Chapter 3
“I feel like I've been seeing you around here often lately. Did you only start exercising recently?”
“Huff, huff…. Yes?”
Choi Mari suddenly spoke to me first in a situation I hadn't expected.
It had been almost two weeks since I started dangling bait, so it was arguably a little late for her to speak to me, but what mattered was simply the fact that ‘Choi Mari had taken the bait.’
“Huff, wait, just a moment…. L-let me catch my breath….”
“…Take your time.”
Of course, quite apart from that, it took me a little while to recover from the aftereffects of having forcibly manipulated my body to move until just moments ago.
Fortunately, it wasn't impossible to hold a conversation even while in a runner's high, so after catching my breath for a moment, I answered her.
“I only started exercising recently. It's been about two weeks, I think.”
“I thought that might be the case. Just looking at you, you don't exactly look like someone who exercises.”
“Yes….”
“Ah, I didn't mean that in a bad way. You started exercising to try to change your skinny build, right?”
“…That is part of it, but I started mainly because of the entrance exam.”
“The entrance exam? Ah, the Hunter Academy?”
“Yes.”
I naturally steered the subject toward Cheonmu Hunter Academy while responding to Choi Mari. Since she was already a first-year at Cheonmu Hunter Academy, of course she'd be interested in this topic as well.
Maybe I could build up her favorability by making it clear that I might become her junior. In any case, since she was a heroine from the original story, there was no harm in acting as much like Seo Woojin as possible and finding things we had in common.
“Are you a high school senior? Or repeating the year?”
“You may not believe me, but I'm a current high school senior.”
“Ah, that's not what I meant. I was just wondering if you were younger than me.”
“Then how old are you?”
At first, she spoke in a tone tinged with slight wariness, showing the reaction of someone who found it awkward to deal with a stranger.
If I had excitedly chattered as though I'd been waiting for her to talk to me from the very beginning, it would have aroused her suspicions instead. All the more so with Choi Mari, who had been hit on by many men because of her striking appearance.
Even so, perhaps because my act was still working, Choi Mari instead began sharing information about herself to put me at ease.
“I haven't introduced myself properly. I'm Choi Mari, a first-year in the Defense Department at Cheonmu Hunter Academy. Since you said you're a high school senior, I guess I'm a year older than you?”
“…I'm Lee Seonho, an applicant to the Combat Support Department at Cheonmu Hunter Academy.”
“Oh, really? You're really applying to Cheonmu Hunter Academy?”
“……Yes.”
“Then I'm older than you and a year ahead of you, so I can drop the formalities, right?”
“…Go ahead, Senior Choi Mari.”
“Yeah, yeah. It's nice that we hit it off.”
…Just as expected. The moment she learned I was her junior, Choi Mari immediately started speaking informally.
In a way, she had a somewhat insolent personality, but I didn't mind. The fact that she'd dropped the formalities meant she was practically no longer wary of me.
Maybe she was that confident because, physically, she was an Awakened capable of overpowering almost any man.
“Then, junior… Ah, are you not my junior yet? You might not get in, after all?”
“I'd appreciate it if you didn't say things that make me nervous for no reason.”
“Ah, sorry. Still, Cheonmu is pretty competitive. Didn't you apply to any other Hunter Academies?”
“No. Cheonmu is close to home, and it seemed better than the others.”
“That's true, our academy really is the best among the Hunter Academies in Korea. Still, you're brave. When I was a high school senior, I also applied to Prime Academy and Myeongwol Academy.”
“Seeing as you attend Cheonmu Hunter Academy, I assume you got accepted to those other two as well.”
“Of course. At the academy, I'm known as ‘Choi Mari, the Impenetrable Alloy Shield.’ Not a single one of my classmates has managed to break through this body's shield yet.”
“You're amazing. …But did you suddenly stop me just so you could brag about yourself, Senior?”
“Ah, right! Junior, you! Stop and stand there in a running stance for a moment!”
“……Yes?”
Just as I cut off the conversation at an appropriate point before the pointless talk could drag on, Choi Mari asked me to assume a stance.
As soon as I took the running stance as she instructed, Choi Mari placed her hands on my arms and shoulders and began correcting my form.
“Your shoulders need to be kept as square and upright as possible, perpendicular to the ground. And bend your arms at a 90-degree angle, with your hands lightly clenched into fists….”
“…Like this?”
“Yeah. And keep your back straight, bending your legs slightly when you extend them forward, as if to absorb the impact….”
Choi Mari naturally corrected my posture, moving her hands over my arms, shoulders, and waist.
As expected, deliberately running around near her with an awkward posture had been the right call. It was almost obvious that the reason she'd spoken to me was because she wanted to correct this awkward posture.
Although it had taken two weeks to lower her guard, that was enough time to invest in building a connection with Choi Mari.
In any case, I hadn't even enrolled in the academy yet. And since there was no other way for me to meet a heroine right now, it wasn't as though I had another option.
“Try running once. For now, I'll keep an eye on your running form.”
“Yes.”
Playing the part of an obedient junior, I followed Choi Mari's instructions exactly, adopting the posture and moving.
Perhaps because I was being guided by a current academy student, running felt much more comfortable. Though before that, I had been deliberately running with slightly sloppy form.
“How is it?”
“It's definitely more comfortable than before. It feels like there's less strain on my knees and lower back, too.”
“Of course. You were running with completely wrong form until now. Do you know how much it bothered me, seeing you right in front of me for two weeks?”
“…I'm sorry.”
“I just mean it was bothering me; you don't really need to apologize…. Still, it looks much better now that you've changed your form. It finally looks like you're running properly.”
Choi Mari spoke in a satisfied voice, as though she took pride in having corrected my running form with her own hands.
This was enough for a first impression… It seemed like I would have plenty of excuses to keep talking to her in the future.
⁎ ⁎ ⁎
“Hello, Senior Choi Mari.”
That very evening, after Choi Mari had corrected my form that morning.
Once again, I entered the exercise trail at the time she exercised on purpose, then naturally prompted a conversation with her.
“Oh, junior. You seemed to run hard this morning, but you're diligent in the evening too?”
“I've been doing it every morning and evening. If I'm preparing for the academy entrance exam, I need to build up at least a little stamina somehow.”
“You're really different from how you look. If you're applying to the Combat Support Department, there isn't really a fitness test, is there?”
“I don't want to cause trouble for my teammates later, if I can help it. If my lack of stamina means I can't keep up with the other combat-oriented team members, that would just burden them.”
“Wow… Most support-department kids think they just need to do their own jobs, but you really are a surprise, junior.”
Choi Mari nodded with a satisfied expression at my perfectly sensible statement.
Most Combat Support students generally had poor stamina because they often served in rear support roles, and Choi Mari had probably encountered a few such teammates in team assignments.
Given that, hearing me say something so commendable could only raise her favorability toward me. Choi Mari probably had no idea that I was using this to raise her favorability, though.
“Junior, don't let your posture go slack. I said it's better to maintain it naturally, but at first you still need to consciously maintain it.”
“Ah, sorry….”
“That happens if you're not used to it. Ah, but do you adjust your diet while exercising?”
“For now, I'm eating according to what I found online. A sandwich made with whole-wheat bread and chicken breast, plus two slices of pineapple in the morning, and two boiled eggs and one banana in the evening because I heard I shouldn't eat too much at night.”
“Oh, really? Your diet is similar to mine. That's pretty amazing.”
“You eat like that in the morning and evening too, Senior?”
“Well, yeah. I only have chicken-breast salad and soy milk for lunch, too. And I drink protein shakes before and after exercising, so I supplement my protein separately.”
“I can't go that far…. I just eat a regular meal for lunch. Besides, I need to gain weight as well as muscle….”
“That's fine. You haven't been exercising for long, so you don't need to push yourself from the outset. Ah, but you should probably take protein separately, too. It'd be such a waste to work out that hard and not gain muscle from it.”
“I'll look into it later. Actually, there are so many kinds of protein that I haven't chosen one yet because I don't know what to buy or how to choose.”
In conversations like this, I gradually expanded the common ground between Choi Mari and me by bringing up topics we had in common.
Deliberately not answering unless the other person mentioned something first had also been intentional. If I started rambling about this and that without her asking, I might arouse her suspicion for no reason.
There were still at least two weeks until admission to Cheonmu Academy, so I was trying not to act in haste. Seeing how much her guard had already come down, things had definitely gone smoothly.
I even found myself thinking that perhaps I might be able to win Choi Mari over before Cha Eun-joo.
‘…Or am I getting ahead of myself?’
In fact, the difficulty of winning over Cha Eun-joo was practically the lowest possible specifically for Lee Seonho, so I was confident I could seduce her quickly as long as I managed to meet her somehow.
I'd be bound to meet her somehow by the time of the written exam, and we could grow closer while taking the practical exam together.
“Ah, so you don't have any protein like what you're taking right now?”
“Not at the moment.”
“Then should I give you one of mine? I usually buy one with a high protein content, but last time I accidentally bought one that contained carbohydrates. Still, they say it's good for people like you who are trying to gain weight and build muscle. What do you think?”
“I'd appreciate it, but… are you sure it's okay?”
“It's fine. If I leave it at home, I'll just end up throwing it away without eating it anyway. I'd rather give it to someone who can put it to good use.”
“Since you put it that way, I'll gratefully accept it.”
“Okay. You're coming out to exercise tomorrow morning too, right? I'll bring it tomorrow morning, so see you then.”
“Yes, Senior.”
“Good. But you have to come tomorrow, okay?”
The gift from Choi Mari that the protagonist was supposed to receive in the original story had somehow ended up in my hands instead.
I felt sorry for Seo Woojin, who had lost the opportunity to learn from Choi Mari and grow, but there was no reason for me to give up this chance I'd gotten for once.
It was the moment I once again realized how advantageous it was to meet a heroine before the original protagonist did.