Sorry, A Step Late
"Whew~ Sorry about that. Got here a step late, didn't I?"
A familiar voice rang out from above my head. I tilted my face up to check—and found myself staring at Yoo Jinchae, a thread of blood trickling down her forehead.
Did she get hit by flying furniture?
Her forehead looked torn, blood dripping steadily down along her bangs. But whatever she thought of it, she only laughed, heh heh.
"You're... bleeding."
Even as I spoke, reality hadn't quite come back to me. I just watched, dazed, as Yoo Jinchae wiped the flowing blood away with the flat of her palm.
"Hm? Oh, so I am? I was dodging, but I guess I've gotten sloppy lately."
Watching that mechanical smile stay perfectly intact even with blood running down her face, I felt the tension that had been strangling my body suddenly loosen and drain away.
At the same time, her tightly closed arms opened, revealing the twins she'd been holding against her chest.
Startled by the sudden change, the two children looked as though they'd cried themselves hollow.
……The area around us had fallen into absolute silence.
Just the occasional drip of water, the sound of hiccupping sobs, and Yoo Jinchae's light footsteps.
"……"
……I felt alive.
No—I was alive.
Only then, with a long sigh, did the words finally escape me.
"……Thought I was going to die."
The moment I realized the danger that had been looming over me was completely gone, the pain arrived late and began spreading through my whole body.
My side throbbed like mad—hot, aching, burning.
How on earth had this disaster happened?
The sprinklers had definitely activated, and water had sprayed in every direction. I'd clearly watched the fire gradually die down, too.
The problem was the barricade that had collapsed as the fire died.
I'd watched the furniture surrounding the twins suddenly give way.
And then…… I don't remember.
Judging by my current state, my body must have moved on instinct before my brain caught up.
"By the way… are you all right, Teacher? I was seriously startled, you know. Furniture catching fire and toppling over like that—in that exact moment, all I could think was yep, we're dead."
Yoo Jinchae looked me over from head to toe as she spoke, occasionally muttering the names of muscles I'd never heard of and pressing on them to check.
"But how did we both use our abilities at exactly that moment? What was that? Wow~ You were just hurling everything out the window, anything that wasn't nailed down. I thought I was watching a movie."
……What on earth is she talking about?
Even setting aside the bizarre word choices, we both did what?
Without a word, I looked down at the child tucked against my chest.
Round eyes, rimmed red beneath, stayed glued to my face as if they'd never let go.
"……"
It can't be, right?
"You sent it all over there."
Sent... what?
Swallowing the rest of the question, I followed her pointing finger with my eyes.
Through the shattered window, a perfectly clear blue sky.
And in that instant, a strange sense of wrongness washed over me.
The classroom—burned, broken, wrecked beyond recognition.
And yet, and yet…
Come to think of it… where did everything that was in here go?
The furniture that had been floating midair, the toppled toys, all the assorted odds and ends—every last thing had vanished.
As if none of it had ever existed at all.
The space had grown so barren it felt hollow, and the sight of it filled my eyes.
……Confronted with this unbelievable reality, I found myself speechless.
"Wow, our Seoro has the CRAZIEST quick thinking! You startled me, Teacher. When you become a hunter, go somewhere other than BOND, promise!"
"…Really? I can become a hunter too?"
"Of course~ Two of the strongest awakened kids around? Absolutely. We can find somewhere even better than BOND."
The two drowned-rat kids chattered away in high spirits, soaked to the bone.
Unable to hold back any longer, I cut in right then.
"You sent everything over there?"
At my question, Seoro—who'd been chattering excitedly with Yoo Jinchae—nodded happily.
I made a point of ignoring those shining eyes, so clearly angling for praise, and stared at the empty air instead.
…So, in other words: the instant the barricade collapsed, Seoro used her ability and hurled every single thing in this room straight out the window.
I wanted nothing more than to faint on the spot.
"By the way, Seora, your firepower's gotten even stronger while I wasn't looking! The way it blazed up was seriously impressive. You're better than hunters I know!"
"Really? Fire is SO cool! But Oppa keeps telling me not to do it at home, which makes me sad. But I think my fire is really awesome!!"
"Oh, absolutely. Totally awesome. Nature-type ability users should be bold, that's what I always say. None of that stingy little lighter-flame stuff—go BIG! You know? Like this? Big!"
Um, hello. You two.
"……You can become a hunter."
"Big! Big!"
"That's right! Big, big!"
Is this really the time to be saying that?
Drunk on Yoo Jinchae's praise, the kids were so fired up you'd never guess they'd been bawling their eyes out minutes ago.
Excuse me, Teacher Yoo Jinchae, this is not the time for compliments.
Watching her throw thumbs-up after thumbs-up while blood streamed down her head was giving me a headache.
Still—thanks to her, I had some idea of what to tackle first.
"Um… Teacher Jinchae?"
I steadied my smoke-roughened voice and addressed her firmly.
"You shouldn't be praising them right now. Given the situation, discipline comes first."
With children, you have to make clear, every single time, what's right and what's wrong.
At this age, their memory isn't reliable. Give it a little time and they'll easily forget why they were scolded in the first place.
And once that happens, they struggle to connect their actions with their consequences…
Also, hmm…
"…And Teacher, please stop the bleeding on your forehead first. This doesn't really seem like the moment to be laughing."
Sometimes, adults also need to be taught right from wrong.
Sit down and press on your forehead already, you absolute lunatic.
Yoo Jinchae stood frozen for a moment at my words, then swiftly pressed her sleeve to her forehead.
And then she laughed again.
"True. You're right. My mistake. Hmm, then you handle the discipline, Teacher. You ARE the Dolphin Class homeroom teacher~"
"……!"
A refreshingly clean admission of fault—and, tucked inside it, what almost sounded like an acknowledgment of me.
I laughed without even meaning to, the situation entirely forgotten.
Did I just break through that wall of hers?
A small flicker of pride rose up inside me. Going by past experience, I'd expected it to take longer.
Well, there is that saying, isn't there.
Solidarity in crisis.
When everyone's suffering enough to nearly die, you cling together because there's no other way to survive.
And honestly, I didn't much care if this frostiness lasted a while anyway.
During my job-hunting years, working convenience store and call center part-time jobs, I'd met every flavor of garbage human being imaginable. Something like this didn't even register.
……Which brings me to a conclusion I already know.
How to survive anywhere, no matter the place:
Not by trusting them—but by trusting myself.
After that, I sat the children down and checked them over.
Fortunately, they seem fine for now.
Externally, there wasn't a scratch on either of them, and they'd regained a settled air through our conversation.
I carefully wrapped the blanket Yoo Jinchae handed over around the twins, then waited for the medical team and restoration team, who'd said they were on their way.
Not that I intended to waste the waiting.
"You gave Teacher a very big scare today."
"……"
Shuffle shuffle. Four little eyes fled from mine and darted far, far away.
So they do know they were in the wrong, apparently.
"I don't know what you fought about, but no matter how angry you get, you must never use your abilities on a person like you did today. When someone gets hurt, it hurts, and it's sad."
"…Lee Seoro made fun of me first."
"Lee Seora ate my snack first."
Sob. In an instant, those big round eyes brimmed over with tears that streamed down their cheeks.
"I know you're both very upset. But eating someone's snack without asking, and calling someone a dummy just because you're in a bad mood—that's not okay."
The sound of sniffling and sobbing filled every gap in the silence.
"Oh my, at this rate your bellies will be too full of tears to eat dinner."
Yoo Jinchae, who'd been watching from the side, pulled out one enormous wad of tissues and handed it to the twins. In the process, blood dripped freshly from her less-than-stabilized forehead again.
"Teacher, press on your forehead properly."
"Ah, yep."
The twins accepted the tissues with great businesslike gravity, dabbing away their tears and honking loudly. Then they clutched the soggy tissues tightly in their hands and waved them back and forth, back and forth.
This is… not drowned rats. More like drowned kittens.
"Abilities have to be used carefully. Never on people or animals."
"Yesss…! Hnnnggg…"
"……Yes… sniff."
"From now on, if you're not sure before you use your abilities, you can ask me. And your feelings were sweet, but…"
Thanks to you, I am currently alive.
"…If you go around flinging objects outside willy-nilly, a passerby could get hit. So let's not do that anymore, okay?"
If something falling from the third floor of a building smacked someone square on the head, the best-case scenario was a brain hemorrhage.
……I could not have my sprouting seedlings growing up into criminals.
The twins stared down at the charred-black floor, utterly deflated.
Yoo Jinchae, for her part, kept stealing glances at my face.
……I suppose I'll end the scolding there.
"You were really scared today, weren't you?"
I lowered my voice a little and asked in a gentle tone.
Even if they'd caused the whole mess themselves, it must have been terrifying.
They'd never imagined the fire spreading at that speed, or that their out-of-control abilities would end in something like this.
"Okay—now let's make up. Seoro, Seora, face each other and say 'I'm sorry.' and 'I forgive you.'"
With a plop, the tear-soaked wad of tissues hit the floor—and the twins threw themselves into a blazing hug.
"I'm sorry!"
"I'm sorry too."
"I'll… forgive you for calling me a dummy."
"And I'll forgive you for eating my snack."
"I'll try to forgive you"? Come on, kids.
"That was truly moving…"
I am completely spent.
Not that it wasn't sweet—but my body, tense since morning, had been squeezed and pummeled from every direction, and I simply didn't have the strength left to be moved.
Just one hour, even—I wanted to rest.
But then, at that moment—
-CRASH-BANG-RUMBLE!!
"……!"
"Oh my gosh, is everyone okay?!"
Two men came sprinting into the newly calmed classroom, trailing a deafening clamor.
Park Edeun, bursting through with fire extinguishers wedged under both arms.
Kwon Haeseong, looking as though he'd sprinted the whole way doused head to toe in water.
Kwon Haeseong had even, apparently, lugged over an oil drum fitted with a long hose.
"Are you really all right? Any injuries? Wow, you really gave us a scare!"
"……What on earth…"
Even as these men who'd appeared out of nowhere raised a whole ruckus, my eyelids were slowly beginning to droop. Even in the middle of all this, I was sleepy.
Maybe because I felt like it was all over, my heart had gone peaceful.
We lived. So that was enough. No one was hurt. So I was grateful.
……It couldn't possibly get any better than this. I was, more or less, satisfied.
And a short while later, I was jolted awake in the most miserable way possible.
"How do you cause an accident on your very first day?"