Chapter 244. Min Juri’s Courage
‘I told John to stay in seclusion for the time being, so he won’t end up falling to Berber, right?’
When Ryu Min told him that Berber was aiming for the next cult leader position, John’s reaction was fierce.
-I knew it! What should we do, Master! Should we drag that traitor bastard here right now and skin him alive?
-Don’t get worked up, John. What do we gain by killing him like that? Nothing but self-satisfaction, right?
After calming the slave who couldn’t contain his rage, Ryu Min gave the order for him to hide in the Messiah’s cabin for the time being.
‘Either way, they’re all going to die when Round 15 comes. Berber and the Church of Despair.’
He had no intention of sparing murderers who killed Christine’s followers.
If he was going to kill them, he would use them for clearing the Round first—then kill them.
[In a moment, our aircraft will arrive at Incheon International Airport.]
After arriving in Korea, Ryu Min made a phone call before stopping by home.
Because he had seen the text from Min Juri.
“Oh, Juri. You said you had something to tell me. Want to meet now? Okay. See you there.”
After ending the call, Ryu Min drove a Lamborghini to the meeting place.
But on the way there, Min Juri’s voice from earlier kept nagging at the back of his mind.
‘Is she sick? Her voice sounded really low and heavy…….’
Well, a person can’t always be in a good mood.
Sometimes it’s like this, sometimes it’s like that.
‘I don’t know what she wants to talk about, but this works out. I had to meet her and tell her the strategy anyway. And I need to give her the invisibility potion too.’
The invisibility potion helped clear Round 15’s first mission more safely.
After Christine, he had also given a bottle to John Delgado.
‘If I give one more to Min Juri, that leaves two bottles.’
After thinking about who to give them to, he decided on Seo Arin and Yamtwi.
They were members who would definitely be helpful if kept alive.
After driving for about thirty minutes, he arrived at the café they had agreed on.
Jingle—
When he opened the door and walked in, he saw Min Juri already there, waiting.
“Oh, you got here earl—”
But something about her expression wasn’t normal.
Ryu Min sat across from her and asked worriedly.
“Juri.”
“Uh…… you’re here?”
“Did you wait long?”
Min Juri slowly shook her head.
She didn’t look at Ryu Min.
As if she didn’t have the courage to.
‘What is it? She looks like someone who committed a crime.’
It wasn’t that she couldn’t meet his eyes because she was guilty.
Rather, it was as if she was avoiding eye contact because she feared she wouldn’t be able to control her emotions if she did.
‘Why?’
He had tried not to read Min Juri’s thoughts as much as possible, but he couldn’t leave it like this.
He had to know what was going on.
About ten seconds after he read her inner thoughts—
‘Ah.’
He understood.
A reason that made a sigh come out on its own.
‘While I was in the U.S., Seo Arin came to my place with her.’
And in that process, Min Juri misunderstood.
That he had gone to meet his Japanese girlfriend.
‘Won, that little punk said something unnecessary…… No, this isn’t the time to blame my brother. I’m the one who made it easy to misunderstand.’
Only silence flowed between them, but he had grasped the situation.
He needed to untie the knot.
“Juri. What’s with that expression? Did something bad happen?”
First, he acted like he didn’t know.
Rather than immediately blurting out that it was a misunderstanding, it would feel more natural to draw her into speaking first.
“Well…….”
After hesitating, Min Juri finally opened her mouth.
Still with her gaze lowered.
“You went…… abroad, right?”
“Huh? How do you know that?”
“When you didn’t pick up even when I called, I got worried something happened, so I went to your place. Your younger brother was there…….”
“Ah, you met my brother? His name is Ryu Won. He’s my biological younger brother, four years younger—my only family. That was your first time meeting him, right?”
It wasn’t the first time, but Min Juri nodded anyway.
“Right……. I didn’t expect you to have a younger brother, so I was surprised, but he said something even more surprising.”
‘Is she about to get to the point?’
Ryu Min swallowed and asked.
“What did he say?”
“He said you have a girlfriend. A Japanese…….”
“Ahh, that’s…….”
“How could you do that to me?”
Min Juri finally raised her eyes.
Tears had already pooled and shimmered in her eyes.
“If you have a girlfriend, you should say you do. Do I really have to hear it from someone else’s mouth?”
“No, it’s just—”
“Do you know how shocked and flustered I was? Aren’t we friends? If you’re dating, at least you can tell me you’re dating.”
“…….”
As he watched her speak rapidly while crystal-like tears fell in drops, one thought surfaced.
‘If she’s this upset just because I hid a girlfriend… then if she ever finds out I’m Black Scythe…….’
Would she say he’d been playing with her, that she couldn’t even stand to look at him, and cut ties?
Because he hid his identity from his closest friend.
‘Thinking about it, that’s chilling.’
He was telling himself he needed to hide his identity from Min Juri no matter what, when her sharp gaze stabbed toward him.
“Since when were you dating? Why did you hide it from me?”
Staring at him as if he were a boyfriend caught cheating, Min Juri lifted her eyes, and Ryu Min waved his hands with a cold feeling running through him.
“Wait. It’s a misunderstanding.”
“A misunderstanding?”
Given a brief chance to explain, Ryu Min continued calmly.
“To start with the conclusion, I don’t have a girlfriend.”
“You don’t?”
“I traveled to Japan once, and after that, since I started sleeping out more often, my brother saw that and misunderstood on his own. He assumed I must have a Japanese girlfriend.”
“So…… it’s all my brother’s misunderstanding? You don’t have a girlfriend?”
Ryu Min nodded with eyes full of sincerity.
“Yeah. And I haven’t even been to Japan since then.”
“Then why didn’t you tell your brother the truth?”
“I didn’t want to explain things at length, so I just let him keep misunderstanding. I didn’t expect you’d react like this because of it…….”
“…….”
At the word “react,” Min Juri pictured what her face must look like.
‘Ah…… what do I do.’
She’d made a spectacle of herself, crying without even knowing it was a misunderstanding.
Realizing too late that her reaction had been excessive, she lowered her face again.
She didn’t have the courage to lift her head.
“S-so that’s what it was…… I misunderstood. I’m…… sorry.”
“It’s okay. I’m the one who’s sorry. I made you misunderstand for no reason.”
When Ryu Min apologized, Min Juri’s shoulders shrank even more.
‘So this is what it feels like to want to crawl into a mouse hole.’
Her anger had dissolved, but embarrassment was her burden to carry.
‘Idiot, moron! Why did I get that mad over something like this? He’s not even my boyfriend……!’
While she berated herself, Min Juri lifted her head.
“I’m sorry. For showing you an ugly side of me. You must’ve been flustered when I suddenly cried, right?”
“I was a little surprised, but it’s fine. That can happen.”
He tried to smooth it over with a smile, acting like it was nothing, but Min Juri didn’t seem willing to let it pass and started rambling.
“It might look weird, but please don’t think it’s weird. I thought you were lying, and my emotions surged, so I cried…… and this isn’t something to cry over, so why did I cry, then…….”
It seemed she wanted to make him understand her behavior somehow.
Because she was afraid he might misunderstand the tears in a strange way.
But Min Juri soon realized.
That no matter what she said now, it would look strange.
That it was too late to make it understandable, no matter how she explained.
‘If that’s the case, then rather…….’
A long silence followed.
Ryu Min tried to hide his flustered feeling.
Because Min Juri’s thoughts were coming through without any filter.
‘No. I can’t. I shouldn’t.’
“Min-ah.”
She suddenly looked at him with serious eyes and spoke, and Ryu Min couldn’t stop it.
If he could, he wanted to stop it.
He wanted to shout at her not to say it.
“There’s something I want to say…….”
But he knew Min Juri had made up her mind and gathered her courage, so he couldn’t stop her.
“Now that it’s come to this, I’ll say it. The truth is, I…….”
“Wait. We haven’t even ordered anything to drink. What do you want? I’ll go order—”
“Don’t go! This is important.”
“…….”
He tried to slip away subtly, but failed.
Min Juri took that one step forward—courage, at last.
“I like you.”
“Huh?”
He tried to pretend he hadn’t heard, but it was useless.
“I said I like you.”
“…….”
In the end, he was confessed to.
Honestly, he hadn’t expected it to come to this.
‘Coming out to clear up a misunderstanding, only to get confessed to…….’
He could see seven seconds into the future, but he couldn’t respond to it.
Min Juri’s heart was already decided, and there was no way to turn it back.
‘This is the worst.’
It wasn’t that he disliked Min Juri.
He acknowledged she was a truly, truly good friend.
And as a Buffer, she was an absolutely necessary presence.
But not to the extent that he could accept her confession as romantic feelings.
In the first place, Ryu Min was someone who had repeated regressions and spent decades with a single purpose: survival.
He had no room to date anyone.
‘Not only do I have no feelings like that, but clearing Round 20 is more important than anything.’
When Ryu Min stayed silent for a long time, Min Juri spoke with a reddened face.
“Y-you’re surprised, right? Sorry for confessing so suddenly. But if I wanted to explain why I cried, I had no choice but to tell you how I feel.”
“So you cried because you like me.”
“……Y-yeah.”
“I understand.”
When he nodded as if it made sense, Min Juri was the one who looked flustered.
“Th-that’s it?”
“…….”
“You don’t have anything else to say?”
“Should we order coffee? What do you want?”
“…….”
He didn’t say it directly, but he had already answered the confession.
‘Pretending not to hear, pretending it’s nothing, rejecting her indirectly—this is the best for Min Juri.’
But Ryu Min said it without knowing.
“Why are you pretending you don’t know?”
Min Juri had no intention of letting it slide like this.
She wanted a clear answer.
“You heard what I said.”
“Ah, th-that?”
“I said I like you. Since we ended up in the same class, all the way from then.”
“…….”
“So what about you? What am I to you?”
“Before I answer…… I have a question.”
Ryu Min asked, purely to avoid answering as much as possible.
“Why do you even like someone like me?”
“What’s wrong with you!”
Min Juri snapped like it was her own business.
Then, realizing the people around them, her voice dropped again.
“Y-you live while working hard, you know. Whether you get hit by bullies or not.”
“How do you know I got hit by bullies?”
“You don’t know this, but I happened to witness it. You being bullied in an alley. I even reported it to the police a few times.”
“I see.”
“After the police left, I followed without realizing it because I was worried—and then I saw you working at a barbecue place. You. Working part-time like it was nothing, even after getting beaten like that.”
Min Juri’s confession was a first in this loop, but Ryu Min already knew.
What part of him she liked.
‘She must’ve found it fresh—and attractive—that I kept working even while injured. But…….’
Back then, Ryu Min had no choice but to work, even if it meant enduring pain.
Just like now—forced by survival.
‘I’m grateful you saw that in a good light. But isn’t it a hasty misconception to call it love?’
More than anything, he had changed.
Now, the pure Ryu Min from that time didn’t exist anymore.
There was only a monster who would slaughter thousands of Players and monsters and angels to clear the Rounds.
‘That’s why it won’t work. You and me.’
Toward Min Juri, who waited quietly for his answer, Ryu Min opened his mouth softly.
“I’m sorry.”
“…….”
“It was so sudden that I panicked without realizing it.”
“Then what do you think……?”
“I…….”
As Ryu Min dragged it out, Min Juri’s lips went bone-dry.