Chapter 69 – People With Headaches
“…But I can’t understand what my brother is saying… Speaking in another country? Isn’t this my house?”
“…”
The blurry eyes of a woman looking gloomy like a lost child.
The gray eyes are definitely looking at me, but I can’t feel their gaze.
I only turned my head in the direction I heard my voice, but this woman doesn’t see me.
“…Brother? Are you still there? Are you gone…? I see…
I’m sorry, but my friends at home said Harumu’s knife was cool.
So I wanted to brag to my kind older brother, but I was afraid… I’m sorry…”
“…”
I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I don’t think it’s such a dangerous atmosphere.
If you look closely, you’ll see that it’s wet and there’s a tattered bandage on your cheek,
Blood flows from her skinned knees, and blue bruises are visible everywhere on her white skin.
What are these scars… He gently strokes the woman’s trembling forearm, perhaps from the cold.
“…Huh…? My older brother?”
“…Cold?”
A moaning woman turns her head away, as if surprised by her cold skin and her hand touching her bruise.
“Ehehe… It’s still there. Thank you, older brother, your hands are warm…
Hey, Harumu… I have a request… Can you hug me just once?”
“…Yes? Hey, I’m good at Japanese… That…”
Sadness spreads across the face of a woman with a bright smile that reveals untainted innocence.
A woman with her arms wide open with her eyes full of childlike curiosity, sorrow and longing.
Although I couldn’t speak the language, I could tell that the woman had been asking me for something.
It looks so pitiful and pitiful.
Perhaps I was enchanted by her faded eyes, and I opened her arms without realizing it.
The moment I tried to hold that little woman in her arms——
I’m sorry——!!
“Uh…”
The sight shakes with the dull sound resounding in the street,
The body started to tilt after staggering, and the pain spreading from the right forehead belatedly.
There is no strength in the legs. I almost lost my consciousness in an instant.
What struck me in the head was something black and thin.
“You damn monkey! How dare you, how dare you…!”
An angry voice approaching without a trace puts the bridge that cut through the air back to the floor.
The woman’s slender legs, bright red blood on the tips of the shoes she was wearing. Is that my blood…?
“Brother?! Where did brother go?! Is this voice Hana?!”
“Yes, lady! I’m sorry I’m late. It’s me, Hana! Are you alright?! Where are you more hurt…!”
Another woman grabs the hand of a woman who is groping on the floor, startled by a loud sound.
She was a woman with cold eyes like Yoon Sol-yi in Succubus Mode, wearing a plain suit.
The day she fell on the asphalt, she blinks as she looks back at her suit, her eyes full of rage.
“…”
Hot liquid dripped from his forehead, forming a small puddle on the floor.
Her eyes twirled, and now even her arms were drained of strength. And no voice…
The eyes and ears are blinded by the camera flashes and the clamor of onlookers who have gathered around them.
Eventually, just before my vision faded into darkness, someone hugged my head, which had fallen to the ground.
“What are you doing?! Unnecessarily killing civilians…! I’ll report this to the superiors…!!”
A familiar voice spitting out unfamiliar language with anger.
It was Noah who pressed the wound on his forehead with a soft handkerchief. Kwon Noah…
“I’ll take care of that. Now that I’ve found the lady, the mission is over. I don’t need your help anymore.
Don’t worry, Lady Harumu’s medical check and mental stability will be taken care of here.
Get rid of that filthy monkey in front of the lady sooner than that, because it’s ugly.”
“…Do you want to die?”
“If you came as an interpreter, speak in Japanese. Useless guide.”
A bloody conversation right in front of a flesh-ripping fight.
Noah, who raised his eyes sharply while spitting out incensed Korean,
It was a small chirp that stopped the suit that was responding without losing the momentum.
“Hana… Harumu, I’m scared…”
“Oh…! It’s okay, lady! I’m by your side. You can rest assured!
Alright, let’s get back to it quickly. She disappeared during the coming-of-age ceremony, so even her mother is worried.”
“…Mom… Worried about me…?”
A suit pulling out a knife stuck on the floor and dragging the hand of a woman who can’t see her.
The woman who had looked behind her with the suit and her invisible eyes disappeared towards the end of the street…
“…What can I do…! Master, no… Mr. Woo-joo, are you okay?! Can you hear my voice?!”
“…”
Noah’s call, pressing my bleeding forehead, was the last thing I remember today.
* *
‘That young witch hunter, you have a very peculiar soul.
If she’s human, she’s got her own flow, that flow, taken away by someone else.’
A body hanging in the dark, an echo that resonates in the brain.
‘Ah, um… I see, that’s how it happened. It’s definitely fun.
That little girl is like ‘Isabelle’… Okay, there’s only one place for the witch, and she’s betting on the ‘desire’ she’s collected so far.
Looks like you’ve found the absurd vessel too, I can feel the massive pile of desires. Is this… A desire for recognition?
Was there a reason you were so confident? Of course it sounds great, but…’
The conversations of certain beings written in my head as I quietly close my eyes.
Except for me, I can feel 3 presence in the dark. One is familiar, the other two…
The existence of the two can only be faintly felt on the other side,
No voice could be heard, no figure shrouded in darkness could be seen.
I want to quickly get out of this dark place where I feel only unknown discomfort.
Feeling stuffy and suffocating, I need to get up now.
“…”
Fingers twitching and springing at the command given by the brain. The body moves.
If you manage to move your still sluggish arms and stand up slowly—
‘…Because my friend is a very greedy person. It’s me that makes her a witch.’
The black hand pulling my shoulder whispered in my ear with a direct voice instead of a ringing.
‘Are you confident, Choi Woo-joo…?’
A faint laugh, a voice resembling Ko Eun’s, shoved me in the back before I could reply.
“────”
I was powerlessly pushed out of the darkness.
* *
“…It’s 7 o’clock…? I’m sober…”
“…Ahhh! Ahhh! Seriously!! What did you do to get beaten up?! Say something too!”
“…Seeing that you’re talking nonsense as soon as you wake up, your head seems to be fine. You can leave the hospital.”
As soon as I opened my eyes, I read the number written on the wall clock and rubbed my eyes.
My mother, who pats me on the shoulder as she bursts into her stomachache, tells her father.
Dad, who was sitting in a chair under the bed with his arms crossed, nodded at him, but he didn’t say anything.
I had just woken up from a hazy dream, but it was easy to know where I was.
Hospital emergency room, on bed. I can feel the bandage wrapped around my head and the IV needle stuck in my hand.
What was it, I think I had a strange dream…
He raised his hands above his misty head and groaned softly.
Nope, I don’t remember any of it. It seems to be some kind of uncomfortable and unpleasant dream, but what is it…
Well, that’s it If it’s a bad dream, you don’t have to think about it.
“How did you both know…?”
“…Hey, I got a call from that wife. I heard that my son was beaten in the head and passed out with a concussion.”
Then, as if relieved, she turned her head to her father, who was snorting.
The impassive father’s fingertips pointed to Noah, who was exchanging stories with the nurse.
A businesslike smile appears on Noah’s face as he bows his head and hands out a white envelope to the nurse.
Then, all of a sudden, Noah meets my eyes, smiles broadly and runs at a fast pace.
“Ah, Mr. Wooju! You’re awake. I’m so glad…”
“Ayu, thank you very much, lady… How can I repay this kindness…”
Noah, who runs to my bed in one step, smiles kindly without her hardness.
As soon as her Noah arrives, she gets up from her chair and her mother sniffs her as she holds her hand.
“No! Of course I have to do it! My original job is to help people…”
“Oh, you work as a nurse?! No, you could be a doctor!”
“Honey, don’t say anything without knowing. Wife, I’m sorry.”
It’s the first time I’ve ever seen my father smile so brightly.
A friendly atmosphere, her parents expressing their gratitude, and Noah bowing her head in embarrassment.
When she is grieved at the reality of not being able to lift a finger even with the awkward sight in front of her eyes,
Among the white gowns that swept through the emergency room, two women in black suits caught my eye.
“…Ugh?!”
Among them, a headache that gets worse as she looks at the woman standing behind her.
Kicked me in the head, she is that cold woman.
And standing in front of her…
Tumble, Tumble. Two women walking slowly towards this direction while making the sound of their shoes.
Noah and her mom and dad, who were greeting each other, also noticed the shadow slowly approaching.
Two women stood in front of us while everyone, including me lying in bed, froze.
The woman standing in the front bowed her head first.
“…I have come to apologize for the great disrespect I have committed against my son.
Please forgive me for being so late in bowing my head to you all.”
His Japanese hair and uncolored white hair are the same, but his outfit has become much cleaner.
A coat worn over the shoulder even in hot weather to cover the scars all over the body,
The woman’s face, filled with dreams in faded gray dead eyes, was completely different from before.
“I am Harumu Yumekawa. Once again, I apologize for the damage I have caused to my son.”
Where did the expression filled with foolish sadness go?
With a serious face that conveyed her depth and dignity, the woman who bowed her back introduced herself as Harumura.
By the way, wait a minute… It’s obviously Japanese, why am I understanding it?
“…Who are you? Ask us… Are you foreigners?”
“That’s not it, the woman standing behind me hit me, Dad.”
“Are you kidding me at that age? Anyway, you made my son look like this?”
Dad raising his voice with one hand on his hip.
With him in front of her, the woman standing behind her bit her lower lip in annoyance.
“One.”
“Yes, four! Lady!!”
“Because of your fault, I, Yumekawa Harumu, fell to her knees.
If all you feel after seeing this is humiliation, I’ll decorate your neck at the end of the coming-of-age ceremony.”
“Ah, no…♡ I, Natsuki Hana… I’m just happy that the young lady has returned…”
Hana trembled and trembled at the voice of Harumu, who spoke scary words in a cold voice.
Hearing that he would kill me, he said he liked it that way? No, before that, the neck at the end of the coming-of-age ceremony? What the heck…
Noah and I look like we may have encountered more dangerous things than we thought.
A woman named Hana Natsuki also knelt down and bowed her head in front of us who were sweating coldly.
“I won’t make excuses!! I’m really, really sorry!”
“…What have you been saying all along? These people.”
“…I’m really sorry, Dad.”
At the word that they were the ones who brought her to the hospital on the first day, the faces of Mom and Dad, who had been smeared with anger, straightened.
Both of them have personalities that can’t even get angry at people who apologize while bowing in earnest like that.
Mother, who doesn’t know what to do with a shy expression, sees her father and Harumu presents her case.
“I don’t know if this will comfort the wounded body and mind, but please accept it.”
“…Hehe…”
The attachment case opened with a jerk, and inside was a bundle of 50,000 won bills.
There was no one to argue with the unsophisticated voice who did not know who made it.
That would be the case, because the bundle of money that was put in front of me was too much for an agreement.
But the only thing that didn’t surprise me here was Noah, she spoke in Japanese.
“… Alive, the third of a large pharmaceutical company called Haru Pharmaceuticals. Is this the reward you get as Yumekawa?
Or is it the compensation given as Agent Harumu Yumekawa, belonging to the Japan branch? If it’s the latter, it’s embarrassing.
To keep my mouth shut in order to protect the reputation of her immediate senior and mother, Agent Yumekawa Kaede,
It seemed like it was a play meant to be shown to me on purpose. I hope it’s my excessive misunderstanding.”
“…This is Kwon Noah, an agent from the Korean branch. I was rude. I’m sorry.
Apparently, civilian work seems to be very interested in men, so I mistakenly thought it was her family.
And Agent Kwon is right. Don’t worry, it’s the agent’s excessive misunderstanding.”
A battle of nerves different from the fiery battle of nerves with Hana that I saw before I lost consciousness.
An analysis match in which ice collides with ice and reads each other’s numbers is unfolding in front of your eyes.
“…Then I’m glad. I’ll tell these people well, so let’s go back.
I heard that your coming-of-age ceremony is tough, but it must be even more difficult because of the disease you are suffering from.”
“…”
Then, entering Noah’s room, Harumu smiles but doesn’t say anything.
What is ‘illness’? That woman named Harumu, did she get sick?
It doesn’t seem to be talking about the eyes, and it’s definitely the same atmosphere as before…
“…We will step down as you say, but… I have accepted ‘that child’ as part of me.
Calling ‘her her’ her illness is a little off-putting, but it hurts. She must be sad too.”
Raising her knee, Harumu and Hana stood up and bowed their heads again.
“Meeting like this must have been the bond that the girl in me continued.
I would be happy if I could see the two of you again. I’m just…”
“…Once again, I’m sorry.”
Just like that, Harumu turns around and leaves the emergency room, and Hana chases after him.
Judging by Noah’s reaction, the two of them are also members of the organization… No, but they probably didn’t come to know me.
If the purpose was to kill me, there were dozens of more opportunities even just on that street.
But why were those two people in Korea?
Whether it’s the bloodiness of the word coming-of-age ceremony or ‘disease’,
I had a lot of questions, but I wasn’t in the mood to get involved in the conversation.
“…Wooju-san, let’s be careful for a while.”
Noah seemed to feel the same way I felt.
Those two are dangerous.
* *
