Chapter 106
Buzzing.
The noise from everywhere was irritating my ears.
“What’s going on? What happened?”
“Someone sexually harassed her, they say.”
“Wow, really? That’s bold. Doing that in the Collector Association headquarters?”
“Is that true?”
“I don’t know. That’s what everyone is saying.”
Ignoring the voices around me, I checked the book of the woman in front of me.
It was a dull dark brown book.
When I opened it, I saw the name Kim Jiyu.
And her motive for everything.
‘So that’s why this stranger did this. It was because of this?’
While I was asleep, Kim Jiyu’s gang had gathered around her.
They were the supporting actors to raise the tension.
“We saw it too! That guy touched Jiyu’s body!”
“Jiyu, are you okay? Don’t cry, okay?”
“Apologize!”
As they shouted from over there, the eyes that looked at me gradually turned negative.
What? Is it true?
Wow, he’s such a scumbag.
Those words started to pop up one by one.
Like dropping ink into clear water, one drop at a time.
The atmosphere was getting stained.
In an instant, a stage was set with me at the center.
The name of the stage would be something like The Ruthless Monster and The Pitiful Lady, right?
Of course, I was the monster here.
[Hey. Hey, hey. What’s going on here?]
‘It seems like I’ve been framed?’
[Framed? You? You didn’t do anything.]
‘Of course, I didn’t do anything.’
The problem was that the other side was screaming that I did it.
As the incident spread like wildfire and the surroundings got noisy, the security guards who managed and handled the association’s interior came out.
“What’s going on here?”
“Mister security guard. Over there, that guy! He’s a sexual harasser!”
“Is that true?”
The security guard’s eyes scanned my appearance in an instant.
There was disgust in their eyes.
As if they were saying, why is a decent young man doing that?
Their pupils said so.
I hadn’t said anything yet, but people were already branding me as a sexual harasser.
“You’ll have to come with us for a moment.”
“Wait!”
When I didn’t come back after going to get coffee, Kwon Jia must have felt something strange and appeared.
She saw what was happening and blocked the security guard’s way and asked me.
“What’s going on?”
“They said I sexually harassed her.”
“Who did?”
Kwon Jia’s eyes immediately turned to Kim Jiyu.
I had read Kim Jiyu’s book, so I knew what kind of feelings she had for Jia and why she acted like this.
But.
“Who is she anyway?”
She didn’t know anything about Kim Jiyu’s existence.
Not pretending to not know. It was a reaction that came from not knowing at all.
She was a regressor.
Of course, she saw, heard, and felt things differently from normal people.
She moved from a much more macro perspective.
To her, Kim Jiyu’s existence was a person who wasn’t worth remembering.
“…!”
Was it because she heard Kwon Jia’s words?
Kim Jiyu, who was pretending to cry, bit her lips.
She started to cry more pitifully.
Naturally, the people’s eyes that looked at me changed more viciously.
Someone shouted from beyond the crowd.
“What are you doing, security? Arrest him already!”
As if responding to that, suppressed voices burst out from everywhere.
“Yeah! Those bastards need to be taught a lesson!”
“How dare he do that in the association headquarters! Reveal his affiliation!”
“He should be buried socially to come to his senses.”
In the eyes of the people, I had done something unforgivable and that was an unchangeable truth.
Occasionally, some rational people cautiously voiced their opinions.
“Hey. Aren’t you just listening to one side of the story? There’s no evidence that he did it.”
“Evidence? What evidence? Are you on his side too?”
“No, no. That’s not what I mean.”
But there was no way those words would reach the ears of the excited people.
Rather, they pushed back the people who gave neutral opinions as if they were their colleagues or sympathizers of the criminal.
Seeing those pathetic sights, I couldn’t help but laugh.
“He’s laughing?”
“Is he crazy?”
“Hey hey! Calm down! It’ll be trouble if you fight!”
Some people who couldn’t hold back their anger tried to rush at me and there was a commotion as others tried to stop them. Kwon Jia looked at me with an anxious face.
“What are you going to do? You have to prove your innocence…”
“Jia. Do you think they’ll believe me if I say I didn’t do it in this situation?”
“That’s…”
Kwon Jia hesitated at my answer.
She knew it too.
That those people had already been incited.
“It’s foolish to do nothing.”
I smiled at her and told her not to worry.
“Of course, I know that too. And I have a plan, that’s why I’m stalling for time.”
“Time?”
Before she could ask what I meant, the noise seemed to alert the staff members who were working around the association.
And I spotted a familiar face.
Choi Jung-mo, the manager of this place, looked back and forth between me and the situation.
“It looks like the audience is all gathered.”
I smirked.
Choi Jung-mo saw my smile and his face hardened as if he remembered something unpleasant.
Was it because I hadn’t done anything until now?
The voices of the people who were criticizing me around me became harsher.
“Die!”
“Get lost!”
Insults flew at me one-sidedly.
I didn’t bother to refute them, nor did I try to correct them.
Instead, should I say?
I pulled out the white lotus that was tucked in my waist and slammed it on the ground with force.
Boom!
The power in the tip of the sword spread in all directions along the ground.
It was an action to temporarily quell the noise, not to break anything.
“Stop.”
The collectors who were surprised by my action shut their mouths.
Cold water was poured on the heated atmosphere.
But that was only temporary.
Surely, it would soon burn hot again.
So I took the initiative before their anger reignited.
“I hear you all have nothing good to say. You say I’m a sexual harasser? So, do you have any clear evidence that I did it?”
I spoke in a gentle but weighty voice, as if to make everyone listen.
“Did you all see clearly with your own eyes that I did it?”
Some of them flinched at my sharp momentum as soon as they met my eyes.
Some even avoided my gaze.
But a few who gave themselves over to anger did not avoid my gaze and glared at me as if they wanted to kill me.
A voice burst out from Kim Ji-yu’s gang.
“Evidence? Our Ji-yu is crying!”
“Look at how shameless you are! You don’t even apologize and pretend it didn’t happen?!”
Kim Ji-yu’s gang shouted like that. Judging by the resentment in their voices, they must have thought I really did something bad.
It was more than just a well-done act, it was a behavior that came out of being immersed in their role without knowing it.
Their words made the people around them buzz again.
They were not as scared by my momentum as before and there were no people shouting loudly, but the remnants of the bad image that had been stuck in their eyes still remained.
“Wait a minute!”
It was Choi Jung-mo who stepped up then.
When people saw that one of the managers of this place stepped up, they must have thought he was going to take me away.
But Choi Jung-mo’s action betrayed their expectations nicely.
“What are you doing! How can you gang up on someone who hasn’t done anything wrong!”
He was quick-witted indeed.
Maybe Choi Jung-mo didn’t expect him to take my side, they all gasped in shock.
A few collectors stepped forward and said.
“Excuse me. Are you taking his side? He sexually harassed her.”
“So, did you see him do it?”
“Huh? What do you mean…”
“I’m asking if you saw it yourself.”
Choi Jung-mo pressed down hard on him with his voice, and the male collector who had stepped up confidently shrank his shoulders and looked around.
“No, it’s not like that…”
“Everyone else too!”
Choi Jung-mo shouted and scanned the faces of the collectors.
“Is there anyone who saw it directly?”
“…”
“…”
Of course there wasn’t.
And there was no one who would come forward and say they did.
Because I didn’t do anything.
“What, what are you doing! You! Can an association person help a criminal?!”
“Yeah! We’ll report this to the media! We’ll sue you and that criminal too!”
Kim Ji-yu’s gang shouted desperately as they sensed something was going wrong. It was a shameless act of playing victim.
So now it’s my turn to step up.
“Did I say I did it?”
Everyone’s eyes turned to the stage, to the villain they wanted to see fall.
There was hatred in their eyes.
As if they were people who believed they were right without a doubt.
I was going to shatter that nicely in front of them.
I asked them curiously.
“That’s strange. Why would I touch you?”
“What, what did you say?!”
“Ha! How ridiculous. You’re really shameless!”
Kim Ji-yu’s gang bit me at my words.
I shrugged exaggeratedly and continued.
“I misspoke. What I meant was this. Why would I touch ‘a human being like you’?”
“What? What do you mean…”
“What are you talking about?!”
They looked at me with confusion and asked me back.
I shrugged my shoulders and smiled.
“Kukkuk. Did you try to pin such a false charge on me without even knowing who I am?”
I couldn’t help laughing because the atmosphere itself was so fun.
“A human being? What do you mean by that?”
“What the hell is going on?”
Maybe they didn’t expect me to say such a thing, the reaction around me was chaotic.
I decided to end this bizarre play.
“Listen carefully, everyone who is here.”
I thought there would be a time when I would reveal my identity someday.
So I didn’t blabber about it on purpose.
I thought there was a most suitable time to reveal my identity when necessary.
I didn’t expect that time to come so soon. And not according to my intention.
But the stage that was prepared was not bad. It was a stage made not by me, but to bury me.
That’s why it made me stand out more.
“My name is Kang Yu-hyun. And I am…”
So I should use it nicely.
“I’m a teller.”
I calmly revealed my identity.
After my voice spread out, I thought the world had stopped for a moment.
The silence that was dyed with astonishment.
Everyone stared at me with their mouths open.
I was the only speaker in that silence.
“I’m an agent of the Celestial Corporation of Story Room.”
People murmured to each other belatedly.
They looked for someone who could prove the truth of this situation with doubtful eyes.
Everyone’s eyes naturally focused on Choi Jung-mo.
Is that true, is he really not a human but a teller?
Everyone was looking forward to what Choi Jung-mo would answer, with an expectant look in their eyes.
“…Yes. It’s true.”
In the end, Choi Jung-mo sighed and announced that it was true in front of everyone.
That one word of answer completely changed the course of the stage.
“Huh, huh?”
“Really?”
Shocked exclamations erupted everywhere.
Some opened their eyes wide, and some couldn’t close their mouths.
Someone suddenly hiccupped.
It was the same for Kim Ji-yu’s gang who tried to bury me.
“What, what is it? A teller?”
“Are you kidding me right now? Right?”
Their breathing quickened and their bodies stiffened.
This situation that they faced with their eyes would seem like a bad nightmare.
Their throats would burn and their lips would dry up even if they swallowed saliva.
Especially, the reaction of Kim Ji-yu, the party concerned, was terrible.
[…Did you do it on purpose?]
‘Well.’
I’ll tell you, but I didn’t make this stage. I was nothing but a victim.
So let’s finish this as quickly as possible.
“Everyone.”
Everyone shut their mouths and listened to what I had to say.
The atmosphere was now mine.
All the audience were looking only at me, the actor.
Now, at this moment.
The weight of my every word surpasses imagination.
“I’m here today to clear up the misunderstanding of this place. I, Kang Yu-hyun teller, never touched a single hair of that human woman.”
So I’ll crush them nicely with the weight of this word.
An eye for an eye. A tooth for a tooth.
Those who try to harm people with words, will be harmed by words as well.
‘If you fail to push your opponent off the cliff, you should have been prepared to fall yourself.’
I smiled at Kim Ji-yu who became thoughtful.
It was my irresistible smile that always came up whenever I saw those who ran in fearlessly as usual.