It's Not That I Like Him
Hong Yeon-hwa was walking.
It was dark in every direction, so there was no way to tell where she was, and yet somehow she felt she had no choice but to keep going.
Hong Yeon-hwa...
Then a voice reached her. It echoed from all sides as if reverberating through a cavern, making it impossible to tell whose it was. And yet, somehow, it sounded familiar.
Hong Yeon-hwa...
The voice seemed to grow louder and clearer the further she walked forward. Probably because the distance was closing. Guessing as much, Hong Yeon-hwa stretched out her hands and groped ahead, steadily pressing on.
Hong Yeon-hwa...
Just as she suspected, after a little more walking she thought she could make out who the voice belonged to. At the same time, a strange unease crept over her, but the urge to find out was stronger. So she didn't stop.
...
How much further had she gone? The voice, which had been calling out at regular intervals, abruptly cut off. Hong Yeon-hwa stopped dead in her tracks as well. Then, cautiously, she asked,
"Is... is someone there?"
Huuuuuhh...
In answer, what emerged from the darkness was the face of Kim Ho — the very person who had been calling her name all this while. There was just one problem: it was colossal, like a giant's.
"U-uhh..."
Hong Yeon-hwa froze, her mouth hanging slightly open. The enormous face of giant Kim Ho looked down at her, meeting her gaze.
"HoooOngYeooonHoooAaa..."
A gigantic hand reached out toward her. Hong Yeon-hwa trembled, the blood drained from her face.
"Aaahh..."
"YeooonHoooAaa's sooooong..."
The moment the shadow of that massive hand engulfed her—
Hong Yeon-hwa curled up and squeezed her eyes shut.
"Hah!"
And snapped her eyes open. The pitch-black darkness was gone, and bright sunlight streamed in through the window. Where she lay was her dormitory — the bed in her own room.
Hong Yeon-hwa let out a sigh of relief.
...It was a dream.
Right. There was no way a giant Kim Ho was real. Better to sleep a little more.
Hong Yeon-hwa pulled the blanket up and closed her eyes again. But before long—
"Hah!"
She bolted upright once more. Because a single thought flashed through her mind.
Wait, why am I here?
She'd just been holding a defensive battle with Kim Ho in a dungeon, hadn't she? They'd even slain a strange black monster together. Was this a dream too?
Hong Yeon-hwa stared hard at the ceiling, trying to piece together her situation. Gradually, faint and fragmented, a few scenes began to surface.
The Fire Pillar Kim Ho had amplified to A-rank. She had poured everything she had into completing it, and succeeded in destroying the massive ice witch golem. The next instant, her mana had run dry and her strength drained away — and her memory cut out for a moment.
It's over. Let's head out.
...
The memory of resting her chin on the hand Kim Ho offered her, and staying like that for quite a while.
Unnie's a liar...
Why?
Well, you see... the effect...
The memory of rubbing her cheek against Kim Ho's back, muttering how nice it was as he carried her.
Hong Yeon-hwa, we're here.
...
Finally, the memory of Kim Ho setting her down in front of the girls' dormitory. So he had carried her all the way from the Dungeon Hall. And she hadn't even said goodbye — she'd just wobbled back to her room and flopped straight into bed.
When she'd recalled that much, Hong Yeon-hwa let out a quiet groan.
"Ah..."
I've actually lost my mind, haven't I.
Hong Yeon-hwa berated her unconscious self. At the same time, she made a fresh resolution.
I have to ration my mana...
She racked her brain trying to remember what other nonsense she might have spouted, but that was all that came back. And yet, it was already far too late to feel relieved about what she'd done. Hong Yeon-hwa soon chose to flee from reality, burrowing deeper under the covers.
Just sleep more...
Thanks to the good rest, her head was more or less clear, but there was no way she felt like getting up. Then, before long—
"Hah!"
Hong Yeon-hwa's eyes snapped open yet again. Looking out the window, she saw the sun already high in the sky. She hastily checked the clock: eleven-thirty.
...Class!
She'd slept straight through the entire morning. Hong Yeon-hwa scrambled to get ready and rushed out.
After her afternoon classes, Hong Yeon-hwa made her way to the Ruby Magic Tower club room. It was practically her second dormitory, and yet her manner was as cautious as if she were visiting the home of a friend she wasn't particularly close to.
She opened the door only a third of the way and poked her head in. And the very next instant she hurriedly retreated and shut it.
Whoosh!
A fireball the size of her fist had come flying at her. Through the closed door came her sister's voice.
"Hong Yeon-hwa. Come in."
"..."
Hong Yeon-hwa had no choice but to obediently step inside. As her eyes darted this way and that, the question she'd been expecting came flying at her.
"Why did you skip class?"
"N-no, it's not like I skipped because I wanted to..."
Having missed her morning classes, Hong Yeon-hwa was guilty as charged. But she was also a guilty party with a defense to offer. And with good reason — hadn't she entered a D-rank dungeon just last night and not come out until well after? Not for a simple clear, but for training purposes. And on top of that, an unexpected powerful enemy had appeared at the end.
Since a replay recording was impossible, Hong Yeon-hwa explained everything that had happened in painstaking detail. Of course, she kept quiet about the Amplification skill Kim Ho had used, and the overwhelming skill he had shown at the end. Somehow, it just felt like she should.
"..."
Hong Ye-hwa's face, which had been mildly irritated, grew gradually graver as she listened. She soon purchased a replay from the student shop and played it for her — footage shot yesterday by another party clearing an underground-floor dungeon.
"The thing that appeared at the end — did it look something like this?"
Inside the crystal orb, the second-year party was locked in a desperate struggle with a single monster. Its shape was rather peculiar, though: it walked on two legs, had the head of a deer, and instead of arms, serpents writhed. As if several monsters had been mashed together. Its whole body was jet black, with a faint sheen to it.
The appearance differed, but the characteristics were strikingly similar, so Hong Yeon-hwa nodded slowly.
"...Yeah, it was a lot like that."
"You've been through a lot."
Even Hong Ye-hwa, a club executive, had only heard the news a short while ago. Over the past week, several parties had encountered unregistered monsters inside dungeons and had considerable trouble bringing them down. She'd never imagined that Hong Yeon-hwa and Kim Ho would be among those parties. Thank goodness nothing serious had happened.
At the same time, Hong Ye-hwa revised her assessment of Kim Ho upward a notch.
His skill really is solid.
She'd heard that in every place the black monster appeared, the difficulty effectively jumped half a rank, and the witnesses had all struggled without exception. Yet Hong Yeon-hwa and Kim Ho had run into the thing in a D-rank dungeon and seemed to have gotten through without much difficulty. They'd handled a sudden crisis with flexibility — which meant they possessed the skill to make that possible.
I can keep entrusting her to him.
D-rank at least, she could hand over with confidence. She'd watch a while longer, and then perhaps more.
Hong Ye-hwa asked again.
"So, the settlement?"
"Two random boxes and a scroll—"
Hong Yeon-hwa took out the dungeon clear rewards. Somewhere along the way they'd ended up in her inventory — Kim Ho had apparently split them evenly on his own, and she had absentmindedly stowed her share away.
"I used one mana potion and two Rank Boosts—"
"Hold on. Two?"
Hong Ye-hwa cut in. A single boost would have been plenty for the entire run — why two?
Hong Yeon-hwa answered, looking anywhere but at her sister.
"One of them... I gave... to Kim Ho?"
"Why would you give him that?"
"W-well, am I the only one supposed to be rank-grinding? Is he just supposed to stand there and watch? That'd be kind of unfair, wouldn't it?"
"Still, there are limits. Of all things, you hand over your whole Rank Boost?"
It was true that the Ruby Magic Tower supported Hong Yeon-hwa to the fullest, but not to the point of burning through Rank Boosts like water. Certainly not to the point of doling them out as favors to other people. Hong Ye-hwa had every right to react strongly.
"You could have at least negotiated — traded it for Ruby points or something!"
"How could I do that!?"
Negotiate with Kim Ho? For Hong Yeon-hwa, it was unimaginable. That said, it wasn't as though she had nothing to say for herself.
"Well, he went in there because of me, so I should show some sincerity, shouldn't I?"
"And your sincerity had to be a Rank Boost? Besides, wasn't that yours to use?"
She meant: why was she spending, out of her own pocket, something the tower had provided as support? It was a fair point, and for a moment Hong Yeon-hwa was at a loss for words — but at the same time, her temper was starting to rise. So she shook a random box and thrust it out.
"Then I'll pay it back! I'll crack open my piggy bank! Or I'll pull one right here!"
"You think you'll get one from that?"
Hong Ye-hwa snorted. A Rank Boost was hardly an easy item to come by — she could understand aiming for one from a B or C, but from a D? Not a chance. She'd be lucky not to pull a cushion or a teacup.
But Hong Yeon-hwa had already caught fire, and there was no stopping her.
You have used a Random Box Enhancement Scroll.
Flash!
Light burst from the scroll and seeped into one of the random boxes.
Rank: D → D+
The rank had gone from D to D+. Hong Ye-hwa felt the scroll was a waste, and that her sister was doing something reckless — but she decided to watch in silence. It was Yeon-hwa's own item, to spend as she pleased, and if she failed here, it might cool her head a little.
But the moment Hong Yeon-hwa flung the random box wide open—
FLASH—!!
A brilliance far too dazzling for a mere D+ flooded the club room. When the light died down a moment later, instead of a random box, Hong Yeon-hwa was holding two tightly rolled magic scrolls.
◈ EXP buff — drastically accelerates skill and trait proficiency growth
"..."
"..."
"...It actually came out."
"...Yeah."
The Hong sisters stood there, dumbfounded. Hong Ye-hwa had prepared a whole plan for how she would counsel and persuade her sister afterward, but faced with a situation far beyond anything she'd predicted, all she could do was go blank. Hong Yeon-hwa was just as stunned — she'd opened the box on impulse, but honestly she hadn't been expecting much at all.
Still, things were flowing in her favor, and the corners of her mouth began to twitch upward little by little.
"S-see? I-I pulled it, didn't I?"
"So... you're going to give him one of those too?"
"Why? Can't I?"
Hong Yeon-hwa asked back, utterly unashamed. Hong Ye-hwa, on the other hand, had been struck speechless by the unexpected jackpot. If her sister wanted to show sincerity with her own items, what could she possibly say?
Still, something about it nagged at her, so she asked.
"Why are you going this far? Do you like him?"
"No— why would you jump straight to that?"
"Because you've been weird lately. Just tell me. I won't get mad. What do you think of him?"
"I don't like him."
The answer came out immediately, surprisingly without any hesitation. Even so, Hong Ye-hwa didn't drop her suspicious gaze and pressed once more.
"Really?"
"Really! Quit meddling already!"
When Hong Yeon-hwa flared up, Hong Ye-hwa apologized.
"...Fine, sorry."
She did have a tendency to meddle a little too deeply in her sister's private life, sister or not.
Meanwhile, Hong Yeon-hwa turned the question over in her mind.
What do I think of Kim Ho?
Honestly, she wasn't sure. Until recently, just making eye contact with him had made her shrink into herself, but lately her preconceptions had been breaking down one by one, and she kept discovering positive sides to him. He was dependable. She thought he was remarkable. When they drank coffee together, she felt... at ease.
But that's not... liking him, right?
Probably not.