NOVEL NEXT Chapter 64
064 – The Unruly Girl Jeong Sang-hwa! #2
It was when Oh Deok-hee was still a middle school student.
From one spring day, shameful graffiti started to appear on Oh Deok-hee’s desk, or her locker was randomly broken into, and stinky milk was poured inside.
—Hee hee hee.
—Look at her, she’s flustered.
—Is she crying?
No one knew who did this or why.
After a few more incidents, Oh Deok-hee, after much contemplation, finally told the teacher the truth.
“There’s no bullying in our class, right? Good, let’s keep it that way.”
A month later, after the teacher’s indifferent response, Oh Deok-hee was able to figure out that the student from the next class, “Jin Eun-byeol,” was involved in all of this. A friend who was somewhat close to her before transferring had said, “Actually, it’s Jin Eun-byeol…”
It made no sense at all.
Oh Deok-hee had never even exchanged a word with Jin Eun-byeol, nor were they in the same class.
‘Why is she making everyone ostracize me? What did I do wrong?’
The bullying only intensified.
But Jin Eun-byeol cleverly avoided doing anything that could tie back to her.
She was simply using others to torment Oh Deok-hee.
While Oh Deok-hee was suffering from this inexplicable bullying at school—
Her father’s factory suddenly hit a rough patch.
Long-trusted clients abruptly stopped supplying, and employees who had been part of the family for a long time resigned with harsh words, causing disruptions in their work.
Their livelihood began to wobble in no time.
Oh Deok-hee’s father became dependent on alcohol due to such reasons.
“When your husband is working hard outside, you should at least take care of things at home! What’s with this food? It’s the same thing you put out yesterday!”
Whenever her drunken father would raise his voice at her mother, Oh Deok-hee would take her younger sibling and go for a walk in the park.
Just months ago, their family had been relatively normal and harmonious, but how did it come to this?
“Sis, do you have any money?”
While swinging, her younger sibling cautiously asked, now in middle school.
At first, Oh Deok-hee thought she wanted to buy school supplies, but the next words were shocking.
“Hyun-jeong and I are at a coin karaoke, and some scary older kids came and took our phones… they said if we don’t bring in 100,000 won by this weekend, older high school boys will come…”
Sniffle—
Seeing her younger sibling in tears set Oh Deok-hee’s heart ablaze.
Her still young sibling was being bullied too.
She felt that some ‘girl’ was behind the misfortune her parents and they were experiencing.
“…Eun-byeol, why are you doing this to me?”
During break, Oh Deok-hee went to the next classroom and asked Jin Eun-byeol.
Jin Eun-byeol squinted her beautifully doll-like face, enough to wrinkle her nose.
“What did I do?”
Oh Deok-hee was taken aback and lost for words.
“Hey, what are you doing suddenly bothering Eun-byeol?”
“We were talking until you interrupted us!”
Jin Eun-byeol’s friends were harshly criticizing Oh Deok-hee from the side.
Being only a third-year middle school student, Oh Deok-hee couldn’t endure this atmosphere.
She wanted to turn around and run away, but thinking of her parents and sibling’s faces made her legs heavy.
Crack—
Oh Deok-hee kneeled.
“If I did something wrong, I’ll fix it. I’m sorry.”
Oh Deok-hee felt like a sinner.
The daughter of a large corporation, loved by everyone, a talented and pretty girl in front of her—a pitiful sinner who had nothing to showcase.
So she kneeled and apologized without even knowing what she did wrong.
Then, Jin Eun-byeol slightly brought her lips close to Oh Deok-hee’s ear.
“I just dislike you. I wish you would disappear in front of me.”
Six months later, Oh Deok-hee moved from Seoul to D City.
She graduated without making a single friend at the new school she transferred to in late third year.
And now.
Oh Deok-hee had resolved to face that Jin Eun-byeol again for her friend Baek-Yeoul.
Having gone through many experiences at “No Leftover Day,” she felt she had gained courage.
“Deok-soon, are we really going to guess first place? Huh? Now that I see, you are really an amazing friend! So these are the people who came to meet that Eun-byeol, right?”
Baek-Yeoul marveled at the long line.
Oh Deok-hee felt guilty for not telling her friend the truth.
“Oh? Hanam-jjin!”
Then she spotted Hanam-jin in the line.
What is he doing here, she thought for a moment— the villa’s gate opened, and a crowd surged in.
“Are you Baek-Yeoul and Oh Deok-hee? I’ll hold onto your phones, so hand them over this way.”
Baek-Yeoul and Oh Deok-hee followed a middle-aged woman to Jin Eun-byeol’s room.
Inside, with her back to a large mirror, Jin Eun-byeol was sitting demurely in a chair.
Huff—
As soon as Oh Deok-hee saw Jin Eun-byeol, her hands and feet trembled, her breath became erratic, and the world before her started to blur. Even after all this time, Jin Eun-byeol still seemed like a terrifying monster.
“Deok-hee, it’s been a while, huh? I heard you’re attending school in D City; it’s true! I wished to enroll with you at Min-young High in Seoul, but that’s a shame. And you must be Baek-Yeoul?”
“Hi! I’m Baek-Yeoul!”
“I heard there’s a concept of ‘Unluck.’ You must have had a hard time. I also had a peculiar concept that made me really sad. I sometimes cried alone in my room.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. You wanted to find Seoga-eul, right? If I have the concept of “Foreknowledge” which I awakened second, finding Seoga-eul will be easy. But I don’t work for free, you see.”
“Do, do I need money?”
Baek-Yeoul trembled.
Her house was poor and didn’t have money right now.
Then, Jin Eun-byeol smiled prettily.
“Correct. 10 billion.”
“Ten, ten billion?!”
“If you don’t have 10 billion, just putting your hand on this stone will suffice.”
Whoosh—
Jin Eun-byeol pulled out a stone the size of a thumbnail.
“What? Concept stone? What kind of concept is it?”
Baek-Yeoul recognized the stone.
She had seen how male student Hanam-jjin pulled out such stones when killing monsters.
“Concept stone…? Can you really call it that? Yes, it’s a concept stone, but I don’t really know what concept.”
Jin Eun-byeol squinted her pretty face.
As if forming wrinkles on her nose.
‘She’s lying.’
Oh Deok-hee felt a sense of déjà vu from Jin Eun-byeol’s expression.
It was the same expression Jin Eun-byeol had when Oh Deok-hee could no longer contain it and confronted her.
A wave of nausea washed over her.
“So, just placing my hand is enough?”
Whoosh—
Baek-Yeoul reached out and placed her hand on Jin Eun-byeol’s concept stone.
At that moment, the concept stone vibrated with a low hum.
“……”
Jin Eun-byeol’s expression turned icy in an instant.
“…Yumo, the party will end right now, so let that be known. Send everyone back. No, I’ll say it myself. You all wait here.”
Clatter—
Showing a strange reaction, Jin Eun-byeol stormed out after closing the door.
Clack, clack—
Baek-Yeoul and Oh Deok-hee tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t budge from being locked.
“Eun-byeol! Why did you lock the door? Why? I really need to go to the bathroom!”
“……”
It was in that moment when both Baek-Yeoul and Oh Deok-hee were bewildered at this sudden situation.
—I am Hanam-jjin from Yeongsa High!
A loud voice boomed from the garden.
# # #
Clop, clop, clop—
A girl in a black evening dress descended the stairs and stood before me.
Her hair was black, her eyebrows were black, her irises were black, everything was black.
Is she a raven?
“Are you Jin Eun-byeol?”
“You’re Hanam-jjin, right?”
Jin Eun-byeol chuckled in front of me.
“I heard a lot of stories here and there and was looking forward to it, but pfft, what? Not worth it? Just a noisy mutt, huh? No manners, no grace at all.”
Indeed, she was that treacherous girl who would keep the guests waiting only to send them away.
It seemed she had grown up without ever knowing true hardship.
“Laugh as much as you want. Soon you’ll be crying and pissing yourself. Even an apology wouldn’t suffice.”
“Really? Did everyone just hear what she said? I’m scared. She’s threatening me.”
“What kind of phrases are you using towards Eun-byeol?”
“Who are you?!”
“What are you doing! Hurry and get that guy out!”
“You crazy! How dare you be here!”
The surrounding adults seemed to scold me, Hanam-jjin instead of the rude Jin Eun-byeol.
Is this right?
How could this peninsula, known as a land of courtesy, have turned into this!
A situation where the one saying the right thing was treated like a madman.
I thought that maybe it would be good to instill some proper values in these people.
“If you’re the pillar of the country, then you should be on the streets taking care of the citizen’s livelihoods. But relying on omens and fortunes, that’s why a girl reeking of milk is acting up without knowing the fear of a tiger.”
What Jin Eun-byeol overlooked was that my attacks inflicted bonus damage on impolite girls.
“Hey! Hanam-jjin! I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but don’t! Hey! No! Don’t!”
Jang Hyeon-ah pulled back my collar, but it was already too late.
My hand was launching toward Jin Eun-byeol’s chest like a comet slamming down toward Earth.
“Nam-jin Press!!!!”
Boom—!
My palms struck the bulging bosom of Jin Eun-byeol’s evening dress. For a woman, the chest is as vulnerable as a man’s nether regions.
If grabbed strongly, they can’t move.
I found this out when I touched Yu Yeoreum’s bosom.
Woosh—!
“Ahhhhh!”
It seemed my prediction was accurate; Jin Eun-byeol, who had been looking arrogant and dauntless until just now, let out a scream as if being torn apart and fell to the ground.
What a refreshing scene!
Normalization of dysfunction!
“Ha ha! I love educating rude girls!”
“Ahhhhh! You bastard! Ahhhhh!”
The normalized Jin Eun-byeol was screaming like someone possessed, and the adults who had just tried to take me away hesitated and stepped back.
“Shouldn’t we call the police?”
“Somebody stop him! Men! What are you doing!”
“Look at his eyes! How do we stop a rampaging awakened one!”
“Just get it on camera! Get it on camera!”
Everyone was terrified by the sight of Jin Eun-byeol, whose mouth gaped open like a hellish maw, turning pale with fright.
But I was unbothered since I had often seen Seoga-eul going wild without care.
Compared to Seoga-eul, Jin Eun-byeol’s wildness was cute.
Her wildness was different in technique… ah, don’t even get started.
But one thing nagged at me.
Even if nobody could see it, my ’emotions’ were inescapable.
“Hey, Jin Eun-byeol. Stop acting. Honestly, it’s not that bad, is it?”
“……”
The voice that was yelling abruptly cut off.
Then she covered her little face with her palm and started to chuckle.
“Hee hee hee.”
“Cough, cough.”
At that moment, I thought it was a strange laugh.
“Hey, Hanam-jjin! What did you just do! Why are you here!”
Suddenly, Wang Ja-hyeon, who didn’t know what he had been doing until now, popped up.
Yes, in fact, my business wasn’t with Jin Eun-byeol’s A cup but rather Wang Ja-hyeon.
Wang Ja-hyeon alternately looked at Jin Eun-byeol, who was laughing on the floor, and me.
And then he snickered—grinning his lips into a smirk.
“Hey, can you handle this?”
Handle?
Originally, I wanted to proceed a little more gentlemanly and softly, but having turned tedious in many aspects, I decided to just bulldoze through like a man.
And the timing for a stage was also perfect.
“Um um, ah, um, ah! Wang Ja-hyeon! Seo Nam Group’s head Seo Do-cheol! Current President Nam Tae-geon! I heard you have evidence of collusion with the unregistered awakened ‘Billunners’ while committing arson at N Mart!”
“…Wh…what!? What the hell are you talking about? Are you crazy!? What nonsense are you saying! Don’t do something you can’t handle! Seriously…!”
Wang Ja-hyeon’s face, which had been confident just a moment ago, turned pale as if he were a corpse.
The formerly eerily laughing Jin Eun-byeol also ceased her laughter and furrowed her brow at me.
“Hanam-jjin, you….”
One year until destruction.
In a situation where I barely had time to help Seoga-eul with her role, I hated wasting time on useless matters.
Isn’t it a man’s duty to charge straight ahead?
“Y’all handle it. My tractor has no brakes.”