Proposal
Proposal
"Professor."
The voice came from behind, and my forward steps halted on their own.
I didn't need to turn around to confirm who it was. Baek Ha-na had already walked up beside me.
Standing a short distance away, she looked up at me with the same dry look Claire always wore while watching the students, and her small lips moved slightly.
"Are you busy, by any chance?"
The stiff, out-of-place tone and calm demeanor... No, let me revise that. The current mood suited her appearance much better.
I glanced at her face a moment, then shifted my gaze and started walking as I answered.
"I can spare time for a few questions."
"I see."
She nodded, closed her mouth, and silently matched her pace to mine.
Unlike before, I didn't hold back and increased my stride, but now she kept up without falling behind.
I didn't mind her following me, but I didn't want to draw the attention of the students who had come out into the hallway to stretch during the break.
"Your business."
"A question."
She answered calmly.
"If you have something to ask, ask now."
"I have no lectures until the afternoon."
Without any change in her voice or expression, Baek Ha-na revealed her true intent.
Apparently, she didn't have questions about the lecture. Her goal was simply to eat lunch with me.
I walked down the hallway in silence, and Baek Ha-na followed without a word. Then, the moment she and I turned the corner of the corridor.
"Huh...?"
I grabbed her hand, and Baek Ha-na, who had been rigid and expressionless, looked up at me with wide, startled eyes.
"Baek Ha-na."
"Y-yes...?"
Her pale cheeks began to flush.
Even after answering, Baek Ha-na showed signs of nervousness, her blue eyes darting left and right.
"We're invisible right now, so you don't need to be so guarded."
"...Oh, I see."
Only then did a smile appear on her lips.
Her eyes, which had been wandering restlessly, fixed on me, and the distance she had kept instantly closed.
"Heh, heheh..."
She wiggled the fingers of the hand I was holding, then looked up at me with her usual easy smile and spoke.
"It's fine to eat lunch together, right?"
"No."
"As long as it's Woo-jin, I... Huh?"
The grinning Baek Ha-na blinked her wide-open eyes and tilted her head.
I continued speaking to her.
"I have a few places to stop by to prepare for the joint practice on Thursday. So don't get the wrong idea."
I closed my mouth and used my other hand to lightly stroke Baek Ha-na's head.
"It's not that I'm avoiding you. I just have things to do."
"...Mm."
She had been on the verge of sulking, but now she moved her head against the direction of my hand, enjoying my touch in her own way.
"And try to eat with your friends when you can."
"...I see them so often I'm sick of them."
"By that logic, I'd have been sick of you a long time ago."
After all, we'd been living in the same house for over eight years.
At my remark, the corners of her mouth tugged up faintly as she enjoyed my hand, but then her shoulders flinched and she hurriedly worked her lips.
"No, I mean, what I meant wasn't that, agh—!"
She clutched her forehead and staggered back a few steps.
I hadn't hit her that hard, but she still exaggerated the pain.
"Baek Ha-na."
"Tsk... what..."
She stuck out her lower lip just from a single flick to the forehead.
I almost let out a laugh at her reaction.
Barely swallowing the laugh that was about to escape, I spoke to her.
"If something comes up where I have to go somewhere far away, I promise I'll tell you."
"...Take me with you."
"If it's somewhere I can take you."
I held out my pinky toward her.
Baek Ha-na extended one of the hands that had been covering her forehead and hooked her own pinky around the finger I offered.
"Until then, I'll always be at home. So I'd like you to spend more time with your friends, at least while you're attending the academy."
"...You still treat me like a child."
"Well. You act the same."
"I do not..."
I shrugged at Baek Ha-na's grumbling and pressed lightly on her protruding lower lip.
"Mmph..."
"Once I let go of your hand, you'll become visible again."
Her blue eyes glared at me for a moment with what looked like a trace of dissatisfaction, then she tucked in her pout and wiped the emotions off her face completely.
I removed the index finger that had been pressing her lip and murmured quietly.
"Don't forget to submit your assignment."
"Ugh..."
Leaving Baek Ha-na's slightly comical reaction behind me, I exited the annex.
**
"Ahem. Well then, that will be all for today's lecture."
Yoon Do-sik, one of the professors in the Alchemy Department, wrapped up with the students who were each clutching their heads and nodding over their notes, then opened the lecture hall door. He immediately stepped back with a flinch.
Because when he opened the door, a towering man with bizarre glasses and Kim Seong-won, the head of the Finance Department whose head dazzlingly reflected the ceiling lights, were standing there.
"What is it."
"What do you think. We came because we had business."
Yoon Do-sik frowned at Kim Seong-won's sly grin.
"So I'm asking what that business is..."
"It's not a conversation to have standing. Let's go to your lab for a moment."
"...Tch."
He was already swamped with the things he needed to check for the field practice in two days, so Kim Seong-won showing up unannounced was incredibly irritating. But the man was a deeply entrenched fixture who controlled the academy's purse strings, so Yoon Do-sik let out a short sigh and had no choice but to lead the two uninvited guests to his lab.
Unlike the other professors who used the main building's research wing, the non-combat class professors had their personal labs located right next to the students' lecture building.
Because of that, the three of them could enter Yoon Do-sik's lab after only a short walk.
"Sit or don't, whatever. So, what did you come here for?"
"So prickly. Professor?"
'...?'
Watching Kim Seong-won act so courteous toward the man who exuded an oddly unapproachable aura, Yoon Do-sik blinked several times as if he'd seen a ghost.
While Yoon Do-sik was staring at Kim Seong-won with a look that said 'Did you eat something bad for lunch?', Baek Woo-jin, wearing the bizarre glasses, spoke.
"The practice in two days. I'd like you to let my students join in."
"...?"
Yoon Do-sik's gaze, which had been directed at Kim Seong-won, shifted to Baek Woo-jin.
And it wasn't a friendly look.
However much the academy prioritized rank, people still observed basic manners appropriate to their age. There were plenty of eyes watching, and no one could ignore the connections they each had.
After staring intently at Baek Woo-jin's face, Yoon Do-sik lowered his gaze and checked Baek Woo-jin's left hand.
A Black Ring fitted on his index finger.
"Black?"
As Yoon Do-sik's frown deepened, Kim Seong-won, who had been standing behind Baek Woo-jin, quickly stepped out to the side and added.
"Haha, it seems that since they use a separate research wing and those types have no interest in anything unless it's a catastrophe of their own making, he hasn't heard about you yet, Professor."
Kim Seong-won quickly approached Yoon Do-sik and chattered into his ear, and Yoon Do-sik's crumpled forehead smoothed out considerably.
"...Alright, I get it, so back off. You're creeping me out."
"As if I was sticking close because I liked it."
As Kim Seong-won grumbled and stepped back behind Baek Woo-jin, Yoon Do-sik cleared his throat briefly.
"So. Specifically, what and how do you want me to include them?"
"I'd like to have my lecture students join your practice. In return, I'll handle the rift survey scheduled for tomorrow for you."
"Hmm..."
Yoon Do-sik stroked his chin and calculated.
According to Kim Seong-won, the young professor in front of him was second only to the Chairman in skill and real influence.
That meant, if he wanted, he could easily arrange a new rift without any trouble.
And yet, he had deliberately come to propose a joint practice.
Was there some hidden artifact in the rift they were visiting the day after tomorrow?
After mulling it over for a moment, Yoon Do-sik nodded.
"I see no reason to refuse when you're offering to handle an annoying task. In exchange, if you can reliably guarantee the safety of the students that day, I'll accept."
"My students are quite capable, so you won't need to worry about yours getting hurt."
"No matter how low-stage a rift is, a rift is still a rift. There's no telling what variables might occur, so promise me you'll bring at least two more people."
"Fine."
"Good."
Baek Woo-jin and Yoon Do-sik looked at each other and gave a single nod.
"Then I'll see you the day after tomorrow."
"Don't forget to conduct the preliminary survey tomorrow. If we go in the day after and things are different from what was reported, it'll be a headache in many ways."
"Alright."
Baek Woo-jin answered briefly and turned around.
"I'll head back alone."
"Yes, Professor."
Only after Baek Woo-jin had completely left the lab did Kim Seong-won straighten his previously bent back all the way.
Yoon Do-sik, who had been watching, clicked his tongue.
"No matter how much you love money and power, bowing that respectfully to a greenhorn... The Kim Seong-won I knew must have died a lonely death somewhere."
"What's that cubicle fossil babbling about."
"You young punk with no manners."
"There's only a four-year gap. Quit flaunting your age. As if being old is something great. Sheesh."
"Tsk, tsk. Birds of a feather, all you mannerless brats flock together nicely."
Kim Seong-won picked at his ear, scanning the lab for anything he could swipe.
"And you seem to be misunderstanding something. The person you called a greenhorn youngster has been around since before the academy was even built."
"...What?"
As Yoon Do-sik's eyes widened in shock, Kim Seong-won pocketed a pill from the drawer and continued.
"Which means, even at the lowest estimate, he's forty. And that's the minimum."
"...The world is truly unfair. That face, at forty."
"I said forty at the very least. He could be even older."
Kim Seong-won subtly edged toward the lab door.
"Ahem, well, I have work to do, so I'll be off."
Then, as if fearing the pill he'd taken would be snatched back, he promptly opened the door and escaped the lab.
Now alone, Yoon Do-sik closed the half-open lab door and clicked his tongue briefly.
"If he just asked, I'd give it to him, but he has to make a damn scene every time he stops by."
Yoon Do-sik walked over to the drawer Kim Seong-won had opened moments ago.
"Hm?"
A label had fallen to the floor.
Yoon Do-sik picked it up and looked at the drawer.
[Tonic]
"Couldn't even last a week before falling off. I'll have to switch to a different product."
He muttered to himself and reattached the label to the spot where it had fallen.
[Laxative]
[Tonic]
Yoon Do-sik stared at the two drawers for a moment, then opened the top drawer and checked its contents.
"I should drop by home for the first time in a while."
Yoon Do-sik closed the drawer and changed his clothes.
The lab's light went out, and the door locked.
On his way back, Yoon Do-sik quietly turned off his smartphone.