Big and Small (1)
Big and Small (1)
[ All of you have done well over these past four years. ]
Chairman An Hyeon-do, standing at the podium above the Grand Auditorium, began offering brief words of praise and encouragement to the graduating students.
"Professor Baek. I believe it's time for you to go up."
"......."
When I shot Jaden a look—he'd been creeping up to me with cagey glances—the bastard flinched and quietly looked away.
'Damned bastard.'
The graduation ceremony was supposed to take place on January 28th. But the blowhard up on that podium now, running his mouth endlessly, came back late from a Rift, which pushed the ceremony all the way to today, February 3rd.
-Just help me out this once.......
-Oh, screw off! You think I enjoy dealing with those political bastards?
-......That doesn't mean you can just toss it aside like that, does it? You humorless, thick-headed friend of mine.......
Maybe out of guilt toward the graduates, An Hyeon-do asked me to attend the ceremony and say a few words. Given that the man was already in debt to me, it wasn't the kind of request he had any right to make, so I refused outright.
But then the bastard, forgetting his own age, threw himself onto the Chairman's office floor in protest. The sight of him acting like that despite owing me left me so dumbfounded that I actually let out a dry laugh at first.
But once he went past begging and started threatening to break the promises he'd already made to me, I started thinking that replacing the Chairman with another human being didn't sound half bad. It would be a bit of a nuisance, sure, but the replacement would be far more useful than the current one.
[ Once you enter society, the spirit of Arena Academy will....... ]
Yet there he is now, standing on that podium running his mouth without a care in the world.
The moment I slammed him into his office wall, he immediately threw up a surrender flag, and I accepted his request on the condition that he handle a few additional matters for me.
Planting a stand-in wouldn't be hard, but finding someone with An Hyeon-do's level of combat ability who also harbors genuine affection for the students is difficult, so it was a reasonable enough choice.
[ Then....... ]
"Professor. You may go up now."
At the signal from An Hyeon-do and Jaden, I ascended the podium.
No thunderous ovation or applause broke out.
They simply held their breath in silence, gazing up at me with heated eyes.
Fourth-year graduates.
Across the memories of both that side and this side, a year filled with kids whose faces—let alone names—had never once been mentioned. I spoke to those kids, alive and breathing before me.
"Set your priorities. Your life, your wealth, your bonds, your dreams. Whatever works. Use them as your weight on the scale when you judge and act. That way, at the very least, you won't find yourself drowning in regret on your deathbed."
As I am doing now.
With those words, I turned and descended from the podium. Naturally, no applause followed me this time either.
"Haha... thank you for your hard work."
I brushed past Jaden, who had scurried over to gauge my mood. There was no reason to remain here any longer, so leaving quickly was the correct move.
"Ah, Professor Yoon Do-sik mentioned that if you have time, he'd like to have lunch together......."
"Is he in his lab?"
"Huh? Ah, yes. He's in his lab."
I gave no answer and walked straight out of the Grand Auditorium.
February 3rd.
The day Baek Ha-na welcomed her ninth winter.
And simultaneously, the day I was exiled from my own mansion.
**
Earlier, while the graduation ceremony was still in full swing.
"Whoa... it's huge."
Baek Ha-na, who had opened the door to her newly assigned dormitory room to move in her belongings, marveled at how much larger it was than the room she had shared with Lee Na-young.
"It's way too big for just one person...."
Due to a combination of factors, Baek Ha-na had been assigned a private room. She scratched her cheek for a moment, then lifted the boxes she'd set on the floor and carried them inside. Without much deliberation, she unpacked and organized her things.
Clothes and uniforms went into the wardrobe.
Her diary and notebooks went onto the shelf beside her desk.
As for the mountain of gifted snacks, she sorted them neatly by type into the refrigerator, the shelves, and the tabletop. Truth be told, classifying the snacks had taken far longer than the first two tasks combined.
"Ha-na. You done?"
Nam Seo-hee poked her face through the slightly open front door and asked.
"Yeah, all done."
Baek Ha-na stood the empty box neatly beside the wardrobe, switched off the light, and exited the room.
"It really is too big for one person......."
"Then how about we just sleep together at night?"
Nam Seo-hee, who had been assigned the room right next door, slipped her arm through Baek Ha-na's and asked.
"Uh, um, I, I should get used to living alone, you know...... yeah...."
On this rare occasion, Baek Ha-na actually turned down Nam Seo-hee's proposal.
Over the past few days, every time she woke up, she had found Nam Seo-hee clinging to her pelvis with her face buried in her lower back. That sleeping habit had taken its toll, and it was precisely why she declined.
Having managed to deflect the suggestion, Baek Ha-na headed down to the floor below together with Nam Seo-hee.
"Hurry up, why aren't you two running down here?"
Idni, who was helping Lee Na-young haul her luggage after managing to secure a private room only half the size, shouted at the pair as they walked over at a leisurely pace. Once the two of them joined in, lending a hand even to the youngest, Na Yeon-ju, it still took a little over an hour for Lee Na-young to finish unpacking.
"When did the professor say he'd be back?"
"Six? He said by seven at the latest."
"...So even at the outside, we've got five hours."
Once unpacking was done, the kids returned directly to the mansion without any detours. And thus began Hell's Kitchen.
"What the hell, you bitch? I told you to peel the skin off, not strip it down to the flesh and toss the whole thing!"
"You lunatic!! Putting it over high heat doesn't make it cook faster, got it? The outside burns and the inside stays raw, so how many times do I have to tell you to use low heat—!!"
"Argh!! The noodles are sticking, so keep stirring, I said!!"
Astonishingly, out of the six of them, including Na Yeon-ju, Idni was the only person with any actual cooking ability. And so, the sole competent cook, Idni, was condemned to endless suffering at the hands of her godforsaken friends who insisted on improvising beyond her control.
-Peep-peep~
Crunch-crunch-crunch.
And Claire, who had retreated a step back and was spectating the chaos alongside Fairy.
"I suppose I should at least—"
"Ah!! Absolutely not!! Executor, you are to rest thoroughly today!!"
"...Fine."
Claire, who had been trying to slip into the kitchen, blinked a few times at Idni's demon-like outburst and quietly retreated.
She had been cooking for nearly eight years, but aside from stew, Claire's culinary skills were catastrophic, so Idni had preemptively excluded her superior from the operation.
Fwoosh—!!
"Kyaaah?!"
"You crazy bitch!!"
Maria, who was searing a tenderloin over high heat, had just dumped white wine straight onto it, and a spectacular pillar of flame erupted in the kitchen.
**
"...Hehe, welcome back."
After I had reluctantly killed time with Yoon Do-sik and Jaden and returned to the mansion, Baek Ha-na was waiting for me at the front door. She tugged me by the hand and led me toward the kitchen.
"Welcome back."
The five kids greeted me in unison as I arrived at the kitchen.
'They really went all out on the chaos, didn't they.'
Dark scorch marks were vividly etched across the kitchen walls and ceiling. On top of that, several pots and frying pans were nowhere to be seen.
"We made these... please try them and tell us how they taste."
Perhaps feeling a little guilty herself, Baek Ha-na used formal speech toward me for the first time in a while as she made the request.
'The appearance is fairly convincing, but....'
I sampled the dishes arranged on the table one by one. And I had no trouble arriving at my assessment.
"The pasta is completely unseasoned."
"Urk......."
Nam Seo-hee flinched.
"The steak shows clear rareness, yet when chewed, I'm not quite sure why wine bursts out of it. It's unsellable, but it's a rather intriguing dish."
"......."
The faint reddening of Maria's cheeks.
"The risotto has undercooked rice... and the pizza is pleasantly decent."
Lee Na-young and Na Yeon-ju lowered their heads at the same time.
"The kimchi stew was excellent."
"Ngh......."
Idni bit her lip softly, forcibly suppressing the corners of her mouth from rising.
"And as for the muffin......."
I tapped at the chocolate muffin, which had risen into a lumpy dome inside its paper cup, and let out a short sigh.
"...It's excessively sweet."
"I-it wasn't that sweet......?"
At Baek Ha-na's mumbling, I sighed inwardly once more. How was it that every other sensory organ of hers was so sensitive, yet her sense of taste refused to function properly?
'It must have been that chocolate I bought her that day.'
On her first trip to a department store, caught up in Baek Ha-na's excited curiosity, I had pressed a children's chocolate into her hands. That was probably the root cause of Ha-na's malformed palate.
"Don't leave leftovers. Take responsibility for what each of you made and eat every last bite."
I left the pouting kids behind and made my way to the study.
·
·
·
Knock. Knock. Knock.
As I sat in the study savoring my coffee, Baek Ha-na carefully opened the door and poked her head in.
"Come in."
"......Hehe."
Wearing a smile that looked just a little dopey, she approached me.
"Th-this."
She held out a black box she had been hiding behind her back.
I took it and opened the lid.
"Handkerchiefs."
"......Yeah."
One black and one white.
I gazed at the two contrasting handkerchiefs for a moment, then closed the lid again.
"Thank you."
"Really......?"
I gave a single nod toward the girl who was fidgeting with her fingers.
"Really."
"......Hehe."
Only then did she flash that silly grin again, circle around the desk, and come stand beside me. Then, after gauging my mood, she carefully pressed her bottom against my thigh and settled onto my lap.
"You're heavy."
"Th-that's a lie!!"
The girl, whose face had flushed bright red as she gazed up at me shyly, suddenly rounded her eyes and shouted at that single remark.
I said nothing and quietly stroked the hair of the child seated on my knee.
"...It's February 4th."
The girl, who had been meekly accepting my touch, glanced at the clock on the desk and said so.
"Happy birthday."
"......Yeah."
A faint smile crossed her face as the snow-white child rested her head against my shoulder.
"I haven't prepared a separate gift, but if there's something you want, tell me."
"Will you get me anything?"
"As if."
"Tch... you used to say you'd give me anything I wanted."
"That was back when the only thing that ever filled your head was food."
"N-no it wasn't?"
A snow-white lump of a thing who used to drool the moment she fell asleep.
A wild little tomboy who hopped around salivating over chocolate and cookies.
That child had grown up before I knew it.
"If there's nothing you want, then go on back."
"...Th-there is, actually......."
She lifted her head to look up at me again.
"Th-the Basic Rift Studies lecture... I want to keep taking it...."
"Do that, then."
"......Huh?"
My answer must have caught her off guard, because she stared at me with a surprised expression.
"R-really? Is it really okay if I take it?"
"It is."
"...But I'm a second-year now?"
"Check your schedule later, and don't show up late."
"......I-I'll really come, okay?"
"Ask one more time and—"
"N-no, never mind!! Okay!! I-I won't be late. Hehe...... th-then goodnight...!!"
She rubbed her cheek against my shoulder a couple of times, then climbed off my lap and fled the study as if making an escape.
Alone now, I carefully stored the black box in my drawer, then leaned back into my chair.
'She's going to have a pretty rough stomachache later.'
The Basic Rift Studies lecture had dropped the word "Basic" and would be offered as a second-year lecture under the name Rift Studies. The class size would remain at the original seven students—an arrangement already settled with the Chairman. Naturally, an official notice would be issued after the start of the semester citing the Chairman's policy, so there would be no headaches from the students either.
"She brought this on herself."
I savored the remaining coffee and opened my log.
**
March 2nd.
The day the upperclassmen's semester began, and simultaneously the day the freshmen's orientation period started.
[ We freshmen also have the right to attend Professor Baek Woo-jin's lectures!! ]
"We do! We do!"
Around a hundred students had gathered in front of the main building to protest.
On my way to the annex, I paused for a moment to examine the face of the person standing at the very front.
[ Chairman, you must immediately—— ]
A vermin wearing a student's skin was practically begging to be put down.