A Very Ordinary Conversation
It was just a very ordinary conversation.
“Hey! Yoo Ji-min, who do you think is the prettiest girl in our academy?”
“Huh…?”
The kind of everyday chit-chat that naturally comes up when guys hang out together. I answered cautiously to the sudden question.
“Um… I think Han Min-young is the prettiest.”
“Oh? Han Min-young? You into that type?”
“Yeah!”
Han Min-young.
The first time I saw her in the classroom after enrolling in the Hunter Academy, I was hit with a massive shock.
‘How can a person be that beautiful…?’
Of course, celebrities on TV or influencer hunters might be more objectively stunning.
But that didn’t matter to me at all.
The moment I laid eyes on her, I realized it was possible for someone to shine brighter than anything else in the world.
About two months passed like that.
Min-young, who wasn’t much of a talker to begin with, only really chatted with her close same-sex friends. I still hadn’t even had a proper conversation with her.
But even so, my feelings for her only grew stronger.
I liked her so much that just seeing her smile filled my heart to the brim. If I could walk and talk with her side by side, that would’ve been a dream come true.
Sexual desire didn’t even have room to creep in during all that. Liking her too much made her very existence feel sacred, beyond anything carnal. Anyone who’s had a blind crush like mine would get it, right?
And that day was just another ordinary one like any other.
In class, I’d sneak smiles at Min-young in my mind. A bit later than the others, but I held onto the hope that I’d awaken soon.
I’d finished my personal training and was walking behind the academy, mentally reviewing the day’s workout during my stroll.
“Kyaaaaah!!!”
A woman’s scream echoing from somewhere.
And then.
Tadadak—
The sound of several people running. Heading right in my direction.
What’s going on? Something happen?
The moment I turned toward the noise.
Thud—
“Huh?”
Something tripped me, and I went sprawling.
What the hell? There’s nothing around— what did I even trip on?
I tried to get back up.
But.
“It’s you?!”
“Y-Yes…?”
Furious female students and one professor had suddenly closed in on me. They pointed at me and shouted.
“This guy’s definitely the one who was peeking in the girls’ shower room!!”
“Right! We heard a camera shutter sound earlier too!”
What the—?
“Let’s see your nameplate. Yoo Ji-min? You really the one who did it?”
“N-No, I didn’t. I….”
“Come with us first.”
And just like that, out of nowhere, I was treated like a total pervert and dragged away.
Sex crimes are serious offenses, so it got reported to the authorities. Since academy cadets aren’t civilians, it went to the Hunter Association for investigation instead of the police.
“I really didn’t do it! I don’t even know where the girls’ shower room is!!”
“Yeah, yeah, we’ll look into it. Hand over your phone voluntarily.”
I cooperated fully and surrendered my phone. Innocent as I was, I stood tall, certain the false charge would clear up soon.
But.
“They’re sending it to the prosecutors…? No way!!”
Even though nothing turned up on my phone, I was still forwarded to the prosecutors. The reason? Circumstantial evidence was too damning.
A peeper tripped while fleeing and got caught? The Association treated that situation as good as guilty. They weren’t even real cops to begin with, so who knows how sloppy their handling was.
Once at the prosecutors, I endured intense questioning. And thankfully, the result was.
Not Guilty (Insufficient Evidence)
I made it back to the academy unscathed. But the cadets’ reactions had changed drastically.
I’d already been branded a sex offender in their eyes.
Defend myself? Of course I tried.
But no one listened. Not the cadets, not the professors—nobody believed me. If anything.
“You fucking filthy bastard, who told you to talk to me!!”
Wham—!
All I got back was contempt and merciless beatings. To cadets who’d already awakened, I was just a weak civilian.
A criminal they could torment freely without consequences—a stress-relief toy.
It was unbearable. They say the hardest emotion for a person is injustice, and damn if that wasn’t spot on.
And the incidents kept piling up after that.
Pure nonsense without logic or evidence, but when the target was me, it was different. They felt zero guilt witch-hunting the “sex offender.”
Countless assaults and ostracism. Endless false accusations and injustice.
Just drop out? The Hunter Academy forcibly enrolls kids with high mana sensitivity. It’s like the military—you can’t just leave when you want.
And one day in June.
After class, desks pushed to the back for cleaning.
I’d wrung out the mop in the utility closet and returned to the classroom.
That’s when I saw her.
Han Min-young, tidying up with the other cadets.
The girl I had a crush on was about to move a desk. The moment I realized it was my desk.
Her expression changed in an instant. She shook her head and quickly dropped it.
For some reason.
More than all the beatings I’d endured.
More than any humiliation.
That moment stuck with me deepest.
The look of contempt when she realized it was mine. The gesture like she’d touched something filthy.
It shredded my heart like a sharp dagger.
Far more painful than any bullying.
That instant left a deep scar on my soul. A wound that would never fade.
My agonizing freshman year passed like that. Sophomore year came, but nothing changed.
Everyone else had awakened. But not me.
The cadets mocking and tormenting me as always. Days so tough I wanted to die.
But I kept going. Like a weed sprouting from a crack in the concrete, no matter how trampled.
I never gave up, gritting my teeth and pushing on. Clinging to life, believing my turnaround would come. Endlessly training for an awakening that never arrived.
Training at the academy got too hard, so I did it near home. Every day, I ground through workouts and practiced swordsmanship in empty lots, desperate to hasten my awakening.
But I never imagined I’d be the one to give up on life.
And for the sake of that girl who despised me.