Rupture #011
Whether she knew about the suffering of those around her or remained blissfully unaware was impossible to say. The moment the second semester began, Lim Hana’s exploits grew more flamboyant with every passing day.
“Please, Hana! Just listen to your mother!”
“I don’t want to!”
“Sweetheart, if you keep this up we might have to pull you out of the academy!”
“Then pull me out!”
“Hana, your parents were really upset about you dyeing your hair pink. If you apologize now—”
“Get lost!”
What had been building up during the first semester had been bottled inside her all through break, only to explode even more violently in the second. At this rate, it seemed like the ancestors’ time-honored wisdom of “physical therapy” would be required. Sadly, her parents were not the kind of people capable of laying hands on their own child. Instead, they were the type who would support and believe in their wayward daughter to the bitter end. And so the situation stagnated, with no solution in sight.
Naturally, the family next door—Kang Sian’s—faced the exact same problem.
“She was perfectly fine until sixth grade. What on earth happened at that academy?”
The difference was that, standing in a more objective position than her parents, Sian could see the downward spiral with painful clarity. He spent days digging into how things had gone so wrong. Piecing together a child’s past was difficult, but after considerable effort he finally reached something that resembled the truth.
“Um… Hana’s dad. I managed to crack the messenger password, but are you sure it’s okay for me to look?”
“I’ll take full responsibility. Don’t worry about it.”
The moment they opened the app, the expected contents spilled out.
Kim Yujae: [Photo: perched on a wall, chewing three strange leaves at once]
Park Gyuhan: [Photo: standing outside in expensive armor while holding the leaves]
Kim Taerin: Whoa, that’s seriously cool!
An Yoonchun: Kya lmao lololololololol
Jung Seohye: Wow, that shot is legendary
Jung Seohye: [Photo: strutting while chewing a strange leaf and holding a magic wand]
Jung Seohye: So I had to get one too lol
Kim Yujae: Hana, you should grab a leaf and take a pic too
Jung Seohye: Yeah, your outfit would look fire with it
Lim Hana: Ah T_T
Lim Hana: Can’t because of my mom, dad, and that friend guy T_T
Lim Hana: The leaves all fell off ages ago anyway
Kim Yujae: Wanna come to my place? I’ll give you one.
Lim Hana: For real?!
Lim Hana: Thank you Yujae 😍😍😍
Kang Sian and Lim Hana’s parents could only sigh. Skipping studies, dyeing her hair, even running away from home—they could understand those. But the strange leaves that consumed mana inside the body and induced hallucinations and extreme emotions? She had been secretly using the Madness Herb that could be gathered beyond the gates?
What the hell is this situation?
It felt like getting smacked in the back of the head with a plate of fish and chips. Shocked, Sian went to find her and deliver a warning.
“Hey, Hana?”
“Ugh, seriously… I’m talking with my academy friends. What do you want?”
She had already forgotten why she had even enrolled in the hunter academy. Until recently it hadn’t been like this, but now, to her, Kang Sian was nothing more than a weakling who clung to her under the name of childhood friend. Someone she only saw in the mornings on the way to school, an occasional face outside the house, a background character who only needed to give her a bit of attention. And that insignificant kid was once again trying to lecture her beyond his station.
“Hana, I’m being serious. Stop hanging out with those academy friends. This is your last real chance.”
“Ha, here we go again with that nonsense—”
“Please don’t brush this off. Your parents found out you’re using the leaf.”
“…The leaf?”
“The leaf you and your delinquent friends secretly eat. You didn’t come home yesterday so you probably don’t know, but right now your parents are talking about sending you to a drug treatment center.”
This time the meddling had gone far beyond the usual. He listed everything: what the leaf the academy kids were using actually was, how terribly bad it was for mages, the moral and common-sense arguments. But what Lim Hana focused on wasn’t any of that.
“So you’re saying my academy friends are bad people?”
“…Yes.”
She could endure insults toward herself, but not toward her friends. That day, Kang Sian was beaten by Lim Hana for the first time in his life.
“Cough, cough!”
“Who the hell are you to badmouth my academy friends? And how did you even find out I ate the Madness Herb at Yujae’s house?”
Illogical, irrational judgment. Only after committing the act did she need to realize what she had done. But Lim Hana had only one thought.
Anyway, he gets along fine with that bitch he fights with every day. He won’t make a big deal out of me hitting him a little when I’m a much closer friend.
If this caused any problems for her, it would only be the fault of the two-faced Kang Sian. She was the clear victim here, a flawless being. It was a surreal leap of logic, but to her it felt perfectly reasonable. After all, she believed she was the one who would push aside villains like Cheon Mari and stand at the top of everything. That was what the academy had taught her. That was what her friends had told her.
In the end, Lim Hana kicked the collapsed, magic-beaten Kang Sian once more. The powerless, frail boy let out a painful cough. Meanwhile the academy friends watching from a distance laughed as if it were hilarious. Lim Hana smirked, convinced she had made the right choice.
And the school flipped upside down. The two who had been considered friends since childhood had finally split. Both sets of guardians who rushed to the school couldn’t hide their disappointment. They had never imagined their own family member—or the child they had treated so well—would do something like this. Lim Hana’s parents bowed completely, preventing the incident from escalating into something more serious, but the relationship between the two families was never the same.
Naturally, the same went for Kang Sian and Lim Hana.
“Traitor, traitor, traitor bastard. You really told Mom and Dad everything?”
It was entirely one-sided hatred from Lim Hana, who could no longer attend the academy. She didn’t even know what she had done wrong, believed her own assumptions as truth, and never considered cause and effect. What made it even more tragic was that the academy friends’ childish delusions were mixed in as well.
On the other hand, Kang Sian could only let out heavy sighs at the absurd reality. He waited for an apology, but Lim Hana never once came to visit him in the hospital.
“Sian, if she’s not even coming to apologize, it looks like her personality is completely rotten. Want me to smack her with a baseball bat, drag her over, and make her do a handstand until she begs for forgiveness?”
“…How about you get off my hospital bed first before saying stuff like that?”
“Ah.”
Instead, the strange girl came to visit every single day. In a way, it was a huge betrayal. At the same time, it was proof that the girl who usually acted like a wild dog was at least somewhat human.
Time flowed on gloomily. After causing her parents endless heartache, Lim Hana was finally allowed to attend the hunter academy again.
“Thanks, everyone! Mom let me back in after I did exactly what you guys told me.”
“See? Parents are all the same.”
“Honestly, I thought it wouldn’t work at first. The mood was really bad.”
“Come on, tons of kids get to keep attending after pulling stuff like that. Why wouldn’t it work?”
“Yeah, true. Anyway, it’s been a while since we all got together—want to chew some leaves?”
“Hell yeah!”
She openly bragged about her behavior and immediately did the very thing her parents hated. She was the very picture of a fiery unfilial daughter, yet Lim Hana felt no sense of crisis. She was simply happy chatting with her friends in the paradise that was the academy.
“When that guy came looking for you last time, I could tell just from his face. Total traitor face.”
“Right? Everyone has a look like that, don’t they?”
“He was the one who started hanging out with that crazy pretty girl first anyway. That’s self-defense.”
“And a few days ago he told you to get your act together? The nerve of that bastard.”
Badmouthing Kang Sian was just the bonus. Lim Hana kept smiling, intoxicated by the reality that her friends only ever talked about her.
Then, the boy she usually got along with best—Kim Yujae—leaned in slightly.
“Hana, want me to just take care of it for you?”
“Take care of it?”
“He kept bothering you even after you said no, right?”
“Well… yeah, I guess?”
“I’ll handle him properly. He won’t even be able to show his face again.”
It was a cruel suggestion. The kind that, once accepted, could never be taken back. A seductive limit. It felt like the perfect way to shatter the mounting dissatisfaction and stress. Doing something like that to a childhood friend who, until recently, had been somewhat decent despite their current distance. It was her own delusion, but the idea didn’t feel entirely off. Doing something like that to the childhood friend who had so thoroughly stabbed her in the back. It was her own delusion, but the idea felt pretty good.
The drug made her mind feel like it was splitting in two. In the end, she had to pull a matchbox out of her pocket with trembling hands. Inside were several well-dried leaves. Lim Hana took one out, put it in her mouth, and chewed. The terrible emotions vanished instantly and her judgment cleared.
“…Okay.”
The words “Are you in your right mind?” almost slipped out. But if she had been in her right mind, she never would have blasted magic at Sian in the first place.
“But are you sure it’ll be fine? I heard he’s pretty good at fighting.”
“He’s only good at fighting. His magic power is supposed to be trash.”
“Yeah, I heard his hunter aptitude test results were the lowest rank.”
“His family name is all that’s decent. The way they actually live is nothing special, right? They’re nowhere near our level.”
Information about Kang Sian flowed freely. They gathered what they had learned from acquaintances, seen with their own eyes, and heard in passing. For the best friend in their group. For the friend they liked. For the friend who had always protected their friendship. The delinquents displayed the greatest friendship they could offer.
The conspiracy advanced slowly over several days.
“That’s right! Next month’s field trip is going beyond the World Gate!”
“Oh? You’re right.”
“Hey, if we do this right, it could be cleaner than we thought—”
And so the middle schoolers without conscience, fear, or limits completed their plan. A plan that would ensure his head could never be raised again.
The unforgettable days began just like that.