See You When We're Alone

January 1st.

Seo-yoon had a sheet of paper in her hand — she must have been coming back from checking the roster posted on the wall.

Up close, it was unmistakably the face from my memory, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠only far more beautiful than before, standing right in front of me. Past and present kept overlapping and slipping out of alignment, and when we finally came face to face, I had no idea what to say first.

"You… Seo-yoon? Is that really you?"

"Yes. You remember me."

She answered briefly, then took a step closer and looked up at me.

"I recognized you right away, Teacher."

"…You did?"

"It's been over four years and you haven't changed at all. I guess people really don't age here."

"…I'm the only one who hasn't. You've changed a lot."

"Right?"

No shyness, no false modesty — just bold. She wasn't the quiet kid I remembered. She knew she'd gotten pretty and made no effort to hide it, yet she wasn't showing off either. It felt strangely honest.

"But Teacher."

Seo-yoon fidgeted with the roster in her hands.

"Why did you pretend not to know me earlier in the square?"

"…I wasn't pretending. I wasn't even sure it was you, and there were so many people — it was chaos."

"You were pretending. Our eyes met and you just walked past. I mouthed 'Teacher?' and you looked like you understood every word."

She pouted slightly. She didn't hide that she was hurt, but she wasn't accusing me either.

I glanced around before answering.

"…I did it for your sake."

"Mine?"

"I'm a team leader too. I train the rookies, evaluate them."

I nodded toward the roster.

"If word gets out that one of the new recruits already knows me from before, you know how people are. They'll say I'm going easy on her, that she got placed in a good group because of connections — whether it's true or not."

Seo-yoon blinked.

"That wouldn't do you any favors either. You'd start day one already hated by the other rookies. If I act like I know you, you're the one who suffers."

I added, a little awkwardly,

"Honestly, it's probably better if we keep acting like strangers. At least until the probation period is over."

Of course, that wasn't the whole truth. But I couldn't bring myself to say the pathetic part out loud — that the guild master was my girlfriend, and that having a girl as pretty as Seo-yoon known as my former tutoring student would make things… complicated.

I wondered if the excuse had landed.

"……"

Seo-yoon stared at me for a moment, then smiled faintly. The hurt from earlier had softened a little.

"You thought that far ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ahead?"

"I don't want you getting into trouble."

"Hmm."

She stopped fidgeting with the paper.

"Alright. Then I'll only call you Teacher when it's just the two of us. Everywhere else… I'll pretend I don't know you."

There was a slight note of regret at the end. Even as she said it, her face made it clear she didn't like the arrangement.

"But I really never expected to run into you here, Teacher."

Seo-yoon toyed with the roster again.

"When I saw you in the square, for a second I thought I was seeing things. A missing person, standing there like nothing happened."

"…Missing?"

"You just vanished four years ago. No contact at all."

I was at a loss for words.

Back there, I was just a missing person.

That single word dragged up faces I'd been trying so hard to forget. How were my parents doing? I'd disappeared without a trace — they must have filed a missing persons report. Were they still waiting?

And my little sister. She'd been in high school when I was taken. She'd be twenty by now. Had that idiot made it to college?

For a moment I considered asking how much things had changed back home. But my mouth wouldn't open. What was the point of knowing? Even if I knew, there was nothing I could do. If things were good, I'd just miss them more. If they weren't, I'd only sit here grinding my teeth.

There had been no way back for four years. As long as that didn't change, news from the outside wasn't comfort — it was torture. So every time the thoughts came, I buried them the same way. Not thinking about it was how you survived.

"…Sorry. That's just how it went."

"I know. And now… I'm here the same way."

She said it calmly. No fuss.

"…Did you check your group assignment?"

I changed the subject.

"Yes."

Seo-yoon unfolded the paper and showed me.

"Team Leader Choi Jae-hyuk's group. That's the guy who hit on me in the square, right?"

"…Yeah."

"Of all people, it had to be him."

She let out a sigh that was almost resignation.

"Well, I'll manage somehow. I'm good at handling guys like that. There were plenty of seniors like him back in school."

Fair enough. ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠With looks like hers, men wouldn't leave her alone wherever she went — she must have figured out her own methods by now.

"…Jae-hyuk isn't dangerous, at least. His mouth just runs a little wild."

"Is he your friend, Teacher?"

"…Yeah. Four years now."

"Then I'll trust him."

Seo-yoon looked at me as she said it.

"If you say so, Teacher."

For a moment, something clung to the way she said it. Those same eyes that used to look up at me while working through a math problem. The eyes that believed if the teacher said it, it must be true. They were still there, four years later, unchanged.

I looked away for no good reason.

"…Don't trust him too much. Just focus on adjusting. If you don't know something, ask your team leader."

"I can't ask you?"

"…I'm in charge of a different group."

"Tch. If we're keeping it a secret anyway, you should've just put me in your group."

She tossed it out like a joke, but I couldn't answer for a second. It wasn't as if the thought hadn't crossed my mind. Knowing her from before, it would have been easier to teach her and look out for her if she were in my group. But Ye-rin had done the assignments, and Seo-yoon had already ended up in Jae-hyuk's. I couldn't exactly jump in on the spot and ask to have Lee Seo-yoon moved to mine. That would have required explaining why I cared so much about her in the first place. Or rather — saying in front of Ye-rin that I wanted a female group member at all was already hard enough.

"…That's not up to me. Group assignments are the guild master's call."

"The guild master?"

"Yeah. She's got a sharp eye for people. Putting you in Jae-hyuk's group — there must have been a reason."

Saying it left a dry taste in my mouth. I didn't actually know what the reason was. Ye-rin had decided, and I'd just accepted it.

"Hmm."

Seo-yoon folded the roster, sounding unconvinced.

"If the guild master has such a sharp eye, why put me in the most exhausting group of all?"

"…Jae-hyuk isn't that exhausting. And there's a guy named William who seems pretty… entertaining."

"I'm kidding."

Seo-yoon let out a short laugh, then added in a slightly wistful voice,

"But seriously. I wish I'd been in your group, Teacher."

I didn't know how to answer that, so I looked away again.

"…Adjusting comes first. Three months will fly by."

"Yes, yes. I understand, Teacher."

Seo-yoon folded the roster and slipped it into her pocket. She started to turn away, then looked back over her shoulder.

"See you again. When it's just the two of us."

She laced the last words with a touch of mischief, then disappeared down the corridor.

I stayed where I was and watched her receding figure for a moment. The little kid from years ago had walked past me in another world, fully grown, after four years. The fact of it felt strangely unreal.

And more than that, what bothered me was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this: throughout that short conversation, I kept not knowing where to put my eyes.

See you again. When it's just the two of us.

She probably didn't mean anything by it.

…So why did those words keep ringing in my ears?

I shook my head once and headed toward my group's quarters.

It was nothing. Just seeing a familiar face after a long time. That was all.

After a long time.

She was pretty, though.

My group's quarters were the end room on the fourth floor. When I opened the door, four guys were sitting around awkwardly, spaced out from each other. Five beds crammed into a narrow room. For the next three months, these five would be living on top of each other like family. Including me.

God. This wasn't the military, and yet the whole barracks vibe — I hated it.

"Hello. I'm Lee Ha-jun. I'll be in charge of your training starting today."

The four of them half-stood and greeted me. I perched on the edge of one of the wooden beds and went around learning each face. All four looked earnest. All four looked awkward. Five guys packed into a tight room made the air feel thick. Nobody wanted to speak first.

"…Relax. We're stuck together for three months anyway. I'll drop the formal speech from here on out."

They all nodded stiffly. Silence settled in.

So this was my group.

"Um… Team Leader? Group Leader? Can I ask something?"

"Sure. Call me whatever's comfortable. Ask away."

"I heard from one of the other rookies. Something about a… Verdict? That there's one coming up soon. What exactly is that?"

At the word, the other three heads turned at once. Everyone had been wondering. For the first time, the awkward air in the room pulled in a single direction.

"Ah. That."

I thought for a second about how to explain it.

"Here, when a dispute comes up that can't be proven with evidence, they settle the truth through a duel. If there's solid proof, you handle it through the law — but this is a world where that's often impossible."

"So they actually fight with swords?"

One of the group members asked, eyes wide.

"Yeah. Swords, magic, doesn't matter. One side names the other, and the named party either fights in person or puts up a champion as a proxy. The winner's claim is recognized as the absolute truth, and every guild has to honor the result."

"…Can people die in those?"

His voice trembled.

"By the rules, there's no surrender, and no one can intervene mid-fight. Whether the loser lives or dies is up to the winner."

I said it evenly. Not to scare them — they needed to know.

"But you guys won't get dragged into one anytime soon. Verdicts are usually guild-master-level business, or for people with a name. Rookies don't get pulled into them."

"Wait a second. Then what if… the side with the stronger champion just keeps filing Verdicts over completely ridiculous claims?"

A sharp question. This kid's name was Jung Tae-young, I think. Catching that on day one meant he had good instincts.

"First off, a Verdict only holds for cases that genuinely can't be settled by evidence. If there's proof, you just go through the law. And to file one, you need approval from a neutral mediating guild with no stake in the matter, plus a mandatory public notice period. If you throw out some baseless claim and evidence that it's false turns up during the notice window? The filer is finished first. Reputation, face — all of it gone. So people don't file them lightly. Verdicts themselves aren't that common to begin with."

"Ah… but why is one happening all of a sudden?"

"This one's a big deal."

I hesitated a moment before answering.

"Something went down between the Japanese guild and the Chinese guild. A disappearance."

"People disappear?"

"…You don't need to know about that yet. You'll pick it up gradually as you settle in."

I cut myself off. There was no need to unpack the Su-yeon situation on day one.

"Anyway, it's in two weeks, so things will be noisy about it for a while. You can go watch if you want, but don't even think about betting. Not that you'd have money for it."

All four nodded seriously. A team that had been nothing but awkward a moment ago felt, for a second, like they were on the same side — just from that one topic. Facing the terrifying rules of a strange world, being rookies together briefly bound them.

Well. I supposed this was how a group found its footing.

The rookies started settling into their beds one by one. I claimed the corner bunk and lay down. Once the lantern lighting the room was out, faint sounds leaked through the wall.

The next room over.

Loud, raucous laughter. Someone said something and a wave of guffaws erupted. A familiar voice was mixed in. I hadn't noticed on the way in.

Don't tell me Jae-hyuk's group was next door.

The wall swallowed most of the sound, so only a few words drifted across in fragments.

"…That's what I'm sayin'… —right…… ah, I tell ya—……"

Jeolla-do dialect. William?

I couldn't make out a single word of what he was actually saying, but that distinctive accent cut through the wall clear as day. Someone fired back, and another round of laughter exploded.

"…Aigoo, for real—"

"…Seriously—?"

"…So then I—"

Just a handful of words made it through. The rest was pure cheerful noise.

Jae-hyuk's group, alright. One wall away, and they were already rowdy on day one. Meanwhile our room had five guys lying stiffly, staring at the ceiling.

Somewhere in that laughter, a woman's laugh mixed in, and I suddenly wondered if it was Seo-yoon's. If I enhanced my hearing, I'd catch everything. Who was saying what. Whose laugh that was.

I started gathering mana at my fingertips—

and stopped.

I didn't want to hear it. Or rather, I felt like I shouldn't. There were three women in that group, so… it was probably just one of the others.

I rolled over, putting my back to the wall, and closed my eyes. So the noise from next door would reach me less.

Even so, for a long while, sleep wouldn't come.