Chapter 64 : Chapter 64
Chapter 64: School Trip (4)
Jin-ho, who blindly left the room, passed the lobby and came out of the accommodation.
And then he ran quickly.
After running like that for a few minutes.
"……."
Jin-ho could discover it.
Kang Tae-wook's back, sitting by the seashore.
Jin-ho, catching his breath, slowly moved his steps there.
Why?
What did I intend to say?
I don't know the reason.
My feet just moved.
So I just came.
As the distance got closer, anxiety about what to say bloomed in my heart.
So.
I just sat next to him.
"……."
"……."
I thought I should at least apologize.
But it was Kang Tae-wook who had beaten everyone up instead.
And I knew well that he wouldn't accept it even if I apologized now.
So I just sat silently and stared at the waves.
One minute.
Five minutes.
While waiting endlessly for Kang Tae-wook's anger to subside like that.
Unexpectedly, the one who broke the silence first was Kang Tae-wook.
"It seemed like you were plotting something strange with the teacher."
At Kang Tae-wook's voice, cold sweat trickled down Jin-ho's forehead.
"Huh? Uh…… no, there's nothing like that."
First, I denied it.
Since he might be testing me.
And because I remember clearly.
The brainwashing that continued from the bus.
If I leak information to the target before the operation even begins.
Those people won't leave me alone.
They would probably treat me like a traitor, a turncoat, and throw me into that deep sea and then some.
Fortunately, Kang Tae-wook didn't place his gaze on me, but was only staring at the pitch-black sea where waves were crashing and dying amongst themselves.
"……."
So I kept my mouth shut tight and placed silence upon the sound of waves.
Whether the silence worked, or the lie worked, Kang Tae-wook didn't ask further about this matter.
Thinking this was the chance, Jin-ho raised his head to change the subject and pointed at the sky with his fingertip.
"Wow, there are so many stars. It's totally different from Seoul."
"……."
An answer didn't return, but a sense of relief spread inside Jin-ho.
Because Kang Tae-wook's gaze, who had kept his mouth firmly shut, turned to the sky.
Come to think of it, how long has it been since we sat side by side and talked like this?
For the first month or so after admission, it was like this every day.
Jin-ho kept attaching useless words to Tae-wook.
Tae-wook didn't react much, but they were always attached.
The year after that was, well, nothing short of hell, but.
Anyway.
Jin-ho, looking at the stars embedded like clams in the dark night sky, suddenly recalled that time and his expression sank.
'How did we end up like this?'
It was awkward to call us friends, but we were always attached.
It is true that I approached him intentionally, but anyway, the two always stood side by side.
There is such a saying.
That the closest relationship becomes a relationship worse than strangers.
Lovers were like that.
Couples who promised to be together forever were like that.
Since I am still young, I didn't know their hearts, but surely.
Jin-ho and Tae-wook too.
There must have been a future where we didn't walk the hellish path that existed for the past year.
"……."
"……."
Although they didn't know what each was thinking in their hearts, the two just gazed at the stars shining brilliantly in the darkness.
In the midst of that.
"Hey."
A voice flowed from Tae-wook's mouth.
Heavier than the sound of waves, yet lighter than the darkness of the night sky.
At that sound, Jin-ho's head moved.
And for the first time here.
Tae-wook's gaze was directed at Jin-ho.
Jin-ho and Tae-wook's gazes intersected.
The atmosphere sank.
Colder than the sea breeze.
And Jin-ho's eyes trembled.
It was inevitable.
Because Tae-wook was making an expression he was seeing for the first time.
I've never seen this guy make such an expression.
Even during our first meeting when we didn't know each other's identities yet.
Even at that moment when the relationship went awry.
Even amidst that bullying that lasted for a year.
Tae-wook had never made such an expression.
So Jin-ho didn't know this emotion he was feeling right now.
And the events that would unfold in the future too.
Not even once.
Because it was a moment he had never expected nor imagined.
The emotion deeply revealed on Kang Tae-wook's face.
The thick mask he had been wearing with the modifier of being the best, always overflowing with confidence.
All of that fell off.
For the first time.
Because it felt like seeing the real bare face of Kang Tae-wook.
Jin-ho, whose body and mind had stiffened.
Unlike him, Kang Tae-wook was twitching his lips, trying to say something.
And how painful and difficult a choice that was.
Even Jin-ho, who was facing him, could feel it.
"You know, actually I……."
Gulp.
At the moment Jin-ho was swallowing dry saliva at Tae-wook's unconfident voice he was hearing for the first time in his life.
"Found him!"
"He's here!"
The twins' voices rang loudly from behind.
At that sound breaking the mood.
Tae-wook's expression changed in an instant.
To his usual expression of being noble and 'I am the best'.
His sharp gaze directed at the newly appeared kids.
Tae-wook, biting his lip strongly, stood up from his seat.
"Annoying bastards."
He stood up, brushing off his bottom.
Jin-ho couldn't show any movement because the situation from just before still remained largely in his mind.
"Kang Tae-wook, let's go one more round! Pirate K…… no! The Pillow King is mine!"
When Jo Seong-hyeon appeared following the twins, Kang Tae-wook took a step to leave the spot.
Leaving one last word to Jin-ho.
"Don't mind it. It wasn't anything important."
Kang Tae-wook drifting away.
The twins and Jo Seong-hyeon chasing him.
Jin-ho watched their receding backs, but.
Before his eyes still.
'You know, actually I…….'
Kang Tae-wook's expression, which he had seen for the first time in his life, was not disappearing.
***
The second day of the school trip dawned.
The first battle that happened last night.
Yoo jin, hearing the report that they lost in the pillow fight, nodded with a bitter expression.
But soon.
"It's okay. You guys did enough."
Showing a small smile, he comforted the defeated soldiers.
"As expected of Teacher!"
"We will follow you forever!"
"The first battle is merely a stepping stone!"
The twins and Jo Seong-hyeon clenched their fists tightly and erased yesterday's defeat from their minds.
As the kids said, yesterday's fight was merely a skirmish.
Their real fierce battle was tonight.
Yoo jin's gaze headed to Jin-ho standing behind the kids.
Thick dark circles and a blank expression.
He looked as if he had stayed up all night.
I don't know what happened, but it seemed something happened that made him unable to sleep.
"Did you see a pretty student from another school or something?"
"Yes?!"
Jin-ho, who was wearing a blank expression at Yoo jin's voice, discovered the gazes directed at him.
The twins and Seong-hyeon.
Even Ye-na and Lee Si-wang behind Yoo jin.
Eyes of various colors were directed at him.
"What, what do you mean?"
"Look in the mirror. With those dark circles, it's exactly the face of a single-since-birth guy who fell in love and couldn't sleep."
At Yoo jin's playful voice, insidious emotions filled the eyes directed at Jin-ho.
Jin-ho's face, unable to withstand those gazes, turned red.
"What nonsense are you saying. It's not like that."
"Really? Doesn't seem like it?"
"Ah, really it's not!"
"Since you're getting flustered like this, it's even more suspicious."
"Ah…… really it's not……."
At Jin-ho's embarrassed appearance, the twins and Seong-hyeon pounced on Jin-ho.
"No, since when did you start a romance business!"
"Do you know how much we suffered to get revenge on Kang Tae-wook!"
"Where is it! Where on earth did your eyes meet! Is it the sea! Where did you meet a pretty student!"
Jin-ho said several times that it was a ridiculous lie, but the twins' and Seong-hyeon's eyes had already rolled back.
Jin-ho being interrogated by the kids due to Yoo jin's false accusation.
Yoo jin, taking that sight in, showed a smile.
Actually, he knew it wasn't like that either.
There's no law saying magical things like love at first sight can't happen at a travel destination, but considering Jin-ho until now, if it's a problem he's worrying about enough to stay up all night.
Probably rather than about a girl…….
Yoo jin's gaze headed to the very front of the lined-up Class A students.
'It's probably about that guy.'
In Yoo jin's gaze, the image of Kang Tae-wook looking at Jin-ho out of the corner of his eye was captured.
Yoo jin, stroking his chin, smiled small.
The two guys' business is for the two guys to handle.
Because the time of one year and their relationship was a weight that others couldn't do anything about.
Well, that didn't mean he wouldn't interfere at all though.
"We will move now!"
Behind another teacher's voice, students started boarding the bus.
Yoo jin, who was capturing Tae-wook, turned his head toward Jin-ho who was being interrogated by the kids.
"Stop."
At that voice, the gazes of the twins and Seong-hyeon, who were putting him in a chokehold, reached Yoo jin.
Even Jin-ho whose eyes were half rolled back.
"Our target isn't Jin-ho. It's Kang Tae-wook. Steel your hearts. Only then can you each have a picture of Kang Tae-wook crying."
At Yoo jin's voice, the corners of the twins' and Seong-hyeon's mouths went up.
The relationship between the two is up to them.
But it should be fine to at least set the stage.
Within that.
It would be good to break that crooked guy's high nose once too.
"Tae-wook, I'll make you a school trip you won't be able to forget for a lifetime."
Yoo jin started laughing like a child.
"Hehe."
***
Under the blue sky of Jeju Island, the Taewoon High students continued their sightseeing happily.
Flowers of laughter bloomed everywhere, and camera flashes burst.
Although they were Awakened school students who learned to kill and studied to live, today they were just children enjoying their eighteen-year-old youth, forgetting all such things.
Like that, when the second day's schedule of the school trip that started in the morning all ended.
"It's the Test of Courage!"
"Whoaaaaaa!!"
Finally.
The flower of the school trip.
The time for the Haunted House where new couples are formed and life photos can be obtained had come.
Cheers burst out from the kids.
Although most were cheers of joy and excitement, there were quite a few with fear and tension.
One might ask if over a hundred students should be screaming and revealing emotions like this over a mere test of courage when they aren't elementary schoolers.
But who are they.
Awakened, not civilians.
Among them, talents who pierced through tremendous odds.
Students who entered the prestigious among prestigious, Taewoon High.
Kids who enter dungeons.
Kids who always have to face monsters that kill people.
So.
"We can't prepare a low-quality test of courage like just walking around a spooky abandoned house!"
In front of the lined-up students.
Yoo jin spoke into the megaphone.
"Look forward to it, because we prepared something killer."
Behind Yoo jin, a huge cave with no end in sight was visible.
***
"Kyaaaak!!"
A scream was heard from inside the cave and.
"Hey! Don't leave me! Let's go together!"
One of the students who were paired up started running forward frantically.
From the mouth of the female student following behind, curses followed continuously.
When the students disappeared, the person remaining in that spot smiled.
A woman wearing a white mourning clothes, letting her long hair down.
No, biologically a man.
Lee Si-wang, dressed as a Virgin Ghost, smiled at the cuteness watching the kids run away crying and screaming, then dropped the corners of his mouth in an instant.
Sudden reality check time.
"Hah……."
Returnee.
Since meeting Teacher Yoo jin, it was always like this.
But that doesn't mean I get used to it.
Genius.
A-Rank No. 1.
Vice Guild Master of one of the 3 Great Guilds.
A Hunter within the top five in Korea.
To think such a person is dressed as a Virgin Ghost and helping with kids' test of courage…….
"What am I doing here……."
At that moment.
Lee Si-wang's brow narrowed, and his eyes changed in an instant.
Inside the cave.
At the gaze felt from there and the sharp energy felt minutely.
"What is it? A momentarily ominous energy……."
Lee Si-wang, who looked inside the cave for a long time, relaxed his expression.
"Must have been mistaken. I checked with all the personnel playing ghost roles."
Lee Si-wang, thinking he was mistaken, hid his body again to welcome the next students.
.
.
.
In the darkness Lee Si-wang was staring at for a long time.
A blonde man hiding his body in the pitch-black darkness raised the corners of his mouth and quickly melted back into the darkness.