Maybe Dang Gyu-ri noticed me checking my messages, because their eyes narrowed at once.
“Why are your eyes wandering?”
“I got an SOS. I think I need to get up.”
But Dang Gyu-ri caught hold of my head with a soft thump, then explained it to me in the kind, patient tone of someone teaching a child.
“Kim Ho, do you know the two worst things in the world?”
“What are they?”
“First, giving something and then taking it back. Second, stopping halfway through.”
“That makes sense. I should finish what I started before I go.”
Byeongcheol wasn’t going to die just because I made him wait a few more seconds.
So I resumed nibble-nibble duty, climbed up along their shoulder, and lightly bit their neck too.
Dang Gyu-ri flinched, but smiled in satisfaction anyway.
“...All right. I’ll give that a passing grade. But I cannot forgive the bastard who ruined this perfect mood. Who was it?”
“Byeongcheol.”
“Byeeeeongcheooool~?”
Dang Gyu-ri’s irritation level seemed to double in an instant.
Even their voice turned eerie.
“I taught that brat everything, raised him, and instead of repaying me he pulls this kind of sabotage?”
Maybe I didn’t smack him around enough last year, they muttered.
I fastened the shirt buttons Dang Gyu-ri had pulled open and tried to calm them down.
“I’m sure he has his reasons. It’s not like him to sound that desperate.”
“Take my side.”
“Maybe this really is unacceptable. Maybe I just shouldn’t go.”
“That’s right. Kids are supposed to be raised tough. If he goes, ‘Help meee~’ every time something happens, when’s he ever going to grow up?”
I nodded in agreement.
“When you think about it, he’s not even a kid. He’s the Thief Club vice captain. He should be able to handle this much on his own.”
“Exactly what I’m saying.”
“I’ll undo the buttons again.”
“Pffhahaha!”
Dang Gyu-ri smacked my upper arm a few times.
Still, it didn’t look like they really intended to raise Shin Byeongcheol “the hard way,” because they cleaned up and stood.
Then, hurrying along beside me, they asked,
“But why Byeongcheol? What did he do?”
“You know what I was just talking about.”
“T.E.B? He got tangled up in it too?”
“More than tangled up. He’s the one who started it.”
By then, Dang Gyu-ri seemed to have pieced together the rough picture. They clicked their tongue and let out a sigh.
“I told him to only mess with things he could handle. He never listens worth a damn.”
“He’s ambitious.”
“What can you do? He already went and started it. Come on.”
We picked up the pace even more.
*****
For some time now, Shin Byeongcheol had been getting the feeling that someone was watching him.
At first they had stayed very far away, so subtle they were hard to notice, but as time passed they had grown steadily closer and more blatant.
At some point, it had stopped being mere surveillance and become tailing.
At this point, someone might ask:
He had a foot in all kinds of violations of school rules, from running errands-for-hire to trading prohibited items.
And things you couldn’t be proud of were usually done in places people didn’t look too closely at, dark tucked-away corners.
It wasn’t as if he could just stop what he was doing because he felt threatened.
Like hell a dog quits eating shit.
Today too, after wrapping up a deal, Shin Byeongcheol flashed his customer a polished business smile.
“Thanks again, always! Get home safe, and watch out for the Discipline Committee!”
But not long after leaving the spot, his expression hardened.
...Damn. Looks like today’s the day.
The unidentified people tailing him had finally made their move.
Two presences behind him.
There’s no way I can take them alone, even if you beat me to death.
One-on-one was already enough to make his vision go dark. One-on-two was even worse.
To get through this, he would need help from someone else.
Objectively speaking, his own combat strength was about 0.7 of a person, so he needed someone who could cover at least 1.3.
And among people with that level of skill who were also actually close to him, there was only one.
Kim Ho—no, Mr. Kim—no, Great Hero Kim!
He hated borrowing a hand unless he absolutely had to, but right now he had no other choice.
So just as he was about to quickly type and send a message—
Shin Byeongcheol froze at a sudden chill.
...What’s this? I feel like I shouldn’t send it.
The survival instinct that had kept him alive for over a decade was warning him.
If he did this, things were going to get very bad in a completely different sense.
He hesitated for a moment, then made his choice.
Ah, screw it. If I die this way or that way, I die either way!
Putting out the urgent fire came first.
[Shin Byeongcheol: yaYAAaaAAaa]
[Shin Byeongcheol: Help! Help! Hurry!]
After sending the SOS and his location, Shin Byeongcheol broke into a run with [Thief Steps] at 120%.
But before long, one of the pursuers used a movement technique that made it look like they were floating over the ground, cut ahead of him, and blocked his retreat.
One hand rested on the sword at their waist, as if warning him not to try anything stupid.
Shin Byeongcheol looked over the pair’s appearances and thought,
I got caught good and proper. Swordsmanship Club?
To make matters worse, they also gave off that unmistakable dark-blade vibe.
Their method of handling this already said enough.
The silver tie pins marked them as second-years, but he had never seen either of them before.
Which meant—
“Used some kind of disguise technique? It’s flawless.”
“...”
“But you can’t fool this body’s [Byeongcheol Eyes]. Could you two be Mr. J and Mr. W?”
“...!”
The pursuer behind him, Mr. W, twitched at that, but didn’t answer.
Instead, the one blocking the front path, Mr. J, spoke.
“Who we are is unimportant. Tools merely carry out the tasks given to them.”
“And that task would be?”
“We would like to have a brief conversation. If you come quietly, you will not be harmed.”
Shin Byeongcheol answered in a smooth, easygoing tone.
“Oh, so you were customers? You should’ve just come by openly if you wanted to talk. Or gone through the official channels.”
“You know better than anyone that this is not about that.”
“Sorry, but business has been crazy lately. If you don’t say it, I won’t know.”
At that, Mr. J slipped a hand into his clothes and pulled out a fistful of chopsticks.
“Apparently this is what you’ve been using for transactions lately. The ‘potion.’”
“You really picked those up all nice and thrifty, huh? But come on, chopsticks are something anybody uses.”
Shin Byeongcheol kept playing dumb to the very end.
Mr. J replied in the same flat tone.
“Perhaps. But it is uncommon for someone to have their name engraved on them.”
Then he slid one chopstick free and showed it to him.
At the end, clear as day, were the words:
CEO SHIN
The rest of the handful was the same.
Shin Byeongcheol scratched the back of his head.
“...Tsk. I knew this would happen eventually. Still, a man can’t give up on his dream.”
“I have no intention of arguing with you over that. However, I have no desire to waste any more time.”
A jet-black blade slid free from Mr. J’s waist.
Behind him, Mr. W had already drawn a sword at some point as well.
“This is the last warning. Come quietly.”
“Hssss—haaah...”
Shin Byeongcheol took a deep breath and loosened his neck.
Then he pulled out a fistful of his CEO SHIN chopsticks and clenched them in one hand.
Seeing that, a flicker of interest passed through Mr. J’s eyes.
“You intend to resist.”
“When two gentlemen try to kidnap a man as casually as they’d pull something out of a pocket, things don’t go that easily.”
RATATAT!
For an instant, Shin Byeongcheol’s hand blurred, and the chopsticks flew out in every direction, stabbing into the ground.
At the same time, his other hand formed seals.
“I’ll show you clearly what it means to face a master of formations.”
“...”
Mr. J slowly looked around the area, taking in the chopsticks with his eyes.
Then he looked back at Shin Byeongcheol.
“Bluffing.”
“...”
“You imitated the Five Elements well enough, but this does not form a formation.”
“...Y-you seem to know formations pretty well?”
“Basic literacy. For people like us.”
“...Ah, damn it, you saw through it way too fast.”
“You’ve been trying to stall for time from the beginning...”
Then all the more reason not to delay, Mr. J murmured.
He took a light step forward—
and shot in with terrifying speed.
At the same moment, a sword thrust flashed toward him like a streak of light.
SWISH!
“WaaAAAH!”
Shin Byeongcheol twisted his body with a bizarre scream—
and before he could even finish straightening, he twisted again.
Because behind him, Mr. W’s sword was already thrusting in.
SWISH!
“Spare me! Spare me!”
Shin Byeongcheol danced in a limp, boneless step like an octopus trying to imitate footwork.
Then, just as J and W tried to press him together again, a triumphant smile rose at the corner of his mouth.
“Did you really think there was no formation?”
“...!”
“Formation activate—Transparent Byeongcheol.”
SHHH...
And just like that, his figure really did blur—
then vanished without a trace.
Of course, it was not actually a formation.
Psych. Got you, idiots!
He had simply used [Ghost Without Shadow] while pretending to activate one.
Just as Shin Byeongcheol was about to calmly slip away—
SHHH...
He heard that all-too-familiar sound not once but twice behind him.
Then the swords of Mr. J and Mr. W came flying in.
Apparently they had followed him by using [Ghost Without Shadow] as well.
“Hey! Wait! It is you two!”
SWISH!
“How could you do this to me, huh?!”
SWISH!
“Have you forgotten all those memories we shared, suffering together through thick and thin?!”
SWISH SWISH SWISH SWISH!
As if they couldn’t even be bothered replying, the two simply continued their silent assault.
At first Shin Byeongcheol barely managed to avoid them.
But little by little, one shallow cut after another began to accumulate.
At this rate, it would only be a matter of time before one proper thrust got through.
Then, at that moment, Shin Byeongcheol’s face—which had been growing paler by the second—lit up.
He forgot he was in the middle of a fight and bent at the waist in a perfect ninety-degree bow.
“You have arrived, Great Hero Kim!”
The one he greeted was, of course, Kim Ho.
Thankfully, it seemed he had come running the moment the rescue request arrived.
Beside him stood Dang Gyu-ri, the junior he had met not long ago, staring at him with chilling eyes for some reason.
So that was what the chill before he sent the message had meant.
Of course, putting out the immediate fire still came first, so Shin Byeongcheol kept pointing frantically behind him.
“It’s those two, Great Hero Kim!”
“...”
Kim Ho’s gaze turned toward Mr. J and Mr. W.
Then, as if he had immediately figured out who they were, he greeted them in a friendly tone.
“Long time no see, guys.”
“...Long time indeed.”
“How’d it end up like this?”
“Didn’t I tell you before? Club business doesn’t always go the way you want it to.”
Mr. J answered with a faintly self-mocking air.
Kim Ho nodded lightly, as though he understood.
“When the people upstairs tell you to do something, you do it. But I came here to help too, so if this keeps going, I guess we’re going to have to throw down.”
WHOOOOSH—
A breeze from somewhere lightly brushed past J and W.
The two exchanged a glance.
Then they looked back at Kim Ho and said,
“The odds appear poor. We will withdraw for today.”
“Good call. Better to keep it peaceful.”
“However, you know it too. They are not the sort to give up just because this failed.”
“Probably not. I’ll think about it.”
Kim Ho answered with an easy smile.
J and W gave one last nod of the chin in farewell, then turned and left.
Watching them go, Shin Byeongcheol rubbed his chest in relief.
“Whew. I lived. Thanks for coming.”
“Of course I came. Look at us.”
Kim Ho answered like it was nothing.
“Didn’t I tell you to call if you were in trouble?”
Then Dang Gyu-ri spoke in a warm, pleasant tone.
“I’m glad it seems to have worked out for you, Senior.”
But only their mouth was smiling.
Their eyes were spilling killing intent in streams.
Cold sweat ran down Shin Byeongcheol’s back.
