episode_0076

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Humans are creatures whose brains don’t work as well as they’d expect when faced with something sudden.

For instance, imagine walking down the street as usual, only to snap back to reality and find a dump truck barreling toward you.

Or, if that’s too much, picture a wad of cash suddenly dropping right in front of you.

Otherworldly truck. Or,

embezzlement of lost property.

Before any of those words even register, the first thing that’ll pop into your head is probably something like, What the fuck? So, yeah. Try to imagine it properly.

Well, considering how most animals freeze stiff the moment they encounter something terrifying, blurting out curses when startled isn’t that unusual of a reaction.

…Right.

It’s not that unusual…

“I said I want to get close to you, Teacher.”

A warm morning bathed in sunlight.

The infirmary, now quiet after the open call event had ended.

A time when students should be busy with classes.

Just as I was carefully planning how to approach Han Soo-ah next—

The prey barged in on its own and, almost threateningly, declared, “I want to get close to you.”

Instead of immediately replying, “Sure, let’s get close,” my gaze instinctively turned into something closer to “What the fuck?”

Yeah.

Not that unusual of a reaction.

76

“So… Han Soo-ah?”

“Just speak comfortably. We’re the same age anyway, right?”

“…Yeah, I know, but hold on a second.”

Her oddly commanding tone briefly reminded me of the Han Soo-ah I had investigated long ago.

I closed the KakaoTalk chat with Lee Ha-yoon, who had been spamming messages, and stared intently at the intruder before me.

…What the hell is this?

Wheat. Barley. Oats.

Light brown hair resembling those grains.

Eyes like topaz beneath it.

Up to this point, it was the Han Soo-ah I knew.

But this… vibe, if you could call it that?

The way I was immediately talked down to the moment we faced each other—it somewhat resembled the version of her I had investigated in the past, not the one I met after regression.

Of course, she still fell short of the Han Soo-ah who would casually slaughter named villains with a single sword, her indifferent gaze making it seem like no big deal.

About 0.2 Han Soo-ah.

Compared to when she came in with a knee injury,

or our encounter at the bookstore where she was too busy freezing up,

this felt roughly around that level.

…Well,

“If I heard correctly, I believe you just said you wanted to be friends with me, Soo-ah… student.”

“…Yeah.”

“Why, though?”

I still had no idea why she suddenly barged into the infirmary and said something like that out of nowhere.

“Wh-what kind of reason do you need to want to be friends?”

“Of course you need a reason. Like having similar hobbies, or just finding it fun to be around each other…”

Han Soo-ah opened her mouth to argue in that composed voice of hers but soon pressed her lips tightly together.

I knew it too—this wasn’t the time for such common-sense talk. I should’ve said something like, “I actually wanted to be friends too! Yay!”

But this is weird.

It’s not like she’s recruiting me for a cult. Just yesterday at the bookstore, she could barely string a few words together and kept hesitating like she was scared of me. So why is she suddenly clinging to me, begging to be friends?

With no plausible reason in sight, my mind spiraled into chaos.

Could it be that just one encounter at the bookstore made her develop some deep emotional attachment to me?

I doubted it, but for someone who’d lived her whole life without friends, maybe it was possible…

As I awkwardly scratched my cheek, Han Soo-ah continued.

“…W-we met at the bookstore yesterday.”

“That’s true.”

“Our hobbies… are similar.”

“…That’s also true.”

“So we can be friends, right?”

“…….”

“Right?”

“Well, uh…”

My fingers twitched as I scrambled for a rebuttal.

After fidgeting with various gestures, my hand eventually settled under my chin.

Propping my head on the desk, I blankly stared at Han Soo-ah.

This is dizzying.

We met at the bookstore.

→ Our hobbies are similar.

→ Friends!

That absurdly simple thought process alone was baffling,

but the fact that she sought me out and stubbornly clung to me, insisting “Let’s be friends!” over something so trivial was even more disorienting.

This isn’t some straw-hat pirate cartoon I watched as a kid—what the hell is this?

How could a girl this obsessed with friendship have failed to make a single one before the regression?

With that face, that body, and that wealth, at least a few brain-dead guys should’ve been trailing after her like lost puppies.

Questions bred more questions, tangling endlessly.

Pushing them aside for now, I lightly knocked my forehead with a fist and answered.

“…Fine. Friends.”

Even if I couldn’t keep up with Han Soo-ah’s inexplicably steep emotional shifts,

this was undeniably the closest path to “Taming Han Soo-ah.”

Bound by the word “friends,” opportunities to talk would naturally increase.

Fortunately, Han Soo-ah’s expression brightened slightly at my answer.

Not that it changed much from her usual sharp demeanor, but at least it didn’t seem like a joke.

“And like I said earlier, you can drop the formal speech with me. I’m technically a student anyway.”

“I’ll drop it once I’m comfortable. It still feels awkward for now.”

“Then I can’t drop it either…”

“I’ll try easing into it slowly, so for now, let’s just talk like usual.”

“O-… okay.”

“…….”

Maybe because I’d put up a slight wall,

an awkward silence lingered briefly before Han Soo-ah dragged her chair closer with a screech.

Rummaging through her pockets for something, she soon pulled out her phone and held it out to me.

“…Y-your number. Please. Teacher.”

“…Sure.”

At this point, I wondered if Yozora had secretly done something to Han Soo-ah behind my back…

But even if that thought crossed my mind,

there was no way to know for sure right now.

Master.

It was my first chance to call Seo Woo-jin Master out loud.

Disappointed that I couldn’t, I spent the night face-down on my bed, whispering Master over and over while pleasuring myself.

The result?

Beside Yozora, who was fast asleep with a death grip on her pen,

Han Soo-ah—who hadn’t even bothered holding a pen—was staring blankly at the new contact saved on her phone.

“…….”

Seo Woo-jin.

Among the phone numbers saved in her contacts, it was the first one belonging to someone of the opposite sex—other than her father.

Not a number she’d wrestled away by threatening him with yesterday’s events,

but the first number she’d obtained by reaching out herself, asking to be friends.

Maybe that’s why it felt so strangely thrilling every time she looked at it.

Like some kind of trophy…

Well, that was it.

It wasn’t romantic feelings—just fascination.

Now, all she had to do was learn from Teacher what men liked, and her goal would be complete.

Her dream of becoming one of the popular kids was almost within reach. Hang in there.

Ahem. For no reason, Han Soo-ah straightened her posture and began tapping her screen.

The chalkboard, filled with indecipherable equations, might as well not have existed.

Why?

Because she couldn’t understand it anyway.

Judging by the situation, Yozora didn’t seem to know anything.

I’d even messaged her first asking, “What’s this about?” but she left it on read and ignored me.

If Yozora had prepped Han Soo-ah for me as some kind of starter pack, she would’ve reacted somehow.

At the very least, she’d have read it and ignored me in a way that hinted at it, so she could demand a “reward.”

Or pretended not to know and pissed me off first before demanding a “reward.”

One of the two.

The fact that she didn’t even read it meant this really had nothing to do with Yozora.

Which raised one question:

What on earth made Han Soo-ah, who was so shy just yesterday at the bookstore, suddenly decide to talk to me?

“…….”

She must’ve mustered up the courage somehow.

Too tired to think deeply, I ended my speculation there.

According to Yozora, unlike Lee Ji-yoon—who was so absorbed in games that she neglected relationships—Han Soo-ah was a pitiful girl who’d studied hard since childhood without ever making friends.

Maybe meeting someone like Yozora or me, who shared her hobbies, made her desperate not to let it slip away.

A simple, bittersweet story.

“Sigh…”

Either way, now that I’d secured the position of Han Soo-ah’s friend, all that remained was a smooth red carpet ahead.

With that, the things I needed to worry about had drastically decreased.

I could use the excuse of wanting manga recommendations to keep talking to her,

and if I consistently came off as trustworthy, I might even get the option to visit the bookstore alone with Han Soo-ah, leaving Yozora behind.

Once our relationship deepened further, she might start going to places with me—places Yozora would never step foot in.

From there, it’d just be a matter of devouring Han Soo-ah step by step.

At this point, it didn’t seem like I needed to focus so much on “taming” Han Soo-ah anymore.

“Then I should pay a little more attention to Lee Ji-yoon…”

Just as I was about to shift my focus from the caught fish to Lee Ji-yoon, who was still resting—

My phone on the desk vibrated lightly.

Checking it, I saw it was a KakaoTalk notification from Han Soo-ah.

…Weird. Shouldn’t she be in class right now?

Was she bored in class and messaging me to kill time, like Ha-yoon often did?

Well, Han Soo-ah…

For someone who studied so hard, her results were shockingly dumb.

Guess she just wasn’t cut out for academics.

Creak. Leaning back in my chair, I tapped my phone.

[Han Soo-ah] ─I, um, wanted to ask you something, Teacher. ─Is that okay?

But the message was unexpectedly normal.

A student asking a teacher about something they didn’t know—if anything, it was a model example.

The problem was that the teacher in question was me.

“…….”

Teacher.

No matter how many times I heard it, the title still made me cringe.

Clearing my throat unnecessarily, I put on my best kind teacher mask and replied.

[Seo Woo-jin] ─What is it? ─Just so you know, I’m not too familiar with the preliminary hero curriculum either. ─I could introduce you to a teacher who’d know more, though.

[Han Soo-ah] ─Ah, it’s not that. ─It’s something personal I wanted to ask you about.

[Seo Woo-jin] ─Personal? ─About me?

[Han Soo-ah] ─Yes. ─It’s… ─Could you teach me what kinds of things men like…?

“…….”

What the fuck.