Cleaning the Dorm and Unsettling Truths
Aaaa, I request that you handle the cleaning of the assigned area. That is all.
Tap.
Since the call ended after just a brief matter, it had to be from a senior in the 3rd Living Quarter. The way they always dragged their slippers with a tired expression—that familiar trait was unmistakable.
Now I remembered the faces of most seniors in the unit. With this much, wasn’t I finally getting better at it?
“What’s so funny? Cleaning fun?”
Even I could feel the ridiculous growth I’d made and was laughing when Han Jihye walked by and asked.
Without anything to do, Han Jihye would normally stay glued to the bed and not move, but today was the only time she stood up—the moment she had to clean.
In the end, nothing good had come of it. Rather, not having Han Jihye around was far more beneficial.
Right now, the one who was most bothersome was Kim Heejin.
“Hey, do it properly. Don’t just sweep around.”
“Understood.”
“Argh! Hey! Come here and do it again. There’s still dust left.”
“I’m so sorry!”
It wasn’t just cleaning—Kim Heejin was strict about everything in the living quarter.
Even as the seniors slowly left the area, she held her ground firmly.
In other words, once you reached a certain level of seniority, you could relax completely.
So… me too! I’ll be eating that much seniority too!
Even while making that inner vow, my body remained completely honest.
I watched the senior sweeping back and forth with the broom.
Then I watched another senior wiping the floor with the mop.
Everything else I was in charge of was just a single hand-wiper.
What greeted me was a long row of beds. The only small consolation was that no one was sitting on them.
“I’m starting now!”
“Do you really need to announce that?”
“I’m sorry!”
“Yeah, yeah. You should be sorry.”
After my one-sided conversation with Kim Heejin, I placed the mop on the floor and slid across it with a whoosh.
Seeing the spot I passed over sparkle so brightly wasn’t entirely unpleasant.
Back and forth I went, polishing the floor until it shone.
Although it had only been a day, the hand-wiper I was holding looked dirty again, and suddenly memories from the past resurfaced.
Han Jihye had said it—make sure to clean behind the toilet too.
Damn, my perfect memory was getting terrifying.
I flipped the hand-wiper over, slid the mattress slightly aside, and cleaned the inside.
The long strands of hair and dust entangled together, so the hand-wiper I had just flipped became instantly dirty again.
“Oh— what’s this? Seo Harang? Are you cleaning all the way back there? Good job.”
Even though I received praise, I was satisfied!
With a buoyant heart, I smiled brightly. Kim Heejin’s side responded with a grin, shark teeth showing.
“You’ll keep cleaning like this in the future. It’s nice and tidy, you know.”
Ah! I had lost anyway!
“That’s what you get for only going halfway.”
The senior who was mopping passed by and added.
No, I thought that was only said when going out on missions.
I became a bird crying pitifully in chains.
With a heavier heart, I dried the hand-wiper and hung it to dry, then returned.
Soon the seniors realized cleaning time was over, and one by one they came back.
“Done?”
“Yes, finished.”
“Hey, thanks for your hard work.”
That one word somehow made me feel so proud.
It was as if I had become a livestock that was being raised and praised for no reason.
Last to arrive was Jeong Seung-ah.
“Seung-ah, thanks for your hard work.”
“Thank you. However…”
Before Jeong Seung-ah could finish her sentence with “however,” every senior’s attention turned to her.
Jeong Seung-ah continued speaking as if she didn’t care about such gazes at all.
“I’d like you to smoke reasonably. Not that smoking is bad, but don’t throw cigarette butts on the floor. It’s troublesome when cleaning.”
Jeong Seung-ah, who was in charge of the smoking area, said it boldly. I respected her confidence to speak like that in front of the seniors.
But this place was where confidence and results were opposite.
If she said that, what would the seniors do?
“Whatever.”
“If you’re annoyed, you should have come earlier.”
“From now on, I’ll have to throw it on the floor.”
“Ah— we have to follow Senior Seo Harang’s words, so we can’t not listen—! From now on, we’ll definitely throw it all in the bin—!!”
It was Jeong Seung-ah’s words, but I had taken her place. It was necessary to make the seriousness of the situation easier to understand.
In that sense, if I had spoken like Jeong Seung-ah, the double dragon of sarcasm and teasing would have cut my heart to shreds.
Even though Jeong Seung-ah was my senior overall, she was still a junior. Probably the same result would follow.
“Yeah, you’ve been throwing it on the floor too much lately.”
“The cleaner doesn’t even care, huh.”
“Hey, Heejin. Are you targeting her? What now? This?”
“What can I do? I never throw it on the floor to begin with.”
The world is unfair!
Of course, the weight of my words as the underdog and Jeong Seung-ah’s as the ace were different, but still!
...Grateful that Jeong Seung-ah didn’t hear the complaint, I sat down and waited for the roll call.
Everyone’s posture was different.
Han Jihye sat with one knee raised, casually glancing at us as if watching.
Kim Heejin sat in a relaxed yet perfectly straight-legged position with no visible gaps.
Jeong Seung-ah sat rigidly in seiza, with no room for gaps at all.
I sat in the most rigid kakuza posture possible.
It was a free-spirited, or rather chaotic, site for the seniors who didn’t care much about posture during roll call.
And among them, one person stood out—the one pushed to the very back was Ji Yuna, the protagonist of that day.
Ever since that day, Ji Yuna had been unusually silent. She could have resisted or said something, at least, to avoid being ignored, but instead she just sat there quietly.
That made it seem like she had expected this, or perhaps she had some separate plan.
Well, as long as the wall of Han Jihye and Kim Heejin stood firm, there wouldn’t be any problems.
Footsteps sounded. Everyone who wasn’t sitting cross-legged adjusted their posture.
Click. The officer cautiously opened the door and looked inside. He was checking the number of people.
“Anything unusual?”
“No, nothing unusual—”
Normally, a senior like Han Jihye would have been dismissed with that, but today seemed to have other business.
“Upper command requested a survey, so I’m here to ask for opinions. Is the time okay?”
“Even if the time is short, we have to make it, right?”
The officer smiled wryly and nodded.
“It won’t take long anyway. Just answer verbally, and I’ll turn your opinions into something to note.”
“Oh, that’s clever.”
“So… you’ve all been given separate roles in the living quarter for the first time, right? And the rest area has become active. How’s the satisfaction? On a scale of one to five?”
Han Jihye looked at us, scanning the area.
And then she looked at Ji Yuna. For a fleeting moment.
It was strange that Han Jihye, who followed the unwritten rule of ignoring, did such a thing. Was she about to end it?
“Four.”
She gave scores without asking others’ opinions. Honestly, it was the same opinion anyway.
“Four points? Why one?”
“Because I couldn’t go out on a mission, so no bonus.”
“...I see. Is there any room for improvement? Something like improving the rest area?”
“No.”
“I see. Stay inside the living quarter and rest comfortably until the broadcast.”
Click. The officer closed the door and left.
Han Jihye then relaxed her posture again.
She turned her gaze toward Ji Yuna over there.
Ji Yuna noticed the gaze landing on her, but she said nothing.
Ten seconds.
Twenty seconds.
One minute.
During all that time, she kept staring at the other side, as if waiting for the other person to speak first.
“...Superhuman Ji Yuna.”
“Kukuk... ah, now you speak. I was secretly counting how long it would take.”
Was the tension easing because Han Jihye was smiling? It was the exact moment Ji Yuna also let out a giggle.
“Don’t laugh.”
Tap.
Even though it was the usual hehehe laughing tone, the weight behind it was different. After Han Jihye’s words, Ji Yuna immediately closed her mouth and turned her gaze forward.
“Yuna-ya. Hearing unnie’s voice after a long time, how does it feel?”
“Ah, um... it’s good to see you.”
“Really? I don’t think so.”
Seeming to assume Ji Yuna wouldn’t answer, Han Jihye continued.
“Yuna-ya. What face are you wearing while clinging like this? Still?”
Still smiling brightly, and that only served as a mask hiding her true feelings.
Immediately, the atmosphere changed. Everyone except Kim Heejin straightened their posture. They held their backs straight and their blinks became more frequent than usual.
“Yuna-ya. Right now we’re on rest duty, so I let it slide, but what if it was a mission? What if it was work? Even then, you would have stayed like that, wouldn’t you? Right? Or no?”
“Ah, no. If that happened, I would have done my best. Unlike now.”
“Really? Different from now, how?”
“That would naturally... throw myself into the fight, take on the FM role...”
“Ah, that’s not the answer I wanted. Yuna doesn’t have any sense, does she? You weren’t in a position to say anything to anyone.”
Up.
Han Jihye stood up abruptly and headed straight to Ji Yuna’s spot. Then, without mercy, she pulled the blanket off the mattress.
“Ah...!”
“Seo Harang.”
“Superhuman Seo Harang.”
“You too, pull out the blanket.”
At Han Jihye’s words, I pulled out the blanket.
“Also pull out the cover.”
When I pulled off the cover, matching it, Han Jihye pulled off Ji Yuna’s blanket cover.
“...You were still doing it like that?”
Another senior asked while looking at my blanket. It was exactly the same state as when Ji Yuna had been bullied by her a few times and I had repeated it.
It was that perfectly rounded, rose-like shape I had made by pressing down with my body.
In contrast, Ji Yuna’s blanket was barely covered. Compared to the other seniors, it was terribly shabby.
“Since we don’t touch the blankets, you did it roughly too, right? The others were also untouched by us. Why did you get mad at her for not keeping it?”
It was embarrassing to have a conversation for the first time in a while and then be publicly shamed in front of everyone.
That slight rebellious spirit made Ji Yuna grind her teeth.
“...It’s not just me, right?”
“What?”
“Didn’t you not clean your own blanket? No, cleaning a blanket is just roughly throwing it on the mattress and pushing it aside. Isn’t that the same for me?”
Honestly, Han Jihye hadn’t touched us in terms of the living situation itself. The only things she had done were pranks centered on tone and words.
“That’s right.”
Still, Han Jihye nodded and agreed.
That seemed to give Ji Yuna confidence, and she opened her mouth as if to say more.
“However—”
But Han Jihye’s next words immediately closed her mouth.
“You know, right?”
“What...”
“You know what that means. If you’re annoyed, you know, right?”
“That’s...”
“This is no fun. Yuna-ya, it’s no fun.”
Because Han Jihye said it was no fun, and she hadn’t reached the standard, Ji Yuna sucked in her breath.
“Ha...”
“Oh?”
“Then, if I make it fun, that’s it?”
“What’s the thought?”
“Then there must be one, right? If there wasn’t, it wouldn’t have turned out like this.”
“What is it?”
“...Just like what Seo Harang did.”
Ji Yuna looked at me. Then she looked at Han Jihye.
“Then, like what she did back then, if I break the Hero Jihye-nim, that should be it?”
The air grew tense. That was because she had spoken openly about wanting to pick a fight right in front of her own person.
And the emotion that reached me was even stronger than that. It was as if the butterfly effect from what I had done had created this situation.
The end of the arrowhead reflected Han Jihye smiling. As if she truly found it fun.
“Nice!”
At last, Han Jihye had been weighed on the scale, and she had approved it.
The broadcast that was supposed to end the situation still hadn’t sounded.