Chapter 34
Terminally Ill, but It's Okay — Episode 34
"But I do trust contracts."
This was why you had to let people finish what they were saying.
"You mean you accept?"
"Yes. I'll draw up the detailed terms, including the dividend, on my end and send them over."
If there'd been a glass in front of me, I'd have toasted her.
With no glass around, I settled for a grin.
That settled both the commission and the investment.
Two birds with one stone.
If you asked which was the bigger gain, it was obviously the "investment."
Joo A-rin's direct team.
I'd gotten a foot in the door with the group that would later be called 'White Snow' and grow into the Joo Family's main force. Making dozens of times my investment would be easy.
"Good. I'll wait for your call."
"I'll make sure the contract includes the part about you not interfering with the team, so don't try anything later."
"Of course."
They'd do fine on their own if left alone, so why would I butt in?
I smiled with satisfaction and rose from my seat.
.......
But maybe because we were now in the same boat?
A thought suddenly occurred to me.
Wouldn't one small piece of advice be okay, as long as it didn't seriously go against the original work?
So I treated it as a small gift and casually added one more thing.
"Oh, one more thing. My family has a tradition of casting fortunes before major undertakings, you know?"
"And?"
"Believe it or not, that's up to you. But there's a sign of betrayal in your near future, so you should be careful."
"A betrayal sign?"
"I can see one wolf that's slipped in among the dogs. It looks brave and strong, but it's a beast waiting for a chance to bite its master. You'd do well to weed it out."
"What? That's absurd......."
Joo A-rin scowled and glared at me.
"Oh, and keep the investment a secret. I don't need rumors going around that I'm skipping my studies to do nonsense."
I said only what I needed to and turned away. Whether she believed me was up to her.
It was something she'd find out anyway after getting badly burned once, even if I didn't say it.
* * *
Left alone again, Joo A-rin let out an incredulous laugh.
"Who even gets their fortune told these days?"
Dismissing it as nothing more than an unpleasant ploy, she first called Secretary Noh.
She relayed the contract terms and asked her to draft the detailed agreement.
Secretary Noh's worried voice came through.
-Miss, that person...... are you sure about his identity? That amount would buy a 20% stake, and I do not understand why he would give up every right that comes with it.
"I don't trust him 100% either, so don't worry too much."
The call ended after a few more questions went back and forth.
She felt a little more at ease once she'd firmly built legal safeguards into the contract.
After catching her breath for a moment, Joo A-rin picked up her phone again to handle an important task.
The person she found in her contacts was an upperclassman one year ahead of her.
Jeong Ae-ri.
They'd stayed close ever since meeting through the Junior Cheonji Association, so asking her for a favor was not difficult.
Still, she wasn't thrilled about relying on someone else.
Joo A-rin chewed her nails for a while, then squeezed her eyes shut.
"Fine."
It wasn't as if she were asking for a direct investment. A favor on the commission was much smaller.
Given the situation, she decided to set her pride aside for the moment.
She'd just finished her long deliberation and was about to press the call button.
Bzzzz.
The phone rang with uncanny timing.
"Y-you scared me."
Joo A-rin's shoulders jerked with the surprise, and she flinched again when she saw the caller ID.
Caller: Jeong Ae-ri.
Had their minds connected? Or was it luck arriving just in time?
Either way, she was glad.
Now she could bring up the favor more naturally than if she'd called first.
Joo A-rin cleared her throat—Ahem—and pressed the call button.
Awkwardly, but doing her best, she called out to Jeong Ae-ri in the sweetest nasal tone she could manage.
"Uh, Siiis~!"
She was trying to play into Jeong Ae-ri's fondness for treating her like a little sister.......
-Arin! I'm busy, so I'll skip the greetings.
"Huh?"
But it got ignored.
-Sorry! It's just that it's urgent. You're in Class A, right? Then do you know Park Ha-yul?
What was this about now?
* * *
Lately, Cheon Seo-yoon had been in a good mood.
She'd received the good news she'd been waiting for desperately, and after a good rest, both her condition and stamina were fully recharged.
There'd been a small incident with Lee Taek-jin, but holding back laughter had been impossible, so she counted that as an exception.
She'd even sat through that tedious Monster Studies class without dozing off, all the way to the end.
She'd even taken notes along the way!
Her concentration was so remarkable that she almost suspected she had a talent for theory too.
Maybe that was why she'd woken up early that morning.
It was Friday, the day of her special-scholarship shift.
She washed at a leisurely pace, headed to the department office, and cheerfully threw open the door.
"Hello, TA......."
But the atmosphere was strange.
No people in sight, just stacks of documents and all sorts of books piled up everywhere.
Huh? Is this the wrong place?
She was about to step back out and check the sign when.
"...You're here?"
Kim Mi-young poked her head out and offered a belated greeting.
But why did the TA look like that?
Cheon Seo-yoon quickly rubbed her eyes.
The person who'd been the very picture of neat and polished was utterly haggard today.
Her skin looked rough and dull, and three buttons on the shirt she normally kept fastened almost to the point of suffocation were undone.
"I've been waiting since 2 a.m."
"Excuse me?"
"...For you to come."
Cheon Seo-yoon felt a sudden chill. So much so that she couldn't even mention she'd actually arrived twenty minutes early.
"A sudden academic conference schedule came up, so I think today's going to be a bit busy. Is that okay?"
"A-academic conference?"
"Yes, recently in Busan......."
Kim Mi-young let out a shallow sigh and explained the situation.
To summarize, it went roughly like this.
A new species of Monster that had never been reported before had appeared, and Professor Lee Taek-jin had been put in charge of researching it and classifying the species, leaving him too busy to breathe.
"So what I'm saying is, I'd like you to summarize. As you can see, there's just too much material to read......."
Kim Mi-young smiled brightly and pointed at a towering stack of books on one side of the desk.
"......All of that?"
"Why? That's after I cut it down and cut it down again....... Or is it too little?"
Kim Mi-young meant it as a joke, but to Cheon Seo-yoon it was terrifying enough to make her break out in a cold sweat.
"Haha... no. I think I can do it."
"Right? Let's hang in there."
"......Yeees."
Kim Mi-young glanced at the clock and then headed to her own desk.
Cheon Seo-yoon had no choice but to pick up a few thick books and go into the scholarship student room attached to the office.
No wonder she'd been in such a good mood these past few days.
"No, they said there was no work.... That you just sit around and go home when the time comes......."
Baek Sa-young, that son of a.......
It was completely different from what she'd heard, and her short temper flared up again.
Then she gave up and forced herself to flip through a few pages, but.......
Talent for theory, my ass.
Scientific names this and that.
It was all words she couldn't understand at all, enough to make her head spin.
"Did I use up all my luck on the necklace?"
She heaved a huge sigh, then sensed someone's presence.
"Hello."
"Welcome. I've been waiting since 2 a.m."
The exact same conversation played out again, almost eerily so.
Before long, the scholarship student room door opened and Park Ha-yul came in.
"Why bother with an episode that's still two months away......."
The moment she saw her shift partner come in grumbling, Cheon Seo-yoon smirked and raised a hand.
"You're here? Welcome to work hell."
"...Oh. You're early?"
"Yeah, though I haven't gotten a single thing done......."
"This is a pain."
Thud—
Park Ha-yul set his books down with a thud and sat at the desk across from her. Cheon Seo-yoon felt a little relieved.
Why not? Many hands made light work.
No matter how difficult the task, if they joined forces—if she and Park Ha-yul really worked together—then surely they could get through all that work.......
"......Wait."
The two of us have to handle all that?
Her, who was hopeless at theory, and Park Ha-yul, ranked 700th?
At that moment, Cheon Seo-yoon sensed that something was wrong.
Of course, Park Ha-yul had answered whenever Lee Taek-jin asked him this or that, but that was that.......
Summarizing was another matter entirely.
With only a smattering of trivia knowledge, there was no way to tell what was substance and what was chaff.
......Could they finish this today?
If it meant being locked up all day and stuck at it like Kim Mi-young.......
For an instant, she pictured herself looking grimy and typing away nonstop, and Cheon Seo-yoon quickly shook her head.
"No, get a grip, Cheon Seo-yoon."
Right! It was still too early to give up.
Just looking at the books made her dizzy and nauseous, but if she really buckled down, maybe she could manage it.
Her condition was at its best, after all.
Cheon Seo-yoon steeled herself, rolled up her sleeves, and prepared to take the lead.
......But then,
"Since we're doing it anyway, let's finish fast. I'll dictate the whole thing, so you just type."
"Me? Not you?"
"I'm going to write it as a report rather than a summary. That should take less space."
No, what on earth was this guy talking about.
She wasn't so much dismissing him as simply unable to believe him when—
"First, let's use a new species and a borderline species as examples. Number one: the lung fluke. Genus Paragonimus, species epithet westermani. It enters the human body......."
As the incomprehensible jargon poured out, Cheon Seo-yoon's mouth fell open.
......What, he has all this memorized?
"What are you doing? Are we staying here all night?"
"Oh, no. That's not it."
"I'll dictate it again."
"Wait a sec!"
She snapped back to her senses and hurriedly straightened her posture.
She set her questions aside for the moment.
Who cares who takes the lead? As long as we finish quickly, that's all that matters.
She stopped thinking, pricked up her ears, and started typing.
Clackclackclack—
* * *
[Achievement-8: Human Monster Encyclopedia (Beginner)]
[You have acquired information on over 100 Monster species in this world.]
[12 hours have been added as a reward.]
The report writing finally ended around 2 p.m., along with a minor achievement.
It had taken five hours in total, which was incredibly fast considering the amount of material referenced.
Thanks to that, I rubbed my throbbing head, and Cheon Seo-yoon.......
"Ah, my fingers won't move."
She kept massaging her trembling hands.
She'd hammered the keyboard like a madwoman, so of course her fingers had gone numb.
Cheon Seo-yoon had contributed plenty too.
Her blistering typing speed and refusal to tolerate even a single typo made me think, Of course she was in the Superhuman Track.
We waited in the scholarship student room until Kim Mi-young finished her review.
"Wow, what the hell are you?"
"What?"
"No, seriously, you're like a Monster Studies dictionary. When did you memorize all that?"
"...It's just a field I'm interested in."
I brushed it off as if it were nothing.
It was thanks to the power of Appraisal, but Cheon Seo-yoon had no way of knowing that, and I couldn't explain it either.
"Anyway, I see you in a new light. We finished super fast thanks to you."
"Did we?"
"I guess I really have been lucky lately. I even got carried by you~"
Cheon Seo-yoon kept talking without pause, looking thoroughly pleased.
She was probably in such a good mood because of the necklace.
Since I was the one who would eventually have to crush those hopes, the situation was awkward enough that I kept my replies short.
"Did you pick a club?"
Cheon Seo-yoon, who'd been fiddling with her phone, asked a sensitive question.
I mulled over how much to reveal, then tested the waters.