Chapter 196
Sung Yu-Da's servant escorted me to the front gate of the mansion.
"If you want, sir, I can drive you home," the servant said, opening the car door with grace as if he had done this many times before.
I shook my head.
“Thank you, but I'll go alone. It's more convenient for me."
"Ah, I understand. Well then..."
The servant quickly paced back into the mansion. I quietly watched their retreating figure and went to the dormitory after the gate closed.
I checked on the flower I was growing. Thanks to the watering I had done earlier, the soil was still moist. I lay on the bed, thinking about when it would sprout and flower.
Sung Yu-Da knew.
Since when? He could have known from the beginning, or he could have found out midway, or maybe he had just been suspicious until our conversation, and that’s when he became certain.
Either way, he knew that I was the Cult Leader of the Voodooists and was keeping quiet for some reason.
[How audacious, Legba. Don't you also know about their relationship?]
Baron Samedi's words must be related to that reason. The ‘their’ in ‘their relationship’ would be referring to Sung Yu-Da and my father, and it could possibly include my mother as well.
So what happened between Sung Yu-Da and my father that made him stay silent about my secret identity? I didn’t have a clue. It didn't seem as simple as merely feeling guilty for betraying a friend. Legba or Baron Samedi might know what happened between Sung Yu-Da and his father, but...
[I can't tell you about that incident either.]
For now, it seemed like Legba had no intention of speaking about the topic.
"What happened that was so significant that you are keeping it a secret?" I said, feeling a bit frustrated.
Legba pretended to be helpful but remained silent when it came to providing the information I needed.
The bitter sound of Legba's laughter echoed softly in my mind.
[There’s too much to explain once I start talking about what happened back then.]
"Since we're already talking, you might as well explain everything."
[No, I can't.]
"Why not?"
[It's not the right time. Your doubts won't be resolved even if I tell you the story. Instead, they will only accumulate and deepen your confusion.]
"Ha, I see..."
Seeing he wasn’t budging despite my earnest request, it seemed like he had no intention of speaking about the topic. I resigned, covered myself with the blanket, and closed my eyes. If neither Legba nor Baron Samedi told me, then my mother and Sung Yu-Da were the only ones who knew about what had happened back then.
Unfortunately, there was no guarantee that my mother was in a state to speak correctly. Then, that left only Sung Yu-Da. However, Sung Yu-Da seemed visibly shaken after I showed him the ring today. He would have realized that it was a clear threat with an aggressive message along the lines of: “I know you, and I know that you know me.”
Because of that, he wouldn't be able to report me to the Holy See, but he would be highly cautious of me, making it difficult to get the answers I wanted even if I asked. I could secretly extract the information through Ha-Yeon, but it seemed difficult because Ha-Yeon didn’t seem to have a good relationship with Sung Yu-Da. It was also a problem that I don't know what Sung Yu-Da might have said to Ha-Yeon after I left.
Although I had told Ha-Yeon in advance, just in case...
[Wait for when the moment is right.]
At the moment, there was no apparent path. As Legba had said, waiting for the right moment seemed fitting.
[Yes. The bait has been cast, and they’ll bite at it eventually.] Baron Samedi intervened, chuckling.
[Be satisfied that you showed the ring today. Wasn’t it amusing to see him trembling over just one ring?]
"No, not as..."
It wasn’t that amusing.
Ignoring Legba and Baron Samedi’s words, I went to sleep. There were too many things to worry about, and I couldn’t get any proper sleep. As a result, I had an immense amount of accumulated fatigue.
Sleep came quickly, but I had nightmares of the Holy War repeating over and over, nightmares of fire swallowing me whole, things like that. They felt strangely familiar, almost cliché. It felt like I had experienced countless instances of these when I was a child.
When I woke up, it was still dark. It was so dark inside and outside that I couldn't see anything, so I couldn't correctly gauge the time. Instead of feeling refreshed, I felt groggy, probably because of the nightmares.
Still, I felt a little relieved from the fatigue. I felt thirsty and tried to get up from bed to drink water.
"..."
At that moment, I felt someone's gaze on me. A yellow glow emerged from the darkness and flashed. There was a horizontal line drawn within the pupils. The gaze was venomous, like that of a snake. No, those were the eyes of a snake.
"Uh, it means I don’t have an excuse for being late. My bad!"
"You... do you want to fight?"
"You think you have a chance? We can use blessings, right?"
While the two of them argued, another boy who had come with them approached In-Ah. He was the guy who used to hang out with Sung-Hyun’s group at the beginning of the semester. The boy scratched the back of his head nervously.
"Um, In-Ah, right?"
"Ah... yeah, why?" In-Ah coldly returned the greeting.
Even when she tried to be non-judgmental, she still couldn’t help it because of one reason: that the boy used to hang out with Sung-Hyun. Although he said that he wasn’t close to Sung-Hyun now, this boy would have continued to hang out with him if Sung-Hyun hadn't been expelled. She didn’t like how he kept it on the low after Sung-Hyun’s expulsion because it felt like he was trying to launder his identity.
"No, it's just... You know, the way I acted at the beginning of the semester... If I did anything to upset you back then, I want to apologize," he said.
"No, it's okay. What's the point of..." In-Ah said, waving her hands.
At first glance, it sounded like she was accepting the apology, but in reality, it meant she had no intention of accepting the apology because it was overdue.
The boy also vaguely knew that In-Ah wasn't friendly toward him and nodded.
In-Ah’s friend, who had been arguing with another boy, came over and casually started a conversation. "What? Are you two already friends? We were the most worried about you two."
They hadn’t become close, and if anything, their relationship became more uncomfortable than before, but In-Ah smiled and nodded.
"Just, you know. We just said hey."
"Yeah?"
The friend nodded, looking back and forth between In-Ah and the boy. Then, she suddenly put her hand on In-Ah's shoulder and started walking and talking.
"Before we do anything, let’s eat! I came out in a hurry and didn't get a chance to eat."
"I think it’d be best for you to skip out on a few meals..." The boy who had been arguing with In-Ah’s friend butted into the conversation and started a dispute.
In-Ah’s friend glared at the boy with a scowl.
"Are you looking for a fight?"
"I’m kidding. Ah, I'm hungry too. What do you want to eat?"
"Oh, there's a Chinese place nearby. Let's go there..."
As the students walked, they talked about what they were going to have for lunch. In-Ah listened quietly and played along to some extent. She didn't really have a particular craving for anything. Lately, she had been frequently skipping meals. Even now, she didn't feel like eating anything.
After roughly deciding what to eat and heading toward the restaurant, the students kept talking nonstop. From discussing exams to rumors and dating stories, their discussion topics had quite a range. In-Ah played along, just as she had done before.
At that moment, someone looked toward the road and exclaimed, "Oh? Isn’t that Ha-Yeon's car?"
Although they were engaged in conversation, the students’ eyes shifted to the road. A car that looked expensive even to the untrained eye was passing by on the road.
The car window wasn’t all too tinted, and it was possible to make out the people that were inside the car. The person who appeared to be in the driver’s seat seemed to be the driver.
The students all exclaimed in admiration upon seeing it.
"Hey, you’re right. Ha-Yeon always takes that car to go to school."
"Is Ha-Yeon the only one who rides that car?"
"Who else would ride a car like that? Do you even think before you speak?"
"Wow... but how much does a car like that even cost?"
“Why do you care? You won't be able to afford it even if you work your whole life."
"Can't I be curious? This guy always starts an argument whenever he opens his mouth..."
"Look at how other cars just automatically make way for them. You need an expensive car like that..."
"If you saw a car like that, would you want to drive near it?"
While the students were exchanging banter, In-Ah remained silent. She simply blinked her eyes while watching Ha-Yeon's car get further away. She wondered if she had seen it wrong, but no matter how many times she looked at it, she saw the same thing. In-Ah felt strange. More precisely, she felt her mood becoming strangely unpleasant.
"Huh? But the person riding with her, isn't that Sun-Woo?"
It was because she saw Sun-Woo sitting in the back seat with Ha-Yeon.
WonSuk: Ho ho ho... I would love to see another showdown between In-Ah and Ha-Yeon.
