A Rainy Day (3)

Monday had come, but the rain refused to let up. It had been drizzling, dreary and relentless, for three days straight.

Mom got up that morning, took one look at the laundry she'd hung on the back balcony off the laundry room, and her face fell at the sight of it still damp. I wasn't faring much better. The moisture creeping into my room had me frowning before I was properly awake.

Even with the air conditioner's dehumidifier running at full blast, there was a faint, unpleasant sensation of damp slowly clinging to my skin. The rain itself kept picking at my nerves.

I stepped outside for school, looked up at a sky packed solid with storm clouds, and a sigh escaped me on its own.

"Body's all stiff. Mood's rotten, too..."

In the meantime, I'd come within a breath of being dragged into the Phase World again. I'd been asleep, trapped in a nightmare of the Rogue Imugi chasing me, when Franc sensed the space around me beginning to ripple and jolted me awake with a quick shock of electricity. Thank god she did. If she hadn't, I would have dropped straight into the Phase World with no way back.

Hearing me mutter to myself, Franc clung to my back, pressed her cheek to mine, and nuzzled gently. I turned my head just a little and brushed a kiss against her baby-soft cheek, and she smiled with her eyes and touched her lips to my cheek with a soft smack.

Worry was gathered in her gaze. I grinned.

"Don't worry. Ever since the night before last, I've been keeping my Phase Power locked down tight with Mana Sieve. I'm not going to panic and stumble into a third summoning."

Said with that much confidence, it wiped the worry from her face. She gave me a smile like a full moon—the kind you want to keep looking at.

I was walking the route to school under a yellow umbrella through the fine rain when three first-years with a small umbrella suddenly blocked my path.

What the hell. People say the little ones are scarier these days—a shakedown on the way to school? ...No. That doesn't track.

"S-Senior Seoha!"

"Yeah?"

I tipped my umbrella back a little and looked at the three of them. They glanced at one another, then bowed deeply in unison and shouted.

"Thank you for saving us!"

"Huh?"

"Waaah, I said it, I said it!"

"Kyaaah~! So embarrassing!"

...And then they bolted for the school.

Franc and I stared at each other blankly for a moment. Then a certain fact flashed through my mind, and a short groan slipped out of me. I had a bad feeling something out of the ordinary was about to happen at school.

From the school gate on, I was hit with a barrage of looks that were anything but ordinary, and by the time I reached the main entrance and folded my umbrella, the stares—three or four times more intense than last week—felt like they might bore a hole straight through the back of my skull.

The instant I put my hand on the shoe-locker door to get my indoor shoes, it flew open with a bang, and a riot of colorful letters burst out like an explosion, pouring down onto my face.

"..."

Love letters drifted down like falling petals. Others hit the wet floor and stuck. A headache came crashing in.

Part of me wanted to leave them and walk away, but I forced the reluctance down, picked them up one by one, changed into my indoor shoes, and started up the stairs—

"Senior Seoha!" "Senior Seoha!" "Seoha~!"

—or tried to. From the floor above and the hallways to either side, kids came charging at me, grades be damned.

"Wh-wh-whoa?"

More and more of them piled in behind the first wave until something well over a hundred had me surrounded, clamoring and shouting. It was insanely awkward. And, honestly, a little terrifying.

"Thank you!"

"You were so cool on Friday!"

"You're the best, Senior!"

"Thank you for saving us!!"

"As expected of the Blue Genius!!"

Ghk! Who the hell said that last one?!

"No, it just happened to work out."

"Yeah, thanks. Mind letting me through?"

"Don't do that. It really wasn't something worth all this."

"It's fine. Yeah. Thanks. I'll just take the thought."

Like citizens of Gotham who'd just spotted Superman, they kept resting light hands on my shoulders and chest as they talked. I soothed them as best I could and barely managed to push through the crowd.

I sighed my way up to the second floor, saw kids charging at me there too, and nearly had a fit on the inside. Run like a coward and they'll turn into a mob and chase me down!

Flustered by the fanatical, hero-worshipping reactions, I waved at them like a man in flight and escaped toward the third-year floor. The memory rose up of how, during that outdoor class, I'd tried to get clear while taking only the kids I knew with me, and the shame of it made me want to die.

"Kyaah~! Look at him getting all embarrassed~!"

"So cuuute~!"

"Oppa! Take me, waaah!"

Cough.

The second-year floor had been the lesser evil, at least. The second-years had gone to Achasan, so they hadn't been directly tied to me.

But the moment I reached the fourth floor, the third-years closed in, grabbing hold of me so I couldn't even run, thanking me one after another. I took greetings from well over a hundred of them, and by the time I finally dragged my exhausted self into the classroom, my own classmates swarmed me too, surrounding me and squealing up a storm.

My head was spinning.

Han Go-eun and her crew were watching from a distance with thoroughly pleased expressions. I wished they'd stop spectating and actually rein these kids in. Especially the class president. The classroom was this much of a mess—wasn't cleaning it up part of the job?

In the middle of all that, Spatial Perception caught a considerable hostility jabbing at the nape of my neck and sounded a warning.

What now... Shaggy? What's his problem this time?

Up through Thursday he'd been treating me like I didn't exist—no hostility, just flat ignore—and now, suddenly, to a degree that didn't even compare. Yeah. He was staring at me the way you stare at a mortal enemy. Like he wanted me dead.

If looks could kill, the body count on my hands would already be past several thousand, you little shit.

I finally got the kids to back off, sat down, and was catching my breath when Han Go-eun's group sidled over, grinning, to needle me.

"Wooow, a popularity explosion. A full-on popularity explosion. Jealous. So jealous."

"Whaaat, did a top star from our alma mater drop by for a visit~?"

"Ehehe. Even sitting in the classroom, I could tell the second you got to school. The cheering from the first floor carried all the way up here."

The whole situation was giving me a headache, and I clutched my forehead—while Franc, thoroughly satisfied, nodded with a pleased look. She seemed to like the way the kids at our school looked up to me.

Han Go-eun snickered.

"So how's it feel, being the number-one most popular guy at school?"

"...Like I want to leave early. Oh—and thanks for talking the teacher around on Friday."

Since it had come up, I thanked them, and Kang So-ra and Han Go-eun visibly flustered, waving their hands.

"Hmm~? Over something like thaaat~."

"I-If you're grateful, then this weekend, a date, just once...!"

"Aaaah~ anyway, getting all the way to the classroom today was insanely haaard~."

I pretended not to hear Han Go-eun's dangerous remark and drawled it out in an imitation of Kang So-ra. Kang So-ra shot me a glare.

When the bell for morning assembly rang, the students standing in the hallway—true to our school's reputation for discipline—poured back into their own classrooms.

Right after that, our homeroom teacher came in, and she looked like a wreck. Her neat beige suit was wrinkled and disheveled, the hair she'd put up in a bun was half undone, and her glasses sat crooked. Had she been swept up in the crowd heading back?

"A-Augh. The kids were gathered something fierce, weren't they. This is all because of you, Seoha, isn't it?"

She straightened her glasses, tidied her clothes, and smiled. She started to fix her hair too, then seemed to decide it was a lost cause, simply let it down, and looked at me.

"If it hadn't been for our Seoha, nearly half the student body would have fallen to the Soul Reaper. The principal will give the full address in a little while, once everyone's gathered in the auditorium."

What?! She said what?!

"Before that, how about a quick round of applause for Seoha? If it hadn't been for him, things could have gone very badly."

At her words, every kid in the class turned toward me and started clapping, and a shame so fierce I thought I might lose my mind washed over me. Even in the middle of that, Shaggy, sitting in the front row on the right, was glaring at me with a face whose hostility had only grown. The kids beside him were looking at him like something was off.

He was starting to get on my nerves. Should I step on him once and be done with it?

No! More importantly—the principal's going to speak in the auditorium?! As if to confirm the teacher's words were real, an announcement came over the classroom speakers.

Ugh. Should I seriously just leave early...?

I agonized over it all the way to the auditorium, and found close to nine hundred kids already splitting up by grade and class and sitting down in the chairs that had been set out. The teachers for the first through third years were taking their seats in a row along one wall as well.

Then the student affairs teacher appeared, stepped up onto the platform, took the microphone, and ran through a few points of caution—and right after that, the principal made his entrance.

The teachers hadn't given me any kind of heads-up, had they? He'd probably just talk about Friday in suitably vague terms and wrap it up. I was running a little hope circuit in my head, looking up at the white-haired old gentleman with his hair combed straight back—our principal—when he gazed down at us from the platform with a kindly expression and a satisfied smile.

I'd expected murmuring. Everyone was quiet. Kim Chang-hyun, standing behind me, grinned, poked me in the back, and whispered.

"The Group A kids spread the story from Achasan on Friday, so it's already all over the school, yeah? Maaan~. Must be nice, being the school celebrity... Eep."

The sweaty PE teacher was glaring this way. Kim Chang-hyun noticed too—he flinched and straightened his posture.

At the principal's words, every kid around me started looking at me.

Somehow this felt bad. Something in me was screaming at the way they were building me up. This atmosphere was dangerous.

He's not going to call me up, is he? Stand in front of nine hundred people and I might drop dead of embarrassment on the spot. That's indirect murder!

My heart dropped like a stone.

D-Damn it! My hunches never miss!

The principal beckoned, and I walked out wearing the sourest look imaginable on the inside. The kids in front of me parted left and right to let me through, and I was begging them not to. My HP is already at zero!

Franc was perched on the second-floor railing of the auditorium, watching me with a delighted expression. Did she enjoy seeing me in the spotlight that much?

With the feelings of a convict mounting the guillotine, I climbed onto the platform where the principal stood, desperately keeping my face blank. He put an arm around my shoulders himself and turned me so the entire student body and the faculty could see my face.

Nine hundred and sixty-seven pairs of eyes fixed on me. I genuinely thought my heart might stop.

This is a public execution. That's what this is.

I was forcing my expression not to collapse when I caught sight of Franc up on the second-floor railing, clutching her stomach, laughing so hard she was about to fall right off it.

I will not forget this, Franc.

"Jung Seoha. As the Blue Genius, would you say a few words?"

The principal smiled kindly and held out the microphone. It felt like the mic had turned into a dagger and stabbed me in the chest.

With a trembling hand, I took it from him. I cycled Mana Sieve to steady my heaving lungs and pounding heart, drew in a breath, looked down from the platform... and opened my mouth.

"I'm Jung Seoha, a third-year. The principal was kind enough to credit my excellence, but the reason we were able to avoid what happened at the museum last Friday was not because I was exceptional."

Hearing my own voice amplified through the microphone, spilling from the speakers and rolling through the auditorium, felt strange. Had my voice always been this low?

The tension kept my head from working properly, and I felt like my voice and my breathing were about to tangle, so I held my breath to speak—and my heart hammered. Determined to wrap it up quickly, I went on.

"It was because all of you had the sense to run out together, following the other students who were already running from the museum. What protected you was the evacuation training you learned at this school, and your own judgment."

I finished, and I was shaking so badly I nearly let out a sigh—then remembered, just in time, that I was still holding the microphone, and handed it back.

The principal rested a hand on my shoulder and continued into the mic.

Ugh. The applause crashed down like pouring rain, and a chill ran the length of my spine.

Whether from excitement or from secondhand embarrassment, Franc's face had gone red, and together with nearly a thousand others the thunder of their applause filled the auditorium. I thought I might actually die. I bowed slightly and came down from the platform.

The clapping didn't stop until I was back at my place and standing. As I passed, kids shifted aside just enough to let me through while still applauding—some of them even whistling—and I felt like I was going to lose my mind.

Seeing that I'd returned, the principal raised a hand and brought the applause to a stop.

After that, the principal continued with a few more minutes of ordinary admonition before ending the emergency assembly, and our class—me included—made it back to the classroom under the gaze of hundreds of eyes.

The moment we got back, the kids crowded around, still buzzing, and started asking me this and that. I answered with a reasonable mix of fact and my own thoughts, and all the while that troublemaker Shaggy glared at me looking even angrier. Watching him look ready to explode at any second, I even found myself curious what kind of grudge he was nursing.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Franc had apparently witnessed it too. She was watching him with a blank face when, in that instant, he slammed his desk with all his strength as if he meant to break it, shot to his feet, and shouted.

"You're all being fooled! That bastard isn't any kind of hero!"

Eyes blazing, he glared at me, and the kids shut their mouths and stared at him like, what's his problem?

Was Shaggy's name Kang Ju-chan? While the class looked at the furious troublemaker in bewilderment, Kim Chang-hyun stepped forward and opened his mouth with an expression of pure disbelief.

"What are you talking about? Ju-chan, did something happen to your head?"

At that, Kang Ju-chan's eyes rolled wildly as he glared back, and Kim Chang-hyun's expression hardened as he stood.

"That bastard's a selfish piece of shit who only cares about himself! What he did at the museum just happened to line up by chance, and that's the only reason everyone got away! There's no way he was even thinking about saving anyone else!!"

Kang Ju-chan roughly shoved his desk aside and came toward me. The kids flinched and backed away, and a space opened up on its own. Kim Chang-hyun, on the other hand, put a hand on my shoulder as if telling me not to step in, whispered, and faced him.

"You're an ability user. Don't lay a hand on him."

...Huh? Is he worried about me? Having whispered that, Kim Chang-hyun spoke calmly to Kang Ju-chan, whose eyebrows were raised.

"Hey, Kang Ju-chan. I don't know why you hate Seoha, but the idea that he was only thinking about running away by himself is pure speculation with zero evidence. The proof is the rest of us, who were with him the whole time."

"Yeah! I was right next to him, and I heard Seoha tell us to run!"

"I was beside him too, and I heard him shout for us to run with this dead-serious look on his face. That's how I got out, following right behind him."

"We were loafing around in the first-floor lobby, and I saw Seoha look at us and wave us over."

I hadn't said a word, and starting with Kim Chang-hyun, the other kids began defending me. The moment the classroom's mood swung to my side, Kang Ju-chan looked even angrier, jabbed a finger at me, and shouted.

"You're all being fooled too! Don't fall for it!! That bastard's always hated getting close to other people! He shuts everyone out and just mutters weird crap behind their backs! Think about what that asshole was like before he went to the Phase World!"

At that shout, the kids started murmuring.

"Hmm... Seoha was a really quiet kid back then, wasn't he?"

"Yeah. He had this taciturn air, so it was hard to talk to him."

"He didn't talk much, but he never did anything bad or acted like a delinquent, did he?"

"And he always turned his homework in on time."

Even so, the mood stayed friendly toward me.

"Come to think of it, when Seoha first came back, Ju-chan looked at him and said something looking down on him."

"Oh? Yeah, yeah. I heard him say he was annoyed, or that Seoha rubbed him the wrong way, a few times after that too."

"He was glaring at Seoha, too."

If anything, it was Kang Ju-chan's bad conduct that stood out. Once the class's unfavorable gazes turned on him, he flushed beet red and screamed like he was losing it.

"That bastard isn't a good person! He's even less of a hero! He's petty and vile and sinister...!"

"So?"

Watching him drag up my past, twist it, and swing it at me, my own mood was souring, and I cut in while the troublemaker was still talking.

The only people I'd kept at a distance were the ones approaching me with an agenda, and the weird muttering... that was just a habit of talking to myself. At the end of the day, I'd been an ordinary model student, faithfully following my sister's teaching: voluntary social exile, and don't cause trouble for other people.

"What?!"

"Hey, hey. Seoha..."

"It's fine. I'm not planning to use my power."

I patted the shoulder of Kim Chang-hyun, who was trying to stop me, and walked toward Kang Ju-chan.

"You're right. And like you said, maybe I am a selfish bastard. That's why I told the kids around me to run first, so I could look after them—and then I just ran after them."

"See that! He admitted it with his own mouth!"

Hearing me, Kang Ju-chan turned to the kids around him with a triumphant see?, but for some reason their reactions didn't really change. Watching that through Spatial Perception, I opened my mouth again.

"So what was I supposed to do back then? I got this terrifying feeling just a few minutes before it happened. What exactly should I have done in that time?"

"W-What?"

"You know as well as I do that I'm a detection-type ability user. I'm asking what kind of reaction I was supposed to show in that situation."

The class listened, looked at one another, and nodded.

"Running was the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠only option, wasn't it?"

"And even then, Seoha looked out for us, didn't he?"

Kang Ju-chan saw them, looked at my expressionless face, and twisted his own even further, spitting the words out like he meant to chew me up and swallow me.

"You...! You did this before, too! You did that to me, acting like that...! A-And this time, because of you, m-my little sister...!!"

Before? His sister? As if his vocabulary had suddenly run dry, he couldn't even finish a sentence. His clenched fist trembled as he glared at me.

Then, like a blocked dam bursting, he screamed.

"Because of you, my sister got swept up by the Soul Reaper and her mind collapsed! Because of you!!!"

So one of the six students from our school who hadn't made it out was Kang Ju-chan's little sister.

"What even is that... why is that Seoha's fault?"

"It's pure nonsense. There's no logic to it."

"It must be hard if his sister got hurt, but pinning that on Seoha isn't right..."

While comments like that—where's the sense in this—came from around us, the faces of the kids I'd seen through Spatial Perception at the museum that day came back to me. The thought that they'd been hurt somehow because of me made me unconsciously furrow my brow.

"...! You, you, you son of a biiiiitch!!!"

As if that had been the switch, Kang Ju-chan lost all reason and charged.

He came at me in slow motion, and at the same time his tightly clenched fist began to extend—the blood drained from it until it was stark white—and the whole of it entered my field of view. Around us, the other kids' eyes widened by degrees, their faces shifting into shock.

Stay like this and I was going to take it on the cheek.

For a moment I wondered whether to dodge or hit back... but if I slipped aside on instinct or countered, it wouldn't look like something a detection-type ability user—whose body was no different from an ordinary person's—ought to be able to do. So I decided to just take the hit. I was in Mana Mode, so it wouldn't hurt much anyway, and before I became an ability user I'd been clumsy and hopeless at anything physical.

With a dull thud my jaw was driven aside, and an unpleasant sensation—not quite pain—hit my brain. Should've just dodged... Huh?!

The instant I was hit, Franc flew into a rage and moved to raise electricity, and I startled.

"You, you son of a bitch!!"

I was more shocked by Franc's fury than by Kang Ju-chan grabbing me by the collar again, face twisted, fist raised—and I staggered. The kids who'd been watching jumped in surprise and moved to stop him, and in that instant Kim Chang-hyun shot forward and caught the arm Kang Ju-chan was about to swing again.

While Kim Chang-hyun held his arm and his collar and blocked him, Han Go-eun and the other girls supported me and drew me back, and the boys piled onto the thrashing, struggling Kang Ju-chan from above, grabbing him and pinning him down by force.

"Whoa! Hey, hold this guy down! Class president! Class president, go get a teacher!"

"Hey, quit thrashing! Gah!"

And I desperately signaled Franc with my eyes. Don't use electricity. This is nothing!

She'd been about to fire it off with an expression of tremendous rage. The moment our eyes met, her tightly clenched fist trembled, and she barely, barely stopped. Whew. Cold sweat was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠running down me.

"Let go! I said let go! I'm going to kill him!! Jung Seoha! Jung Seoha, you son of a biiiiitch!!!"

"What is all this commotion!!"

Whether he'd heard the uproar from our class or had simply been passing by, the sweaty PE teacher—homeroom teacher of the class next door—opened the door and came in. Behind him, kids from other classes were peering this way with faces full of curiosity.

He took in my reddened cheek and Kang Ju-chan, pinned under the others, thrashing and spitting curses, and his expression hardened.

"What is the meaning of this. Class president!"

"Y-Yes!"

I gently pushed away the hands supporting me and stood. The commotion must have been considerable—dozens of kids were hanging around out in the hallway beyond the windows.

"Kang Ju-chan's been holding a grudge against Seoha. His emotions boiled over because of what happened on Friday, so he cursed at Seoha and hit him."

...Uh. All of that's true, but strangely enough, it only sounds like a statement in my defense.

"Is that true?"

Seeing the kids around us nod, the sweaty teacher—his face even harder—gestured for the ones pinning Kang Ju-chan to move aside.

The moment they stepped back, Kang Ju-chan lunged at me again, but the teacher seized the scruff of his neck in one enormous hand, broad as a pot lid, and let out a heavy sigh. He put the boy—still thrashing, still trying somehow to hit me—in a headlock, and addressed the others.

"Kang Ju-chan comes with me as he is. The rest of you, straighten your desks and get ready for class. You damn kids! Get back to your own classrooms, and make it fast!!"

At the shout, the kids packed into the hallway startled and scattered in every direction.

...I was a party to the fight too. Why isn't he taking me?