It took me an entire week to finally escape the hospital room and return to the Ability User Academy.

But maybe because I’d been gone for a while? The students were staring at me more than usual—was it just my imagination?

Something felt off, but I didn’t show it and just kept walking straight ahead. That was when I spotted Jihee noona coming from the opposite direction. She widened her eyes the moment she saw me.

“Yeonsu!”

“Noona....”

The moment I saw Jihee noona, the emotions I’d been holding back surged up all at once.

Noona, Joo Seunghyuk locked me up in a hospital room. He kept me in a VIP suite for a whole week and did that kind of stuff nonstop, except when I was sleeping or eating.

The crazed, sex-obsessed yandere seme practically petite imprisoned me and ravaged me like a beast.... Sometimes he didn’t even let me sleep properly, and it was like some ultra-high-rated 19+ smut novel.

Like one of those where the entire plot is just back-to-back 19-rated content.

I wanted to tell noona everything that had happened to me this past week, but at the same time, I also felt a powerful sense that I must not say a word about it.

In the end, I compressed everything I wanted to say into a two-syllable word.

“Noona....”

“My poor Yeonsu, your face is half gone. Was it that rough?”

“Yeah....”

It really was brutal.

Just like the doctor instructed, I didn’t use any mana over the past week. But honestly, I felt like I’d been overworked to the point that I would’ve preferred guiding a hundred times over.

“You never complain, so if even you’re saying it was hard... Don’t worry. Aaron and Professor Oh are finished.”

“Aaron and Professor Oh...?”

Why’s she suddenly bringing them up?

When I looked puzzled, a faint look of hesitation crossed Jihee noona’s face.

“You didn’t hear?”

“What? Did something happen to them?”

“You really don’t know.... You haven’t been online or watched TV all week?”

“Ah, well... Seunghyuk told me not to and said I should just rest.”

Saying I completely avoided it would sound suspicious, so I gave a half-true excuse.

Well, I mean, Seunghyuk did suggest we do those things instead of watching TV, so it’s only half a lie.

“Ah, Seunghyuk blocked it for you, huh.”

“Blocked what?”

“There was a bit of an incident while you were hospitalized. Nothing too major—it’s already been resolved, so you don’t need to worry about it.”

Jihee noona said it carefully while watching my reaction. For someone as straightforward as her to be this cautious... something big must’ve gone down.

“What incident?”

When I asked, she hesitated but eventually told me.

Aaron and Professor Oh had tried to set me up—but their lies were exposed. On top of that, they got caught plotting to use their guild to smuggle out national treasures from Korea.

The students of the Academy, the KN Guild, Hyeokjin-hyung, Chaea noona, and pretty much all the other ability users were on my side. Kim Jun and the underclassmen even fought with the ones who were spreading crap about me.

She added that although there had been a few weirdos on the internet criticizing me, everyone had come around now.

Still...

“Stay strong, Yeonsu.”

“Ah, yeah. Thanks.”

“I’ve always been on your side.”

“Thanks.”

“Yeonsu-sunbaenim, fighting!”

“Haha, fighting....”

Watching people come up in little steps to cheer me on and then vanish made it clear—this was way more serious than Jihee noona had let on. Normally, barely anyone ever talks to me.

I looked up the articles about the incident. The original article and video from It’sFact were gone, but they’d been spread so widely that I found copies almost immediately.

The moment I saw them, I was so dumbfounded I couldn’t speak. The edited footage was a complete circus.

Professor Oh’s article was just as ridiculous.

The Madness Toward Lee Yeonsu and the Bare Face of the Public

I never read comment sections for the sake of my mental health, so I searched for a column analyzing the situation instead.

The entire nation had turned against me. It was madness.

Reading through the article, it seemed the whole country had cursed me out. That so many people fell for such an obvious lie was astonishing.

But then the actual footage of me and Aaron talking had been released, and it turned the entire situation upside down.

On top of that, the details of the shady deal between Professor Oh and Han Guncheol had come to light, and public outrage turned toward them.

According to the prosecution, they found Dust in Aaron’s luggage. And as if they’d been waiting for it, a gossip tabloid in the U.S. published a photo of Aaron drinking a cocktail containing Dust. Aaron kept denying the charges, but it looked like nobody believed him anymore.

His family, who used to love basking in media attention nearly every day, went completely silent after the exposure of the secret contract between Han Guncheol and Professor Oh.

Though it seemed they hadn’t given up on their youngest—they were apparently trying every method imaginable to bring Aaron back to the U.S. But that only enraged the Korean public even more.

The Korean government wasn’t about to willingly release someone who’d tried to smuggle out a /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ national-level security artifact.

While S-rank Guides are supposed to be protected at the government level, the U.S. wasn’t putting up much resistance. Probably because they figured an S-rank Guide who used Dust was now worthless.

Same with Italy.

After the S-rank Esper defection scandal in 1981, diplomatic relations had only just begun to recover—no way would they wreck things again over a Dust scandal.

Unlike Aaron, Professor Oh confessed to everything. With all the evidence out in the open, he seemed to be aiming for a reduced sentence by showing remorse.

But even if he was remorseful, public fury didn’t die down. Articles calling for the harshest punishment flooded in. A petition opposing the formation of foreigner-owned guilds passed 500,000 signatures.

The government and lawmakers said they’d already blocked it and had no intention of ever allowing it again, so the public had nothing to worry about.

I’d suspected something was going on between Aaron and Professor Oh—but I never imagined it was this kind of thing.

They were worse than trash. Even I, who already hated Professor Oh, was shocked. The public’s sense of betrayal must be on a whole other level.

But thinking back, just a few days ago I was the one they were hurling all that hatred at. It really makes you realize they didn’t care who they were cursing, only that they had someone to curse.

Now that everything’s been revealed, I can read the articles in peace. But if I’d experienced all of it in real time... the stress would’ve destroyed me.

Sure, my back got wrecked over the past week, but if I’d seen those articles and known people around me were getting insulted too, my mental state would’ve collapsed completely.

So... should I be thanking Joo Seunghyuk for that?

Joo Seunghyuk must have known everything. That’s probably why he said he was going to press charges. But he never told me a thing.

Not only did he act like nothing was wrong in front of me—he must’ve been running everything behind the scenes.

The footage of my hallway conversation with Aaron, the Gate incident video, the hotel dialogue, even the contract between Professor Oh and Han Guncheol... it had all exploded out at once.

There’s only one person who could’ve pulled this off—Joo Seunghyuk.

“Hyung.”

When I looked up, I saw that handsome face—one I still hadn’t gotten used to, even after being glued to it for an entire week.

“Seunghyuk-ah....”

When I said his name, the sharp curve of his eyes softened into a gentle arc.

“What are you doing here?”

That’s what I wanted to ask. How did he know I was here?

He always manages to find me somehow. Well, I guess it’s not that surprising in a limited space like the Ability User Academy—and I don’t exactly get around much to begin with....

With this level of intel, it’s no wonder he managed to ruin Aaron and Professor Oh so completely... Is that too much of a stretch?

“I looked up the news. A lot happened while you were in the hospital.”

“You don’t need to worry about it. It’s already over.”

Joo Seunghyuk crouched down to meet my gaze. His eyes were tender.

“Mm.”

“Why do you look so tired?”

“......”

No, I take that back—his eyes weren’t tender.

You’re the one who had me doing this and that and all of that right up until we left the hospital last night! You damn monster seme!

Watching him blink innocently with those puppy-dog eyes, pretending like he didn’t know anything, was infuriating—but I couldn’t exactly defy a yandere seme.

I’d spent a week trapped in that VIP room. It wasn’t a joke—it was actual petite imprisonment. I didn’t escape his grasp for even a second.

But no one knew that.

Everyone at school thought I was hospitalized from mana depletion shock. Even the notoriously strict ethics class on attendance let it slide, marking me as injured during training.

Not just the students at the Academy—my family, the entire Korean public—none of them knew I’d been locked up.

Joo Seunghyuk was someone who could imprison me at any time.

That was something I’d been forced to confirm again.

“I’m just a little sleepy.”

He sat beside me and guided my head to lie down on his lap.

“Ah, no, it’s fine.”

“It’s okay. Just lie down.”

We were on the bench in front of the West Building—there were tons of students around. And since this was my first day back after that whole ordeal, people were watching me more than usual.

Getting a lap pillow in a place like this was mortifying, but I’d only just gotten out of captivity less than a day ago—I didn’t have the strength to resist.

So I did as he said.

But I was too embarrassed to fully rest my weight, so I kept my body tense—and Seunghyuk let out a low chuckle.

“You still don’t know how to relax, huh.”

“Huh...?”

He lowered his head and whispered in my ear.

“Even after all that, still...”

“W-what? N-no, it’s not like that...!”

He’s not seriously planning to teach me again just because I don’t get it, right?

Startled, I tried to sit up and explain, but Seunghyuk gently pushed me back down.

“Sleep. You must be tired.”

I did want to sleep. But no matter how sleepy I was, I had to say this one thing.

“I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

“For suggesting you take a Matching Rate Test with Aaron.... You almost ended up getting guiding from someone who was Dust-addicted.”

“I wouldn’t have taken it anyway, so don’t worry. But the fact that you told me to take the test with another guy? You should reflect on that.”

“Mm...”

So that’s the part he’s mad about....

“Hey, Seunghyuk... did you already know Aaron was using Dust?”

“Yes.”

So you did know....