A few days later, Ren and Kai were back at school like nothing had happened.
They were studying, hanging out with friends, eating—doing normal stuff—while still waiting to hear news from SIED.
When they first came home from the police station, the two of them didn't waste any time at all. They applied for SIED immediately. Like Jackson said, you send an application and they message you later about the review process. So for now, all they could do was wait… and go back to normal school life.
But "normal" didn't mean they relaxed.
The moment they entered the Hero Course building, they pushed themselves to the limit—training, classes, group workouts, tests… theories about how to handle villains, how to rescue civilians, and then practical tests where they had to apply those theories like they were working actual cases. They were grinding nonstop because they wanted to be accepted, and they knew the standards wouldn't be forgiving.
They had been working so hard that even the teachers—and other Hero Course students—started suspecting that Ren and Kai had applied for SIED.
But Ren and Kai never confirmed it.
And those suspicions didn't go past being suspicions, because it sounded insane. It was still early in the year. People who spent less than a year on the island almost never got accepted unless they were trained before coming here… or they were extreme geniuses.
During the waiting period, rumors also started spreading about them—rumors about Gunshot getting taken down, and somehow Ren and Kai being responsible for it.
Ren didn't even know how the rumors spread, or who leaked them, but he and Kai made the decision immediately:
They would never confirm it.
They didn't want to be associated with Gunshot at all—at least not for a long time.
So whenever annoying people came up asking if it was true, they gave a simple "no." Thankfully, most of them walked away after that.
But the truly annoying ones weren't the people who asked.
It was the ones who came trying to record them and post it on YouTube for clout and attention.
Which was so stupid.
First of all, why the hell would you risk yourself to get involved with people who might have beef with an actual gang?
Second of all… who the hell would even care about what they posted?
If the story was actually interesting, someone would take that news and then an actual popular person would post about it—and everyone would hear it from there. No one would even remember the original person who posted it. It was just some useless one-second of Fame that people were willing to risk their lives for.
Still, after a while, they managed to push those annoying bastards away.
The rumors continued to spread for a while.
Ren learned how to ignore the attention that came with it… until something happened that he couldn't ignore.
"No—hey, wait… are you… are you Ren?!"
Someone ran up to him in the yard while he was alone.
Ren didn't know who this guy was at all. He had never seen him before, and he didn't recognize his voice either—but still, ever since Iris, Ren had become cautious. Guarded. Any stranger approaching out of nowhere immediately raised alarms in his mind.
"What do you want?" Ren asked coldly.
The boy who ran toward him tried to catch his breath.
"Did you… did you actually defeat gunshot" the boy said, looking Ren straight in the eye.
Ren stayed silent.
Unlike before, he didn't respond immediately with a "no" like every other time someone asked him this.
Because this time was different.
Ren was looking this person in the eyes—watching how they were trembling, full of fear and hesitation, like the words were barely coming out.
So Ren finally answered.
"Yes."
The boy's shaking stopped.
He just stood there, frozen, not making a sound—until suddenly he launched at Ren.
Ren didn't bother trying to avoid it or protect himself. He knew the boy wasn't going for an attack.
The boy hugged him so hard it almost hurt.
"Thank you… thank you so much," the boy muttered.
And then he started crying into Ren's chest.
Ren hesitated for half a second… then gently patted his back, comforting him.
And after that, similar things started happening.
Students from his school came up to him, asking about Gunshot with the same look in their eyes, the same fear—and then the same reaction after.
Students from other schools came too.
Apparently, Gunshot had been harassing far more people than Ren originally thought.
But that wasn't the main point.
The main point was how Ren started feeling when those students came to him.
He felt relief.
Happiness.
The way their eyes changed—from fear to relief—made him feel good. Satisfied. Relaxed. It sent all kinds of warmth through him, and he honestly didn't know why.
He never viewed himself as someone who would enjoy helping people.
He already acknowledged that, deep down, he wanted to help people… but he never knew he could actually feel joy from it.
He obviously knows thatshe will get joy from achieving whatever you want, but this is different different to the point that I can't point it out
Is this why heroes do what they do? he wondered.
Does everyone get this sensation?
Well… maybe not.
Ren had helped people before—more than once—but he never felt anything like this.
Only now, when he could see the good he made directly, did he feel it so clearly this weird form of joy.
And considering heroes—both in the past and even now—don't always get to directly see the impact of what they do…
Maybe there was a deeper level to it.
Ren didn't know what that was yet.
Maybe he'd discover it one day.
But for now?
Ren took this feeling—this strange warmth inside his chest—and used it as motivation.
Motivation to train more.
To improve more.
To push himself harder in the Hero Course.
And after a week of waiting, SIED finally replied.
"We're in!"
The next day—
Knock knock knock!
"Ren, come out! We need to leave right now!" Kai shouted fromz outside Ren's apartment.
"I'm coming, man, chill!" Ren replied.
Ren opened the door and stepped out. He was dressed nicely, and he had his hair down.
"Here I am. Okay, we can leave."
But Kai didn't budge.
"Man… is there something wrong?" Kai asked.
"What do you mean? Nothing is wrong," Ren said.
"It's just… you were really nervous this morning, even though we did much more nerve-racking things before. And ever since we left the police station that day, you started dressing up really nice."
Before, Ren would just wear anything he had. He didn't think about fashion at all.
But now he was dressed up nicely. It was clear he did some research about it. This wasn't a small decision.
Kai thought about it for a second… then connected the dots.
"Wait a minute…"
Ren already started blushing slightly because he knew what Kai was about to say.
"OH! Do you have a crush on Cass?" Kai asked.
"No, dude. That's not the case," Ren denied immediately. "I just picked up interest in fashion. You know me—I pick up interest in a lot of things. You know that."
Kai smirked.
"Come on, man. There's nothing to be embarrassed about. Falling in love at first sight."
"Come on, man, that's just ridiculous," Ren said. "Falling in love at first sight is stupid."
And Ren meant that. He genuinely believed love at first sight wasn't really love, because you needed to know someone first. You couldn't fall in love with someone just because of their appearance. That was just lust.
Kai chuckled.
"Whatever, man."
He turned and started walking, ready to leave.
"Oh—and by the way," Kai added casually, "if you're gonna fall in love with someone, know their full name first."
"She's Cassandra Hale."
Kai walked off.
Ren was about to say something. but then he froze for half a second.
That name was familiar.
It was in the back of his mind, but he couldn't fully place it yet.
Still, seeing Kai already walking away, Ren ignored it for now and hurried after him.
(reminder, this is how ren looks like with his hair down Image I decided this is his permanent hairstyle image)