Chapter 143
Chapter 143
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 143
Chapter Title: How to Steal the Protagonist's Woman
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'Sigh... Of all days, why did I have a dream like that today...'
As soon as Cho Seo-hyun woke up, she led Seong Su-ho toward the classroom, her mind still clouded and unable to fully gather itself..
With every step, her trembling legs betrayed her current state.
‘Haa… I thought it had gotten better since it hadn’t happened lately…’
The dream she had while dozing at her desk began to force its way back into her memories.
Countless lashes of the whip.
A voice burning with contempt and hatred.
It had been ten years already, but her body remembered those whippings, and her mind was laced with the curse.
Cho Seo-hyun was feared that the emotional scars and the curse she believed had been erased were casting their shadow over her once again.
‘…But why was that guy in my dream?’
The sound of Seong Su-ho’s footsteps trailing behind her let her push aside thoughts of Hong Miseon for a moment.
A man standing blankly by the podium.
That man glaring at her as she was being whipped.
‘Maybe because the assistant instructors kept changing back then, so I don’t remember them…’
No assistant instructor had ever lasted more than two months.
She vaguely recalled hearing it was hard to find one who could handle Hong Miseon’s personality.
As she opened the classroom door, Cho Seo-hyun felt a wave of relief.
‘Good thing. Today’s back mountain practical training. I just need to focus on the kids’ safety and the grading.’
She relaxed and took her place at the podium, glancing at Seong Su-ho.
‘…Will he keep up better today?’
..
..
The practical training involved hunting monsters released in the back mountains.
Two groups followed set routes up the mountain, engaging in combat along the way.
Cho Seo-hyun and Seong Su-ho were in charge of safety and grading for each group.
Groups 5 and 6, currently in progress, had met at the central point and were taking a break.
From a distance, Cho Seo-hyun watched Seong Su-ho bent over, gasping for breath, and thought to herself.
‘If he worked on his stamina a bit, he’d be a really solid guy…’
She knew stamina didn’t improve overnight, so she had no intention of nagging him endlessly.
Besides, from her perspective, he’d helped her out, so she wasn't in a position to criticize him..
Playfully approaching the heaving Seong Su-ho to tease or comfort him, she smiled.
‘Well, with archery skills like that, stamina’s not a big deal… Huh?’
Just as she was about to draw near, someone else approached him first.
“Teacher… Are you okay?”
“Haa… haa… I’m f-fine. You go rest… haa…”
“I’m fine without resting…”
There was Song Ara, looking at Seong Su-ho with pity.
Cho Seo-hyun smirked as she watched Song Ara.
‘With a personality like that, she’ll get taken advantage of once she joins a guild…’
She kept watching the two.
It was simply a scene of a cadet and an instructor talking—a mundane occurrence in daily life.
But to Cho Seo-hyun, fresh off her nightmare, it looked different.
‘I wonder if things would’ve been different if I’d had an instructor I could talk to like that…’
Back when she was a cadet at the Hero Academy, she’d never gotten close to any instructor.
The assistants mostly ignored cadets outside of class, and the main instructor had abused her for three years.
As she watched them enviously, Song Ara’s words made her ears perk up.
“Teacher, can you check my archery form again today?”
Seong Su-ho barely caught his breath before responding.
“Hoo… I’m okay with it, but my skills aren’t at a teaching level.”
“Aw, it’s just personal practice! It’s fine!”
Hearing their exchange reminded Cho Seo-hyun of when she’d first met Seong Su-ho.
‘Come to think of it, during weapon distribution, he casually gave Song Ara a bow, even though her main weapon is a sword.’
He was the only one who’d handed out the wrong weapon back then.
When she’d scolded him for it, he’d looked at Song Ara with a puzzled expression she couldn’t fathom.
‘Hmm… Ah, break time’s almost over.’
As Seong Su-ho finally regulated his breathing, the break was winding down.
He stood up before the cadets and said to Song Ara,
“There are plenty of better people than me. If you want to learn properly, go to a real instructor.”
“…”
Cho Seo-hyun inwardly felt disappointed as she listened.
‘What’s wrong with teaching her in your spare time? He must find it annoying too… No different from the others.’
She felt the gratitude she’d held for him vanish in an instant.
The sight of him brushing off an eager cadet dredged up painful memories.
As she glared at him, Seong Su-ho patted Song Ara’s shoulder and said,
“I’m just an assistant instructor. I’ve never formally learned archery—it’s just survival stuff.”
He stretched and continued,
“If I taught you and you picked up bad habits, it might cause trouble for Instructor Cho Seo-hyun. That’d be too rude.”
“Aw, that’d be my responsibility~ Just check my form, please? The other instructors are too busy…”
Seong Su-ho gave a wry smile at Song Ara’s persistence.
“Alright. After dinner, whenever I have time, I’ll help as much as I can.”
“Yay~”
Cho Seo-hyun watched them stand and chat, unconsciously smiling to herself.
I finished the practical class and trudged to the cafeteria, shoulders slumped.
‘Ugh… I’m dying…’
My whole body ached after all that mountain hiking.
If I had handled both morning and afternoon sessions, I would have been carted off to the hospital already.
Finally reaching the cafeteria, I craned my neck to scan today’s menu.
“Chinese food… Right up my alley.”
I hummed happily, but a grumpy voice came from behind.
“Haa… Talk about bad timing—Chinese food of all things.”
“Huh?”
I turned around, looking around, but if I said I didn’t see anyone, I’d probably get murdered on the spot.
It was Cho Seo-hyun.
She looked up at me and jerked her head.
“Come on, hurry up and go in.”
“Ah, yes.”
As I started to head inside, Seong Sua appeared from just within the entrance, giving me a gentle wave and a bright smile.
"You've arrived. Today is Chinese food, which Instructor Seong Su-ho likes."
“Haha…”
I laughed awkwardly, and then Cho Seo-hyun’s voice came from behind me.
“What’s this?”
“Uh… Eonni…”
Seong Sua looked flustered at the sight of Cho Seo-hyun.
Cho Seo-hyun sidled up beside me, frowned, and asked while looking at me and Seong .
“You two know each other?”
..
..
‘Whoa… So this is what it feels like when food goes in through your nose.’
[No need to worry. Your spoon is heading normally toward your mouth.]
‘…’
Seriously?
Every time I shoveled jjajang fried rice into my mouth, I kept sneaking glances at Cho Seo-hyun and Seong Sua.
Despite it being mealtime, Cho Seo-hyun had her arms crossed, chopsticks and spoon untouched.
Seong Sua, peeking at her nervously, couldn’t even pick up her spoon properly.
Finally, the queen of awkward silence spoke up.
“I had no idea you two were handling the same class. Not in my wildest dreams.”
“Uh… You’re the one who told me to go to Magic Class 7 on the first day, Instructor Cho…”
“I didn’t know she was in Magic Class 7? Do I need to keep track of her assignments?”
Is she a child?
She was shamelessly showing the childish side I’d glimpsed on day one.
Cho Seo-hyun was a woman of many faces.
Sometimes a strict instructor, sometimes a kid, sometimes an enthusiastic cadet.
She looked at me with a pouty expression.
"By the way, do you two usually eat together? Looking at you now, it seems like you do often?"
“Ah… Yes. Since we work together, we usually eat meals together.”
“Haa… I work with you too, but I guess you didn’t want to eat with me?”
“Pardon?”
Her small face scrunched up in a sulk as she glared at me.
How was I supposed to eat with a woman who never even shows up for meals?
“No way. I just haven’t seen you in the cafeteria usually…”
“You should’ve at least invited me.”
“…Sorry.”
What is this? No escape?
If I’d asked her on day one, she probably would’ve snapped back immediately…
(Why would I eat with you?)
Yeah, something like that for sure.
While I bickered with Cho Seo-hyun, Seong Sua stayed quiet, gauging the mood.
Worried, I turned to her.
“Instructor Seong Sua, eat up. Your food’s getting cold.”
“Haha… Okay.”
And then Cho Seo-hyun wedged herself back in.
“What, you don’t tell me to eat? My food doesn’t get cold?”
“Well… You don’t seem to like Chinese food…”
"Does that mean it's okay if it gets cold just because I don't like it?"
“…Sorry.”
Sorry... Sorry for having a meal together..
‘This is awkward…’
[I didn’t expect Cho Seo-hyun to come on so strong.]
‘Well, if it’s just us two, it’d at least be cute…’
Honestly, getting closer to Cho Seo-hyun was good for the mission—or my own selfish desires.
Her pretty face wasn’t going anywhere just because she grumbled.
The problem was Seong Sua being here, and Cho Seo-hyun picking at everything.
‘…She’s not gonna crash every meal, is she?’
[My personal guess is you’ll be seeing Cho Seo-hyun at every mealtime from now on.]
‘Damn…’
This is so strange... Yesterday, when I actually gave her important help, she didn't say a word, but today, when I was completely useless, she's like this.
Only after choking down that frigid lunch could Seong Sua and I escape Cho Seo-hyun’s clutches.
Cho Seo-hyun entered the staff room, slumped into a chair, leaned back, and sighed.
“Haa… Damn it, this isn’t how it was supposed to go…”
Wanting to build a friendship with Seong Su-ho, Cho Seo-hyun had followed him all the way to the cafeteria.
She knew most people found eating with their boss uncomfortable.
Especially between main and assistant instructors…
Therefore, she had intended to use kind words and praise to suggest that they get along well in the future.
Until Seong Sua appeared
“Why of all people Seong Sua… Haa…”
It wasn’t jealousy or wariness as a woman.
She simply had a strong desire to establish herself as a good colleague to Seong Su-ho.
But seeing them together twisted something inside her, and she ended up ruining their meal.
She hadn’t hated Seong Sua from the start.
She hadn’t thought much of her little brother dating.
The issue was how he changed after.
“…No matter how I think about it, Kang-hyun started acting weird after dating her.”
In her memories, her brother Cho Kang-hyun had taken great care of her—his only family—right up until he joined the Hero Academy.
Having lost their parents, the two of them had been so close that they didn't seem like mere siblings.
But the once upright, cheerful brother suddenly turned cold-faced and curt.
And that timing coincided perfectly with when he started dating..
“A year after I graduated? That’s when he said he started dating…”
Seong Sua had entered the academy a year after Cho Seo-hyun graduated..
A year later, she learned they were dating—not from him, but from others.
If her brother was dating, she obviously intended to support him actively.
However, her brother became distant after the relationship, and it simply made her sad that his attitude toward her felt cold whenever they did meet.
To the orphaned siblings, they were each other’s only family.
Now that family didn’t feel like family.
Her eyes fell on a paper on the desk.
-Heehee. Birthday next month! Gotta eat something yummy with Kang-hyun (>_<)
Staring at the scribbled words, she muttered,
“…He’ll forget again this time, won’t he?”
Others might find it odd, but to her, Cho Kang-hyun was her only family, the one she could communicate with.
Yes, he was, Ten years ago…
That communicative brother changed after dating, so she could never warm up to Seong Sua.
“What the hell is it about dating…”
She gave a bitter smile, flipped the paper over, and gazed out the window.
And thought,
'...I wonder what I should say to make that man happy?'
Cho Seo-hyun began mentally simulating the conversation she’d have with Seong Su-ho over dinner later.