The Tough Guy Hides the Villainess

What would happen if I went back to the past?

What if I could go back to before my legs were ruined?

Hehehe – just thinking about it made my lower body tingle.

“Of course, there are moments I’d want to return to. But before answering that, can I ask you to take off your shoes? Is this a foreign-style house or something? You’re walking in with shoes on.”

Even if the world ends, you should still follow the rules.

At my words, Seo Ga-eul hesitated for a moment before removing her shoes.

“Ugh, why is the house so damp? My stockings are getting soaked.”

Sliiiide.

In the end, Seo Ga-eul took off her stockings, revealing her pale white feet.

It was the first time I’d seen a pretty, young woman take off her stockings, and my heart pounded hard.

Were people’s feet supposed to be that white and beautiful?

Damn, it was stimulating.

Seo Ga-eul lifted her discarded stockings gracefully like a snake shedding its skin, then tossed them lightly into some container.

“This is a trash can, right?”

“No, that’s my cooking pot.”

“Really? Anyway, you. Do you know that all abilities stem from strong desires? The last ability I awakened was especially like that. But I don’t have time to make use of this ability. Because I’ll be dead soon.”

Dead?

She looked perfectly fine.

Just as I was thinking she might really be a strange woman, Seo Ga-eul added more.

“If someone can tame even that vicious monster as if it were family, then I think it’s right to entrust my last ability and chance to you. If this were a gamble, it’d be like going all-in with a losing hand.”

“Entrust it? What exactly?”

“If you go back to the past, find me. And train me. But it won’t be easy. Even I know I wasn’t someone to be taken lightly back then. So, kidnap me if you have to and train me thoroughly.”

Kidnap?

She was seriously a crazy woman.

Summing up the nonsense I heard today, was it this?

“So, you can send me back to the past, and if I do, you’re telling me to somehow kidnap you? Right? And force you into harsh training?”

“Not harsh training, just training!”

Same thing.

Geez, even a fool wouldn’t fall for this nonsense.

But since she was a pretty woman, a calculating thought popped into my head: If I kept agreeing with her, maybe we’d get along better.

After all, I’m a genius.

Seo Ga-eul seemed impressed, nodding her head as if in admiration with an “Ohh”.

“Still, I’m glad you understood faster than I expected. I heard you didn’t finish high school. I did a little research on you.”

“I’m probably the smartest among high school dropouts. But why kidnap you? Couldn’t I just be honest and ask for your cooperation?”

“Cooperation? Absolutely not. I know myself too well. And it’d be better to keep this a secret from almost everyone. There was a traitor among humanity. I couldn’t figure out who it was, and that’s why I ended up like this.”

Swoosh.

Seo Ga-eul lifted her damp clothes.

Upon closer inspection, there was a deep scar on her slim abdomen, as if she’d been stabbed by something.

“Ugh, that looks painful as hell. A traitor, huh? That bastard’s the worst, doing this to you.”

“I think so too. Maybe things would’ve been different if I hadn’t slacked off on my training. That’s why you need to put in the effort.”

“Effort, sure. But weren’t you from some super-rich, famous family? Even if I go back to the past, how would a commoner like me ever meet you, let alone kidnap you?”

“That’s something you’ll have to figure out. But here’s a hint… On nights with a full moon, I become particularly weak. It’s a secret I’ve never told anyone.”

A secret with a woman?

Could it be thanks to the fan I picked up from the junkyard?

It had to be my lucky charm.

“Okay, assuming everything you said is true. What’s the reward? Can I really get whatever I ask for?”

My heart pounded with excitement.

If I got a lot of money, I’d buy a ton of ramen.

And ketchup.

And sausages!

That happy thought made me feel good, but Seo Ga-eul ruined the moment.

“I’ll be honest. I don’t have any money right now.”

“What? You’re asking for a job, but you don’t have any money? Are you kidding me? Do you at least have food? If you don’t have money, give me something to eat!”

“I don’t have food either. I used everything I had sneaking out of the city, evading the watchers to meet you. It took quite a bit of effort to get here.”

“So you’re broke!”

No matter how pretty she was.

Did she really think I was that easy?

“Maybe the guys you’ve met so far have given you everything for free, but I’m not that kind of guy.”

“Not that kind?”

Sliiiide.

Seo Ga-eul narrowed her eyes and scanned the surroundings.

I subtly hid the swimsuit magazine hanging on the wall behind me, but my movement was so perfect, it seemed I hadn’t been caught.

“Han Nam-jin, you don’t have a girlfriend, do you? You’ve never dated anyone, right?”

“What are you talking about? I was popular.”

“Really? Well, let’s assume so. The reward for this job will be ‘Soft, Soft’ twice. How about it?”

“What?”

Soft, Soft? What the hell was that?

Whatever it was, my brain felt like it was frying from the term.

Was it something they teach in high school or college?

As a middle school dropout, I had no clue what this ‘Soft, Soft’ thing was!

“Anyway, I’m sending you to the past soon. By the way, I can transfer my abilities to others. This is another secret no one knows. I’ll give you the ability that helped me the most, 《Emotion Reader》.”

Fwoooosh-!

As soon as Seo Ga-eul placed her hand on my shoulder, my vision began to shine brightly.

Whatever was happening, it was definitely extraordinary.

“Wait a second! Hey! I only accept upfront payment!”

Even if I didn’t know what ‘Soft, Soft’ was, I had to get it upfront.

I shouted desperately, but when I came to my senses, I was standing in the middle of an 8-lane crosswalk.

“What the hell is this?”

“Oh no, my phone!”

In front of me was a high school girl bending over to pick up her phone, her large buttocks sticking out, and to my right, a truck driven by a drunken man barreled toward us at full speed.

Bwaaaaaang.

The driver’s blood alcohol level was 0.15%.

It was enough for a prison sentence of 1 to 2 years or a fine of up to ten million won.

How do I know that?

I didn’t want to know either.

‘This is where my leg got ruined! Did I really go back to when I was 19?’

A situation I had repeated in my dreams countless times.

The only difference was this:

「Name: Kim Man-deuk

Status: 《Drunk》 – Completely intoxicated, unable to function.」

「Name: Baek Yeoul

Status: 《Suspicious》 – Wondering if the guy behind her is checking out her butt while she’s picking up her phone.」

Strange words appeared before my eyes.

Was this the effect of that 《Emotion Reader》?

Anyway, through some bizarre process, I had returned to the spring of my 19th year, to the exact moment 5 seconds before the drunk truck accident.

Back then, I had been overconfident in my leg strength and tried to grab the high school girl and leap in the opposite direction, but something went wrong.

The girl I grabbed freaked out and screamed, “You pervert!” causing me to lose my balance and fall, leading to my left ankle being crushed under the truck’s wheels.

I regretted that day so much.

But now!

A second chance had come to me!

“Get out of my life, you heavy-assed girl!!!”

Bang!

I kicked the high school girl’s buttocks with all my might.

“Waaaahhh!”

She flew up like a soccer ball and soared to the opposite side of the crosswalk.

Startled by the sight, the truck driver slammed on the brakes and crashed into a nearby tree.

Screeech—Crash—!

“…What the heck! It’s an accident! An accident!”

“Call 119! Call 119!”

“Yeoul! Are you okay, Yeoul! Hey! What the hell did you just do?! Chief Kim! What are you doing!? Catch that guy!”

“Kahahah! This is it! This is it! I finally kicked that big butt!”

Doom-doom-doom!

Like a soccer player who had just scored a goal in the World Cup, I wiggled my hips back and forth and sprinted away from the scene.

# # #

The world ended when I was 20 years old.

Now it was the spring of my 19th year.

I trembled with emotion as I looked at the still-standing buildings and the cars zipping along below them.

The world hadn’t ended yet─.

“Cars are spewing exhaust with murderous intent, people are walking the streets smoking carelessly! And even the ajummas are feeding stray cats without a second thought!”

I couldn’t hold back my tears of joy when I saw the neighborhood cat moms.

Drip, drip—!

How beautiful this sight was!

After the world ended, all the stray cats were eaten by hungry people and disappeared!

“I love cat moms!”

Keep feeding those stray cats!

So there’ll be plenty to eat later!

Wait, no.

The one who deserved my burning love was someone else entirely.

“Seo Ga-eul, my goddess! My light! From now on, any insult to Seo Ga-eul is an insult to me.”

I thought she was just a pretty psycho with delusions.

But she had actually sent me to the past!

Thanks to her, I kept my legs healthy and could breathe in the fresh scent of exhaust.

Most of all, the best thing was ‘home’.

The old rural house my parents left me when they passed away.

It was in such a rundown neighborhood that not even foreign laborers looking for cheap housing would come here, and there was no hope for redevelopment due to the low birth rate.

But my old home was here.

“And in my left pocket, there’s always my house key.”

Clank.

Where else in this day and age could you find a house without a digital door lock?

Right here!

I passed through the trash-strewn alley, opened the yard gate, and entered the house.

The wooden-floored living room, with its old flat-screen TV and family photos.

And the fan I had run all summer in place of the broken air conditioner, as well as my school uniform I hadn’t worn since freshman year of high school, caught my eye.

Click—Whoooosh—.

I pulled the string on the wall-mounted fan to turn it on and collapsed weakly into a sitting position.

I had only pulled a string, but such a cool breeze came out!

“This is life.”

I checked the kitchen and found a box of ‘Steamed Ramen’ sitting there.

Was General Guan Yu as happy as I was when he went to the water park?

“Ramen party!”

I was gleefully pouring water into a pot and boiling it like someone possessed when a feeling of forgetfulness hit me.

Had I put in too little ketchup?

No.

What I forgot was─.

“─Seo Ga-eul.”

Seo Ga-eul had asked me to kidnap her.

I’d done many errands for money before, but being asked to kidnap someone was rare enough to count on one hand.

In terms of bizarreness, it was on par with that time when old Mr. Kim Jang-dong asked me to tie him up and whip him.

For now, I turned on the computer, which of course worked perfectly, and searched for ‘Seo Ga-eul’.

「Since seven years ago, a sudden awakening has occurred. Is this the birth of a new humanity?」

「Seonam Group’s Seo Ga-eul tested positive, revealing the 1,193rd awakened person in Korea─」

「The government has implemented measures to address the genetic mutations appearing in adolescents─.」

So, she was famous even back then.

“We’re the same age?”

But despite being the same age, Han Nam-jin, the orphan living in a rundown rural house, and Seo Ga-eul, the princess of a chaebol family, were worlds apart.

The difference between an ugly stray cat put down for being unattractive and a purebred cat coveted by wealthy households?

Honestly, it was more than that.

“How do I even kidnap someone like that?”

It was a headache.

Should I just ignore all this?

“But this world will end one day. And to prevent that, Seo Ga-eul said she needs to train hard. So….”

If I wanted to keep living happily and for a long time, I had to kidnap Seo Ga-eul and train her into a warrior.

Could I do it?

Honestly, I felt a surge of confidence that I could.

After all, I was the guy who tamed the vicious monster ‘Ying-ying.’

“But before that, today is ramen party day!”