episode_0065

065

“Oh, um?”

Was it because she heard something unexpected?

At my sudden words, Soyeon blinked her large eyes in confusion, her head tilting from side to side as she responded with a puzzled expression.

It felt a bit surreal.

“Future foresight ability…?”

She quietly pondered, voicing her doubts.

From her perspective, it could sound like nonsense about ghosts and spirits.

It was understandable, as suddenly claiming to have awakened a future foresight ability when one was considered incompetent would lack credibility.

“It’s a bit sudden… really?”

“Soyeon, would you like to take a look at this?”

As the saying goes, seeing is believing, so I took out my phone and showed her the stock trading records and profits.

Soyeon furrowed her eyebrows slightly, looking at the phone screen with a puzzled expression, exclaiming, “Huh? What?!” in astonishment.

She widened her eyes in disbelief.

It was as if she had witnessed something incomprehensible, like seeing a person who had never seen such numbers and amounts before.

“A profit margin of 1200%…? The total profit… Oh, no, does this make sense?”

“It’s all thanks to my future foresight ability.”

Without possessing such an ability, it would be impossible to earn this amount, so Soyeon was left speechless, her lips trembling in disbelief.

She seemed quite taken aback by the unfamiliar numbers and amounts.

“Oh, Jinhak.”

Rather than talking painfully, showing concrete evidence and figures like this would be much more convincing.

Now she seemed somewhat convinced.

“S-So, you’ve become rich?”

Soyeon muttered in a dazed voice, “Even if I earned money all my life, it would be much less than what Jinhak earned in a few months…,” expressing her astonishment.

If I were in Soyeon’s shoes, I might have been quite surprised too.

“Do you think you can believe that I have future foresight ability?”

“Um, yeah. It’s amazing… future foresight ability…”

Soyeon nodded her head quickly.

She probably wouldn’t think that I just coincidentally earned this much money. Just looking at the trading situation, I had made significant profits without much loss. It was reasonable to assume that.

Well, I deliberately incurred some losses little by little. If I only gained profits, I might be suspected of being a future foresight ability user.

…Of course, even with the amount I had earned so far, there was still enough to raise suspicion.

“Anyway, congratulations Jinhak. You’ve awakened a great ability. You’ve struggled a lot because you were considered incompetent.”

Soyeon conveyed her heartfelt congratulations.

It was a pure congratulatory message without jealousy or envy.

There’s a saying that if a cousin buys land, it hurts the stomach, but Soyeon seemed genuinely happy that I was doing well, smiling broadly.

“But can you tell me?”

“Huh? Tell you what?”

“Well, um… usually, people with this kind of ability don’t talk much about it. You also seemed to deliberately hide it.”

“Oh, well.”

It’s a harsh world where even if you win tens of billions in the lottery, you keep it a secret from your family.

Moreover, future foresight ability is a much more valuable ability than a mere lottery win.

In today’s information society, the value of future foresight ability is astronomical.

If such an ability were to be leaked to unsavory organizations or groups, it could be very dangerous.

That’s why people who have this ability usually don’t even tell their family, friends, or lovers.

In fact, there have been cases where relatives have sold information about future foresight ability users for a large profit.

Not many people can find reason in the face of a huge sum of money.

But Soyeon was different.

Simply because she was my close friend, it wasn’t blind trust that made me believe in Soyeon’s character setting and the memories we had shared for over 10 years that made her trustworthy.

Initially, well… I was in a position where I had to mention having the ability to foresee the future if I wanted to give Soyeon various items and occasionally farm together.

“It’s okay.”

“What?”

“It’s you. Trust me.”

“Ah, well… it’s a bit awkward even if you trust me like that… Oh, haha, ha.”

Even though it felt a bit cringy, I decided to speak firmly in a slightly serious tone.

Upon hearing this, Soyeon awkwardly smiled as if unsure how to react, twirling her hair as if in a dilemma.

She seemed a bit taken aback by my straightforward trust in her.

“Soyeon, the reason I mentioned this fact is because I have something I want you to accept.”

I took out a simple black bracelet from my pocket. Ah, I have to give this to her, but will she accept it? There was a reason I hadn’t given it to her until now. The possibility of Soyeon not accepting it was high.

Soyeon looked at the bracelet with a puzzled expression.

“Why suddenly a bracelet?”

“…Well, you see.”

I paused for a moment, biting my lip.

I cautiously fiddled with the bracelet.

I had to tell the story properly from now on.

If I said something wrong, it could lead to some misunderstandings. How could I convince Soyeon?

After a moment of silence, I slowly licked my lips.

“It’s kind of like a safety bracelet…?”

“Safety?”

“Yes. If you press the slightly protruding part, a signal is sent.”

“Oh? So, isn’t this like a location transmitter?”

For a moment, Soyeon’s eyebrows slightly furrowed.

I knew she would react negatively.

Recently, Soyeon had experienced a stalker incident. Revealing her location to others wouldn’t be a pleasant feeling for her.

But for me, there was a need to quickly locate Soyeon in case of an emergency.

After the recent Union attack incident, I realized the importance of being able to quickly locate Soyeon in a situation where villains intruded. Since I couldn’t immediately pinpoint Soyeon’s location in a dangerous situation, I was at a loss.

In the game, you can tell by looking at the mini-map, but this wasn’t a game.

If I couldn’t join Soyeon quickly in a dangerous situation, it would be difficult to come up with a plan.

At the very least, I needed to secure Soyeon’s location and safety first.

“But this bracelet is practically a location transmitter, so Soyeon might think it’s a bit intrusive.”

No, not just Soyeon, but most people, right?

Even couples tend to have a very negative view of installing location tracking apps. It feels like being monitored, under surveillance.

Yeah, that’s true.

I would have thought very negatively about it too.

“Why go this far with this…”

“Soyeon. I mentioned that I have the ability to foresee the future, right?”

“Ah, yes, you did.”

“But I couldn’t foresee this incident.”

“Are you talking about the Union attack incident?”

I slowly nodded in agreement to her words.

I planned to build up the necessity for Soyeon to wear this bracelet by discussing various things.

“The ability to foresee the future has strict usage conditions, and I can’t just choose the future I want to see.”

“Ah, I’ve heard of that. It’s the biggest drawback of the ability to foresee the future.”

It seemed like Soyeon also had some knowledge about the ability to foresee the future.

“Soyeon, you were really in danger back then. If I and the others had been a little late, I can’t even imagine what would have happened…”

“Yeah. I was really grateful back then. Honestly, I thought I might die halfway. I was lucky that no one died, at least.”

Soyeon scratched her cheek and replied. There was no actual person who died as she said. But there was no guarantee that it wouldn’t happen in the future.

“Soyeon.”

I gave a faint smile.

“I know about my parents’ passing, right?”

“……Ah, yes.”

As I suddenly mentioned her deceased parents, Soyeon nodded with a slightly sorrowful expression.

Bringing up her parents was not entirely unnecessary.

At that time, I was actually struggling a lot because of my parents’ passing, and I wanted to make it clear to Soyeon that I am sensitive to the topic of death.

“I don’t know how you feel, but I consider you half family. We’ve been together since we were very young.”

“Ah, well….”

“From my perspective, if something were to happen to you, it would be quite difficult for me… When I saw you covered in blood, almost lifeless, it reminded me of my parents.”

“….”

It might have been a bit excessive to say these things, but I had to say them now. In order to justify giving her this bracelet.

“Sometimes I see bad futures through my precognition ability. Futures where you get seriously injured.”

“Is that so?”

“Normally, I can prevent them, but when my precognition doesn’t work like this time, it’s really dangerous.”

“But as a hero, it’s inevitable to face risks….”

“Right. It’s natural to face risks as a hero. But not right now.”

I cautiously reached out to Soyeon and put the bracelet on her.

Soyeon accepted the bracelet in surprise.

“I know you might feel a bit annoyed about this. But there might be another incident like this in the future, right?”

“….Uh-huh.”

“Back then, you were targeted by that white-haired female villain. She might seek revenge later.”

“….”

Of course, Yoo Da-hee is not the type to seek revenge for such things.

“Soyeon, just think of it as a smartwatch for personal protection given by the police. Honestly, it’s better to have it than not when you need it, right?”

“It’s not that I feel bad about it, it’s just….”

Soyeon hesitated for a moment.

She had a slightly uncomfortable expression.

She fidgeted with the bracelet slowly.

As if resigned, she let out a deep sigh.

“Since you’re insisting so much, I’ll take it….”

Looking at my face, she said.

“…Are you trying to overprotect me too much?”

“Maybe a little?”

“I mean, you said I’m just a friend, well, half family….”

Suddenly.

“…Are you doing this much for a friend because of that, right?”

Soyeon cautiously glanced at me and muttered.

“…?”

What is she trying to say now?