11 Virtues A Hero's Civilian Friend Must Uphold - Chapter 46

The epitome of private education in South Korea. Naeun, who often jokingly called herself that, had been thinking for quite some time that her part-time job at the academy suited her aptitude quite well.

“Ah, teacher! I’m telling you, I didn’t get this one wrong!”

See, the solution is correct, but you checked the wrong answer! Naeun shook her head firmly and marked it wrong for the student who was making a fuss, pointing at the solution they had written on the test paper.

“Are you going to make a fuss at school too if you misalign your OMR? This is also a skill. The math teacher said not to give credit for things like this.”

Having worked as an assistant instructor at this academy for quite a long time, Naeun didn’t even bat an eye at such antics from students anymore.

Naeun, who was grading the unit test results seen at the academy and delivering them to the teachers, coldly sent away the student who was whining to raise their score by just one point.

She was busy, as she had to quickly grade the test papers of about 30 students, and then print the vocabulary test papers that the English teacher had assigned.

As she was frantically moving the red colored pencil over the test papers, she looked up at the sound of someone knocking on the door of the self-study room where she was.

It was the assistant instructor who was scheduled to supervise the self-study room in the next time slot.

“Teacher Naeun, I’ll do that grading, so could you help set up the new math teacher’s lecture room? The blackboard and beam projector there have all been changed, but I don’t know much about it, and the new teacher probably won’t either, so we need someone to guide them.”

The assistant instructor, who hadn’t worked at the academy as long as she had, seemed a bit burdened by the task assigned to them.

Naeun, who could now easily handle most of the odd jobs at the academy, got up energetically, saying she understood.

She left the self-study room and went up to the 10th floor where the staff room was located.

The elevator was crowded with students, so she used the stairs from the 8th floor where the self-study room was to the staff room, and opened the door to enter.

Just then, the administrative manager standing in front was laughing and talking with someone with a tall backside.

Guessing that person must be the new teacher, Naeun approached, but her face turned pale.

“Ah, Teacher Naeun! Over here.”

The manager, who spotted Naeun at the end of the staff room, raised his hand to greet her with a bright expression.

Finally, the man who had been facing away turned his body towards her following the manager’s gaze and nodded slightly.

The manager kindly pointed to him with both hands and introduced him to Naeun.

“This is the math teacher who’s starting work today. Teacher Jaekyung, this is Teacher Naeun who’s been helping us as an assistant for both English and math.”

“Hello.”

Faced with that shameless face smiling without the slightest tremor as always, Naeun couldn’t say anything in response.

Ignoring her like that, he held out his hand.

“I’m Han Jae Kyung.”

From an unfamiliar name to a familiar name she didn’t want to remember, he smiled gently as he returned.

Under that insincere, kind gaze looking down at her, Naeun had to feel that suffocating feeling again.

“What do you want?”

The 11th floor rooftop was mainly used by academy teachers to smoke and was otherwise unused by anyone.

The space where students’ access was restricted was enough for just the two of them to talk.

As soon as she encountered Jaekyung, Naeun pretended to be flustered, running her hand through her hair and touching the earring on her earlobe, then came up to the rooftop and openly glared at him.

Jaekyung, who was standing opposite with his hands in his pockets, smiled as if satisfied.

“You’ve got them. Questions.”

“……”

“Don’t you have any more questions?”

Tell me if you have any new ones. Facing Jaekyung, who was giving the eye smile she once loved most, Naeun retorted in a cold voice.

“This can’t be a coincidence.”

“That’s right.”

Naeun spoke with an expression of incomprehension towards Jaekyung, who readily admitted it.

“I see you’ve already quit the company you were doing well at.”

“Ah, I quit there last week. Tell Mother to cut off business with them. That company will go bankrupt soon.”

And you were about to sign the contract. I wish that abominable mouth that so casually mentions Mother Soo Hyun would be torn apart.

Naeun tried her best to control her emotions. The earring that had already started acting as a communicator let her hear Heewon’s voice from the other side.

Stay calm, and don’t provoke him for now. I’m on my way.

Taking comfort in Heewon’s voice through the earring, Naeun inhaled as much as she could of her nearly blocked breath and controlled herself.

“…I guess I’m still a useful card to you. Are you here to kill me?”

“Not that. I just came to torment you.”

Her brows furrowed at the unexpected answer. Jaekyung slowly approached her.

Beyond the closed rooftop door, no one knocked, and only the two of them were in that desolate place.

Jaekyung’s eyes dimmed for a moment as he noticed Naeun unconsciously taking a step back, but she didn’t notice. Jaekyung smiled brightly.

“Your usefulness ended 3 years ago. But it irks me a bit that you’re living well, forgetting about me.”

“……”

“I missed you.”

Crazy bastard. Heewon cursed through the earring after hearing Jaekyung’s voice.

Naeun had to hold back her laughter for a moment, agreeing with those words so much, but also finding them inappropriately funny for the situation.

She struggled to compose her expression and coldly rejected him.

“Then keep missing me. You won’t see me from tomorrow.”

Quitting her academy part-time job right now was no big deal for Naeun.

Although she had been doing it for quite a while, it was nonsensical to continue working for such little pay with a psycho like that at the workplace, unless she was crazy.

She had no desire to talk to him anymore and was about to turn around coldly and leave the rooftop.

“If you quit here, I’ll kill all the students I’m in charge of at this academy tomorrow.”

“……”

Naeun turned to look at him with an expression of disbelief, her feet frozen.

Jaekyung, who had already taken out a cigarette from his pocket and put it in his mouth, continued nonchalantly.

“Do you have a favorite student here?”

I’ll spare that one. As he lit the end of the cigarette with a lighter, Naeun was appalled by his tone, as if he was giving a gift.

Yet, the villain’s warning that he seemed truly capable of carrying out those crazy words couldn’t be taken lightly, so she stood there like a statue, not knowing what to do.

Jaekyung, who had been looking at Naeun as if she were pathetic for not knowing what to do at the mere threat of killing the academy’s students when she had been so confident until just now, approached her.

Having reached just within arm’s length of her, close enough for their faces to nearly touch, Jaekyung gently admonished her.

“Naeun, you should divide and spread out your precious things moderately.”

“……”

“You’re even worrying about the lives of students at an academy where you’re just doing part-time work.”

He spoke without hiding his disdain, as if explaining to a child who doesn’t understand the ways of the world.

It was a warning that if everything is precious to you, you won’t be able to protect what’s truly valuable to you.

After a few seconds of silence passed between them, a scornful laugh escaped from Naeun’s lips.

Jaekyung’s gaze fixed on her as she openly mocked him.

“Jaekyung, you know I liked superhero movies, right?”

“……”

“There are several types of villains in them, you know. I know the most fitting end for villains just like you.”

She smiled, narrowing her eyes. Just as Jaekyung had done earlier.

“I hope that someday, you’ll have something truly precious to you.”

Jaekyung’s eyes wavered for a moment.

“So that, because of all the bad things you’ve done, I sincerely hope you lose it all spectacularly. Truly.”

Naeun cursed with an angelic face, wishing that because of his mistakes, everything that became precious to him would be completely shattered.

Eventually, as Naeun turned away from Jaekyung, who gave no response, to leave the rooftop, Jaekyung, who had thrown his cigarette on the ground and extinguished it, grabbed her wrist.

As soon as her wrist was grabbed, goosebumps covered her entire body, and she twisted her body in panic, telling him to let go, but it was of no use against Jaekyung’s brute strength.

Holding her wrist and bringing his upper body close to Naeun, Jaekyung muttered as if grinding his teeth.

“Are you telling me to fall in love or something?”

At the sudden question, Naeun’s eyes widened for a moment, but soon understanding the meaning, she openly mocked him. What? Love?

“That’s not something villains like you can do. How dare you mention love.”

“……”

“Don’t speak of it with your dirty hands. Love is sacred.”

Jaekyung looked down at Naeun, who was sneering that it wasn’t something the likes of him could casually do, for a while before lifting the corners of his mouth.

But unlike his earlier expression full of composure, with his eyes now fierce, he warned in a low voice.

“Don’t quit the academy. This isn’t a warning, it’s a notification.”

“……”

“Don’t leave here until I get tired of tormenting you. If you leave… you’ll have one more person to miss from now on.”

Besides your father. At the added verbal abuse, Naeun finally couldn’t contain her anger.

She shook off her wrist that Jaekyung had grabbed and swung her arm.

Slap. Jaekyung’s head turned, and Naeun clenched her stinging palm, breathing roughly.

Jaekyung covered his slapped cheek with his left hand and snickered.

“Good thing you’re feisty.”

She was gritting her teeth, desperately trying not to cry out of wounded pride.

While Naeun glared at him murderously, Jaekyung calmly straightened his disheveled clothes and held out his hand to her as if nothing had happened.

“I look forward to working with you, Teacher Yoon Na Eun.”

We’ll be seeing each other often at our academy, so let’s get along well from now on.

The gentle greeting, as if someone was watching, was completely different from the person who had been threatening her just moments ago.

Naeun’s eyes were filled with disgust at the abominable facade that didn’t show the slightest crack, as if he had put on a steel mask.

Her first love was always consistently terrible.