If 0.5 sets of time had passed on the ship, that’s 33 days in Earth’s time.
At that moment, it was early April, after the beginning of the semester in March, for the second-year middle school students.
About 3 to 4 weeks remained until the exams.
First-term exams, mid-term exams, preliminary written evaluations.
Regardless of how each student expressed it, these words pointed to a single common meaning.
For the second-years, who were experiencing exams for the first time in school, there was a mix of appropriate tension and even anticipation.
The feeling of needing to score well brought some tension…
Most students weren’t particularly focused on studying and were just looking forward to a day that ended early at school.
“This problem will be on the test, just with the numbers changed—”
“Sorry? Where?”
“I’ll say it again, page 52, practice problem 3.”
By this point, students began to fall into three categories.
There were the honour students who underlined everything the teacher said would be on the test or deemed important and were committed to studying both at home and school to get the best grades possible.
Next were the majority of students who underlined important parts, but often dozed off or fell asleep, leaving pages filled with emptiness, leaving their grades to chance.
Lastly, there were the delinquent students who, completely indifferent to studying, had tossed academics aside the moment they stepped into middle school while puffing away at cigarettes.
If you were to ask me which group I belonged to…
“Why am I so sleepy…?”
You’d find me in the middle tier, a luck-dependent student whose pages were filled with blank spaces.
Proof of this could be seen during history class, where I caught myself resting my head on the desk like I was mesmerized.
Sure, I was surviving well, but every time I snapped to attention, it was just in time for the bell to ring for break.
Looking up in the deafening silence of the classroom, I could spot fellow comrades dropping like flies under the lullaby of a history lesson.
A few who managed to endure the lullaby were typically the honour students.
Seeing them blinking away while managing to stick to their tasks felt almost surreal, as if they were not of the same species.
“Yaaawn…”
In the silent classroom, I let out an exaggerated yawn while rising from my seat.
The sound of chair legs scraping against the floor shattered the classroom’s silence.
Meanwhile, my classmates, who lay motionless as if they could tolerate a little noise, remained sprawled out.
The classroom was unbearably hot, with the heating fully operational, to the point where sweat was dripping down.
Escaping that stifling warmth, I made my way out to the cool hallway.
“Ugh, it’s hot.”
Leaving my coat in the classroom, I leaned against the open window frame in the hallway, enthusiastically fanning myself.
In the midst of cooling off, the school bell rang to signal the start of class.
With an ear-piercing sound, I took a step back from the hallway where I was standing, ready to enter the classroom.
Wait, was that the class bell?
In that moment, I hesitated, thinking, is that really the bell for class?
As it turned out, what I thought was the class bell… was actually a monster alert alarm.
Upon realizing the true nature of the noise, my first thought was a simple interjection, “Why?”
“Of course, I’ve messed up lately…”
But did it rise to the level of ruining the set time? So I hurriedly opened the back door of the classroom and sat down as calmly as I could.
As the alarm rang out, students gradually began to get up, looking around as if deciding whether to evacuate or not.
Amongst students who were glancing at each other with expressions that screamed confusion, I reached into my bag.
Notebook, and a pen I thought I had lost a few days ago grabbed by Gomteng…
Ah, my mistake. This was a wrist pillow.
Past the wrist pillow, I felt around for a soft object.
This time, I was right; it poked between my fingers, signaling me.
Naturally, I thought the mascot wouldn’t show up, having moved what I usually kept in my pocket to my bag.
But no way, I didn’t expect him to pop out right now.
As if my hand was quicker than my eyes, I swiftly shoved him into my pocket and looked for the right moment to slip out of the classroom…
“Guys, head to the playground—”
The front door burst open as the teacher came in to relay the message.
The cacophony of chairs scraping and desks sliding was chaotic, as even the sleeping students began to wake and leave the classroom in a line, one after another.
What on earth is going on in a school where students typically don’t evacuate even when the alarm rings?
I wondered if someone reported this school to the education office for not taking alarms seriously.
…Actually, it was me.
As the first step toward that change, the hallway and stairs became crowded with students from various classes and other grades.
It felt like some sort of fire drill evacuation, with footsteps echoing lazily and irregularly.
Well, even if not speedy, at least they were showing some signs of pursuing safety.
Thus, I snuck away into the bathroom and locked the door to take up one stall.
“…Sun.”
After quietly muttering my transformation spell, I unlocked the door and slid out cautiously.
Before anyone could see me, I quickly maneuvered my small body between the window and the fall-prevention bar outside.
The teddy bear I had clutched slipped from my hands, floating at a similar height to my gaze.
“Can’t you keep it in your pocket or something?”
It looked at me as if it had been waiting to come outside forever, glaring in my direction as soon as our eyes met.
“Hey, carrying a doll in my pocket at this age is kinda… not good.”
“Still, there are things you do and don’t do…”
I scratched the back of my head in embarrassment, and the little rascal kept throwing back remarks that hit the nail on the head.
Only a few years ago, this person was just spewing nonsense that didn’t even deserve my ear, but recently Gomteng had started speaking the truth that hit home.
For once, I decided to shift the subject, pointing out that it wasn’t just my fault. After all, Siyeon also seemed dull with her observations.
“Seeing Siyeon unable to wake up like that, wasn’t the Sea Snake in your bag too?”
“No, she was wriggling around in my pocket but didn’t wake up.”
However, unlike me, Siyeon seemed to have tucked the mascot in properly.
She had probably heard from the Sea Snake already, spouting all the truths without needing to concentrate.
Unlike the side that didn’t wake up and simply couldn’t notice it, Gomteng’s sharp statement of fault hung like a dagger in my heart.
Damn it, there’s nowhere to escape!
I just had to reflect that I would make sure to keep it in my pocket moving forward, and then I zoomed off to the point of emergence.
Flying in the direction indicated by Gomteng, the monster compass, I found it perplexing that we were way past our appointment time at 11:34 AM. Gomteng, who seemed baffled by the situation, spoke up ahead.
“By the way, what’s going on?”
“Good question.”
It piqued my curiosity just as much.
Mixing half-jest with my thoughts, I remembered when we were treated like monsters back in elementary school, and fiddled with my fingers as if they were itching.
“Did they miss the pain and torture?”
“Not at all, usually when strange things happen, there are unreasonable circumstances involved…”
Hearing that, Gomteng dismissed the idea while saying, at times like this, unreasonable circumstances often crop up.
Come to think of it, that strange alligator monster that appeared around the holidays was also explained by some medic as ‘an executive’s misconduct’.
Now that I thought about it, the monsters’ lives seemed to overlap with the struggles of military life in Gangwon-do, filling me with sympathy and hoping to hear what the circumstances might be.
“Should we talk before fighting?”
“If someone who can communicate comes along…”
Hearing the uncertain affirmation from him, I increased my speed.
The place we arrived at was an alley not far from the school.
On either side of the asphalt road, barely wide enough for two cars to pass, sat a stationary store and a café in a side street.
There, a monster resembling a halfway cum-bear was wandering around, cautiously checking its surroundings.
With a timid demeanor, it was acting like a herbivore, peering side to side.
Not breaking anything at all, but so cautious it seemed like a beast anxious from just escaping a zoo without sight of a keeper.
If it didn’t have three front legs, I might have actually thought it was an escapee from the nearby zoo.
“Hey.”
“Uuh, uehhhh!!!”
As I called out to the monster from above, I heard a powerful sound emanating from the bear paw, cutting through the air.
Startled, the child reflexively swung their arm, an involuntary action.
It seemed the monster forgot about walking on two legs, gingerly backing away with an expression of pure fear while keeping all five of its paws planted firmly on the ground.
Anxiety was evident in the heavy breaths, and it wore an expression resembling “I didn’t want to be here.”
I sighed deeply as I noticed the trembling in its eyes.
In the midst of the sidewalk where people walked by, I lowered myself onto a low ledge and rested my elbows on my knees, supporting my chin while speaking.
“Alright, calm down. Let’s talk about why you’re here at this hour.”
“Wha, wha…”
“Hmm?”
The monster stammered, repeating only the sound ‘wha’.
It seemed like it wanted to say something, but was struggling to get the words out due to nerves.
“Are you… not angry about appearing at this time?”
It hesitantly concluded its sentence, seemingly aware of its impudence while still trying to gauge my emotions.
Did it realize that this behavior would be infuriating? The monsters seemed to have learned to pick up on human sentiments.
Now that I think about it, I was aware that monsters were quickly being integrated into human society after our conversations.
Their emotional development aside, I initially wanted to question them in great detail about the broken appointment, hinting at my unpleasantries.
“Hmm, if the explanation takes too long, might I get a bit angry?”
“Yes, I’ll explain right away.”
