Kang Minho flinched, slowly turning his head. He thought he had heard Baek Haemin's voice inside, but still was surprised when he saw the expression he had as he glared at the old man.
Haemin crossed his arms and tapped his elbow thrice, his chin raised up.
"Han Jiwon risked her life to save your sorry ass, so what do you think you're doing right now?"
"H, Haemin-nim…"
Jiwon tried to stop him, but he ignored her. He had no idea what happened to the old man's wife, not to mention how she died.
But so what? Everyone here was hurt, and I'm sure you're not the only one grieving.
Instead of thanking the one who saved you, how could this old man think of putting the blame on her? Even if he was hurt about the loss of his wife, Haemin couldn't forgive the words that came out of his mouth.
Also, the words that were about to come out.
Baek Haemin knew these types of people very well. Once they decided to hurt people, be it in words or other ways, it would only get worse. He refused to let the old man continue cursing at Han Jiwon at all.
"I didn't hear anything from you earlier. What? Right after getting a little bit of relief, now that you think you're safe… You thought it was okay to start blaming people now?"
Seo Hyunwoo raised his head, looking at what was happening. His body twitched when he saw one of the people standing in the middle of the ruckus.
The old man's mouth opened, but was too stunned to even speak. Baek Haemin scoffed as he continued,
"So fucking lame."
That's when the old man finally snapped.
"You bastard…!"
"Ahjussi?"
A boy's sudden interruption caught everyone's attention.
The old man flinched, but he quickly went to the child when he saw his face.
"Hyunwoo? Seo Hyunwoo, is that you? Where were you? Aigoo! No, how about Yuna? Where is Yuna? Huh? Tell me, where's Yuna? Where's my daughter? Hyunwoo?"
He tapped the boy's shoulders once and squeezed them, frantically looking around for his daughter. Seo Hyunwoo's uncle left his young daughter with him at the indoor playground to shop around the mall for a bit with his wife alone before monsters started appearing.
While running together, one of the ogres caught his wife. He tried to fight it off to get the ogre's hands from her, but the monster suddenly bit his wife's limbs, tearing it apart.
Then, Han Jiwon showed up and killed the ogre to save him. She hadn't noticed the old man's wife's body hanging on the ogre's mouth, too focused on fighting the monsters.
Seo Hyunwoo's body started to tremble. The horror on his face came across to his uncle as they stared at each other silently.
The worry on his uncle's face quickly vanished, turning into despair until it became red. The old man pushed away the boy from him, his hands covering his face.
Hyunwoo's face became wet from his tears. He clutched his clothes while his shoulders drooped. The young boy didn't know what to do nor how he was supposed to tell his uncle what happened.
The only thing that came out of his mouth was an apology he couldn't tell Yuna before she died.
"Sorry… I'm sorry, ahjussi… Sorry, I'm sorry! Hic, really… sob, I'm really sorry, ahjussi!"
Almost everyone around them was older than him, but no one moved an inch from their spots. As if reality had only kicked in now, Baek Haemin bit his lip. No one actually knows the relationship the two shared, but going from their conversation, they could somehow make a rough guess.
The old man's lip started bleeding from how hard his teeth brushed against it. He glared at the young boy.
"Why? Why are you alive? Hyunwoo, you… How could you be alive when my daughter's gone, huh?"
Seo Hyunwoo flinched. He raised his head, only to see the anger rising from his uncle's face.
"A, ahjussi, I…"
The old man's footsteps rang in Hyunwoo's ears as his uncle approached him.
"Why are you alive? Why? What happened to Yuna, Hyunwoo? Why are you still here? You… You should've been the one to di–"
"Stop it! What are you doing?!"
Baek Haemin quickly stepped in, covering Seo Hyunwoo's ears as he hugged the child.
He knew what the old man was about to say, but he refused to let a child hear it. If Seo Hyunwoo hears it now…
If he hears it now, Seo Hyunwoo is… Seo Hyunwoo would be…
As an adult, he couldn't let a child hear the cruelty coming out of the man's mouth. However, the old man continued to walk towards them, his rage was visible to everyone else.
"Seo Hyunwoo, you bastar–!"
Bang!
The walls started to crumble. A giant axe made a hole on the pharmacy's entrance and Kang Minho was sent flying inside, his barrier barely protecting his body.
"Kugh!"
The young porter spat out blood and his breathing became unstable.
"Minho!"
What the hell happened?!
Only after he lifted his head did Baek Haemin finally understand what's going on. His grasp on Seo Hyunwoo tightened at the sight of a monster that was way bigger than an average ogre stepped inside the pharmacy.
"Haemin-nim, please get back!"
Han Jiwon clenched his chains. Her hands started to become sweaty.
Even though it didn't look much different, Baek Haemin could swear its size should be equivalent to at least three times bigger than an average ogre.
Hold on, there… Is this a joke?
He almost wanted to laugh. Its head was filled with accessories and its chest was dripping wet, as if the monster had just finished bathing itself in human blood.
Ding!
[System:
{Warning! Boss monster has appeared!}]
You don't have to tell me that, seriously…
Steam came out of its mouth. The boss monster raised its axe in the air, getting ready to take its swing on the humans' flesh.
Suddenly, the heat from his body vanished. Haemin saw the ground instantly filled with ice like the one you can ice skate with.
The next thing they knew, the boss monster's body was frozen, and a sword came slashing through its body like a hot knife through butter. The shadow of a man appeared.
"Fuu…"
A cloud of vapor came out of the man's mouth.
Baek Haemin silently gasped.
"R, Ryu… Jinmu?"
"Haa…"
Ryu Jinmu's eyes narrowed, his cold gaze focused only on a single man.
His jaw trembled as his body temperature constantly dropped at any given moment. Ryu Jinmu called out to him, almost desperately.
"Baek Haemin…"