The Day Before Enrollment (2)
Mom: "Hey!! How many times did I tell you to double-check your bags one more time before you left!!"
Sora: "Aah~! I was going to grab it at the very end, but you started talking to me out of nowhere and it slipped my mind, okay~!"
Mom: "There you go blaming your mother again! So what did the academy say?!"
Sora: "They said dorm check-in is fine as long as it's by tomorrow, so I just have to come back tomorrow with my preliminary student ID…."
Mom: "Then hurry up and come get it, young lady!"
Sora: "I've got way too much luggage to go all the way back down…. Can't you just bring it to me?"
Mom: "Do you know what time it is, telling your mother to come and go at the drop of a hat! If I bring you that student ID it'll be the middle of the night and I'd have to sleep over there, and then who's going to make your father's breakfast tomorrow morning? And besides…."
Sora: "F-fine…. I'll go get it myself, okay…."
Han Sora let out a long, troubled sigh, weighed down by heavy bags in both hands. She'd packed far more than usual on the way up, thinking that once she arrived today she'd be staying in Seoul for at least a few months — and then, of all times, a problem had to spring up right before dorm check-in.
She had carried her preliminary student ID with her without fail every single day, and the one day it mattered, she'd left it behind. Now she stood stranded in front of the academy dormitory, barred from entering and floundering for a way out.
"Haaah. How am I supposed to carry all of this…"
It would have been nice if she could at least leave her luggage somewhere, but even that wasn't an option. Her head swirling with one complication after another, Han Sora was trudging toward the subway station when her phone rang yet again.
"Hello…."
Mom: "Oh, Sora. Mom just looked into whether we could send it by courier, but at this hour none of them will take it — they all say it won't arrive in time."
Sora: "So that's out, then…. At this hour…."
Mom: "Mom will bring it to you tomorrow morning before the entrance ceremony starts, so how about you rent a motel or something nearby for just tonight, pick up your student ID tomorrow morning, and go in then?"
Sora: "…Would that really be okay?"
Mom: "What else are we going to do? How would you haul all that luggage down to Ansan and back up again? Just stay nearby for one night, and I'll see you in front of the academy's main gate tomorrow morning. Got it?"
Sora: "O-okay…. Thanks, Mom…."
Mom: "That's right. Love you, my precious daughter~."
Sora: "Mmhm…."
The call with her mother ended on that slightly embarrassing sign-off. Still, the promise that she'd have her student ID by tomorrow morning gave Han Sora a measure of relief.
Spending the night outside was a first for her, so she felt a little uneasy — but she had one more trump card up her sleeve.
The academy training grounds are open twenty-four hours, right?
Since the dormitory was off the table anyway, the thought crossed her mind that spending the whole night training there wouldn't be so bad. She'd part ways with her mother right after the entrance ceremony tomorrow regardless, so even if she ended up a little tired, it would be fine — or so she reasoned.
Yes, this is what they call a blessing in disguise.
Armed with her signature positive mindset and luggage piled high in both arms, Han Sora set off for the Archery Department training grounds.
…It was only a short while later that she belatedly discovered the training grounds required a preliminary student ID, too.
"Am I an idiot or what…"
Standing before the ID scanner at the entrance to the Archery Department's lanes, Han Sora felt despair wash over her all over again. She had only now, standing here, fully registered the fact that without her preliminary student ID she couldn't get into the dormitory — or, apparently, anything else.
"Haaah. I should've just gone to a motel like Mom said from the start. All this trouble for nothing…."
Nothing had changed about the fact that she'd have to haul an armful of luggage back outside the academy. Nor the fact that the lodging fee would mean an unexpected dent in her finances.
Granted, dragging all of this back down to her house at this late hour and returning again would be even more exhausting, so in the end there was only one real choice.
And so, the moment Han Sora stepped out of the Archery Department training grounds, dragging her suitcases behind her with both hands—
"…Huh?"
Her eyes widened slightly as she came face to face with someone — a meeting so fateful it felt strange to call it mere coincidence.
"Lee Seonho?"
"Oh, hey, Sora."
"…What brings you to the Archery Department training grounds?"
"The Archery Department? Ahh, nothing much — I was just out for a night walk. I moved into the dorm today, and once I'd unpacked everything I got a little bored. My roommate doesn't seem to be arriving until tomorrow either."
"O-oh, right…."
…Of course. It's the day before the entrance ceremony, after all.
Seeing herself flailing around with bags in both hands suddenly struck her as ridiculous. If things had gone normally, she'd have had everything tucked away in the dorm by now, resting comfortably — or running night drills at the Archery Department training grounds.
Because of one careless mistake, she couldn't even get into the dormitory, and now she was wandering around looking lost right in front of Lee Seonho. A not-insignificant flush of shame crept over her.
"Looks like you were on your way to move into the dorm too, Sora. You've got a lot of stuff — let me carry some of it."
"N-no, it's fine. I, I carried it all the way from Ansan anyway, so I can manage on my own…."
"All the more reason for me to help, then — you'll only get more worn out. Just give me the suitcases. I can walk them over to the female dormitory for you, right?"
"No, no, that's…."
So embarrassing.
But she had to say it. If she kept her silence here, that kind-hearted Lee Seonho would go right on carrying her things all the way to the female dormitory.
The very idea of spreading her own blunder onto someone else made her cringe — but in the end, it was a mess of her own making, so there was nothing for it.
"I, I left my preliminary student ID at home, so they won't let me into the dorm…."
"……Ah."
She had barely exposed her own humiliation, and yet it was the other side who began fidgeting and stealing anxious glances at her. She could practically feel how flustered he was, as if worried he'd said something wrong — when the one who ought to be embarrassed over the mistake was her.
Honestly. How is he going to survive at the academy with a personality that nice?
I'll have to keep sticking around him, I suppose — can't help worrying. Especially after what he told me back when we trained together.
…Not that I'm in any position to be worrying about someone else right now.
"Anyway, my mom's bringing my student ID tomorrow morning, so I was just going to stay overnight at a motel or something for today."
"Really? Do you have money for that?"
"…W-well, I have enough for one night? I've still got some of that reward money from catching those terrorists a while back."
That she had spent the vast majority of that reward money paying down her loans, leaving almost nothing behind, was a detail Han Sora saw no need to mention.
Her plan to spend the night at the training grounds had been driven by this reason as well. On her threadbare budget, a single night at a motel would have practically erased a month's worth of spending money.
Of course, if she so much as hinted at her household's financial situation, she knew exactly how Lee Seonho would react — so she was doing her utmost to hide it. And yet—
"Hmm, I see. Then… this might sound a little weird, but…"
"Hm?"
"Actually, my house is pretty close to the academy. If you're okay with it, want to stay at my place for just tonight?"
"………Huh?"
The answer that came out of Lee Seonho's mouth was a third option she hadn't anticipated at all.
Nice.
Caught her right in the middle. Any later and she might have walked clean out of the academy.
Han Sora forgetting her preliminary student ID and coming up to the academy anyway was a development straight out of the original novel.
In the original, she was supposed to trudge out through the academy's main gate with her arms full of luggage, run into Seo Woojin — who had made the exact same mistake — and share a motel room with him for the night. I'd managed to intercept her without incident before any of that could happen.
If I'd missed her here, she'd have run straight into Seo Woojin at the main gate.
Let that happen, and things might have drifted along the original episode's tracks — it genuinely had been a close call.
Granted, nothing particularly dramatic happens in the original either. Han Sora simply ends up sharing a room with Seo Woojin, tosses and turns, and stares at the ceiling until dawn — that's the whole scene.
The event amounts to nothing more than her gaining a slightly warmer opinion of the protagonist for not laying a hand on her during the night. But even that much rubbed me the wrong way, so naturally, blocking it was the correct move.
"Seonho… at your house?"
"Yeah. It's about a twenty-minute walk. I live alone, so there's no family around to worry about."
"Hmm. Seonho's place, huh…."
Hearing my proposal, Han Sora tilted her head with a faintly conflicted expression.
Saving on lodging was a plus, but in exchange she'd be indebted to a friend. At a male friend's house, no less — just the two of them.
Given her personality, she wasn't fond of inconveniencing others, but I already knew her answer would come back positive in the end.
If Han Sora were the type to keep walls so high she'd refuse this offer, she'd never have shared that motel room with Seo Woojin in the original to begin with.
"Then… is it really okay if I owe you a little?"
"Owe me as much as you like. I'll take the suitcases, so just follow me around to the back gate."
"Huh? Why the back gate?"
Because if we go out the front and I happen to run into that bastard, it'll be a pain in the ass all over again.
"My house is a little closer if you go around by the academy's back gate."
"Oh, I see."
Swallowing the true thought that had nearly escaped my lips, I headed home together with Han Sora.
Right up to the very last day before enrollment, every single event had to be handled with certainty.
"It's a bit lived-in, but come on in. Make yourself at home."
"O-oh, okay…."
Before she knew it, she'd found herself stepping into Lee Seonho's house.
Entering a home where a man lived alone for the very first time, Han Sora took a slightly tense step inside.
"It's pretty clean for someone living by himself, isn't it?"
"You think? Feels pretty normal to me."
"Hmm, I'd say it's anything but normal…."
Two bedrooms and a living room — a touch spacious for one person, but the place was clearly well kept up.
There wasn't a speck of dust anywhere, and no clutter or trash in sight. A house that fit the diligent, leading-by-example personality of its owner — or so Han Sora found herself thinking.
"You can just set your stuff down near the entrance. You'll be hauling it all out tomorrow morning anyway, right?"
"Oh, right. Thank you."
"The bathroom's over here, so use it whenever you need. If you get hungry, help yourself to anything in the fridge or the cupboards. I don't have any real food since I'm moving into the dorm tomorrow, but if you want ramyeon I'll boil some for you."
"Y-you really don't have to go to all that trouble. I already feel bad just sleeping over for one night."
She was clearly the one imposing, and yet here he was waiting on her like some revered guest.
He was like this every single time they met, which could only mean kindness and consideration were that deeply ingrained in him.
A friend who sacrificed for others without a shadow of doubt, as if it were simply the natural thing to do. And that was precisely what made him all the harder to feel at ease around — at least, that was Lee Seonho as Han Sora understood him.
"If you want to wash up, the shower's right next to the bathroom, so… ah."
"What?"
"…W-well, um, should I step outside while you shower? Just for an hour or so."
"Pfft. What are you even saying. Honestly."
…Then again, seeing him react that innocently every now and then is kind of cute.
He usually took even her slightly off-color jokes in stride, yet the moment things got genuinely weird, he looked ready to bolt. That was Lee Seonho through and through.
And I'm the fool for worrying even for a second.
If the world ranked its safest men, he'd probably place near the top.
Even though she was about to spend the night under the same roof as him, Han Sora felt, if anything, reassured and at ease.
"You're the guest — why on earth would the homeowner step outside? You'll be changing in the bathroom anyway, so don't worry about it."
"…Well, okay then."
"Oh, since we're on the subject — grab a change of clothes out of that small suitcase, will you? Your underwear's in there."
"Th-that's — underwear is something you go get, you jerk!"
"Ahaha, look how flustered you are. Pfft."
Not remotely suspecting the future about to come crashing down on her, Han Sora simply let out a bright, innocent laugh.