39. Ha-na's Identity
39. Ha-na's Identity
39. Ha-na's Identity
The day after everything that happened with Ban Ha-na.
To cut straight to the conclusion, I ended up in a sort of cohabitation with her.
A forced cohabitation, at that. Not a single shred of my own will was involved.
"Si-jun. You have to take responsibility. Ha-na gets lonely. You have to stay with me."
Ban Ha-na was clutching a giant rabbit plushie she'd brought from her room.
She claimed she suffered from intense loneliness. If she ended up feeling too alone, she'd use her Space Rift to come right into my room.
'Responsibility, huh... well, I guess I am responsible.'
I had no choice but to nod along.
"Fine. But I need to be alone for a bit today. I have to go out for a while."
"Wh-where? I want to go too! Me too!"
The moment I mentioned going out, Ban Ha-na tossed the rabbit aside and started getting ready to leave.
Her intentions were obvious.
But I had no intention of taking her along.
"No. I have to go alone."
"...What kind of appointment is it, Si-jun? Is it more important than me...?"
If we were measuring importance, Ban Ha-na was definitely the higher priority.
But I couldn't exactly skip this appointment that had popped up out of nowhere. Leaving the dorm was non-negotiable.
And that message wasn't so much an appointment as...
'Less an appointment, more of a summons.'
—Please come to the consultation room around lunchtime today. Leave Ha-na behind. No exceptions. Make absolutely sure you come, Han Si-jun.
The text I found on my phone this morning.
It was from Instructor Shin Si-hwa. For someone who was usually so gentle and soft-spoken, the message came off as surprisingly overbearing.
'I did need to clear up that misunderstanding anyway.'
Shin Si-hwa had gotten it into her head that I was terminally ill after watching my body take a hit.
I mean, I am terminally ill. That part's true. But her misunderstanding and my actual remaining lifespan were two very different problems.
No sense in picking at scabs and making things worse.
I had to go see her. Clear up the misunderstanding, and hear her out at the same time.
I patted Ban Ha-na's head as she shouted, "Take me with you!"
"Of course you're important to me. But I can't get out of this. In return, if you stay here and wait quietly like a good girl, I'll give you a reward."
"A... a reward? You mean that...!? That...!"
'That.'
When I nodded in confirmation, Ban Ha-na scrambled straight for the bed and wrapped herself around the rabbit doll.
"Ha-na will wait. She'll sit perfectly still. She'll be a good girl."
Was it really that good?
Kissing did feel nice, sure.
But I never imagined Ban Ha-na would be this obsessed with it.
Why did she like it so much?
As I mulled it over, a theory surfaced in my head.
'Is she just starved for affection...?'
Ban Ha-na grew up without ever receiving proper love from her parents.
That's why she sometimes craves the kind of affection you can only get through human contact.
A kiss was probably just another form of that affection.
It might not be the right answer, but I had a strong feeling it wasn't wrong either.
I gave Ban Ha-na's head one last pat as she hugged the rabbit in bed, then pulled my hat down low and headed for the front door.
"C-come back safe! Si-jun...!"
"Yeah. I'll be back. Stay put, okay? Don't cause any trouble."
"Ha-na's a grown-up. She's not a kid!"
Either way, she declared she wouldn't cause trouble.
She wouldn't... right...?
A little worry nagged at me, but with a reward that big on the line, she'd probably focus all her energy on behaving.
Right now, I needed to think about Instructor Shin Si-hwa.
'What could she possibly have to say that requires me to leave Ha-na behind?'
Carrying that question with me, I made my way to the consultation room at Hero Academy.
***
"Excuse me."
—Come in, Han Si-jun.
The consultation room inside the academy.
When I arrived at the room Shin Si-hwa had texted me, she was already waiting in her chair, maybe having finished her meal early.
Red hair, red eyes.
Instructor Shin Si-hwa had a smile as warm as her heart—and a figure to match.
She suddenly blushed and folded her arms on the desk to cover her chest.
"Ahem... W-well, please have a seat, Han Si-jun."
"...Yes, Instructor."
Was I that obvious...?
That was a reaction reserved for when someone is conscious of your gaze.
She seemed to handle this kind of attention often enough to move past the moment smoothly.
'She's not getting the wrong idea, is she...?'
I'm not that kind of guy, I swear.
My eyes just happened to land there.
Praying she wouldn't misunderstand, I sat down in the chair facing her.
Thud.
With the desk between us, Instructor Shin Si-hwa and I sat face-to-face.
What did she call me here to say?
She was the first to speak.
"I'll get straight to the point. Han Si-jun. What exactly is your relationship with Ha-na?"
"...!"
A hard, direct pitch aimed at my chest.
What was our relationship?
Shin Si-hwa's eyes were dead serious.
'Does she know what we really are to each other...?'
On the surface, we were two people who'd been kidnapped together by the villain group 'Black Dawn.'
And a friendship forged in that chaos.
But if you looked beneath the surface?
I was giving Ha-na kisses as a reward for good behavior.
If that came out, I wouldn't just be expelled. I'd be buried alive by society.
'Han Si-jun. You were cheating on me...? You pervert. You piece of trash. Die.'
Yu Ha-yeon's likely reaction flashed through my mind.
Just as those nightmare scenarios cornered me—
Shin Si-hwa's mouth opened and something completely unexpected came out.
"I'm sorry. That wasn't what I meant to ask. What I wanted to talk about was Ban Ha-na's identity."
Oh.
So she wasn't asking about that kind of relationship.
The bigger issue here was the word Shin Si-hwa had used: 'identity.'
"Ha-na's identity...?"
"Yes. Her identity. You only met her there for the first time, Si-jun, so you wouldn't know. But I know about that child."
"You know? What do you mean..."
...Had Ban Ha-na's identity already been exposed?
Ha-na was a member of the villain group Black Dawn, an indispensable asset during their operations.
If Shin Si-hwa had found out about that, the odds were high Ban Ha-na would end up in the prison where they lock away villains.
The 'Infinite Prison.'
And for Ha-na, who still had a chance to turn her life around, that was something that absolutely could not happen.
I looked at Shin Si-hwa as calmly as I could manage.
Her usual softness was gone. She wore a slightly sharp, almost angry expression as she prepared to speak.
Please. Don't let the conclusion be what I'm imagining.
"I..."
As that anxiety swirled around me—
What came out of Shin Si-hwa's mouth was something even I didn't know.
"I've seen that child before. To be more precise, I've seen her parents."
"Her parents..."
Shin Si-hwa wasn't talking about Shin Hae-il as a parent to Ha-na.
She seemed to mean Ban Ha-na's real parents.
"I was suspicious at first. But the more I examined Ha-na's body, the more her mana wavelength resembled people I knew very well."
Every person has a unique mana signature. It's distinct enough to tell people apart.
In other words, mana functions like DNA in V. AGE. It's a biological marker that distinguishes individuals.
Which meant if Shin Si-hwa found Ha-na's mana wavelength unsettlingly familiar...
She knew the parents who abandoned Ban Ha-na.
'Shin Si-hwa knew Ha-na's parents...?'
That rainy day.
Ban Ha-na, abandoned by her parents.
Shin Si-hwa seemed to know a piece of the story I was missing.
One question bubbled up inside me as I listened.
I asked carefully, "Why are you telling me this...?"
If she knew Ha-na's parents, shouldn't she be telling Ban Ha-na instead?
I didn't understand why Shin Si-hwa was choosing to tell me.
"Ha-na seems to be depending on you quite heavily. Severely, even. When she's with me, she talks about nothing but you, Si-jun... What in the world did you do to win her over that completely?"
"I didn't do anything, Instructor."
"...That's what criminals always say in court."
She tossed out the teasing line, then her expression shifted abruptly. Dead serious again.
"Here's the real point. Han Si-jun. Have you met with Black Dawn outside the academy?"
"N-no. The day I was kidnapped was the first time I ever saw them."
...How did she know?
That I had a connection to Han Yu-wol.
Shin Si-hwa spoke with utter certainty, like she was just confirming something she already knew.
"...You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I'm not here to scold you, Si-jun. You met them... to treat your illness, I assume..."
What was she talking about?
She seemed to be misunderstanding something again. She looked at me with a slightly pitying expression.
What was she getting wrong this time?
I couldn't even begin to guess what was going on in Shin Si-hwa's head.
"The reason I asked about your connection was because of Ban Ha-na. I want to make sure that child never gets involved with Black Dawn again."
"I feel the same way."
"Then I'm relieved we're on the same page."
Shin Si-hwa let out a sigh of relief.
'She's not wrong...'
No matter how I looked at it, Ban Ha-na wasn't the type to go back to Black Dawn.
She had the heart of someone who needed to grow up in a good environment, surrounded by good people.
She was not a talent meant to rot away in a villain group.
But it turned out Shin Si-hwa had a completely different reason for wanting to keep them apart.
What she said next was shocking even to me.
"You remember what I said earlier, right? About Ban Ha-na's parents. That I knew them."
"Yes... you said you know the parents who abandoned her..."
"They didn't abandon her. Watch your words, Si-jun."
Shin Si-hwa's reply was sharp, almost angry at the word 'abandon.'
She then explained the full story to me.
"I was about eleven. My parents' friends were overjoyed because they'd had a child late in life. They'd been infertile, but after treatment, they were blessed with a baby. I still remember it vividly. They were A-rank heroes. Experts in spatial movement abilities. And then, a child was born. To a woman with pink hair."
The child's name was Ban Ha-na.
It must have been the same Ban Ha-na I knew.
"Their household was always full of laughter. Every time I visited with my parents, the atmosphere in that home was warm and loving. Then one day, it happened. It was a day just like this—pouring rain."
"My parents still regret that incident," Shin Si-hwa murmured quietly before continuing.
"A man broke into that happy home. The suspect's name was 'Shin Hae-il.' He was a tragic hero who had both eyes gouged out by a villain and was forced into early retirement. A few years later, he resurfaced in the public eye as a member of a group called Black Dawn."
"Wait. Then..."
"...You're quick on the uptake, Si-jun. Yes."
Shin Si-hwa nodded, confirming my worst thoughts.
It was enough to make me physically sick.
'You crazy old bastard...'
Shin Hae-il killed Ban Ha-na's parents.
And then he raised their orphaned daughter with his own two hands.
No matter how I looked at it, that was something no human being could ever justify.
And now I finally understood why that innocent child had become a villain. Why she tried to drag an entire city into ruin.