Side Story 2. Perfect Weather (10)

"But, is it really okay to do this...?"

Min-ki asked worriedly.

Tae-un knew that this was half forced. However, he was confident it would be accepted. He understood better than those involved how the young hunters, including Soram and Ga-eul, were viewed by other adults. Though they wanted to give them high positions because their abilities were superior to anyone else's, they were certainly not people who would forcibly push them if they firmly refused themselves.

If they wanted to lighten the burden, let them lighten it.

"Jin Soram, you should escape being a middle school graduate too. Who knows. You might want to go to university later."

"Hmm, university..."

After thinking, Soram came up with a different answer.

"I'll try something other than studying."

"Are you going to do part-time work?"

They had been fighting rifts and mutants for nearly 10 years since before becoming adults. What could they do among jobs other than being hunters? It would be difficult to find anything except simple tasks.

But Soram just nodded.

"I think I can do it. There was a place I wanted to go to as well."

Soram became curious about university after he started to become attached to his team members.

When Tae-un and Ayoung went to school, Soram was left alone in the office. Even though Tae-un adjusted his schedule to minimize the time Soram was left alone, unavoidable gaps still occurred. Soram, who had been used to the empty office, now looked out the window and rested his chin on his hand, thinking.

What would Han Tae-un be doing there?

Would Ayoung be meeting other friends?

And there was one more thought he had about Tae-un, his lover.

'...I miss him.'

He didn't know what he would do, but he wanted to do it together.

However, for Soram, who had long since distanced himself from studying, it would take too long to go to university as a student now.

But during the time he couldn't live as an ordinary person, he had become someone who had mastered one field to a degree that no one else could catch up to. No one in Korea could deny that.

He had planned to look around various places if it didn't work out, but unexpectedly, he received approval from the first school he approached.

That's how Soram came to university.

"Even though it's my first time lecturing, I've done quite a lot of briefings, so my delivery shouldn't be bad. And I have more to teach than others."

It must have been a risky choice for the school, but it probably passed relatively easily because there was already one 1st-grade hunter attending the school. Someone like Jin Soram would also greatly help the school's reputation.

The students, who had been excited, now craned their necks and focused on his movements and voice. Soram looked around the audience as if used to the stage and opened the attendance book.

"I heard they don't teach on the first day. Shall we at least call the roll then?"

Names were called one by one, and most of the students were slow to answer, still dazed. As it was orientation, a considerable number of people were absent, but they would all attend the next class and fill this lecture hall. By now, rumors must be spreading and additional applications flooding in.

Soram delivered his voice to the end of the lecture hall with precise pronunciation. His assurance that he had stood in front of people many times, even if it was his first time on a podium, was true. However, when he reached near the end of the attendance book, the lecturer's voice faltered.

A name starting with 'H' written second to last.

"...Han Tae-un."

"Here."

A hand went up from a corner seat by the wall. Once again, commotion spread on the first day of the first semester.

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

<K University Everyday>

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: Today's Common 1-Credit Liberal Arts Lecture

(Summary)

"...Han Tae-un?"

"Well. I asked for student recruitment, but we have someone here to fact-check."

"I'll remove the group project that was in the original plan. The balance is a mess."

"That student over there, if you have a conscience, be a teaching assistant."

Is it real that I heard this with my own ears? Is my course registration, which I thought was ruined, this year's lottery?

I think just being at this scene was worth this semester's tuition

I'm off to the orthopedics now, I broke my own fingers trying to cancel the course ᄉᄀ

└What's your major?

ᄂᄂWhy are you asking?

ᄂᄂ└If it's humanities I'll get angry ᄊᄈ Why can't I see Han Tae-un and Jin Soram while paying art school tuition ᅲ

ᄂᄂᄂᄂEngineering cries together ᅮ

Title: (Knock Knock) I'm a Graduate ᅲ

Please let me re-enroll,, I should have taken a leave of absence, it's so unfair that I finished my years during Han Tae-un's leave period. If I had known he would return, I would have delayed graduation forever,,

└Han Tae-un took 4 years off but still graduated on time, good job good job

ᄂᄂSigh I'm going to protest for tuition refund alone..

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: Is Jin Soram Really Getting Married?

Making a reasonable guess that it's education laundering before marriage preparation

ᄂWow?

└I don't know about education laundering, but he was wearing a ring on his left ring finger.. It was white and so prominent, 100% a wedding ring ᄏᄏ

ᄂ└Right, it's a ring that screams married^^man^^mine^^ to anyone who sees it ᄒᄒ Who on earth is the partner? Currently Korea's biggest mystery

└Who would date Jin Soram for his education ᄏᄏᄏ But damn, those taking the Understanding Dungeons course, please make sure to tell them to have a public wedding

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Title: Wow, Then Can We See That?

The hunter pager going beep beep in the middle of class and him jumping out the window ᄏᄏᄏᄏᄏ Wow just being there would be so thrilling

ᄂᄆᄎAaaaaah so jealous

└Seriously, can't 4th years just take all the classes.. Where else in life would you get such an opportunity..

L└Looks like they're pushing to change the classroom to an auditorium. Course registration will open again, it's going to be crazy ticketing ᅲ_ᅮ,,,

LWow, window dispatch for real ᄏᄏᄏᄏ If you see it in person, it would be overwhelming in many ways

ᄂᄂ222 Just imagining it makes me feel something

—------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tae-un took out his phone as he left the classroom. Various articles had been uploaded to welcome Monday. The headlines of all newspapers were filled with stories about the Rift Phenomenon Management Headquarters, no. The national agency that had now become the Rift Management Agency.

The main point was that with the promotion of the Rift HQ to an agency, Park Jae-seon, who had been the Field Operations Bureau Director of the former headquarters, had taken the position of agency director. And the various personnel changes that followed. The fact that changes within the government organization were trending news across generations once again showed the great interest towards hunters.

Deputy Director Kwon Jung-oh had been thinking of honorable retirement, but he ended up sitting in the deputy agency director position until things settled. In Soram's words, "That old man got his nose pierced again."

And.

The vacant Field Operations Bureau Director position was taken over by 3rd Team Chief Shin Chan. This happened after the unprecedented situation where all candidates disappeared due to disqualification before the vote.

At the newly convened chief-level meeting, he laughed for a long time and said:

I'll take care of it for the few years until you come back from playing around.

The internal talk of "What about Kim Ga-eul and Jin Soram?" that would have normally come out when a director was selected didn't arise because the two had made such a fuss.

And soon, articles about Soram suddenly appearing to take up teaching will probably be uploaded as well.

'...He was doing well.'

Tae-un recalled Soram standing on the podium. It had been difficult for him to imagine Jin Soram as anything other than a hunter, but he fit in surprisingly well. Thinking about it now, he felt a bit regretful about Soram's long time of having only one choice.

Though his love had started by falling for him as a hunter, his feelings for him after becoming lovers sometimes diverged from the beginning. He wanted to see more of Soram doing many things he hadn't done before, living in various ways, and feeling diverse emotions. If possible, very much so.

[Hey]

A notification popped up on his phone. It was a blunt message from Soram. After the lecture ended, he had been surrounded by students wanting to apply for additional classes, and then dragged away by someone from the academic affairs office saying they needed to change the classroom to an auditorium, but it seemed things had settled down a bit now.

It was too much to ask how Tae-un had signed up for his class, as how could he not see this preparation process while living in the same house? When Soram was contemplating knocking on the door of his school, the first person to move was him. If asked someday, he would answer, but he had no intention of revealing it first.

Another message arrived.

[Window outside.]

"...?"

Tae-un turned his head. The large window in the corridor. Soram was there. With the sky where spring had fully arrived behind his back.

He approached that direction and opened the window. The wind rushed in, ruffling his short hair.

Blue mist lingered at the tips of Soram's feet as he floated in the air. He glared at Tae-un disapprovingly with his arms crossed, from a position slightly higher than Tae-un's line of sight. Then suddenly, he raised the corners of his mouth in a smile.

"Come out. Tell me where we should eat."

"...Ah."

Soram-ah, I wished for you to smile like this.

And it seems I wished for me to be by your side.

At that moment, Tae-un recalled the wish that his past life self had only held inside. That wish had now been perfectly fulfilled.

He immediately gripped the window frame. If before, Soram had come inside, this time Tae-un flew outside to approach Soram.

"You answer all the class questions."

"Okay."

"You grade the assignments too."

"Okay."

"You make the exam questions too."

"...At this rate, I'd be better off canceling my enrollment and just becoming a teaching assistant."

"What's delicious around here?"

"Something you'd like is that way."

The two flew simultaneously towards where the sunlight was shining.

Shadows of tall buildings fell, wind brushed by, and dazzling sunlight came down again. All the while, their gazes were perfectly directed at each other.

End of Cloudless Sky Side Story