An Unwanted Pairing
The sharp ringtone of my alarm cut through the quiet room. Ding-ding-ding—ding-ding-ding— Today was the day of our field trip to the Busan region.
[6:00 AM]
I glanced at the clock. When I opened the window and looked outside, the sky was still dark. Normally I’d still be asleep, but I rubbed my sleepy eyes and got up anyway. The official gathering time was eight, but today I needed to head out a little earlier. There was something I had to do—something that required me to get on the bus first and secure the right seat.
I stepped into the shower and let hot water pour over me. It helped clear my head a bit. After slapping on some lotion, I made my way to the bus waiting on the school grounds.
[Region 1 — ‘Busan’ Coastal Dungeon Exploration]
I climbed aboard the bus with that sign posted at the front. The seats were completely empty. Not a single student had arrived yet. I walked straight to the very back and sat down.
Thirty minutes passed.
[7:00 AM]
Only now were students finally starting to trickle in and take their seats.
“Wait, there’s no assigned seating today? We can sit wherever? Let’s sit together.”
“Sure, sounds good.”
The students began clustering with their usual friend groups.
[7:50 AM]
“...Where the hell is she?”
The bus would leave in ten minutes. Yet the person I was waiting for still hadn’t shown up. If I’d known this would happen, I wouldn’t have bothered coming out early. I turned my gaze out the window.
There she is. Finally.
In the distance, Jeong Hayeon was walking toward the bus. Trailing behind her, Lee Hojin kept stealing glances in her direction, following like a shadow. She didn’t seem to notice him at all.
A little while later, Jeong Hayeon stepped onto the bus.
“Hey everyone~”
She greeted the students already on board with a bright smile.
“Hayeon! Hi!”
“Hayeon, want to sit next to me?”
“My seat’s open. Come over here.”
As expected from the academy’s most popular girl.
“I’ll just sit in whatever’s empty.”
Jeong Hayeon walked to the very front row and took a seat.
“Hayeon. Can I sit next to you?”
As if he’d been waiting for exactly that moment, Lee Hojin appeared in front of her in a flash.
“Uh… sure?”
“The seat next to you was open, so…”
“Ah… of course, go ahead.”
She smiled softly.
“Thanks. I’ll sit then—”
The instant Lee Hojin tried to sit down, I moved from the back of the bus in a blur and dropped into the seat beside Jeong Hayeon.
“.....?”
Both Jeong Hayeon and Lee Hojin stared at me with puzzled expressions.
“What? Can’t I sit here?”
Leaving the two of them together would be a disaster. The probability of him going berserk skyrocketed if they were alone. In the worst case, he’d lose control right here on the bus—and every student onboard would suffer catastrophic damage.
Lee Hojin stared at me silently for a moment before retreating to the back seats. Jeong Hayeon gave me a light jab in the ribs, then whispered so only I could hear.
“Hey.”
“What?”
“What the hell are you doing?”
“What do you mean?”
“Why did you suddenly come sit next to me out of nowhere?”
“The kids in the back were being too loud. I just wanted to move up front.”
“That’s not what I—… Never mind. Forget it.”
Jeong Hayeon let out a short sigh.
“Hey. Can I ask you one thing, at least?”
“If it’s simple, sure.”
“How did you know I had that kind of talent? Even I didn’t know about it.”
The talent that allowed her arrows to split into multiple shafts without causing mana depletion—in fact, increasing their power instead. Of course I knew. I’d seen her fully grown form in the game. But I couldn’t exactly say that.
“It’s a secret. Anyway—”
“Anyway?”
“Try not to hang around with Lee Hojin today if you can help it.”
If the two of them stayed together, the chance of him going berserk would shoot up dramatically.
“What?”
“I said, avoid being around Lee Hojin as much as possible.”
“Why is that any of your business?”
She whipped her head away. I suppose if someone suddenly told me not to hang out with a certain person, I’d feel resistant too. After that, our conversation died completely.
The bus kept rolling until we eventually arrived in Busan.
“Alright, everyone off the bus.”
The students all disembarked and gathered in front of the supervising teacher.
“Today’s coastal dungeon exploration in the Busan region is simple. You’ll be paired into teams of two. The pair that hunts the most monsters will receive the highest score.”
“It’s a field trip, but it still counts toward our grades?”
“Of course. Field trips are part of school life too.”
“Aaaah—”
The kids groaned in unison.
In the original game, Jeong Hayeon and Lee Hojin never ended up on the same team. In fact, Lee Hojin was supposed to be paired with me.
“Now, I’ll announce the teams. Team 1 is OOO and OOO… Team 10 is Jeong Hayeon and Lee Hojin.”
What?
Jeong Hayeon and Lee Hojin on the same team? This plot was completely twisted. Lee Hojin was supposed to be with me. Lee Hojin flashed a sly grin as he looked at Jeong Hayeon.
Don’t tell me… he manipulated this?
“Team 11 is Nam Doyun and Becaria.”
Yeah. This was seriously messed up.
“Alright. You’re all dismissed. Exactly three hours from now, bring the monster corpses back here.”
With those words, the students began scattering in small groups. Becaria shot me a disgruntled look.
“Of all people, I get stuck with this dead weight. Tsk.”
“........”
I lightly ignored him. He wasn’t important right now. My eyes were fixed on Jeong Hayeon and Lee Hojin as they walked off into the distance.
“Hey. Want to just do our own thing separately?”
Becaria said exactly what I’d been hoping to hear.
“Sure. I’m heading out then.”
“Huh…? Hey?”
Becaria looked flustered. He’d probably expected me to grovel and submit to him. My sudden firm attitude seemed to throw him off.
“See you later.”
I waved casually.
“Hey! Hey! Are you for real?”
He stared at me with a blank face. I started following after Jeong Hayeon and Lee Hojin.
Shhhhhhh—
Lee Hojin and Jeong Hayeon were walking along the shoreline. The area was divided into two main zones: the safe zone and the danger zone. The safe zone had already been cleared of monsters by hunters. The danger zone, on the other hand, still contained monsters because the hunters hadn’t finished clearing it yet. The pair was currently walking through the danger zone.
Grrrr—
Soon, a pack of wolves appeared in front of them. Roughly ten wolves began to surround Jeong Hayeon and Lee Hojin.
“Hojin,” Jeong Hayeon said.
“Yeah?”
“That big one over there looks like the alpha. I’ll take care of it. You just buy me some time.”
She pointed at the largest wolf in the pack.
“Oh? Sure. In that case, I’ll just handle it myself.”
“No, Hojin, you’re not strong enough to—”
Lee Hojin kicked off the ground and shot toward the alpha wolf. With a single swing of his sword—
Slash—
The alpha’s head flew off in an instant. The rest of the wolf pack scattered immediately.
“....”
Jeong Hayeon felt something was off. The Lee Hojin she knew wasn’t this strong.
“How about that? I’ve gotten a lot stronger, right?”
“Y-yeah…? You really have gotten strong, Hojin.”
“Yep! I’ve been training really hard.”
“Oh. I see. That’s impressive.”
“Thanks.”
Lee Hojin smiled shyly.
“By the way…”
He glanced behind them. That guy had been following them the entire time. It was Nam Doyun. The same guy who had been interrupting his alone time with Hayeon ever since they got on the bus.
“Doyun?”
Lee Hojin grit his teeth and walked toward me, maintaining a gentle smile only because Jeong Hayeon was watching.
“What is it?”
“You’ve been following us this whole time. Why?”
“I’m not following you. Our paths just happen to be the same.”
“......”
Jeong Hayeon looked at me. The claim that our paths were the same was obviously a lie. There was no way their route and mine would overlap for a full hour. What was this guy’s deal?
Nam Doyun had abandoned his own teammate and followed them for nearly an hour. There had to be a reason. Jeong Hayeon thought hard about it.
Could it be… jealousy?
That would explain a few things. The guy who had been sitting in the very back of the bus suddenly came and sat next to her the moment Lee Hojin tried to take the seat. If it wasn’t jealousy, there was no other explanation. Plus, he had even warned her to be careful around Lee Hojin.
Then… did that mean he liked her?
Come to think of it, that would explain everything. The way he had suddenly approached her and told her to give up on Radeon. And that wasn’t all. During the Demonic Human rampage at Han River Park, Nam Doyun had rushed straight to her side right before the monster went berserk. That only made sense if he had been watching her from nearby. So had he been protecting her this whole time, just like now?
“.......”
Jeong Hayeon stared at me in silence.
Three hours later.
“Everyone worked hard,” the teacher said. “Now, please place all the monster corpses you collected in front of you.”
Piles of monster bodies were stacked in front of the students.
“Whoa, how many did they even kill?”
“That’s all Hayeon’s work, right?”
In front of Jeong Hayeon and Lee Hojin’s team was a mountain of monster corpses. The teacher’s eyes sparkled.
“Tell me who killed each monster. The scoring will be based on individual contribution.”
“Ah… this?”
Lee Hojin glanced at Jeong Hayeon.
“Hayeon killed all of them by herself.”
“She… killed all of these alone?”
The teacher blinked repeatedly. Jeong Hayeon was off running an errand for the teacher and hadn’t heard a word. If she had been there, she would have strongly denied it.
“Good. Next up is Nam Doyun and Becaria’s team.”
In front of Becaria were the goblins he had killed. And beside them were a few wolves I had taken down while following Jeong Hayeon and Lee Hojin.
“Becaria killed all the goblins. I took down all the wolves.”
“I see.”
The teacher scribbled something down on his clipboard.
“Alright. Next team.”
And so the evaluation of every team was completed.
“Good. Everyone’s here now, right?”
“Yes.”
Jeong Hayeon, who had been running the teacher’s errand, had returned to her spot.
“The team that placed first will have the special privilege of flying back to Elphon Academy by plane. The rest of you will return on the express bus just like we came.”
What?
There had never been an event like this in the game—where the first-place team got to fly back to the academy. This was completely off-script. In that case… first place would obviously be—
“First place goes to Jeong Hayeon and Lee Hojin’s team. Congratulations.”
Fuck.
“Hayeon, congrats!”
“You get to rest sooner. I’m so jealous.”
“Thanks, everyone. I appreciate it.”
Jeong Hayeon smiled brightly.
“Teacher.” I raised my hand.
“Nam Doyun? What is it?”
“What time does that plane leave from Busan? And which airline is it?”
“It departs in thirty minutes. The airline is University Air. Why do you ask?”
“It’s okay to return to Elphon Academy separately, right?”
“Yes. Regular classes are already over for the day.”
I turned on my phone.
I quickly searched for the flight departing in thirty minutes. But I could feel a subtle gaze from the side. When I turned, Jeong Hayeon was staring intently at my phone screen. Then she looked at me and let out a small laugh.
“Hey.”
“...?”
“Why are you suddenly looking up flights?”
“...There’s something urgent I need to take care of back at the academy dorms.”
She let out a short laugh.
“Sure. Of course there is. But why are you specifically looking at the one leaving in thirty minutes? Wouldn’t catching the one in ten minutes get you there faster?”
“...It’s none of your business.”
“You’re so bad at lying.”
She grinned at me like my awkwardness was amusing. What the hell was with her all of a sudden?