No matter how much you make a living off of public attention, the streamer on the screen said that they didn’t want to do something they shouldn’t to the person who saved their life.

“No matter how I think about it, it’s a no. What kind of scam would make you risk your own life? I don’t even know if Jae is alive right now. Guys, can you check if any articles have been released and send them to me? I’m being serious right now.”

The mood in the comments gradually began to change. Na Eun hurriedly left the broadcast link and checked the articles again.

Although the negative headlines remained, she could see a noticeable decrease in the critical comments that had previously filled the public opinion.

As Na Eun checked the internet with a dazed expression, Sun Jin, who was beside her reviewing all the contacts from the center, muttered.

“…Is the world ending tomorrow?”

That’s how impossible the situation was.

Seo Hee Won choosing to rescue civilians over annihilating the enemy.

Of course, the mission was successful in preventing the airport from being reduced to ashes by the explosion, but that was expected since the person in charge of the mission was the team leader.

He was someone who acted as if he had never experienced failure in all their time working together.

But after receiving Hee Won’s brief report stating that he had no choice but to let some of the organization members scattered inside the airport live, Sun Jin secretly thought that people can really change if they want to.

She wondered if he was really the same person who had rushed to kill the hostages himself if they interfered with the mission.

“Is Seo Hee Won hurt?”

A friend who usually didn’t get involved in their work or try to find out anything asked anxiously about the team leader’s condition beside her.

Sun Jin suddenly lifted her head and met Na Eun’s pale complexion.

Staring blankly at her face, which was filled with worry for the other person, she said.

“Don’t worry. He’s alive.”

Of course, his body was in tatters and would require a long recovery period, but it was fortunate that he was alive anyway.

That’s how their work had always been.

“…I think the team leader will be coming here soon too.”

As much as it was a space for the recovery of the injured, it would have been good news if he didn’t come, but what could they do?

Seung Joo, Sun Jin, and now even Seo Hee Won.

As much as she hated to admit it, their team had all become combat ineffective, except for Jae Won.

Fortunately, the youngest, Jae Won, had been assigned to low-risk missions, so at least the maknae was safe. Sun Jin secretly sighed inwardly, taking comfort in that.

Three days had passed since arriving in Jeju Island.

On the surface, Na Eun had come for a break, so she spent an enjoyable time with her mother, eating delicious food and having deep conversations that they hadn’t had in a long time.

Of course, she didn’t go all the way to the city center, which was far from the pension where she was staying.

She didn’t forget why she had to come here, and she adeptly explained to her mother Soo Hyun the reasons why she didn’t want to go far.

A month was a long time to stay in one place, but it was okay.

She wasn’t immature enough to complain about being tied to one place being boring when there were people out there fighting for their lives.

Na Eun couldn’t be simply happy that her friends, whom she had hardly seen recently, had gathered in one place like this.

The accommodation, which was about a 5-minute drive from the pension where she and Soo Hyun were staying, looked like a vacation villa on the outside, but it was actually a makeshift ward where the center’s heroes rested when they were severely injured.

Na Eun, who was able to come to the ward with Sun Jin’s guidance, discovered Seung Joo with bandages wrapped tightly around her shoulder and sobbed.

“Hey, hey. Don’t do that. Don’t cry.”

Seung Joo, who had anticipated Na Eun’s reaction, waved her uninjured hand as soon as she saw her, looking uncomfortable.

She seemed to find the situation quite embarrassing.

“This is almost healed. It’s just wrapped up for fixation.”

Seung Joo mumbled, quickly pointing to her bandaged right shoulder with her chin.

Na Eun bit her lip and looked at her friend’s wound with a heavy heart.

“But it still hurts…”

“I told you it doesn’t hurt. And, I heard from Seo Hee Won. You told him I was unconscious, right?”

After suppressing the terrorist attack, she was affected by a strange drug that almost paralyzed her limbs, so she didn’t even have the strength to remove the steel pipe stuck in her shoulder herself.

She remembered being carried like a piece of luggage and thrown into the hospital lobby, but after that, she lost consciousness and couldn’t remember anything.

Na Eun couldn’t say anything to Seung Joo, who was thanking her for helping.

In fact, the person who really saved Seung Joo that day was someone else, but Na Eun kept her mouth shut as promised.

Now that she knew how heavy the other person’s sincerity was, she had decided to keep silent as much as that weight.

“Let’s go inside. I’ll give you something to drink.”

Na Eun cautiously asked Seung Joo, who was guiding her as if the huge villa was her own.

“Can I go inside?”

It looked like an ordinary pension on the outside, but she asked the question because she knew what it really was.

Seung Joo and Sun Jin laughed simultaneously at her question.

“It doesn’t matter here. And you’ve already come too close to us to be asking that now.”

The room provided to Seung Joo was the last room on the second floor.

The fairly spacious room had everything.

Apart from the basic necessities such as a computer, bed, and desk, Na Eun inwardly admired as she looked around the space filled with the smell of medicine, including an IV stand that would only be found in a hospital.

She now properly understood what it meant to be an accommodation and a makeshift ward.

Unlike her, who was busy looking around the interior, Sun Jin sat on the bed as if it were her own room and rummaged through the bag of snacks Na Eun had bought.

Seung Joo took out drinks from the mini-fridge and laid them out. Na Eun asked in surprise.

“Can you drink alcohol?”

You’re a patient! Seung Joo defiantly opened a can of beer and took a sip as Na Eun exclaimed in shock.

At the same time, she threw one to Sun Jin, who swiftly caught it and laughed.

“I told you I’m all healed. I’m just waiting to fully recover, but I’m fine now.”

When Seung Joo deliberately rotated her bandaged shoulder, Na Eun hurriedly waved her hands and stopped her.

Sun Jin laughed from behind at the sight of her worrying and not knowing what to do.

When you’re too close, the period of absence you haven’t seen means nothing.

Spreading snacks on the floor, drinking beer, and chatting, it even feels like they’re really on a trip.

If no one told you, you wouldn’t know that one of them was a civilian whose life was being threatened, and the other two were heroes resting from injuries.

Na Eun eagerly explained to Seung Joo and Sun Jin that there were still people who believed in heroes and were on their side.

The two of them just listened to the stories Na Eun passionately told them with smiles.

In fact, it would be a lie to say they weren’t hurt by the curses pouring out from all sorts of media, but they were satisfied enough to have someone who would get angry and upset on their behalf like this.

“I’m telling you, it’s true! Now in the comments, you can slowly see things like, ‘Could it be that the government is trying to bury the heroes? That side is more suspicious…’ and stuff like that.”

When Na Eun frustratedly told her friends, who seemed to react skeptically as if they couldn’t believe her story, Sun Jin slowly nodded her head in agreement.

“I guess the public opinion has been changing a bit lately.”

“Isn’t that because of the team leader?”

Seung Joo asked indifferently in response to Sun Jin’s words. Na Eun stiffened her shoulders, and Sun Jin said nonchalantly.

“Well, our team leader did do something big this time.”

“But I heard he really got shot in the head, right? What made him go that far?”

Seung Joo asked with genuine curiosity.

Seo Hee Won’s psychopathic tendencies were well known to any hero in the center.

On top of that, Seung Joo still couldn’t believe that he, who originally found it bothersome to protect even civilians who could be rescued, had risked mission failure and burned his body to save just one person.

It was lucky that the one person happened to be a famous streamer and contributed to changing public opinion, but even Seo Hee Won probably hadn’t anticipated that.

“…How is Seo Hee Won? Is he okay?”

Na Eun, who had been quietly listening to her friends’ conversation, asked cautiously. Seung Joo answered instead of Sun Jin.

“I heard he’s out of surgery and moved from the intensive care unit. He’ll probably come here tomorrow.”

“…”

After pondering for a moment at Seung Joo’s answer, Na Eun asked.

“Hey, by the way, if Seo Hee Won comes here, can I come see him for a bit too?”

“…”

“I watched the broadcast and it seemed like he was badly injured… I just want to see if he’s okay. If not, it can’t be helped.”

Since she, a civilian, couldn’t come and go to the center’s accommodation like it was her own house, Na Eun quickly corrected herself.

Meanwhile, contrary to Na Eun’s worry, Seung Joo and Sun Jin, who had kept their mouths shut as if they had promised something else, stared at their friend blankly.

Seung Joo was the first to break the awkward silence.

“Na Eun, are you really going to date the team leader?”

At her friend’s question, which reminded her of their previous conversation, Na Eun flinched.

She cautiously avoided the gaze of her friends who were staring at her intently.

Even without words, Seung Joo frowned and spoke to the obvious denial.

“Then you should keep an appropriate distance now, shouldn’t you? You said that guy even confessed to you. But you have no intention of dating him. Then you should stop giving him false hope.”

“Hey, false hope…”

Na Eun was flustered by Seung Joo’s phrasing and fiddled with the beer can in her hand.

“I just… Seo Hee Won isn’t the type to get hurt by things like that originally. He seems to break up easily with whoever he dates. It’ll probably be the same with me, so I thought there’s no need to throw away our current relationship for feelings that won’t last long anyway.”

Seung Joo’s frown deepened at the rambling words that sounded like excuses.

Sun Jin’s expression also hardened as she watched Na Eun beside her.

Unaware of this, Na Eun spoke her true feelings in a jumbled manner.

“I thought we had become quite close now, to be honest. Looking back, he was the one who saved my life several times. He’s someone I’m grateful to… So I don’t want to grow distant from him because of this.”

The first impression was the worst, and by objective judgment, he was indeed closer to a villain.

But in fact, he was a hero who saved others, and to her, he was always someone to be thankful for.

Even if he was a son of a bitch to someone, he could be a precious person to her.

Seo Hee Won had already entered Na Eun’s boundaries long ago.

“…I’m on your side, Na Eun.”

Sun Jin, who had been listening quietly, opened her mouth.

“I honestly don’t like Seo Hee Won. I think you’re too good for him.”

As a team leader, she had started to respect him a little now, but her evaluation of him as a person was different.

Sun Jin coldly and clearly stated that she disliked Seo Hee Won as a match for her friend.

“But, you… Aren’t you just doing this because Seo Hee Won is convenient for you?”