episode_0060

“Why do I have to compete with you?” Sohee asked, chuckling.

In response, Se-ah smirked and pointed at me. “Because this person is a professor. It’s good to be evaluated while they’re here, right?”

At the provocative words of the caught girl, the elite students furrowed their brows.

Se-ah’s finger was pointing towards the transfer student they had been bothering.

“A professor…?” Sohee asked, disbelieving.

“Yes. This person is ‘Professor Han,’ who will be giving a short lecture tomorrow,” Se-ah said, looking down at Sohee with a haughty gaze.

Sohee froze like a statue under that gaze.

Realizing Se-ah’s words were not just a joke, the faces of those who had been filming me moments ago turned pale.

“That can’t be true…”

Sohee’s lips trembled.

She shook her head as if denying reality.

A girl in a school uniform, who looked like a peer, being called a professor—how could that be?

“Yeah. She even attended our class earlier!” Yeom Dong-ryeok exclaimed.

She, being the most mentally resilient among them, made a sharp rebuttal.

“Sister, did you attend classes with them too?” Se-ah asked, smiling.

I involuntarily coughed at her question.

“By chance… it seems the teacher mistook me because of the uniform.”

“Too bad… I wanted to attend together,” Se-ah said, clenching her fists as if annoyed by her absence.

“Don’t lie… There’s no way such a girl could be a professor. She’s just a girl who can’t even avoid a chair,” Sohee muttered with a puzzled expression.

For her, Se-ah approached and showed the lesson plan for the upcoming lecture as if pronouncing a death sentence.

Instructor: Han Si-ho.

“Han Si-ho…”

That name was definitely heard in the classroom. And even the confirmation stamp of the vice principal…

Se-ah whispered to the pensive Sohee in a very ‘worried’ voice.

“What will you do? If you get another warning for school violence, it won’t end well for you, right?”

The caught girl patted Sohee’s shoulder with a smile.

She knew better than anyone that there was no need for her to intervene.

“Oh. Come to think of it, it won’t end with just a warning, will it?” Se-ah calculated, rubbing her hands as if satisfied with the outcome.

“Hitting the professor, trying to strip and film… Isn’t this a serious crime?”

Was it because of the word “crime”? Sohee glared at Se-ah with an angry face.

In response, the caught girl shrugged towards Sohee.

“I wonder if your esteemed congressman father can help you this time.”

Congressman…?

My eyebrows twitched involuntarily at those two words.

The reason she had been able to commit such misdeeds without hesitation until now was that her father was a senator of the Hunter Association.

One of the 100 senators ruling Korea.

And he was among the top 30% of the upper house senators.

With such a powerful backing, she had been able to survive despite tormenting her friends fiercely.

But.

Even if she was a senator’s daughter, could she survive after provoking a professor?

Sohee bit her trembling lip.

Se-ah commanded her, “Apologize. To the professor.”

All eyes focused on Sohee at the word “apologize.”

Especially the two troublemaker girls looked earnestly at their leader.

Since Sohee had never bowed her head to anyone, they hoped more than anyone that she wouldn’t surrender.

“Sorry…”

Sohee’s pale lips trembled.

Soon, as if resigned, she mumbled in a shaky voice, “I’m sorry… Professor…”

But Se-ah was not satisfied with just that.

She grabbed Sohee’s hair incredulously and twisted her head. “Listen to your voice. Does this sound like a joke to you?”

I watched in astonishment at Se-ah’s sudden change in demeanor.

In fact, the top student in school might not have been Sohee, but Se-ah.

“Sorry, professor,” Sohee replied with a trembling voice.

Upon which, other girls followed the leader and apologized to me.

“Unni, what should we do about these guys?” Se-ah asked me, looking directly at me.

Apologies are apologies, punishments are punishments.

“Should I just burn them all, hair and all? It’s been annoying seeing what they’ve been up to lately, but it worked out well,” Se-ah chuckled wickedly.

In her hand was suddenly a Molotov cocktail.

She tore off the bandana tied around the bottle and prepared to drink.

That wasn’t the intention…

“Hey, hey… it’s okay. There’s no need for that.”

I objected to such extreme actions from Se-ah.

She had changed even more drastically in my absence.

No, perhaps she was always like this, just reserved in front of me.

I turned my head slightly.

And looked at the wolf standing behind me.

Her body bore large wounds that couldn’t be hidden by fur, evidence of the pain and persecution she had endured.

Those wounds even made me angry.

“I’ll report this directly to the authorities.”

I stated coldly, as if passing judgment on the girls.

Upon hearing this, Sohee, who had shown a calm face until now, began to tremble.

“Professor, please, at least don’t tell our father…”

Sohee finally showed a delicate expression befitting a teenage girl.

It seemed she couldn’t bear the thought of her misdeeds being reported to her father.

Yeah, she wouldn’t like that.

If the fact that she bullied her peers at the academy came to light.

If it was revealed that she sexually harassed and assaulted an external professor.

It would undoubtedly have a significant negative impact on her father’s political career.

So, she should have behaved better.

I straightened my school shirt firmly.

And looked at the young girl with a serious gaze.

“You should have lived a more upright life with such a great father.”

I adjusted my bag calmly.

Stroking Jiyoon’s fluffy legs, I said, “It’s not about believing in your father and tormenting friends.”

We smoothly slipped away into the alley behind the school.

The three girls watched us leave, lost in their thoughts.

“Damn it…”

Sohee staggered, supported by her friends.

The three of them barely sat down on a bench in the alley and faced each other.

“What should we do… Could it have been the infiltrated professor?”

Dongryeok sighed.

“I never imagined. How could the professor act so weak? I was so eager to torment him that I was deceived.”

Sohee murmured, biting her finger.

Thinking back to Professor Siho she had seen earlier, she shivered.

All she could think of were Siho’s strange eyes and the mark on his chest.

“So are we really going to get expelled now?”

Knuckle girl asked seriously.

To which Dongryeok replied with a snort, “It’s okay, we’ve been in situations like this before. Maybe Sohee’s father will help us like last time.”

“No… If he finds out about this incident, I’m really done for.”

Sohee turned pale and shook uncontrollably, recalling the times her father had beaten her with a leather belt.

“So what do we do?”

The two friends asked Sohee, seemingly blaming her.

Sohee’s anxious lips twitched.

Soon, that anxiety turned into a precarious smile.

“We have to stop it…”

“To ensure it’s never reported to the school…”

The congressman’s daughter grabbed her phone.

And started scrolling through a vast list of contacts.

“That girl won’t be able to return home peacefully today.”

The academy seemed eerily quiet as if all classes had ended.

We strolled through the campus enjoying the atmosphere.

Jiyoon began to revert back gradually.

Her stature shrank, and the fur that covered her body began to shed.

Jiyoon cowered, embarrassed by the changes happening to her.

We were startled and quickly led her to the bathroom, dressing her in clothes.

Certainly, the transformation into a monster seems to be as impressive as it is risky…

After a series of twists and turns, I could barely make my way back to the academy’s main gate.

In the meantime, the sky had turned a deep shade of red.

The sun hung on the horizon, dripping lava steadily.

Looking back from there, the school appeared magnificent.

It felt strangely nostalgic, as if I had been here before.

Perhaps due to that feeling, I touched the school emblem pinned to my chest.

“Unni, I’m sorry. I should have stayed by your side…”

Se-ah had transformed back into a cute teenage girl.

Her expression turned melancholic, seemingly shocked by what I had experienced.

“It’s okay. Thanks to you, I was able to meet Ji-yoon.”

I smiled warmly at the wolf girl standing next to Se-ah.

She had returned to her human form, but her fluffy ears and tail remained.

My gaze couldn’t help but be drawn to the tail peeking out from under her skirt.

Only when the girl spoke did I manage to tear my eyes away from there.

“Um… Professor.”

Despite addressing me with a title until now, the girl awkwardly inquired with a different form of address.

“Yes.”

The wolf girl’s round eyes stared intently at me.

Her eyes held a hint of the crimson sunset.

“By any chance…”

Even though everything had worked out well, the girl’s eyes still looked troubled.

“Was your help today all because of the bullying investigation?”

I gazed steadily at the girl.

Ji-yoon seemed disappointed, thinking that everything that happened today was part of a planned event.

“Was your kindness towards me all out of… pity?”

The girl forced a bitter smile.

I still remember that smile vividly.

Because it reminded me of a silver-haired woman I once knew.

“Ji-yoon…”

I approached her slowly.

Gently, I brushed her tousled hair aside.

“You know, attending the academy was my wish.”

The golden eyes of the girl turned red.

Her eyes shimmered like a calm surface of water.

“And the time I spent with you at school today made me truly happy.”

I whispered softly to the wolf girl.

I didn’t want to hurt someone else like Anna did.

“I wasn’t a professor in that moment.”

May comes to an end.

The June breeze tickled my hair.

“It was simply something I did because I liked you.”

Under the crimson sunset, I smiled warmly.

“…”

Tears welled up in the wolf girl’s eyes.

Her cheeks trembled faintly with soft fur.

Eventually, Ji-yoon embraced me tightly.

She buried her face in my chest, arms wrapped around my waist.

“Thank you.”

I hugged the girl tightly.

Se-ah watched with a content smile.

Soon, she handed me a shopping bag with my clothes.

“Unni, let me walk you outside.”

“It’s okay. You don’t have to go through the trouble.”

“Just in case. Besides the academy, there’s nothing else around here, so it’s dangerous.”

Se-ah bit her lip, feeling somewhat uneasy.

“How about I walk you to the bus stop? Someone will come to pick you up nearby, so don’t worry too much.”

“Okay.”

At the mention of someone coming to pick her up, Se-ah finally relaxed her expression.

She casually linked arms with me and we walked out of the main gate.

“Um… Professor.”

As we descended the slope, Ji-yoon asked cautiously.

“Don’t call me ‘professor.’ After tomorrow, I’ll just be a local bartender.”

“Then, what should I call you…?”

Ji-yoon looked puzzled as she asked me.

“…”

I paused for a moment to gather my thoughts in response to her question.

Then, covering my mouth with the back of my hand, I shyly murmured,

“Call me ‘unni’…”

Ji-yoon beamed with a wide smile.

As if she had been waiting for those words.

“Yes, unni.”