The stalker, Choi Sun-hyung, waved his pistol with a flustered expression.

“What? You bastard. This is a real gun! If you don’t want to die, get on your knees now!”

Seo Jung-woo spoke.

“Ah. A gun. Ah. So scary.”

The model gun looked almost identical to a real one. It was even painted like an actual firearm, so at first, Choi Sun-hyung mistook it for the real thing. He thought that if he threatened Seo Jung-woo with this gun, he could control him as he pleased.

‘In a situation like this, if someone sees a gun, they should be terrified.’

Even with the gun pointed at him, Seo Jung-woo showed no fear.

Lee Sun-hwa was visibly scared. But if only she was afraid, it was meaningless.

‘I wanted to show the pathetic and cowardly sight of a frightened man!’

After that, he was confident he could handle the situation however he wanted.

Even if the police were called, he was sure his family’s influence would keep him out of jail. After all, this wasn’t a real gun.

At worst, he believed he could get off with a suspended sentence. For someone like Choi Sun-hyung, whose family was wealthy, a suspended sentence was no different from being let go.

But his plan went wrong from the beginning. Seo Jung-woo, who claimed to be the boyfriend, not only wasn’t scared but also stepped in front of Lee Sun-hwa to protect her.

That alone was infuriating, and to make matters worse, Seo Jung-woo had even mockingly said he was scared in the tone of someone reading a textbook.

Choi Sun-hyung shouted.

“You bastard! I’ll really shoot! I will!”

Seo Jung-woo responded calmly.

“Hey. That would be a big problem. For you.”

Behind him, Lee Sun-hwa was trembling with fear.

“Why are you doing this? You shouldn’t provoke him, should you?”

Seo Jung-woo chuckled.

“It’s fine to provoke him.”

Choi Sun-hyung’s face turned red. That chuckle snapped the last thread of his patience.

Suddenly, he burst into mad laughter.

“Kuhaha! Hahaha! Damn it! This is all your fault!”

“Why? What are you going to do?”

Choi Sun-hyung shifted the fake gun to his left hand and reached into his pocket with his right.

“You should have just gotten scared and knelt down!”

He pulled out a jackknife from his pocket. When he pressed the button, a sharp blade sprang out.

“Why did you hold out and make me go this far?!”

“Ah. A knife. Ah. Scary… No, actually, knives aren’t that scary.”

Compared to a gun, a knife wasn’t as threatening, but still, it was something.

‘Now his list of charges is getting longer. Good.’

There was no sign of killing intent from Choi Sun-hyung.

‘At least he’s not trying to kill me.’

If his opponent had truly intended to kill, he would have responded accordingly. But this wasn’t that kind of situation.

Still, he could tell that the knife wasn’t just for show.

‘He’s definitely going to stab me.’

Choi Sun-hyung pointed the fake gun at Seo Jung-woo and stepped forward.

“You bastard. Don’t move! If you move, I’ll shoot!”

Seo Jung-woo easily read his opponent’s thoughts.

‘Since he can’t fire a fake gun, he’s using it to threaten me before stabbing me with the knife.’

Choi Sun-hyung assumed that the gun had frozen Seo Jung-woo in place.

“I knew it. You were just bluffing in front of the girl. There’s no way you’re not scared of a gun!”

He yelled and thrust the knife toward Seo Jung-woo’s shoulder.

“Die, you arrogant bastard!”

At that moment, Seo Jung-woo moved.

‘Thanks for saying that. Now I can frame this as you trying to kill me.’

He flipped the gold-plated pen he had been hiding in his hand and stabbed it deep into the hand holding the gun.

The metal pen pierced straight through Choi Sun-hyung’s hand. Seo Jung-woo let go of the pen, leaving it embedded.

The first priority was dealing with the harmless fake gun, making it look as though he had mistaken it for a real one.

He could have subdued him more gently, but he intentionally went for the hand. That was why he had asked beforehand if the pen was real gold.

‘If it was real gold, it would’ve been a waste to use it like this.’

He had deliberately given Choi Sun-hyung the chance to stab him. While his left hand was impaled by the pen, the knife in his right hand still came at him.

Seo Jung-woo subtly shifted his shoulder to avoid the knife, then grabbed his opponent’s left hand. The moment he did, he struck the wrist hard with his right fist.

Choi Sun-hyung’s wrist snapped under the force.

Only then did he scream.

“Aagh!”

Originally, Seo Jung-woo had considered framing this as an accidental gunshot injury to leave Choi Sun-hyung permanently crippled.

He wanted to ensure he could never act like a stalker again. But since this was a knife and not a gun, it wouldn’t be believable, so he abandoned that plan.

The screaming was annoying. Seo Jung-woo punched him in the jaw.

“Kugh!”

With a short cry, Choi Sun-hyung collapsed sideways.

Even with his broken wrist, he still gripped the knife.

Not because of determination.

Seo Jung-woo had purposely broken his wrist while he was still holding the knife. Now that he had fainted, his hand couldn’t release it.

A camcorder was recording everything from behind.

Seo Jung-woo picked up the gun from the floor and spoke as if slightly surprised.

“Ah. This is light. It’s not a real gun. I really thought it was real. It looks just like one.”

All the necessary footage was now recorded.

Lee Sun-hwa’s face was pale. She screamed from behind.

“You almost got shot! You almost got stabbed!”

“But I wasn’t shot or stabbed, so it’s fine.”

“That’s not the point! Ugh!”

She was shouting when she remembered the camcorder. There was no need to keep recording her flustered state.

As she rushed toward the camcorder, she tripped over the sofa.

“Kyaa!”

Even as she fell, she reached out and stopped the recording.

Seo Jung-woo turned and waved the gun.

“And this is a fake gun. It’s crafted to look real, but it doesn’t fire bullets.”

“I—I thought it was real! Even you said you thought it was real!”

“Well, you know.”

At that moment, the camcorder had still been recording, so he had played along.

Breathing heavily, Lee Sun-hwa detached the camcorder from the tripod and handed it to Seo Jung-woo.

“Here.”

He asked.

“Why are you giving this to me?”

“Huh? You told me to record it as evidence.”

“I didn’t mean for me to keep it.”

“Huh?”

Seo Jung-woo pointed at the unconscious Choi Sun-hyung.

“This is solid evidence to put him away. You should keep it.”

Her eyes widened.

“Me? Not you, Detective Seo?”

“You didn’t call the police because you didn’t want things to get noisy. But now, the situation has escalated too much to be covered up quietly.”

Lee Sun-hwa shouted.

“Of course, we have to report it to the police! Why would we cover it up? That bastard is definitely going to jail!”

“If you call 112, the police will obviously come.”

The moment he realized that the stalker’s identity was Choi Sun-hyeong, he discarded the option of beating him up and chasing him away. That wouldn’t make him give up.

But this situation might not end here.

In that other world, Choi Sun-hyeong’s family never apologized for what their son did. Instead, they tried to use their minor influence to frame Lee Seon-hwa.

At that time, Seo Jung-woo had to visit them personally and shut them up.

But he couldn’t use the same method here. In this world, recklessly firing a gun would be a huge problem.

Here, he needed a different kind of weapon. That’s why he had prepared this video.

“When the police arrive, show them this video under the condition of confidentiality. If they ask for a copy, give them one, but keep the original safe. Make backups too. If that bastard’s family finds out that there’s evidence, they’ll shut up.”

Lee Seon-hwa immediately understood.

“Ah. Ah! I see! You mean to keep them from acting recklessly?”

Seo Jung-woo smirked. The words she had just used were something the Lee Seon-hwa from the other world often said.

“Exactly.”

In the other world, he hadn’t prepared in advance, which gave the enemy a chance to pull tricks. From that experience, he had created this video.

Seo Jung-woo now believed everything was settled.

‘I helped because she reminded me of Seon-hwa, but this should be enough.’

With that thought, he handed the video over to Lee Seon-hwa.

‘Now I can step back.’

But there was one thing he had miscalculated.

The Lee Seon-hwa in this world was a top star.

Even without this video, she had plenty of ways to shut up Choi Sun-hyeong’s family. She could use the law or even manipulate the media.

Lee Seon-hwa interpreted Seo Jung-woo’s thorough preparation of the evidence in a different way.

‘He must be really worried about me.’

After facing a dangerous situation together with him and then receiving such a thoughtful gift, she felt even more grateful.

Lee Seon-hwa personally called 112.

Seo Jung-woo looked at the bloodstains on the floor and spoke.

“This shouldn’t be cleaned up just yet. It’s all evidence. But you’re not going to ask me to pay for the cleaning later, are you?”

Lee Seon-hwa hesitated for a moment.

‘I could use this as an excuse to invite him over again…’

She quickly dismissed the thought.

‘He’d think I was ungrateful.’

“I’ll just call someone to take care of it.”

Before long, the police arrived, followed by the building’s security staff.

The officer who stepped out of the elevator gasped when he saw her.

“Gasp! It’s really Lee Seon-hwa!”

The officers who arrived first focused on preserving the crime scene and checking the suspect’s condition.

Lee Seon-hwa and Seo Jung-woo waited in the hallway.

A while later, detectives from the local police’s violent crimes unit arrived. They had already heard that the victim was top star Lee Seon-hwa.

“Gasp! It’s really Lee Seon-hwa!”

The team leader immediately gave orders to the detectives.

“I’ll say it again, keep your mouths shut. If anyone leaks this to the press, they won’t get away with it.”

Lee Seon-hwa gave the violent crimes team leader a slight bow.

“Thank you.”

“Haha. No need to thank me. Ah, I’m a fan.”

The detectives entered her apartment with bright expressions. The team leader soon exclaimed in shock.

“How the hell did someone end up like this? This is too much!”

“There’s a gun here.”

“What? A gun?!”

“Boss, this guy is gripping a knife tightly in his hand.”

“A knife too?”

The violent crimes team leader rushed outside.

“Miss Lee Seon-hwa, what exactly happened here?”

Lee Seon-hwa explained.

“Ah, that gun is fake. We also thought it was real at first.”

“Ah, a fake gun. Whew, that scared me.”

“But the knife is real. That bastard pointed a gun and tried to stab me. I couldn’t afford to go easy on him.”

“Of course. But… I don’t think it was you who did this to him…”

The team leader’s gaze shifted to Seo Jung-woo, who was standing beside her.

“Was it you, by any chance…?”

“Well, somehow, yes.”

“I thought you were a manager or a security guard, but I guess not? Are you a bodyguard?”

Lee Seon-hwa quickly spoke up.

“Detective Seo Jung-woo.”

The violent crimes team leader was startled.

“Oh? You’re that Detective Seo Jung-woo?”

“Ah, yes.”

“This isn’t even your jurisdiction. Why…?”

“I met up with Miss Lee Seon-hwa to talk about something, and this situation happened.”

The detectives arrested Choi Sun-hyeong and took him to the hospital for basic treatment before transferring him to the police station.

Seo Jung-woo and Lee Seon-hwa also stepped outside the building. Seo Jung-woo said he would head to the police station separately.

He called Team Leader Kwon Byeong-cheol to explain the situation.

– “Come on, how long has it been since your last case? And you’re already caught up in another one…”

“Well, it just happened.”

– “You’re really something. Anyway, since it’s resolved, it should be fine as long as you don’t try to take the case over to our side.”

“There’s no need to bother with that. It’s already settled.”

– “But that would count towards your record too.”

Seo Jung-woo hung up.

Lee Seon-hwa asked,

“Detective Seo, you have to go to the station too, right?”

“You’re the victim and need to stay out of the public eye. The detectives will come here to ask you questions instead of calling you in. Ah, but what about your accommodations?”

“I’ll stay at a nearby hotel tonight.”

“That’s good. Either way, you can stay at the hotel, but if I hang around here waiting for them to call me, it’ll just make things harder for everyone. It’s easier if I just go and wrap things up myself.”

She understood completely.

She bowed her head slightly to him.

“Thank you. Really, thank you for saving me today.”

“I was just doing my job as a cop.”

“Even so…”

She had more to say but hesitated because of her pride.

‘I wish Detective Seo would take the initiative to meet again.’

Seo Jung-woo turned to leave.

The moment he turned his back, she changed her mind.

‘Does pride feed me? Just say it!’

“Detective Seo, this isn’t over yet.”

“Of course, it’s not over yet.”

Her face lit up.

“Really?”

‘So he is interested in me!’

She got excited.

‘Maybe we should start something from today!’

Seo Jung-woo had business elsewhere. He walked toward a parked car.

Curious, Lee Seon-hwa followed him.

He knocked on the car door.

“Open up.”

There was no response.

“Open it before I break it down.”