46 – Super Hero Brave (5)
Once upon a time there was a bit of a dirty but good quote on the internet.
ㅡ When you become famous, you applaud even if you poop?
“Yeah, that one.”
Sunday is the third day after defeating the mimicking monster on Thursday.
I went to the training room early in the morning, finished training, and patrolled the hero office as usual.
And I came home a little earlier than usual and was about to eat, but I got a text message from an unknown phone number.
It wasn’t just one or two.
I wanted to do something, so I checked and found that they were friends who had lost contact for some reason.
The kind of friends I didn’t get along with at all.
In the first place, the friends I was close with in middle school went on to high school as well, and there is a group chat room where high school friends gather.
A friend with no contact means that he really didn’t have much contact with me.
Such friends suddenly contact me and talk about this and that, but to be honest, it feels a bit delicate.
Grid always demeans me, calling me a hoguni, a sweet potato, or a seonbin, but I also notice this much.
It’s because I’ve become a bit famous, so this phenomenon is coming out.
At first, I send text messages asking how I’m doing and who do you remember who I am.
But since we weren’t very close, there wasn’t much to talk about.
The story naturally goes over to each other’s common topic.
Someone in middle school, and someone in high school.
Starting talking like that, when the atmosphere heats up a little with a common topic, it suddenly comes to the main topic.
ㅡ I never thought you would notice that…. It looks like you’re growing too.
From noble mtl dot com
“I wouldn’t have known if it had been once or twice, but this is a bit too much….”
Someone contacted me asking me to buy hero-only insurance.
Someone is going to make some money now, but is he thinking of changing his cell phone? Or asked if there was someone to change.
Someone said that hero activities would require a lot of money, so find a sponsor.
It was a bit disappointing.
To talk about memories and get a little emotional, everyone beats the drift like this.
It was bittersweet that I felt like I was playing clown while reminiscing on my own.
ㅡ I thought there wouldn’t be such a good memory to say that it was a superhero formalin.
“Oh, that? It’s nothing.”
There were people who called me a preservative.
The moment I sincerely wanted to become a hero was the finger amputation incident in elementary school.
At that time, his father was a soldier, so he transferred schools after two years. The guy who caused the incident went to the same elementary, middle and high school as me.
Maybe he liked Da-eun, whose finger was cut off.
So, while he was bragging about his superpowers to that kid, he got into an accident, and I was the one who helped him.
Maybe that’s why he harbored not-so-good feelings for me.
When I was in my 2nd year of middle school, when I couldn’t give up my lingering attachment to heroes, I was teased as a preservative and told to give up being a hero.
ㅡ What a terrible bastard.
Thinking about it, maybe he realized the reality because he said that.
That’s why you study hard and go to a good university, and somehow you’re doing hero activities, right?
ㅡ This is also inevitable.
Do you really like it?
Anyway, I feel a bit complicated because friends I wasn’t close with suddenly contacted me and a topic came up about him.
ㅡ But you don’t seem to have any ill feelings.
There’s not much to say about bad feelings.
You don’t have to.
I think he treated me like a thorn in the eye, but it wasn’t like we were always in the same class.
ㅡ So, what was his psychic power?
It seems to have been a type of psychic power that increases the hardness and strength of objects.
You must have boasted about not breaking under any impact while wielding a cutter knife in an elementary school classroom, right?
ㅡ Didn’t you use your abilities in middle and high school?
I don’t know if it’s because I’m aiming to be a hero, but he also set his career aspirations as a hero.
As personality is an evaluation item in the hero ability test, you are very sensitive to incidents and accidents caused by superpowers.
That’s why he had an accident in elementary school, so he must have been careful.
ㅡ It sounds like your head is spinning quite a bit, but it’s shady and steamy. In a different way from you.
“This bastard….”
A pup like a cracking doll.
“But it’s not really a reunion.”
My friends in the group chat room sometimes meet up for a meal or something, but meeting other people in the name of a class reunion is a bit strange.
I am 23 years old. When is the reunion?
With that thought in mind, it’s not a class reunion. This time, the group chat room came up with the idea of meeting and having a meal to commemorate my long-time dream come true.
ㅡ Are you going to pass this too?
“No, is this going to go?”
ㅡ Do only one thing, you madman!
No, is it the same as a reunion and a short meeting with friends?
ㅡ What’s the difference?
So you’re a monster.
ㅡ I’d rather live as a monster!
A ridiculous guy.
***
May is over, and June, which really feels like midsummer, has arrived.
I left work a little earlier than usual at the Hero office and headed to the meeting place.
“Hey, who is this? Isn’t that Brave?!”
Starting with that remark from a close friend since elementary school, the gathered friends started talking one by one.
It’s the job hunting season, so everyone will be busy, so maybe this will be our last meeting.
It seems that everyone came out with that thought.
The biggest reason for this gathering is to celebrate my hero debut.
I was so grateful for that that I kept laughing without realizing it.
“Now, shall we listen to the toast of our superhero ‘Brave’?”
It seems that my hero name has become Brave before I know it.
Among the heroes belonging to the UK, there was a hero called Knight who uses a sword, so he was excluded and the remaining hero name was Brave.
I thought it was a good hero name even though it was a bit vague.
“That, um… After graduating from the superhero formalin, I am now a Brave!”
After hearing my words, my friends grabbed their stomachs and shouted a toast while laughing.
As soon as the alcohol began to go in, the friends started talking about memories that were not that long ago, as if it were natural.
The first topic was about my preservative or formalin nickname.
“Still, our Braves have been volunteering since the old days, so I wondered if this was not a hero, then what was a hero, but it turned out well.”
“I agree.”
My friends would have left a lot of regrets even if I pretended not to, but they cheered me on saying that I got on the last train called a dream well and that I should do well in the future.
As such a friendly atmosphere continued, our topic shifted to talking about friends who never came out.
Some say they can’t come because they have a date with their lover, some say they’re busy part-time, some say it’s a job interview, and so on.
There was a story that everyone couldn’t come because of their busy lives.
“Then what does he do?”
“Who, Ah~ Yongsu?”
“You said he was a hero too, right? Are you okay?”
“Well… Does anyone know?”
Ahn Yong-soo, that’s the guy who gave me nicknames like preservatives and formalin.
He was obviously bragging about becoming a hero to stimulate me, but it seems that the news has been cut off.
“Well, it’s hard to be a hero because your personality is like that in the first place.”
“Hey, let’s not gossip.”
“It’s not gossip, it’s a fact!”
ㅡ Ahahahahaha!
Since the friends here are close friends with me, I don’t think they all have good feelings for Yongsu.
ㅡ I don’t think anyone has a crush on a human like that. Aren’t you even reluctant?
It’s hard to like when you say something you hate in front of your face….
But these days, I think it could be because I was in puberty.
Now that I am 23 years old, I hope I live well in a moderately good place.
On the contrary, it feels like you don’t want to meet face to face.
ㅡ It’s understandable if you’re a person who hates even a hogu like you.
I don’t know why you keep calling me Hogu.
“For!”
ㅡ For!
I had a good time with my friends who kept shouting my hero name and toasting me.
When you become famous, not good people cling to you, but you can also get in touch with friends you don’t see often.
I also thought that good and bad things come to everything at the same time.
***
There is light in the world, so there are shadows.
Lee Jin-woo, whose hero name is solidified as Brave, gets more attention, and a shadow is created by his light.
The stronger the light, the stronger the shadow.
The man knew all too well how to use that shadow.
“I can’t tell you that because it is related to personal information… ,”
“Is that so?”
“… No, I am here.”
“Ha ha, thank you.”
In modern society, even half-public heroes do not disclose their personal information as easily.
But that was no barrier to the man.
The man obtained personal information from Jinwoo’s university and headed straight to Jinwoo’s alma mater.
She also met the teacher who was the homeroom teacher at the time and listened to her story.
“Uh… Student Jinwoo has been a sincere and kind friend since before. He went to volunteer work often and studied well, but he also liked soccer, so he had a lot of friends.”
“Ah, is that so? You were a very good student.”
The man’s smile deepens.
A brave who has been acknowledged by everyone and has lived a hard life.
He is a man who lives in a sunny place where light pours down.
But that’s why there are people who find that light annoying.
“Did Jin-woo have any bad friends?”
“Yes? Why… ,”
“It would be nice if you could tell me.”
“Yes… It’s probably a guy named Yongsu. I don’t think he had very good feelings for Jin-Woo.”
“Ah, is your name Yongsu? What happened?”
“When Yongsu was in elementary school….”
The smile of the man who listened to Jinwoo’s homeroom teacher grew even thicker.
As expected, shadows always follow light.
“Then could you give me his address?”
“Yes, of course I should.”
The homeroom teacher gave Yong-soo’s contact information and address to her man as if it were natural.
“Then let’s go.”
With those words, the man disappeared like the wind.
“What?”
The homeroom teacher didn’t remember what he was doing just now, so he sat and looked around.
“Did I fall asleep?”
***
The man was able to find Yongsu’s whereabouts in less than a day.
Because his parents also told him where Yongsoo was staying, as if it were only natural.
Yong-soo was attending a lesser-known university, commonly referred to as In Seoul.
The homeroom teacher and parents’ story theory seems that he once aimed to become a hero, but before he knew it, he was a man living a life that seemed to have compromised with reality.
The type of person who graduates from college, gets a job at the right company, and makes enough money to live.
A human who was once riddled with an inferiority complex and sprayed poison, but as time goes by, the poison escapes and becomes a normal person.
As he got older, he became a bit of a mature human being.
But the man knows.
The fact that even though human beings change over time, their essence does not change easily.
The essence of human beings is revealed by the slightest stimulation.
There is a saying that if you want to know a person’s true nature, give him power and you will know.
Originally, a man who is destined to live faithfully for the rest of his life and live as an ordinary head of an ordinary family is given power in the name of money.
Let’s say that the man provides 1 billion won a year for 10 years free of charge, which he has to earn by working for the rest of his life.
Someone might live frugally with that money, but someone else’s family would be ruined by that money.
In the opinion of the man, the human named Yongsu falls under the latter category.
The man approached Yongsu with such confidence.
“Who are you?”
“Ah, it says ■■■. I came to have a chat with you.”
“Yes? What conversation….”
“Lee Jin-woo, this is a story about your friend.”
When the name Lee Jin-woo was mentioned, Yong-soo’s face distorted slightly.
The man did not miss that.
“Isn’t it time to fulfill your old dream?”
“A long time ago, a dream?”
“You… you can be a hero I guarantee.”
The story that if you give money or power to someone, you can see that person’s real face is wrong from the very beginning.
Most people live a life that has nothing to do with huge amounts of money or power.
Forcibly overturning and twisting such a fate and sending it into the abyss.
People call it malice.
A man who twists fate by twisting the water and providing him with power that would normally be unattainable in his lifetime.
The man was created with pure malice.