Daily Life...?(1)
That night.
"The floor above is bothering me…"
Sehyun had always lived fairly comfortably in the dormitory. Until now, both the room above and the one next door had been empty. He could watch videos late at night or talk to himself without fretting much about noise.
But now a new resident had moved in upstairs. And that resident was Sung Yui.
"At this rate, is someone going to move into the next room too?"
Sehyun shuddered at the ominous premonition.
Right then.
Thud!
A heavy sound rumbled from the ceiling. A moment later—
Thud! Thud!
"What the fuck is this on the first day?"
Was she doing construction work on her very first night upstairs? Sehyun picked up his smartphone and briefly considered calling to tell her to keep it down.
No. Forget it.
Yui wasn't the type to deliberately make noise knowing Sehyun was downstairs. She was probably doing something she needed to do. He decided to leave it at that.
More than anything—
"I'm incredibly tired…"
His body was at its limit. He'd fallen while fleeing on a bicycle, run all over the department store, jumped off an escalator. With the tension finally released on the way back, his whole body ached.
Another thud came from upstairs.
"I'll… say something tomorrow."
Sehyun collapsed onto the bed as he was.
"Ugh…"
The moment he closed his eyes, consciousness cut out.
Morning came.
As if yesterday's chaos had been a lie, it was an ordinary academy morning. Students in uniform headed to school in groups. Sehyun and Yui, mixed into the crowd, looked no different from anyone else.
The empty Grey City. The Faceless Monster. The elevator that worked in a blacked-out department store. Everything was so peaceful it almost seemed like a dream.
"Is it going to keep being like this from now on…"
Sehyun muttered without realizing it.
"Ah."
Yui, walking beside him, nodded.
"That is the life of a Hero."
In one of Yui's hands was a small folding umbrella.
"What's that. Is it going to rain today?"
"Does a local know less about the weather than a transfer student?"
Yui looked at Sehyun with a pitying expression.
"You should at least check the weather in the morning."
"Tsk."
Sehyun clicked his tongue, then suddenly recalled the night before.
"That aside — anything happen last night?"
"Anything?"
"You kept thudding around upstairs at night."
"Ah."
Yui answered casually.
"I was looking around the room a bit."
"Looking around the room, and the floor was shaking?"
"I opened drawers, checked the storage cabinets."
Yui folded her fingers one by one.
"Did some light lower-body exercises, checked my kicking form a few times."
"It was you after all!"
Sehyun's voice rose.
"Were you trying to smash the floor on day one?"
"Was it that loud?"
Yui tilted her head with not the slightest look of apology.
"I'll be careful from now on."
Her words and expression didn't match at all.
"By the way, it's fortunate you're right below me."
"What is?"
"If even that much sound can be heard."
Yui lightly tapped the ground twice with her toe.
"If something happens, I can tap the floor and Sehyun will notice."
It wasn't a playful look. She was speaking with yesterday's incident in mind. Sehyun's senses sharpened for a moment too.
"So if there's a loud noise, I should come up right away?"
"Mm. Excellent mindset."
Yui nodded as if that was the correct answer.
"Though the downside is that since you're downstairs rather than next door, you'd have to use the stairs or elevator to get there."
"If that bothers you, you should've been born a guy. The room next to mine is empty."
"If I'd been born a man, I wouldn't have been the Saintess."
Yui thought for a moment, then added,
"A male Saintess would be weird. We're not some biker gang."
"A Saint duo, huh."
It sounded more like two extremely angry young men than a biker gang. Sehyun didn't say that out loud.
When they arrived at the school gate, a physical education teacher with a fierce expression was greeting the students.
"Alright! Get in quickly! Ten minutes left!"
The teacher held something like a long pointer stick, checking the face of each student who passed through the gate one by one.
How many students are there, and he remembers all of them?
Sehyun privately called him Gorilla Teacher. The build, the voice, the face — he was the spitting image.
Academy teachers were generally kind to students who produced results. They quickly remembered anyone who stood out in grades or practical skills. Conversely, they often showed no interest at all in students who demonstrated no achievements.
Yui stared intently at Gorilla Teacher as she passed through the gate. Then she suddenly rose on her tiptoes and brought her face close to Sehyun's ear.
"That teacher."
A small voice tickled his ear canal.
"Looks like a gorilla."
"Pfft!"
Sehyun burst out laughing without thinking.
Right at that moment, the teacher's booming voice came from behind.
"Oh! Yoona! You did well on the pop quiz this time too?"
"Yes! I need to work even harder!"
A cheerful voice answered. Sehyun's expression hardened in an instant. It felt like the school day had truly begun — the voice that led the class at every morning and afternoon assembly. An all-too-familiar voice.
"Ugh…"
Sehyun hung his head.
"Please don't act like you know me."
Yui looked at Sehyun with a puzzled expression.
"Hey! Transfer student!"
A sad premonition was never wrong. Yoona came running over, waving with a bright expression.
"Sehyun was with you too?"
Yoona looked back and forth between the two of them.
"Did you two really get close?"
In that moment, Yui's gaze paused briefly on Yoona's face. Her eyes narrowed as if trying to read something.
"…Who are you?"
Sehyun's body went rigid.
"Huh…?"
Yoona was briefly at a loss for words. She'd been feeling it since yesterday, but when it came to sheer boldness, no one seemed able to match Yui. Yoona was briefly flustered but soon recovered her bright expression.
"Ah, since you just transferred, you wouldn't know yet."
Yoona pointed at her own chest.
"I'm Lee Yoona, your class president. Looking forward to getting along!"
"Sung Yui."
Yui answered briefly.
"You heard my name yesterday, right?"
"Yeah. Sung Yui."
Yoona nodded with a smile.
"It's a pretty name."
Sehyun listened to the two of them converse from the side while quietly contemplating escape routes. Yui seemed more prickly toward other people than he'd expected. Or maybe it was just Yoona.
Yoona seemed to have more to say, but after checking her wristwatch, she turned toward the classroom.
"I'll go first. See you later!"
Even her hurried running form was bright — an attitude that suited her appearance well.
"She must be popular."
Yui once again brought her face close to Sehyun's ear and whispered.
"Probably has a bunch of guys who like her too."
"What?"
"Just saying. Girls like that are usually popular."
Yui kicked a small stone on the roadside with her toe. The pebble flew at high speed and disappeared beyond the flower bed.
What kind of leg strength is that.
Sehyun swallowed dryly. Yui looked in the direction Yoona had disappeared.
"She's a bit concerning."
"Yoona?"
"Yeah. The Status Window shows a mark different from ordinary students."
"Does that mean she's dangerous?"
"No. Closer to the opposite, actually."
Yui briefly stared into empty space.
"It's a mark that she could become one of our people. But it says she's already part of another group."
"Then why are you saying not to get close?"
"Not Yoona herself — because I don't know what kind of place the side she belongs to is."
Yui kicked a roadside pebble.
"If you mess with someone else's party member first and get tangled up with their whole group, it gets annoying."
It could mean she was dangerous. Conversely, it could mean she was an important figure. At present, nothing could be confirmed.
Yui changed the subject as if cutting off the conversation.
"What should we do after school today?"
"Nothing. Going straight to the dorm."
Yui made an openly bored face.
"If you go around like that every day, will you have any money left?"
"Growth through sub-quests and exploration is the core of being a Hero."
"You really hit the core."
Sehyun made an impressed expression and continued.
"Then you'll need a sword and shield too. Want one?"
"If you don't want to, forget it."
Yui waved her hand as if to say she didn't like it but do as you please. Sehyun felt for the first time as if he'd won against Yui.
"But Sehyun, don't you have any friends?"
"Why are you picking a fight all of a sudden?"
"Nobody's saying hello."
"How long has it been since school started. And I'm originally a solo player."
"Not a Dark Templar?"
Even after arriving at the classroom, Yui kept talking to him. Students chatted with their close friends while glancing at the two of them. It was a completely different atmosphere from Yoona, who was the center of the class, but Yui also had a striking appearance. A transfer student like that continuously chatting with Sehyun, who usually went around alone, was bound to look curious.
Time passed that way until fifth period.
The homeroom teacher who entered the classroom tapped the podium with the attendance book.
"Due to the rain, the physical fitness test scheduled for sixth period is cancelled."
At the academy, physical fitness tests were frequently conducted to check students' physical abilities. In exchange, they often didn't have separate performance evaluations for PE class the way regular schools did.
Yui was on her second day since transferring. The first physical fitness test would have been important data for teachers to judge her level. Sehyun looked to the side. Yui herself was just looking out the window as if she had no interest whatsoever in the homeroom teacher's words.
"See."
Yui pointed at the raindrops falling on the athletic field.
"It's raining."
The fact that her weather forecast had been correct seemed more important than the fitness test.
"Haa…"
Sehyun looked out the window following Yui. Two people in black uniforms were crossing the rainy athletic field. Both were female students. Matching armbands were wrapped around their arms. One was holding a black umbrella; the other walked without even that. There wasn't the slightest disorder in either of their steps.
"What's that."
Yui muttered as if she'd discovered odd people.
"The Academy Student Council."
"Student Council?"
Each school in the academy had its own student self-governing organization. And above that existed the Academy General Student Council that managed the schools as a whole. It wasn't simply an organization that prepared festivals or assisted with administrative work — a de facto student government that got involved in everything from school facility management to disputes between students to ability-related incidents.
Students wearing black uniforms and armbands walking around in pairs during class time were highly likely to be them.
"The only people walking around dressed like that at this hour are the Student Council."
"Hmm…"
Yui answered briefly as if acknowledging such an organization existed. Sehyun looked at the two people outside the window. Had something troublesome come up? An ominous premonition was already settling in.
Soon static crackled from the classroom speaker.
"Ah, ah. Announcement from the faculty office."
"Student Ji Sehyun, Student Sung Yui."
"Both students, please come immediately to the reception room next to the faculty office on the first floor."
The broadcast ended. Every gaze in the classroom locked onto the two of them at once.
Sehyun seriously wondered if he might have a talent for intuition.
"Ah."
And he muttered quietly.
"Fuck."