“Miss, how is your academy life going?”
The driver, hesitating and looking for a cue, broke the awkward silence first.
“Yeah.”
“Is nothing difficult?”
“Yeah.”
However, with Ha-ru’s short answers, the conversation was cut off as if it had never started.
Since Madam, who had been weak, passed away after not surviving the winter, the once cheerful Miss was now something to be pitied by the driver.
Despite being asked by the Vice President to drive his daughter to the academy each time, there had been no progress for the last few months.
“I will be back.”
“Um… Miss?”
“Yeah…?”
“There are always many people to help you, so don’t—”
“If you’re going to say that, I’ll just get off. Thank you for the ride today.”
“I’m sorry… Please be careful. I’ll wait here at the back gate at dismissal time.”
The girl got out of the car and took a deep breath of fresh air.
However, the journey to school wasn’t as exciting as she had hoped.
Since ‘that day’, Lee Ha-ru’s world had turned black and white in an instant.
Nothing was fun, and nothing gave her spirit.
The only thing that allowed her to feel a connection was her academy friends.
“Hi, Ha-ru! I was waiting for you!”
Jeon Nuri approached with a wave.
They were in the same 1st Grade C class last year, and she was Ha-ru’s closest friend.
Ha-ru finally relaxed her stiff expression and returned the greeting.
“Wow, you’re not using a self-driving car, you actually have a driver? The Samjin Group is really something else!”
“It’s just that my dad asked me to. It would be so uncomfortable with two people in the car.”
“But it’s still romantic, right? In dramas, rich girls always have their personal drivers.”
“Because it’s a drama. It’s not like that in real life.”
Ha-ru knew that Nuri was just joking.
Jeon Nuri, whose grandpa was the head of a university hospital, was also among the richer students in the academy.
Ha-ru didn’t intend to only befriend friends from wealthy backgrounds, but she felt more at ease with Nuri, given the distance created by the gap in wealth.
“Ha-ru, you seem really different compared to before.”
“Me? How have I changed?”
“Hmm… How should I put it? You used to be a real chatterbox, but these days you’ve been quieter, and… yeah, you’ve become chic.”
“Chic…?”
Ha-ru looked bewildered at that comment.
“Yeah! Like Elsa’s sister in ‘Frozen 4’!”
“I haven’t seen that movie, so I don’t really know.”
“What! You haven’t watched it? Elsa’s sister, Leisa, is so pretty, but she never smiles, so the palace people tried all sorts of ways to make her laugh at least once. And what they did was—”
“Stop the spoilers! I’m going to watch it later, so no more!”
“Anyway, she looks really chic. She always has a blank expression but still looks incredibly cool…”
“Like NoName?”
Ha-ru and Nuri exchanged glances.
Nuri made a hmm sound as if pondering deeply and shook her head.
“NoName has a blank face, but it’s a bit ambiguous to call it chic. It’s complicated, but if you’re cool-chic, NoName is more like cute-chic?”
“What’s cute-chic?”
“The opposite of cool is hot, so is it hot-chic? But then that sounds weird, like hot six! Hehe, I don’t really know either. Just something like that.”
Nuri laughed heartily at something she found funny.
Ha-ru awkwardly laughed along to keep the mood.
Suddenly reminded of NoName, Nuri seemed to have another topic spring to mind as she shook Ha-ru’s hand excitedly.
“Nowadays, NoName has an amazing scent! Should I ask what perfume she uses? Even though she’s in the next homeroom, I can’t concentrate in class because I keep getting distracted!”
“Yeah, I noticed it smells like apples over here.”
“Right? You smelled it too! It’s not just any apple scent. It’s an incredibly sweet apple that’s marinated in sugar and honey!”
“How do you know that? You have a super nose?”
“A bit, I guess. My mom tells me that often!”
“Oh… um… from your mom…”
“Hey, what’s up? Are you okay?”
At Nuri’s casually dropped comment, Ha-ru’s heart plummeted.
Seeing Ha-ru suddenly pale, Nuri looked concerned.
Beeeeep—
‘Again…’
A noise that seemed to confuse her head echoed in her ears.
Normally, it wouldn’t be this loud, but today it was exceptionally hard to bear.
Ha-ru squatted down for a moment on the street, clutching her head, taking deep breaths.
‘One, two…’
Beeeeep—!
“Ahhh…!”
“Ha-ru! Are you alright?”
The increasingly loud tinnitus brought a splitting headache.
Nuri, flustered by the sudden situation, quickly asked.
As far as she knew, Ha-ru was normally a healthy and energetic kid, so it was rare for her to collapse like this.
“Lee Ha-ru! What’s wrong? Is it painful?”
“No, I’m not in pain… It’s just… the sound… please block my ears a bit.”
“Ears? Like this?”
“Still hurts… the sound keeps coming.”
Despite Ha-ru’s desperate request, Nuri clumsily tried to cover her ears with her hands, but it seemed futile.
As things looked like they were getting serious, Nuri debated whether she should ask a passerby for help or even call an ambulance; meanwhile, she spotted their classmates walking down the same street.
“Hey Nuri! And next to you must be Ha-ru, right? What are you doing sitting there?”
Seori, Ji-hye, along with Yuna and Na-me following behind them appeared.
“Hey, guys… But I think Ha-ru is feeling really sick right now…”
“Ha-ru is sick? Are you okay, Ha-ru?”
Seori sprinted over to check on Ha-ru. However, she looked fine from the outside.
“I was thinking about whether to call an ambulance… but Ha-ru keeps saying she’s okay.”
“Still, maybe it’s better to call, right?”
Ji-hye carefully expressed her opinion. Yuna seemed to feel uneasy about the whole situation, keeping her distance and just watching.
“Hold on a second, can you step out?”
Finally, Na-me stepped forward, unable to stay silent.
“Lee Ha-ru, where does it hurt? Is it a headache?”
“It’s… too noisy… please…”
Ha-ru spoke in a pained voice.
However, the place they were standing was not on a busy street, but in a quiet area.
[2 Circle Cast: Diagnosis]
Na-me tried to find out the cause of Ha-ru’s pain using magic, but there was no progress.
As Na-me shook her head, the kids’ expressions grew more serious.
“It’s okay, I have an idea.”
Still, Na-me didn’t panic. She wrapped her arms around Ha-ru’s trembling body tightly.
Suddenly, a golden aura radiated from her body, enveloping them both.
The gray world felt like it suddenly lit up, and Ha-ru opened her eyes.
Beeep—
The unwanted auditory hallucinations gradually subsided.
A warm energy circled around Ha-ru, and her complexion began to improve gradually.
After checking on her status, Na-me brushed aside the sweaty bangs from Ha-ru’s forehead.
“You might feel a bit sleepy. If you feel tired, just go ahead and sleep. We’ll take you back to class.”
Following her words, Ha-ru felt as if this moment was a cozy nest, and her eyelids grew heavy.
‘Apple scent…’
Ha-ru realized it was the same aroma she talked about with Nuri earlier.
Continuing to inhale it, she felt a sense of calm wash over her, and her mind cleared.
‘The sky is blue…?’
She witnessed the clear blue sky, which she thought she might never see again.
Not wanting to forget this unexplainable, moving feeling, Ha-ru reached out her hand to Na-me.
“I feel… like I’m getting better.”
*
Ha-ru thought it was truly a day filled with drowsiness.
Having overcome the fight with the suma, she had struggled through lunch and fought against the overwhelming sleepiness.
Fortunately, the 5th period was physical education, and 6th period suddenly switched from math to art, or she would have been in a state where attending class was worse than not attending at all.
During gym class, unless it was a performance assessment period, it was always replaced with dodgeball.
Since there were only 20 kids in the class, gym time was generally held simultaneously with two classes.
Boys participated in dodgeball without any exceptions, while only about half of the girls did.
In one corner of the gym’s basketball court, Na-me was sitting against the wall, catching some Z’s.
She usually chatted with Yuna, but today she had been dragged away forcefully by Seori, so she was alone.
Nuri was also absent for a parent-teacher meeting, so Ha-ru was stuck with boredom.
Ha-ru sat quietly, watching only Na-me.
For some reason, the mysterious girl was the ‘amazing kid’ to Ha-ru.
No one in their class would disagree with that sentiment.
Sephiron Academy, which usually didn’t accept transfer students until the official entrance exams for the 1st graders, had broken its own rule to bring her in.
Proving that from her first day in class, she memorized all the names of her classmates in just one go.
Not to mention her performance on the aptitude assessment.
In the notoriously difficult exam, which tested things that could only be learned at the academy as well as portions that would come much later in their studies, she scored a perfect 100.
Though she was the smallest among the 2nd graders in the academy, it was hard to believe that she was only in 1st grade or even younger; the aura she exuded felt very mature.
For Ha-ru, there weren’t really any other descriptive terms other than ‘amazing’ that could come to mind.
Ha-ru quietly moved her seat to sit beside Na-me.
Even though she made an effort to announce her presence, Na-me still had her eyes shut.
She must have been tired like herself, taking a moment to rest.
This was Ha-ru’s chance to enjoy the opportunity to admire Na-me closely.
So cute…
Although Na-me had a thin, lanky figure, there was still baby fat on her cheeks, making her look like a big baby.
She occasionally furrowed her brow or twitched her lips, making Ha-ru believe she was definitely dreaming.
But most importantly, starting from a few days ago, every time she caught the scent of sweet apples, she felt happier.
“Will she be my friend too?”
Ha-ru was generally a well-liked girl who had previously been class president, so she was used to being popular.
Knowing this, she thought she still had plenty of opportunities to get close. Deciding not to wake Na-me, she quietly decided to slip away.
“Hey, the ball’s coming, be careful!”
A classmate, Park Tae-hyun, shouted a warning towards them.
“Wha…?”
Turning her head, Ha-ru saw the dodgeball flying toward them.
In that split second, she couldn’t even shout a warning, when suddenly, Na-me’s eyes flew open, and she swung her arm powerfully to the side.
Boom!
A sound echoed through the auditorium as if a bomb had exploded.
“…!”
“Wow, it popped.”
Na-me said in a subdued voice, staring down at the now shredded dodgeball.
She then walked over to the boys who had caused it and apologized.
“Sorry.”
“Nah, it’s okay. We’ve got more balls.”
“What if the teacher gets mad?”
“If we quietly take one from the storage room, they won’t notice.”
Returning to her spot, Na-me leaned back against the wall, lost in thought.
“How did you do that?”
Ha-ru asked incredulously.
“I accidentally used my aura. I mixed up imagining and reality for a moment.”
“Were you not asleep?”
“I wasn’t sleeping at all.”
Ha-ru’s face turned bright red.
What if Na-me caught her secretly staring at her?
Feeling flustered, Ha-ru bombarded Na-me with questions.
“What were you imagining?”
“Fighting 100 with a dagger.”
“…?”
That day, “eccentric” was a new entry in Ha-ru’s dictionary for Na-me.
