“Ah, yeah.”

Belze had no more strength to respond. Her whole body felt like she’d been in and out of a swamp.

“If you… do anything like that to anyone else, I’ll make you pay, do you understand…? Live properly….”

Seo’s speech was unusually slow, as if he wasn’t in his right mind.

“Uh-huh.”

“Don’t mess… with someone else…”

Even if he didn’t give a warning, Belze didn’t dare to do anything. She was afraid that Seo would come and give her six months of regret.

“And…”

“And?”

“…once.”

“Once?”

Seo looked soft and absent-minded, as if he had spent a long time in a sauna, not just in appearance but also in character. In other words, he seemed to have lost more than half of his usual sharpness.

“…I think I could do more”

If it hadn’t been like that, he wouldn’t have said such things. Who in their right mind would blurt out those words after having such a great time?

However, Seo was muttering strange words, and Belze wasn’t exactly normal either.

At that moment, while the two, who had their legs entwined, even their hands overlapping, a tremendous noise came from beyond the door.

The destructive noise and the bustling sounds were audible even inside the sealed-off room, along with alarms.

<Intruders detected! Repeat! Intruders detected! All personnel, please follow the emergency evacuation order. Repeat! Intruders detected! All personnel, please follow the emergency evacuation order.>

The red warning lights and ear-piercing alarms brought Belze and Seo back to reality from their dreamland.

With their minds fully alert again, Belze and Seo faced each other, both wearing expressions that left no room for words. However, their faces were still red, and their disheveled appearance didn’t look very dignified.

“Damn it! …Not this, damn it! That’s not how it’s supposed to be! They must have come to get me, but I’m going to be seen looking like this today!”

In a hurry, Seo fumbled to put on his clothes and turned his body, avoiding eye contact. Belze picked up her scattered clothes from a distance as well and confronted him, returning the same gesture of avoiding eye contact.

“Don’t… Don’t steal my lines! Just you wait! I will definitely get you to the fullest!”

After exchanging their scripted lines, Seo quickly concealed his tracks. In the room filled with blaring alarms, only Belze, who hadn’t put on her clothes yet, and a broken camera remained.

***

Belze was left alone, allowing her to objectively and distantly observe what had just happened.

She was eaten by Seo. All of her villainous accomplishments, her unmatched nastiness, her notorious reputation as a villain were all obscured by the notorious hero.

“Damn it.”

Her head felt dizzy again.

<<Battle at 6:30 PM>>

“Ms. Belze, I’m cleaning, kindly step aside.”

“Is cleaning more important than not bothering my mood?”

“It’s the cleaning.”

Her subordinate with a shaggy hairstyle replied gruffly. Her gaze seemed to ask why Belze was even bothering to ask such a question.

Sitting on the swivel chair with her knees gathered close to her chest, Belze spun around in her seat. She pouted her cheeks discontentedly, leaning her cheek against her knees, and grumbled. The complaints, not even forming coherent sentences, continued until the vacuum cleaner was fully turned on.

In the end, the subordinate, who had turned off the vacuum cleaner, looked back at Belze while wringing the cloth.

“Why are you like this? Everyone’s been bothered by you acting like this for days now.”

“Just tell me you’re worried.”

“I’m worried because I care, even if it’s bothersome.”

“It’s all because of that arrogant hero.”

“If you’re going to make it sound like you’ve been waiting, then say it from the beginning.”

Ignoring her subordinate’s nagging, Belze tapped her toes.

“That darn Kim Seo. The hideout got destroyed, and I’m the only one blamed for it. Why does he have to work so hard to interfere with my plans when he’s doing well himself? He should cut me some slack considering how much effort I put into capturing him!”

“Very impressive. You can truly make it sound so unjust. I guess there’s a reason why they call you a boss. Perhaps things need to change from the very core.”

“I win most of the time, so it should be okay to lose once. But saying I should back off just like that, after all the things he did to me. After all…!”

“Sigh… What did he do?”

The subordinate, who had wiped all the tables clean with a cloth, approached from behind the chair. She wiped the backrest of the chair where Belze was sitting and pushed the chair towards the desk.

Despite knowing that it was about the deeds of Public Hero Seo, the subordinate didn’t show any sign of curiosity. She didn’t even attempt to appease Belze’s anger.

She wasn’t heartless, but that’s what happens when you hear the same story for days on end. She knew what had happened to Belze.

What had happened between Seo and Belze had been officially kept as a secret, but unofficially, it had spread among a few people. The subordinates and close colleagues who rushed to handle the situation knew, and he was one of those subordinates.

Thanks to that, she found himself in a position where she had to endure all of Belze’s complaints and irritations as her chief subordinate for days on end.

“He took away my innocence.”

This was already the seventh time she said that.

“You don’t believe in innocence.”

“I don’t! I don’t believe it, but he took it! I have to say that he took it so I can ease my anger! There must be some people who believe me!”

“It’s not often that you can find young people these days who believes in innocence. You seem unusually conservative today.”

“Still…! But…!”

After being refuted once again, Belze clenched her fist and raised her head high. Her posture, with her back arched like a howling wolf, seemed desperate and touched the heartstrings of her subordinate.

She patted the shoulders of his pitiful boss.

“I’m sure you know why you’re so angry.”

“Of course, I do! That bastard forced me and played around with me against my will!”

“If that was all he did, you wouldn’t have been so angry all week. It’s not the first time he’s ruined our plans.”

“But that’s not….”

Belze wanted to say that it’s not just an ordinary defeat, but for some reason, the words wouldn’t come out. In the meantime, her subordinate gently said, ‘Aha’ and patted her shoulders more deeply.

“Don’t you usually forget about things that bother you quickly? Then you to start preparing for revenge?”

“….”

No, if you say that, what does it make me, who can’t forget and is burning with anger?

Belze turned her head to look at her subordinate. Even after receiving her disapproving gaze, the subordinate didn’t back down but instead looked at her a little pitifully and nodded.

“I understand. It’s natural to feel that way at first. Feeling like it’s okay, experiencing self-doubt, and wanting to deny it. It takes time to come to terms with it.”

“No! You don’t even know what it is I’m talking about. Don’t try to console me when you don’t understand anything.”

“Ms. Belze…”

The subordinate’s expression seemed to ask if Belze really had to put it into words, but seeing her appear uncomfortable and looking down on her, she became irritated.

However, Belze didn’t retaliate against her. She wanted to be a respectable leader, at least until her subordinate spoke next.

“Did you enjoy it?”

“Hey!!”

The penholder that was on Belze’s desk flew off when she threw it, but the brainwave officer, who had only as much physical strength equivalent to a kitten’s, wasn’t fearful of her throw. She quickly dodged the penholder and other stationery with agile movements, then grabbed the backrest of Belze’s chair and pulled it further away from the desk.

“Calm down. If you express your anger so directly, it will seem more true.”

“Are you crazy? Do I look crazy? How could I… how could I have enjoyed that…?”

“Please calm down. That’s the problem here. You felt thrilled, but you think you shouldn’t feel good about it, so that what makes it harder.”

She turned the chair side to side to divert Belze’s attention.

“But what if you enjoyed it a little? Even if it’s your archenemy who confines you, the steak they give you might still taste delicious. Getting hurt by someone you love is painful no matter what.”

“You…”

“Sensations are separate from emotions. Even if he was a despicable guy, you can still feel differently about it. It’s tormenting you because you’re not acknowledging it due to your pride.”

“….”

Belze accidentally stabbed her own thigh with the pen she hadn’t thrown. Her subordinate was accurately pinpointing her inner struggle, which she was reluctant to admit to herself.

The fact that she was easily taken advantage of by Seo was a problem that could be forgotten quickly. Belze was naturally indifferent to violence.

Of course, she would want to seek revenge. There’s no way she would easily let it go. However, she wouldn’t dwell in sadness over the scars or confine herself to a solitary space.

For Belze, violence was a concept where when she executed it, it was a natural order of things, but when she became the victim, it was the epitome of injustice.

If it made her feel bad, she could seek revenge. If she was afraid of the repercussions or disgusted, she could just let it go with shallow and casual thoughts, being nonchalant and not dwelling too deeply on it.

Belze didn’t feel any remorse about that aspect. After all, most of the villainous organization’s executives were like that. If you were a person capable of thinking rationally, you wouldn’t survive or thrive in a group of villains.

So, Belze’s dilemma wasn’t about being eaten by Seo, it was that she’d been indulging in pleasure at the time.

And to make matters worse, it was Seo, of all people!