5. Can I Stay Over?
'It would probably be best if I heard it from Young Master Hyunwoo directly.'
Granted, she had done her own background check. But strictly speaking, that had been limited to the address of the place he currently lived in. Han Jiye had decided it would be wrong to go any further than that.
And yet.
'He's going to be my lady's man. From my position, this much was only natural.'
The Director had crossed the line. She felt sorry toward Kim Hyunwoo, sure — but Han Jiye was every bit the same kind of person.
She simply had to know what came next.
###
For some reason, Jiye's eyes were blazing today.
Could it be...? Was she a red-bean paste girl after all, not a choux cream girl?!
"Should I go buy some more made with red bean, then?"
I peered into the paper bag of hotteok— no, bungeoppang I was holding and asked her.
"Wha—? No, no! I like the cream ones better, really!"
Thank goodness. Still on the choux cream team with me, then. For a second there I thought she'd betrayed me in less than two weeks and nearly had a heart attack.
Anyway.
Carrying the bag of still-steaming bungeoppang, I opened the door to my apartment.
"I'll go change."
"Of course, take your tiiime~."
As always, Jiye vanished into the bedroom with practiced ease. While waiting for her, I unfolded the narrow folding table.
After all, today we had something that needed writing up.
Creeeak—.
Maybe it was because we'd been living together for almost a month now, but the door opened the moment I sat down. Jiye's clothes-changing speed improved by the day. It was practically transcendent at this point.
"Whoa whoa! Strap! Your strap!!"
"Hm? Oh — sorry."
The strap of her tank top had been about to slide off her shoulder. When I pointed at it, Jiye casually hauled it back up.
Haaah.
This was a top where one slipped strap could have exposed everything. That was way too close a call. But hold on — why is the guy in this relationship the one being more careful...?
"Seriously, why are you so out of it today? Are you sick somewhere?"
"Yeah... actually, I do hurt."
"Really? Where does it hurt?"
Wondering if she might have a fever, I stepped closer and laid my hand on Jiye's forehead. No fever... as far as I could tell?
"You're lying."
Haha. Well, look at that. Our Jiye is beaming like the sun. How can anyone possibly be this pretty?
"Your choux cream is confiscated."
"I'm sorryyyy!!!"
Caring about her only ever cost me.
2.
Now that Jiye seemed to have come back to her senses, we each clamped a bungeoppang between our teeth and sat down at the table.
"Let's just dash this off and be done with it."
"I already drafted it."
"That's our ace for you, Han Jiye."
"Hehe~! Praise me more, praise me more!"
"Fine, fine! Since I'm in a good mood — two Kim Hyunwoo Compliment Stickers, bam bam!"
"Whoa! Wait, what do you even spend those on?"
"You don't know? Are they not garbage?"
The reason we were sitting at the table today was, of course, our team contract.
A mere academy team contract — isn't that just a little form students mess around with? You could think that, but it was actually quite different. Realistic to a fault, you might say.
Pioneer Academy's central mission was to give its students genuine field experience.
As a result, this contract, too, had to be drawn up with real-world rigor and submitted as such. Fail to do that, and the professors would reject it outright. The whole point was to make students actually draft and negotiate a contract themselves beforehand, so that later on they wouldn't get chewed up in real hunter contracts.
"How many freshmen do you think formed teams as fast as we did?"
"No idea. Still, five percent, maybe?"
"That's incredibly few."
Come to think of it, I'd been lucky. Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine I'd end up on a team with the daughter of that famous Han family.
"What about duos?"
"Those have got to be basically nonexistent."
In the actual field, duos were rare. Five-person teams were the gold standard — and plenty of teams ran six, even seven members.
"Actually, I'd say zero. You'd need compatibility like ours for a duo to work."
"Hmm~? Is that sooo~?"
What's with the voice all of a sudden? And why are you rubbing your shoulder against mine?
"Hyunwoo and I do have great chemistry, after aaaall~."
"That came out sounding really weird."
"Nooo~ more importantly, let's hurry up and finish so we can play our PuuPu Tetris. I wanna play it."
"Girls are obsessed with that game."
"......'Girls,' you say?"
Gulp.
A dark, unreadable aura emanated from Jiye in an instant.
I swallowed hard and deployed damage control as smoothly as I possibly could. Genuinely, maximally smooth.
"No, I mean — it was on Shorts, okay? One of those top-ranked games among women lists."
"Ahh, that thing? I think I've seen that too."
Crisis averted. We sailed past it. The follow-up topic change went off without a hitch as well.
"Oh right, where's the draft contract?"
"In my bag — one sec."
Jiye disappeared into the bedroom again and came back with her bag.
It was a draft, sure, but Jiye had written it, so I figured I wouldn't need to scrutinize it too closely. One more check, sign, done — roughly that.
That was my mindset as I skimmed through the contract.
"......Hey."
"......Yes?"
"......What is this."
"......Haha, I guess not, huh?"
Everything else was nearly flawless. Textbook, clean, polished. Submit this as-is and the professors would nod approvingly and pass it, no question.
With exactly one exception. If only the compensation-split clause weren't in it.
"Me 9, you 1. You think this passes?"
"Noooo..."
Pioneer Academy had plenty of mandatory assignments requiring students to clear Gates. Every year, people actually died because of it.
But it wasn't all bad. Naturally, all the compensation earned from those Gates belonged to the students who cleared them. And for reference, that pay was, in most cases, higher than the monthly salary of a mid-size company employee.
So what kind of hopeless pushover on Earth agrees to split that kind of money nine-to-one?
In a duo, no less.
"Are you a pushover?"
"It's fine if it's you treating me like one..."
Thwack!
"Ow—!"
I flicked her squarely in the dead center of her forehead.
"Watch your mouth and try again."
"I'm sorry, I'll be careful..."
"Good. Let's both be careful, yeah?"
"Yes, sir..."
In a duo, the split was usually fifty-fifty — or, when one person carried more of the load, six-four, even seven-three.
For us, seven-three would be right. Clearly, Jiye carried the heavier burden.
Swoosh—.
The moment I changed the split from one-nine to seven-three, Jiye's true feelings finally spilled out.
"I just... wanted to help with your living expenses. I'm sorry."
So that's what it was. If we were going to keep this an equal relationship, I should have scolded her properly for this.
But now that she was right in front of me, my resolve melted.
"If that's how you feel, why don't we open a couple's account or something and pool the money there?"
"A couple's account?!"
What now — why does she fill with life at the drop of a hat?
"You're going to be semi-living here while you're at the academy anyway, weren't you?"
"O-of course! I'm staying glued to you forever! Even if you pack my stuff in a suitcase and throw me out, I'll crawl right back in!"
However I think about it, I'm not nearly bad enough a guy to actually do that?
"Then we write seven-three on the split, but the money all goes into one pot. We can use it for living expenses, snacks, travel — whatever we want."
"Travel... money?"
The corners of Jiye's mouth began twitching uncontrollably.
Her face had gone soft, plain and simple.
"Okay. I love it. So much..."
"Then, shall we sign?"
"Mm. Change whatever you want, Hyunwoo, and sign..."
"Still, you should give it one final look."
"You do it for me..."
Haaah.
Please, at the very least, don't go getting scammed out there.
###
"You're really okay with no other teammates?"
We'd finished the contract, and I'd just taken a sip of water when Jiye asked carefully.
She was huddled up like a puppy that had done something wrong. Kind of adorable, honestly.
"Even with our compatibility, yeah — two people is genuinely the safer play."
"I thought so..."
"But you said you wanted to aim for the top score. In that case, this is right."
For Jiye, who was gunning to graduate first in her class, a duo was the correct choice.
High risk, high return. A dangerous approach, but the points you gained were substantial enough to match.
Field duos were, from the start, a bet on peak performance.
Your life on the line, sweeping up compensation and glory. And a duo with outstanding results also accelerated hunter promotion reviews.
Roughly speaking, it was a play that aimed for three things at once.
"Hyunwoo... can I really, just once, hug you?"
"If you climb on me dressed like that, something very bad happens."
"Something bad? Mm? Like what, exactly~?"
She knows perfectly well already....
Her fingertip poking at my cheek had a distinctly mischievous look to it.
"Kidding, kidding~. So — is there anything you need, Hyunwoo?"
"Me? Just graduate."
Academy graduation came with military service exemption. As long as you weren't expelled along the way, you were classified as essential talent and excused from service. That was the biggest reason I'd enrolled at the academy in the first place.
"Oh, right. But I do have to keep my grades middle-of-the-pack."
"Why?"
"My grandpa got me this apartment, so I made him a promise."
"Ah......"
Curiosity flickered in Jiye's eyes.
Hold on. Didn't she already know about my grandpa? Judging by how she'd tracked down this apartment, I'd assumed her background check on me was long since complete.
"Curious?"
Jiye's expression froze in an oddly delicate way. After a moment, she gave a small, silent nod.
"I see, so our Jiye's that curious, huh? Well, to be fair, Grandpa is by far the biggest name among all my relatives."
"Is he... someone very famous?"
"Very."
Grin—.
A laugh slipped out of me. A rare moment had arrived: a chance to tease Jiye to my heart's content. And I did not let it pass.
I promptly flopped onto my side on the floor, propped up on one elbow, and waggled my legs with all the arrogance I could muster.
"Come to think of it, it's almost lunchtime."
"A-are you hungry? Should I go make ramyeon?!"
"Two packs of jjajang ramyeon."
"I'll slice the kimchi into nice easy bites and bring it too!"
As Jiye sprang up and darted into the kitchen, I called out my order while scratching my backside.
"Slow-simmered and chewy, nice and gentle."
"You got it!"
Barely ten minutes later, Jiye returned carrying the jjajang ramyeon along with the kimchi.
Mm. Pass. Back in the day she'd boil it into mush — pure soup. Her noodle texture game had improved enormously lately.
I picked up my chopsticks, twirled a bite-sized mouthful, then speared a piece of kimchi onto the end dangling out.
"You worked hard, so first bite for you."
"Ahh~."
The first mouthful vanished into Jiye's small mouth. Watching her chew away, cheeks working like a hamster's, I picked up the thread of our earlier conversation.
"The truth is... my grandpa is the chancellor of Pioneer Academy."
"CHOKE—!"
3.
South Korea's foremost educator — a name splashed across the news, magazines, and countless other media.
Chancellor of Pioneer Academy. Lee Deokju.
The man bearing that marvelously old-fashioned name was my grandfather. My mother's father.
"Pioneer Academy wasn't founded by its current chancellor...?"
"It was."
"H-Hyunwoo, you're chaebol...?"
"I wish I were chaebol. We're just a family that lives a little better than average."
"Ohhh, I see."
I'd heard my mother's side of the family had money, but our household never once reached out for any of it.
Dad and Mom ran a famous barbecue joint known as a must-visit restaurant, and I was just an ordinary academy freshman.
As for this two-room apartment — when I enrolled as a freshman, Grandpa handed it over on the condition that I keep my grades up. 'Do well,' he said.
Since it took a load off my parents' shoulders, I said yes on the spot.
"This might be enough to convince everyone else, too......"
"Convince who of what?"
"N-nothing!"
Han Jiye, you little — right there. Her mouth corners twitching on their own, now even muttering to herself.
What on earth is up with her today?
"Are you really okay? You're not actually sick, are you?"
"I'm f-fine, totally fine! More importantly, I should hurry up and do the dishes~!"
The moment I tried to meet her eyes, Jiye snatched up the dishes and bolted from her seat like she was escaping.
Something was suspicious. But there was still more to get done today, so I decided to let it slide for now.
"Hurry up, we've got to try the uniforms on too."
"Okay! I'll be quick!"
###
"Come in."
At the voice I'd been waiting for, I opened the door right away and stepped inside.
"So? How is it?"
There stood Jiye, immaculately dressed in the academy uniform.
"For reference, your review options are 'pretty' or 'pretty.'"
The answer menu was a bit thin, admittedly. But appreciation had only ever come in one flavor.
"You're pretty."
"Hehe, am I really that pretty?"
"Yes. Very pretty."
"That answer was kinda half-hearted, though~."
"Fine, actually you're not pretty."
"I'm sorryyyy! Quickly, say I'm pretty again, pleaseee!"
Jiye grabbed my right arm and shook it back and forth. Paying her no mind, I dragged her along to the full-length mirror in the room.
And then, just like last time, I took her hand. Our fingers interlaced, naturally, as though this were simply how things were meant to be. As though we had to be holding on exactly like this.
"I'll let it slide, just because you held my hand!"
Jiye's smile as she gazed up at me — her lips curving in one smooth, effortless motion — was beautiful.
"Two models wore these, apparently, so the fit really is no joke."
"Have you ever modeled too, Hyunwoo?"
"Sure. Walked the runway at a fashion show once."
"Liar."
"True story."
The trivial back-and-forth we traded while watching ourselves in the mirror — what was so fun about it, I couldn't say, but the smiles on our reflected faces never faded.
"Ah, my cheekbones hurt. Jiye, take responsibility."
"My ribs too. You take responsibility."
Only after laughing and making a racket like that for a good long while did our private fashion show come to an end.
Still, the jacket was a little uncomfortable, maybe. A faint tightness nagged at me, so I took it off and hung it on the rack.
"Take yours off too if it's uncomfortable — we'll hang them together."
"Hyunwoo."
"Yeah? What is it?"
Amid all this, Jiye's lips suddenly twitched. It didn't seem like anything important, so I waited a beat.
"Can I sleep here tonight... and go to the academy with you tomorrow?"
Out of nowhere came a request that was very much not nothing.