Small but Strong
Jang Bora had just stepped out of the shower. With a towel wrapped around her damp hair, she flopped down onto her bed.
Normally she would have pulled out her notebook to organize the wrong answers from today’s workbook or opened up tomorrow’s preview textbooks. But today was different.
Her gaze wasn’t on her desk. It stayed fixed on the tip of her right hand—the one Baek Gangjin had suddenly grabbed in the classroom that afternoon.
“...He held my hand.”
Bora murmured the words under her breath, repeatedly clenching and unclenching her fist. His touch had been rough, yet warm. And that innocent expression on his face when he looked at her with absolute conviction and asked her to join the student council with him.
A massive boulder named Baek Gangjin had crashed into her rock-solid daily routine—the one that had revolved around nothing but studying—and sent huge ripples spreading through it.
“It was just an invitation to the student council...”
Bora cupped her burning cheeks with both hands.
“Then why is my heart pounding like this?”
She didn’t need a mirror to know her face had turned as red as a ripe apple. Even as she meticulously dried her hair until it was fluffy, Gangjin’s face kept floating into her mind.
She collapsed onto the bed and yanked the blanket all the way over her head.
Baek Gangjin...
Inside the blanket, Bora kicked her feet restlessly. After tossing and turning for a long time, she fell asleep imagining herself walking to the student council room with him during lunch tomorrow, a strange flutter of excitement in her chest.
It was the longest night of Bora’s life.
It was ten at night.
The entrance to Old Gaon Station, which had simply looked run-down and gloomy during the day, radiated an entirely different atmosphere once night fell. It looked exactly like the entrance to a dungeon in a game.
A silhouette stood near the half-lowered shutter, chewing gum and stretching. A kid? The figure was so small it looked like a child working out.
Looking closer, I realized it was second-year Joker Song Iseo.
Unlike the straight hair she wore at school, she had tied her long hair back for easy movement. The oversized bright red windbreaker actually suited her surprisingly well.
“Yo, Gangjin-kun! Right on time!”
Senior Iseo spotted me, grinned, and walked over. Then, without warning, she circled behind me and gave my butt a light smack.
“Ow! Senior!”
“Puhaha! You really are a butt awakener! That bounce is perfect!”
I had barely met her, yet Senior Iseo had already molested my butt.
“So it’s true that mana bursts out from there.”
My flustered reaction as I rubbed the spot must have been hilarious, because she clutched her stomach and burst into giggles.
At that moment, perhaps because of Senior Iseo’s touch, Jinny popped out of my butt with a poof.
“Hey! This is my house! Don’t just knock without permission!”
“Whoa! Is this the original spirit? She’s insanely cute!”
Senior Iseo marveled at Jinny’s doll-like features. Of course, Jinny was objectively beautiful. As long as she kept her mouth shut.
“Hey, what’s your name? Are you a doll?”
Senior Iseo’s eyes sparkled as she reached out toward Jinny. Jinny floated smugly through the air, dodging the hand.
“Hmph, I am the noble fairy of the lamp, Lady Jinny. I’m on a completely different level from a reckless brat like you!”
“Reckless?”
The word seemed to strike a chord. Senior Iseo exploded with laughter.
“Yeah, you’re right. I am reckless.”
It was unexpected. Jinny and Senior Iseo had strangely perfect chemistry from the very first meeting.
While the two of them bickered back and forth, a voice called from the distance.
“Everyone’s here already?”
White-haired Senior Donghyeon appeared from far away.
“I thought the weather had warmed up a little, but the night wind is still cold.”
He handed warm canned coffees to both Senior Iseo and me.
“I just bought these. Drink them while they’re still hot.”
He was about to open his own can when he noticed Jinny floating above my head.
“Jinny… right? I should’ve bought one for you too.”
With an awkward smile, Senior Donghyeon offered his own coffee to Jinny.
“Here. A gift.”
Grab—
“Wow! You’re such a nice kid? I’ll enjoy it!”
Of course Jinny wasn’t the kind of spirit to turn down such kindness.
Under Senior Donghyeon’s guidance, we descended the underground stairs of Old Gaon Station. We moved carefully, heading toward the long-abandoned underground platform.
The dusty, silent subway station felt like an enormous tomb.
When we reached the platform, the surroundings were far too quiet. The electricity hadn’t been completely cut off—only the unfilled advertisement boards glowed faintly.
The fishy smell Jinny had noticed during the day was nowhere to be sensed now. When I voiced my doubts, Senior Donghyeon pulled a small bean-bag-like object from his pocket.
“Senior, what’s that?”
He smiled and answered my question.
“A magic tool called ‘Mana Bait.’ It doesn’t do much to high-level residues, but it works pretty well on the low-level ones.”
Still smiling, Senior Donghyeon tossed the bean bag toward the tracks.
Bang—!
With a loud explosion, the bag burst open and released rainbow-colored smoke.
In less than a second, hundreds of red eyes surged out of the darkness and charged straight at us. It was a swarm of low-level residues—shadow rats.
“Iseo, go ahead and blow off all the stress you want.”
Senior Donghyeon plopped down on one of the platform’s old chairs.
“Gangjin, you’re just here to observe, so don’t do anything dangerous. Sit here quietly.”
He patted the seat beside him, inviting me over.
“Watching how Iseo uses her mana will be good for you.”
I sat down next to him and swallowed hard.
Senior Iseo charged toward the swarm of residues with a fierce grin.
“Senior, give me one present, please.”
At her shout, Senior Donghyeon casually extended his hand. A red gift box materialized in mid-air.
At first glance it looked like an ordinary present, but it was actually a mass of concentrated mana. Senior Iseo snatched it with one hand and crushed it.
Vrrrr—
Red mana enveloped her entire body, and her eyes grew even darker.
“Gangjin, that shorty’s aura just got serious. Can you feel it?”
“Yeah. Her mana output seems amplified.”
The support role wasn’t limited to healing. Senior Donghyeon was directly injecting mana into his allies, explosively enhancing their physical abilities.
“In game terms, he’s basically a buffer too,” I muttered.
Instead of replying, Senior Donghyeon directed the battle with elegant hand gestures.
Buffed by the gift box, Senior Iseo had become the literal ruler of space.
“Ugh, these disgusting things!”
Every time she snapped her fingers, the charging rats shrank to the size of beans and were crushed under their own momentum.
But the real threat came next.
From the tunnel at the end of the platform, a residue several times larger than Senior Iseo roared as it emerged.
KUOOOOO—!!
“Oh, finally something with real impact.”
“You gonna be okay~? Iseo?”
Senior Donghyeon called out while still seated.
“It only looks like B-class at most?”
Senior Iseo met it head-on without dodging. The moment the residue’s massive foreleg collided with her fist, a tremendous shockwave shook the entire subway station.
“Uwaaah! Jinny, hold on tight!”
Jinny clung to the back of my shoulder, desperately trying not to get blown away. I was too busy covering my face with my arm as the wind blinded me.
Yet Senior Donghyeon didn’t have a single hair out of place. He clapped calmly.
“Nice punch, Iseo!”
Senior Iseo smoothly redirected the residue’s attack, then swept its leg out from under it. She mounted its chest and raised her fist.
I watched the scene with crystal-clear eyes. Jinny observed beside me with great interest.
“Finishing blow! Smash it!”
But things went a little differently from Jinny’s cheer.
The instant Senior Iseo’s fist touched the residue’s head, she didn’t actually strike it. Instead, she simply rested her fist against its skull, glared at the creature, and spoke in a low voice.
“Bite down hard, buddy.”
Then she used her ability to enlarge her fist,
Bam—
shrink it, then enlarge it again.
Bam—
She repeated the process at a speed almost invisible to the eye.
Bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam
In mere seconds, dozens of punches rained down. The giant residue’s head was pulverized beyond recognition, dissolving into black smoke and vanishing.
The ingenious way she applied spatial distortion to her strikes sent chills down my spine.
“Whew. Finally done.”
Senior Iseo dusted off her hands and stood up. Her body was covered in dust from Old Gaon Station.
“How was that, Senior Donghyeon?”
She wiped away sweat and smiled with satisfaction. Senior Donghyeon stood up, clapping.
“Excellent. Just what I’d expect from an active Joker.”
Senior Iseo leaped from the tracks back onto the platform.
“All right, Gangjin. Did you watch well? Now we can—”
The moment she tried to wrap things up, Jinny—who had been floating above my shoulder—began trembling violently.
“Gangjin, watch out! That fishy mana smell from earlier just got way stronger…!”
BOOM—!!!
Before Jinny could finish her warning, a deafening roar shook the station as the platform ceiling collapsed. Thick clouds of dust blocked our vision. In the eerie silence that followed, a deeply unpleasant sound echoed.
The sharp noise scraped directly against the brain instead of the eardrums.
From within the smoke, a man emerged, his hook hand glinting. The density of the mana pouring from him was at least A-class—no, even higher.
“I smell delicious mana.”
The man slowly licked his hook with his tongue as he glared at us.
“You there. And the original spirit hiding behind you.”
He smacked his lips while staring at Jinny and me.
“Hand over that spirit and your mana obediently and get lost. I’ll at least spare your lives.”
The air froze in an instant. I instinctively dropped into a combat stance. Jinny stepped in front of me, clenching her fists.
“I’ve seen that guy at the boundary before. He’s Captain Hook from Peter Pan.”
Captain Hook. The villain from the fairy tale who ends up eaten by a crocodile at Peter Pan’s hands.
“Captain Hook… He feels similar to that Plague Doctor from last time.”
Jinny nodded.
“Right. He’s using mana with a similar nature to that Plague Doctor bastard.”
She swallowed hard.
“He’s probably a Hunter too.”
In the heavy tension, I glanced at the seniors.
“Seniors, we should let the others know about this situation first—”
Huh?
I had faced the Plague Doctor before, so I was imagining the worst—that this Captain Hook would be just as powerful and that I would once again struggle, exhausting every drop of my mana.
But the seniors in front of me didn’t look the least bit flustered.
Senior Iseo scoffed at Captain Hook as if he were pathetic. She rustled out of her coat and tied it around her waist. The black sports bra she wore underneath and her pale skin were now exposed to the cold air of Old Gaon Station.
“Uh, Senior! What are you—”
I instinctively turned my head away.
“That’s underwear!”
“It’s not. It’s normal workout clothes, idiot.”
Senior Iseo looked at me like I was pathetic. From behind her, Senior Donghyeon massaged her shoulders and calmly adjusted her mana flow.
“Can you handle it?”
“No need for you to step in, Senior.”
She wrapped blazing red mana around her right arm and flashed a belligerent smile.
“Looks like it’ll be over before it even reaches you.”