70. Club
70. Club
70. Club
After giving Ban Ha-na her reward, I returned to the classroom with an expression that said nothing had happened at all.
But inside, my heart was on fire.
'What do I do...?'
The contract with Yu Ha-yeon.
A contract that forced me to tell her if I ever kissed someone else.
The moment I walked into the classroom and met Yu Ha-yeon's eyes, the words would automatically tumble from my mouth.
'I kissed Ban Ha-na.'
A magic contract was absolute, impossible to escape.
In this situation, there was only one person I could trust.
"Ha-na."
"Y-yes? Si-jun, what is it?"
"I'm counting on you. You can do it, right?"
"O-of course, Si-jun...! Just trust me...! I'll take care of it...!"
When I faced Yu Ha-yeon, I would inevitably make a sound.
And sounds could be buried if the surroundings were noisy—a loud noise would swallow the smaller one.
The plan I'd come up with was to have Ban Ha-na cause a commotion at the exact moment I spoke to Yu Ha-yeon.
That way, I could survive Yu Ha-yeon, and Ban Ha-na could avoid being dragged into a corner of the classroom.
Causing commotions was Ban Ha-na's specialty.
Placing my faith in her, I opened the classroom door.
—Murmur murmur...
The students had gathered in small groups, chatting among themselves.
It was the ordinary lunch-break atmosphere.
But in the middle of that ordinary air, one person radiated obvious displeasure.
"What could you possibly be talking about... to be so late...? Suspicious..."
—Tap, tap.
Yu Ha-yeon was expressing her annoyance with her whole body.
Her fingers drummed against the desk—tap, tap.
I looked at Ban Ha-na to steady my resolve.
She looked tense, but she clenched her fist tightly and showed confidence.
"...Ha-na. Let's go."
"O-okay...!"
And so we walked toward Yu Ha-yeon, who looked thoroughly displeased.
Cautiously.
As if passing a sleeping guard dog.
As we drew near with those careful steps, Yu Ha-yeon, sensing our presence, turned her head.
"...You came back? What took you so long...! What did you talk about...!?"
"..."
Yu Ha-yeon launched a volley of questions.
I looked into her dark eyes.
'...My mouth is itching to say it.'
The truth I had to tell Yu Ha-yeon.
The deep kiss on the rooftop with Ban Ha-na.
I was seized by an overwhelming impulse.
"I..."
My mouth opened, about to speak.
What was Ban Ha-na doing?
The Ban Ha-na I was counting on. Her voice still hadn't come.
"With Ban Ha-na..."
"..."
At Ban Ha-na's name, Yu Ha-yeon's eyes shifted.
She began to stare at me with suspicion.
'Not yet, Ha-na...?'
Was she not going to do anything after all?
The seed of that suspicion was about to bloom toward Ban Ha-na.
And then.
"Hoo..."
Ban Ha-na began to draw in a huge breath.
I kissed Ban Ha-na.
Just as those words were about to escape toward Yu Ha-yeon,
Ban Ha-na's faint voice rang through the classroom.
"K... Ki..."
"Yu Ha-yeon...!! You... you're that good at fighting!? Come up to the rooftop...!!"
A voice rang out.
The class students turned their eyes toward Ban Ha-na's wide-area aggro.
"What's going on?"
"Looks like they're fighting..."
Eyes full of curiosity.
Ban Ha-na, seemingly flustered by what she herself had just blurted out, covered her mouth with both hands.
Then she sent me a look asking for help.
"S-Si-jun...! I... I messed up my words...! That's not what I meant to say...! It was a slip of the tongue...!"
Ban Ha-na had confidently said she'd draw attention.
She'd only meant to shout, but her true feelings must have slipped out, because she ended up challenging Yu Ha-yeon to a fight.
'...This is a mess.'
Ban Ha-na really had made a slip of the tongue.
Unfortunately, Yu Ha-yeon was not the type to turn down a fight that came to her.
"Ban Ha-na. You want to fight with me?"
"N-no...! Ha-na doesn't like fighting...!"
"Then what were those words? Wasn't that you asking to fight?"
"N-no...! You... you misheard...! I never said anything like that...!"
Ban Ha-na denied her own words, but it didn't work on Yu Ha-yeon.
Perhaps bothered by the excessive attention, Yu Ha-yeon smiled and addressed the students.
"Everyone. It's nothing, so please don't pay any attention, okay...?"
"R-right."
"N-no...! Something's going on...! Help me...!"
When Yu Ha-yeon smiled and spoke, the gazes that had poured onto us vanished in an instant.
'What exactly did Yu Ha-yeon do while I was gone...?'
She seemed to have become the real power in this class.
"S-Si-jun...! Help...!"
Ban Ha-na was pulled into the corner by Yu Ha-yeon and sent me a rescue signal.
The kiss hadn't been discovered, but Ban Ha-na had gone and picked a fight with Yu Ha-yeon.
I felt gratitude for Ban Ha-na, and at the same time, I silently apologized.
'Thank you, Ha-na... and I'm sorry...'
In order to hide the fact that we'd kissed, Ban Ha-na had challenged Yu Ha-yeon.
Cornered and trapped, Ban Ha-na began to receive a lecture from Yu Ha-yeon.
"You think I'm a pushover? You're just running wild because Si-jun is your childhood friend, aren't you?"
"No... It was... a slip of the tongue..."
"Not a slip of the tongue—what was it?"
"A... misstatement..."
Just for this moment, Ban Ha-na struck me less as a villain and more as a hero. Or maybe not.
***
After all classes were over.
The students all set off toward their respective tasks.
"Let's go, Han Si-jun."
And today, unusually, I also had something to take care of besides training.
"Yu Ha-yeon, are you sure you're okay with joining the Villain Research Club?"
It was club sign-up day.
Yu Ha-yeon seemed to have other clubs in mind,
but she was following me into the Villain Research Club.
Commonly shortened to 'Villain Club.'
"You don't have to follow me."
"...I'm not following you. I wanted to join too, you know. Just because I like you doesn't mean everything I do is about you. You're too self-conscious, Han Si-jun."
Saying that, Yu Ha-yeon was pulling my hand as she walked.
And beside me, Ban Ha-na was stealthily clutching the sleeve of my clothes.
"...I want to go too."
"You want to join too...? Ha-na, didn't you say you wanted to go to a different club?"
"...No way. I'm going too."
Originally, Ban Ha-na had planned to join the Animal Ecology Observation Club.
'Rabbits...! Si-jun...! There are rabbits...! I have to join that one...!'
There's a story about someone who, when asked "Why do you climb mountains?" answered, "Because it's there."
Ban Ha-na was probably thinking along similar lines right now. After all, she'd declared she would join a club because there were rabbits there.
Maybe because she didn't want to be left alone, she announced she would join the same club as us.
'Then again, is it even okay for a villain to join the Villain Research Club...?'
Ban Ha-na was still a member of Black Dawn.
Whether or not she could join the Villain Research Club as a villain gave me brief pause, but since club choice was Ban Ha-na's own free will, I couldn't stop her.
"Alright, let's go together."
"Let's go...! We're going...! Hehe...!"
Ban Ha-na clung to us with an excited expression as we walked toward the club room.
"...He said it's fine."
"Eek..."
Of course, she kept a certain distance from Yu Ha-yeon.
After receiving that lecture, Ban Ha-na apparently found Yu Ha-yeon scary and was maintaining a bit of space.
'Yeah, she'd be scared...'
Getting cornered and pressured by Yu Ha-yeon was no small ordeal.
Even I, with a Will stat of 9, found being interrogated by Yu Ha-yeon utterly terrifying. If my Will had been any lower, I might not even have managed to negotiate, and by now I'd probably be tied to a bed somewhere.
It seemed Ban Ha-na had chosen to keep her distance from Yu Ha-yeon purely for survival.
So the three of us walked down the hallway.
Na Yu-na must have chosen a club useful for corporate management rather than the Villain Research Club.
She'd definitely headed off to a different club.
While thinking about Na Yu-na, Yu Ha-yeon pointed ahead with her finger.
"Han Si-jun. Isn't that the Villain Research Club over there?"
When my eyes followed her finger, I saw the crowded club room.
The name written on the sign was 'Villain Research Club'.
We'd apparently found the right place.
"Let's go in."
I entered the Villain Research Club's room without hesitation.
The Villain Research Club was one of the top five clubs in Hero Academy.
So its club room was quite impressive.
'This is a club room...?'
It boasted a substantial size—far bigger than my dorm room.
Expensive equipment was shoved into the corners.
The Villain Research Club ran with a small number of members, not a large crowd.
There, a familiar face was waiting, and the moment Yu Ha-yeon saw her, she began to growl.
"Han Si-jun. Why is she here...?"
"That, I don't know either."
Although I actually did know.
It was Lee Seol-ha. She looked surprised when our eyes met.
She had already been scouted into the Villain Research Club.
Yu Ha-yeon was aware that Lee Seol-ha and I had kissed.
'...Should I consider this entertaining?'
The place where all the people I'd kissed were gathered.
It seemed like the Villain Research Club was about to get pretty noisy.