Chapter 127: Chapter 127

From the moment it was discovered that I came from the future, I had no intention of hiding the fact that I was Woo I-rok.

I figured I’d be found out soon anyway, and even if I tried to hide it, it would only make things more complicated for me and bring no benefit. But somehow, it felt like losing if I explained everything in detail myself, so I waited until Hong Seok-young acknowledged it.

After all, the one with something to gain is usually the first to speak.

“You were waiting for me to say it?”

Hong Seok-young looked at me in disbelief.

“Has no one ever told you that you have a nasty personality?”

“I’ve heard it a lot.”

Hong Seok-young stared at me silently. If I’d been intimidated by that look, I wouldn’t have dared to mess around in Myeong-dong, trying to fool Hong Seok-young in the first place.

“I was wondering when you’d finally catch on.”

You’re sharp as a hawk in other situations, but weirdly enough, you miss the most obvious things right under your nose.

If he really couldn’t figure it out, I had planned to find the right moment to tell him.

Hong Seok-young said sheepishly.

“Well… back then, both of us were out of our minds.”

If he puts it that way, I can’t argue.

After mumbling a few pointless words, Hong Seok-young finally cleared his throat and got to the point.

“Then what was all that about being an internal informant?”

“I didn’t bother correcting a fantastic misunderstanding born out of a string of coincidences.”

“In the time I came from, I was just a ten-year-old kid. What would I know about being an internal informant or whatever?”

Complicated emotions flickered across Hong Seok-young’s face.

It seemed he finally connected the dots between the fact that Woo I-rok is me and that I was kept locked up in a research lab without even a proper birth registration.

“Originally, you know. The Ark’s research lab at the training center should have still been there even now.”

No need to mix in useless lies.

“Until next year, when you lead other Hunters and raid it.”

“Don’t ask me how the situation played out at the time. I don’t know either. I was rescued by you next year, and that became the start of our connection. I was living in an orphanage, and you came by for some volunteer work or something.”

This part is all true.

Hong Seok-young is originally from an orphanage. He d at least once a year, and after getting married, he used to go volunteer with his wife. He stopped after she passed away, but after his son died, he started again.

“So I took you in as my disciple?”

“Not right away, no.”

“You took care of me like a sponsor. Kind of like how you’re looking after Yoo Hye-eun and Yoo Ji-eun now.”

If you want to hide something, it’s best to do it within the truth. The more lies you tell, the more lies you have to keep telling to maintain them. Keep doing that, and the chance of getting caught only increases. Once you start getting confused, everything falls apart.

The most natural lie is a single lie hidden within many truths.

Besides, I’m not even lying right now. There’s just one thing I don’t want to talk about.

"You told me later that when I was at the orphanage, you were reminded of your own childhood."

Everything I’m saying to Hong Seok-young now really did happen.

Except I left out the part where my father adopted me from that place.

“You started sponsoring me because I kept sticking in your mind when you visited, and eventually you realized I had Awakened.”

Hong Seok-young nodded like he had a rough idea of how things unfolded.

After all, it’s still himself. He could probably guess how it all went.

“You helped me with registering as an Awakened and took care of various things… and whenever you had time, you taught me how to control my power, little by little.”

“And then you entered Pilot High School.”

“What? No. I went to a regular high school.”

“…But you were my successor, right? You didn’t go to Pilot High?”

"I was worrying a lot about my career path around middle school. Yoo Ji-eun, that woman, she kept pestering me to get into Pilot High, but because she was nagging so much right next to me… it just made me want to resist even more….”

It was absolutely not my fault. Hong Seok-young’s expression turned subtle, but I pretended not to see it. I didn’t see it.

Saying it makes it sound as if I didn’t enter the Academy because of Yoo Ji-eun, but that wasn’t the case. No matter how petty I can be, I wouldn’t make a life-altering decision solely because of Yoo Ji-eun.

At the time, there were a lot more problems.

Things that the Hong Seok-young in front of me would never know.

For example, like how Yoo Ji-eun had been temporarily dispatched to the Academy as an assistant instructor.

“So you went to a regular high school?”

“You said a Hunter only needs to be good at fighting, that academic background doesn’t matter.”

Hong Seok-young nodded with a serious face.

“That does sound like something I’d say.”

“It is something you said.”

He corrected himself.

“That is something I said.”

Not exactly what a Pilot High School principal should say, but it really was something he’d said. Back when Yoo Ji-eun threw a fit trying to get me admitted to the Academy.

While Yoo Ji-eun clutched the back of her neck in disbelief, I corrected my father’s words.

‘I told you, I’m not going to be a Hunter.’

If Yoo Ji-eun saw me now, she’d probably laugh at me for days, saying she told me so.

“I started working under you properly after I graduated from college.”

“Hmm… Alright. Let’s continue that story another time.”

I shrugged, meaning he could do as he liked.

Hong Seok-young didn’t take his eyes off me, then carefully asked.

“Your younger brother… I mean, your younger self. I-rok, ten-year-old you.”

"Just call him what you've been calling him."

"...That child seemed to think of you as his older brother."

“Well, he has a hyung.”

“That hyung. By any chance.”

There’s no way I wouldn’t recognize the story that Hong Seok-young pieced together with the few scattered clues he had.

The truth I’d ignored and ignored and ignored over the past few months finally came to my lips.

“He said he found someone who could help us.”

“Someone who would get us out of there.”

Hong Seok-young opened his mouth slightly, then closed it again. A trace of regret flickered across his face. He was probably thinking that if he’d known such a story would come up, he wouldn’t have started talking so lightly.

That’s how life is. Nothing ever goes according to plan. It must have been the same for my brother.

“That was the last time I saw my hyung. Even at the time I came to the past, it had already been a few months.”

If I’d known he wasn’t coming back, I wouldn’t have let him go like that.

Even if I couldn’t stop him, I would have at least called him ‘hyung’ one last time.

I gave a bitter smile.

“If I was going to come to the past anyway, I wish it had been to a time when I could still save him. But I couldn’t do anything then, and there’s no way I can change it now, right?”

"This is a story I never told you originally either."

Hong Seok-young silently listened to me.

“…It must’ve been hard to talk about. Thanks for telling me.”

“What? No. It’s not really that hard to talk about. I was actually planning to say it before the forum started, since you kept not noticing.”

Still, Hong Seok-young’s face didn’t brighten.

Was the childhood of a non-existent disciple really that shocking? Well, it would be a lie to say none of it was difficult.

But I have no intention of digging a hole and clinging to that memory forever.

Someday. Yeah, someday.

I planned to tell my father everything.

Not by feigning calm , but for the first time, calling him ‘father’ out loud and telling him about my hyung and myself.

I couldn’t imagine him getting angry. He’d probably smile as usual, pat me on the shoulder, tell me I’d been through a lot, and give me a big hug. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ novel⸺fire.net

He’d tell me that if I wanted, I could go back to my original name, or I could keep using my brother’s name. And even if I said changing names now would be a hassle, he’d just show that same unconcerned expression like it was nothing.

And then he’d say the words he always did.

‘Son, if there’s something you want to do, this old man will make sure you get to do it.’

In the twenty years I lived as Hong Seok-young’s son, there wasn’t a single time that promise wasn’t kept.

I had the belief that no matter what I did, my father would support me. Even if I committed a crime, I was sure that he, at the very least, would stay by my side until the end.

That was why I tried all the harder to live righteously. I didn’t want anyone to say that my father’s life was ruined because he had a bad son.

“There’s something I’d like to ask of you.”

Hong Seok-young looked at me with a puzzled expression.

"Since we're chasing Ark anyway... weren't you still looking for Kim, Teacher?"

I had assumed that both Mr. Kim and the internal informant had died the moment they lost contact. Nothing changes that. With Hong Seok-young’s personality, he would’ve at least tried to investigate how Mr. Kim died, but judging from things my father had let slip while drinking, there had probably been no progress.

“As far as I know, in the time I came from, you never found him.”

Whether he’d already guessed it from listening to me or not, Hong Seok-young showed no visible disappointment.

It wasn’t likely that my father had been neglectful in trying to find Mr. Kim. He probably did everything he could. Even if he couldn’t recover the body, he would’ve tried to at least find out how he died.

The record of Ark stored in the mana watch had about two more years of data even after I was rescued. The final report ended with confirming the link to the pharmaceutical company and arresting all those involved.

Mr. Kim, Kim Yoo-hwa, remained missing.

If even Mr. Kim ended up that way, what about the internal informant, whose name and face Hong Seok-young didn’t even know?

He was someone born and raised in a bogus cult-like group. There was no way proper records of him existed.

By the time I had enough power to try to do something, nothing remained. If I had known that earlier, I would’ve asked for help sooner.

I don’t know whether we can find him or not. But at the very least, as his younger brother, I can finally begin to try something for my hyung.

“If I help you, maybe things will turn out differently?”

I opened the notes app on the tablet PC. The text, likely written with a finger, was full of crooked letters.

As the pages went on, the handwriting gradually became neater. After about twenty pages, the writing had become quite tidy for a child.

I hadn’t expected this to come before school.

Maybe because I brought up school first….

Lastly, Hong Seok-young asked me,

'Then what about the name Woo Hwijae?'

I paused and thought about the current situation. Going to a movie theater should be manageable. Since it was the first thing written, it seemed right to fulfill that first. Were there any movies currently out that Woo I-rok would enjoy?

‘That’s hyung’s name, of course.’

‘Woo I-rok is your real name?’

'...Would that be okay?'

That question held many meanings.

That man always got sharp only at the worst possible moments.

‘He and I are completely different people now. I grew up without my hyung.’

Because Hong Seok-young’s son wasn’t Woo I-rok. He was Woo Hwijae.

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