Chapter 8. This year for sure! (1)
For about a month after that, school life just sort of flowed along.
I still barely had any conversations with the kids in my class, and even Soi and Chaeyi were talking less and less with the kids around us, but on the surface, at least, the two of them didn't seem to care much about that.
As for me...... hmm.
Setting aside whether I like it or not, to be honest, I'm kind of used to it.
Although I've maintained a somewhat popular life throughout this current life, in my past life, I didn't exactly live a life with many friends.
And there hadn't been any particular incidents since the last one.
My trauma still hadn't been fixed, but hey, at least it was peaceful enough, which is something.
And so, June arrived, when the weather started getting properly hot.
It was about a month and a half before summer vacation. Perhaps because the weather had gotten hot enough that we had to wear our summer uniforms, the atmosphere among the kids was a bit sluggish.
Soi and Chaeyi still claimed the spots on either side of me as their own, and thanks to that, I, who was already soaked in sweat on both sides, would return home even more drenched.
And.
"Welcome home."
"Huh? Mom?"
Yujin-ajumma, who had barely been home during the day since that incident, was waiting for us at home.
"Ah, hello."
Even Chaeyi, who had become too accustomed to there being no one home when she arrived, looked like she had suddenly snapped to attention.
"Welcome, Chaeyi. Did you come to hang out?"
"Ah, yes."
At that, Yujin-ajumma's expression turned a bit apologetic.
"I'm sorry. What should I do? Today, Ajumma has some things to discuss with Soi and Lua."
"Ah, no. I'm the one who came over without calling."
Chaeyi said, quickly shaking her head vigorously.
"Hmm, still, it's a bit much to just send you away, and I have some ice cream bought, so have some before you go."
"Ah, yes. Thank you......."
Chaeyi replied with her face flushed red at Yujin-ajumma's words.
Was it because Yujin-ajumma remembered that Chaeyi liked ice cream?
Though, I suppose there aren't many kids at this age who dislike ice cream.
Chaeyi, who had been clinging tightly to me, pulled away a bit belatedly. Yujin-ajumma saw that and laughed.
*
After cooling off from the sweat while eating ice cream in the cool air conditioning, Chaeyi left a polite greeting and went home.
Yujin-ajumma offered to drive her, but Chaeyi quickly shook her head.
Well, technically she stayed for about an hour, and in the end, it wasn't much different from usual.
And, the people left in the house were me, Soi, and Yujin-ajumma.
Yujin-ajumma sat facing us as we sat side-by-side at the dining table.
"There are two things I want to talk about today."
Yujin-ajumma said with a serious expression.
"First, I want to hear about your school life. How is it? Are you okay?"
The homeroom teacher was still on leave, and things had become incredibly awkward with the other kids.
Even Soi, who had been incredibly popular since elementary school, and Chaeyi, who had been slowly increasing her friends over time, had seen the friends around them leave.
Soi nodded with a bright smile.
"Yeah. It's fine. It's fun."
At those words, my face flushed for no reason.
Strictly speaking, I should feel guilty, but, you know, considering the things we get up to at school, well.
No, it's not like it's super weird or anything. Not really, but.
Should I say the degree and frequency of Soi clinging to me is increasing very naturally? Same with Chaeyi.
"I see. Hmm......."
Yujin-ajumma looked at me, pondering a little.
I also quickly nodded.
"I-it's fun."
Yeah. It's not that I hate it. Regardless of this or that, thanks to Soi and Chaeyi, my memories of school life are increasing.
Knowing that I felt awkward being around the other kids, Soi and Chaeyi would take me away from the classroom during lunch to spend time elsewhere.
Surely, when we gather as the three of us after graduating, we'll have plenty of stories to share.
"Good, that's a relief. I'm sorry I haven't been able to help much."
"Ah, no, it's really fine......."
At my answer, Yujin-ajumma fiddled with the water glass in front of her, then soon nodded.
"I've thought about it for a long time, and I think it would be better for Lua to learn how to handle her ability."
"Yes?"
"Of course, when you're old enough to go to high school, you'll learn it properly at the Academy, but there's no harm in learning it before then. Same for Soi."
"Oh."
Soi's eyes sparkled at Yujin-ajumma's words.
"I like it!"
"I, I too......."
It is scary, though.
My ability is Telekinesis.
But it's not just the ability to make objects in front of me float on their own. The sensation isn't much different from reaching out and picking something up with my hand.
It's just that the hand doesn't exist.
It doesn't exist, but I feel all the sensations one feels when using an actual human hand. Touch, warmth, cold. Even pain.
The Witch, Seo Arin, said her ability was great because she endured all that pain.
......Thinking about it that way, I can understand to some extent why the original Seo Lua's ability was weak, and why Seo Lua's personality wasn't that great.
Wielding some powerful attack with this ability means enduring that much pain.
Also, if it were Seo Lua, who had met the 'Witch' in this way. And if it were Seo Lua, who had memories of being bullied by other kids because of it. It would be almost inevitable for her personality to become jagged.
"Yes, good. That said, I don't intend to do any serious training. It's not about honing your abilities. It's just so that you two can utilize your abilities a bit more naturally, and understand your abilities properly so you don't get hurt later."
Only after hearing that did I realize.
The reason why a child who has superpowers but no family is always entrusted to another Superhuman family is to prevent a child with such abilities from going on a rampage.
They say that kids who know that the ability is ordinary and that anyone can be born with it tend to cause fewer accidents. Although, there is also the aspect of helping them be somewhat psychologically stable by giving them a family.
But I haven't just lived normally like that, and I'm already experiencing such an incident for the second time.
It must be to prevent me from going on a rampage in the middle of the classroom because of my trauma, just in case.
As Soi and I nodded, Yujin-ajumma smiled and stood up, saying.
"Then, shall we go?"
*
The reason heroes prefer detached houses rather than apartments is simple.
Because it's good for building various facilities under the house.
In the first place, isn't the job of a hero fighting someone with that power? It seems there are training grounds in the Association building too, but having a training ground you can use personally at home wouldn't be bad either.
"We'll start with something very simple."
Yujin-ajumma said that and led us to the corner of that training ground—
What was in front of us was, well.
It looked more like a physical fitness room than a place to train superpowers.
"Uh, Mom?"
Soi also called out to Yujin-ajumma, perhaps sensing belatedly that something was wrong.
"I don't know if Soi and Lua will become heroes or not, but if there's a moment where you really have to 'use' your superpowers, it surely means it's a situation that can't be solved with physical strength alone, right?"
Yujin-ajumma said that and smiled at us.
"So, I think the first thing to do is proper physical training rather than honing the superpowers themselves. You'll have to do it anyway when you go to the Academy, so it would be good to do it in advance."
"Uh......."
Soi made a face that said she really wanted to run away.
Soi does have good stamina.
But that stamina wasn't really forged through blood, sweat, and tears; it was just stamina that formed naturally because she had a lively personality and liked running around since she was young.
It doesn't mean she has the strength to actually run on a treadmill or lift and put down dumbbells.
And I'm even worse.
I'm somewhat used to running because I run hard following Soi, but unfortunately, I don't remember ever particularly liking exercise from my past life until now.
"......Homework."
"Hm?"
Yujin-ajumma tilted her head at the words I suddenly brought up.
"We, we have homework to do......."
I said, fidgeting with my hands.
It's not a lie. We really did have some. Not a lot, though.
"Oh, right! Right! We have homework! We have to review what we learned today too!"
Reviewing is a lie. After finishing homework, we always just lazed around in the room.
Neither of us had ever had particularly high grades. We just hovered around the average. Yujin-ajumma and Dohyun-ajussi weren't the type to nag us about grades, so we didn't have any thoughts of improving them either.
......And, would Yujin-ajumma not know that?
Yujin-ajumma smiled at our excuses.
"Then, 30 minutes. Let's do just 30 minutes. That's enough time to do your homework, right?"
"Uh......."
"If it's about 30 minutes......."
Soi and I looked at each other, pondered, and then nodded.
Yujin-ajumma saw the two of us and grinned again.
I didn't know because I wasn't someone who exercised hard in my past life.
I realized within 5 minutes of starting that 30 minutes was enough time to turn someone who doesn't usually exercise into a dried fish.