Omen (2)
Cheon Seo-hui frowned as she stared at Han Nakyeong.
Judging by the mention of the Academy and the girl's appearance, she seemed to be a fellow student. Still, having a complete stranger act so familiar was deeply suspicious.
So Seo-hui averted her gaze and answered coldly.
"No."
"Oh. Did I get it wrong?"
Nakyeong tilted her head as if she were about to back off — then pressed on, listing details any Academy student would know.
"Don't you always eat in the corner of the school cafeteria? That two-person table in front of the environmental poster. I think I've seen you there a few times."
"……"
The seat she mentioned was far from the tray return and only had two-person tables — the area everyone called the solo-dining zone. Seo-hui, who had no friends to eat with and had used that zone every single day, could vaguely sense that the girl had asked already knowing the answer.
Not that that gave her any reason to play along.
"…And?"
Seo-hui's prickly tone made it clear she had no interest in continuing the conversation.
"Ah. So I was right after all?"
But Nakyeong only beamed with a lovely smile, looking thoroughly satisfied.
"I was a little unsure, you know. Thought maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me. Hehe."
"……"
Whether the girl was shameless or simply dense, Seo-hui decided she was not her type. She picked up the snack she'd been examining and turned to leave.
Then —
"Ah…. That one's not good."
Seo-hui froze, glanced down at the new-release snack in her hand, then looked at Nakyeong out of the corner of her eye. The girl was shaking her head with a look of pure distaste, freely offering unsolicited advice.
"I tried that one last time. The original is a hundred times better."
"……"
Seo-hui almost snapped back that it was none of her business — then quietly took the snack and walked away instead.
Better to just avoid her.
And later, once she got home and tasted the snack, she regretted it a little.
"…Should've bought the original."
Unproven products really weren't worth trying.
The scorching heat had finally eased, and a cool breeze had begun to drift through. Around that time, a new wind started blowing through the Academy as well.
"Ah…. Already back, huh."
"I know. Time really flies."
It was the day of the full Swordsmanship Department faculty meeting. Teachers of every year gathered in the conference room, chatting with a faintly nostalgic air.
"Midterms right after the holiday…."
They were talking about the second-semester midterms.
"Are the exams that rough?"
I asked the senior teachers casually as I sipped my tea and listened in. Temporary instructors like me weren't involved in the actual exams, so I didn't know much about them.
"Well, it's not exactly hard…."
"Honestly, it's just a hassle."
The content itself was simple. Face a golem modeled after a specific monster and win. A few criteria were scored along the way — things like time to defeat the enemy and total damage dealt. The process was easy enough, but with so many students in the department, it was a lot of work by default.
Midterms, huh….
I thought back to Cheon Seo-hui's grades, which I'd peeked at through the system. She'd already bottomed out in the first semester, so without a seriously high score, a strong overall ranking was nearly impossible. Even if she took first place in every second-semester exam, she could still fall short in the final standings.
Jumping straight into Class 1 is going to be tough.
The silver lining was that the academic excellence scholarship was paid out by semester. For Cheon Seo-hui, who'd been considering dropping out over money, cash mattered more than ranking. To land that scholarship, she needed a strong performance this time around.
In that sense, these midterms were a critical opportunity — for her, and for me.
"…Teacher."
"Oh. You're here."
That same afternoon, I met Cheon Seo-hui at the training grounds for her private lesson and brought up the midterms before we started.
"You know the exam's right after Chuseok, right?"
"Yes."
She'd already gotten the midterm notice during homeroom, which made the conversation easier.
"Our goal is to land the scholarship first."
"…It was."
"To be safe, you'd need top ten on both midterms and finals, right?"
Seo-hui nodded along without protest. I decided to give her a smaller target.
"But honestly, I don't think your skills are at top-ten level yet. Not sure how you feel about that."
"…So?"
Her pride pricked, Seo-hui shot me a look that said to get to the point. I felt the steel in those clear eyes and offered a condition.
"How about we make a bet?"
"……?"
"Whether you can crack the top ten this time."
"!"
The terms were simple. If she made top ten, she won. If she didn't, I won.
"If I win, you grant me a wish. If you win… I'll grant yours."
Loser grants the winner's wish — easy enough.
"…What kind of wish?"
"That's for the winner to decide. It's a wish. Anything goes except the impossible."
I thought it was a pretty brilliant idea, if I did say so myself. If she made top ten and won, I'd happily grant her wish. And if she somehow failed to rank, I'd get a wish of my own to put to good use — say, asking her on a date under the pretext of cheering her up. No matter the outcome, I couldn't lose.
This is what experience looks like.
Heh. Hiding my scheming heart, I casually asked if she was interested.
"Well? Doesn't it sound doable?"
She closed her mouth, looking lost in thought.
"…A wish…."
Then —
"…I'll do it."
She bit down hard on the bait I'd dangled.
"I just need to place in the overall top ten on this exam, right?"
She even seemed more motivated than usual.
What? She's way more into this than I expected.
She must have thought of a wish she wanted. Nothing came to mind for me, so I nodded without much concern.
Eh…. How bad could it be?
I'd never planned to refuse whatever she wished for anyway.
"…I'm home."
After finishing the late lesson and being seen off by Dohyeon, Seo-hui returned home. She stepped into a house far cleaner than before, hung her bag in the equally tidy bedroom, and began peeling off her uniform.
In the past she would have stripped carelessly and tossed everything in a corner. But ever since Dohyeon had visited not long ago, she'd kept the place spotless — because there was no telling when he might drop by again.
Today's trash day, right.
As she tackled the backlog of chores the moment she got home, Seo-hui found herself replaying the conversation with Dohyeon — the sudden proposal of a bet based on her exam scores.
If I win, you grant me a wish. If you win… I'll grant yours.
A wish.
What was a wish, really? Something you desperately hoped would come true — wasn't that the definition? Dohyeon had clearly meant it the same way.
That's for the winner to decide. It's a wish. Anything goes except the impossible.
Everything except the impossible. The moment she heard those words, something clicked.
If she used a wish… couldn't she glimpse Dohyeon's true feelings?
At some point, Seo-hui had begun to suspect that Dohyeon might like her — not as a teacher, but as a man.
Growing up with an unusual appearance, she'd dealt with every kind of person imaginable, and she'd long since stopped taking other people's kindness at face value. Anyone approaching a girl with a terrible personality and nothing to her name was either weird or only interested in her looks.
At first she'd assumed Dohyeon was the same type — until he passionately insisted she had talent and begged her not to drop out. With nothing left to lose, she'd decided to trust him. And somewhere along the way, she'd caught herself waiting for his kindness alone.
Like a fish trapped in a well, waiting for its owner to scatter feed.
She still couldn't name what that feeling meant. But she was certain of one thing: it wasn't unpleasant.
And so she'd started thinking about the man who'd made her this way.
Why is he so good to me?
Saying it was just because he hated to waste talent felt strangely tender. Saying it was only because he was her teacher didn't account for the quiet emotion threaded through every word and gesture. Even Seo-hui, a complete novice at romance, couldn't help arriving at the conclusion that Dohyeon liked her.
No way…. Does he actually…?
That was where the problem started. She no longer knew what to do. This was the first time learning someone's feelings hadn't made her uncomfortable — and she still wasn't even sure those feelings were real. Dohyeon had never outright said he loved her.
Am I just imagining things?
Just as those unfamiliar emotions left her full of questions, the opportunity arrived — one Dohyeon himself had handed her.
She had to seize it.
"What's on the menu today?"
"Boiled pork and yukhoe bibimbap."
"Whoa. The nutritionist is on a back-to-back home-run streak."
The next day, at the usual lunch hour, Seo-hui came alone to the school cafeteria, tray in hand, and headed for her usual seat — the corner farthest from the tray return, the solo-dining zone in front of the environmental poster.
…Should I just start packing a lunch?
Sampling the side dishes, she compared them to Dohyeon's cooking — which never got old no matter how often she ate it — and seriously considered bringing a bento every day.
But if I finish all the side dishes, Teacher will come over to the house again and…
Just then —
Someone approached and spoke lightly.
"Mind if I sit across from you?"
Pulled from her thoughts, Seo-hui glanced up to check the speaker's face.
"?"
The moment she saw who it was, her eyes went wide.
This girl….
On the name tag of the girl who looked like a lovely little rabbit was written the name Han Nakyeong.
At the same time —
"Hold on, what is this? You said lunch box, so I figured it was some convenience-store thing…. This is the real deal."
"Have you ever seen me half-ass anything?"
Come lunch, Dohyeon was sharing Yeonjeong's homemade lunch in his office — a five-tier bento she'd prepared herself under the pretext of video content.
"There's soup too, so take your time."
"What kind of soup?"
"Dried-shrimp doenjang-guk, loaded with domestic dried shrimp."
"Holy crap…. Are you finally getting ready to get married?"
"Stop talking nonsense and pick up your chopsticks."
"Yes, ma'am."
Aware of the camera, Dohyeon put on a slightly stronger reaction than usual and heaped praise on Yeonjeong's cooking.
"Ha. If I got to eat like this every day, I'd have no other wishes."
"If you lived at my place, I could make it for you every day."
Yeonjeong glanced over, gauging his reaction.
"Boarding at that expensive house of yours…. Not on any ordinary paycheck. Pass."
"You're giving up without even hearing the rent?"
"I don't need to hear it. It's obvious. Mmm…. The seasoning is seriously perfect."
But Dohyeon didn't seem to be thinking anything of it. He was just trying to make Yeonjeong's video look good.
"Ugh. I'm stuffed."
"You can leave some if you want."
"It's too good to leave."
Once the meal and the filming wrapped up —
"Did you get everything?"
"Yeah. That should be plenty. Thanks for the hard work."
"Whew. Filming's not easy…."
"You did great, though."
Smiling at Yeonjeong's praise, Dohyeon scratched his head and finally brought up the Japan expedition he'd been putting off.
"By the way, I'm picking up my passport tomorrow."
"Really? Then I should book the lodging and flights today."
He hadn't even imagined that Yeonjeong had only been waiting on his passport.
"For next week?"
"We're going as soon as next week?"
"After next week is Chuseok. Way too many people then."
"Ah…. Yeah, that would be rough."
"Want to look now while we're thinking about it?"
"Oh. Sure."
Sitting side by side with their heads together, the two of them scrolled through their phones, hunting for lodging and flights that fit the plan.
"Where would be good…. Ah. I heard this place is nice."
"Am I seeing this right? Eight hundred a night for a hotel room…?"
"Lodging in Japan is just expensive."
Watching Yeonjeong pick out glittering accommodations, Dohyeon suddenly felt a twinge of worry. She was covering every cost of this expedition.
"But two rooms is pretty steep, isn't it? We're only sleeping there — maybe something a little cheaper…."
"Why would we book two?"
"Obviously…. Huh?"
From the way she looked at him like he was being strange, he realized she'd planned on a single room from the start.
"Don't tell me you want to share…?"
"You've been sleeping over at my place all the time. Why act surprised now…."
She said it casually, still fiddling with her phone.
"Come on, that's a little different from this."
"It's the same. And this room is big enough, so it's fine."
"If it weren't big enough, it'd be illegal…."
Watching her carefully select the lodging, Dohyeon couldn't bring himself to push any further and quietly shut his mouth. After already scoring first-class seats on her dime, nitpicking the hotel felt too shameless.
Yeah. What could go wrong…?
If something were going to happen, it would have happened a long time ago. With that thought, Dohyeon trusted Yeonjeong completely and left every detail of the plan in her hands.