I Became the Drug-Addicted Childhood Friend

Han Si-Hoo

“Hello?”

I saw the young Yoo Seo-Ah from my childhood.

“Si-Hoo.”

She greeted the younger me.

It was a faint memory.

The tragic commonality of losing our parents in accidents brought us together.

“Si-Hoo, what shall we play today?”

I spent time with Yoo Seo-Ah, playing games that were nothing special.

I had nothing else to do either.

For children, playing was their job.

The crumbling houses of the slum.

An area that would never be redeveloped.

Yoo Seo-Ah lived in one of those fitting places.

I didn’t originally live in such a place.

I used to live in a fairly affluent area.

It was a financially comfortable household.

The problem began after my parents passed away.

After all the adults who helped me left, I remained by Yoo Seo-Ah’s side.

Could just the two of us survive as children?

Fortunately, the world wasn’t that harsh.

There were kind factory owners who gave children simple tasks and paid them regularly.

We could also find important items left behind after a monster passed through.

Sometimes we ran errands and got paid.

Even though we were young, we could earn enough to survive.

Thankfully, even in the slums, there weren’t many adults bad enough to swindle children.

“Let’s keep playing together from now on!”

A brown-haired girl smiled brightly.

“You’ll play, right?”

Yes.

But we didn’t just play.

Whenever I couldn’t stop trembling from the memory of seeing my parents die, she would quietly come close and say whatever she could to comfort me.

Maybe because we were in similar situations, it was a great comfort to me.

“Um, everything will be okay. It’ll get better.”

She spoke kindly like that.

I knew she was struggling too.

Looking at her, I thought.

I had to protect that smile beside me.

And so, I began.

“What are you doing, Si-Hoo?”

“Training.”

“Training?”

“I heard I could use swordsmanship.”

It was only later that I realized I had awakened.

“Wow.”

“I’ll practice just a little more.”

I swung pieces of scrap metal and logs, practicing.

I needed to protect Yoo Seo-Ah with my abilities.

Fortunately, even in the slums, there weren’t many bad adults who bullied children.

There weren’t many, but there were some.

“Si-Hoo, you’re amazing! Incredible!”

I defeated one villain.

And I was able to protect Seo-Ah.

It was also the moment I realized how exceptional my talents were.

“I’ll stay by your side from now on.”

“You’ll keep protecting me?”

“Yes.”

“…I really like you!”

Seo-Ah said that and jumped into my arms.

My heart raced like crazy back then.

It was a story from our childhood.

In the end, the fact that I was an Awakener became known, long before I left for the Academy.

The brown-haired girl was still with me.

And she was still smiling.

On the dirt ground.

Dirt ground?

“I’m sorry.”

—I’m sorry. I’m sorry.

—Just kill me, I’m sorry.

I returned to cold reality.

Everything had ended.

Yoo Seo-Ah was sent to the Academy’s infirmary.

Han Si-Hoo wondered why this happened.

I couldn’t understand.

The Yoo Seo-Ah I knew seemed to have disappeared long ago.

I had barely stopped her from killing herself.

The blade that seemed to be coming toward me had quickly turned on herself.

A shocking event.

As I stood there, trying to gather my thoughts, someone came and stood next to me.

“I’m s-sorry, Si-Hoo. I’m really sorry.”

“Yeah.”

Rena Asilia.

She was also in shock, realizing she had stabbed the wrong person.

The problem was that she had just recently learned the procedure for dealing with villains.

Society classifies Awakeners who misuse their powers for evil as villains.

One of the methods to safely deal with villains without harming civilians.

You distract them with conversation, catching them off guard.

What Han Si-Hoo did was a perfect match.

He made the opponent drop their weapon through persuasion!

It felt strange, but I didn’t miss the opportunity to attack.

“I’m sorry.”

Rena apologized to Han Si-Hoo again.

She thought that she should apologize to Yoo Seo-Ah, his childhood friend, too.

“I never thought she was a friend… a childhood friend.”

“It’s okay.”

Han Si-Hoo replied.

“It’s just… I thought you once said you didn’t have any old friends.”

That was Rena’s confusion.

She hadn’t fully heard the conversation because she was preparing for the ambush.

She never imagined it was a reunion with a friend.

Rena only knew limited things about Han Si-Hoo.

He was reluctant to talk about his past, and knowing that he lost his parents in an accident, she hesitated to ask about it.

—You didn’t have any friends?

—Not even one?

Han Si-Hoo hesitated for a moment before nodding.

It was around the time Yoo Seo-Ah started to push him away.

He didn’t want to reveal Yoo Seo-Ah’s existence to the Academy.

Han Si-Hoo found it strange how Yoo Seo-Ah was trying to distance herself from him.

But if that was what Yoo Seo-Ah wanted.

As long as she didn’t come to the Academy herself, everything was fine, I thought.

What happened at the Academy was already tough enough.

With the semester ending soon, I was also busy.

If we had remained friends, none of this would have happened.

“Anyway, I’m sorry. You don’t have to talk about it if it’s hard.”

“…No.”

Rena watched Han Si-Hoo, who seemed out of it, and hesitated before leaving.

“Sorry.”

She threw one last apology.

Han Si-Hoo kept thinking.

It’s my fault.

The last time I saw Seo-Ah at the Academy.

I thought maybe we could reconcile.

But Yoo Seo-Ah, who had come to the Academy, had bandages wrapped around her arm.

Before I enrolled in the Academy, Yoo Seo-Ah had been fine.

Seeing her with bandages was strange.

—That medicine I’ve been taking.

—I don’t have enough money for it. I came to borrow some.

—I’ll pay you back later.

She tried to borrow money, saying the price of her medicine had gone up.

It didn’t make sense.

The bandage was probably just for show.

I knew about the medicine Yoo Seo-Ah had been taking.

She had started taking it because of a persistent cough.

It could never be that expensive.

I’d never seen medicine that costly.

Soon, I came to a conclusion.

She was simply approaching me again because she needed money.

I didn’t understand why our relationship had deteriorated so much.

I gave her the money.

It wasn’t a loan.

—But don’t come looking for me again. Let’s not get involved anymore.

—What?

—Take it and get lost.

—Uh-huh…

I threw her words back at her.

Was it that hard to control my emotions?

Back then, I couldn’t understand Yoo Seo-Ah’s behavior at all.

It wasn’t until now that I finally understood.

The drugs.

The drugs had ruined Yoo Seo-Ah.

Someone had destroyed her with drugs.

—Hey, Si-Hoo.

—Could you lend me a little for transportation?

Scattered memories came back.

In the end, she tried to borrow money for transportation.

The distance from home to the Academy was far, after all.

—I walked here.

Yoo Seo-Ah wasn’t the type to lie.

Neither of us ever lied to each other.

It had always been that way.

Five million won for medicine.

That was how much Yoo Seo-Ah had been paying.

Then it became a question of how she had been getting the money before coming to me.

There was no way someone like Yoo Seo-Ah, living in the slums, could have that much money.

If she had sold off everything she owned, she wouldn’t have even had enough left for transportation.

There was no one to borrow money from.

No one to contact.

The only option left for Yoo Seo-Ah.

Relying on her only friend.

Han Si-Hoo was the only person who might help.

And I did help.

Last time, I was so bitter about being scolded that I treated her in the same way.

I had been deeply hurt by Yoo Seo-Ah’s constant attempts to push me away.

I didn’t apologize.

Even her reason for asking for money felt like a lie.

I had never been angry at Seo-Ah before.

I thought, just this once, it would be okay.

Yoo Seo-Ah acted like she hated me more than anyone else.

Yet she came back.

The smile she showed when she saw me was unnervingly friendly.

It was abnormal.

Looking back, it was too strange.

“Damn it…”

Seo-Ah smiled.

No, she’s crying.

Because of you.

Han Si-Hoo stood there until someone came looking for him.

***

“…So, she was your childhood friend.”

Lee Yu-Ram said.

“Yes.”

“The Academy can be a bit forceful about taking Awakeners. But still… you should have taken better care of her.”

Half of the Academy admissions were essentially mandatory.

Han Si-Hoo hadn’t planned on leaving Yoo Seo-Ah behind.

The Academy did have a family protection system.

But since they weren’t blood-related, requesting protection for Yoo Seo-Ah was impossible.

With hundreds of Awakeners gathered at the Academy, there was no time to worry about individual circumstances.

Still, those who performed outstandingly at the Academy always received benefits.

If I had shown excellence at the Academy, I could have helped Seo-Ah more.

“Si-Hoo? You’re listening, right?”

“Yes.”

“No matter what, we both know that curing drug addiction or illnesses isn’t easy.”

Even though they can reattach severed limbs, they can’t cure something as simple as a cold.

That’s what healing-type Awakeners are like.

In some areas, they still have to rely on conventional medicine.

“We’ve patched up her broken arm and the wound Rena gave her. That’s not the problem.”

If it’s not a cold but a fatal stab wound, they can heal it.

It’s a strange system, but that’s reality.

“But she had some older injuries too. We couldn’t fix everything.”

“Older injuries…?”

I remembered the bandage Yoo Seo-Ah had been wearing on her arm.

“Hmm… there was a bruise on her stomach too. It looked like someone had hit her.”

A bruise on her stomach?

In my mind, I pictured Yoo Seo-Ah being hit.

Was it the man with the medicine?

I didn’t know.

I didn’t want to imagine it.

—You’ll keep protecting me?

The image of young Yoo Seo-Ah, asking that question, overlapped with my memory.

And I, who had said yes.

In the end, I hadn’t protected her.

I didn’t protect her.

Why not?

You knew the slums were dangerous better than anyone.

The Academy was cozy, wasn’t it?

Did you hate living with Seo-Ah that much?

Inwardly, you thought someone like Seo-Ah was just a burden, didn’t you?

Why?

A massive sense of guilt washed over Han Si-Hoo.