Public Enemy (4)

Public Enemy (4)

“Al, alcohol, you say?”

“It’s really not a big deal, but for some reason it’s hard to eat. Ah, I really want to try it once.”

I smirked as I looked at the flustered Park Tae-jun. I still don’t know what this guy with a pitch-black heart truly wants, but if I can use him, I should.

“It’s not… difficult. But I didn’t expect you to be so bold.”

“So, you don’t like it?”

“No.”

The guy regained his composure. For a kid, he was quite quick at controlling his emotions.

“Let’s go. I’ll introduce you to the others during break time.”

He led me out of the classroom. I followed him obediently.

Kim Su-jung’s bewildered gaze followed us, but I nodded to reassure her.

“There are many girls too. Suhan is the same… I’ll talk to him. There’s just a misunderstanding.”

“I don’t care.”

I said with a bright smile.

I’m not interested in these childish games. Right now, my only interests are the scraps I can get and the true nature of the malice this Park Tae-jun guy is harboring.

“Jin-ah…”

As the break time began and the classroom became noisy, Kim Su-jung mumbled while staring blankly at the empty seat next to her.

She thought it was fortunate to have a friend to adapt to the new school together, but that friend had now left her behind.

“Hey. Transfer student.”

“Your name was Kim Su-jung, right?”

At that moment, a few kids approached her. They were all girls from the same class.

Startled for a moment, she slowly nodded her head.

“Are you close with the girl you came with?”

“Don’t, don’t be too nervous.”

The children, though awkward, naturally started a conversation with her.

Even Kim Su-jung, who was usually wary of others, gradually lowered her guard. After all, the people she was talking to now were not scary older girls or an abusive father, but ordinary schoolgirls her own age.

“But why Jina?”

By the time the break was almost over, Kim Su-jung had relaxed enough to initiate conversation.

“Well…”

“Her name was Jina, right? I’m a bit…”

When Lee Jina’s name came up, the atmosphere among the friends became slightly tense.

Kim Su-jung was flustered, but the bell rang at that moment. In the end, she couldn’t clear up her friends’ misunderstanding, and they scattered to their seats.

“Did something happen?”

“Hmm? No, it’s not like that.”

Around that time, Lee Jina, who had left with Park Tae-jun, returned.

Kim Su-jung’s eyes wavered as she saw those unfathomable, abyss-like black eyes looking at her.

“That’s good. You have friends who approach you first.”

“But they misunderstand you. So if we talk together later, we can clear up the misunderstanding.”

“No. That’s not it. So snap out of it.”

Kim Su-jung tried to speak cheerfully. However, Lee Jina shook her head firmly.

“What, what do you mean?”

“I need to get something from Park Tae-jun’s gang. So I’ll be hanging out with them for a while. But the other kids are afraid of them. Am I right?”

“Mmm…”

“So we can’t play together at school. That’s why you should hold onto your new friends. If you want, you can even badmouth me to them. They might like that, don’t you think?”

In social life, politics is the most basic of basics. And the easiest way to fit into a group is to have a common enemy.

Lee Jin-ah, the ruler and adult of this world, naturally knew this common sense.

But Kim Su-jung, still young, did not. The idea of badmouthing a friend to get closer to other friends was something she found hard to accept.

“I don’t really understand what you mean.”

“Then just think of it as something for all of our benefit.”

Lee Jin-ah finished speaking with a click of her tongue. Unlike Kim Su-jung, who kept relying on her, she never had any intention of playing the role of Kim Su-jung’s caretaker from the beginning.

“…”

Kim Su-jung bowed her head with a confused expression.

That was the end of their conversation for that class period, and as expected, Lee Jin-ah dashed out of the classroom as soon as break time began.

“What were you talking about? I glanced over, and it didn’t look too good.”

“I’m not sure. Was she always like that…?”

Kim Su-jung muttered with furrowed brows to her friends who approached her again.

There was something that felt off about saying she had changed somehow.

Thinking about it, Lee Jin-ah had consistently shown the same behavior from the moment they first met until now. From the moment she stepped in and got slapped instead of her, until now. If anything had changed, it was only her own feelings.

“What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”

“Ah, no, it’s nothing.”

Kim Su-jung clutched her inexplicably pounding chest.

*

“You…”

“We meet again.”

Middle school students were going through their own adaptation period at that time.

At this nearby high school, there was also a strange atmosphere.

Jeon So-hyeon, who looked and acted like trouble incarnate but had come to school after a long time, frowned upon seeing Aria, the magical girl who was now just an ordinary student, Han Eun-seo.

“Hah, mind your own business.”

Biting her lip, she passed by Han Eun-seo with a cold breeze.

“You said you’d go into the facility.”

However, at Han Eun-seo’s words, she stopped in her tracks. Enraged, she glared at Han Eun-seo with fierce eyes.

“You bitch…”

“I know everything. Even that you survived Taquilas’s attack. Now, don’t cause any more trouble and quietly…”

“What do you know!”

Finally unable to hold back, Jeon So-hyeon grabbed Han Eun-seo’s collar, disregarding others’ stares.

But Han Eun-seo’s expression was cold. She grabbed Jeon So-hyeon’s hand and removed it with an irresistible strength.

“I have close contacts in the agency. And you don’t know. How miraculous it was to survive that day. Far more people died than lived.”

“Ugh…”

She tried to resist with trembling arms, but couldn’t move a finger.

“A miracle… you say?”

“Taquilas, you met her, didn’t you?”

At those serious eyes, Jeon So-hyeon swallowed hard for a moment.

Han Eun-seo hadn’t slept a wink or eaten anything since that day, that is, since last night. The earth dragon from the Demon Realm summoned by Taquilas. The fact that she couldn’t overcome that pressure was a tremendous shock to her.

Irresistible fear. That overwhelming demonic energy that chilled her to the bone.

“So cherish the life you’ve regained.”

“I, I won’t do anything like that again. I’ll just work a normal part-time job.”

Jeon So-hyeon, overwhelmed by the pressure, finally nodded in defeat. Han Eun-seo then released the oppressive energy she had been exerting.

“Why did you care about that girl? That’s not like your usual personality.”

“…We need to be careful right now. She caught my eye, and girls like her are easily caught up in such things, so I just gave her a warning.”

She watched So-hyeon’s retreating back, adjusted her glasses, and started walking again.

However, Lulu, the mascot on her head, seemed to not understand.

“I don’t think his evil spirits would go after kids who can’t do much even if they’re consumed.”

“By the way, is that information certain?”

She asked Lulu again, who was grumbling.

There was a separate reason why she was on edge like this, overcoming last night’s injuries.

One of the pieces of information requested by the agency was about the expected appearance of a mysterious being, and this being was a big shot marked as a person of interest even among companies, with top-secret information that this big shot would appear on Earth, and in this country, no less.

“It’s certain. Mammoth, the mysterious being who rules over pleasure and desire. He has finally… set foot on this Earth. And of all places, in our area!”

Lulu confirmed with a tense voice.

He was a disaster-level mysterious being estimated to be equivalent to SS rank. The magical girls who were in the know were already eyeing each other.

Given who the opponent was, they couldn’t act independently just to rack up achievements.

“His main method is to deceive ordinary people and ultimately corrupt them to make them his minions. And the negative energy generated in that process is his prey. We must catch him before that monster who eats magical girls alive intensifies his schemes!”

“I know that too. I guess it’s better to report it.”

Information about Mammoth was already known. And she decided to report this information to the Management Bureau.

“The mysterious being Mammoth. His ability is to command evil spirits to corrupt people and bring chaos.”

“Those crazy monsters keep…”

“We must stop them.”

“Yes. Of course.”

Han Eun-seo’s report immediately called for an emergency response meeting.

The director of the Management Bureau sighed and rubbed his face. The position of Bureau Director was surprisingly stressful and infuriating. It was natural, given that they had to deal with supernatural beings.

“They say Aria alone isn’t enough.”

“This is an issue that needs to be addressed at the company level of the fairies, the contractors of the magical girls.”

Oh Yun-seo focused on briefing the information without hesitation. Everyone flinched when the topic of fairies came up.

After all, it was the fairies who created the magical girls that essentially made the world this way.

“Then what can we do?”

“Thorough information gathering and surveillance… I suppose.”

In the end, the Management Bureau had to step back once again and rely on the efforts of the magical girls.

“Damn it, we’re the ones who end up suffering the consequences. For now, let’s establish plans accordingly. Keep surveillance tight and report any unusual signs immediately!”

Of course, they still had to do their job.