Chapter 15 Part 3: Adaptation.

The glass wall slowly faded away.

The man was gone, and only my homeroom teacher remained.

I slowly let out a sigh of relief.

My homeroom teacher looked at me for a moment, then smiled and said.

“I thought so.”

“…Yes.”

“Then, should I speak to the vice-principal and ask him to prevent the news from being released?”

“I would be grateful if you could do that.”

“I see.”

I thanked my teacher repeatedly after that.

Honestly, if the news broke, I thought it would disrupt my academy life.

So I kept thanking her, and then I stumbled slightly.

My teacher, judging that something was wrong, immediately reached out her hand to me.

I didn’t take her hand, and instead, I forced a joke.

“But, Teacher.”

“…Yes?”

“You’re older than me, so why aren’t you speaking informally? It’s a bit strange.”

“…Is that supposed to be a joke?”

“I wouldn’t know.”

My teacher sighed softly.

And then she slowly began to explain, saying there was a reason.

“It’s the influence of the vice-principal, whom I respect.”

“Is that so?”

“And there was a certain someone I loathed, who always talked down to others.”

“…”

“To show respect to others, I mainly use formal speech.”

I slowly nodded.

It seemed like my homeroom teacher had a past as complicated as mine.

So, I thought I should be more careful with my words next time.

…My homeroom teacher smiled brightly and joked with me.

“Ah. Of course, I don’t use it when I don’t want to. I’m human too, you know.”

I chuckled.

I thought my homeroom teacher… might actually get along with me.

No, in a way, we were bound to get along.

Because my teacher resembled my uncles when they were young.

Considering how well I got along with my older brothers when I was young…

I thought I could get along with my homeroom teacher as well.

Having thought that far, I quickened my pace.

Since the misunderstanding was cleared, I didn’t want to trouble my teacher any further.

So, I walked with my teacher towards the first-year building of the campus.

And when I arrived at the classroom, I savored the atmosphere of the empty room.

I had never arrived this early during my school days.

So I had a fantasy about this kind of atmosphere…

And indeed, it seemed worthy of having a fantasy.

The slightly dark and quiet classroom was really nice to see.

“Excuse me, Yeji.”

“…Yes?”

“Would you put down your bag and come here?”

“Ah, yes.”

I hung my bag on my seat and walked over to my teacher.

My teacher was taking out some kind of document, but I couldn’t read the details.

The writing was too small, so I would have to look at it closely.

My teacher organized the documents and began to explain to me.

“You know that modern society is also called the ability society, right?”

“Yes.”

“Naturally, everyone has at least one different ability, and the conditions for using it are different.”

“So that’s why we can get away with taking drugs?”

“Because there are hunters who can only use psychokinesis after drinking alcohol, and people who can only fight after feeling self-loathing.”

“Ah…”

“Of course, it’s not always overlooked. Only for the first instance, it’s take first, report later.”

“Then, since this is my first time, is it also take first, report later?”

“That’s right. Did you happen to bring that medicine with you?”

“Yes.”

I nodded and took out the ordinary painkiller that my aunt had given me from my bag.

And after showing it to my teacher, I waited for a moment.

My teacher took a picture of the container, then took out a writing utensil from the desk drawer.

“Good. I’ll take care of the rest, so be careful not to take too much.”

“…Don’t you need an explanation about the painkiller?”

“Other students often use this too. Any beast-person has taken it at least once.”

“Is that so.”

“Yes. You can go back to your seat.”

I slowly nodded and went back to my seat.

I wanted to talk with my teacher for a while, but she seemed to be busy.

So, without hesitation, I returned to my seat and turned on my phone screen.

While I was doing that, my homeroom teacher made a phone call to somewhere.

I unintentionally overheard the phone call, but it wasn’t a serious matter.

It seemed like the medicine I submitted was just an ordinary painkiller, and she was reporting it to the nurse’s office.

For a while, my teacher kept contacting the nurse’s office.

From what I heard, it seemed like there were many other students who had taken medication besides me.

She seemed to be trying to remember the medicines those students were taking and stock them in the classroom.

Then, my teacher hung up the phone and started working, writing something on the documents.

I smiled as I watched her.

It was very nice to see her working hard.

And after some more time passed, other students started to come in groups of three or five.

My teacher talked with the other students…

But I still kept my gaze fixed on my phone.

Because no one had come to me yet.

Even if they had, no one spoke to me first.

So I didn’t need to speak first either, I guess.

Thinking that, I kept looking at my phone.

Then suddenly, someone called my name and sat down.

“Hi, Yeji.”

“…Huh?”

So I reflexively turned my head, and I realized that the student who spoke to me was my seatmate.

I stared blankly at the student’s face for a moment, then greeted him awkwardly.

He was tall, and his face was handsome… He really seemed like he would have a lot of friends.

So I wanted to keep a moderate distance, but it seemed like I wouldn’t be able to.

“I’m Gong Jin-hu, nice to meet you.”

“Ah, yes. Nice to meet you.”

“My family name is a bit unusual, isn’t it?”

“…Since it’s Gong, a little?”

“I’m a direct descendant of Confucius.”

Gong Jin-hu started talking about his family, starting with those words.

If he didn’t have a knack for speaking, I might have been put off, wondering why he was like this.

But Gong Jin-hu had the ability to unravel interesting stories well.

To the point where at some point, I turned off the screen of my phone and listened to his story.

“How was it, was it interesting?”

“…Yes. It was a very interesting story.”

“Could we, perhaps, talk a little more?”

Gong Jin-hu smiled as he said that.

I hesitated for a moment.

I felt like we had talked enough, so I wanted to go back to doing my own thing.

But he was my seatmate, and the story he told was interesting…

So I decided to talk a little more.

…I don’t know why I felt the illusion of a glass wall appearing.

Still, I managed to have a long conversation with Gong Jin-hu.

It wasn’t a deep conversation with Gong Jin-hu.

It was just things like what I was looking forward to before coming to the academy.

Or stories about hunters or heroes who graduated from Busan International Academy.

Just the kind of stories a high school student would talk about.

But just that was very fun, so I genuinely laughed and talked with Gong Jin-hu.

Of course, we didn’t talk for a very long time.

There’s only so much you can talk about with those topics…

And most of the students had gradually arrived, and it was almost 8:30.

So I appropriately ended the conversation with Gong Jin-hu and slowly waited for my homeroom teacher to start the morning assembly.

“Alright, everyone. Please focus. We will now begin the morning assembly.”

My teacher said that and started the assembly.

I enjoyed the assembly, feeling like I had become young again after a long time.

The content was nothing special, but there was still an atmosphere.

And during break time, I talked with Si-woo and Si-a, and I also finished preparing to start class.

The classes… were nothing special, as my aunt had said.

First of all, it was basically at the high school level…

And it was also because it was the first day, so it felt like learning *about* the classes.

All the teachers who came into the class talked about what we would learn in the future.

So the classes were quite comfortable.

I didn’t have to be nervous about memorizing things by force, I could just remember what the teacher said.

It also helped that I already knew most of the content.

I still remembered studying to death as a test subject.

Time flew by like an arrow.

Just when I thought the classes were already over, the bell rang to announce lunch time.

Hearing that, I sat blankly for a moment and waited.

First of all, the biggest reason was that I couldn’t think of anything to do right away.

And above all, I liked to eat lunch alone.

I did that in my previous life, and that preference hasn’t changed even now.

…In my current life, I was forced to eat alone, but, well.

It doesn’t really matter.

Anyway, after living like that for a few years, eating together was somewhat awkward.

So I was thinking of killing some time and going in last to eat.

It seemed like I just had to eat within the lunch time.

It wasn’t like I didn’t have a place to go.

There were still many buildings of the academy that I hadn’t explored yet.

So I decided to go to the library and stood up from my seat.

But I couldn’t.

“Hey, Yeji!”

“Lee Yeji!”

As soon as lunch time started, Si-woo and Si-a, who had stood up from their seats, called me.

The two of them immediately came over to me and said.

“Let’s eat together.”

“That’s right, I’m sick and tired of eating with just my brother.”

“Haha…”

I laughed like that and thought about it.

I felt like refusing and exploring the academy…

But I thought it would be really fun to be with the two of them.

So I immediately nodded, and both of them were very happy.

But we couldn’t eat right away as we had thought.

There were already people who had gone to eat, so it seemed like it would be less crowded after some time.

I forced a smile as I looked at the line that could be seen from afar.

In the end, Si-woo made a serious face and declared.

“Let’s go to the snack bar…!”

Of course, I had no reason to refuse that.