A Small Achievement
A Small Achievement
After the afternoon lecture, Ellia stepped out of the classroom and realized Lee Ha-yul was nearby.
Thanks to the information displayed on her smartwatch.
"I have somewhere to stop by real quick, so I'll go on ahead."
"Ahh~ You're ditching us again, Ellia? So mean! It feels like you always bail on the places I want to go!"
"Hehe, sorry."
"Wait, seriously?! Do you have a problem with me?!"
"Ahhh, you know I don't mean it that way."
The cadets walking with her swallowed their disappointment at Ellia's awkward laugh.
They were second-year friends she'd known since last year.
Ellia had always had a wide circle, but those in her major shared overlapping lectures, which built a particularly close bond.
"Boo hoo! Ellia's blinded by love and abandoning her friends! Boo hoo!"
"Boo hoo... I wish I could be blinded by love too..."
"What's with that last part?"
They knew exactly why Ellia was slipping away. At the teasing, Ellia's cheeks flushed as she waved her hands.
"Ahaha... I'll be off then! See you all tomorrow!"
Ellia hastily made her escape. Conveniently, Lee Ha-yul was nearby.
A private booth in a nearby café. Most cafés these days had private booths.
"Hm."
Naturally, she'd received permission before entering the booth. Ellia's gaze fell on Lee Ha-yul, who sat with his back to her, and her smile flickered.
There was another color in the opposite seat. A vivid, fresh chartreuse that stood out starkly in the warm-toned interior.
It was Lee Ha-sol.
'Hmm...'
She'd been told in advance, so she wasn't surprised. The deduction was simple enough anyway.
It wasn't a conversation heavy enough to require a carefully arranged spot, but a private booth was the kind of space you could use casually when you didn't want prying eyes.
There was seldom any reason to use one alone, and Lee Ha-yul had already informed her he'd be with someone else.
'She's pretty.'
Ellia studied Lee Ha-sol for a moment.
The top cadet of Siyoram's 122nd Cohort. She was already a campus celebrity.
A beautiful appearance that made the rumors seem more like understatements than exaggerations.
A gentle presence, like a fair wind drifting over a field. A sense of wariness rose in Ellia.
A voluptuous chest... Her wariness intensified.
'A pretty person.'
Lee Ha-sol likewise studied Ellia.
Ellia Srade. She was just as famous.
A superhuman with a recovery-type unique ability, a rare talent anywhere.
Clear potential proven by her admission to Siyoram, high-ranking grades, a standout appearance, and a straightforward personality with no sharp edges.
That alone was enough to draw attention, but a different factor was now largely driving Ellia's current notoriety.
The accepted truth—not just a rumor—that she was Lee Ha-yul's lover.
Lee Ha-sol let that thought occupy her as she observed Ellia.
"Ellia, you're here?"
"Yes, yes, I am. Ha-yul, you finished really early? Did Professor Atra let you off early?"
"Yes, I asked, and she let me finish a little early."
The two had just finished their brief, mutual assessment. Lee Ha-yul turned his head and spoke, and Ellia beamed back in response.
...
"Huh?"
Lee Ha-sol, who had been listening, suddenly widened her eyes. A jarring sense of wrongness had crashed into her mind.
"Ha-yul?"
[Yes?]
A reply came back. Lee Ha-yul turned his head back and tilted it.
[What's the matter?]
"...Didn't you just speak with your mouth?"
[Ah]
The voice just now was different. The sense of wrongness solidified into certainty, and Lee Ha-sol blinked.
"Ha-yul, you know the freshman top cadet too?"
Ellia came up behind Lee Ha-yul. As her hands rested on his shoulders, Lee Ha-yul's head lifted a little.
"Ah, I was just about to explain."
"Uh..."
His eyes, his pupils, lifted too. Within his hazy eyes, a clear focus sharpened.
"Lee Ha-sol... is from the same orphanage as me. I've received a tremendous amount of help from her since we were kids...?"
Lee Ha-yul first gave a brief, summarized explanation.
The part about losing his memories... he hid that, not wanting her to worry. Besides, he did have a method to recover them.
[...?]
That was his thought as he explained, but Lee Ha-sol's expression was unusual.
A face frozen in shock. Her gaze was fixed on Lee Ha-yul's eyes.
'Ah....'
He'd have to explain this part too. But how...
"Ah...! So you're the one who looked after our Ha-yul!"
Behind Lee Ha-yul, who was struggling to figure out how to explain the delicate situation, Ellia exclaimed with delight.
"It's so nice to meet you. I'm Ellia Srade. I've heard a lot about you, Lee Ha-sol. The top cadet of the 122nd Cohort."
Ellia clasped her hands together with a bright smile. At the sound of the soft clap, Lee Ha-sol, who had been dazedly blinking, came back to her senses.
"...Yes, I'm pleased to meet you too, Srade. I'm Lee Ha-sol."
"Oh, please just call me Ellia casually. It's so nice to be able to greet you, since you looked after Ha-yul in the old days!"
"......."
In the old days.
There was no particular malice detectable in it, but Lee Ha-sol's lips twitched at the grating phrase.
.
.
.
They had been about to get up and leave, but Ellia's arrival extended the conversation.
"Ahaha, he still likes tucked-away corners, I see. Even back then, the moment you looked away, he'd dart into a corner and sit with his back to the wall like a lamp."
"He's similar now. He always finds the most secluded seat first... and he doesn't like having his back exposed. Though he's gotten a lot better about it now..."
The conversation between Ellia and Lee Ha-sol flowed smoothly.
There was a slightly odd atmosphere at the start, but once they found common ground, things became surprisingly congenial.
"Keuk, and he's the same about hating cold things."
"Yes, Ha-yul especially dislikes the cold. In the summer, he's always bundled up in thick clothes..."
"Does he like it when you cover him with a blanket or a duvet? Especially if you wrap him up tight like a cocoon, I'm telling you, he'll stay like that all day?"
"Exactly. If you hold him in your arms and cover him with a blanket too, he drops right off to sleep... Kkh-kkh."
"...He was like that in the old days too."
"Ah, he was like that back then too? Did the habit start that early?"
That odd atmosphere resurfaced from time to time, but Lee Ha-yul barely noticed.
- Stroke, stroke...
"Ha-yul, you don't have anything urgent to do, right? I was worried I might be keeping you if you had plans."
"Mm-mm, nothing. All my lectures are done for today."
Because Ellia, sitting beside him, kept periodically stroking his head.
Under the tender touch that neatly tucked his hair behind his ear, a blissful smile rose to his lips.
"......."
They sat close enough that their shoulders touched every moment. Every small gesture vibrantly bloomed with joy and happiness.
This was different from the Lee Ha-yul that Lee Ha-sol knew.
And that wasn't all. His soft voice that slipped out whenever he spoke to her, his eyes that filled with awareness of the other person—they were different too.
"Even in the winter, he'd get hit by a snowball and dash away in a startled fluster—it was so cute..."
"Snowball?"
"Oh, that was last winter. During the break, when it snowed a ton, we had a snowball fight outside."
The conversation reached last winter.
Ellia, who had been talking with a smile, tapped on her smartwatch.
Soon, a hologram floated above the table. It showed photos Lee Ha-yul had taken while playing in the winter; she had excluded the ones containing Lee Seo-yul and the fairies.
"...He's... young...?"
"Ahaha, Ha-yul's constitution is quite unique. He sometimes gets younger... but he goes back to normal quickly, so it's fine."
"I... see..."
Lee Ha-sol's expression became complex. She'd heard rumors that Lee Ha-yul sometimes got younger, but seeing it in photos was still bewildering.
On top of that, the photos didn't just show Lee Ha-yul. There was a unicorn and all sorts of spirits.
...Ellia was in them too. A photo of her holding a young Lee Ha-yul in her arms, smiling softly. It looked just like a gentle mother embracing her son.
"...He's cute."
It brought complicated feelings, but her attention was pulled more toward Lee Ha-yul's image.
What more was there to say? He was just cute.
Unlike before, his face was full of life. There was even a video of him jingling a pompom hat, kneading snow with his hands, and scampering away from the spirits on short legs (he was fast).
This was precious material, even in Lee Ha-sol's estimation.
'Hmm...'
She'd gathered a lot of information from this conversation. Mulling it over, Lee Ha-sol tapped her smartwatch.
Ding! A hologram rose right beside Ellia's. It showed a similar winter background, but with a young, black-haired Lee Ha-yul.
"Ah...!"
Ellia let out a soft gasp at the photo.
An expressionless face. Bandages wrapped around his right arm. An overall impression of being in pain. Each element was heart-wrenching.
Still, this was a photo of a genuinely young Lee Ha-yul. And it wasn't just one. Ellia's eyes sparkled.
"...Would you like to exchange?"
"Shall we?"
[?]
The two read each other's eyes and immediately entered a transaction. Faced with his own photos being abruptly traded, Lee Ha-yul popped up a question mark.
"Ellia?"
"Hehe, the more photos the better, right?"
Ellia smiled bashfully and extended her right hand with the smartwatch on it. Lee Ha-sol organized the photos and extended her right hand in turn.
- Ding!
As the smartwatches met, the files were exchanged instantly.
"Would it be alright to exchange contact info at the same time?"
"Yes, I was just about to ask you."
Their contact registration completed simultaneously. Ellia smiled in satisfaction and checked her smartwatch.
[Contact: Lee Ha-sol]
'Hm...'
Checking the newly registered contact, Ellia nodded to herself.
She still wasn't sure. She could roughly guess the other's feelings, but couldn't be certain.
What was certain was that it was already too much. Lee Ha-yul's happiness was the priority, but she naturally didn't want that number to grow.
'Still, you never know.'
It was right to keep a rival at a distance, but if there was a chance she could be an ally, it was better to build at least a small connection.
Having earned a small achievement, Ellia smiled slightly.
* * *
At Siyoram, there were many long-established lectures that had carried on their legacy over the years, but there were just as many newly opened ones.
This stemmed from the principle that, as the saying goes, stagnant water rots; anything that doesn't accumulate new experiences and stays in place will eventually be left behind.
It wasn't wrong.
A superhuman harboring an innate talent must undergo new things and change. An innate talent naturally changes and expands over time.
"...Greetings to all the cadets participating in this lecture. I am the new professor for the 122nd Cohort this year, Tigreen Wyler, and I will be in charge of 'Delicacy of Precision Crafting.'"
For that reason, there were many new lectures each year, led by incoming professors.
These new lectures were generally unpopular. Specifically, few people knew about them, and they were small in scale.
Naturally, with so many prestigious, popular lectures around, these liberal-arts-level classes drew relatively less attention. Aside from exceptions like Liana last year, this was the norm.
'But why...'
Tigreen Wyler, this year's new professor, steadied her quivering eyes and turned her gaze.
To a corner of the lecture hall. A spot that nonetheless drew the attention of every single person present.
There sat Lee Ha-yul, a celebrity and major figure—these days, you'd be called a spy for not recognizing him.
'Why is he here.'
The new professor's face crumpled into a near-tearful expression.