Change (1)
It was after I had met with Cheon Seo-hui and come home.
While waiting for her to get in touch, I was enjoying a rare Sunday house date with Nakyeong.
Apparently, since I hadn't played with her these past few days, she needed to fill her quota.
"If you try to go out after all this, I won't just sit still."
Thanks to that, I ended up turning down the meal Choi Yeonjeong had proposed.
I was sure the mom cafés I'd been active in for over a decade always said kids got freer once they grew up a bit. Somehow, the bigger my daughter got, the harder she tried to stick to me.
It made me happy, and a little worried at the same time.
Does this kid really have no friends…?
Judging by the evaluations from every homeroom teacher she'd had so far, it didn't seem like she lacked social skills. But there didn't appear to be anyone she could call a true best friend.
How could there be, when she came home like clockwork every single day just to hang out with me?
So whenever I asked if she had any plans to go out with friends, she would shut me down with the same dutiful display of filial piety:
"Playing with Dad is more fun, though?"
At this rate, if she suddenly brought a boyfriend home someday, I might actually faint.
"Hup."
"Do you really have to sit on my lap to watch?"
"This is my designated seat."
Honestly, our house dates weren't anything special. We just glued ourselves to the couch, each of us fiddling with our phones or watching TV, then ate when the time came. Nakyeong's favorite thing in the world was watching fun movies or dramas from the comfort of my arms.
There wasn't a homebody on earth quite like this one.
"Oh."
We were snacking and watching TV together like always when Nakyeong, remote in hand, reacted with interest to something on the screen.
"This looks fun today."
"What is it?"
It was one of those old weekend programs that introduced strange stories with reenactments mixed in.
"Something about forbidden magic."
"Magic's your major, then. Do they teach that kind of thing at the Academy?"
"They do teach it. More like… you must never use magic like this. That sort of thing."
"I see. Makes sense. Swordsmanship classes teach you not to swing a blade at people carelessly, too."
I kept up the idle chatter with Nakyeong without much thought, fiddling with my phone.
…And then.
"Forbidden magic?"
The forbidden magic Jane had hidden away was none other than…
A magic that swapped souls.
Something strangely familiar started flowing from the TV.
Huh? Soul-swapping magic?
Old memories suddenly rose to the surface.
Back when I was still active as a Hero — before Nakyeong even existed — we had received word that people kept vanishing from a certain village and gone to investigate. After a long inquiry turned up nothing, we were ready to write it off as a string of coincidences… until the village chief's son and daughter, who had been looking after us during our stay, went missing themselves.
Fortunately we found the children's trail and set off in pursuit at once, and at last we uncovered the truth behind the disappearances.
It turned out to be the work of a cult that sought eternal life through an ancient Forbidden Spell that swapped souls.
Vicious bastards, those ones.
I still remembered clicking my tongue at how they treasured the grimoire containing the Forbidden Spell more than their own lives. The details were a little different, but seeing a similar premise on TV left me with an odd feeling.
Good thing this world doesn't have anyone researching that kind of thing.
With that freshly renewed sense of relief, I casually checked the phone I'd been neglecting.
"……."
Still no word from Cheon Seo-hui.
Later than I expected.
When we'd met earlier, Cheon Seo-hui had said she'd think about it and then swept off. At first I'd been confident she'd contact me soon. With still no answer, I was starting to get nervous.
I can't exactly ask first, either.
If I lost my patience here and sent a message, it would only announce that I was the desperate one. I had no desire to play a game of chicken with a kid years younger than me, but I had already made such bold claims…
…It'll come today. Surely.
In the end, I flipped my phone face-down with steely resolve and waited for Cheon Seo-hui's contact at my leisure.
And then.
No, why hasn't she messaged yet?
By the time late night rolled around and it was time for bed, my patience hit its limit.
Something didn't happen, did it?
However strong her pride, she couldn't be stupid enough to kick away an opportunity that had rolled right up to her feet. Having already burned a whole day out of the precious little time I had, I was fretting myself sick…
Haa… Should I just nudge her once?
Right then.
Bzzzt—. My phone vibrated, and a small notification lit up the screen.
"!"
There it was…
The name I had been waiting for so long.
…Stay calm. You don't know yet.
It was too early to celebrate. For all I knew, Cheon Seo-hui might have bounced it back again, saying she didn't think it was a good idea after all.
I swallowed hard and carefully opened the messenger.
And the moment I found Cheon Seo-hui's message sitting at the very top of the chat list, a grin tugged at the corner of my mouth before I could stop it.
I'll give it a try.
That was the moment I took the first step in raising Cheon Seo-hui.
Teachers cannot give private tutoring.
Civil servants are barred from holding secondary jobs. Academy instructors are the same. The Academy is a special educational institution governed by its own laws and its staff are not civil servants, but they are treated much like those at ordinary schools.
However.
The story is a little different for temporary teachers. Most fixed-term instructors are people who made their names in their active years and then retired, or who are still making their names right now. Some of them take on personal disciples, and some even run for-profit educational institutions of their own. Because of that, the rules on secondary employment and private lessons were never even put on the table to begin with.
In short: I could teach Cheon Seo-hui with complete favoritism and it wouldn't be a problem at all.
"She should be here by now…"
Another week had begun. All classes were over. Even though quitting time had long since passed, I was still on campus, staring holes through my phone.
I was waiting for word from my one and only prized disciple.
Bzzzt…
She's here!
The second the call came through I snatched up the phone, slowly exhaled, and counted three seconds in my head. I had to act as nonchalant as possible so I wouldn't look strange.
"Hello?"
A lovely voice came from the other end.
"I'm here."
Even slightly crushed by the phone mic, that beautiful voice came through crystal clear.
"Uh, yeah. Right. So…"
A voice that could rival a siren's left me briefly dazed, and only after a beat did I snap back and manage a reply.
"F-first go change, and meet me at the training grounds. Yeah."
Fortunately, Cheon Seo-hui seemed utterly uninterested. She gave a short answer and hung up cold.
…All that effort to look composed had been completely wasted.
"……Haa."
I moved locations, to the training grounds.
Stepping inside, I spotted students still on campus training with real fervor. Most of them were second- and third-years, a little more desperate than the freshly enrolled first-years…
"……."
Among them, a pretty girl crouched on a raised platform in one corner caught my eye.
My prized disciple with the lovely voice: Cheon Seo-hui.
"You made it."
"…Hello."
She dipped her head in a bow. Dressed in the Academy's shared training uniform — a tracksuit-style set — she was so beautiful that even after only two days, the sight of her startled me all over again.
It was endlessly frustrating that we were nothing more than teacher and student.
If I were just three years younger……. No. Still no. Get a grip, Han Dohyeon!
I barely managed to crush the rising dark thoughts, steadied myself, and spoke calmly.
"Starting today, we're going hard. You ready?"
"…Yes."
We had agreed to run private lessons for exactly one week, right up to the end of the deliberation period. Since the only free time I could spare her was after school, I had extracted a promise that she would follow my methods absolutely during our sessions.
I had gotten her to swear absolute obedience to whatever orders I gave…!
Heh heh heh.
Having packed the arrangement full of selfish motives, I hid my scheming heart and asked,
"Have you warmed up a little?"
"No."
Somehow, from the very first moment, things started going differently from what I'd planned.
"What…? Weren't you warming up?"
"You never told me to warm up."
Cheon Seo-hui stared at me blankly, as if daring me to do something about it.
Is being pretty all that matters?
I almost snapped that of course she should have been warming up if we were going to train — but then,
Well, I didn't actually say it… Hmm.
I decided to let it slide, just this once.
"…Fine. Then let's start with stretching."
People generally think swordsmanship only uses the arms, but in truth it engages every muscle in the body. Something like the sport of gymnastics, you could say. For that reason, if you don't loosen up first, you're liable to pull something or put too much strain on yourself.
"……."
Cheon Seo-hui nodded obediently and immediately began stretching this way and that.
Or at least, that was what she seemed to think she was doing.
This is stretching?
The motions she used to loosen up barely even qualified as stretches. Even those, she was doing so halfheartedly it was obvious at a glance.
At first I meant to just watch quietly, but in the end I couldn't take it and stepped in.
"…Stop."
"?"
"That's stretching? No — if you're stretching, you need to loosen the muscles you don't usually use, too…"
Watching her timid little shoulder rolls and ankle circles, the inner old-man energy I'd kept buried surged right out.
"Good grief. Sit down. I'll help you."
I plopped onto the floor and patted the spot in front of me.
"……."
She stared at me for a moment with a distinctly displeased look, then quietly planted her rear on the ground.
"Alright. Every exercise starts with stretching. Mana doesn't solve everything."
"……."
"Answer me."
"…Yes."
I passed on every stretch routine I had maintained for years to Cheon Seo-hui.
"Ugh…"
Even if the person receiving it was wrinkling her face and broadcasting how much she hated every second of it.
Her form's good, though.
As expected, Cheon Seo-hui had been born with an extremely flexible body. With only a little exaggeration, she could have been a gymnast right then and there.
…Too big can be a problem, too.
It would have been even better if a certain body part of truly enormous size hadn't occasionally gotten in the way of the stretches.
"How long do we have to do this?"
Flat on the floor, hips raised, Cheon Seo-hui shot me a sidelong glare. The feeling that her eyes were cursing me for how long I planned to put her through this was probably just my imagination.
"We're only doing this today, you know?"
"……What?"
The despair that flooded her face in that instant was quite a sight.
"You promised to follow everything I say, didn't you? Don't stop. Keep going."
"…Haa…"
Raising Cheon Seo-hui was only just beginning.