Rank 0 of the Awakener Special School - Chapter 29

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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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Awakener Special School Rank 0
Episode 29
Four days had passed since then.
Som-i was fine.
Thanks to Ji-u, who had arrived at the scene immediately and used his Core to heal her, the beast had regained her strength that very night and begun wagging her tail.
It was Rim-sa who was in worse condition.
She had taken considerable damage while wrapping her entire body around Som-i, and ended up hospitalized in the Medical Wing for five days.
What happened to the rest of them, you ask?
They all received Suspension.
The charges were School Property Damage and Animal Abuse, along with Group Assault.
Of course, the process wasn’t smooth, or so he heard.
For one thing, there were no security cameras in the Back Courtyard.
And while Rim-sa and the dormitory supervisor had given their testimony, the children who were punished pushed back hard, insisting it wasn’t their doing.
But then.
– Yes, that’s right. I did it.
For some reason, Jo Bit-na cleanly admitted to everything she had done.
Whether it was despair or some change of heart, no one could say.
All that was known was that when the teachers asked her why, Jo Bit-na offered no answer.
In any case, thanks to her confession, all the children involved were punished.
And because of it, the school had been in quite an uproar lately.
“Bit-na is getting Grade Retention?”
Rim-sa sat on a hospital bed draped in pristine white sheets.
Her eyes widened with surprise.
Ji-u was there visiting her.
“Apparently so. But I don’t understand why only Jo Bit-na got Grade Retention when the others just got Suspension.”
“That’s… probably because she was caught repeatedly using her Core on the others, right?”
“Huh?”
“Well, the School Rules forbid using your Core outside of class, so…”
…There’s a rule like that?
Wow. I need to be more careful.
“Are you okay, Ji-hyo?”
“Okay with what?”
“That time, when you stood up to Bit-na and the others so we could protect Som-i.”
Now that she mentioned it, Rim-sa had passed out shortly after Ji-u arrived and hadn’t seen the final confrontation.
“…I’m sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing all of a sudden?”
“It’s just that, between what happened in the Core Application Class and all this, I keep feeling like I’m only causing you trouble.”
“How is that causing me trouble? Without you back then, our team wouldn’t have placed first.”
At that, Rim-sa pressed her lips together.
She hesitated for a moment, then clenched her fist slightly, creasing the white sheet beneath it.
“Actually, I saw kids bullying you back in middle school. But I was too scared of getting caught in the crossfire, so I just pretended not to notice.”
“…”
“I keep thinking about it now. If I’d known you were such a good person… no, even if you weren’t, I shouldn’t have looked away.”
Watching Rim-sa bow her head and murmur like a guilty person, Ji-u spoke.
“But you didn’t look away this time.”
“…Huh?”
“You threw yourself in and saved Som-i.”
“…”
Rim-sa’s eyes went wide.
She blinked a few times, then buried her face in the bedsheet and murmured.
“I didn’t expect you to say something like that.”
The two of them then spent time together in the pristine white hospital room.
They ate fruit, watched TV with boring news articles, chatted about trivial things.
Rim-sa, who had been hesitant at first, gradually laughed out loud more and more as time went on.
Eventually, as the sun began to set.
Ji-u handed over the printouts and assignments he’d received in class, then stood to leave.
“Get discharged soon and come back. You’re the only person I can really talk to at school.”
“That… is that perhaps…”
Rim-sa swallowed hard.
“Do you mean like… friends?”
Uh…
Ji-u froze for a moment.
“I don’t know. Maybe?”
“I… I don’t know either…”
The two of them looked at each other awkwardly, and without anyone going first, both broke into small laughs.
“Well, let’s go with that, then.”
* * *
After finishing his visit, Ji-u returned straight to the Dormitory.
The moment he carelessly hung his bag on a chair, his eyes caught on an empty ring.
‘…Come to think of it, I ended up losing the keyring.’
Jo Bit-na had definitely had Ji-u’s keyring.
Han-gyeol had brought the dormitory supervisor, and after that, there hadn’t been a moment to think about the keyring.
He’d gone back to the Back Courtyard later to look for it, but found nothing…
Now that Jo Bit-na was getting Grade Retention too, he’d never recover the keyring.
‘What am I going to do about Ji-hyo?’
Ji-u turned around with a dejected face.
That’s when something unfamiliar suddenly entered the corner of his vision.
‘…Oh, right. The Smartphone.’
It was Seol Ji-hyo’s Smartphone that he’d accidentally found in this room’s drawer four days ago. He’d completely forgotten about it in the chaos.
Ji-u picked up the Smartphone and examined it carefully.
It was natural that Ji-u was seeing it for the first time. The Smartphones distributed to students were usually not used outside school.
From what he understood, it could only be used on school grounds—it responded only to the Special Network laid throughout the campus, and became useless the moment you left the premises.
‘Is there something on it?’
Jo Bit-na’s group had been punished, true…
But there was still a possibility that others who’d bullied Ji-hyo remained on campus.
Ji-u, fidgeting with the Smartphone, carefully turned on the screen.
The first thing he checked was the contact list.
He wanted to see who was registered and who Ji-hyo was close to.
But.
· Homeroom Teacher
· Life Counselor
· Dormitory Supervisor
“…”
There were far fewer than he’d expected.
Just three people in total?
Bewildered, he scrolled down slightly.
Then a fourth contact, hidden at the very bottom, appeared.
This one wasn’t labeled “Teacher.”
· Nam Rae-in
At the sight of those three characters on the screen, Ji-u’s brow furrowed.
That name—he was certain he’d heard it before somewhere.
‘Where did I hear it?’
Unfortunately, he couldn’t recall.
After hesitating briefly, Ji-u lightly tapped on the name. The message history between them appeared.
There was nothing verbose about it.
Just two lines of conversation.
Don’t let anyone know we know each other at school
Ji-hyo’s curt message started the conversation,
Okay
And Nam Rae-in’s even colder reply ended it.
That was all.
* * *
A long, clean Hallway.
“You know Jo Bit-na’s crowd in Class 2? They got Suspension, right? All of them, together with Kim Yeon-hui.”
“Of course. I heard Bit-na got Grade Retention?”
“What? Why Bit-na?”
The news that Jo Bit-na’s clique in first-year Class 2 of the high school division had been punished had spread throughout the campus.
“You know that gloomy girl in Class 2 who talks to the bug? They called her and Seol Ji-hyo out to the Back Courtyard and beat them up? Even upperclassmen joined in, it was crazy.”
“Isn’t that where they smashed everything in the Back Courtyard? Oh, and there’s talk of Animal Abuse too.”
“That’s not even it—apparently Bit-na was going around using her Charm Core on people. That’s what it was all about. She was playing queen.”
“That’s creepy… I think I got hit by her Core too. I lent her this expensive lip balm once, and I still haven’t gotten it back.”
A girl student, as if shaking off goosebumps all over, turned slightly to glance at her surroundings.
“You’re listening to this, right?”
At the center of the crowded Hallway.
Someone standing there looked up briefly.
Bright blonde hair that seemed to absorb the pouring sunlight directly, shimmering like sand on a beach, was loosely held in place by a small pin set with cubic zirconia.
On the exposed ear, delicate and intricate piercings were visible.
“Oh, sorry. What were you saying?”
“Tch. Figured you weren’t listening. But hey, what’s that pin in your hair? It looks great on you.”
At the familiar compliment, he smiled faintly and brought his hand slightly toward the Hair Pin.
“This? Hmm, doesn’t it look a bit too feminine?”
“Not at all! It’s super pretty.”
“Yeah, you look like a celebrity!”
“Tomorrow, wear the Hair Pin I gave you, okay?”
At the shower of praise pouring down on him, he laughed with an unbothered expression, as if to say “whatever.”
Because of all the accessories he was wearing in various places, he might have looked a bit rough, but he didn’t.
Aside from the accessories, the school uniform itself was neat and orderly, though notably his tie was left loose. Through the gap in his open collar, a smooth collarbone line was visible.
He clearly knew that, yet he didn’t even make a gesture of closing his collar.
Ding-dong-ding-dong—
The bell rang through the speaker.
“Oh? The bell already? Let’s go.”
“Ugh, next is math. Bleh.”
The children who had been crowding around the boy began to return to the classroom one by one.
He too was about to follow in last, when he suddenly stopped in his tracks.
One corner of the Hallway.
Something shiny caught his eye.
He bent down and picked it up.
“…”
It was a Butterfly Keyring made of blue transparent beads.
One of its wings was broken, apparently from being stepped on by students passing through the Hallway.
He held the broken keyring in his palm and gazed at it intently.
Then, someone walking ahead let out a surprised voice.
“Whoa, that’s Seol Ji-hyo over there.”
At that voice, as if drawn to it, his amethyst-like deep purple eyes moved slightly.
The far end of the opposite Hallway.
Seol Ji-hyo from Class 2 and the bug—and the gloomy girl talking with them—were walking together.
The children watching this odd sight began to whisper.
“Isn’t that next to her Rim-sa? Wasn’t she hospitalized?”
“Guess she got discharged. But why are they together?”
“Who knows, maybe they became friends or something.”
Hearing that, he let out an inadvertent snort of laughter.
“No way.”
The Butterfly Keyring clinked in his hand.
He shoved it deep into his pocket and spoke.
“Seol Ji-hyo doesn’t have any friends.”
He turned sharply and walked into the classroom with long strides.
The children quickly followed after him.
“Hey, Rae-in, come with us!”
Just before the classroom door closed, his purple gaze touched the far end of the Hallway once more.
Seol Ji-hyo and Rim-sa.
He watched the backs of the two entering Class 2 Classroom, then lightly let his gaze slip away.
As if he’d never been looking at them in the first place.

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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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