The Tough Guy Hides the Villainess - Chapter 84



084 – The Unfortunate Miracle and the Christmas Eve of Disaster

084 – The Unfortunate Miracle and the Christmas Eve of Disaster

Some memories became clearer with time, like aging wine.

The memory of Christmas Eve two years ago was just like that.

Seo Ga-eul threw a party in her penthouse, gathering a crowd as usual.

After her mother passed away, she thought it was better to spend the year-end in meaningless comparisons, boasts, and tiresome mind games than to stay alone in the now quiet penthouse.

“Merry Christmas!”

“Ga-eul, here’s a gift!”

Seo Ga-eul, the host of the party, received a pile of gifts as if she were the protagonist of Christmas.

“Eun-byul, thank you so much. What’s in the box?”

“That’s a secret.”

“I’ll put it under the tree for now. I’ll reveal it later.”

The pile of gifts under the sparkling Christmas tree seemed to evoke a rich romance, but Seo Ga-eul didn’t even glance at them after expressing her thanks.

No matter what she received, it wouldn’t have made her feel better.

But the opposite was possible.

It only took one person’s appearance to ruin Seo Ga-eul’s mood.

“It’s Yoo Yeoreum!”

“Yeoreum came to the Christmas party?”

“Wow!”

People’s attention was drawn to Yoo Yeoreum, who usually didn’t attend gatherings.

Seo Ga-eul, displeased with losing attention at her own party, approached Yoo Yeoreum.

“Surprising. I thought you were too busy to come.”

The expression was smiling, but in fact, it implied, “Did you have nothing better to do than come here?”

Of course, Yoo Yeoreum, who was usually blunt and hard to understand, didn’t seem to catch the meaning and replied indifferently.

“You invited me. But I already feel like I shouldn’t have come. It doesn’t look very fun.”

Thud-.

It was a rude remark that made Seo Gaeul’s forehead veins pop out.

Seo Gaeul thought that Yoo Yeoreum might lack social skills, but didn’t show it.

They weren’t close enough to get angry with each other.

But it was clear that Yoo Yeoreum’s presence irritated Seo Gaeul. Seo Gaeul, whose nerves were on edge, looked around and found a girl who was watching her.

“Who is this? Isn’t it my friend Yeoul?”

“G-Gaeul!”

Baek Yeoul, who had been hesitating, approached Seo Gaeul.

And then she handed over a small something, which seemed to be a gift.

“It’s a gift my cousin brother gave me. He said it might grant wishes. If that’s true, I think you need it more than I do right now….”

It wasn’t even wrapped.

It looked like a foreign coin, but its shabby and unattractive appearance made Seo Gaeul’s mood worse.

“What do you mean by saying I need this?”

“…Huh? That’s… Since your mother passed away, you haven’t seemed well…. I was just worried about you…. And this is a letter I wrote….”

“Really? Thanks.”

Thud-.

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Seo Gaeul pretended to take the coin from Baek Yeoul’s hand but deliberately slapped her hand.

Then the coin, which had left her palm, rolled and fell out of the penthouse window.

Seeing this, Baek Yeoul screamed.

“It was a gift from my brother! Seo Gaeul, you! You dropped it on purpose!”

In an instant, people’s attention was drawn to Baek Yeoul and Seo Gaeul.

“What?”

“Isn’t Baek Yeoul picking a fight with Seo Gaeul again?”

“Why did she come here again? She’s bad luck.”

“Isn’t there going to be a blackout or something?”

Thinking that people’s murmurs were directed at her, Baek Yeoul ran out. Finding the “Lucky Coin” that her cousin brother Nam Woojoo had given her was her priority.

“Even if Seo Gaeul is a bad person, she wouldn’t have dropped the coin on purpose. People make mistakes. I make mistakes every day. If I find it and give it back….”

Baek Yeoul searched for a long time under the bright full moonlight to find the coin.

When she finally found the coin and returned to the penthouse, the party was over.

‘There’s no one here!’

Seo Ga-eul was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, the letter of reconciliation that Baek Yeoul had painstakingly written over several days was thrown away in the trash can, unopened.

Even Baek Yeoul, who tried to think positively, couldn’t help but shed a tear.

At that moment-.

Seo Ga-eul, feeling particularly upset, left the party early and headed to a nearby large supermarket. The place was filled with people enjoying the Christmas atmosphere.

Most of them were families and couples.

Compared to the party Seo Ga-eul had thrown, they looked shabby and modest, but they seemed happier.

Just as she was thinking that she once had such times too, someone grabbed Seo Ga-eul’s hand.

“Ga-eul, we meet again here? What a coincidence.”

It was Nam San-ho, a tall man with a strikingly white appearance.

Although he said it was a ‘coincidence,’ Seo Ga-eul could tell that Nam San-ho had secretly followed her after the party ended.

It was creepy.

“Have you been crying? Your eyes are swollen.”

Seo Ga-eul’s mood worsened.

Of all times, she had to meet the man she least wanted to see at the moment she least wanted to see him.

“Why are you crying alone? This won’t do. I know a good place. Let’s go together. I was lucky enough to reserve two seats.”

Swoosh-.

Nam San-ho pulled Seo Ga-eul’s arm.

Seo Ga-eul wanted to push him away in annoyance, but something strange happened.

‘My strength…?’

She couldn’t muster any strength in her body.

Just like ordinary people.

It was so unusual that even she was bewildered.

“Let go of me!”

“Ga-eul, I’ve been thinking a lot lately. My father opposes our marriage, right? Honestly, even for me, it’s not easy to persuade him. But I think it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission.”

Nam San-ho’s grip was strong.

Seo Ga-eul thought that if she was dragged away by Nam San-ho like this, she didn’t know what might happen. When they reached a staircase where there were few people, Nam San-ho didn’t hide his desire.

“You actually like me, don’t you? If you really hated me, you wouldn’t have followed me all the way here. With your strength, you could have easily pushed me away.”

A chill ran down her spine.

“Let go of me!”

Thud-!

So Seo Ga-eul pushed Nam San-ho with all her might, and very unfortunately, Nam San-ho stumbled backward and fell down the stairs.

“Oh no-.”

Thud, thud-. Crack-.

The ominous sound was vivid enough to be heard in Seo Ga-eul’s ears.

When Seo Ga-eul saw the pool of blood starting to form from the back of the man’s head, she slowly approached and placed her hand on his chest, but she couldn’t feel even the slightest movement.

“Dead…dead….”

Seo Ga-eul was greatly flustered.

So she contacted her father, whom she hadn’t spoken to for a long time since her mother passed away.

“Dad, I think I…I killed someone….”

━Where are you? Is anyone with you?

“The stairs on the 5th floor of N-Mart…. There’s no one else but me….”

Not long after, unfamiliar faces arrived.

Seo Ga-eul could only tell that they were unregistered awakeners doing illegal work under her father’s orders.

“Miss Ga-eul, we’ve parked a car in the basement, so let’s head there first.”

Following the words of the man in the leather jacket, Seo Ga-eul got into the vehicle in the basement and left N-Mart.

Two hours later.

Curled up under the blanket on her bed, Seo Ga-eul noticed that it was unusually bright outside the window.

Crackle, crackle-.

From the window, the burning N-Mart was dazzling under the unusually bright full moon.

The hot air was enough to warm the tip of her nose even from the penthouse.

Seo Ga-eul was now afraid of people.

Even her own father.

Even herself.

“Seo Ga-eul, if you had quietly followed me, nothing would have happened. If you had, I wouldn’t have come back as a ‘zombie’! Because of you, I…!”

Nam San-ho shouted from the darkness.

Seo Ga-eul thought a ghost from the past had come to haunt her.

This situation is a punishment for what he had done.

Retribution. Payback. Reaction.

Call it whatever you want, but beyond that darkness, a white mask with red glowing eyes is flickering.

“Seo Ga-eul! Because of you, I am rotting away every moment! You made me like this! Do you know how it feels to not sense the warmth or cold of the seasons?”

The continuous accusations gnawed at his conscience.

“Everything tastes like rotten sand, no matter what I eat. There’s no meaning in living. You made me like this. You should take responsibility, right? If you have even a shred of conscience left for the people who died because of you…!”

It was at that moment.

A male student who had been listening to the conversation beside Seo Ga-eul spoke.

“The conclusion is that you, resurrected as a zombie, bit people, and to stop the pandemic, we had no choice but to set N-Mart on fire. Even so, what about now?”

The male student looked around at the people trapped in the iron bars.

“Are you saying that trying to create ten thousand infected people to overthrow the country is also because of Seo Ga-eul? No, it’s just because you’re a rotten human being. If you’re a man, take responsibility for your actions.”

Grrr-.

The male student took a deep breath through his nose.

He finished his words.

“And no matter how much you hide, you can’t conceal the stench of your rotten conscience. The more perfume you spray, the more pungent it becomes.”

Bang-!

With a powerful sound, the male student charged into the darkness.

# # #

The concept of “emotion” I received from Seo Ga-eul was really helpful.

Even in a situation full of zombies, I could accurately distinguish the crude perfume smell.

I kicked the ground hard.

The world accelerated in an instant.

This time, my fist, which had been searching for the opponent, aimed precisely at the right address.

“Nam Jin Kiiiiik!!!”

Thud-!

With a strong impact, something rolled on the ground.

As Yoo Yeoreum’s eyes shone on the spot, Nam San-ho, whose mask had fallen off, was grinding his teeth while touching his jaw.

Grrr-.

“Calling it a kick, but using a fist, you b*stard….”

“Gasp….”

Yu Yeoreum, who had witnessed all kinds of horrors as a victim of illegal experiments, held her breath. It was because Nam Sanho’s face, revealed as the white mask shattered, was so grotesque.

The face, with bones, flesh, and muscles exposed without any filter, could no longer be considered human.

“Ugh, damn, disgusting.”

Even I couldn’t help but frown at the sight of that horrifying face.

Nam Sanho, who had shown such a shocking exposure, hastily covered his face with his palm and shouted.

“Damn it! What the hell are you?!”

“This is your karma, you b*stard!”

“Karma? Screw that! All of you, come out! Kill that b*stard! As long as you capture Seo Gaeul unharmed, I don’t care if the rest of them die! Don’t even scratch Seo Gaeul! Especially not the face!”

What? Oh my god, have you ever seen such a bad guy?

I couldn’t contain my anger.

“You b*stard! Treat Yeoreum specially too! Yeoreum is a pretty girl too!”

“…Jina, is that important right now?”

Yu Yeoreum’s eyes glowed as they scanned the surroundings.

Clang, clatter-.

I could see thick-bodied zombies emerging from the iron bars.

They were special zombies.

“You’ve made me too angry. Fifteen special zombies. Can you handle these monsters, each equivalent to a third-grade awakener?”

Nam Sanho started laughing.

It was a bad situation in many ways, but it wasn’t the worst.

Even in the midst of terrible misfortune, a ray of hopeful luck always blooms.

That’s me!

It wasn’t my first time fighting special zombies today. In fact, the appearance of special zombies was within my expectations.

I thought there would be about thirty of them, but fifteen is actually fewer than I expected.

“Yu Yeoreum, Seo Gaeul, listen carefully. Just as there was a cure for zombie infection, there is a weakness for special zombies too. The weakness of special zombies. It is…”

“No way…, there’s a weakness!?”

I sensed Nam Sanho’s face, whose concept of “emotion” had rotted away, turning to shock. I boldly revealed the heavenly secret of future knowledge to bring him despair.

“If you cut off their heads and separate them from their bodies, they die!”

“…….”

“Just like this.”

Pew-! Slash-. Thud, roll-.

The head of a special zombie rolled on the floor.

Instead of its head, a dagger was embedded in the pillar where it had been standing.

Namsanho screamed at the sight.

“When did this happen…!?”