Chapter 36
Chapter 36
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: Extreme Yin Body (2)
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Six days into the training to eat bingsu without using my hands.
With the midterm evaluation starting tomorrow, followed immediately by the challenge for Jincheon Class, I effectively had just this one day left.
Since this training only happened after all classes ended for the day, time was truly running out.
"Huuuugh...!"
Silence...
The only change compared to six days ago was that Fuyuno Tsubaki's face flushed a bit redder now when she exerted force.
Nothing else had improved.
"I'm starting to get sick of bingsu after a whole week. Got anything else?"
I ignored Ryu Jia's usual complaint after she wolfed down her bowl in no time flat.
I didn't have time for that.
The seal on her Extreme Yin Body trait was released, and I'd boosted her total mana capacity. In theory, everything should be fine. So what the hell was wrong? Her mana sensitivity was top-notch, so it wasn't a lack of talent. B-rank after no training at all because of the seal was already impressive. There was no reason it shouldn't work.
According to the Status Window, Fuyuno Tsubaki's talent was outstanding, as befitting someone from the Fuyuno family.
If her trait hadn't been sealed and she'd trained from childhood like a proper Fuyuno...
"...She'd be dead."
Her Extreme Yin Body mana would have gone berserk and killed her.
Solar Body and Extreme Yin Body weren't traits a kid with a normal mind could control.
Thinking that way, the sealing didn't seem all bad.
Of course, I was still frustrated by the inexplicable lack of progress.
"Hmm..."
As I pondered, someone poked my right forearm with their finger.
"That's exactly what I want to say, you newbie punk. When your senior says she's sick of bingsu, you gotta whip out some fresh, exciting dessert pronto! Are you ignoring me?! Want a spanking?"
Turning my head, I saw Ryu Jia with her finger pointed sharply and her eyebrows furrowed viciously.
"Club president's orders. Go buy some dessert with this!"
Ryu Jia handed me her black card.
The Cheondap Card, issued only to the top 10 students in each grade at Dabcheon Academy.
With it, I could use any product at the Dabcheon canteen for free—the legendary card. Knowing no answers would come from sticking around here anyway, I nodded.
"Sigh. Be right back."
Stepping out for some air might help me think of a solution anyway.
With that thought, I headed off.
※
"Huuuugh!!!"
"Hey, sticker girl. Stop."
"Wh-what...? Huh? Where's Yang Woo-bin?"
At Ryu Jia's words, Fuyuno Tsubaki opened her eyes and panicked at the missing person, looking around frantically.
Ryu Jia stuck out her tongue in genuine disgust at the sight of her whipping her body this way and that, eyes full of anxiety just because Yang Woo-bin was gone.
"What kind of separation anxiety is that? She really looks like a pet dog the more I see her."
"S-separation anxiety... Ehehe."
"Why are you happy even when I treat you like a dog...?"
As Fuyuno Tsubaki blushed and beamed, Ryu Jia felt actual fear now.
"But... why'd you tell me to stop? I need to train hard like Yang Woo-bin said..."
"It's too frustrating to watch."
Aside from Fuyuno Tsubaki being a weirdo who got happy at being called a pet dog, Ryu Jia hated wasting a whole week like this.
She appreciated the daily bingsu desserts, but only up until the bowl was empty.
Watching her go "Huuuugh!" and turn red-faced with no results for a week—even Ryu Jia, who didn't like Fuyuno Tsubaki, couldn't sit still anymore.
"Anyway, the newbie said you can handle cold energy. That true?"
Ryu Jia asked the blankly staring Fuyuno Tsubaki.
"Probably..."
"Probably what? Yes or no. Speak clearly."
"W-Yang Woo-bin said so... so, yes."
"..."
The response was just the kind of Fuyuno Tsubaki answer Ryu Jia hated.
To her, who valued strength above all, this gray-haired first-year was an irredeemable weakling by birth—someone she couldn't like no matter what.
"Haa..."
But ignoring her wouldn't solve Ryu Jia's own frustration, so she sighed deeply and asked something else.
"Fine, so do you feel anything? To handle cold energy, you have to sense it first. You can't control what you can't detect."
"Y-yeah, I can feel it. Ever since I took the Explosive Dragon Pill Yang Woo-bin gave me just for me that day, I started sensing the cold energies."
"Then why can't you control it?"
"Uh. Well, that's..."
Fuyuno Tsubaki, who had answered everything else promptly despite not knowing some things, trailed off, making Ryu Jia frown.
If she truly couldn't control it or sense the potential, she'd have said "I don't know..." But trailing off meant she was hiding something.
"What? Why can't you answer? Hey, my precious sticker, be honest. Is it that you can't, or you won't?"
Ryu Jia glared with eyes leaking red mana from her emotions.
Under that fierce gaze and pressure, Fuyuno Tsubaki trembled and finally spoke after her lips quivered.
"The c-cold energy... scares me."
"...What?"
It was an unexpected answer.
'She can control it, but she's scared of the cold energy? Does that even make sense? Feeling fear toward something you can control?'
To Ryu Jia, who had achieved everything she wanted with her own power in 21 years, Fuyuno Tsubaki's honest confession was incomprehensible.
"Why?"
All she could say was a genuine "Why?"
To that single syllable, Fuyuno Tsubaki hesitated before opening her mouth.
"Since I was little... it's been scary."
"Ah."
Fuyuno Tsubaki's follow-up was concise, but Ryu Jia got the gist.
She'd heard bits about her from Yang Woo-bin before.
"Scary since little" meant some childhood experience that instilled fear of cold energy.
Of course, Ryu Jia had no such experience, so she couldn't empathize deeply, but she understood intellectually.
"Please don't tell Yang Woo-bin... He'll think I'm pathetic if he knows I'm still scared of ice..."
Fuyuno Tsubaki's downcast eyes, hunched shoulders, and soft plea didn't sit well with Ryu Jia.
But since she'd stepped in to help solve the problem, she set aside her feelings and voiced the solution that just occurred to her.
"If the cold energy scares you that much, imagine something stronger than it behind you."
"Huh?"
"Fear and imagination are both intangible illusions anyway. Just think of something strong enough to devour your fear standing behind you."
"Ah...!"
Ryu Jia's casual, simple advice pierced deep into Fuyuno Tsubaki's heart.
Her anxious eyes calmed, her hunched shoulders straightened, and her lowered head lifted.
"Oh..."
Ryu Jia was inwardly impressed by Fuyuno Tsubaki's sudden change.
Seeing her junior grasp something from a single word made her feel proud as a senior.
"Y-yeah! Just imagine the inner Giga Yang Woo-bin, the hottest, strongest in the world—strong enough to blow away any cold energy!"
"What?"
But then incomprehensible nonsense came from Fuyuno Tsubaki's mouth.
"Giga Yang Woo-bin, please. Help me...!"
Woooong-!
"Whoa, whoaaa! It worked! It really worked! As expected of my inner Giga Yang Woo-bin!"
Ryu Jia was dumbfounded as the bingsu, motionless for a week, suddenly floated into the air while Fuyuno Tsubaki prayed with eyes squeezed shut.
'...What the hell.'
※
"So... she couldn't do it until now because she was scared of the cold energy, and when I advised her to imagine something to overcome that fear... that's what happened?"
"Yup."
"What the..."
I couldn't make sense of Ryu Jia's explanation.
"Right? Even you react like that! She mumbled something about 'inner Giga Yang Woo-bin' or whatever weird crap, and suddenly it worked!"
"Jeez."
Glancing over, I saw Fuyuno Tsubaki waving her fingers like a conductor, with ice chunks freely floating in the air following her movements.
The problem had solved itself while I was gone.
It hadn't budged at all despite me watching for six days straight. One piece of advice from Ryu Jia, and boom...
I felt a bit deflated, but right now was a time for joy, not emptiness, so I shook my head to clear the negativity.
"Fuyuno Tsubaki!"
"Ah, Yang Woo-bin! Hehe, sorry, I was so focused I didn't notice you... "
"Sorry nothing. Good work."
I placed my hand on Fuyuno Tsubaki's head—the one who'd worked hardest here.
"...Ah?"
"You did great. No worries now."
I grinned and ruffled her gray hair.
I expected her usual puppy-like "Ehehehe" dopey laugh, given how often she acted that way.
But unexpectedly, nothing like that happened.
"..."
Her face and ears were beet red, body frozen stiff.
※
The next day, midterm evaluation day arrived.