NOVPUBSeveral days had passed since Wonsa had woken up, and it was now Friday.
As usual, there were both big and small incidents happening at Yeonggwang High School.
The biggest event of the day was the preliminary round for selecting the members to participate in the Korea-China-Japan Youth Exchange competition.
It was expected that only a few dozen students would apply, but when hundreds showed up, the student council had to urgently adjust the schedule.
‘There were so many applicants that even the sports-related clubs and small groups felt left out.’
Even when there had been representative selection trials for military academies and sports exchanges, nothing like this had happened before.
Since not many students at this specialized school focused on sports, it was inevitable.
The Korea-China-Japan Exchange was not like the military academy exchange. Instead of regular sports, it was set to be a battle of abilities, which sparked great interest among Yeonggwang High’s students.
Due to the large number of applicants, the student council decided to exempt those with notable achievements, who had received nominations from PlayerSAT-K, from the preliminary round.
As a result, without my consent, I advanced directly to the finals and was able to focus on covering the event as a member of the newspaper club.
“Did you see the preliminary round yesterday? I couldn’t watch because I was at a different district, but they almost destroyed the gym, right?”
“Oh, that... They couldn’t control the firepower, and they forgot to turn on the gym's barrier. If Teacher Gong Cheonghyeon hadn’t been looking away, it really would’ve been a disaster.”
“I heard that professional player team scouts who were watching stopped it. Seems like Teacher Gong Cheonghyeon asked them to remove his name from the article afterward.”
After school, in the newspaper club room.
The only topic being discussed in the club was the Korea-China-Japan Exchange preliminary round.
Professional player team scouts had heard the rumors, came to watch the preliminary round, and even gave device codes to the students who performed well.
Even students who didn’t make it through the preliminaries were handed out business cards if the scouts believed they had the skills or abilities that would benefit their teams.
As the rumors spread, even third-year students who hadn’t participated due to graduation preparations came forward and applied to join the preliminaries, increasing the scale of the event.
‘The student council could have just not accepted the late applicants, but they made a difficult decision.’
Led by Student Council President Yeom Junyeol, the entire student council stepped in and re-scheduled the preliminary round.
As a result, many students who weren’t initially interested in the exchange but wanted to appeal to professional teams, and others who joined just for the festival’s sake, also joined the preliminaries.
This meant that the newspaper club had to rearrange our coverage schedule for the event as well.
As a result of the rescheduling, even first-year students joined in on the coverage of the preliminary round.
The first-year students, who had only just enrolled, were constantly amazed by the dazzling abilities displayed by the second and third-year students during the preliminaries and eagerly looked forward to what was to come.
“Among the school ambassadors, the only one participating in the preliminaries is Senior Dokomi, right?”
“Yeah, ‘Wings of Backlight,’ ‘Archer of Shintan,’ and ‘Nameless Supernova’ all have nominations, so they automatically advanced to the finals.”
“I wanted to see Senior Euisin fight!”
The first-year students were discussing whether they could cover the reinforcement training between the selected finalists, and whether the finals would allow for any special coverage, when they suddenly turned to look at me.
Although I was almost an unknown name, they seemed to have taken an interest because I was an ambassador for the school and a senior who would participate in the exchange.
As the Korea-China-Japan Youth Exchange grew bigger and expectations from those around me rose, it became harder to withdraw without causing a fuss.
While I was feeling troubled, Eunho spoke in a calm voice, trying to ease the first-year students.
“You’ll be able to watch Euisin-hyung fight when the finals start. I’m looking forward to it. But I hope you don’t overdo it.”
“That’s right...!”
The first-year students, along with Eunho, looked at me with pure eyes.
I felt really grateful that they were so kind-hearted.
As I thought about how lucky I was to have such great juniors, Hwang Jiho interrupted.
“Euisin, there are so many juniors worrying about you. You need to take care of your health, don’t you?”
Hwang Jiho emphasized the words ‘take care of your health’ as he spoke.
His words made me suddenly recall the herbal medicine from Hyangnok, and I felt a chill.
Recently, Hwang Jiho had been watching over me to see whether I was taking the herbal medicine or not.
Andan, like me, had to deal with the herbal medicine, but the diligent title hero was calmly drinking it in front of his parents, which eased their worries.
The Ho Tribe couple had proudly told me that Andan was taking the medicine well.
“Our child takes his medicine so well. We were worried because it’s bitter, but he endures it so well.”
“We were thinking of asking Hyangnok to take the same-tasting medicine with him so he wouldn’t suffer alone, but he said it was fine and drank it in front of us.”
I was deeply touched by Andan’s willpower to endure the bitterness of the herbal medicine, just as the Ho Tribe parents had been.
I, too, tried to emulate Andan and endure the medicine, but every time I had to drink it, I struggled with the pain in my taste buds.
The thought of Hwang Jiho monitoring whether I was taking the herbal medicine made my head ache.
Meanwhile, as the first-year students were talking, Moon Saeron spoke to Eunho.
“I see the deputy class president of Class 0 is really interested in the preliminary round. I could change the coverage topic if you want!”
As Moon Saeron had pointed out, Eunho, the deputy class president of first-year Class 0, was not currently covering the preliminary round for the Korea-China-Japan Youth Exchange.
Eunho was preparing a different special article at the moment.
“Thanks for the offer, but I’m really interested in the topic I’m currently covering.”
“More interested than the preliminary round?”
“I am interested in the preliminary round, but as a member of Class 0, I’m also very interested in the actions of the seniors. There were some recent battles involving Senior Ugiwan, and some people are quite interested in my coverage on that.”
Eunho gently declined Moon Saeron’s offer while looking toward me and Hwang Jiho.
Eunho’s attitude made him seem like just a passionate student respecting his seniors and eager to cover the event.
“Plus, since the seniors from Class 0 decided to help, I’m even more motivated.”
Currently, there were three of us in Class 0 at the newspaper club.
Second-year Class 0: Me, Hwang Jiho.
First-year Class 0: Eunho.
When Eunho referred to us as his seniors, Hwang Jiho almost laughed out loud but managed to hold back a smirk.
Since Hwang Jiho was already well-known as the representative troublemaker of second-year Class 0, no one would be surprised if he suddenly started smirking. So, I was puzzled as to why he was holding it back now.
‘When I snapped out of it, Eunho had smoothly roped me and Hwang Jiho into this coverage.’
It wasn’t a coincidence that the tigers and I ended up covering the graduated seniors from Class 0.
On the day Wonsa woke up, the tigers had this conversation.
“Eunho, I don’t think Wonsa will betray us like Fungbaek and Wusa.”
“I think so too. Did you see Wonsa’s clueless face when we talked about going to the Abyss? It’s just as fun to tease him as it was in the past.”
Hwang Jiho and Jeokho, as soon as they saw Eunho waiting outside, spoke up like this.
The two tigers seemed to trust Wonsa.
Eunho, however, didn’t make any judgment on this.
Instead, he asked Baekho.
“Baekho, what do you think?”
Baekho didn’t hesitate to answer.
“I trust my friends.”
After Hwang Jiho, Jeokho, and Baekho all stated they trusted Wonsa, I wasn’t sure what Eunho’s final judgment would be. But with those three saying this, it seemed unlikely there would be any suspicion or exclusion of Wonsa within the Ho Tribe.
When we were waiting for Eunho to say something, we heard this.
“What about Euisin-hyung?”
“...Huh?”
I didn’t expect to be asked about it.
Surprised by the unexpected question, I delayed my answer, and the tigers grew impatient.
“Euisin, did you really think Wonsa’s situation has nothing to do with you?”
“From your expression, it seems you think exactly what Hwangho said. You look like you didn’t expect it at all.”
“...”
“Doesn’t Baekho look surprised too? Stop keeping your mouth shut and say something.”
“...I don’t think there’s anything to say.”
Eunho, unlike the other tigers, didn’t say anything directly but smiled while looking at me, creating a sense of pressure.
Although I had a lot to say, I decided to stay silent because the other tigers were speaking on my behalf.
After some thought, I carefully shared my thoughts.
“If we confirm the distress signal Wonsa left behind, it will clarify everything. I want to see it to judge Wonsa’s innocence.”
Upon hearing my words, Eunho nodded.
“I agree with you, Euisin-hyung.”
“Does that mean you won’t believe it until we confirm the distress signal?”
“Yes, someone has to take on this role.”
Eunho spoke while looking at the door where Wonsa lay sleeping.
Although his words suggested a need to confirm, his eyes showed a longing for his old friend.
When Eunho said this, the other tigers didn’t speak further.
“The remnants of the signal probably won’t be clear. I’d like to hear from the Class 0 graduates who saw Wonsa’s signal directly.”
“That’s going to be a tricky task. You can’t easily persuade the Class 0 graduates with money or power. Just think about Seong Gukyeon or Ugiwan.”
When Hwang Jiho mentioned Seong Gukyeon and Ugiwan as examples, I realized just how difficult this task would be.
Even the head of the Ho Tribe, who said this, knew how tough it was to deal with the graduates from Class 0.
Moreover, the graduates we had to deal with had been the ones who attempted to destroy the old school building and were involved in dangerous acts after graduation.
The Ho Tribe would not get them to speak easily under pressure.
Still, there were ways.
“There’s a way.”
By leveraging my position and role, I could easily approach the graduated seniors from Class 0.
Considering this, I suggested my plan.
“I’m part of Class 0 and the newspaper club. I can approach them for an interview.”
“That’s a good idea.”
Eunho agreed, so we would need to plan the coverage soon.
As I was thinking about that, Eunho added something.
“Since I’m from Class 0 and the newspaper club, we can move together.”
I didn’t really intend to involve Eunho and Hwang Jiho, but now I realized it would be hard to do the coverage without their help.
Plus, the newspaper club had so many things to cover recently that it would be difficult to assign many people to one topic.
Before I could say they didn’t need to join, Hwang Jiho cut in.
“Were you planning to go alone with that look on your face? I thought you had a good suggestion, but now it looks like you didn’t think it through.”
“Euisin-hyung probably just misjudged for a moment. You didn’t plan to go alone, did you?”
“Eunho, if it’s Euisin-hyung, he would probably do that. Even if his left eye wasn’t working, he’d still be saying the same thing.”
“Lord Hwangho said that, but what do you think, Euisin-hyung?”
When Hwang Jiho and Eunho spoke like this, I didn’t know what to say.
All I could do was nod.
The next day, Eunho immediately took action.
When Eunho proposed covering the graduates from Class 0, the club president approved, and naturally, it became a group effort, with me and Hwang Jiho, who were direct seniors, joining in.
By the time I came to my senses, the entire schedule had been decided.
Thus, the coverage of the graduated seniors from Class 0 began.
