The Academy's Savior
In the end, for safety reasons, we were stuck staying in the old dormitory.
The rest of the students and I had to swallow our complaints. Once they brought up safety, there wasn’t much room left to argue.
We had Seong Ha-ri with us, so security should have been guaranteed, right? But Seong Ha-ri was only one person. Situations could arise that even she couldn’t handle alone.
The most dangerous variable in Japan is Madojeong. If Seong Ha-ri could wipe them out in a single stroke… Japan would have already taken care of them and then some.
We filed into the old dormitory.
Room assignments were the next headache… but with so few people relative to the building’s size, they decided on one person per room.
The interior’s pretty worn down too.
Thankfully it had been renovated a few years back, so living here wouldn’t be too inconvenient.
It’s clean enough. They must have scrubbed the place thoroughly before we arrived.
There was a shared cafeteria and kitchen as well. The actual dining hall seemed to be somewhere else, but cooking for ourselves here looked perfectly fine.
The private rooms are studio-style, but they’re surprisingly spacious—big enough for three or four people to share without issue. And the large bathhouse on the third floor is a nice touch.
A few of us, myself included, went looking for the bath facilities. Even though it was indoors, they had styled it like an open-air bath. One wall was covered in an elaborate mural, and the ceiling soared more than five meters high.
They weren’t kidding about taking baths seriously… this place is solid.
Three caretakers had been maintaining the facilities, so it looked like we would be able to live here in relative comfort.
After everyone had toured the dorm, we all gathered in the first-floor lobby. Yun Huijeong stood in the middle of the group and clapped her hands to get our attention.
“You’ve all had a look around, right? Let’s start by dividing the rooms. There are a lot of us, so we’ll have to force some assignments… but I’ll try to take your preferences into account as much as possible.”
Someone stepped forward as if she had been waiting for this exact moment. Namgung Hwayeon—first place among the second-years and president of the disciplinary committee.
“It could become a source of conflict. I would prefer if the teacher simply assigned the rooms cleanly.”
“I don’t think it has to go as far as conflict. We can at least hear everyone’s opinions and use them as a reference. If it looks like we won’t reach a conclusion, drawing lots is always an option.”
“…Understood. I will follow Master’s wishes.”
“Want to go first? Which room would you like?”
“I…”
Namgung Hwayeon glanced at Seong Ha-ri before answering.
“I would like a room as close as possible to Seong Ha-ri’s.”
“Huh? Me?”
Seong Ha-ri looked completely taken aback. Namgung Hwayeon fixed her with a serious expression, eyes sparkling, and offered a formal greeting.
“I have always respected you, Seong Ha-ri.”
“You respect me? …Are you sure you’re not misunderstanding something? I’m not that impressive.”
“No. No one would think that. In my case especially… I was able to be born because of you.”
“B-born?”
“My parents were at the Seoul Station disaster years ago. If you hadn’t stepped in and wiped out the monsters… my parents would have died there. And I never would have been born into this world.”
“Ah, back then…. Even then I couldn’t save everyone…”
“It was a catastrophe that claimed more than eleven hundred lives. But because you intervened, over two thousand people survived. My parents were among them. So I have always wanted to thank you. Thank you for saving my parents that day.”
Namgung Hwayeon bowed deeply to Seong Ha-ri—a perfect ninety-degree bow.
“I-I just did what I had to do.”
Seong Ha-ri answered with an awkward expression. Receiving someone’s heartfelt gratitude like this… she clearly wasn’t used to it.
“Even so, thank you.”
With Namgung Hwayeon’s greeting finished, the students began voicing their own preferences. Some wanted rooms near the cafeteria; others wanted ones with good sunlight. A few kept glancing at other people. Most of those glances were aimed at me. Seong Ha-ri, Lee Si-eun, Choi Dayeon, Go Eunha… even Ryu Hana was watching me carefully.
They all want rooms near mine, don’t they. Ha, the popularity of this body…
Their fierce battle of subtle glances began.
I looked at the dormitory floor plan posted on the wall. The rooms the students were choosing clustered on the eastern side. No grand reason—eastern rooms simply had better light and had been renovated more recently, so they were cleaner. The western side was older.
I pointed to a room on the fifth floor of the western wing.
“I’ll take this one.”
“Then as your mother, I’ll take the room right next to Yujin’s.”
Seong Ha-ri immediately jumped in and claimed the room to the right.
“I’ll take the room across from Yujin’s!”
Lee Si-eun spoke up in a hurry.
“…Mm. The western rooms seem better, so I’ll go this way.”
“Dayeon, wouldn’t an eastern room be nicer? They looked cleaner over there.”
“Mother, I prefer quiet.”
“Then maybe the second or first floor, where almost no one is staying…”
“You’re telling me to live on a lower floor?”
“Ah. Right, that won’t do. Then I’ll take the room next to Dayeon’s.”
Ryu Hana quietly selected one of the rooms on the fifth floor.
Second-year Namgung Hwayeon chose the room beside Seong Ha-ri’s, and Go Eunha took the one next to Namgung Hwayeon’s.
Yun Huijeong hesitated, reading the room, then picked one of the end rooms on the fifth floor.
“The fifth floor is popular. I’ll go there too. With so many people, it’s better if I’m around. Teacher Jo Musang, how about the eastern side?”
Jo Musang, radiating pure irritation, looked over the group that had chosen the western fifth floor. Every single one of them was extraordinary—personalities far too strong. And Seong Ha-ri and Choi Jeonghwa were there as well. In three seconds flat, Jo Musang accepted Yun Huijeong’s suggestion.
“Fine. Are the room assignments finished now? Teacher Yun. Can we rest?”
“Yes. Thanks to everyone’s cooperation, it wrapped up easily. Today’s schedule is just explaining the exchange match, then dinner, and we’re done.”
“I see. About three hours until dinner. If you’ve got it, then dismiss.”
“Teacher.”
Go Eunha raised her hand. Ranked fourth among the second-years, she was a delinquent with bright yellow-dyed hair. Lately she hadn’t done it as often, but she was the girl who sexually harassed me—though of course I was letting her do it on purpose.
Jo Musang looked at her with every ounce of annoyance on full display.
“Yes, Go Eunha. Ask your question.”
“It’s summer break right now. You’re not seriously going to make us just study and train the whole time, are you?”
“You’ll get proper rest time. Provided your results in the exchange match are good. This is a matter of pride between the Korean Academy and the Japanese Academy. I don’t need to spell out how important the Korea-Japan match is… you already know.”
“Haha. So we just have to win. Nice and simple—I like it.”
“Any more questions? Dismissed.”
The academy students scattered.
I looked around. Everyone near me was a woman. Everyone who had chosen the fifth floor was a woman…. In other words, I had unintentionally become the only man among them.
Perfect.
I grinned in satisfaction.
We all headed up to the fifth floor together. The inconvenient part of this building was the complete lack of elevators. Everyone had to haul their luggage up the stairs. An ordinary person would have been horrified, but everyone here was superhuman. Carrying bags up a few flights didn’t tire them in the slightest.
When we reached the rooms, Seong Ha-ri followed me inside as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
“Yujin, Mom will help you unpack.”
“I can do it myself. I didn’t bring that much anyway.”
“Hmm. Don’t worry about that. Mom packed everything our son might need.”
Seong Ha-ri set down the bag she had been carrying on her back. I had thought her luggage looked unusually heavy… but I never expected she had brought my things from home as well.
I left everything else and headed straight for the bed. It wasn’t even a super-single—just a regular single, and it was extremely narrow. I pressed the mattress with my hand. The feel alone made me want to curse.
Garbage.
Fortunately I had my inventory. I stowed the existing bed and pulled out a new one.
A top-of-the-line king-size luxury bed!
I sat on it and smiled in pure satisfaction.
“Son, you’re dealing with the bed first?”
“The bed is the most important thing.”
“Beds are important, sure…. But what you mean by that is different from what Mom’s thinking, isn’t it?”
“What were you thinking, Mom?”
“Well…”
Seong Ha-ri dragged the end of her sentence out. Her cheeks flushed red. It was obvious what she had in mind.
“Come sit next to me, Mom. We can unpack slowly later. This bed is seriously soft and nice.”
“It does look like a good bed. Where did you get it?”
I just grinned. I couldn’t exactly say out loud that I had gotten it from another world.
Seong Ha-ri carefully approached and sat beside me.
“It really is a good bed.”
While she was still admiring it, I grabbed her shoulder and pulled her down. Seong Ha-ri, now lying on the bed, stared up at me with wide, startled eyes.
“Yu-Yujin?”
“To really know a bed, you have to try it out once.”
“Right now? Later, at night. Okay?”
“I can’t wait. Neither can you, Mom.”
“No, I… nn…”
I peeled off her leather jacket and buried my face in her full breasts. Soft flesh pressed against my face. Through the T-shirt I could feel the warmth and scent of her chest completely. My hand moved to her jeans.
I slowly tugged the tight denim down over her large hips until it reached her thighs. I slipped my hand between her slightly parted legs. My palm met her sex. The firm plumpness inside her panties pressed against my hand.
“We really shouldn’t do this here…. Yujin. Just a little. Just a little…”
Anticipation colored Seong Ha-ri’s voice. I was about to pull her panties down when—
Thump thump thump.
Someone pounded on my door.
“Seong Ha-ri! I heard you’re in this room! I already know, so come out! We need to talk!”
I sighed and sat up. If it had been anyone else I would have ignored them outright…. But Choi Jeonghwa was different. She was Seong Ha-ri’s friend, after all.
The moment I moved aside, Seong Ha-ri hurriedly yanked her jeans back up and rose from the bed. She gave me a smile mixed with half regret and half apology, then went to the front door.
“What is it?”
Seong Ha-ri opened the door. A trace of irritation colored her voice. Choi Jeonghwa stood there with her arms crossed.
“We need to check the exchange match schedule. Do you think we came here to play? Are you not going to work?”
“…Does it have to be right now?”
“If not now, then when? The schedule starts tomorrow. We have to keep the promise we made with Kang Jiyoung.”
“…Haa. You’re right.”
“So what were you doing in your son’s room?”
“I was helping Yujin unpack. Let’s just go outside first.”
“Hmm.”
Before the door fully closed, my eyes met Choi Jeonghwa’s. She was looking at me with open interest.
So Choi Jeonghwa has some interest in me. Not bad at all.