62
11.
The talk of Ye Han-seo possibly transferring schools came up one day in early December when the first snow fell.
After the incident at the Gate, he barely spoke to others, and even after talking with me, it seemed like transfer rumors were circulating despite him not having done anything particularly wrong to anyone.
After lunch period, instead of going to find him myself, I deliberately called Ji Yeohoon out and questioned him about various things while diligently feeding him snacks.
“Does he still go outside during every break time?”
“No, he stays in the classroom now. Some kids whisper that even Espers don’t go out because it’s cold, but that’s not the reason. We don’t really feel the cold much, you know.”
“That’s true.”
“He talks a lot less and his personality has become more gentle. He used to be really sharp, but these days he gives off the same vibe as your Ye Han-dam hyung. Calm.”
Ji Yeohoon was lying with his head on my thigh, naturally opening his mouth with an “ah,” and I broke off a piece of cream bread to feed him.
After watching Ji Yeohoon chew for a moment, I cut off another piece and put it in Yoon Cheong’s mouth too.
“Does he talk with the other Espers?”
“Yeah. You saw how he was when he first came, right? That sharp way of talking. It seems less so these days. He seems to be trying to listen more before speaking.”
“Does he talk well with the Guide kids too?”
“Yes. But I’ve never actually seen him receiving guiding.”
“You’ve never seen it?”
I stopped breaking off more bread and met his eyes, and he opened his mouth as if asking if I was going to give him more.
Hey, bread isn’t the issue here.
“Does he seem okay?”
“He doesn’t look bad. He hasn’t fought with anyone. He hasn’t applied for any Gate raids since then either. He doesn’t seem to use his abilities much during class, and even when he does, he uses them very minimally and goes back right after class ends. But I have no idea what he does on weekends.”
“Why weekends?”
Yoon Cheong also became curious and shifted his gaze to Ji Yeohoon.
Ji Yeohoon didn’t say anything but grabbed my wrist and tugged slightly, as if the next piece of bread should be his.
“I’ll give you more if you talk. If you talk.”
“Well, no one has seen Ye Han-seo in the dormitory cafeteria on weekends. Of course, you can have snacks delivered to your room and eat those, but who does that every weekend, right?”
“True.”
“But I haven’t seen him once since our talk on the rooftop. Before that, I used to see him when I went to eat meals.”
“So you haven’t seen him either?”
“He seems to eat lunch. The teacher noticed he wasn’t eating well, so they go to the cafeteria together. But for breakfast and dinner, I’ve never seen him either.”
“…My leg hurts. Move your head already.”
“That’s up to me. You can be with Soo-young hyung all the time, but I only get this chance now.”
Even when I wanted to have a serious conversation, whenever these two were together, it quickly turned into a quarrel.
“Stop fighting,” I said to break it up, and after glaring at each other for a while, they both turned their gazes toward me.
“Um, did you ask the staff who cleans the rooms?”
“Yes, I asked if snacks were delivered. But they said snacks have never been delivered.”
“Never?”
“Nope.”
“Since he transferred to school?”
“Yes, not once since he transferred.”
“It’s not that he doesn’t know how to order them?”
“Come on, that’s all explained clearly. There’s a paper with ordering instructions and precautions placed in the room as soon as you transfer in, so that can’t be it.”
“…Why don’t I remember that?”
At my words, Yoon Cheong pointed to himself.
Ah, on the day I transferred to elementary school, Yoon Cheong did hand me a guidebook.
He explained everything to me first, and since we wrote down snacks and late-night meals together after I moved in, I didn’t really read it.
Since we did it together, of course I wouldn’t remember.
“Any signs that he’s going somewhere?”
“I deliberately went outside the dormitory to check, and even got the key saying I left something in the classroom. He wasn’t on the playground or in the gym either.”
“Is that bastard just staying in his room then? His health… He doesn’t look like he’s about to go berserk or anything, does he?”
“He doesn’t look bad.”
When someone is sick, their tendency to go berserk can increase.
It’s unsettling when someone you know goes berserk and causes trouble, and if the situation worsens and something happens in the classroom, Ji Yeohoon could get hurt even though he’s an Esper, which made me naturally sensitive to the situation.
Of course, Ye Han-dam was an explosive type with a high lethality ability, which made it worse, but apart from that, when an A-class Esper went berserk, there were fatalities.
There’s no guarantee everyone would be safe if Ye Han-seo, who is also A-class, went berserk.
Moreover, Ji Yeohoon’s ability is to enhance strength, not to defend himself, so he would get hurt more severely than other physical-type Espers.
Feeling I needed to think about this more, I said I understood and told them to head back, ruffling their hair, which prompted Ji Yeohoon to mutter that he didn’t want to go back to his class.
This kid, who would soon graduate from middle school, was clinging to me saying he wanted to move into the high school dormitory soon.
If it got too much, Yoon Cheong would have said something, but maybe because he hadn’t been able to visit Ji Yeohoon lately due to preparation for advancing to the next level, Yoon Cheong also seemed to have given up after complaining a few times.
“Won’t you get indigestion if you keep lying down and eating like that?”
“It’s fine because you’re feeding me, hyung.”
Like a baby bird, what’s this? Ji Yeohoon just kept opening his mouth, which was both funny and cute, so I said okay and continued tearing the bread.
“I guess I’ll have to check on him later.”
“Are you that worried? You’ve been talking about Ye Han-seo a lot lately. I’m a bit jealous.”
Nodding slightly at Ji Yeohoon’s direct remark, I had to admit I was concerned.
He was Ye Han-dam’s brother who had been helping me figure things out lately, and he was also in Ji Yeohoon’s class, so I couldn’t help but be interested.
And since Yoon Cheong had knocked him down several times, he naturally stayed in my memory.
“Hyung, if you’re anxious, let’s go to the ski resort.”
“That again?”
There was talk about a field trip to a ski resort during winter break.
In fact, there had been several occasions in the past where we could have gone to the beach in summer or ski resorts in winter, but Yoon Cheong, Ji Yeohoon, and I didn’t participate.
Actually, those guys wanted to go, but I wasn’t particularly interested, so I waved it off.
“You really hate ski resorts, hyung.”
“It’s just personal. I’ve seen too many skiing accidents on YouTube, and I’m worried about getting hurt.”
“If you look like you’re going to get hurt, Yoon Cheong hyung would throw himself to save you.”
“And you?”
“I’ll get hurt together with you, hyung.”
This kid is becoming more and more slick; he seems to be taking after that old man.
After looking at Ji Yeohoon, who had been singing “ski resort, ski resort” for days, I turned my head to find Yoon Cheong also staring at me with wide eyes, as if he wanted to go too, though he didn’t say anything.
These guys are using their faces again.
My reluctance about the ski resort was due to memories from before the regression.
As an adult, after working at the Association, I went to a ski resort on my first vacation. While snowboarding, I lost my balance, slid, and crashed right into someone else.
The other person got up on the spot after falling, but I tumbled quite a bit from the middle of the slope, broke my arm, and was taken to the hospital without even getting to ride properly.
Because of my usual tendency to find going out extremely bothersome, whenever travel season came around, these guys would plead that I should get rid of my laziness, but I disliked getting hurt and disliked being caught up in unnecessary accidents, so I’ve been diligently refusing.
And now they’re connecting that to a ski resort here?
“I’m not going.”
“Hyuuung.”
“You really won’t go? It’s a 3-day, 4-night trip this time.”
“Last year it was a 2-day, 3-night trip, and now it’s one day longer? Even more reason not to go.”
“Ye Han-seo is going.”
I turned my head at Ji Yeohoon’s final remark.
Wait, didn’t you just say he’s not seen anywhere except the classroom?
Ji Yeohoon shrugged his shoulders, giving an impression somewhat different from what he’d just said.
“I’m the class president, you know.”
“You’re the class president?”
“…I was the class president. When I heard you became class president, I became one too.”
Ah, I remembered Ji Yeohoon chattering near Yoon Cheong at the beginning of the semester, saying, “Aren’t you class president? Me and Soo-young hyung are class presidents.”
I thought Do Yoon-seo was the class president since she did all her work quietly.
I mistook the vice president for the president.
“Because I didn’t do my job…”
“Anyway! Ye Han-seo submitted an application form. Actually, that’s partly why I wanted us to go.”
“Then why didn’t you mention that from the beginning, little Ji Yeohoon?”
Feeling dumbfounded, I pinched Ji Yeohoon’s cheeks with two fingers and stretched them, making him tremble.
“Becuth I wath scawed.”
“You know you did something wrong?”
“Yeeeth…”
“What did you do wrong?”
“Not thaying it fwom the beginning.”
I let go of his cheeks and thought about it.
It would obviously be easier not to worry about him.
I could just take care of the two guys well, regardless of whether the other one goes astray, and prepare for what’s to come later, but I had a hunch.
It was a truly inexplicable hunch, but it was a strangely sweeping sensation.
It was like the sense that immediately understood Ye Han-dam wouldn’t have come to the 3rd school if he wasn’t highly compatible with me when he appeared, or the intuition that I felt when I sensed using D-class bigar would work.
Since things were flowing differently from before the regression, I had successfully utilized that vague intuition many times.
Like when Yoon Cheong and Ji Yeohoon exhibited reverse guiding, or more trivially, the feeling that Ye Han-seo was the problem rather than Ji Yeohoon when they first clashed.
There was also noticing how Ye Han-dam was gradually closing his heart because reverse guiding occurred when he guided himself, and predicting that Ye Han-seo might be on the rooftop.
What is this, am I some kind of prophet? I thought, but the fact that such nonsensical thoughts came to mind showed that I was definitely under a lot of stress.
Still, I couldn’t shake the feeling that if I handled Ye Han-seo well now, things would turn out okay later.
“If I go to the ski resort, can you make sure I don’t get hurt?”
“Huh?”
“I asked if you can.”
“Of course I can!”
Feeling I had no choice but to go, I nodded. I’ll have to process the application form when I get back to class.
Ji Yeohoon brightened up and raised his head.
Since he’d been using my thigh as a pillow for so long, my leg suddenly started to tingle as the blood hadn’t been flowing properly.
I guess I let him lie there too long.
Yoon Cheong sighed deeply and massaged my thigh.
“That’s why I told him to get up.”
“Don’t pretend you weren’t jealous. You couldn’t do it because your head is too heavy, hyung.”
“Is your head not heavy?”
“It’s lighter than yours.”
“My head is small, you know?”
“I’m smaller than you in body and head. That’s why it’s lighter.”
Why did the conversation jump there?
“Stop fighting,” I said, placing my arm between them to separate them.
“I didn’t remember the dates since I wasn’t planning to go to the ski resort. When are we going?”
“January 2nd.”
“That’s a Thursday. Why not start on January 1st?”
“Oh, I heard the teachers talking about that. Apparently, some grades are planning to have class parties on December 31st. So they’re letting students stay up late for that, and then rest on January 1st.”
“…That’s our class.”
“What?”
“That’s our class. How did that rumor spread when I didn’t tell the teacher about it?”
I hope they haven’t discovered the alcohol we were secretly planning to bring in.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
