The Tough Guy Hides the Villainess - Chapter 143



143 – Stockholm Syndrome? # 1

143 – Stockholm Syndrome? # 1

Seo Gaeul was sleeping at home when it was like a bolt of lightning struck her.

Suddenly, a horde of reporters were storming her door, banging on it.

“Ms. Gaeul! Please answer us!”

“Is it true that Namsanho wasn’t the real kidnapper!”

She was startled.

Somehow, the reporters had found out that Namsanho wasn’t the culprit and were now at her door, asking rude questions.

Truthfully, she had a grasp of what was going on.

Whenever a problem arose that put Seo Gaeul in a tough spot, Hanamjin was usually the culprit.

It was obvious that Hanamjin had done something else that was going to shock people.

“Don’t violate my portrait rights!”

Seo Gaeul slammed the door shut and turned on the TV and her phone.

To figure out exactly what the hell had happened while she’d been asleep.

“Ha Namjin, is he a hero? Or a monster?”

“From presidential successor to kidnapping perpetrator—.”

“Why did he, who dreamed of a perfect crime, confess his sins?”

“Ha Namjin, willingly enters the detention center. Today’s detention center menu search is trending—”

“What the fuck!”

The curse came out on its own.

She knew now that Ha Namjin had dragged the kidnapping case, already closed and buried, out of its grave.

She didn’t know why the b*stard had done it, but one thing was certain, Seo Gaeul was about to get caught in a whole lot of annoying shit.

Knock knock knock-!

Knock knock-!

From noble mtl dot com

The reporters pounding on her door were the first to do it.

‘Ha Namjin, you crazy b*stard! What the hell are you thinking! Why are you confessing to being the culprit now? You fucking psycho! Why now!’

As Seo Gaeul asked herself why this was happening, the man who had somehow been living and breathing in her heart for some time now said.

—Gaeul, beep beep, don’t get so angry. Ha Namjin did what a man has to do. To confess his sins and face them head on.

The voice of Ha Namjin in her heart had some logic to it.

The truth was that Ha Namjin was a sleazy high school girl kidnapper.

He had even hit Seo Gaeul with a flyswatter after kidnapping her.

How humiliating it was.

Could you really call someone who committed such a crime and then lived as if nothing happened a man?

Absolutely not.

Eventually, Ha Namjin had to face the sin he had committed.

‘And it just had to be today! Without even consulting me, the person involved!’

*CRASH*-!

Just then, Seo Gaeul’s door burst open.

Chairman Seo Do-cheol came in and grabbed Seo Gaeul by the shoulders, inspecting her from head to toe.

“Gaeul-ah! My daughter! Is it really true that Ha Namjin was the real kidnapper? That b*stard! I knew it! He seemed suspicious! To think I kneeled before the kidnapper and begged for my daughter’s safety!”

Chairman Seo Do-cheol had gone to Jin Eun-byeol to save his daughter Seo Gaeul. Back then, Jin Eun-byeol had said that a tiger had taken Seo Gaeul.

Seo Do-cheol had thought it was Namsan Tiger, but it was actually a man like a tiger, Ha Namjin.

Not knowing that, he had abandoned his pride and kneeled before Ha Namjin, begging him to save his daughter.

Seo Do-cheol couldn’t believe it.

“Ga-eul, why have you been lying all this time? Were you being threatened by Ha Nam-jin even now? It must be it! You’re pretty, like your mother, so men are always eyeing you!”

“Ugh! Dad! Be quiet! You don’t know anything! It’s not like that! Just get out of my room!”

“…Ga, Ga-eul! Ga-eul─.”

*BANG-*!

Seo Ga-eul was in a tight spot.

If Ha Nam-jin was caught and locked up in jail, what would happen to everything?

What was Seo Ga-eul supposed to do?

━”Ggeu-eul beep beep, Ha Nam-jin probably did all this because he didn’t want to be the president’s successor. People wouldn’t want a criminal, like a high school girl kidnapper, to become president.”

“He did all this because he didn’t want to be president?”

━”That trade between President Nam Tae-geon and Warrant Officer Ha Gi-hoon, it’s Ha Nam-jin’s answer and decision after finding out the truth.”

Seo Ga-eul grew even more confused by the voice in her head.

The deal between President Nam Tae-geon and Warrant Officer Ha Gi-hoon? What was that supposed to be?

How did a figment of her imagination know about something she didn’t?

Maybe, she was just too confused and had started to hallucinate and talk nonsense.

“Seo Ga-eul, we’re from the police. We have a lot of questions about this kidnapping, so we’d appreciate your cooperation with the investigation. We won’t make you uncomfortable.”

Seo Ga-eul headed to the interrogation room.

The few women she had passed had looked at her with deep pity, filled with compassion for the young female victim of abduction.

Seo Ga-eul didn’t like that people pitied her.

It felt like she was being looked down on in a way. And Seo Ga-eul’s pride wouldn’t allow it.

“I wasn’t kidnapped.”

So, as soon as the interrogation began, Seo Ga-eul said something that surprised everyone.

“I wasn’t kidnapped, I was just living with him. It’s a common thing for a young couple to live together, isn’t it?”

“Huh? Cohabiting?”

The female detective was taken aback by Seo Ga-eul’s words.

But her expression soon returned to one that felt compassionate.

“It seems Ha Nam-jin told you to say that, right? It’s okay. Ha Nam-jin has already given a detailed statement about his methods. He said you were bundled up in a blanket while you were asleep and kidnapped, right?”

“No. That didn’t happen. I was never kidnapped by Ha Nam-jin. And actually, it was something I asked him to do. I wanted to pretend to be kidnapped to get out of the house.”

“What does that mean?”

“Things were suffocating at my house back then. I hated going to school, and the boring parties were annoying. So, to avoid suspicion, I wanted to pretend to be kidnapped and live hidden away.”

The story spilled from Seo Gaeul’s mouth.

It was a lie, patched together on the fly, but at the same time, much of it was her true feelings. Because of that, Seo Gaeul didn’t feel like she was lying.

However, the female detective’s gaze was different.

“Gaeul-ssi, Hanamjin-gun is in prison, so there’s no reason to side with him. You don’t have to give in to his brainwashing and threats anymore. Have you ever heard of Stockholm Syndrome?”

Seo Gaeul scrunched up her face, annoyed.

“Do you think I’m in love with Hanamjin and taking his side? That’s absolutely not it! Why would I like him! And I could’ve escaped whenever I wanted!”

After kidnapping Seo Gaeul, Hanamjin had bound her with a chain.

If Seo Gaeul, with her powers miraculously returned, had wanted to break it, she could have easily done so.

“Even when Detective Jin Leehyun came to the basement where I was locked up, I could have easily yelled! I wasn’t kidnapped! I was there of my own volition!”

Seo Gaeul shouted, almost in a fit.

Soon, the female detective looked at the dark window. A little later, a woman in a police uniform came into the interrogation room, it was Detective Jin Leehyun.

“Back then, I was investigating Hanamjin as the culprit. I especially thought the basement was suspicious, but then I heard a strange fox sound coming from the basement.”

Detective Jin Leehyun hated furry animals due to her allergies.

The time she backed off, thinking a fox was trapped in the basement, was actually when Seo Gaeul had been imitating a fox.

Of course, Jin Leehyun didn’t believe it.

“A kidnapped girl purposefully made fox sounds to avoid the police investigation? Why on earth would she need to do that? And is it even possible to imitate a fox so realistically?”

Jin Leehyun’s strength was her sixth sense.

It was safe to say that she had the best sense out of all the Awakened.

For Seo Gaeul to have pulled off a fox imitation that even fooled Jin Leehyun.

“Kyeang-kyeang-kyeang-!”

As if she had been waiting for it, Seo Gaeul made the sound of a fox.

Jin Leehyun was taken aback.

“An imitation of a two-year-old female red fox. I can tell. To perfectly imitate a fox like that in order to fool the police who came to rescue you. There’s only one answer.”

Detective Jin Leehyun had come to a conclusion.

“Seo Gaeul was being conditioned by Hanamjin. Here are Hanamjin’s internet search records from the day before Gaeul-ssi disappeared. He was binge-watching the movie series ‘The Perfect Conditioning.’ Gaeul-ssi was conditioned by Hanamjin just like in those movies!”

“Huh?”

Jin Leehyun with a triumphant expression and Seo Gaeul with a scrunched face.

The idea that she was being conditioned by Hanamjin was absurd.

“Conditioning, what conditioning! I was there of my own free will! I was there of my own will, so it doesn’t constitute kidnapping or unlawful imprisonment. Therefore, you have no right to investigate or punish me.”

“That might be true. However, there are no regulations regarding ‘complaint-requiring’ offenses for s*xual assault crimes, so we do have the right to investigate and prosecute.”

“s*xual assault? What s*xual assault?”

“You’re not going to say nothing happened, are you? I can tell if someone is lying just by licking their sweat, I can tell what they ate for breakfast, you know? Even how many partners they’ve had.”

Chief Inspector Jin Lee-hyun opens her eyes, a narrow slit.

The female investigators immediately tensed.

“You can tell how many?”

“That, that’s an absurd ability–”

*Lick.*

*Hehehe* – Jin Lee-hyun chuckled ominously, then licked Seo Ga-eul’s cheek.

And then she was completely startled.

“No way, she’s a virgin…!? That’s, that’s ridiculous…!?”

“How?”

“It doesn’t make sense.”

The female detectives and investigators were all taken aback.

They thought it was impossible.

“A high school senior about to graduate is still a virgin.”

“Even after being kidnapped?”

“That’s why it wasn’t a kidnapping! We were living together! And it was even fun. It became three of us when we brought in Yu Yeo-reum. Well, strictly speaking there was even a dog, Yingying.”

At the mention of Yu Yeo-reum, Chief Inspector Jin Lee-hyun thought of Yu Yeo-reum, currently exercising her right to remain silent.

Seo Ga-eul, Yu Yeo-reum, and Ha Nam-jin.

The relationship between these three men and women was something strange, beyond just kidnapper and kidnapped hostage.

“Then let’s get me introduced to Ha Nam-jin. I want to hear his side of the story.”

Seo Ga-eul wanted to meet Ha Nam-jin and hear the whole story from start to finish.

# # #

“Death sentence. Please give me a death sentence. Show that this country’s judicial system is still alive.”

In the interrogation room, I sentenced myself to death.

The highest penalty under the law.

It’s only fitting for someone who made the world tremble.

But the investigator looked troubled.

“No, it doesn’t have to go as far as the death penalty. In the first place, the girls are claiming it wasn’t a kidnapping, but cohabitation. And you’re President Nam Tae-gun’s grandson. There’s no need to go all the way to the death penalty….”

“Death sentence!”

I didn’t want to be President Nam Tae-gun’s successor.

To achieve that, I just needed to become a criminal people opposed.

I’d lose all my current respect, popularity, and fame in one go, but it was the right thing to do.

From the start, I *was* a kidnapper.

Not the hero everyone praises, but the opposite, closer to a loser.

And maybe that’s why, I felt a sense of relief.

Today, I might actually be able to stretch out and get some sleep for the first time in a while.

But, the girls I kidnapped are claiming I’m innocent.

What a headache.

That’s when it happened.

“Ha Nam-jin, you have a visitor. Talk to them and maybe you’ll change your mind.”

As the detective left, a pink-haired girl walked into the interrogation room.

Her eyes were fixed on me, like she was filled with resentment, she seemed furious.

“Ha Nam-jjin! I’m mad! You were a kidnapper! How could you do this! You shouldn’t have done this to me! You should respect me! We were partners!”

*Dada-da-da* – her angry words shot out.

She seemed enraged that I hadn’t revealed I was the kidnapper.

And she had every right to be.

“Sorry.”

My honest apology seemed to quickly calm the girl’s spiky, hedgehog-like expression.

She got angry and then got over it, incredibly fast.

“I know! Ha Nam-jjin, it’s something you did, so there must’ve been a reason! But if you stay like this, you’ll be executed! You’ll be in big trouble! Kidnapping high school girls is a monstrous felony!”

She clenched her fist.

“…No, it’s not execution, I heard they’re looking at maybe 2 years or so…”

Just as I was getting a bad feeling, she shouted.

“There’s only one way now. We have to escape from here! Ha Nam-jjin! Trust me! I’ll get you out of here! I’ll do whatever it takes!”

*Swoosh-*.

The girl pulled chopsticks out of her pocket.

She started flinging them at the CCTV installed in the interrogation room.

“Yeoul-bigi, I-man-i-cheon-hwa-woo!”