episode_0024

024

Before the Union Academy assembly.

The students were chattering away about their favorite celebrities, trending movies, upcoming midterms, and so on.

The classroom, as if by unspoken agreement, was filled with a bustling white noise that buzzed in their ears.

Normally, Jin Soyeon would have been chatting with her classmates, passing the time until the homeroom teacher arrived.

But for some reason, Jin Soyeon sat quietly, her expression slightly troubled, her gaze fixed on her phone screen.

Because her childhood friend had not yet arrived at school.

“He’s quite late today. I wonder what’s going on with him?”

Jin Soyeon chuckled to herself.

Why hasn’t he arrived yet? She glanced at the time.

Oh, it’s already this late?

“There’s less than 5 minutes left until the assembly…”

The homeroom teacher would be arriving soon.

If he didn’t hurry, he might be late.

As someone who had received perfect attendance awards in middle school, she couldn’t help but wonder why her childhood friend was so late today.

“He’s not reading my messages or answering my calls. What is he up to?”

Despite trying to contact him repeatedly, there was no response.

Considering Jinhyuk’s usual personality, he didn’t seem like the type to oversleep.

Jin Soyeon could only raise a question mark above her head.

“…Everyone, take your seats.”

“Ah.”

Has the teacher already arrived?

The homeroom teacher entered the classroom first.

Hong Daye, with her usual absent-minded gaze, yawned once before scanning the faces of her students.

“Attendance… Ah, it’s a hassle.”

Seemingly annoyed by calling out each student’s number for attendance, Hong Daye muttered to herself before casually asking the students.

“Is anyone late or absent today?”

“Teacher, I think Lee Jinhyuk and Yoo Seolhyun are not here?”

At a male student’s response, Jin Soyeon quickly turned her head.

Wait, what?

Not just Jinhyuk, but Seolhyun is also absent?

Both of them are late together.

What’s going on?

“Oh, they… have personal reasons for their absence.”

“What? Both of them?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

Hong Daye, who had already heard from the two, hesitated for a moment.

Should I tell them or not?

Wait.

Do I really need to give a detailed explanation?

Let’s just brush it off.

“…They’re absent due to personal reasons.”

“What? Jinhyuk is absent? He’s never been late in middle school…”

“Seolhyun? Today?”

The students’ voices buzzed with curiosity.

Many students showed interest in the sudden absence of the two.

“Oh, wait a minute.”

Was it then?

“Didn’t they meet at the cafe yesterday?”

“Huh? Really?”

One of the students who had gone to the karaoke with Jin Soyeon yesterday sparked the conversation.

The students seemed intrigued by the fact that a pair of young men and women had met outside the academy.

Moreover, it was Yoo Seolhyun, one of the most beautiful girls in class 1-1 and a rich girl.

“Why did they meet? Could it be a date?”

“Jinhyuk seems quite something, huh?”

“No way. Why would Seolhyun meet Jinhyuk?”

“Only those boys would think of such strange things.”

As the students chattered away,

“…”

Jin Soyeon fell silent.

Naturally, she had no choice but to stay silent.

Lost in a swamp of thoughts.

“Absent? Both Jinhyuk and Yuseolhyun?”

Suddenly, both of them were absent at the same time.

It was quite unexpected.

So, suspicion arose.

“Is it just a mere coincidence?”

No. It couldn’t be just a coincidence.

The timing was too strange.

Yesterday, for some unknown reason, the two of them had a secret (?) meeting.

And the next day, both of them were absent. It was more strange not to suspect anything.

“Ah, really. Why isn’t there any contact at a time like this, seriously.”

I blame my useless phone.

If only there was contact, I wouldn’t feel so uneasy.

Not only were they absent, but the fact that there was no contact made it even more puzzling.

Could something have happened?

Or are they deliberately avoiding contact?

Oh, what am I thinking.

Changjolgan Jin Soyeon shook her head.

There’s no way Jinhyuk would deliberately not answer the phone.

He has no reason to. And if he wanted to avoid contact, he would have turned off his phone in the first place.

Maybe he didn’t see the message because of some circumstances…

“Huh?”

For a moment, Jin Soyeon’s train of thought was interrupted.

“Wait a minute?”

Because new strange puzzle pieces popped up in her mind.

“Wait, hold on. Just a moment.”

A potential crush. Meeting at the cafe after school. The next day, both of them absent. No contact.

…What could all of this be indicating?

The puzzle pieces that were falling into place began to lead towards a single conclusion.

Even if she tried not to think about it, the clearer the image became, slowly revealing itself to Jin Soyeon.

But.

– Ring. Ring.

“Ah…!”

Startled by the sudden sound of a text message, Jin Soyeon jumped in her seat.

Wh-what. That scared me.

Looking at the screen, it seemed to be from Lee Jinhyuk.

Jin Soyeon glanced at the teacher and then sneakily checked the message under her desk.

There, Lee Jinhyuk’s neat message caught her eye.

– Yeah? Why call?

The flat tone of the message annoyed her for no reason.

What, why call?

Are you really asking because you don’t know?

– Aren’t you coming to the academy?

– Haha, I’m sick. Sorry.

Sick? Where does it hurt?

You seemed fine until yesterday. Jin Soyeon raised an eyebrow in slight doubt, but continued to send messages.

– What sickness? You used to come even with the flu in middle school.

– That was because of the attendance record.

At Lee Jinhyuk’s words, Jin Soyeon let out a bitter smile.

He used to care a lot about the attendance record. Because of the Union entrance.

– Anyway, I’ll take medicine and rest, so bye for now.

– What? Wait.

– See you tomorrow.

– Hey!

She sent another message, but there was no response.

She still had more questions to ask.

He’s really doing whatever he wants!

“Ugh, he’s ghosting me again.”

“Oh really? That’s not cool.”

As Jin Soyeon lifted her head slowly, a shadow loomed over her, and she met eyes with Hong Daye who had come right up to her. Ahaha. Uh, hey. Jin Soyeon awkwardly smiled.

It seemed like she had been caught secretly using her phone.

“Who are you texting so diligently? Are you in a relationship?”

“Oh, no, teacher.”

“Alright. Put away your phone. Got it?”

“…Yes.”

As Jin Soyeon nodded subtly in response, Hong Daye, rubbing her sleepy eyes, walked back to her desk.

She wasn’t the type to confiscate phones for no reason.

“Well then, that’s it for now. Everyone, get ready for the next class.”

Hong Dae quickly raised his hand as if to signal the end of the morning assembly, and Jin Soyeon watched him silently before letting out a deep sigh.

“Being sick… well, it’s possible. It could happen.”

At this moment, there was no way for Jin Soyeon to know for sure whether Lee Jinhyuk was really absent due to illness or not.

But she decided to believe her childhood friend’s words.

He had no reason to lie, and the possibility of him being absent because of Yoo Seolhyun was lower than the possibility of him not being absent.

So, she decided to stop the unnecessary thoughts and focus on her studies.

Embarrassingly, she had entertained a foolish imagination earlier, but she knew that the Lee Jinhyuk she knew would never do such a thing.

Yeah, that’s definitely it.

So, should I prepare for the next class?

The next class is probably physical training at the training ground. It’s going to be tough. I don’t want to sweat in the morning.

“….”

Why.

Why am I so concerned?

Is this what they call a woman’s intuition?

A feeling of discomfort and unease lingered in Jin Soyeon’s mind, making her feel restless and irritated for no reason.

Why. I can’t explain this feeling rationally. Jin Soyeon hated this sensation.

Because it made her feel bad.

Really.

***

Inside Gaon Nuri Clan.

Lee Jinhyuk was fiddling with his phone.

He had been on silent mode until now, so he hadn’t noticed the messages and calls from Jin Soyeon.

“What’s this? Why did you send me a message like this?”

Oh, could it be because you didn’t go to the academy today?

“Lee Jinhyuk.”

“Yeah? What’s up?”

“What are you doing?”

“Just got a message from Soyeon.”

“Hmm?”

“I think it’s because of the academy being canceled today.”

After sending a few more messages, Lee Jinhyuk put his phone away.

He couldn’t just say, “I actually agreed to conquer a dungeon with Yoo Seolhyun. So, I can’t go to the academy today, haha.”

It was a situation where he couldn’t say it outright. It would definitely be questioned if he said it now, even though it would naturally come out in a few days.

So, Lee Jinhyuk vaguely mentioned being sick.

“So, are you done with your business?”

“Yeah.”

“Then let’s go.”

He followed behind Yoo Seolhyun.

Step by step.

How far did they walk?

They arrived at a room that looked like a conference room.

“Hmm?”

“Oh, you’re here.”

“Oh, is that him? The one who received the commendation?”

Five heroes were sitting in chairs, chatting.

It was a mixed-gender team consisting of three men and two women.

They were the team members who would explore and rescue the dungeon together.

“It feels strange to meet these people in person.”

Characters he had encountered quite a bit in the game.

If you had to call them something, they were like NPCs, extras.

But as temporary companion NPCs for conquering the Yeongdeung Mountain dungeon, their abilities were quite decent.

Their levels were also quite high.

So, when he was leveling up, he had taken the bus a bit…

“Are you the guy that girl said would come today?”

When he was lost in thought, a cheerful female voice spoke first. Lee Jinhyuk instinctively turned his head towards the woman.

She appeared to be in her late twenties. She had shoulder-length hair. Where have I seen her before?

Her name was Han Seo-woo, right?

“Lee Jinhyuk, let me introduce you. This is Han Seo-woo, the leader of the Yeongdeung Mountain rescue team.”

“Hello?”

With Yoo Seolhyun’s brief introduction, Han Seo-woo raised her hand to greet him.

“Hello, I’m Lee Jinhyuk. Nice to meet you.”

“Oh, right. I heard a bit about you yesterday. You’re the top student in theory? Did you study well?”

Han Seo-woo greeted him warmly, but Lee Jinhyuk knew that she wasn’t entirely pleased with the current situation.

Because the team was carefully selected from the available heroes for the purpose of rescue and strategy, it was quite unexpected for a Union Academy trainee to be added out of the blue.

The team consisted of no ordinary individuals.

From Han Seo-woo’s perspective, it must have been truly bewildering, but due to Yoo Seol-hyun’s request, who was in charge of the team’s operation and management, he reluctantly accepted.

“After all, that person is ultimately a field manager who needs to be criticized from above.”

Originally just one of the many members of the Gaon Nuri Clan.

Although he held the title of team leader, it was as if Yoo Seol-hyun had bestowed it upon him, and he would not easily refuse the words of Yoo Seol-hyun, who would eventually become his superior.

“This person is Hero Park Sang-cheol, in charge of the team’s vanguard… the tanker.”

“Hello, Mr. Lee Jin-hyuk. I’ve heard a lot about you. You were recognized for your contribution to the extermination of monsters and even received a commendation. I’ll be counting on you today.”

In his early thirties, Hero Park Sang-cheol approached Lee Jin-hyuk, speaking politely and warmly.

With a gentle and generous personality, he had a fairly good relationship with the Gaon Nuri Clan members.

“Yes, Hero Park Sang-cheol. I’ll be counting on you too.”

“Haha. Hero, you say? You can just call me ‘Sir’ comfortably.”

Eventually, Yoo Seol-hyun introduced the team members one by one.

Jung-nam as the Header, Baek-san as the dealer, Erina as the magic support, and so on.

All five team members were introduced.

They were like elite troops.

Quite decent members.

No matter where they went, they were all capable individuals.

“Even though I explained it all yesterday, some of you may still not understand why an Academy trainee was included in the rescue team.”

Some looked indifferent, but Han Seo-woo seemed a bit puzzled.

“Let me explain it again. The data related to the dungeon that I shared with you yesterday was analyzed by Lee Jin-hyuk based on the information and videos of the dungeon’s terrain, structures, environment, monsters, traps, scale, etc., that the previous team had discovered so far…

Yoo Seol-hyun explained once again why Lee Jin-hyuk was included and how he could be helpful.

It was necessary to remind the team members once again before entering the dungeon.

And it was to ensure at least some ‘plausibility’ for Lee Jin-hyuk’s future actions.

Of course, no matter how much they explained, they couldn’t avoid their suspicions.

“…That’s why we accepted Lee Jin-hyuk as a team member.”

“Okay, we’ve understood enough. You can stop now.”

Han Seo-woo replied vaguely.

Honestly, Han Seo-woo was a bit annoyed.

Taking an amateur to a scene where numerous variables lurked was risky.

Moreover, a hero trainee who had never experienced real combat would surely freeze stiff in the face of the monsters’ attacks.

It was just asking for trouble.

“Oh right. He said he had defeated a monkey monster, right?”

It was a bit hard to believe.

The long-armed monkey monster was quite powerful.

Even Han Seo-woo himself wouldn’t be confident in winning one-on-one.

The fact that the kids were able to defeat the monkey monster was probably due to the help of High Ranker Hong Da-ye, the instructor, and a series of fortunate events.

The media said that the kids had defeated the monkey monster together, but it couldn’t be taken at face value.

Surely this Lee Jin-hyuk was lucky enough to catch a bus. Well, despite that, surviving a fight with the long-armed monkey monster was worthy of respect.

“He must have had some experience with the monkey monster in real combat, so at least he won’t freeze up out of fear…”

Yeah. That should be enough.

Originally, Han Seo-woo had nothing to expect from him.

Just think it would be better if you didn’t cause any trouble and just stayed quiet.

“Alright. Let me briefly explain the dungeon exploration overview and then we’ll finish by checking the equipment.”

“Okay.”

However, less than two hours after entering the dungeon, Han Seo-woo had no choice but to change his mind.

Because.

“…Wait, what? What on earth is that kid?”

The appearance that child showed was beyond imagination.