Rank 0 at the Awakened Academy — Episode 16: A Box on the Desk
Jiwoo was certain that Lisa was a victim of bullying too.
And if that was the case, Lisa might be able to give her information about the ringleaders.
Lisa, who had stopped in her tracks to follow Jiwoo, had gone rigid as a board.
It was an all-too-obvious reaction.
Which probably meant she'd guessed right.
"H-how did you… know?"
"I saw you in PE. You run pretty well. You've got decent athletic instincts, don't you? And you don't exactly look like the type who's careless enough to misstep and fall off a cliff."
"……."
"And I saw you this morning, too. Lying flat out in front of the dorm entrance."
At that moment, Lisa's gaze slid down and landed at Jiwoo's feet.
At the feet wearing not the student-issue shoes, but the pair of slippers a teacher had handed over.
And…….
The memory of the single shoe hurled at Gu Minjae's head that morning flickered through her mind.
"Fucking hell, this is Seol Jihyo's, isn't it?! Huh?!"
Then that shoe really was…….
"You haven't told anyone about what happened this morning, have you?"
At the voice coming from right in front of her, Lisa's head snapped up.
Her eyes met Jiwoo's expressionless face.
"You're planning to keep your mouth shut about it forever?"
"……."
Lisa sealed her lips and said nothing.
A silence both short and long.
At the end of it, Lisa finally opened her mouth, fidgeting.
"Even if I did say something, my situation wouldn't get any better."
"…What?"
"You know this already, Jihyo. Anything that happens inside this school, talking about it outside is strictly forbidden."
……Yeah, I know all right.
Nothing that happened at Gaon ever became public knowledge.
Even if someone died, it meant that the incident would never see a single second of media coverage.
Why? Well.
Whether it was to protect the image of the Awakened, or to protect the school's reputation… who could possibly guess what the people at the top were thinking?
Anyway, that was the rule.
Come to think of it, maybe that was why Jihyo had kept her mouth shut about the bullying all this time, too.
'The real problem is… the ones behind the bullying know it too.'
The absolute conviction that no matter what they did, nothing would ever leak out into the world.
…Filthy bastards.
"We're high schoolers now, so we just have to hold out for three more years. Once most people graduate, you'll never have to see them again anyway. And……."
Letting the words trail off, Lim Lisa lifted her gaze and looked Jiwoo dead in the eye.
"I'm okay now."
"……? Okay? What does that mean?"
She waited, wondering what on earth Lisa meant, but Lisa only fluttered her lips for a moment before turning away.
"…We're late. Let's hurry."
What the hell? Why would you cut yourself off mid-sentence?
But before Jiwoo could add anything else, Lisa scurried away like she was running for her life.
…And in the end, she never got to ask about that neon-haired bastard, Gu Minjae.
The next day.
Jiwoo arrived at school wearing the freshly issued pair of shoes from the supply office.
Once again, she'd come in slightly early, just like yesterday.
Which was probably why the classroom she walked into was nearly empty.
Except for exactly two people: Moon Yoojin and Lim Lisa.
'Come to think of it, Lisa seemed to get here ridiculously early too. Is Yoojin the same?'
So this is what being the top of the whole school looks like, huh.
Jiwoo calmly made her way to her seat and sat down.
Even though Yoojin must have sensed her presence, he didn't bother glancing her way.
Perhaps because of yesterday, the air between them felt even more awkward than usual.
'Well, we were never exactly close to begin with, so… huh?'
What was this? There was a box sitting on her desk.
A box tied with a black satin ribbon.
Who would have left something like this at her seat?
'A new form of bullying?'
She went on guard at once.
After all, in the dramas, boxes like this usually had razor blades or dead mice inside.
But still… who had put it here?
She lifted her gaze slightly and scanned her surroundings.
Moon Yoojin, sitting right beside her, showed zero interest in any of it.
And Lim Lisa, slumped at her desk in the next section over…….
"Ah…!"
The instant their eyes met, Lisa whipped her head away.
'It was her.'
Jiwoo looked back down at the box.
…Might as well open it.
Carefully untying the black ribbon and lifting the lid, she found something inside that was nothing like what she'd expected.
A pair of pristine white sneakers.
And a single card.
Thank you so much for yesterday. — I.L.S
Having read the card, Jiwoo stole another glance at Lisa.
Their eyes met again.
"……!"
Lisa flinched like a kid caught doing something bad and turned her head away once more.
Her shoulders trembling faintly. Her earlobes flushed red. Both hands squeezed tight atop her knees.
She was clearly a bundle of nerves.
Jiwoo looked back down at the box.
'Did she hear that I threw the shoe and go out of her way to buy these?'
…But when on earth did she even get them?
She'd gone back to the dorm last night, so had she dragged herself out at the crack of dawn to buy them? She'd heard there was a shopping center on campus that stayed open twenty-four hours.
'…Well, whatever.'
After weighing the possibilities, Jiwoo soon gave up on the speculation.
"Thanks. I'll wear them well."
She said it a little louder, as if to make sure it was heard, and Lisa cautiously peeked over at her.
……Nod.
Having given that small response, Lisa hurriedly whipped her head away again.
"……."
In the middle of it all, Moon Yoojin, earphones in, calmly turned a page.
…Ah, right. He was here too.
Only then did Jiwoo remember Moon Yoojin's existence and shoot him a sidelong glance.
'Should I say thank you to him too?'
Whatever the process had been, the fact remained that Yoojin had called the rescue team, which let her join up quickly.
And considering he'd stayed at the scene all that time, that meant Yoojin had been taking part in the search operation as well.
…Might as well pass along the news that our group ranked first, too.
"Um, hey—"
Just as her lips were hovering over what to say to Moon Yoojin—
SLAM!
The back door of the classroom burst open with a flourish.
Footsteps came stomping toward her without a shred of hesitation, and they came to a stop directly in front of Jiwoo's desk.
THWACK!
Someone hurled a single black shoe roughly down onto her desk.
"Hey. You. Got a minute for me?"
…Gu Minjae.
The bastard with all those piercings dangling from his face.
Jiwoo had grown up cut off from the world.
For someone like her, the smartphone and the television had been her only connections to it.
She'd experienced the world secondhand through dramas, movies, novels, and anime.
And yet…….
To think she'd actually go through something like this in real life.
"Oh."
Jiwoo looked around with an expression of genuine curiosity.
The crackle and pop of burning embers.
Beyond a firmly shut iron door lay a wide, open lot ringed by gray concrete walls.
Here and there, the tall walls were mottled with what looked like scorch marks.
In the distance, she could make out the charred remains of chair fragments and piles of paper, dumped here and there.
'So it's the incinerator area.'
She'd seen this in movies before.
Whenever a fight broke out at school, the venue was always the incinerator or the rooftop.
'Is it true in real life too?'
Remembering scenes from her childhood gave her a strange feeling.
Though it was still anyone's guess whether Gu Minjae had actually dragged her all the way out here for a genuine fight.
'Well, whatever.'
Jiwoo's eyes slid over Gu Minjae, who was staring her down from straight ahead.
She'd been wanting to have a word with him anyway.
He'd come looking for her of his own accord, which saved her the trouble.
"I already got the shoes back, so is there something else you need from me?"
She lifted the shoe Gu Minjae had just hurled onto her desk and asked, and he burst out laughing like it was the funniest thing he'd heard all day.
"So it was yours after all."
"And here I thought you'd brought it back because you knew."
"Not even planning to hide it, huh?"
"Nope. Why would I?"
"……."
In an instant, the humor drained from Gu Minjae's face.