NOVEL FROG Chapter 10
“Hello?”
Young Yoo Seo-A appears.
“Si-Hoo.”
She greets the young Han Si-Hoo.
It’s a faint memory.
The tragic commonality of losing their parents in an accident brought the two together.
“Si-Hoo, what are we going to play today?”
Han Si-Hoo spent his time playing trivial games with Yoo Seo-A.
He had nothing to do either.
Playing is the job of a child, after all.
The crumbling houses of the slums.
A place that would never be redeveloped.
Yoo Seo-A settled down in such an appropriate spot.
Han Si-Hoo hadn’t been living there from the start.
He had lived in a relatively wealthy area.
His family was financially well-off.
The problem came after his parents passed away.
After all the adults who helped him had left, only Yoo Seo-A remained by his side.
Could children alone survive?
Fortunately, the world wasn’t that harsh.
There were kind factory owners who assigned a few easy tasks to the kids and paid them a decent wage.
They were also able to search for important items where monsters had passed by.
They could even earn some money by running errands.
Even at a young age, they could earn enough to get by.
Fortunately, even in the slums, there weren’t many bad adults who would exploit children.
There weren’t many, but they did exist.
“Si-Hoo, you’re amazing! Incredible!”
He defeated a villain.
And he was able to protect Seo-A.
It was also a moment where he could confirm how outstanding his abilities were.
“I’ll be by your side from now on.”
“You’ll keep protecting me, right?”
“Yes.”
“…I really like you!”
Seo-A exclaimed as she jumped into his arms.
His heart raced at that moment.
It was a story from his childhood.
In the end, the fact that he was an Awakener became known and led to events long before attending the Academy.
The brown-haired girl was still with Si-Hoo.
And she was still smiling.
On the dirt floor.
Dirt floor?
“I’m sorry.”
– I’m sorry. I’m sorry.
– Just kill me, I’m sorry.
The cold reality returned.
All events had concluded.
Yoo Seo-A was sent to the medical room of the Academy.
Han Si-Hoo questioned why this was happening.
He couldn’t understand it.
It seemed like the Yoo Seo-A he knew had disappeared long ago.
He barely prevented Yoo Seo-A from taking her own life.
A blade that seemed aimed at him turned in an instant toward Yoo Seo-A.
A shocking event.
As he stood still and tried to gather his thoughts, someone came to stand beside him.
“I-I’m sorry, Si-Hoo. I’m really sorry.”
“Yeah.”
Lena Asilia.
She too was in shock about having stabbed someone by mistake.
It was problematic as she had only recently learned the rules to deal with villains.
The world classified Awakeners who misuse their powers as villains.
One of the ways to safely deal with villains without harming civilians was to catch them off guard during a conversation.
It aligned perfectly with what Han Si-Hoo had done.
To disarm the opponent through persuasion!
Though something felt off, she didn’t miss the opportunity to attack.
“I’m sorry.”
Lena apologized again to Han Si-Hoo.
She wished she could apologize to Yoo Seo-A, who was her childhood friend.
“I didn’t expect you to think of me as a friend… a childhood friend.”
“It’s okay.”
Han Si-Hoo replied.
“Um… I think I heard you say you had no old friends.”
That was the question Lena held.
She hadn’t been paying much attention to the conversation as she was preparing for an ambush.
She never thought it was a reunion with a friend.
What she knew about Han Si-Hoo was limited.
He was reluctant to discuss his past, and knowing he lost his parents in an accident made her hesitant to ask about his past.
– You had no friends?
– Not even one?
Han Si-Hoo hesitated for a moment before nodding his head.
At the moment when Yoo Seo-A began to push him away.
He didn’t want Yoo Seo-A’s existence revealed to the Academy.
He thought it was okay as long as Yoo Seo-A didn’t come to the Academy herself.
He was already stressed out enough with what was going on at the Academy.
With the semester ending soon, he was also busy.
If he had stayed friends with Yoo Seo-A, this wouldn’t have happened.
“Anyway, I’m sorry. If it’s hard to talk about, you don’t have to.”
“… No.”
As Lena watched Han Si-Hoo lost in thought, she hesitated before disappearing.
“Sorry.”
She threw one last apology.
Han Si-Hoo kept thinking.
It’s my fault.
The last time he met Seo-A in the Academy.
He wondered if they could reconcile.
But when Yoo Seo-A came to the Academy, her arm was bandaged.
Up until Han Si-Hoo enrolled in the Academy, Yoo Seo-A had been fine.
The bandage seemed strange for some reason.
– That medicine I take…
– I came to borrow money because I don’t have enough for it.
– I’ll pay you back later.
She wanted to borrow money, claiming the cost of the medicine had increased.
He couldn’t understand.
The bandage might just be for show.
Han Si-Hoo knew what the medicine Yoo Seo-A took was for.
It was something she started taking due to frequent coughing.
It could never be that expensive.
He had never seen such an expensive drug before.
He soon reached a conclusion.
She simply approached him again because she needed money.
He couldn’t understand why their relationship had deteriorated like this.
He gave her the money.
It wasn’t a loan.
– But don’t come looking for me again. Let’s not get involved with each other anymore.
– Huh?
– Just eat and get lost.
– Uh…
He threw back the words Seo-A had said to him.
Was it really that hard to control his emotions?
At that time, he couldn’t understand Yoo Seo-A’s actions at all.
Finally, it wasn’t until now that he understood.
The medicine.
The medicine ruined Yoo Seo-A.
Someone had ruined her with drugs.
– Um, Si-Hoo.
– Can you lend me a bit for transportation?”
Memories began to resurface chaotically.
In the end, she tried to borrow transportation money.
The distance from her house to the Academy was considerable.
– I walked here.
Yoo Seo-A wasn’t the type to lie.
Neither of them lied to each other.
They never had.
The price of the medicine was fifty million won.
That was the amount Yoo Seo-A was paying for her medicine.
So how did she pay for it before approaching Han Si-Hoo?
It raised questions about how someone living in the slums could have that much money.
If she had sold everything she owned, she couldn’t even keep the transportation fare.
There was no one to borrow from.
No one to contact.
Yoo Seo-A had only one remaining option.
Lean on her only friend.
Han Si-Hoo was the only one who could possibly help her.
He provided help.
Feeling wronged by the insults he received previously, he treated her similarly.
He was greatly disappointed in her efforts to separate herself from him.
He wouldn’t apologize.
Her reasons for asking for money sounded like lies.
He had never been angry with Seo-A before.
One time should be acceptable.
That thought crossed his mind.
Yoo Seo-A treated Han Si-Hoo as if he was the most loathsome person.
Then she came back.
The smile on her face when they met was eerily too friendly.
It was abnormal.
He thought back and realized how strange it was.
“Damn it…”
Seo-A is smiling.
No, she’s crying.
Because of you.
Until someone came looking for him again, Han Si-Hoo continued to stand there.
*
“… So, you mean childhood friends, huh?”
Lee Yoo-Ram said.
“Yes.”
“The Academy usually drags in Awakeners pretty forcefully. Still… you should have taken better care of her.”
When it comes to enrolling in the Academy, about half of it was mandatory.
Han Si-Hoo had no intention of abandoning Yoo Seo-A.
While the Academy had a family protection system, it was problematic since they weren’t blood relatives.
The Academy, being a place where hundreds of Awakeners gathered, didn’t have the capacity to care for individual circumstances.
However, benefits were always granted to Awakeners who performed well.
If Han Si-Hoo excelled in the Academy, it could have been of more help to Seo-A.
“Si-Hoo? You listening?”
“Yes.”
“You know we have a hard time treating drug addictions and illnesses.”
They can reattach cut body parts, but can’t cure a cold.
That’s the nature of healing Awakeners.
In some areas, they had no choice but to rely on conventional medicine.
“But we managed to recover the injuries you got from breaking your arm and the one Lena gave you. That’s not the issue.”
If it was a serious wound from a knife, it could be healed.
It’s a strange system, but that’s the reality.
“However, there were quite a few injuries that were pre-existing. We couldn’t heal all of those.”
“Pre-existing…?”
The bandages wrapped around Seo-A’s arm came to mind.
“Um… she had a bruise on her stomach. It looked like she got hit by someone.”
A bruise on her stomach?
Han Si-Hoo’s mind conjured an image of Yoo Seo-A getting hit.
Was it that doctor’s doing?
He couldn’t say.
He didn’t want to imagine such a thing.
– Will you keep protecting me?
The young Yoo Seo-A who asked that question overlaying in his mind.
His own self who answered that he would.
In the end, he couldn’t protect her.
He didn’t protect her.
Why did it happen?
You knew the slums were dangerous better than anyone.
The Academy may be cozy.
Did you really hate spending time with Seo-A like that?
Deep down, he must have thought she was a nuisance.
Why?
A massive guilt enveloped Han Si-Hoo.