Rank 0 at the Awakened Academy — Episode 14: Firefly Stairs
"Climb on."
Jiwoo crouched down, presenting her back to Lisa.
"...Huh?"
"Wrap your arms tight around my neck. I'll carry you up."
"Up...? You mean this cliff?"
"Got a better idea?"
With that reply, Jiwoo glanced back over her shoulder, as if to say hurry up and get on already.
Lisa just rolled her dark eyes this way and that, making no move to climb on.
And no wonder. Jiwoo was the injured one.
Even with a Regeneration Core, her injuries were far beyond comparing to a merely sprained ankle like Lisa's own.
"What are you doing. Hurry up."
"......"
Even at Jiwoo's urging, Lisa stayed frozen in place, silent.
There were no Infected around anymore.
If she wanted to, she could now spread her Core freely.
But the moment Lisa used her Core, the bugs would come swarming in again.
Disgusting.
The faces of friends who had drifted away from her flashed through her mind.
Jihyo might be the same. She'd frown in distaste at the sight of bugs swarming toward her.
She might never speak to her again.
'But... Jihyo saved me, didn't she?'
She hadn't been able to do the same.
When she'd seen Jihyo being bullied, she'd bolted in a panic, terrified that the sparks would fly onto her next.
She had seen it, and pretended she hadn't.
And yet—Jihyo had saved her.
So...
So this time.
"Lim Lisa?"
Jiwoo watched, eyes wide with surprise, as Lisa approached the cliff.
The moment Lisa silently raised her hand toward the rock face—
Shhhhaaa—
A wind rose around them.
Not the fierce gale from the standoff with the Infected moments ago, but a gentle murmur of air, as though it carried someone's will within it, whispering softly.
And woven into that kind wind, points of light began to gather one by one.
Jiwoo's eyes went round.
'...Fireflies?'
Lights bloomed one after another, piercing the darkness of the forest.
As the pale stars fluttered their wings and gathered, a faint trail of shimmer scattered through the air.
Lisa moved her hand gently, as if conducting them, and the fireflies answered in a dense chorus of wingbeats.
Jiwoo stared at the scene, entranced.
The fireflies, streaming like a river against the pitch-black dark, soon took the shape of a staircase.
The landscape of light-dots stacked tightly upon one another looked like a bridge carved from the Milky Way itself, as if the stars had gathered and shaped it.
The firefly stairs that began at Lisa's feet stretched away across the face of the cliff.
Lisa turned to face Jiwoo with those faintly glowing stairs at her back.
A flustered, uncertain expression.
The moment she saw it, Lisa's heart began pounding hard all over again.
- Lim Lisa? Isn't she the one who talks to bugs?
- Did you see her in PE? She had a pill bug sitting on the back of her hand, smiling at it. Like she was possessed.
Lisa's head bowed on its own.
'It's okay.'
Right. It was okay.
It was Jihyo. She'd helped her.
Whatever reaction this girl—who had thrown herself forward to save her—showed afterward, as long as she could use her ability to get them out of here...
"If you can do this, why didn't you climb up like this in the first place?"
Jiwoo asked abruptly.
"Ah—back then, the Infected, so..."
Lisa instinctively looked away.
Her head dropped as if a heavy weight had been tied to her chin.
...She does think it's weird, doesn't she?
She'd already braced herself for it, but she didn't want to hear whatever Jihyo said next.
Whatever it was, those words would surely be laced with disgust and pity—
"It's beautiful."
"...Huh?"
Her deeply bowed head rose, as if pulled upward.
Pitch-black darkness blanketed everything around them.
And from within it, the girl spoke.
"It's so pretty."
Lisa blinked slowly.
What on earth.
...Did she just say it's pretty?
After she'd summoned bugs with a wave of her hand, after witnessing everything she'd done right before her eyes...
"I've never seen anything this beautiful in my life."
A bashful smile spread across Jihyo's pale face, lit faintly by the fireflies.
'...Ah.'
Her shoulders trembled like a short convulsion.
It was strange.
Too strange.
It felt as if the pitch-black paint that had tangled and clumped and hardened inside her chest was melting away all at once.
Tears she had thought were long spent traced another line down her cheek.
"Hey, why are you crying?"
A flustered voice reached her.
Lisa hurriedly wiped her eyes.
"...Me too. It's my first time."
"What?"
"This too. It's my first time, ever."
"Really?"
"...Yeah."
It wasn't the first time she'd summoned fireflies, but she didn't bother saying so.
Jiwoo's face, turning back toward her in disbelief, glowed with an innocent brightness beneath the fireflies' warm light.
"Really, truly the first."
It was, quite literally, dazzling.
Meanwhile, after parting with Jiwoo, Yujin returned alone to the rendezvous point.
"Oh, Yujin. I was starting to think you weren't coming back."
The Core Application teacher brightened the moment he saw him.
Every other student had already submitted their magic stones and returned to the dormitories.
All except Yujin's group, ironically the ones he'd expected to arrive first.
...But then, why is Moon Yujin alone? Only belatedly registering the fact, the teacher glanced around before speaking.
"Where are your group members, coming by yourself? So... hm, your group was Seol Jihyo and Lim Lisa, right?"
"Yes. We split up, and there was a bit of trouble, so I came ahead."
Yujin answered flatly and held out his magic stones.
"Here are the magic stones."
"Oh... right."
Nine in total.
That included the stones Jiwoo had tossed to him right before he went looking for Lisa.
"Hmm? About the same as the other groups, huh. I'd have expected more from your team, Yujin."
That would be...
Because it was the amount from two people, not three. Lisa's share wasn't included.
"Anyway, I've got your stones. The bus already left, so you can ride with me. The rest of them will be along soon, right?"
"......"
The old Yujin would have brushed past this with something indifferent—Yes, or Probably.
But...
- Do you maybe win first place like that too?
The look in Seol Jihyo's eyes as she'd stared at him earlier suddenly surfaced in his mind.
It had been unmistakably disgust.
Was there any reason for Seol Jihyo to look at him that way?
In elementary school they'd never once had a proper conversation, and likewise in middle school, his time abroad meant their paths had never even crossed.
So why...
Why did Seol Jihyo look at him with such profound disgust?
Not once in his life had Yujin ever been on the receiving end of a look like that.
- Yujin, you're amazing!
- Could you come to my match tomorrow? If you're there, Coach says I can win...
- Imagine being born with that face, that family, and brains on top of it. What would that even feel like?
Longing and admiration. Expectation and awe.
Or interest and affection.
The gazes that followed him everywhere had always been threaded with positive feelings, as far back as he could remember.
- You knew she was being bullied too, didn't you? That wasn't okay.
So Seol Jihyo had asked him.
And for the first time, he'd actually stopped to think. Had Lim Lisa been bullied?
Seol Jihyo was his desk mate, but Lisa was someone with even fewer points of contact than that.
She was, plainly put, a complete stranger he had never once given a thought to.
He had the vague impression of someone quiet who preferred being alone... but that was all. He'd never once witnessed her being cruelly toyed with.
'And yet, she got angry.'
Seol Jihyo had glared at him with a dead-serious face and berated him. What exactly had rubbed him the wrong way, he still couldn't piece together even now, looking back...
- You go ahead and win first place all by yourself, then.
From the retreating figure of Seol Jihyo, turning sharply on her heel and walking away, Yujin couldn't tear his eyes away for a long while.
"...Teacher."
Yujin, lost in thought, lifted his head.
"Please call the rescue team."
His lips, sealed shut until now, moved for a reason even he couldn't explain.
"Right now."
"Huh? The rescue team? What do you mean—"
Before the teacher could finish, Yujin had already turned and begun sprinting off somewhere.
"Y-Yujin? Where are you going! The car's over there!"