The walk home was the definition of awkward.
She didn't try to talk to me, and of course, I didn't try to talk to her.
Perfect silence. Dead air.
On top of that, we were walking with a considerable distance between us. Anyone passing by would never have guessed we were heading home together.
"Hoo."
Honestly, it didn't bother me that much.
Awkwardness be damned.
The closer I got to home, the more the backlash from the intense workout began to set in.
"Hey, why are you so slow?"
When the gap between us grew too wide, Shin Yu-jeong, unable to stand it any longer, turned around to look at me hobbling along.
"My muscles are sore..."
She let out a deep sigh.
"You really must not have worked out at all."
"Yeah..."
I had to admit she was right.
The moment a normal person becomes an Awakened Being, their body's durability increases. In other words, an Awakened Being's body experiences less strain from the same level of exercise. That was why Shin Yu-jeong had pushed me so mercilessly earlier. But this body was weaker than I'd thought, and the muscle pain was severe.
"If you skip tomorrow because you're sore... you know what'll happen, right?"
With a chilling tone, Shin Yu-jeong drew a thumb across her neck.
"Of course I'm going..."
I mean, I was planning on going anyway, but now it felt like I was only going because she'd threatened me.
This felt weird.
After a cycle of closing and widening the distance between us, we finally arrived home.
"Hoo..."
Trying to climb the stairs with my exhausted body left me gasping for breath.
Shin Yu-jeong, who was walking ahead, clicked her tongue.
"See you."
I offered a farewell to Shin Yu-jeong as she was about to enter her apartment and prepared to climb the last flight of stairs.
"Hey, wait a second."
"...?"
Shin Yu-jeong grabbed me, parked me in front of her door, and slipped inside.
A moment later, she reappeared with something in her hand.
"Use this."
Thrust roughly in my direction was a hot and cold pack.
My mind reeled in confusion.
There was a stark discrepancy between her actions now and my memories of her. It was so jarring I almost wondered if this was some new form of bullying popular among kids these days.
"What are you doing? Not gonna take it?"
"Ah, thanks. I'll use it well..."
I took the pack, bewildered.
Her now-empty hand clenched into a fist.
"I went this far for you, and you don't show up tomorrow? You can just consider yourself dead."
"R-Right."
"Go."
Thump!
The door slammed shut.
Still feeling dazed, I returned to my room.
"I'm fucking dying."
As the tension left my body, which had been like a frog frozen before a snake, the pain returned with a vengeance.
My gaze fell to the pack in my hand.
"I just don't get it."
Shin Yu-jeong.
One of the school bullies who had tormented this body so relentlessly in high school.
She wasn't the one who led the bullying. How should I put it? She was the type to stand on the sidelines, giggling and egging the others on.
Either way, she was undeniably one of the pillars of my trauma.
"She definitely hated me..."
Even when I ran into her after going downstairs to borrow the vacuum, she was fiercer and harsher than she was now.
I mulled over why she might have changed so suddenly.
"Ah."
That was it.
The moment I acquired my magic-related trait and proved it.
"Aha, so that's it?"
A Mage.
She was probably fixated on that.
In the world of baseball, there's a saying that you should bring back a left-handed fireballer even if you have to go to hell to get him. It means they're a highly sought-after and precious resource.
There's a similar saying in the Hunter world. It originated from a community that had recently become popular among young Hunters. What was it again?
"If you see a Mage, add them as a friend first, was it?"
Chinchu, the abbreviation for chingu chuga [add friend]. It didn't literally mean to add them as a friend, but that if you met a Mage, you should get on their good side no matter what.
As I mentioned before, Mages, like Healers, are a class where demand is extremely high and supply is critically low.
Shin Yu-jeong's strange behavior was starting to make sense.
"So she's staking her claim, is that it?"
As far as she knew, she was the only one who had discovered a Mage talent that no one else knew about. To her, I must look like a stock with a nearly 100% chance of skyrocketing—a stock that only she knew about.
From that perspective, it was worth changing her stance and trying to improve our relationship.
Teaching me a few exercises and acting friendly to build a deep connection with a future Mage?
Even I would do the same.
"If it were possible, that is."
It was a strange feeling.
I wasn't the one who was directly bullied by her, but I could still feel a slight resentment. And seeing her change so drastically was both cute and pathetic.
Amidst this mix of emotions, Shin Yu-jeong came to mind.
The way she focused on her workout, her dyed-blonde bob swinging, was incredibly attractive. She seemed to resemble her gentle mother, yet she also had her own distinct personality.
My feelings about Shin Yu-jeong were constantly changing.
But amidst it all, one thing remained absolutely constant.
"She's pretty."
To put it as my desires dictated:
"I want to have sex with her."
To be more direct, I wanted to fuck her.
My lust-filled mind naturally took another step forward.
How could I have sex with her?
My presence in Shin Yu-jeong's mind had begun to swell. If I could just use this situation, where her perception of me was rapidly changing...
Couldn't I turn the tables and conquer Shin Yu-jeong myself?
"It might be possible...?"
The relationship between Shin Yu-jeong and me was a clear vertical hierarchy. It was obvious. She would want to be in the dominant position, where she could control me.
If I could use that to my advantage and steer the flow in the direction I wanted...
Wouldn't some very interesting things happen?
My chest swelled with anticipation.
At the same time, my dick, which had been lying limp along with my exhausted body, began to swell and throb.
"I wish tomorrow would come sooner."
I was looking forward to the days I'd spend with Shin Yu-jeong.
"Fuck, that hurts like hell."
After finishing her classes, Shin Yu-jeong was in the locker room changing, spraying pain-relief patches all over her body.
It was always like this on days with practical combat classes.
Her desired class was Tanker.
Throughout the class, she had to block all sorts of attacks with her body.
"I'm the only one suffering because of these fucking idiots."
There were many Dealers in the world, but very few of them were real Dealers.
What that meant was that there were extremely few Dealers who could stand behind a Tanker who was solidly holding the front line, sharpen their blades, and land a fatal blow on the enemy.
"What are these bastards who want to be Hunters even doing, being scared of monsters?"
This phenomenon was especially prominent at the university, where aspiring Hunters gathered. They were kids who had enrolled without any real resolve, only seeing the money and fame they could grasp by becoming a Hunter.
They were the ones who hurt her every time.
The upperclassmen had told her that Tanker was the class that suffered the most in the first year. The reason was that the newly enrolled freshmen didn't have enough skill as Dealers, so it took an incredibly long time to kill a single monster.
She was feeling that reality in her bones.
The longer the monster stayed alive and kicking, the more attacks she had to block. And after blocking them all, her body would ache like this.
"Will it get better in my second year?"
If you distinguished yourself among the first-years, you could join an upperclassman's team for practical classes. The problem was, she wasn't quite at that level.
So what could she do?
She had no choice but to endure it until the moronic Dealers on her current team worked hard enough to at least pull their own weight.
"Ah."
Her body ached all over, and it had taken her too long to shower and change.
She hurriedly left the university.
'That bastard didn't bail, did he?'
She ran up the stairs of the rundown building.
She burst through the door, ignoring the gym manager's greeting, and scanned her surroundings.
He wasn't there.
"That son of a bitch, after I went that far for him...!"
Seeing red, she pulled out her smartphone. She was about to call Kim Do-jin, the one who'd screwed her over, and summon him to the gym.
But there was a problem.
"Fuck, I don't have his number."
She should have gotten it yesterday.
But it wasn't like there was no way to find out.
"Mom probably has it."
Her mother, who practically treated Kim Do-jin like her own son, would know.
"You're dead, Kim Do-jin."
As she was angrily tapping at her phone...
"Did I do something wrong...?"
A terrified voice came from behind her.
She whipped her head around irritably and saw Kim Do-jin, who hadn't been there a moment ago, standing there.
"Where were you?"
"I was changing...?"
"Ah."
So that's why I didn't see him.
A wave of slight embarrassment washed over her.
"...Start warming up. We're starting as soon as I change."
"Okay."
After a quick glance at Kim Do-jin, who started stretching with a waddle, she entered the locker room.
She tossed her bag into a locker, stripped off her clothes, and changed into a tank top and leggings.
"The bastard. I thought he wouldn't show, but he did."
Until she got here, she had been sure he wouldn't be here. The Kim Do-jin she had watched for the past three years was an incredibly lazy homebody loser.
"This is ridiculous."
That made the world feel all the more baffling. A guy who'd been cooped up in his room had Awakened, and not only that, he'd been granted a trait specialized for a Mage.
The moment he had used magic in front of her, she had made a decision.
"I have to break him in early."
She would improve their relationship by coaxing and soothing him, then put a leash on him with just the right amount of pressure.
He was a Mage, for crying out loud. A versatile class capable of not only dealing damage but also excelling in various other areas. One half of the leading duo that enjoyed the highest popularity, along with Healers!
It would have been better if it had been her, but this wasn't so bad either.
'Handling a pig bastard like him should be easy.'
Among the many posts she had seen on the Hunter community forums, one had left a strong impression.
'How to Make Your Own Little Dealer.'
It was a post steeped in the gloomy obsession of a wannabe shut-in.
It all started when you were the first to recognize a promising Dealer. A Dealer prospect with low self-esteem and a timid personality, but who possessed an outstanding trait.
You approach him, show him some kindness, and make him think you're his friend.
That's how you slowly make him dependent on you.
As time goes by, he grows as a Dealer, but as a person, you turn him into a fool who can't do anything without you, making him endlessly reliant.
And thus, what the post called "your own little dealer"—or 'najakdil' for short—was complete.
"Good."
With a sly smile on her lips, she left the locker room.