CH 20

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”

Shin Haru threw the remote control toward the TV.

Of course, if she put all her strength into throwing it, her new UHD TV could be smashed, so she kept that in mind and threw it as gently as possible.

Of course. BUMP! It hit the wall.

“Haa… Haa…”

She wheezed.

After calming herself down, she sat on the sofa and took some time to think.

How many years has she been a hero under the name of Stardus?

The first time she got her abilities was probably around middle school or high school, so she has been a hero for a pretty long time.

She was determined to be a hero who could throw villains into prisons to get revenge for her late parents.

But even then, she had never imagined this before. Dating a villain?

“Haa…”

Shin Haru sighed and headed to the refrigerator.

She needs something sweet because she is so frustrated.

She naturally took out a cool juice box and drank it, and when she checked the name on the juice box, she frowned.

[Minute Maid Mango]

Mango. Now, mango reminds her of that Egostic brat.

Egostic’s supporters call him Mango Stick, right?

Ugh. She felt like her mind was corrupted.

Her favorite thing is mango.

Honestly, she hates mango itself, but she likes mango-flavored things like mango juice, mango frappe, and mango shaved ice.

But now, she can never see mango like how she saw it before.

Every time she sees a mango now, she will think of that Mango Stick.

“My mind… My mind is corrupted…”

She was slightly depressed. Although a person’s perception changes from time to time as life goes on, she has never imagined that it would change in this way.

“Haa…”

She decided to get some fresh air out of the window.

She opened the window and put her head out.

A cool spring breeze blows by.

The bright sunlight reflected on her blonde hair, she gave a dreamy performance as if it was twinkling. The men, who casually looked up from the street, dazed at her but she did not notice.

She had a lot on her mind. And the main idea in her thought is definitely that Egostic guy.

Egostic. She thought it was a funny name. Egostic. Doesn’t it remind you of a weak old man walking with a stick? Of course, she told that to her close older friend and received a pitiful gaze from her, so she decided to keep that idea for herself from now on.

She was surprised at herself as she thought about how Egoistic would be a better name than Egostic. Why the hell is she considering a villain’s name for that guy? She shook her head off the idea.

Still, she couldn’t help but feel disturbed whenever she thought of Egostic.

Something that she cannot explain in words.

Complex emotions fill her up, they become a mass of irrepressible thoughts, then rise and disappear in her mind.

And she thought it was weird.

Obviously, when you think of an evil villain, you have to think of hatred and disgust.

But why do these complex emotions come to her mind?

Among many emotions, there certainly were other things that weren’t hatred or disgust.

Egostic. He is well-known on the Internet right now.

No, not only is he well-known on the Internet but also in real life.

Even her close friend Chaehyun said she joined the Mango Union last time.

In the chatroom where students from her department gather, people sometimes mention Mango Stick, but they were all talking good about him.

She asked how everyone can be like that after watching the livestream of the train attack.

At first, they covered up for Egostic saying that both attacks caused zero casualties.

Later, when they revealed that all the people who were tied to the rail were those who committed terrible crimes and got off with a slap on the wrist, people blindly began to praise Egostic again.

People joke around about how Stardus didn’t have to stop the train.

Honestly, Korean people’s enthusiasm for Egostic has already reached the level of fanaticism. For the people who have only eaten sweet potatoes* so far, Egostic, who has been making them feel so refreshing with his actions, is so popular that they even made a catchphrase for him,  “Please, if you are Korean, let’s support Egostic”. *TN: This phrase refers to frustrating people.

And the love scandal she saw earlier.

“Ugh.”

She could feel her face burning up.

The blood letters, his terrorist attacks, and so on, every actions of him so far.

They are all because he likes her?

“What nonsense!”

She shouted in spite of herself.

Why on Earth does he like her?

Because of her face? Yeah, probably that’s the reason. There is no other explanation other than that!

As expected, Egostic must also be one of those who are only into her face.

But there is one thing for sure.

She looked down at her hand and clenched her fist.

She definitely strengthened her muscles.

After stopping the train last time, she definitely has gotten stronger.

It’s good to be stronger, it’s what she has always aimed for.

“I don’t know…”

As much as she didn’t know why she was confused herself, she let out a sigh.

But one good thing is that her haters disappeared after this incident.

Honestly, she was more concerned than anyone else while pretending not to care about the reaction of the public, so she was quite relieved that the public began to like her again.

Honestly, she dropped her favorability because of Egostic, but also thanks to Egostic, it went up again.

It feels like Egostic is shaking her life.

In fact, it must not be wrong to say so, because she was assigned to deal with Egostic from the superior office.

“Haa…”

As she was feeling upset, her phone rang.

The caller is Kim Chaehyun.

A senior student who she is close with in university.

“Hello?”

[Oh, Haru! Do you want to hang out? The weather is nice.]

“Hang out?”

Hang out.

Come to think of it, she doesn’t hang out with her friends a lot.

Studying and working as a hero. There wasn’t enough time to do both.

But her friend asked her to hang out.

Hmm.

Usually, she would reject the offer.

She had no time to relax since she had to study and work as a hero at the same time.

At the beginning, she was so busy that she couldn’t even sit in the Association’s office for too long. Even though she likes it because it’s sunny from where she sits.

But she has been worried about Egostic these days.

The suggestion to hang out was quite tempting.

“Oh… Sure! When should we go?”

[Today! What do you think? There is a festival! I have always wanted to go there!]

“Oh, festival sounds good. Today… I do have time! See you later then. But what festival is it?”

[Ice Cream Festival! It sounds fun, right?]

“Uh, yeah.”

Was there an ice cream festival in the world? 

She thought to herself.

***

A Seoul where buildings crammed up, cars roamed around, and people busily moved around.

Far away from it, there was our underground base.

Egostic, a villain who terrorizes the whole Korea.

Han Seo-eun, a genius hacker who can destroy Korea’s network system with just one finger.

Lee Soobin, an all-rounded assistant who is good at hacking, housework and driving.

This place where all three of us are gathered, is called Ego-base.

Although it’s located deep underground, it’s a cozy place with LED lights that can replace the sun.

Sometimes, I like resting at home.

Didn’t I live too busily these days?

It’s not easy for me, who was an ordinary citizen, to act as a villain.

I was a little nervous because thousands of people were watching me on the last broadcast. Every word of mine will be on the news… I mean, they already wrote news about the last time when I accidentally cheered “Yes!” while watching Stardus stop the train. They mostly wrote about our love scandal…

Those trashy reporters.

They are so quick-witted…

Anyway, there’s nothing good about dragging an agro too often.

These days, I’m resting at home idly.

What I usually do is play with Seo-eun.

She’s a senior in middle school and she doesn’t have any friends.

How bored must she be?

Soobin joined us to play either board games or Switch.

Even though she said this was something only kids would play, it was cute to see her having fun together in our living room.

Yeah, kids should play like kids! Looking at the computers too much is not good for them..

Anyway, it’s just another day of us staying still and resting.

While watching TV, I was eating the apple that Soobin peeled, and Seo-eun, who was doing something in her room, rushed to me.

Then, she showed me something and asked me to go with her.

“Ice cream festival?”

“Yeah, I told you last time. That’s today! We have to go!”

Seo-eun was talking with her sparkling eyes.

Soobin standing next to her also seems to want to go.

Yeah, come to think of it, I might have heard of it.

The 13th International Ice Cream Festival… I have never heard of anything like this in the original comic…

Seo-eun is explaining to me that it’s their first time holding it in Korea and there are so many things to see.

I felt a little strange because I had never heard of an ice cream festival in my life.

Seo-eun likes to stay at home the most because she likes staying inside like me, but since she asked me to go with her first, I guess she really wanted to go… Do you really like ice cream that much?

“Alright, let’s go! Go and get changed.”

I shouted as I stood up.

Well, nothing is going to happen, right?