Chapter 12
Single giggles. It was impossible to figure out what Han Jihye was actually thinking these days.
The person who had been silently watching me endure all of it until now suddenly took action herself.
She offered to tell me a secret about the bruising and rolling I kept receiving.
What secret? And what on earth had she been thinking to begin with?
She had always been like that, but I could never read this woman’s mind.
With the nonstop stream of teasing hammering away, it was nearly impossible to focus on anything.
If I hadn’t had eyes to see, or if the seniors hadn’t been here, I might have curled up and cried somewhere hidden.
Was my body and mind finally syncing up? Where had the beast’s heart gone?
Whatever the case, the die was already cast.
“If next time we’re dispatched, I’ll let you know. I had a feeling I’d have to pay that Ji Yun-ah one back then.”
“One?”
“Hey, don’t get mad about it.”
Whom? Ji Yun-ah? Or Han Jihye?
With Han Jihye’s vague words, we spent another day being teased mercilessly.
No matter how hard I tried to tune one ear in and tune the other out, the sharp, malicious intent gnawing at my mental state from every direction was relentless.
And the next day, the dispatch signal sounded.
“Let’s go.”
Han Jihye was already up without the usual “No, send us to another living quarter” complaint.
The top senior had volunteered, and how many of the others underneath could possibly raise objections? I jumped out of my seat at once.
Tap.
“Fuck, the fucking path’s blocked and I’m going crazy.”
Ji Yun-ah deliberately shoved my shoulder as she passed.
“Sorry.”
In real combat, I wouldn’t have said that.
…That was my mistake from the very start.
Grrrr. A low, ominous growl echoed through the air as the monster stared straight at us.
Its face split wide, jagged teeth like saw blades gleaming between its jaws.
That was the exact moment the monster, having identified us as prey, lunged forward.
—Thwack!
“Huh?”
Disoriented vision, fractured balance.
I glanced aside into the gap where my footing was slipping.
Ji Yun-ah stood there with a vicious smile, staring directly at me.
She made no move to correct her shove, as if daring me to deny it.
“Kuk!”
Yeah, I hadn’t expected that much interference. I tried to fix my stance—
Clunk.
My ankle was seized.
I knew it. I’d received the pre-deployment intel.
But I never imagined she’d actually use her ability to kill a person she’d known.
The monster’s gaping maw filled my vision.
Even for an Awakener, humans are still humans. Receive fatal damage and the only options are permanent disability or death.
Ah, those teeth are really something. Packed so tightly inside.
A strange, sluggish interval of time.
The shadow cast by the monster’s open jaw, waiting to swallow its meal.
And then, almost immediately—
—CRACK!!
KYAAAK!
The massive impact hurled me aside.
“Seo Harang.”
“Superhuman Seo Harang.”
Who the hell started a scene and decided to charge the monster on their own? …The fighting spirit is fine. I can see her eyes blazing with fury right in front of me.
Frh, Kim Heejin laughed with that refreshing smile, clearly enjoying herself.
One smooth flying kick and she had blown the monster’s face to pieces—several times her own size.
The monster had been rolling around the floor for several minutes, but now it sprang back up, glaring at us with new intent. It wasn’t prey anymore; it recognized us as enemies.
“Our Harang is so possessive she threw away even her own life? How is this supposed to be accepted? What on earth?”
“That wasn’t intentional…”
“Eh? Mouthy now? The world must be a nicer place. Right? After all, you can’t even get a ‘please don’t kill me’ from the seniors anymore, so you had to say ‘I didn’t do it.’”
Ah.
That was unfair.
It truly was unfair.
The words from Han Jihye, something I would normally have brushed off, lodged deep in my heart like a sharp arrow today. The blunt tip had somehow become lethally honed.
Between the scars of my mangled heart and the arrow embedded there, emotions seeped out.
“Ah…”
Only four days.
Only one person.
An ordeal inflicted on a single human in such a short time. The feeling had welled up like tears on the surface of my eyes.
“Ah, shit… Wait.”
I finally found my balance and backed away.
I knew crying over something like this made no sense.
I’d been teased plenty during other times and suffered absurd injustices for no reason before.
I had endured then, but right now I simply couldn’t hold on.
The shattered pain flowed like a waterfall.
“Ah, I’m, uh… sorry…”
No one would ever want this pathetic sight.
Han Jihye, Kim Heejin—both of them. I could faintly sense they knew that once I started crying in a situation like this, it wouldn’t end easily.
Yet I couldn’t stop the tears that had already broken free.
“What now? Crying?”
Han Jihye approached through the blur of tears even as she wiped them away with her hands.
Ah, it’s over. This is the end.
“Hey. Seo Harang.”
“S-sorry.”
“You’re wiping so hard it’ll leave marks on your face.”
Han Jihye leaned in close, gently wiping the corners of my eyes with her thumb.
“It’s funny how you’re such a weakling, but your face can’t be ruined. Hehe…”
Still relaxed. She clearly didn’t care that I was crying.
“Hey, Heejin.”
“Superhuman Kim Heejin, understood.”
“Do it well, just right. Got it? Keep it even.”
Keep it even? What did she mean?
The two of them, having exchanged meaningless words, both turned their gazes elsewhere. Kim Heejin faced the monster, Han Jihye faced me.
“I asked, didn’t I? You want to know the secret, right?”
I didn’t answer, but I didn’t stop talking either.
Ji Yun-ah, watching us, approached with a gentle smile.
“What are you discussing? It’s dispatch time right now…”
“Ah, nothing important. This one here is going to be your meal from now on.”
“…You mean I’ll be eaten?”
“Yeah. You know what ‘excluded from the queue’ means, right? That’s when you’re not treated like a person.”
“…What do you mean?”
“Lame. Our Ji Yun-ah. You know, right? Anything happens during dispatch is automatically tolerated. That’s why you pulled that stunt just now. Correct?”
“You’re asking me? Haha… I’m innocent. The senior tripping earlier was just an accident, right?”
Ji Yun-ah looked at me.
No. No way. Even if I went back and something happened, the truth had to be clear.
“It wasn’t an accident. Superhuman Ji Yun-ah shoved me. And she used her ability to keep me from escaping.”
“…Wow, Seo Harang. Have you gone crazy? What kind of nonsense is that?”
“You started it, and the nonsense is coming from you. Our Ji Yun-ah.”
Ji Yun-ah’s gaze shifted to Han Jihye. So did mine.
No particular emotional shift. Just the same easygoing smile as always.
“You should hold back a little too. What would you have done if I tormented the juniors just to vent my stress?”
“I didn’t torment anyone. I simply warned them to act more precisely…”
“Hey.”
“—Superhuman Ji Yun-ah.”
“I’m not finished yet?”
I felt a slight unease. Not just me—Ji Yun-ah seemed to feel it too.
“…First, it would be best to organize the situation. Kim Heejin is strong, but facing this massive monster one-on-one…”
“Who are you to organize the situation? Focus on our own situation right now. Okay?”
Han Jihye grabbed Ji Yun-ah’s arm and yanked her away, using her own ability without touching her hands.
“Hey, don’t worry too much. The winner will be you and Harang.”
“…What does she mean?”
“What’s so pretty about me that I’d clean someone’s ass? It’s your problem and mine, so we’ll handle it together.”
Han Jihye looked at me and said, “I guess I’d never have to deal with something like this, right?”
“It happened before. There were plenty of times when seniors tormented juniors for no reason.”
“It wasn’t for no reason—”
“Hey, why are you butting in? Shut your mouth.”
Ji Yun-ah clamped her lips shut.
“And among the seniors above me—who had no seniors left by now—some of them hated that. So they came up with a way. You know what it is? They fight each other during dispatch.”
Fight.
A fight.
A word that didn’t suit the senior-junior relationship.
“Of course there’s a precondition. No escort officers. And you need three people total—two plus the referee—to have the strength to make it work.”
And here—
“Right now the monster only needs Heejin, and Harang and I are both here, so no escort. Besides, our unit often doesn’t send escorts anyway. Perfect for a fight. Ah! No need for safety gear like in the training room. We can fight until one side is destroyed.”
Han Jihye pulled Ji Yun-ah’s wrist, grinning like she was having the time of her life.
“The loser’s gonna get fucked. That’s what ‘excluded from the queue’ means, got it?”
“…I didn’t say I would.”
“Ji Yun-ah, scared?”
“Not scared. Just…”
“If you’re not scared, then do it. You had a choice from the start, didn’t you?”
Han Jihye smiled sweetly, but something overwhelming lingered in her voice.
Without realizing it, Ji Yun-ah took one step forward.
“Harang? Are you going to?”
“Superhuman Seo Harang.”
I looked at the girl in front of me. Her eyes seemed to say, “You? Me?”
“I will.”
The board was set.
This was my chance. I had to grab Han Jihye’s outstretched hand once, no matter what she really meant.
+++
Han Jihye watched the two of them prepare.
She had been carefully observing the situation for several days now.
The way Ji Yun-ah was marking Seo Harang and tormenting her. Han Jihye simply couldn’t stomach it.
‘You torment me, and now she torments you?’
And especially that the target was Ji Yun-ah—it bothered her even more.
‘That Ji Yun-ah kid actually caused trouble for Harang… I can’t stand it.’
Coincidentally, Han Jihye already knew exactly what kind of person Ji Yun-ah was.
She was lazy.
Two high-achieving juniors had joined the team, naturally making her body feel heavier. Of course Seo Harang was just physically swift, but still.
Despite her ambiguous attitude, she was slower than several of the senior layers.
When asked to do something, she didn’t answer right away and would pause for a moment.
But that didn’t mean she was strong. And that didn’t mean she didn’t try to become strong.
An Awakener had to live with their innate strength and hard-won experience.
The Awakener unit had only added the “attitude” on top; the essence remained unchanged.
Do you think she won’t do it? But you’re not doing anything either, right?
That was fine. The unit had taken on a “attitude” that no one else could handle. She had kept her position steady even while the others died or became disabled.
But Ji Yun-ah was different.
‘Her work is half-assed. Her training is half-assed.’
She did everything half-assed. But if she stayed sharp during dispatch, then maybe.
‘Even during dispatch she just watches from the back? And she’s also the laziest.’
If that had been the only flaw, I could have overlooked it. But she hadn’t.
‘There’s no fun in it at all.’
Looking back, the most important part was fun.
Ji Yun-ah had barely any of it.
No enjoyment in teasing. No interesting reactions. No matter what, there was no fun, so she had just left it alone.
She thought she had been acknowledged for leaving it alone, and she kept poking Seo Harang like she was something special.
Okay. Up to there, it was fine.
‘I wasn’t very moved when I saw the others crying.’
Seo Harang was crying. The girl who had always endured everything so well was now shedding tears.
It irritated me.
I didn’t even know why it irritated me. Maybe it was the feeling of watching a toy I had enjoyed playing with get roughly handled by someone else?
Even so, I didn’t intervene directly. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to.
‘Harang—she spends all her awake time being intense, doesn’t she?’
Even though Seo Harang was a human, she was still trying to fulfill her duties.
An Awakener who moved with her body. In other words, an Awakener who faced danger more often than anyone else.
Knowing that, I had been giving her extra physical training every personal maintenance session.
One day I had even asked Seo Harang directly.
“Hey, since you’ve already awakened, there’s no such thing as ‘body exhaustion’ or anything. Why are you so serious about it?”
“Even so, I think moving in real combat is different. You have to prepare beforehand, because if the Awakener running in front gets stiff, it’s all for nothing. And I’m naive and don’t have much common sense… so I think even like this it might help.”
That was what Seo Harang had answered.
“You talk like you know everything. Hey.”
“Superhuman Seo Harang, sorry.”
She said it like that, but inside I felt a little admiration.
‘That’s pretty good for her, isn’t it?’
That was why I was certain.
‘She won’t lose. Absolutely not.’
I wouldn’t let her lose. Absolutely not.
Han Jihye looked at Seo Harang.
With sharp, determined eyes gleaming, she stared at Ji Yun-ah.
Cutting her off herself would be the best. Han Jihye wanted to shake off all the unpleasant things with her own hands and bring back the fun Seo Harang she loved.