“Miss, how is academy life treating you?”
The driver, who had been awkwardly watching for signals, broke the silence first.
“Yes.”
“Is there anything difficult?”
“Yes.”
However, with Haru’s short responses, the conversation came to a halt as if it had never existed from the beginning.
Since the madam, who had been in poor health, passed away after not making it through the winter, the once cheerful appearance of the young lady could no longer be seen, which made the driver feel quite regretful.
As requested by the vice president, he had been personally bringing the daughter to the academy every time, but there had been no progress in the situation over the past few months.
“I’ll be back.”
“Um… Miss?”
“Yes…?”
“There are always many people around you to help, so just—”
“If you’re going to say that, I’ll just get out. Thank you for bringing me today.”
“I’m sorry… Please be careful. I’ll be waiting here at the back gate at the end of school.”
The girl who got out of the car inhaled the refreshing air deeply.
However, the journey to school was not as thrilling as she had imagined.
Since that day, Iharu’s world had suddenly turned black and white.
Nothing was fun, and she couldn’t gather any energy for anything.
The only people she could still connect with were her Academy Friends.
“Hi Haru-chan! I was waiting for you!”
Jeon Nuri came waving her hand.
They had been in the same first-year class C last year, and she was Haru’s closest friend.
Only then did Haru relax her stiff expression and return the greeting.
“Wow, you’re not using self-driving but a driver instead? Tri-Star Group really is different!”
“It’s just that Dad asked me to. It’s so uncomfortable to have two people in the car.”
“Still, there’s some kind of dream about it. In dramas, wealthy girls each have their own driver.”
“Because it’s a drama. It’s not like that in real life.”
Haru knew that Nuri was just joking anyway.
Jeon Nuri, whose grandfather was the head of a university hospital, was also considered a wealthy student in the academy overall.
Although it wasn’t intentional to only make friends with people from her class, the distance created by the gap in wealth made Haru feel more at ease with Nuri.
“Haru, I think you’ve changed a lot compared to before.”
“I have? How have I changed?”
“Hmmm… what should I say? You used to be such a chatterbox, but these days you’ve become quiet, and… yeah, you’ve become chic.”
“Chic…?”
Haru made a bewildered expression upon hearing that.
“Yeah! Like Elsa’s sister in Frozen 4!”
“I haven’t seen that movie, so I don’t know.”
“Wow, you haven’t seen it? Elsa’s sister, who is really pretty but never smiles, is someone who has been good at ice magic since she was little. The palace people have tried every possible way to make her smile at least once. So what did they do—”
“Stop spoiling! I’ll watch it later, so no more.”
“Anyway, that sister looks really chic. She’s always expressionless, but she’s super cool.”
“Like Noname?”
Haru and Nuri exchanged glances.
Nuri made a thoughtful sound and shook her head.
“Noname is expressionless, but it’s a bit ambiguous to call it chic. It’s a little complicated. If you’re cool chic, then Noname is cutie chic, I guess?”
“What’s cutie chic?”
“The opposite of cool is hot, so should I say hot chic? But that sounds weird, like Hot Six! Hehe, I don’t really know either. Just something like that.”
Nuri laughed gently, finding it amusing.
Haru awkwardly tried to laugh along with her.
Suddenly reminded of Noname, Nuri seemed to come up with another topic and shook Haru’s hand back and forth.
“Recently, Noname has been giving off a really nice scent! Should I ask what perfume she uses? Even sitting in the next row, I can’t concentrate on class because I keep getting distracted.”
“Yeah, I could smell the apple scent even from my side.”
“Right? You noticed too. It’s not just any apple; it’s an incredibly sweet apple scent that’s been soaked in sugar and honey!”
“How do you know that? You have an excellent nose!”
“I might. My mom says that a lot!”
“Ah… yeah… from your mom…”
“Uh? What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?”
Nuri’s offhand comment caused Haru’s heart to plummet.
Seeing Haru suddenly change color, Nuri looked worried.
Beeeeee-
“Not again…”
A sound that made her head spin echoed in her ears.
Normally, it wouldn’t be so loud, but today, it was particularly hard to bear.
Haru crouched down on the street for a moment, holding her head and taking deep breaths.
“One, two…”
Beeeeeee!
“Ack…!”
“Haru! Are you okay?”
The ringing noise grew louder, and her head felt like it was going to split open.
Flustered, Nuri quickly asked.
As far as she knew, Haru had always been a healthy and lively child, so it was very unusual for her to suddenly collapse like this.
“Iharu! What’s wrong? Are you in pain?”
“No, I’m not in pain… The sound… please cover my ears.”
“Ears? Like this?”
“Yeah, but it still hurts… I can still hear the sound.”
Nuri clumsily covered Haru’s ears with her hands, but it seemed ineffective.
Feeling that the situation was getting serious, Nuri contemplated whether to call for help from a passerby or even call an ambulance. Just then, she spotted her classmates walking along the same path.
“Hey Nuri! And of course, there’s Haru next to you, right? What are you doing sitting there?”
Sori, Ji Hye, and behind them Yuna and Noname were also present.
“Hi, everyone… but right now, I think Haru is feeling really sick…”
“Haru is sick? Haru, are you okay?”
Sori quickly ran over to check on Haru. However, she appeared to be fine on the outside.
“I was wondering if I should call an ambulance… Haru keeps saying she’s fine.”
“Still, isn’t it better to call?”
Ji Hye timidly expressed her opinion. Yuna seemed hesitant about the situation and just watched from a distance.
“Can you step aside for a moment?”
Eventually, unable to sit back and watch, Noname stepped in.
“Iharu, where does it hurt? Is it your head?”
“The noise… it’s too loud… please…”
Haru spoke in a voice filled with pain.
However, the place they were standing was neither a busy street nor particularly loud.
[2Circle Casting: Diagnosis]
Using magic to find the cause of her pain, Noname was left with no results.
As Noname shook her head, the children’s expressions became increasingly serious.
“It’s okay; I have an idea.”
Nevertheless, Noname calmly embraced Haru’s shaking body in her arms.
Suddenly, a golden aura poured out from her body, enveloping Haru.
Haru opened her eyes, feeling the world that had been black and white brighten suddenly.
Bee-
The unwanted auditory hallucinations gradually faded away.
As a warm energy surrounded her body, Haru’s complexion slowly began to improve.
After checking Haru’s state, Noname brushed Haru’s sweat-drenched bangs aside.
“You may feel a little sleepy. If you get tired, you can just sleep. We’ll take you to class.”
As she said, this moment felt cozy, making Haru’s eyelids feel heavy.
‘Apple scent…’
Haru realized that it was the scent she had talked about with Nuri earlier.
Continuing to smell it made her feel calm and her head clear.
‘The sky is blue…?’
She witnessed the clear blue sky, something she thought she would never see again, as the background.
Not wanting to forget this mysterious feeling of peace and warmth, Haru reached out her hand toward Noname.
“I think… I’m feeling a bit better.”
*
Haru thought it was a day when sleepiness poured out all day long.
After overcoming a battle with drowsiness, she struggled to stay awake throughout lunch.
Fortunately, the fifth period was physical education, and the sixth period surprisingly switched from math to art, which saved her from a state where attending class would have felt worse than not attending at all.
Physical education class was almost always replaced by dodgeball unless it was during the evaluation period.
Since there were only 20 students in one class, regular physical education times usually involved two classes simultaneously.
All the boys participated in dodgeball while about half of the girls did.
In a corner behind the basketball court of the gym, Noname was sitting against the wall with her eyes closed.
Normally, she would be chatting with Yuna, but today, it seemed like she was forcibly dragged off by Sori, leaving her alone.
Nuri was also absent from the gym due to a parent consultation, so Haru had to spend a boring time as well.
Haru sat quietly, observing Noname.
For some reason, Noname was a ‘mysterious child’ to Haru.
It was something everyone in the class could agree on without needing to ask.
Even Seviron Academy, which usually didn’t accept new students midway through the school year except for the official first-year entrance exam, broke their own rule to bring her in.
From the first day of her transfer, she proved this by memorizing all of her classmates’ names at once upon hearing them.
Furthermore, her aptitude evaluation was notable.
In a notorious exam that included content that could only be learned at the academy, as well as sections that would come up much later, she confidently scored 100 points.
Among the second-year students, she was the smallest, to the extent that people would believe she was in first grade or even younger, yet the aura she exuded was remarkably mature.
As for this, the only adjective that popped into Haru’s mind was ‘mysterious.’
Haru quietly moved closer to Noname.
Even though she intentionally made a sound, Noname remained with her eyes closed.
Perhaps she was tired like herself, taking a moment of rest.
Haru seized this opportunity to enjoy a time of appreciating Noname up close.
‘That’s cute…’
Overall, Noname had a very slim physique, but she still had baby fat on her cheeks, making her look like a big baby.
Occasionally furrowing her brow or twitching her lips indicated she was likely dreaming.
More than anything, whenever she caught a whiff of the rich apple scent for the past few days, it brought her a sense of well-being.
‘I hope we can be friends too.’
Haru, after all, was a pretty popular kid, having even been class president last year.
Being aware of this, she thought she still had plenty of opportunities to get closer, so she decided to quietly slip away so as not to wake Noname.
“Hey, watch out for the ball coming your way!”
Park Tae-hyun, from the same class, shouted a warning towards them.
“Uh…?”
Turning her head to see the incoming dodgeball, Haru realized its trajectory was heading toward Noname.
In that fleeting moment, she couldn’t warn her, but suddenly Noname’s eyes opened wide, and she swung her arm strongly to the side.
Bang!
The explosive sound echoed in the assembly hall.
“…!”
“What? It exploded.”
Noname remarked in a subdued voice, looking at the dodgeball that had become a tattered mess.
She personally went to the boys to apologize for the ruined ball.
“Sorry.”
“Oh, it’s okay. We have another one.”
“What if we get in trouble with the teacher?”
“If you quietly take one from the storage, they won’t know.”
When Noname returned to her spot, she leaned against the wall, lost in thought.
“How did you do that?”
Haru asked in disbelief.
“I accidentally used an aura. I mixed up imagination and reality for a moment.”
“Weren’t you sleeping?”
“I wasn’t sleeping.”
Haru’s face turned bright red all of a sudden.
What if Noname had caught her secretly staring?
Feeling flustered, Haru followed up with another question.
“What were you imagining?”
“Imagining one against a hundred with a dagger.”
“…?”
That day marked the moment when the word ‘eccentric’ was newly added to Haru’s vocabulary concerning Noname.
