A Shoe to the Back of the Head
A scream near the dormitory at this hour?
Jiwoo turned her head toward the sound.
“Ugh, what the hell. Why'd you trip and fall like an idiot?”
Near the entrance. Voices carried over from beyond the corner of the building.
She slipped out of the shoe lockers and crept a little closer, toward where the voices were coming from.
Someone had apparently taken quite a tumble—they lay sprawled flat on the floor, the contents of their bag spilled all around in a chaotic heap.
Jiwoo narrowed her eyes and studied the figure closely. A black bag. Black socks and black loafers. A girl with dark violet hair braided low, carrying a faintly melancholy air about her.
She was in my class, I think.
Thanks to having spent all of yesterday carefully memorizing her classmates' faces and outfits, she could place her at once.
But… why was she lying there?
The moment that question crossed her mind—
“Hey. You gonna apologize or what? You tripped over my foot without even watching where you were going, and now my shoe's all dirty.”
A sharp voice cut through the air, snapping her wide awake. Another figure was standing beside the fallen girl.
…Neon-hair. The guy with the piercings dangling all over his face.
He was bellowing at the girl sprawled at his feet.
“I-I'm sorry…”
“Then say it louder. You got a bug stuffed down your throat or what? Huh?”
Jiwoo watched the scene with a moment of stunned confusion.
What? Weren't they only bothering Jihyo?
Despite Jiwoo having shown up to school, they'd stayed quiet all day yesterday, and she'd assumed that was the end of it. Had they simply switched targets while Jihyo was resting? Or was this guy just the type who bullied whoever happened to be within reach when he got bored?
What do I do?
Standing frozen at the corner, Jiwoo hesitated for a moment. Would stepping in now really be the right call?
Absolutely not.
The sprint during PE, the whole business with Kim Yeonhee—she'd already drawn plenty of attention in a single day. Worse, she still hadn't confirmed whether the watchdog her grandfather had planted was out there watching.
No, she couldn't afford to stir things up recklessly.
Jiwoo calmly slipped off her own loafers, and—
whish!
The shoe in her hand floated up lightly, then shot through the air like a bullet.
“GYAAH?!”
Straight into the back of that bastard's head.
“FUCK—who threw that?!”
Jiwoo ducked swiftly behind the corner.
…I had no choice. If I just walked past this, I wouldn't be able to sleep tonight.
From over there, she could sense him picking up the shoe and scanning his surroundings. She poked just her eyes out and peered at him.
Perhaps because the shoe had struck the crown of his head, Neon-hair seemed to have concluded it had come from above—he was glaring up at the dormitory windows.
“Whoever you are, you're DEAD!”
As he fumed and turned to search for the shoe's owner, the girl on the ground swiftly gathered her things and scrambled to her feet.
“Hey! Where do you think you're going!”
The girl bolted.
“What're you doing, Gu Minjae?”
“Idiot.”
A few others who'd been nearby snickered as they sauntered over to Neon-hair.
Gu Minjae?
…So that was Neon-hair's name, apparently.
“How long are you planning to clutch that disgusting shoe?”
“You know you look like a total dumbass right now, right?”
“…Shut up.”
Meanwhile, Jiwoo, watching the group from a distance, narrowed her eyes.
Are those guys all part of the same crowd?
It was possible that one of them had been among those who bullied Jihyo. They all seemed to be classmates from her class, but…
I can't see clearly.
They were too far away—she couldn't make out their features, let alone any accessories. She wanted to get closer for a better look, but if she did, she'd be spotted for sure.
Neon-hair—Gu Minjae, that is—was meanwhile glaring furiously at Jiwoo's shoe.
“Fucking hell. Whoever did this, I'm gonna find them if it's the last thing I do.”
“Looks tiny. Isn't that a girl's shoe?”
“Size 240. Probably a girl, yeah.”
“Okay, but how're you gonna figure out whose it is? Planning to go play Cinderella?”
Gaon Special Academy had a prescribed pair of shoes on the books, but unlike the uniform they weren't mandatory, so not every student wore them. Which meant the owner of this shoe was, among all the students enrolled at Gaon, someone who wore the regulation pair—and probably a girl, at that.
Beyond that, there were no clues at all.
“Yo, just toss it. You're seriously gonna carry that filthy thing around?”
“Piss off. I'll handle it.”
Gu Minjae crushed the shoe in his grip, then strode off with heavy steps. The crowd of boys with their garish, rainbow-colored hair shuffled away after him.
…Carrying Jiwoo's shoe.
Ah. My shoe…
Jiwoo stared hopelessly after the receding footwear, then eventually trudged back to the shoe lockers with a dejected gait.
It was fine. A pair of shoes was something she could simply write off as lost.
According to the orientation she'd received on her first day, uniforms and shoes could be exchanged or replaced with new items at any time. She changed into her indoor slippers and made her way to the classroom with a calm mind.
Supply office was on the first floor of the dormitory, right?
All she had to do was head straight back after class today and pick up a new pair. She'd be inside the building for the whole of lessons anyway, and she could manage in slippers until then, so there was no problem—
“As announced in advance, today is a group project day. No whining—get on the bus, all of you.”
…Manage my ass.
She was doomed.
Today was the day of that class.
Core Application.
One of Gaon's flagship courses, it was, as the name suggested, a class designed to help young Awakened put their Cores to practical use and strengthen them.
The day Jihyo entered the Abyss in that video was probably this class, too.
At any rate, unlike ordinary subjects like Korean, math, or English, it ran from first period straight through the afternoon—a full-day course, the main event of the curriculum.
And of all days, today it involved boarding a bus. Which meant an outdoor lesson.
Which meant there was a chance she'd be entering the Abyss again today…
Wait—what about my shoes?
What about them indeed. She'd be boarding that bus barefoot, like it or not.
Why barefoot? Because on reflection, it beat clomping around with a single loafer on one foot.
“Jihyo, what happened to your shoes?”
The teacher asked the moment she stepped onto the bus.
“I lost them.”
“How?”
“I'm not sure. I think someone hid them.”
“Hid them?”
“It's fine. It used to happen all the time.”
Jiwoo had never actually experienced such a thing herself, but for Jihyo, who'd been bullied, this kind of incident must have been an everyday occurrence. So she just lied, shamelessly.
“I was going to get a new pair from the supply office after class today. There's not much I can do right now, so…”
“W-well then, here—wear these for now.”
The teacher held out a spare pair of slippers she happened to have with her.
“Thank you.”
Having swapped into the slippers, Jiwoo stepped into the body of the bus.
“…”
“…”
Every gaze in the class snapped toward her.
Neon-hair—no, Gu Minjae—was staring at her with a face gone rigid. And seated behind him was Kim Yeonhee, the girl she'd had her hallway showdown with just yesterday.
“…!”
The instant their eyes met, Kim Yeonhee hastily averted her gaze. Getting doused in cola must have shaken her more than she let on.
Scanning the rows of seats, Jiwoo set off to find a reasonably convenient empty spot.
“Ah…”
It was right next to the girl who'd been bullied by Gu Minjae in front of the dormitory that very morning.