This is a bar located near the school, styled after an izakaya concept.
“Let me bring you some complimentary snacks.”
“Ah, yes, thank you…”
The staff set a plate on the table. Inside was a slice of cabbage, bite-sized.
Following this, the staff looked at Choi Soo-eun and asked:
“Can I take your order?”
“My party is set to arrive later, so I’ll order in a bit.”
“Alright, understood.”
With that, the staff bowed slightly and left. Choi Soo-eun glanced at the wall clock mounted on the restaurant wall.
“…”
There was still quite some time left until the agreed-upon time. About 20 more minutes to go, it seems.
In the meantime, Choi Soo-eun decided to check her makeup.
Creak─
She pulled out a compact mirror from her pouch and checked if there was anything that needed touch-ups. The dim lighting in the restaurant was a bit of a downside, but it wasn’t an obstacle for applying makeup.
“Alright.”
Having put on her makeup well from the start, there wasn’t much to fix. Her hair also looked perfect. Her hairstyle was beautifully set. She was pleased.
It was nothing short of an ultimate condition, at the peak of her form. Days like this rarely come once a week.
How lucky that the meet-up was scheduled for today.
—You drink all this, and 500,000 won will immediately be deposited into your account!
—Hey! Who can’t drink that? Roll a single dice! No way, it’s not a 2-liter glass!
The shop was quite chaotic inside. It was unavoidable, given the nature of a bar. People tend to get excited with drinks.
“I wonder if the drinks are okay… should I have chosen a safer place for food instead…?”
The choice of meeting place at the bar was made by Choi Soo-eun herself. So she started worrying. What if the person on the other side disliked this kind of atmosphere?
Thud─
At that moment, someone approached the table.
Could they be here already? Choi Soo-eun prepared the smile she’d practiced beforehand to greet Shin Yoon-seong.
“Hm…?”
But the warm smile soon froze. Her facial muscles stiffened, and in an instant, her expression twisted.
The person she was expecting—Shin Yoon-seong—was not the one who appeared. Instead, there stood someone else.
“Is it alright if I sit here?”
Seated right across from her was a blonde female student. No matter how many times she blinked, it was unmistakably Arna.
Where did Shin Yoon-seong go, and why was Arna here?
“I was invited too.”
“What…?”
Invited? What does that mean? I had a solo dinner date planned with Shin Yoon-seong.
Who invited her? Certainly not me.
Then…
Could Shin Yoon-seong have invited Arna?
“Ahhh. What should I eat? It’s been a while since I’ve been to a bar.”
While Choi Soo-eun was lost in confusion, Arna calmly scanned the menu.
“This chicken skewer seems pretty good. Ah, we should get a soup too. What do you think?”
And then, Arna gave an irritating smile.
It was her personal small act of revenge.
*
“Ah. Isn’t that Shin Yoon-seong?”
Just before heading to the evening meet-up, while working out at the gym, the school principal Lee Min-ho approached me.
“To meet you here of all places. How nice.”
The usual suit-clad figure of Lee Min-ho was nowhere to be seen. Today, he was dressed in workout clothes.
He wasn’t as muscular as Rashid, who had intimidating bulging muscles, but Lee Min-ho still had a body that showed he exercised regularly.
He was a thoroughly meticulous person, and it was hard to believe he was middle-aged.
“Yes, hello.”
For this very reason, he was somewhat discomforting. It was impossible to find even the tiniest fault in him. And when having a conversation with Lee Min-ho, you’d often find yourself inadvertently drawn into his rhythm.
I briefly bowed, then moved away from him, standing in front of a new piece of equipment.
It was a lat pulldown machine, specifically designed for back workouts.
“Huff!”
After sitting down, fastening my body into position, and gripping the high-pulled bar, I slowly pulled it down with effort.
“Well, this doesn’t exactly work for arm exercises either.”
Suddenly, Lee Min-ho was standing behind me, observing my exercise. He added a remark.
“Remember this. When pulling the bar, you need to minimize wrist strain. Avoid lifting your shoulders, and focus on pulling with your chest.”
Lee Min-ho corrected my posture by placing his hands directly on my body.
What’s this guy, why is he suddenly so interested in someone else’s workout?
Did I have such an odd posture? Was it so bad to look at?
“Alright, try again.”
“Huff… Huff…”
“Good. Isn’t there a stimulus reaching your latissimus dorsi right now?”
I didn’t have the breathing room to answer. Pulling the bar was already difficult enough.
“Huff… Huff…”
Definitely, adjusting my posture changed the sensations reaching my back. Tomorrow, muscle pain was guaranteed.
Scarcely was I able to clear one set.
“You should repeat this for a total of 5 sets.”
“5 sets? Are you serious? Of this?”
“This is how beginners start. Identify the right stimulation point first. To achieve that, you need to repeat more sets. If it’s too challenging, lowering the weight is fine as well.”
“Lowering the weight and doing it more times… but then what about my pride?”
“There’s no time for that. Start the next set.”
Lee Min-ho cut off my words mid-sentence. He even checked my rest time.
I had no choice but to grip the bar again.
“Huff… Huff…”
“Ah, your posture is much more natural than before. Keep going like that.”
“…”
I wasn’t sure whether to enjoy or dislike this. It was good to have free personal training, but there was a certain discomfort to it.
It wasn’t easy to exercise comfortably. After all, it was who I was dealing with.
“Huff…”
After finishing all 5 sets of lat pulldowns, I decided to take a short rest by sitting down.
My arms were wobbling. I’d only planned to do a light 3 sets and then leave, but I ended up overtraining unintentionally.
Maybe I should have lowered the weight as Lee Min-ho had suggested earlier.
“Is this where today’s workout ends?”
While I was resting, Lee Min-ho naturally sat beside me.
I nodded.
“Yes… well…”
“How’s your next schedule?”
This was strange. Asking about my next schedule like this. Today, Lee Min-ho seemed unusually interested in me.
I had thought teaching me how to exercise was just an impromptu act of kindness. But even after the exercise was over, Lee Min-ho remained by my side.
This surely wasn’t just a matter of having too much time on his hands.
He must have had another purpose.
“Haha. Sorry, but I wanted to grab a moment to talk to you. Only if you have the time, of course.”
The reason Lee Min-ho hadn’t left my side was that he wanted to have a conversation.
It was likely that he’d come to the gym intending to meet me from the start. Teaching me how to exercise was just a way to approach me.
So.
Why had he come all the way to a deserted gym to have a conversation with me?
And why with me?
I was curious about what Lee Min-ho was thinking.
“Do you recall the last school open day? The day Shin Yoon-seong participated in the evaluation match?”
Lee Min-ho brought up the event that took place a while ago, specifically the final day when the international evaluation matches were held.
“In fact, there was a minor incident that day.”
Throughout this discourse, Lee Min-ho’s expression remained unchanged. The same smiling face.
I asked.
“What exactly was the incident?”
In my memory, the school open event concluded without any significant trouble.
Although, during the international evaluation match, Lloyd Hintz did cause a commotion. Fortunately, Kang Tae-hoon managed to handle the situation well.
But now, talk of an accident?
Did another problem arise somewhere else?
“Didn’t Shin Yoon-seong catch a criminal that day? The one distributing stimulants within the school?”
Yes, I know. The cause behind Lloyd Hintz’s overstimulation. The face of the drug dealer secretly selling stimulants behind the scenes.
I personally arrested that drug dealer during the evaluation match.
Of course, I then handed over the subsequent arrangements to the competition organizer who was standing nearby at the time.
Thus, it was no longer in my hands.
“The problem arose afterward. During the handover process with the organizing committee, something happened.”
“…”
What exactly happened with the criminal? Did they somehow escape? I wasn’t well informed about what happened afterward.
After all, I only caught the criminal.
“On the very same day, the criminal was found dead. Specifically, in the parking lot behind the stadium.”
It was a rather serious matter. The drug dealer I captured was found dead shortly after.
Clearly, calling it an accident had good reason.
“Exactly how did they die? Was it a suicide? Or murder?”
An obvious question.
Actually, I had a vague suspicion about how the drug dealer met their end.
If it had been suicide, Lee Min-ho wouldn’t have come and asked me this way.
Still, I had to ask.
At least for the sake of confirmation.
Then Lee Min-ho spoke.
“Undoubtedly, it was a murder. Moreover, examining the body revealed the unmistakable skills of a professional.”
