Teamwork and Strategy (2)
It was the first day of Teamwork and Strategy.
With Yoonchae's wariness toward me having softened considerably back in the room, I casually broached the subject of what first period she had.
"Yoonsung, what class do you have first period?"
"...Teamwork and Strategy."
"Oh, really? I'm taking that one too."
"...Why would the Support Department be taking that? Surely you aren't making some tasteless joke."
"It's not a joke, I swear. Here, look at my schedule."
"......I see."
Suspicious to the bone, as always. Even so, once she'd looked over the timetable, Yoonchae nodded along fairly agreeably.
Three days ago, the mere act of me asking to see her schedule would have sent her into a full-blown episode. She would have bristled and reacted like a cat dumped in water.
"From what I hear, the basic setup is four-person teams with two vanguards and two rear support. But the only people I know taking this class are me and Sora, just the two of us in our group chat."
"...Is that so."
"If you're up for it, Yoonsung, want to join us? If you come, we only need one more person to fill the slot."
"......"
"Or maybe you've already promised to team up with someone? In that case, never mind."
"...No, I haven't. Very well. If that is what you wish, then I will join you and Han Sora."
She was putting up a token resistance when she was going to accept anyway. It wasn't as if she had anywhere else to go outside our party.
If I remember right, in the original story Seo Woojin was her roommate in the same room, so she'd figured he was better than any stranger and ended up on the same team as him. From the original story's vantage point, Yoonchae's entire social circle consisted of exactly one person—her roommate, Seo Woojin.
Of course, now that she'd befriended several members of our group chat at once, her situation was better than before. Still, the only classmates she had in this course were me and Han Sora.
Basic human psychology: when faced with unavoidable group work, it's far better to suffer through it with people you actually know.
Which is also one of the reasons college friendships rarely last, come to think of it.
Plenty of once-close friendships have imploded after a group project or two.
But if we got through this group assignment smoothly, it wouldn't just build trust with Yoonchae—it would earn me credibility with everyone else, too.
Lead a group well once as its leader, and a certain degree of trust naturally follows. If I could plant the thought 'when in doubt, just do what Seonho says' in their heads even once, I'd be able to keep acting as party leader for every activity going forward.
And so, with those thoughts in mind, I escorted Yoonchae to the Teamwork and Strategy lecture hall—which brings us to this morning.
...And roughly ten minutes later, in the lecture hall.
"Ah."
"Ah."
The moment Choi Marie spotted Yoonchae walking in behind me, an involuntary gasp escaped her lips—and the instant Yoonchae laid eyes on her, a flustered sound popped out of her just as reflexively.
The two of them had parted on awkward terms just last night after some strange bout of tension, and clearly neither had expected to run face-first into the other again this very morning. Part of that was my doing, of course—I'd deliberately neglected to mention to either of them that this was going to happen.
...Mainly because Marie still hadn't told me she was taking Teamwork and Strategy in the first place.
She was probably planning to drop it on me as a little surprise during today's first class.
I knew her original-story personality well enough that her behavior was predictable. Beneath that cool facade, she was secretly the type who craved human connection more than she'd ever admit.
Back in first year, Marie had failed to hold her position in every single class with group work, obsessed with landing shield strikes—and her relationships had shattered just like the people on the receiving end of those strikes.
"Morning, sunbae. Are you taking this class too?"
"...Ah, yeah. But forget about you for a second—what's he doing here...?"
"Oh, he's in this class with me, it turns out. I only found out this morning myself."
"......"
Marie's expression stiffened slightly, unsure how to respond to my answer.
Her eyes wavered as events unfolded a little differently from the scenario she'd clearly rehearsed in her head. It wasn't often you got to see Choi Marie flustered, after all.
"Weren't you and Han Sora the only ones taking this class?"
"I'm finding that out right along with you."
"......"
Yoonchae, for her part, was visibly rattled as well. Even the girl who normally hid everything behind that cool, noble mask couldn't quite manage her composure in the face of this.
If I stayed silent too, the atmosphere was going to become a total disaster, so I did the expedient thing and threw out a line to break the tension.
"Why didn't you tell me in advance, sunbae? When I asked you before, you didn't say a word."
"...What are you talking about? You never asked."
"I told you I wanted to take at least one class with you, and you didn't answer at all. You actually knew back then, didn't you?"
"......"
"Don't tell me—you wanted to take a class with me but were too embarrassed to say so directly, so you made up an excuse?"
"...Think whatever you want."
Unable to bring herself to say 'I flunked this course last year, so I'm using you to retake it,' Marie turned her head away, unable to deny it.
Even without me pushing, she'd handed me a weakness all on her own—and now there was even a witness to it, in the form of Yoonchae.
...As a setup for beginning her training, it wasn't half bad.
"Well, however it happened, it's fate that we met like this. Having three people I know here does make me feel a lot better, honestly."
"...Three? There's one more?"
"Ah, yes. In the group chat Yoonsung and I are in, there's a friend from the Archery Department named Sora..."
"Lee Seonho~! Do Yoonsung~! Good morning~!"
Speak of the devil and she shall appear—Han Sora, arriving with an energetic greeting.
Her smile cut through the awkward atmosphere in one clean stroke, and even the guardedness between Marie and Yoonchae thawed a little.
"We literally just ate breakfast together, why are you greeting us like it's the first time you've seen us today?"
"S-so what! It is a good morning, isn't it?"
"I mean, the weather is nice. You bring your bow and arrows all packed?"
"Yeah. We've done nothing but theory lectures until now, so this is finally a practical class—it's making me a little nervous. I keep worrying whether I'll actually be able to shoot the way I do in training."
"If you're anxious, I can throw a light buff on you later."
"...C-can I try doing as much as I can on my own first, and then ask? I'll ask if I really need it, so..."
"Do whatever you're comfortable with, Sora."
That determination of hers, to push forward on her own without leaning on buffs, was adorable—I genuinely liked it. But still, if at all possible, I wished she'd walk a little more slowly.
Because if her dependence on me dropped off before the conquest was complete, I'd lose my pretext for training her altogether.
Although the fact that she now accepts Suggestion without any resistance is definitely a win.
Probably thanks to the week of archery training we did together before enrollment. I'd have to start angling for a chance to restart that side of things before long, too.
"Ah, but who's this? Is she another one of your friends, Seonho?"
"...She's not my friend, she's a sunbae. Second-year Shield Department, Choi Marie."
"Ahh! S-sorry! You were standing with Seonho, so I just assumed you were a fellow freshman!"
"It's fine. It is a first-year class, after all."
Thanks to Han Sora's arrival, the atmosphere around Marie had loosened up considerably.
If we'd followed the original story's script, we would have smoothly formed our four-person party right here and moved on to the event—but unfortunately, there was still one more thing left to do.
"Ah... h-hey, Sora..."
"...Seo Woojin?"
"......"
Somehow or other, I needed to exclude the rightful owner of this four-person party.
Wary of drawing attention to himself, Seo Woojin slipped into the lecture hall—and the first thing his eyes landed on was the back of his childhood friend, Han Sora.
That abundant brown hair, that silver bow—he knew those sights better than he knew his own face.
...Even if the bastard standing next to her was, as always, someone he couldn't stand.
"Ah... h-hey, Sora..."
"...Seo Woojin?"
"......"
There was no telling what was going on behind Lee Seonho's expression.
But Seo Woojin could at least sense that the man thought poorly of him. The last time they'd met, after all, they'd parted in the middle of a screaming match.
Seonho had clearly been trying to hypnotize Sora and do disgusting things to her, and when Woojin had moved to stop him, he'd somehow gotten tangled up in twisted sophistry and forced to retreat. If they hashed it out again now, he was sure he could win for certain this time.
...Calm down. I didn't come here to fight him. Right now, the priority is getting Sora away from him somehow.
They'd been together all the way up through the entrance exam—so how on earth had things come to this?
Even so, to Seo Woojin, Han Sora was someone he absolutely could not give up on. He was convinced, after all, that she was the woman with the highest chance of loving him at this point in time.
"S-Sora, so you're taking this class too...? What a coincidence..."
"...Yeah. So what?"
"I-I happen to be taking it as well, so... I-I just thought I'd at least say hello..."
"Don't bother. I don't need it. And I already told you not to talk to me at the Academy."
"B-but you forgave me for that last time, didn't you...?"
"When? I don't remember that."
"......"
"Anyway, I don't want to talk to you, Seo Woojin, so let's just keep being strangers from now on. I don't want to hang around a selfish guy who'd abandon a girl in front of a monster and run away alone."
...I really only did it that one time.
And I changed my mind and came back to help, too.
If only it weren't for that bastard Lee Seonho, none of this would have happened. Why, why did it have to be while I'd stepped away for just a moment that day...
"What's the story here? Do you know this junior?"
"...It's from the entrance exam. I mentioned before that I took down an Owlbear during the practical, right? Turns out there were actually five people there including me, and that kid over there—Seo Woojin—abandoned a Recovery Department friend next to him and ran."
"...Tch."
Repulsive bastard.
The moment he gets another chance, he's badmouthing me to a girl again. He's definitely been talking about me like that to Sora too, driving a wedge between us.
Watching the two of them converse, a question formed in Seo Woojin's mind—why was a woman like her attached to Lee Seonho's side, again?—but it didn't last long.
"Either way, I have no intention of playing friendly just because we're in the same class, so don't worry about it."
"S-Sora..."
"I'm sorry, sunbae. I was just catching up with an old friend..."
Only then did Seo Woojin come back to himself, jolted by his childhood friend's cold dismissal—the girl who'd grown up right next door to him.
He watched her walk back to Lee Seonho's party as if he didn't even exist, staring after her in hollow silence, unable to force out a single word.
"This is the first I'm hearing of an Owlbear being in the entrance exam site."
"From what I heard later, they released exactly one specimen to sharpen the test's discrimination, but it was too dangerous, so they removed it from every exam after that round."
"...I find that somewhat doubtful. Does that actually make sense, rationally speaking? For all anyone knows, it could have been a hologram monster dressed up as an Owlbear."
"Why on earth would anyone lie about something like this? If it sounds like a lie to you, ask Eunju or Isabel later."
"U-umm... I was pretty dazed at the time too, but for now, what Seonho says is right. I did take the last hit, but Seonho did by far the most of the work. That's why the second-best material went to him as well."
"If my junior Seonho says he took it down, then he took it down. Why are you so suspicious? Honestly, with that parasite-sucking face and a personality to match..."
"I took the exam too, and I didn't see it, so that's exactly why I'm raising the question. And rationally speaking, it doesn't hold up—though that cuts both ways, doesn't it...?"
"Please, both of you, just stop fighting. Why is it that whenever you two are in the same room, you act like you can't rest until you've eaten each other alive—yesterday was the same thing..."
...Still, judging by the mood of the group gathered over there, things didn't look especially rosy.
And so Seo Woojin prayed, with all the desperate sincerity his heart could muster, that things would fall apart—that the party would fracture, and Han Sora would come back to him.