The Final Day of the Performance Evaluation
The last day of the main episode performance evaluation had dawned.
The morning of the final match shone brightly.
The 1-1 class cadets had all set foot toward the training ground.
Thunk, thunk. My footsteps felt heavier than usual. It wasn’t just a mood thing. My steps were truly leaden, weighing a thousand pounds.
Today, whether good or bad, I had to experience the real thing.
“Whoa. I really didn’t think you’d make it all the way to the finals.”
An familiar voice brushed my ear softly, and soon Jin Soyeon approached, her midnight-sky hair swaying as she crept closer.
I slowly turned my head and looked at her.
Jin Soyeon smiled brightly with confident eyes.
“But!”
She held up one finger.
“Your luck ends here!”
“……”
“The finals are my match!”
“……”
I glanced at her, chin held high, chest puffed out with a triumphant face, in a faintly pitiful way.
“Ah. Yeah.”
“……What is that half-hearted reaction.”
She responded somewhat flatly, and soon her face drained of energy as she twirled a lock of her hair.
What are you doing in front of everyone from class?
Don’t you feel embarrassed?
“……I don’t know why you’re not listening to me anymore. It’s boring.”
Jin Soyeon pouted her lips and sulked.
With the other kids she was relatively tame, but with me she acted like a seven-year-old kid making pointless pranks.
That showed how close we were.
“Jinhyuk, Jinhyuk. Do you have confidence in yourself for today’s match?”
“Hmm.”
“Again, again with that vague answer.”
“Honestly, I don’t feel confident about this match. I have to face not just Lee Siwoo but also Yuliya Troyanova.”
Yuliya Troyanova.
A proper mage from Russia.
New student rank 14. Excluding the single-digit ranks like Lee Siwoo, Kang Daehan, and Yu Seolhyeon, she is the highest-ranked in our class.
Since her Korean isn’t familiar, she uses honorifics with everyone.
The so-called honorifics character.
“What’s with you? You don’t seem very cautious.”
“You… don’t you need to be cautious? 257th and lower?”
“Hah. Ridiculous. You’re at the bottom of the list and still full of confidence? It’s been a while since I showed my spicy punch to my dear brother Jinhyuk.”
Smiling arrogantly, Jin Soyeon swung her fists like she was boxing and I watched her for a moment.
Then, all of a sudden, I laughed.
“From the looks of it, your condition is good. That’s a relief. Today you’ll be in for quite a workout.”
“Really? Full of yourself?”
“No, not because of me… um. Never mind.”
“What? Why did you stop?”
I hoped Jin Soyeon wouldn’t get hurt during the event that was about to happen, but who knew how it would turn out?
Honestly, I couldn’t say for certain right now.
I just had to do my best.
“By the way, Jinhyuk, after this performance evaluation is over, how about this weekend with me…….”
“Lee Jinhyuk. May I have a moment?”
A voice cut Jin Soyeon off mid-sentence.
I quickly turned my head to check the source.
It was Yu Seolhyeon.
“Ah. Sorry. Were you two talking?”
Yu Seolhyeon smiled sweetly and offered an apology, but it was nothing more than empty words and she showed no sign of being sorry.
Soon Yu Seolhyeon approached us with an arrogant gait, like a rich girl from a noble house.
Jin Soyeon gave her an unpleasant look, but Yu Seolhyeon ignored it and continued.
“If it’s not urgent, could I borrow Lee Jinhyuk for a bit? I have something to say before the match.”
Placing a hand on my shoulder as if showing closeness, Yu Seolhyeon urged me to agree.
Jin Soyeon frowned slightly.
It seemed she didn’t like how Yu Seolhyeon was acting close to me.
“You two have become pretty close?”
“Huh? Ah, well…….”
Yu Seolhyeon gave a gruff reply to Jin Soyeon and pretended not to understand, then smiled.
“Working together as a team for a few weeks…… a little?”
“Ah, really?”
She was constantly poking at Jin Soyeon’s feelings.
Both the deliberate interruption at the start and now laying a hand on my shoulder to show closeness.
‘I should probably step in and shift the mood…… huh?’
“Oh, that’s good. Jinhyuk seemed to have some interest in you.”
“Really?”
At Jin Soyeon’s out-of-the-blue comment, I blinked.
No way, what is she talking about?
Yu Seolhyeon smiled arrogantly and glanced at me.
“Sorry. You’re not my type.”
I, Lee Jinhyuk.
First confession of the day.
For some reason I felt a bit sad.
“Hehe. You look a little disappointed.”
“Sure. Your face isn’t bad, but it’s a bit ambiguous.”
Thanks to the childhood friend of the heroine setting, my appearance was decent, but compared to the other male leads it was quite lacking.
But why are you two suddenly evaluating my face?
“I’m decent enough.”
“Yeah, yeah~. I’ll say it. Our Jinhyuk is so handsome~.”
“No, really, you’re decent……?”
Compared to my previous life, my current face is much better, but not that much better.
So I was satisfied.
“That’s enough. Anyway, Yu Seolhyeon.”
“Hm?”
“You said you had something to say before the match, right? What is it?”
“Ah, but it’s a bit awkward to say it here.”
She glanced at Jin Soyeon.
With the opposing team present, she couldn’t say anything.
We needed to move to a different spot for a moment.
“Soyeon.”
At that moment.
A cool male voice rang out.
“What are you doing here?”
Lee Siwoo scanned us once and approached.
“Ah, just a little…….”
“The match is about to start. Let’s go discuss and prepare.”
Lee Siwoo shot me a glance and then puckered his lips toward Jin Soyeon.
Jin Soyeon nodded twice as if she understood.
“Okay. Then I’ll go first, Jinhyuk. See you at the match.”
“Yeah.”
So Jin Soyeon and Lee Siwoo walked away together.
I watched their backs for a moment and thought.
Be cautious.
Even though it was slight, I felt Lee Siwoo’s vigilance.
It wasn’t yet jealousy, but I needed to be more careful. He might get too obsessed if I messed up.
“Clearly Lee Siwoo likes Soyeon a lot.”
Yu Seolhyeon muttered.
“She seems quite bothered by it.”
I moved my head slightly.
“Does Soyeon know about that? Or is she pretending not to?”
She suddenly looked at me.
“What do you think about your ex-boyfriend?”
Since it was a question that could be sensitive depending on the person, I just shrugged.
“She probably doesn’t know. She has no clue about romance.”
“Really?”
Yu Seolhyeon asked back instead.
“Is it possible Soyeon doesn’t know?”
“What do you want to say?”
“I overheard something.”
Yu Seolhyeon smiled faintly and spoke softly.
“A rumor that he broke up with you on purpose so he could date Lee Siwoo.”
She wasn’t serious.
Yu Seolhyeon was trying to shake me.
To plant doubt in my heart.
This was the start of classic gaslighting. She probably wanted to slowly sway me step by step.
To make our relationship worse, even a little.
“You believe that nonsense?”
“Who knows? The saying is that you know ten rivers but not one person’s heart, right? Only the parties would know, wouldn’t they?”
That party wasn’t you.
“You said it was a good breakup, but…… what if she had other thoughts?”
Eek?
Her voice sounded like a sly snake as she whispered and I sighed deeply inside.
I couldn’t take this, really.
“If it’s a transferred breakup…… it’s a bit pitiful……”
“Does that bother Soyeon that much?”
“What?”
“She gets angry because Lee Siwoo only cares about Soyeon?”
“You.”
At my words that pierced to the heart, Yu Seolhyeon’s eyebrows trembled slightly. Why? Does it hurt?
“Let’s stop here. The match is about to start.”
“……Yeah, okay.”
Yu Seolhyeon seemed about to say more but closed her lips a little.
It was fortunate she ended the conversation, because I couldn’t make her feel more uncomfortable.
‘Besides the match, there are a lot of other things to worry about…… sigh.’
I had to worry not only about the heroine Jin Soyeon but also about the relationships between the male leads and the villainess. It was troublesome.
‘After this performance evaluation episode ends, I need to be more careful.’
Thinking that, I turned my gaze toward the training facility that was about to arrive.
“Both teams, take your positions.”
As we entered the practice field, we stepped to both ends.
The two teams stared at each other from afar and gripped their weapons tightly.
Good. The fight is about to begin.
“Is everyone ready? Then…….”
Pip.
With the sound of a remote control, the entire training ground was surrounded by a round curtain.
Now this place was a complete sealed room.
Unless using that remote or operating it from outside, you couldn’t leave here.
“If preparations are all complete, we will begin the final match. Three, two, one…… start!”
- Whirring!
At that moment.
- Emergency alert issued.
“What?”
“Eh?”
Originally it was a curtain to prevent facility destruction and protect the audience, but not today.
Today it was just a trap to turn us into rats in a cage.
- Space vibration detected nearby! All students and instructors stop what they’re doing and evacuate to the safe zone…….
Why?
“Tsk. The match is temporarily suspended. Everyone stop and follow the security officers’ instructions to move……?”
Because they were supposed to appear here now.
“Eh?”
Crack.
Crack, crack.
Crack crack, crack crack.
The sound of glass shattering.
The empty space cracked like a spider web.
The empty space was being shattered into pieces like glass that had cracked.
“Wait, what is that supposed to be?”
Between space and space.
Beyond that was something indescribable.
“Cr, crack phenomenon……?”
“You! Gather over here right now!”
Hong Daye shouted at the 1st and 16th teams who were standing there blankly, but it was already too late.
“Kiiii? Kiiiiiiii.”
Arms like a monkey’s long and bear’s thick tore through the cracks like a curtain as an indescribable being revealed itself.
“Kiiii, iiii. Kiii.”
Beasts spraying unknown hostility toward humans beyond the cracks looked at the children and licked their tongues.
“M, monster, monster!”
Yes.
Monsters.
A monster had appeared in the test site.
“Kiiii, iiii, i.”
“Krrr, rrruk.”
“Kriuk, kriuk.”
Not just one, but several monsters.