Is It Wrong to Seek Treasure Chests in a Dungeon? (2)
The two of them had walked in mid-conversation with Im Yujin, and the looks they gave me were, on both sides, rather subtle.
Han Jaewook was shooting me a faintly wary glance the moment he laid eyes on me, while Ma Nayeon simply regarded me with an air of studied disinterest.
Which was only natural. To all appearances, this was just a club where three students had gathered to learn scouting techniques — but in truth, a jealous love triangle was quietly playing out within it.
Ma Nayeon was, after all, a heroine from the original story. She harbored a one-sided crush on her classmate, Han Jaewook.
Quiet by nature and hopeless at mingling with others, she only ever came out of her shell because that man over there — Han Jaewook — frequently dragged her along under the pretext of them being in the same club.
Of course, true to her reserved personality, she never confessed first and simply swallowed her feelings in silence, but Han Jaewook had more or less noticed. He knew that the way she looked at him was different from the way she looked at anyone else.
And yet he pretended not to know, for one simple reason: Han Jaewook was in love with Im Yujin, the third-year club president.
"What brings you all the way out to some hole-in-the-wall club like this? Don't tell me you're here for some other reason?"
"Pardon? Another reason? Isn't this the club that researches dungeon exploration techniques?"
"Th-that's right! Hey, Jaewook! What kind of weird thing is that to say to a new member out of nowhere?!"
"...It's a little strange, isn't it? There are two other well-known dungeon exploration clubs besides ours. There's no reason he'd come to ours specifically."
Han Jaewook, apparently unable to stomach another man hovering anywhere near Im Yujin, had been keeping me on a tight leash from the very first meeting.
I could hold my own in a war of words, but here it was better to simply lose. If I stirred up hostilities on day one, all I'd accomplish was raising both Han Jaewook's and Ma Nayeon's guard.
The fact that I'd joined this club with Ma Nayeon (and, if the opportunity arose, Im Yujin) as my actual objective was something best kept buried.
"Oh, really? I just happened to walk past and this place caught my eye the most, so I came in. In that case, are there other clubs I could—"
"Aaah, w-wait a second...! Th-there are other clubs, sure, but ours is great too, you know...! B-being small... that means we can teach you so much more thoroughly!"
"You mean you're an elite small group?"
"Yeah, that's it, that! Wow, s-see, Seonho, ranked second in your cohort — sharp as ever!"
"Hm? Second in the cohort?"
"......"
At Im Yujin's mention of my ranking, Han Jaewook began watching me with a fresh layer of wariness, while Ma Nayeon flicked a brief glance my way before withdrawing it again.
Ma Nayeon still looked supremely indifferent to whether I was second in the cohort or not, but Han Jaewook started staring at me with even deeper suspicion.
"See, I told you something's off. No way a kid who ranked second would join this club. Honestly, a Support Department student even placing second in the first place doesn't add up—"
"...Why would you say that, Jaewook? Can't a Support Department student be second?"
"N-no, I didn't... I didn't mean it like that..."
"Honestly, Jaewook, it's good that you're not in the Support Department. Means you don't have to run for your life if you run into a monster alone in a dungeon. M-me, I'm Support, so if I don't do stuff like this, I can't even find a party..."
"I-I'm sorry, Yujin-noona! I really didn't mean it that way!"
No wonder he's spent the entire year doing nothing but pining.
There was a perfectly good reason a grown man couldn't land a single Support Department girl.
After all, he'd joined this club — entirely unrelated to his own specialty — for the sole purpose of chasing Im Yujin. He himself had come in with impure motives, so naturally he projected them onto everyone else and picked fights on sight.
In the original story, he barely had any screen time since he just trailed after Im Yujin, so I never realized — but this guy is every bit as pathetic as Seo Woojin.
I quietly swallowed that thought and set about smoothing the situation over.
If things got messy and my club membership fizzled out, I'd be the only one who lost.
"It's fine. Like I told Yujin-sunbae earlier, I only got second because my party members from the entrance exam gave it up for me. For a Support Department student to climb that high on their own would be a bit of a stretch, after all."
"Still, placing second in the Support Department is impressive in itself. Isn't it, Jaewook?"
"Th-that's right! Impressive, yeah..."
"Then apologize to Seonho, quickly!"
"...Sorry. You can be second in the Support Department. I overreacted for no reason."
One moment he was baring his fangs at me, the next a few words from Im Yujin had him rolling over with his tail between his legs.
I'd crossed paths with plenty of this type in my past life, so there was no need to waste breath on him.
For one thing, I had no intention of getting chummy with another man. The club already had a heroine from the original story plus a girl with heroine-tier looks in it — I had no spare bandwidth for male bonding.
"It's fine. It's a misunderstanding I hear all the time."
"...Seonho. Y-you're not having second thoughts, are you...? Jaewook's not usually like this — he just misspoke a little back there.... If you join, I'll personally teach you one-on-one, really.... W-we don't have any other new students, so we can focus entirely on you..."
"I'm not bothered by this sort of thing. Anyone in the Support Department gets used to those looks. And like Yujin-sunbae said, if I go somewhere else I might just get crowded out by the other freshmen and learn nothing — a place with three sunbaes is far better."
"Th-that's right?! You made the right call, Seonho! H-here, this is the membership application form! I've filled in everything else, so all you need is your name and student ID and—"
Im Yujin hastily shoved the paperwork at me, clearly unwilling to let slip the member she'd scraped together just as her club was about to collapse.
Idly imagining the day I'd hold that adorable sunbae in my arms with nothing between us, I filled out the form at my leisure.
"Alright then~! A toast to our new member, Seonho~!"
"Cheers!"
Using the club welcome party as an excuse, Im Yujin clinked her glass of draft beer against ours at the chicken restaurant in front of the Academy.
I matched her uniquely high-energy toast as best I could and clinked my glass in return.
As for the other two — neither of them the new member, technically — they clinked their glasses with stiff, expressionless faces.
"...Cheers."
"......"
Han Jaewook, still glaring at me with narrowed slits of a fox's eyes as if I personally offended him, and Ma Nayeon, silently lifting her glass as if the whole gathering itself displeased her.
For the record, Ma Nayeon's foul mood stemmed from the fact that I was sitting next to her. The moment we entered the restaurant, Han Jaewook had planted himself beside Im Yujin with such effortless entitlement that she'd been forcibly separated from him.
"Yujin-noona, have this one. It's the wasabi mayo chicken. It's really good."
"Aiyo, I can feed myself! Why do you always treat me like a little kid just because I'm short?!"
"Open wide, Yujin~ here comes the airplane~. There's a good girl~."
"Eek! Stop that, I swear!"
Han Jaewook playfully carried his fork to Im Yujin's lips with some childish joke, and Im Yujin shoved him away in clear annoyance.
By now, Han Jaewook was probably feeling like the two of them were practically an item. Entirely oblivious to the fact that this exact behavior was the thing Im Yujin hated most.
Making jokes that poke at a woman's complex in the first place is just plain stupid.
Case in point: I had never once mentioned Han Sora's small chest, precisely to avoid hurting her feelings.
In Im Yujin's case, her height was obviously the sore spot, so jokes like that were ones only the teller could enjoy.
"......"
Though, ironically, Ma Nayeon was watching Im Yujin's antics with eyes full of envy.
Traffic control is going to take a while.
The first order of business was winning Ma Nayeon over to my side. With both her and Han Jaewook this wary of me, nothing was going to happen.
While I let Han Jaewook dig his own grave with Im Yujin and kept the gathering flowing along at a leisurely pace, Im Yujin rose from her seat for a moment.
"I-I'm gonna go get some air real quick~!"
"Then I'll come too. I was actually just thinking I'd like to step out and sober up a bit."
"Huh?! Th-that's sudden...?"
"You said you were going for some air. Is that a problem?"
Han Jaewook, insisting on trailing after a woman who was, to anyone with eyes, clearly headed to the bathroom.
In his mind, he was no doubt carving out some alone time with her. It seemed to have never once crossed his dreams that this was a massive nuisance to Im Yujin.
The flicker of distress on her face did grate on me a little, but I held my tongue. Jumping in with something like "please don't block her trip to the bathroom" would only have tangled things further.
"W-well... alright then. Let's go get some air together..."
"Yes, Yujin-noona."
"......"
Perhaps it was too awkward by now to admit she'd actually just been going to the bathroom, and Im Yujin ended up walking out with Han Jaewook after all.
Which left the only person remaining inside the restaurant as Ma Nayeon — the one who hadn't exchanged a single word with me since we arrived. For the first time, the chance to talk to her alone had finally arrived.
"...Ma Nayeon-sunbae."
"......Yeah."
"Do you, by any chance, like Han Jaewook-sunbae?"
"......How did you know?"
How did I know? She'd been staring at him so openly that anyone could tell, even without the original story as reference.
The only person who could look at such glaring signals and fail to register romantic feelings would be Im Yujin herself. After all, she was oblivious enough to miss even Han Jaewook's feelings directed at her.
"If it's not too much of an imposition... may I help you?"
"What are you talking about?"
"The truth is, I joined this club because I fell for Yujin-sunbae."
"......?"
"But it looked to me like I'm not the only one — Han Jaewook-sunbae seems to have feelings for Yujin-sunbae too. If I'm reading it wrong, I apologize, but..."
"......No, you're right. Jaewook likes Yujin-unni."
"I thought as much."
"...But what's that got to do with anything? What does that have to do with helping me?"
"You never know. If Yujin-sunbae and I start dating, Han Jaewook-sunbae might give up on her and start dating you instead."
"......Hm. Somehow I doubt that."
"Why not?"
"I'm different from Yujin-unni. Different height, different personality, different body... whatever, we're different in a lot of ways. Even if Jaewook got rejected by Yujin-unni, I'm not the type he'd suddenly develop feelings for."
"Aw, but you don't know that. And from where I'm standing, Ma Nayeon-sunbae has plenty of a chance, if you ask me?"
"......?"
To Ma Nayeon, who watched me in quiet bewilderment, I explained why her chances were better than she thought.
"For one thing, you're a beauty, Ma Nayeon-sunbae. There isn't a man alive who doesn't like a pretty woman. Sure, Yujin-sunbae is a beauty too, which is why Han Jaewook-sunbae is so fixated on her — but if he fails to win her over, his gaze will inevitably fall on the closest pretty woman available. Which is you."
"......"
"A man's heart is something I understand better than anyone — being a man myself. So trust me, just once. All you have to do is help me and Yujin-sunbae get together, and I guarantee you'll end up dating Han Jaewook-sunbae."
"......Is that... really possible?"
"I ranked second in the entire entrance exam. My head works quite a bit better than most, you know."
"......"
"Let's exchange numbers first, sunbae. If you change your mind later, just give me a call."
"......I'll take your number, but that doesn't mean I said I'd do it."
"Understood, sunbae."
Knowing her, though, I'd bet she'd be calling me within a month at most.
And so, before Im Yujin and Han Jaewook returned — the former with a troubled expression, her wound of inferiority evidently unresolved — Ma Nayeon and I had our groundwork laid and waiting.