January 1st
The first day had been chaos enough, but the second was somehow worse.
Having over a hundred rookies roll in all at once was already a guild-wide emergency. On top of that, this was the day abilities started awakening one after another.
The training grounds weren't enough, so they spilled into the courtyard. The cafeteria hired extra Settlers and ran three shifts. With more than half the guild's expedition force still out past the Korn Canyon, instructors were so scarce that members who normally wouldn't have been trusted with apprentices were drafted as team leaders.
I was one of them.
"Alright, again. Mana isn't something you force out — you feel the flow."
The four men in my group were uniformly quiet.
Too quiet.
A fitness trainer, a delivery driver, a convenience store clerk, and a college student. All four were diligent. All four were boring.
They followed instructions without complaint, and that was it. No questions, no jokes — five people sitting in a circle and still the silence hung heavy.
Well, at least they were easy to teach. No chance of anyone causing trouble.
"That's it for basic training. Good work, everyone. After a short break, we'll each check your abilities before lunch."
The four bowed and scattered. I stayed in the courtyard, gathering up the wooden practice swords.
Enhancement types didn't have much to demonstrate alone, which made teaching apprentices a little awkward. Explain the flow of mana, correct their breathing, walk them through the theory of how amplification kicks in once an ability manifests. That was about it. No flashy demonstrations. An ability that only shines when you're boosting someone else doesn't leave much to show off in front of rookies.
Not that I preferred showing off anyway.
I finished stacking the wooden swords and stood, and the far side of the courtyard erupted in noise. I turned toward the sound.
Jae-hyuk's group.
Too far to make out clearly, but the atmosphere was the complete opposite of mine. Someone must have said something, because laughter burst out all at once, and a big silhouette that looked like William was waving both arms around, talking a mile a minute. Jae-hyuk was laughing right beside him, then using a wooden sword to correct someone's stance.
…And that someone was Seo-yoon.
I stopped walking without meaning to.
Jae-hyuk was standing right up against her back. His hand covered hers on the sword hilt, adjusting the angle, his chest nearly brushing her. I knew that was inevitable when you corrected sword form. I'd done it countless times myself with apprentices. Just a teaching hand. Nothing more, nothing less.
…So why did my eyes keep snagging on that almost-touching distance?
It wasn't the sly look he'd worn when he'd hit on her in the plaza. He was surprisingly serious — correcting her stance, stepping back to watch, moving in again to adjust. Every inch the proper team leader.
Seo-yoon wasn't the iron wall from before, either. She nodded at his words, fixed her posture, and once even smiled — briefly.
I looked away.
…Or I thought I did. Next thing I knew, I was watching them again.
Well. Looks like things are going fine. Apprentices settling in well is a good thing. Jae-hyuk actually teaching rookies properly is a good thing. Ye-rin's eye for people had been right. Pair the atmosphere-makers together and the group comes alive; Jae-hyuk grows a sense of responsibility. All good things.
Good things.
The whole way to the storage shed with the wooden swords, that scene kept flickering in front of my eyes. Jae-hyuk pressed up behind Seo-yoon. His hand covering hers. Seo-yoon's short smile.
I shut the shed door a little too hard.
Over nothing.
The rookies' abilities started awakening in earnest around lunchtime.
A few had manifested since morning, but they were the rare exceptions. Once the team leaders began helping people find their abilities after basic training and before the midday meal, they started going off all over the place. Sparks jumping from fingertips. Sudden surges of strength. Objects floating into the air. The whole guild was buzzing.
Team leaders scrambled to identify and classify each new ability as it appeared.
My group had awakenings too.
Kang Do-hyun, the former fitness trainer, was Physical Enhancement. At least that one was usable.
Park Jung-woo, the delivery driver, managed a faint ember in his palm — and even he wore a face that said, That's it?
Kim Min-seok, the convenience store clerk… could read an object's condition just by touching it. Peak performance for checking expiration dates. Completely useless in a fight. Settler track looked all but certain.
Jung Tae-young still had nothing. Whether it hadn't awakened yet or we just hadn't found it, there was no way to know.
Pretty much what I'd expected.
The problem, as always, was the group next door.
Jae-hyuk's group's awakenings were loud from the start.
They were practicing channeling mana into their swords under Jae-hyuk's direction when William lost control of his strength and swung too hard. The woman next to him tried to dodge, fell, and scraped her knee. William went pale and rushed over.
"Aigoo, y'alright? I'm real sorry, what do I do now?"
He laid that big hand on her knee. Just concern, probably — nothing more. But mana flowed from his fingertips without him meaning to, and the scraped knee closed up at a visible rate.
A beat of silence.
"…Wha—?"
He was the most shocked of anyone, flipping his palm over and back, staring at it.
"What in the world is this? What'd I just do?"
Healing type. And not just any healing — high enough manifestation that it sealed a wound clean the moment it awakened.
A healer, in that frame. Put him up front and you'd have a wall. His actual ability was for saving people from the back line.
Jae-hyuk's group finally caught on and erupted in cheers. Jae-hyuk was the most fired up of all, whacking William on the back hard enough to make that massive body stagger.
Ri Kwang-chol, the North Korean soldier from another group who'd been summoned from the battlefield, awakened too. His was quiet. He closed his eyes and stood still for a long time, then accurately named who was behind the storage shed on the far side of the courtyard and how many people were coming through the guild's front gate.
Detection. Reconnaissance. A critical ability — the kind that reads threats before they arrive. Abilities like his usually extended their range when enhanced. He himself showed no particular expression, but the guild members who understood what that power was worth looked at him differently.
And then… Seo-yoon.
Seo-yoon's awakening had nothing visible about it. No sparks. Nothing floating into the air.
I happened to catch the moment while cutting across the courtyard. Jae-hyuk was explaining something to his group when Seo-yoon, listening, suddenly spoke up.
"Team Leader Jae-hyuk. That was a lie."
"…What?"
"That raid story just now. You padded it a lot. I can tell when I hear it."
Jae-hyuk blanked for a second, then laughed sheepishly. The group cracked up. She'd hit the mark dead-on.
At first everyone figured she just had sharp instincts. But it wasn't a one-time thing. Whenever someone lied, Seo-yoon could simply feel it. She couldn't explain exactly how she knew. No system window popped up to tell her — she just read it by feel.
Discernment. Insight. An uncommon type that was hard to even name.
When I heard about it, a flicker of worry cut through me.
She could read lies. Sense what someone was hiding. Yesterday her ability hadn't awakened yet, so it had slipped past — but now was different. From here on, every time Seo-yoon stood in front of me, whatever I was concealing might get read straight through.
The thought got that far before I shook my head hard.
No. She said she reads by feel. Catching lies at best — not looking all the way inside. And if I enhanced an ability like that… what would happen?
I was still turning that over when lunch arrived.
I found a seat in the cafeteria, and Kang Do-hyun from my group spoke up.
"Team Leader, did you see the group next door?"
"What about them."
"Team Leader Jae-hyuk's team. People are saying they've got the best atmosphere in the whole guild right now. The other groups are jealous."
"…That so?"
"Yes. That Black guy over there — wait, not 'guy,' sorry. Anyway, he's apparently a blast too. But more than that."
Do-hyun lowered his voice a little.
"There's that girl rookie, right? Same batch as us. Really pretty."
The hand holding my spoon stopped.
"…What about her."
"Before she transferred into our guild yesterday, she was ice-cold to Team Leader Jae-hyuk at first — but the two of them got super close in a single day. Ever since the group assignments they've been hanging out, joking around. The other groups are saying there's something going on between them."
"Something."
"Yeah, like, aren't they kind of into each other?"
He snickered.
"Team Leader Jae-hyuk's pretty good-looking too, and turns out their dorm room is right next to ours. Training together, eating together, and at night in the lodging—"
"Stop."
My voice came out harder than I'd meant. Do-hyun flinched.
"…Ah, sorry. I shouldn't gossip about other people."
"No. That's not it."
I set my spoon down.
"Don't go spreading rumors about 'something going on' or whatever. Weird talk circulating among the rookies wrecks group morale."
"Yes, sir. Sorry."
Do-hyun went back to his food. I stared down at my tray.
My appetite was gone.
Hanging out, joking around. Training together, eating together, nights in the same lodging.
Pictures started drawing themselves in my head without permission. Anyone with auditory-type abilities could hear every word from the next room clear as day. Not that people generally did anything weird out loud in their rooms for that exact reason.
Three months of apprenticeship. Close proximity makes people close. I knew that better than anyone.
Ye-rin and I had been the same.
That night on the winter mountain came back again — backs pressed together without even a single blanket. We'd done it to survive, but looking back, everything between us had shifted after that night.
The scene replaying in my head wandered somewhere it shouldn't, and right in the middle of it, Seo-yoon and Jae-hyuk were laughing.
I picked up my tray and stood.
"I'm heading out first. Take your time."
"Oh — yes, Team Leader."
I shook my head once on the way out of the cafeteria.
What am I doing.
It's another group's business. Whether Jae-hyuk gets close with a rookie or not is none of my concern. Seo-yoon is just an old tutoring student I ran into by chance after four years, and that's all. If she and Jae-hyuk get along, the apprenticeship goes smoother — that's a good thing, if anything.
And I have Ye-rin.
An incredible girlfriend, at that. The "hands only" part was a little unsatisfying, but still.
So this isn't jealousy. It's just… worrying, because a kid I used to know happens to be stuck next to a guy like Jae-hyuk. As a senior. As a person. That's all.
I forced my head into order with that reasoning. It didn't last long.
The one who tore it all open again was, inevitably, Jae-hyuk.
After training, I was sorting gear in a corner of the guild courtyard when he ambled over. I knew from the look on his face alone. The expression of a man whose mouth was itching to brag about something.
"Yo, Ha-jun."
"What."
"I think teaching apprentices might actually suit me."
"…You? How would you know after one day."
"I'm serious. You know our group has the best vibe, right? My kids all found their abilities in a single day, and the manifestation levels seem pretty solid too."
He dropped down beside me, preening.
"But more than that."
Here it comes. I kept my eyes on the equipment.
"That cute rookie, you know the one. Name's Seo-yoon. She was pure ice toward me at first, but she seems to be thawing out a bit?"
I answered with deliberate indifference.
"…Sure."
"Yeah. We talked a little last night and I got that sense. We ate together after training earlier too. Well — the whole group did, but still."
Jae-hyuk grinned.
"I still claimed the seat next to her, though. I can feel us getting closer. Compared to that iron wall in the plaza, this is a huge improvement. Probably just first-day nerves."
"…As long as the apprenticeship is going well."
"Apprenticeship? Dude, that's not the point."
He clapped my shoulder.
"I told you. A boyfriend she can't even see might as well not exist. She'll change her mind within a month. Hasn't even been a full day and look — I was right, wasn't I? When people get lonely, they eventually—"
"Jae-hyuk."
"What."
"She hasn't given you her heart yet."
My voice was lower than usual. Jae-hyuk looked at me for a second.
"…What's with you. Why so serious all of a sudden."
"Just don't go deciding things about a rookie on your own. Thawing out and giving someone your heart are different."
"Whoa, Lee Ha-jun, unexpected. You never care about other people's love lives."
He narrowed his eyes, then the corner of his mouth lifted.
"What, finally decided to help me out?"
"…What?"
"I mean, all this 'don't decide things about a rookie' talk. Aren't you trying to help me? Man, you should've done this sooner. Just set the bridge and I'll handle the rest. Once I get her once, game over."
He wiggled his fingers in the air, cackling. I caught what that hand was miming and frowned.
"Help you? Am I insane. Dream on."
"Aw, you will though. Normally you'd just tell me to figure it out myself."
"…That's because, back then—"
I swallowed the words before they could get out. Because I knew her before. I'd almost said it.
"Back then?"
"…Nothing. Forget it. Go sort your own gear."
"I already put the kids on it. You should work your rookies harder too instead of going easy on them. Why are you doing this yourself? Anyway, I'm out. Gonna head to the training ground and get another look at Seo-yoon's face."
He shrugged and wandered off toward the lodging. I watched his back, then set down the gear I'd been sorting.
She hasn't given you her heart yet.
How would I know that.
The one stuck next to her is Jae-hyuk.
I just… want that to be true.
No — not want. I was just correcting the facts.
Ah… why do the excuses keep getting longer.
Do I actually have feelings for her?
I don't even know if she has feelings for me. What would it matter either way.
I stumbled onto the answer a few days later.
I'd gone out to the guild's back courtyard for some night air when voices from around the corner stopped me mid-step.
Jae-hyuk and Seo-yoon.
I halted behind the wall. I hadn't meant to eavesdrop… but my feet wouldn't move.
"…So like I said, I'll take good care of you."
Jae-hyuk's voice.
"Join my party even after the apprenticeship ends. Someone at your level, I can really raise properly."
"Thank you."
Seo-yoon's voice was calm.
"But I'll think about the party carefully."
"Come on, what's there to think carefully about. Just trust me."
"Jae-hyuk oppa."
"Yeah?"
"You don't know why I'm not treating you the way I did on the first day."
Seo-yoon looked at him without the slightest waver in her voice.
"It's because you're the team leader, and if I want to survive, I need to get along with my team leader. Nothing more, nothing less."
A brief silence.
"And… there's someone I like. Not a boyfriend — someone I started liking after I got here. It's not you, oppa."
Behind the wall, I held my breath without meaning to.
"…What? Who is it."
The playfulness had drained from Jae-hyuk's voice.
"You started liking someone after you got here? It's only been a few days and already? Who. Someone from this batch?"
"I'm not telling you."
"Hey, if you're gonna bring it up you have to finish. Do I know them?"
"…Someone you know too, oppa."
Someone Jae-hyuk knows too.
"What? Who is it then. You can't just drop that and leave me hanging."
Jae-hyuk pressed, frustrated.
"I said I'm not telling."
Seo-yoon laughed. Then she added, in a slightly lower voice:
"But… that person said something. That you're not a bad guy, Jae-hyuk oppa, so I should try to get along with you."
Behind the wall, I stopped breathing.
…Those were my words.
I'd said exactly that to Seo-yoon on the first day.
No way. It couldn't be. Coincidence. Someone else could have said something similar. Jae-hyuk knows more than one or two people in this guild.
But my heart was already pounding like it knew better.
"…So you opened up to me because of what they said? Whoever it is… lucky bastard, seriously."
Jae-hyuk grumbled.
"But isn't that a little cold, though. Ha."
"It's not cold. It's honest."
There was a smile in Seo-yoon's voice.
"I'm good at handling people. Even people like you, Jae-hyuk oppa. I know what you're saying right now isn't a lie. And like that person said, I've figured out you're not as bad as you look… so let's just stay a good team leader and a good teammate. That's easier for both of us, right?"
"…Huh."
Jae-hyuk let out a short, empty laugh. Not angry — more the laugh of someone who'd just been outplayed.
"You're really something else."
"I'll take that as a compliment. I'll head in first, then. You said tomorrow's training is going to be brutal again."
Footsteps receded. Seo-yoon going inside.
I stood behind the wall for a long time without moving.
Seo-yoon hadn't given Jae-hyuk her heart. She'd just been managing her team leader to survive. That much, I could let myself feel relief over.
But she'd said there was someone else she liked. Someone she'd started liking after arriving here. Someone Jae-hyuk also knew. And that person had told her Jae-hyuk wasn't a bad kid, so she should get along with him.
I repeated it to myself — coincidence. Someone else could have said something similar. But no matter how many times I said it, I couldn't think of anyone else who'd said those words to her in the last few days besides me.
And if it was me. If the person Seo-yoon liked was really me.
I hope so.
The moment that thought landed, I froze.
What did I just wish for.
The second the thought became clear, my heart slammed hard in my chest. I only realized then that I'd wished for something I shouldn't.
I have Ye-rin. The girlfriend who survived four years at my side, who loves me more than anything. And the fact that my heart races at the possibility that my old student might like me — that alone was already wrong.
I shook my head hard.
No. It's a misunderstanding. I'm forcing the pieces to fit. The person she likes is someone else, and I'm just one of many people who happened to say something similar.
It had to be that way.
It had to.