Chima’s win was not only a huge bump in morale but a fortification to Kim Yiseo’s qualms about the hail mary tactic rlin proposed. She was nonchalant about it, however, not even sparing rlin a glance despite how many tis he turned towards her. And it was eating at him so much that his throat hurt.
Growing up, he hadn’t had many friends. Honestly, Sam had been his only friend, and that had only co about because they had both been paired for a class project once. And it wasn’t exactly surprising. He’d not been the most social person after all. All in all, he’d never been in many fights before, and if what he was having with Kim Yiseo now was one, it was practically chewing him out.
“Okay,” Hakyun started with a nervous huff, jumping to his feet as his na and portrait appeared on the TV screen. “My ti is nigh. Wish luck?”
rlin nodded at him, mumbling, “You don’t need it.” And everyone else took it from there. Then he turned back to the screen, placing his gaze on the portrait of the girl beside Hakyun.
Olivia Stone had pale skin, blue eyes as cold as steel, and wavy ash-brown hair. But what was the most standout about her was the particularly stoic look she had to herself, complented by her sharp gaze, which ca together to make her look rather dangerous—like a predator. Which was both ironic and worrying. She was just like Nikolai—a mage with the ability to transform herself into a beast of the wild. And because of that rlin felt concerned for Hakyun.
rlin turned once again to his friend, who was rubbing his palms together, and occasionally nudging his glasses upwards as he awaited his call.
Hakyun’s pupils were a little dilated, and when rlin looked even closely, he noticed the excessive gulps of his roommate.
rlin shifted on his seat, wanting to say sothing—anything—to calm his friend. He knew how close Hakyun and Nikolai had been, as well as how their friendship had t an abrupt close. Even worse was that they hadn’t been in contact since then, which only worsened how Hakyun felt about it all. And that was why rlin held himself back from saying anything. He’d already been insensitive once already—a few seconds back with Chima and Yiseo, and the rest; he couldn’t be that sort of asshole two tis in a row. And besides, the guilt was killing him. He knew about Nikolai’s plight, and he had kept it from both Hakyun and Chima, and even Nora. And, honestly, he had no clue why. It was like there was this nagging voice in the back of his head, telling him that the less his friends knew, the better. That keeping things a secret from them would protect them. Most tis, he believed the voice. But sotis, like now, he really loathed it. Because he hated keeping secrets.
Instructor Park called for Hakyun and Olivia then, and rlin’s thoughts were flushed away as Hakyun cleared his throat, took a deep breath, and turned towards the door.
The battle would be intense. Hakyun was a C-Class Mage. He had less mana than Olivia, who was a B-Class Mage, so drawing out the battle wouldn’t favor him. And, unlike Chima, Hakyun hadn’t thrown rlin’s idea about a hail mary down the drain. It troubled rlin that there was a possibility Hakyun would end up using it, and Chima’s words kept ringing in his head in return.
What if sothing bad happened as a return?
Was it too late to remove that idea from everyone’s heads? Was it too late to change his words?
rlin clenched his fists.
He was so desperate to win, but what good would it be if it ca at the expense of his friend?
As Hakyun’s hand fell upon the handle of the door, rlin jumped to his feet and before a wave of sha could fall upon him and change his mind, he bowed.
“I’m sorry,” he said, dragging everyone’s gaze to himself. “Yiseo and Chima are right. I was insensitive earlier with the whole deal about the…hail mary. It’s dangerous, and I let my drive to win get the better of . I do not want any of you to hurt yourselves or do sothing stupid just because we want to top a stupid school ranking, and I had no right to try to drag you all into my own ss of a personal motivation. But I can’t reverse ti and take back what I said. So I hope you all accept my apologies. Truly. I an it.” He lowered his head even deeper.
The silence in the waiting room stretched on for a lot longer than rlin would have liked, and he began to curl into himself bit by bit as his mind and heart raced. The sheer possibility that there was a chance his apologies could be rejected made him scared. He didn’t want to lose his friends.
“I suppose I can no longer be angry at you now, can I?” Yiseo said and rlin turned in her direction. Her hands were folded, her legs crossed, and she had a soft smile on her face. “I’d have liked a few more days, though?”
rlin chuckled and straightened on his feet. “Maybe another day.”
Hakyun crossed the length of the room and threw a hand over rlin’s shoulders, pulling him into a tight side hug.
“Damn you, you sneaky, little bastard!” Hakyun snorted. “Now I can’t bring down the Tengai Shinsei as my final act!”
“The Ten—what?” Jaehyun asked with a bit of a frown.
Hakyun glanced at him, wanting to say sothing, but sighed and shook his head.
“There’s no point. You’re not a nerd.”
Jaehyun licked his lips, looking slightly offended at that.
“It’s from an ani,” Yuri replied. “Naruto. One of the villains in the story brings down a great boulder onto an army. I guess that’s what he’s talking about.” Hakyun and rlin raised their eyebrows as they stared at her. “What?” she added.
rlin cleared his throat. “I did not take you for soone who watches ani.”
“Yeah,” said Hakyun. “You seem more like the ‘I don’t watch anything besides reality tv show’ type.”
“That’s very an, I’ll have you know,” Yuri said, pulling her eyebrows in. For a mont it seed like lasers would shoot out of her eyes and burn Hakyun to a crisp.
Hakyun flinched. “Haha… My bad.”
rlin slapped Hakyun on his back then and nudged his head at the TV. Olivia was already standing in the arena, and he had only a minute to get there.
“Hurry up,” rlin said. “You can do this.”
Hakyun nodded, took one more deep breath, and rushed out of the waiting room.
###
“Weird,” Chima started as he sat up on his bed, staring at a certain young lady with long, black hair and blue, feline eyes seated on the visitor’s couch in his ward. She was sucking on a popsicle and gazing up at the TV hanging from the walls. When she heard his voice, she turned around.
“Oh. You’re awake?” Nora mumbled. “Those were so nasty burns you had. I guess that saying is true. You know, the one where they say get close enough to fire and it’ll burn you too.”
Chima blinked. “I think what you an is, if you play with fire, you’re gonna get burned.”
Nora smacked her lips. “Whatever.”
“So, why are you here?” Chima asked, groaning as he gently flexed his arms so as not to rip out the drip injected into his vein.
Compared to the state he had left Maya in, he was a lot better, just covered in a lot of bandages.
Preventing himself from burning after expending his mana to such a high degree had been a tall task, but he’d manage to at least reduce the intensity a lot—just like Maya had done with her wings—by focusing his mana on the parts of his body that would be most affected. Hopefully, when he eventually took the bandages off, the scars wouldn’t be too excessive.
“Why, I’m here because I’m concerned about you. What do you an?” Nora replied with a frown that said Chima’s question was absurd.
Chima, on the other hand, scoffed. “You don’t check up on anyone besides rlin,” he said.
Nora looked up at the ceiling and then scoffed. “Fair enough.”
“What are you here for?” he asked again.
Nora threw the stick of her popsicle into the waste bin and said, “I was tired of constantly discussing with my aunty, so I needed an escape. You popped up in my mind, and so here I am. I want us to watch and talk about the rest of the tournant together.”
Chima sighed. “Nora.”
“And I want you to tell about that spell of yours.” She leaned forward on her seat. “How did you do it?”
Chima chuckled gently as Instructor Park announced for the sixth round to start.
“Took you long enough.”
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