Chapter 33. A Misunderstanding (3) (1/2)

Hot and stuffy air rushed out from the open door. The acrid and bitter odor of blood and sweat also faintly brushed by Seol's nose.

The two maids that entered before him were supporting the completely exhausted Maria from her sides while leaving the room.

Maria's previously-radiant blonde hair looked as if someone doused it with a bucket of cold water as drops of liquid fell from the strands. Her thin, white ceremonial robe was completely soaked through as it clung onto her figure and revealed more than a hint of her skin.

“Ueek…!”

From her cherry-colored shapely lips, a mouthful of blood spewed out. The white robe rapidly got stained in the dark crimson hue.

“Miss Maria!”

When Seol ran up to her, Maria weakly raised her head up. As if she was already suffering from a high fever, her once-pale cheeks were reddening up.

“Are you alright?”

“Fuck…. Can't you see for yourself….?”

“….”

“My head's ringing, so please don't shout near me…. I really feel like I might die soon….”

Maria coughed and vomited out two more mouthfuls of blood. She regulated her breathing and then shot Seol a fierce glare.

“Don't forget.”

“….”

“I did you a big favor with this.”

Seol wasn't a dummy so he quickly replied.

“I understand. I'll never forget about today's matter.”

Maria lowered her head again. She was helped along by other maids and soon, they disappeared beyond the bottom of the stairs and out of sight.

Still worried, Seol continued to look on before shifting his eyes away after hearing the loud exclamation of joy coming out from his quarters. It was the sound of the Yi siblings crying out.

“Time for the main character to make his entrance.”

Hao Win lightly patted Seol's back. Although the questions regarding why this guy followed him here remained, Seol was more curious to find out Yun Seora's condition, so he hesitantly took his first step inside.

'Ho!'

Hao Win followed Seol into the room and ended up gasping out in admiration after seeing the figure of the woman sitting on top of the bed.

The way she sat up on the bed while leaning slightly against the wall reminded him of a beautiful snowflower shyly blooming within a hidden crevice in the middle of winter.

She continuously raised her right arm and then lowered it. Her actions were somehow like that beautiful flower not knowing what to do when the rays of warm sunlight fell upon it after it was forcibly taken out from its deep hiding place and into the open plain.

‘Indeed, I see why he fell for her.’ Hao Win silently mused to himself, and then he lightly pushed Seol forward. Thanks to that, the youth ended up stumbling a couple of steps forward, which inevitably drew in the attention of Yun Seora. She flinched slightly and met the youth's gaze.

“H, how are you feeling?”

“….”

“Is your arm okay?”

“…Ah.”

Her small but shapely lips parted slightly before closing shut again.

All sorts of emotions flashed in her eyes, but her lips could only tremble softly. Judging from her small and nearly indecipherable hand gestures, it seemed as if she desperately wanted to say something, but at the same time, she was at a loss as to how she should proceed. So much so, the ones watching on could feel their hearts melt into a puddle.

'Man!'

Now how heartwarming and wonderfully refreshing was this!

Hao Win was deeply admiring this sight, but then….

“May I know how you managed to gather 82,000 points?”

….Yun Seora’s words brought him back to his senses.

Hao Win quickly stuffed a cigarette in his mouth and shoved his hands down his trouser pockets. Then, he cocked his head exactly at the angle of 30 degrees and jutted his chin out just a bit as if he was looking down on his opponent.

“Oh, that. This is….”

“Hiya~~. Congrats, congrats.”

Just before Seol could introduce Yun Seora to Hao Win, Hao Win seized the initiative and stepped forward while walking in an extravagant fashion. He placed a hand on Seol's shoulder and scanned the crowd.

“I see that you're all nicely healed and stuff. You can move your arm now, yeah?”

“Y, yes. It's all thanks to Mister Hao Win…”

“Sure, sure. It's all good, all good. But…”

The ends of Hao Win's lips twisted up slightly. As a clearly slimy smile surfaced on his face, Yi Seol-Ah couldn't help but form a deep frown.

“We've held up our side of the bargain, so…. It's your turn to keep your side of the promise, no?”

“Of course.”

“Oh, good. You see, I just wanted to make sure. I mean, if you somehow forgot, things might have gotten a bit troubling for both sides.”

“You don't have to worry.”

Seol confidently replied. He received a lot from them already, and he was planning to pay them back in full.

Of course, that was just from Seol's perspective. The others, who weren't aware of the details, could only tilt their heads in confusion from those ambiguous words.

“Uhm, excuse me…. What promise are you talking about?”

And sure enough, Yi Seol-Ah took the bait.

“Oh, that….”

“That's right, it's a promise.”

Seol was about to explain himself, but Hao Win cut him off again.

“It's nothing much. Let's just say, it's kinda like we made a deal?”

He said it was “nothing”, yet the tone of his voice or the way he said it indicated otherwise.

“This friend here, I saw him running around like a headless chicken in the morning, you see? And I thought him working his butt off like that didn't look so nice. So, after I heard his story, I decided to lend him a hand.”

“T, Then….”

“He said there’s this girl he needs to save and that he needed 82,000 points for that. Cool, so cool! I was so moved that I even asked my family to pitch in to meet that amount!”

“Y, your family?”

Yi Seol-Ah's dumbfounded gaze landed on Seol, but he could only look back at her without saying anything.

What Hao Win said wasn't wrong, technically. It was true that Hao Win went out of his way to help and he really did reveal himself to be an unashamed romantic. Also, one could refer to one's teammates as “family”, too.

But because Hao Win had his back to her, she couldn’t see his facial expression.

“But, here's the thing, little lady. We aren’t running a charity operation, so we reached a proper business agreement. Know what I mean?”

In an instant, the whole room became deathly quiet. Seeing Hao Win cackle like some sort of a cartoon villain in an apparent display of joy certainly got on the nerves of almost everyone present.

“Oh well. For today, celebrate away! But from tomorrow onwards….”

When he intentionally blurred the ends of his sentence, the unsettling atmosphere got heavier.

“In any case, you've got a lot~ of work to do. I'm sure you know very well that you gotta work hard to keep my family safe and sound, yeah?”

That was also true. Delphine's team did want Seol's overwhelming attacking prowess, after all. And it was common sense for a Warrior to take to the frontlines.

“I know. I'll see you tomorrow morning.”

“Very good. I’ll get outta here now…. Oh, right.”

Hao Win turned around to leave, before turning back again to face Yun Seora as if he just remembered something. She wasn't stupid – no, on the contrary, she was incredibly sharp. As if she had sensed what was going on, the seriousness of her expression was clear to see.

“Before I go, I should say my thanks first. Your name's Yun Seora, right? Thanks a bunch.”

“….What do you mean?”

Her voice was sharp enough to cut human flesh, but Hao Win simply cackled on.

“All thanks to you, the number one man in the Neutral Zone has landed in my hands!”

Hao Win theatrically mimicked grabbing and fondling motions with his fingers and ominously laughed out.

It was only then that Seol realized something was off, but before he could respond, Hao Win's rough hands violently grabbed his collars.

“A word of advice. Don't even think about running away. If we don't get back our investment here, then we'll get it back in Paradise. If not, then, well, we'll just get it when we're back on Earth.”

Just as Seol was about to ask what the heck he was on…

“Well, I’ve yet to meet a fool who would do that after hearing the name of the Triads…”

Hao Win released Seol's collars, leaned in closer, and winked at him. With a refreshing smile on his face, he strode right past the confused and stunned Seol. Soon enough, the noise of the door closing was heard.

Seol fixed his clothes and let off a soft sigh. Not only was that man noisy, he was also quite indecipherable sometimes, as well.

In any case, today was the day for celebration. Yun Seora needed a few more days of recuperation, but by healing her arm, Seol certainly did wonders for Kim Hannah's reputation. Now that the most difficult task was over, the rest should be comparatively easy as pie.

Conveniently enough, it was now around dinner time. Seol was about to suggest that they should enjoy a feast to celebrate Yun Seora's recovery, but then….

“?”

….He couldn't help but fall into deep confusion.

The complexions of both Yi Seol-Ah and Yi Sungjin were poor. They stood around like a pair of statues, gazing at Seol with eyes rapidly moistening up.

“Actually, I…. thought it was strange….”

“Eh?”

“Just how…. You were able to gather so many points in such a short time…. I was so curious….”

Her halting words were wet with emotions.

“All…. All because of us….”

As if all strength abandoned her legs, Yi Seol-Ah suddenly plopped down on the floor. And finally, from her reddening eyes, thick teardrops began pouring out. Now in panic mode, Seol hurriedly waved his hands around in denial.

“No, no!! Wait a minute!! You guys are misunderstanding something!”

“It's a misunderstanding?”

“That's right!”

“But, you had to borrow the points, right?”

“Yeah, but….”

Seol became rather speechless. It was true that he borrowed points. Suddenly, he didn't know where to even begin his explanation. However, as soon as Yi Seol-Ah's elegantly defined facial features began crumbling and soft sniffling noises came from her nose, Seol couldn't help but hurriedly blurt out.

“I didn't borrow a lot. I already took care of the 82,000 points, and they just added a few more so I can get a couple of equipment for myself. I'll be able to make that up through a handful of missions.”

“R, really?”

“Of course.”

“But he said you fell into his hands….”

“He was just messing around. I'm telling you, you don't have to worry. Really.”

“But, what about you meeting up tomorrow morning…?”

“Seriously now, it's nothing to worry about. I've joined his party, that's all. They needed my strength, so we're going to carry out missions together.”

It was at this point where Yi Seol-Ah completely broke down and cried even harder.

He had to use his body to get those points – that was how she took it, no matter how hard Seol tried to explain. She made up her mind simply through the actions of Hao Win.

'It's all because of me!'

In Yi Seol-Ah’s mind, her orabeo-nim, who was better than anyone else in the Neutral Zone, had fallen to become a mere meat shield all because she spoke up carelessly. The crashing tidal wave of guilt forced even more tears out from her eyes.

Since Seol had no idea what she was thinking, he tilted his head in confusion. The whole thing was like a lightning striking him out of the blue.

'Why?!'

The more he tried to pacify her, telling her that everything was okay, the more she seemed to cry.

“Yi, Yi Sungjin….?”

Seol shifted his gaze over to Yi Sungjin, wanting to egg him to do something about his sister. However, Yi Sungjin wasn’t much different.

With his head was lowered, he had his fists clenched tightly while shaking in rage.

'What's the matter with him?’

Seol's neck creaked noisily like a rusted machine as he turned his head around.

Yun Seora was in the middle of wordlessly staring at Seol. When their gazes met, she flinched grandly and hurriedly avoided him and then began glaring at the poor bed sheets.

It was the first time Seol saw such a display of raw emotion from a girl who always seemed taciturn and disinterested from the short time he had known her.

However, he felt a sense of deja vu when even Yun Seora began biting her lower lip.

“Sob…”

Yun Seora couldn't hold back anymore, and she too began crying. She covered her face with those thin pair of hands, and her shoulders began quivering ever so gently.

“I'm…. I'm sorry….”

She quietly sobbed, and after seeing her like that, Seol could only glare at the ceiling in helplessness.

'That guy, really….'

On a day well-suited for celebration, the whole room became a sea of wails, instead.

On the other hand, as the multiple choruses of crying escaped from the room, Hao Win let off a long smoke out from his lips as he leaned against the door, his arms across his chest. Now that his work was done, he flung the dying butt of the cigarette away and moved on.

The expression on his face as he climbed down the stairs was one of satisfaction.

He sniffed and wiped his nose once while slowly nodding his head.

'Yup, humans are emotional animals.'

**The following morning.

Unable to win against the sorrowful atmosphere of his room, Seol made his escape at early dawn. He decided to get his gear ready in time for the meeting later in the morning.

'Let's see…. The remaining points are….'

….14,780 points, although he gave 600 away for his guests and their meals for the day, so now, 14,180 remained. Yi Seol-Ah completely refused to take the points, but when he used Yun Seora's recuperation as the excuse, she took them with thick tears in her eyes.

'What should I buy?'

Normally, the pricing of defensive equipment started from around 1000 points. Since they were designed to keep you alive for as long as possible, they were naturally quite expensive.

After entering the store, Seol looked around hesitantly before an Asian maid discovered him and trotted to his position. She was a cute girl with braided hair.

“Hello there~! What brings you here today?”

“I came to buy defensive gear.”

‘Hm~.’ The maid swept her gaze over Seol and nodded her head.

“What is your allotted budget?”

“It's around 14,000 points….”