A-Class Hero
"……."
Baek Eun-hwa's mornings were always the same.
She was an A-Class hero — a celebrity-tier name, the kind of person who sent every media appearance into an uproar. And yet her mornings were painfully modest.
"...Seven o'clock."
The instant she woke at seven, she pushed the blanket aside, folded it twice, tidied it away, and rose from the bed. Then she made her way slowly to the bathroom and splashed her face with cold water. It wasn't a proper wash — just enough of a dousing to shock herself awake.
"Today's schedule..."
She was only half-awake, still tangled in the last threads of sleep, but she checked her schedule all the same.
09:00 — Attend Association meeting
14:00 — Rookie hero program filming
14:30 — Fashion model shoot
16:00 — Hero policy advisory session
18:00 — Dinner with A-Class heroes
"...Haa."
A sigh slipped out of her the moment she saw it. Not that she could cancel anything already on the books. Oil hissed in the pan as Baek Eun-hwa crushed a few spicy peperoncini and fried herself a single egg.
Given the day ahead, she really ought to have eaten something more substantial. But she couldn't bring herself to cook anything elaborate first thing in the morning, and her skills in the kitchen were only a shade better than Charlotte's. An A-Class hero's breakfast: one fried egg.
"……."
She ate that lone egg while answering messages about her schedule, then headed straight for the shower.
"...It's getting warmer."
She could hide her fox ears and nine tails with illusion magic. She could even clean them that way. But that didn't mean she could skip proper care. She washed herself thoroughly, scrubbed her snow-white hair with equal diligence, then stepped out of the bathroom wearing nothing at all and dried her hair.
She had a vast house, more money than she knew what to do with — every last marker of the upper class. And yet.
"...I want to rest."
It was a truly meager morning. The size and splendor of the house only made the emptiness cut deeper. Even so, Baek Eun-hwa moved through her routine as she always did.
She put on her hero costume — a pristine white ensemble closer to a hanbok than anything Western — then immediately disguised herself from head to toe with illusion magic. The woman standing before the mirror was just Baek Eun-hwa in an ordinary office look.
If she'd had her way, she would have changed her hair and her irises too, the way she did whenever she met Charlotte outside. But considering her contracts with her various sponsors and the Association, living however she pleased was a luxury she couldn't afford.
"There'll be reporters on the way to the meeting, too... Ah. I need to put on the earrings."
It hadn't been like this when she was younger — not even during her days as an unlicensed hero. But she could feel the weight growing heavier with every passing day. Even the clothes she'd disguised herself into bore the subtle logos of expensive brands. The earrings, the necklace — all of them famous luxury labels. Of course her daily life was a cage of restrictions.
Once she was ready, she went down to the parking garage... where yet another sponsored vehicle was waiting. As an A-Class transformation-type hero, she could have gotten around just fine without a car in most situations. She still had to ride the vehicle provided by one of the Association's corporate backers.
"……."
And so another day began — every last detail, from her clothes to her accessories to her perfume to her car, hemmed in by constraints.
A thirty-minute drive from the expensive neighborhood in northern D City brought her to the city's heart. The Association building, despite the chaotic terrorist attack only days ago, had already been repaired and was operating as usual...
"Baekyeou! May I ask what meeting is scheduled at the Association today?"
"What are your thoughts on the steadily rising crime rate in the industrial district?"
"We're already more than halfway through the year — is there a rookie you've been keeping an eye on? Do you have anything to say about New Hero Debutante, the program airing next week?"
"……."
A swarm of reporters crowded the front of the Association, shutters clicking, microphones thrust forward, all of them pestering Baekyeou. A rough count by eye put them at several dozen. They ranged from correspondents with the major networks all the way down to the sort of ragtag press you could fairly call wreckers, all of them pressing in, crowding her, wearing her down.
"...Haa."
Baekyeou let out a small sigh and, as always, began answering them one by one.
Any other A-Class hero — any ordinary high-ranking hero — would have fielded only the barest handful of questions. But Baek Eun-hwa had her issues, and the reporters, who didn't particularly care about those issues so long as they got their story, were more than happy to take advantage.
"There's nothing particularly special on the Association's agenda today. Just a regular meeting. As for the rising crime rate in the industrial district, the Association is already aware. We're preparing measures to strengthen security in that area, so I'd appreciate your patience. Ah, and also..."
She answered most of their questions, skipping only the dangerous or sensitive ones, and it was a full forty minutes before she finally made it inside the building.
Dealing with them had been exhausting and irritating. But she was afraid of the fallout if she refused. Even though her counselor Charlotte had told her again and again. Even though she understood it, at least a little, herself.
"Hoo..."
Fear was still fear.
And so Baek Eun-hwa's day — no, Baekyeou's day — began.
She sat at a round table on the top floor with the Association's senior officials, exchanging difficult conversation that left her with a mild headache and a creeping fatigue. But as always, she played the part of the magnificent hero, the kind of hero who could serve as a symbol, keeping her back ramrod-straight, careful not to let her posture slip.
Afterward she exchanged a few words with the Association President, then responded to the various dispatch requests coming in from the surrounding area. She dismissed the office look her transformation magic had created, revealing the costume she'd hidden underneath, and let her ears and tails show freely as she worked as an A-Class hero.
She had a two o'clock shoot, so until then she answered as many dispatch requests as she could — answering, answering, answering — until before she knew it she was walking into a studio for filming.
She hadn't even eaten lunch, too busy taking calls. But she was long since used to shoots. She ate a single light energy bar while getting her makeup done.
"Alright, standby!"
She filmed as if it were second nature.
This wasn't a small production with one or two people in front of the camera. Dozens were on set, and even more worked behind the scenes. In a place like that, Baek Eun-hwa poured everything into playing Baekyeou — poised, polite, magnificent, beautiful, and good-natured.
She offered advice to the rookie heroes, spoke in the thinnest possible terms about the hardships of the industry, and spent about twenty minutes with a plastic smile locked onto her face. Then it was straight to the next shoot — just next door, another studio — where she changed outfits.
Flashes popped so relentlessly they hurt her eyes, and still she kept them open, shot after shot, changing into the next outfit, shooting again... then on to the next location. If a special request came in during all of this — not the general dispatch alerts sent to every nearby hero, but one addressed to her personally — she would have to leave and go handle it. But somehow she got through the entire schedule, and by the time she made it home, it was already nine.
"……."
When she walked through the door, every last drop of strength had drained from her body and mind. She was too exhausted to do anything at all. Baek Eun-hwa didn't even change. Still in her hero costume, she simply let herself fall onto the bed.
She lay there staring at the ceiling. She fidgeted. She hugged a pillow, trying to bleed off the fatigue, shifting through one position after another. But the exhaustion remained, stubborn and complete, and so her thoughts drifted, unbidden.
"...It was a little easier when I was with my counselor."
Friday. Her regular time with Charlotte. A person — and a stretch of time — that had slipped, suddenly and somehow, into the daily life Baek Eun-hwa had been repeating every day, every week, every month. Days just like today.
It had been barely a month. And yet she couldn't stop thinking about that time.
"...Is this wrong?"
For twenty-one years — for as long as she had been capable of thinking for herself — this was how Baek Eun-hwa had lived. To borrow Charlotte's words: she'd been living like a doormat. Her mother's teachings, her mother's words, stacked one atop another until they had built the person she was now. Until they had built Baekyeou.
And then one woman had driven a deep crack through every part of that — her thoughts, her heart, everything.
Baek Eun-hwa had been taught never to refuse. Always to stand firm. Always to be beautiful. Never to disappoint people. And then her counselor kept telling her it was okay. The words had hit her like a shock.
People couldn't truly empathize with a public figure. They treated Baek Eun-hwa as an object of admiration, as someone beautiful, as someone extraordinary. Charlotte, and Charlotte alone, had treated her with such easy familiarity.
"……."
And so, without her quite meaning to, a platinum-blonde girl had taken up residence in Baek Eun-hwa's mind. The things Charlotte kept telling her — that it was fine to rest, fine to take it easy, fine to live as freely as anyone else — were so different from everything she had been taught.
"Haa..."
Baek Eun-hwa's thoughts were a complete mess.