Discipline 14. The Disciplinary Committee Leader Cares for a Comrade (1)
In Head Principal Lee Doo-hee's eyes, the full panorama of the academy city of Neo Seoul stretched out before her.
A riot of brilliant lights filled the city, turning night into day.
And yet, it all looked blurry.
Her whitened retinas had long since grown too decrepit to capture the city's splendor. Cataracts.
Her daily routine was simple: a wheelchair for legs, an IV line plunged into her arm.
Doo-hee had no intention of healing herself with restorative magic. She simply accepted her illness and carried on, prolonging her life as best she could.
Bzzz.
An old phone vibrated in her lap. The moment Doo-hee saw the sender, she swallowed a dry breath.
Sender: '1215'.
She snatched up the call at once.
"It's been a while since you called me... I thought we'd have no reason to speak again. What brings this on?"
Deep smile lines spread across Doo-hee's wrinkled face. Her voice had softened into something warm and indulgent.
It didn't last.
After listening to her caller for a while, Doo-hee's expression darkened.
She shut her eyes tightly and let out a soundless sigh.
"I see... So I'm not to touch the Disciplinary Committee Leader of Ahseong High. To think those words would come from you."
Doo-hee leaned back against her wheelchair and gazed up at the blurred ceiling.
She had tried to dispose of Ahn Woo-jin by deploying a suitably useful villain — the bomber Lee Ha-min.
The reason was that he had crushed Anomia, the syndicate she had quietly invested in for years, into the ground.
And that he had possessed detailed knowledge of Anomia's inner workings, which had grated on her.
Anomia had a purpose befitting its existence, and with the organization collapsing before she could ever put it to proper use, the loss gnawed at her.
Even so, she hadn't placed much weight on revenge.
It was no more than the anger of someone whose carefully tended potted plant had been knocked over and shattered by a stranger. Strictly speaking, a plant could be replaced; one simply needed to calm down and buy a new one.
That was precisely why she had stopped at using the bomber Lee Ha-min.
And in the end, everything had gone wrong.
Kim Dal-bi's intrusion, and the remarkable insight Woo-jin had shown in capturing the bomber in a single stroke — neither had been anticipated.
With the attempt to eliminate Ahn Woo-jin already dissipated into nothing, she had no intention of straining herself to strike at him again.
But it was too late.
The price of having tried had already drawn an unexpectedly severe backlash — one that left a scratch carved deep into Doo-hee's chest.
She blinked slowly, lost in thought for a moment, then composed herself and spoke.
"...Very well. If I've caused offense, I'll apologize."
Presently, the call ended.
Doo-hee closed her eyes, pressed a hand to her brow, and exhaled a long, deep sigh.
"Who is that boy...?"
Her caller — 1215 — had warned her never to touch Ahn Woo-jin.
It was a reaction Doo-hee had never foreseen.
For one thing, it baffled her how 1215 had even learned that the affair had been aimed at Woo-jin in the first place.
She had no intention of quarreling with 1215 over something like this. Doo-hee forced down the emotion bubbling up inside her.
Just then, the sound of a door opening came from behind her.
A girl in a nun's habit entered, along with a girl with long pastel-pink hair — Kim Dal-bi.
"...So you came."
Doo-hee barely managed to keep her composure as she forced the words out. Even so, her voice cut sharply through the air.
Dal-bi greeted her with a bright, mocking curve of her eyes. "Hi there."
"You certainly went out of your way to meddle."
"I told you back then, didn't I? Don't touch Woo-jin."
"That was the condition for the two of us parting ways. It has nothing to do with this."
"Whoa... listen to you, twisting words like it's nothing. You've completely lost your marbles. Put a hand on your chest and tell me honestly — that doesn't sound like a stretch to you?"
Dal-bi played the fool, hoping to sour Doo-hee's mood even a little.
The faint tremor buried in her voice came from pure anger.
"Child, mind how you speak to me."
Doo-hee spoke as she gazed out at the city lights.
"A dog should act like one."
"Then that makes you the dog's owner."
Dal-bi answered without a beat of hesitation.
"Something precious getting taken from you — do you bite even your own master, then? Oh, my apologies. The dementia must have made you forget."
Dal-bi grinned sweetly, wrapping her hostility in a playful, sing-song tone.
"You don't concede a single word, do you. Such an ill-mannered girl."
"So? Why did you have me dragged here? To punish me again?"
"...Go home."
"?"
The unexpected answer drew a frown from Dal-bi.
"Punishing you has become pointless."
"......"
The girl who had been grinning ear to ear stiffened, her eyes narrowing.
She'd realized something must have happened on their end in the time it took her to get here.
"Ye-seo. See her out."
"Yes~. Off you go, Dal-bi."
The nun — Son Ye-seo — escorted Dal-bi out through the door.
Even as she left, Dal-bi kept her eyes fixed on Doo-hee's back. The snow-white hair. The turtle-like neck, the hunched spine. The same figure as always.
The door soon closed, and Doo-hee let a quiet sigh dissolve into the silence.
"It's nothing grand, but come in."
"Thanks for having me."
Baek-seo slipped off her shoes at the entrance.
Call it befitting a vice leader, or call it what you will — even that most ordinary of gestures carried an effortless grace.
It feels a little strange, having her here with me...
The realization hit me all at once.
I had brought a girl home in the middle of the night.
She must trust me — that had to be why she stepped into my home without a moment's hesitation, even at this hour. I was sure she was worried about me, too.
But still. I was a man, you know?
Wasn't she trusting me a little too much?
Never mind. This is no time to be agonizing over that.
I didn't want to be thinking about man-versus-woman issues right now.
Ever since the battle, Baek-seo's hands had been trembling on and off.
It had to be a symptom tied to the price of using her unique ability.
Whether she burned her hands or bashed her head against a door, no matter what pain she endured —
Even Baek-seo, who had never once shown a crack in her composure until now, had been so unable to hide the tremor that she kept frantically tucking her hands out of sight. I was certain I'd read the situation correctly.
I don't know what conditions or penalties her unique ability carries.
She hadn't wanted to tell me, and it hadn't appeared in the game.
In more than half the cases, the game never spelled out the conditions or penalties for a unique ability. Baek-seo, a minor side character, had been one of those cases.
So if she was quietly enduring a brutal penalty while doing her best to hide it —
Then I have to take care of her.
I simply wanted to cherish her.
"Can I shower first?"
"Yeah, go ahead."
Thanks to her unique ability, our uniforms had been soaked through and were now dry again — but they still felt grimy, and I wanted a shower myself.
Still, wanting to shower the very moment she walked into someone's house? She must have really needed to wash up.
"I'll need something to wear, though..."
"Any of my clothes are fine. Take whatever's comfortable."
Baek-seo gave me a small smile.
"Thank you. I'll go with this one."
Huh?
She had picked out my white dress shirt. It was quite large for her frame.
"Why that one...?"
"It looks comfortable. Is that a problem?"
"No... no, it's fine. I was just asking."
Every man harbors a certain fantasy about a girl he likes wearing nothing but his dress shirt.
Naturally, I was no exception.
Was that on purpose?
Probably not.
Don't overthink it.
Baek-seo disappeared into the bathroom.
Before long, the sound of rushing water filled the apartment.
Maybe I'll eat ramyeon first and shower after her.
It'd be nice to have it ready just as she finished washing up.
Come to think of it, when she'd asked me earlier to 'make her some ramyeon', it had briefly reminded me of the phrase 'Want to come over for ramyeon?' that had once trended back in my past life in Korea — a euphemism for inviting someone up for sex.
Strictly speaking, Baek-seo had just stubbornly declared, out of nowhere, that she was going to eat ramyeon. But still.
...No weird thoughts.
She had to be exhausted.
It would be best to just cook the ramyeon, keep the mood light, and give her a space where she could truly rest tonight.
Should I get the water boiling ahead of time?
I filled a pot and set it on the burner.
The water heated slowly, and as I watched the first bubbles rise, my earlier worries crept back in to fill my head.
The Head Principal...
Head Principal Lee Doo-hee.
The face of that elderly woman — the one who held supreme power in this academy city — surfaced in my mind, vivid and unwelcome.
Never thought the person who'd kill themselves this year would turn out to be my assignment. Was she behind Dal-bi all along, then? The mastermind?
If the Head Principal's ears truly reached across the entire academy city, then I could not afford to breathe a single word about her being a hidden hand.
Even this room wasn't guaranteed to be safe.
So as long as I never mention the secret itself, I'm fine?
I remembered how Dal-bi had only ever gestured at the existence of a secret without ever saying what it was.
As long as nothing truly important passed through the air, the Head Principal seemed content to hold a stance of not prying too closely. Even the ears that listened everywhere had their limits, after all.
Right. Covering an entire city would be exhausting for anyone, and if she made a habit of conspicuous snooping, she'd risk backlash.
Besides...
...Now I understand why Dal-bi never wrote her secret in the letters.
Think about it.
Dal-bi could easily have conveyed her secret to me discreetly, in writing, without ever speaking it aloud. She chose not to.
She must have judged it too dangerous.
No matter how careful I was, there was always a chance I'd mention something related to the Head Principal, even without meaning to.
So rather than saddle me with that burden and risk, she must have decided that my knowing nothing at all was the safer medicine.
In any case, I'd better stay cautious until everything is clear. I need to prepare in case the Head Principal attacks again. But...
Given that she'd sent the bomber Lee Ha-min rather than hounds like the Spartoi, she didn't seem hell-bent on destroying me.
And Kim Dal-bi, apparently, wasn't under her complete control either.
Exposing herself as the mastermind pulling the strings of the Six Sinners would be a genuine risk to her. It seemed unlikely she'd shoulder that kind of danger just to keep targeting me. The cure would cost more than the disease.
Will Dal-bi be okay...?
Regardless of the fact that Dal-bi was my enemy, I couldn't help worrying about her.
But the dokkaebi had told me she had a plan. All I could do now was hope things worked out — hope, at the very least, that nothing bad befell her at the Head Principal's hands.
And whatever her story was, I could always drag it out of her later, bit by bit.
Ugh, my head hurts...
As my thoughts tangled, fatigue came flooding in.
I realized it anew.
Way too much happened today.
Exhausting. Genuinely exhausting.
Time to shut my brain off and rest for a bit.
When the water reached a rolling boil, I turned off the burner and headed for the bathroom. I needed to ask Baek-seo how much longer she'd be.
The sound of water drew closer.
"President?"
Her voice reached me before I could even speak, echoing off the tiled walls of the shower room.
"Come to sneak a peek?"
"Excuse me?"
What nonsense is this young lady spouting.
"Mmm, I could pretend I didn't notice, if you like."
Her voice — considerate yet laced with mischief — somehow made my fatigue melt away. As if some kind of healing buff were permanently attached to Baek-seo's vocal cords.
Was my dopamine surging?
Not that it was strange.
It was true that hearing her voice alone put me in a good mood on any given day.
Before I knew it, the corners of my mouth had lifted.
"I hardly came all this way for that."
"Oh my."
An oddly exaggerated gasp.
"What?"
"Then... would you like to wash up together?"
A voice trembling with entirely manufactured nervousness.
There it was — another mischievous jab.
"Ha."
A small laugh of disbelief escaped me.
I felt the temptation to close my eyes and just play along, but naturally, I restrained myself.
We weren't dating. We hadn't even confirmed each other's feelings. If I actually took her up on it, the odds of things turning awkward between us were far too high.
She was teasing me because she trusted me. The least I could do was keep my dignity about it.
Besides, this was a girl who'd been through the wringer today, putting on a brave front and cracking jokes. She was probably trying to lift the mood. The proper response was to play along and—
"...Why aren't you answering?"
"?"
Oh.
I'd gone quiet while deliberating, and the pause had stretched.
Did that sound suspicious to her?
"No, I was just thinking for a second—"
"You were seriously considering it? What a pervert, Mr. President."
"A pervert—?!"
Even as a joke, being called such a crude name was something I could not tolerate.
I was the Disciplinary Committee Leader, after all. Pedantic as it sounded, I had an image to defend.
"Don't twist this into something weird..."
From inside the shower room came a soft "Hehe."
"I'm timing the ramyeon for when you come out. Just tell me how much longer you'll be."
"About ten more minutes."
"Got it. Towels are on the shelf — double-check before you get out."
"Thank you."
I headed back to the kitchen.
The shower room was thick with hazy steam.
Nude beneath the pouring stream, Baek-seo swept her wet hair back from her face. She'd just finished her conversation with Woo-jin, tossing off a light joke at the end.
She wiped the fog from the mirror with her palm, and her own face emerged. Her expression... was not a pleasant one.
"......"
Kim Dal-bi.
There were things she needed to say to her.
They'd finally met today, and yet they hadn't exchanged a word. There'd been no helping it at the time.
From the moment Dal-bi had laid a hand on Woo-jin, Baek-seo could think only of drawing her blade. Conversation could wait until she hunted Dal-bi down and put her in the ground first.
The real problem lay elsewhere.
The fact that the Head Principal had intervened with Woo-jin in her sights. That was Baek-seo's conclusion.
A villain had come after Woo-jin within the territory of the Federation's board, and Kim Dal-bi had stepped in on top of that. To Baek-seo, it was the natural conclusion.
But why would the Head Principal target Woo-jin?
The precise reason was beyond her.
One thing, however, had become certain: Woo-jin might be in danger from here on.
There was no guarantee there wouldn't be another ambush, just like today's.
So if it came to it, she ought to consider not just tonight, but living under the same roof with Woo-jin until the Head Principal problem was settled.
"...It's fine."
Baek-seo admonished herself in the smallest of voices, still thinking of Dal-bi and the Head Principal.
"I'll protect him. That's enough."
It was a life she had already thrown away once.
Nothing could be better than being able to spend it protecting the person she loved.
"I'll protect him..."
Baek-seo looked down at her own hands.
Pale, callus-etched hands, caught in the bright glow of the shower room light.
Whenever she gazed down at them like this, her field of vision would shift to a pitch-black asphalt road in the dead of night, and bloodstained hands would overlap with her own.
Then again, in a shadowy back alley.
Then again, in a sealed basement.
Then again, on a rooftop in the rain.
Before corpse after corpse, Baek-seo's hands had always been soaked in blood.
The vivid crimson of that blood had faded, bit by bit, in her memory — until now it lingered only in gray.
Baek-seo hated that scene.
Because it felt as though her humanity were fading away with it.
The price of invoking her unique ability, Fortune's Wheel.
It reproduced her trauma with brutal intensity.
This much, she could bear.
It merely amplified that incurable sense of futility beyond its usual strength. She could endure it.
Granted, if she ever pushed her unique ability to its extreme, the trauma would be ripped up from the depths and devour her mind whole. She had no confidence she could withstand that.
Even so, it was fine.
Because all she needed to do was protect Woo-jin.
That single thought was all Baek-seo allowed herself to hold.
Her hands began to tremble against her will, and she clenched them into tight fists, fighting down the memories that kept bobbing to the surface of her mind like drowned things refusing to stay sunk.
"Haa."
With a deep breath, she forced her emotions back down with great effort.
Presently, she finished her shower and got dressed.
Woo-jin's dress shirt.
Woo-jin's boxers.
Being men's clothing, the shirt hung long enough to cover her to the tops of her thighs — and below its hem, her pale, bare legs were plainly on display.
From the waist down, she might as well have been wearing nothing at all.
"This is kind of embarrassing..."
There had been intention behind choosing the white shirt.
One of a man's classic fantasies.
A girl he loves, wearing his own dress shirt.
She'd researched it on the internet in advance.
That was why she'd picked the white one — she wanted to look pretty for Woo-jin, if she could help it.
But now, actually seeing herself in the mirror and becoming conscious of the outfit, her face burned hot.
"......?"
Suddenly, a fresh, clean scent drifting through the air caught Baek-seo's attention.
A familiar, fragrant fabric softener — faint, but unmistakably present.
The realization struck her anew, deep and vivid: everything she was wearing belonged to Woo-jin.
"...Snngh."
Baek-seo raised the shirt's trailing sleeve to her nose, closed her eyes, and drank in the scent.
The fragrance that always clung to Woo-jin saturated her senses. It washed away the murky thoughts dyed in blood and replaced them with something soft and warm.
Right on cue, the comforting sound of ramyeon bubbling away rang against her ears. Baek-seo finished her light makeup and headed for the kitchen.
Woo-jin losing his mind came immediately after.