Chapter 20
Phew.
Kang Injeong let out a sigh of relief.
'Good thing I wore a decent stab-proof vest.'
Honestly, he had been a little startled when the knife came at him.
But the stab-proof vest had blocked the blade properly, and thanks to that he had been able to subdue the guy successfully.
A strong smell of alcohol stung his nose.
"Students. Are you okay?"
"Uh... y-yes!! Yes!!"
The situation had happened all too suddenly.
The fact that they had nearly been stabbed had left the students dazed.
And then came the surging relief.
"Thank you! Thank you!"
"Are you a police officer?!"
"Yes. I'm Senior Inspector Kang Injeong from Dobong Police Station."
The students were delighted to hear that the person who had helped them was a plainclothes police officer.
And they thought to themselves.
If there were any bastards at school mouthing off about cops, they'd knock their teeth out.
.
.
.
Since he had been arrested at the scene, there was nothing more to check.
"Senior Inspector! You really went through a lot!"
"What do you mean, went through a lot? This is what the police are supposed to do."
The officers who had come out after receiving the report looked at him with admiration.
He casually gave them a quick greeting, then put his hands in his pockets and walked off.
And when he found a suitable spot, he immediately took out his phone.
-Hello?
"This is Kang Injeong, sir."
-Nothing happened, right?
"Yes. Thanks to your advice, I wore the stab-proof vest. Anyway, that bastard's been arrested and taken in, so we'll see what happens."
-I'm glad. Still, you went through a lot. Even if you knew it was coming, a knife flying at you must have been terrifying.
"Heh. Isn't this part of a cop's duty?"
He took out a cigarette, put it in his mouth, and puffed away with flair.
In truth, there had been a little fear lingering in his chest, but he couldn't show it.
-Thank you for your help... I wish there were something I could do to help you as well.
"Just you keeping to the straight and narrow is a big help to us, sir... Understood. We'll contact you if anything comes up."
He hung up with a relaxed smile.
And after finishing the cigarette, he clenched his fist.
The excitement was slowly dying down.
'If we can keep getting help from Mr. Kang, maybe we can prevent incidents like this in the future... No. First, let's do everything we can to investigate ourselves.'
Kang Noa said he could see the future through fortune-telling.
In other words, if they didn't make the effort themselves, all he'd see was a future they couldn't catch.
They had to do their best, if only to let him see the future.
-Smack!
He lightly slapped both cheeks, calming himself and reminding himself of his responsibility and duty.
"Let's go."
His steps were headed toward Dobong Police Station.
***
"So they caught that bastard."
After finishing my call with Kang Injeong, I said to old man Kwak Seong and his grandson, Kwak Junhyung, who were sitting there with anxious, worried faces.
Kwak Junhyung's eyes were shining.
"Hyung! Thank you so much!"
"No. It was just something I had to do. And 'hyung'..."
You're older than me.
You've even finished your military service...
But Kwak Junhyung didn't care about any of that.
"Come on~! We don't care about stuff like that. If you're hyung, you're hyung."
Kwak Junhyung was a viewer of my stream.
So when his grandfather mentioned my name, he'd been shocked and immediately spoken up.
"Thank you, sir. Really. I don't even know how I can possibly repay you..."
"Oh, come on. That's fine, sir."
"I don't know how I should repay you... I'd like to send you the finest apples from our orchard."
The old man, who ran an orchard near Paju, kept trying to give me something.
No, he really didn't have to...
But if I kept refusing, it looked like he'd sneak them off somewhere, so in the end I said I'd gladly accept them.
"Then we'll be going now."
"Yes. Take care getting home."
"Hyung! Can I post this online?"
"Sure. Go ahead."
It was already over.
Besides, it was the kind of thing that would boost my recognition, so there was no problem.
.
.
.
And so, the next day.
When I finished the raid and turned on the stream,
it wasn't a flood of handshake requests, but a flood of chat messages.
-Hyung! Hyung! Is it true? That thing?!
-I heard you stopped that random stabbing incident in Hongdae!
-They said one person was supposed to die!!
They already posted it?
I followed the link in chat and found a post.
[I survived because of Noa hyung.]
-Seoul Writer
[I'm a guy living in Seoul.
A little while ago, my grandfather asked me if I knew our hyung Noa.
Honestly, I was a little scared.
I was totally acting like a regular civilian in front of my grandpa, lol.
But Grandpa's face suddenly went pale.
When I asked why, he said that guy had read my fortune and seen that I was going to die?
I was scared out of my mind.
So I contacted him right away and met him with my grandpa.
Wow, it was seriously no joke.
A crazy bastard showed up in Hongdae with a knife, and I was supposed to die while saving the kids.
Hearing that was honestly chilling;;
And that was right on my way home from my part-time job.
And it was also right when my shift ended.
I hadn't even gotten myself a girlfriend yet, and I was seriously freaking out thinking I might die, but our hyung stopped it for me.
So I took the day off work and waited there with my grandpa.
You all know about it too, right? The attempted Hongdae knife rampage incident.
It was exactly there.
If Noa hadn't called in a cop he knew and waited there, three of the students there might have died.
So as of today, I withdraw my support for Noa hyung
From today on, I step out of the supporter relationship
Kang Noa and I become one body, one unit
Any attack on Kang Noa will be regarded as an attack on me
Remember that well from now on.]
-Wait, is this for real;;;?
-Shibal, you were the one who was supposed to die there?
-Isn't this bastard a Seoul National University grad?
-Yeah, he posted his Seoul National University student ID before.
-And he even finished his military service...
-Wow, because of one washed-up loser, a perfectly normal young man almost got sent to the grave.
-No, he said the students almost died too, didn't he?
-Kang Noa saved a bunch of people;;;
-Don't you dare casually say our hyung's name—what, is Kang Noa your friend or something?
-Then that old man who called last time must be their grandpa.
There were a lot of comments.
Some were saying it was staged, and others were saying to cut the bullshit.
But maybe because my meme had already spread all over the internet, there weren't that many comments like that.
-Ring ring!!
"Hello?"
-Mr. Noa! I saw it on the internet! Are you okay?
"Huh? Is there even such a thing as being okay?"
-The internet is going crazy about it right now!
The post Kwak Junhyung had written was spreading everywhere.
Because of that, Hong Siyeon's voice was trembling, thinking I might be in trouble.
"Don't worry. Nothing happened."
-But still...
"I mean, I didn't do anything wrong, did I?"
If anything, I deserved praise, not to be arrested, so what was there to be scared of?
I just needed to spend the day normally.
-Then that's a relief. Anyway, if it looks like there'll be any trouble, call me right away.
"Yes. I'll call you later."
I hung up the phone.
The chat window was still shaking like crazy.
"Alright. Then today, we're recruiting ten people again."
But there was nothing particularly special about it.
For me, it was just an ordinary day.
[Kalo Moolbegi gifted 1000 gold!]
[Hyung! Our Yeonggeun is missing!]
"Your Yeonggeun is behind the basement stairs."
Yeonggeun was Kalo Moolbegi's cat.
It had slipped out of the house and hidden in the basement while the door was left open for a moment.
To be exact, it was just playing with another cat in the basement.
-Excellent: You're all in on it, so what's the point lol. This kid picked a ridiculously obnoxious gimmick lol.
"Heeseok from Mullae-dong. You've got a test tomorrow, and you still have time to watch a stream?"
I flipped the card over and said.
Then a post immediately popped up.
-Excellent: No, lol. What Mullae-dong? I live in Busan, lol.
"Want me to tell you the school you go to?"
[Excellent has left the chat.]
-There's still guys like this these days.
-Should I flip everything upside down again like last time;;;
I cleanly sent the troll packing.
After that, I messed around a bit until I caught one person and read their fortune.
[Ppeuhongi gifted 10000 gold!]
[Hello! I'm Ppeuhongi! I'm planning to do a live mukbang at one of two places this week, so please recommend one!!]
Ppeuhongi.
A YouTuber with over a million subscribers.
He had a friendly, likable face and ate like crazy, so he was very popular.
When I was at the orphanage, I'd seen it too when the older brothers and sisters put it on while eating ramyeon.
Let's see...
"You're thinking about the Chinese restaurant in Bucheon and the hangover soup place in Yangpyeong, right?"
-Ppeuhongi: Gasp;;;
-What?! You actually got it right?
-Ppeuhongi is showing up at the Bucheon Chinese restaurant!!
-He said he was torn between Yangpyeong and that lol
Everyone was going crazy.
Well, you can't ignore a million-subscriber YouTuber.
Especially since he's a good person who donates a lot too.
"Forget the Bucheon Chinese restaurant. If you go film there, it'll be a bust."
-Huh? Why is that...?
"Because on the day of filming, the chef will be feeling sick and won't be able to cook properly."
His mind seemed to be leaning toward the Bupyeong Chinese restaurant.
So the future came up as a Chinese restaurant.
But when he was about to film, the chef's mild cold from the morning worsened, and his fever rose so high he couldn't even taste the food.
In the end, the food turned out a mess, and the shoot that day was ruined, wasting only time and money.
-Ppeuhongi: Then I guess Yangpyeong after all...
"Yangpyeong isn't good either."
-Ppeuhongi: Uh...
"Because you'll get into an accident on the way to film in Yangpyeong."
The future changed.
Into a future where he and his staff would be hospitalized in a traffic accident.
There was no need to go somewhere they were bound to have an accident.
-Ppeuhongi: Hmm... Then I'll have to think of somewhere else. Thank you!
[Ppeuhongi gifted 10000 gold!]
[Thank you~!]
And just like that, the million-subscriber YouTuber headed off.
The chat window quickly started buzzing.
-Wow lol, hyung's hanging out with the big leagues now?
-Are you going to do a collab with Ppeuhongi later?
-He was my little secret hyung...
-I subscribed first...
-I clicked recommend first...
I've already worked with a conglomerate chairman, so what.
A big-shot YouTuber is no different.
"Alright. Next."
***
To be honest, Ppeuhongi found it hard to believe.
Fortune-telling?
Could that even make sense?
But he couldn't show that.
Anyway, the public wanted it to be real right now.
"Then what do we do? Cancel both reservations?"
"Hmm..."
He was torn.
But the decision came quickly.
"Cancel both and let's go to Jongno in Seoul."
"Haha. Isn't there going to be another problem in Seoul?"
"Come on. As if that would happen?
YouTuber Ppeuhongi.
Seol Giryang smiled and shook his head.
That was when the filming day arrived.
I got a call from the employee I had sent to the Bupyeong side to apologize for the change in filming and coordinate the next schedule.
-Hey. The jajangmyeon is disgustingly salty, so I asked about it and apparently the chef suddenly came down with a bad cold. If we'd filmed there, it'd have been a disaster...
"......"
It was true.
Then if we had gone to Yangpyeong...?
Ppeuhongi swallowed hard.
Not only that, but the staff also felt cold sweat trickling down their spines.
"N-now, this worked out well!"
"Right?"
"Aha... Surely it didn't really turn out like that..."
"Let's hurry up and go film."
Everyone was trying hard to say that, but they knew it.
That his fortune-telling was real.
They felt both anxious and amazed, but they still had work to do.
They headed to the meat restaurant that had agreed to cooperate with the filming.
A famous meat restaurant in Jongno.
It was also known as a great restaurant, so eating there shouldn't be a problem.
Since it was long past mealtime, there weren't many customers.
"Hello~!"
It was already three o'clock.
There were customers scattered around the shop, eating a late lunch.
And then.
One of them caught Ppeuhongi's eye.
"Wow. Those ribs are done for."
It was Kang Noa, busily stuffing his face with meat.