Rank 0 of the Awakener Special School - Chapter 70

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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: 0
Episode 70
Ji-u returned to the Stall after parting with Han-gyeol, just as the sun had fully set.
“Ah, Ji-hyo! There you are!”
Rim-sa, spotting Ji-u, waved her hand.
“I was waiting for you so we could go to the Auditorium together.”
“…The Auditorium?”
“The Time Capsule opens at seven.”
Oh, that’s right. There was something like that.
The Time Capsule event, held just before the Campfire, was one of the festival’s highlights.
From what I’d heard, the Time Capsule contained letters written just before entering middle school.
In other words, a Letter to Future Self.
“I don’t even remember what I wrote. What if it’s something weird?”
On the way to the Auditorium, Rim-sa murmured with a mix of worry and anticipation.
Beside her, Ji-u found herself thinking of Seol Ji-hyo.
‘I wonder what Ji-hyo wrote.’
It was hard to imagine.
The students gathered in the Auditorium lined up in turn to receive boxes with their names written on them.
Ji-u did the same.
‘I’m a little nervous.’
Ji-u fidgeted with the box lid before finding a spot in the corner of the Auditorium to sit.
With a short breath, she carefully opened it, and the first thing that caught her eye was a Four-leaf Clover, carefully laminated.
‘Could it be…?’
It was a long time ago, right before Seol Ji-hyo entered middle school.
Ji-u had wanted to give her something as an entrance gift, but with nothing suitable at hand, she’d searched the small grassy patch in front of her house and found a Four-leaf Clover.
She’d given it to her as a gift back then.
Could this Four-leaf Clover be that very one?
If so, it was so like Ji-hyo.
How could she have treasured it this much? Even getting it laminated herself.
‘What a fool.’
With a faint smile on her lips, Ji-u picked up the envelope beneath the Four-leaf Clover.
As she gently peeled off the Flower-shaped Sticker, the envelope opened.
When she carefully unfolded the paper inside, the round, childish handwriting she knew well came into view.
But then.
“…….”
The moment she read the first line, the smile at her lips vanished like smoke.
To my sister.
Ji-hyo’s letter was not a Letter to Future Self.
While the recipient’s name wasn’t written, as if Ji-hyo had written with the intention of the letter being read by someone…
There was no doubt. This letter was written to Ji-u.
‘But… why did she write this to me?’
Could it possibly mean something?
Her heart began to race.
With an uneasy mind, she read the next sentence.
I’m entering middle school soon.
But more than middle school,
I’m looking forward to seeing you during the next break.
Contrary to Ji-u’s premonition, the continuing sentences were unexpectedly ordinary—utterly mundane in content.
I took the class assignment test not long ago.
It’s given before entering middle school, and I got a final grade of B.
The teacher praised me, but honestly, I thought of you.
You would have done better…
Physical education performance evaluations are always hard. I always got caught right away when we played tag with you.
I’m telling you, if you’d been here, I could’ve placed first with my eyes closed, haha.
Oh, and a while ago they served jellyfish namul in the cafeteria?
I couldn’t eat it at all, so I secretly left it, and got scolded by the nutritionist for it 🙁
You eat anything without being picky, don’t you.
If it were you, that wouldn’t have happened, right?
No matter how she looked at it, this seemed like an ordinary letter Ji-hyo had written to Ji-u.
‘What, I was nervous for nothing.’
Seol Ji-hyo sometimes had a scatterbrained side to her.
Had this fool forgotten that this was a Letter to Future Self in a Time Capsule?
My sister does everything well.
You’re so much better than me.
You’ll never know how reassuring it is to have you as my sister.
The more she read the letter, the more she thought that way.
The way it was written so carelessly and cheerfully made it clear she’d genuinely forgotten.
Until she read the last sentence.
Even without me,
you’ll be fine.
“…What?”
Ji-u murmured without thinking.
Fine even without her? What did that mean?
It carried an implication—as if she’d known all along that things would become this way.
Ji-u shook her head, trying to dispel the unease.
‘No. Ji-hyo said the bullying started in middle school.’
This letter was written after elementary school graduation, before middle school entrance.
At that time, her friendships should have been intact.
‘Or was there already something wrong before that?’
Perhaps that senior Gyeon Bo-sung, who had been visiting Ji-hyo often, had actually been mistreating her much earlier.
…She didn’t know.
All of this was merely speculation with no solid evidence.
What was certain was that Ji-hyo was not the kind of person to write something so loaded with meaning so casually.
“Ji-hyo, are you done reading?”
Rim-sa approached from a distance.
Ji-u reflexively folded the letter.
But she couldn’t mask the stiffness of her expression.
“Why does your face look like that? Is something wrong?”
“…No, nothing.”
She hastily shoved the letter into the envelope like someone fleeing from something.
It seemed her expression wouldn’t steady like this.
With her mind still in turmoil, Ji-u stood up abruptly, leaving a bewildered Rim-sa behind.
“Sorry, I’ll go first.”
“Huh? Um…”
Rim-sa looked flustered but didn’t try to stop her.
And so Ji-u fled the Auditorium.
Unaware that another gaze besides Rim-sa’s was following her.
* * *
Throughout the vast grounds of Gawon, the Festival’s warmth still lingered.
The place Ji-u unconsciously headed toward after leaving the Auditorium was the Lakeside.
Where the Campfire was being held.
It wasn’t intentional. She’d simply wandered there without direction.
Boom—!
A massive flame erupted brilliantly over the Lakeside, cradling the moonlight.
The night sky, dark until then, turned red in an instant, and embers scattered like starlight across the surroundings.
“Wow, did you see that? The cat-shaped Fireworks just burst!”
“Hey, the big one’s coming, the big one’s coming!”
“Kyaaaah…!”
Cheers and laughter rippled like waves with each burst of Fireworks, then subsided.
Ji-u stood beneath a tree, quite apart from all of it.
Around the large Campfire, couples danced to the music.
…Being here like this, the other side and this side felt like completely separate worlds.
– There are Fireworks at the high school festival. You can see them a little from the windows of the Middle School Dormitory, and it looks really cool?
Now that she thought about it, Ji-hyo had mentioned something like that before.
If it were Ji-hyo standing here instead of herself, she would have accepted Han-gyeol’s partner request and been delighted. And by now, she would be dancing contentedly with Han-gyeol down there.
When the break came and she visited Ji-u, she would have excitedly told her all about it.
Boom—!
Fireworks burst once more.
Ji-u’s expression, lit by the firelight, was dark.
“…….”
Was it because of the letter’s loaded meaning she’d just read?
Her stirring heart would not settle.
So much so that she didn’t notice the footsteps approaching from behind.
“What are you doing out here?”
Ji-u spun around in surprise.

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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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