216. Exposure (8)

“What’s your evidence?”

“…I’ll tell you if we move seats.”

First, I drove the car out, pulled over to a nearby secluded spot, stopped the car, and turned off the interior lights.

Only then did Seo Jia, who had been lying on the seat, sit up, pat her shoulders, and open her mouth towards me.

“The ID of your part-timer and the ID of the person who sent us a DM are almost identical. Like, only the vowels swapped places.”

“Is that supposed to be evidence?”

“…Besides, she’s an acquaintance, isn’t she? If it’s Hwang Soo-ah, it wouldn’t be strange for her to notice your body and figure things out.”

Listening to what she said, I thought it sounded plausible.

The ID was similar, and coincidentally, she was an acquaintance, so she saw my body often.

Even her attitude today was incredibly suspicious.

It’s just that there’s no concrete proof, but I’m also half-convinced.

“That doesn’t seem like enough.”

“…Then who is it?”

“No, I’m not saying it’s someone else besides her. It’s just that you can’t just definitively conclude things so easily.”

However, I had no intention of indulging Seo Jia’s speculation.

The reason is simple.

The Hwang Soo-ah I know is an extremely ordinary person, not the type to commit dangerous acts just because she knew something like that.

If she were that kind of person, she would have done something about me answering the phone during our threesome back then.

Maybe sending us a DM was just simple curiosity? Just like how she contacted me yesterday after watching Haeun’s broadcast and almost witnessing an accident.

When I actually sent an aggressive reply in a tone that half-admitted it, she immediately hid, maybe out of fear.

“…Why are you suddenly defending Hwang Soo-ah?”

“Why? Because you haven’t brought any solid evidence.”

Of course, that was my thought, but Seo Jia might have felt completely differently.

After all, this is Seo Jia’s weakness, not mine.

If a blade were at my throat, I wouldn’t have had time to think whether the opponent intended to stab or not.

However, that doesn’t mean I have any reason to take her side.

I don’t think she’d be grateful to me even if I sided with her.

“…Fine. Here. It’s that woman’s tweet.”

“What is it?”

“If you know what kind of woman your part-timer is, you’ll understand too.”

Even looking at the Twitter account she showed me, my opinion didn’t really change.

It was just… an account belonging to a cosplayer that wasn’t ordinary, but not particularly strange either.

Unlike in reality, her language was a bit rough, and her outfits were provocative, but it wasn’t to the point of crossing the line.

Just slightly more revealing than Haeun’s.

But this, too, only added a teaspoon of suspicion, never becoming conclusive evidence.

Actually, the only way to get conclusive evidence would be to snatch her phone and look through it, wouldn’t it?

“From the start, she’s a woman who likes lewd things, and she has other accounts besides this one. In the past, she followed a lot of sex-related accounts too. She deleted them later after posting cosplay pictures….”

“What makes you know all about her past like that?”

“…Because we’re personally acquainted.”

“No, I saw that last time too, so I know. How close are you to know about her private accounts? From the way you talk, it doesn’t sound like you just looked into it this time?”

“….”

However, the more I listened to her, the more I realized something was strangely twisted somewhere.

I could understand her being hostile towards Hwang Soo-ah.

…But isn’t she strangely knowledgeable?

Even if they became acquainted passing by the gym, could they really become close enough to dig through someone’s tweets?

Putting that aside, why would a famous idol like you dig through an acquaintance’s tweets?

“…Are you, like, into her?”

“Are you crazy?”

“No, it’s just that I saw you kiss Hinami the other day, so I wondered if you were into that sort of thing.”

“That was…! …She did that on her own. It was fucking disgusting?”

For a moment, I suspected this woman might be a lesbian, but seeing her deny it so angrily, it seemed she had no intention of admitting it even if she was.

If not, there must be another reason.

What on earth could be the reason for this woman to be obsessed with Soo-ah? Looking back at her face and recalling the past, a memory I just thought of earlier flashed by.

…Come to think of it, wasn’t it because Seo Jia was looking for me that Soo-ah received a call right when I was having a 3P?

No way, did this woman try to seduce Soo-ah somehow to get me into trouble and fail?

Back then, we were both desperate to stab something into each other’s guts, so it was a perfectly plausible story.

“Then what is it? Let me tell you first, I can’t just go around picking fights with my part-timer based on such flimsy evidence.”

“That’s not like you, Kang Joo-hyuk-ssi.”

So, I decided to do something uncharacteristic of myself.

No matter what Seo Jia said, I decided to shield Hwang Soo-ah.

It wasn’t specifically because Hwang Soo-ah is a close senior’s niece, nor because she’s my part-timer.

It’s just that I owe her a debt.

I chose this because I owe you absolutely nothing.

“What did you think I was going to do?”

“…Did you sleep with her?”

“Hey.”

Perhaps thanks to my uncharacteristic behavior, Seo Jia seemed to have misunderstood in a strange direction.

Did she lose her mind after I crushed her mentally so hard?

Hearing a line that would make the senior who lent me money faint, I genuinely straightened my face and gave her a short, negative response.

“…Naturally, I thought you’d listen to me and try to get your hands on Hwang Soo-ah. But the way you’re talking, Kang Joo-hyuk-ssi, it sounds like you already have.”

“Are you insane? I got her the part-time job because she’s a close senior’s niece.”

“You have close seniors too… Ha. Putting that aside. Is there any guarantee that she won’t harm us just because she’s a senior’s niece?”

“….”

However, Seo Jia, whose personality was shattered, seemed to have even heard my words, spewing out shitty remarks as usual and slandering our kind part-timer.

…I’m getting a little pissed off.

Just because she does such things doesn’t mean everyone in the world lives with those thoughts.

The only person around me who lives life with a similar mindset to Seo Jia was myself.

Maybe that’s why, I could see right through her thoughts.

It was even more repulsive.

I don’t know if this counts as hating one’s own kind, but.

“…Anyway. If you’re not going to take any action, I’ll ask myself. Since my goal is to shut her up anyway.”

“Don’t provoke her needlessly. She stopped sending DMs later anyway because she got scared.”

“That might be true in your opinion, but I can’t feel reassured.”

“What do I need to do for you to feel reassured?”

“…I can’t be reassured no matter what you, Kang Joo-hyuk-ssi, do alone. Unless you personally silence Hwang Soo-ah.”

Looking at Seo Jia, who had become such a negative person that she couldn’t trust anyone and only exuded malice, I hid the rising disgust within me and continued the conversation as smoothly as possible.

However, it seemed my sister-in-law was destined to live like this ever since being raped by her brother-in-law.

…Well, it’s partly my fault.

The other half is probably because she was always this kind of person.

“Then I’ll shut her mouth for you, so don’t try anything.”

“…Suddenly?”

“Didn’t you say it yourself? Asking if I slept with her. If we were sleeping together, like you suggested, I could shut her mouth, right? Isn’t that so?”

“….”

“…It won’t be for free, though.”

“…No way.”

Honestly, whether I left it alone or not had nothing to do with me, but I couldn’t stand seeing her act like that around me.

There’s no need to attach any particular reason.

…It’s just that she reminds me so much of myself when I was young, and I hate seeing it.

Towards people who are useful to me, I was endlessly polite and courteous.

But inwardly, I trusted no one and was completely immersed in arrogance – a brat.

“No way, what.”

“…You didn’t orchestrate all of this from the beginning, did you, Kang Joo-hyuk-ssi?”

“…What?”

“You told Hwang Soo-ah to send me these DMs… And now you’re planning to do that again as payment for keeping her quiet, aren’t you?”

“What if I said yes?”

“….”

There’s only one way to fix the personality of such a brat.

…By throwing them into the abyss.

Once isn’t enough.

Dozens of times.

If they fall into an endless swamp of despair, they’ll realize it eventually.

“Think whatever the fuck you want. Whether I conspired with Soo-ah to do this, or if you’re just wildly overreacting and making a scene.”

“….”

“…And remember this.”

“What…?”

“Why would I need a reason to fuck you?”

“….”

There’s no rational reason whatsoever.

Just because you’re unlucky.

Because you’ve accumulated bad karma throughout your life.

How beneficial it is to endure an irrational life for fixing one’s personality.

She would soon understand after tasting it a few times.

“…Either lie down or bow your head, whatever. I’m turning on the interior lights.”

“….”

“Deal with it yourself whether the paparazzi catch you or not. …Honestly, if you get caught, it’s not my loss, is it?”

Surprisingly.

That you don’t die even living like that.

Once all the bad karma is cleared.

…You won’t even miss the past.

She’ll understand, in her own way.

Rather than a life of suppression.

That deviation is more appealing.