***
Slurp!
I swallowed the hot Americano and looked at the woman sitting across from me.
Kim Seoyeon.
The long, straight hair in my memory had become a short bob before I knew it.
Dressed in a pink off-the-shoulder dress and fully made up, her beauty was at its peak. She was a woman beautiful enough to make any man look back at least once. It was a youthful face that was hard to believe belonged to a twenty-nine-year-old. If I were her boyfriend, my shoulders would naturally rise with pride. However...
- "Oppa, you're a good person, but... I'm sorry. I can't keep dating someone with no future forever. I'm at an age where I need to think about marriage now."
- "All my friends are dating and marrying people who are professionals or work at famous large corporations, but Oppa... Sigh. Forget it. Let's just stop."
The words she said at the time of our breakup lingered in my ears. Five years. The end of a relationship that was long if considered long, and short if considered short. Kim Seoyeon, who had notified me of the breakup, had blocked my number immediately. To think she wanted to see me now, after having broken up so coldly.
"Why did you suddenly ask to see me?"
"Just because. I saw your house while I was passing by. How have you been?"
Why would someone living in Jamsil have a reason to pass through Eunpyeong-gu? She had no work or any other connection here.
'How have I been?'
Of course, I hadn't been doing well.
But it was a strange thing. I thought I would tremble like crazy and miss her if I saw her again, but that wasn't the case at all. Rather, my heart was as tranquil as a paper boat on a calm lakeside.
'Is this the influence of Randolph...?'
Even without using the Fragment of Broken Golden Rule, everything I had done as Randolph was engraved within me. Perhaps that was why I didn't feel flustered at all by this sudden situation.
"I’ve been alright. How about you?"
"Me? Well, always the same. Work, home, work, home. It's killing me."
She was saying that her daily routine, like a squirrel on a treadmill, was boring. However, I already knew she hadn't come to see me just because her daily life was boring. I could roughly guess the reason. The profile picture she changed immediately after we broke up—that couple photo taken with some stylish businessman—was now gone.
Honestly, it was absurd. She had left me for someone else, and now that a problem had arisen, she came back to see me. I didn't know whether to call this shameless or if I simply looked like that much of a pushover to her.
'I was a pushover, though.'
It was a relationship where I acted as if I would give her my liver and gallbladder. I thought I did it because I liked her that much, but I had no intention of repeating a past like that now that we were nothing.
When I remained silent, waiting to see what she would say, Kim Seoyeon opened her mouth.
"There was a huge uproar because of that incident recently. You know that I was worried about you first, right?"
"That incident?"
"I mean the 'Dimension War'! The day monsters from another dimension attacked Earth! I thought they were filming a Marvel movie or something."
She was talking about the day the Giant Mantis appeared. Monsters from Pangenia had appeared in reality, and people summoned to Pangenia used the Fragment of Broken Golden Rule to repel the monsters in the real world. Since that day, people began to praise them, calling them 'Dimension Warriors.'
Warriors from another dimension. They said those warriors possessed modern humans to repel the monsters. The Dimension Warriors warned of the dangers that would come in the future and rose to stardom overnight. Surprisingly, almost no one directly mentioned Pangenia.
'Well, an attack from another dimension is more plausible than a game becoming reality.'
A monster flowing in from the unknown was bound to be more terrifying than an existing game becoming reality.
"You don't seem interested."
"Can I leave now?"
"…What?"
Perplexity clouded Kim Seoyeon's relaxed expression.
"I've seen your face, so that's enough. We aren't close enough to sit around and engage in small talk."
Regardless of her reaction, I stood up from my seat. If it were the old me, I might have held onto her and asked to try again. Over the past five years, it was a relationship where the roles of the dominant and submissive were clearly divided. I might have begged her, saying we couldn't end things while lingering feelings remained.
But not anymore. I had a mountain of things to do. I didn't have time to be dragged around by others.
"…Is it because of the last thing I said?"
"It’s not that. Does your current boyfriend know you're meeting me?"
Did she think I wouldn't know just because she took down her profile picture? The photos on Kim Seoyeon’s social media account hadn't been taken down yet. In other words, she was keeping her options open. She was testing the waters between me and that man. Or perhaps she was meeting me to restore her meager self-esteem after a fight with her boyfriend. Either way, it was the worst.
At my direct way of speaking, Kim Seoyeon's face hardened like stone. It was a face that looked like she hadn't expected me to be so blunt.
"That's..."
"Ah! Seriously! I told you to stop following me!"
"Miss Hana. I told you, I'm not that bad of a person."
At that moment, the cafe door opened, and a woman ran inside screaming. And a middle-aged man was following closely behind her.
"This is clearly stalking. I'm going to report you to the police."
"Please! Please, just meet me once."
"I really don't want to!"
Everyone in the cafe focused on the two. I was the same, but for a different reason than the others. It was a face that looked familiar, as if I had seen it once before. Where had I seen her?
In an instant, the man’s—the stalker’s—expression changed completely. The stalker, who had been pleading pitifully, began to frown and his face turned red.
"You bitch, I’ve been being nice to you, and yet...!"
"Ah!"
The stalker grabbed the woman's hair. As the woman screamed, the stalker sneered.
"It would have been fine if you just accepted it reasonably, right? Did you really have to go this far?"
He looked as if he had lost his reason due to anger. The stalker looked around and shouted.
"What are you looking at, you bastards! Is this a show?"
The people who met his eyes all turned their heads away.
"Oppa. Don't get involved for no reason. Things are already unsettled these days... The police will come."
It was as Kim Seoyeon said. Someone must have reported it. In a few minutes, the police would arrive and subdue the stalker, so there was no need to step forward and create trouble. At that moment, I made eye contact with the woman whose hair was being held. It was a desperate gaze that seemed to be asking me to save her.
"Oppa?"
...I couldn't stay still. It was because I remembered who that woman was. She was the woman who had saved the child when the Giant Mantis appeared.
"What are you?"
"Stop it."
"A brat who’s barely even an adult... what? Stop it? Let go of this!"
When I spoke while grabbing his shoulder, the stalker's expression distorted further. He glared with both eyes like a madman, radiating killing intent.
"Are you laughing?"
But even that killing intent was merely cute to me now. Recently, I had fought while crossing the line between life and death several times. I was the one who faced places where swords and spears flew and corpses were strewn about without a single ounce of fear. I had survived an unfathomable difficulty and, furthermore, instilled fear in soldiers. There was no way I would be afraid of a stalker who only glared without even a weapon.
Grip!
"Aaargh!"
When I applied strength to the hand holding his shoulder, the stalker let out a scream. I felt like I could crush this shoulder right now, even though I hadn't used the Fragment of Broken Golden Rule.
"Stop! Stop! Argh!"
The stalker twisted his entire body.
'What kind of grip strength does this guy have...!'
The stalker trembled. He looked quite small, but once he was caught, he couldn't move an inch. It was a pain that felt as if his muscles were tearing and his bones were being ground into powder. This was truly not the strength of a human.
"You're stopping?"
"Y-yes! Stop!"
I clicked my tongue quietly. Why couldn't he have listened the first time I said it?
"Gah!"
When I let go, the stalker lost his balance and fell pathetically to the floor. The woman, who was looking at the fallen stalker, bowed her head to me.
"T-thank you."
"Are you okay?"
"Yes... Ah! Behind you!"
When I turned my head, the man had unfolded a Swiss Army knife and was rushing at me with the blade held out.
"Die!"
However, I already knew. I slightly turned my body and tripped the rushing stalker.
Thud!
The stalker, who hit his head on the floor just like that, immediately lost consciousness without moving.
✺✺✺
It was about five minutes after the situation ended that the police arrived.
"You'll have to come with us to the station."
After roughly assessing the situation, the police tried to take me away, but Kim Hana stepped forward.
"This person was purely helping me. I'm the one who reported that man for stalking."
"Even so, since an assault occurred, you must go to the station for now."
"Assault? The other person even had a knife. Are you saying he should have just watched?"
"According to principle, we have no choice."
"…I am Kim Hana, a reporter for CK Broadcasting. Excuse me, but may I have your names and ranks?"
When she handed over her business card, only then did the police officers' eyes change as if they had become bothered. CK was a major broadcasting station of considerable size. If a reporter from a place that ranked within the top five in the country wrote even one wrong article, it could potentially lead to a problem with their livelihoods.
"Then, as a witness..."
"And if things get messy after going as a witness? Forget it. I’m the party involved, so I’ll go and resolve it myself. Don't hold onto an innocent person."
The stalker was the director of a famous plastic surgery clinic. This was a world where an expensive lawyer could make something out of nothing. She couldn't afford to cause harm to the person who helped her, not even by a small chance.
The police blinked at Kim Hana’s bold behavior.
'She looks more like an announcer than a reporter...'
'Her personality is like an upright bamboo.'
Normally, it would be natural to cry or tremble out of fear after experiencing such a thing, but Kim Hana was instead defending a man she was meeting for the first time. It was an uncommon sight even for the police. Soon, the area around Kim Hana began to grow noisy.
"Isn't that her? The one on YouTube recently..."
"Right. The person who saved the child from the monster? I think she was on TV too."
"Didn't she receive a commendation?"
"Kim Hana. The name is the same too. It is her!"
The incident that had caused an uproar on YouTube and TV recently: the Dimension War. When monsters from another dimension attacked various parts of the world, it wasn't just the Dimension Warriors who became famous. There were righteous people who acted like warriors even though they weren't.
Kim Hana was one of them. She was the person who was captured by a monster instead of a young child to save them, and even after that, rushed to the scene to save the child and the child's mother. That video reached five million views in an instant, and Kim Hana was formally hired by CK and awarded a commendation for being a righteous citizen.
"…Understood. Please come yourself, as the reporter."
If a problem arose with such a person, it would escalate further. The police had no choice but to follow Kim Hana's opinion. Before going to the station, Kim Hana took out another business card.
"Thank you so much for today. Here is my business card."
"It's alright."
"…Ah, by any chance, is the person with you your girlfriend?"
She was asking if Kim Seoyeon, who was with me, was my girlfriend. I immediately shook my head with a smile.
"Not at all. We are nothing. I don't have a business card of my own."
"Then could you write down your number?"
Kim Hana took out a pen and a piece of paper from her bag and handed them to me. I wrote down my number on the paper without hesitation. Along with the name Park Hyunmyeong... not Randolph.
"Park Hyunmyeong? That's a good name. I'm Kim Hana."
"Yes. I know because I saw your card."
"I'll contact you. Let's have a cup of coffee tomorrow if you have time. Of course, a meal is fine too. I'll treat you."
"I won't refuse."
"Great. Then, see you!"
Kim Hana, who bowed again, left the cafe along with the police who were taking the stalker away.
...She was a woman like a storm.
"Wow, incredible. She looks a hundred times better in person."
"She could be a celebrity instead of a reporter."
"She has a bit of a Sullyoon vibe. It makes sense that she’d have a stalker."
I slowly turned around while listening to the people's admiring voices.
"……."
There, Kim Seoyeon, with a face colder than a freezing north wind, was quietly staring at me.