# Chapter 17
But the other person just smugly exhaled through his nose. His thug-like speech continued.
“Ha, I’m sorry. I did it because I really don’t have money. I’m pretty much broke these days. But I was hungry.”
Though it sounded like an appeal to emotions, his voice was more indifferent than anyone else’s, so it didn’t particularly evoke any sympathy.
Yeo Dowoon glanced down at the green nameplate and asked, mixing in the name of this shameless punk:
“That thing that says Yoon Minoh, is that really your nameplate?”
Seeing how noticeably he was provoking and irritating people, Dowoon wondered if he might not be a high school student at all, leading to a new assumption.
There were supposedly people who picked fights with Espers to gather material for news stories… There seemed to be a high probability that he was a journalist disguised as a student.
But the punk pulled up his pants waistband as if wronged and replied:
“I have ‘Yoon Minoh’ tattooed here, you know? Come and check it out yourself.”
…Just a crazy bastard after all.
Dowoon urgently picked up his phone and typed the six characters for “mental hospital escape” in the search bar. But there were no relevant news articles, which was only disappointing.
As his response was delayed, Yoon Minoh giggled while scratching the piercing under his eye.
“You see, I was so hungry and thirsty I could die, but I lost my wallet, you know?”
It was an extremely husky, moist, and damp baritone for a high school student. With a physique like an athlete’s, his identity as a student seemed even more implausible.
“I could have just pickpocketed anyone, but my conscience wouldn’t allow that much.”
Even as he spoke, leaning forward as if whispering a secret, his large frame was the first thing noticeable.
As Yoon Minoh blinked his eyes while making flower-shaped hands, Dowoon found the sight both detestable and pitiful, and considered just giving him a few bills to be done with it.
He simply didn’t want to deal with this guy anymore.
But Minoh, apparently confident in his appearance, spoke with much more affectation than before:
“I came to this table because you looked like you had the most money, hyung.”
“You stole and drank someone else’s coffee because you had no money?”
“Yes, yes. I figured it would be fine since selling just that shirt of yours would earn more than enough for coffee.”
“…Would it be fine, you thick-headed bastard?”
Money aside, he felt extremely disgusted.
If he had approached pretending to be decent, or claiming to be a fan, and asked for coffee, Dowoon would have taken him to a restaurant and bought him meat. But he didn’t want to show any warmth to this dirty bastard who had brazenly stolen macarons and drinks without showing a hint of conscience.
Yoon Minoh, with exaggeratedly raised eyes, replied with an “Eh”:
“It’s disappointing when one thick-headed guy calls another thick-headed guy that.”
He’s thoroughly insane. Dowoon had never seen someone so absurdly crazy in his life. He felt light-headed, as if his vital energy had been sucked dry.
Stirring the straw and torturing the ice in the Americano, Yoon Minoh added cheerfully:
“Everyone has something like their own source, or to explain more in detail, something that could be called an inner strength. The centrifugal force that keeps me going is revenge.”
“Don’t you mean driving force?”
“100%, 200% centrifugal force. Because it’s a force treated as real despite being hypothetical.”
“What nonsense is that…”
“Others might not feel it, but I do. Only I can know it. That’s why it’s centrifugal force. No matter how much I spin in circles, others won’t understand.”
It was a statement steeped in pretension, but the speaker’s expression was so frighteningly confident that there was no obvious point to criticize. Flicking an ice cube up, Yoon Minoh caught it with his hand, melting it as he sneered:
“Life is so harsh, I’ve already piled up mountains of things to take revenge for.”
“…”
“I was trying to set priorities…”
The ice, now small enough to slip between his fingers, made a clear clinking sound.
“Strangely, this time visible wounds bother me more than invisible ones.”
Yeo Dowoon was neither a fool nor an idiot who had sold his wits like Baek Seonwoo.
Since he didn’t consider the other person a younger and weaker high school student, his attack could come swiftly. Crash…! Thick glaciers emerged silently and poured down in succession.
“Whoa, what kind of garbage…!”
Bang, crash! Bang!
Of course, they were aimed not at the suspicious kid in front of him, but toward the display window. The glaciers, charging without a millimeter of error, shattered the glass with a spectacular crash.
As all the broken pieces showered down, Yoon Minoh threw himself out of the cafe.
Yeo Dowoon, who had already spread an ice barrier behind himself to protect other customers from injury, carved Kwon Jeonghoo’s number on the table where he had been sitting, meaning that the display window cost should be charged to him.
“Ugh…! Ah, crazy, time out! Time out!”
The delinquent high school student—or whatever he was—who had been provoking Dowoon, shrieked loudly as he retreated. But Dowoon continued his attack without the slightest concern.
“Hey…, you.”
Watching the dazzling movements that differed from ordinary people’s, his suspicion strengthened.
“You’re an unregistered Esper, aren’t you?”
It seemed as if, thankfully, a stupid rat had walked right into the trap on its own. If he could just capture that damn bastard, retirement would become much easier.
With that thought, Dowoon could use his abilities more joyfully.
Even the coldness chilling his fingertips felt only satisfying. He was consumed by the thought of stripping off that guy’s school uniform to check his back.
Surely, the stylish mark he had imprinted would be coiled there.
As a glacier chunk grazed his toe, Yoon Minoh desperately shouted:
“Ci-civilians! There are civilians around!”
“No, there aren’t.”
If it were them, Ko Ijae would have evacuated everyone indoors as soon as the first search began. Thanks to that, Dowoon could freely hunt Yoon Minoh while running wild.
He wielded glaciers however they formed in his hands, as if relieving stress.
Making them draw parabolas like shot puts or guiding them to crash down like meteorites, Yoon Minoh could barely roll his body to escape the range of attack. He exclaimed with his mouth wide open: Ah, damn it!
“If I get hit, I’ll really die…?”
At least not using flames was Dowoon’s own goodwill and consideration for that Esper’s inexperience. But Yoon Minoh giggled and displayed a grotesque smile all over his face.
With his eyes slanted innocently, like a child embracing a long-awaited Christmas gift, he muttered:
“Wow, hyuuung…”
While swaying his hips gently.
“You look so delicious.”
***
You reap what you sow.
Perhaps the idiom “fight fire with fire” would be more appropriate for this situation.
Copying Yeo Dowoon’s methods like a photocopier, Yoon Minoh used abilities befitting someone who had spoken of centrifugal force, gathering and deflecting his attacks.
As the glaciers, flying from different directions, hit the insect-type monster’s nest, Dowoon could only burst into hollow laughter understanding Minoh’s intention.
“That garbage bastard…”
With this, the ridiculous situation of each calling the other “garbage” was complete.
Hearing a “hahaha” laugh, Dowoon pressed the receiver in his ear and informed Ko Ijae:
“Stop the search and come outside now.”
-Huh? Already? We haven’t checked everything yet!
“I just disturbed the nest. They’ll get excited and swarm soon.”
Although the appearance and characteristics of insect-type monsters varied widely by individual, the most common type on the Korean peninsula was undoubtedly the ground wasp variety.
Their habit of making nests at the bottom of urban areas, even drilling through asphalt layers, was similar to real ground wasps.
Perhaps because of this, among monster research specialists, there were also those who predicted that underground dungeons themselves might be collective residences of evolved insect-type monsters.
-The nest? Why would you disturb a nest that was just sitting there?
The nest might have been sitting quietly, but that unregistered Esper bastard was not.
Yeo Dowoon glared with all his might at Yoon Minoh, who was trying to deflect his attacks far away, and then berated Ko Ijae with a vicious voice:
“What am I, your private tutor? Do I have to explain everything in detail?”
He was blocking counterattacks by building thick ice walls, but if Ko Ijae and Baek Seonwoo were to be isolated over there, he would have to go rescue them immediately with no other options.
Then he would forever lose the precious human resignation letter, and retirement would also fizzle out.
-The ground just shook, but surely that wasn’t your doing too?
“If it were me, I wouldn’t just shake the ground, I would have buried you along with it.”
-…
“That’s a joke, so hurry up and get out with Baek Seonwoo. I won’t wait long.”
Only then did Ko Ijae reply, seemingly intimidated:
-…Alright. I’ll be out soon.
