Escape from the Iljinhoe Project 17

# Chapter 17

“Are you daring to ignore me…?”

“Huh?”

While I was having a mental breakdown over the ownerless romance novel, Kim Pyeonghwa’s voice, which had turned ice-cold, stained the rainy street with chilliness. Only then did I tear my eyes away from the female lead who had somehow become the male lead’s cousin and looked at Kim Pyeonghwa.

“Apex…”

At Park Hanseo’s anxious, wet call, I had to nod slightly. I don’t know what I did, but it seems like I’ve seriously pissed this guy off. With his silver hair fluttering, Kim Pyeonghwa was glaring at me as if he wanted to burn me alive. It’s embarrassing when such a handsome guy keeps staring at me.

Noticing that the state of their Apex was unusual, the Focus faction gang members looked ready to pounce at Kim Pyeonghwa’s command.

…Am I seriously going to get stomped to death here? I might actually end my life due to school violence. The thought sent shivers down my spine.

“Answer me. How do you know Choi Marine?”

What should I answer to that question?

Somehow I read this goddamn novel you guys appear in, and she was the female lead there. But since I unluckily got reincarnated as Gu Haejin, the settings seem to have been messed up, and that female lead is supposedly your cousin. And she’s in a school gang too. Even if I said all that, I’d just be the crazy one, right? Sob sob.

“I just found her interesting…”

“What?”

“It’s one of those things. It’s nothing.”

BAM!

“Ugh…!!”

I froze like ice with my eyes wide open.

Suddenly, cold raindrops began falling on my body. The umbrella that had been shielding me from the rain tumbled far away, rolling inelegantly on the street. I slowly looked to the side. Park Hanseo was sprawled on the ground covered in rainwater.

What… is this…?

I needed to understand the situation. I turned to look at Kim Pyeonghwa.

“Do I look like I’m playing word games with you?”

He clenched his fist and snarled menacingly.

“Park Hanseo?!”

This crazy bastard has lost it!

I quickly approached Park Hanseo who was lying on the ground. Because of me, this guy had his face smashed in an instant by Kim Pyeonghwa. From that single punch, Park Hanseo, a gang staff member, was coughing so hard he could barely breathe. Blood was coming from his mouth, suggesting it was cut inside.

Fuck! I was so shocked I didn’t know what to do. He was hit. It happened incredibly fast. In that split second while I blinked my eyes, Kim Pyeonghwa had struck Park Hanseo.

“Ugh… Apex… I’m fine… I can… hack! …handle it.”

That’s a blatant lie about being able to handle it!

I felt like I might cry. All he did was hold an umbrella over me. It was embarrassing, sure… but my uniform, which Hanseo had tried so hard to keep dry until just now, was already completely soaked.

Kim Pyeonghwa, you son of a bitch…!

“What the hell are you doing!!”

My voice, on the verge of tearing, echoed over the street where the rain was pouring heavily. Kim Pyeonghwa looked down at me from my crouched perspective. With an expression full of mockery.

“Seeing how you keep such a weakling as your staff member, I can tell what kind of Apex you are.”

“Shut up! What business is it of yours who I keep as my staff?”

“Still running that mouth well, Gu Haejin. Aren’t you finished now?”

“What?!”

“No matter if you’re the 2nd-ranked Devil Apex, do you think you can handle all these people?”

Fuck. You’re going to gang up on me? You dirty bastard!

The guy who was supposedly ranked 1st was disgustingly underhanded. Kim Pyeonghwa, pointing at the twenty or so gang members behind him, chuckled and smiled. Then suddenly his expression hardened, and he gave the order.

“Beat Gu Haejin to a pulp.”

“Yes!”

Wait. Wait. Wait! How can this suddenly happen!

The Focus faction gang members surrounded me and Park Hanseo. I was experiencing a mental breakdown for a completely different reason now. This isn’t even that 17 vs 1 I’ve only heard about, but more like 20 vs 1! I can’t fight! I’m going to die. It’s obvious I’ll be trampled to death! While I was distorting my expression in this desperate situation, Park Hanseo, who had been lying on the ground, began to stagger to his feet.

Whoa. Hey… are you okay?

“As… a staff member, I will protect you, Apex.”

“Don’t say such nonsense! You can barely stand…”

“Senior Haejin!!”

Park Hanseo shouted. In a voice full of desperation.

“Now we have no choice but to protect you…”

“What are you saying…”

“If you can smile, I’d die for you.”

No, seriously, what nonsense are you spouting?! What’s all this about protecting me? Are you an anime protagonist?! Stop talking so seriously. Please!

After spouting words that I couldn’t understand at all, Park Hanseo put on a pointless show of bravado, shouting “Come at me all of you. Aaaaaaargh!” and charged at the Focus faction members. You’re crazy! This world is insaaaaaane-!!

BAM! BABABABAM! THUD! CRACK!

I don’t know what makes those sounds, but despite being beaten by Kim Pyeonghwa, Park Hanseo was handling the twenty-plus gang members better than I expected. But still, he was just a rabbit jumping into a tiger’s den. Either his stamina ran out or he was still in pain, because soon he started getting brutally beaten.

Fuck. What do I do!

I stomped my feet anxiously. Park Hanseo was really getting destroyed. I had to stop this. Otherwise, he might really die! I looked for Kim Pyeonghwa. Where are you, you bastard!!

“Kim Pyeonghwa, stop this!”

I ran to Kim Pyeonghwa, who was watching the situation from behind, and yelled. The only person who could stop this right now was him. Kim Pyeonghwa, who had given the order. Even though he heard my voice, he ignored me. My hands began to tremble. I clenched my fists. Stop it. I said stop!

WHOOSH-! THWACK!

Without realizing it, I threw a punch. Kim Pyeonghwa simply blocked my fist. Unlike him, who stayed dry under an umbrella, my face was a mess from the rain I’d been drenched with. Rain seeped through my divided hair and uniform. Kim Pyeonghwa’s hand, which wrapped around my cold fist, was annoyingly warm.

“…I said stop it!”

“Why did you come to me?”

“What?”

“Shouldn’t you be rushing into that battlefield to save your subordinate?”

Why are you the one making the more pained expression?

“Isn’t that what the Devil Apex is supposed to do!”

Kim Pyeonghwa tossed my hand aside. With that momentum, he grabbed my shaking shoulders with both hands.

“Where did that cold Thousand-Year Prince go? Where’s that Gu Haejin who was obsessed with fighting?!”

“I don’t understand a single word of what you’re saying right now!”

“That arrogant attitude when you rushed at me! The appearance as an Apex who led Devil from the front! You don’t have any of that now, you know?!”

“What does that even mean!”

“Don’t pretend you don’t know. Don’t pretend you don’t remember. You haven’t gotten weaker, right? Fuck. That can’t be possible!!”

…

A heavy silence fell on this place where only the sounds of fighting had been raging. The Focus faction members had no choice but to stop fighting at Kim Pyeonghwa’s somewhat desperate voice. I turned my head to look at Park Hanseo lying on the ground, half-crippled. Ha. I’m relieved even now. At least he won’t get beaten anymore, right? I had to take him to the hospital immediately. I faced Kim Pyeonghwa with a venomous gaze.

I was desperate too. I clenched my molars.

“What is this ‘that’ you keep mentioning?”

I still don’t understand what all this bullshit is about! I’m sick to death of it! Why do I have to be reincarnated here and suffer physically and mentally? I don’t understand any of this at all.

“What do you know about me?”

“Gu Haejin.”

“Gu Haejin. Gu Haejin. Gu Haejin! Yes, that’s my name! Fuck. I’m ruined because of this name! What’s a Devil Apex? What’s a School Gang Association! It’s all useless to me. You know? I don’t even have the strength to have a mental breakdown anymore!”

“You…”

“You don’t know anything about the real me…”

My lips trembled.

A cold chill enveloped my entire body. Yet the heavy rain continued without stopping. Even now, I was barely hanging on because Kim Pyeonghwa was holding me. He was wearing a shocked expression from my careless outburst.

“Say it isn’t so.”

“…Huh?”

“I don’t know anything? You dare say I don’t know you?”

“……”

“So you only thought of me that way.”

Kim Pyeonghwa’s self-deprecating voice was barely audible, like a mumble. Come to think of it, I think I’ve been caught in the rain too much…

“…Don’t disappear.”

My head was burning hot. What’s he saying? I really can’t hear anything.

Gradually, the strength in my legs that had been supporting me drained away. And with a thud… I collapsed, leaning against Kim Pyeonghwa.

“I’m sorry, Gu Haejin.”

In the end.

I couldn’t hear his final words.

That day, I caught a cold with a fever.

Pyeonghwa embraced Haejin, who had collapsed in his arms, with trembling hands. All the thoughts he had been denying were proven true today.

Devil Apex Gu Haejin’s life…

Time… was running out.

“Ha, fuck…”

All he could do was get angry and curse. That was it.

The leader of the 2nd-ranked Devil faction who dominated the hierarchy system, Gu Haejin, didn’t have many days left to live. In the end, with a pitiful voice, he said you don’t know anything about me… weakly revealing his inner thoughts. That I don’t know anything. How lonely must Haejin have been, hiding his illness?

He liked Haejin.

The persistence with which he constantly challenged him as the Devil Apex while Pyeonghwa himself reigned higher, the coldness yet underlying care he showed to his gang members. The unfailing dignity he maintained.

At first, Pyeonghwa didn’t admit his feelings. Liking another guy? And a rival relationship where they wanted to kill each other—this was something his pride couldn’t accept.

But the more he looked. The more he encountered him…

Haejin looked so lovable. Even the sight of him growling at Pyeonghwa, which used to make him so angry, now seemed so cute. He wanted to possess Haejin, who was like a fierce cat. He wanted to keep him by his side, to bite and suck him. As his obsession with Haejin grew worse, and his nerves became sharper, that day he met Gu Haejin in the bar bathroom.

The sight of him vomiting blood…

Pyeonghwa, who had feared nothing, felt for the first time that a given situation was frightening. Memories that wouldn’t leave his mind, stuck there. Unlike his usual self, Haejin asked him with a weakened voice. To pretend he hadn’t seen what he just saw.

On top of that, when he learned from the district management officer’s phone report that Gu Haejin had been admitted to a large hospital, he went berserk with rage.

But the Gu Haejin he saw today says he doesn’t remember meeting him.

He seemed to have completely forgotten what happened that day. It was vexing. While I writhe in agony every time I think of you, why don’t you know me? Why do I have no choice but to watch you die now?

“Number Two, Jin Jaeyoung.”

“Yes, Apex.”

“Take that Devil kid to the hospital.”

“And what about the Devil Apex…”

“Is that your concern?”

“No, it isn’t. I overstepped.”

After Jaeyoung disappeared, Pyeonghwa looked at Haejin’s pale face as he lay collapsed in his arms and thought.

Now, by any means necessary.

I must possess you.

Author: Hyacinthus B

Hyacinthus