I Say This Because You're Like A Son To Me

Venom, the bar down in the dormitory basement, was quieter than usual; it was early enough that the place hadn’t opened yet. I sat at the counter and took a mouthful of the strong whiskey Scorpion had set out for me. With today’s performance bonus and Cha Huigyeong’s downfall both fresh in my head, even the harsh liquor tasted sweet. Come to think of it, when had that started? Knocking back bitter liquor without so much as a flinch.

“Drinking the second you clock out?”
“Of course. Old man, did you see the news today? That Speedgirl woman — getting beaten around by the sidekick she raised herself, bawling and carrying on, an absolute circus.”

I swirled my glass and ran the day back through my mind.

“The other citizens probably don’t even know that much. Too busy cursing Speedgirl out, I’d bet.”

Yoyoboy had been turned into a monkey, and Cha Huigyeong had been beaten into the dirt by that same Yoyoboy. I know the reason. The citizens don’t.

Coming on top of the recent controversy over her attitude, the blow landed that much harder. The Hero Association might even be weighing disciplinary action against her, and the thought of it kept the corners of my mouth from coming down.

“I don’t know if I ever told you, Scorpion, but Speedgirl put me through a lot before I came to Villain Special City.”
“I heard about it. How you ended up all the way out here, too.”
“Did I tell you? Well, I suppose I’ve talked plenty in this bar.”

I breathed out, and the smell of alcohol tickled my nose. My earlier life came back to me out of nowhere. A life lived because I couldn’t manage to die. A life like livestock, wasting air and time and money.

“Maybe this place is a paradise, for me.”

“…”

“Old man, why have you gone so quiet? Say something, anything.”

Normally Scorpion would have let out a hearty “Gwahaha!” and brought his hand down on my shoulder hard enough to shatter it. Instead of answering he stayed bent over a glass, polishing it with a dry cloth. He wasn’t usually this quiet, and I was just starting to worry that something had happened.

“Squirt. You’ve turned into a proper local now, haven’t you.”

Scorpion set down the glass he’d been polishing and poured a fresh drink in front of me. The scorpion tattoo inked across his head glinted under the lights. There wasn’t a trace of laughter left on his face.

“When you first came you were like some scared little pup, always watching everyone’s face for a reaction, and now here you are drinking hard liquor and making a snack out of other people’s misfortune.”
“There’s no helping it, if I want to survive. You’re the one who said it, old man. In the world of Villains there’s no such thing as fighting dirty.”
“That’s about fighting, Squirt. Not about living.”
“…What’s the difference between the two?”
“There’s a difference. A world of difference.”

He set an empty glass down in front of himself and poured that one full as well. The moment it was full, he tipped it into his mouth, and when he spoke his voice had sunk low. Something in the mood straightened my back without my meaning it to.

“I had a son once, too. A boy who loved scorpions more than anything.”

I stared straight at his face. We had traded plenty of idle talk across this counter, but this was the first time since I’d joined Beyond Villain that Scorpion had brought out a story from his own past.

“Ever since he was small he loved poring over animal and plant encyclopedias. Take him to an unusual pet shop and he’d stand there staring for ages.”
“He must have been an adorable son.”
“That’s right. I never once doubted he’d grow up to be a great scholar, like Fabre.¹”

“…”

“And that boy of mine was killed by a Villain the year he turned ten.”

He poured himself another glass without a word and drank it down again. Two glasses of that hard liquor gone in an instant, before I could stop him. Not that I could have brought myself to. How could I presume to comfort the grief of a parent who had lost a child?

“Once I’d sent him off, there was nothing left in all the world. I lived at the bottom of a bottle every day, and the money I’d put aside ran dry soon enough.”

He turned the empty glass in his fingers, a bitter, sneering smile on his lips.

“Time I came to my senses I had a knife in my hand and I was taking other people’s money, having become the very Villain I hated and despised so much.”

“…”

“Then I awakened, scraped by however I could, and drifted all the way out here.”

Scorpion lifted his head and stared at the gaudy light hanging from the bar’s ceiling.

“Squirt.”
“…Yes.”

“Villain Special City might look like paradise to you, but this place is no paradise. A place where people keep themselves alive by selling off the bare minimum of what a person ought to have… that kind of garbage bin.”

A third glass was emptied. His fingertips had begun to tremble, faintly.

“I’m not against you taking revenge on that Hero, the one they call Speedgirl. But don’t let the revenge devour you and wipe out the ‘person’ inside you along with it.”

“…”

“I say this… because you’re like a son to me.”

— Tromp-tromp.

Leaving nothing but those words behind, Scorpion walked straight into the liquor storeroom. I looked down into the swaying surface of the whiskey. Back when I hadn’t been here long, I had certainly been drinking liquor as sweet as a soft drink. Somewhere between who I was back then and who I am now, had I thrown away something a ‘person’ is never meant to throw away?

I’ve… changed, have I?

With Scorpion gone, there was nothing left in the bar but silence. Out of nowhere the family photo that used to hang in my room came back to me, and my father’s face with it. The me who’d said he didn’t want to become a Villain, so as not to shame his Hero father… and here I was now, delighting in the downfall of Speedgirl and Yoyoboy.

No, this can’t be helped. I’m only taking revenge.

I threw back the whiskey in one go and shook off the stray thoughts. For me to survive, I have to climb to a high position in Beyond Villain. That’s how I make a lot of money, and get my revenge, and… what was the other thing?

Why was it… that I was trying so hard again?

Maybe it was the drink, but the memory was hazy.

“Ah, damn it. Keep the change. I’ve got money rotting in piles anyway.”

I crumpled a wad of bills worth several hundred thousand won, tossed it on the table and left the bar.

Several weeks had already passed since Speedgirl, Cha Huigyeong, lost to Yoyoboy. After that strange conversation with Scorpion, the training had stopped dead as well. Scorpion was the same, but I was avoiding him openly too. To be honest, being around him was uncomfortable.

Going and saying something like that for no reason…

The story about his son was sad enough, but I’m not his son. I decided not to take a pointless lecture too much to heart. Thinking about it would obviously just give me a headache.

In any case, after the Yoyomonkey incident it seemed Speedgirl hadn’t escaped a heavy disciplinary measure from the Association. She wasn’t coming out to take down Villains either. Holed up at home, by the look of it. Or perhaps she was out pounding the pavement trying to find Yoyoboy.

Unlike Cha Huigyeong and her bleak situation, our TF team had hit the jackpot. We’d set an astonishing record: an 80% win rate against Heroes. Thanks to that, not just the TF team but the whole of Beyond Villain was in a festive mood.

And even in the middle of all that, there was one person in tears.

“No. 1! You can’t leave me behind and go! Play with me forever an’ ever…!”
“The TF team is being dissolved soon, so I have to go back to the Strategic Analysis Office too.”
“Ya can’t!! Don’ go!”
“…”
“Can’tcha not go…?”

Director Amos clutched at my sleeve, on the verge of crying. I hadn’t expected her to hold on to me like this, and it left me a little flustered. Then again, considering her personality, there had probably never been anyone who indulged Amos this thoroughly or read her this well. For now, I took a chocolate out of my pocket and put it in her mouth.

“Director. Let me try talking to the team leader first.”
“…Really?”
“If I report our results, the TF team might be kept on instead of dissolved. For now… there’s a call for the whole Strategic Analysis Office, so I’ll be back shortly.”
“For real? Promise?”
“Of course.”

Director Amos only released me after we’d hooked pinkies on it and everything. Needless to say, the part about asking them to keep the TF team going was a lie. I felt bad for her, but keeping Amos sweet was like walking a tightrope even with Future Observation.

As I stood waiting for the elevator, a familiar face came up beside me.

“Oh, Jangwoo. You got called in too?”
“…Yes.”

Hong Jangwoo, shambling toward me from the far end of the corridor. His leg was still in octopus form, but the lizard arm had finally been restored to normal. His work had been so slow that I’d asked Amos to turn it back into human shape. He watched my expression and straightened his tie.

“Senior. Looks like today’s the day the TF team gets dissolved.”
“Does it?”
“Had you forgotten today is the month-end evaluation?”
“Ah, has it come around already? Your numbers should be pretty good this time too, Jangwoo. Thanks to me.”
“…Thank you.”

Hong Jangwoo wore a face like he’d been chewing shit, but he nodded all the same, grudgingly. Amos was a bomb, and I was the only thing that kept her under control. That was what had carried the TF team to its results, and those results fed straight into Hong Jangwoo’s numbers. However much he hated me, the one thing he couldn’t deny was that I’d filled his quota for him.

“Taeseung! Oh — Senior… you’re here too?”
“Hayun.”

The walk from the elevator toward the auditorium. Yang Hayun came running our way with a bright smile. It being the month-end evaluation, she must have been on her way to the auditorium as well. I let the corner of my mouth curl up and slung an arm around Hong Jangwoo’s shoulders.

“Hey, it’s been a while, Hayun. You should say hello too, Jangwoo. She’s your junior from university, isn’t she?”
“…”
“Huh? Taeseung, what are you doing? Senior Hong Jangwoo is practically our superior…”
“Ah, you mean that?”

I smiled at the flustered Yang Hayun and explained.

“He got on Director Amos’s bad side recently, and his arm turned into a lizard’s. I put in a good word with the Director and got the arm turned back, so Jangwoo said he was grateful and decided to show me the proper respect. Isn’t that right, Jangwoo?”

Whether it was his pride or something else, Hong Jangwoo’s lips only twitched; he couldn’t get a word out.

Look at this bastard. Standing on his pride because his university junior’s watching?

I put more strength into the hand gripping his shoulder.

“What’s the matter, Jangwoo? Feeling ill? Should I ask Director Amos to take another look at that arm?”
“…No. You’re right, Deputy Manager. Of course it’s only natural for me to show proper respect.”
“Aw, that’s more like it.”

Only then did I pat his shoulder a couple of times, as though satisfied. Hong Jangwoo said he’d go on ahead and fled for all he was worth on that octopus leg. I let out a snort of a laugh and went over to Yang Hayun.

“Well then, shall we get going too?”
“Yes, Taeseung. But, Taeseung… you seem to have changed a little since I last saw you.”
“What? Changed how? Everyone around me keeps making a fuss about how I’ve changed, honestly.”

I yanked roughly at my tie and snapped back, irritated. First Scorpion, now Yang Hayun. Everyone kept talking as though I’d gone bad, and it didn’t sit well with me at all. I’d changed in order to survive. Was that such a terrible thing?

At my sharp reaction Yang Hayun’s eyes wavered faintly and she hunched her shoulders.

“N-no. It’s nothing… I suppose it’s just my imagination.”
“Right. Let’s go.”

“…”

Yang Hayun had gone quiet, and I walked into the auditorium beside her. Inside, the hall was already full of the heat several hundred employees gave off. Tedious performance figures were rattled off, and the time dragged by dry and flavorless, one person’s elation crossing another’s despair. I clicked my tongue at some employee who’d been forced out and was now being hauled away.

Should’ve done the job better, then. Tsk, tsk.

The tiresome scene I watched every month finally came to an end. And at last, the moment Strategic Analysis Office Team 5’s results were announced.

The auditorium went dead silent.

Team Leader Kwon Hyeri, standing on the platform, adjusted her grip on the microphone and called out my name. Unlike last time, when it had run past a thousand percent, the return rate had come down a little. But the seed itself had grown, so the performance bonus I’d be taking home was on the order of ten million won.

Astonished murmuring broke out around me, but I rose from my seat calmly. A shot at the Advancement Match, arriving in the same breath as the promotion to Manager. Which meant I’d earned the right to climb to a higher team.

I met the eyes of Kwon Hyeri, looking down at me from the platform.

I’ll beat you, and I’ll climb higher.

All that was left now was to use her as a stepping stone and climb somewhere higher still.