‘Pitiful things.’
There was a woman looking at the red horizon. Now, there weren’t any screaming people, nor were there wailing monsters.
It was all created by her hand. A horizon created with a single hand gesture.
She gazed out at the horizon and recited.
‘What a pity…’
What do you mean, pity?
Hara stared at her silhouette blankly. The silhouette of the woman that stood beneath the light of the crimson sunset looked incomparably lonely. Pitiful, but she seemed even more pitiful to Hara.
‘You foolish lass.’
The woman muttered again.
Hara scratched her head and looked around. The remains of a collapsed city were present. From the way dust was still flying about, it seemed like it hadn’t been long since this happened.
Oh dear. If you stay here, you’ll get pneumonia in no time. As Hara covered her mouth and took several steps back, she suddenly looked up at the sky.
Oh, Hara blinked.
Instead of the moon, an earth was floating in the crimson sky. There were a few Earths, even.
How odd. I’ve seen this scene somewhere before. As that thought occurred to Hara, she took a couple of steps back unknowingly. It was because she’d raised her head too high.
Then, something tripped her foot, causing her to look down at the ground. And immediately afterwards, Hara screamed.
“Uwahhh!”
Hara had stumbled over a man’s corpse. And it was a man Hara knows, with the face of the man she liked at that.
She couldn’t tell if the messy hair was red because it was soaked in blood or it was originally that colour. Hara bent down hurriedly and called him loudly.
“Kwon Wook-ssi! Are you okay?”
But it’s impossible for a corpse to answer. Instead, another person responded to her.
‘It’s alright, I killed him.’
Startled, Hara looked ahead. The woman that was looking at the horizon a while ago had turned her head to look in their direction. However, her face wasn’t clearly visible due to the backlight.
But Hara found that face surprisingly familiar.
“You…”
“Noona, is it you?”
“What?”
“Wake up.”
“What did you say?”
The woman laughed.
“Are you still sleeping at this hour?”
* * *
“I said, get up! Is this Noona?!”
Hara had just woken up and because of Kang Hada, who’d suddenly come in like a thunderbolt, Hara couldn’t even open her eyes properly and was forced upright.
And what had appeared before Kang Hara was none other than Bokhee’s SNS on a handphone.
[@bokhehegenius: Please look forward to the upcoming debut of Team K’s new member haha. Ah, the Season’s Greetings as well haha]
Hara, who had yet to grasp the situation, blinked slowly. Then, her eyes widened at the sight of a flashlight-esque item that she’d spotted in Hada’s hand.
It was something that Hara had randomly placed near the door as she entered the house last night.
[Badass Sword (A) (Creator: Bokhee)]
“Where did you get this?”
“Noona, isn’t this yours?”
Whether it’s ‘Noona’s’ or ‘yours’, speak properly. Of course, use the former and not the latter. Those words rose up her throat as Hara stole the Badass Sword from Hada immediately.
Hada’s eyes sparkled.
“Is it really Noona’s?”
In other words, Hara was, indeed, careless. But she had no choice but to do that.
It was almost dawn. In order to not wake the family as much as possible, Hara came in as quietly as she could, but her mother’s hearing didn’t miss the sounds made while Hara entered the house’s password.
Beepbeepbeep, as soon as she heard those sounds, her mother came out and yelled upon turning on the light and spotting Hara entering.
“Kang Hara! You said you were going on a business trip, but what’s with that appearance of yours!”
She was covered in black blood and emitting a foul smell. In any case, it didn’t seem very good.
“Ahaha,” Hara laughed awkwardly and took off her clothes, while Hyunsook repeatedly hit Hara on the back while repeating, “I can’t take this, I can’t take this.” As such, she probably left the Badass Sword on the table next to the front door.
She’d intended to call out to the constellation after lying on the bed, but after she’d finally managed to wash up and laid down, Hara fell asleep almost as though she’d fainted.
And right now.
“This is Noona, isn’t it?”
[@bokheethegenius: Awesome~ A destroyed dungeon~]
Hara’s small back was also amongst the stunned crowd of people that stood before the entrance to the collapsed dungeon.
Even the image of Hara looking at the cave’s entrance absent-mindedly, tightly gripping onto Seheon’s hand.
As Hada spoke, he smiled insidiously.
“Didn’t you go on a business trip? Did you go to play with your boyfriend?”
Isn’t he crazy? Hara tried to kick Hada, but she paused. Wait a minute, so he was… her boyfriend, wasn’t he?
“As you mentioned, I will think of it as an official duty that I’m performing and cooperate with you.”
As such, Hara wondered whether she should pull her hair out or not. Kang Hada, who’d actually asked the question, didn’t think so.
‘It looks like the dungeon had collapsed, so they must have held hands while running away.’
Kang Hada didn’t even think that Hara could meet a man.
Anyways, he was also one of Team K’s followers, and when he first saw Bokhee’s SNS, he thought that Team K would gain another member.
However, he’d only become interested in things that looked similar to the flashlight posted by Bokhee. This was because the equipment that Bokhee made was also a main component of Team K’s X-Tube.
“They’ll probably post it on X-Tube soon afterwards.”
Thinking that way, Hada discovered it while on his way out for his morning exercise.
What was ‘it’? The Badass Sword.
He hurriedly took out his handphone and compared the flashlight at his own doorstep to the one on SNS. Even the recent photo in his feed showed Kang Hara’s back, which anyone could have identified.
“Awesome, Noona. Did you get Team K? Will you appear on X-Tube, too? Amazing. Noona, are you the new member? Is it really related to how only one family member was allowed to visit you after you’ve come out of Yeouido Dungeon?”
Hada bombarded Hara with questions like a shotgun. Hara didn’t even have the time to respond. No one could stop the excited Kang Hada.
“That’s awesome, then what class are you, Noona? Could it be that you had a second awakening? Wait, then there’s no way that I wouldn’t know. In that case, I want to make an X-Tube channel. I’ll post content like, ‘Episode of Noona joining Team K.’ Noona, make a guest appearance.”
However, if Hara didn’t stop him, his head would be rushing straight up into the clouds. Eventually, Hara gave Hada a light smack on the head with the Badass Sword she was holding.
“Ah, noisy. You’d just woken up, but any sense that you possessed had flown out of the window.”
“Ah, what did you say!”
“And X-Tube? What X-Tube? Stop blabbering nonsense and get a job.”
“Ahh!! Tell me!”
Hada didn’t stop after being smacked. Haah, Hara sighed and had no choice but to open her mouth.
“Be quiet, because it’s confidential to the public. I can’t say anything about it.”
“Oh my God, awesome…”
Hada covered his mouth with both hands like he was touched.
“I can’t believe a day like this has arrived in Kang Hara’s ‘just a complete loser’ life.”
“Do you want to die? That isn’t the case though?”
“Then what is it? Aren’t you being promoted?”
“No. That isn’t it either……”
A small feeling of conflict overcame Hara. It was because her desire to flaunt in front of Hada was slightly bigger than the desire to remain silent because it was confidential to the public.
In Hara’s family, most things revolved around her father and Hada. Her father, who was a son supremacist, was rather displeased when his eldest daughter, Hara, was born, but conversely was so pleased when Hada was born.
Thanks to his father’s business, the family was well-off, but a subtle distinction had unknowingly formed between Hara and Hada.
Additionally, after Hara awakened as an E-class, even her mother, who used to hover around Hara, tended to see Hara as a distant child. Whenever she looked at Hara, she’d constantly mention, “Oh, that child used to be quite good at studying…”
As such, the desire to show off a little caused Hara to waver.
However, the moment she looked at Kang Hada again, Hara remembered that Kang Hada had a much looser tongue than she’d thought.
Mm, let’s not.
Hara raised her eyebrows and spoke firmly.
“That’s not it. The purpose of Team K’s business trip was related to mana stones, and I’d followed along as an advisor because I’m in the Mana Stone Management Division.”
“Then what does a new member of Team K mean?”
“Bokhee-ssi said because he was kind.”
As she spoke, Hara wondered if this would work, but Hada suddenly covered his mouth with a moved look.
“Awesome… ‘Bokhee-ssi’…… It seems like you’re really close…”
Is that so?
Hada took it another step further.
“Noona, please help me get Bokhee’s autograph! What about Kwon Wook? Did you see him? Noona, don’t you like Kwon Wook, hm?”
She didn’t just meet them, she’d once received special training from him! A one-on-one talk…… No, now that she thought about it, wasn’t it a one-on-one fan meeting?
Suddenly, emotion welled up as Hara moved to cover her mouth. She’d been so busy during this period of time so she hadn’t realised it, but it’s true now that she thought about it.
At Hara’s response, Hada seemed to have believed all of her words, fortunately enough.
“What are you both making so much noise about since early this morning! Aren’t you going to eat?!”
If it weren’t for their father, who’d scolded them loudly from his position at the living room table, Hada’s silly comments would have continued a little longer.
“What’s this? Hara, aren’t you going to work today?”
“Yes. Because an accident occurred at the business trip I went on yesterday. That’s why I took a day off today.”
“What? An accident?”
Her father’s eyebrows raised. Hara smiled and waved her hand.
“Hahaha. It’s nothing much. I’m fine.”
“You should be fine.”
Kang Jae-pil, who was folding the newspaper, continued to sip on the cabbage juice that Hyunsook inserted a straw into and handed to him.
“A level 9 civil servant like you should be healthy at the very least. What will be left if you used it all to pay for the hospital bills? Tsk.”
“……”
It really rendered her speechless.
Actually, she didn’t take a day off. It was just because when she opened her phone after coming out to the living room, there was a message from Kwon Wook.
[It might be a little difficult to hold today’s special training, because of what had happened yesterday. Raeyoung is also feeling unwell. Since you worked hard yesterday, let’s just take a break for today. And you should go to the hospital if you’re feeling unwell, okay? The aftereffects of accidents are even scarier.]
It was a rather friendly text message. If she could, she wanted to show it to Hada and brag loudly, “Hey, did you see this? Kwon Wook is so worried about me!”
But to emphasise again, Hada was really loose-lipped.
Of course, fear of Chief Jung was also one of the reasons. If a rumour accidentally spreads, she’ll be caught by Chief Jung and be completely robbed.
Ah, am I even living? Hara vaguely thought that it’d be better if she lived alone. No matter what, she didn’t have much privacy here.
She recalled how this business trip went. Hara had to wrack her brains just to come up with an excuse when Hyunsook clicked her tongue and said, “What kind of business trip is a kid that was just discharged from the hospital going on now?” The amount of inexplicable things will only increase in the future.
At that moment. Beepbeepbeep, an alarm went off. It was Hara’s. Hara quickly looked at her phone and was startled.
[Yuri ticketing]
Ticketing! Hara suddenly jumped up.
Kang Jae-pil frowned.
“What are you doing?”
“Oh, I’m sorry, Dad. There’s something I’d forgotten…”
Hara pretty much stuffed breakfast into her mouth and hurried back into her room.
When Hyunsook called, “Kid, do the dishes for me later on!”, she readily replied, “Alright!” but those words were soon pushed to the back of her mind. It’s for the sake of ticketing.
Today was the ticketing day for the concert of Hara’s favourite idol.
