Chapter 303 : Chapter 303
Chapter 303: Aftermath—Jeong Ye-jin
Early May.
A full spring had arrived, with green spreading across the branches that had huddled during winter, and the scent of flowers overflowing the roads.
Ho-cheol visited the facility after a long time.
It was the [Hope Foster Care Facility], where Ye-jin was born and raised, and where the twins were currently sheltered.
Of course, even though it was "a long time," he had visited once around the Lunar New Year to eat rice cake soup, so barely three months had passed.
Ho-cheol got out of the car and greeted Hye-jin.
"Hello."
"Welcome. Have you been well?"
He opened the trunk of Boong-boong and took down two heavy boxes.
"What is this again?"
In response to Hye-jin's question, Ho-cheol tore the tape off the box and briefly showed the contents.
"These are spring clothes for the kids. Children's Day is soon."
He had hesitated a bit between clothes and toys, but he had already bought plenty of toys last Christmas, hadn't he?
Hye-jin saw the clothes, covered her mouth with one hand, and wore an apologetic expression.
"Ah, to think you've taken care of this again. I appreciate the thought so much, but I also feel sorry about accepting this..."
"There's nothing to feel sorry about."
Ho-cheol said it dismissively, but Hye-jin couldn't simply express pure gratitude.
These weren't second-hand or cheap clothes.
They were all clothes from quite famous brands, not even unpacked.
They must cost a fortune.
How much money and gifts had Ho-cheol given the kids for their New Year's allowance alone?
Ho-cheol, for his part, shrugged, acting as if it were nothing.
"This is the last time for me, too. From now on, Ye-jin will take full responsibility for them."
"She should. Ye-jin left a huge amount of money a few days ago, saying it was her first paycheck."
At that, Ho-cheol laughed softly.
Indeed, Ye-jin's legal net income must already be several times higher than Ho-cheol's.
Having clinched the top hero spot right from her debut, she was already a superstar attracting attention from all media and press.
Although the government abolished the hero rank system, citizens and the media still called her the unofficial S-rank Hero.
In addition to the money she earned from hero activities, she was also appearing in various CFs and advertisements, enjoying peak popularity in the media.
While most of them were public service advertisements organized by the government, the advertising fees alone must not be small.
At least this facility wouldn't have to worry about money forcing them to cut corners on the menu.
Hye-jin noticed some clothes in the box were for her and looked surprised, then gave a wry smile.
"In other cases, people say coming often is a bigger gift than presents like these, but I can't possibly say that now. Since you already come often."
Ho-cheol subtly looked around.
He intentionally entered through the back gate of the facility today.
If the kids discovered he had arrived first, they would swarm him and harass him before he could even take care of his personal business.
Why did the variety of those dinosaur suits keep increasing every time he visited?
Closing the box again, he stated the real reason for his visit today.
"So, are the twins here?"
"Yes. They are doing well."
"I'd like to call them out for a moment."
Seeing Ho-cheol's serious expression, Hye-jin nodded, agreeing despite her curiosity.
A little later, she brought the twins, who had been enjoying a lazy nap after lunch.
Hwa-yeon and Do-won.
They were test subjects created as part of 'the organization's' New Humanity Project back when Ji-an was going down the wrong path as a villain.
However, when Ji-an was betrayed by her subordinates, the [New World Trait Liberation Society] stole the twins and continued experiments under the names Alpha and Beta.
Ho-cheol rescued them and sheltered them here.
When they first met, their eyes were lifeless, as if they had been covered in all the malice and evil of the world. But the twins now...
"Mister!"
"Hello."
They looked like perfectly free and energetic children no different from their peers.
The two ran towards him, happy to see him.
Ho-cheol stretched out his hands, lifted the two who ran to him, and sat them on the car's hood.
Then, he patted the tops of their heads.
Rubbing their hair, he marveled.
"You've grown quite a bit."
"Of course."
Somehow, they had visibly grown even in just three months.
"Anyway, I have a gift for you two."
Hwa-yeon's eyes widened at the word 'gift,' and she exclaimed.
"I just happened to want a bag!"
Of course, the bag Hwa-yeon spoke of was not a luxury bag costing hundreds or tens of millions of won.
It was a small handbag needed for the children's pretend play.
Do-won immediately mentioned the gift he wanted.
"I want books. I've read all the ones here at the facility."
"Right. I'll give you the gifts you want next time. The gift I want to give you today is..."
Ho-cheol pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket.
Until he pulled out the paper, no one could guess its identity.
However, the next sentence he spoke was shocking.
"It's the document that proves you and I are family."
"Ah?"
"Eh?"
Not only the twins but also Hye-jin covered her mouth with one hand, gasping in surprise.
Ho-cheol smiled contentedly, as if he had been waiting for the bewildered reaction of the three.
Then, he explained.
He had been preparing many things over the past year.
Creating completely fake records for five people to look like genuine individuals was not easy, even for Ho-cheol.
He would still be struggling if he hadn't created various connections when he handed the Association over to the government the other day.
And while creating the fake identities, he created an additional identity.
"Of course, it would be difficult and likely dangerous for you if I put you under my direct lineage, as heroes, villains, and the government are all monitoring me.
Ho-cheol pointed to a section of the family registry document.
"You see this name here? It's a relative who doesn't actually exist. But I created a new identity and put you two under it. In the family registry, you are the children of my father's younger sibling. In other words, my cousins."
The two, who were sitting on the hood of Boong-boong, gaped and then naturally slid down, standing on the ground again.
Hwa-yeon, half-stunned, asked back, unable to believe it.
Her voice overflowed with deep emotion and joy.
"R-really?"
"Of course. Feel free to contact me. Not just for difficult things, but for happy things, fun things, even trivial things are all fine."
Ho-cheol smiled brightly and stroked their heads.
"You're family."
The twins stared blankly, alternating between Ho-cheol and the family registry document he held, for a long time without speaking.
Ho-cheol chuckled at their unbelievable expression.
He knelt on one knee to meet their eye level and opened his arms.
Only then did the twins silently embrace him.
The small sobs coming from within his arms continued for a long time.
***
After finishing his business with the twins, Ho-cheol headed to the playground in front of the facility with them.
The children who spotted him brightened up and ran toward him without waiting for anyone else.
Ho-cheol couldn't just smile at their enthusiastic reaction.
Some children were running toward the storage room instead of Ho-cheol.
It was obvious what they were going to fetch.
To the children at the facility, Ho-cheol was practically an idol.
No, to be precise, he was a dinosaur.
He had to wear the dinosaur suit they brought again and was tormented... no, played with them for several hours.
***
After tormenting Ho-cheol for several hours, all the children streamed back into the facility at the mention of snack time.
Ho-cheol, completely exhausted, slumped onto a bench as if collapsing.
The children invited him to join them for snacks, but he didn't have the energy to take another step.
He took off the dinosaur head hood and pulled the chest of the suit forward with his fingers.
Even though it wasn't midsummer, the inside of the dinosaur suit was soaked with sweat.
This damned dinosaur suit.
The variety kept increasing every time he visited, once every couple of months.
What was this dinosaur called again?
It was a Car-something-tosaurus.
A shadow fell beside him as he was catching his breath.
"Hello, Professor!"
He recognized the familiar voice and answered without even turning his head.
"What brings a busy hero like you here?"
Ye-jin, standing behind the bench, smiled with her eyes.
"Oh, a hero! Why are you making it sound distant again? I'll be your student forever, Professor."
"If you insist."
Ho-cheol chuckled and patted the seat next to him on the bench.
She sat down beside Ho-cheol as if she had been waiting.
She cautiously assessed Ho-cheol's mood and then asked.
"I heard. That you and Da-yeon are now... in that kind of relationship?"
And all while I was showing the younger kids around the academy during the graduation ceremony!
"Yes. Well, it happened somehow."
Ho-cheol looked at Ye-jin with a slightly proud expression.
"Right. People are calling you S-rank, aren't they?"
An unprecedented genius, the next No. 1 hero.
These were the epithets attached to Ye-jin right now.
She herself only gave an embarrassed, awkward smile.
"Aww, it's nothing. Ranks are all gone anyway. Besides, it's not even my own power. It's a bit embarrassing. I essentially got strong by luck."
The reason she possessed such overwhelming strength wasn't solely due to her own talent and effort.
Right before she died, Smiley—Yu-hwa—transferred the power she had left behind to Ye-jin, in a desperate attempt to resuscitate her.
Although she only managed to absorb and assimilate half of it, that alone gave her output superior to most S-rank individuals.
Unlike the humble Ye-jin, Ho-cheol shook his head, refuting her words.
"No, making that entirely your own is your ability. If you didn't meet the conditions and qualifications, you probably wouldn't have been able to take in even a quarter of it and would have spilled it all out."
"Is that so?"
"It is. So, it's okay to be confident. More than anything, you didn't get strong by luck; you met all the qualifications and conditions."
Ye-jin gave a genuine chuckle at Ho-cheol's honest compliment.
If Ho-cheol, of all people, said so, she thought it might be okay to be more confident.
"So, is being a hero manageable?"
"Ah, ah. Oh, yes!"
At that question, Ye-jin burst forth with complaints as if a dam had broken.
The subtle clique mentality among fellow heroes, the strange disregard from sidekicks or other office workers toward young heroes, and the inconsiderate rudeness and abuse of power from some citizens.
The villains and monsters, on the other hand, weren't the problem.
She was prepared for them and had firmly made up her mind.
Stress is always felt most vividly in the areas you don't anticipate.
"I didn't know this during my internship! How could they disregard people like this!"
"If a successful hero like you is this stressed, how do you think the others who are struggling feel? Do you keep in touch with your classmates?"
"...Of course, I do. They're all just complaining about how miserable they are."
"There's a reason why 1st and 2nd-year heroes have the highest resignation rates."
Although Ho-cheol had worked hard to improve heroes' rights and treatment through his deal with the government, it would take a significant period for those changes to become foundational common sense across society.
No, even if such a culture were to arise, it likely could never be completely rooted out.
He patted Ye-jin's shoulder as if to comfort her.
"What can you do? It's the hero path you chose, knowing you'd have to endure all that."
"You're right. I have to keep bearing it well."
Ho-cheol briefly turned his head sideways and gazed intently at Ye-jin's face.
Feeling his gaze, Ye-jin wore a subtle expression.
She was slightly embarrassed but didn't avert her eyes.
Ho-cheol raised his hand.
The hand slowly moved toward Ye-jin's face.
No way?
Is it what I think it is?
Ye-jin tried desperately to calm her pounding heart.
What if this situation was 'that thing' she was imagining?
Should I close my eyes first?
No, would it be strange to close my eyes already?
However.
Ho-cheol's hand, which had approached within inches, suddenly clenched into a fist.
Then he threw it toward Ye-jin.
Crack—
The fist froze before it could touch Ye-jin's face.
Without any medium, ice, which had materialized from the air, solidly gripped his fist all the way up to his elbow.
Ye-jin was startled by the sudden attack and asked back.
"W-why all of a sudden?"
Ho-cheol, who had thrown the punch, simply shook off the ice with a satisfied look and nodded.
"Good. The reaction speed, and the smooth transition into suppressing with your Trait. You definitely hold up well compared to the S-ranks who were active in my time."
She had gotten so strong that I wanted to check if she was getting complacent and not following what she had learned.
"Ah. I see."
Ye-jin, who was openly disappointed, got up from her seat as if sulking.
She glanced sideways at Ho-cheol, put her hands behind her back, and walked away with short steps.
Ho-cheol laughed lightly, got up, and followed her.
The place they arrived at was a small empty lot in the corner of the facility.
Ye-jin turned back toward Ho-cheol and asked.
"You remember this place, right?"
She wasn't actually sulking from the start.
Ho-cheol testing her was a frequent occurrence.
It's just that a proper test couldn't be done on that narrow bench.
She had merely moved to a better location.
Ho-cheol also nodded.
"Of course. How could I forget."
In the middle of the first semester. It was here that Ye-jin challenged Ho-cheol to test how strong she was. And she was utterly destroyed.
"It's a memory, I suppose."
"Back then, I was completely beaten without being able to make a sound."
Ye-jin pulled a pair of knuckles from her pocket and spun them on her fingers.
These knuckles, which Ho-cheol had given her as a gift, were still one of Ye-jin's treasures.
"Revenge... I won't call it that. Just, feeling like I'm learning a lesson."
"That's a good mindset. If you're my student, and a hero, you should naturally aim high."
Ho-cheol put on the hood of the dinosaur suit and stretched his hand forward.
"Let's have our own graduation ceremony."
***
Ye-jin lay on her back on the ground, breathing heavily.
A deep shadow fell over her head.
Ho-cheol squatted beside her, propped his elbows on his knees, rested his chin on his hands, and gazed intently at her.
He was genuinely impressed.
"Wow. You've really improved a lot."
Even though he was taking it easy, there were moments during the sparring where Ho-cheol felt chills from her threatening attacks.
After all, unlike other students, she had the talent to spot the enemy's most fatal opening.
Despite it being May, large chunks of ice rolled around nearby, as if it were midwinter.
Her Trait was simply the emission of cold, but the output was so strong that it could freeze the surrounding water vapor like this.
Ye-jin grumbled.
"They say I'm strong, even among the S-ranks. But why can't I even graze you, Professor?"
"It means you need to try harder."
"Hmph."
"Also, there's a slight difference in Trait activation speed between your left and right hands. 0.01 seconds is a fatal difference."
Ho-cheol spent a long time explaining the weaknesses and areas for improvement he found during their sparring session.
Meanwhile, Ye-jin silently watched Ho-cheol.
Her glasses had flown off, and with the sun behind him, his face wasn't clearly visible, but that didn't mean her own feelings weren't clearly visible.
At one point, she had to secretly work part-time alongside her academic schedule due to financial problems.
A harsh reality that pressed down on her, suffocating her.
But Ho-cheol simply visited once, and with just a few words, he solved all the problems that had tormented her entire life, too easily.
Since then, he had saved her life multiple times.
And he respected her as an individual.
An adult who was so reliable.
A person she admired and wanted to become like.
But that feeling gradually changed.
And now...
She could no longer deny that he was a precious person she wanted to keep beside her, beyond mere respect.
Ye-jin stared blankly at Ho-cheol and asked.
"Is the reason my heart is pounding right now simply because I exerted myself so much?"
Ho-cheol's expression was surprised for a moment, but he quickly reverted to normal.
He gently shook his head.
"No."
"Or is it because your attacks were too dangerous, and there were several situations during the sparring where I genuinely almost died, filling me with terror?"
He shook his head again.
"That's not it either."
"Then..."
Ye-jin slowly got up.
Rising to her feet, she placed her hand over her chest.
Her still wildly beating heart did not match her extremely cold body.
"What could it be?"
Ho-cheol pondered for a moment and then answered.
"Probably for the same reason my heart is beating."
"Your heart beats too, Professor?"
"Of course."
She stretched out her other hand and placed it on Ho-cheol's chest, over his heart.
His fiercely beating heart was not slow compared to hers at all.
"The reason my heart is beating like this is..."
She couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence.
Instead, she tilted her body forward as if to collapse and embraced him.
Resting her chin on his shoulder, she whispered.
"Just like this. I'll just stay like this for a little while."
"No."
Ho-cheol spoke with determination.
He knew her feelings well.
She had openly shown how much she liked him even during her student days.
Even though he had clearly left the door open for her the moment she graduated, Ye-jin couldn't bring herself to utter the single most important word until the end, maintaining her distance.
He knew the reason.
Even in this moment, she was suffering from a severe inferiority complex, inwardly believing she was inadequate to confess to Ho-cheol.
She constantly hesitated, repeatedly retreating just when she had the chance to show her feelings and true intentions.
This wasn't merely a matter of lacking time.
It was a hesitation that would only lead to mutual distress and hurt.
Therefore, Ho-cheol took the first step forward and extended his hand.
"Stay. Keep staying by my side forever."
Ye-jin gasped, deeply moved by his confession.
She was simply grateful that he had crossed the line first for her, who could never move forward due to a lack of even the smallest bit of courage.
"...Yes. I'll stay by your side forever."
Ye-jin answered softly.
And having crossed the hardest line.
"Professor."
There was nothing stopping her now.
"I love you."
Ye-jin's voice, as she said this, contained a mix of nervousness, embarrassment, and even a little playfulness.
"Why. Did you think I would get all shy, or pretend I didn't hear you and change the subject when I heard words like that?"
Ho-cheol had become sufficiently shameless for that not to happen.
"Right. Me too."
Instead, Ye-jin's earlobes turned bright red, and unable to overcome her embarrassment, she bit Ho-cheol's neck sharply.
Ye-jin, who was constantly plagued by the cold due to her Trait, felt no cold at all while embracing Ho-cheol right now.