Weak Class of Anti-Hero
Chapter 39: Seoul’s Shadow and a Burger Joint

Chapter 39: Seoul’s Shadow and a Burger Joint

After a few rounds of ’Seoul Tycoon’, we decided to watch a movie. They chose a horror film.

We all settled on the big living room couch. The lights were off. The atmosphere was relaxed.

The film was full of jump scares. One of the boys, the one who had explained the rules of the game, was incredibly scared. He jumped and screamed at every scene, which made us laugh more than the movie itself.

Ha-Yoon was sitting next to me. In the dark, our arms brushed from time to time. It was a pleasant little electricity.

At one point, I felt a pressing urge.

"Can I use the restroom?" I whispered to Min-Ji.

"Sure, it’s at the end of the hall on the right," she replied without taking her eyes off the screen.

I got up and went there.

When I was done, I opened the bathroom door to leave.

And Ha-Yoon was there. Waiting for me in the dark hallway.

Before I could say a word, she put her hands on my face, stood on tiptoe, and kissed me.

It wasn’t a shy kiss. It was a thorough, passionate kiss that took me completely by surprise. My mind went blank.

It was my first kiss.

When she finally pulled away, we were both a little breathless. She looked me straight in the eye, her gaze shining with clear and direct desire.

She put her hands on my chest.

"Your room is at the end of the hall, isn’t it?" she murmured, her voice husky.

I nodded, unable to speak.

"Take me there," she said, and her next words blew my mind.

"Fuck me."

I didn’t need to answer. My body answered for me.

We left Min-Ji’s apartment without a sound, the others still absorbed in the horror movie. My door was right across the hall.

As soon as we were inside, she threw herself at me again.

The outside world ceased to exist. It was raw, passionate, a mix of desire and discovery. Our clothes ended up in a pile on the floor. It was my first time, and every touch, every sensation was an explosion.

Later, we lay in my bed, in the dark, only illuminated by the city lights filtering through the window. The silence was comfortable.

"That was... unexpected," she murmured, her head resting on my chest.

"A little," I admitted.

She traced circles on my torso with her finger. "You’re a complicated person, Ji-Hoon. I can feel it."

"You have no idea," I replied, a little more sadly than I intended.

She was silent for a moment. Then she sighed.

"You’re not the only one. My life isn’t as simple as it looks."

I listened to her.

"I had a little brother," she began, her voice growing softer. "He was an Awakened. A very powerful power, that appeared very early. But... he couldn’t control it."

She paused.

"There was an accident. A few years ago. He hurt people. Badly. My parents used all their money, all their savings, to hush up the case. To send him to a secret ’rehabilitation center’, far away from everything, so that he wouldn’t be labeled as a monster."

She raised her head to look at me.

"Since then, I’ve been working. Several odd jobs, in addition to my studies. To help pay. So that he has a chance to come back one day."

I looked at her face, so pretty in the dim light. She wasn’t just a girl who flirted. She was fighting, too. For her family.

I put my hand on her cheek.

"I... I understand," I murmured.

And for the first time, it was the truth. I really understood.

We talked a little more after that, in the darkness of the room. Secrets seemed easier to share when the outside world couldn’t see us.

We eventually fell back asleep, exhausted.

For the first time in a year, I didn’t sleep like a soldier, on edge, ready to react to the slightest noise. I just... slept. A deep, dreamless, nightmare-free sleep.

When I woke up, the morning light was filtering through the window.

And she was there.

Asleep next to me. Her hair was a mess on the pillow. Her face was relaxed, peaceful. So normal. So human.

I lay there watching her, motionless. It was the first time I had woken up with someone by my side. It was a strange feeling. Warm. A feeling I never thought I would feel again.

She finally stirred, her eyes opening slowly. She saw me watching her. There was a moment of hesitation, a little embarrassed, then she smiled. A real morning smile, with no trace of the sadness from the night before.

"I have to go," she murmured. "Work."

She got up and dressed quickly. Before leaving, she leaned down and gave me a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Call me," she said.

And she left.

I lay there, in the silence of my apartment, the scent of her perfume still lingering in the air.

The interlude was over. It was time to go back to work.

I looked at the time. Seven in the morning. Shit. My shift at the burger restaurant started in thirty minutes.

I jumped out of bed. I dressed quickly, grabbing the first clean clothes I found. No time for a shower.

I grabbed my keys off the table and rushed to the door. My means of transportation to work wasn’t an electric blue portal. It was an old used scooter that I had bought for next to nothing.

I opened my door and stepped into the hallway. And of course, right at that moment, the door across the hall opened too. It was Min-Ji.

She looked at me, still a little sleepy, then smiled mischievously.

"Oh, hi! So, you two disappeared last night," she said in a falsely innocent way. "Ha-Yoon left right after you too. Was the horror movie that scary? You should have told us, we would have put on a comedy!"

She winked at me. She knew. Of course, she knew.

I turned a little red. I wasn’t used to this kind of teasing.

"I... I was just tired," I mumbled as I headed for the stairs.

"Sure, sure," she laughed. "Go on, have a good day at work!"

I hurried downstairs, her amused laughter echoing behind me.

Normal life. It was really, really strange. And complicated.

I straddled my scooter, kicked it into gear, and sped into the morning traffic of Itaewon. The man who had devoured the soul of a god was going to be late for flipping steaks again.

I arrived at the burger restaurant five minutes late. I parked my scooter in the alley and entered through the back door.

My boss, Mr. Kim, an old man with a grease-stained apron and an impressive mustache, was already there, sharpening a knife.

He looked up when I came in. His gaze was stern.

"You’re late, Ji-Hoon," he grunted. "Again. Is the clock just for show?"

I didn’t answer. I just took off my jacket and started putting on my own apron.

"One day, I’m going to end up firing you, you know?" he continued, without stopping his sharpening motion.

"That’s why I work unpaid overtime almost every night," I replied calmly, without looking at him. "You complain a little too much for someone who exploits me."

He stopped. A silence fell in the small kitchen. I thought he was going to explode.

Then, I heard a small sniffle. It was a stifled laugh.

"Insolent little brat," he muttered, but there was a hint of amusement in his voice.

He put down his knife. "Come on, get to work. The first customers will be here soon. And clean that griddle, it’s disgusting."

I went into the kitchen. The familiar smell of frying oil and grilled onions filled my nostrils.

I turned on the griddle. I took out the buns, the ground beef, the lettuce.

And I started making burgers.

The alpha predator of the Awakened world, the shadow cleaner, was back at his post. And for the next eight hours, my only enemy would be the orders piling up.

The morning was quiet. A few customers here and there. Lost tourists, regulars having their coffee.

I was on autopilot. I knew the job by heart. Flipping the steaks. Assembling the burgers. Frying the fries. It was a simple, repetitive rhythm that let my mind wander.

I thought about Ha-Yoon. About the night we had spent together. It was a pleasant, warm memory. A point of light in my dark life.

I thought about my father. About the training. About the layers of the soul. I still had so far to go.

Then, around noon, the rush started.

The restaurant door kept opening. Orders piled up.

"Two cheeseburgers, one double bacon, three large fries!" Mr. Kim shouted from the counter.

"One veggie burger, no onions, extra pickles!"

It was organized chaos. I moved fast, my hands going from one ingredient to another. The griddle sizzled. The fryer bubbled.

It was my other training. A training in concentration, speed, stress management.

In the middle of the rush, a group of American soldiers from the nearby base came in. They were big, loud, and hungry.

One of them, as he sat down, bumped into a waitress, causing her tray to fall. Glasses shattered on the floor.

The soldier laughed, without apologizing.

My gaze hardened.

Mr. Kim saw it. He grabbed my arm. "Let it go, kid," he murmured. "It’s not worth it. We’ll clean up and forget about it."

I looked at the arrogant soldier, then at my boss.

I gritted my teeth and nodded.

I turned back to my grill.

Sometimes, the real fight was not fighting.

It was a lesson I still struggled to learn.