Freshman Meetup
“Thank you for your hard work, Team Leader. As you suspected, it’s definitely bodily fluid. The analysis results should be ready by tonight at the earliest, or tomorrow at the latest.”
“I see. Please contact me as soon as the results come in.”
“Haha, of course. Well then, I’ll head back to supervise the kids.”
“Thank you, Section Chief.”
The identification team leader smiled good-naturedly before turning and heading toward the scene Do Yi-yoon had discovered. A new recruit, still carrying a youthful, almost childlike air on his face, stood there fidgeting awkwardly.
“…Our youngest used to be like that too.”
She chuckled softly at the memory of the rookie who had joined last year. Now a capable team member who pulled his own weight, he had once been a walking disaster, constantly causing incidents. It wasn’t that he was a bad person—his enthusiasm simply outpaced his skill and experience, leading to inevitable mishaps.
“Mm, I should head back…”
She stretched her stiff body and fell into thought. Her intuition had played a part, but luck had been the bigger factor. If she had arrived even a little later or a little earlier, she might have missed it entirely. The culprit could have noticed the fluid they left behind—semen—and returned to clean it up, or arrived so quickly that no trace remained at all.
Now that she had found the evidence and called in the identification team to secure the area, the chances of the fluid’s owner still lingering nearby were slim.
“An alley on the outskirts of the city… It must have been hard to find. Good work.”
“It was just luck.”
Back at the Association, she reported directly to the department head, her tone calm and matter-of-fact.
“Luck is part of skill. Especially when you’ve proven it time and again like you have.”
“Even if you flatter me like that, nothing’s going to come out of it. Just give me some time off.”
“Hm? If you want to rest, just rest. We hired another rookie last year, so the team won’t grind to a halt if you take a day or two.”
“…Did you forget that my entire team is out in the field and I’m the only one left handling paperwork and admin?”
“Ah, right, that’s how it is. Sorry about that. We’re swamped too.”
The department head scratched the back of his head, looking sheepish. Up close, she could see the stubble darkening his chin and the tired shadows under his eyes—he had clearly been pulling all-nighters.
“Have you been working overtime too, sir?”
“As long as you guys are busy, we naturally end up with more work as well.”
“Haah… So everywhere’s short-staffed, huh.”
“Still, your team’s in a slightly better position. At least your headcount is filled, right?”
“No, it’s ridiculous that the Awakener Management Team is understaffed in the first place…”
“Why wouldn’t it be? Look, the Awakener Crime Management Bureau hasn’t even filled their quota yet.”
“Haah…”
“So just hang in there a little longer. Once the higher-ups ease up on hunting unregistered awakeners, you’ll finally be able to take all that vacation you’ve been saving.”
“I don’t even know how long that’ll take. How am I supposed to stay motivated?”
“Well, this mess should be over by June at the latest. They always get periodic fits about catching awakeners.”
“Anyway, I’ll be heading back in. I’ll report any additional information as soon as it comes in.”
“Good work. I’ll buy you a meal sometime.”
“Just make sure you pay the overtime properly~”
By the time she returned to the office and finally left for the day, the sun had long set and it was deep into the night. She ate dinner at the Management Bureau’s cafeteria again before dragging her heavy body home.
“Haah… I don’t feel like showering, but I guess I have to.”
Still, being a team leader at the Management Bureau came with a decent salary and the perks of being classified as a civil servant, which made loans easier to get. The apartment was thirty minutes away by car, in a convenient location with decent infrastructure. Since it was newly built, the walls were thick enough that she never heard any noise from the neighbors.
Shhhhh—
“Phew, I feel a bit more alive after washing up.”
Do Yi-yoon muttered as she ran her fingers through her hair under the streaming water. It had already been seven years since she started living alone. Back when she first moved out, she used to wonder why anyone would talk to themselves—weren’t those the kinds of habits old aunties and uncles had?
“I’m out of shampoo. I should order some before I forget…”
With so much time spent alone, talking to herself had become second nature.
“What? It’s raining? There was no mention of that in the forecast.”
The heating kept the room pleasantly warm. After drying off, she sat on the sofa in just her panties and shook out her hair. At work she always wore a suit and maintained perfect posture, so at home she had developed the habit of dressing comfortably. It was her own small act of rebellion.
The strange pleasure, satisfaction, and sense of freedom that came from exposing her bare chest without any clothes on helped her endure the difficult parts of her job. Without this, she sometimes wondered if she would have ended up doing more than just masturbating with her breasts at the office—maybe wandering around completely naked.
Ding—!
“The analysis results are in.”
She unplugged her tablet and began scrolling through the report. She felt too relaxed after her shower to want to work, but since the autopsy report had been sent at this hour, she figured she should check it.
“Hmm…”
Her decision to look had been the right one. The analysis of the fluid revealed something quite significant.
“It shows a different pattern from typical male semen, huh…”
Tap, tap. She drummed her fingers on her knee before setting the tablet down. The fluid had a noticeable smell—strong enough to detect even from a distance. The sheer volume was enough to form a puddle, far more than what one person should produce. Combined with the component analysis from the identification team…
“An awakener’s semen… Haah.”
Leaning back against the sofa, Do Yi-yoon stared up at the ceiling, lost in thought. Now that the identification team had the results, it was only a matter of time before it reached the higher-ups. She had no intention of hiding it anyway—tracking and catching unregistered awakeners was her job.
“It’s late anyway, so I’ll report it tomorrow… The real question is how much to reveal.”
It was a relatively peaceful world without gates or towers, but that was exactly why the government agency called the Management Bureau existed. Incidents involving unregistered awakeners caused far greater damage and operated on a completely different scale than those caused by ordinary people. The difference between a madman swinging a knife and an awakener who could set everything around them on fire was measured in the number of victims.
Even so, she couldn’t be certain that treating all non-awakeners as potential criminals and tracking them down was the right approach. Working at the Management Bureau in a relatively high position, she had heard various rumors. Awakeners with truly rare and unique abilities were quietly taken away, their existence erased from records, locked up in laboratories. There were whispers of research into enabling pregnancy and childbirth using only a single sex to combat the declining birth rate.
Her intuition was ringing alarm bells, warning her that immediately reporting this wasn’t a good idea. She couldn’t ignore the same reliable gut feeling that had led her to the scene today. Every time she had ignored it in the past, things had gone terribly wrong.
“What should I do about this…”
As the night deepened, so did her worries.
* * *
“I’m heading out~”
“You’re not going to be cold dressed like that?”
“Nah, it’s fine. This isn’t just a sweater—it’s heat-tech, so it’s warm!”
“Still, it looks pretty thin… Want to bring a scarf?”
“A scarf would be overkill… Besides, we’ll be inside eating and stuff anyway.”
“Alright. Be careful on your way.”
“Yeah, I’ll text if I’m gonna be late.”
I pressed a quick kiss to Mari’s forehead and opened the door with slightly trembling hands. The evening air was still cold enough to sting my nose. It was the kind of weather where you’d catch a cold if you dressed too lightly.
“Who gets rain in February? March is still a week away.”
The temperature had dropped sharply after yesterday’s rain, making me shiver. I shoved my hands deep into my coat pockets and pulled the collar up as high as it would go to block the wind creeping down my neck. No matter how much people said fashion was worth freezing or sweating for, getting sick over it on a day like this would just leave me bedridden.
‘I can’t catch a cold right before the semester starts next week. Absolutely not.’
Sniffling, I caught the bus and arrived at the meeting spot in no time. I was about ten minutes early. The cold weather made waiting outside unthinkable. I carefully opened the door, and the delicious smell and warm air wrapped around me.
“The back room… Ah, is it here?”
I swallowed hard as I grabbed the sliding door. This wasn’t even my first time. Even if it was in my past life, I had been to college before—I shouldn’t be this nervous.
With a soft rattle, I slid the door open. Inside were fresh-faced college students who had only just become adults.
‘Ah, I’m a freshman too now.’
“Hello…? Is this the Awakening Ecology Department’s freshman orientation…?”
“Ah, yes, that’s right. Welcome.”
The guy who seemed to be the representative stood up and greeted me with a smile. Looking around, I saw quite a few other girls like me. So the gender ratio in our department was pretty balanced? That was actually nice.