Chapter 44 : Rumors (2)

“…H-Huh?! C-Childhood friends? Me, Woobin’s childhood friend?”

“You’re not though. Why are you so surprised? And why are you reacting now, after the promotion ceremony is already over?”

“Huh? T-That’s because… the principal was such an amazing person, I couldn’t even think of saying anything at the time…”

“Hm, true. He is quite the impressive person.”

After the promotion ceremony, I was walking with Fuyuno Tsubaki to move my things from the regular dormitory for Class Beom.

That weird “childhood friend” nonsense came out of Go Yeoryeong’s mouth, but it was completely baseless to begin with.

And Go Yeoryeong corrected herself too, saying, “Oh right, it wasn’t a widely known rumor. It was just something I whispered about with the secretary,” so I figured it wouldn’t cause any real issues.

And honestly, even if a false rumor spread that Fuyuno Tsubaki and I were childhood friends, it wouldn’t really matter.

I’m going to be hanging around with her all the time anyway.

Whether that rumor spreads or not doesn’t change anything.

Hm…

As I was thinking it wouldn’t be a big deal if that baseless rumor spread, one face suddenly came to mind.

My real childhood friend, the little kid I was separated from seven years ago.

If that kid hears this false rumor, I wonder how they’d react.

Could they possibly get jealous?

Nah, no way.

That can’t be.

Back then, she always called things indecent, yet she was the one being the most indecent.

Unlike that little rascal of the past, the current version is a respected disciplinary committee president.

At Daecheon, the role of disciplinary committee president could only be held by the strongest among them, since it required the ability to subdue delinquents by force.

In the game Reverse Hero Legend, even if you followed the disciplinary committee route, you needed at least until your second year to become the president.

So the fact that this kid, just a first-year who’d only been at Daecheon for a month and a half, had already achieved that position—it really showed just how exceptional she was.

I really wanted to see her again, but I couldn’t guarantee she felt the same.

Someone who’s risen so high, leading such a busy and important life—paying attention to an old childhood friend suddenly showing up would seem kind of strange.

So even if a dumb rumor spread about Fuyuno Tsubaki and me being childhood friends, I figured my little rascal would just scoff and brush it off.

I let go of my unnecessary worries.

Then, with my mind clear, I started to reorganize my thoughts again, going over how to act in the upcoming main storyline to get the best possible outcomes.

“But, Woobin…”

Suddenly, a few steps behind me, Fuyuno Tsubaki called out, pulling me out of my thoughts.

If it had been a complete stranger doing this, I might’ve smashed their wasabari (swagger).

But someone like Fuyuno Tsubaki—I could let it slide if she interrupted my thoughts without permission.

“What is it?”

When I asked, Fuyuno Tsubaki fished out a navy-blue card from her inner pocket.

“There’s something I wanted to ask. Um, this card we got at the promotion ceremony…”

“Hm? Oh, the Jincheon Card?”

“Yeah.”

The Jincheon Card, a pass for the Jincheon area, came in different colors based on ranking.

Those ranked 70–100 got a gray card.

50–69 a white one.

30–49 a blue card.

11–29 a navy one.

And the top 10 received the black Cheondap Card.

The higher the rank, the better the benefits.

The Cheondap Card was pretty much a free pass to everything in Daecheon Academy.

“So, what about the Jincheon Card?”

“Well, I got the navy card for beating rank 15, and you got the gray one for beating rank 100…”

“Yeah.”

“But then, since the person ranked 100 lost to you and dropped to Class Beom, Han Yujin, who was 15th, should’ve become 16th, right?

Doesn’t that make you technically 101st?

Jincheon Class only has 100 spots… Is that okay?”

“Oh.”

Hearing Fuyuno Tsubaki’s question, I nodded, thinking, Yeah, someone who doesn’t know how this works would think that way.

Jincheon Class is supposed to have a cap of 100 students.

Including me would make it 101, so it’s natural for her to feel something’s off.

But it wasn’t a clerical error or Daecheon’s mistake at all.

I smirked at Fuyuno Tsubaki and opened my mouth.

“Yeah, Jincheon Class has a limit of 100 students, and I’d be the 101st. So I guess I have no choice but to fall down to Class Beom, huh?”

“…Huh?”

At my words, Fuyuno Tsubaki went blank.

When someone reacts like that to a joke meant to tease, it makes it even more fun.

I held back my laughter, turned my gaze to the sky as if looking into the distance, and added in a bitter tone.

“Yeah. That’s how it is, Tsubaki. You’ll do fine in Jincheon Class without me, right? The next promotion match probably won’t be for another month and a half, so hang in there until then, okay?”

Since it didn’t make any sense to be disqualified from promotion just because of overcapacity after passing the exam, anyone thinking a little would realize I was joking.

Knowing that, I only said it to see her flustered reaction—but strangely, she said nothing.

“…Tsubaki?”

So I turned my eyes from the sky back to her, and saw her face, pale and trembling, her teeth chattering.

What the…

“……”

“Hey, why are you suddenly…?”

“Woobin. If being 101st means you can’t be in Jincheon, then we just have to make it 100 people, right? Isn’t that right?”

“Huh?”

“…Wait for me. I’ll fix this. I’m never going to be separated from you, Woobin.”

“Uh… huh?”

With those words, Fuyuno Tsubaki suddenly turned on her heel and walked off with the determined steps of a general heading to war.

The direction she headed was toward Jincheon-dong, where we had just come from.

No way.

She wouldn’t, right?

The moment I heard her say, “If there are too many, we just make it 100,” and “I’ll take care of it,” a chill ran down my spine.

I quickly shouted at her as she walked farther and farther away from me without hesitation.

“Stop! Stop right there, Tsubaki! Attention!”

“Ugh?!”

Even if she had steeled herself, she was still Fuyuno Tsubaki after all—at my command, she snapped her heels together and stood at attention.

I hurried over, grabbed her by the shoulder, and let out a sigh of relief.

“Whew… Hey, it was a joke, okay?! I passed the promotion match and even attended the promotion ceremony—there’s no way they’d kick me out just because we’re over the limit.”

“Huh? Ah, ah? Ahh… Y-Yeah, you’re right.”

Hearing my words, Fuyuno Tsubaki’s eyes went wide, and then, as if her temporarily runaway reason had returned, she blushed a little and scratched her cheek with her finger.

She must’ve been embarrassed for taking my joke seriously and acting on it.

Seeing that made me want to tease her again, but I held back—remembering how she had just marched off with such resolve, ready to “adjust” the number of students.

“Anyway, what you really wanted to ask was why I’m being called 100th place even though I’m technically 101st, right?”

“Huh? Y-Yeah.”

So I decided to answer the question she had originally asked me.

The answer was simple.

“It’s just… not that important. Whether it’s 100th or 101st.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Exactly what I said. Pretty soon, the culling will start. A surprise evaluation just for Jincheon Class, done without warning.”

“…Culling?”

The word “culling” must’ve instinctively made her uneasy—Fuyuno Tsubaki flinched slightly.

I pulled out the gray Jincheon Card from my inner pocket and held it up for her to see.

“Think about it. Jincheon Class, the pinnacle of Daecheon, having 100 students? That’s way too many, right? So when the culling starts, anyone holding one of these gray cards will be kicked out of Jincheon. They’re all just trash that’s going to be thrown out anyway—so whether they’re ranked 100 or 101 doesn’t really matter.”

“…What?”

“Huh, now that I’m saying it out loud, that joke from earlier wasn’t totally a joke, was it? You’ve got sharp instincts, Tsubaki.”

“Ugh…!”

Fuyuno Tsubaki looked at me with a face that said she had no idea what to do.

It seemed like she had taken my words about those with gray Jincheon Cards being expelled quite seriously.

She looked like she might cry if I teased her any further, so instead of making fun of her, I offered a solution.

“Of course, from 70th to 100th place… well, 101st this time. Anyway, even for cadets who are guaranteed to be eliminated if they do nothing, there’s still a chance to survive. All you have to do is steal a card that’s not gray. These aren’t just ID cards—they’re passes.”

The Jincheon Class–exclusive midterm evaluation, “The Culling,” was a chaotic, clash-filled survival event.

It was the first superhuman training initiative put in place by Principal Go Yeoryeong Biryong, who had been appointed to Daecheon Academy this year.

At this point, the only people who knew about it were Principal Go Yeoryeong, her closest aide and secretary Velita, me—an old-timer—and now Fuyuno Tsubaki, who heard it from me.

“So. When the Culling starts, you have to protect your navy-colored Jincheon Card, and I have to steal a card of a different color. And what do we have to do to pull that off?”

“Training!”

“Good. Now we’re finally on the same wavelength. Guess all that time spent together wasn’t for nothing.”

I patted Fuyuno Tsubaki’s head, who now answered confidently without hesitation.

Seeing her grin and giggle, I smirked too, and began fleshing out my plan for the Culling in my head.

***

While Yang Woobin and Fuyuno Tsubaki were talking about the Culling, back in Jincheon Class—where no one knew a thing about it yet—the two of them had become the center of attention.

“They turned down the principal’s promotion offer to rise together as childhood friends… That’s so damn romantic. I wish I had a childhood friend like that.”

“After turning her down, they actually trained together, sweating it out and proving themselves. How is that even possible?”

“The guy looks like a total punk, but the girl seems super refined and elegant—that contrast is seriously refreshing. He even patted her head on the field earlier. I got butterflies just watching.”

Especially, their unique bond as childhood friends was the biggest topic of interest.

Jincheon Class was a gathering of elites, and in a superhuman society, the default assumption was that elites were female.

Naturally, the gender ratio in Jincheon Class heavily favored girls, and no matter their age, girls turned into dreamy romantics when it came to love stories.

So the girls squealed and giggled, letting their imaginations run wild with the story of Yang Woobin and Fuyuno Tsubaki.

And amidst that flower garden atmosphere…

“……”

Grit.

Disciplinary committee president Jin Sejeong, with hair as blue as the ocean, quietly ground her teeth without anyone noticing.