"This place should be fine."
Bringing the three to a quiet location, Baek Seo-jin decided to speak quickly, with only ten minutes left until the next class.
"Nine years ago, I went to a place where Ye-jin noona was modeling for a shoot. That’s where I first saw Kim Ho-jun and Ye-jin noona."
"Really?"
"And there, I saw Kim Ho-jun oppressing Ye-jin noona. She looked like she desperately wanted to escape. Even as she looked at , her expression was filled with sadness. And Kim Ho-jun… not only did he threaten my parents the mont he t them, but he even ntioned my older brother’s na, provoking both
and my parents."
"What?"
"That’s horrible!"
Kim Chul-woo and Park Sun-hoo reacted with shock. Seeing their response, Baek Seo-jin nodded in understanding.
"There are so things my parents wanted to keep hidden from the public, so they covered them up."
Baek Seo-jin decided to be honest from the start with these potential allies.
His overly kind parents had gone so far as to conceal the truth in order to protect Baek Seo-jun. However, Seo-jin couldn’t lie to people he hoped would stand by his side.
‘I’m sorry, Dad, Mom.’
After silently apologizing to his parents, Baek Seo-jin looked at Kim Chul-woo, Park Sun-hoo, and Bae Ye-rim and spoke.
"Baek Seo-jun, my older brother, was a delinquent who caused our parents endless trouble before he was abducted by villains at the age of ten."
"A delinquent?"
"At ten years old?"
"What kind of things did he do?"
The three were curious as to what a ten-year-old could have possibly done to earn such a label.
"He never joined our family for als, always eating with the regular guild mbers instead, tarnishing our parents’ reputation. He refused to go out to buy clothes and intentionally wore second-hand ones. From a young age, it was as if he was holding a grudge from a past life, acting deliberately to embarrass our parents and bring sha upon them. My parents were so worn out by him that they rarely even talk about him now."
***
The three couldn’t imdiately accept Baek Seo-jin’s words.
‘Sothing feels off about this.’
‘Not eating als together before the age of ten? Not going out to buy clothes? Only wearing second-hand ones?’
‘If you piece this together….’
When interpreted logically, a strange conclusion erged.
It sounded like, before the age of ten, the child had been discriminated against at als, left to eat with the guild mbers instead of with the family, and was given no proper clothing, forced to wear second-hand garnts.
This hinted at neglect and blatant favoritism. A quick search for news articles revealed photos of Baek Hyung-won and Kim Yoo-jung lovingly doting on Baek Seo-jin, but there were no similar photos with Baek Seo-jun.
Even more telling was that, two years before Baek Seo-jun went missing—when he was only eight—photos of Baek Hyung-won and Kim Yoo-jung cherishing Baek Seo-jin as a four-year-old could still be easily found. In contrast, no pictures showed Baek Seo-jun together with the couple.
The only photos of Baek Seo-jun that surfaced were of him alone, and in every one of them, he looked anything but happy.
‘No way.’
‘There’s no way they would do that to their own child.’
‘He must’ve just been a delinquent and a rebellious brat.’
The three dismissed their suspicions, thinking such an interpretation was too far-fetched.
More importantly, they were inclined to place their bets on Baek Seo-jin.
‘This guy even ntioned Choi Kang-in’s na.’
Baek Seo-jin was the heir of the Baekho Guild, an active Hunter with a long record of defeating nurous villains.
The number of villains he had taken down likely exceeded three digits, and he was known for traveling worldwide to hunt them down.
With so many achievents, Baek Seo-jin had built a solid reputation internationally.
His handso appearance, prestigious background, extraordinary talent for his age, and proven track record made him a figure destined for greatness.
Moreover, he had even surpassed the famous prodigy Lee Ha-yeon to claim the top rank in the academy. To anyone, Baek Seo-jin seed like soone guaranteed a bright future.
While his claims about Kim Ho-jun, the academy principal, being a villain were hard to believe, there was a possibility.
Especially because Baek Seo-jin had ntioned Choi Kang-in by na.
He claid that Choi Kang-in had promised to uncover the truth about Kim Ho-jun’s true nature as a villain.
Considering the weight of Choi Kang-in’s na in South Korea, it was unlikely that Baek Seo-jin was lying.
He seed genuinely confident about his claims.
If they sided with him and he succeeded, the potential benefits could be imnse.
Incidentally, all three of them had a tendency to place bets on underdogs when gambling.
This ti was no different. It was risky, but they had placed their stakes on the high-reward underdog.
***
"Can I call you Seo-jin comfortably?"
"Sure. Then I’ll call you Chul-woo, Sun-hoo, and Ye-rim. Is that okay?"
"Yes, that’s fine."
"I’m okay with it too."
"Sa here."
Baek Seo-jin felt a surge of motivation as the three agreed to call each other by their nas and seed willing to believe him and cooperate.
"Seo-jin, if what you say is true—that the principal forced Seomun Ye-jin into marriage and is secretly a bad person—are there any specific examples of his cris that you know of?"
"He’s certainly committed atrocities and abused his power, but I’m not aware of any widely known cris yet. Other than his public sar campaign against Ye-jin noona, which he blad on the Baekho Guild, that is."
Baek Seo-jin regretted not knowing more about Kim Ho-jun’s criminal acts, even though he was convinced of his villainy.
But even if Kim Ho-jun hadn’t committed outright cris, as long as his evil nature could be proven, Choi Kang-in would step in and have him removed from his position as principal.
If that happened, it might be possible to annul Seomun Ye-jin’s marriage and rescue her.
The problem was that uncovering evidence of his wrongdoings wouldn’t be easy.
"However, since I’ve officially declared war on him, he’ll likely reveal sothing incriminating. Convincing Ye-jin noona to help uncover evidence might be the best way forward."
Seomun Ye-jin likely knew about the dark secrets Kim Ho-jun was hiding.
Sohow, Baek Seo-jin needed to approach her when Kim Ho-jun wasn’t around and obtain information through her.
If he succeeded, he might be able to enlist Choi Kang-in’s help.
"For now, it’s best to focus on living diligently at the academy while waiting for an opportunity. Even though I’ve declared my intentions, he won’t dare target
directly if I maintain a good standing at the academy. If he does try to sche against , I can use that as evidence."
Baek Seo-jin had resolved to make himself the bait if necessary.
If exposing Kim Ho-jun’s true nature and rescuing Seomun Ye-jin required him to be the sacrifice, he was willing to accept it.
‘It’s partly my fault for not being able to save Ye-jin noona sooner.’
Baek Seo-jin had always blad himself.
He silently cursed his younger, weaker self for being unable to protect Seomun Ye-jin from Kim Ho-jun’s clutches.
Could soone who failed to protect the woman he loved truly be called a hero?
No, he couldn’t.
‘When I rescue Ye-jin noona and make her my wife, only then will I be a hero worthy of the world’s respect.’
Seomun Ye-jin, his first love and the woman he loved most, was surely waiting for him—the only man she truly loved—to save her.
[“Don’t you think that’s wrong? Your brother… when he was abducted by the villains, he was even younger than you are now.”]
Seomun Ye-jin’s voice briefly echoed in his mind. It was from their first eting nine years ago, a mory that had stuck with him ever since.
But in Baek Seo-jin’s mind, the words twisted into sothing entirely different:
[“Yes, your brother is a bad person. But you, little one… you’re different. You’ll grow into a great hero. When that ti cos… please, co and save .”]
Though distorted and reshaped, Baek Seo-jin felt no sense of unease or doubt about this version of events.
‘That’s right. Ye-jin noona asked
to save her. She’s suffering, unable to bear the humiliation of being violated by a villain in front of the man she loves.’
If he could rescue Seomun Ye-jin and make her his wife, she would finally be free from the shadow of Kim Ho-jun and able to smile happily.
He envisioned a future where she held their child in her arms, smiling radiantly. That was the goal he needed to achieve.
To reach that goal, his first step was to lead a diligent life at the academy and wait for his opportunity.
***
At the age of 15, Baek Seo-jin requested a procedure to seal away his mories.
As a result of that procedure, all mories related to Baek Seo-jun were sealed, and the ones that remained were grotesquely distorted. However, the procedure was designed to ensure that Baek Seo-jin would not feel any sense of discomfort or incongruity about these altered mories. Consequently, Baek Seo-jin accepted them as absolute truth without question.
For Baek Seo-jin, Seomun Ye-jin, his first love and the woman he had always desired, had once criticized him for speaking ill of Baek Seo-jun.
However, even this mory had been altered in his mind, reshaped into one where Seomun Ye-jin supported his views. It was further warped to include the notion that she was longing for him to co and rescue her.
Because the woman he loved could not be allowed to praise Baek Seo-jun, all mories involving her and his brother were automatically adjusted to fit that narrative.
Baek Seo-jin’s choice to turn away from the truth about his brother had left him completely unable to discern what was real and what was fabricated, even within his own mind.
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