Academy First Week (3)
The six of us who had signed up for the special training class followed Jin Soyoung to the training grounds. This wasn't the public facility the students normally used—she had rented out the entire large training hall on the floor above for the lesson.
Jin Soyoung looked us over as we lined up across the wide open space, then smiled with satisfaction and spoke.
"I like the look of people who are actually trying to grow on their own."
I glanced sideways. Yeon Hajin's expression had gone rigid, and he swallowed hard.
"I'll answer that enthusiasm by training every last one of you to the absolute best of my ability, so feel free to be happy about it."
As Yeon Hajin took a deep breath and tried to force his tension back down under those bloodthirsty words, Jin Soyoung kept going.
"Besides, we've got a healer this time. So we can go even more aggressive and full-throttle than the original plan."
Even Yeon Hajin hadn't seen that coming. His pupils started vibrating like mad, and watching him made my own urge to desert spike just as hard.
Wait. So the training in the original novel was the held-back version?
Just from the descriptions, people were basically dying!
"The content of the training is simple."
Jin Soyoung swept her gaze over our terror-stricken faces and smirked.
"All of you, come at me. I'll take you on at once."
Even after she said that, none of the six of us moved.
"If you won't come, then I will."
Jin Soyoung stomped hard as she spoke, and motion finally broke out among the cadets.
Yeon Hajin, standing right beside me, gritted his teeth and charged her—
KWAANG—
"Guhk—!"
He was blasted backward like a cannonball.
...Is it too late to drop this course?
After that, the shape of the training stayed more or less the same, if you could call it consistent.
I would take aim and open fire while cadets went flying through the air like soccer balls, and then—
"Ughk—!"
"You don't even have the basics. We'll start from learning how to walk."
—or I'd get grabbed by the scruff of the neck in Jin Soyoung's hand and launched skyward myself.
I would dash around dodging Jin Soyoung while frantically triggering heals on the cadets, and then—
"Eughk—!"
"Still, you've got talent. Good eyes."
—or I'd get kicked by Jin Soyoung and sent rolling across the dirt.
At some point, though, something changed. The cadets started actively trying to dodge my shots.
Chae Yujeong was the first.
The moment I lined up a heal on her as she drew her bowstring, she glanced my way and then moved fast, slipping clean out of my line of fire.
"...?"
The others watching her started putting everything they had into dodging my aim one after another.
Yoon Chae-ah, of course—and even Lee Hayun, the tank I'd trusted.
By then I could more or less guess why these maniacs were doing it.
Because the second they get healed, Jin Soyoung goes even harder on them, so they're dodging the heals entirely to take slightly less painful hits?
...You little brats.
I turned toward Jin Soyoung with a look that clearly asked if this was allowed, but—
To my deep misfortune, Jin Soyoung made no move to stop them.
She could see plain as day that the cadets were dodging my shots, and she still did nothing.
If anything, she eased up a little on the others and came after me even more viciously instead.
"Wait, wait, hang on a second—!"
"There's no 'second' on a battlefield."
"Ueughk—!"
After getting seized by the scruff of the neck and treated to a short flight, even a mature intellectual like me couldn't help the irritation rising.
I gritted my teeth and took aim at the cadets.
...You're all freeloading while I get left out?
Unforgivable.
We all die together, then.
Maybe it was the shift in mindset, but I started landing heals on the cadets at an even higher hit rate than before, and my shooting proficiency began climbing at a steep angle.
Jin Soyoung zeroed in on whoever I'd just healed and worked them over even harder. Because of that, the cadets clenched their teeth and tried even more desperately to dodge my shots—and their movement improved at a blistering pace right along with it.
I pulled my focus tighter and gave everything I had to landing hits on them anyway.
Jin Soyoung watched that virtuous cycle that wasn't a virtuous cycle at all and smiled with pure satisfaction.
"Ugh—!"
"Keep your elbows in tighter."
All while grabbing me by the scruff of the neck with one hand and throwing me.
"That concludes today's special training."
The second Jin Soyoung said it, I dropped straight onto the ground.
"Uwaaah......"
My body slid bonelessly backward. There wasn't a scrap of strength left anywhere; I couldn't move while lying flat on the floor.
I closed my eyes for just a moment, and then—
"Hey. Hey, Yu Haneul. Snap out of it."
A hand patting my cheek pulled my sunken consciousness back up.
I forced my stubborn eyelids open and found Chae Yujeong's blue-green hair filling my vision.
"...Ah."
"Don't sleep here. Go inside and sleep."
"...I wasn't sleeping."
"Like hell you weren't. Get up already."
I took the hand Chae Yujeong offered and hauled myself up.
Looking around, I could see the zombies who'd been sprawled everywhere starting to rise one by one.
With Chae Yujeong's help I finally managed to get both feet under me and stand—but my legs shook so hard that walking was out of the question. Even standing properly was a struggle.
I stared down at my trembling legs for a second—newborn fawn, basically—then leaned in and hugged Chae Yujeong right in front of me for support.
"Ah—what the hell are you doing, you lunatic?!"
"Carry me."
"I'm dying of exhaustion too, what do you mean carry you—"
"I can't even stand..."
Chae Yujeong let out a long sigh and hoisted me onto her back.
"That lunch you bought me earlier? This pays it off."
"Yujeong. Did I ever tell you?"
"What?"
"That I love you a whole lot."
"You're only friends when it's convenient, you absolute freak..."
Thanks to my friend Yujeong, I made it to the changing room in one piece.
"Wow, I know this is really rude to even say, but... can I just touch them once? Just once?"
There was a small ruckus in the changing room, but the bit of stamina I'd recovered in the meantime let me shut it down smoothly enough. After that we set out toward the dorms.
Chae Yujeong, Yoon Chae-ah, Han Yeoreum, Lee Hayun.
And me.
Everyone who'd shared the training except Yeon Hajin traded light small talk on the way back.
"Have you guys decided what club you're joining?"
"Movie club."
Chae Yujeong answered my question without missing a beat.
Same choice as in the original.
"I-I'm g-going to do the g-game club..."
Chae-ah's stutter got worse with people she wasn't as close to mixed into the group, but understanding her answer wasn't a problem.
"I'm thinking of applying for the student council, but I'm not sure I'll get in..."
I gave Han Yeoreum a boost of confidence at the uncharacteristically timid answer.
"If you don't get in, who will? Don't worry. You'll make it."
In the original, Han Yeoreum joined the student council just like she wanted. If she hadn't dropped out midway, she probably would've gone all the way to student council president.
My encouragement earned me a bright, refreshing smile in return.
"Hmm. I'm still kind of undecided."
I used original-novel knowledge to recommend a club to Lee Hayun when she answered that way.
"What about something like the extreme sports club?"
"...There's a club like that?"
In the original, Lee Hayun joined the fitness club and bailed almost immediately. She kept getting confessed to in rotation by the guys in the same club, decided that wasn't it, and fled. After that she landed in the extreme sports club and had a satisfying club life from then on.
I brought up extreme sports right away to spare Lee Hayun the trial and error.
"Did I ever say I liked that kind of thing, though?"
"Not really, but you just give off that vibe, you know?"
Her skin wasn't tanned, but Lee Hayun had the build of the healthy fitness-girl type. Being a heroine, she wasn't bulky or anything—still, her muscle lines stood out more than the others. The brown hair and brown eyes suited her well, too. She was also the only person here taller than me.
Lee Hayun laughed, open and easy, at my answer.
"I'll take that as a compliment."
"It is a compliment."
Right as Lee Hayun let out a bright laugh, Han Yeoreum asked,
"What about you, Haneul?"
"Hmm. Me..."
The club Baek Woohyun and Yeon Hajin belonged to in the original.
A club that worked perfectly as an excuse for outside activity.
Namely—
"I'm going for the archaeology club."
"Huh? What?"
The second I answered, Chae Yujeong asked again like she'd misheard something she absolutely could not have heard.
"I said I'm doing the archaeology club."
"...You?"
Chae Yujeong looked so badly like she wanted to smack me that I growled back.
"What about me? So what if I do the archaeology club?"
"Stop talking nonsense. Looking at you, you'd go your whole life without studying, and you're saying archaeology? Did someone shoot you in the head? Oh wait—you did get hit earlier."
She suddenly accepted her own joke after remembering me healing myself during training, so I smacked her on the back.
"Crazy. You're crazy, Chae Yujeong. You're just begging to get hit, aren't you? Huh?"
I slapped her back hard enough to make a sharp crack-crack, and Chae Yujeong grabbed my wrist.
"Then what is it. Even you have to admit archaeology doesn't suit you, right? Put a hand on your conscience and think about it."
Putting strength into my arm did nothing, so I just sighed and gave up.
Instead I looked at Chae-ah and asked,
"Chae-ah. Do I really not suit archaeology that badly? Huh? I do, right?"
"......"
"Chae-ah?"
"......"
Chae-ah didn't answer.
Even when I tried to force eye contact, she just turned her head and looked away.
"Ahaha..."
When I looked at Han Yeoreum, she only gave an awkward laugh and dodged the question.
"Is it that bad?"
I turned next to Lee Hayun, and she didn't dodge it.
"It doesn't really suit you."
"...That's a compliment, right?"
"Probably?"
Lee Hayun said it with a smile, and Chae Yujeong snickered beside her.
"You think that's a compliment?"
I immediately spun toward Chae Yujeong to smack her back again, but—
My other arm got caught just as easily.
Just like that, both of my arms were completely restrained by Chae Yujeong.
"Hey. Let go."
"Say 'please let go.' Go on."
"I said let go."
"And what are you going to do if I don't?"
"......"
I glared at Chae Yujeong fiercely, but she paid it no mind.
"Say 'please let go,' I told you."
"...Please let go."
"I can't really hear you."
"Please let go..."
"Cuter."
"...You're actually going to die."
"Pffhahahaha!"
Only after Chae Yujeong burst out laughing and loosened her grip did I get the freedom of my arms back.
The others watching us snorted with laughter too.
"Hehe..."
...Even Chae-ah, who I trusted.
The next day, the path to school was busier than it had ever been.
The reason was the upperclassmen lined up along the first-years' route to promote their clubs.
Quite a few latched onto me as well.
"Junior! Just listen for a second, seriously!"
"Junior, any interest in dance?"
"Please come to our club. Come on? I'll take really, really good care of you~"
Every club that stuck to me was the same type—band club, dance club, school PR club, and the like.
Places like the magic mathematics club, literature club, or alchemy club just let me walk past without a second glance.
...Is it that bad?
Really?
I trudged into the classroom and was staring blankly up at the sky when Jin Soyoung came in and started morning assembly.
"Today's classes will be replaced by club activities. Visit the club you want this morning, submit your application, then hand it over to me. It's a shortened schedule, so once your club activity is finished, you may all head home."
The last day of the week. Friday.
Today had been set aside for clubs, so there were no regular classes. Just whatever activities each club ran on its own.
Once assembly wrapped up, I sighed and headed for the archaeology club.
Suitable or not—I've got to do what I've got to do...
—Lee Hayun Illustration—