Advice (2): Woo Yu-na
Woo Yu-na. She's the eldest daughter of the Woo family, one of Korea's five great hero clans. But she's treated worse than a collateral branch member—not even considered a successor. The reason is simple. Her family, the Woo clan, is an old-school Confucian dinosaur of a house, and on top of that, she's a woman.
"…How far are we going?"
"This should do."
I led her to the back of a deserted building. It was hemmed in on three sides by low hills, so no worries about CCTV.
"Why here?"
"To teach you how to shoot like a man."
"……."
The air around us grew heavy in an instant. Woo Yu-na's face hardened coldly, her gloomy eyes glaring at me like they wanted to rip me apart.
"If you're insulting me… I won't let it slide. I'll hold you accountable on the honor of my family and myself. If it's a joke, apologize now. Then…."
A normal cadet might've flinched, but not me. I'm fucking shameless, after all.
"Explaining with words is slower than showing you. Pull out your bow first."
She obeyed half-doubting, half-curious. See? Confidence is key in everything.
Whirr.
Her pocket-ball-sized necklace glowed brightly before transforming into her weapon: a bow and arrows.
I held out my palm to her.
"……?"
"Hand over the bow."
At my polite request, she handed them over skeptically. I gripped the bow and drew the string a few times.
Woo Yu-na immediately frowned in criticism.
"…Using a bow like that could break it. Even if it's a standard training model, damaging personal gear like that is…."
"I know."
Truth was, I didn't. Well, I'd heard it somewhere and just remembered. Hmm, about this much tension, roughly.
"Watch closely."
I pointed to a tree on a nearby mound—not the trunk, but a single leaf hanging from one of its branches. That was exactly the limit of my range.
Creak.
I nocked the arrow and drew the string loosely, as far as I could without risking a too-fast shot that might exceed my ability.
Seeing my pathetic stance, Woo Yu-na pointed it out.
"…You're a beginner too, aren't you? Were you trying to mock me?"
My form looked awful at a glance, sure. Ignoring her, I loosed the arrow.
Thwip.
It flew—not too fast, not too slow—and pierced the leaf on the branch dead center.
"……."
A flicker of doubt crossed Woo Yu-na's face, then vanished.
"So?"
"…So what?"
"Does stance matter when firing a bow?"
Her pupils trembled. I repeated myself.
"Does stance matter when shooting?"
"…How did you do that? With that draw strength, the arrow shouldn't reach that far…."
Perfectly reasonable. For a cadet, anyway.
"Mindset."
"…Mindset?"
"Confidence."
Actually, it was just my invisible void tentacles at work.
"What, with something like—"
"Try it yourself. I'll tell you what mindset you need. You know mana control ties into your mental state, right?"
"…Shoot once more."
Woo Yu-na wasn't buying it easily. I used the void tentacles again, piercing another leaf. She still looked baffled.
"How the hell… This shouldn't be possible…."
"Now I'll teach you. Give it a shot."
I handed back the bow and arrows. She eyed me suspiciously but complied, nocking an arrow and drawing the string.
"Don't draw it too far. And breathe slowly."
"If I don't draw it fully, the arrow won't reach…."
"It will."
"Mm…."
She followed my instructions. I bullshitted some more.
"Don't think about your chest. Ignore the stares, your gender. Trust only your talent. You're born an archer."
If it wasn't gonna help anyway, better my harmless nonsense than some demon's schemes. And it wasn't a lie—she was just held back by self-doubt right now.
Whoosh.
I wrapped invisible void tentacles around her arrow tip. Cupping her hand with mine, she looked puzzled but didn't react.
Thwip.
As the arrow left the string, I focused my will. It pierced the leaf.
Thuck.
Right at my limit, but it worked.
Woo Yu-na muttered like she'd lost her soul.
"…How is this possible?"
I humored her a few more times. Each success built her belief in my random advice.
"Mm…."
Now, practicing alone, she'll wonder why it doesn't work without me. She'll seek me out first at circle meetings. Maybe other times too, but steering her to after circle stuff is easy.
"But…."
As I thought that, Woo Yu-na spoke up.
"Why are you helping me?"
I couldn't say it was for points. Truth doesn't matter anyway.
"You seem like you're in a similar spot to me."
I said something cool-sounding and bounced before more questions.
Mo Ye-ji arrived at her dorm in a daze. The muggy monsoon clouds seemed to hang only over her.
Why was this happening? Why?
"…Tch."
Gloomy moods usually faded after sleep. Recalling that, Mo Ye-ji hit the sack early.
> Message received.
Deep in sweet sleep, her smartwatch alert woke her. Checking the text, it was from Yoo Seong-won.
Yeji-ya, where r u? Haha Wanna grab dinner? lol
Mo Ye-ji's brow furrowed sharply.
No
She sent the curt reply and closed her eyes. But once awake, sleep wouldn't come.
"Ah… Fucking monkey bastard."
Half-awake, her head throbbed, an unbearable gloom weighing on her neck. She had no one to share it with.
"……."
Mo Ye-ji wondered: Do I like him?
I don't know. Can't be sure. But she was interested, that much was true. That's why she kept chasing him.
But that bastard wasn't in heat—why did he always have girls around him every time she saw?
"…Sigh."
Especially that brazen confidence—she couldn't fathom it. Yeah, he was sly and shameless. Approaching Ha Yeon-si or Woo Yu-na, girls other cadets couldn't even talk to, so casually?
"……."
That thought led to comparing herself to them, inevitably glancing at her chest. The gloom deepened.
Of course, in her situation… She had to live for family revenge. Escaping that fate was unimaginable.
But a friend to share this melancholy with would be nice….
"……."
Mo Ye-ji shuffled to her computer and turned it on. She had internet friends.
Logging into the academy homepage skillfully, she headed to the cadet bulletin board under her anonymous handle, PrimalTwinDaughter. Right away, a username she hated popped up: YejiKiller.
Some loser she rejected after confessing? Who knows. Just disliked it anyway.
"Haa."
She rubbed her dry face to wake up, then vented her foggy gloom via keyboard.
She typed Someone I'm interested in turned out to be a player… but deleted it—maybe not a player after all.
She crafted a vague, artful post and hit submit. Venting helped lift the mood a bit.
"…Yawn."
Sleepiness hit. Sleep again?
Yawning, a comment alert popped up.
Someone had already read her worry post and replied.
"…'If they're not showing interest at all… maybe they're just bad at expressing it?' …Hmm."
Come to think of it, she was bad at expressing. Never had to before.
Always surrounded by suckers like Yoo Seong-won. She was the one others watched out for.
Mo Ye-ji pondered, then frowned.
"……."
Drowsy, her brain wasn't turning well. She shut down the computer and headed back to bed.
"Cute."
Back at my dorm, I checked my reputation for the first time in a while. That's when I spotted the suspicious handle PrimalTwinDaughter and left advice on their worry post.
"…Prime time."
I moved on from the post, resuming my rep check. Negative opinions had dropped since enrollment, replaced by indifference or positives.
Maybe from nailing those presentations… Not bad.
"…Yawn."
Glancing at the clock: 9 PM. Bedtime. Got plans tomorrow anyway.
"Oh, right."
Wonder how many points today. Checking, it was several times the usual.
"Jackpot."
Woo Yu-na a goldmine too, huh? I picked tomorrow's outfit and crashed.