Small Town, which had been bustling just seconds earlier, seemed to turn into a dead city with Homelander's arrival.
The atmosphere remained eerily quiet.
Most people knew perfectly well that their actions were an extension of the bullying directed at Homelander. Now they all felt the unease of a guilty conscience.
Almost instinctively, the people at the front squeezed backward, leaving a small empty space around Homelander.
Homelander stood amid the crowd, countless PR lines from Vought's training drifting through his mind, but he could not get a single one out.
Those ugly faces made him feel sick.
Especially with Klee's broken sobs still echoing in his ears, making the words stick in his throat all the more.
Why didn't these people dare cause a scene at Vought, instead holding their revelry around Klee's home?
It had to be because Klee's family were all ordinary people, while Vought had not only power and influence, but the strength of Supes.
"Wow, why did it suddenly get so quiet?"
After a long moment, Homelander broke the eerie silence with a chuckle.
People began whispering to one another, pointing their cameras at Homelander.
The camera lenses refracted the sunlight, stabbing into his clear blue eyes and lending them an even sharper edge.
His long career in front of cameras had given Homelander the habit of posing whenever he saw a lens.
Homelander instinctively waved at the cameras, a mechanical smile rising to his lips.
But he quickly realized how inappropriate it was.
"Fuck."
Homelander snorted heavily in displeasure, silently cursing himself for his lapse.
A trace of anger joined the guilt and confusion in his heart.
Soon, people began questioning Homelander. At first, they were fairly restrained, but after someone hurled insults and Homelander merely frowned, others gradually grew bolder.
Swearing like "fuck"