Bae Sung Hyun was walking around Aiden Hill, looking for monsters. However, there were no monsters to be found, only remains of what ‘used to be’ monsters. Someone had gotten to the monsters before Bae Sung-Hyun could get his hands on them. He had an idea of who might have been responsible since only one person could do such a feat.

After walking around impatiently, Bae Sung Hyun finally found her.

Crack, snap, drrk!

She broke open the demon’s ribcage with her bare hands, took out the heart, and dissected it to retrieve the core. She had a blank expression and looked unfazed even though she was covered head-to-toe with demon blood.

“Kim Jin-Seo.” Bae Sung-Hyun called out her name as she was exterminating, or rather, dissecting the monster.

“So you were the one following me?” Kim Jin-Seo immediately got into a battle stance once Bae Sung-Hyun entered her sight. Bae Sung-Hyun held up his hands as if to show that he was surrendering. There was no reason for Bae Sung-Hyun to fight. Even if he did, he was certain that the odds were against him.

“I’m not here to fight. Lighten up.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I’m telling the truth. Why would I play a losing game? Anyway, I’m just here to ask you some questions.” Bae Sung-Hyun looked around to see if anyone was listening to their conversation. After checking that there was no one there, he asked, “How many cores have you found so far?”

“Twelve.”

“Twelve?” Bae Sung-Hyun scoffed. He couldn’t believe it. Twelve cores meant that Kim Jin-Seo had eliminated twelve artificial demons by herself. Even after all that, she didn’t look winded at all.

“Wow, that’s amazing. Must be hard to carry all twelve cores.”

“Not really. What do you want?“

“Sell some cores to me. I’ll give you a good price for them.” Bae Sung-Hyun brought up his main interest. He had yet to touch any cores because Kim Jin-Seo had monopolized them. Then there was only one way to get cores: to buy them from Kim Jin-Seo. He was prepared to give her any amount of money she wanted.

“Why should I?” However, Kim Jin-Seo declined without hesitation. She had more than enough money herself. She had no interest in handing over the cores, no matter how much money was rewarded.

“Do you need twelve? You should be set with just one.”

“Bonus marks.”

“Ah, bonus marks, right.” Bae Sung-Hyun scratched the back of his neck as if he felt awkward. It didn’t seem like she was having any of it.

Kim Jin-Seo hated cooperation and negotiation in the first place. If one phrased it in a good way, she was independent. If one phrased it in a bad way, she had trust issues.

“Get going if you don’t have anything to say. Or, if you want, you can fight and take them away from me. That’s your specialty, right?”

“Ha ha.” Bae Sung-Hyun let out a weak laugh. He was extremely uncomfortable and could not do anything about it. Kim Jin-Seo was not someone he could beat in a fight. She was also in equal standing to him in wealth and connections.

Bae Sung-Hyun let out a sigh and tried to calm his nerves. “Whew. Okay. Who were your group mates again?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“Aren’t they Ko Jun-Min and Do Sun-Woo?” Kim Jin-Seo flinched and stopped in the middle of turning away. Bae Sung-Hyun knew who the group members were for group 100. It was because, no, thanks to Do Sun-Woo.

“So you’re looking for cores while they're defending the wagon. You must be anxious and nervous, right?”

“...Why would I be anxious?”

“Well, because they aren’t skilled and are incapable of doing anything. Are you sure you can trust them?” Bae Sung-Hyun had seen the true talent Do Sun-Woo possessed. However, Kim Jin-Seo knew Do Sun-Woo as a regular nobody in the middle-to-lower tier within the ranks. Bae Sung-Hyun attempted to use this gap in information to negotiate with her.

“Let me guess why you collected twelve cores. I’ve given it some thought, and it seems like you have no faith in Ko Jun-Min and Do Sun-Woo. You knew you wouldn’t be able to be placed in the top ranks. Aren’t you collecting a lot of cores to at least get bonus marks?”

“You’re reading too far.”

“Hm, not a bad plan, but there’s no use in having all those cores if your wagon is broken. Think about it. Do you think that Ko Jun-Min and Do Sun-Woo can adequately defend your wagon? It might be broken already.”

“...” Kim Jin-Seo looked shaken up.

“You see? If you’ll be disqualified anyway, why don’t you just sell me those cores and make some allowance for yourself? What do you think? Nothing bad will happen to you. We can also become closer through this—-”

Beeeep—!

Just before Kim Jin-Seo gave in, a loud noise cut Bae Sung-Hyun’s words short.

The sound came from the speakers located all over the hill to inform the students about the training session's progress. [Group 100 has crossed the finish line. All group members head to the finish line and check your results.]

Kim Jin-Seo’s face turned to stone when she heard the announcement. Bae Sung-Hyun was taken aback for a moment, but he smiled widely after taking in the situation. Kim Jin-Seo had twelve cores. However, before she could unload said cores into her group’s wagon, group 100 had crossed the finish line.

Although they were the first to cross the finish line, the condition of carrying at least one core was not met. Therefore, they were disqualified. At the same time, this implied that the twelve cores in Kim Jin-Seo’s possession were rendered useless.

“Didn’t I tell you? Do Sun-Woo and Ko Jun-Min are unreliable. So, what do you think? Do you want to sell me those cores?” Bae Sung-Hyun thought this was the perfect chance and started negotiating again.

“Huh? Hey, wait! Listen to me—!” However, Kim Jin-Seo rushed toward the finish line before Bae Sung-Hyun finished talking. She moved quickly and nimbly like a cat.

The left-alone Bae Sung-Hyun let out a big sigh as his efforts had been in vain.

“... That bitch. She wouldn’t sell it to me in the end.” Bae Sung-Hyun swore toward Kim Jin-Seo’s silhouette that faded into the distance.

***

It took Kim Jin-Seo less than five minutes to get to the finish line. She had amazing speed. Kim Jin-Seo looked around as she panted for air. Finally, she found Do Sun-Woo. He was sitting down with a calm, or rather arrogant expression on his face. Ko Jun-Min was nowhere in sight.

Kim Jin-Seo rushed to Do Sun-Woo at once and grabbed him by his necktie.

“I told you to stay put.” Do Sun-Woo showed no sign of surprise, even though he had just been grabbed by the neck out of nowhere. He just had a carefree smile on his face.

“Yeah, it just happened. My bad for not telling you before it happened.”

“What?” Kim Jin-Seo scowled. Even getting down on his knees and begging for forgiveness would not have been enough, Do Sun-Woo was trying to shrug it off with a measly apology.

Although Kim Jin-Seo was confident in hiding her feelings, she found it hard to do so right now. She could feel her anger frothing within herself.

“I told you to stay put! Now because of you—”

“Wait.” So Do-Jin intervened and stopped Kim Jin-Seo before she could lash out with her resentment.

“Stop shouting, you’re making my head ring.”

“...I’m sorry.” Kim Jin-Seo bowed her head down to So Do-Jin. Only then did she let go of Do Sun-Woo’s necktie that had been in her hands.

“Are you Kim Jin-Seo from group 100?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Alright. Group 100 made it past the finish line at twenty-eight minutes and fifteen seconds. You are not to be awarded any bonus points since you only had one core. That’s all. Head back to your class and take a rest.”

“...sir?” Kim Jin-Seo asked, dumbfounded.

“Do you want to hear it again? You’re in first place. Head back and rest.” So Do-Jin lashed out as if he was bothered and tired.

“Yes, s-sir.” Kim Jin-Seo said, visibly shaken. She looked at Do Sun-Woo. He was trying to fix the knot in his tie. He had been repetitively putting the tie together and taking it apart as he wasn’t good at tying it.

“You… Where did you get the core?” Kim Jin-Seo said, stepping closer to Do Sun-Woo.

“I told you. It just happened to happen,” Do Sun-Woo said with a blank expression on his face. It seemed like he had no intention of disclosing how he had done it. Kim Jin-Seo realized it would be a waste of time pressing him on and gave up.

“Uh, your necktie.”

“Hm, what?”

“...Nevermind.”

Kim Jin-Seo stopped in the middle of her sentence and started to make her way toward her classroom. When she abruptly looked back, she saw Do Sun-Woo, still struggling to put on his tie. It seemed like he was screwing up more as he put more effort into it.

‘Maybe I should have helped him with it.’ Kim Jin-Seo thought on the entire way back to her classroom. The thought made her uncomfortable.

***

[Might as well take it off at this point. I can’t believe you’re seventeen and cannot put on a tie properly. When I was your age, we were married, had kids–] Drowning out Legba’s useless rambling, I was focused on fixing my tie. I had never tried wearing my tie without the help of a mirror, so it was becoming more messed up the more time I put into fixing it.

After what felt like three minutes, I managed to make something that roughly resembled a tie. I was not quite satisfied, but it was good enough to wear outside.

“Do Sun-Woo.” Right before I started to walk off to my classroom, So Do-Jin called for me. As always, I could see the tiredness on his face.

“Yes, sir.”

“It seemed like there was a lack of communication between you and Kim Jin-Seo, am I right?”

“Ah.” Only I knew of the plan to piggyback on Kim Ra-Hee’s plan, getting all the benefits and using their betrayal to my advantage to secure first place. I had not conversed with my group mates and acted independently. My actions clashed directly with the intentions of the group-based training session.

“I’m sorry, sir.”

“It’s okay. I’m glad you know that you did something wrong. I’ve seen many cases where people like you don’t know what they’ve done wrong.”

Apologizing right away was the answer in this situation. Although I wasn’t sorry, I tried apologizing before anything happened. Luckily, this seemed to loosen up So Do-Jin a bit.

“Don’t be too happy about your rank as first place. The process is more important than the results. Next time, try to understand the purpose of the training and act accordingly. Don’t try to weasel your way out using tricks.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll implement your suggestions.”

“Alright. Head back to your class.”

I silently made my way back to my class. I had lied when I said I’d implement his suggestions. I erased what So Do-Jin had said from my mind as soon as I set foot toward my class.

[That guy, he’s totally that.]

“What do you mean by that?”

[I don’t remember the word for that. Back in my day, that word didn’t exist, you see..]

“Oh, you mean boomer?”

[Yeah! That’s the word I was looking for.]

You also sound like a boomer though?

I kept that thought to myself without saying it out loud. I was afraid they might get upset.