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45. Unofficial Work 5
45. Unofficial Work 5
“If you’re hurt, you can go straight to the infirmary.”
Even the teacher seemed frustrated that this was the best conclusion they could reach. Yoon Taeha shrugged and replied,
“I’ve broken plenty of things myself, haven’t I?”
“…That’s true. Are horizontal movements still difficult for you?”
Yoon Taeha answered with as much difficulty as she could muster.
“A little. But I can now lift things to the exact height I want.”
“Let’s focus on pulling one object along its trajectory first. We’ll try handling multiple objects later.”
The teacher, feeling slightly guilty, stayed close to Yoon Taeha and gave her intensive tips.
“First, lift it up and maintain a proper height. What did we say it was today?”
“Three meters.”
“Let’s give it a try. If it goes off course, I’ll help you once.”
That day, Yoon Taeha successfully completed her assigned tasks in the orbital proficiency class without breaking anything. The teacher celebrated her achievement purely as a mentor would.
When she finished the final assignment that even Kang Jin-ho couldn’t complete, the teacher praised the transfer student loudly for everyone to hear.
Hearing this, Kang Jin-ho vented his frustration on his friends and stormed out of the classroom first.
---
After class, when Yoon Taeha opened her locker, she could tell where Kang Jin-ho had been.
“I need to throw this away.”
Her carefully written book was completely soaked in filthy water. Thankfully, there were no other belongings inside—thank goodness for small mercies.
With a sigh, she walked over to Kang Jin-ho’s locker. He wasn’t in the classroom; he had likely gone into hiding at one of their many hideouts with his friends.
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”
A student who saw the transfer student trying to open Kang Jin-ho’s locker rushed over to stop her. It was the class president of G Class.
“I borrowed a book from Jin-ho.”
“What nonsense is this…? Jin-ho ruined your book!”
Yoon Taeha feigned confusion.
“If someone starts trouble and you retaliate, doesn’t that mean you’re the one who gets marked?”
“The logic is flawed. According to you, Jin-ho ruined my book first.”
The class president looked like he wanted to cry and yell at the same time.
“But there’s no proof of that!”
“And what about you?”
“Don’t drag me into this. None of the students in our class—or any Espers—want to get involved in this kind of mess.”
So this was how things worked. After inspecting the now-dirty interior of her own locker, she paused in thought. The students of G Class held their breath, waiting to see what she would do next.
Her deliberation was brief, and her voice was clear.
“Then I’ll leave you out of it.”
“What? You don’t understand? If you return it like this, your school life until graduation will be miserable. Even saying this much is technically against the rules…”
It was clear he had mustered some courage to say this.
She didn’t dislike this type of person. She gently pushed him aside. The class president stared at her, dumbfounded.
In truth, she could have forcibly torn the locker open with brute strength. But according to her persona, she was only “point five” on the power scale, so she decided to use telekinesis instead.
Creeeak. The transfer student began prying open Kang Jin-ho’s locker using telekinesis. It was well-known among students that Kang Jin-ho would raise his hand if anyone so much as glanced at him entering his locker’s password. Naturally, the students watching were flustered.
“Shouldn’t you stop before it turns into a funeral…?”
“Maybe eating cafeteria food all the time has messed with her brain.”
“You try stopping her.”
“Why me? Tell the class president to do it!”
“The class president is standing right next to Yoon Taeha!”
The class president turned around with a terrifying expression and glared at the students. If they were so confident, why didn’t they step in themselves? Ignoring them, Yoon Taeha took her time before cleanly ripping the locker door off.
“That’s it. He’s dead now.”
Without sparing a glance at the fallen locker door, she inspected the contents inside.
Fortunately, an identical copy of her ruined book was inside. Using telekinesis, she retrieved the waterlogged book from her own open locker, maintaining perfect horizontality as if placing a pizza into an oven.
Unable to tear his eyes away from the blackened water dripping from the book, the class president spoke in a half-resigned tone.
“How about thinking about this one more time before you do it? I’ll buy you a new book. I’ll even show you my notes.”
“No thanks.”
At the same moment he squeezed his eyes shut, the sponge-like, filthy book floated into Kang Jin-ho’s locker. It landed safely atop the stack of books with a dull thud.
Like parched land soaking up rain, the dirty water seeped into the neatly stacked books.
“If Jin-ho asks, tell him Yoon Taeha returned the borrowed book.”
Turning around, Yoon Taeha addressed the students in a calm voice.
“There’s no need to return it again.”
---
One of the few joys that helped her endure the nerve-wracking incidents was visiting the kiosk. She liked the owner.
The shelves were spotlessly clean, and the owner genuinely seemed to love the students.
On the second Friday night of her infiltration, Yoon Taeha stopped by the kiosk to stock up on sugar cubes that would help her survive the weekend.
“Hello.”
But the scene inside the kiosk was different from usual. It felt like the nightmare of the first-generation Cracks survivors during times of food scarcity had returned. There was nothing edible, but pens and notebooks for studying were fully stocked.
How utterly horrifying…
No snacks left in the kiosk? Feeling bewildered, she approached the counter.
The owner looked unusually cheerful, giggling while watching a drama on his phone. Upon spotting Yoon Taeha, he waved dismissively, as if shooing away a fly.
“We’re closed for today. Can’t you see there’s nothing left?”
“Was there some event at school?”
“Event? What event? Some crazy kid—I mean, student—spent a fortune and cleaned us out. One person bought everything we had.”
Spent a fortune? Bought everything? Who spends like that at a kiosk unless they have absolutely nothing better to do…
“Who was it? Why would they do that?”
“Espers and Guides are always fighting, aren’t they? Earlier, one Esper got into it with a Guide—what was his name? Hwang-something. The Esper was picking a fight, saying something like, ‘Why are you suffering for peanuts when Guides earn such low salaries?’”
She was starting to guess who this reckless spender might be.
The owner, thrilled to have found someone to recount the scene to, launched into a verbose explanation.
“All sorts of nasty words flying around, like, ‘You’re just bugs cleaning up after us; you don’t even deserve to buy this stuff.’”
“…”
“It looked like Hwang-something got really mad. Really, really mad. Then, the guy next to him—the one who’s freakishly tall—I swear, no matter how I look at him, he looks like an Esper. I’ve been running this shop for ten years, and even the Espers never pick fights with him.”
The owner rambled on but snapped back to the point when Yoon Taeha cleared her throat.
“Anyway, that guy came up to me and said something I’d never heard in my life!”
“What did he say?”
The owner placed his phone on the counter and gazed at Yoon Taeha with a dramatic expression.
Was he about to act it out for her?
“I’ll buy everything here.”
He delivered the line arrogantly, like the young heir in a weekend drama who tosses around orders despite his youthful age, thanks to his grandfather’s influence.
Knowing that the person who made that statement was an actual third-generation chaebol heir made it impossible to laugh it off entirely.
“Why does that student have so much money in their account? Must be from a very wealthy family.”
Did he buy everything here just to get close to Hwang Sungbin?
Certainly, that man wasn’t normal either.
Yoon Taeha glanced around the relatively spacious kiosk and grimaced. Only a few items remained in the stationery section.
“If the student next to him hadn’t stopped him, he probably would’ve bought everything. But since they did stop him, he settled for just the snacks.”
Unaware that his customer was Chairman Cheon’s grandson, the kiosk owner added his own evaluation of Cheon Geonyoung.
“The Guides came and took all the items later.”
“Didn’t the Espers say anything about that?”
“Of course they did! Oh, right, Hwang Sungbin!”
The owner finally remembered the name and clapped his hands.
“The Esper who started the fight will probably get roasted by their peers. They’ll have to go the entire weekend without snacks.”
He laughed as if he had just shared some entertaining gossip. Then, feeling generous, he told Yoon Taeha to take a bottle of water from the fridge for free.
“Actually, that student already paid for everything in there.”
She grabbed a cold bottle of water and left the kiosk. The owner had detained her, chatting so animatedly that the sky had already grown dark.
She naturally plugged in her earphones.
As soon as she teleported from the blind spot to the rooftop, Jet chimed in with admiration.
- Mr. Cheon Geonyoung is such an interesting person!
“I don’t know…”
- He might be even more action-oriented than you, Master! You two really are a great match!
“Did he confirm Hwang Sungbin as his partner? Then why hasn’t he contacted us?”
- Why don’t you go see him?
“Hmm.”
Yoon Taeha pondered while drinking the cold water. Jet, unaware of her hesitation, asked:
- May I ask why you’re hesitating?
“It was the adjustment period during the first week, so it wouldn’t have been strange to visit him then. But this is the second week.”
- So you don’t have an excuse?
“He might find it bothersome. Though he doesn’t seem like the type to show it.”
- He probably considers you the first person to use his balcony. Isn’t it a bit late to worry about etiquette now?
She didn’t respond. Lately, she felt like she was losing these verbal sparring matches with Jet. And it wasn’t just her mood—it was a fact.
Yoon Taeha walked across the rooftop of Shelter, holding the empty water bottle. Below her feet stretched the dimly lit expanse of the school grounds.
As usual, after finishing her patrol, she was about to head back to the dorm when Cheon Geonyoung messaged her.
[Cheon Geonyoung][10:03PM] On patrol?
[Yoon Taeha][10:04PM] Yeah.
[Cheon Geonyoung][10:05PM] Can I submit this week’s report like this? I’ll be busy over the weekend.
How embarrassingly polite of him to ask.
Accustomed to straightforward communication, Yoon Taeha absentmindedly flipped her hair over her shoulder. It would only blow back into her face due to the early autumn breeze, tickling her cheeks—but she did it anyway.
After agreeing to his request, another message arrived shortly.
[Cheon Geonyoung][10:09PM] Confirmed Hwang Sungbin.
[Cheon Geonyoung][10:10PM] Should I explain first, or do you want to hear what needs to be done?
The frustration that had lingered throughout the week melted away with that single sentence.
What exactly had he done to create such a clean situation? Could raiding the kiosk be related? Probably not entirely unrelated.
From her observations, this man didn’t genuinely enjoy drawing attention to himself. Unless it was work-related, there was no way he’d do something like that.
After organizing her thoughts for a moment, she muttered,
“He’s fast, I’ll give him that.”
- Did Mr. Cheon Geonyoung resolve this?
“It’s all about catching tails. If you grab one side, the other naturally gets tangled too.”
- Did you catch Mr. Cheon Geonyoung’s tail?
Jet, misunderstanding her words, asked a cryptic question. Yoon Taeha kindly corrected the AI’s error.
“Not his tail. I’m talking about the broker we’re currently investigating.”
- My mistake. I apologize.
“No need to apologize.”
In gratitude for her lenience, Jet informed her that communication with Lee Haekyung was currently possible. After finishing her report, Yoon Taeha returned to the dorm with slightly lighter steps.
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