At a time when Ah Yeurong had yet to meet Do Jiwoon, Lee Dojin had been scraping around Seoul, trying to find them.
"Figures he wouldn't be here." he looked at the empty Sivilla. The school stood above a hill, gated, looking like a prison. He remembered, in the security room at the only gate connecting Sivilla to the world outside, was always an older woman, sitting there 24/7. He sometimes wondered if she wasn't a robot, or some genetically engineered freak, seemingly never needing to rest. There was a campus, though no real students could access it.
Arriving there, he saw not a single person. A wave of nostalgia wanted to overwhelm him, but he suppressed it, as there were more important things currently.
He took out his phone and called Kim Taewon. That man had quite a lot of info gathered on them, so maybe he knew something. "It's me, Dojin."
A jovial voice replied, "Hyung, how are you? Wow, I'm quite popular today. Dahee is going to be jealous." Taewon had picked up.
Lee Dojin took a seat by the curve. A stray leaf blew by, brushing his left shoe. "What do you mean by that?"
"Well, A few minutes ago, Jyejin called me, asking if she knew anything about Sivilla and where it is was." Lee Dojin could hear Yoo Dahee form the other side. "Right after, your friend Heeson called. I didn't know you gave him my number. Well, he told me he had a personal vendetta against Il Chunghoo and asked me where to find that guy since he wanted to bash his head. They both seemed in a hurry so I simply gave them the location." He paused. "I suppose you have a similar question?"
"You would be correct." He nodded.
"I see," Kim Taewon muttered. "Hyung. I apologize."
"For what?"
"It was never my intention to get you all involved. I can tell you've gotten mixed up in something bad." The man fiddled with the phone. "How about this? We are close to finding out that group's real intentions. If you leave it up to us, we'll catch them and you'll just step out of danger."
"It's a little too late for that." He smiled. "Also, there's someone I have some business with them."
"I got it." Taewon nodded, while at the same time sighing. "What exactly are you looking for?"
Lee Dojin only said a name, "Do Jiwoon."
There was a short silence from the phone. "He, he's a bit hard to find, you know? After all, that's the leader." A short breeze passed by Lee Dojin. The school looked so vast without people. "Still, if I had to guess, he's at the place where a lot of his other places. There's a warehouse in Myeongdong that we are suspecting, but it belongs to that one big company Wayward Pharmaceuticals, so it's hard to gain access."
"What did you say? Wayward?" Lee Dojin's eyes widened. He then laughed out. "You will have to ask Jyejin for that one."
"What why?"
"Well," he mulled over his words, "Her uncle is the CEO Kim Illsang."
"What," he shouted, his surprise evident from his voice. "Are you serious? Like, serious, serious? Why didn't you tell me sooner! Can you ask her for permission to enter the warehouse?" A hint of excitement was reflected in his tone.
"You can call her yourself. But first, it's my turn." Lee Dojin hung up, wasting no time, the next person to call was naturally Kim Jyejin.
"Look who remembered to show their face. Or is it their voice?" Jyejin huffed. "No, that doesn't matter. You just wait at the school, I'm coming to pick you up right now."
"What? No, you don't need to come." He wanted to explain, but she interrupted him.
"Oh yes, I do. I just found something very important," she replied. "Did you know that Ah Yeurong is pregnant?"
Lee Dojin jumped up from the sudden news. "What?"
"Yes, her friend just said so. That explains the reason why she was so hectic." Kim Jyejin sighed. "Yeurong didn't want anyone to know, but given the situation, it might be best not hide it, since she can't handle any rough manhandling."
"Pregnant..." That info came as a genuine surprise to him. Hearing that word, and connecting it to Do Jiwoon, things started to slowly make sense. But that info preceeded one factor. He grit his teeth. "That bastard was part of the system even before the tutorial."
There was only one reason he needed a pregnant girl—and it certainly wasn't something pleasant.
Antibirth, that's what Do Jiwoon had called it. Lee Dojin thought it was a fancy name for abortion, but it turned out much more sinister:
Jiwoon had realized, an unborn baby could be host for his dead spirits. Through inserting many different souls into a single body with none, he wanted to create an entity that had many different Affinities, creating per his definition, the perfect Ubermensch.
In the end, that experiment turned out to be a bust. But it was at that time, Lee Dojin thought he had gone too far and parted ways with him. This was, in hindsight, a mistake. One of his few regrets was that he hadn't killed him sooner.
"Jyejin. Listen carefully. I need you to tell me the exact location of your uncle's warehouse in Myeongdong."
...
Kim Jyejin, on the other side, looked confused, but she still obliged. "I've sent it to you."
Ji-ah stood behind her, on tippy-toes, trying to peek into at her display. "What'd he say?"
Jyejin hung up. She looked at her phone with a quizzical face. "He's found their location."
"That's great," she shouted with joy.
"Yeah, I guess," she muttered, "Sorry, I have to call someone."
Baek Ji-ah rolled up her sleeves. "I'm going too. There has to be something I can do."
"Ji-ah, are you crazy," Dong Jowoon shouted. Now that Lee Dojin wasn't there anymore, he didn't feel as intimidated. "How can you get involved in a student scuffle? What we have to do is report it to the supervisor, and they will take it from there. Give them a suspension, or maybe even expel them, and it will be done."
Ji-ah glared at him. "This hardly seems like something for the school to handle."
"Children have to listen to adults! That's how it's always been. We'll solve it without making a big case of it, okay?" He walked forward. "We can notify the school board. Afterward, let's get something to drink; Just the two of us, what do you think?"
Ji-ah's stubbornness flared up. "How can you say something so irresponsible when a student of yours has been kidnapped?"
"Kidnapped is a strong word." He started to sweat. "They are just kids. You know, boys, right? Boys will be boys." He reached his hand out to Ji-ah.
However, unexpectedly, she slapped him away. With an angry voice, she screamed, "Don't you fucking touch me!"
Dong Jowoon was taken aback, faltering a few steps. "Ji-ah?"
"Oh shut up," she shouted, "School board this; Director that. Listen. I don't give a shit. My student is in danger, and I will save her. you can stay here twiddling your thumbs, but do not srop me." She turned around, walking to Jyejin. She ripped her dress apart, revealing her leg. "Shit, this fluff is annoying."
Jowoon watched her back, at a loss for words. He stuttered, shocked, thinking for something to say. "About, about, uh, the coffee—"
Ji-ah gave him the middle finger. "You can shove that up your ass. I ain't interested."
"...Ji-ah, I, I can still overlook it if you apologize now. Otherwise, I'll have to report you to the counselor if you keep being unreasonable."
"Yeah, yeah," she scoffed while waving her hand, not even looking at him. "Get me fired if you want to. I'm sick of all these rules. Of society regulating what I can be or not. A person once told me to go my own way. That's what I will do. Just like my brother would have wanted." She arrived at Jyejin. "Tell me the location too."
Jyejin nodded. She was on the phone, but not with her uncle, as she had hoped to.
No, it was Kim Heeson.
...
"Where are you going," Park Wonho asked.
Kim Heeson pushed some numbers on his phone. He opened the door. "To help a friend." He walked out.
Park Wonho stared out the window, at Heesons back. He said quietly but clearly, "Take care."
A slight smile briefly appeared on Heesons face, until it turned stoic again. he placed his phone on his ear. "Dojin. It's me."
...
Lee Dojin closed his phone. He stood in front of the warehouse. There were several students in front. He approached them.
A student of his own school (he had the same uniform) came to asn him what he was doing here.
Lee Dojin didn't answer. No, he only swung his hand, hitting that boy's chin, whose head shook and then promptly collapsed; his eyes wide.
This action alerted the surrounding people. They were shocked and unsure of what happened but understood an enemy had appeared.
"Who is this bastard?"
"Get him!"
"Piece of shit, where do you think you are?"
Lee Dojin cracked his neck. With a cold voice, he told them, "Move."
The whole area turned silent. Like an Orchestral Hall where a performance had just ended. The people around him shook, unsure of where the fear came from. They stood frozen. It was unreasonable to feel such a great amount of horror for a single person when they were a few dozen. However, seeing that man's domineering spirit, they simply did not wish to be the first to to confront him. And thus, they all stood rooted to the ground.
He walked past them, arriving at the end, seeing Oh Sanbaek, who shuddered like a baby deer. The cowardly boy tried saying something, "Look, man, you don't understand—"
But Lee Dojin did not wish to hear it. With an expressionless face, he punched Oh Sanbaek, feeling a crunch behind his fist, and opening the door with the inertia of that poor fool's crashing body.
In the middle, there he saw the always familiar figure. Well, unlike now, he used to have black hair during this age, but only because he dyed it as his natural hair color of white was too attention-grabbing, he had said.
The man would later be known by many titles: The False God. The White Temptation. The Ghost. The Ruler of Demons. The Evil One—But Lee Dojin will always remember him by his S-Rank Affinity Title 'Son of the Morning, Do Jiwoon.'
Lee Dojin activated his ability. Innumerable stars appeared around him. "What's up, Jiwoon. It's been a minute."
The white-haired boy lifted his head underneath the shrouded darkness. Smoke appeared from his shadows. "I've never met you in my life."