Chapter 167 - Chapter 165: Episode 165
Ahn Min-seo asked where we should grab a bite.
I checked the time; it was almost 4 PM.
We hadn't eaten lunch, just barely scraping by on a small popcorn at the movie theater.
Honestly, I was thinking about just grabbing some ramen at a PC Bang...,
but seeing Ahn Min-seo all dressed up, it felt like a waste to just rot in a PC Bang.
If we're going to pretend we're on a date, we should probably walk around a bit and enjoy the atmosphere.
"Let's eat a proper meal. Min-seo, what do you want?"
"Hmm..., you said your taste buds are similar to the girls', right?"
"Yeah."
"Then..., let's go to a buffet. How about a sushi buffet? I'm kind of craving fish sushi right now."
"Sounds good. Now that you mention it, I'm craving it too."
"Great. There's a sushi buffet right nearby. Let's go there.
Oh, but thinking about a buffet, maybe the academy cafeteria is better...,
is this just a waste of money? Should we just head back to the academy?"
"No. Since we're out, we should enjoy the mood. It's been a while, let's just go."
"Then turn off the computer and let's go. Ah, let's stop by the bathroom first. I need to take a leak."
"Okay. Me too."
Ahn Min-seo and I left the PC Bang and stopped by the restrooms.
She probably had to go too.
We'd both been drinking soda at the movie theater and the PC Bang.
I walked out of the bathroom after doing my business.
Ahn Min-seo hadn't come out yet.
I was waiting in front of the restroom since I came out first, and then....
"...Excuse me."
A girl was trying to talk to me, looking shy.
Huh?
Is she talking to me?
Wondering if she was talking to me, I quickly looked around,
and the shy girl came closer and tapped my shoulder.
"...Excuse me."
I had confirmed there was no one else around,
and since she lightly tapped my shoulder, it seemed like she was calling me.
"...? Yes...?"
"...Well, um, you're..., like, totally my type, so... how old are you? Are you still a minor...?"
"...?"
She looks younger than me..., or maybe not?
Since she's asking if I'm a minor, she must be an adult.
I looked her up and down; she looked quite young for her age.
Probably early twenties?
She looks like a minor herself, yet she's asking me....
"...Ah, right.... I'm in a Shota body right now...."
When I silently looked her over without saying anything, perhaps thinking I was a minor,
the girl who had shyly spoken to me came closer, initiating skinship and chattering away.
"...Want to come with me? Your noona will buy you something delicious... I have a lot of money, you know.... My mom's a lawyer and my dad's a prosecutor.
I'll buy you dinner. Let's go together.... This is my first time doing this too..., but seeing you, my heart just went pounding....
Even if you're a minor, you'll grow up eventually, right...? If you become my secret friend, your noona will give you an allowance every month too...."
'Oh..., this..., could it be....'
A strange and lewd thought crossed my mind.
A so-called 'secret friend'...?
This is similar to how Ahn Su-mi, the laundry room staff, approached me last time....
And a monthly allowance too....
'Wow..., this bitch..., she mistakes me for a minor and now she's trying to sponsor me...?
What kind of home training did she get from her parents...? Should I call her bold...?'
I just watched the girl trying to seduce me with an amused and curious expression.
Perhaps thinking my change in attitude meant she was making progress,
the girl seemed to further emphasize the usefulness and advantages of a 'secret friend'.
A monthly allowance, riding in an expensive sports car for drives, going camping or traveling together,
and if I had a bad relationship with my parents and wanted to run away from home, I could stay at her self-contained apartment.
She even said I could bring any cute and handsome friends my age, like myself.
And if any legal issues came up, her parents were in the legal profession, so it wouldn't be a big problem, apparently....
I listened quietly, wondering how far she would go...,
when I heard footsteps from the restroom, and Ahn Min-seo approached, floating a ball of pure white flame.
Her expression was extremely cold and furious.
"Hey, you fucking bitch. Shut up and get the fuck out of here, okay? What the fuck do you think you're doing to my boyfriend?"
"...Ugh, ...Hun, Hunter?"
"That's right. You fucking bitch. I'm a Hunter. So what?"
"Uh..., uh..., I'm, I'm sorry..., ...Ugh, ...B-but, ...d-don't you know it's illegal to use your abilities recklessly like that?"
"Fuck off. Go ahead and report me. What are your dad and mom? A prosecutor and a lawyer? Shove it up your ass. If you want to report me, go ahead. I'll burn the fucking lot of you to a crisp."
The girl, whose face had turned pale with fear, seemed at a loss for words and hung her head low.
Then, as if something occurred to her, she alternated glances between me and Ahn Min-seo before speaking.
"...Uh, uh.... ...You, you know, ...t-touching a minor means you're going straight to jail, right? But still ...boyfriend? The Hunter Association can't shield you from child sexual abuse, can they?"
"You crazy bitch. Where in the world does my boyfriend look like a minor? He's cursed right now so he looks like a shota, but he's an adult."
"...? Uh..., an, adult? ...Li, liar...."
"If you don't believe me, go ahead and report me. Then I'll fucking countersue you for false accusation."
"...You don't get sued for false accusation just by making a report, you know? You have to actually press charges for it to be false accusation.... Whatever, you hunters are so ignorant.... Agh! Don't wave that fireball around recklessly!"
"Well, I'm an ignorant hunter bitch, so I wouldn't know. Stop talking shit and get lost. Before I actually destroy you....
You seem to know the law pretty well, huh? Do you know this? In our country, if there's no body, even murder is innocent?
I'm pretty good at burning up bodies with these flames, you know...? Nothing left, no trace....
Then it's not murder, it's a missing person case. ...How do I know that so well? Hehe, how do you think?"
"Ugh..., ugh.... You..., you.... Just wait...."
The girl who had been trying to be my secret friend was terrified and ran away.
She said "just wait," but even as a third party, she didn't look scary at all.
I watched the fleeing girl, then looked at Ahn Min-seo, a little worried.
"...Is it okay to let her go like that? What if she reports being threatened?"
"...Hmm, maybe I should have killed her..., but I held back because it was in front of you...."
Seeing Ahn Min-seo mutter to herself,
it made that remark about burning bodies well not seem like an empty threat....
But surely she hasn't actually killed and burned people a few times, right?
"...If, if a report comes in, I'll do my best to defend you... as a, as a witness."
When I resolved to defend her no matter what and said that,
Ahn Min-seo smirked, then ruffled my hair.
"Anyway, I'm an academy student, so it'll probably be fine? The academy is a bit..., you know, extraterritorial.
Unless I get caught killing someone or raping them..., well, even then, jurisdiction gets transferred to the Holy Sword Department.
And who's the teacher in charge of that Holy Sword Department?"
"Your older sister...."
"Yeah. No problem. There's a reason people denounce the Academy Special Law as the second USFK SOFA."
I've heard about this roughly too.
Especially the reason why the Holy Sword Department doesn't hesitate at all while gang-raping me.
It's because the Holy Sword Department is given something akin to investigative and judicial power within the academy.
No matter how much I was admitted through the Sex Slave Track,
there was a reason they could commit crimes like rape and sexual torture so openly at the academy.
The National Hunter Academy Special Law... is a special law that, in a way, is full of unconstitutional elements.
Just like if US soldiers kill or rape someone, they are judged by their own country's laws, not Korean law....
the Academy also has a kind of extraterritoriality clause, so faculty and students are not tried by general laws or courts.
In other words, matters are handled through a disciplinary committee within the Academy..., and the severity of that punishment is the epitome of covering for your own.
I've heard they receive punishments so lenient it would make the privileges for former officials look like getting slapped back and forth.
'...I think I heard that whenever the legal profession talks about amending the Hunter Special Law or the Academy Special Law,
the Hunters scoff and tell them to fix the corrupted privilege of preferential treatment for former officials first....'
Ahn Min-seo told me not to worry, patted my back firmly, took my hand, and led us to a nearby sushi buffet.
It was definitely inferior to our academy cafeteria in terms of taste and quality..., but we still ate well and enjoyed it with Min-seo.
"Yawn~ I'm so full~"
"Wow, Kim Do-jin, you're a guy, but you can eat like that and not gain weight?"
"I don't gain weight. I don't. And even if I did, someone at my level would be fine with it."
Normally, that would be a rude thing to say to a guy, but now it came naturally from Ahn Min-seo.
We played games together at the PC Bang, cursing out our team's jungler and the opposing team's parents, wishing them long life, and somehow that created an odd sense of closeness.
I checked my watch; it was roughly 5 PM.
We met at 10 AM, spent about 2 hours at an unmanned motel getting pinned under Ahn Min-seo and yelping 'ow ow', so it was noon.
We went to the movies and wasted about an hour watching a romance melodrama, so it was 1 PM.
We went to the PC Bang, had fun for about 3 hours, and it was 4 PM.
We were getting hungry, so we spent about an hour at this sushi buffet, and now it was already 5 PM.
If we enjoy one more thing as a final activity, today's date is probably over.
The Academy enforces a curfew at 9 PM, so if it looks like we can't get in by 9, we'd better just sleep outside and go back in the morning.
While Ahn Min-seo was paying at the counter,
someone who looked like a staff member approached me from behind and secretly pressed something into my hand.
"?"
I thought it might be an after-dinner candy or a coupon or something, so I took it,
but what I was given was a white slip of paper with a hastily scrawled phone number on it.