Secret (2)
Secret (2)
......Groooan.
The pressure squeezing in from both sides furrowed Baek Ha-na's smooth brow.
"Mnng...."
Her limbs felt like small weights had been strapped to them. The odd part was that the heaviness on each side felt slightly different.
As her hazy mind surfaced, Baek Ha-na's eyelids fluttered and slowly rose.
A familiar ceiling.
The moment she saw the glow-in-the-dark stickers plastered across it, Baek Ha-na remembered: this was not the dormitory—this was her own room. And the source of the pressure on both sides.
"Stuffy...."
Nam Seo-hee and Lee Na-young were clinging to her like dolls, each with a leg thrown over her. Baek Ha-na let out a brief sigh as she looked at the two of them using her arms as pillows, even though she had clearly given them actual pillows.
Ssshhh.
"......Sniff."
The covers bulged as Nam Seo-hee, hugging Baek Ha-na tightly, twitched her nose and shifted the arm wrapped around Baek Ha-na's body.
As if this were entirely routine, Baek Ha-na simply pushed Nam Seo-hee aside and sat up, retracting her tail which had briefly slipped out at the same time.
"Hup."
She carefully lifted the feather-light Lee Na-young and swapped their positions. The moment her arms were empty, Lee Na-young wriggled, then rolled herself up in the blanket like a caterpillar.
"Mmmnya~"
Below the bed.
Idni lay on the thick blanket scratching her belly, while Maria slept as if dead.
This, too, was a familiar sight by now.
Careful not to step on either of them, Baek Ha-na climbed off the bed and left the room.
"Hrrrnngh~!!"
Stretching out with a refreshing groan, Baek Ha-na headed for the bedroom inside the study. She pushed open the door, which had been left ajar, and peered toward the bed.
-Piii... ppiyung.......
The peeping sounds were healthy as ever today.
Baek Ha-na slipped inside and looked down at the Fairy's face as she slept, sucking on her own finger like a baby.
"When are you going to wake up, little sleepyhead?"
-Ppiyung~
Perhaps she had been too loud. The Fairy shifted and rolled over onto her other side. Baek Ha-na chuckled softly and walked back out.
Ten days had passed since the festival ended, but the Fairy still showed no signs of waking up. It didn't worry her much. She trusted that person.
Maybe that was why.
"...One mail would be enough."
Baek Ha-na thought of the owner of the desk, who had been unreachable since that day, and pressed her cheek against its surface.
"Haaa...."
She exhaled hard, pushing back the anxiety that kept creeping up.
Honestly, the silence didn't bother her. She hadn't known it in the past, but now she understood better than anyone just how strong that person was. The problem was:
'It was definitely the smell of blood.'
A scent that stirred a faint sense of déjà vu.
That odor, which had only brushed past her nose for an instant, fed the anxiety growing inside her. And the element that made that anxiety bloom in full—
-Rrrrumble!!
Even now, she could see it clearly whenever she closed her eyes. The image of the scale, tilted to one side, leveling out perfectly.
She had offered seventy years of her lifespan, yet the scale had remained absurdly lopsided. And then, as if by magic, it found its balance.
What price had been paid for that? What had been offered to balance a scale so impossibly skewed?
She was dying to know. But at the same time, she didn't want to find out.
'...It won't be that.'
Because she felt she would regret it if she knew. Regret her own actions—her own plea for help.
"......."
Tick- tick-
In the stillness, the sound of a clock quietly performing its duty carried across the desk.
"I should start waking them up...."
They could skip washing up, but they needed a solid meal before training. More importantly, if they were even a little late, the intensity of the training would spike to absurd levels.
"Hup."
Baek Ha-na peeled her cheek off the desk. She rubbed the warm spot where her cheek had rested, then left the study.
**
Sft.
Claire drove the bloodied wooden sword into the lawn.
At that signal, the girls who had been staggering to keep their footing collapsed onto the grass.
Lee Na-young and Maria, who had been standing at a distance, approached and began tending to their injured friends as best they could.
"I'll prepare lunch. Wash up and come to the kitchen."
Claire went inside first, and only then did the girls let go of their tension, exhaling deep breaths.
"...Don't you feel like she's changed a bit?"
"Yeah."
Maria, who had just finished setting the broken bone in Idni's arm, nodded.
"It doesn't feel like a major change...... but she's definitely a little different."
"Right?"
They already knew she showed no mercy during training. But since the festival ended, the intensity felt like it had kicked up a notch.
"She, she definitely seemed a bit sharper today......."
Lee Na-young answered as she spread a potion over the bruise on Nam Seo-hee's thigh.
"It's probably because of the barrier."
Nam Seo-hee chimed in with a sulky expression.
"You think so?"
"Hmm."
Unlike Idni, who seemed unconvinced, Maria narrowed her eyes and held her tongue.
It was true that the academy was on a knife's edge now that the barrier was gone. The tension was at its peak. That was the very reason they had even sent home the remaining students in the dorms.
'There's definitely something more.'
Whether the barrier vanished or a key piece of academy research was stolen—Maria was certain her superior wouldn't have cared in the slightest.
Yet she sensed something was going on because they had been ordered to stay here, almost as if this outcome had been anticipated.
But it was only a suspicion. She had no intention of moving to satisfy that curiosity. That would clearly be overstepping her bounds, and it wasn't as if she could uncover the truth by making a move anyway.
Baek Ha-na's thoughts, however, were a little different.
"Ha-na? Ah, you shouldn't be moving around yet......."
"It's fine. Don't mind me, you guys head to the bathroom first."
She gave Lee Na-young's cheek a playful pinch, then stood up and walked into the mansion.
"Big sis."
"......."
Claire, who had been preparing the meal, paused, her hands stilling mid-motion, and turned around.
"What is it, Miss Ha-na."
Baek Ha-na looked at Claire's face as she approached her.
"Woo-jin... is he alright...?"
Claire averted her gaze from Baek Ha-na, who had come right up close.
"I have not received any contact myself, so it is difficult for me to say. But if it is the professor, I am certain he is fine."
"......."
Baek Ha-na didn't reply right away. She simply watched Claire's back in silence as her hands busied themselves with cooking. And then.
"Hehe, I knew you'd say that?"
She hugged Claire's back and let out a soft laugh.
"Haa~ I'm hungry. What kind of stew is it today?"
"A cream stew with meat and garlic."
"Meat!! I'd better wash up quick!!"
Baek Ha-na released her arms from around Claire's waist and slowly walked backward.
"Are you going to eat with us today?"
"...No. Matters outside are quite busy."
"I see."
Baek Ha-na turned around.
"That's too bad, but I understand. I'll go wash up then."
The face Baek Ha-na wore as she left the kitchen resembled the one Claire had worn once before.
**
"You have returned, have you not."
"...Yes."
Lee Ye-sol approached Claire as she returned to the temple from the mansion.
"Intrusion attempts continue, but thanks to the Chairman, the faculty, and the Clock Tower mages stationed outside, there seem to be no major issues."
"......Understood."
Claire turned her back on Lee Ye-sol and began climbing the stairs.
'Professor.......'
When she entered the temple, it was not the outside reports she wanted to hear. It was news of Baek Woo-jin.
It was something she should never have revealed to anyone, but Claire had been so afraid that something might happen to him in her absence that she had told Lee Ye-sol alone about Baek Woo-jin.
'I'm sorry.......'
She had been told he would be fine, and she did trust him, but her body did not want to leave his side for even a moment.
If she was away from him for even a short while, her chest felt tight, and the worry nearly drove her mad.
Click.
The first thing Claire did upon entering the room was lock the door.
She knew no one would dare enter without her permission. Still, she felt anxious unless she locked it.
"I have returned."
She greeted the man lying on her bed, his face still pale.
She removed her coat, washed her hands, and then approached the bed, leaning against the small chair she had placed beside it.
"Outside, things are proceeding just as you said, Professor. And......."
Claire slowly recounted the day's events to the sleeping Baek Woo-jin—especially the matters concerning Baek Ha-na's growth.
"Professor."
Claire lowered her head as she continued speaking.
"It has become difficult to look at Miss Ha-na's face the way I used to."
She covered her face with both hands.
"Perhaps because of that, I made a mistake today. It was a question about you. I could not answer right away, and I could not bear to meet Miss Ha-na's eyes, so I looked away......."
She slowly drew her hands down her face and brought them together beneath her chin, as if in prayer.
"...Since she was young, Miss Ha-na has always had strong intuition. I am certain she knew I was not telling the truth. Yet she pretended not to notice and smiled as she let it pass......."
Claire's gaze drifted back to Baek Woo-jin's face as he lay there.
"For Miss Ha-na's sake. And for my own as well, I beg you with all my heart to please wake up soon in good heal—"
"...You've had it rough."
"Nngk?!"
With the sound of her biting her tongue, Claire went toppling backward, chair and all.