Chapter 299: Room 204, Mission Room – ‘Hotel Cinema’ (21)

– Lee Eunsol

Watching the baseball team boy, Kim Jiho, approaching with his face as red as a ripe persimmon, I thought.

Should I accept this confession or not?

It was a bit scary to reject outright. The danger level between that idiot from the morning and this impressive baseball team boy was very different. If a guy like that tried to kill me, could the surrounding students stop him?

“…”

I made a decision.

“Senior Jiho…”

“H-Han Yuri! S-sorry for coming twice. But… I-I just couldn’t let go of you while you’re growing bigger and bigger in my heart. When I t-think of you, I c-can’t even concentrate on p-practice…”

Wow, this kid is really something else?

Seeing Jiho’s pronunciation leaking out as if it wasn’t even Korean, I felt myself catching my breath. Because I could feel how madly this boy liked Han Yuri.

He can’t even breathe properly, can he? Yuri, what on earth have you been doing?

“The coach told me to try once more… No, no! I didn’t come because the coach told me to! I, I did!”

“Slowly. Speak slowly. I’ll listen,” I said it without realizing it because I felt frustrated, but hearing those words, the boy’s face turned even redder.

“S, s-sorry… w-will you, will you, will you go out with me?”

Smiling as kindly as possible, I held the boy’s hand and looked into his eyes steadily.

“Then, is this day one?”

“Uwaaaah!”

Kim Jiho screamed and fell backwards.

What’s with being surprised when you came to confess and got accepted?

So why did I accept the confession?

Clearly, one reason was that it was burdensome because he was someone too physically strong to reject outright. Also, looking at how the story was going and the title “The Girl with Demonic Charm”, it seemed like crazy “confession killers” would keep coming at me.

So, don’t I need a legitimate reason to reject confessions and a bodyguard?

As expected, it seemed the choice I made wasn’t too bad. The baseball team boy, with tears almost falling, tried to hug me tightly but suddenly started trembling on his own, and after literally making a spectacle of himself, he left saying we’d see each other after class.

When I turned around and returned to the classroom, I realized that the atmosphere in the classroom had changed somehow.

The surrounding girls started glaring at me as if they were about to shoot lasers with their eyes.

Just as I was wondering what this was about, I heard a sharp comment, “Congratulations! Yuri’s got a boyfriend now?”

“…Thanks.”

“Is it day one from today?”

“…”

“This is so cute! Right?”

“Yeah! I’ve never heard Yuri make such a nasal sound before!”

Girls. What kind of elementary school-like power struggle is this? Do you think your unni can’t handle such a pathetic war of words? Was this one’s name Kim Eunhye?

“Is that how it sounded? Eunhye, your ears must be really blocked. Ask your boyfriend to check your ears! Oh, you don’t have a boyfriend?”

The girl in front of me glared at me with her eyes wide open.

What are you going to do? Will I die if you glare at me? Are you Medusa or something?

At that moment, another girl from across attacked.

“Didn’t you reject Senior Jiho when he confessed last month?”

I remembered them saying, “He’s here again,” when the baseball team boy came. This wasn’t his first confession.

“That was then.”

“It’s different this time. Why, because Senior Jiho got scouted for professional baseball?”

“…”

“Wow~! Yuri, you’re amazing! That’s right~! Yuri is so~o poor, right? You need a rich hubby.”

So they’re saying I’m dating him not out of pure feelings but because he seems like he’ll make a lot of money? I’m really sorry, but it took me a while to understand what’s wrong with that.

Sorry, your unni here is actually a bit hardened by the world. When you get older, you’ll understand, too. Adults naturally consider occupation and assets in dating and marriage.

Even though I just found out now, Yuri’s family is poor? Then of course she should find a good husband or boyfriend.

“Just be honest, all of you! You—“

– Thud!

Before I could react, someone grabbed my shoulder strongly. Surprised, I turned my head to find Saerom, who had been following me since morning. Seeing the girl’s face frozen like ice, I sighed.

Don’t tell me she likes that baseball team senior too—

“Shut your traps, all of you!”

Right now, this girl seemed like a completely different person from the one I saw in the morning.

It wasn’t just the problem of curses coming out of her mouth. I felt an intense pressure that was indescribable in words. Some kids even staggered.

…Is this a natural reaction?

After crushing the surrounding people with just one word, Saerom started walking towards the corridor, strongly grabbing my arm. Her strength and momentum were so intense that I couldn’t possibly stop her.

“W-what on earth? Why suddenly—“

A quiet voice flowed from the girl’s mouth as she came close to my ear.

“Just now, you made a mistake.”

…She’s suddenly speaking formally?

“What on earth are you talking about?”

“Haa… You don’t understand the situation at all. Even though it’s school, you suppressed it too much, didn’t you? I thought your behavior was strange since morning.”

What did I do? Suppress? I was acting strange since this morning?

“Go home right now. You’ll understand what I mean as you go. And think about how to fix this.”

“…”

“Right now! I’ll make an excuse for your early leave.”

I really don’t know. What’s with this sudden development?

– Theater

“What? What’s going on suddenly?”

Kain couldn’t understand the situation at all. Hearing those words, the other companions also showed puzzled reactions.

“What mistake did she make? And why is she suddenly being told to go home?”

Elena’s words were echoed by Songee nodding her head. At that moment, Ahri’s expression darkened.

“…I think I might know what this is about.”

“What?”

“Was it this kind of development? I did think the level of charm was abnormally high…”

– Lee Eunsol

In confusion, I packed my things in the classroom. Conveniently, I had an excuse because I had just fought with the girls.

But, where’s my home address?

Laughing bitterly, I asked Saerom, who was at least someone I could ask something, and she whispered, “Suppress it moderately from now on,” along with giving me the address. The home address I looked up on the smartphone map app was a bit shocking.

“I live in a place like this?”

As I came out of the classroom, walked through the corridor, and left the school building, I slowly started to “realize”.

“…”

Awakening was shedding one’s shell.

As cracks form in the shell I had put on myself, indescribable knowledge seeped into my head. A wicked breath that ordinary people couldn’t dare to understand filled my lungs.

This is really too much! This was the story?

“Ugh… Grandpa! You should have endured a bit more!”

Grandpa should have figured this out! Since he got off so quickly, I’m the one who ended up realizing THIS. What should I do? How should I proceed now?

“Yuri!”

As I was walking across the playground, confused about what to do next, Kim Jiho, my “day one boyfriend” who spotted me, started running towards me with a broad smile, waving his hand.

I awkwardly smiled back and waved, but then I was shocked. As soon as the sturdy baseball team boy entered my sight, an impulse I never imagined I could feel towards a human filled my soul.

So that’s why! That’s why “Han Yuri” always put on a shell inside the school! It must have been because she couldn’t endure this disgusting impulse.

“Yuri! What’s with the bag?”

“…I have a headache, so I’m leaving early today.”

“W-what! Oh no! I was going to tell you after class!”

“What is it?”

“Today, I’ll walk you home!”

“…”

“I-I heard. T-that your house is in a bit of a dangerous place. Usually, you go with Saerom… But Saerom isn’t here today!”

“…”

“Don’t misunderstand! It’s not that I’ve been asking around about you, just, just by chance…”

“You’re saying you’ll walk me home?”

“Yes!”

I muttered without realizing, “How devoted.”

Did he feel that last comment was a bit sharp?

The boy, momentarily flustered, seemed to misinterpret my intention and started making strange excuses.

“D-don’t misunderstand. I-I’m really not thinking anything weird. I’m saying this because I’m genuinely worried. So—“

“Alright. I’ll wait, so go tell your coach.”

I didn’t suspect at all that this baseball team boy would try to do something sneaky under the pretext of walking me home. Honestly, I didn’t care about such trivial issues.

Rather, I wanted to check how strong my “impulse” was.

Kim Jiho babbled something to his coach and soon returned to me with a bright smile. I wondered what kind of coach allowed a promising player to skip training to walk his girlfriend home, but whatever.

Every time I saw “young students” walking around the playground while waiting for Kim Jiho to return, I smelled a fragrant scent. My wildly beating heart told me how intense my thirst was.

“…”

The thirst intensified several times when I saw the boy holding my hand and grinning.

“…”

About 20 minutes passed? When we were passing through an alley after leaving the school, I finally stopped. I couldn’t endure it anymore.

“Senior Jiho.”

“Yes?”

“Go back now.”

“What? We can’t even see your house yet? We’re almost there, so let’s just—“

“Go back.”

“Y-Yuri?”

After strongly grabbing Kim Jiho’s arm and stopping him, I stared into his eyes intently. The boy, who at first showed a shy reaction, soon had a somewhat dazed expression.

“Go back.”

“…Alright.”

In the alley where a beautiful girl like an angel descended from heaven had passed, the boy who had been leaning against the wall with a dazed expression soon came to his senses. Why did his angelic girlfriend tell him to go back?

Maybe she was embarrassed to show her poor home. The boy concluded this, and turned back, pondering how to approach more naturally next time.

Suddenly, the boy realized that there were several dark bruises on his arm where Yuri had gripped tightly.

“Yuri is much stronger than she looks, huh?”

– Lee Eunsol

I ran frantically towards home. After passing through several shabby alleys too dangerous for a pretty girl like Han Yuri to live in, I finally saw a dilapidated abandoned house at the end of the alley.

“H-heheh! Hello!”

“…”

In front of the house door was a pot-bellied man who looked mentally unstable.

“H-hello! You, you! You’re Yuri, right? U-Uncle has seen you sometimes. D-do you need money?”

…If I were myself from school, I would have felt quite in crisis now. Should I have brought Jiho all the way here? If the sturdy Jiho had been beside me, this vagrant wouldn’t have even dared to make eye contact and would have run away, right?

At best, he was just a pervert vagrant at the bottom of society, with nothing left after repeated failures in life, but he was still an adult male. For a high school girl, it was a great danger and not easy to escape without supernatural power.

So I used it. Supernatural power that was.

– Click!

The moment the brooch on my head clicked, a blue butterfly floated through the air and flew towards the vagrant. The man wondered what this was, but in less than 5 seconds, he was rolling on the ground.

I had no worries or anxieties about using the brooch. The “Girl with Demonic Charm” that I belatedly understood was a plot where it was okay to use abilities. I had already used powers akin to hypnosis repeatedly.

– Ring ring!

“Gangdong Police Station—“

“There’s a strange man collapsed on the ground here.”

It would be troublesome if this guy died here. After roughly reporting, I entered the dilapidated abandoned house. It was really a place that didn’t make sense for a high school girl to live in.

Of course…

She must have chosen it on purpose. It would be easier to dispose of “prey” in a place like this.

There were no parents or family inside the house. If I had any such beings in the first place, it would only be Saerom, who was still at school.

Instead, the thick smell of blood that made my heart flutter and the disgusting smell of internal organs turned my stomach.

…That’s a lie.

Far from turning my stomach, I felt an irresistible impulse. The craving I had felt since leaving school and shedding my shell became stronger than ever before.

I turn around dazedly and look in the mirror.

I saw two red lights rising like blood in the darkness.

Suddenly, the school uniform skirt started to sway.

A trace of wildness that peeked out between my legs gently brushed the floor.

…I’m hungry.

This thirst and appetite could never be satisfied with human food.

I knew that I was not the “chased” but the “chaser”.

“The Girl with Demonic Charm”

“with Demonic”

“   “

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“The Tale of a 21st Century Gumiho”