School Life is Fucking Spectacular # 12
School Life is Fucking Spectacular # 12
Still, the school day does eventually end.
The best time of the day, no contest.
"Ugh, man. School's finally over. Trying to cram useless knowledge into my skull makes me feel like I'm gonna drop dead."
I said to Si-hoo, walking beside me while the sunset blazed.
"Hahaha, but you gotta work hard on the academic side too. Just 'cause you're a hero, if you blow off this stuff, people might treat you like an idiot later."
"Yeah, true. I mean, you call yourself a hero, but you can't even handle high-school-level subjects? That'd be embarrassing as hell."
Ares Academy is basically a high school. If they didn't run high-school-level classes here, Korean heroes would effectively end up with nothing more than a middle-school education.
That is unacceptable.
Would Koreans ever stand for that kind of nonsense?
"But Geun-cheol, you don't seem like you'd be good at studying."
"Heh heh heh. This guy seriously underestimates me?"
No kidding, my real age? I'm twenty-four. I already survived all that high school shit. How could my grades possibly be bad when I'm just re-learning stuff I already studied?
I'm not worried about that.
If my grades suck, then I'm genuinely a moron. A moron.
That's how confident I am.
"Don't sweat it. I'm decent at studying. Anyway, Si-hoo. Let's head straight to the training ground. If we're late, it seems like all the spots get taken."
"No spots?"
"Yeah. It was packed."
"Should we run, then?"
"Works for me!"
—Fwoosh!
I sprinted under the setting sun with Si-hoo.
But damn, that bastard Si-hoo... he's seriously fast. Like you'd expect from a superhuman who handles mana well, his raw stamina isn't even comparable to mine. Guess that's the protagonist for you.
Even so, Si-hoo matched my pace and ran with me.
Normally when a high school guy gets superhuman running skills, his first move is to slap a friend on the back and bolt off at top speed as a prank. But he's seriously nice, I'm telling you.
"Ah, we're here. This is my first time here."
"It's only my second time, too."
So we got to the training ground. Lucky for us, spots weren't completely gone, and we immediately picked one we liked and headed in.
Whoa. So this is where I thrashed those seniors.
I'm so damn proud of myself.
But man, they aren't giving me any quests lately.
"So this is the training ground? Oh, there's a kiosk here."
"First let's just hit that and get set up. That's how the door closes and shows the 'In Use' sign."
"Is that how it works?"
—Beep.
Si-hoo immediately pressed the kiosk and logged in. Alright, time to get a lecture on mana control from Si-hoo here.
"Ah... but it's just the two of us in here?"
"Huh?"
"How should I put it... It feels a little weird, doesn't it? Haha."
"The hell's that mean, man?"
"Huh?"
The hell is this creepy bastard talking about?
"It's my first time coming to a place like this with a friend. Kinda feels like we went to a karaoke room or something. Ah, but I've never been to a karaoke room either."
"Uh... yeah."
First time somewhere like that, it can happen. Wait, but you've never been to a karaoke room? I should ask him to go sometime. But hold on, this isn't the real Earth. Would any songs I know even exist here?
"Anyway, Si-hoo. Check out my mana control a bit."
"I don't know if I'll be any good at checking it, but I'll do my best. Go ahead and try."
"Alright! Watch closely!"
—Fwoosh!
I dropped into my stance right away and tried to sense inside my body, picturing the feeling of forcing energy down toward my legs.
First off, Instructor Lee So-ra sorta unblocked my pathways, I guess you could say. I experienced firsthand the sensation of mana digging into my muscles, so now I kinda feel like the sensation is on the verge of coming back to me or something.
"You're not gonna get another cramp and scream, right?"
"I won't scream. Don't worry."
But if one hits, I'm screaming my damn head off so I can summon Angel Leona.
"If Geun-cheol screams in here, the training ground might collapse, huh?"
"What the hell am I, a monster bird? Collapsing a building? Am I a monster bird? Huh?"
"A mon, monster bird...! Pfft, puhahahaha! He said monster bird. Who even uses the term monster bird?"
"A scream, you know, a monster bird."
"The one person who knows it best. Okay, let's get started."
"Yeah. Sure."
—Squirm.
Slowly.
I channeled mana into my legs, careful not to cramp up.
"Oh. It's moving, little by little."
"For real? My mana's moving?"
"I can feel it shifting toward your legs a bit. Looks like you're doing well."
"Hearing that makes my motivation explode! Watch this!"
I put in a bit more power...!
"Yeah. Just like that. It's gradually flowing down. Geun-cheol. How does it feel?"
"I guess I feel something too, maybe."
But not a cramp.
"Some kind of power-ish thing."
It feels like a liquid with a slightly different temperature is flowing between my blood vessels. Not bad. Actually, it's more like my legs feel pleasantly cool.
"Ah. It cut off. It went back."
"Ah, this is tough."
"Still, at this level, you might actually have talent?"
"What? Really? You're not bullshitting me?"
"It did move. If you keep at it, you'll get the hang of it fast."
"Okay!"
So I just gotta keep doing this!
"Sheesh, but Si-hoo. How come you're so good at handling mana? Did you awaken a while back or something?"
"Yeah... something like that?"
"Did you get training at home or something? Or are you self-taught?"
"W-well? I'm not really sure."
In that moment, I got the feeling he was trying to dodge the subject, so I decided to stop prying.
There's probably some circumstances there.
"Is that right? Anyway, keep going?"
"Yeah. Hold on. I'll help you a bit."
"Huh."
—Slide.
Si-hoo reached out and touched my thigh.
I'm the type who absolutely cannot stand someone touching my thighs, so it tickled like crazy... but I can't show myself getting flustered from some dude touching me!
I held on desperately and tried to feel Si-hoo's touch stroking my thigh. He's probably trying to help me sense something like mana.
"Right here. Imagine the mana smoothly gliding down like this."
"Nngh...!"
And that's how I spent my time training with Si-hoo.
* * *
"Check out the moon. Moon. It's the dead of night. Dead of night. Pure vibe."
"Heh heh heh, don't change the subject. That death scream at the very end was seriously enormous."
"Dude, seriously, don't exaggerate. Exaggeration. You're an exaggeration maniac, you maniac."
After doing mana training with Si-hoo for a while, at the end we ran a training drill together to take down a hologram monster. Si-hoo fought incredibly well. Seriously, that guy is a total combat expert.
But I sucked. At the end I stumbled and took a beam hit, and a scream just erupted right outta me.
It didn't hurt. I was just startled and pissed off. Like back in the day, you'd scream playing some game like A-oni or whatever, and it was exactly that kind of scream.
"Anyone can scream that loud."
"Nobody else screams like that except Geun-cheol the Scream Man."
"Kid seriously doesn't get it. Hah."
Anyway.
"Well, let's drop that. Thanks for the training today."
"What's there to thank. I didn't have anything to do after school anyway. I came out just for fun."
"Appreciate you saying that. But anyway, Si-hoo. You seriously helped me out today, so as payback, I'm buying chicken."
"What...? Chicken?"
I do need to save money, but if I don't buy chicken now, the opportunity won't come around again. I'll just start saving from tomorrow.
"Yeah. Let's order a half-and-half and go eat in your room."
"Wha, what?"
Si-hoo seems a bit on the small side, so one whole chicken should be easy for the two of us to split.
"Hang on! My room!"
"Shit, let's hurry up. I'm starving to death. If we're late, the dorm closes. I'm telling you, I got penalty points from that foreign sister."
"It's not even 10 o'clock yet!"
I took the lead, walking briskly, and hit the delivery app.
What to order? Let's just go with something cheap. From a place with cheap delivery fees too. Si-hoo was chattering away beside me, but there's no way stuff like that registers when I'm picking out chicken. Scanning the prices... a solid option came up!
"Nice! Berial Chicken! That's the one! Half-and-half, one chicken, 13,000 won it says!"
I placed the delivery order directly to Lee Si-hoo's dorm room, and soon we'd arrived at his door.
Guess we'll go in, eat chicken together, then I'll head back to my room to crash.
"Hey! Si-hoo! Let's go in!"
"..."
But when I looked, Si-hoo was standing behind me with his head hung way low.
The hell's up with him?
Is he tired?
"Si-hoo? I said let's go in."
"...Wait."
"Huh?"
"W, wait!"
Wait for what?
"You, Geun-cheol, you wait here a second!"
"What am I supposed to wait for?"
"I'll clean up my room a bit and then open the door!"
"What?"
Seriously, this guy's that overly sensitive about shit?
He cares about that?
"Hey. Hey. Don't be acting crazy. What do you mean wait? Hey. Let's go in and I'll help you clean. Just open up already. Let's roll."
"I said wait!"
"Ack! Fuck!"
Out of nowhere, Si-hoo yelled and snatched my wrist with terrifying force. Using that opening, he slipped straight into his room like a strand of hair getting sucked into a vacuum cleaner!
—Slam!
And the door slammed shut violently.
"The... the hell is wrong with this dude?"
Why is he this sensitive?
"Jesus, man. You're with a bunch of dudes and you worry about that shit? I said let's clean together, but he acts all embarrassed."
It was a little odd, but come to think of it, there had been someone like that in my army unit once.
The type who absolutely wouldn't let anyone touch his stuff or his wall locker, and even said don't you dare clean it if it was messy.
He was a guy with a touch of paranoia, but unlike the other seniors who'd come steal your frozen snacks, he also never touched anyone else's stuff, so he was actually decent.
Looking back, memories my ass.
So I waited for Si-hoo like that.
—Creeeak.
The door slowly opened, and Si-hoo poked his head out slightly.
"Haah... haah... C, come in. It's okay now."
He cleaned so vigorously that his face was red and he was practically gasping for breath.
"You bastard. I said let's clean together. Anyway, I'm heading in, yeah?"
"Yeah..."
I immediately opened the door and went inside. The layout was exactly the same as my room. He said he was cleaning, so I thought it was a pigsty, but it wasn't even that. The room looked basically the same as any other. What was he even worried about?
"It's just neat and clean. Seriously."
"I, I just cleaned it."
"No, but seriously, dudes hanging out, who gives a shit about the state of your room? First time I've ever seen that. Are you actually a girl? Huh?"
"Wha, whaaaaaaat?!"
"Agh shit! You scared me!"
Shit, that startled me.
Why is he so overly shocked?
"Th, there's no way! A girl! Geun-cheol, how can you say something like that! There's no way I'm a girl! A, a girl, he says...!"
Si-hoo, gone completely red, shouted it out in fierce denial.
"Ah. Okay, okay. Sorry, sorry. I won't do it again. It's 'cause you're acting like that."
Hmm.
Guess he just hates being called girly, huh?
Ah. I can size this up at a glance. Si-hoo's on the delicate side and his frame is small. Plus he's got a bit of an androgynous look, so he must've gotten teased a lot growing up about looking like a girl. Now that I think about it, his voice is a little high too. That's totally it.
Better not bring that up.
"Yeah."
Man, I can figure this stuff out like it's nothing. I mean, me? I can't possibly be this smart and a total master of human relationships. From now on, calling Si-hoo girly is strictly off-limits.
"Anyway, between friends, no need to act so prim and proper."
"Uh, uhh... sorry. Still, showing my messy side to other people is a little... how should I put it, I've been like that since way back..."
"It happens."
Next time I gotta give him time to clean his room first.
Anyway, I went inside and sat on the bed.
"Whoa. This bed is plush."
"Be, bed..."
Looking over, I saw the trash can was stuffed full.
Did he just shove all his trash in there?
But what's that in there?
"Hm? Isn't this a bandage?"
"Gasp...!"
Right on top of the trash can, there was a bandage that looked like it had been used.
"Why'd you toss a bandage? You hurt somewhere?"
"Ah...! Th, that's...!"
"What?"
"Ah! The first-aid kit! I was organizing the first-aid kit and it looked a bit old so I threw it out!"
"First-aid kits are important."
Maybe I should stock one too.
You can definitely get hurt training and doing stuff like that.
"Anyway. Hey. Mind if I turn the computer on?"
"Ah, yeah. Let's use it together."
"Sounds good."
I got right up from the bed and turned on the computer. But is this what a guy with nothing to hide looks like? Just casually showing someone his computer?
I'm not kidding, whether it's a friend or anyone, I'm the type who absolutely never shows the inside of my computer or phone. Seeing him show it so nonchalantly is honestly fascinating to me.
"Hey, I checked, and the wiki has the monsters sorted out really well. I did a bit of studying while reading it, and I'm telling you, it's incredibly useful."
"Yeah. That's important. I check it from time to time to get familiar with them."
"Heh. They've got the training info down really well."
So I was on the computer with Si-hoo like that.
—Ding-dong.
The chicken arrived.
"Yes."
I went straight to get the chicken. Opened the door, got the chicken from the delivery guy, and returned to the living room.
"Heh heh heh! Yo! Chicken's here! Let's eat!"
"Ah... heh heh heh. This is my first time eating chicken with a friend too. Looks delicious."
This guy looks like he's in a fantastic mood.
Yeah. There's no such thing as a bad guy who smiles at the sight of chicken.
"Man, everything's your first time. It's my treat, so sit down."
I opened up the chicken right away and grabbed a drumstick. Si-hoo sat across from me and grabbed one too.
"Nom."
I watched him take a bite and took one myself.
This is a seriously killer flavor. No kidding, that piece-of-shit Don-gapnaegi can't even compete... Chicken is the real deal food. Don-gapnaegi, get the hell outta here. Until lunchtime tomorrow. What kind of useless son of a bitch has zero redeeming qualities.
"Yo, hey, by the way. Si-hoo. You been to the bathhouse upstairs?"
"Huh?! Ba, bathhouse?!"
Jesus.
Why so shocked?
"Yeah. Heard it's empty and quiet if you go at night. Wanna go together after we eat?"
"No! Why do you keep trying to go to the bathhouse together!"
"Is there a problem?"
"It's kinda embarrassing...!"
"Lame bastard."
I've seriously never met this type before.
"Man, what's there to be embarrassed about between a couple of dudes? Just eat your chicken."
"Okay..."
Wow, but the chicken here is seriously damn good. But wait, is the name really Berial Chicken? It just hit me, what the hell is the owner's naming sense? Feels like the guy isn't right in the head.