Chapter 50
When I saw Hong Siyeon on the other end of the phone earlier, I saw the future.
A deranged man, drunk on alcohol and drugs, would enter the school with a gun, kill dozens of children there, and be arrested.
That hadn't happened yet, but there wasn't much time left.
"We need to move as quickly as possible. Can you do it?"
Hong Siyeon, who had been listening quietly to me, looked at me steadily as if asking if I had anything else to say.
The future changes.
From the image of Hong Siyeon staring blankly at a scene where dozens of people had been killed or injured.
Into a hero who spotted the dangerous man, reported him immediately, and evacuated the children.
This was enough.
"I believe you can do it well."
-All right. Thank you for trusting me.
"I've always believed in you, President Hong."
Hong Siyeon's smile on the screen stopped for a moment.
And then it deepened.
-...Leave it to me.
Hong Siyeon's eyes sparkled.
***
As soon as she hung up, Hong Siyeon let out a sigh.
What were the odds that something like this would happen while she was here?
But she couldn't back down.
"James, Levin, Rachel. Please help me."
"Boss. What's wrong?"
"Is it that shaman?"
"Rachel. What are you talking about? A shaman?"
"There is. Someone the boss likes."
"W-well... th-that's not it."
Hong Siyeon hurriedly replied to Rachel and shook her head.
"They said a crazy guy with a gun is going to come in here right now."
"....."
Only then did the bodyguards' expressions turn serious.
Looking around at them, Hong Siyeon grinned.
"I wasn't told what kind of guy he is."
"...I see."
The bodyguards didn't ask any further.
That was because it was the boss's orders.
.
.
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Ali Marsha, who worked as a janitor at Atlanta Heavers Middle School, gulped down cheap brandy with one hand on the wheel.
Though it was obvious drunk driving, he didn't care and glanced at the passenger seat.
The bag there was full of guns.
Two shotguns bought from a gang, and three handguns.
Finally, a rifle he had stolen from a supermarket and modified.
Hundreds of rounds of ammunition.
Grinding his teeth, he gripped the wheel tightly and hurled the empty bottle out the window.
The place he was heading for was one he resented.
The place that had cut him down without mercy.
He'd only smoked in the corner, and yes, it had caused a fire, but...
There were no victims, were there?
And yet they fired him over something that trivial.
That was unacceptable to Ali.
'Those bitches too...!!'
The teachers at the school came to mind.
They only knew how to count and write, that was all.
They looked like hookers waiting to spread their legs at the nearby club once school was out.
The way they frowned whenever they saw him was unbearable.
No, it wasn't just that.
The kids at that school were unforgivable too.
What gave them the right?
They'd all grow up to live the same lowlife life as him anyway.
And yet they dared to look down on me.
Ali ground his teeth and walked on.
The school where he'd worked came into view.
He parked the car on the road in front of the school.
No parking?
He didn't care about that.
If he killed those sluts and those goddamn bastards, everything would be easier.
'I can even smear shit all over that bastard principal's face.'
That rude old principal who had signed off on firing him without hesitation.
According to a former coworker still working at the school, he'd heard that a special guest was definitely coming to the school today.
What if something happened on a day like that?
No, what if he put a few bullets into the body of that so-called special guest too?
He took a big hit of weed and grinned.
Everything was ready.
Now all he had to do was go in.
Looking at his reflection in the mirror, he muttered softly.
"You rotten bastards...!!"
It was time to move.
After getting out of the car, he walked calmly toward the school.
The school entrance came into view.
Normally, only one old security guard would be there.
He'd quickly take him out, go inside, and kill the students.
The entire plan was already laid out in his head.
'...Huh?'
First, take down the guard.
Just as he thought that and pointed his gun at the guard post, Ali was startled.
At the guard post.
The old guard who should have always been dozing here was nowhere to be seen.
"...Tsk."
Lucky.
But that was all.
No one to interfere meant he could get into the school more quietly.
He let out a light breath and slowly walked toward the school.
He crossed the wide playground.
And the moment he stepped into the school building.
-BANG!!
"Ugh?!"
A powerful blow struck his body.
Dropping the gun in his hand, Ali hurriedly tried to grab the shotgun and resist.
But the bullet that had been fired pierced his hand.
"Aaaagh!!"
He screamed in pain.
What?
Why?
He saw people in black clothes aiming their gun barrels at him.
Why were they here?
Why were the cops waiting there as if they'd known he was coming?
"...How...?"
The answer to his dazed question was
the rifle butt swung by the man in black.
The man who knocked Ali unconscious and cuffed his hands picked up a radio.
-We've apprehended him
.
.
.
After checking the radio report, Owen Grupper, chief of the Atlanta, Georgia Police Department, let out a sigh of relief.
When he first received the report, he thought it was complete bullshit.
A shooting at the district middle school?
A guy with a gun would show up and cause trouble within an hour?
If it was a joke, it was a very unfunny one.
Wasn't a fellow chief in Georgia just chewed out by the governor and even suspended after a shooting at a high school?
And now there was going to be a shooting in his own jurisdiction.
His mind was a mess.
Since he couldn't dismiss it as a simple false report, he went there himself with his subordinates.
The caller was none other than a Korean.
But she wasn't someone he could dismiss as just a tourist.
Because not only the governor of Georgia, but even some senators, had connections with the woman who identified herself as Hong Siyeon.
So Owen did his best to prepare.
He requested support from the police SWAT team.
In the meantime, the students were evacuated to the gym along with Hong Siyeon, her bodyguards, and the police she had brought.
It was unlikely, but if that madman noticed the police lying in ambush at the school entrance and tried to jump the fence, it would be dangerous.
After getting the principal's permission.
He really had come.
A madman with half-lidded eyes, as if he'd come in after taking drugs.
A man armed with a shotgun, a rifle, and a handgun.
He watched tensely through the gym window, and sure enough, the man couldn't break through the quickly arrived SWAT team's perimeter.
He had prevented a shooting that might have killed or injured dozens of innocent students.
Owen let out a sigh of relief and looked to the side.
He saw the beautiful woman who had helped him and the officers reassure the students.
"Thank you, Miss Hong. Thanks to you, we were able to escape a major danger."
"Not at all. I'm just glad no one was hurt."
Owen grinned at her fluent English.
What a good person.
"But how on earth did you know that guy would come?"
Was this some kind of Eastern mystique?
They say beauties have special powers; could this woman be a mage?
No, even a witch would be fine.
How many shooting rampages happen in the United States in a year?
If Hong Siyeon could tell him that.
If she could prevent those awful incidents, what did it matter what she was?
"Could it be that you noticed because you know some gang members..."
"Haha. Gangs? No, not at all."
Her answer went far beyond Owen's expectations.
"I just passed it along."
Passed it along?
Owen remembered the book his daughter had been reading.
Conspiracy theories about the Freemasons and the Committee of 300.
'No, maybe...'
Maybe it was a group of heroes fighting terrorists in a world you'd only see in movies.
His heart was pounding despite his age.
"C-could it be some kind of secret hero organization? If so, I can help you too!"
Honestly, how could a man resist that?
He was only a police chief in Georgia, but if he could legally lend a hand to heroes straight out of a Marvel comic, he'd do it without hesitation.
"Hahahaha!! That's not it either."
"Oh. Then what is it?"
"Someone I know... um, a friend, I guess? That person told me."
"A friend of Miss Hong's, then...?"
"They're Korean."
"How would a Korean know about this? Oh. A detective? Something like that?"
Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot.
Was there really a genius in Korea who could deduce everything from where he sat, like the protagonist of the mystery novels he read as a child?
At his expectant gaze, Hong Siyeon burst out laughing again and said,
"No. He's a streamer."
"...Huh?"
A streamer.
Someone who broadcasts on the internet.
Hong Siyeon left the gym just like that, leaving the bewildered man behind.
Reporters had already gathered in front of the school after somehow hearing the news.
Owen, still staring blankly, quickly went out and explained the situation.
He praised Hong Siyeon and her bodyguards, who had played the biggest role in all of this.
.
.
.
After such an eventful, unbelievable day, Owen went home, remembered what Hong Siyeon had said, picked up his phone, and searched for that man.
"Dad? What are you doing?"
"Oh. Swan. Our adorable daughter. Did you have fun at school today?"
"Same as always. Nothing much."
His adorable daughter, Swan, came over.
She hugged her father, Owen, from behind, kissed his cheek a few times, and looked at the phone he was holding.
It showed an Asian man enthusiastically chattering away in Korean she couldn't understand.
"Huh? This guy...!!"
"Swan. Do you know him?"
"Yeah. Joanna mentioned him on her stream before."
A famous pop singer.
She'd mentioned him on one of her occasional livestreams.
"His name is Kang Noa. I heard he's a really amazing fortune-teller?"
"A fortune-teller?"
"What is this nonsense now?"