The Returner

Both Seo Ah-Young's and Choi Jung-Hoon's gazes s.h.i.+fted towards Kim Jae-Beom's direction.

"From what you two have been saying about that dude… he's like a walking, talking atomic bomb, isn't he? And, we can't control him, he doesn't have any common sense, and we don't have any answers on how to deal with him. Am I correct so far?" (Kim Jae-Beom)

"He's also really rude, too." (Seo Ah-Young)

Choi Jung-Hoon found himself nodding in agreement with Seo Ah-Young's opinion. He also inwardly added 'that guy also don't have any manners, too.'

"Okay, anyways, he's an unanswerable quandary, a question with no good answers, right?" (Kim Jae-Beom)

"That's right." (Seo Ah-Young)

Kim Jae-Beom grinned refres.h.i.+ngly.

"In that case, there can be only one answer, then." (Kim Jae-Beom)

"What is it?" (Seo Ah-Young)

"You know, erasure. Erase him off the map. Like, totally er…" (Kim Jae-Beom)

Before Kim Jae-Beom could finish saying the word "erase", Seo Ah-Young proceeded to literally kick him in the a*s, real hard.

"Ah-ack!!" (Kim Jae-Beom)

"Hey, you!! Dumba*s!! You think we are shooting a f*cking spy thriller or something, you idiot?!" (Seo Ah-Young)

"Eeek!!!! Noooo, Captain!! Please, not there!! No!! Please, don't step on that part!! Help!!" (Kim Jae-Beom)

While watching the beatdown, Choi Jung-Hoon took a sip of the energy tonic swirling elegantly in the tumbler and savoured its taste, before opening his mouth.

"Ma'am, you shouldn't step on the same part all the time. Try stepping on other body parts as well. Ah, you see? There you go." (Choi Jung-Hoon)

The stepped-on idiot must've watched one too many American TV shows, and became a brainless idiot in the process. No need for sympathy, there.

"a.s.sa.s.sination? What a.s.sa.s.sination, ah?! My a*s." (Seo Ah-Young)

Seo Ah-Young dusted her hands off and angrily spat out.

While groaning in agony, Kim Jae-Beom pulled himself up in a sitting position, his expression full of resentment towards this seemingly undeserved violence performed on his body.

"Mister Kim Jae-Beom?" (Choi Jung-Hoon)

"Yes, Vice Captain?" (Kim Jae-Beom)

"Is it because we have to go through so much work that your brain stopped functioning for a second there? I mean, what you said isn't something a civil servant should be saying, after all." (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Kim Jae-Beom hung his head in shame.

"I really wanted to say that, you know, just this once." (Kim Jae-Beom)

"Please, you can utter that when you start working for the CIA." (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Choi Jung-Hoon leaned his back against the chair and sighed out.

a.s.sa.s.sination…. To a.s.sa.s.sinate that guy…

"Well, if such a thing was possible, then we wouldn't be in this much of a headache to begin with." (Choi Jung-Hoon)

"Is it really impossible, though?" (Seo Ah-Young)

Seo Ah-Young carefully probed him. Her reactions might have been savage, but it seemed that she hadn't completely rejected the idea, either.

"Mm, maybe you should hear it from her directly." (Choi Jung-Hoon)

"From Gah-Yun?" (Seo Ah-Young)

As soon as the words left her lips, Doh Gah-Yun revealed her presence like a ghost.

She pulled out a chair to take a seat, while Choi Jung-Hoon expertly poured a cup of coffee for her.

"So?" (Seo Ah-Young)

At that vague question full of implications, Doh Gah-Yun immediately shook her head.

"Impossible." (Gah-Yun)

"Even you can't do it? Even after I provide you with lots more people?" (Seo Ah-Young)

Gah-Yun thought for a bit before replying.

"Impossible to approach. Minimum 30 metre radius of detection. Impossible to predict the events of the battle. The worst case scenario, destruction of the city, the target remains unscathed." (Gah-Yun)

"Mm… that means…" (Seo Ah-Young)

Choi Jung-Hoon shook his head as if he didn't even want to imagine it.

"It'd be akin to poking a hornet's nest." (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Seo Ah-Young's face paled slightly.

Even now, the horrifying sight of that day remained etched, nay, burned, into her brain.

Imagine, to have something that powerful, something completely unheard of, being aimed towards them?

Now that was not something mere words like "disaster" or "catastrophe" could adequately describe.

"But, still. We need to do something here, right?" (Kim Jae-Beom)

Kim Jae-Beom's words accurately reflected the sentiments nesting within everyone's hearts.

They were fearful of poking him.

But, they could not not poke him.

It was as if they were currently circling around a bomb while holding their heads, not knowing whether this was a ticking time bomb or a mine. They couldn't ignore it, lest it went off after a short while, and were scared that it might go off as soon as they tried to poke it.

"Just why did a guy like that have to appear at a time like this…" (Seo Ah-Young)

Seo Ah-Young let out a despairing groan.

The atmosphere of the office fell to the sewers in an instant.

"Hmm…" (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Choi Jung-Hoon decided to improve the mood and stepped up.

"Let's go through what we know, first." (Choi Jung-Hoon)

They needed to understand just what type of a human being Yi Ji-Hyuk was before they could discuss and formulate an actionable plan.

"The obvious saving grace with him is that he's not an extrovert person who likes to go around and seek attention to himself. From what we have observed so far, he would not leave his place of residence, unless there is an external stimulus of some kind. That is something we should be grateful about." (Choi Jung-Hoon)

"Well, he is a hikikomori, after all." (Seo Ah-Young)

"Affirmative." (Gah-Yun)

Choi Jung-Hoon ignored the pointless add-ons and continued.

"Another saving grace would be that his sensitivity to external stimuli is very, very low. If that man was a sensitive type, then the moment he got dragged in here, half of the planet might have been blown away. Seeing that he did nothing but sleep and waste time during the three days he got locked up in here, without a single complaint to boot, he should be a fairly easy-going type, personality wise." (Choi Jung-Hoon)

"Well, he was too easy going." (Seo Ah-Young)

"His mouth, not easy going." (Gah-Yun)

Choi Jung-Hoon again ignored the female duo.

"So, to conclude, the positives here are that, although we can't even imagine the level of destruction once he goes off, he is a bomb that won't go off that easily in the first place. The real problem has to do with the negative aspects…" (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Choi Jung-Hoon's voice became ragged.

"Besides the mentioned positives, everything else is a negative about this guy. He doesn't seem to care about wealth, women, or power. He finds the matters of the world an annoyance. The only interest he has is video games. He has a truly rotten mouth, his personality is the worst, he is way too rude, he does not respect his elders, he doesn't care about the time nor place, his fas.h.i.+on sense is completely whack, and not to mention, he plays games in such a dirty, lowlife manner…" (Choi Jung-Hoon)

"That's enough from you." (Seo Ah-Young)

Seo Ah-Young cut off Choi Jung-Hoon's ramblings there.

'It's really piled up high, hasn't it?' (Seo Ah-Young)

That was no longer an a.n.a.lysis of a person and more like talking trash behind someone's back. To see the good hearted Choi Jung-Hoon devolve like this and spew out venom, that man Yi Ji-Hyuk was really something else to behold. In a bad way, of course.

"Isn't he on the level of a human waste, then?" (Kim Jae-Beom)

"Toxic waste." (Gah-Yun)

"Well, it is a relief that he has no desires or greed, which means the possibilities of him committing crime is low, so isn't that something to be happy about?" (Kim Jae-Beom)

Choi Jung-Hoon spat out a long sigh.

"The current situation isn't nice enough for us to feel really happy, you see. He is a walking bomb, and we have no way to control him. He definitely doesn't want to be under control, too. When the new organisation is established, he'll no doubt be seen as a dangerous element. Sure, the possibility of that is low, but then, there's also a chance that he might b.u.t.t heads with the organisation, and…" (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Choi Jung-Hoon swallowed down the rest of his words.

If

This was one topic he didn't even want to imagine.

Seo Ah-Young abruptly cut off his chain of thoughts there.

"So, to summarise… If we just let him be, he's not going to cause an incident. But, something else unrelated to us pokes him the wrong way, then we won't have any answers. Right?" (Seo Ah-Young)

"Pretty much, yes." (Choi Jung-Hoon)

"Well, how about we completely isolate him and enter an intensive surveillance? If we isolate the potential source of trouble, won't we be able to substantially lower the chances of something bad happening?" (Seo Ah-Young)

"The problem would be with how long we can maintain that. Plus, if we were to maintain the constant surveillance, then we will have to report the expenditure and the mission details to the higher-ups. How will those people react as soon as they learn of Mr. Yi Ji-Hyuk's existence?" (Choi Jung-Hoon)

"Mmm….."

Seo Ah-Young frowned deeply.

She and Choi Jung-Hoon decided to conceal Yi Ji-Hyuk's existence as much as possible.

Although there were a plenty of eyes watching on, no one could explain what had happened back on that day, so it proved to be rather easy to conceal the existence of the youth.

In the case where the bra.s.s had learned of the walking potential disaster that could not be controlled, AKA Yi Ji-Hyuk, then, it didn't take a genius to imagine the reactions of those ones, who were more than willing to bet everything for their own self preservation.

One wrong step, and the absolute worst event of them ordering, nay, throwing, every single ability user under the KSF's payroll at Yi Ji-Hyuk's direction, might occur.

No matter what, she had to prevent that from becoming a reality.

Because, the one to bear the brunt of the destruction, regardless of who emerged victorious, would be the country, instead.

"How long can we conceal this?" (Seo Ah-Young)

"Well, the incident itself has been omitted from the report, but there are just too many eyewitnesses. Plus, although the existence of Yi Ji-Hyuk may not be known, what happened that day will spread around via word of mouth, so I suspect that, not only the higher-ups, but even the other countries might show interest in this matter soon." (Choi Jung-Hoon)

"That is the worst possible outcome, then…" (Seo Ah-Young)

Seo Ah-Young began roughly scratching her head.

She really, really didn't want to get involved with that guy.

She really, really wanted to avoid it, no matter the cost.

However, she couldn't just ignore this and let go.

"Then, for now, we…" (Seo Ah-Young)

Quite unlike her, Seo Ah-Young carefully studied the reactions of the surrounding, and then carried on speaking.

"…For now, let's try to reconciliate with him." (Seo Ah-Young)

"Groan…"

"Uh-whew."

Hey, you don't have to show your emotions like that… I already know all about your pain, okay? (Seo Ah-Young's inner monologue)

Seo Ah-Young forcibly suppressed the words of anguish trying to rise up from her chest.

"But, how can we do that?" (Kim Jae-Beom)

No one here had an answer to Kim Jae-Beom's question.

"Didn't you say something about coming up with a new plan last time?"

When Choi Jung-Hoon asked her, Seo Ah-Young looked away ever so slightly.

"I, I was just…" (Seo Ah-Young)

"Just?" (Choi Jung-Hoon)

"You know, like, I was thinking of dressing up two of our agents like delinquents, and try to annoy him, then, Yi Ji-Hyuk would end up fighting them, and then, and then, well, uh, we could use that somehow to reel in…" (Seo Ah-Young)

"Wow. Sure, that's a great plan. We can reel in two of our used-to-be alive agents like a pair of dead fish. And in the meantime, we end up souring our relations.h.i.+p even further with a guy who just so happens to be a walking bomb, too. Great plan, Captain." (Choi Jung-Hoon)

"No, as I said, I was just…" (Seo Ah-Young)

"I think it'll be better for everyone if Captain no longer thinks about such matters and focus on killing monsters only." (Choi Jung-Hoon)

*SFX for a vein popping up*

A vein popped up on Seo Ah-Young's forehead.

She swore to get her revenge by leaving a mountain of paperwork on top of this man's desk before he tried to leave.

"Okay, so that plan is definitely rejected. What else can we do, then?" (Choi Jung-Hoon)

"Why are you asking me that now?" (Seo Ah-Young)

"Pardon?" (Choi Jung-Hoon)

"Didn't you say I shouldn't think anymore? A perfect plan is for you Choi-raemon to come up with, no?" (Seo Ah-Young)

"What the. I'm not a box full of magic gifts, you know? It's not like I can think of everything just because you forced me to." (Choi Jung-Hoon)

"Oh, so you want to do it the way I thought of, then?" (Seo Ah-Young)

"…..No. I shall try my utmost best to become a magic box, instead. Even if it's physically impossible, I'll try. So, please, don't do anything and wait." (Choi Jung-Hoon)

After dissuading Seo Ah-Young somehow, Choi Jung-Hoon closed his eyes and rested his head on the chair.

A plan, a plan….

Suddenly, the corners of his lips began quivering ominously, before they slowly rose up.

'No, I shouldn't be acting this way…' (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Just as he began thinking about ways to reel that guy in and push him into a corner, a devilish grin rose up on his face, unchecked.

'No, no. Calm down. If we do this with too much heavy-handedness, and make him to retaliate, then everything will be for naught.' (Choi Jung-Hoon)

An acceptable amount of pressure.

A method that didn't really get on Yi Ji-Hyuk's nerves, all the while making themselves look rather friendly when reeling him in!

It was then, a brilliant thought popped up in Choi Jung-Hoon's head. His eyes began emitting a dangerous light.

"How about this way?" (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Everyone s.h.i.+fted their gazes towards him.

"Those rotten sons of b*tches." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

He took care of the Braads and left the scene undetected (?) yet Yi Ji-Hyuk had no choice but to despair at his situation.

Although he did his best to end the commotion as quickly as he could, the damage caused by the incident was still considerable.

The power lines and water supply had survived, but one of the most important part of his life, the internet line, was dead as a dodo. He had no idea what happened - maybe, the fibre optic cables got severed during the monster's rampage or something, but whatever, all access to internet had been cut off.

Of course, Yi Ji-Hyuk couldn't accept this sudden and inexplicable change to his living environment and transformed into a raging beast - before his mom, watching the proceedings with a pleased expression, brought him back to sanity with a couple of well-timed palm smacks to his back.

Since he didn't expect such an eventuality to befall on himself, he hadn't even installed a single offline game on his computer. Which meant that, his computer without an internet access was no better than a fancy lamp lighting up his room at night.

If it weren't for his smartphone and its ability to let him read the online webnovels, an incident involving him running off to the nearest working internet cafe (PC Bang) with mom's stolen wallet, would've happened for real.

And when he eventually got bored of reading online novels, he also got to discover another marvel of modern technology, the television.

"Hee-ya!"

Yi Ji-Hyuk stared at the TV and let out an exclamation.

He wasn't much of a TV person in the past. But since then, the world had changed somewhat in the five years of his absence, and it had succeeded in making him sit in front of one.

And the thing that caused him to watch with such dedication? It was a girl group.

Was it because they were pretty?

Or because they were so young and energetic?

Of course not.

No, actually - this girl group appearing on the telly that fascinated Yi Ji-Hyuk to no end, was quite remarkably different from the girl groups of the past that knew only how to cutely sing and dance.

No, it was more correct to say that they were from another dimension altogether.

Why?

Well, these young girls weren't dancing to a tune, no, but instead, they were spitting out flames, tumbled around athletically, and even flew around!

h.e.l.l, the adorable girl in the middle even emitted dry-ice like fog from her body and that created a wonderfully mysterious ambiance during the performance.

"Really, the modern world is an amazing place." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Of course, you'd also find the mahou shoujos in Berafe, too.

Well, really now. What was a magical girl anyways? A girl who knew how to use magic, that was it.

But, just who would have come up with a novel idea to use them as an idol group?

As expected of the modern world - no, the modern Republic of Korea!

What with a group of pretty ability users showing off such a performance, every other idol who only knew how to sing and dance looked all a bit plain now.

"The world's a really strange place…" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

While Yi Ji-Hyuk was showing his admiration for the folks of the entertainment industry and their determination to find a new avenue to make money, his mom was showing her own admiration for her son and his determination to find a way to waste time and fool around.

"My son?" (mom)

"Ng?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

"Ye-Won is really late today. She's not picking up her phone, and the hours are getting late too…." (mom)

"I'm sure she'll come home eventually after playing outside for a while." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Mom nodded her head.

"Sure. I was also thinking the same, but as you may well know, there was chaos around these parts not too long ago, and things haven't really settled around here. None of the lights are functioning, you know? It's really dark and gloomy on so many streets. And then, you see all these people walking around with guns. I'm really worried, son." (mom)

"Mom, you shouldn't worry, what with all those people with guns providing protection. Really, mom, you might end up with lots of wrinkles at this rate." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

"Ohohoho. It seems that my son has learned to speak so politely nowadays, hasn't he?" (mom)

"Eheheh. Well, I, uh…" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

"So, let me get this straight, now. A man, an older brother no less, doesn't even worry about his little sister, who isn't answering her phone and is still roaming outside at this late hour, her fate unknown as to what accident might have happened to her. Instead, he chooses to waste time and watch the TV. You, aren't you even worried a tiny bit about your own sibling?! In these difficult and dangerous times?!" (mom)

It was then, Yi Ji-Hyuk couldn't hold it in anymore and exploded into a fit of laughter.

"AHAHAHA!! Mom?! You think she'll end up in trouble? I think you should worry about her not causing trouble, instead, you know? I mean, if I'm honest, it'll be more likely for her to go around beating others up, not the other way arou…" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Almost instantly, Yi Ji-Hyuk shut his mouth real tight.

Well, that shouldn't be viewed as an odd behaviour.

Any regular, normal human being would also stop talking when a TV remote flew past his or her face at a terrifying velocity, after all.

"Will you go and look for her after a beatdown, or without one?" (mom)

"I shall search tirelessly till the ends of this Earth to find and present that rotten girl in front of you, ma'am." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

"Good."

With that, Yi Ji-Hyuk left his home, while grumbling out softly.

But, as he was closing the front door behind him, he could just about hear his mom derisively chuckle out the line 'a fool who doesn't even know about tethering dares to argue with me?'

Tethering?

What the heck is a tethering, now? (Yi Ji-Hyuk's inner monologue)

Fin.

(TL: thanks everyone for your kind messages. I really appreciate it!)