"……"
I ended up going outside after all.
Sunlight poured down as if it had been waiting.
I raised a hand to shield my eyes from the glare.
There was nothing to do at home besides count the patterns on the ceiling.
Honestly, I kind of want to see this school already.
So much for savoring the peace — I was already squirming with boredom.
I tapped my heels together and looked around.
"……"
The street was empty.
Not a soul in sight.
Everyone had gone to work, or to school.
If I came out later in the afternoon… maybe there'd be more people.
I started walking, slow and aimless.
Short legs plodding along.
I'd been drifting like that for a while when, rounding a corner, a familiar presence hit me all at once — and my head snapped up on reflex.
"……?"
"……Hm?"
Our gazes met in midair.
Eye contact.
***
"We keep running into each other."
"Oh… yeah, I guess we do."
The young man standing in front of me — Jeong I-deun.
He looked thrown off by the unexpected encounter, scratching the back of his head with an awkward smile.
"Hmm……"
I propped my chin slightly and studied him.
Under my blatant up-and-down scrutiny, I-deun's eyes darted around with nowhere to land.
"Hey… can you stop staring at me like that? Did I do something wrong…?"
"Didn't you say you were eighteen?"
"I did…? Why?"
I-deun tilted his head and asked.
I pointed at what he was wearing — a school uniform.
"If you're eighteen, shouldn't you be at school right now? Did you get suspended or something?"
"Oh… I'm in my final year. I don't really have to go in… Usually seniors do field practice through hunter activities instead."
"Ah."
That made sense.
Right.
I'd run into student hunters at the Association occasionally, back in the day.
But I-deun seemed more puzzled by my side of things, and crouched down to meet my eye level.
"No, actually — I'm the one who wants to ask. Why are you wandering around alone at this hour without going to school? Are you lost?"
"I'll be going soon enough. Right now… let's just say I'm in the middle of a transfer."
I gave him a rough summary of my situation. Just the short version — that I'd be enrolling at a nearby elementary school before long.
"Ah… so that's how it is. Then you've got a few free days."
"Something like that. Hmm……"
I stared at him again.
I-deun shrank back a little at my expression, clearly deep in thought about something.
"What? Do you have something else to say?"
"I need a favor."
"Huh? You mean from me…?"
I-deun pressed a hand to his own chest, looking startled.
"Yes. There's something I want to ask you. You're a student, after all."
"Is there anything I could actually help with…?"
"School. I want to know what it's actually like."
Right as I was about to ask my question in earnest —
*Grrrumble…*
"……"
"……"
Breaking the silence, my stomach made its timid case.
My ears went faintly red with embarrassment, but I kept my expression flat.
I-deun, however, was already failing to hold back the grin creeping onto his face.
"……Sounds like someone's hungry."
***
"Thanks for the food."
"Sure… eat up."
We moved to the main street.
A burger fast food place with a bright red sign.
I grabbed the burger with both hands and took a big bite.
The juicy patty and the richness of the cheese spread through my mouth.
Yeah. This is it.
"So… you said you were curious about school?"
I-deun took a sip of his cola.
"Oh. Right, *munch munch*… yeah."
"Eat slowly. I'm not going to steal it."
He pulled out a few napkins and set them in front of me.
"Hmm… even so… what exactly are you curious about?"
"Like… the atmosphere. What it feels like…"
At my question, I-deun's expression twisted in a strange way.
He stuck a fry in his mouth and stared at the ceiling like he was mulling it over.
"What it feels like…? Hmm… I'm in the lower tier so I don't really know firsthand, but I hear the top tier is pretty brutal."
"Brutal how…?"
"Well. Insane competition, I guess? Everyone's out for each other's throats. They all want offers from better guilds. Some of them don't care what it takes… the atmosphere is cutthroat."
"……!!!"
I stopped mid-bite and froze.
Out for each other's throats? Don't care what it takes?
Was everything I saw online just a lie…?
So it really was a bloodbath dressed up in a pretty package.
"A dropout like me doesn't worry about any of that… Hm? Why do you look like that? Are you feeling sick?"
"It's just very different from what I expected."
I muttered, my expression darkening.
So much for trusting information from the internet.
"No, no… don't get the wrong idea. This is about the high school division — the hunter track specifically. Elementary would be different, right? I awakened in middle school so I don't really know what elementary is like… but it's probably better there."
"Hmm……"
The unease didn't go away easily.
When I kept eyeing him with suspicion, I-deun let out a dry laugh and continued.
"But… honestly, I don't really get why you're so worried about school life."
"Why?"
"You're strong."
"I'm weak."
I answered flatly.
The me right now was barely a step above someone who'd topple over if you poked them.
"……?"
"……?"
His eyes went wide.
We stared at each other for a moment, both clearly not understanding the other.
"You're strong."
"Weak."
"I'm telling you, you're strong."
"I'm telling you, I'm weak."
"……"
"……"
A brief silence, and then I-deun pressed his palm to his forehead with a hollow look.
"No… if you're weak, then what does that make me… what have I even been doing all this time…?"
"That's… because you don't know how to fight, oppa…"
"I don't know how to fight…?"
"Anyone can do this much if they learn properly."
"From who…?"
"From me!"
I jabbed my thumb proudly at my own chest.
"……"
"……"
I-deun stared at me blankly, as if he'd run out of words.
***
"You're going to… teach me?"
I-deun looked at the girl.
A lazy weekday afternoon, inside a fast food restaurant.
The words didn't quite fit coming from a kid with burger sauce smeared all over her face.
"If you don't believe me?"
The girl sucked a sip of cola through her straw and narrowed her eyes.
Her small hand waved lightly through the air.
I-deun's mind was a mess.
*Is this really… a stroke of fate?*
All kinds of thoughts flashed through him.
But the skill he'd witnessed from this girl in that dungeon — that had been undeniably real.
*Nothing to lose…? No, this is…*
I-deun swallowed dryly.
His eyes wavered, then gradually took on a look of resolve.
*The chance of a lifetime…?*
The situation and the setting were completely mismatched, but the girl's unwavering, certain gaze was doing something to his instincts.
He was about to open his mouth with a serious expression when —
"……Wha…?"
"First, your mouth…"
I-deun picked up a napkin and wiped the girl's face.
The serious mood shattered in an instant, but I-deun pressed on undeterred.
"Alright. If you're willing to teach me… I've got no reason to say no. But then…"
"……?"
I-deun suddenly straightened up and studied the girl carefully.
There was a strange awkwardness in his eyes.
"What should I… call you? Master…? Sensei…?"
The girl grimaced at the overly formal titles coming out of his mouth.
"I already told you my name last time. Just call me Shin-a, it's fine. Well… Master? Sensei? If that's what you're comfortable with, I don't really care what you call me…"
"Huh…? You really don't care?"
"You've been watching too many cartoons."
"……"
***
I-deun and I stepped out of the fast food restaurant.
The moment the door opened, the outside air hit us — far warmer than the air conditioning inside.
If you asked me why I suddenly took on a student…
Honestly.
Maybe I was just bored.
Standing under the pouring sunlight, I stopped for a moment and looked around.
If I hadn't died — if I'd retired normally —
Maybe things wouldn't have looked all that different from this, I thought suddenly.
Teaching someone. Taking them on as a student.
Whatever complaints I might make, I was probably someone who could never truly put distance between herself and the hunter's life.
Not that I had any intention of crawling back into those miserable gates on my own.
Sometimes, though… maybe I would.
Anyway.
"See you next time."
I gave him a small bow.
"Yeah."
***
"Ri-da…! What are you doing, come on…!"
The light was blinking, about to change, but the girl stood frozen in front of the crosswalk like a statue.
Even as her friend called out from behind her, her gaze was fixed on a single point beyond the dispersing crowd.
Her name was Seo Ri-da. Eighteen years old.
Top of the class at the Hunter Academy's high school division.
Her eyes — always composed, always steady — were trembling in tiny, uncontrolled flickers.
"That… little kid… looks like him."
A dazed murmur slipped from Ri-da's lips.
"Huh? What are you talking about…? Where, where?"
Her friend craned her neck and followed Ri-da's gaze, but there was nothing remarkable to be seen in the bustling crowd.
"……"
Ri-da bit down on her lip instead of answering.
A bead of cold sweat traced down her pale cheek.
The small figure she'd just glimpsed — that retreating back — refused to leave her mind.
"What's gotten into you…? This isn't like you, Ri-da."
"Shin-woo… -nim?"
There was trembling in Ri-da's voice, but also certainty.
"Huh? Why would he… no… why are you suddenly bringing that person up?"
"It was definitely Shin-woo-nim."
Ri-da murmured, as if in a trance.
Her eyes swirled with a confusion she couldn't put into words.
"Ehhh…? He passed away, though…"
"……The boy who was walking with her just now. His uniform was from our school."
Ri-da wasn't listening.
Her sharp senses had caught it precisely — the silhouette of the person walking alongside that girl who looked so much like him.
"Hmm… you mean that guy over there?"
"Yeah."
Ri-da's gaze followed the back of a male student disappearing into the crowd.
"Oh… that's I-deun."
"You know him?"
Ri-da asked, brow furrowed.
For someone who was usually indifferent to others, it was a rare show of interest.
"I know all the kids in my year~!"
"……"
Ri-da silently burned I-deun's retreating figure into her memory.
The girl he'd been walking with. The particular aura she'd felt from that girl.
It was too similar — too much like the one she remembered from *that person*.
"But the kid you mentioned… the little one? I don't see her."
Her friend squinted and looked around, but whatever shape Ri-da had seen was already gone, swallowed by the crowd.
"……She's gone."
"Already…? Are you sure you saw right? Maybe you're tired and imagined—"
"No. I'm certain……"
Ri-da stared once more at the other side of the crosswalk — the street already empty.
Her chest ached with a sharp, throbbing pain, her heart pounding hard against it.
"It was Shin-woo-nim."