episode_0017

I was so flustered that I inadvertently let the straw I was holding in my mouth fall.

It had only been ten minutes since I returned to the arena after finishing a narrow match with Kim Yijun.

Just as the ranking match between Cheon Soyul and Baek Ayun seemed about to begin, I’d gone to the cafe to grab a drink and watch.

[Left Cheon Soyul (1110 points) vs Right Baek Ayun (972 points)] [Cheon Soyul: 100%] [Baek Ayun: 0%] [Cheon Soyul Wins]

As the monitor showed, the match was already over. And it was an overwhelming victory for Cheon Soyul.

Unable to contain my bewilderment, I quickly looked around.

Of course, I was looking for Cheon Soyul, but for some reason, she, the one I needed to settle the bet with, was nowhere to be seen.

Instead, what caught my eye was a short girl with ash-gray twin-tails. Gwon Hwang’s granddaughter, Baek Ayun.

……And I couldn’t help but be doubly flustered. Uncharacteristically, Baek Ayun, with her usually confident personality, was crouched down, dispirited.

I looked around for a moment, then, without even a moment to gather my thoughts, looked down at the iced tea in my hand and sighed deeply.

“Why are you so disheartened again?”

“……Huh?”

I approached her, handing over the iced tea I had already taken a sip from, and spoke.

Baek Ayun lifted her head with a blank expression, blinking her eyes.

“It’s not like it’s the first time you’ve been defeated by a mage. Why the sudden fuss?”

“……What, it was you…….”

Upon confirming my face, Baek Ayun let out a long sigh, as if she’d seen something she shouldn’t have.

But this brat?

And before I could even get annoyed, she took the disposable plastic cup and bit the straw. I said, dumbfounded:

“……I already drank from that.”

“Pffft!!”

Baek Ayun spectacularly spluttered out the iced tea, and with quick reflexes, I swung my hand, freezing the liquid solid in mid-air.

Oh. My reaction was so swift that even I was impressed. Quite satisfying.

“Gah, guh……! No, no, why would you hand me something you were drinking, what the hell?! I completely thought it was new!”

As she caught her breath, Baek Ayun hit her neck hard and ranted at me. It seemed she was displeased with the situation, as if she’d had an indirect kiss with me.

As someone who expected her to take off the lid and drink, I could only shrug my shoulders.

“Unfortunate, isn’t it. Don’t mind it. I’m fine.”

“Ha?! Whether you’re fine or not isn’t important……!”

Baek Ayun shrieked in a bewildered voice, as if more dumbfounded by my nonchalant reaction, but what did I care about her thoughts?

I simply shook and shattered the frozen iced tea as if nothing had happened. Clatter, clatter, ice shards fell.

Baek Ayun was still fuming. I glanced at her and changed the subject first.

“So, what is it?”

“What?”

“What happened that made you so sulky? Did Cheon Soyul do something?”

“…….”

At my direct question, Baek Ayun sealed her lips for a moment. I thought she didn’t want to talk, but soon she mumbled with her lips.

“I just, I don’t know. I know Soyul-ssi has a fiery temper, but even considering that, she was very strange today.”

And at her puzzling explanation, I too couldn’t help but slightly stiffen my expression.

“Strange, you say?”

“……Yes. I don’t know what made her so angry, but unlike usual, she didn’t even return my greeting. Hmph, I don’t know anymore. I’ll be rebellious too. Even if Soyul-ssi greets me, I’ll ignore her.”

Baek Ayun seemed utterly miffed at Cheon Soyul for ignoring her greeting…… but that had little to do with me. I needed to focus on her statement.

She was angry. Cheon Soyul. Why?

‘……She didn’t seem strange before I moved to the dungeon with Kim Yijun. Why suddenly……’

As I continued my conjectures about Cheon Soyul’s mood swings, a thought suddenly flashed through my mind that made me flinch greatly.

She suddenly got angry after I was moved for the ranking match, huh. Cheon Soyul……

“…….”

No, well.

This is truly…

I probably shouldn’t think that, but.

‘……Surely, it couldn’t be that, could it?’

I inadvertently let out a groan. It felt like it could be true and yet not, and I couldn’t shake off the strange suspicion.

It was just as I was trying to recall Kim Yijun’s last attack, his unexpected desperate fight, and my impromptu response born of surprise.

“Argh, really……! This is just ridiculous!”

Baek Ayun, who hadn’t yet finished our conversation, suddenly started raking her fingers through her hair as if having a fit. Her characteristic twin-tails swished and swirled with her head movements.

Wondering what else she would say, I stood there with my arms crossed, when she suddenly glared at me and roughly grabbed my shoulder.

“Hey?”

“You, tell me everything.”

“……What?”

“The lightning Soyul-ssi was hiding!”

It was such a nonsensical statement that I could only reply awkwardly. Perhaps displeased with my attitude, Baek Ayun’s grip on my shoulder tightened.

To be honest, it hurt so much I wanted to scream. It was a grip worthy of Baek Ayun, whose physical prowess was close to its peak among melee users.

Still, I wished she’d show some consideration for mages, for *this* mage. Why couldn’t she understand that my fragile body could crumble with a single unthinking gesture of hers?

Even as I was being shaken violently in her grip, even as my head rang, I somehow managed to raise my hand.

“Now……. Baek Ayun-ssi? Let’s calm down for a moment and talk. What was Cheon Soyul hiding?”

And my rational response succeeded in calming even Baek Ayun down a notch.

Still, among the brute melee users, she was one of the more reasonable ones, at least.

Baek Ayun let go of me and placed her hands on her hips. Then, as if she would explain again, she declared clearly.

“The lightning!”

“…….”

I fell silent once more.

What in the world was she talking about?

How was I supposed to interpret the statement that a lightning mage was hiding lightning?

I was in a daze, trying to understand Baek Ayun’s way of speaking.

“……I suppose my explanation was insufficient. To be precise, it’s that enormous lightning that falls from the sky, that seemed to mix white and gold at the same time, that, that.”

Baek Ayun tried to somehow describe what she had seen, with a cough, and at that point, I could vaguely grasp what she meant.

I stopped Baek Ayun, who was trying to dredge up non-existent vocabulary, with a raised hand and asked.

“Wait, lightning that mixes white and gold?”

“Yes, yes. So, it was incredibly huge, bright, and radiant……. The fact that I lost without even landing a single blow has its reasons…….”

I neatly filtered out the loser’s rambling excuses attempting to defend herself and fell into deep contemplation.

An incredibly huge, bright, and radiant, powerful strike of lightning mixing white and gold.

“…….”

Hmm.

I somehow think I know what kind of magic that is. She used that in a ranking match?

……Somehow, I thought I might know why Cheon Soyul remained unharmed until Baek Ayun’s health gauge dropped to 0%.

I slightly covered my mouth and mumbled to myself.

Has that girl lost her mind?

*****

There was a time when I thought that.

The delusion of a fool who knows not what lies ahead.

In fact, regardless of whether Cheon Soyul used anti-monster annihilation magic in a ranking match against a classmate – in what was truly a ‘sparring match’……

That wasn’t particularly important. Because she must have adjusted the power accordingly.

So what should I have been concerned about then?

Comforting the distraught Baek Ayun?

Why should I do that? That was also something she had to manage herself.

So, at the time, I casually abandoned the sniffling Baek Ayun and left immediately.

I handed her a cup of iced tea and listened to her for a bit. I thought I had done enough. Honestly, a gloomy Baek Ayun was quite a troublesome person to deal with.

……Was it karma for that? Though this had nothing to do with Baek Ayun.

“Hey.”

“…….”

“Cheon Soyul.”

“…….”

“……Soyul-ah? Soyul-yang?”

In any case, I was in such a desperate situation now that I couldn’t help but recall even such useless thoughts as I searched for the cause.

Three days had already passed since that ranking match.

Normally……. Given that the bet ended in a draw, either I or Cheon Soyul would take the initiative to buy late-night snacks and go to the other’s dorm. As if doing a favor.

Though it wasn’t explicitly said, it became our default routine for the past year.

But what in the world happened, no contact came from Cheon Soyul even after midnight on that day.

I was pathetic for waiting up, eyes wide open, just in case a call or message would come late.

More than anything, the next morning, on my way to school, I saw Cheon Soyul glance at me and then sharply turn her head away.

And then I had a premonition, no, an intuition.

That something was terribly wrong.

Though I didn’t know the full story, I felt like I had done something wrong…….

And so another morning dawned. The third day since the ranking match. Noon. It was lunchtime, and students began moving in groups.

They usually head to the student cafeteria, but occasionally some students would take out bento boxes they’d brought from home.

The important thing is that I’m the former. A bento box? I’m not skilled enough to enjoy cooking with the simple tools in the dorm.

Cheon Soyul was the same. I had been treated to her cooking once, so I knew she wasn’t bad at cooking, but…….

What I heard last time was that she doesn’t particularly enjoy the cooking process itself.

She found the waiting time and ingredient preparation quite bothersome, she said.

So, what’s the conclusion of this long story? Right. Cheon Soyul and I were similar types, so we usually spent lunchtime together.

It was more like we naturally joined each other without needing to say anything.

And, again, I repeat, since ‘that day’, for three days straight……. I hadn’t eaten in the same place as Cheon Soyul even once.

I had been waiting for about 10 minutes every day at our implicitly decided meeting spot, but it was already clear as day that it was a meaningless wait.

Ah.

Only then did I realize.

I had hurt her feelings.

And not just slightly, but that I had spectacularly, grandly, rubbed her the wrong way……. I didn’t want to, but I realized it quickly…….

“……So, unless they are specific individuals, monsters tend to operate from habitats, and often lush forests or mountain ranges are chosen as their resting places. Near the academy, Songnisan in North Chungcheong Province is the most famous—. Hmm, that will be all for today’s class.”

As I was spacing out, completely lost in thought, the bell rang, and the elderly professor on the podium declared the end of class.

And the pretty girl next to me, who had completely ignored my calls all day, packed her things quickly as if someone were chasing her.

It was clear she was leaving without even looking back. At that point, I decided that dragging this out any longer would get me nowhere.

“Hey, Cheon Soyul. Just a moment…….”

The moment I reached out to grab her.

Crackle-!

“……!”

A current of electricity pulsed from Cheon Soyul’s wrist, which my fingertip had barely touched, and I reflexively pulled my arm back.

In an instant, the spacious classroom of 2nd-year Class A was enveloped in a chilly silence.

The gazes of the students, who had been preparing to get up, fixed on Cheon Soyul and me.

They even started exchanging glances and whispering things to each other.

—Did they fight? Why are they like that all of a sudden?

—They’ve always bickered as if they’re about to kill each other, but……. I’ve never seen them directly shove each other away like that.

—Gasp, no way, rumors of a rift?

‘……No, what the hell, a rift? What kind of nonsense is that.’

Anyone who heard them would think Cheon Soyul and I are completely devoted to each other, guys.

Let’s refrain from misleading words.

I slightly furrowed my brows and looked up at Cheon Soyul, remaining seated.

She also looked back down at me, not backing down, and her gaze was incredibly fierce.

So much so that it looked as if she was about to devour someone.

Honestly, I was a little scared.

At the same time, I realized there was nothing I could do right now. I couldn’t grab her, and even trying to talk seemed difficult.

After a brief staring contest, Cheon Soyul had already sharply turned her head and left a long time ago.

I sighed deeply.

“Haa…….”

And the classmates in the room, who had been alternately peeking at Cheon Soyul’s retreating figure and me, started chattering excitedly.

Saying things like we fought, we broke up. When they even started talking about whether I had pounced on Cheon Soyul, I couldn’t take it anymore.

……No, I mean, I *did* pounce on her at some point, but.

That’s irrelevant right now.

I pushed my chair back noisily and stood up, looking around with piercing eyes.

And with a pleasant smile, I blurted out a single sentence.

“From now on, should I take it that anyone who talks nonsense wants to spar with me, without any protective gear?”

“…….”

“…….”

And so, the classroom regained its quietness.

I sighed and slumped back down.

Even amidst that, what kept coming to mind was Cheon Soyul’s last look, her eyes looking more hurt than angry as she looked down at me.

After a moment of contemplation, I gathered my belongings and got up.

‘Where’s the closest chicken place from here…….’

I suppose today is the day I have to back down first.

Cheon Soyul. She was truly a troublesome rival-friend. And quite annoying at times.