Don't Feed the Professor! - Chapter 78

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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“You were swimming……?”
I asked hesitantly.
Mallo brushed back his soaked blonde hair without a hint of concern, water droplets trailing down his jaw and shoulders. He squinted slightly against the glare of the sun.
“The sunlight’s warm.”
He said this while resting both forearms on the edge of the Swimming Pool. His shoulders, chest, and the full length of his extended arms looked like cold, hard marble.
“But……, I thought you were sensitive to the cold?”
“It’s not that I’m sensitive to cold. I just like warmth.”
“Is there a difference?”
“There is.”
Submerged to the waist, he lifted his head. Despite being soaked to the eyelashes, he looked almost cheerful.
Suddenly I was grateful I’d worn the Sunglasses.
He looked at me with eyes that gleamed a sky blue in the light.
“Did you find what you were looking for?”
Right. That’s what this was about.
I nodded. It felt foolish now that I’d been brooding over a single Note mere moments ago.
All that nonsense about nobody calling my name kindly, such childish thoughts…….
“Lee Yuri.”
I flinched and turned to look at him, and Mallo smiled at me, his face still dripping wet.
“Will you come in?”
I stood there with my mouth opening and closing for a long moment before I managed two words.
“I can’t swim.”
Of course, Mallo spoke as if it were no problem at all.
“I’ll teach you.”
“That……, could you maybe stop throwing around offers to teach me……?”
“I’m your professor, aren’t I? What else would I be here for?”
He spoke as if humming to himself. The strange distance that had lingered between us for so long had vanished entirely.
‘Besides, I was the one who pushed him away first.’
If I thought about it that way, my hurt feelings seemed absurd.
I was the one who said I was leaving, the one who said I didn’t need his help.
I crouched down at the edge of the Swimming Pool. Mallo still had his arms draped over the rim, looking up at me.
“Professor, you remember what you said before? About not blaming myself for misfortune? Do you remember that?”
“Yes.”
“Well……, thinking about it, falling into the Fortress is a kind of misfortune too. So I thought……, accepting help wouldn’t make me weak, would it? I mean, if I really need help, and if it’s alright with you……. Maybe it would be okay to accept it gratefully sometimes…….”
From the moment I heard Lee Ha-young’s mention of the Cheongsin Jinri Research Association, the series of events could no longer be separated from me.
With nothing yet revealed about Kang Woo-jin, about “A,” I couldn’t leave the Fortress now.
And more than anything…….
“Are you looking at my face right now?”
Mallo asked teasingly. I quickly shook my head back and forth.
“Well, anyway, what I’m trying to say is……, if I left now, I think my heart would feel unsettled……. Could I postpone leaving the Fortress for a while?”
“…….”
Mallo stared at me intently. I hesitated before adding more.
“If I need help……, I’ll call for you right away.”
“Can you Promise me that?”
Without a word, I extended my pinky, and Mallo laughed. His long, cool finger wrapped lightly around mine, then slipped away.
“……You know.”
“Yes.”
“It’s okay if you treat me like you did before.”
“‘Like before’?”
“‘Without reservation.'”
Thanks to the Sunglasses, words I couldn’t have said otherwise came tumbling out. A leisurely smile spread across Mallo’s lips as he watched me.
And once again, he answered my question with a question.
“Have I ever refused you anything?”
“…….”
“Come in, Lee Yuri.”
Mallo took a step back into the water as he said this.
“No. I don’t have a swimsuit anyway.”
“So what?”
He laughed playfully and sank back beneath the surface.
I let out a small laugh in return. But my heart was racing out of control.
His figure cutting through the water seemed utterly unreal.
* * *
That night.
Splash.
I found myself standing alone in the quiet night Swimming Pool.
A half-moon hung in the sky and I was submerged to the waist in still water.
Was it a dream?
Or had I somehow slipped into some strange world without realizing it?
Staring blankly at the water’s surface, I suddenly realized the ripples were moving in one direction.
When I looked up, Mallo was sitting at the edge of the Swimming Pool, watching me.
As if enchanted, I moved toward him.
But why wasn’t Mallo wet at all? I thought this as I slowly cut through the water.
The summer shirt and trousers were transparent in the moonlight, exactly as I’d seen them this afternoon.
―How strange.
From above my head, Mallo let out a low laugh.
―Did you want to play in the water?
Quietly, I reached out and gently grasped Mallo’s collar. Beneath the dry fabric, I could feel his cool body heat.
“Professor.”
I asked.
“Are you just going to keep watching?”
Mallo continued to look down at me with amusement in his eyes. His large hand reached toward my face.
―Lee Yuri.
He cupped my chin with his fingertip. His eyes curved cunningly, his hand tracing my lips with deliberate intimacy.
He asked in a whisper.
―What do you want to do with me?
The water rippled below my waist, and the waning moonlight dizzied my eyes.
My lips parted without my willing them. My heart pounded, my whole body trembling faintly.
And then.
“Gasp.”
I jerked awake in bed.
Morning sunlight filtered through the gap in the curtains.
“……A dream.”
Staring blankly at the ceiling, I felt my face suddenly flush hot, and I pulled the blanket over my head.
What kind of dream was that? What on earth was I dreaming about? I muttered as if possessed, kicking at the blanket. Thump, thump.
“No, no, it’s fine.”
There’s no need to be embarrassed. It was just a dream, after all.
Yes, just like the dream where Mallo dissected me on my first day here. It means nothing, so there’s no reason to attach any significance to it.
Besides, it wasn’t even a particularly special dream when you think about it. Mallo just appeared, we just made eye contact a bit, we just had some nonsensical conversation.
“Right. Don’t think about it.”
But there was one problem.
Today was Tuesday. In a few hours, I’d have to go listen to Mallo’s lecture.
“Sigh…….”
Ah, I can feel it. This is completely going to be a disaster.
I buried my still-burning face in my knees.
* * *
Whether I liked it or not, Tuesday was Tuesday.
Hours later, I was heading toward Lecture Hall A, feeling like an actual university student for the first time in a while.
Yesterday, I hadn’t been able to return Grandmother’s Heirloom to Momo.
She claimed to be busy with graduation preparations and barely stayed in the Dormitory; even though we lived in adjacent rooms, it was hard to run into her.
Bibi, who always went running at the same time every day, didn’t appear today either, making the campus feel eerily empty.
“Amelie!”
A man in business attire was waving at me from under a tree’s shade.
“Huh? Team Lead!”
It was Kwon Tae-hyun, the team lead from the Administrative Office, who’d been silent for half a month. Kwon Tae-hyun approached me with a sluggish smile.
“How have you been? Look at you—your face looks so much better. The Fortress life must be treating you well?”
“What happened? I heard you suddenly went silent, and I was so worried!”
“Oh my, you were worried about me?”
Kwon Tae-hyun made a fuss.
“Sorry about that. But there’s nothing I can do. Our work is all like that. Security is essential, so even we don’t know where we’ll be next week.”
“I see…….”
I nodded, but Kwon Tae-hyun’s explanation didn’t sound very convincing.
If what he said were true, there’d be no reason for Bibi to have acted so seriously when he disappeared.
And perhaps it was just my imagination, but his tone, more familiar than usual, felt strangely unnatural.
His sudden disappearance without warning, and then his equally sudden appearance in front of me right after his return—there was something suspicious about Kwon Tae-hyun.
‘It seems like he’s probing for something……. But what exactly?’
But I decided to treat him as naturally as possible.
After all, the more people talk, the more mistakes they make. And especially if they’re lying, no matter what their purpose is.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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