Chapter 5
After our morning classes, everyone except me hurried toward the school cafeteria. I knew it would be too busy to join the crowd, so I stayed back to study. As I got ready, Jung In-Ah approached me.
“You’re not eating lunch?”
“I will.”
“Then come on, let’s go.” We had agreed beforehand that we would eat lunch together.
This was unexpected. We made our way out of the classroom and headed to the cafeteria. Jung In-Ah waved at everyone she knew she bumped into. I constantly turned away awkwardly, pretending not to be part of the interaction.
Jung In-Ah had a lot of friends, guys and girls alike. I counted tens of them just by observing the ones we had met in the hallways. Jung In-Ah didn’t seem tired at all, even though she had exchanged greetings with everyone. She was very different from me.
“Every time I see this place, I’m shocked by how many trees there are,” Jung In-Ah remarked as we crossed the field to get to the cafeteria.
As she had said, there were a lot of trees. It seemed that the ground left over after the buildings were built was used to grow trees. The air was always fresh, thanks to the vast number of trees.
“Is that a pine tree? Look at that Japanese Wisteria over there. And... do you know what kind of tree that one is?” Jung In-Ah asked.
“That’s a king cherry tree,” I replied.
“Oh, it’s a cherry tree. I’ve never seen them without the flowers.” Jung In Ah smiled as if she were embarrassed.
Flower buds filled the flowerless cherry tree.
“So what’s the difference between a king cherry tree and a regular cherry tree?” Jung In-Ah asked.
“There’s not that big of a difference. The flower petals are a different color.”
“... Do you want to be a botanist when you grow up? I’m amazed by your knowledge.”
I smiled without saying a word. One of the Loa was highly related to plants. The Loa was very graceful, and their power could be used to grow seedlings into giant trees in a flash. Of course, their power came with an extreme consequence.
Thanks to them, I had a lot of plant knowledge.
“I wonder when the cherry blossoms will bloom this year,” Jung In-Ah said suddenly, staring at the sky. Although it seemed like a harmless thought spoken out loud, her eyes seemed to stare at something in the distance, or something in the past. Her eyes were drooping, and she clasped her lips.
It was a sad expression. “Why do you want to go see the flowers?”
“I don’t think I’ll be able to go this year. I think I’ll be too busy.”
“Does that mean you used to go every year?”
[Using what you’ve learned from your dad, I see.]
Before he passed away, my father trained me in many fields, including psychology and speech. He believed that a religious man ought to be good with his words and excel in figuring out what different people were thinking.
His lessons were filled with hard terms like backtracking and regression, but I powered through and absorbed his teachings. I had almost no experience talking with women, yet here I was, talking to Jung In-Ah without fault. My ability to talk to Jung In-Ah without any prior experience talking to women was all thanks to my dad. This composition is securely entrenched in n0v*lbin★
“Yeah. I used to go there every year. I love cherry blossoms.”
“Really? Where’s your go-to place?”
“Sometimes I go to the place by the Han River. Have you seen the small river in front of the school? The walkway next to it is good too.”
I responded appropriately and sometimes dropped a few questions to further the conversation. As we continued talking, Jung In-Ah’s sad face lit up, and her sadness was less visible. I continued using the conversation skills I had learned from my father.
“You must have gone there last year as well.”
“Last year? Yeah, I went with my sibling. Back then, they were still with me.”
Alas, her face suddenly turned dark. She still had a smile, but it was clearly forced.
“Ah... I’m sorry.”
I had used my father’s techniques to lighten the mood, but it seemed that I had just made matters worse.
“There’s no need to be sorry! My sibling isn’t dead, and I’ll find them soon.”
Jung In-Ah’s forced smile reminded me that I might be responsible for her sibling’s kidnapping. That thought made me feel uneasy.
“You’re right. They’ll be back soon.”
I could only offer her bland words of consolation. As I was talking with Jung In-Ah, someone waiting in front of the line started to wave their hands while making their way toward us.
“This is a new combination. Are you guys eating together?”
“Eh, why are you acting all friendly suddenly?”
“Why, I can’t even talk to you guys?”
Jung In-Ah and Koo Jun-Hyuk fussed with me in the middle. Their conversations weren’t awkward at all—they seemed to know each other from before high school.
“Why eat with us? Don’t you have other friends to eat with?” Koo Jun-Hyuk laughed cheekily at Jung In-Ah’s blunt question.
“Eh, whatever. I bet me eating with you guys would be better than eating with each other.”
“Huh? What are you talking about?” Jung In-Ah furrowed her eyebrows.
I understood what Koo Jun-Hyuk meant right away, but it seemed like Jun In-Ah didn’t understand. He was right. It would look more natural for him to eat with us than if it was just me and Jung In-Ah. After all, people my age could fret over anything.
“Today’s lunch is nice,” Koo Jun-Hyuk said as he ate.
The food at F.A. was delicious. Expensive private schools sure did their money’s worth with the exquisite cafeteria food quality. It was to the extent that it made all the food I had from other schools feel like animal feed. After lunch, Koo Jun-Hyuk took a big stretch as he got up.
“Ha~ Why is there a test when we’re only three days into the school year? Kinda pisses me off.”
[Khmm, oh, D, hmm, ark, D, hmm...]
I changed my answer to D.
Legba was well-versed in the study of history and religious studies. Not only did he have the Holy Book of Voodooists memorized, but he knew all the Holy Books of other religions by heart. He also knew most of humanity's history since the rise of civilization.
If he said the answer was D, then the answer was probably D.
[Oooh, I feel a connection with E, but don’t worry about me.]
[Ah, ah, CHOICE C! Oh my, what a weird sneeze.]
I solved all the questions till number 30 with Legba’s aid.
I would get full marks if this continued, but I couldn’t help feeling guilty. This was cheating.
[What is there to feel guilty about? It is your talent to harness the Loa and get their help.]
Legba tried to ease my guilt, but I couldn’t shake off the feeling. With an uncomfortable feeling in my gut, I diverted my attention to the Question 31 on my test sheet.
Question 31.) Seven years ago, there was a Holy War between the Voodooists and the Romanicans. Select the following that is not true.
The difficulty of the questions had dropped from the ones from before.
Questions 1 through 30 required high levels of memorization and critical thinking, but the questions from number 31 onward were so easy that anyone who could read could get it right. To be more precise, anyone who thought like a Romanican could solve the questions with ease.
In other words, the questions were hard to solve for someone with a Voodooist philosophy like Legba.
[Why is the answer D? That needs a sound argument to back it up.]
[No, no. The Voodooists did not kill that person. The accident was tampered by the Holy See to look that way.]
[The answer is B. Why on earth would you select C as the answer?]
Legba sounded exasperated. I ignored their clamor and resumed solving the questions while thinking like a Romanican. I felt uneasy solving questions obviously filled with information that favored the Romanicans, but this was not the time to argue about these things.
***
The next day, the evaluation results were displayed in front of the main building.
All seven hundred freshmen came over to check their exam marks. Students were sitting on dirt, dismayed by their scores, and some headed to the school staff to complain about their results. All the teachers tried to calm the uproar, but it was impossible to control all seven hundred students at once.
Unfortunately, a student put an end to the chaos.
“Ha-Yeon, did you do well on the test?”
“I would have gotten everything right because I knew everything.”
It was like seeing the miracle of Moses. The sea of students parted as Sung Ha-Yeon crossed the crowd. Sung Ha-Yeon walked through the paved path with a pompous and elegant attitude that seemed to be engraved in her.
“That’s the inquisitor’s daughter, right? The one who’s part of the House of Purification.”
“Yeah, she placed first in the written entrance exam.”
The students were gossiping about Sung Ha-Yeon. They whispered about the stories of her father, her bloodline, and her scores. Some people looked up to her while some people were jealous of her. However, if there was one thing that these people shared, it was the fact that Sung Ha-Yeon had no interest in any of them.
The only thing she was interested in was the results of her evaluation.
Sung Ha-Yeon’s face seemed stiff as soon as she saw her marks on the poster.
Sung Ha-Yeon (195.8/200)
She thought she had gotten a perfect score. However, she had gotten one question wrong.
“Woah, you only got one question wrong? Wow, that’s amazing!”
“I thought I had gotten all of them right. That’s a shame.”
“Regardless, doesn’t this mean you’re in the first place? What are your secrets to studying? Hm?”
Sung Ha-Yeon’s friends were fangirling. Although she seemed ashamed of her score, 195.8 points were more than enough to secure first place.
“I just tried a bit more than most,” she said casually to her friends asking for study tips. It was an arrogant answer, but no one objected. Sung Ha-Yeon could back up her arrogance with results.
However, Sung Ha-Yeon’s face suddenly turned to stone.
Second Place—Sung Ha-Yeon
She was not in first place, but rather second place.
First Place—Do Sun-Woo
She thought she was obviously going to get first place, but there was a name she had never heard before.
Do Sun-Woo? Who in the world was he?
Amidst the buzzing crowd, a low and gruff voice filled the square in front of the main building.
“Wait, Do Sun-Woo, why are you in first place? Didn’t you say you didn’t study?!”
As soon as the crowd heard the name Do Sun-Woo, they turned their heads in the direction of the voice. At the source of the voice stood Koo Jun-Hyuk and Do Sun-Woo. The low and gruff voice was Koo Jun-Hyuk’s.
Sung Ha-Yeon eyed Do Sun-Woo. The name was unfamiliar to her, but she recognized his face. He was the person who had fallen asleep during the lecture during the entrance ceremony. She remembered his face because of how stupid he looked.
Yet, that dimwit took first place? Was it a computational error? She could not—no, she would not believe it. What drove the confused Sung Ha-Yeon crazy were the words that came out of Do Sun-Woo’s mouth.
“I was lucky, I guess.”
He showed humility by accounting his score to luck. The overboard humility made him seem arrogant, but he could back up his arrogance with results. So, Sung Ha-Yeon stayed silent.