Group Project
“You’ve changed lately.”
“Huh?”
It was ten minutes before regular academy classes were set to begin. Kim Chae-eun suddenly ran up to me and dropped that weird line out of nowhere.
“When I asked you to take electives together you totally ignored me! But now you’re glued to some guy all day long. What the hell? Was I just an enjoy for you?!”
“Wait, calm down for a second…”
“How could you do this to me! After everything we’ve been through!”
Hadn’t it only been a month? Was she carrying around memories that didn’t even exist? She looked too worked up to settle easily, so I tried at least getting her to lower her voice. People were already staring.
“So? How far have you gone?”
“What do you mean how far? We just happened to meet, that’s all.”
“You’re telling me you’re that attached to someone you ‘just happened to meet’? You’re famous now, you know. People are saying you two are already married or something.”
“What are they even…”
It had been a full month since Cheon Ma-ru discovered my identity. A whole month of sticking to him like glue for close surveillance. After monitoring him this long, I was starting to think it might be okay to ease up on the suspicion. He seemed to keep his mouth shut, too. And more than anything, the guy had no friends. He was always walking around with me, eating with me, and not a single person ever approached him. Not that I was one to talk, since my only friend was Kim Chae-eun.
“Then what is it? A one-sided crush?!”
“I keep telling you it’s not like that…”
The voice I’d finally lowered shot right back up. Typical for a girl her age—talk about romance and her tension meter spiked. Even when I denied it, she refused to believe me.
“He’s weird too. A girl like you is following him around and he doesn’t react? If it were me I’d be all, ‘Huh? Like that? Huh?’ Or maybe down there he’s—”
“Can we stop there?”
The conversation was veering into dangerous territory, so I cut her off. That only seemed to fuel her more.
“Whoa, so you can’t stand it when someone talks bad about your man?”
“That’s not what I—”
“I thought you were a cold city girl, but you’ve got some surprisingly hot sides~.”
My head was starting to throb when the bell rang and the instructor walked in. Perfect timing—I finally had an excuse to send her back to her seat. I’d been getting seriously uncomfortable, so the instructor felt almost like a savior.
“…Please submit it by then.”
No, he was a demon. Definitely a demon here to drink human tears. A group project. The hell every Korean student experiences at least once. The height of absurdity where your score depends entirely on who ends up in your group. And now it was being shoved right in front of me.
“You can form groups with people you’re comfortable with. There are twenty-three of you, so four per team. One group will have three members.”
He didn’t even assign the groups. He just dumped the responsibility on us to figure it out ourselves. You might think, just group up with your friends then, but what if you don’t have any? What if you’re stuck between kids whose names you don’t even know, too awkward to speak up, and end up stuck with the data-collection role while everyone else coasts? My only friend, Kim Chae-eun, was already surrounded by people. With that face and that personality, it made sense no one would dislike her. Her social skills were top-tier among everyone I’d ever seen.
While I was wondering what to do, someone approached me.
“Um.”
“Yes?”
“If you don’t have anyone for the group project, want to join us?”
The person who spoke to me was a man who looked to be in his early thirties. Since no one was around me, he must have come over. I was grateful he’d spoken first. The problem was how impure his gaze felt. It was locked blatantly on my chest, as if my eyes had migrated down there. I used to think the idea that women could always tell when men were staring at their breasts was a lie. But now I knew it was true. You could feel the stare.
“I’m fine, thank you.”
By the way, Kim Chae-eun wasn’t the only one who’d approached me first. Other people had come up to talk to me too. Mostly men. And just like this guy, their eyes had been fixed on my chest. No matter what, I didn’t want to be in a group with someone like that.
“Come on, I can definitely carry the score for this project—”
“A-rang~!!”
Kim Chae-eun cut off the clingy man’s words as she walked over and hugged me. She’d gotten pretty bold with the skinship lately.
“Then do it with me~. Carry me on your bus.”
“You’re trying to ride the bus before we’ve even started?”
She was so shameless.
“Please do it with me~. Yeah?”
“Fine, just get off me… I’m starting to sweat.”
“For real?!”
If I was in a group with Kim Chae-eun, at least it wouldn’t be awkward. That was a relief.
“Yes, well. That’s how it turned out. Sorry.”
“Ah, then maybe I could also…”
“I’m sorry. I already promised someone else.”
“Ah…”
The man slunk back to his seat looking dejected. Too bad, but no meant no.
“It’s kind of gross how much he was staring at your chest.”
Kim Chae-eun whispered to me in a lowered voice. So even she had noticed. Anyway, it was time to find the last member.
“Hey.”
“Yeah?”
“What are you doing? Get up. We still need one more person.”
“Huh? I’m in the group too?”
“Why, did you already join another one?”
“No, I didn’t, but…”
“Then it doesn’t matter. Just stand up.”
He was still under surveillance. I couldn’t let him wander off and risk him slipping up. I ignored the sudden murmuring atmosphere around us. Looking into it would only give me a headache.
“Then for the last person…”
“I brought someone!”
Kim Chae-eun suddenly dragged a girl over. I wasn’t sure if the expression fit, but she reminded me of an abandoned puppy, so the words popped into my head. Long black hair that slightly covered her eyes, breasts that looked even larger than mine, dark circles under her eyes, and a rather short stature. She reminded me of the instructor I’d seen during rank measurement, but unlike that instructor’s languid impression, this girl looked extremely lacking in confidence and timid.
Ah, I remember now.
I knew who she was. She was a fairly important supporting character, after all.
She’s the Menhera Bomb senior.
A C-rank curse specialist shaman. In simple terms, a debuffer. Her performance was good for her rank and she was easy to recruit, making her perfect for early-game use. The problem was that her performance dropped sharply in the late game, and if you tried to abandon her then, she’d awaken her menhera side and do all sorts of insane things.
“Ah, hello…”
“Hello.”
Suddenly I was curious about her reaction. Since she was also a heroine, there was a scene where she fell victim to Cheon Ma-ru’s schemes. She’d been especially broken in that scene. In the illustration she’d appeared wearing a cow-print bikini, complete with a womb tattoo, a collar, a nose ring, and nipple piercings. The burn-like marks from cigarettes were just a bonus. That was how it had been in the original, but now?
“Hello. I’m Cheon Ma-ru.”
“Yes… Hello…”
It was neutral. Just the awkwardness and politeness you’d show to someone you were meeting for the first time. She didn’t seem particularly interested.
Maybe the trigger that turned him into Geumtaeyang happened during his first year at the academy?
If he hadn’t been born to be Geumtaeyang but became that way after experiencing something, then his current ordinary demeanor made sense.
“How about it? Looks good, right? Then let’s go with this!”
I shook the random thoughts from my head. We were still in the middle of forming groups for the project.
“Alright, now that the group is set, how about we grab a drink to get to know each other—”
“Shouldn’t we do the project first?”
We should finish our work before playing. Who starts with drinking?
“Why~~? We have plenty of time. One day won’t hurt.”
“Projects are about to start pouring in. If you keep putting it off, you won’t even be able to sleep later.”
“Aww…”
Kim Chae-eun smacked her lips in disappointment. It would be fine to gather and drink once everything was over, but not now. Since both Cheon Ma-ru’s and Heo Yeon-hwa’s grades were on the line, I couldn’t half-ass it. I needed to take care of things properly too.
“Then let’s meet up tomorrow after regular classes. We can plan and divide the roles.”
“S-sounds good…”
“Did you just say it’s shit?”
“Ah, no. I said it sounds good…”
“I was joking. You don’t have to take it so seriously.”
“I’m sorry…”
When you thought about it, the two of them had completely opposite personalities. How on earth had they become friends? That part made me curious.
“How did you two end up becoming friends?”
“We’re talking for the first time today?”
“Huh?”
“We can get to know each other now. What do you like? What’s your ideal type? How old are you? Or maybe you prefer older people?”
“Uh. No. That’s…”
…Fighting, Heo Yeon-hwa.
“Oh right. We were talking about where to meet. Does anyone have a house we can use? The study rooms in the library here are always full, so it’s hard to reserve one.”
“My house is a bit…”
“I’m in the dorm, so no. A-rang, what about your place?”
“Hmm…”
The location of my house wasn’t a secret, but the inside was. There were all sorts of things related to my identity as Baekwol inside.
“My house is a bit difficult too.”
“Really? Is there any good place near the academy…”
“What about a café?”
“That feels a little rude. And with our topic, it might be difficult.”
The topic of this group project was to research the development process of hunters’ formations and then create a new one ourselves. Even if we weren’t using magic power, we might need to move around a bit. The academy’s study rooms were right next to a training ground so we could go back and forth, but we couldn’t do that at a café.
Everyone was struggling to come up with a good idea when a sudden thought flashed through my mind.
“Hey, what about you?”
“Huh? I was thinking, but nothing’s coming to mind for me either.”
“No, that’s not what I mean.”
Come to think of it, this guy had been completely left out.
“Can’t we use your place? Don’t you live alone?”
“…Huh?”