Introductions
The textbooks we'd received from the school were stacked in a towering pile on one corner of my desk. My seated height had already been easily surpassed. As expected, Seferon Academy's elementary curriculum was far more advanced than that of my previous school, Arabyeol Elementary.
The top textbook happened to be math, so I skimmed the table of contents. Operations with large numbers, properties of plane figures, fractions and decimals, and so on. Even toward the end, it only went up to greatest common divisors and least common multiples. Still, none of this seemed sufficient to properly cast even a 1st Circle spell. At best, something like Light, Heating, or Cooling?
Each student's locker was in a small room connected to the back of the classroom. Opening the door revealed twenty-five lockers packed tightly inside—more than enough for our class of twenty-one in Section A.
Before break time arrived, our homeroom teacher instructed us to organize our textbooks and then use the remaining time freely. With nearly twenty books to move, it looked like I'd need at least three trips. I'd tried carrying ten at once at first, but my body wobbled, so I gave up on the greed.
"I'll open your locker for you."
"Thanks."
A cute little girl with her hair in twintails just like mine kindly opened locker number six for me. The locker had a convenient three-tier structure for storage. Rich academies really are on another level, I thought.
As I carefully slotted the books into the deepest shelf first, the girl who'd just helped me out didn't leave. She stood right by my side, holding her position.
"What'd you talk about with Yoon Si-hu?"
"Huh?"
"You were talking about wizards earlier."
"Oh, that if you're slow with your hands when casting magic, you die."
Come to think of it, she was the kid sitting right behind me. She'd apparently overheard our conversation with keen interest.
"Yoon Si-hu is a genius. You don't have the right to give him advice."
So that wasn't just my imagination. The girl sneered curtly. I couldn't fathom what grudge she held against me—her gaze was laced with clear displeasure.
Once I'd finished sorting the remaining thirteen books, the bell rang right on cue, signaling break time.
"Hey (hej), Nami! It means 'hello' in Swedish!"
"Hey, Se-ri."
"You remembered my name! I'm touched!"
"We haven't been apart that long."
Led by Han Se-ri, a bunch of students swarmed my desk. Thanks to the crowd, Si-hu got pushed aside, and Se-ri naturally claimed his spot.
"Transfer student? New kid? Anyway, hi!"
"Hey, Han Se-ri, why are you acting all buddy-buddy with the new girl?"
"We really are friends, okay? And stop hitting my head!"
"Where's Arabyeol Elementary? Never heard of it."
It was total chaos. The class surrounded my desk in a circle, showering me with all sorts of greetings. Everyone except the red-haired girl who'd scolded me earlier and Yoon Si-hu seemed to be there.
"Nami looks overwhelmed, so how about asking one at a time?"
Se-ri stepped in to manage the traffic. We'd get to know each other eventually anyway, but the kids were whispering among themselves, dying of curiosity.
"Where'd you come from? Another academy?"
"Idiot, she said Arabyeol Elementary earlier!"
"Shh! Why are you guys so noisy?"
"Dobong-gu."
It was a small school with just one class per grade, so no surprise Gangnam kids hadn't heard of it.
"How do you know Se-ri? Did you meet before?"
"I already told you—we got close after fighting."
"How do we know we can trust Se-ri's word?"
Speaking of which, I didn't see Ji-hye. I'd thought she was Se-ri's best friend, but maybe they'd been split into different classes.
"We're neighbors in the same apartment complex. We met at the playground."
"So you really beat the upperclassmen?"
"I didn't fight them."
I just subdued them and ran.
"Nami, you can't say it like that! You did some super cool magic whoosh and knocked them all down!"
"See? I knew Han Se-ri was lying."
"It's true, ugh."
I didn't answer every question. If I did, they'd dig up my entire life story and probably ask about my underwear color next.
Se-ri smartly noticed my discomfort and begged the others to stop. Instead, we decided to do formal introductions. That's how I learned all the class kids' names.
"I Ha-ru's super rich. Her grandpa's the vice chairman of Samyeon Group! If you want anything, just ask her to buy it. She's a total pushover and never says no, so don't hold back."
"Why are you bragging about it, Kim Han-gyeol? And I told you not to tell everyone!"
"Her uncle's the leader of the Raon Clan too. Rich people really stick together."
"Am I rich? I barely get any allowance."
True to Seferon Academy form, the students' wealth levels were on a whole different plane. Unlike the high school division, selected purely on talent and effort, most elementary prodigies were polished by their parents' early education. Even in the same uniforms, their bags, shoes, and little details screamed class. It was a stark contrast to the Arabyeol kids who dragged around half-torn slippers because they couldn't afford proper ones.
"Talking all at once will confuse the new kid. Introduce yourselves one by one slowly!"
"Nah, it's fine. I got them all. You're Jeon Nu-ri, next to you is Hwang Hye-jeong, and you're Ko Kyung-won, right?"
"Huh? Yeah, that's me..."
"Ooooooh, new kid! You're crazy smart! Si-hu better watch out!"
Korean names? I could memorize a hundred right here without breaking a sweat. After dealing with Kaizen nobles whose full names—complete with middle names and surnames—were absurdly long, I'd built up immunity. In that sense, Korea's overlapping surnames felt cozy.
"So what's that red-haired girl's name?"
I pointed to the girl in the hallway chatting with Yoon Si-hu.
"Oh, you mean Jae-wang...?"
Kim Han-gyeol narrowed his eyes. He seemed displeased at the mere mention, biting his lower lip.
"Her name's Je-wang?"
Pretty bold name for such a cute face. Ha-ru hesitated beside him, then leaned in to whisper as if she had no choice.
"Not Je-wang... Jae-wang. Like 'jinxed outcast.'"
* * *
"You really won't have any? We're buying."
Ji-hye said it while slurping her ice cream noisily.
"Nah, it's time for my meds."
Melona looked delicious, but I had to hold back. Se-ri and I had joined Ji-hye from the next class, settling at a spot in the north cafeteria.
"Seo Yu-na? The one always trailing Yoon Si-hu? She's second in the whole school."
We were chatting about academy life when the name Seo Yu-na came up, and Ji-hye said she knew her too.
"You know her better than me, right, Se-ri?"
"She was in C-section in first grade."
"She was always hanging around our class during breaks."
"Was she?"
"You were too busy playing to notice."
Seo Yu-na... so her name's Yuna.
"Earlier, I Ha-ru and Kim Han-gyeol in our class really hated on her."
Se-ri filled Ji-hye in on what happened.
"Really? Yeah, I've heard rumors she's got a weird personality."
"Personality?"
"Come to think of it, she did that to you last year too, Se-ri. During sports day, you lent her pants, and she returned them stained with milk without even rinsing."
"Did she? I don't really remember."
She didn't seem like a truly malicious kid from the rumors. She'd gone out of her way to open my locker for me, even though she had her own books to move.
"Does she like Yoon Si-hu?"
"Nooo? If anything, she hates him."
Ji-hye frantically shook her head at my guess.
"I think she just hates anyone better than her. And... well, Si-hu's number one."
Is she keeping him in check? Se-ri ventured cautiously.
"Si-hu is good at studying."
"Yeah. Probably only him and Yuna have finished all the elementary stuff already."
"They're both monsters? I mess up multiplication and division every time..."
If Yuna was sizing me up like Se-ri said, her behavior made some sense. It stung to get this treatment from an eight-year-old, but I wasn't planning to befriend everyone anyway. If it happened again, I'd just ignore her.
"You two are lucky to be in the same class... I'm all alone in B-section, feels lonely."
"Aww, is our Ji-hye lonely? We'll come visit like this every time, don't worry. And B-section has lots of nice kids—I'll introduce you later!"
"What do you think of the academy, Nami? Different from your old school?"
"Definitely a lot of rich kids around here."
"Right? And it's worse in A-section."
Vice chairmen of conglomerates, famous clan leaders, hospital directors, university presidents, etc. I wondered what it felt like to have people like that in your family—ones you'd never meet in a normal lifetime.
"But the kids are all nice."
The leisure of the privileged was something else. Unlike the orphanage kids who stole from each other and sometimes brawled, these ones wouldn't.
"Don't underestimate it, though. We've got aptitude tests this afternoon too—that means real academy life starts now."
Ji-hye jumped up from her seat, warning me to steel myself. Endless homework, tests, practical evaluations—she said not to take them lightly. Se-ri nodded along, chiming in with "Yeah, yeah!"
"What's the aptitude test like? All subjects?"
"Nah, just magic studies! Twenty multiple-choice, five essay. It doesn't count toward grades, so no set range."
"Then no need to worry."
"If you miss top twenty two times in a row, you might get moved to another class next semester! And rankings get posted publicly, so it's super important!"
"Pfft, worrywart. You don't trust our new kid?"
Se-ri grabbed my hand tightly.
"Beat Yoon Si-hu and Seo Yu-na this time. Crush those smug noses of theirs!"