Academy (2)

After class ended, Lucy and Rumi scurried off somewhere in a flurry of little steps.

Looks like they headed for the club room.

I knew because I was going the same way. I'd set my course toward the club building to stop by the student council, and there they were ahead of me, giggling together as they walked. Since they'd told me to look forward to something, I hung back and trailed them so we wouldn't run into each other.

Once I'd confirmed they'd gone inside the building, I sent a message on my smartwatch.

It had been a while since I'd thought about visiting the student council. For all that I looked the part of an outsider, I was technically a member of the Public Relations Division. Activity had been sparse lately, of course… but that couldn't be helped. The PR Division itself was an organization Mun Su-rin had created just to pull me into the student council. With both of us buried in work these days, there was never going to be any real activity.

Anyway, I stepped into the club building for the first time in ages.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Feels weird."

I was curious what Lucy and Rumi were up to in the club room, but I had a pretty good idea, so I left them alone and headed for the elevator.

The student council office sat on the seventeenth floor—the very top of the club building. The elevator hummed and began to climb.

A loner like me in the student council. Even thinking about it now, the whole thing still felt strangely moving.

Ding. Seventeenth floor.

The doors slid open onto the student council office, the president's office, a lounge, and the rest of the facilities. The atmosphere was more like a corporate workplace than a school club.

Anyone I know around?

I stepped out of the elevator and looked left and right. A female member processing work on a holographic monitor locked eyes with me.

"Huh? It's our underclassman!"

"What are you talking about… wait—oh, it really is."

A few seniors I'd gotten friendly with when I first joined the student council recognized me and came over.

"It's been a while. I stopped by to celebrate getting discharged."

"Tch. Our underclassman got famous overnight. Feels a little awkward acting buddy-buddy now."

"Right…?"

"Still, we're student council seniors. We can treat him casually, can't we?"

"Then you go first."

"…Never mind."

The seniors glanced at each other and scratched their heads. Fair enough—I had gotten a lot more famous in the meantime.

At this rate, the conversation isn't going anywhere.

I smiled and pressed on.

"Haha… Where's the president? I'd like to say hello."

I appreciated that they were nice people. But Mun Su-rin mattered more. Sorry, everyone.

"The president's in her office right now. She's probably working—you sure that's okay?"

"Ho-yeon's here. It should be fine. Just knock and go in."

"Yes, yes. Thank you."

I bowed to the kindly seniors. They looked buried under work; they gave a rough wave and went back to their seats, fingers flying over their keyboards.

Knock knock.

"President. I'm here."

No answer.

They definitely said she was inside.

I pressed my ear flat against the door and focused my mana. Little by little, I could make out the sounds from within.

Scratch, scratch—

"That bastard… Shin Dong-min, you absolute bastard… If you just run off, who's supposed to handle all this work?"

Scratch, scratch—

The quiet stream of curses from the other side made me flinch.

"…"

Su-rin noona's voice was terrifying. I glanced back over my shoulder; the seniors were still locked onto their work, staring at their monitors like their eyes might fall out and hammering their keyboards with combat intensity. Not an atmosphere I wanted to interrupt.

Why were they like that… ah. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠I got it.

No wonder there barely seemed to be anyone around. They all ran for it.

Not long ago, articles about Vice President Shin Dong-min had dropped one after another under Mun Su-rin's lead. As student council vice president, he'd been cut loose at lightning speed for the sake of the academy's image management—and with him went every last member of his faction.

"Yeah, if half the people suddenly vanish, of course it'd be rough."

That explained the slightly dead look in the seniors' eyes.

Hmm…

Busy or not, I couldn't just stand here forever. I knocked again.

Knock knock.

Still no response.

"…Noona. I'm coming in, okay?"

I turned the handle gently. The door opened, and there was Mun Su-rin's face, brow furrowed, pen in hand.

She's not going to yell at me for this… right?

Mun Su-rin was so absorbed in her work she hadn't even noticed the door open. I slipped quietly up behind her.

The crown of her head peeked through a fall of shimmering platinum blonde. The sensual figure straining against her neat cadet uniform drew my eyes. I came to a stop right behind her.

Close enough to feel each other's breathing—and still her gaze was pinned to the documents. By now she should have noticed… The fact that she hadn't meant the stress must have been crushing her.

"Shin Dong-min, you son of a bitch… you bastard… you fu—"

"Noona. I'm here."

"Kyaaaah!"

If I left her alone any longer, something far worse was going to come out of her mouth, so I cut her off fast. The moment I set a hand on her shoulder and spoke, Mun Su-rin made a bizarre noise and shrank into herself. At the same time, the papers on the desk began to lift into the air under telekinesis.

This was about to get ugly.

"Uh… Noona. It's me. Lee Ho-yeon."

"Kyaaa… huh? H-Ho-yeon. When did you get here?"

"I knocked, but there was no answer… so I just came in. I'm sorry if I startled you badly."

"No. Yeah. I wasn't startled at all."

The documents floating in midair settled neatly onto the desk as if to say, I was organizing them like this on purpose, and Mun Su-rin swept her hair back and met my eyes.

"You came because you got discharged. You should have messaged me first."

"I did leave a message. You just didn't reply."

"…Sorry. I've been too busy."

The dark circles under her eyes made that more than believable.

"Ah, it's fine. Have you been doing okay, Noona?"

"Yeah. I've just been waiting for the day you got out. I already made a reservation at Pungmidang."

"Ahaha… I'm free whenever, so okay by me."

I traded small talk with Mun Su-rin and asked after her. Today I needed to fish for a hint about her route in the middle of a natural conversation.

"Nothing hard going on these days?"

"Like what?"

"Well…"

The culprit behind the stalking incident was gone, but Mun Su-rin's psychology might still be the same. She'd clearly expressed her aversion to stalking out loud before. Of course, she'd also said things that seemed to deny it… but it was still worth probing.

"I've been under a ton of stress from reporters lately. The second I do anything, they swarm me… They were even hiding around when I got discharged. I was wondering how it is for you, Noona."

"…I don't know. I've gotten used to it. I'm a public figure."

"…"

Sorry to say it, but she wasn't supposed to get used to it. What was I supposed to do if the heroine whose route ran through a stalker incident adapted to the whole thing?

"…I kind of understand how those people feel. Fan devotion and all that."

"What?"

"It's nothing."

It very much did not look like nothing.

What on earth is this.

Why are you sorry to me, Noona. And why does her affection keep climbing. If she clears her own route all by herself, what am I even here for.

I looked at Mun Su-rin with a frustrated heart, but she avoided my gaze as she spoke.

"Ahem… Anyway, I'm fine. Don't worry."

The profile of her face as she went on somehow looked like she was apologizing ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to me.

"Haa…"

After Lee Ho-yeon left, Mun Su-rin let out a long sigh in the empty student council office. She had learned that he was stressed out because of the paparazzi.

From Lee Ho-yeon's perspective, the comment had been a probe aimed at her—but Mun Su-rin, who had no way of knowing that, could only take it seriously. She herself had once suffered because of the same thing.

"I'm sorry, Ho-yeon…"

The things she'd done out of affection had been making things hard for him. Mun Su-rin opened her smartwatch and began deleting photos.

Pictures she'd saved from news stories featuring Lee Ho-yeon. Pictures taken by paparazzi and obsessive fans. She wiped every photo she'd stashed away in spare moments, then checked her recordings as well.

"…"

If she deleted these too, nothing of him would be left on her smartwatch. Every trace connected to Lee Ho-yeon would be gone.

"His voice should be fine, though…"

She couldn't bring herself to erase that much. No—she didn't want to. It already felt hard enough to meet him; deleting this would only push him further away.

"Right. He doesn't know about this, so…"

How could he be stressed by something he didn't even know about. This one was not guilty.

Mun Su-rin played Lee Ho-yeon's voice.

She buried the guilt that rushed in with it deep in her chest and slowly closed her eyes.

"This is rough…"

Figuring out how to clear Mun Su-rin's route was giving me a headache. At first I'd been happy she was clearing herself automatically… but now I knew how heroine routes actually worked.

Once affection hit 99, each heroine required a specific action to finish the route. Only then would affection climb to 100 and complete the full clear. So affection rising on its own didn't mean much. If anything, it could make finding that specific action even harder.

"I should go see Professor Lim Sol too."

I'd made plans to have a meal with Mun Su-rin over the weekend. Taking our time and talking properly when we had more room might be good.

"Welcome, Cadet Lee Ho-yeon."

I set thoughts of Mun Su-rin aside for the moment. I'd arrived at the Magic Hall, where Lim Sol was.

"I'm here to visit Professor Lim Sol's lab on the second floor."

After getting clearance from the receptionist in the lobby, I took the elevator up to the second floor.

Professor Lim Sol's lab was as chaotic as ever. I picked my way past the scattered traces of experiments and headed deeper inside, where Lim Sol sat frowning at a magic circle.

Everyone sure stays busy.

Every time I came to see someone, they were already working.

"Professor. I'm here."

"Mm, perfect timing. I needed you."

Professor Lim Sol greeted me without taking her ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠eyes off the magic circle.

"What's that? A magic circle?"

"That's right. I'm at the final stretch of the research, and I can't figure out what to do with this."

I took a quick look at the circle she was studying.

"Hmm…"

"What is it?"

Professor Lim Sol's research topic was the core formula of magic. Strengthening the core formula embedded in a magic circle to raise a spell's power was the goal of the work. There were plenty of other applications, of course, but that was the main one.

The circle Lim Sol was looking at now was the one we'd named an Irregular Magic Circle. Unlike circles whose core formulas were fixed according to special rules, this type had its core formula determined irregularly. There weren't many of them even among magic circles, and they were correspondingly difficult and complex… but not so much that Lim Sol should have been stuck like this.

Ah… I get it.

"Professor, you've been worrying about how to explain this to other people, haven't you?"

"…How did you know?"

Lim Sol shot the question back at me, looking genuinely startled. It hadn't actually been hard. When I talked with Lim Sol, I just had to speak one level higher than whatever I was thinking. That usually got it right.

"I can read you. Whose disciple do you think I am? Let's grab a cup of coffee first. After that, I'll look at it with you."

"…Heh. Fine, let's do that."

The furrow between Lim Sol's brows eased. She smiled faintly and sat down across from me.