Rank 0 of the Awakener Special School - Chapter 55

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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 Ranking Zero
Episode 55
Ji-u and Seol Ji-hyo got along well.
They had lived under the same roof only when they were very young, and even then for just five years.
Ever since Seol Ji-hyo enrolled at Gaon, they could only meet twice a year—during summer and winter breaks.
When vacation started, Seol Ji-hyo would briefly stop by the Family Home to have a meal with their grandfather, then spend the rest of her break at Ji-u’s place.
As if they had promised this long ago.
Ji-u loved when Seol Ji-hyo came home during breaks.
She would set aside movies and dramas that looked interesting, then binge them together once her sister arrived.
Seol Ji-hyo, for her part, would tell Ji-u all sorts of stories about the “outside world.”
Trending foods on social media, convenient store food combination recipes.
What classes she took at school, how she spent her days, what was popular among kids her age.
Everything Seol Ji-hyo shared with her was the world itself to Ji-u.
That was why.
She had never doubted a single word that girl said.
“Ji-hyo, why are your books like this?”
Third-year summer break.
Ji-u had once noticed the School Bag that Seol Ji-hyo brought with her.
Through the slightly open zipper, she glimpsed textbooks that looked worn and frayed.
At first, she thought her sister was studying hard.
But no matter how passionate someone’s notes, books didn’t usually get that worn—unless…
As if someone had deliberately torn or stomped on them.
“Oh, there was this day I forgot my umbrella and my whole bag got soaked. The textbooks got ruined that day.”
Seol Ji-hyo replied casually, then quickly hid her School Bag away.
“…Do books really get that damaged from rain?”
“Yeah, it was pretty bad. I was going to ask the school for new ones but forgot.”
……
“It’s fine. The textbooks change in the second semester anyway.”
Ji-u simply accepted what Seol Ji-hyo said as truth.
Seol Ji-hyo zipped up her School Bag tightly so the textbooks inside couldn’t be seen, then quickly changed the subject.
“Anyway, I’m hungry.”
“Right, what do you want to eat? So-yeong gave me a Delivery Service Gift Certificate for you.”
“Um… tteokbokki.”
“Tteokbokki? But you don’t eat spicy food.”
“You remember that tteokbokki place that opened near Incheon Port, right? The one I told you about last time.”
Ji-u remembered.
The tteokbokki restaurant that Gaon students always visited whenever they took a boat to the mainland during breaks or opening day ceremonies.
But…
“You’re not asking me to go there, are you?”
She asked, hoping not.
National Gaon Special School, where Seol Ji-hyo attended, was an artificial island far out at sea from Incheon—requiring a boat to reach.
And they were in the remote mountains on the outskirts of Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province, barely clinging to the very edge of the provincial border.
To get from this isolated mountain village to Incheon Port would take at least three hours each way—six hours round trip.
…But distance wasn’t really the issue.
Ji-u couldn’t leave this house in the first place.
Fortunately, it seemed to be a misunderstanding. Seol Ji-hyo smiled softly in front of Ji-u’s stern expression.
“No, I saw it on the drive here. There’s a branch of that tteokbokki place nearby.”
“…Nearby?”
“Yeah, it’s close. Just a ten-minute walk from here.”
Ah, what was I thinking.
“Got it. What’s the place called? I can search for it on a delivery app since most places have one these days.”
Ji-u was fumbling with her phone, about to open a delivery app, when Seol Ji-hyo—unusually for her—hesitated before speaking.
“…Can’t we just go there and eat?”
“Go there?”
“It’s made fresh on the spot, so you have to go there in person for it to taste good.”
“Then just order it half-cooked. Don’t they have meal kits or something?”
What’s the place called, anyway?
That’s what she was about to ask.
“I want to go with you and eat it together.”
That day, for some reason, Seol Ji-hyo was being stubborn.
But…
Ji-u glanced at the clock.
So-yeong would be arriving soon. If she got here and Ji-u was nowhere to be found, she’d panic.
And if news of Ji-u leaving the house somehow reached their grandfather…
“I can’t.”
By the time she realized it, her lips were already moving.
…She didn’t know then that this would turn into such a bitter fight.
For some reason, Seol Ji-hyo refused to back down. She was the type to usually give in, to go along with whatever Ji-u wanted, but that day she kept insisting.
And Ji-u couldn’t easily give way either, so they had their first real argument.
“What’s the big deal about tteokbokki? You’re acting weird today. We can just order delivery—why do you keep pushing this?”
“Because I want to go and eat with you. Is that so hard? Is stepping out for a meal a crime?”
“Why are you talking like that? You know my situation perfectly well.”
“Exactly because I know it. Don’t you get frustrated? Trapped in this place your whole life!”
The answer came immediately.
“No, I don’t.”
“…What?”
“I’ve always lived like this. For me, this is just… normal.”
A person who has only tasted bitterness their entire life doesn’t know what sweetness is.
How could they, without ever having experienced it?
Ji-u was the same.
“So? You’re going to live like this forever?”
“Yes. So don’t force yourself to match my mood.”
“I’ve never done that.”
In that moment, Ji-u realized that Seol Ji-hyo’s voice was trembling.
In her blue eyes, tears glistened like dewdrops.
The moment she saw that, her mind went blank and the next words wouldn’t come.
“I know you don’t have big complaints about that life. I know you think it’s fine as it is now. But what about me?”
Her voice sounded like she was holding something back, as if it might burst at any moment.
“Have you ever once asked me if I’m okay, if I’m satisfied with how I’m living?”
“What are you talking about?”
Partly from shock, but also genuinely, Ji-u didn’t understand what Seol Ji-hyo meant.
But Seol Ji-hyo offered no explanation and turned away.
“…Never mind.”
“Ji-hyo! Wait—”
Seol Ji-hyo ran out of the house without even grabbing her things.
A streak of tears on the floor.
The School Bag, firmly zipped shut.
The TV screen frozen on pause in the living room.
And silence.
Ji-u stood rooted to the spot, and only when So-yeong arrived at the house some time later did she come to her senses.
“You had a fight with Miss Seol Ji-hyo?”
……
“I thought something was wrong when she said she was going back to the Family Home. Why did you two end up fighting?”
“Over tteokbokki.”
“I’m… sorry?”
Maybe I went too far.
That thought came too late.
What was the big deal about tteokbokki?
I should have pretended not to mind and just gone to get some to-go, she thought. When she was asking like that…
Or at the very least, I shouldn’t have raised my voice like that.
‘I’ll apologize next time she comes home.’
Besides, I’m her older sister, aren’t I? This summer break is ruined, but there’s winter break in a few months.
When Seol Ji-hyo comes again, I’ll apologize then.
A softhearted girl like her would definitely accept the apology, saying she was the one who was more sorry.
Ji-u knew Seol Ji-hyo that well. They were born on the same day, after all.
But that thought was nothing but arrogance.
Ji-u knew nothing about her sister.
She didn’t know that conversation would be their last.
She didn’t know that when winter break finally came, her sister would suffer a terrible accident and be transferred back to the Family Home.
Truly,
she knew nothing at all.
* * *
「The next test will now begin.」
「First Event: High-Speed Obstacle Course.」
「Participating test-takers:
First-year Class 2, Park Min-yeong.
First-year Class 2, Kim Ji-yoon.
…
…
First-year Class 2 student, Seol Ji-hyo.」
In the Gaon Audiovisual Building B Parental Observation Room.
On the massive LED screen covering one wall, a young girl with long black hair and blue eyes was shown in a large close-up.
“Is that the granddaughter of Seolhwa Pharmaceuticals?”
“Hmm, she looks a bit different from when I saw her photo before.”
“Kids her age usually change dramatically in appearance, you know.”
“But…she had an accident last winter, didn’t she?”
“Shh…!”
The eyes of the parents who had been whispering among themselves all snapped to attention at once.
The very back row.
An elderly man in a black formal suit, flanked by three secretaries in dark suits.
Completely white hair, dark charcoal-colored everyday hanbok. A physique so large and robust it was hard to believe he was an elderly man.
He gazed at the LED screen with cold, frost-blue eyes.
Seol Jung-gwon—chairman of Seolhwa Pharmaceuticals, the nation’s leading pharmaceutical company.
──Seol Ji-hyo’s grandfather.

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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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