-"W-what?"
-"The sooner you drop out of our current school, the better."
Uhyon fell silent for a moment.
-"That's all?"
-"Huh? What else did you expect?"
Uhyon shifted uneasily.
-"Nothing else?"
-"Was there supposed to be?" Hwan asked, sipping his energy drink.
-"Why do you want me to drop out of school?"
-"I don't. You can transfer if you like, or just skip classes and stay home if you can pull it off, or keep coming to our school—it's up to you. Do whatever you want. Just remember your safety when it comes to Kang."
Uhyon's thoughts clouded.
-"What do you mean by that?"
-"Haven't you noticed? Kang's been struggling to control his temper lately. Did you already forget what happened just because you wouldn't let him copy during the exam?"
It made sense. If it all began with that car accident, then Kang's anger had a very real foundation.
-"Right now, he's holding himself back. You know his father is strict and powerful. Since he can't lash out at him, he's gotten used to bullying you and people like you instead." said Hwan.
That much was true. If a father without magic had a son born with it, he might even fear his own child. But Kang's father was different. While Kang was only slightly stronger than an A-rank, his father was S-rank—once even considered a candidate for the National level.
-"Okay, but why me?"
-"Because, idiot, you reignited his rage at the counter!"
Uhyon remembered what he had said to Kang yesterday and cursed himself several times over.
Seeing the look on his face, Hwan added,
-"If you understand, then just drop out of school already."
-"But why give me such advice? Aren't you one of his bullying friends?"
-"Huh? you know I don't like bullying. I just enjoy hanging around with stronger classmates."
Thinking the conversation was over, Hwan took another gulp of his drink. But then Uhyon spoke again:
-"So you don't have any ill intent toward me?"
-"What, do you want me to hit you?"
Uhyon chuckled inside, feeling his fears slowly fade.
-"Of course not."
-"Good. If that's all, I'll be going."
Hwan stood up, leapt down, and for a moment looked back at Uhyon, as if expecting something. Then, without another word, he walked off toward home.
Uhyon was left with his thoughts.
"Should I quit school? Or not?"
After a few minutes of wrestling with the question, his arm began to ache. He had forgotten he was carrying groceries the whole time.
He set the bags down on the bench Hwan had just been sitting on, stretched a little, then picked them up again and headed home.
***
Uhyon dragged himself into the apartment, exhausted.
-"Damn stairs… huh… huh… that's the worst part about living in an apartment."
But immediately another thought hit him.
"If you're weak, the problem isn't the stairs."
It was as if his mind and brain were quarreling with each other. Uhyon had never before heard such a contradictory voice inside himself.
He had planned to take the elevator, but someone had already occupied it with heavy luggage, maxing out its weight limit. Two middle-aged people were inside as well, and of course, no one was about to give up their spot for him.
Uhyon drank a glass of water in the kitchen and took a short rest. Then he slowly began unpacking his groceries, putting some in the fridge and others on the shelves.
When he was done, he noticed something odd inside the plastic bag. His eyes widened. It was the venom of the C-rank spider boss monster he had once slain.
He had planned to hand it over to Joon-ho, but had forgotten. And he was certain he hadn't put it in this bag.
Back in the boss's chamber, he had held it in his own hand when he fell. But after leaving the dungeon, it had vanished. Now, somehow, it had reappeared. Uhyon was certain he hadn't carried it through the subway.
He examined the plastic vial carefully, even gave it a gentle shake. But he couldn't believe his eyes.
"H… h-how?"
By then, it was already eleven o'clock—his usual bedtime. Before he could process what he'd seen, his phone's sleep timer went off. His focus shattered instantly.
Though the thought still lingered in the back of his mind, Uhyon began to regret his habit of overthinking. It was already too late to make a doctor's appointment anyway.
Maybe in other countries it wouldn't matter, but in South Korea calling someone late at night was considered rude—unless it was an emergency, or a lover.
Uhyon didn't think his situation was urgent enough. His scar was mysterious, yes, but it didn't seem dangerous… yet.
"Speaking of the scar…"
He decided against calling and went into the bathroom. Removing his cap, he faced the mirror—and froze. The scar had grown again. It now almost touched his eyebrow, separated by only a tiny gap.
He knew he couldn't hide it much longer. Still, something compelled him to touch it. As his fingers neared the scar, two memories resurfaced:
The cracking sound he had heard while facing the goblin. At the time he hadn't noticed, but for some reason the sound had etched itself into his subconscious—three distinct cracks. It seemed connected to the scar's growth.
From his own experience, Uhyon could say that his scar seemed to appear after similar cracking sounds. It was true that this had happened only once, but in his opinion, it was a reasonable assumption.
The pain in the back of his head while taking the subway, Uhyon had compared this pain to the scar's pain, finding them strikingly similar.
Uhyon lifted the front part of his hair up and looked at his forehead, staring at the terrible news as if asking, "Why?" The reason was that the scar had not only grown downward but also upward.
It had burrowed into Uhyon's hair. He didn't know how far it had spread, but he wanted to. However, in this situation, it was almost impossible to see it.
Uhyon had to make a decision. Either ignore it and go to sleep, or, though painful, find out how far that cursed scar went.
Of course, Uhyon was smart. He knew that the pain lingering in his memory couldn't compare to the real thing, and he touched his first scar.
His head began to ache as if it were about to split apart, and Uhyon nearly lost his balance. He felt this pain for only one second, but the effect was devastating.
Uhyon was almost willing to do anything just to never feel this pain again. Unfortunately, he had to know about his own body.
He locked the bathroom door and gripped the handle tightly with his hand, thinking it would help if he lost his balance.
His first (two paragraphs earlier) touch was only to fully feel the pain, to make a decision, and, if he chose to continue, to mentally prepare himself. But it was as if his body were begging him to stop.
Uhyon wanted to accept that plea, but he was forced to go on. He raised his right hand and began to hope.
"Please, I'm begging you, don't be long!"
Uhyon touched the part of the scar that had disappeared into his hair.
The pain was so unbearable that he barely managed not to scream. Clenching his teeth, he screamed inwardly from the agony. With each passing second, Uhyon kept repeating inside, "faster."
Suddenly, the pain stopped. Uhyon began gasping as if he had run one or two kilometers without stopping. After regaining himself a little, he began searching for the reason why the pain had vanished. A moment later, he cursed himself again.
"You fool, the scar isn't straight, it looks like a crack or a jagged line."
Uhyon was forced to taste the pain again. After the fifth, sixth, even seventh encounter with it, he was completely exhausted. The places he had touched reached all the way to the top of his head. He couldn't endure any more.
Luckily, Uhyon had finished the task. But because the scar twisted so much, the pain ended only with regret. Again and again, he was forced to continue enduring the pain.
He thought that either he would faint from being unable to withstand the pain, or his teeth would shatter from clenching so hard.
Uhyon opened the door and went to the kitchen. While drinking water, his eyes fell on the clock. It was only 23:18. If he didn't count entering the bathroom and checking his forehead, he had felt this pain for about eight to twelve minutes.
Yet Uhyon thought dawn had already broken. The funny thing was, he even thought his finger was moving slowly during the pain.
"Ugh, damn brain. Couldn't you have given me this earlier?"
Uhyon was ready to curse his brain for a whole day without stopping, because a sensible thought had finally come to him.
Without going through so much suffering, he could have simply known how far the scar went by visiting a doctor the next day or the day after. All he had to do was wait one or two days.
Praising his own luck, Uhyon returned to his bedroom like a farmer whose well-fed cow had just been eaten by a carnivorous beast.
He even threw himself onto the bed without taking off his clothes.
"Argh, argh, argh."
Uhyon lay on the bed facing upward, fully aware that the scar was at the top of his head. Naturally, it hurt. But Uhyon no longer cared that he couldn't lie facing upward anymore. Only one thing mattered to him — sleep.