Half a Hero, Lee Hayun

"…Thank you. It feels like someone just lifted a boulder I'd been balancing on my head."

"Don't mention it. This is what I'm here for."

The treatment was finished. Lee Jiyoon had gone perfectly still from the moment I took her head in my hands, and only now did she start bowing, thanking me over and over. Judging by how deeply she scraped, the stress those headaches had piled on her must have been no small thing. Good. I'd racked up a lot of points with this.

Or so I was thinking.

The instant it was over she was off the bed and glued to Lee Hayun's side, which meant her heart wasn't all the way open yet. A little disappointing. I hadn't expected to get full on the first bite anyway. A small gratitude, aimed at me. For now, that was enough.

"Oh, right, Jiyoon. Why are you being all stiff and polite with him? You drop the manners and talk down to me whenever you're bored—"

"…Shut up. Close your mouth and get outside. This is embarrassing."

"Noona's the embarrassing one?!"

"Yeah. Extremely."

Hayun clamped both hands over her mouth like she was in a drama, face crumpling. Used to that reaction, Jiyoon poked her defenseless sister in the waist. Poke, poke—hard enough that the T-shirt under the uniform she'd thrown on any old way bunched into wrinkles. Hayun, on the receiving end, was only shrieking, but it had to hurt. At least she was a little taller than Jiyoon. If she'd been shorter than her own little sister on top of everything else, who knows what kind of treatment she'd have gotten.

"Out. I said get out. You leaving or not?"

"Stop, stop…! Fine, I'll go, okay?!"

I would've liked them to stay a little longer, but she clearly hated sharing a room with a stranger for any length of time. Still, she bowed on her way out, polite as anything. I supposed I ought to count that as a win.

"Thank you, teacher. Ah—no, that's not right."

"Just call me whatever's comfortable. Honestly, I'm a little confused myself."

"…Okay. I'll head out first, then."

"If something else starts hurting, come find me. I'll treat you as much as you want."

Somewhere that hurt. It would show up soon enough.

Jiyoon didn't answer. She only dipped her head once more. I took that little thanks with a light smile, the heavy door slid shut, and the quiet came back. Inside the infirmary, washed in a dusk that was going dark, the corners of my mouth I'd been holding up slowly settled where they belonged.

The older sister, unlike her sibling, got along with anyone—an energetic country puppy, tail whipping back and forth. The younger sister, unlike hers, threw up walls against everyone and bristled her fur, which made her difficult to approach.

I took out my phone and checked the date again. February 19th. About ten days left until the first-year entrance ceremony in March. I'd be able to see Hayun easily enough until then, since she'd be coming in for supplementary classes, but whether Jiyoon would ever set foot in the academy again was anyone's guess. So while I handled Hayun, I ought to get a few things ready for the next time I met Jiyoon. Things she might like, for instance.

Right then the infirmary door slid open again. Had she forgotten something? Tap, tap—I killed the screen I'd been jotting notes about Jiyoon on.

"…Who is it?"

"Huh? Uh, um. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Baek Jiho. Third year, Class A."

But it was a guy.

"I heard a door showed up here that wasn't here before. Got curious, and… sorry for just walking in."

Third year meant a student, not a teacher. The big scabbard strapped to his back suggested an Evolution-type, or maybe a Mutation-type. And the strange teddy-bear keychain dangling off the end of it was probably… a sign he had a girlfriend? Or just his own taste? Well, fair enough. Not every hero was a woman. Still, no particular need to remember him. Because he was a man.

"Oh. So this is the infirmary."

"Yes. As you can see."

"Then you must be…"

"That's right."

It was getting late. I slipped my phone into the pocket of my padded jacket, ready to head home, and put on the same neat smile I'd just given Jiyoon.

"Health teacher…"

"Health Committee Member."

"…Not the health teacher?"

"…."

Yeah. This was going to be a pain.

Dinner was tonkotsu curry ramen. Not on the level of my villain days, but the salary the academy had promised was generous enough that I allowed myself a modest luxury. The saying that too much of a good thing is as bad as too little doesn't apply to money. Only the more, the better. Even so, maybe because I'd grown up with nothing, no matter how much I made it never turned into wasteful spending.

I tossed the bowl into the recycling, sat down at the desk, and poked around the computer a little more. The new folder labeled Lee Jiyoon, sitting right beside Puppy on the desktop, vanished behind the browser window I'd just opened.

Nobody on the internet was talking about any of that with a straight face. The posts rambling about this or that happening in the future were all garbage, good for a brief bit of bait and nothing more. I dug and dug and came up dry. Tired of searching, I started to think there was no point checking any further—and then a thought hit me. I leaned the chair back with a creak and sank into it. Was the future I knew even the right answer?

"Hmm…"

The Company. Back in my villain days, hadn't the fact that I was there made even the rougher crimes possible? So now they'd only be pulling off far more modest, nothing-special jobs than before, wouldn't they? And if that was true, then the future changing was only natural.

I followed the thought and retraced what had happened. Of course, the Company I'd belonged to wasn't the only gathering of villains, and it hadn't even been the best. There were gnats who were nothing but petty crooks, names I'd barely heard a handful of times, and on the other end a group called Most Wanted, packed wall to wall with single-digit blacklist villains. Among all of them, our Company was somewhat famous for having one completely unhinged bitch by the name of Hato Yozora. Compared to Most Wanted, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the terrorists who decorated the morning news every other day, we'd been a little dull.

Hmm. Come to think of it, hadn't she only been able to run wild like that because of me, too?

While I was blankly turning it over, the phone on the desk suddenly buzzed. Brrrr.

"…Ugh."

Almost no one knew my number. A few active villains, and the principal I'd met that afternoon. That was it. And the name on the screen was—

"Shit…"

I hadn't saved her as Senior out of any real respect. Later I'd change it to Crazy Bitch, but at this point I had no idea she was that far gone. I'd just been amazed to see, with my own two eyes, a famous villain who until then had only ever floated around the internet as a straight-on photo—and amazed again when someone like that looked at me, said to use this number if I ever needed to get in touch, and punched it in herself. I hadn't known a thing about her personality.

…But in my memory, this woman hadn't contacted me this early. It was only after another half a year or so. Something along the lines of she'd gotten scratched fighting while she was drinking, she was coming over to get treated, so clear out whatever woman was at the house.

"…Ah."

Pick up, or don't. I'd hesitated too long. The vibration stopped.

One second. Two. Three. A pitch-black screen with nothing on it but a calendar and a clock, and the red phone icon lit up, pretty as anything.

And then—

If I just hadn't written my fucking address honestly on that interview form…

Screw it.

You could smell ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the alcohol in her voice. A tone like Hayun's—calm, but a little softer, looser, more unraveled.

So that was it. I let out a sigh toward the other end of the phone.

Was it really right, taking drinking advice from a woman barely two years older than me? Count the past, and there was an eight-year gap with that woman. The instinct that this was about to get annoying arrived, and I breathed out lightly through my nose before I answered.

I let the drunk's endless questions go in one ear and out the other, then carefully cut in.

Crash—something collapsed on the other side of the speaker. Then a small groan. Kyang. She'd probably tangled her feet and gone down. It happened often enough that I wasn't surprised. She was the kind of woman whose iPhone changed colors about once a week.

Click. The call cut.

It had felt like about five minutes. Apparently not.

"Haa…"

I changed Senior Yozora back to Crazy Bitch, grabbed the neck warmer off the wall, and stood. Anyway, now that the Company's movements were uncertain, what I needed to think about was the trail of the other villain groups. Most Wanted, for one. I happened to remember a small incident from right around the day I'd signed the contract. Checking that first seemed like the move.

A robbery, was it? Simple theft? I thought some petty crook had threatened a part-timer, grabbed the cash drawer, and run. I wasn't sure. All I remembered for certain was that it happened at a convenience store a little ways from here. The cops had gotten something to do and blared their sirens as loud as they could, wee-woo, wee-woo. A minor crime. All I had to do was see whether it happened or not. It didn't even have anything to do with me.

Might as well get a light workout in while I was out. The ground would be slick from the rain that afternoon, so if I didn't want to end up like Yozora, I ought to check the road before I ran. The route was a rough three-kilometer loop, enough to get some heat in the body. Just in case, I peeled every street near a bar—anywhere I might run into Yozora—clean out of my head. Residential blocks. A convenience store. If I ran through places like that with the neck warmer pulled up, then even if I did cross someone, they wouldn't know my face.

Done thinking, I drew the map in my head and left the house.

"Huh? You live around here? I've never seen you once."

I hadn't expected to run into Hayun at the convenience store, mid-blow on a piece of bubble gum. Buuu—

"Well, I was bored, so this works out. Want some gum too? It's soda flavor."

Hayun in a baggy hoodie, tap-tap on her phone. Hayun, and for some reason the star-shaped earring that usually caught the eye was nowhere to be seen. Hayun, with a convenience-store uniform thrown over her that suited her terribly. She popped the bubble flat against her lips and screamed.

"Kyaaaang!"