Chapter 19
I went to school the day after I met Kim Jin-Seo. There were no classes because the school had shut down. However, it was still possible to use the facilities available at Florence Academy, so I was thinking of going to the gym.
The school recommended not going out, but I didn’t want to stay alone in my empty room with nothing to do. Today, I planned on doing some chest workouts with bench presses, but there was some guy who looked as if he was built like a monster on the bench. As a result, I decided to just work on my back instead.
“Phew.”
40 kg, 10 reps, and 5 sets. I was working out my back hard by doing a standard lat pulldown and then briefly took a breath. It was harder than usual since it had been a while since I’d done this exercise.
While I was taking a break, I looked around the surrounding area. Considering the school had shut down, there were quite a lot of people on campus. They were all students who wanted to become paladins and crusaders.
Among them was Jin-Seo. She was doing a cardio workout on the treadmill. It looked like she had recovered pretty well. Her face looked better than usual.
“What the... Did you get discharged? When?”
While I was looking at her like that, someone spoke to me. It was Koo Jun-Hyuk.
“Yesterday.”
“You should have told me if you got discharged, dude. Did you know that I went to see you at the hospital?” Undertake a voyage to the genesis at n0v*lbin#★
“Ah. That’s right. I heard it from my uncle. Thanks.”
“So you knew, but you still didn’t contact me? You’re so cruel.”
“I was really busy yesterday. There were lots of things to take care of.”
There was the deal with Bae Jung-Hwan and the incident with Kim Jin-Seo. I was so tired that I went straight to bed when I got home. It was such a busy day that there was no time to contact anybody. Furthermore, there was no particular reason to contact Koo Jun-Hyuk anyway.
“Is it okay to start exercising right after being discharged from the hospital.... Huh? Look at this guy.”
Koo Jun-Hyuk suddenly made a surprised expression.
“Do you like Jin-Seo?”
“What are you saying out of the blue?”
He was talking nonsense.
“Wait, you were looking at Jin-Seo, weren’t you?”
“I just caught a glimpse of her. So what about it?”
“So you did look at her. You like her, right? Right? Do you like her?”
“No. I was just curious about how she recovered so quickly. You know she was also hurt badly.”
I didn’t feel the need to explain that I met Jin-Seo yesterday, so I just made up something. Jun-Hyuk looked at Jin-Seo, who was running hard, and nodded quietly.
“...You’re right. How did she recover so quickly?”
“What?”
“Does she have good recuperative powers? Hmm.”
Koo Jun-Hyuk pretended to be in agony with his arms crossed, then smiled.
“She must have been treated at a good hospital. She is loaded with money, after all.”
“Yes, that’s what I thought.”
“Anyway, keep exercising hard. I’m going to go cause there’s a crazy guy over here.”
Koo Jun-Hyuk roughly wiped off his sweat with a towel and left the gym. His steps were rushed. Before my flow could get disturbed, I resumed my workout. I didn’t have a moment to think about the crazy guy that Koo Jun-Hyuk mentioned. I completed more lat pulldowns, pull-ups, and seated rows. By the time my back muscles were no longer functioning, I had moved on to bicep curls.
“RIGHT WAY! WHOO-!”
While focusing on lifting the barbell, I heard a strange sound from the bench. It was a voice too wild to belong to a human. It was safe to say that it was the cry of a beast. Perfect arms, legs, chest, and back—a giant man with an impeccable body was doing a bench press. Five 20 kg discs were on each side of the barbell. The giant guy was lifting a total weight of 220 kgs with ease.
[Is that a human? It looks more like a bear that turned into a human.]
Even Legba, who had experienced all of life’s ups and downs, was surprised.
“COME ON! RIGHT WAY. EASY WAY! WHOOOO-!!”
He was simply a madman. I ignored the madman's shouts while listening to a song in my earphones. Nevertheless, his shouts occasionally pierced through my earphones and entered my ears. His voice was so ridiculously loud that it was difficult to believe.
While feeling depressed for no reason, a clear and clean voice came from behind. I turned my head around and found Kim Jin-Seo. Her black, medium to short-length hair was a little messy. Judging from her rough breathing, she seemed to have run here.
“Ah. You, has your finger recover—”
“This.”
Even before I could finish my sentence, Jin-Seo suddenly offered something.
It was jelly.
I heard that this kind of jelly was popular among students these days, but I’d never tried it. It was also my first time seeing it in person.
"I just wanted to thank you. I don't think I said it back then. ...Ah, and my finger is fine now—"
"Yeah. ...Huh? Oh. You mean your finger is all better now, right? Is there a scar?”
"Oh, a scar...There’s no scar." Somehow something went horribly wrong, and the conversation drove itself off a cliff.
When I tried to talk, Kim Jin-Seo cut me off, and when she tried to talk, I cut her off. The atmosphere felt more awkward for no reason. Kim Jin-Seo's face, which was always full of laughter, was locked in a stiff and cold expression.
"Anyway, I'll go,” Kim Jin-Seo said before joining her group of friends. Then she took some more jellies out of her bag and gave them to her friends. It was the same kind that gave me.
She had bought the jelly for her friends in the first place. But she must have given some to me because she had leftovers.
[I reattached her finger, and she barely gave you a bag of jelly in return! What a lucrative business,] Legba remarked sarcastically. If one weighed the advantages and disadvantages, it was an obvious loss.
However, I didn't do it for money in the first place, so I didn't feel like it was a loss at all. I just felt sorry for Jin-Seo. No, that wasn’t right. The reason I helped her was because Jin-Seo was the chairman’s daughter.
It was a little disappointing that what I received in return was jelly, because I hated jelly. I was the type of person to eat anything without being picky, but jelly was the only thing I couldn’t stand. To be honest, I didn't even think of jelly as food.
"Hey, why are you going alone? ...What is that? Jelly?"
After walking for some time, Jung In-Ah and Koo Jun-Hyuk came in while walking side by side. In-Ah looked suspicious when she saw the jelly in my hand.
"They don't sell this near here. Where did you buy it?”
"I didn't buy it. I got it from Jin-Seo earlier."
"Huh? Are you close to Jin-Seo?"
In-Ah's expression hardened a little bit. Just a tiny bit.
"I'm not close with her, there was just some stuff that happened."
Jun-Hyuk, who was listening next to us, stepped in.
"What? Don’t tell me that’s the reason why you were peeking at her?"
"Peeking at who? When?"
“That’s right. You two were close enough to exchange jelly with each other, so it’s hard to call it peeking. It must have been some sort of special signal that you exchanged with each other. It’s safe to look at it that way—.”
Smack.
In-Ah kicked Jun-Hyuk in the shin.
It was quite refreshing. I was getting a bit annoyed with his rambling.
"You be quiet now."
"Oh, hey! Stop kicking my shins. It hurts like hell, you know? Should I hit you back?”
Koo Jun-Hyuk grabbed his shin and hopped. After exchanging such trivial jokes, we had already arrived at the classroom. We opened the back door and entered without too much thought.
However, the students were looking at us in a strange manner. To be exact, they were looking at ‘me’ with a cold gaze. There was clear hostility in the eyes of the students. The hostility was all directed at me.
"What the? What's wrong with the atmosphere?"
Koo Jun-Hyuk also noticed that the atmosphere was strange.
Ring!
It was then that a cheerful tone of text rang.
It was a text message for In-Ah and Jun-Hyuk. I didn't get a text message.
"What is this?"
Jung In-Ah looked at the text with a stiff expression.