A Lucky Day
A ninety-five-out-of-a-hundred Eve and Kiri collab stream.
It was the second one in a row, and still I enjoyed every second of it with the throttle wide open from start to finish. Even after the broadcast ended, the afterglow lingered so strongly that I spent a long stretch café-hopping, and ended up going to bed later than I'd meant to.
The result:
"...I'm screwed."
Current time: 8:40 a.m.
First class of the day: 9:00 a.m.
Travel time from my place to the department building: fifteen minutes.
I spat out a curse I hadn't used since the army, scrambled out of bed, washed my face in record time, and threw on the clothes I'd set out the night before just in case. Of course, time kept ticking while I did all that, and by the end I had maybe ten minutes left.
"If I sprint, I can make it somehow."
That fifteen-minute estimate was for a leisurely walk. If I ran for real, I'd get there faster — I was sure of it. Clinging to that belief, I dredged up the memory of the days when I'd earned a top soldier rating and poured every last ounce of strength into a full-out run.
A few people on the street gave me weird looks for suddenly bolting past them, but that wasn't what mattered right now.
After a proper morning dash like that, I unfortunately ran into the barrier known as traffic lights, and only reached the department building right as class was starting...
"Hah... hah... Still, if it's only a minute, I can at least ask them to cut me some slack..."
Except finding the classroom inside the building ate up another five minutes, so...
Current time: 9:05.
Full-on late.
My luck with the lights this morning had been absolutely terrible.
"Nothing I can do about it. Honestly, I'll just apologize and— huh?"
"Huh?"
Standing outside the classroom door, steeling myself to go in, I locked eyes with Senior Wa Sol walking down the hallway.
...We'd run into each other completely by chance.
"Morning. Running late?"
"...Yes. I got a little too into Eve's stream last night."
"Heh. A very Gachi reason. Let's see... Professor Yu Eun-yeong's class."
She checked through the window whose lecture it was, then stepped a little closer.
Thump.
Was that my heart still racing from the run, or because she'd gotten closer?
Oblivious to what was going on inside me, she leaned in and whispered:
"Professor Yu likes people who own up to their mistakes honestly. And she's the type who thinks 'if it's funny, it's fine.' So if you go in through the front door and say, nice and loud, 'I'm late. I'm sorry' — she might just let it slide..."
...
For real?
Even so, that seemed a little much.
I looked at Senior Wa Sol with that thought written all over my face — but then she smiled at me, gentle and warm, offering the advice so kindly that somehow it started to feel like it might actually work.
"Hoo... Alright. I'll try it."
"Ooh. Looking forward to it."
She was enjoying this, wasn't she.
Even as I reached for the front door handle, she was still snickering under her breath.
Well. Nothing for it. I'd trust her for now.
I threw the front door of the classroom open with force.
Every pair of eyes in the room snapped toward me at once.
"I'm sorry! I'm late!"
My shout rang through the classroom.
And then — silence.
...So it wasn't going to work after all.
Shame flooded in on the heels of that dead quiet — and then someone's voice cut through it.
"Hmm... Okay. Pass."
"...Pardon?"
"See that, everyone? Do it like that and I'll let it slide once."
A woman who had to be Professor Yu Eun-yeong — mid-to-late forties, by my guess — clapped me on the shoulder as she addressed the class.
Clap. Clap.
Applause from the very back of the room.
And the one clapping was—
Senior Wa Sol... So she was in this class too.
I had no idea why a senior would be sitting in a first-year lecture, but the second coincidence settled something warm and easy in my chest.
"Whoa! I didn't think anyone would actually do it."
"And nobody put him up to it, either — he went full send on his own."
Other students joined the applause, tossing out comments that were basically praise. A little embarrassed by the atmosphere, I stood there scratching my head until the professor scratched the back of her own neck, thumped me on the back, and shooed me along.
"How long are you planning to stand there? Find an empty seat and sit down."
That snapped me out of it. I walked through the applause looking for a free desk —
"Over here, over here."
— and turned toward the voice calling me.
Senior Wa Sol was waving me over. Looking closer, the seat beside her was empty. Perfect.
"Wait, isn't that the otaku guy?"
"Yeah, looks like it. But he seems pretty fun? From OT the other day he seemed like a decent person, too."
"Right? At the after-party he kind of killed the mood, so I thought he was broody, but..."
My classmates' voices drifted over as I headed toward Senior Wa Sol. Their opinion of me seemed to have improved since the after-party, at least.
But had she just come back from the bathroom or something? Why had she been out in the hall?
"Alright, to pick up where I left off — I basically don't take attendance. So if you're late, come in honest and bold like this friend just did, admit you messed up, and I'll let it slide once."
Ah. So that was why she'd said what she said.
She'd been explaining her lateness policy, and I'd walked in at the perfect moment.
"Or sneak in without me noticing, if you can manage it."
Sneak in, huh.
As if that were possible. The second I opened the door, every eye had locked on me. How was anyone supposed to slip in unnotic— wait.
"..."
"Hm?"
Just now, when I'd opened the front door, every. single. gaze. had. swung. toward. me.
And my shout had drawn even more attention, drowning out any other noise for a moment.
And Senior Wa Sol, whom I'd just met in the hallway...
...was sitting in the very last row.
In the seat closest to the back door.
"...Ah. Did I get caught?"
I stared at her blankly. She grinned with pure mischief and put a finger to her lips.
"Shh."
"This senior..."
The outcome had been good, but...
I'd been used, and used cleanly.
"..."
"Ahaha, don't be mad~"
Being the first class, it wrapped up as a simple orientation. On top of that, the professor cheerfully announced that this week was a full break and we'd pick things up next week, so everyone filed out in high spirits.
Everyone except me. I was still feeling a little sour about the whole thing and heading home when Senior Wa Sol fell into step beside me — looking like she was having the time of her life. Ugh.
"Why would I be mad... You got my lateness forgiven."
"Ahaha, I said I was sorry. I honestly didn't think you'd actually do it."
"Hoo."
"...Are you really mad?"
There was a faint note of worry in her voice. Honestly, I had been a little angry — but looking at her like that, my resolve started to crumble. And more than that... talking with Senior Wa Sol made the anger feel smaller than the simple wish to keep talking a little longer.
"A little. But... weirdly, most of it's already gone."
"Good. Honestly, I was starting to wonder if the prank had gone too far."
"It did go pretty far. But it all worked out in the end."
"Heh. That's true~"
"Though of the two of us, you came out of it the best."
"Th-that's a misunderstanding~"
I gave her a pointed look as she tried to brush it off with an awkward tone —
"Wheee~"
— and she just whistled and looked away.
Hoo. Still.
Walking home together like this again today...
It felt good.
Yeah. The anger had already melted away a while ago.
"By the way, we really ran into each other by pure chance again."
"We did. I thought this was a first-year class, so I never expected to see you here."
"Gachi."
"Yes?"
"You shouldn't say things like that so freely to your seniors."
She gazed off toward the distant hills with an expression that looked almost nostalgic — or maybe regretful. Something about it reminded me of a warrior setting out to reclaim what they'd once failed to protect. I could only nod.
"Ahem. Anyway, my luck's been good since this morning. Running into you like this."
"And dodging a lateness mark."
"Ahaha, so our Gachi holds a grudge~"
"Haha. The anger's gone — but I am never forgetting this."
"...I'm sorry."
Only after receiving a proper apology did I fully forgive her.
On the way back to the apartment building, we compared schedules just in case another coincidence might be waiting for us. Of course, the moment you start hoping for something like that is the moment it refuses to happen.
"...No more overlapping classes."
"Yeah. Different years. Kind of inevitable."
"Heh. Then the next time we can meet is at seven. See you then — and get some rest until then."
"Yes."
We parted ways in front of the building, and I went back to my room. The second I got in, I showered off the sticky feeling of not having washed properly that morning, ate a quick meal, and — just to be safe — changed my morning alarms from one to three.
"I'd gotten complacent. Figured the army habit would still be enough and that one alarm would do it."
Anyone can make a mistake. But taking that mistake and growing from it is what makes you human. Otherwise you don't deserve to call yourself the pinnacle of the primates.
"Still... I got lucky. In a way, being late is what let me walk home with Senior Wa Sol."
If I'd arrived on time, we might never have even realized we were in the same class. The lecture hall was bigger than I'd expected, and university wasn't like high school — students weren't forced to interact just because they shared a room.
Thinking about it that way, even the miserable luck with the traffic lights started to feel like good fortune.
"Whatever Senior Wa Sol's intentions were, it ended well... Yeah. I really did get lucky."
Riding that good mood, I picked up my phone and opened the Utopia café, just to check whether any notices had gone up while I was out.
"Eve's stream is at nine tonight. Let's see... today's schedule."
Two classes left — one starting at two, one at four, each an hour and fifty minutes. After that, a quick dinner, meet Senior Wa Sol at seven, and watch Eve's stream at nine...
"Perfect plan. Today's going to be a solid day."
A day that would roll along smooth and problem-free.
Or so I thought — until my eyes landed on one particular notice.
"Hm? What's this. A notice on Eve's board... wait."
Yes. Today really had been a lucky day.
Somehow...
"Today's stream got moved to seven?!"
And I'd thought I was having a lucky day.