First Encounters Are Never Easy (2)
Physical education arrived right before lunchtime.
"Hey! Let's play dodgeball today, dodgeball!"
"Dodgeball? Sounds good to me!"
With less than a month remaining until summer vacation, PE was essentially free time masquerading as a class. The boys in my class were already buzzing with excitement, eager to burn off their pent-up adolescent energy. Normally, I would have blended right in with the pack, chattering away about whatever game we were about to play.
"Hey, Kim Daehyun! You down for dodgeball?"
Except today, I had business to attend to.
"You guys decide without me. My ankle's acting up, so I'll pass. Just gonna sit and take it easy."
"Huh? Suit yourself, then."
And with that, class began.
"I'll be in the teachers' office," our gym teacher announced. "Don't hurt yourselves, and play safe."
"Yes, sir!" came the rowdy chorus.
The moment the gym teacher vacated the premises, the boys sprang into motion. Meanwhile, the girls naturally clustered into small cliques and scattered to various corners of the School Gymnasium. Inevitably, there was always someone left completely on their own without a partner.
Ban Soyeong happened to be one of them.
...How does she manage to look so good even in a gym uniform?
My gaze tracked her across the room, and as I watched her sit solitary in a far corner, I momentarily lost my train of thought. Since time immemorial, our school tracksuits had been notorious for being an absolute eyesore. Head-to-toe solid kelly green in the twenty-first century—it was the kind of atrocious design that prompted student council petitions for a uniform overhaul every single year.
Yet on Ban Soyeong, even that hideous tracksuit took on a completely different air. Between her slender, model-like proportions and strikingly gorgeous features, she looked like a high-fashion runway model lounging on a gym floor. It truly proved the old adage: the face is the ultimate fashion statement.
Now isn't the time to gawk.
Shaking myself out of the daze after admiring her beauty for who knows how long, I snapped back to reality and stealthily made my way over. She had to have felt someone approaching, but she simply remained seated with her knees pulled tightly to her chest, staring blankly off into space as if she were the only person in the entire world.
"What's on your mind?"
"..."
At my casual greeting, Ban Soyeong flicked her eyes toward me. Recognizing my face, she immediately turned away and resumed staring blankly into the distance. Wondering what could possibly be so fascinating, I followed her line of sight, only to find an unremarkable shadowy alcove in the corner of the gym.
"...?"
A sudden curiosity struck me about the inner workings of her mind.
What does she even think about all day?
Brushing the thought aside, I casually dropped down beside her. Not too far, but not inappropriately close either—just enough distance between our shoulders for two fists to fit.
Leaning in, I kept my voice low. "You're... a superhuman, aren't you?"
At that instant, she flinched.
The arms wrapped around her knees gave a faint, almost imperceptible quiver. It might have just been my imagination, but her expression seemed to harden into stone. The silent, icy glare she cast sideways at me carried an overwhelming weight that made me shrink back for half a second.
...Is she pissed?
Even so, there was no backing down now.
Did you think I'd chicken out?
Forcing my eyes wide open, I bluffed with as much generosity as I could muster. "Just so you know, I haven't told a soul."
"..."
"If you want, I'll keep it a secret from now on, too."
Ban Soyeong didn't even blink, continuing to fix me with a cold glare. Refusing to be intimidated, I steeled my gaze and held hers head-on. With the boisterous clamor of our classmates echoing in the background, we engaged in a silent staring contest.
"...Hah."
Letting out a brief, resigned sigh, Ban Soyeong broke eye contact first.
Then, her tightly shut lips finally parted.
"...Do that."
Hearing the very answer I had been angling for, I secretly pumped a fist in triumph.
Finally!
Every shred of contempt and cold dismissal she had dished out to me in the past felt instantly washed away.
Riding a sudden surge of confidence, I decided to nudge my luck a step further.
"By the way... what kind of power do you have?"
"..."
"Come on, I already saw you anyway. You can at least tell me that much."
Glancing at me with an utterly exasperated expression, Ban Soyeong eventually tossed out a flat, reluctant answer.
"This and that."
"Huh...? You don't just have one...?"
"..."
She let the silence speak for itself.
"Whoa..."
An honest exclamation slipped past my lips before I could catch it.
She's a multi-ability superhuman?
Most superhumans only possessed a single power, but on rare occasions, there were individuals gifted with several at once. And on top of that exceedingly rare power of Flight, she had other superpowers as well?
To someone like me who had once genuinely dreamed of becoming a superhero, it felt as though an icon right out of television was sitting before my very eyes. Suddenly, all that aloof, rude behavior she usually showed almost felt philosophical—like the solemn burden of a true savior.
Swept up in the excitement, I leaned in close to press for details.
"What kind of powers do you have?"
"..."
"I swear to God I'll take it to my grave. Can't you just tell me once?"
Glowering at me with blatant annoyance, Ban Soyeong turned her head away with a chill, clearly having zero intention of saying another word. The mood made it painfully clear she wouldn't budge no matter how much I pestered her.
Man, she's really playing hard to get.
While it was a shame I couldn't hear the details, her answer had already given me more than enough.
She really is hiding her identity, just like I thought.
Having that suspicion confirmed sparked an unexpected swell of kinship.
There really was someone else like me out there in the world...
Living while concealing superpowers was by no means an easy feat. In my case, before entering elementary school, I couldn't even go to a hospital no matter how sick I got. And even after enrolling, my family ended up moving two or three times every single year.
...Of course, my frequent moving wasn't strictly because of my power itself, but still.
Meeting someone who shared the same plight made my heart flutter with a touch of excitement.
Chewing on the corner of my lower lip, I hesitated before finally giving in and floating a little bait.
"If you tell me what your abilities are... I'll tell you mine, too."
"...?"
Ban Soyeong snapped her head back around, sheer bafflement written across her face.
The moment our eyes met, my parents' stern warnings flashed unbidden through my mind.
"Daehyun. You must never, under any circumstances, tell anyone that you're a superhuman. Remember that."
"You can't make the same mistakes your father did, okay? Promise your mother."
"If a strange woman tries to talk to you, never acknowledge her. Do you understand?"
And immediately following that, the true reason they had drilled those warnings into me so obsessively flashed through my head as well: my father's deranged mistresses.
There was no way a teenage girl like Ban Soyeong had any connection to those unhinged women.
It should be fine as long as I fudge the details a bit, right?
Maintaining an outward air of nonchalance, I dropped the truth in a casual tone.
"To tell you the truth... I'm a superhuman, too."
Ban Soyeong's brow furrowed sharply.
"...What?"
"What's with that look? Did you think you were the only superhuman in this school?"
I sounded completely unfazed on the surface, but my heart was hammering violently against my ribs. This was the first time in my entire life that I had ever revealed my identity to anyone.
...Did I just mess up?
A sudden panic told me I ought to hit the brakes before it went any further, but my mouth was already operating on its own momentum.
"If you tell me your powers, I'll tell you mine."
"..."
Ban Soyeong narrowed her emerald eyes, fixing an unblinking, heavy gaze upon me. Contrary to my expectation of shock or disbelief, her stone-cold composure only made my pulse race faster. My breath caught in my throat, my heartbeat thumping so loudly it roared in my ears.
For just a fleeting split second, her eyes flicked downward toward my chest.
Then, wearing an expression as if she had no choice, she spoke in her usual low, even tone.
"...There are quite a few."
"...Huh? A-a few...?"
"About five."
"?!"
Having dropped that bombshell, Ban Soyeong snapped her mouth shut and gave me a deadpan stare. Her look practically demanded: So, what's your ability then?
Stunned out of my wits by this absurd revelation, I could only stare back with my mouth hanging open like an idiot.
F-five abilities?!
A prickle of dread ran down my spine. This girl was so much more dangerous than I could have ever imagined.
Lunchtime arrived right after gym class.
Relocating to a secluded, shaded spot at the corner of the schoolyard, we picked up the conversation we hadn't been able to finish. Through some cautious prodding, I managed to get a general picture of Ban Soyeong's powers...
"S-Seriously...?"
The more she listed, the more I doubted my own ears.
Flight, Superhuman Strength, Physical Enhancement... and what in the world is Heat Vision?
In short, Ban Soyeong had the quintessential OP Elementary-Schooler Superhuman Build. She was an absurd, broken amalgamation of every godly ability imaginable, as if some boastful kid on a playground had claimed every overpowered buff for themselves.
"T-Then! Prove it! Burn this with that 'Heat Vision' of yours, and then I'll believe you!"
"..."
At first, I couldn't bring myself to believe it. But when a crimson beam of light shot straight out of her eyes and incinerated a fallen leaf without leaving so much as an ash flake behind, I had no choice.
Every single word out of her mouth had been the absolute truth.
Are you fucking kidding me?
Honestly speaking, I couldn't fathom why she was even hiding her identity in the first place. Forget any sense of camaraderie; I felt a surging wave of betrayal.
Why am I the only one stuck with such a crap power...?
Just as I was wallowing in bitter resentment over the sheer disparity of our Superpower Spoon privilege, Ban Soyeong broke the silence.
"So. What is your power?"
"!"
When my turn actually came, cold feet seized me.
Should I just bolt right now? What if I just claim I was lying?
Then again, backing out now might result in me getting incinerated without a trace by that Heat Vision. My brain worked in overdrive, scrambling for a believable half-truth. Not that I had ever intended to give her an honest answer from the beginning.
"...A Mental-Type?"
"Well... something along those lines."
Hearing that I was a mental-type superhuman, Ban Soyeong showed a flicker of surprise. No, if my eyes weren't playing tricks on me, it looked almost like disdain. Considering society's perception of mental-type superhumans, such a reaction wasn't bizarre in the slightest. If anything, it was completely standard.
Even so...
I couldn't help but feel a pinch of hurt. This was the same girl who had never batted an eye at anything anyone ever told her.
...Well, can't be helped.
In a way, getting treated like a generic psychic was practically a positive outcome. I had brushed it off as a simple mental-type ability, but what I possessed was far darker than ordinary telepathy or hypnosis.
Eummahwa. Psychic demonization.
The root cause behind the assassination of the President by the First Lady decades ago. The man she had been having an affair with back then was none other than my grandfather. When my grandfather refused to marry her on the grounds that she was already a married woman, she had flown into a hysterical frenzy and stabbed the President to death.
Ever since that historic scandal, mental-type superhumans had been branded in the public eye as potential criminals.
As the direct heir to that accursed bloodline, I couldn't help but despise my own lineage.
If only I hadn't inherited this power...
I could probably be living an ordinary life right now. Not in an anxious, constantly uprooted household raised by a single mother, but in a normal, loving home.
Just like everyone else.
"..."
As I sank into gloomy contemplation...
"...Is that all?"
"...Huh?"
Startled by her voice, I looked up.
Ban Soyeong wore a look of sheer exasperation. It was hard to read her completely, but her eyes clearly signaled that my answer had fallen hopelessly short of her expectations. I had no idea what kind of grand response she had been anticipating.
"T-That really is all...?"
"...Hah..."
She swept back her golden bangs with an irritated flick of her fingers, as if thoroughly regretting having wasted her time.
Wait.
It only dawned on me then that I had misread the entire situation.
Maybe she didn't care about the prejudice surrounding mental-types at all.
"And here I thought you had something impressive..."
Leaving behind that icy mutter and an equally frigid glare, Ban Soyeong pushed herself off the ground and strode away.
Left alone, I dazedly watched her retreating back as she walked off into the distance.
...Damn, she's kind of cool.
Perhaps Ban Soyeong wasn't such a bad person after all.