Recalling against her will how full of heat last night had been, when they had been pressed against each other all night long because she had clung to him crying not to leave, Na Eun turned her head towards the window.

Embarrassment and shame suddenly welled up.

How could they face each other as if nothing had happened after that?

It was when she was deliberately rubbing her flushed cheek against the cold window to cool it down.

“What did she say to you?”

Perhaps misinterpreting Na Eun’s attitude as she was lost in thought and floundering, Hee Won asked while turning the steering wheel, his gaze fixed on the windshield.

She couldn’t honestly say, ‘I’m embarrassed thinking about the day I slept with you,’ so she just laughed awkwardly.

“She didn’t say much. Don’t say anything to that unnie.”

She was strangely irritated and showed a sharper attitude than usual, but she didn’t want anyone to be hurt by their loved one because of her.

Not that she intended to hurt Hee Won in a way she couldn’t even tell him.

“…She said she confessed to you before.”

She brought up the topic to avoid the awkward atmosphere, but somehow the air became even stranger.

Wondering if she had spoken for nothing, Na Eun hesitated, and Hee Won recalled the past that he could hardly remember now and let out a small sigh.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s not that you did anything wrong to me…”

Thinking that he had shown her fragments of his messy past again, Hee Won readily admitted his fault.

Na Eun was taken aback by Hee Won’s apology, as she had no intention of blaming him.

Strangely, since that day, Hee Won had become calm, and there were more and more moments when she was flustered.

“Just bear with me a little. I’m being punished by you now, anyway.”

“…”

How, how should she react to this?

Unlike Hee Won, who spoke nonchalantly while driving, Na Eun’s eyes were shaking like an earthquake.

Hee Won, who clearly maintained his previous attitude as she wanted, and now revealed the fact that he liked her without trying to hide it, only felt unfamiliar to her.

Na Eun hastily took out her cell phone and pretended to be doing something urgently, as if she hadn’t heard him.

Hee Won glanced at Na Eun with amusement in his eyes.

Seeing that even this was cute.

It was due to the sudden realization that he was clearly not in his right mind now.

Don’t be surprised, I’m telling you in advance. We’re going to get a lot of flak for a while.

Thanks to Hee Won’s warning in advance while driving that day, fortunately she wasn’t too surprised.

But as if it were a lie, a week later, Na Eun had to bitterly confirm the contents plastered all over the news, articles, and all kinds of media.

She had a sad look in her eyes as she skimmed through the internet news articles with sensational headlines and explosive comments.

She didn’t know the exact circumstances, as neither Hee Won nor her friends told her.

But judging from the events that were revealed, everything was going strangely.

The summary was as follows.

In fact, all the terrorism that had been taking place in cities including Seoul was a scam arranged by the hero group.

The most convincing theory was that it was a plot by some political forces to gain public support by causing and resolving incidents first, and to use it to change the regime.

It seemed that where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

Strange evidence kept appearing from somewhere, adding credibility to the hypothesis.

Public opinion flowed like waves, and by the time another week had passed, there was concern that if you walked by in a hero costume, you might be hit by an egg thrown from somewhere.

Something similar happened in the winter of her first year of high school, too. Na Eun recalled that she had been very mindful of Seung Joo and Sun Jin at that time and sighed.

Now it was even more serious than then, and her friends were out of contact as expected.

Even Sun Jin, with whom she could at least exchange text messages from time to time, was out of contact.

She didn’t know the details, but it was clear that they had become very busy.

In this situation, she couldn’t even whine at them to contact her quickly because she was worried.

At least she saw Hee Won’s face from time to time, as he was closely guarding her, but she didn’t ask him about her friends, taking the hint.

Hee Won implicitly let Na Eun know that they were safe, to the extent that he didn’t cross the line.

Considering that a long time ago, he had threatened to kill her just for asking about a friend’s well-being, it was a tremendous consideration in a way.

I should pretend not to know.

Na Eun deliberately didn’t watch the news or read any articles on the internet.

It was a situation similar to 3 years ago, when she was criticized by the media as a drug-crazed third-generation chaebol, something she had never done in her life.

If it was upsetting, she could just not look at it.

As a civilian friend, there was nothing she could do but trust and wait.

Trust them no matter what happens.

It was the ninth virtue she thought a civilian friend of a hero should uphold.

So no matter what trials came, she had to stand her ground and quietly wait for justice to prevail, but she just couldn’t let moments like this pass.

After finishing her personal study and walking through a narrow alley lined with stores to get to her evening tutoring session, Na Eun finally stopped in her tracks at the curses filling the whiteboard and the criticisms written on post-its on one side of the cement wall.

The alley she was passing through was a place where many people were injured in a terrorist attack about a month ago, but thanks to the heroes’ efforts, there were no fatalities.

And it was a place where citizens had hung a large whiteboard on one side of the wall to convey messages of support and gratitude to them, in appreciation of their dedication and hard work.

As expected, she didn’t want to pass through this alley, but faced with the inevitable reality, Na Eun frowned, feeling upset.

The wall that had been full of gratitude and respect was now covered with curses.

There were occasional posts saying they believed in them, but they were a minority.

She was about to just walk past, but in the end, she couldn’t bear it and stood in front of the whiteboard.

She didn’t like to just leave it, whether someone saw it or not.

She couldn’t take off all the hundreds of post-its, so she took off a few with the worst curses.

Among all kinds of criticisms plastered on the whiteboard, she erased a few that she thought Seung Joo or Sun Jin would have been hurt by if they had read them.

Seo Hee Won didn’t come to mind.

Somehow, she had a strange conviction that even if he read this, he would snort and move on.

She erased some with tissues for a while, but thinking it was a waste of the environment, she took out a handkerchief.

While erasing the largest sentence in the corner, no matter how much she rubbed, it wouldn’t erase, so Na Eun rolled up her sleeves, ignoring the cold winter weather.

Why won’t this erase?

Did they write it with a permanent marker? As she was crouching in the corner, frowning and working hard to erase the black letters, she felt a presence next to her.

“What are you doing?”

There was no one passing by in the alley, so Na Eun knew the question was directed at her.

She raised her head from her crouching position and looked up.

A middle-aged man who looked to be in his 40s and would suit a high-end suit was looking down at her with a smile on his lips.

He looks like a handsome foreign actor. Na Eun secretly thought to herself and blinked silently.

The man asked her again.

“What are you doing?”

“…I’m erasing it.”

Can’t you see? But not wanting to be rude to an adult who was much older than her, Na Eun replied rather politely.

But the man laughed and continued.

“What’s the point of erasing it? There’s a whole wall of curses like this.”

“…”

“You’re not thinking of erasing all of this, are you?”

The man, who put his hands in his pockets and watched like it was someone else’s business, pointing his chin at the whiteboard covered in curses, looked quite relaxed.

Is he picking a fight? She felt a little offended, but Na Eun didn’t show it and said,

“I didn’t erase that.”

Na Eun pointed to the upper right corner of the whiteboard with her finger, and the man’s gaze turned in that direction.

The phrase “Go die” was left with the middle blurred as if it had been half-erased.

Looking at the man who was staring at it blankly, she said,

“If there are people who write, there are also people who erase.”

A rather sharp male gaze pierced Na Eun’s face. She continued, unaware of it.

“I wanted them to know that.”

“Who?”

“The heroes.”

“…”

“They might feel a little encouraged if they knew.”

She had said something similar to Seung Joo in her first year of high school.

Memories of trying hard to be of any help to them, who only received curses despite helping others, slowly came back.

They couldn’t possibly be discouraged now, could they? Suddenly worried about her friends, she was about to become depressed.

“…Certainly, it does seem a bit encouraging.”

The man, who had been silent the whole time at her words, muttered with a low chuckle.

Na Eun tilted her head for a moment, not understanding what the other person was saying.

But soon, at the man’s words as he took his right hand out of his pocket and held it out to her, her eyes widened.

“Nice to meet you for the first time. I’m Seo Ji Hwan.”

“…”

“Hee Won’s unc- no, it would be faster to say his boss.”

When she heard the three syllables of his name, she was puzzled, but soon Na Eun was surprised and opened her mouth at the added explanation. Could it be…?

“Or, you can understand it as it’s written here.”

On the whiteboard wall that the man tapped with the back of his hand while smiling, the phrase “A is the first scammer” was clearly written.

Na Eun, who read the words following the man’s finger, was so surprised that all movement stopped for a moment.

Less than a few seconds later, she stood up abruptly from her crouching position and looked up at the man with unbelieving eyes.

Ji Hwan was still looking at Na Eun with gentle eyes and smiling.

“Will you accept my greeting now?”

As the man playfully shook his still outstretched right hand a little, Na Eun had to hurriedly cover her mouth with both hands to stifle a scream.