Hong Yeon-hwa Is Wronged
Hong Yeon-hwa and Kim Ho bought a coffee each at the campus store and sat down side by side on a nearby bench.
Perhaps because they'd shared coffee and conversation on this very spot before, the air between them felt a little less stiff this time around.
Hong Yeon-hwa fidgeted with her paper cup for a moment before finding her voice.
"Th-thank you. For setting up that one-on-one..."
Judging from the exchange between Wang Chunsam and Kim Ho, the man hid behind an alias — and, it seemed, behind a considerable portion of his true ability as well. Had Kim Ho not asked, he would have kept that strength concealed for the whole match. In that case, while felling him and claiming the points might have been easy enough, she herself would have remained a frog in a well. As it was, she'd been put through the wringer, but she'd gained no small amount for it.
Kim Ho gave a small nod. "It was nothing. So how was it, going up against a Slayer?"
"...It was hard," Hong Yeon-hwa answered honestly.
For someone whose entire approach to combat was attack, attack, and attack again until the matter was settled, this was just about the first time she'd spent a whole match pinned on the back foot. True, the trap she'd laid in the latter half had flipped the board in a single stroke — but honestly, even that had only worked because luck had broken her way in more ways than one. If the arena hadn't been the Volcanic Zone, an environment tailor-made to favor her, and if those fireballs hadn't come crashing down at exactly the right moments, she might well have been ground down bit by bit until the match slipped away from her entirely.
Puzzled that a fighter of that caliber had escaped her notice until now, Hong Yeon-hwa asked, "So, um, Wang Minsu? Wang Chunsam? How strong is he, really?"
"A bit below the rising-star tier. Half a move to a full move, give or take."
"...There's a separate rising-star tier?"
"There is."
To Hong Yeon-hwa, this was shocking intel. If she'd struggled this hard even against a Slayer half a move below the rising-star tier, then against a genuine rising-star Slayer it wouldn't be a matter of being driven onto the back foot — the match might be decided the instant it began. If she wanted to avoid a defeat that absurd, she needed to start drawing up countermeasures and building her strength now.
And so Hong Yeon-hwa turned to Kim Ho for advice. "How do you... deal with a Slayer?"
"Watch closely and dodge."
"...That's a bit..."
Kim Ho said it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. To him, dodging a hail of attacks was probably about as easy as breathing. Even so, advice had to be pitched to her eye level, or she'd never attempt it at all.
Kim Ho seemed to arrive at that same conclusion himself, taking a sip of coffee before he spoke. "From what I saw, you don't use defensive magic at all."
"Ah, that's..."
Until now she hadn't merely neglected defensive magic — she hadn't spared it a single thought. In the time it took to raise a barrier, she'd figured, she was better off hurling one more fireball. But circumstances had changed. She'd faced all manner of opponents in PvP assessments and dungeon raids, and in a few of those fights she'd learned that raw offense wasn't always the answer. The time had come to shore up what she'd neglected.
"If there's a skill you'd recommend..."
"Armor or barrier types — learn whichever suits your taste."
"Which one's better...?"
"If I were you, I'd learn both."
Come to think of it, there didn't seem to be any rule saying she had to pick just one. She'd heard of plenty of mages layering barriers over armor, after all.
"Thank you. I'll look into it."
"One more thing. Go for the ones with long cast times."
"...Oh!"
At Kim Ho's parting advice, Hong Yeon-hwa's eyebrows shot up. Powerful spells whose sole drawback was a long casting time. In combat, where every second was precious, a long cast was a fatal flaw — but for Hong Yeon-hwa, whose casting speed was leagues beyond anyone else's, it was hardly a problem at all. Which meant she could wield devastating magic at only a fraction of the usual cost. Defensive magic with long cast times.
First thing I do when I get back is comb through the spellbooks.
And with that, her path for the foreseeable future was settled. But there was one more thing Hong Yeon-hwa wanted to ask — and in some ways, this question mattered even more than the last. A question about the relationship between Kim Ho and Seo Ye-in. Yet she hesitated before bringing it up.
Is this... really something I'm allowed to ask?
He was the person concerned, and even if he hadn't been, it felt like the sort of question you didn't blurt to someone's face. But she couldn't sit on this ache forever. The curiosity that had taken root back at the midterms still occupied a corner of her mind, gnawing away, and Hong Yeon-hwa wanted it gone by any means necessary. The fact that mentioning the topic to her sister had earned her a full barrage of Flame Back Smacks played no small part in that, either.
That was a genuine misunderstanding!
It wasn't even about me!
It was about a friend of mine!
It was about Kim Ho and Seo Ye-in!
For the sake of her wrongfully sacrificed backside, if nothing else, she was going to settle this once and for all. So Hong Yeon-hwa hardened her resolve, spent a moment choosing her words, and opened her mouth.
"S-so... you know Seo Ye-in, right?"
"Yeah."
"What do you... think of her?"
"She's special."
So he does think of Seo Ye-in as special. Another puzzle piece received and slotted into place, Hong Yeon-hwa pressed on carefully.
"Then, are you two... maybe... dating?"
"We're not."
"Is... that so?"
"Why do you ask?"
At Kim Ho's counter-question, Hong Yeon-hwa flinched inwardly. Interrogating a man about his love life did come across as rather rude, didn't it. She resolved to ask just a little more, and to apologize in a hurry if he looked displeased.
"W-well, during the midterms... at night... you slept next to Seo Ye-in, right? Sleeping bags zipped together and all..."
"I did."
"Seeing that, you two seemed pretty close, so..."
"Close, if you want to call it that. But that time, she just said she slept better next to someone, so we stuck together."
Kim Ho answered as if it were nothing at all. The primary reason, in other words, had been Seo Ye-in's deep sleep and condition management. If the two of them thought of each other as special, it made sense there'd be little awkwardness about it. That resolved most of her questions — but one decisive piece remained.
"When you sleep next to someone... does it really help you sleep?"
"So I'm told. According to her, anyway."
"...?"
Hong Yeon-hwa's mind tangled itself up all over again. What on earth about it made sleep come easier? Was that girl's body made of pillows? How could she not feel a thing with someone lying right beside her? Thoughts chased their own tails through Hong Yeon-hwa's head — and then, entirely by accident, one of them slipped out of her mouth.
"Then... could I try it too, just once?"
"What?"
"Huh?"
"?"
"?"
Blinking, Hong Yeon-hwa replayed her own words in her head. Then she choked on a sharp, empty breath. In an instant, her face flushed the same red as her hair.
Aaargh! Have I lost my mind?!
Asking if I could try sleeping next to him, just once! That kind of nonsense came out of my own mouth? Hong Yeon-hwa wanted to smack her own lips silly. But explaining herself came first, so she hurried to add,
"N-no, it's not like that! It's just — seeing how Seo Ye-in falls asleep the second she leans on you, I wanted to check whether it's really that comfortable, that's... all."
Kim Ho stared at her in silence. The look of a man who had discovered a most curious animal. Hong Yeon-hwa wanted to dive headfirst into a river of lava.
Ugh, why did I say that.
How was she supposed to look this guy in the face from now on? Wasn't she about to get a reputation as the school weirdo? "I hear Hong Yeon-hwa asked to sleep next to him," and so on? How was she supposed to show up at school after this? While Hong Yeon-hwa kicked at imaginary blankets in mortification, Kim Ho seemed to have finished sorting out his thoughts, because he asked in a perfectly calm tone,
"How do you plan to check?"
"...Huh?"
"Whether it's really that comfortable. How are you going to verify it?"
He's going along with this??
This was a development she had never once anticipated. But the conversation had already flowed past the point of no return. Hong Yeon-hwa said, her eyes darting every which way,
"Maybe... I could just... lean on your shoulder... for a bit...?"
Kim Ho appeared to think it over for a few more seconds, then gave a small nod.
"Go ahead. Lean."
"Wh-what?"
"I said lean."
"...Really?"
"I'm curious too, you know."
Seo Ye-in sleeping pressed against Kim Ho had been a first — that one time at the midterms. And apparently, Kim Ho discovering that he possessed such an effect(?) had been a first as well. With no telling whether it worked only on Seo Ye-in or on anyone at all, the proposal was to run a little experiment while the opportunity presented itself.
"O-okay, then..."
Hong Yeon-hwa briefly wondered whether this was the right thing to do, but having come this far, there was no way she could back out now. Besides, she was a single step away from putting her curiosity to rest. All she had to do was bury her embarrassment for a moment and lean in, just a little.
Still seated on the bench, Hong Yeon-hwa sidled toward Kim Ho, inch by sneaky inch. And once they were nearly pressed together, she carefully tilted her head to the side. Her head came to rest against a firm shoulder.
Huh, this is...?
Not bad, actually? Hard to put into words, but surprisingly comfortable — all the more so considering the somewhat awkward posture she was holding. J-just a little more...
Hong Yeon-hwa revised her original plan of merely resting her head against him. She pressed in closer, settled into a far more comfortable position, and leaned her head properly against him. And when she closed her eyes —
It really does feel nice, doesn't it?
So this was why Seo Ye-in fell asleep in five seconds flat? If she stayed like this just a little longer, she had a feeling she'd drift off herself. Unfortunately, the moment did not last. Because Kim Ho abruptly rose from the bench. Hong Yeon-hwa nearly toppled over sideways.
As she scrambled to steady herself, the voices of Kim Ho and someone else reached her ear.
"Good afternoon."
"Hey there."
Judging by the exchange, greetings were being traded — and that someone else's voice was awfully familiar. Hong Yeon-hwa's eyes snapped open, and her face immediately drained a deathly white. Standing there was the one person who should never, ever have been there. Hong Yeon-hwa's older sister, Hong Ye-hwa. She seemed to have spotted Kim Ho and Hong Yeon-hwa on her way out of the campus store after a quick errand — the two of them, cozily pressed together, one leaning on the other.
"..."
A soft smile hung on Hong Ye-hwa's lips, but her eyes were frigid to the bone. With her gaze locked on Hong Yeon-hwa, she slowly beckoned her over. Dripping cold sweat, Hong Yeon-hwa shuffled toward her sister. Hong Ye-hwa then rested a hand on her shoulder like the very picture of sisterly affection and spoke to Kim Ho in a honeyed tone.
"Sorry, I need a word with this one. I'll be taking her."
"Yes, of course."
Kim Ho bowed his head, Hong Ye-hwa gave him a light wave, and the sisters set off. Dragged along, Hong Yeon-hwa kept shooting glances backward, silently begging for help. But Kim Ho simply stood where he was, watching the two of them recede into the distance. Truth be told, this wasn't a matter for Kim Ho to stick his nose into anyway.
Before long, a frosty voice reached Hong Yeon-hwa's ear.
"...A friend of yours?"
"N-no! Sis, it's not what you—"
"Mm, save it. Come along."
Her explanation could wait until they were back in the clubroom, at leisure. Dark clouds gathered thick over Hong Yeon-hwa's future.
[198] The Support Ate It All