Chapter 138 – Homophobia (6)

Homophobia (6)

Something went wrong.

“Me— everyone?”
“…”

Lee Hye-ji couldn’t help but feel that fact.

“… Everyone?”
“…”

Even if you ask countless times, only silence returns.

Her eyes staring at her aimlessly, and Kim Hyo-jin’s unusually sharp attitude.

Too many factors had gotten worse in just one night.

“… We can only finish the investigation if you say something…”
“…”
“… That way, you can get supplies too…”
“…”

A murmur that I barely managed to spit out like babbling.

However, there was no one to answer the murmur.

“… Why?”

So, Hyeji Lee had no choice but to ask.

Even though she didn’t answer, she had nothing else to say.

“Why are you doing this…”

A voice that trembled endlessly, as if a lamb was crying.

“Why all of a sudden…”
“…”

A tattered piece of paper and a ballpoint pen that has already lost its place flicker together.

Hyeji Lee stared at the camp members in front of her, suppressing her rising emotions.

Two people nestled in the center of the campers.

As if showing off, she stared anxiously at Jeong Da-jeong and Park Seul-ah, who were seated on either side of Kim Hyo-jin.

However, it was a long way from that gaze reaching them.

Ever since she stood here—

Their heads were fixed on the floor.

“Why are you doing this all of a sudden…”
“…”
“It wasn’t like this yesterday…”

Lee Hye-ji stared at the top of her friends’ heads and dazed.

The memory of crying together last night is so clear…

The faces of the two teary-eyed friends were so clear that this moment seemed like a dream.

A terrible nightmare that started with Kim Hyo-jin’s rough knock.

“… Please someone say anything—”
“Really—I can’t listen anymore.”

These were the first words Lee Hye-ji had longed for.

The only one you didn’t want.

“Didn’t I say that Hyeji has a nasty side unlike how she looks?”

Kim Hyo-jin opened her arms and hugged Jeong Da-jeong and Park Seul-ah.

He held them in her arms as if protecting them from enemies and glared at Lee Hye-ji.

“I see now that it wasn’t mean, it was shameless.”

The only thing that hasn’t changed here right now.

Kim Hyo-jin fired her lips armed with clear hostility.

“With what confidence are you standing in front of us now?”
“… Yes?”
“With what confidence do you pretend to be so pitiful and trembling?”
“Suddenly, what…”
“Look at how shameless it is—you don’t know until the end. Everyone here knows.”
“… Yes?”
“Everyone here knows. What you did last night I heard everything from Da-jeong and Seul-ah, you shameless bitch.”
“…”

Naturally, I couldn’t help but be speechless.

It was also the truth she had been ignoring, even though she was intuition deep inside.

Embarrassment and betrayal.

And even more sadness was reflected in Lee Hye-ji’s eyes.

“It’s really shameless. No—this isn’t brazen, it’s disgusting.”
“…”
“It’s us who should be making that face right now, not you. We are the ones who know what you did first after you flirted with the president to reinvestigate it.”

It was only Kim Hyo-jin who consistently responded to her trembling eyes.

She glared at Lee Hye-ji with genuine contempt and patted her hands.

She brushed the hair of Jung Da-jung and Park Seul-ah in her arms with a warm touch that was completely different from her cold eyes.

“But why do Dajeong and Seulah have to tremble like criminals instead of you? Why do these two stupidly nice people have to tremble even after doing the right thing?”
“…”
“And get rid of those nasty drama heroine eyes. In the first place, even if it wasn’t Da-jeong and Seul-ah, I knew everything. I had already seen it with my own two eyes before they told me—”
“No—don’t do that, sister.”
“Sniff— don’t do that, don’t do that— sister.”

Drama.

“How can you stay still when you guys are crying like this? What kind of company are we… How are you barely holding on to this hell…”
“… Ugh-!”
“Hey, hey, sister…”

Rather, this moment was like a drama to Lee Hye-ji.

“… It’s okay- it’s okay- just trust your sister. My sister will try something.”

There was an invisible wall here.

Like a drama- like a play-

A very solid imaginary wall stood between Hyeji Lee and them.

Lee Hye-ji, now facing the wall, slowly lowered her head.

It would be useless to shout that it was all a misunderstanding.

It would be useless for her to explain things one by one, or to cry and plead.

Because her voice won’t be heard in the first place.

Like a drama, like a play, you will be blocked by the 4th wall and will not reach them.

“…”

All the ropes that were barely holding Lee Hye-ji were cut in an instant.

In her ears as she stared at the floor helplessly like a doll with a string cut off—

Heart-! Heart-!

The only noise was the beating of her heart, which she could not control herself.

‘I’ll give you one last chance.’

With the voice of a being she can’t help.

“…”

There was only fear in the space where the hope she had forcibly cherished had disappeared.

Her fear spreads to her, all her powers gone so easily.

“It’s okay—everything will be okay. Everything will be back to normal No matter what your sister did-“
“… What are you doing?”

That’s why Lee Hye-ji had to ask Kim Hyo-jin.

To not get sick, not to die.

“What the hell are you doing here…”
“Nothing.”

Kim Hyo-jin spat out an unexpected answer and stood up from her seat.

“We are not going to do anything.”

Thud- thud-

She crossed the virtual wall and stopped in front of Lee Hye-ji.

A height that is one hand taller than himself and clear tear points that stand out.

And her confident smile, visible only to herself facing her face.

“… The reinvestigation is not something I want to do, it’s the president’s order.”
“Would you mind? Who doesn’t know that here?”
“… If I go back to the President like this, something bad will surely happen.”
“Okay?”

Kim Hyo-jin’s smile does not disappear at all, even when he mentions the inevitable catastrophe.

She lowered her head with a deeper sneer.

“Then you can go tell the president right now. Why aren’t you going?”

You’re good at something

Acting as a miserable heroine in the world.

A sharp whisper approaching without filtering, within reach of the breath.

“Why not go? Why doesn’t our disgusting Lee Hye-ji, who is the best at pretending to be pitiful in the world, go to tell the president?”
“…”
“Why- I can’t go to tell you, so I’m not going. Then why can’t I go?”
“…”
“Why—because I don’t have confidence. Because she doesn’t have the confidence to report that she failed at what she ordered.”

The president’s favorite? The president’s faith?

“Well—isn’t that affection and trust deep enough to forgive failure? But-“

Oops-

A quiet but clear sneer and a look of Lee Hye-ji up and down.

A blatant glance that seemed to judge the person itself.

“Isn’t there a corner where anyone can look at it?”
“…”

Kim Hyo-jin continued to brainwash Lee Hye-ji, who did not deny her own words.

“Do you know High Queens?”
“…”
“Of course you know. The one who saved you from being stuck in Yonsei University was none other than Rinne of High Queens.”
“…”
“So many things have happened since you were quarantined due to suspected infection. There were so many disgusting and dirty things that were hard to even mention. I know that?”

For a moment she turned her head to catch the female campers looking at them.

“Everyone here is living because they can’t die. You were lucky enough to quickly run away to the containment room, so you don’t know anything about it, but you know?”
“…”
“She was the only one who raised her voice for us during those hellish days. She’s the only one who’s protected us from the Chancellor’s bastards, Su Hue. But you know what’s really funny?”

Kim Hyo-jin lowered her head deeper and smiled.

Bloodshot eyes that didn’t match the smile on his lips.

“Even so, hell continues. The search team still played with us like kids on a playground—and Linnea’s protection was always short-lived. What can we learn from this?”
“…”
“What? Linne Oh sister, she said, after all, she can’t disobey her man.”

This whole place-

“It’s not the search team’s playground, it’s his playground.”
“…”
“Even so, Linne Ah, she tried her best to protect us every night. Every night. She said she didn’t miss a day and tried to be with us as much as possible.”

Can you do that

Kim Hyo-jin asked Lee Hye-ji in a low voice.

“If you are a man, can you not attack Rinnea in a playground where you can do anything you want?”
“…”
“That’s the kind of person, President. A crazy bastard who won’t touch even though there’s a flower like that in front of his eyes. Then a person filters out Linnea and you? Don’t you think that’s a little too much?”

To Kim Hyo-jin’s quiet question, she had no words to respond to that clear mockery.

“If not, you could be a relative or acquaintance of the president. As we talked during quarantine, we found out that we were quite close before this chaos broke out, so we have that person’s trust and favor. How is it? Even if you think about it, is it an irrational number that is no different from just now?”

I didn’t even seduce you with my body…

They are not even related by blood.

“Then is it worth trying? Wouldn’t this be better than starving to death after being swung here and there by a cunning bitch who reveals his true colors as soon as he puts on his coat of arms?”