Uninvited Guest
Uninvited Guest
"Haa."
Stepping out of the elevator, Baek Ha-na let out an involuntary sigh.
It wasn't just because of what happened that afternoon. The Guidance Department lifestyle wasn't what she'd imagined at all.
'What should I eat for dinner...'
Through the hallway windows, the night sky was dark and dim.
He had drawn such a strict line that she'd even had to eat lunch alone. And it was pretty clear she'd be eating dinner alone, too. Gazing up at the cloudless, clear sky, Baek Ha-na pondered what would be good to have.
"A full moon."
Its flawlessly round, beautiful form.
'Dumplings it is.'
The moment she saw the full moon, the dish that popped into her head settled the dinner menu. Baek Ha-na resumed walking toward the Control Room. Just as she rounded the corner at the end of the corridor—
'...?'
A small crowd had gathered in front of the Control Room.
Several of them were familiar faces, so she walked over.
"Oh?"
"Ha-na?"
"Ah, right. You did say you'd joined the Guidance Department."
The professors standing in front of the Control Room turned their heads at the approaching footsteps, and those who recognized Baek Ha-na spoke up one after another.
"Good evening."
"Ooh, our cute little...!!"
Kang Han-na, standing right in front of the Control Room door, beamed brightly and placed a hand on Baek Ha-na's shoulder.
"...?"
"Ah, ahem. You're going in, right?"
"Yes."
She's a good person, but sometimes she acts as unpredictably as Idni.
That was Baek Ha-na's take on Kang Han-na.
"Mmhm, good."
"...?"
What exactly was good?
Removing the hand from her shoulder, Baek Ha-na turned to look steadily at Kang Han-na as she stood before the door.
Huuu....
After a short, steadying breath, Kang Han-na steeled her expression and knocked carefully with a lightly clenched fist.
"Professor. All duty personnel are assembled."
-Enter.
At those words, Kang Han-na slowly pushed the door open. Baek Ha-na and the other professors followed her inside.
"Baek Ha-na."
Sitting in the chair at his desk, the night sky framed by the large window behind him, Baek Woo-jin set down the document he was holding.
"Take a break."
"Yes, Professor."
Baek Ha-na slipped through the gap between the professors and settled herself carefully onto the sofa where she'd sat that morning.
"Kang Han-na. You're the officer in charge today."
"I am."
Baek Woo-jin swept his gaze over the faces of the professors lined up behind her, then continued.
"Let bygones be bygones."
Sitting on the sofa with her ears perked up, Baek Ha-na could tell that several of the professors' heart rates had sped up.
"Follow the rules. There will be no leniency."
Baek Woo-jin spoke while looking at Kang Han-na.
"Don't make me get involved."
"Yes. I'll make absolutely sure you won't have to, Professor."
Baek Woo-jin nodded once at Kang Han-na's reply, then flicked his hand. A gesture that told them to leave.
"Well then."
Quicker on the uptake than anyone, Kang Han-na hastily bowed her head in farewell. Gathering up her tense juniors and peers, she vacated the Control Room.
After they had vanished—
"Woo-jin...?"
Baek Ha-na, who had been gauging his mood from the sofa, cautiously rose and approached the desk. She leaned forward abruptly and plopped her body over the documents to block his hand.
Having hidden the paperwork under her chest in an instant, she inclined her head slightly to look up at him.
Thump.
"Mmng..."
A stinging sensation brushed the tip of her nose. Baek Ha-na covered her nose with both hands, pouting her lips out.
"If you've got nothing to do, go eat dinner."
"...Can't we eat together? Hm?"
Aside from breakfast, which they'd shared on the sofa, she'd spent nearly half the day wandering the academy alone. And now even dinner, which they usually had together, had to be eaten alone.
"I'm lonely..."
Even if it was futile, she had to at least try.
Baek Ha-na practically sprawled out across the desk, flipping herself over. The documents underneath her were shoved haphazardly to the side, and her flowing hair left the desk in disarray.
Kang Han-na would've been horrified if she'd witnessed it, but Ha-na didn't stop there. She grew bolder.
"And today's the weekend..."
She grabbed Baek Woo-jin's right hand, which had frozen up rather unnaturally, and pulled it to her cheek, rubbing against it.
"I haven't been clingy even once today, have I?"
"...Didn't you say you wouldn't be clingy anymore?"
"I don't know, I don't remember."
Every time she rubbed her cheek, his hand flinched, almost imperceptibly, but it was there.
"Please...?"
With all the pleading she could muster.
"..."
"..."
A strange silence descended, brief.
"...I'll order it for you. Be satisfied with that."
"Hee-hee~"
At his concession, Baek Ha-na grinned and nodded.
"...Now get down."
"Just a little longer~"
"...Bring a chair and sit next to me."
"Okaaay~"
Baek Ha-na quickly slid off the desk. She glanced around for a moment.
"No chairs to bring."
She wedged herself between Baek Woo-jin's arms as he organized the documents on his desk and planted herself right on his thigh.
"...Behave."
"Mm. I'll be good."
Without so much as a glance at the documents in his hands, Baek Ha-na leaned her head against his chest and listened to the steady, rhythmic drumming of his heart.
'...I love this.'
The warmth felt through the contact of their skin.
The faint scent of him that tickled her nose.
The broad embrace that could still hold her even now that she'd grown.
She simply loved everything about this person.
'A dream...'
Since the day she was asked that question, she hadn't ever deeply considered it.
Because simply being with him was all the happiness she could ever want.
'...But I still need to find one.'
Because she couldn't live in his shadow forever.
Recalling the affectionate image of Baek Woo-jin and Claire in the study, Baek Ha-na gently lifted her closed eyelids.
"Woo-jin."
"...What now."
His reply was a little more curt than usual. Snickering inwardly, Baek Ha-na lifted her head to peer up at him.
"When are you going to order dinner for me?"
"..."
Baek Woo-jin's steady heartbeat subtly changed rhythm.
Delighting in that small shift, Baek Ha-na got a little more playful.
Sliiide.
Her pure white tail, having slipped free beneath her skirt, coiled lightly around his thigh.
"I'm hungry."
"..."
Baek Woo-jin didn't answer.
Instead, he simply picked up the smartphone on the desk and placed it into Ha-na's hand.
"Hee-hee."
Baek Woo-jin's phone, in her hand for the very first time.
Baek Ha-na tapped lightly at the screen. Blinking at the old-fashioned numerical passcode rather than a pattern lock, she turned to Baek Woo-jin and asked,
"What's the passcode?"
"...0204."
Isn't that way too easy?
But then, who'd dare touch his things?
Chuckling softly, Baek Ha-na entered the passcode he'd told her. An utterly pitch-black home screen, devoid of any special apps, appeared.
'...No apps except the basics and the academy's dedicated app.'
Using the academy app to access the dedicated site, Baek Ha-na browsed the student cafeteria category, added what she wanted to the cart, and set the delivery location. As she went to make the payment, the password entry screen reappeared.
0204.
After the payment cleared and the window closed, Baek Ha-na moved to set the phone back on the desk but paused.
'...0204.'
A very familiar set of digits.
'February 4th.'
Her birthday.
Perk—
Following her tail, two pointy, triangular beast ears sprouted atop her head.
Completely oblivious to the change, the girl tapped the phone in her hands a few more times.
"Woo-jin~"
"...What are you—"
Click.
The screen captured the image of Baek Woo-jin in his large glasses, and Baek Ha-na with her cheek pressed right up against his, smiling brightly.
"Mm, looks good."
Before he could say a word, Baek Ha-na emailed the newly taken picture to herself, simultaneously set it as the wallpaper, and placed the phone back on the desk as if nothing had happened.
She then looked up to meet Baek Woo-jin's steady, downward gaze and smiled sweetly.
"You're not allowed to change it without my permission, or Big sis's, got it?"
"..."
Baek Woo-jin didn't answer.
But Baek Ha-na knew perfectly well what that silence meant.
**
"I'll be back~"
With a playful wave of her hand, Baek Ha-na left the Control Room.
Now alone, I set down the reports related to the Grade Evaluations and looked at my phone.
'...Now I can't even take it out in public.'
I took one last glance at the wallpaper, changed for the first time in nine years, then slipped the device back into my pocket.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
At the sound of the knocking, as if it had been waiting for this moment, I used my mana to open the door.
"If you command me to crawl in, I shall do so."
I didn't answer.
The vermin cloaked in a black robe knelt of its own accord and began crawling toward me like a beast.
"Enough."
Getting any closer would only make it more unpleasant.
Maybe it understood my meaning.
Flattening itself against the floor right where it stopped, it spoke.
"I have come to beg for my life."