1. Adaptation
Step one: adapt.
The glass wall slowly faded away.
The man was gone at some point, and in his place stood only my homeroom teacher.
I let out a slow breath of relief.
She studied me for a moment, then smiled and spoke.
"I knew that's how it would go."
"…Yes."
"So, shall I tell the Vice Principal that we've agreed to keep this off the news?"
"If you'd do that, I'd be very grateful."
"Very well."
Even after that, I kept bowing my thanks to her again and again.
Frankly, if word of this had spread to the news, my academy life would have been in serious trouble.
I was in the middle of thanking her yet again when I wobbled slightly on my feet.
Judging that something was wrong, she immediately reached a hand out toward me.
Without taking it, I forced a joke instead.
"By the way, Teacher."
"…Yes?"
"You're my senior—why don't you talk down to me? It's a little strange."
"…Was that a joke just now?"
"I wouldn't know."
The teacher let out a short sigh.
Then, saying there was a reason for it, she began to explain.
"It's the influence of the Vice Principal, whom I respect."
"Is that so?"
"And there was a certain human being I couldn't stand, who spat out casual speech like it was nothing."
"…"
"Out of respect for others, I mainly use polite speech."
I nodded slowly.
It seemed my homeroom teacher had a past every bit as complicated as mine.
I decided I would have to speak a little more carefully next time—
…and just then, she broke into a bright grin and joked with me.
"Ah. Of course, I don't always use it. Teachers are people too."
I snorted a laugh.
Come to think of it, the homeroom teacher seemed like she might get along with me rather well.
No—in a way, it was inevitable that we would.
She reminded me of the uncles from my younger days, after all.
Given that the child I once was had gotten along famously with those older boys…
I figured I could get along just fine with her, too.
Having thought that far, I quickened my pace.
The misunderstanding was cleared up, so I couldn't keep making things difficult for her.
And so, together with the teacher, I headed toward the first-year building on campus.
When I arrived at the classroom, I soaked in the atmosphere of the empty room.
Back in my school days, I had never arrived this early.
So I'd had this kind of scene built up in my imagination as something ideal—and it really did seem worth the fantasy.
The classroom, dim and quiet, was genuinely pleasant to look at.
"Excuse me, Yeji."
"…Yes?"
"Could you put your bag down and come over here?"
"Oh, yes."
I hung my bag in its place and walked over to the teacher.
She had laid out what looked like some documents, though I couldn't make out the details.
The print was far too small; I'd have needed to look properly to read it.
As she organized the paperwork, the teacher began her explanation.
"You're aware that people also call modern society an era of abilities, aren't you?"
"Yes."
"Naturally, every person has at least one ability, and the conditions required to use them all differ."
"So that's why taking the medication is allowed?"
"There are Hunters who can only use telekinesis when they've been drinking, and people who can only fight when they're full of self-loathing, after all."
"Ah…"
"Of course, it isn't permitted every time. For a first instance, it's dose first, report after."
"Then since this is my first case, does that mean it's dose first, report after for me too?"
"That's right. Did you happen to bring that medication with you today?"
"Yes."
I nodded, then pulled the ordinary painkillers my aunt had given me out of my bag.
After showing them to the teacher, I waited for a moment.
She took a photo of the container, then took out a pen from her desk drawer.
"Good. The rest is something I'll handle on my end, so be careful not to take too many."
"…There's no explanation needed for the painkillers?"
"Other students use these often enough. Any beastman has taken them at least once."
"Is that so."
"Yes. You can return to your seat now."
I nodded slowly and went back to my desk.
Part of me wanted to chat with the teacher a little longer, but she seemed rather busy.
So without hesitation, I returned to my seat and turned on my phone screen.
While I was doing that, my homeroom teacher placed a call to somewhere.
I couldn't help overhearing the call, but it wasn't anything serious.
It was simply to confirm that the medication I had submitted was ordinary painkillers, and to report that fact to the infirmary, apparently.
For a while afterward, the teacher kept contacting the infirmary.
From what I could hear, there were quite a few students besides me who had taken medication.
She seemed to be memorizing which medications those students took, so she could keep them stocked in the classroom.
Then she hung up and set to work, jotting something down on her documents.
Watching her, I smiled.
It was a very good look on her, working so diligently.
Before long, other students began trickling in, two and three at a time.
The teacher talked with them as they arrived, but…
I kept my eyes fixed on my phone the whole time.
After all, no one had come near me yet.
And even if someone had, no one would have spoken to me first.
Which meant I had no need to speak first, either.
Telling myself that, I went on staring at my phone.
Then, all of a sudden, someone called my name and sat down in the seat beside mine.
"Hey there, Yeji."
"…Huh?"
As I turned my head reflexively, I realized the student addressing me was my desk partner.
I stared blankly at his face for a moment before greeting him with an awkward smile.
He was tall, with a handsome face… he really looked like the kind of guy who'd have a lot of friends.
I wanted to keep him at a reasonable distance for that very reason, but it seemed that wasn't going to be possible.
"I'm Gong Jinhu. Nice to meet you."
"Oh, yeah. Nice to meet you too."
"My surname's a bit unusual, isn't it?"
"…Well, it is Gong, so maybe a little?"
"I happen to be a direct descendant of Confucius, you know."
And with that line as his opening, Gong Jinhu began telling me about his family.
If he'd been a poor talker, I would have wondered what was wrong with him and kept my distance.
But Gong Jinhu had a gift for spinning a story in a genuinely interesting way.
At some point, I realized I had turned my phone screen off and was hanging on his every word.
"So? Was that fun?"
"…Yeah. It was a really interesting story."
"Could we maybe talk a little more?"
Gong Jinhu asked, flashing me a smile.
I hesitated for a moment.
We'd already talked quite a bit, and I was starting to want to get to my own business.
But he was my desk partner, and his stories had been fascinating, so…
I decided to talk with him a little longer.
…Though I couldn't tell you why I had the strange sensation of a glass wall springing up around me.
Even so, I succeeded in having a long conversation with Gong Jinhu.
It wasn't as if we shared anything deeply personal.
Just things like what we'd been looking forward to before coming to the Academy.
Or stories about the Hunters and Heroes who'd graduated from Busan International Academy.
The kind of idle chatter any high schooler would make.
But even that was genuinely entertaining, and I laughed sincerely as I talked with him.
Of course, we hadn't talked for an enormously long time.
There was only so much ground those topics could cover, anyway…
Most of the students had arrived by now, and 8:30 was fast approaching.
So I wrapped up my conversation with Gong Jinhu at a reasonable point and waited patiently for our homeroom teacher to begin morning assembly.
"All right, everyone. Eyes up front, please. We'll begin morning assembly now."
Having said that, the teacher started the assembly.
I enjoyed it feeling like a proper student again after so long.
There was nothing special about the content, but there was a certain atmosphere to it all the same.
Then I chatted with Siwoo and Sia during the break, and got ready for classes to begin, too.
As for the classes themselves… they were nothing to write home about, just as my aunt had said.
For one thing, the material was fundamentally high school level…
And for another, being the first day, it felt more like being taught about the classes than actually having them.
Every teacher who came in simply talked about what we would be learning going forward.
So class was quite easy.
There was no need to strain myself memorizing anything—I only had to remember what the teachers said as they said it.
The fact that I already more or less knew the material helped, too.
I still remembered studying myself half to death back in my days as a test subject.
And so time flew by like an arrow.
Just as I was wondering whether class had really already ended, the bell announcing lunch rang out.
Hearing it, I sat blankly in my seat for a while.
The biggest reason was simply that nothing came to mind for me to do.
And above all, I'd always preferred eating alone.
That was true in my past life, and the taste hadn't changed in this one.
…Even if, in my current life, I'd been forced to eat alone every time. Well.
I suppose it didn't really matter either way.
Having lived that way for years, eating with others now felt somewhat awkward.
So my plan was to kill some time appropriately and go in last to eat.
Apparently, as long as I ate within the lunch period, that was fine.
And it wasn't as if I had nowhere to go.
There were plenty of academy buildings I hadn't explored yet.
So I decided the library was as good a destination as any and rose from my seat.
But I couldn't.
"Hey, Yeji!"
"Lee Yeji!"
The moment lunch began, Siwoo and Sia, already on their feet, called out to me.
The two of them came straight over and said:
"Let's eat together."
"Seriously—oppan and I are so sick of eating just the two of us."
"Haha…"
I laughed along and weighed my options.
Part of me wanted to decline and go wander the academy instead…
But honestly, being with the two of them promised to be far too much fun.
So I nodded at once, and both of them beamed with delight.
However, we couldn't get our meal as quickly as we'd hoped.
Plenty of students had already gone to eat, and it looked like things wouldn't quiet down for a while yet.
I smiled awkwardly at the line I could see all the way from here.
In the end, Siwoo put on a grave expression and declared:
"Then let's hit the school store…!"
Naturally, I had no reason to refuse.