Ch 225
Became a swordsmanship instructor at the academy
Chapter 225
"Um... Teacher, I like you."
"Kid, I know."
"Huh?"
"Teacher likes our class president too. This was my first year as a homeroom teacher, and I received a lot of help from having such a good class president like Eun-ha. I'm really grateful."
"That's not what I meant by liking you..."
"Cut!"
"What's wrong with both of you? You seem to be doing worse than yesterday."
"Right. Why are you being so awkward?"
...We came out early on Sunday morning saying we'd practice for the play, but what we're getting back is harsh criticism from the class kids.
"Hey, Min Chan-seong. If you hate doing this so much, just say so now. I'd rather do it myself instead."
I wondered why she hadn't said anything.
The other kids are already criticizing us, so there's no way Nam Ji-hyeon would stay quiet.
For me, this is what I was hoping for and I'd like to say so, but with the festival tomorrow, how could we get a substitute now?
Honestly, I'm frustrated too.
The reason we're being criticized like this isn't because of me, but because of Seong Ji-an.
"Did you two fight by any chance?"
"Fight..."
"Nothing like that."
"Then why are you being so awkward with each other?"
"Right. You won't even make proper eye contact."
"The protagonists are supposed to like each other, but you two don't look like that at all."
I'm really trying my best, but that Seong Ji-an kid seems to be bothered by what happened yesterday, and her acting is completely messed up.
I wish she could separate public and private matters.
"Don't criticize them too much, everyone. Chan-seong just started practicing yesterday. Ji-an probably hasn't synchronized much with Chan-seong either, so that's probably why."
The only one taking our side is our homeroom teacher, Seo-ra.
"I got a call that the delivery arrived, so you three follow me. Let's eat lunch and try matching up once more."
Today's lunch isn't at the school cafeteria—Choi Seo-ra ordered Chinese food.
She said it's because she's touched that we're making time to practice even on Sunday.
I heard she donates everything she earns anyway, so I wonder if she can make a living spending money on the kids like this.
While Choi Seo-ra and several kids went to get the food, I approached Seong Ji-an who was sitting in a corner looking at the script.
"Why are you looking at the script? The problem right now isn't that you can't memorize the script."
As soon as she heard me, she hung her head down.
"Let's go outside and talk for a moment."
I came outside with Seong Ji-an.
"Why are you acting like this today? Is it because of what happened yesterday? Even so, you should do the play properly. We all worked hard to prepare for this together."
"..."
Is it difficult for kids to separate public and private matters after all?
SIGH, there's no choice.
If things continue like this, even after lunch it'll be the same as this morning, and then today's practice will go on for a very long time.
I can't invest all of my precious weekend in play practice.
I even stayed up late memorizing all the script yesterday.
"I'm not meeting with Senior Seong Eunseo."
"Huh?"
"Senior Seong Eunseo doesn't like me. I don't like her either."
"Saying that now... I'm not stupid. No one goes to an amusement park alone with someone they don't like."
That's a sharp point.
But if I want to make excuses, I can create as many as I want.
"Going to the amusement park together was because Senior Eunseo asked me to, and there was another reason for it. It's not what you're thinking."
"Then what is it?"
"Senior told me not to talk about it. But since you keep acting like this, I have no choice."
I began to speak calmly.
I said that last year, after Eunseo won the WHCU, she made a wish to Kang Shin-hyeok asking him to go to an amusement park together, but after Kang Shin-hyeok died, Eunseo developed a trauma about amusement parks.
This time, when her friends all suggested going together, she said she probably couldn't go, so I accompanied her just to help her overcome her trauma.
"Don't lie. That's so ridiculous... Then why did you tell us back then..."
"That was Senior playing a prank. The person Senior likes isn't me, but Teacher Kang Shin-hyeok."
"But he's already passed away."
No. He's alive and well.
"Senior Eunseo doesn't think so. Even if he did die, she said that for her, there's only Teacher Kang Shin-hyeok. If you don't believe me, you can ask her directly. Ask if the person Senior likes is Teacher Kang Shin-hyeok."
Although Eunseo didn't directly say this, since she recognized me at a glance even with my changed appearance, she must surely feel this way.
Seong Ji-an, who seemed completely unconvinced, appears to have been somewhat persuaded.
Originally, when you mix a little truth into lies, it becomes quite plausible.
I'm relieved that she seems to have regained some composure.
"...But yesterday you said you had no feelings for me."
Right. I did say that.
"You said your memories came back too... Did your memories about me not come back?"
This kid is really severely smitten.
"No. My memories about you came back too. After my memories returned, I thought a lot and came to a conclusion. Right now, rather than something like dating, I want to spend time on my own development."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Honestly, this play we're doing now, if you take away the teacher-student relationship, I think it's similar to our situation."
Our play is the story of a chaebol third-generation female student who likes a poor teacher.
Min Chan-seong isn't a teacher, but he's an orphan with absolutely nothing.
Seong Ji-an isn't a chaebol third-generation either, but she's the only daughter of an S-rank Hunter who owns Hwasung Guild, one of Korea's top 10 guilds.
"Our play has a happy ending though."
As Seong Ji-an says, our play's ending is a happy ending.
Despite her father's threat that she'd have to give up all her money and inheritance if she married the teacher, she doesn't give in and marries the teacher after graduation.
"That's because it's a play."
She seems too young to understand well, but reality is cold.
Seong Jin-cheol, Seong Ji-an's father and the Hwasung Guild Master, may not be a villain who uses his daughter for the guild like Kim Dae-chan in the past, but he's quite a calculating person.
He definitely won't look favorably on his only daughter meeting an orphan with absolutely nothing.
"If I dated you now, what would people around us think, especially your father or your family?"
"What does it matter what others think? That stuff doesn't matter."
"It doesn't matter? You know about the Lee Ji-sung incident this time. Even though he committed crimes, he wasn't punished and wasn't even expelled from school."
"I also think that was really wrong. But aren't you thinking too complicatedly? We're still students."
"In three years, we'll be adults. Right now, we're both students so we can talk like this, but after graduation, we'll live in different worlds."
"That... that's not true."
"It is true. As I said earlier, after my memories came back, I really thought a lot. The current me is lacking. I have no parents and nothing to my name."
"Don't put yourself down. Why are you belittling yourself like that?"
"I'm not belittling myself, that's just reality."
"..."
"Of course, even though the current me is lacking and has nothing, I don't want to remain a lacking person forever. So right now, rather than something like dating, I want to spend time on my own development. A student's main duty is studying, right?"
Did she understand well enough with this?
"...Then just tell me one thing. You don't dislike me, right?"
I nodded, thinking she was really persistent.
After that, we returned to the auditorium, ate lunch, and resumed practice.
Thanks to the effect of calling her aside and talking to her, she concentrated much better than in the morning and her acting improved, so practice ended early.
It's good that practice ended early, but my heart isn't at ease.
When I return to being Kang Shin-hyeok during this winter break, Min Chan-seong will become a vegetative patient again.
That's why yesterday I deliberately spoke harshly, hoping to create some distance.
I wonder if I gave too much hope with today's conversation.
***
Even if that bastard Kang Shin-hyeok rescued Choi Seo-ra from Antas and replaced her, he definitely couldn't do anything about the attack that will happen in the future.
Therefore, I judged that if I prepare for and handle the upcoming terror attack in advance, I could sufficiently clean up my ruined image, so I requested help from the secretary's office.
—No, Young Master... This really won't do.
"Secretary Oh! Please trust me! The former Secretary Kim used to listen to everything I said, are you really going to be like this?"
—Wasn't Secretary Kim fired because of you, Young Master? I'm truly sorry, but both Madam and the Chairman told me to absolutely not help if you give any more strange orders.
The festival is tomorrow and I'm really going crazy.
"It's not like I'm asking for something difficult."
—Young Master, realistically speaking, a terror attack at a Hunter School festival? Does that make sense? I'm also a graduate of 1st School, and Hunter School security isn't that lax.
"Intelligence came in."
—Intelligence? It wasn't provided by our secretary's office, so through what channel did you obtain it?
"That's..."
I can't say I read it in a book, and I really feel like I'm going crazy from frustration.
—Young Master, our group's secretary's office is always monitoring Antas Korea's movements, but there haven't been any special movements recently.
The words 'Well, would they act obviously while preparing for terror?' rose to my throat, but getting angrier here won't make things go my way.
"Then there's my security team in the secretary's office. At least have those personnel stand by around the school on the festival day. You can do that, right? This isn't a strange order either."
—For all three days?
"Yes."
—There are other duties during normal times... I understand for now.
I finally got an answer and hung up the phone.
Can I stop the terror attack with just this much?
The original plan was to request support from a guild with S-rank Hunters and have them stand by...
There's no choice.
When the terror attack occurs, I'll immediately deploy the waiting secretary's office Hunters while requesting support from a guild with S-rank Hunters.
It's not entirely satisfactory, but this is the best I can do in the current situation.
***
The first day of Hunter School festival, I quickly ate breakfast and headed to the classroom.
The first play is at 11 o'clock, so there's still plenty of time, but the classroom is already bustling with kids.
The play starts at 11, but we need to do promotion beforehand.
"Chan-seong, you're here? Look at the pamphlet. It turned out really well, right?"
When I went over to look, the quality was quite impressive.
One of the class students' father works at a company that makes movie posters, so we asked him for help, and indeed it's different when you leave it to a professional.
"Ji-an really came out pretty."
"R... really? They did good retouching."
"Alright, alright... everyone stop looking and let's hurry and go promote. We'll do the final rehearsal at 10, so students with acting roles need to come to the auditorium before 10."
"Yes."
When Choi Seo-ra's instruction came down, everyone grabbed armfuls of pamphlets and went outside.
Honestly, shouldn't the kids who are acting be excluded from promotion?
Thinking it's a bit too much, I also took pamphlets with my desk partner Yeong-sik and headed to the school's main gate.
"Wow, there are really a lot of people."
"Yeah."
Hunter School students total only 600 for all three grades combined, but daily festival visitors easily exceed 10,000.
Most Hunter School festival visitors are families and relatives of Hunter School students, but not only student families but also staff and teacher families, as well as graduates, can enter.
While handing out pamphlets to visitors passing through security checks, something feels strange.
"There are foreigners too."
Although it's been somewhat relaxed recently, Hunter School is a national security facility.
Foreign access is thoroughly blocked.
"They must be students' relatives."
"Relatives who are foreigners? Foreign nationals can't enter Hunter School."
"There might be someone among the relatives who had an international marriage. Last year, my cousin also had an international marriage with an Italian."
"Really?"
"Yeah. My brother-in-law wanted to see the Hunter School festival, so he said he's coming tomorrow."
Listening to Yeong-sik, it makes sense, but when I worked as a teacher last year and the year before, I don't think I saw any foreigners at all...
Since the teachers doing security checks are letting them pass without any comment, well, I guess it's fine.