Leave the Hero's Ex-Girlfriend Alone! - Chapter 10

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Leave the Hero’s ex-girlfriend alone!
EP10
“For now, we’ll be taking the child with us.”
An agent in a vest bearing the Association’s logo stepped up close and spoke.
My heart dropped straight through the floor.
No way. This isn’t right.
“On what authority?”
I shot up from my chair and planted myself in front of the agent.
Just then, Alpha, who had been handling things across the room, closed the distance in an instant.
“I’ll handle this.”
He spoke to the agent while gripping my shoulder.
It was clearly a gesture meant to tell me to stop.
But I shook off his hand.
“The child’s mother might still be here. Find her first, and then-”
The Association agent raised a hand to hold me back.
“Right now the child has been judged a Power User, so once the Association completes an accurate investigation, we’ll hand them over to the guardian.”
Something about that doesn’t add up.
Finding the guardian first and then checking the ability was not the order here. It was exactly the reverse.
“If he’s been judged a Power User, you can just take him whenever you like? He’s still a little kid!”
“This is standard procedure. If you interfere, it will be Obstruction of Official Duties.”
…Obstruction of Official Duties?
Everyone in the world already knows that those Hero Association bastards wield public authority however they please.
Under the pretext of protecting citizens, they throw around outrageous demands.
Even the attitude of pushing those demands through as if they were a matter of course enjoys the protection of the law.
Even when the situation is plainly unreasonable to anyone who sees it, they get a free pass stamped with the words “danger prevention.”
Still, the truth is that we can’t say a word, because we are the ones being protected.
They protect the citizens while, at the same time, threatening them.
Just like right now.
As I was about to protest once more, that guy grabbed my arm.
“Calm down. If you act like this now, things will only get bigger.”
“You’re saying that to me now?”
He scrunched his eyes in exasperation and spoke to me.
“What more can you do right now? What exactly are you going to do here-”
He stopped mid-sentence, all at once.
What kind of expression must I be wearing right now…
I couldn’t tell what my own face looked like.
He let out a sigh.
“I… I’ll make it right somehow. Please. Just. Stay put for once.”
I hesitated for a moment at a voice that could have been anger or pleading.
“…I don’t trust you.”
I looked him straight in the eye and said,
“Honestly… I never want to get tangled up with you again…”
Even after the words left my mouth, I couldn’t bring myself to leave that spot for a while.
My feet felt nailed to the floor and wouldn’t move.
He looked at me in silence, then soon turned his gaze away.
The Association agents moved about hurriedly once more.
One of them checked a handheld device and called in over the radio, while another approached Eunho and carefully reached out a hand.
“Eunho, for your protection, we’ll accompany you to the Association for a short while.”
Eunho looked at me for a moment, then slowly nodded.
I kept looking into that kid’s eyes until the very end.
And so Alpha and the Association people led Eunho away, slowly growing distant.
The weekend afternoon sunlight was still warm, but somehow I felt as though I alone had been left behind in the very middle of a deep winter.
* * *
Hero Association, B3 Floor. Interrogation Room.
A place with a sign posted: No Entry to Non-Personnel.
The Interrogation Room at the end of the winding corridor was far too cold for a child to be in.
White, glossy walls, and in the very center, a desk and a chair.
Styled like an interrogation room, it was where Eunho sat alone.
In the small hands he held, a mug contained warm milk.
Far from showing any of the anxiety one would expect from a child, he seemed busy playing with his own shadow reflected on the wall, toying with it by moving his hands.
“Pretty composed for a kid. Even though he must have been scared.”
One of the Association agents murmured it under his breath.
Alpha was watching all of it from behind the window glass.
Arms folded, leaning against the wall, he studied the boy with an expressionless face.
His eyes, though, told a different story. Unfamiliar tension and suspicion tangled together in them.
Something felt off, but he couldn’t pin it down.
Still, there was something else weighing on him, and it bothered him more.
Alpha glanced at the clock on the wall and muttered to himself.
“She must be home by now…”
Even amid all the chaos, the face he’d had no choice but to leave behind kept surfacing.
Her words, that she didn’t trust him, echoed in his ears.
Of course she didn’t.
From the very beginning, he hadn’t told her a single thing properly.
And he’d felt that truth sharply, not just today…
After a while, one of the Association staff members stepped into the Interrogation Room.
The report began at once.
“We’ve completed the physical exam and the brain wave scan. The results are… Non-Ability User, no abnormalities.”
“But a barrier formed, didn’t it? Didn’t the CCTV confirm it?”
The Handler receiving the report asked, sounding puzzled.
“The CCTV has gaps in some sections, so detailed analysis isn’t possible. The on-site evidence shows no unusual markers either. A Power User could have been involved, but there’s no evidence that points to this kid.”
Alpha quietly turned his gaze toward the window.
At that moment, Eunho’s eyes shifted slightly.
Through the glass, his gaze met Alpha’s directly.
The boy’s expression was still bright and innocent.
Yet a feeling crept over him that something lay hidden behind that smile.
Was he imagining it?
Or was this child really concealing something?
Alpha immediately opened the door and stepped into the Interrogation Room.
At the soft creak of the door, Eunho lifted his head.
“Eunho.”
“Yes?”
“Earlier… do you remember what you did to protect your sister?”
Eunho blinked and spoke.
“I just remember being really, really scared.”
Alpha stayed silent for a moment, then slowly lowered himself down.
Bringing his eyes level with the boy’s, he let out a quiet breath and continued.
“Has anything like this happened before?”
“Hmm. I don’t really remember.”
The boy’s eyes shifted slightly.
But the moment he said it, he didn’t hesitate at all.
Just then, someone burst through the door in a hurry.
“Team Leader!”
One of the Association agents came in, out of breath.
“Just now, we got a call from the police station. The boy’s mother filed a missing child report. They checked her ID and confirmed the boy from his description. What should we do?”
“The mother filed a report?”
Everyone in the Interrogation Room wore the same uncomfortable expression.
“If he’s a Non-Ability User, we can’t keep him here any longer. The guardian’s been confirmed, so send him home.”
Alpha stepped out through the door and spoke.
Everyone nodded without a word.
Right away, Eunho was taken by two agents to the Guardian Interview Waiting Room on the fifth floor of the Association.
Unlike the Interrogation Room, it had been designed with a comparatively gentle atmosphere.
In the softly lit space, pastel sofas and warm-toned wallpaper surrounded the room, and a table with light snacks had been set out.
Through the glass wall, a small garden could be seen.
Eunho sat quietly on the sofa.
Hands folded in his lap, he gazed out at the glass window, seemingly lost in thought.
“Your mom will be here soon if you just wait a little while.”
The agent spoke to Eunho, but the boy only nodded.
His composure was strangely calm.
Watching him, Alpha couldn’t shake the unease in his chest.
Then, how many more minutes passed?
The door opened, and a woman walked in.
Long straight hair, a beige bucket hat, a neat trench coat, and a bag she was clutching tightly to her chest.
Her face held both anxiety and relief in the same smile.
“Mom…!”
Eunho shot up from his seat and ran straight to the woman.
“Eunho, I’m sorry Mom’s so late…”
The woman bent at the waist and wrapped him in her arms.
It looked like the perfect reunion between mother and son.
The identity verification agent nodded at Alpha.
“Everything checks out. You’re free to take him.”
Alpha watched the mother and son’s reunion in silence, his lips pressed tight.
That uneasy feeling kept circling back.
But there was still no clear evidence.
The woman kept thanking the agents in the waiting room, over and over.
And that was how Eunho left the Association with “Mom.”
* * *
I hadn’t run into Alpha since that day at the department store.
So it’s really over now.
I set aside the bitter feeling and went to work at Halo.
“Good morning.”
I exchanged the usual greetings and took my seat.
First, I’ll check the final draft, and the report can go out before noon.
And I absolutely need to go grab a coffee.
I got up and headed toward the break room.
Just then, Team Leader Kyeong-un called me over, looking troubled.
I should have pretended not to hear him…
“I think you’ll need to go to the shoot tomorrow, Haesoo.”
“Isn’t Manager Yoon going?”
“Yes, but Manager Yoon called last night. His appendix burst, and he had emergency surgery.”
“Oh no. Is he okay?”
“Yes, the surgery went well, they say… but you’re the only one who knows the set well right now. Thankfully, all the preparations are already done, so you’ll just need to support things on site.”
I was thoroughly flustered.
But I was just an ordinary employee, and I had no right to refuse.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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