BXBX NOVEL Chapter 6 - Please go away (3)
"It\'s a misunderstanding! It was an accident; I never meant to do that!"
They say life is a comedy from a distance and a tragedy up close, and that\'s exactly how I feel right now. It\'s baffling to find myself mediating a scene straight out of a manga.
"...Is what the woman said true?"
Lee So-Young has already believed Baek Shin-Hwa\'s words and is looking at Shin Chul-Min like he\'s trash. Despite Shin Chul-Min\'s cries of innocence, it seems futile. The woman is tearfully lodging her complaint.
The odds are stacked against him.
"Sigh."
I let out a sigh and looked at the crowd. Too many people have gathered to witness the spectacle. At this rate, he\'ll be branded a sexual predator before he even has a chance to become a hero. So I have to help.
"Let\'s change the location. There are too many people around."
"......So you\'re saying it was an accident?"
"I\'m telling you, I\'m not that kind of pervert."
After a lengthy conversation, it became clear that it was all a misunderstanding. It\'s always a struggle to clear up the heroine\'s misconceptions. Hang in there, protagonist.
"To think that you\'re going to be a hero. As a senior, I think I need to keep an eye on you to make sure other female heroes aren\'t victimized."
"That will never happen......"
"That remains to be seen. My name is Baek Shin-Hwa. I\'m an A-ranked hero. You might see me a lot in the future, so be careful."
Shin Chul-Min and Baek Shin-Hwa finally reached a point where they addressed each other by their full names. Yes, this is how Shin Chul-Min and Baek Shin-Hwa first met: A meeting that began with an accidental touch. It\'s hard to see that as a good start.
Of course, like any harem heroine, she initially views the hero as a pervert but eventually falls in love and gives him everything.
\'Oh, you\'re the same pervert I met last time!\'
\'H-hmph! You might be a pervert, but at least you\'ve got some skill.\'
\'Y-you! Who was that woman? You\'re not going to do something weird to her like you did to me last time, are you?\'
\'I love you as much as the other girls do... I really love you. Please give me a chance!\'
It progresses like this.
I\'m all for you guys loving each other, but please don\'t bother me like you did today. I want to be a bus passenger, not a bus mechanic.
"Now that we\'ve cleared up the misunderstanding, we\'ll be on our way."
After mediating between them, I began to wearily walk away.
\'It\'s a misunderstanding! Stop lying! It\'s a misunderstanding! Stop lying!\' I felt exhausted after witnessing this endless exchange for 20 minutes.
"Ah, excuse me."
Shin Chul-Min called out to me as I was about to leave with So-Young.
"What is it?"
"Um, thank you so much. I feel like I wasted your time. Thanks to your mediation, I think we were able to resolve our misunderstanding better."
"That\'s fine; don\'t worry about it."
I didn\'t feel like I was very helpful; otherwise, I wouldn\'t have spent 20 minutes watching this crap.
"Haha, again, thank you. You\'re Team Leader 5 of the Awakened Crime Division, right? You\'re famous, so even I\'ve heard of you. It\'s surprising to see you here."
"I-is that so?"
Shin Chul-Min knowing me isn\'t good news. I don\'t know how my presence will affect the protagonist since I didn\'t exist in the original story.
"Yes! I thought you were a great person. I even respect you."
Please don\'t say that you respect me. I don\'t want to be associated with you.
"Well, thank you. Then, we\'ll be on our way."
I quickly ended the conversation and walked away from them. I didn\'t want to talk to them anymore.
Since I\'m bound to bump into the main characters at some point, I\'ve always thought that if I do, I shouldn\'t pay them any mind and avoid talking to them as much as possible.
The protagonist\'s friends can take care of themselves if left alone. So there\'s no point in me associating with them. You never know how I might influence the plot.
"Patrol time is almost over. So-Young, let\'s go back."
"Yes!"
As we headed back, I took one last look at Shin Chul-Min and Baek Shin-Hwa and prayed. Let\'s not see each other too often.
"That was Team Leader 5 of the Awakened Crime Division, right?" Baek Shin-Hwa muttered as she watched Shin Hye-Rim and Lee So-Young walk away.
A moment ago, she panicked because a man she didn\'t recognize grabbed her chest, but when she calmed down, she realized that she had met Shin Hye-Rim, Team Leader 5 of the Awakened Crime Division.
My fellow heroes always told me, \'If you ever meet a blonde girl from the Awakened Crime Division, run away.\'
"She doesn\'t seem like a bad person."
As far as Baek Shin-Hwa is concerned, Shin Hye-Rim is not a scary person. Even if she catches Awakeners for a living, she\'s still a government employee. Unless she\'s done something wrong, there\'s no reason for her to come into conflict with her.
Of course, Baek Shin-Hwa knows why the other heroes are afraid of her.
"It\'s because of the bloodbath in the Hero Association."
It happened three years ago. An S-ranked Hero got into a fight with a fellow Hero. The reason for the fight was trivial. Kim Min-Seok, an S-ranked Hero, was walking by when he bumped into an A-ranked Hero, and picked a fight because the A-ranked Hero didn\'t apologize to him.
Kim Min-Seok had a reputation for having a difficult personality. Furthermore, Awakeners like him have big egos. The A-ranked Hero was displeased by Kim Min-Seo\'s attitude and said that this situation didn\'t need him to apologize.
This offended Kim Min-Seok, who threw a punch, and that\'s how the fight between the two heroes began.
They didn\'t use their powers, but it\'s still a fight between the Awakeners. There was no way a fight between Awakeners could end peacefully, so Kim Min-Seok ended up punching the A-ranked hero hard enough to put him in the hospital for a month.
"The Awakened Crime Division came to visit him because of that, and that was the main problem."
The fight between the two heroes was just a small matter. Although the A-ranked Hero was badly injured, it was nothing compared to what happened next.
Since it was a fight between heroes, the Awakened Division couldn\'t help but intervene, and it was Shin Hye-Rim, who was new to the division at the time, who came to see Kim Min-Seok.
As I said earlier, Awakeners are proud. Add to that the fact that Kim Min-Seok is inherently an a**hole, and you can imagine how he treated the Awakened Crime Division\'s new employee who came to arrest him.
He turned up his nose and belittled them.
\'How dare you bastards from the association come to arrest me? I\'m Kim Min-Seok; don\'t bother me with something so insignificant!\'
He told her that he didn\'t do anything wrong and to go away. This is a typical relationship between Awakeners and Heroes.
They don\'t want to appear weak because they often have friction with each other. If an S-ranked hero acted like this, even an employee of the Awakened Crime Division would be troubled.
Even if they tried to restrain him by force, they would be troubled if he went on a rampage and caused a problem.
However, Kim Min-Seok chose the wrong opponent that day.
\'Yeah? That means you\'re going to refuse the arrest, right?\'
Bam!!
The dull, thumping sound echoed as soon as the words were out of her mouth. Shin Hye-Rim\'s fist slammed into Kim Min-Seok\'s face.
Thud!
With a single blow, Kim Min-Seok was thrown to the ground.
Everyone\'s jaws dropped as they watched what happened in the middle of the Hero Association. Are S-ranked heroes as common as stray dogs? Kim Min-Seok is one of the three strongest heroes in Korea.
He has the ability to kill hundreds of monsters with a single blow. Although his personality is bad, his abilities are considered to be real.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Crack!
\'Gaaaaah!! Ugh! S-save me...!\'
He is being beaten with her bare hands by a woman much smaller and delicate than him.
After getting on top of the fallen Kim Min-Seok, Shin Hye-Rim beat him up without a word with an expressionless face. Even when Kim Min-Seok\'s blood splashed on her face, even when his teeth protruded from his mouth and clattered on the floor, she kept punching him as if it didn\'t matter.
That day, the corridors of the Hero Association were stained red with Kim Min-Seok\'s blood.
After beating up the S-ranked hero until the verge of death, Shin Hye-Rim walked out of the Association as if nothing had happened. No one stopped her. They were scared that they would end up like Kim Min-Seok.
That was the bloodbath in the Hero Association. An employee from the Awakened Crime Division nearly killed an S-rank Hero in the Hero Association.
Of course, Shin Hye-Rim\'s actions were excessive, and she went to visit Kim Min-Seok in the hospital to apologize. But Kim Min-Seok didn\'t accept her apology.
It was not that he was offended by her behavior.
"Aaaaaa?!! Please save me! It was my fault! My fault! My fault......\'
It\'s because Kim Min-Seok can\'t have a normal conversation with Shin Hye-Rim because he panics and starts crying just by looking at her face.
This is why the heroes are so afraid of Shin Hye-Rim. Having seen such a sight with their own two eyes, there was no one who would not be afraid of her.
Kim Min-Seok was so shocked by what happened that he retired from being a hero and started a meat restaurant.
"But there\'s no reason to be that scared?"
Baek Shin-Hwa, who was busy with her Hero activities at the time, didn\'t see the bloodbath firsthand. It\'s understandable that the heroes would be afraid of Shin Hye-Rim, but when it comes down to it, wasn\'t Kim Min-Seok the one who did something wrong in the first place?
As long as she stays out of trouble, there\'s no need for her to cause friction with Shin Hye-Rim. Even today, having met and talked to Shin Hye-Rim face-to-face, she doesn\'t seem like the psychopath that other heroes make her out to be.
She\'s just an ordinary government employee, after all.
"......"
Of course, she does seem to be a bit more cruel when she\'s angry, but I don\'t think I\'ll ever meet her in an angry state.
As she thought about it, she glanced at Shin Hye-Rim, who was walking with So-Young.
"..."
And then she noticed that Shin Hye-Rim had turned around, and she was looking back and forth between herself and the man named Shin Chul-Min.
If she just looked at him, there would be no problem. But Shin Hye-Rim\'s expression was full of annoyance.
...Huh? Why is she looking at me like that?
She hadn\'t done anything to offend her, so why was she looking at her with such an annoyed expression?
I had a little trouble with a guy named Shin Chul-Min, but it\'s not a big deal...... Wait?!
Baek Shin-Hwa thought then. Shin Chul-Min is about to become a hero. And her? She\'s a hero herself, so what happened today was an argument between heroes, right?
Of course, it turned out to be a misunderstanding, but from Shin Hye-Rim\'s point of view, she\'s just as much of a hero as Kim Min-Seok and just as much of a troublemaker.
And the situation where Shin-Hye Rim was deployed was also similar.
"I,I hope I\'m not being targeted.....?”
There is a saying among the heroes that goes something like this.
The moment you are targeted by Team Leader 5, your life is over.
"Hiccup!"
The moment she thought that, Baek Shin-Hwa couldn\'t help but shiver.