The Weight of Ten Years
The door creaked open. Jeong Hayeon stood at the entrance, welcoming Cha Jiyun inside. Cha Jiyun lifted her head and studied her friend’s face. Her eyes were rimmed with red.
“No. Who said I was crying?” Hayeon muttered, quickly wiping at the corners of her eyes. “Do you want to come in first?”
She guided Cha Jiyun into the house.
“...Are the rest of your family out?” Jiyun asked, glancing around the quiet interior.
“Yeah. They’re all at work right now. Here, have some tea.”
Hayeon handed her a warm cup.
“...Thank you.”
Jiyun accepted it with both hands. After a moment of silence, Hayeon spoke again.
“So why did you come to my house?”
“...I was worried you might be sick.”
“Pfft. Me? Sick? I’m perfectly healthy.”
“...Then why didn’t you come to school?”
“I had some personal things I needed to think about.”
“...Is it something you can’t tell me?”
“...Yeah. Sorry.”
Jiyun stared at her in silence. Hayeon’s eyes were still red. Something was clearly wrong.
“...Hayeon.”
“Yeah?”
“How many years have we known each other?”
“Since I was learning to walk, so it’s been about ten years now.”
“That’s right. We’ve been friends for ten whole years. Can’t you trust me enough to tell me what’s going on?”
Hayeon looked at her for a long time without speaking.
“...Ever since that day when Nam Doyun and Radeon had their sword duel, your expression has been off. Something happened that day, didn’t it?”
Hayeon let out a long, heavy sigh.
“You really won’t tell anyone?”
“...Of course not.”
“Then I’ll be honest.”
“...Okay.” Jiyun nodded.
“Didn’t you find it strange too?”
“...What do you mean?”
“That Nam Doyun said if he lost the duel with Radeon, he would drop out of the academy.”
“...He did say that.”
“Didn’t you wonder why he would go that far?”
“...I did.”
Jiyun nodded. There had been no real reason for Doyun to duel Radeon, let alone stake his entire academic life on it.
“It was actually because of a bet he made with me.”
“...A bet?”
“Yeah. Doyun said that if he beat Radeon, I had to give up on the person I like.”
“...The person you like?”
“Yeah. I actually have someone I like, and he found out about it.”
“...Who is it?”
Hayeon stared at her quietly.
“That… I really can’t tell you. I’m sorry.”
“...So Nam Doyun made that bet with Radeon, using the condition that you give up on the person you like?”
“That’s right.”
“...Does that mean Nam Doyun might…”
“...Yeah. I think he probably likes me. Otherwise, there’d be no reason for him to tell me to give up on someone else.”
“...Do you even know what that person did to win the duel?”
Jiyun stared at her blankly.
“What did he do?”
Jiyun couldn’t bring herself to speak. She remembered Doyun swinging a sword just a week ago. His form had been utterly terrible. He had only picked up a sword for the first time a week earlier. And yet he had defeated Radeon in just seven days. No matter how much natural talent someone had, that was impossible.
Except for one possibility.
“...Count Asura’s Ancient Book,” Jiyun whispered under her breath.
If he had used that to forcibly enhance his talent for swordsmanship, it would explain everything. He had traded his own lifespan to strengthen his sword talent. That was the only way he could have beaten Radeon in a single week.
Jiyun looked at Hayeon in a daze. Just how much did he have to like her to go that far? To sacrifice his own life just to make her give up on the person she liked. It was something Jiyun couldn’t even imagine.
“....Hayeon.”
“Yeah?”
“...The truth is, to win that duel, he actually…”
“Actually what?”
Jiyun couldn’t finish the sentence. If she said it out loud, Hayeon would be crushed by an enormous burden of guilt. So she swallowed the words.
“...It’s nothing.”
Jiyun gave a small smile.
“Ugh, that’s so boring.”
“...More importantly, how do you feel about him?”
“...About him?”
“...Yeah.”
“I’ve had a one-sided crush for a really long time. Those feelings don’t disappear so easily.”
“....What do you think of Nam Doyun?”
“Huh?”
“...I mean, what kind of person do you think Nam Doyun is?”
“You want me to be completely honest?”
“...Yes.”
“His social skills are straight-up rock bottom. He just walks up to me out of nowhere, tells me not to hang out with certain people, and demands I give up on the person I like.”
“....”
“Seriously, he just seems like a crazy bastard. Why should I stop hanging out with someone just because he says so? Who does he think he is?”
Jiyun thought about it carefully. Why had Doyun said and done those things? And soon, one answer came to her.
“...The truth is, both of his parents are dead.”
“...What? What?” Hayeon’s eyes widened in shock.
“...When he was very young, his parents were both killed by a group of Demonic Humans.”
“...Is that true?”
“...Yes. He probably lost them before he even turned ten.”
Hayeon couldn’t close her mouth.
“...He probably never even got to attend a proper school. He’s just been desperately fighting to survive every single day.”
“.....”
“...Having lost his parents so early, he would have done anything to stay alive. Can you imagine how fiercely a child under ten would have to fight just to survive?”
“....”
“...To him, people were probably divided into only two categories: those who helped his survival, and those who threatened it.”
“....”
“...He would bow his head to those who helped him survive, and treat anyone who got in his way as an enemy.”
“....”
“...That’s probably why this is the first time he’s ever tried to get along with people his own age. He’s just really clumsy at it, that’s all.”
Only then did Hayeon begin to understand. The reason behind Doyun’s socially awkward words and actions. He had lost his parents before he could even receive proper socialization. At an age when most children were still being protected, he had been thrown into the jungle of society. To him, hanging out with peers had been a luxury he couldn’t afford. He had simply fought tooth and nail to survive each day.
The first time he had ever tried to interact with people his own age was after coming to Elphon Academy. Of course he would be clumsy around them.
“.....”
Jiyun stared at Hayeon for a long time. Her expression was incredibly complicated.
“...I should get going now.”
Jiyun stood up from her seat. Hayeon remained sitting, staring blankly into space for a long while.
I was sitting in the Elphon Academy library.
It was already 11:30 PM. I had been here for five hours straight. The library didn’t close until 1 AM, and even now, countless students were still hunched over their desks. The reason was obvious: midterms started next week.
The exams were split between practical and written tests. I already knew exactly what the practical exam would be. It would most likely be against Son In-hyeok. As long as I prepared properly for that, I’d be fine.
Of course the practical was important, but the written test was just as critical. That was why the library was packed with students.
I opened my textbook.
Basic Example 1) When the real part of an arbitrary delta function D is a complex number greater than 3, if (d) is defined as 1/5s + 1/9s + 1/14s + d… What is the formula that represents n(d)?
I let out a deep sigh.
This was only example number one. I had been wrestling with it for five hours straight. In other words, I hadn’t solved a single problem in five hours.
As I sat there struggling, a pleasant scent suddenly drifted over from behind me. It soon settled right across from me. I looked up. It was Jeong Hanna.
“Today’s our first tutoring session, right?”
It was the deal we had made before. I would send her the next draft of my novel, and in return she would tutor me for about thirty minutes.
She glanced at my book.
“You were working on example one?”
“Yeah. But I can’t seem to solve it.”
“...Where are you stuck? I’ll take a look.”
I handed her my densely written notebook. She scanned it quickly and nodded.
“Your approach here is wrong.”
She pointed at a section with her finger.
“You misinterpreted the function analysis. To interpret this properly, you need Lewis’s formula. That goes like this…”
She then rattled off a string of formulas needed to analyze the function without pausing for nearly ten minutes.
“...And when you plug those formulas in and calculate, you get this answer.”
“....”
I didn’t understand a single thing. Everything she said sounded like an alien language. The real problem was that everything she explained was supposed to be basic knowledge for any Elphon Academy student. She had assumed I already knew it.
“Now why don’t you try applying what I just said? Some things you can only understand by doing them yourself.”
“....”
It had been arrogance on my part. I thought I would be able to follow along, but I couldn’t understand anything. There was only one option left.
Skill 7: Advanced Intelligence — Allows perfect comprehension of highly complex and difficult concepts. (Amount of understanding determined by the unique mana within Nam Doyun’s body.) LV1.
It had been a mistake to try learning this without unlocking the skill first.
“...Hey,” I said to Hanna.
“Yeah? What is it?”
“Can I ask you for one favor?”
“What is it?”
“Can we pause the tutoring for now and do a full cram session the day before the written midterm next week instead?”
“So you want to skip the daily sessions and just study everything in one go the day before? Even though thirty minutes have already piled up?”
“Yeah.”
“But… are you sure that’s okay? Studying consistently every day would be much better than cramming everything the day before.”
“There are circumstances that make it necessary.”
“Hmm… Is that so?”
Hanna stared at me for a long time.
“Well, if that’s what you want, then fine. I am a bit worried, though.”
With that, she stood up.
I had to unlock that skill as soon as possible. And the item needed to unlock it was currently in Son In-hyeok’s possession.