The Sidekick Qualification Exam
What on earth am I supposed to do with him?
Baek Seungha had been swept up in the moment and, quite accidentally, "appointed" Hyunwoo as her sidekick. Of course, he wasn't officially registered with the Hero Association, and the relationship held zero legal weight—it was entirely unofficial. But it was far too late to back out now with a casual, "Just kidding~."
Why? Because she had given her word, and she had seen the "purest" joy in the world shining in that man’s eyes as he bounced with excitement right in front of her.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Slash!
In the States, Baek Seungha had lived a life where she had to lie to everyone—from the villains she met in secret to her own fellow heroes—to the point where the title of "Hero" felt like a joke. To her, lying was a means of survival; it was as natural as breathing. Conscience? She’d sold that off a long time ago. Back in the days of extreme poverty, she’d burned her corn porridge on the coal stove, and she’d buried even the guilt of that hunger deep in the dirt. That was when she’d buried her conscience, too.
That was the Baek Seungha she used to be, but this time... it was different. Hyunwoo, whom she’d expected to be sobbing and running away within a day, had endured every single part of the "Hellish Training Plan" she’d concocted to test the limits of a man.
'Ugh... the fact that he’s doing it every single day without missing a beat... it’s so adorable I could go crazy...!'
Look at those eyes. Most men would have been fed up and run away long ago, but he was looking at her as if asking for more. ...He’s damn sexy, fuck.
And besides.
'Fuck, they say a woman who makes a man cry isn’t a human being.'
Even Baek Seungha, who would leak drugs sourced from the underworld to villains and fake elevator malfunctions to make annoying heroes fall to their deaths, couldn't bring herself to make a man cry. That was a line she wouldn't cross; it was just too much. That wasn't the work of a villain—that was the work of "monstrous bastards" who had given up on being human.
And so, a week had passed since the sidekick contract (?) was signed. For Baek Seungha, it had been hell every single day, the first time she’d felt that way since childhood. She couldn't even breathe properly because she was constantly walking on eggshells around Hyunwoo, and she’d lost sleep worrying about how to clean up the mess.
And finally, that day arrived.
"Um, Master... but, you know. Lately, we’ve only been doing physical training, right? Is there perhaps any other kind of training?"
"O-o-other, o-o-other things?!"
No, why is this guy so reckless?! She was already making him do 100 push-ups, sit-ups, and squats every day, plus a 10-kilometer run! By Baek Seungha’s standards, any training beyond this for a man wasn't training—it was attempted murder, a "felony." He would surely die if she pushed him any harder. But Hyunwoo was bright-eyed.
He smiled with eyes that said, "This is nothing~." That expression was, quite literally, the pure attitude of someone wanting to exercise "a little more." The problem was that in this world, the very concept of a "man exercising" didn't exist. Baek Seungha was sweating bullets again today. This was scarier than going to arrest a drug lord in the States.
But then.
"Yes. For example... I’d like to try registering as an official sidekick."
"...! Ha! O-official registration?!"
For a moment, it felt like her brain had been struck by a rubber mallet. Right. That was it! He wasn't some middle-schooler with chunibyo; he was a real adult thinking about his career path. It was already strange enough that a man was looking for a job, but it meant he wasn't the type to treat being a hero's sidekick as a "hobby." Furthermore, he truly respected, trusted, and followed her. That sincerity was too heavy for Baek Seungha. It truly took her breath away.
So, she came up with a plan.
"Great! Since you brought it up, shall we head to the Hero Association today?"
"R-really?!"
"Yeah, kid~ Your stamina has improved a lot, so let's see what you've got!"
She said that, but her eyes were already calculating the escape route. And a plan, like a ray of salvation, flashed through her mind. It was an escape strategy—a "Sidekick Disqualification" operation using the Association, involving a third party rather than herself or Hyunwoo.
'Come to think of it, I don't have to be the one to eat the shit, do I?'
The moment she said, "Let's stop," she would become the villain. But if the Association rejected him as "unfit," she could just be a helpless bystander. 'I tried to help, but the Association is just so conservative... In this day and age, where do they even find those kinds of standards, right?' With that one line, zero guilt, zero responsibility! And above all, this complex and subtle relationship with Hyunwoo would be cleanly terminated! This was the "perfect cut-off using someone else's power."
Of course, she hadn't executed anything yet. But it wasn't the U.S. headquarters; it was just a local branch in a corner of East Asia. With her seniority, she could manipulate it however she wanted.
"Oh, but... what if I fail the registration screening?"
"Aha! You shouldn't think like that already!"
You're going to fail anyway, so don't worry about it~.
Baek Seungha was smiling brightly, forgetting even the dark circles under her eyes, like someone who had finally gotten a good night's sleep for the first time in ages. As if this were all for everyone's benefit.
The Hero Association itself was a mandatory field trip course for elementary schools, so Hyunwoo had been there many times before. It was the tallest Hero Association main building in South Korea. The exterior walls, which seemed to pierce the sky, were made of full tempered glass, and real-time mission logs for heroes, updated dozens of times a day, flowed across the surface. As an elementary schooler, Hyunwoo had been literally overwhelmed in front of that massive building.
The entrance was the highlight. Heroes wrapped in full-body suits came and went constantly, and behind them, Association staff in business suits moved busily, like a combat command center. On the outer wall of the building, there was a phrase glowing like a neon sign.
『Justice is always late. That is why we hurry – Hero Association』
The moment he saw those words, Hyunwoo felt like he had stepped into a movie. The fact that the "heroes" he’d only seen in cartoons actually existed in reality was a near-religious shock to the young Hyunwoo. But that excitement was soon refracted in a different direction.
"Oh my~ who is this cute little prince?"
"Hey kid~ want a chocolate bar from big sister?"
"Look at him~ he's so cute~!"
Back then, those hero sisters really... seemed to have more "stamina" than combat power. They would light up with greed and cling to Hyunwoo, their gazes nearly that of a hyena in heat. '...Hero sisters were scarier than villains.' After that, Hyunwoo had vowed never to come back here until he became a proper hero. And that day had come.
The place they entered this time was the upper zone, accessible only to official heroes within the Association. It was the "Training Room." It was a hero-only training zone where virtual reality was materialized to engage in direct combat with training villains.
"Whoa...! So this is the legendary Training Room... It's my first time seeing it in person!"
Hyunwoo’s eyes sparkled with admiration, and beside him, Baek Seungha quietly headed somewhere.
"Y-you want me to put a man... in the Training Room?"
Han Yusul, a C-rank hero in charge of this month's sidekick screening, known as the "White Awl." Cold sweat was beading on her forehead. The reason, of course, was the "seniority" of an American senior she’d never even heard of.
"Supervisor. Do you not know who I am?"
"Eek?!"
As Baek Seungha smiled lightly and pulled out her Hero ID just a crack—
"O-o-o-of course! Ms. Baek Seungha!!"
She was recorded as a "Red Grade," meaning she shouldn't be touched even by the U.S. headquarters. Her mere presence was treated almost like that of a branch manager within the Association.
"Supervisor. Let’s just... you know? Let’s just get through this quietly without any problems."
"E-even if you say that... putting a civilian, and a man at that, into the Training Room is dangerous! This isn't just VR; it's a system that summons semi-corporeal entities capable of physical contact!"
"I know. So... you just need to adjust it so it only scares him a little. You just need to make him forfeit, right? Isn't that it?"
'Hey, you crazy... does that make any sense?!'
It was a high-intensity training system where dozens, no, hundreds of monsters materialized at once. It was a space where even regular heroes often got hurt if they entered without regular inspections. And she wanted to put a civilian, a man, in there? And she wanted her to manually control it one by one to "just scare him"? Did she think this was some kind of game? Could she just run a space where people's lives were at stake so carelessly?
But if she refused, her life might really be over. Saying no in this situation was the same as saying goodbye to her career as a hero and disappearing quietly forever. And so.
"Anyway, run the test quickly. And then just disqualify him. Got it?"
"...Sigh, understood. But this is a secret."
"Oh my~ of course~♥"
And so, Hyunwoo became the first male examinee to enter the Hero Association Training Room. And Baek Seungha didn't know yet.
"Alright, Hyunwoo-gun's entry is confirmed. Now, Baek Seungha-nim, please enter as well."
"......What?"
Baek Seungha froze for a moment. Just now... what did he say? To Baek Seungha, who had thought she was just tagging along as staff, the supervisor spoke again as if to confirm.
"The sidekick exam is a test that evaluates the 'cooperative ability' of the hero and their partner. Therefore, the partner, Baek Seungha-nim, must also be deployed."
Silence. Then, a few seconds later, Baek Seungha slowly raised her head. Like someone who had just heard the most absurd thing in the world, her eyes were trembling, and the corners of her mouth were twitching like crazy.
"...Are you telling me to stand on the same battlefield as Hyunwoo right now?"
"...? Yes."
That meant... was she supposed to just watch whether the man who trusted and followed her got hurt or not right beside her...?