Ch.137137 – The Enemies Unite 1

# 137 – The Enemies Unite # 1

I planned to meet Mr. Kang Bada today.

I needed to get the Spiral Key from him.

Snore~

Yang Juhui was still sleeping even though morning had long passed and it was approaching lunchtime.

She did go to bed late last night.

It felt wrong to wake someone who was sleeping so peacefully.

Fortunately, my pirate friends had agreed to stay at the secret base and look after Yang Juhui.

According to the weather forecast, today was supposed to be the hottest day.

35 degrees Celsius.

In this insane weather, they probably preferred staying in the air-conditioned secret base rather than wandering outside.

I wanted that too, but I was busy.

“I’ll be back soon.”

Buzz buzz-

I felt quite tired since I hadn’t slept at all last night, but when I stepped outside, the intense sunlight made my fatigue evaporate.

How could the weather be this hot?

It was a moment that made me realize the seriousness of global warming once again.

Mr. Kang Bada was at a café near the school.

I had already contacted him in advance to arrange our meeting.

“Why did you call me?”

I remembered when Mr. Kang had knelt before me, begging me to let Yu Dahui go.

Of course, that had been undone when I turned back time, but…

There was no guarantee the same thing wouldn’t happen again today.

I tried to keep my explanation as concise as possible.

“The key you have. Please give it to us.”

“What key?”

“The key with the spiral pattern on it.”

“…”

Mr. Kang Bada’s expression changed dramatically.

His face seemed to say, “How do you know about that?!”

I didn’t want to spend much time with this man.

He seemed like the type who would do anything for his daughter Yu Dahui without hesitation or concern for others.

In that way… he resembled Dahui, who had unhesitatingly consumed poison and died right in front of me.

That trait of appearing calm but suddenly snapping at any moment.

“We’ll put it to good use. And if possible, I’d like you to tell us about what happened on the third floor. Also about my mother and father.”

“On one condition. Keep Dahui out of whatever you’re doing.”

“Because Dahui is your daughter, right? I know that too. Don’t ask how I found out. If that information gets out, all our lives would be in danger.”

A series of surprises flashed across Mr. Kang Bada’s hazy eyes.

I slowly voiced the realizations I’d come to after a sleepless night of deep thought.

“Many lives depend on me. Ordinary methods aren’t enough to protect those lives. What I’m saying is that we don’t have time to be picky about our methods.”

As Ha Yeongwon, a high school student who had lived an ordinary life, I was facing many limitations.

This wasn’t a world where common sense applied.

I needed to change too.

I decided that from now on, I would do whatever it takes.

To protect myself. To protect the people I care about.

To protect our dreams.

To reclaim our daily lives.

Swoosh-

So I stood up, knelt before Mr. Kang, and bowed my head.

People in the café started whispering, and Mr. Kang Bada seemed greatly flustered.

“Hey! Don’t do this here! What are you doing?!”

“Mr. Kang. I promise I’ll protect Dahui. I’ll do whatever it takes to make her happy. If even one of us is missing, we’ll fall apart. Please trust me!”

A sudden deep bow.

Prostrating myself completely.

I knew better than anyone how much this could shake a person’s heart.

And what better way to demonstrate my determination?

“Hey. Get up.”

“I won’t get up until you agree. I want you to understand that what I’m saying isn’t a lie.”

“This is troublesome. You got me.”

Mr. Kang Bada sighed deeply.

Finally, he nodded.

“Alright. Get up first. There are a lot of people here. You don’t want to attract attention either, right?”

If he said “alright,” did that mean he agreed?

My cheeks rose with hope.

My strategy had worked!

It was quite embarrassing, but sacrificing my pride and dignity had been worth it.

“Looking at you reminds me of myself when I was young. A time when I had nothing but youthful determination, thinking I could accomplish anything. As a father with a daughter, I find it quite unpleasant to look at you.”

“…”

“The old man who looked at me back then probably felt the same way. In the end, I couldn’t keep the promises I made. Honestly, I wonder if you’ll be any different. I’m not belittling you. But that place…”

“But…”

“The reason I showed you goodwill was because you’re my friend’s child. I saw them in you. And I saw my youth. But now I’ll watch you. Ha Yeongwon. See what kind of person you are.”

Swoosh-

Mr. Kang took something out of his pocket.

It was a key with a spiral pattern.

Soon, a NEW mark appeared in my status window.

“Spiral Key: It’s a key. It has a keychain with a spiral mark. It seems like it could be used somewhere to obtain a valuable item.”

# # #

“Dahui’s mother, Yu Inna, was the chairman’s adopted daughter. For the chairman, Yu Inna was apparently his friend’s daughter. So he raised her preciously like his own daughter.”

“The chairman doesn’t seem like someone who shows affection to family members.”

“You saw right through that. Yu Inna had a special power. She could see the essence of things, like seeing the contents of a box covered with a veil.”

See the essence of things?

I was reminded of the artist noona who was Kwon Suho’s ex-girlfriend.

Was it similar?

“The chairman judges people based on whether they’re useful to him or not. From that perspective, Yu Inna was very helpful to the chairman. And… originally, she was your father’s fiancée.”

My father’s fiancée?

This sounded like a morning drama.

“I know. Your dad and Inna grew up in the same house, so they thought of each other as siblings and didn’t consider marriage. Have you heard of the minmyeoneuije?”

“Minmyeoneuije?”

“It’s a custom where a family raises a girl from a young age to become their daughter-in-law. That’s basically what it was. But this system has a major flaw—the prospective bride and groom become too close. After living like siblings, suddenly having to marry? How shocking would that be?”

Like marrying your sister or older sister?

That would indeed be shocking.

“That’s why your father was drawn to your mother. Your mother was an orphan from the foundation run by the chairman. But she was… a bit special. Special enough to become a scholarship student in the chairman’s eyes.”

“I heard my mother was popular. Is that true too?”

“Very popular. She received three or four confessions a day. She probably still would now. But she’s much better now. Back then, your mother Chaeyeon was… different from now. She was a bit more… ill-mannered.”

A mother with a bad personality? That’s hard to imagine.

Mom always said Yang Juhui resembled her younger self—was that true?

Was Mom actually a school bully?

Anyway, Mr. Kang Bada went on to tell me about how they came to explore the school.

“We met in dreams and explored. All sorts of things happened. Looking back, I don’t know how we endured it. I guess we had nothing but youthful spirit to keep us going.”

“Did you go to the third floor too?”

“We did. That place is unreasonable. Buldansa was originally created to block everything. It’s a place where even setting foot is not permitted. There’s no strategy to conquer it.”

“Hmm…”

“But if we had help from the shaman who created Buldansa, things might be different. But we didn’t want help from that person. She’s a bad woman. In that way, she resembles the chairman.”

It seemed the third floor wasn’t meant to be conquered in the first place.

But we had Yang Juhui, who inherited the shaman’s blood.

I wondered if she was awake by now.

“That spiral key will help you force your way through the third floor. We also reached the fourth floor after many sacrifices. Only your mother entered that place…”

“The fourth floor…”

“No one knows what your mother saw there or what she did. We don’t even know if there really is something that grants wishes as the rumors say. If all that were true…”

Mr. Kang Bada looked at me.

Then he closed his mouth.

“I don’t know anything beyond that.”

“Then, let me ask one more thing. Why did Dahui’s mother, Inna, make that choice?”

A shaman hanged herself at the school.

That was Yu Inna.

Afterward, Yu Inna became the Bell Ghost, wandering the first floor.

I actually knew something about why she committed suicide.

The tickle of the wind from when Dahui whispered in my ear that day still remained, tickling me.

But I thought there might be something more I didn’t know, so I decided to ask directly.

Mr. Kang Bada’s face instantly turned pale.

And he quietly said:

“The water veins of Gaeryong… have periodically burst and caused floods since ancient times. So just before a flood, the local shamans… would hang themselves to calm it. Their blood closes the open door.”

“So the door was closed?”

“It was. But it eventually opened again.”

I opened the old school building.

And Dahui, with her special blood, could close that door again.

If Dahui found out about this… she would die.

To free all of us from suffering.

…Was that what Yu Inna did too?

“But I still can’t understand. Why she left me and Dahui behind… We had agreed to look for another way to close the door.”

I regretted asking—it only made the mood melancholic.

I had wanted to hear more strategies from Mr. Kang Bada, but it was pointless.

As I’d heard before, “The events of that day are now hazy like a dream.”

Buzz-

Just then, my phone rang.

Checking KakaoTalk, I saw a message from Yu Dahui.

It was a photo of Yu Dahui, Bong Jiyeon, Yang Juhui, Kwon Sua, and Teacher Hong Miri posing like a girl group. Was Jeongseok the photographer?

It seemed Yang Juhui had recovered well, which made me smile.

I should hurry and join them.

“Is that Dahui?”

“Yes. Would you like to see the photo?”

Swoosh-

I showed the photo to Mr. Kang Bada.

He frowned deeply.

“Why do you have so many girls around you? Ha Yeongwon. You promised to protect Dahui, but with so many girls, won’t your attention and devotion be divided? You bad guy. Don’t be wishy-washy—pick just one!”

Pick just one?

Mr. Kang seemed to have misunderstood.

The women here weren’t like that.

Especially Bong Jiyeon.

I had a duty to connect Jeongseok and Bong Jiyeon.

With that in mind, I parted ways with Mr. Kang.

“Mr. Kang. Please don’t tell Dahui the truth. She might make an extreme choice.”

“…Understood.”

Pat-

On my way back to the secret base.

As I passed the school building heading toward the Human Resources Development Center, I spotted a man standing tall in the distance.

He had a tall, muscular build.

I felt dizzy for a moment, because he was Kim Geonho, the tyrant of Class D.

I heard Kim Geonho had been holed up at home.

“Well, look who it is. Ha Yeongwon. Long time no see.”

Kim Geonho recognized me and approached.

I was flustered by his sudden appearance, but what happened next was even more bewildering.

“Geonho, what are you doing there?”

“We need to catch a taxi quickly or we’ll be late for our appointment… Oh? Isn’t that Ha Yeongwon?”

Gong Yerin and Lim Huiyeon emerged from the school building.

Gong Yerin, Lim Huiyeon, and Kim Geonho.

A whirlwind of thoughts spun in my head before I reached a conclusion.

Kim Geonho, the tyrant of Class D.

He must have joined forces with Wang Jahyeon’s group.

Soon, Kim Geonho smiled at me with a sinister expression.

“Hey, Ha Yeongwon, I’ve heard all about you. I hear you’re doing well these days? Hanging out with pretty girls. I’m jealous. How did you manage that? Let’s have a chat sometime soon, bro.”

Whoosh-

Kim Geonho left with the girls.

This was an emergency.