A gift? Lee Gojun’s?
Before I could voice my question, Cha Woodan, who had only been listening to our conversation, answered instead.
“What reason would Hayoung have to prepare a gift for you?”
Lee Gojun’s eyes, which had only been tinged with excitement, began to shake finely. At that, Cha Woodan grinned and shrugged his shoulders.
“We’re special, aren’t we? Hayoung’s only…”
Instead of finishing his sentence, Cha Woodan trailed off. Whether he was simply pausing or deliberately leaving it empty because he had nothing to say was unknown.
“So it’s natural that he only prepares gifts for us.”
Cha Woodan, who had calmly concluded the sentence, looked at me with eyes asking if that wasn’t right. My brow, which had been busy turning over what ‘gift’ they were mentioning until then, narrowed slightly.
‘…Don’t tell me they’re talking about the dog collar right now?’
Although I attached the expression “don’t tell me,” it was already as good as certainty. I could no longer make eye contact with Cha Woodan or receive Lee Gojun’s pitiful gaze, so I covered my vision by pressing my forehead.
It was true that I’d given the dog collars to the twins as a so-called gift. But I didn’t know that in just one day, rumors would spread in detail, even including content about gifts and whatnot. It seemed many more people had been watching the spectacle the three of us had caused yesterday than I’d thought.
“…Hayoung-ah, really? Of course the twins are a special existence to you that you’ll never have again, but…”
While Lee Gojun couldn’t hide his disappointment, he acknowledged the twins as a ‘special existence I’ll never have again’ to me. Come to think of it, he’d had a peculiarly exceptional attitude toward my relationship with the twins from before. There was no will to deny it at this point, and it didn’t seem like the situation would change even if I denied it, so I pressed my lips tightly shut.
There was a different part that concerned me more than that.
‘Does he want to receive a dog collar from me as a gift too?’
It was a taste I absolutely couldn’t understand. The twins were originally considerable lunatics, so I accepted and moved past it, but Lee Gojun was different. Although he had the terrible history of going crazy over one person and establishing a pseudo-cult, even so, a collar…
‘…I guess it’s not that different.’
No, I didn’t want to think about this part anymore.
I cleared my throat to finally bring up the main topic. But with bad luck and bad timing, there was someone who opened their mouth before me.
“This is like our privilege. Just like you’re wearing that unparalleled cloak, we too…”
Before Cha Jeoh could continue with more useless words, I suddenly reached out my hand. Then I briefly grasped and pulled the collar that had been dangling over his upper body.
Cha Jeoh’s body tilted sharply at the unexpected force. His face, which had immediately gotten closer, was visible right beside me. Forgetting what he’d been saying, his lips twitching, Cha Jeoh was staring at me with his widely opened eyes.
“…Ha, Hayoung-ah?”
A voice filled with agitation quietly cut through the air and dug into my eardrums. Seeing those eyelids that couldn’t fully close and were trembling, he seemed quite flustered. Looking at his lightly flushed cheeks, it didn’t seem entirely like that… but at least he’d be quiet for a while.
Instead of releasing Cha Jeoh’s collar, I gripped it more firmly with added strength. Soon turning my head, Lee Gojun was frozen stock-still with his mouth agape no less than Cha Jeoh. Of course, he too wasn’t shocked like most others would be, but was dripping with eyes full of regret and longing.
Meanwhile, from the opposite side of Cha Jeoh, where Cha Woodan was standing, a persistent gaze flew over just as intensely, stabbing at me. Skillfully ignoring that, I finally brought out the content I’d been trying to say.
“Starting today, we’re going to take the combat survivors outside the school to hunt monsters.”
“Monster hunting?”
I nodded my head.
“I think it would be good to take one healing ability user, so I was wondering if you’d like to accompany us.”
Adding that, I observed Lee Gojun’s reaction.
Lee Gojun had nearly lost his life to monsters both when he’d rushed out of the art room a few weeks ago saying he’d save the survivors on the upper floor, and later when Lee Geonwoo became unable to move outside the auditorium’s side door. So if it was a situation where he had to voluntarily step forward to face monsters when it wasn’t even unavoidable, he might show instinctive revulsion.
But that was a hasty judgment.
“I’m going out together with you, Hayoung, right? Of course I’m very happy!”
Lee Gojun showed a blush on his innocent face without even a shadow of complexity. The atmosphere that had sunk in disappointment just moments ago was gone, and his newly inflated attitude represented his inner thoughts.
A brilliant light poured down over Lee Gojun’s head, as if imitating something sacred. I couldn’t distinguish whether it was sunlight shining in from beyond the small window at the top of the auditorium, or a halo visible because he was acting as if he were truly a believer following a god.
“Then am I the only one accompanying you? If you’re okay with it, I could select a few from among our Church of Hayoung believers…”
“Select what?”
I hurriedly blocked him before Lee Gojun could drop an even bigger bomb.
“Just in case, we’ll move with the minimum personnel. And the survivors at this school are all busy avoiding me whenever they run into me, so there’s no way they’d want to participate in monster hunting, which is no different from walking into a death trap.”
“Huh? What are you talking about, Hayoung-ah?”
I flinched, trembling slightly. I slowly lifted my eyes that I’d briefly cast downward.
Lee Gojun was wearing the same smile as before, immersed in a bright light and showing off his characteristic sparkle. However, I could tell. From his lips pressed in a straight line to those eyes that had sunk coldly—there was no longer any vitality flowing in them…
“Avoiding you? Who does that?”
Since most of them were busy fleeing from me, it was difficult to point them out one by one. But even if not for that reason, it seemed I shouldn’t give their information to Lee Gojun at this moment. It was as if a primal warning sound was buzzing and brushing past my ears.
It wasn’t a public reason like needing to preserve our forces as much as possible, nor was it suddenly valuing others’ lives with personal feelings. That said, it wasn’t like I hoped Hanul High, which we’d taken as our residence, would become a mess as I’d been thinking. Nothing was more troublesome and annoying to handle than a bloodbath from internal conflict. That was worlds apart from just offering one of my feet or a side of my nape to the twins.
As I maintained silence without answering, Lee Gojun’s already hollow pupils gradually lost even their focus. Then, as if reaching a conclusion on his own, he clapped his hands together.
“Ah! That’s it!”
“……”
“Isn’t it that they’re avoiding you because you’re too dazzling and noble, Hayoung, such a lofty existence they can’t even dare to touch? You know, there’s that saying. Being careful and careful again, worried you’ll break if they hold you or fly away if they blow on you.”
What am I, some glass craft that breaks at the slightest touch—I tried to retort like that but just chewed it over appropriately. I didn’t want to get more entangled than this by adding words for no reason. In any way.
“Get ready and come out. To the first floor.”
Without waiting for Lee Gojun any longer, I immediately turned my back. Then, at the sensation of the collar I’d been holding pulling stiffly, I belatedly recognized the existence in my hand and looked to the side.
Cha Jeoh, who had been obediently following me, tilted his head as if asking what was wrong. He was still bending his waist crookedly as if it wasn’t uncomfortable. Swallowing a sigh and releasing the collar, Cha Jeoh drooped the corners of his eyes as if regretful.
I felt Cha Woodan on the opposite side gripping his own collar and watching for an opportunity, but deliberately ignoring it, I moved my steps.
***
Me, Cha Jeoh, and Lee Gojun. Excluding us, five more people were additionally selected to form the first group. It was a composition of three survivors who were club members and two who were not.
As long as this was the first hunt with no experience whatsoever, everything from forming groups to combat methods could only be experimental challenges. That said, it wasn’t like concern or fear about lives arose at this point. But it seemed that was only true for some.
The two survivors who had no combat experience until now couldn’t stop rolling their eyes in all directions just from crossing the playground before leaving the school gate. Rather than not trusting Cha Jeoh, they trembled constantly while looking around and being vigilant, as if they simply couldn’t overcome the unfamiliar fear.
Unlike them, the club members maintained a calm attitude showing no sign of tension. It might be because they’d fought monsters many times until now and won, but more than that, their absolute trust in Cha Jeoh seemed greater. Well, since they’d seen his outstanding skills dozens of times after Cha Jeoh took charge of monster extermination, they couldn’t help but realize that gap.
Moreover, I wasn’t sure if it was just my imagination, but whether they were club members or not, they all seemed to have some expectations of me too. Since I hadn’t revealed my ability in detail yet, they would know far less about me than they didn’t know. Yet I couldn’t gauge where they’d found grounds to believe in me.
‘Is this also the influence of Lee Gojun going around spouting strange doctrines and tales on his own?’
Mulling over a question I didn’t particularly want to dig into, I tilted my head. As I leaned my head against the embrace I was held in, the end of the knotted blindfold slipped down smoothly and tickled my cheek.
