“Hey, did you see the news? One of the gates that hadn’t been successfully bid on yet closed yesterday.”
“Yeah, I saw it. Was it the Phantom Hunter?”
“They say no guild successfully bid on it. So, of course, there’s nowhere to take it.”
Perhaps it was thanks to sweating it all out in a rare pre-dawn battle, but the morning felt wonderfully refreshing.
As I got ready for school, I did see news reports about the gate I closed yesterday, and it seemed that quite a few people were interested in the Phantom Hunter.
Seeing kids who like things like the Four Heavenly Kings, the Three Great VIPs, and the Western Alliance, it wasn’t surprising, but hearing some students talk on the way to school felt new.
I had just closed the gate after seeing it open in a suitable location while passing by, but it turned out to be a gate whose existence everyone already knew about, and it simply hadn’t been successfully bid on yet.
‘If I joined a guild, I’d probably have better access to this kind of information.’
How much I had wandered around trying to find gates! I had carefully hidden myself and moved around so as not to be seen, but it was a gate that many people already knew about.
I wondered if anyone had seen me, thinking to myself, I quickened my pace towards school.
When I opened the classroom door, there were quite a few kids talking about yesterday’s gate.
I greeted my classmates appropriately, then went to my seat and sat down.
No one around me had arrived yet. I recalled the status window I had seen last night.
‘Just one more gate closed, and I can get another skill.’
What kind of skill would I get this time?
Hopefully, it would be something useful.
It would be great if it was a skill that was good for raiding dungeons with guild members once I joined a guild.
I was thinking this while looking out the window.
“You’re here early?”
Yeon Hayeon placed her bag on her desk and took off her scarf, laying it on top of the bag.
The weather was getting quite cold now, and many students wore scarves to school.
Yeon Hayeon, having braved the cold morning wind to get to school, rubbed her reddened nose and sat down.
“Oh, for some reason, I woke up early this morning.”
After closing the gate and getting home in the early morning, it was an awkward time to fall asleep.
I had pretty much stayed up all night, which was why I woke up early and got to school early.
Yeon Hayeon took out a workbook from her bag as usual.
I watched her for a moment, then carefully spoke.
“By the way, what happened to Mitsuki’s group from the school trip? Did you find anything out?”
I needed to know why the yakuza’s daughter had kidnapped me and tried to compete with Yeon Hayeon for rank.
That way, I could be prepared if anything happened later.
Yeon Hayeon had said she’d look into it, but I hadn’t heard anything since, and I was starting to get curious.
In response to my question, Yeon Hayeon silently took out yogurt-flavored almonds from her bag and crunched them loudly.
Just by this, I could guess that she wasn’t involved in an ordinary annoying situation.
Yeon Hayeon, who had been angrily chewing almonds, now seemed a little less angry and began to speak.
“I contacted them directly. I asked why they suddenly came to Korea and did something like that.”
“So, what did they say?”
“They said our side provoked Mitsuki. But I never ordered anything like that, nor did I ever even mention the name Mitsuki.”
“Didn’t they say the same thing back then? Did someone in your organization act on their own?”
“I roughly figured out what happened.”
Yeon Hayeon said in a more cheerful voice than before.
Whoever caused the trouble, seeing Yeon Hayeon speak so brightly, it seemed they wouldn’t be safe.
I silently wished peace for the soul of whoever was reckless enough to cause trouble.
Yeon Hayeon poured the rest of the yogurt-flavored almonds into her mouth, then gazed at her phone screen with clear but cold eyes.
Then, she seemed to send a message to someone, grabbed a pen, and started studying.
Thinking that she would tell me once things were roughly sorted out, I turned my body forward from where I had been facing away and leaned my head on my desk.
I planned to make up for some sleep before classes started.
“What is this?”
It was the time when students were actively going to school, in an office that clearly didn’t seem like a place for good deeds.
Baek Geon-ho, the boss of the Baekho Clan, who was sitting in a sloppy posture on a single-person sofa, looking at his phone, frowned.
He sat up straight and stared at a message from a familiar number.
[Today 6 PM.]
It was a message with only the date and time, no location or purpose.
Baek Geon-ho showed his phone to his subordinate next to him and asked.
“What do you think this means?”
“It seems like they’re going to do something at 6 PM. But whose number is this?”
“Yeon Hayeon.”
Baek Geon-ho couldn’t tolerate having Yeon Hayeon’s number saved on his phone.
He deliberately didn’t save it because he felt it would put him in a bad mood every time he saw it, but because of that, he had unintentionally memorized Yeon Hayeon’s number.
He gnawed on the red ginseng candy he was holding in his mouth and rose from the sofa with a displeased expression.
“Ah, this really makes me uneasy.”
Fearing that Yeon Hayeon might invade, he quickly began to move to prepare for the 6 PM fight.
Perhaps because of what he had done, he would have only been annoyed in the past, but now he was a little anxious.
“Hey, contact that delinquent from Iljin Sanggo.”
The subordinate, who heard the order to contact Chae Yu-hwan, immediately took out his phone.
However, only a dial tone went through, and Chae Yu-hwan didn’t answer the phone.
“…He’s not answering.”
“Ah, what’s he doing that he’s not answering the phone!”
Baek Geon-ho yelled irritably and slammed the office door open as he left.
At that time, Chae Yu-hwan was lying on the school rooftop with his friends, lounging around, finding it annoying to go to school in the morning.
Seeing a call from the Baekho Clan, he glanced at his phone and then tossed it behind him.
His friend swiftly snatched the phone Chae Yu-hwan had thrown.
Looking at the vibrating phone, he said, “Aren’t you going to answer? It’s from the Baekho Clan.”
“Why are they bothering me with calls so early in the morning? They’re probably just going to tell me to brainstorm ideas to get back at Yeon Hayeon again.”
He, who was particularly lazy in the mornings, ran his fingers through his messy hair and took his phone back.
There were several missed calls, but he had no intention of calling back immediately.
“They should just calmly observe how this whole thing plays out instead of being so impatient.”
Having arbitrarily deduced the reason for the Baekho Clan’s call, he flopped back down and gazed at the sky.
Though the weather was cold, the school rooftop in winter was the perfect hideout for him, as he liked cold air.
“Speaking of which, I wonder what Mitsuki is up to.”
He murmured with a hint of amusement in his voice and closed his eyes.
***
Watching Yeon Hayeon studying with a terrifying intensity today, Dana and the Four Heavenly Kings exchanged glances.
We didn’t know why she was like that, but we could tell she was in a very bad mood.
[↑ Something wrong?]
As soon as I read what Ban Eun-hyeol had written on my desk, I grabbed my mechanical pencil and wrote my answer below it.
This was the best way to talk since we were in class.
[I think it’s because of the incident during the school trip.]
[The one where you were kidnapped.]
Ban Eun-hyeol, who had been writing well, suddenly gripped the pencil harder, breaking the lead.
He pressed the back of the pencil to extend the lead and continued writing below.
[Did she find out why it happened?]
[I don’t know. But judging by the mood, it seems like it.]
Ban Eun-hyeol leaned slightly towards me as she wrote on my desk, diligently moving her left hand.
I’m right-handed, but Ban Eun-hyeol is left-handed, which made it really convenient to talk this way during class.
As soon as the end-of-day homeroom finished, Yeon Hayeon quickly said her goodbyes and dashed out of the classroom.
Looking out the window, I saw a black car, one I knew well, parked at the school gate.
“Looks like someone came to pick up Hayeon.”
I said, turning to Ban Eun-hyeol, who had already packed her bag.
She came close behind me and looked out the window.
For a moment, the baby powder scent I liked tickled my nose.
‘It doesn’t suit her, but she likes this kind of scent.’
While surprised by Ban Eun-hyeol’s unexpected taste, I didn’t show it and just stared at the schoolyard.
Yeon Hayeon was running across the schoolyard to the car.
Yeon Hyeong-gwang was following behind her, and anyone could tell from his urgent movements that something was going on.
“Yeon Hayeon said she roughly knows what happened?”
Ban Eun-hyeol asked as we exited the back door.
I briefly explained my conversation with Yeon Hayeon to the Four Heavenly Kings.
Then, Eun Bada, who had been contemplating something with a serious expression, snapped her fingers.
“Ah, this is it. There was a mole in Hayeon’s organization, and that person called in the Japanese kids, right? It looks like Hayeon is going to catch that mole now.”
“Wow! You’ve been obsessed with mystery novels lately, but you’re like a real detective!”
“That’s a plausible deduction!”
“I don’t think she’d run off that urgently just to catch a mole.”
Everyone was admiring Eun Bada’s deduction skills and adding their two cents, when Ji Gang-han, seemingly having made his own deduction, spoke in a still-sleepy voice.
There was a long, red mark on his face from his deep nap until homeroom.
Despite his messy hair and the red mark on his face, his handsome features still drew the attention of the female students.
Ignoring them, Ji Gang-han rolled his eyes and continued.
“Couldn’t it be that there’s an organization that planted the mole?”
“Ah, and she’s on her way to destroy that organization?”
Ji Gang-han nodded at Ban Eun-hyeol’s question. My jaw dropped at the amazing deduction.
“That could actually be true. How can you guys make such deductions? It’s really fascinating.”
“Exactly! They’re my friends, but sometimes I’m truly amazed.”
While Dana and Han Ji-bin were marveling at their deduction skills, Ban Eun-hyeol raised one corner of her mouth, giving an ominous smile.
“If that’s truly the case, I can’t be left out.”
Ban Eun-hyeol looked with a chilling intensity at the school gate, where Yeon Hayeon’s black car had already departed.
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