Side Story 1. Hero P-yang’s Melancholy

# Hero P-yang’s Melancholy.

July 17, 2020. New Seoul C Middle School.

It was the same old routine, like a hamster on a wheel. School, academy, home. School, library, home. How long would this boring life continue, wearing the same uniform every day and walking the same path?

“Yuna. Are you okay?”

Her best friend, Seyun, pulled a chair over and asked cautiously. Her usual cheerfulness was nowhere to be seen, and dark circles were deeply etched under her eyes.

“My goodness. Did you stay up all night?”

“Just a little, watching Last Love….”

Seyun’s face brightened, and she clapped her hands. It was clear she understood everything.

“Hehehe, you finally watched it, didn’t you! The forbidden final episode!”

“I’m going to kill the author….”

Lee Yuna slammed her forehead onto the handout spread out before her. Her brown bob flowed down past her ears. Seyun, with an understanding expression, patted Yuna’s back.

“Be strong. Both the male and female leads dropped out, so the whole story changed completely. Did you see the original script that was leaked? Don’t watch it, you’ll get emotional damage.”

“Wouldn’t it have been better if it had gone full-on crazy to the end, since it was already crazy?”

“Well, still, Lee Seung-hyung oppa retired, didn’t he? They say he proposed to Cheon Gaeul. She totally hit the jackpot.”

The gossip among the middle school girls was endless. Yuna swallowed her fatigue and continued the conversation, and soon the scheduled time arrived.

Ding-dong-

“Announcement to C Middle School students. The Villain appearance warning issued today has been lifted as of this time. Students, please contact your parents for a safe return home….”

Before the broadcast even finished, students grabbed their bags and rushed out of the classroom. Seyun also said goodbye to Yuna and quickly left the classroom, leaving Yuna alone in the empty room.

“There’s no one home anyway.”

The person who had been interacting with her friends with a bright face just moments ago was nowhere to be seen. Yuna, with a gloomy expression, slowly and carefully put the handouts into her bag. She picked up a handout she was about to put away and let out a small laugh.

“Who even does this kind of homework these days….”

With summer vacation approaching, they were asked to organize their truly desired future career into a portfolio. It seemed like a rather excessive assignment to demand of a mere middle school student, but fortunately, if she did this one thing, she wouldn’t have to do any of the other annoying tasks.

“Future career….”

If she submitted a blank paper because she had nothing, would her homeroom teacher try to schedule a parent-teacher conference? Yuna sighed and shoved the handout into her bag. She didn’t know what she’d hear if she called in her already busy parents.

“I’ll just write ‘Hero’ or ‘Streamer’ and submit it….”

She wondered what else there could be as the most popular future careers besides those two, but it didn’t really matter. Anyway, everyone else would probably write something similar, so she might as well just copy them. Yuna trudged out of school and walked her way home.

Jingle-jingle. Yuna pushed open the glass door and entered the convenience store. She knew there would only be cold rice waiting for her at home anyway. Let’s just make do with a triangle kimbap today. Yuna picked up a triangle kimbap and a strawberry milk to go with it.

“Ah.”

The girl right next to her let out a hollow sound. The girl, whose face was covered by a snapback and a mask, extended her finger, and it touched Yuna’s hand, which was holding the strawberry milk. Yuna offered the strawberry milk to the girl.

“…Would you like it?”

Nod. The girl nodded and took the strawberry milk. Yuna couldn’t help but smile proudly at the girl, who looked like a child who had received a much-desired gift.

Yuna picked up the last remaining melon juice milk next to it and stood in front of the counter. The young man wearing a Yuseong convenience store uniform scanned the strawberry milk of the girl who was already standing there.

“That’ll be two thousand won.”

The girl raised her wrist, then flinched. On her wrist was not a smartwatch, but a key tag like one you’d see at a public bathhouse.

“Ah….”

The girl’s shoulders slumped. Yuna subtly extended her own items and wrist.

“Please scan them together.”

“Yes.”

The young man scanned Yuna’s items and her smartwatch without hesitation. The payment was processed immediately from Yuna’s account, and Yuna picked up the strawberry milk and handed it to the girl.

“It’s the sauna just up ahead, right? Drink it on your way.”

The girl took the strawberry milk with both hands and bowed. As she opened the top of the milk carton right there, the sweet scent of strawberries tickled Yuna’s nose.

“♪♬♩”

Just as the girl was humming a tune and about to pull down her mask, the glass window shattered, and a large man crashed through a display shelf and rolled onto the floor. The display shelf toppled over with a loud crash, flinging the strawberry milk the girl was holding onto the ground.

“…….”

“H-Heek?!”

While the clerk, startled, pressed the emergency call button, Yuna embraced the girl and threw her body forward.

“???”

“It’s dangerous! We need to get away first-“

“Oh ho ho! What a pathetic Hero!”

A woman in a prison uniform scattered dirt. The dust flew through the air and exploded. Yuna identified the woman and her breath caught.

“Shaman?! I thought she was caught after escaping prison?!”

“Oh ho ho, there’s always a way. I’m sorry, my dears. It’s unfair to be arrested like this, so I’ll kill at least one more person before I go!”

Yuna hugged the girl even tighter at the frenzied Shaman’s actions. Trembling with the danger of death, she held the girl tightly so she wouldn’t get hurt.

“…This bastard can’t even clean up properly?”

Did I hear wrong? While Yuna was momentarily puzzled by the voice from within her embrace, the girl’s body transformed into flames and slipped out of Yuna’s arms.

“Huh, huh?!”

Just before falling forward, Yuna gently lowered herself, supported by a hand. The girl lightly nudged the man who was coughing hoarsely, sprawled on the display shelf, with her foot.

“Hey. What are you doing? Get up. If I saved you, you have to earn your keep.”

“Ah…. Th-that….”

Yuna reached out to the girl who was treating the fallen Hero so casually, then was startled. The Hero sprawled on the display shelf was Lee Seung-hyung, the Brown Bear, the male lead of the drama Yuna had binge-watched all night.

Crash! The Shaman kicked the glass window and leaped into the convenience store.

“You’re just begging to die! Let’s all die together!”

“What the hell is she saying?”

The girl, standing with her back to Yuna, raised her fist towards the Shaman. The Shaman was indiscriminately scattering dirt, causing explosions all around.

“Die, all of you!”

The Shaman threw a lump of mud at the girl. The clump of mud bubbled and boiled, quickly turning into a bomb. Yuna tightly shut her eyes at its imminent explosion.

Hwaruruk. Her vision, which had turned black from her closed eyelids, was dyed blue. Startled by the blue light entering through her closed eyes, Yuna unconsciously opened her eyes.

“Beautiful….”

There was a Hero, fluttering wings of blue flame.

* * *

The next day.

“Yuna! Are you okay?! They said it was you who was attacked at the convenience store on your way home yesterday?!”

“Uh, yeah. I’m fine.”

Yuna, after calming down the fussing Seyun, forced a bright smile. Not only Seyun but also her other friends were equally worried about Yuna.

“My goodness. Does it make sense that a Villain who was already caught escaped from the transport vehicle?”

“My point exactly! Oh, right, once her makeup was off, she was totally ugly, wasn’t she?”

“Lee Yuna, the Hero who saved you, was it really Brown Bear Lee Seung-hyung? How did he beat an A-rank Villain to a pulp like that? How did you end up there?”

“Huh? Uhm…. I don’t know the details either.”

Thump-thump-thump! The homeroom teacher, who had entered the classroom through the front door, tapped the classroom door with the attendance book, calming the students down. After briefly explaining yesterday’s incident to the students, the homeroom teacher took Lee Yuna separately to the counseling room for a talk.

“Yuna. I’m sorry, but….”

The homeroom teacher explained the situation with an embarrassed expression. When asked to testify that the Hero who saved Yuna was ‘Brown Bear Lee Seung-hyung,’ Yuna got angry.

“Then what about the person who actually saved me?! That’s unfair to them!”

“……Yuna. The person who saved you was Mr. Lee Seung-hyung. …Can’t you just say that?”

The homeroom teacher seemed to be pleading desperately. Yuna, who had some sense, soon realized the reason and bit her lip in anger.

“It’s because the person who saved me is C-rank, isn’t it? You’re trying to hide that an A-rank was defeated by a Villain and a C-rank saved them?”

“Yu, Yuna?!”

The teacher, startled, glanced around. Fortunately, no one was listening. Yuna huffed and suppressed her anger, then lowered her head.

“…I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. I understand. So, Yuna, we’ll go with that, and….”

The teacher, like a criminal, handed Yuna a notice.

“You’ll need to go to the Association for an interview.”

Her vision went dark.

* * *

In the end, Yuna accepted the interview. She laughed heartily according to the script, boasting about Lee Seung-hyung’s exploits. Lee Seung-hyung also splendidly explained his exploits according to the script, but he never once met Yuna’s eyes.

Break time. Yuna, with the help of a security guard, made her way to the restroom. Just then, in the hallway, the blue-haired girl was deep in thought, standing between the men’s and women’s restrooms.

“Excuse me!”

“……? Ah, that student.”

The girl bowed her head in greeting. In her hand, she held a strawberry drink she had taken out from a Yuseong franchise cafe. The security guard tried to stop Yuna from behind, but Lee Yuna, a second-year middle school student in the turbulent, wandering adolescence, was unrestrained.

“Aren’t you even upset?!”

“About what?”

“……You know!”

Yuna glanced at the security guard. The girl also noticed this and raised her hand to pat Yuna’s shoulder.

“What’s there to be upset about? It’s enough that I saved someone. You’re not hurt, are you? Your name is….”

The girl paused. While Yuna was momentarily puzzled, the girl cleared her throat and continued.

“…I’m satisfied that I saved Lee Yuna. I’m a Hero, after all, aren’t I?”

“…….”

The girl smiled sweetly and walked past Yuna towards the end of the hallway. Yuna stared blankly at the disappearing back of the girl, lost in thought. The girl was waving one hand over her shoulder.

That evening. The future career chosen for Yuna’s portfolio became ‘Hero’.

* * *

February 21, 2025. New Seoul Hero Academy Female Dormitory Building 101, Room 1011.

“Please…. Please!”

Yuna clasped her hands and prayed earnestly, again and again. She was so desperate that she would offer her faith even to an alien god if there was one who would grant her wish.

“……What are you doing first thing in the morning?”

Her roommate, Shuri, kicked the chair Yuna was sitting on from her lying position. Shuri’s eyes were bloodshot, as if she had stayed up all night. Yuna handed a tracksuit to Shuri, who approached her wearing only her underwear. The tracksuit was full of blue phoenix patterns.

“It’s cold. Put it on, you’ll catch a cold.”

“A D-rank worrying about a C-rank, how thoughtful. Hey, just give up. You’re instantly rejected from the application stage.”

Shuri slowly putting on her tracksuit, provoking Yuna. Yuna let the criticism go in one ear and out the other, repeatedly opened and closed new screens countless times. Shuri wrapped her arm around Yuna’s neck and shook her.

“I told you it wouldn’t work~ Why don’t you just join my team instead~ Our team leader said they’ll fully support you~”

“No. That place. It’s a Pine Tree subordinate organization. I’m not going.”

“Yuna. People like us don’t have a choice, do we? Right? Uncle Jeok Song is actually a good person if you get to know him-“

“Ah. It’s up.”

Exactly at 12 o’clock. Yuna quickly opened a new screen. She was about to press the image on the successful applicants page, but stopped her finger in mid-air.

“I’m too scared to press it.”

“Let me see.”

Beep. Shuri pressed the result confirmation button without permission, and Yuna held her breath.

“…Oh, um. Sorry. …Sorry.”

“……I expected it.”

Yuna sighed deeply. Unsuccessful. At Yuna’s gloomy mood, Shuri, on the contrary, got even angrier.

“No, what’s wrong with that old man?! You even interviewed with Brown Bear when you were little! And he even smiled kindly at you as an interviewer?!”

“I might have failed because of that. He seemed to remember me. Did I tell you about it last time?”

“…Hey, let’s go! I’m buying lunch today. I’m really going to bite the bullet and swipe my card today.”

“Cheese Pork Cutlet Set.”

“……Regular Set.”

The two changed into their uniforms and slowly made their way out of the room. Cheers overflowed from the next room, and Yuna forced herself to swallow the tears that were about to flow.

* * *

March 3, 2025, Hero Academy 2-C Classroom.

Lee Yuna bowed her head and lay down on her desk. Shuri, who had been her closest friend, had left for her affiliated team’s hunting ground, and Yuna was abruptly left alone in the classroom. Some other students also remained in the classroom, but their circumstances were vastly different from Yuna’s.

A dropout who hadn’t been accepted into any team. A D-rank healer who didn’t know her place. Those were the derogatory terms Yuna had heard countless times behind her back for the past two weeks. Yuna tried to laugh it off positively, but her insides were burning black.

“A kid worse than a potion, trying to join a team….”

“They probably want to grow too. Wouldn’t they want to pick any commander and raise their mana?”

“It is pitiful. She barely awakened, and she’s just a D-rank healer. And her Affinity Rate is single-digit, they say?”

“……Hmph.”

She felt a surge of emotion but bit her lip and held back her tears. Although she miraculously awakened her superpower, the power given to her was too insignificant and worthless compared to other Heroes.

‘No. I can’t give up yet.’

She had chosen the path of a Hero, even giving up her acceptance to New Seoul University, but for the past year, Yuna’s Affinity Rate had stopped at a mere ’11’. For all seven attributes.

– Ding-dong. Agents of 2-C, please proceed to the auditorium. The next lecture will be a joint class with first-year students, given by a guest lecturer….

Drrrk. Yuna scraped her chair and stood up. Her wobbly steps were unsteady, but she had to attend class anyway.

Murmur-murmur. The expressions of the first-year agents, who had just entered the Academy, couldn’t have been more cheerful.

‘I was like that last year.’

Yuna tried hard to hide her melancholy and sat on a separate chair specially prepared at the very back of the auditorium. The other second-year agents didn’t come near Yuna. The murmuring chatter of the freshmen could be heard in Yuna’s ears.

“Who’s coming today? The Praetor?”

“They might come with Brown Bear-nim. It’s a legend, isn’t it? How he was immediately picked up from an Academy lecture.”

“What about the seniors in the back? Aren’t they going to special classes?”

Soon, it was time for the lecture. The murmuring of the agents subsided, and a spotlight illuminated the podium. When no one appeared, the agents began to murmur again. Yuna subtly brought up a screen to check who was scheduled to give the lecture.

“……It’s Lee Seung-hyung again.”

She felt annoyed for some reason. Not a single thing about him had pleased her, from their first impression until now. They say hate the sin, not the sinner, but after applying to Lee Seung-hyung’s team and failing, Yuna was genuinely vexed.

‘…It’s because I’m incompetent. Snap out of it, Lee Yuna.’

She knew that the reason for her failure was clearly her own lack of ability, which only made her feel even sadder due to self-loathing.

“Ah, ah, microphone. One, two, three.”

The assistant lecturer, who was conducting the class, hastily came up and tested the microphone. He was sweating profusely but looked extremely relieved. A subtle excitement also lingered. Excitement? Yuna tilted her head.

“We would like to inform all agents. Today’s ‘Hero’s Mindset’ was supposed to be in charge of by our special guest lecturer, Hero Brown Bear Lee Seung-hyung-nim, but due to an urgent matter, he will not be able to proceed with the lecture-“

Complaints erupted instantly from the first-year agents. The assistant lecturer, as if he had expected it, immediately infused his voice with mana.

“A Hero who specially visited the Academy today has agreed to give the lecture. Please welcome them with applause.”

The blue-haired girl, who received the microphone from the assistant lecturer, hesitantly stood in the exact center of the podium.

“Uhm… hello?”

There was no applause. Only silence settled. The girl made a tearful face for a moment, then, with a nervous expression, introduced herself.

“I came to visit, but suddenly that bas… that between the lecture was canceled, so I ended up taking the microphone. Haha…. Nice to meet you, aspiring Heroes. I am Phoenix, an SS-rank Hero belonging to the Hero Association of Korea.”

A thunderous cheer rang out in the auditorium. Yuna also clapped her hands and welcomed her.

* * *

The lecture continued for quite a while. From the middle, it flowed into tales of her exploits rather than a lecture, but even the freshmen reacted to each of those tales with admiration. Phoenix held a tumbler and sipped the drink inside.

“…So recently, I’ve been thinking. What if I had gone astray there? What if I had walked the path of a villain instead of a Hero…. It’s a meaningless story now.”

The joke didn’t sound like a joke. At the audience’s frozen reaction, Phoenix quickly said what she needed to say.

“Ah, anyway, who asked earlier? Why I came to the Academy today. It’s nothing much. I’m just trying to put together a new team this time….”

Phoenix smiled slyly. Only then did the audience realize Phoenix’s true intention in taking the microphone.

“A spot was open, and I’m trying to fill that spot with a new face. A budding talent overflowing with potential but who hasn’t yet seen the light.”

Phoenix descended from the podium. The aspiring Heroes all looked at Phoenix with expectation, but the moment Phoenix passed them, they made expressions as if they had lost the world.

Stomp, stomp.

While the aspiring Heroes watched Phoenix intently like meerkats, Phoenix strode across the center of the auditorium and approached the wall.

Stomp. Her footsteps stopped. Phoenix extended her hand to the aspiring Hero in front of her.

“I came to pay back the strawberry milk money, can I calculate it with interest included?”

“……Yes!”

March 3rd.

Sunshine entered Lee Yuna’s gloomy life.