‘…What is that?’
A blood-red thread spread out from the student council president as if soaked in blood. Several strands of it rippled with a faint glow, then soon swam through the air and approached me.
“This is difficult. I’ll just ask you directly, sunbae.”
I had seen that mysterious color and hue several times before in other places. The flow I’d seen when Lee Gojun used his ability, and the blue lock that had firmly sealed the door shut.
“Do you happen to have any immediate wants or desires?”
In other words, the student council president was now attempting to use his ability on me.
“…Wants or desires.”
“Yes. Anything at all. It doesn’t have to be something material… you know, things like wanting to see your family, or wanting to return to the peaceful world from before.”
I rolled my eyes as if pondering while watching the scene of those red threads leisurely swimming about. Slowly but clearly narrowing the distance, they soon aimed at my head.
Because they had drawn so close, it was difficult to confirm precisely, but it seemed those threads were burrowing into my head. Fortunately, no particular pain accompanied it, but just being aware of that fact was unpleasant enough.
With a quick sidelong glance, I saw Cha Woodan sitting without much reaction—Woodan who would have risen up in protest long ago if he’d seen this scene.
‘Then this too must be something only I can see, like last time.’
The question was, what exactly was the student council president doing to me right now?
‘…They said there was a high possibility he’d awakened a mental-type ability.’
“Hayoung sunbae?”
Drawn by that call, I looked at the student council president again. He pulled up the corners of his mouth in a grin and tilted his head.
“It’s not like you have absolutely no desires. Even something like wanting to get rid of me right in front of you—that would be fine too.”
“……”
“Because everyone, if they’re human, is bound to be swayed by their individual greed and emotions.”
If the student council president had indeed awakened a mental-type ability, what kind of method would it be that tears apart the opponent’s mental state? Cha Woodan’s was a type that could cleverly twist the consciousness and will of whoever he wanted and manipulate them as he desired. Whether it would be similar in nature or completely different, nothing was easy to gauge.
As the red strands rippling in the upper part of my vision intensified, I couldn’t help but feel anxious. I silently moved my lips and needlessly repeated the motion of clenching and unclenching my hands.
There was nothing known in detail about mental-type abilities, and therefore I knew next to nothing about them either. How to easily avoid that meddling, whether any significant cost or conditions accompanied using that ability. The thought that I should have confirmed this beforehand through Cha Woodan came belatedly.
In Lee Gojun’s case, I had been able to provide significant help, but that was possible because I had precisely understood what ability Lee Gojun had awakened and how he operated it. In a situation with not even the slightest basic information, there was no way I could immediately recognize the correct answer to a scene I was seeing for the first time.
‘The longer I drag this out, the more disadvantageous it’ll become.’
I need to try something instead of just sitting here blankly like this…
“…Hmm.”
A low humming sound caught my attention. The student council president, who had at some point raised his hand to rest his chin on it, was repeatedly tapping his lips.
The student council president’s face seemed subtly disheveled unlike before. As if he’d become flustered upon learning that something he’d thought was natural wasn’t natural after all.
After not moving my gaze entangled with the student council president’s for a moment, I quickly turned my head. Then I lightly grasped Cha Woodan’s collar.
“Yeah, Hayoung-ah.”
“…The door.”
“Hm?”
“That door, is it locked?”
I gestured with my eyes toward the door that had been firmly closed since the student council president entered last. Then Cha Woodan’s gaze followed mine there.
It was both a statement bluntly pointing out the student council president’s suspicious actions and also a metaphorical expression that this was enough so let’s go back now. I didn’t know if Cha Woodan understood all of that, but at least he seemed to clearly comprehend the latter opinion I desperately hoped for.
Cha Woodan, who immediately stood up, headed past the table toward where the door was. Even amid this, the student council president was reflecting only me in both his pupils, as if he didn’t care.
Eventually, the student council president tilted his head with a smile full of dissatisfaction somewhere.
“By any chance, sunbae, is what you awakened a mental-related ability?”
Since I didn’t answer right away and only blinked my eyes, the student council president’s expression gradually clouded over.
“…Since you have that kind of penalty, the possibility of having awakened a mental-type ability is low, but.”
This added certainty to my baseless speculation. For some reason, it seemed the student council president’s ability wasn’t working on me right now.
‘And if the other person has also awakened a mental-type ability like himself, it seems he can’t dominate that person’s mind.’
That’s why he seemed to have targeted only me, leaving Cha Woodan aside. Anyway, if he could just succeed in somehow dealing with me and exploiting me, then based on the attitude shown so far, even Cha Jeoh along with Cha Woodan would try to follow my words.
‘The problem is, why doesn’t that ability work on me?’
It could have been a problem arising from a brief mistake in operation like with Lee Gojun last time, or it could have been a situation arising because I didn’t meet some other existing condition. The possible numbers were endless and I couldn’t confirm them one by one, so the most important thing right now was to escape this place as quickly as possible.
I felt Cha Woodan, who had been attempting to open the door several times, stop his movement and look back at me. Slowly casting my gaze, he asked me only with lip movements, being conscious of the student council president.
Should I break it?
That was as good as meaning the door was locked. When I slightly narrowed my brow and was about to stand up—
“You’re leaving already? It seems like we haven’t finished our conversation yet.”
The thin, red threads gave up and moved away from me, changing direction. Watching them rush toward Cha Woodan, tangled in a jumble like a spider’s web, I flinched around my eyes.
‘Didn’t it not work on fellow mental-type ability users?’
Or had he just been holding back because it took a long time to control ability awakeners of the same type, or because he had to go through cumbersome procedures?
Either way, it was a bad situation. I was about to hurriedly open my mouth to convey a warning to Cha Woodan when—
BANG!
A violent noise was added to the vibration that shook the entire main building. Looking down at the trembling desk, I belatedly raised my senses and surveyed the surroundings.
I could feel all sorts of monsters rushing toward one point on the second floor of the building, the floor below this place. Those that had remained in relatively large numbers because they hadn’t been consistently managed recently were rapidly gathering toward a specific space.
Of course, even so, it was a smaller number compared to the fire door incident, but…
An urgent knocking sound struck the closed door. Soon a female student’s voice was conveyed here, crossing over the blocked space.
“Seong Taehyeon! They say there’s chaos happening on the auditorium side right now!”
The auditorium happened to be the place those who had awakened healing abilities had made their headquarters. Also, all sorts of injured people would be gathered there, but there was no way they could skillfully face monsters with their unrecovered bodies. In other words, a situation had occurred that was perfect for a massacre by monsters—many people but few personnel who could fight.
Honestly, whether the survivors of the main building died en masse, or whether those precious healing ability users were slaughtered in droves, such problems weren’t my concern. But unfortunately, I was now in a position where I couldn’t ignore and overlook the accident said to have occurred at the auditorium.
Lee Gojun—he had told me earlier. That he would go to the auditorium side while I was having a conversation with the student council president. The auditorium side forces who had recognized that Lee Gojun was a considerable expert had approached him, and I knew all the detailed reasons and purposes about how he was trying to go to the auditorium to confirm something among them.
I wasn’t interested in his younger brother who would be with Lee Gojun, who hated me terribly. But Lee Gojun alone wasn’t easy to ignore and leave alone.
‘Is he just naturally born to attract incidents and accidents?’
Life-threatening crises never ceased. Because I had unfortunately chosen and saved someone with a short lifeline, the fatigue of now being in a position where I couldn’t look away out of attachment was added.
Cha Woodan, who understood what I wanted to do even without words, put strength into his hands again. Then he rattled the door roughly as if he would break it down immediately.
Meanwhile, I prepared to close my eyes at the right timing and headed toward him to be held by Cha Woodan. As I was passing around the table, I suddenly stopped walking and narrowed my eyes.
Still sitting in that spot, the student council president was gazing at the door with a cool smile. His pupils watching Cha Woodan attempting to break down the door rippled unpleasantly.
Would it be normal to smile like that in this situation? No matter how much of a dictator he was, it would be completely useless without citizens to follow and support him, yet even at this moment when many of his citizens were in danger of death, did he not feel like opening the door?
‘…Or.’
“I didn’t know it would proceed this quickly…”
The student council president’s muttering, spoken far too softly, didn’t reach me. However, that shameless attitude further fueled my suspicion.
If the reason he was just being there without being surprised or tense was because the student council president had foreseen or intended this situation from the beginning—
Tsk, the sound of clicking his tongue fiercely was heard. When I turned my head, Cha Woodan was roughly running his hand through his hair. A door that would have long since had its lock twisted and broken if it were an ordinary door somehow wasn’t budging at all.
