11 Virtues A Hero's Civilian Friend Must Uphold (Completed Main Story) - Chapter 5

After being threatened and giving a firm promise not to tell anyone about what happened today, Jae Kyung headed home reassured, seeing Na Eun’s car already waiting right in front of the café.

Recalling Jae Kyung’s worried expression—asking if she was alright despite nearly dying together—Na Eun forced a smile toward Mr. Yoon, the driver who had stepped out of the car to carry her bag.

“Na Eun, are you okay? What on earth happened?”

She squeezed her eyes shut tightly at the driver’s explanation: ordinarily, Na Eun should have gotten into the car right at 11, but because she hadn’t answered calls and seemed to have been in some accident, the whole house had been thrown into chaos.

How many hours of scolding would she get once she got home?

Worrying about that alone was exhausting enough, and now the whistling from beside her grated on her nerves.

A blond man, who had been scrutinizing the obviously expensive sedan up and down, spoke in apparent surprise.

“So you’re rich, huh?”

Pretending not to hear his teasing remark—that nothing she was wearing looked particularly expensive—she instead greeted Seung Joo, who stood silently beside him.

“Thank you for today. Go home safely.”

“…Yeah.”

The strange distance that had seeped between them, due to his failure to stop the man’s earlier threat, remained stubbornly wide even until their parting.

Unable to meet his eyes because he no longer seemed like the friend she knew, Na Eun avoided his gaze and got into the car the driver held open for her.

Just as the driver returned to the driver’s seat and the car was about to pull away—knock, knock—someone tapped on the window on her side.

Expecting it to be Seung Joo, Na Eun looked up, only to see the unnecessarily handsome face of a man whose sparkling piercings stood out prominently.

Na Eun did her best to keep her expression from crumpling and reluctantly rolled down the window.

“What is it?”

“I was the one who saved you today—aren’t you going to thank me?”

His earlier deadly threat seemed forgotten; he’d reverted right back to his usual, shameless flirtatious self.

Though his movie-star good looks and model-like outfit might make anyone else’s heart flutter, not Na Eun’s.

She disliked flashy, carefree types like him, and after his earlier threat, her dislike for him had already peaked. She delivered her thanks in a stiff, businesslike tone.

“Thank you for saving me today.”

Unbothered by her clearly insincere, rigid gratitude, the man gave a soft chuckle and tossed something into the car.

Na Eun picked up the object that had landed on her lap.

Staring blankly at the crumpled paper scrawled with haphazard numbers, she heard him say,

“My number.”

Call me when you fight with your boyfriend. I’ll comfort you.

His languid voice slipped gently through the open window.

“…”

She quietly stared at the contact info in her hand, then slowly turned her head to look at him through the window.

A man with looks beyond the ordinary—and superhuman abilities to match.

An arrogance that seemed never to have known defeat.

Na Eun met his gaze without flinching, the kind of confidence innate to the powerful seemingly etched into his eyes—and quietly tightened her grip.

The blond man’s lips curled into an amused smirk as he watched Na Eun crumple his contact info in her hand until it was hopelessly wrinkled.

Thud. Without a second thought, she tossed it out the window as if throwing away trash and rolled the window back up.

“Let’s go, sir.”

Speaking calmly to the driver as though nothing had happened, the sleek sedan pulled away quietly and decisively.

[This is the timeline separator]

In the car heading home, Na Eun quietly picked up her phone and sent a message to Jae Kyung.

[Jae Kyung.] [Don’t worry too much about today.]

So you won’t get hurt by getting tangled up in something like this,

[I’ll definitely protect you.] [This is the timeline separator]

“She really is a rich girl.”

Finding her aloofness entertaining—even enjoying the blatant disregard more than feeling offended—he watched the car drive off into the distance with a soft, amused chuckle.

“Hey.”

Thud! He jerked forward slightly as something heavy slammed into his back.

The impact was strong enough to dislocate an ordinary person’s spine.

Looking back with indifferent eyes, he saw a weighted resistance band lying haphazardly on the ground.

It was the kind worn by the gifted to naturally blend among ordinary people, regulating their strength and physical power.

Tossing something that weighed over 40kg on its own like that…

“A civilian would’ve died on the spot,” he joked, but Seung Joo stared at him sternly before walking over with firm steps.

“Hee Won Seo.”

“You don’t even call me ‘Team Leader’ anymore.”

You’re younger and lower-ranked than me, yet.

Amused yet unsure how to handle such outright insubordination—calling him by his full three-syllable name without hesitation or title—Seung Joo spoke with a completely expressionless face.

“Who are you going to kill?”

“What’s gotten into you? You know I was just talking.”

That’s exactly why you stayed quiet while I was speaking.

Hee Won laughed, saying it was all a calculated game and that someone like him should know better than to overreact.

But Seung Joo didn’t smile back.

“You were serious.”

“…”

After a brief pause under her deadly glare, he eventually shrugged and conceded with a sigh.

“Your friend’s smart. She won’t do anything stupid enough to get herself killed.”

“Then that should be enough, right?” Seung Joo fixed him with an icy stare at his shameless reply.

In their circle, no one worked as cold-bloodedly as this man.

The only psychopath who never counted civilian casualties during missions had become team leader solely because of his exceptional abilities.

Seung Joo agreed that her friend was smart—but she didn’t trust him and issued a warning.

Listen carefully.

“If you lay a finger on Na Eun Yoon, I’ll be the one to kill you.”

“…”

Hee Won scratched his head, suddenly intrigued. Was this an unexpectedly interesting weakness he’d just uncovered?

“So you’re telling me she’s your weakness? How kind of you.”

“Yeah.”

“…”

“I’m telling you. Kindly.”

Unfazed by his mocking question, Seung Joo continued.

“You think I’d go crazy if she got hurt?”

If Yi Seo Lee and I both go all out, do you really think we couldn’t kill you? Or even if we couldn’t kill you—

We’d be fine as long as we cut off one of your precious limbs.

At her low, earnest warning, he scratched his cheek, looking oddly curious.

“That serious?”

“That serious.”

You must have something you’d never want anyone to touch, right? For Yi Seo Lee and me, that’s her. So—

“—Try bringing up her life in front of me one more time.”

Next time, I won’t care if you’re team leader or not—I’ll make sure you’re gone.

“…”

Seung Joo turned away without even picking up the discarded band from the ground.

Watching her walk off as decisively as that sedan had earlier, Hee Won let out a quiet chuckle—struck by how much those two friends truly resembled each other.

About six months into their relationship, Jae Kyung had abruptly broken up with her.

They hadn’t fought, nor was there any serious issue between them.

They’d just been happily sharing a vanilla ice cream at a shop when he casually dropped the words, “Let’s break up.”

Since this was her first boyfriend—and Jae Kyung had been the one to confess—Na Eun had been completely bewildered, never expecting such a sudden rejection.

When she asked why, whether he’d grown to dislike her, his only reply was,

“I just don’t want to see you anymore.”

From that day on, he truly blocked her calls, refused to answer, and avoided meeting her—becoming, in Na Eun’s memory, the coldest he’d ever been.

Most people, in such a situation, would either be hurt or too proud to chase after the other person.

Indeed, her friends at the time had rallied around her, calling him trash and urging her never to reach out first.

They’d warned her that if she lost here, she’d keep losing forever.

But Na Eun clung on.

She kept calling Jae Kyung, texting him, and eventually even went to his school when he stopped responding.

She was a little afraid of being mistaken for a stalker (though truthfully, she was acting like one back then), but at that moment, Na Eun was completely blinded by emotion.

Though he’d been the one to confess, she’d never liked anyone this much before, so all she could think about was how to win back his heart.

Students leaving school stared at the unfamiliar uniform lingering conspicuously outside the boys’ school gate, but Na Eun didn’t care.

Finally meeting him at the school gate, Jae Kyung looked down at her with an icy gaze she’d never seen before and said,

“I already told you I don’t want to see you anymore.”

His coldness was so absolute that anyone with even slightly weaker resolve would’ve burst into tears right then and there.

And since Na Eun wasn’t someone with particularly strong mental fortitude, she ended up crying anyway.

“Was it because I replied late during exam week?”

“…”

“I’ll reply right away from now on. We always met around my tutoring schedule. If that was inconvenient, I’ll adjust to your schedule from now on.”

“…”

“Just tell me why you started disliking me. I’ll fix it.”

I like you so much, Jae Kyung.

Sobbing uncontrollably right there at the school gate, Na Eun drew glances not just from students but from every passerby—but Jae Kyung looked down at her indifferently, unmoved.

In that moment, she was like a crying child throwing a tantrum for candy, and he was the parent teaching her that tantrums wouldn’t get her anything.

After crying for a long while—just as always—it was Jae Kyung who eventually gave in.

“Stop crying.”

Feeling a large hand gently wiping her tear-streaked cheeks after a long sigh, Na Eun finally stopped sobbing. Still heartbroken, she sniffled and asked,

“So… will you keep dating me?”

“…Yeah.”

But then—

His reply that day, sounding almost like a resigned sigh, somehow carried the weight of surrender, and even now, Na Eun still doesn’t know what Jae Kyung gave up in that moment.