Lee Yoonkyung urgently called Haeun, who finally escaped outside using a secret route in the airport.
After that, there was a black car with tinted windows waiting for Haeun.
Haeun ran after her and got into the car. Jung Jinho got into the car, and Jung Eunwoo, who was behind the wheel, stepped on the accelerator without delay.
Whoo-hoo!
The car started with a rough exhaust and left the airport in a flash.
Lee Yoonkyung, who was sitting in the passenger seat, turned around and asked Haeun.
âMy daughter! Are you okay? Are you not sick anywhere?â
Lee Yoonkyungâs face was full of worry.
âOriginally, after Awakening, the body doesnât adapt right away, so you will get sick. Are you really okay? You canât tell through a video call. Shall we take a test first?â
âItâs all right, Mom. Iâm not sick anywhere.â
Her body is just tired from taking a long flight. Jung Eunwoo turned his steering wheel and opened his mouth.
âHey, Jung Haeun, you⊠No matter how you Awaken, itâs EXâŠâ
âAhaha.â
âHow is this country going to work to give Jung Haeun so much powerââ
âOppa, do you want to die?â
Haeun, who intentionally replied as if joking around, let out a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, her family seemed to believe Haeun had awakened from this incident. Since it was an incident linked to the Awakening Broker, the grounds were sufficient.
The reason Haeun pretended to be a newbie was simple.
Until now, she has been pretending to be a civilian, pretending she didnât know anything about awakening or abilities, but she canât get caught!
What is known to the world as EX-class is already spilled water, so it canât be helped. But at least she had to be a newbie.
However, there was someone who interfered with Ha-eunâs plan.
âNoona didnât Awaken this time. She awakened a long time ago.â
âWhat?!â
The screams of the family made the inside of the car shake. Haeun looked back at Jung Sehyun in surprise. Jung Sehyun tilted his head and continued.
âIs it not? I thought so.â
âYou⊠youâŠâ
âJung Haeun! What are you talking about?â
âShe was an Awakener from the beginning?!â
âSince when!â
Haeun covered her ears. As if he hadnât expected a strong reaction from his family, Jung Sehyun scratched his cheek.
âWas it a secret? sorry.â
âDid you know that I was awakened?â
âMmhm.â
âHow?â
âBecause my ability doesnât work on Noona.â
Haeun received a second shock.
My brother tried to use his powers on me. I was a civilian!
Of course, that wasnât the case at all.
For reference, Jung Sehyunâs ability was mental control of delirium and brainwashing.
âJung Sehyun! How could you think of using your abilities against your sister!â
Jung Sehyun, whom she thought was a cute and obedient good younger brother, was the darkest. Feeling betrayed, Haeun screamed out loud, and Jung Sehyun rolled his eyes and smiled.
âBecause Noona wonât give me the LP version I wanted.â
âSo, are you thinking of brainwashing your Noona?â
âI couldnât do it in the end. And it wasnât brainwashing. I just slightly changed Noonaâs mind and encouraged Noona to have a kind heart to give me an LP record.â
âThatâs the same!â
âBut it didnât work. Itâs strange. Noona isnât a dead person, and thereâs no way my ability wonât work. Then there is only one thing left. Ah, Noona is stronger than me.â
There is no one to trust in the world.
[The Constellation âMutant of the Abyssâ winks at Haeun, saying that heâs the only one who thinks of Haeun]
No, neither are you⊠Not you tooâŠ
âHaeun-ah.â
âYes!â
âI think we will have a lot to talk about when we go back. Right?â
Lee Yoonkyungâs friendly smile was sweet and fierce. Jung Jinho was surprised and now seems to be speechlessâ.
Jung Eunwoo stepped on the accelerator as if he wanted to go home as quickly as possible.
Gulps.
âB, but where are we going now? This is not the way home.â
Haeun looked at her family and asked cautiously. She thought she was going straight home from the airport, but the car was going the wrong way.
Lee Yoonkyung sighed at Ha-eunâs question.
âDaughter, we canât go home.â
âYes? Why??â
âNoona, there are reporters all over the house right now.â
What?
âBy the way, all of our relativesâ houses are the same.â
âMy cell phone is on fire right now, so itâs dead.â
âNot only the reporters, but everyone is very excited right now, so you will have to hide for a while, Noona.â
Haeun and Jung Eunwoo met their eyes in the rearview mirror. A rotten smile appeared on Jung Eunwooâs face.
âHey, thanks to you, we became homeless.â
* * *
Family meeting.
It is a special tradition only for the Jung family, which occurs once a month.
Awakeners are different from ordinary people. They are selected beings who can manifest their own special abilities, such as moving through space or striking huge lightning bolts. Of course, the physical capacity was also excellent enough to be incomparable to ordinary people, except for a few special cases.
How will people react if they live as ordinary humans, like ants who are kicked and suddenly awakened to a special ability that no one else has?
They will be delighted in the first place and amazed in the second. And in the end, they feel superior to their chosen existence.
âIâm different from normal humans like you.â
Itâs kind of a sense of the people.
Maybe thatâs why, after Awakening, the reins were released, and there were frequent cases of being arrested after causing social problems by running wild. Or they made some easy money doing dirty work in the underworld. Rick, the awakening broker, can be said to be of a similar kind.
And in this case, everyone in Jungâs family except for Haeun was an S-Class awakened person.
Even if there is only one awakening person, it is a great honor for the family. However, Haeunâs family members have as many as four S-Class awakeners.
This means that a brief carelessness will make it easier to cross the line set by society. In fact, the line itself feels ambiguous to the awakeners.
What was created to prevent this was the Jung family meeting.
In fact, even if it was a meeting, it was close to gathering once a month and fooling around, but it was encouraging that there was a self-purification effect.
And on the very day Haeun returned to Korea, the topic of this meeting was decided.
âWhy did you hide your awakening?â
After leaving the airport, the family headed to a pension in the countryside of Gyeonggi-do.
In the past, it was quite famous as a pension village, but it was an area that collapsed after the gate was created in the nearby mountain. Thanks to this, there was no one visiting, so it was good to hide secretly.
However, there is no one to rescue Haeun, who is being questioned by her family.
She felt like a six-year-old child sitting in a thinking chair.
Lee Yoonkyung asked again.
âHow long have you been hiding it? When did you wake up?â
[The Constellation âMutant of the Abyssâ pops the popcorn in an exciting development.]
âThatâsâŠâ
Haeun rolled her eyes.
Her 22 years of life experience told her that she would be in big trouble if she told them the truth. No matter how much Haeun is in the EX class, she is scared of her angry mother.
Yeah. Itâs her survival instinct. Haeun, who was looking around, told a very small lie.
âAfter entering universityâŠ.â
âJung Sehyun, when was the last time you knew that your sister had awakened?â
âI think it was when I was in middle school.â
Lee Yoonkyungâs eyes trembled at Sehyunâs answer.
Haeun glared at Jung Sehyun. Jung Sehyun met her gaze and shrugged his shoulders as if he couldnât help it.
That kid is no help from before. Only for a moment, her cute and adorable younger brother became a mortal enemy.
In the end, Haeun confessed with an ant-crawling voice.
âIn fact, when I was in middle schoolâŠ.â
âCrazy.â
Jung Eunwoo gave a refreshing impression. As soon as her back bone was pulled, Lee Yoonkyung grabbed the back of her head.
If itâs been that way since middle school, sheâs been lying to them for at least six years.
Was I not that interested in my daughter? Itâs not.
Questions followed.
âWhy did you hide it?â
Haeun pursed her lips without answering. Lee Yoonkyung muttered as she pondered.
âWhen Sehyun and Haeun were both in middle school, Haeun was only in her third year of middle school.â
At that moment, there was an incident that came to mind like lightning in Lee Yoonkyungâs head.
âHaeun, by any chance⊠do you Awakened that day?â
Haeun immediately knew what day Lee Yoonkyung was talking about.
She was referring to the very day when the youth sports competition was held.
Only Haeun survives in the dungeon, where the grade rises in real-time. It was also the day Haeun decided to hide her awakening forever.
âOh my.â
Lee Yoonkyung touched her forehead.
It is definitely something to celebrate that Haeun has awakened to EX-Class for the first time in Korea and abroad. As a major event in Korea, she can tell that the outside is in a festive mood just by turning on the TV right now.
Moreover, as it became known that Baek Soyeon, whom Haeun saved, is the granddaughter of world-successful businessman Baek Doohan and the daughter of Brian Nelson, an influential figure in American politics, she was already treated as a hero both in Korea and the United States.
âBrian Nelson has a special relationship with Frederick Haniel, president of Haniel Industries. They are very close partners both business and political.â
âThatâs right. Also, isnât Frederic Haniel in-laws with the American Hunter Association?â
Experts on South Korea-U.S. relations said the alliance should be strengthened in Haeunâs Awakening.
But what if it turns out that the trigger for Haeunâs awakening is not this American dungeon but the terrible gate incident that instilled trauma in everyone?
And what if the media highlighted the fact that Haeun was the only survivor that day?
The favorable public opinion now formed towards Haeun could change the reaction as quickly as flipping a palm.
âHaeun-ah, you have to be honest. This is a very important matter.â
Lee Yoonkyung held Haeunâs arms tightly and whispered desperately.