The Shield Bearer Choi Marie (2)
"I feel like I've been seeing you around here a lot lately. Have you just started working out?"
"Haah... haah... Huh?"
Choi Marie had suddenly struck up a conversation with me, completely out of the blue. It had been almost two weeks since I started dangling the bait, so in that sense she was a bit slow on the uptake—but for me, the simple fact that Choi Marie had taken the bait was what mattered.
"Whew, w-wait a second... L-let me catch my breath..."
"...Sure, take your time."
Granted, recovering from the aftermath of having my body forcibly manipulated moments ago was going to take a little while. Thankfully, it wasn't impossible to hold a conversation even in a Runner's High state, so after briefly steadying my breathing, I answered her.
"I only started working out recently. About two weeks ago, I think."
"That's what I figured. Just looking at your body, it didn't seem like you were someone who exercised."
"Yeah..."
"Oh, I didn't mean that in a bad way. You started exercising to change your skinny build, right?"
"...That's part of it, but I started mainly because of my entrance exams."
"Entrance exams? Oh, are you aiming for a hunter academy?"
"Yes."
I chimed along with her remarks and smoothly steered the topic toward hunter academies. As a first-year at a hunter academy herself, she'd naturally be interested in that subject.
There was even a chance I could build some goodwill with her as someone who might become her junior. And since she was a heroine from the original story anyway, there was no downside to acting as similar to Seo Woojin as possible and establishing common ground with her.
"Are you a senior in high school? Or a retaker?"
"Hard to believe, but I'm a current senior."
"Ah, right—that's not what I meant to ask. I was just wondering if you were younger than me."
"Then how old are you, if you don't mind me asking?"
At first, her tone carried a hint of wariness. She reacted like someone still uncomfortable talking to a stranger. If I'd come across as eager and chatty—as if I'd been waiting all along for her to approach me—it would only have put her on guard. All the more so for Choi Marie, who'd had plenty of experience being hit on by men because of her striking looks.
Still, whether because my act was landing well, she was actually the one gradually volunteering information about herself to ease my wariness.
"Let me introduce myself properly. I'm Choi Marie, a first-year in the Defense Department at Cheonmu Hunter Academy. You said you're a senior in high school, so I'm probably a year older than you?"
"...I'm Lee Seonho, an applicant for the Combat Support Department at Cheonmu Hunter Academy."
"Oh, really? You're actually applying to Cheonmu Hunter Academy?"
"...Yes."
"Then since I'm older and a year your senior, I can drop the formalities, right?"
"...Whatever you like, Sunbae Choi Marie."
"Right, right. Good—you're easy to talk to."
...Just as expected. The moment she learned I'd be her junior, Choi Marie dropped the honorifics, exactly as I'd predicted.
From one angle, it might look like a somewhat cocky personality, but that didn't matter. After all, dropping the formality was as good as proof that she had almost no wariness toward me.
She was an awakened ability holder who could chew up most men in raw physical capability, so maybe that much confidence was only natural.
"Then, junior... ah, wait, you're not really my junior yet, are you? You might not get in."
"I'd appreciate it if you didn't say things that just make me anxious for no reason."
"Ah, sorry. Still, Cheonmu Academy's competition is pretty fierce. You didn't apply anywhere else?"
"No. Cheonmu is close to home, and it looked better than the other schools."
"Well, our academy is the best of the hunter academies in Korea, to be fair. Still, that's gutsy of you. Back when I was a senior, I also applied to Prime Academy and Myeongwol Academy."
"Judging by the fact that you attend Cheonmu Hunter Academy, I take it you got into the other two as well."
"Of course. At the academy they call me the absolutely impenetrable 'Alloy Shield Choi Marie.' That means not a single person in my year has ever broken through this body's shield."
"Impressive. ...By the way, did you call me over out of nowhere just to brag about yourself, Sunbae?"
"Ah, right! Junior, hey, you! Stop right there and hold that running stance!"
"...I'm sorry, what?"
The moment I cut the conversation short—before the pointless chatter could drag on any longer—Choi Marie demanded that I get into position. And as soon as I took a running stance as she'd instructed, she placed her hands on my arms and shoulders and began adjusting my form.
"Your shoulders need to stretch out as perpendicular to the ground as possible here. Bend your arms at a ninety-degree angle, and hold your hands in a loose, light fist..."
"...Like this?"
"Yeah. And keep your lower back straight, and bend your legs slightly when you swing them forward—as if you're absorbing the impact..."
Moving her hands from my arms to my shoulders and then down to my waist, Choi Marie adjusted my posture with practiced ease. Deliberately running around her with a mediocre form had been the right call, after all. It was plain as day that the whole reason she'd spoken to me in the first place was that she'd wanted to fix that awkward posture of mine.
Granted, it had taken two whole weeks to lower her guard, but that much time was more than worth the investment for building a connection with Choi Marie.
Besides, I wasn't even enrolled at the academy yet. And at this point, there wasn't really any other way to meet a heroine other than Choi Marie.
"Try running once, as a test. I'll keep an eye on your running form from now on."
"Yes, ma'am."
Playing the obedient junior, I followed her instructions to the letter, adjusting my stance and setting off. Her guidance as an active academy student really did make the running form feel far more comfortable—though that was partly because I'd been deliberately running with sloppy form before this.
"How is it?"
"Definitely more comfortable than before. It feels like there's less strain on my knees and lower back, too."
"Of course it is. You were running with a completely wrong form until now. Do you have any idea how much it bothered me watching you for the past two weeks?"
"...I'm sorry."
"I'm just saying it bugged me—no need to apologize.... Still, your form's improved a lot. You finally look like you're running properly."
Choi Marie spoke in a satisfied voice, evidently taking pride in having corrected my running form with her own hands. As far as first impressions went, this should be... more than enough of an excuse to keep striking up conversations with her from here on out.
"Good evening, Sunbae Choi Marie."
After getting my form corrected by Choi Marie that morning, I showed up again that very evening.
This time, too, I timed my arrival to match her workout schedule, stepped onto the jogging trail, and naturally drew her into conversation.
"Oh, junior. You were working hard this morning too, and now you're being diligent again in the evening?"
"I train every morning and evening. If I'm going to prepare for the academy entrance exams, I need to build up my stamina somehow."
"You're really not what you seem on the surface, huh. Combat Support Department applicants don't even have to take a physical fitness test, do they?"
"I don't want to burden my future teammates if I can help it. If my poor stamina kept me from keeping up with combat-role teammates, that'd just be a nuisance to them."
"Wow... Most Support Department kids figure all they have to do is their own job and nothing more. You really are full of surprises, junior."
Choi Marie nodded along with a satisfied expression at my eminently sensible words.
Most students in the typical Combat Support Department ended up in rear-line support roles and were often lacking in stamina—and Choi Marie had probably run into teammates like that more than once during team assignments.
Under those circumstances, me saying something so commendable was bound to accumulate goodwill. Though Choi Marie, of course, had no idea I was raising her affection meter with me by doing it.
"Junior, don't let your form slip. I told you it's fine to keep it natural eventually, but at first you need to keep it up consciously."
"Ah, sorry about that..."
"That happens when you're not used to it yet. Oh, by the way—are you managing your diet along with the workouts?"
"I'm eating whatever I found online for now. In the morning, whole wheat bread with a chicken breast sandwich and two slices of pineapple, and in the evening just two boiled eggs and a banana, since they say you shouldn't eat too much late."
"Oh, really? Your diet's almost identical to mine? That's wild."
"You eat like that in the morning and evening too, Sunbae?"
"Well, yeah. Except I also have chicken breast salad and soy milk for lunch. And I drink protein shakes before and after workouts to top up my protein separately."
"That's a bit much for me.... I just eat a regular meal for lunch. I need to put on fat as well as muscle, after all..."
"That's fine. You've only just started working out, so there's no need to push yourself from day one. Ah, but you should get some protein supplements regardless. It'd be such a waste to train that hard and not have it turn into muscle."
"I'll look into it when I get a chance. Honestly, there are so many different kinds of protein that I haven't been able to figure out what to buy."
Like this, I gradually mentioned small points of common ground in our conversations, steadily widening the overlap between Choi Marie's life and mine.
Only answering when she brought something up first was also deliberate. If I started rattling off all sorts of details she hadn't asked about, it might have raised her guard again.
With at least two weeks left before the Cheonmu Academy entrance exams, I was trying not to rush things—but seeing her guard drop this far already, things had clearly gone smoothly.
Smoothly enough that I was starting to wonder whether it might actually be possible to win over Choi Marie before Cha Eunju.
'...Wait, is that thinking too big?'
Then again, Cha Eunju's capture difficulty was rock-bottom when it came to Lee Seonho specifically, so as long as I managed to meet her at all, I was confident she'd fall quickly enough.
That side would take care of itself—I was bound to run into her around the written exam anyway, and I could get close to her while taking the practical together.
"Ah, so you don't have any protein or anything like that right now, I take it?"
"That's right."
"Then should I give you one of mine? I usually buy the high-protein kind, but I accidentally ordered one with carbohydrates last time. People say it's actually good for someone like you who's trying to bulk up while building muscle. Want it?"
"I'm grateful, but... are you sure that's okay?"
"It's fine. It'd just sit at my place untouched until I threw it out anyway. Better to give it to someone who'll actually put it to good use."
"If you insist, I'll gladly accept."
"Good. You're coming out for the morning workout tomorrow, right? I'll bring it then, so I'll see you then."
"Yes, Sunbae."
"Right. But you'd better show up tomorrow, got it?"
And so the gift that was supposed to go to the original protagonist had somehow ended up in my hands instead.
My apologies to Seo Woojin, whose opportunity to grow under Choi Marie's direct tutelage I'd just stolen—but there was no way I was passing up a chance this good.
It was another moment that drove home just how advantageous it was to meet a heroine before the original protagonist ever did.