Chapter 53
“Huff… haaah….”
As always, Hyeonsu barely managed to keep up with the training, gasping for breath.
They’d been training together for several days already, yet he still hadn’t adjusted.
“Still, you kept up today without slowing down.”
“Huff… I think I’m gonna die….”
“Drink some water.”
Juhyuk handed him a bottle and sat down beside him.
He sat quietly, soaking in the sunlight. Gradually, the sound of panting next to him tapered off.
Cars bustled past them since early morning.
‘Right. I need to buy a car.’
He had been so busy that he’d forgotten. He’d meant to look at the passing cars and maybe casually ask Hyeonsu for advice when—
‘Those people….’
Across the crosswalk, several people appeared—faces masked, wearing identical fedoras.
Among them, one stood out: a woman with a familiar height and stride.
She wasn’t wearing her usual hoodie but a black suit, which felt wrong on her—yet it was undeniably her.
The group crossed slowly when the light turned green and stopped in front of Juhyuk.
“Long time no see.”
Juhyuk greeted first.
Unfortunately, the familiar face did not respond warmly.
She simply stared at him silently, as if expecting something else.
“You know them?”
“Those people.”
“….”
He said only those people, yet Hyeonsu immediately recognized them and frowned.
He quickly forgot his exhaustion, silently scanning the group.
What filled his eyes was, of course, caution.
A tension hung in the air, as if something might happen any second.
“It’s fine. No need for everyone to be on edge.”
Juhyuk gestured for him to relax.
He casually opened the water bottle Hyeonsu had been drinking from.
“You saw the news?”
A week had passed.
Korea was in an uproar.
The cause? A so-called “confession of conscience” from the Association President—really an exposé.
It included everything about the lab that experimented on orphans, even implicating the former Association president and various executives.
He had said the story would be suppressed before airing, but now the news was flooded with nothing but reports about the lab.
“He said it would never go public… and yet, it did.”
Hyunho Candy’s long-desired target.
The rotten roots in the Association had been torn out. They would disappear from sight for a while.
“With this, there’s no need to target the Association anymore. Right?”
“….”
The Hyunho Candy members stayed silent.
Then the woman with the familiar voice finally spoke.
“Thanks to you, it’s become harder to track them.”
“Wouldn’t it be easier now that they’ve distanced themselves from the Association?”
“I mean things got more complicated.”
Because Juhyuk forced the target out of the Association, the target had gone into hiding.
And those people were never the type to step down easily just because he told them to “get out.”
If they accepted demotion quietly over a single exposé, there had to be a reason.
A reasonable conclusion:
“The president must have leaked information to the target, so they stepped down willingly.”
After going public, the Association president confessed everything—including the fact that an awakened being contracted with a demon was hunting them.
So they decided to lay low. Which meant Hyunho Candy had to locate the target again.
“Why did you pull such a pointless stunt?”
“Pointless? This is incredibly important.”
Juhyuk took a sip of water and exhaled.
Despite their sharp glares, he casually tossed the bottle onto the bench.
“If the Association collapses completely, that puts me in trouble.”
“That’s not our problem.”
Jia’s voice rose, maybe from irritation.
She took a step closer, eyeing him sharply.
“The point is that your actions messed up our plans.”
“Really? Messed up, huh…”
Did he cause complications?
Probably yes.
If their plan had been to go after the Association directly…
“If I hadn’t stepped in, you think your group could’ve destroyed the Association?”
Would their plan have ever worked?
Could Hyunho Candy really have taken down all the targets in the Association?
Juhyuk didn’t even need to think.
“If you had that kind of power, you would’ve stormed in already.”
“We were waiting for the right time.”
“Right, which is why after destroying the lab, you spent ten years chasing the target’s tail?”
“You—!”
“Just admit it.”
Juhyuk flicked the water bottle into the air.
It spun several times before landing upright on the bench.
“You guys should be grateful. I opened an easier road for you.”
A target now severed from the Association’s protection.
If they were to enter politics, they would inevitably reveal themselves. That would be the perfect time to strike.
“He’s right.”
One of the employees stepped forward, stopping the angry woman.
Judging by the eyes and voice, it was Yeonho—the one who approached him first.
“To be honest, fighting the Association directly had many difficulties.”
But… something was off.
Was this really the same Yeonho who shot up a trash can?
“But what we want to talk about is the process.”
Another man—whose identity Juhyuk couldn’t place—raised a hand.
The bottle Juhyuk had tossed rose into the air, untouched.
“You recognized our target.”
With his hand, the bottle floated higher.
Then he clenched his fist.
CRACK!
The bottle compressed like it had entered a crusher, falling as a tight plastic ball.
So that’s him.
One of the orphanage twins—the first to awaken.
“You’re Hyunho?”
His name differed from Yeonho by a single stroke.
Same voice, same eyes—easy to deduce.
He didn’t reply, only met Juhyuk’s gaze.
Juhyuk had hoped for at least a yes or no, but since the man didn’t want to answer, he let it go and responded to the earlier question instead.
“I don’t like choosing sides. Hard to just say I’m on anyone’s team.”
“A bystander, then.”
Hyunho looked down at him, eyes emotionless.
“You’re the same type as the people we’re targeting.”
“That’s a bit harsh.”
And maybe true.
He didn’t care what they did to their targets. He wasn’t involved. “Bystander” fit.
“Even though we had to cause a scene and visit the Association President because of you.”
Still, too many events tied him to them to call him a true outsider.
“Think of me as someone who moves for his own benefit.”
“If you only follow your benefit, then you could’ve simply blocked us when we targeted the Association.”
“There was a reason I didn’t.”
Juhyuk stood, grabbed the crushed bottle, and tossed it into a bin.
Clank—!
A perfect arc.
He smiled in satisfaction.
“First, you people already know where I live.”
If he opposed them, his mother might be endangered—
the one thing he absolutely wanted to avoid.
“Second… I don’t want to say.”
If he said he didn’t want to stop them after hearing their past, they’d feel pitied.
He didn’t want that.
“Anyway, that’s why I came up with this alternative.”
He sat again, casually smearing the spilled water with his shoe.
“A way for us to avoid clashing.”
“….”
“I honestly think it was very reasonable.”
He ensured they didn’t have to become enemies.
This situation allowed both sides to walk away without problems.
The others seemed to agree, since none of them argued.
“You finished?”
“…Not yet.”
Hyunho lowered himself onto one knee to meet Juhyuk’s eye level.
“That target isn’t the only one.”
What radiated from his eyes was unending hatred.
The mask hid half his face, but the simmering fury was visible.
“When we were trapped in that hellish lab, the ones who ignored us weren’t just the Association.”
“So who else?”
Juhyuk asked, uninterested.
Hyunho immediately answered.
“The government.”
Short, heavy words.
“The Association trash who covered up the lab, and the government of South Korea.”
Hyunho said it clearly:
He intended to target the South Korean government.
He declared he would erase everyone who turned a blind eye to their suffering.
“Anyone involved—we’re wiping them out.”
Anyone would be shocked.
A criminal hunter group openly declaring war on the government.
Not a small gang—but one with an awakened being contracted with a demon.
Yet—
“That so?”
Juhyuk accepted their declaration without the slightest reaction.
He stood and tapped the still-tense Hyeonsu to get up.
“Do what you want. Just don’t get on my nerves.”
He walked away, guiding Hyeonsu.
Then he suddenly turned back toward Sung Jia.
“Hey! Come by for bread next time. My mom was asking about you.”
“….”
“Or don’t. Whatever.”
He left, ignoring her silence.
Hyunho Candy members watched until his figure disappeared.
