novelraw Chapter 227 : Chapter 227
Chapter 227 : Chapter 227
Chapter 227: The Past (3)
Ho-cheol carefully took Smiley’s hand away and raised his head.
It was still difficult to guess her real reason and inner thoughts, but at least one thing was certain.
The reason she was by his side now was to make him change.
Still, if he didn't change in the end, would she give up and leave.
And if he changed just as she wanted…… would she be satisfied and leave.
Whatever it was, frankly, it wasn't a very welcome ending for Ho-cheol.
That's why, after hesitating for a moment, he asked.
“If I change, will you…… stay by my side?”
It was a question more than capable of causing a misunderstanding, but it wasn't exactly a confession.
There was no such awareness or emotion at all.
In fact, Smiley didn't take it that way either.
He needed to stop his path as a villain and change, but for that, he needed a clear standard and an unbreakable pillar, not just a momentary deviation.
And Smiley’s existence would surely become a solid foundation for him.
It was Smiley who always answered confidently, but this time, she hesitated for a moment.
Continuously.
At that moment, a sharp pain shot through Smiley's heart and spread throughout her body.
This pitch-black disease eating away at her heart had unfortunately stolen the word 'future' from her remaining life.
The time she could continue to be by Ho-cheol’s side was merely…….
However, Smiley lied to Ho-cheol for the first time.
“Of course. Obviously!”
The first lie she had ever told.
The reason her heart ached more painfully than ever wasn't just because of the disease.
But Ho-cheol, captivated by the hope flickering before his eyes, couldn't see her pained expression.
***
After that, Ho-cheol slowly, very slowly, but surely, began to change.
The organization’s range of activity narrowed, he intentionally didn't kill people, and above all…….
“You’re here.”
“Inging.”
“What kind of answer is ‘Inging’.”
His relationship with Smiley became markedly closer.
Now, he would even start conversations first, and he drastically revised his subordinates' guard areas and schedules to make it easier for her to visit.
They couldn't guess Ho-cheol’s true intentions, but Ho-cheol, when Smiley wasn't around, was still sharp, so no one dared to ask.
Smiley was just pleased with his change.
However, if there was one thing she was sad about.
Taking long strides, she approached Ho-cheol’s completely defenseless back.
She stretched both hands toward his neck.
And then.
“I told you to smile.”
She grabbed the corners of his mouth and forced them up to make a smile.
“Me changing my mind and that are two different things.”
Ho-cheol answered bluntly and brushed her hands away.
“So, is the work going well?”
Of course, the work she was talking about wasn't villain work.
It was the work of dismantling Ho-cheol’s current organization.
At Smiley’s question, Ho-cheol let out a long sigh.
“It’s not easy.”
When he first formed it, he had praised it, saying it couldn't have been made any better, but conversely, that was a significant problem in the current situation.
An organization this bloated and tightly-knit wouldn't easily collapse just by losing its focal point.
Rather, even if the head, Ho-cheol, disappeared, it would continue to function as a villain organization as if nothing had happened.
If it weren't for that, he would have simply quit.
He had to destroy all the core parts of the organization and undo all the current connections to prevent future problems.
“Still. Well.”
Ho-cheol scratched the back of his head.
“3 months? I see a possibility of wrapping it all up within that time.”
“Really?”
Smiley’s face lit up and she clapped her hands.
As expected, he's competent! And good!
If he had even the slightest different intention, he wouldn't have been able to proceed this quickly.
One of the top villain organizations in this country.
Military power, political power, financial power, he was letting go of all those things from his hands so easily.
It showed how little attachment he had to the 'villain' name tag.
My eyes weren't wrong after all.
Swallowing the admiration that lingered in her mouth, Smiley smiled brightly.
Ho-cheol, however, picked up a cup he had left upturned and drank water with an expressionless face.
Soon, he would be able to dissolve the organization and liquidate his current life as an evil person, just as he had promised Smiley.
And after that…… honestly, he had nothing planned at all.
But even if there was nothing he wanted to do, it would at least be much better than his life so far, driven mad by revenge and trying to destroy everything.
“So, today I heard another interesting story, and this is, well.”
Saying that, she fumbled around in her bag and pulled out a piece of paper.
But just as she had pulled the paper out halfway.
“Huh?”
She suddenly collapsed on the spot.
“……Huh?”
Clang―!
The cup Ho-cheol was holding fell and shattered into pieces.
It couldn't be a prank; neither her personality nor their relationship was one to enjoy one-sided pranks like this.
He hurriedly grabbed the fallen Smiley’s shoulder and shook her.
“Hey! Hey! Wake up!”
But there was no answer.
Instead, a streak of blood flowed from the corner of her mouth.
At that moment, Ho-cheol’s mind went white.
“Hey, hey! Anyone outside, call a doctor!”
Calling the organization's doctor without even considering her situation, whose very existence was a secret, was a natural reaction.
***
Fortunately, Smiley's bare face was completely unknown, so her treatment passed as just 'the boss's secret woman'.
Since that wasn't a flaw at all in a villain organization to begin with, this rumor circulated briefly and faintly within the organization before disappearing.
Of course, not much was said within the organization, but separate from that, Ho-cheol’s situation was serious.
No, to be precise, Smiley’s condition, and Ho-cheol who learned of it, also became serious.
An incurable disease.
An incurable disease that originated from a Gate, for which no cure yet exists.
And a time limit.
At most, just over a year.
That was Smiley’s condition, as heard from the doctor.
When Ho-cheol heard those words from the doctor, with Smiley still not having regained consciousness, he was clearly enraged.
Anger towards Smiley, who had given him false hope, and anger towards his powerless self, who couldn't do anything even after finding out.
The anger, colliding in two directions, paradoxically made Ho-cheol calm instead.
A lavish private hospital room.
Smiley slowly opened her eyes.
She looked around once, then asked Ho-cheol, who was sitting beside her.
“How long was I…… collapsed?”
“4 hours.”
“I see.”
She gave a bitter smile.
She’d had occasional dizziness or pain, but fainting was a first.
Of all places, for it to be in front of Ho-cheol.
No, maybe it was a relief it wasn't during a battle.
“Why.”
Ho-cheol leaned his body forward, resting his elbows on his thighs.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
His voice was even lower and more melancholic than when he had first met Smiley.
“Was I. That untrustworthy? Did you think I would throw away all the promises I've made like a pair of old shoes if you told me you were terminally ill?”
But that wasn't a question; it was closer to a monologue.
The first emotion he felt was anger towards Smiley who had betrayed him, but it soon turned into sadness.
“You said you believed I would change, but you were the one who believed in me the least.”
He bit his lip, hidden beneath his hand.
Smiley just lowered her head deeply, as if she was ashamed.
Even if she had ten mouths, she had nothing to say.
“It’s like this again. You, too, are no different from the villains or heroes who have deceived me until now. No different from them at all.”
Smiley froze completely, her mouth still open.
Belatedly, she raised her head to say that, at least, wasn't true.
But before she could, Ho-cheol stood up from his chair.
He spoke in a voice mixed half with anger and half with sadness.
“You are a terribly selfish person.”
Blood dripped from Ho-cheol’s clenched fist.
Smiley’s complexion turned pale at the drops of blood falling from between his fingers.
“Oh, ah! Blood! You’re bleeding!”
Flustered, she got off the hospital bed, forced his hand open, and put on a bandage.
At that sight, Ho-cheol’s expression distorted even more.
An idiot who, even when she was dying, worried about a nail mark on someone else's hand.
But Ho-cheol neurotically pushed her away.
Watching her fall back onto the hospital bed as if collapsing, he twisted the corner of his mouth into a smile.
“We were a villain and a hero from the start. We were enemies.”
He wanted to say that.
But the words that shot out of his mouth were so sharp, they stabbed all over Smiley’s body.
“So there’s no need to apologize.”
With those words, Ho-cheol turned around.
He left the hospital, leaving the tearful Smiley behind.
***
Ho-cheol was in the middle of talking about the past.
“Wait a minute!”
“Uh, well. I don’t understand.”
Ye-jin and Da-yeon, who had been so immersed in his recollection that they forgot to breathe, cut him off at the same time.
Although they had definitely promised not to interrupt at first, the two were so flustered that they forgot.
“Um, did you really say and act like that?”
“Yes.”
Watching Ho-cheol affirm with a brief nod, the two gasped.
Of all people, for Ho-cheol to treat others like that.
The Ho-cheol they had seen for nearly half a year was a person more kind and considerate than anyone else.
To be honest, it was still doubtful whether the Ho-cheol in the story was really his own story.
Ye-jin muttered awkwardly.
“It’s just that you don't have that image at all, Professor.”
Da-yeon also nodded her head vigorously, as if agreeing.
Of course, it was a story from when he was active as a villain in the past, but it felt awkward to the point of being bizarre.
At their reaction, Ho-cheol smiled bitterly.
“Well, I was selfish and narrow-minded back then, too. In the end, I only thought about my own feelings, meaning I didn't consider the person who was about to die at all.”
“No!”
Da-yeon reacted vehemently to his self-deprecating mumble.
She planted both hands on the floor and stuck her head straight out.
“That, it’s only natural for you to be disappointed, Professor! It's absolutely, definitely! Not your fault, Professor!”
Her blue eyes were filled with Ho-cheol’s face.
The distance between them narrowed so much that they would touch if he moved just 10cm forward.
At Da-yeon's intensity, Ho-cheol laughed awkwardly.
Perhaps because she herself had a similar experience.
She openly took Ho-cheol’s side.
“Right. Thanks for taking my side. Well, even if I wasn't the bad guy like you said, there’s still that regret of, 'if only I had been a little more understanding.' I learned something from it, too.”
Because you never know when or how a separation will come, you have to cherish every single moment of that time.
“So, I hope you two don't have moments where you're blinded by momentary emotions and can't say what you truly feel.”
At his serious advice, Da-yeon and Ye-jin shut their mouths tightly, as if they had thought of something.
Watching the two ruminate on his advice, Ho-cheol nodded his head as if satisfied.
“There are only two kinds of advice I give you. Wanting you not to repeat the things I did and regretted. Or wanting you to also feel the things that became the trigger for my change.”
He briefly checked the time.
It was still cutting it close, but there was enough time to finish the story that had reached its final part.
Just as he was about to continue the story, a sudden question popped into his head.
He raised his index finger and pointed at Da-yeon.
“By the way, is it okay for her to listen to such a personal story?”
“‘Her’?”
At being blatantly treated as an outsider, Da-yeon puffed up her cheeks.
Since she was usually so expressionless, she had to express her disappointment this way.
“Well, it’s a family story. I thought it might be a sensitive topic.”
Ho-cheol tilted his raised index finger and poked― one of Da-yeon’s cheeks.
Puhuuuuu― Making a deflating sound, Da-yeon’s puffed-up cheeks returned to normal.
“It’s fine.”
Ye-jin answered with an awkward laugh.
Truthfully, she hadn't intended to, but she had a 'prior conviction' of overhearing some of Da-yeon’s personal history at the Invention Day event.
On top of that, they had recently shared their deep pasts with each other while doing the work experience together.
Of course, the reason for that was―Da-yeon, who became furious at Ye-jin for looking at the Sword Demon like a celebrity, confessed everything.
Since Ye-jin had also learned about the family affairs surrounding Da-yeon, there was no big problem with Da-yeon learning about her family affairs.
Above all…….
“To be honest, it seems closer to your personal history, Professor, than mine. So I don't think it's my place to say this or that.”
“If you say so.”
Since she herself said it was fine, Ho-cheol shrugged and continued speaking.