I Hate the Professor (2)
I Hate the Professor (2)
In Hong Yeon-hwa's mind, Lee Ha-yul was a fragile child who had to be protected. A perilous child, as if disaster would strike the moment she looked away.
His delicate appearance played a part, too. Honestly, few people would glance at Lee Ha-yul and come away thinking he was dependable.
But beyond that, the way he'd behaved while living alongside her had shaped that perception.
Even if it had been her fault, during their very first collision, Lee Ha-yul had been sent tumbling helplessly.
And.
The way he'd clung to her sleeve, head hung low, and followed her around like a lost duckling; the way he'd spent the entire Freshman Welcome Party seeking out corners and shrinking into himself.
And also—also!—the way he'd lost consciousness after bumping into that Japanese cadet because of her mistake.
While unconscious he'd been tormented by nightmares, groaning and suffering until his breathing nearly stopped from sheer agony.
...And then, once held in her arms, he'd slowly calmed down. Terrified, he'd squirmed and burrowed deeper into her embrace...
After lectures began.
He was always watching the people around him before he acted; during his self-introduction he choked on nothing and started hacking; when she pressed a candy into his hand, he was so flustered he didn't know what to do and kept thanking her.
If left alone during lunch, he'd be off in some corner nibbling on a chocolate bar or whatever.
One day he came back after getting smacked around by some professor... When she'd inwardly sworn she'd get revenge someday, he'd noticed with uncanny perceptiveness and clung to her side, whining at her not to do that...
Calling it repayment, he'd handed her a crumpled candy and been so anxious about whether she'd like it, sneaking glances to gauge her reaction... all those adorable things.
Because of his past behavior, she couldn't think of Lee Ha-yul as anything but extraordinarily frail.
She had to protect him.
Guilt and his everyday demeanor had intertwined to form that perception. She thought of Lee Ha-yul as a piece of art that might shatter at any moment.
At some point, Hong Yeon-hwa had started thinking of him as someone she had to protect unreservedly.
"Hmm... I see. You've nailed it perfectly."
But that thought had partially cracked because of the recent sparring match.
Inside a quiet café on a Tuesday morning.
It was a prime spot: right by the window where sunlight streamed in, with a large table that comfortably seated a group.
Hong Yeon-hwa, Baek A-rin, and the friends who had finished their dungeon raid early had gathered and were making idle chatter.
Setting aside circumstances she couldn't explain, Baek A-rin had listened to Hong Yeon-hwa's story with a solemn expression, then nodded gravely.
She took a small sip of the Deluxe Choco Edition (15,900 won) on the table, moistened her lips, and briefly collected her thoughts.
Everyone's gaze, including Hong Yeon-hwa's, converged on Baek A-rin's tightly sealed lips. Their eyes were brimming with nervous anticipation about what she might say.
After a moment of silence, Baek A-rin, having organized her thoughts, opened her mouth.
"So, you're saying the fairy sir you have to protect showed a forceful side and it made your heart race?"
"Fuck off."
"Ahahahah!"
Every reaction came out at once.
The other friends who'd been listening to the conversation burst out laughing hard enough to shake the café. If there hadn't been a sound-dampening spell active, they would've caused an ungodly racket.
Hong Yeon-hwa swore and clenched her fist. She was holding back the impulse to grab her friends—who were thumping their heads on the table and snickering—by the hair and yank it all out.
"Wait. That's not it? Never mind, then."
Baek A-rin's eyes widened at Hong Yeon-hwa's reaction, and she tossed out that irresponsible remark while looking away. The smirk creeping up the corner of her lips openly advertised her amusement.
"Why are you cussing and all that? A person can be wrong sometimes..."
"Stop. Talking. That. Bullshit. I─"
"Ahahah! Fairy, fairy...! Prt...!"
Hong Yeon-hwa's words cut off abruptly. So did the fist that had been twisting ominously. A chilly silence settled over the group.
"...Yeon-hwa?"
Shin Seo-yul, who had been laughing so hard she was practically hyperventilating, quietly lifted her head. She saw the icy expression that had fallen over Hong Yeon-hwa's face.
She wasn't grinding her teeth. She hadn't clenched her fist, nor had her face contorted.
- Whoosh
Instead, flames flickered to life.
.
.
.
"No, but— the conclusion is basically the same, isn't it."
"You want to get hit more? Fucking bring your face here, you bitch."
"No, no! I'm not joking—! Just hear me out seriously!"
With a lump forming on her head, Shin Seo-yul shook her head desperately. Thanks to her explosively amplified physical abilities in a life-or-death crisis, afterimages seemed to trail from the motion.
Hong Yeon-hwa folded her arms and gave a small nod. A gesture indicating she'd hear her out, at least. Shin Seo-yul let out a sigh of relief.
"Now now, let's sum it up. Our Miss Hong made tremendous, tremendous mistakes toward Lee Ha-yul on the very first day, yes?"
"Urk..."
The underhanded truth stabbed her in the solar plexus. Struck by a massive wound, Hong Yeon-hwa clutched her chest and hunched forward.
"Since it's such an atrocious act that I dare not even speak it aloud, I'll skip over that part, but in the process Lee Ha-yul exposed a fragile, helpless side of himself to you, and that perception took root in you~ That's what I'm saying."
Shin Seo-yul paused her speech and took a sip through the straw stuck in her drink. She continued while savoring the sweet, fruity flavor that lingered in her mouth.
"People say first impressions are important, right. For you, Yeon-hwa, Lee Ha-yul's first impression was stamped as 'someone pitiful and fragile who needs to be protected,' and you got stuck with that first impression."
"What the fucking. Bull─"
"And as you lived together after that, and got tangled up in lectures with him, the things he showed you drove that perception even deeper. But!"
Thwack! In the middle of her speech, Shin Seo-yul suddenly widened both eyes and struck the table. It carried such force that even Hong Yeon-hwa flinched.
"The recent sparring match everyone's been talking about shook that perception. That Lee Ha-yul, whom you felt you had to protect, actually had tremendous latent power... And furthermore!"
She wasn't finished. How to put it. Watching Shin Seo-yul's obviously excited demeanor, Hong Yeon-hwa's expression turned sour.
"The reverse-charm of a boy who looks fragile and cute actually having that kind of skill shook Miss Hong's heart, is what that means! So, what do you think? Shin Seo-yul the great's deduction?"
"Waaaah."
Baek A-rin, who'd been listening with an intrigued look, gave a round of applause. The other friends also sent her seal-like clapping.
"Mm! That's it!"
Praise directed at her! Shin Seo-yul's shoulders rose sharply with her skyrocketing self-esteem. In contrast, she cast a sidelong glance at Hong Yeon-hwa, just in case.
She'd said it partly in earnest, but mostly as a joke. She had expected Hong Yeon-hwa to naturally snap at her to stop spewing nonsense.
"?"
But contrary to expectation, Hong Yeon-hwa had her chin propped on her interlaced fingers and was lost in deep thought.
'...First impression.'
Whether bewildered gazes were pinned on her or not, Hong Yeon-hwa sank into thought.
She had wanted to crush the bastard who'd dared to challenge Lee Ha-yul to a sparring match. She'd held back for now because Lee Ha-yul had stopped her, but the seething fury inside her hadn't calmed.
When the sparring match took place, the sight of Lee Ha-yul holding his own far beyond what she'd imagined threw her off.
Gone was the frail figure tumbling across the floor; instead there was a swordsman brimming with potential, accurately predicting and dodging the incoming sword's trajectory, parrying it, and even mixing in counterattacks.
After that.
He manifested Body Reinforcement. Then he manifested Aura and shattered the sword of the cadet who'd been taking sloppy measure of him.
As the fragments of the broken sword scattered, reflecting the light, she absolutely couldn't shut her mouth at the sight of Lee Ha-yul gripping a sword wrapped in vivid Aura.
Special Admission. A cadet chosen directly by the Headmaster, an unprecedented case. At some point, Hong Yeon-hwa had completely forgotten what that meant.
And then...
The beads of sweat on his face from the intense spar. His ragged breathing. His flushed, pleasantly heated cheeks...
The gesture he made as he looked this way, raising his hand beside his face. The faint smile, and the corner of his lips curving up into a grin— so completely different from his usual gloomy expression.
"Erm."
Heat abruptly rose to her face. Hong Yeon-hwa normally ran a little hot, but she hadn't manifested her unique ability, yet the heat surged without warning.
She cleared her throat to sever the thought. She picked up her drink from the table. As the cold, sweet beverage moistened her throat, the heat subsided just a little.
"Wow... she's fucking hardcore."
She ignored the exasperated voice from the side. As she recalled that moment, something that had kept nagging at her came to mind.
'Ha-yul... was low on mana.'
Body Reinforcement and Aura. The proficiency with which he'd wielded them so freely during the spar was also astonishing. But because of that, something else had drawn less attention.
Right after he'd shattered his opponent's sword, she'd seen his Aura flickering unsteadily as though it might scatter at any moment. It wasn't simply crude manipulation; it was a phenomenon caused by lacking the kindling for Aura—a lack of mana.
Lee Ha-yul hadn't started working with mana long ago. Even if you assumed he'd begun the moment he awakened, it had been a month at most. His mana reserves would be scraping rock bottom.
'Repayment.'
All the mistakes she'd made since the day of the welcome party. Despite having blabbed that she'd repay him somehow, she still hadn't given him a proper repayment.
The most she'd done was press a candy into his hand or occasionally buy him a meal.
Now it hit her. Something that Lee Ha-yul currently lacked, something that was perfectly suited—something Lee Ha-yul would surely appreciate.
Hong Yeon-hwa's eyes sparkled with anticipation. At the thought that she could finally repay him, even just a little.
And at the hopeful thought that if things went well, she might get to see that earlier smile again.
...
A short while later.
"Wh-what the fuck?"
The news that Lee Ha-yul had thrown up and collapsed on the street struck like a thunderbolt.
Hong Yeon-hwa's blissful imaginings came crashing down with a roar.
* * *
Liana blinked her eyes.
Early the day before, she'd personally dumped a blackout-drunk Atra into her quarters and gone home.
She'd fallen asleep pondering whether there was any way to persuade Atra, since the woman was so stubborn... and had woken up a little late.
The situation just now had been this: after eating a late breakfast, she'd been sitting neatly in the yard attached to her quarters, leisurely training her mana.
It was the kind of ordinary, peaceful routine she'd been experiencing lately. After this, she would have either thrown together a lunch or skipped it, prepared tomorrow's lecture, done a bit of personal research, and then gone to sleep.
That's what would have happened—if not for the summons saying that Lee Ha-yul had collapsed in the middle of the street while spewing vomit everywhere.
She roused her momentarily frozen thoughts and rushed breathlessly to the infirmary. She straightened her disheveled hair while quickly scanning the room.
On the cot lay what looked like a white caterpillar. More precisely, a white blanket rolled into a round bundle... Judging by the presence she sensed, it seemed Lee Ha-yul had wrapped himself up tightly in the blanket.
She'd run over so urgently that she hadn't heard the exact details.
'...There's nothing physically wrong with him?'
She'd even examined him using magic, but she didn't see anything particularly off. Liana tilted her head and turned her gaze to a corner of the infirmary.
Atra was standing with her back against the wall. Her posture seemed similar to usual, but her expression was far from normal. She wore the face of someone who'd just lost their country.
"What happened?"
"...Nothing."
"What do you mean... He threw up and collapsed, and you say nothing happened?"
Liana asked again with an incredulous look.
"Be honest. Did you do something weird?"
"I don't know either. He just... suddenly came up to me... and started retching..."
"After meeting you?"
Atra stammered as she spoke. From the way the words came out disjointed, she seemed confused herself.
'What's going on?'
Her doubts deepened.
So, the moment Lee Ha-yul ran into Atra, he threw up and passed out? Out of nowhere? Could there be a reason?
...Could there be? She had run him pretty ragged when he'd barely become a superhuman...
'No idea...'
What a bolt from the blue. Liana let out a deep sigh and approached the cot. From the presence she sensed, he was conscious. He'd likely heard the conversation just now as well.
She planned to ask him directly.
According to the healer on duty, there was nothing particularly abnormal with his body.
Still, the possibility of psychological instability existed. At times like this, she shouldn't agitate Lee Ha-yul; she needed to open a calm and gentle conversation.
Liana was confident.
Unlike Atra, she had always been kind and amiable to Lee Ha-yul in everything. Perhaps sensing that, Lee Ha-yul had followed her well enough that he even accepted her touch without resistance.
Liana composed her voice and spoke in a gentler tone than usual.
"Cadet Lee Ha-yul? With me for a moment─"
- Rustle
The blanket twisted more forcefully. After squirming for a moment, it edged slightly farther away from Liana.
"...Huh?"
It was a clear sign of rejection. A response she hadn't anticipated in the slightest. Liana's mouth fell open blankly.
"You... you don't like me either...?"
- Shift
The blanket bounced as if in agreement. A second sign of rejection, proving it was no coincidence.
Liana's body stiffened rigidly.