So That's What It Was (6)
“What method would that be?”
“The fastest and most effective way is to ask Professor Heo Tae-hyeon for help.”
I knew that suggestion would come up first.
“Professor Heo could probably pull the information through channels we don’t even know about.”
“That’s true, but… Professor Heo is a bit…”
“Like he might stab us in the back?”
Professor Yu Hyeon-ju had hit my exact thoughts.
“People who do spy work don’t trust anyone, and no one trusts them. I never say anything unnecessary in front of him either.”
“Then please tell me another way.”
Professor Yu gave me the second option.
“This one’s a gamble, but check the academy Han Min-ha’s parents attended.”
I immediately understood what she meant. If they had graduated from our academy, we could dig through the student records for personal details. But they might have attended somewhere else, and even if we checked the records, we might find no clues at all. That was why she had called it a probability game.
“Even a small lead is better than nothing, right? It might open up another path.”
“You’re right. I’ll try that. Thank you.”
“Still… don’t dig too deep. If it feels off, pull out immediately.”
Professor Yu spoke as I was about to rise from my chair.
“As you know, the Management Bureau is a terrifying place. They might already be monitoring you the moment you start inquiring about those names.”
“I’ll be careful. Even if the Bureau questions me, I can just say it’s about my assigned students.”
“Well… let’s hope that works.”
“Anyway, thank you for the advice, Professor Yu. I’ll buy you some grilled pork belly next time.”
She let out a low chuckle and shook her head.
“The grilled pork belly was Se-yeong’s idea. If you’re treating, buy me a round at the wine bar later.”
“I’ll do that.”
After leaving the General Combat lecture hall, I paused for a moment to decide where to go next, then set off. First, I needed to ask Han Min-ha which academy her parents had attended.
Once Super Strength class ended, Yoo Hee-won brushed off her followers who wanted to use the free period to visit the cafeteria.
“No. I’m not going.”
“Hee-won, are you still upset about what happened in Basic Defense?”
The “Basic Defense incident” referred to the upper-class students who had pretended to ask Professor Kyo Suhyeon questions while subtly mocking him. The upper class was made up of elites who had been filtered through the basic evaluation. Some came from wealthy, powerful families. Others had inherited natural talent from their parents. These were students guaranteed at least C-rank or higher after graduation.
To kids like that, how must Professor Kyo Suhyeon have looked? Always wearing a gloomy expression, a colorless suit and grey coat, speaking and acting quietly, teaching the unpopular, non-mainstream subject of defensive techniques. On the very first day of class he had conducted a live-fire exercise, ordered the teaching assistants to beat students with iron pipes under the guise of “meditation training,” and fired rubber bullets at them. On top of that, no matter how much you searched, there were no notable news articles, videos, or even paparazzi shots of the man.
So during lecture they had suddenly asked those questions. And when Professor Kyo answered that he was a retired hero, only C-class at that, the upper-class students—who knew nothing of the world and were bursting with arrogance—must have seen him as a grey scarecrow with no real ability who was simply occupying a professor’s seat.
But the followers had made one huge mistake. That mistake was the fact that Professor Kyo Suhyeon was Yoo Hee-won’s advisor.
One of the two reasons Yoo Hee-won had chosen him as her advisor was because she liked him. The other was that she was extremely possessive. They had touched the cherished bone of a vicious guard dog that bit anyone who came near.
Still, Yoo Hee-won wasn’t shaking them off merely because they had insulted Professor Kyo. She had somewhere to be.
“Where are you going, Hee-won?”
Ignoring her followers’ calls, Yoo Hee-won pulled out a sheet of paper. It was the lower-class schedule that Assistant Teacher Kim Yi Bit-na had printed for her. Checking it, she headed toward a lecture room on another floor.
She didn’t particularly want to, but she was on her way to see Han Min-ha.
Professor Kyo had told her to help Han Min-ha adapt to the academy and improve her grades. Yoo Hee-won wasn’t the type to obediently follow someone else’s words, but she figured she should at least make that much effort to maintain a good relationship with him. Raising a mid-tier student to upper-tier was difficult, but lifting a bottom-tier student to mid-tier was easy enough. And as for helping her adapt to academy life, simply dragging Han Min-ha around with her would be sufficient.
Yoo Hee-won was capable of objectively assessing her own influence among her classmates. She knew that if she took Han Min-ha under her wing, the girl wouldn’t be looked down on by the others.
Fine. I’ll do it. It’s nothing.
Just as she was about to climb the stairs toward the lecture room, Yoo Hee-won stopped dead.
Professor Kyo Suhyeon was standing in front of a classroom down the corridor. The same tired-looking man in that dark grey coat was talking with Han Min-ha about something. The Basic Defense lecture hall was quite far from here. Had he walked all the way from there just to see her? Was it important enough that he couldn’t simply call or text?
It must be advisor-related business.
But… I’m his advisee too. Why is he only talking to Han Min-ha like that?
Maybe he had the same thing to tell both of them and had simply run into Han Min-ha first. Or…?
In that case, couldn’t he have just left a message in the group chat?
While all sorts of thoughts ran through her head, Professor Kyo finished the conversation and walked off down the opposite corridor. Han Min-ha, who had been about to return to the lecture room, spotted Yoo Hee-won standing there and cautiously raised her hand.
“Hee-won…?”
“Hey. Come here.”
When Yoo Hee-won crooked her finger, Han Min-ha hesitated before approaching.
“What were you talking about with Professor Kyo?”
“Oh. He asked which academy my parents graduated from. That’s all.”
“Why did he ask that?”
“I don’t know. He just said… he was curious…”
“Then why did he come in person instead of texting?”
“He said… he stopped by while he was on his way to the administrative office…”
Han Min-ha carefully watched Yoo Hee-won’s expression as she spoke. Fortunately, Yoo Hee-won didn’t look particularly angry. There was nothing wrong with Han Min-ha’s answer.
I thought it was something serious… It was nothing.
Now in a better mood, Yoo Hee-won gave a sarcastic smile.
“You have a free period now, right? What are you doing?”
“Huh…? How did you know I have a free period?”
Yoo Hee-won’s smile vanished as she asked coldly,
“What did I just ask you?”
“Ah… what are you doing during your free period… I don’t have anything planned… I was thinking of going to the library…”
“Cafeteria.”
“Huh?”
“Do I have to say it twice?”
“No… let’s go. I’ll buy you bread…”
“You’re a beggar with no money? Never mind. Just follow me.”
Having called her a beggar, Yoo Hee-won immediately regretted it but didn’t show it. She turned around with a perfectly upright posture. Han Min-ha followed behind her like a maid, taking quick little steps.
I headed straight to the administrative office and received the staff’s warm welcome before making my way to the manager’s room.
“Manager Chae, do you have a moment?”
At the sound of my voice, Chae Ga-yun lifted her head sharply and smiled. She still had those heavy dark circles, her face worn down by endless work. Her frizzy hair and greyish, exhausted complexion made her look like a pile of laundry that had been left in a heap. She looks just like me.
“Professor Kyo? What brings you here? Please come in.”
“It’s nothing major, but you keep graduate student records here, correct? I’d like to look up someone.”
“Student records? Um… you can’t just view those. You need to submit a formal request.”
“A formal request, you say.”
“Yes. It requires final approval from the department head and the dean…”
The department head and the dean are both in the approval chain? That’s troublesome…
“Who are you trying to find?”
“They’re old colleagues of mine. I was simply curious. Would it be impossible to take just a quick look?”
“Ah… you really do need to submit a formal request…”
Chae Ga-yun thought for a moment, then seemed to hit on an idea and spoke.
“Then, Professor Kyo. I’ll let you take a secret look… if you buy me a meal.”
“Deal.”
My immediate answer seemed to catch her off guard. Apparently she hadn’t expected me to agree so easily. Chae Ga-yun stared at me blankly for a second before snapping back to her senses.
“You… you really mean it?”
“Yes. You were the one who suggested it first, Manager.”
“Ah, right, right. That’s true. Haha… Then… um… just a moment?”
Chae Ga-yun frantically pounded on her keyboard, then asked for the names of the people I was looking for.
“Han Tae-woo and Seo Ji-ah.”
“Han Tae-woo… Seo Ji-ah… Hmm…”
She frowned as she scrolled with the mouse wheel.
“Hmm… Just a second…”
Staring intently at the monitor with a stiff neck, Chae Ga-yun eventually tilted her head.
“That’s strange…? There’s no one by those names.”
“Pardon…?”
Don’t tell me… they even erased the academy records? This is something I hadn’t anticipated… I guess I really will have to go to Professor Heo…
I was strengthening my Mental Barrier and pondering my next move when Chae Ga-yun asked,
“How old are the people you’re looking for?”
“Their age? Well…”
Since they were the parents of a high school student, even at the youngest they would be in their late thirties to early forties. Most would be older than that.
“Probably around that range.”
“Ah, that explains it. Those records would be in the archive, not here.”
“The archive?”
“Yes. Old records are scheduled for disposal soon anyway, so they were never digitized. We only kept the originals.”
“That’s fortunate. Can I access the archive?”
Once again Chae Ga-yun hesitated. But since I had firmly agreed to buy her a meal, she quickly changed her mind and stood up.
“I’ll open it for you.”
The archive was located in the basement of the administrative building. After entering the first password, then passing a second fingerprint scan, we opened the thick iron door twice before stepping inside.
“It seems rather lax.”
“It’s not. This place would remain intact even if a nuclear bomb dropped on it.”
The dark archive carried the typical chill of a basement along with the smell of old paper. Because it also stored other ancient documents awaiting disposal, the interior was quite cluttered.
“Manager, I’m sorry, but I’d like to look by myself.”
“Huh…? Ah… um… yes. Understood. I’ll wait outside.”
“Thank you.”
After Chae Ga-yun left, I slowly moved toward the area where the student records were kept. The files were organized by year and then by name, so I roughly estimated the time period and began flipping through them one by one.
I wondered if I really had to go this far, but I did. Turning Han Min-ha into an S-class hero was the quest I had been given. What I was doing now was absolutely necessary to complete it.
A short while later, I found the student records for Han Tae-woo and Seo Ji-ah. I moved to a brighter area, leaned against a metal shelf, and opened Han Tae-woo’s file. The first page was a personal information sheet that included a photograph.
Looking at Han Tae-woo’s photo, I thought that Han Min-ha didn’t really resemble her father, then moved my gaze downward. At that exact moment, my Mental Barrier began vibrating violently.
“Ugh…!”
I clenched my teeth and groaned. Then I heard someone calling my name.
“Kyo Suhyeon.”
When I turned my head, a man wearing a purple suit was looking at me.