0. The Entrance Exam
I made my way out of the building just as I was.
Then I began walking slowly down the sloping road.
In all that walking, not a single soul spoke to me.
Which was, frankly, a mercy.
I didn't want to talk to anyone right now.
All I wanted was to head home without anyone getting in my way.
I'd already filled my quota of conversation for the day, and I had no desire to spend any more energy on people.
So I kept my distance from the other students, hugging the edge of the path as I went.
And as I walked, I let myself take in the academy.
The campus truly seemed larger than your average university.
No—several times larger wouldn't have been an exaggeration.
The building I'd just exited alone would have been split into two main halls at an ordinary university.
The athletic fields stretching out in the distance were vast as well; kicking a ball around out there looked like it would be genuinely fun.
Not that I knew whether they even taught soccer here.
"…Pretty impressive, honestly."
I said that, and kept looking around.
The academy's campus was a feast for the eyes just to walk through.
You could call the design masterful, even.
And more than anything, old memories came bubbling back.
Back when I was in university, I'd dreamed of attending a prestigious school.
The university I went to ranked among the top three in the region.
But the facilities were mediocre at best, and I grumbled about it my whole time there.
This godforsaken school can't even get the Wi-Fi working properly.
So I'd always wanted to go to a famous school…
And now, strolling through this academy, it felt exactly like I'd imagined that would be.
Well, it wasn't far off the mark.
Busan International Academy was, in a sense, a prestigious school.
"Oh, that's—"
Then I spotted something familiar and smiled.
A shuttle bus was running along the road.
It really did feel just like a university.
Back in the day, I used to hop on one of those at lunchtime and ride a loop around the neighborhood near campus.
"There's got to be a food alley around here too, right?"
I murmured that to myself and kept walking.
I reached the intercity bus stop, sat down to wait a while, and then caught the bus home.
The moment I arrived home, the first thing I did was call for my aunt.
"Auntie, what are you doing? Oh."
I carried my bag into my room, came back out, and looked at her.
Aunt Ailee was working at a desk buried in paper.
Probably writing up a report.
The only thing that ever had her spreading papers out like that was report work, after all.
I peered at the pages for a moment, trying to make out what they were.
Familiar mathematical formulas.
Graphs shaded in all different colors.
And something that looked like nutritional composition data.
The moment I saw that much, I couldn't help but snort with laughter.
What she was writing was a lab report.
There was no longer any need for her to write lab reports…
And yet Aunt Ailee still recorded the results of my checkups like this, as if filing research data.
Truly, the habits of her researcher days had never left her.
"…There's my girl."
"That's me. Were you concentrating on something?"
"Mm. How was the academy? Was it fun?"
"Well, for starters, the entrance exam was… really not what I expected."
I said that and sat down in front of her.
Then, carefully, I rested my elbow on a clear spot on the desk and grumbled.
It had been wildly different from what I'd imagined.
Aunt Ailee chuckled briefly, then said, entirely unbothered, "Figured as much. Hardly anyone actually fails the entrance exam, you know."
"Ugh, would it have killed you to tell me? I was actually nervous."
"My instincts were telling me something."
"…Telling you what, exactly."
"That if I'd told you, you wouldn't have taken the exam properly."
"…"
"You'd have been so relieved it was only a written test that you'd have half-assed the practical."
"Tch."
Part of me wanted to argue back.
She hadn't even followed me to the entrance exam—how could she be so sure?
But I had no rebuttal.
Because that really is probably what I would have done.
"You were the same way back in your test subject days, remember."
"I know. I mean—I don't know. I'm choosing to forget."
"Did you think I'd forgotten how you never give it your all unless there's something in it for you?"
"Come on, that's ancient history."
I said that and laughed.
That was, at the very least, five years in the past.
And I couldn't for the life of me understand why she insisted on milking it to this day.
So I grumbled briefly, then told her, "Thank you, Aunt Ailee."
"Hm?"
"If I hadn't taken the painkillers you gave me, things could've gone really wrong."
"It was nothing. More importantly—did you take them?"
"Yeah."
"What kind of exam was it, exactly, that you needed those?"
"That's a long story."
I laughed as I said it.
I could still feel that sensation, like wandering lost through a maze.
The satisfying memory of my fist connecting with the Invisible Man was still fresh, too.
So I launched into it, bright and animated.
"So, I'm sitting in the auditorium, right? And turns out the whole thing was an illusion."
"Really."
"Then the decorations and the chairs turned into walls, and the Invisible Man was the Villain."
"Sounds rough."
"But my pit organ tracked him down just fine. Landed a clean hit, too."
"Did you win?"
"Yeah. I won. They clearly went easy on me, but still."
My aunt nodded slowly.
Then she smiled and said, "That friend of ours—quite the showman, isn't he?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. He acted like a total pro right up to the very end."
"He was like that ten years ago, too."
"You knew him?"
"We crossed paths a few times. And every time we did, it was interesting."
With that as her opening, Aunt Ailee went on to tell me more about the Invisible Man.
Back then, she said, he'd been barely into his twenties.
Naturally, he hadn't been tempered by much of anything yet—she'd felt like she was looking at an uncut gem…
But the word uncut gem, coming out of my aunt's mouth, was never a compliment.
So I couldn't just laugh along lightheartedly.
"Oh, right. Auntie. The vice principal's name is Jang Mi-na—does that ring a bell?"
"…Her?"
You know her? She pulled some pranks on me."
"Did she, now?"
"And… she offered me special management, too."
"That's a good thing, that is."
"Is it?"
"Mm. The finest jewels deserve the finest care."
I smiled a smile that wasn't real, and my eyes drifted away.
When my aunt talked like that… it always brought the old days rushing back.
Fortunately, her expression shifted quickly, and I was able to go back to listening.
"She was like that even when she was active. They say a mage is someone who prepares, but she never prepared for anything."
"I see."
"She decides everything on the fly, so like me, you're going to find her a headache."
"Ugh. I hate headaches."
"The real power at the academy… I'd bet it's hers. Watch yourself around her pranks from now on."
"Well, nothing I can do about it. Got it."
What I wanted was to say it flatly and firmly: I don't like my teachers playing games with me.
But after hearing my aunt out, I felt less able than ever to say it outright.
I wasn't stupid enough to say something like that to the person who held the academy's real power in her hands.
Still, it bothered me all the same, so I grumbled about it for a moment.
Then I remembered I still had something left to say, and called to my aunt in a hurry.
"Oh, oh, right. Auntie."
"Hm?"
"My homeroom teacher, she's really…"
"Haha, don't tell me you've fallen for her?"
"No, it's not that! It's just… she's got…"
"Mm-hm, mm. I'm listening."
"She looks like a bunch of oppas. So I got scolded just for dealing with her."
My aunt didn't answer.
She wasn't just smiling—she was laughing out loud, outright.
She didn't seem to be in any state to respond at all.
And she went on laughing like that for quite a while.
I watched the papers in her grip shake and trembled, then repeated myself.
"I'm telling you, she looks like a bunch of young uncles."
"There's no way an academy teacher looks like that."
"…Don't joke. I'm being serious here."
"Sure, sure. A little boring, though."
"…You think I'd fall for a teacher?"
"Well, you rarely ever comment on anyone's looks. Even if you did fall for her…"
"Not telling. And I haven't."
"Fine, fine. Oh, and my girl."
"…Yeah?"
"You haven't forgotten, have you?"
My aunt said that with a meaningful smile.
I knew exactly why she was asking.
"Of course I haven't. Auntie, did you buy the painkillers?"
"All ready. Here."
"Thank you."
I took the bottle of painkillers she handed me.
All that was left was to put it in my bag, bring it to the academy tomorrow, and submit it to my homeroom teacher.
They looked exactly identical to the narcotic analgesics I'd been taking, so I didn't expect any questions.
With that settled, my aunt turned her eyes back to the papers for a while.
She apparently had a mountain of reports to get through.
Considering she'd kept at it until I came home… that tracked.
Then, as if a thought had occurred to her, she lifted her head again.
"So… were there any useful friends?"
It was a thoroughly bloodless question.
It sounded like something an ordinary parent might ask… but it was nothing of the sort.
When a normal parent asks that, they're asking whether their child has made good friends.
My aunt's question was not that.
It was the kind of thing you could only say when you saw people not as people, but as research subjects.
The air froze over, cold and still.
Breathing became difficult.
It felt, for a moment, as though a glass wall had risen up around me.
Somehow my field of vision seemed to sink lower, and time seemed to slip backward.
Amid those all-too-familiar sensations, revulsion rose in me by reflex.
But I pressed the feeling down.
The person in front of me wasn't Sister Ailee.
She was Aunt Ailee. The woman who had been like a mother to me.
So I needed to calm myself.
And so I forced a smile and grumbled, "Auntie, honestly. 'Useful,' about people? What does that even mean."
"Ah—ah, my apologies. Seems the researcher habits are still hanging around."
"Fix that, and fast. Every time I hear it, my heart stops."
"…Would you like to go for a walk?"
I nodded slowly.
There was no reason not to.