14. Childhood Friend and Friend
14. Childhood Friend and Friend
14. Childhood Friend and Friend
The academy had a cafe on campus that both cadets and instructors could use.
After classes, the place was packed.
It was early in the semester—everyone wanted to make friends.
Warm jazz played, the kind that settled the nerves.
But in this comfortable spot, only our table was wrapped in awkward silence.
"Shoooooop..."
Clink. Clink.
Yu Ha-yeon, sneaking glances and looking uncomfortable as she sucked on a strawberry latte through a straw.
"Mm..."
Na Yu-na, brow faintly furrowed, sipping a mint chocolate latte.
"Whew..."
Between them, I sighed and drank my iced americano.
Had I made a mistake dragging her into this?
We'd happened to run into each other on the way to the cafe, so I'd asked her to come along to hear her answer.
But this was practically Yu Ha-yeon's first time meeting her face-to-face, so the awkwardness was unavoidable.
Glance. Glance.
Yu Ha-yeon kept looking back and forth between me and Na Yu-na.
Well, if you have something to say, say it.
When I signaled for her to go ahead, she spoke up first.
"H... hello? You know who I am, right?"
"Class President Yu Ha-yeon. Han Si-jun's childhood friend and the student who gave up the top spot."
"...You've done your homework."
How much had she looked into her?
I never would've dreamed she'd know about Ha-yeon giving up the top spot.
Yu Ha-yeon hated being the center of attention, so she'd turned down the top spot even at the cost of a scholarship.
Because of that, someone else had received the certificate as the top student during the entrance ceremony instead of her.
The student who won the award clearly knew they were actually second place, because their expression had been less than pleased.
Yu Ha-yeon looked startled by how much information Na Yu-na had, but she pressed on with another question.
"Ahem. I know about you too! Na Yu-na of the NAVI Family! What are your hobbies?"
"...Hobbies. I don't have any."
"O... oh."
Na Yu-na's wall of ice.
It looked as flat as her chest.
"You just thought something rude, didn't you."
"...I did not."
Her instincts were annoyingly sharp.
How had she caught that right away?
Yu Ha-yeon glanced down and touched her own chest with a puzzled look.
Of course, there was nothing there but a small hill.
Anyway.
"Thanks for coming along. This is Yu Ha-yeon. She's a bit dense, but she's a good person."
"I'm not dense...! Nice to meet you! We're in the same class, so let's be friends!"
Yu Ha-yeon reached out and offered her hand to Na Yu-na.
A handshake to say let's get along.
Na Yu-na stared at Yu Ha-yeon's hand for a long time.
"...Um?"
Maybe three seconds passed.
She turned her gaze toward me and spoke.
"I came here to give Han Si-jun an answer. I don't want to waste time."
"Huh...?"
Yu Ha-yeon's open palm was lightly ignored. Her hand hung awkwardly in the air.
Yu Ha-yeon withdrew her hand as if nothing had happened.
"Ha. Interesting."
An incredulous laugh.
When was the last time someone had dismissed her like this?
Yu Ha-yeon was definitely burning up inside.
Crackle.
A subtle tension began to flow between them.
'Who do you think you are, asking me for a handshake.'
'I tried to be nice, and you get in my way. I don't like you.'
If I could read minds, wouldn't those thoughts be flooding into my head right now?
Even without mind-reading, I knew them both well enough that it was plainly obvious.
"All right, settle down. If you two fight here, what does that make me look like?"
Probably like some two-timing womanizer or a villain thanks to my fate.
Please, just don't let things go in that direction.
I had to be as careful as possible not to draw attention from the other students.
The truth was, I already had their attention.
"Whoa, look over there. Isn't that Na Yu-na? I've only ever seen her on TV."
"And the other one, that's Yu Ha-yeon. The one who was totally dominant in the combat trials."
Yu Ha-yeon, future S-rank candidate.
Na Yu-na, heiress to one of the top corporations in the world.
"But who's that guy? Never seen him before."
"His face kind of looks like..."
What, what's wrong with my face.
When have I ever gone around pulling Casanova moves or cheating on anyone?
I was just a male student drowning in unfairness.
Thunk!
I set my iced americano down on the table.
Time to get to the point with Na Yu-na.
"Let's get down to business, Na Yu-na. You prefer that, right?"
Nod.
She hated beating around the bush.
In a way, she was almost robotic.
One thing was certain—she wasn't big on emotion.
I looked at Na Yu-na steadily and spoke.
"Be my friend. I'll show you a different world."
"A different world...?"
A different world.
A world Na Yu-na, for all her wealth, had never gotten to enjoy.
That would be enough to soften the rigid life she'd lived until now.
"If you're curious, take my hand. You won't regret it."
"Regret..."
Na Yu-na looked at my scrawny hand and fell into thought.
Tamed inside a cage, hesitating even though the door was open.
That was the terrifying effect of being domesticated.
Na Yu-na, reaching out her hand and wrestling with herself.
Almost there.
Just a little more.
The moment the tips of her small fingers were about to touch mine—
A saboteur appeared.
"St... stop...!! A different world with Si-jun is not allowed...!! I absolutely will not permit it without my consent...!!"
"What is she talking about? Who is this person?"
I have no idea what she's going on about either.
I said let's be friends. Why is she making such a scene?
Yu Ha-yeon's hand blocked the space between me and Na Yu-na.
Gently, I pushed her hand aside and shook Na Yu-na's.
"Good. Starting today, we're friends. I'm your first friend, Han Si-jun. Don't ever forget it."
"Friend... fufu... I like it. That has a nice ring to it."
Hoo-hoo.
Na Yu-na smiled, looking satisfied.
She actually had a surprisingly cool side.
That ended easily enough.
If you ignored Yu Ha-yeon throwing a fit, anyway.
"I... I said I object...!! Si-jun's only friend is me...! I oppose this different world thing...!!"
What is she talking about?
I was just going to introduce Na Yu-na to normal-people culture—tteokbokki skewers, ramyeon, cola, jjajangmyeon.
Was she really that against corrupting her with commoner life?
Yu Ha-yeon seemed to think she was being left out.
She saw the commoner world every single day. She was being unbelievably selfish.
"Then I'll show you too. Let's see it together. The different world."
"Ueh... uhh... my childhood friend has gone crazy... he's fallen into depravity..."
"...?"
Yu Ha-yeon started muttering something, but my brain couldn't make heads or tails of it.
Well, this isn't the first time she's been like this.
I decided to just leave her be.
Na Yu-na tilted her head and asked.
"Are childhood friends usually like this?"
"...Not always. Just sometimes."
Na Yu-na also didn't seem to understand Yu Ha-yeon's behavior.
If even I couldn't get it, how could Na Yu-na?
I had no idea.
"He suddenly... grew up... he's become an adult..."
Na Yu-na stared at the temporarily broken Yu Ha-yeon for a moment, then pulled out her phone and checked the time.
Something seemed to come to mind, because she picked up her designer backpack and rose from her seat.
Na Yu-na looked busy.
She'd apparently spent more time with us than she'd planned.
"I'm short on time. I'll be going now. See you tomorrow, Han Si-jun."
"Yeah, Na Yu-na. See you tomorrow."
A stickler for rules.
If she decided something, she saw it through.
That included keeping to her schedule.
Na Yu-na seemed to be off to her next appointment.
"Shall we go too? Yu Ha-yeon. If you're done with your drink, let's head out. I'm tired too."
"N... no... if we leave, something terrible will happen..."
Was she still malfunctioning?
After clearing away everything on the table, I dragged Yu Ha-yeon out of the cafe.
"Look at that guy! You think he slipped something into her drink? Is he kidnapping her?"
"Oh my god...!!"
And so the rumors continued to pile up, one by one.
***
'...A different world meant the world of commoners...? What on earth was I thinking... You idiot! You should've said that in advance...!'
On the way back together, Yu Ha-yeon fumed.
I still wasn't sure what she'd imagined, but either way, her misunderstanding had been cleared up in the end.
What kind of world had she even pictured?
I still had no idea.
After that little incident.
Back at the dorm, I was lying on my soft bed.
"Ugh, I'm completely drained."
When you spend time outside, rest at home is mandatory.
Just like you charge your phone's battery, my body's energy had a fixed capacity too.
I tossed my evening nutritional supplements into my mouth.
Then, to check on my condition, I summoned my unique ability.
"Come forth, Libra."
—What do you desire?
Han Si-jun's unique ability, Libra.
You obtain what you want by paying a price.
Convenient in its own way, but the costs were steep.
I posed a question to that exploitative merchant, Libra.
And unlike usual, my tone was serious.
"My lifespan. How much do I have left?"
—Offer a price.
So it wouldn't tell me for free.
Tch. Playing hard to get.
"What kind of price are we talking about?"
—Lifespan. Offer half of your remaining lifespan.
"...Just get lost."
With those words, the scales vanished from my sight.
What a load of nonsense.
It was so absurd I almost laughed.
But what irritated me most was that Libra never lied.
"I need to know how much I have left before I can decide whether to spend it or not."
The scattered, fragmentary memories from the past.
Memories of using Libra back when I knew nothing about it surfaced, and that only made me more frustrated.
"Well, I'll probably be fine."
Everyone dies eventually.
Whatever my remaining lifespan turned out to be, I decided there was no point obsessing over it.
That was the far better approach.
What I needed to be doing was finding prices other than my lifespan.
And raising my weapon proficiency.
This place was both reality and a game world to me.
Weapon proficiency mattered a great deal here.
"I'll rest today. Start tomorrow..."
Run too fast and you'll trip.
But then again, wasn't I supposed to be running fast?
The moment the worry started creeping back in.
Bzzt!
My phone began to vibrate.
"Who is it at this hour? Yu Ha-yeon?"
She'd said goodbye earlier, and now she was messaging already.
But the text that had arrived was from an unknown number. A message from someone not in my contacts.
I tapped the screen to check it.
—Your number! lol It's me, save it!! hehe You're the first friend in my contacts!! Consider it an honor :) Sorry for hitting you during the match today! It hurt, right? T_T See you tomorrow! Bye!
"What is this..."
How did she get my number?
Had she investigated that too?
She could have just asked me.
More to the point.
Was this a text from an elementary schooler?
But this message claimed to be from Na Yu-na.
"...I guess it's her first time sending a message to a friend."
Yeah.
That was possible.
She'd never had a friend before.
Na Yu-na must have been texting a friend for the very first time.
I decided to let it slide.