Clang—the sharp sound of a sword hitting the ground rang out. Sihyeon dropped the sword he’d been holding as if throwing it down and collapsed onto the floor, catching his breath. Sweat streamed down and gathered at the tip of his chin. He buried his face in a towel.
Eighth time.
Out of consideration for his poor stamina, they had limited sparring to twice a day—but today marked the fourth day already. And in those four days, every single spar had ended with Sihyeon shouting for a stop. Even after eight rounds, Haru’s way of sparring hadn’t changed.
“…Hyung, if I ask you to go a little easy on me, could you?”
Completely drained after just four days, Sihyeon asked. As he roughly kneaded his sore shoulders, Haru let out a low groan. He looked deep in thought.
“…Maybe… if I try, I can…. But I don’t think I could keep it up for long….”
Unable to say for sure, his voice lacked confidence. At the honest answer, Sihyeon groaned softly. Haru handed him a water bottle. The lukewarm water slid down his throat. The brief silence lasted until Sihyeon’s breathing returned to normal.
“…About this Monthly Evaluation—it’s a Partner Evaluation, so it’ll probably be about teamwork. Would it be easier for you if I just focused entirely on support?”
“Support?”
“Yeah.”
Healing, putting up Barriers, copying Buffs and using them—that kind of thing. As Sihyeon spoke, handing back the half-finished bottle, Haru took it and stared at him quietly. His red lips moved calmly.
“…Whatever it is, I just want you to be safe. …That’s all.”
“…….”
He had asked about convenience, but all he got in return was concern for himself. As someone whose main class was support, there was no way he’d be in more danger than Haru, a combat-type. Yet Haru showed no concern for himself at all—was that confidence, or just worry?
Maybe it was both.
“…I’ll probably be safer than you, hyung. But if we want to make the most of your class traits, I think it wouldn’t be a bad idea if I draw aggro at the start. What do you think?”
“…….”
This time, Haru didn’t seem to like the idea much. Seeing his lack of response, Sihyeon came to that conclusion. Why? The question slowly surfaced.
Assassination was most effective when the target wasn’t aware of your presence. If the two of them had to face an Irregular alone, then unless Sihyeon drew attention, Haru would essentially be fighting while missing one of his weapons.
Of course, even then, his physical ability would still be excellent.
Muttering to himself as memories of the previous evaluation resurfaced, Sihyeon fell into thought. Back then, with the Earth Spider, he’d known the Irregular’s traits, so it had basically been free tanking—but there was no guarantee luck would be on their side again. As he considered adding Taunt to his list of skills to Copy for evaluation day—
Thump.
Haru suddenly plopped down beside him.
“…What are you thinking about?”
“Just the Monthly Evaluation.”
“…Because you want first place?”
“Huh? No, it’s not that…. I just said I’d help, so I want to do the best I can. You helped me last time too, hyung.”
During the rescue team and Treatment Center operation—something tailored specifically to him—Haru had followed without a single complaint or question. Since Haru had helped him, he wanted to return the favor.
Even if that meant bringing Pia.
If the Principal allowed it, it probably isn’t dangerous.
No matter how crazy this school was, they wouldn’t let a student raise something dangerous. Still, bringing it back would definitely be a hassle.
Just as his thoughts were beginning to tangle together—
Bang!
Someone suddenly flung open the training room door without knocking. There were only two people Sihyeon knew who would do something like that.
“Haru hyung! Switch partners with me!”
“……?”
He barged into someone else’s training room and immediately tried to claim someone else’s partner. As Sihyeon waited to see what this was about, Hamin, who had arrived late, grabbed him by the back of the neck and dragged him back.
“Sorry for the interruption.”
“You know how to apologize?”
“What?”
Caught off guard by such a natural apology, Sihyeon asked without thinking. Hamin frowned. Realizing his slip, Sihyeon rolled his eyes once and shrugged.
“No, I mean… so what’s going on?”
“This crazy bastard is overreacting to something trivial while we’re trying to sync up.”
“Hey! Min is the one who called me a useless support and looked down on me first!”
Haeun waved his arms in protest, looking wronged. At the words “useless support,” Sihyeon’s eyes narrowed. Under his gaze, Hamin muttered that it was because Haeun had used a debuff on him.
Seeing it from a step back, the scene felt oddly strange.
“You guys have been practicing together too lately?”
“Yeah. Ever since we got the notice two days ago, pretty much everyone’s been training with their partner.”
The notice. Unlike March, this one had been handed out on paper—and contained surprisingly little information. It only stated that the next Monthly Evaluation would be held on May 31 and that it would be a Partner Evaluation. Since it said further details would be shared through the Pairing, it seemed they had distributed it because only he and Haru had been told in advance, which might’ve been considered unfair.
“Do you think people will get eliminated again this time?”
“Probably.”
The faces of the eight who had been eliminated in March came to mind faintly. The clearest one was Kang Donghyeok. Sihyeon glanced toward the open door, and naturally, Yoo Seowoo came to mind.
“What’s Yoo Seowoo been up to lately?”
Before, during training time, he’d wander into other people’s training rooms to look for skills to Copy. But recently, because of sparring with Haru, Sihyeon had been staying only in his own training room. Naturally, he’d been seeing Seowoo less. The only times they crossed paths were during classes and meals.
At the question, Haeun tilted his head, then answered.
“He’s probably making Geonwoo tank.”
“Tank?”
“Yeah. Geonwoo said he needed help. So he’s probably getting beaten up right now.”
“…What?”
Surely he wasn’t hitting his face, right? As Sihyeon looked at Haeun, Haeun urged him to come see for himself if he was curious. It was the end of sparring anyway, and it was break time. Getting up, Sihyeon looked back at Haru, who slowly rose to his feet as well. Their eyes met briefly. The four from Room 207 headed toward Seowoo’s training room.
Clang!
The moment they opened the door, the loud clash of sword and shield rang out. Peeking inside, Sihyeon saw Seowoo swinging his sword mercilessly while Geonwoo blocked.
Seowoo, who had been charging forward, suddenly twisted his body and cut off the head of a dummy standing beside Geonwoo.
Thud—the severed head hit the ground, and Seowoo stopped moving.
“…Taunt wore off.”
Wiping the sweat from his chin, he spoke with a faint smile.
“Geonwoo!”
Just then, Haeun called out as Geonwoo was about to sit down.
At the cheerful voice calling him, Geonwoo turned his head. At the same time, Seowoo also looked toward the door. Their gazes, which had first focused on Haeun, shifted past him to the other three.
“What brings all four of you here together?”
“Kang Haeun said you were beating Baek Geonwoo like he owed you money, so we came to watch.”
“Guess you were misled.”
Seowoo chuckled softly at Hamin’s words and sat down on a bench. The rest of Room 207 gathered around as well.
“I heard from Haeun you picked up something interesting.”
As Sihyeon sat on the edge of the bench beside him, Seowoo wiped his sweat with a towel and asked. Sihyeon frowned and glanced at Haeun.
“You really can’t keep your mouth shut.”
“Hm, was it something I wasn’t supposed to know?”
“It’s not something that benefits from being widely known. And rather than interesting, it’s more of a headache….”
Trailing off, Sihyeon bent forward as a headache crept in. Seeing him bury his face in his clasped hands, Seowoo let out a low hum.
“Sounds rough, whatever it is. I heard you made some kind of strange deal with the Principal too.”
“How much did Kang Haeun even tell you?”
“Haeun doesn’t exactly have a tight mouth.”
The tone of voice suggested experience—like he’d learned that lesson the hard way. Watching both Hamin and Seowoo, Sihyeon found it strange how they’d become friends with Kang Haeun at all. He ruffled his hair.
Then again, since this was a novel, maybe they just became close as if by fate.
As his black hair became messier in his thoughts, Seowoo reached out and smoothed it down.
“What’s got you so troubled?”
“Just… it’s a problem whether we get first place or not.”
“If you don’t, is it because your partner might be disappointed?”
“That too….”
And he’d lose something.
The small answer lingered in his throat. Raising his gaze, Sihyeon looked toward Haru, who was currently being dragged around by Haeun, showing off his Stealth.
From Haru’s perspective, Pia was the first living being he had ever brought with him. It might have felt like the first life he had ever saved, and he might have felt responsible for it. He had even given it a name—there was no way he hadn’t grown attached.
If they failed to get first place, Haru would lose that.
There was no way not to care.
If only he had released Pia immediately when he first saw Haru holding it.
If it was going to be taken away and cause pain, it would’ve been better not to have it from the start.
Or…
Not let it be taken in the first place.
“…This is a headache.”
Sihyeon muttered, narrowing his eyes. Oblivious to his worries, eighteen-year-old Ban Haru was busy putting on a Stealth show for Haeun. From the glimpses of his face when he flickered into view, he didn’t look like he was smiling—but he seemed to be enjoying himself.
In Sihyeon’s mind, an image of Haru crying appeared. Tears streaming down his face. Then another image—Haru looking dejected, going about silently without speaking.
Neither was appealing.
If Pia were just some toy you could buy at a store, he wouldn’t be worrying like this.
If Haru had simply asked for a toy and gotten hurt after being told no, that would’ve been one thing. But this wasn’t like that. Knowing that, Sihyeon clenched his fist.
“…We have to get first place.”
“Hm?”
“During the Partner Evaluation, go a little easy on us.”
“Okay.”
It was an abrupt statement, an equally abrupt request. It was almost closer to a demand—but Seowoo agreed without hesitation. Sihyeon lifted his head.
His gaze, which had been fixed on Haru for a long time, slowly shifted to Seowoo.
“Is it finally my turn?”
“…Huh?”
“You’re finally looking at me.”
I’ve been watching you this whole time.
Blink. Sihyeon’s eyelids slowly lowered and lifted again. Hiding his eyes, revealing them again—several times over. As if he hadn’t missed a single moment of that, Seowoo’s lips curved upward.
“I’ll try to hold back during the Monthly Evaluation. Your partner’s skills aren’t bad, so honestly, the one you should worry about is probably Hamin.”
“Do your best.”
He whispered it softly, then smiled faintly and reached out toward Sihyeon. Rustle—Sihyeon’s hair near his ear shifted slightly as Seowoo stood up from the bench. Picking up the sword leaning against the wall, he walked back toward the others.
Watching his retreating figure, Sihyeon parted his lips.
There was definitely something he had wanted to say to him.
He should’ve asked why he agreed so readily.
Still dazed, Sihyeon sat there blankly for a while before finally shaking his head. It wasn’t like this was the first time Seowoo had acted like that. Pulling himself together, he slipped his hand into his pocket.
On the phone screen he pulled out, the date read May 15.
Half a month.
The Monthly Evaluation was close.
