
“You caused trouble too? I didn’t know you’d have to do community service.”
“I’m doing it voluntarily.”
It was Yu Yeoreum, who had provided me with helpful tips that greatly aided in my abduction of Seoga-eul.
The class president of Class F and a legendary genius. Who would have thought I’d encounter a treasure in community service of all places?
Luck and fortune really are a thin line apart.
Since Yu Yeoreum is also a friend of Seoga-eul in Class F, should I ask her?
What happened in Class F today?
“Yeoreum, can I ask you one thing? How was Seoga-eul at school today?”
“Seoga-eul? She said she was sick and took a break.”
Sick and took a break?
Not missing?