Episode 70

“…Huh?”

“Are you up now, Noona?”

“Why are you here?”

Still half-asleep, I slowly crawled out of the blankets and scanned the room.

When did I fall asleep? I vaguely remembered the woman waking me for breakfast… Oh, right—I’d ignored her and stayed buried under the covers.

That turned out to be a good call. I felt noticeably better than before I fell asleep.

I climbed out of bed with a lighter body and stretched fully.

“How long have you been here?”

“Not long.”

“Really? But… Wait—huh?!”

My eyes widened when I saw the empty bed beside mine while looking around.

She was here right next to me this morning!

“Where’s Ga-eun unnie?”

“She woke up earlier.”

“Jun-woo, too?”

“Yes. Both of them were taken somewhere by that woman yesterday. She’s probably showing them around like she did with us yesterday.”

“That’s worrying. Those two don’t know what kind of place is. Why’d you let them go with her? You should’ve followed or stopped them.”

“They’re adults—they can judge that much themselves. I’m more worried about leaving you alone, Noona.”

I sighed inwardly at his demeanor and shook my head. Right. They both would at least get an inkling that this isn’t a normal place. And Seo Ga-eun was with Jun-woo—she’d protect him if anything happened.

“Aren’t you hungry? You skipped breakfast. It’s already lunchtime.”

“Mm… I just woke up, so not really. What about you? Did you eat anything?”

“I just had something light. But I don’t feel so well.”

“Is your stomach upset?”

“I’ve been dragged around by that lady since morning, surrounded like a zoo monkey. It’s kind of impossible to eat there in peace.”

“Ah…”

If it were me, I’d have dropped my chopsticks after just one bite in that sort of atmosphere.

“But I’m surprised.”

“Why?”

“I never thought you’d follow and eat with her.”

“You know me well. I didn’t want to go.”

“Huh? Then why go? You should’ve just ignored her and slept like me.”

“In order to find clues about the antidote, I thought it’d be best to memorize the faces of the people here.”

So… he went for me?

I was a little moved.

“Hand.”

“…?”

“You said your stomach feels off.”

“You don’t have to use your ability for stuff like this.”

“But…”

“I’m really fine, so take care of yourself, noona.”

He pressed down on my head, tousling my hair.

I smoothed the mess he’d made and shot him a mock-glare. Just then, the door creaked open. My body tensed, fearing Cheonjiin had come again—but it was Seo Ga-eun.

“Oh! You’re awake!”

“Yeah. It feels like I haven’t seen you in ages.”

“I wasn’t asleep that long.”

“Where’s Jun-woo? Weren’t you together?”

I tilted my head, noticing she’d entered alone.

“That Cheonjiin woman said she had ‘something to discuss’ and took Jun-woo.”

I froze at her words. Do-yoon also frowned as if seeing what I was seeing.

“Unnie. Did you notice anything strange about that woman?”

“Strange? Hmm. She seemed… a bit overly religious.”

…She seemed to have no idea. Was Seo Ga-eun not as tactful as I thought?

It seemed I had to tell her what this place really is—

But knowing her personality, it was pretty clear that she’d storm straight at them without looking back, without so much as a second thought.

Hesitation tangled my tongue—revealing the truth now was a little complicated.

But if we had to stay here for the time being in order to find the antidote, leaving her clueless felt irresponsible.

Instead of deciding this by myself, I turned to Do-yoon, seeking his opinion.

Should we tell her?

His gaze met mine, and without hesitation, he shook his head.

As expected, he too was concerned about what would happen immediately after telling her. He knew her temper by now as well.

“Don’t trust them too much. In times like these, blind trust is dangerous.”

That’s right. Even if they seemed kind, their hearts could be rotten—like those who help others only to sacrifice them later. And furthermore, the poison…

Hm? Hang on. If they poisoned us, the only chance was when we passed out on the bus. So if they did it then, would they have only poisoned me and Do-yoon?

No way, If I were them, I’d have poisoned all of us—Seo Ga-eun and Jun-woo included. Sacrifices die either way anyway.

Panicking, I grabbed her hand and channeled my ability.

“H-Hey! Ji-ah, what’re you—? Your nose is bleeding!”

“Noona!”

“…Unnie, how do you feel? Do you feel any better?”

“What? I wasn’t even hurt…”

She didn’t seem to feel anything, but I could tell. She’d been poisoned too.

I’d tested this before: when I used my ability on someone who was uninjured, my body had no effects. No backlash—no nosebleeds, no energy drain. Instead, it felt… blocked—my ability didn’t permeate the other person’s body at all. When I held their hand and tried to channel my ability, it felt like I was being blocked and didn’t work.

The nosebleed meant Seo Ga-eun wasn’t in a normal state of body either. She was poisoned too.

Clutching my nose with one hand, I grabbed Do-yoon’s arm with the other and headed toward the door.

“I’ll go to the bathroom to stop my nosebleed and come back.”

“Huh? O-Okay. But why take Do-yoon too…?”

“I just need him for a bit.”

Leaving her bewildered, I led Do-yoon not to the bathroom but to the adjacent room he shared with Jun-woo.

***

“Noona, warn me if you’re going to do something next time. You scared me to death.”

He stayed silent beside me, wearing a sullen expression as if something bothered him, until the bleeding stopped. Only after confirming I was okay did he finally speak again.

“Sorry. It just came to me suddenly.”

“What did?”

“Well… The others might’ve been poisoned too, not just us. So I treated her first.”

Do-yoon frowned disapprovingly, then sighed and relented:

“…Right. If we were targeted, they probably were too. So what now?”

“Unlike us, they can’t see those… things floating in the air, right? So even if they’re poisoned, they wouldn’t notice until physical symptoms show up.”

I’d need to use my ability on Jun-woo later. Speaking of which… What was he talking about alone with that strange woman? She wasn’t brainwashing him or something, was she?

“Noona, I’m saying this just in case, but don’t use that ability in front of others, okay?”

“Isn’t that obvious? Why bring it up all of a sudden?”

“Just… because.”

“You’re the one who shouldn’t carelessly use your ability around people.”

His concerns were unnecessary. Unless I was out of my mind, I’d never even consider using this ability publicly. The mere thought of people flocking to me for healing if they saw it was horrifying.

I wasn’t a philanthropist, and there was zero benefit in doing something like this. Rather, there were only risks and downsides.

I wondered why he suddenly brought this up, but decided to let it go for now.

Somewhere in the silence, I thought I heard Do-yoon sigh again.

***

“Jun-woo!”

“Oh, Ji-ah.”

“I heard from Ga-eun unnie that you talked privately with the lady who guided us inside. What did you discuss?”

“It was nothing important.”

“If it’s nothing, you can tell me. Is it a secret?”

What could he be hiding? Did he actually get recruited into the cult?

The longer he hesitated to answer, the stiffer my expression became.

“It really wasn’t important. They just asked if I had a religion.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, so I said no. We exchanged a few words, then got comfortable and ended up chatting about small things. That’s why it took so long.”

“I see. So that’s why you were late.”

What should I do? Can I tell him? He wasn’t the type to be reckless compared to Seo Ga-eun. Even if he knew the truth, it probably wouldn’t cause issues.

But my concern was his sensitivity. Was it necessary to shock him with such a cruel truth?

“What did you think of the person you talked to? Ga-eun unnie said they weren’t bad. What about you?”

“My take? They just… seemed like a good person. Really kind and warm-hearted.”

“….”

The evaluation was so damn positive.

“Did you notice anything… off about them?”

“What do you mean by off?”

“…Never mind. Oh, give me your hand.”

He seemed even more tactless than Seo Ga-eun—or maybe he was just too naive to read between the lines. I gripped his hand and channeled my power into it. Whoosh. Blood poured from my nose again. It was already my second nosebleed of the day, and my body felt drained.

“Your nose is bleeding…!”

“I’m fine. You can go now. I’m gonna get back to my room and rest.”

I swiftly left the area, leaving him behind.

Jun-woo seemed completely taken with that strange woman.

If I told him the truth now, not only would the revelation shock him, but he’d likely end up holding resentment too.

Could he really accept that someone he thought was good was actually a villain…?

Yet part of me felt this was for the best.

If Jun-woo grew closer to her like this, I could potentially use him as a spy later when gathering intel on the antidote. Though I didn’t find him reliable enough to pull it off completely yet, I decided to let things play out for now.

—

Man i do hope they’re gonna let those two stay in the loop

FINALLY, NEW CHAPTERS. 
…is probably what you’re thinking. I’m sorry, I know I made the wait way too long – university and depression was kicking my ass for a good while there and even though I had some of these chapters translated already, I couldn’t find the time to post them. It’s mid-terms season now, yay, so I thought, what better timing to post these chapters than the day before your constitutional final?

Thankfully, I’ve recently come to the realisation that I should probably fine doing the things that seem like hard work if they’re things I genuinely enjoy. I will try to update every weekend, bon appetit, my dearest, patient readers!