Chapter 49

“Did the crown prince look for you, Shin Si Hoo? It might be better not to go to the hallway for a while.”

“Really? Thanks for letting me know.”

Rumors that Iharu and Seoyuna had fought after the midterms spread rapidly throughout the academy.

The complaints from the first-year Class C students about Seoyuna grew day by day.

Eventually, Iharu, pressured by the other students, decided to meet her privately to give her a warning as the class representative, but he didn’t share what happened there.

It was clear that a fistfight had occurred, but if that were the case, the parents from both sides would be summoned immediately, and this was something Iharu was afraid of.

Si Hoo wasn’t the type to believe rumors at face value, but he thought that where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

His true intention was to avoid any contact with Seoyuna as much as possible.

“You’re Shin Si Hoo?”

However, in the tug of war of patience, it was Seoyuna who emerged victorious.

Si Hoo spoke nonchalantly to hide the fact that he had deliberately avoided her.

“Yes, and?”

“You came in first this time, didn’t you?”

“Uh, yeah.”

“Let’s go through the ‘Magic Records’ exam together from the beginning.”

The words that came out of Seoyuna’s mouth were unexpected.

She wasn’t trying to mock him.

She genuinely wanted to review the exam questions with him.

So Si Hoo decided to lie about leaving his exam paper at home.

Discussing the midterm exam with a complete stranger felt ridiculous.

“It’s okay. I memorized all the questions. You did too, right?”

But she didn’t provide him with an escape route.

It was Si Hoo and Seoyuna’s first encounter.

* * *

“It’s already the last one. Objective question number 18.”

“It was a question to choose a magic circle with a casting mana amount greater than 110/3 and less than 290/7, right?”

“I couldn’t solve it because I ran out of time. Which one did you choose?”

“Number 1.”

“That’s the correct answer! How did you get it right?”

Yuna grabbed Si Hoo’s shoulders and excitedly exclaimed.

Every time Si Hoo got an answer right that Yuna got wrong, she always waited for his response like this.

Today marked the end of a week’s worth of their antics that had happened during every break.

She had never missed a day coming to the front of Class A, and Si Hoo couldn’t dampen Yuna’s enthusiasm.

“Normally, you need to find a magic circle with a mana consumption in the low 40s. You shouldn’t consider the high 30s.”

“Why? It could be 37, 38, or 39, right?”

“If you factor it into prime numbers, the resulting primes will be too big. Then, the magic circles in choices one to five can’t look that simple.”

“What’s prime factorization?”

“Um, that is…”

Ding ding ding!

The bell signaling the start of the last class on Friday rang.

But today, Yuna couldn’t return to class.

It was because she couldn’t postpone learning about the concept of ‘prime factorization’ until next week.

On one hand, she was worried she needed to hurry back before the teacher arrived, fidgeting like a little puppy.

“Then, do you want to come to my house later? I’ll teach you after school.”

“Uh…?”

Yuna froze at the casual remark that slipped out.

* * *

“Si Hoo, what’s gotten into you? Bringing friends home to study?”

“Ah, I think I didn’t do so well on this midterm, so I want to review together. I think it’ll help me place first again in the finals…”

“Is your friend’s name Seoyuna? Where does she live?”

“Uh… I…”

“Can you leave now? We’re about to start.”

“This one’s so loud. Well, then study hard.”

The door closed, and Si Hoo let out a sigh of relief.

It wasn’t outright lying to his mother, but a part of him felt guilty.

Inviting a friend over, or being invited to a friend’s house, was a new experience for both Si Hoo and Yuna.

Moreover, they were still the age where it was somewhat embarrassing to acknowledge the existence of friends of the opposite gender, inevitably leading to an uneasy feeling in this situation.

“Thanks… for not telling my address.”

“The weird one is my mom, for asking that outright.”

“…”

“Is the seat uncomfortable?”

“No, not at all!”

Yuna hurriedly waved her hands.

There was nothing wrong with the cushion she was sitting on.

Now that she was in Si Hoo’s room for the first time, she could somewhat understand what Iharu had said before.

One room here was bigger than her entire house.

She didn’t need to unfold any blankets or clear away any clutter to study; the bed and desk had enough space for one person to lie down.

“Shall we start studying then?”

“Yeah…”

“Should I start by teaching you prime factorization?”

Prime factorization was something taught only in middle school at other schools.

Si Hoo could handle such complex concepts with ease.

He was different from Iharu and Han Gyeol Kim.

The knowledge built up by the boy named Shin Si Hoo was like a towering mountain.

Yuna’s ears felt overwhelmed, unable to grasp his explanations.

“Are you listening?”

“Do you think of all this when you’re taking midterms, Shin Si Hoo?”

It was an innocent yet not so naive question.

She couldn’t fathom executing what he was talking about in her mind.

Every time Yuna felt the gap between them, she felt her head spinning.

“No?”

But surprisingly, Si Hoo’s answer was negative.

“Actually, I guessed on objective question 18.”

“What?!”

“Why?”

“Weren’t you just telling me what you solved until now?”

“You also guessed both 16 and 17. I could guess one correctly too.”

“I didn’t even know that…!”

Tears welled up in Yuna’s eyes.

But it wasn’t sadness.

Rather, the absurdity of the situation made her shake off her tears and let out a small laugh.

“I almost mistook you for a machine instead of a person!”

Crying and now laughing.

Si Hoo was shocked by her unusual demeanor but felt warmth at the same time, leading the corners of his mouth to rise naturally.

Si Hoo thought Yuna looked pretty when she smiled, and her red hair added to her charm.

She seemed to be the type to be popular with everyone, regardless of gender, and Si Hoo couldn’t understand why she was being ostracized by her classmates.

He felt a sense of regret that today would be their last chance to talk.

“Thanks to your help, I think I’ll do well on the finals too.”

He wanted to talk a bit more.

Si Hoo subtly asked,

“Now that we’ve finished the exam, are you going home?”

“No, what do you mean?”

Yuna pulled out two books and a bundle of exam papers from her backpack.

“Basics of Rune Language! It’s time to do this, right? I’m counting on you.”

Without a care, she urged Si Hoo to start, saying there were more things to do.

Thank goodness.

“Okay, I’m counting on you too.”

* * *

“Ugh…”

“Are you awake? If you’re feeling dizzy, you can stay lying down longer, or you can leave right away without telling anyone. The homeroom teacher gave permission.”

In Seoyuna’s view, translucent bugs were wriggling on the white ceiling.

After rubbing her eyes once more, the bugs disappeared, and she recognized that she had woken up in the infirmary.

It felt like she had a mix of a good and bad dream, but she couldn’t remember the details.

“Are you just leaving?”

“Yes, thank you for taking care of me.”

She packed her backpack and outer clothing, not forgetting to thank the nurse, then looked at the clock.

[14:50]

It was a rather late hour when most of the students would have already gone home.

“Cough cough.”

Suddenly coughing startled her, making her heart skip a beat as if the nightmare of having drunken a potion was returning, but fortunately, it didn’t feel worse than tasting a bitter pill.

As she moistened her dry lips with her tongue, the memory of the time she fainted surfaced, and her face flushed.

[Seoyuna. Can you hear me?]

[From now on, I’m going to have you bite my finger. Don’t bite it if it hurts!]

When something was prodding inside her mouth, she panicked.

The feeling was reminiscent of the fear that came when dental equipment crept in while her eyes were shut at the dentist.

But soon, a mystical energy spread throughout her body, and Yuna’s pain began to fade.

‘It seemed like all the pain was just a dream.’

[Just hang in there. You’ll be okay.]

‘What in the world was that…’

The gentle touch on her face felt as warm and nostalgic as her mother’s.

As she indulged in these errant thoughts, she shook her head.

‘I’ve probably been feeling dizzy because I haven’t been eating much lately. I need to eat a lot for lunch from now on.’

Crossing the school garden, Yuna stood in front of a lilac flowerbed that someone had painstakingly planted in front of the school building.

It was the same spot where first-year students had planted flowers with their parents during the entrance ceremony.

Even here, there was a flower that Yuna had planted last year.

She wrote a phrase wishing for safe graduation from the academy and carefully planted it together with her brother.

But lilacs released their intense fragrance in full bloom during spring and disappeared as winter arrived.

And that spot would eventually be replaced by the wishes of new first graders next year.

As one becomes accustomed to and settles into daily life, it’s easy to forget the original purpose.

So Yuna now grew to dislike the lilacs, which spread a scent that pricked her nose.

“@%$# &&&@ %@# you! Are you crazy?!”

The sudden roar was enough to awaken Yuna from her reverie.

Faint lights seeped out from a building across from the flowerbed.

She felt drawn into the building as if under a spell.

The lilac scent might have been intoxicating her.

Curiosity and a bit of rebellion.

After having already skipped one class, she stepped forward without hesitation.

Yuna caught sight of her secretary sister leaving the room with a frown on her face.

‘Did she get scolded by someone high up in the academy?’

But there were still signs of activity in the room.

[It’s been a long time since a talented individual came to the academy! Haha!]

The room had the structure of another room inside.

Yuna pressed against one wall, straining to hear the conversation happening inside.

Since the original room was divided by a non-soundproof partition, the voices reached Yuna’s ears clearly.

[Student, but what kind of medicine did your friend take to even use a sleep magic?]

[She drank a potion without knowing.]

“…!”

It was Noname’s voice.

‘Why is Noname here?’

[Potions…? Is it the kind that the battlefield mage-drinkers consume?]

[You’re saying exactly what Professor Cheon said. Yes, that’s right.]

[Ah…]

‘What in the world is a battlefield mage-drinker?’

Unfortunately, Yuna couldn’t understand all the words with her head.

The conversation abruptly ended.

Yuna panicked, thinking she might have been caught, and struggled to calm her racing heart.

[Noname, you should work hard at school too.]

‘At this rate, I’m going to get caught! Where can I hide…?’

Yuna squeezed her small body between a stack of empty tangerine boxes that were piled up for recycling.

Before long, the consultation room’s door opened, and a scary-looking man came out, hesitantly taking out a cigarette from his pocket.

Yuna breathed a sigh of relief.

“It’s truly regrettable that it’s time-limited.”

However, the half-heartedly spoken word by the middle-aged gentleman was enough to poke at her trauma buried in the depths of her being.

“Time-limited…?”