episode_0041

“Sweet”

“Sweet”

“…”

Academy downtown, chicken restaurant with old sign

Old-style fried chicken that is freshly fried and dripping with oil, red-colored whelk somen that makes you feel hot just by looking at it, seasoned chicken, yellow peach, chicken feet, and even chicken gizzard…

Ji-hoon, Soo-young, and Han So-jung are sitting across a table covered with a variety of snacks, so much so that it’s surprising that their upper legs aren’t bent.

“Drink, drink!! uh?! Kang Ji-hoon, why don’t you drink!”

As if trying to destroy a shabby chicken restaurant with a lion’s hooves, Jihoon picks up the glass of soju he had put down at the sound of Sojeong yelling and pours it into his mouth.

“That’s right!! You can’t skip drinking on a good day like this!”

“How did you know…”

“Take it, the three of us will drink all the alcohol here today!!”

“Why is he so excited…”

When Jihoon asked about Sojung’s rampage while watching Sooyoung, she just shrugged her shoulders and smiled cheerfully.

“Drink it quickly!!”

“Why on earth is this tasteless… Not to mention, even cheap bamboo leaf syrup is a higher quality liquor than this.”

Every time Jihoon took a gulp of soju from the soju glass, he was very uncomfortable with the strong smell of alcohol spreading in his mouth.

In Moorim, he enjoyed drinking quite a bit.

Among the many things that came as gifts from all over the place, the only thing that was not rejected was alcohol.

He is proud of having tried all kinds of famous liquors from all over the region.

He knew how to use his energy to get drunk, and was a drunkard who could drink as much as he wanted without worrying about a hangover.

However, in modern times, the first alcohol he tasted was not the alcohol he enjoyed.

I tried it a few times before going to Wulin, but it was so tasteless.

soju

When I came back and tried the alcohol again, it didn’t taste as bad as I remembered from ten years ago.

Moreover, Jihoon has already tasted many good drinks.

Human beings… can go from eating tasteless things to eating delicious things. No, if you do that, you will be even more impressed by the taste.

But…what would it be like if you ate only delicious food for ten years and then tried something terribly tasteless again?

It would have been better if it had been the old Jihoon who didn’t know the taste of alcohol. Drinking soju was a huge hardship for Jihoon, who had already tried all kinds of famous drinks.

A diluted soju that has neither a deep flavor nor a unique finish.

“Now get more”

“No, it doesn’t taste good…”

“Oh really? Then it won’t work…it won’t work if our Jihoon doesn’t have good taste. president!! Please give me a draft beer!!”

Am I already drunk without even having a few drinks?

Sojeong’s face was very flushed.

Her excited voice continued to liven up the atmosphere of the drinking party.

Squeak

Gurgling

Before she knew it, she was getting serious and doing her best to make wheat.

“ done. Now, everyone, take it and once again – Ta-da”

“Sweet”

“…salty”

Jihoon can’t resist, toasts her and drinks alcohol.

‘huh? It’s definitely better than just soju…’

As Ji-hoon seems to be enjoying it, So-jung becomes even more excited and starts making wheat again.

“They only give you 8 classes… Maybe I should have done more right… ”

“No!!! Jihoon, thanks to you, I’m going to class 8. If it weren’t for you…I would never…”

Maybe she was overflowing with emotions… Suyeong’s eyes were starting to get moist.

“Ehey! On a good day, this guy is making a woman cry again! Now, everyone, don’t do that, just take these~”

“What am I…”

Feeling aggrieved, Ji-hoon takes the wheat offered by So-jung and drinks it again.

The more I drink, the more drunk I get…

It was a drink that became more and more palatable.

“So now Jihoon is taking the same classes as Sojung and training together? Is it class 2?”

“Um…well…”

Sooyoung continues speaking, leaving Jihoon’s questionable answer behind.

“2 classes… wow, I can really feel it now. Jihoon and Sojung, how amazing you two are…I’m jealous…”

I don’t know why the last words, “I’m jealous,” came out while looking at Sujeong… Maybe it was because of the alcohol, but for some reason, Sooyoung felt sad about everything.

Despite the happy fact that she was upgraded from class 11 to class 8, it bothers her that she is no longer in the same class as Jihoon.

Although it was a short period of time, less than a month, she became very attached as we went through quarterly evaluations together.

“Now…it will be hard to even see Jihoon’s face…huu”

Suyeong takes a sip of soju instead of somaek and continues to sigh.

Jihoon, who was eating a second piece of fried chicken leg and serving it with wheat, indifferently blurted out a word.

“Huh? why? It’s the same academy, so why are you moving so far away? Call me. Call me. If you’re bored eating alone”

Then, this time, he scooped up a handful of whelk somen and stuffed it all into his mouth without even putting it on the plate in front of him.

“What?!?!”

“What?!?!”

“…?”

Jihoon chews his mouth full of food and looks strangely at Suyeong and Sojung who are surprised.

“You…you…did you have a cell phone?”

“Jihoon… do you have a cell phone?”

What is this again?

No matter how strange Jihoon is, and despite having almost no personal relationships, he has been in a parallel world for 10 years.

Clearly, he was also a modern man.

Ji-hoon, whose pride is hurt by the two women who are so surprised that he has a cell phone, takes the cell phone out of his pocket.

“ Wow…there really is a cell phone…Sojeong, look at this. The battery is disconnected”

“When exactly was this model…”

This time, they are surprised for a different reason.

It was then.

Jihoon’s cell phone vibrates.

[Jinhee Yoon]

Ppajik

As soon as I saw the name on the LCD screen, my impression was struck.

“Hello”

Jihoon takes the phone and answers the call.

-uh? Jihoon!! Your phone number hasn’t changed! I called you just in case.

“Oh, that’s right. You knew my number, right?”

-What is that… Of course we talked on the phone often!

“So…me?”

It was Ji-hoon who couldn’t quite remember the Jin-hee from 10 years ago.

-Ah… By the way, you won the second test today… Congratulations! It was very cool. I guess reassignment to a higher class is a given, right?!

“Well, thank you.”

-What are you doing now? If nothing happens, let’s celebrate with a drink! I’m delicious…

“Hey! I’m already full! What are you talking about on the phone? Shut up”

Tududu

A phone call gets cut off with a sharp voice.

Just by hearing that voice, Jinhee recognizes that it is Sojung, who has been hanging out with Jihoon these days.

“Why does he keep acting like this? It’s Seol Yu-jeong or something. I don’t like it”

“Why are you so upset that you can’t catch them?”

“There’s something about it that just doesn’t look right. You eat chicken!”

Sojung, who is grinning, puts a marinated chicken leg in Jihoon’s mouth and takes a drink.

‘Chicken leg… It’s my third, is it okay…’

Jihoon looks around and chews his chicken deliciously.

Leaving him alone, Sojung and Sooyoung pick up his old smartphone, dial a number, and check their own phones.

“Wow…it’s really so slow that scrolling makes sense?”

“Can you make a phone call? Sooyoung, try calling me ”

“Yes, okay! Just wait a moment”

Jihoon, the person involved, doesn’t pay any attention, and the two continue to play with his phone and chat happily.

***

Gong Jin-soo, a hunter who has been in his 4th year as a dedicated professor for Class 2 at the Academy, went from being a 12-year veteran combatant at the very large guild Guardian.

When he was first offered a professorship at the Academy, he did not like the fact that he was a professor dedicated to class 2.

Of course, he does not consider himself to be in the top tier among A-class hunters, but his long experience and consistently honed hunter skills are such that he cannot be defeated by anyone.

However, I realized something after teaching the second class of academy cadets in the first semester.

The fact that there are all these hunters here who have no talent whatsoever in the world.

If he was at the level of the 2nd class cadets, he could immediately play an active part in the Guardian Guild Gate Subjugation Team he was a member of.

Only then did I vaguely understand why all the guilds were so obsessed with and courted the academy’s top class cadets.

‘The newly assigned person this time is someone who moved up from class 11 to class 2 directly through the recommendation of the chairman, right? I’m already looking forward to what kind of monster he will be.’

His steps toward the academy were lighter than usual.

Discovering new talent and mentoring them was a great fit for me.

If I had continued to be a combatant in Guardian, I would have lived without knowing this joy.

Gong Jin-su literally had the constitution of a teacher.

He arrives at the auditorium and looks around at the cadets.

But for some reason, the new face doesn’t catch his eye.

“Kang…Jihoon? Where is the newly assigned cadet named Kang Ji-hoon? It’s the first day of reassignment… I guess I’m late…”

Slurp

Professor Kong’s favorite student.

Han So-jeong, an exemplary student who has a high level of academic zeal and never misses the top grades in her second class, is raising her hand.

“Hmm… Cadet Han So-jeong? Do you have something to say?”

“Jihoon… Cadet Kang Jihoon went somewhere because he had some urgent work to take care of. Professor.”

What does this mean?

The first day of reassignment. Is there anything more important than the first greeting that makes you leave?

“What? Where are you going? Did you hear it somewhere?”

“1Class…”

“What?”

“I said I was going to the Class 1 training center…”

It’s a class 1 training ground…

Why did you go there? And that on the first day of reassignment?

Now that I think about it, Professor Gong Jin-soo was the one who heard something exploding on the way to the Class 1 training center and wondered if internal construction was being done.