Division #010
The rumors were already flying.
“I heard he beat up some second-year Hunter middle school kids from the other side. So the police showed up first thing in the morning, called both of them in…”
“And then those same kids came all the way to the elementary school. Cheon Mari was acting like she was about to swing on them, and Kang Sian was straight-up yelling in their faces.”
“I heard it happened on the way home from school.”
“They did it right in front of everybody. Are they actually insane?”
On the way home from school they had run into some delinquents. After a brutal fight they came out on top. They’d taken a few hits in the process, but at least they hadn’t gotten robbed or humiliated. Still… those delinquents had been second-year middle schoolers?
“Ah……”
Only then did yesterday’s events snap together like puzzle pieces. Kang Sian had simply treated her after a brutal day. Even if he was a bad guy, he had clearly stepped in to help during the fight.
It was unacceptable. She hated it. It pissed her off. But it wasn’t completely incomprehensible. The real problem was that when Kang Sian had been in danger, she hadn’t been any help at all.
Why was she even attending the hunter academy? Hadn’t she decided to go so she could protect poor, helpless Sian?
If things kept going like this, maybe she should just quit the academy…
“……Does it really have to be that way?”
She didn’t know. Logically, according to her original purpose, she ought to quit. But she didn’t want to. These days had been happy. Even if she stopped paying attention to him, it would be nice if Kang Sian kept paying attention to her.
It was absurd greed. Ridiculous nonsense.
As if to remind her of exactly that, her phone vibrated in her pocket. She pulled it out and opened her messenger. Two group chats and multiple one-on-one rooms filled the screen. The academy peer group, the class group, and private chats with individual members.
When it came to message volume, the ones from Kang Sian were ridiculously low. Not zero, but noticeably fewer than the rest. It was clear proof that her friendships were slowly falling apart—the exact moment her interest was shifting elsewhere.
If they were real friends, at least one of them would have sent a worried text. But Lim Hana simply stood there, staring blankly at the changing messages without a single reply.
“Guys! Cheon Mari and Kang Sian are fighting again!”
There they went again. Maybe they would understand if she paid less attention. The same old story led to the same conclusion.
‘Kang Sian and her will never get close.’
Yes. It would never happen. Their relationship was nothing more than a temporary alliance. The two of them would never become friends. Because the weak, fragile boy belonged to her.
Lim Hana made up her mind. As long as things stayed exactly like this, everything would be fine.
Time flowed on again. It was the second year, when the grass gradually grew thicker. The bullets lodged in the roadside and the scars of magic were paved over according to new urban plans. The wreckage of an era disappeared into history, along with the people who had died in it. At the same time, new people stepped through the gates to replace those who had perished beyond them. The spaces they left behind were filled by others.
As grades and schools changed, the immature kids grew up and the mature ones hit puberty and became immature. The latter story belonged to Lim Hana.
SANGSAN HUNTER MIDDLE SCHOOL
The end of elementary school and the beginning of middle school. Despite fierce opposition from her parents and Kang Sian, Lim Hana followed the recommendation of the academy director and her friends and enrolled in the special-purpose Hunter Middle School.
Unfortunately, as was common with these schools, rumors were already circulating that the students couldn’t study. It was an extremely unsettling choice for her parents., so they had no choice but to make a proposal to the aunt who lived next door to the Kangs.
“Huh? You want Sian to attend Hunter Middle School?”
The suggestion was that they would cover the admission fees and supplies if she would send Kang Sian there too. What kind of proposal was that for a child with no hunter talent? Was this some kind of drowning-man strategy? It was such a ridiculous idea that recruiting any random kid to attend the same school would have been better.
‘They say the kids there can’t study. I could probably get a scholarship by carrying the whole class.’
The person in question, however, was thinking along slightly different lines. To put it bluntly, it was like a jar of honey had suddenly fallen from the sky.
“Hunter Middle School? Sounds fun! Yes, I’ll go!”
She nodded vigorously, adding that she was confident in her grades. At that point Sian’s aunt had nothing left to say.
In that way, Lim Hana’s parents secured a safety measure for their daughter, who had recently begun showing signs of puberty. Of course, that included receiving regular reports on her daughter’s activities and guidance to keep her on the right path.
“I’m sorry for asking for even more favors like this.”
“Oh, not at all. That’s what parents do. Besides, I’m worried about Hana too.”
The semester began full of schemes. After that, Kang Sian followed Lim Hana and enrolled in Hunter Middle School—
“No, what the fuck? Hot-pink stripes? Is the uniform designer out of their mind? Who the hell came up with this?”
“Right? It’s actually insane.”
The regressor with nothing better to do had jumped in because it looked fun, but in any case, she had successfully enrolled. Lim Hana was extremely displeased that Cheon Mari had tagged along.
‘He must have leaked the information. Traitor.’
Even if she didn’t like it, reality wouldn’t change. In social life you had to endure meeting people you hated, so Lim Hana endured it with noble patience.
‘But I’ll crush you here, you wicked, lazy bitch.’
Of course, the contempt and hatred in her eyes never faded. Lim Hana firmly believed Cheon Mari could never beat her. After all, she had trained intensively at the hunter academy for over three years, while the other girl had only received superficial lessons.
She would show everyone what justice looked like in the upcoming sparring class. So she prayed and prayed for her chance, her turn.
“They say the curriculum changed again starting this year.”
“They moved first-year subjects to second year? That’s weird.”
“That’s the Ministry of Education for you.”
One unfortunate point was that the sparring class Lim Hana had been looking forward to had been pushed back to second year because of the curriculum change. Instead, first-year subjects were mostly ordinary middle-school courses far removed from hunter training.
“Guys, this is supposed to be Hunter Middle School, but does anyone else feel like we’re just attending a regular one?”
“Well, we’re only learning regular subjects.”
“Ah.”
Because of this, the students who had wanted combat and hunter classes suddenly found themselves buried under an avalanche of studying. Naturally, amid all the confused children, Kang Sian maintained an extremely high academic record.
“Mari, you got 100 again, right? Can I see your test paper?”
“Huh? Didn’t you get 100 too?”
“Still, just to be sure. Let me double-check.”
The same was true for Cheon Mari. But if there were people bragging about perfect scores, there were also people suffering from terrible ones.
‘Fifty points… No, is it thirty…?’
In elementary school, thanks to Kang Sian’s relentless help, Lim Hana had been able to get good grades. But ever since she had rejected his interference at the end of the first semester of first year, the result had been pure despair.
‘No, this time it’s just because I was careless. I’ll definitely do better next time.’
A statement that would have left both Sian and Mari speechless. Without any real effort or academy attendance, how exactly did she expect to raise her grades? With that mindset, her final grades for the first semester of first year hit rock bottom.
Average: 35 Points
“Um… Hana? Sian asked if he could study with you over vacation. He said he got perfect scores again this time—”
“No thanks!”
It was the age of stormy emotions, so the violent mood swings weren’t entirely incomprehensible. The problem was that she had run away from home because of them. Hana’s family had to wander the neighborhood until late at night. Coincidentally, Sian—who had been hit by the stray bullet while sleeping—ended up doing the same.
“Hana!”
“What the hell is wrong with you kids!”
The place she fled to avoid her parents’ reach was a shabby playground. She wasn’t alone, however.
“Ah, hello. I’m in the same class as Hana.”
“I go to the same academy as her.”
“Me too……”
Kids who looked extremely delinquent, cigarettes and strange leaves dangling from their lips. Some were in the same class, some weren’t, so she wasn’t close to all of them. But even if she wasn’t close, she knew exactly what kind of kids they were.
‘They’re the ones who form gangs around the rich kids and roam the school.’
Basically, the group that had started playing at being school bullies from the first year. They had seemed fine on the surface until elementary school ended. The moment they entered middle school, Lim Hana had begun hanging out with them at an alarming speed.
Naturally, as the cigarettes burned between their lips, other people’s hearts burned as well. It was incredibly worrying, and Kang Sian had spent the entire vacation trying to talk her out of it.
“I get it already! You’re so weak, why are you interfering so much?!”
“But your parents and teachers are worried, and if you keep hanging out with those kinds of kids, later on—”
“You’ve got that fucking bitch besides me anyway!”
“Huh…? Fucking bitch? You mean Cheon Mari?”
“I don’t know! I’ll handle it myself so just leave me alone!”
Bang!
It wasn’t perfect, but by enduring every curse thrown at him in the name of loyalty, he had somehow managed to stop her from going completely off the rails during vacation.
‘What about second semester? I really don’t think I can handle this.’
The tragedy was that it hadn’t even truly begun yet. Her personality worsening by the day, the way she was slowly twisting her own memories, the magic she fired indiscriminately because of her swinging emotions—Sian seriously had no confidence he could prevent disaster in the second semester.
“Aww, our little black Maltese Sian got cursed out again. Want me to help?”
“Stop teasing me.”
“Kids at this age are all like that~ They bother others, try playing at suicide, set their own bodies on fire, get hit by cars and fly through the air, fight every single day just like we used to~ Yep, that’s exactly how it is.”
To the point that the ill-tempered, violent regressor was starting to look like a saintess. No, she didn’t just look like one—she really was one. This was because after entering middle school, the number of times she clashed with him had decreased sharply. From mortal enemy to something closer to “lesser piece of shit.”
“Of course, if nothing else works, just beat them until they listen! That’s the best medicine for people who won’t obey. Kyarruk.”
“Ugh……”
Anyway, it wasn’t much help. In this desperate situation, all Kang Sian could do was clutch his head.