“We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. It’s clearly our fault for not checking the computer system beforehand.”
The hotel manager, having heard from the front desk staff, approached us and bowed deeply in apology.
Behind him, the front desk staff were all bowing in unison.
“What’s going on here…”
I ended up staring at the top of their heads and clicked my tongue.
Our reserved rooms had been double-booked.
Is this even a thing?
It felt utterly absurd.
I had heard that during exam season, when Academy City is flooded with examinees, the rush to book accommodations sometimes caused computer system errors.
But in Academy City, a place that supposedly leads in science and magic, such things shouldn’t happen—so I’d joked about it.
Never expected it to happen to me.
“Even so, I didn’t choose a poorly managed place. I picked a well-known spot in District 23, yet a system error occurred?”
It defied common sense.
But Academy City was a place where common sense didn’t always apply.
The unique atmospheric mana and dimensional instability sometimes caused bizarre phenomena beyond ordinary understanding.
Maybe the system error was one such occurrence.
…Could that really be the case?
“Is my luck to blame?”
My current luck stat was 32.
Yeon Ha-neul’s was even lower.
Perhaps our low luck intertwined to cause this situation.
“Ha-neul, maybe we’re fated to be together?”
“…What are you talking about all of a sudden?”
“Just kidding.”
Of course, even if my guess was right, I had no intention of distancing myself from Yeon Ha-neul.
Rather, I’d shoulder the misfortune.
I decided to step in for the dazed Yeon Ha-neul and speak with the hotel manager.
“So, what will you do for us?”
“…We’ll immediately refund the accommodation fee you paid, and offer free use of our hotel services. Also, we’ll provide discount coupons for commercial facilities in District 23…”
“Is there only one room available? Could you book another room for us, even if it means paying extra?”
“I’m sorry. Since we’re fully booked except for the reserved rooms, it’ll be difficult.”
According to the manager, due to the influx of examinees, they couldn’t prepare extra rooms as usual.
In the end, there was only one room available.
I sighed.
“Even if I try to find another room now, everywhere’s probably fully booked.”
It was an obvious outcome.
Even if there were vacancies, searching for them would be a hassle.
Staying in the one remaining room was the only viable option.
Then, the manager added,
“Fortunately, our beds are spacious enough for both of you to sleep comfortably. And we have extra beds, so we can adjust the size if you’d like.”
“…”
If that was the silver lining, then so be it.
After deliberating, I decided to ask Yeon Ha-neul’s opinion.
“Ha-neul, what do you think?”
“What, what do I think about what?”
“Should we share the room?”
“Ugh…”
Yeon Ha-neul, her face still flustered, couldn’t make a decision right away.
Then, she finally spoke.
“Yeah…”
For a one-room apartment, the space was quite generous.
It seemed sufficient for the two of us to live together for a week.
“The bed is big enough… I don’t think we need to adjust its size. Otherwise, we’ll just have less space for our luggage.”
I placed my suitcase in a convenient spot and sat on the bed.
Then, I watched Yeon Ha-neul enter the room.
Yeon Ha-neul was…
“Crazy, crazy, crazy…”
“…”
She still hadn’t come to her senses.
In fact, her condition worsened after riding the elevator with me.
“…How can two grown adults, a man and a woman, sleep in the same room? Not just for a day, but for a whole week. Crazy, crazy, crazy. What if something happens…?”
“Well, we’re not adults yet. Though once we enter the Advanced Academy, we’re legally considered quasi-adults…”
“This feels like something out of a drama. No, even recent dramas don’t unfold like this!”
“How do they unfold these days?”
“They just dive right in…! You, could you possibly….”
“What’s with that look?”
“…No, you wouldn’t.”
“…”
After ranting and raving,
Yeon Ha-neul suddenly glared at me with cold eyes.
“What? I feel like I’m being ignored.”
Her gaze seemed to prick at one’s self-esteem.
Annoyed, I decided to tease her.
“Ouch! Why are you doing this all of a sudden!? Could it be… you actually… I, I’m not ready….”
“I don’t know what delusions you’re having, but could you stop now?”
I firmly grasped her bunny ears.
Startled by the strong sensation, she struggled to break free from me.
I continued to tease her until she couldn’t move and collapsed onto the bed.
“You’re really something…”
“What, really.”
“I’ll tell Mom.”
“Oh? Then let’s do it again…”
“Sorry, I won’t.”
“Phew, you should’ve said that from the start. …Does it hurt a lot?”
“Hmph, no!”
After a brief scuffle, things calmed down.
Her eyes, peeking from beneath her hair, were damp.
I cautiously touched her ears, unlike before.
She passively received my touch.
“We used to sleep together when we were kids, so why make a big deal now?”
“We were elementary students back then. It’s not the same as now. Plus, Eun-ah slept with us then.”
“Once we’re Hunters, we’ll often sleep on the streets or stay with people of the opposite gender. So what?”
“Ugh… that’s true, but…”
“Do you really dislike sleeping with me?”
“Huh?”
“If you say you hate it, I can’t do anything about it. Then I’ll sleep elsewhere.”
“Elsewhere? Where?”
“I can stay at the sauna or with the triplets. There are plenty of options.”
Though inconvenient, it was a possible solution.
I considered doing that to avoid burdening Yeon Ha-neul.
Then,
“I don’t hate it…”
“…”
As I was about to get up,
Yeon Ha-neul grabbed my collar tightly and wouldn’t let go.
Then, she crawled closer and said,
“I don’t hate it… really, really, really don’t hate it…”
Yeon Ha-neul, burying her head in my forearm.
Beneath her light blue hair, glimpses of her flushed face peeked through.
“Are you trying to make me leave?”
Looking down at her like that,
I felt like teasing her again.
“Then it’s okay?”
“What? No, it’s….”
“It’s not okay? Then you do hate it?”
“No, it’s okay, but… um? Oh, ah, it’s not that I like it…”
“Hmm, oh, ah, yeah.”
“…You’re teasing me now.”
“Yep.”
“You’re such a jerk…”
Just moments ago, she was on the verge of tears.
Now, Yeon Ha-neul was looking up at me with a puffed-up face.
Her hand, which had been clutching my collar, was now pinching my arm.
I chuckled at the situation.
“So you want to sleep with me?”
“What? When did I say that? I just don’t hate sleeping with you, it’s okay…”
“That’s what I’m saying.”
“What are you talking about? Not at all…”
“Or should I really go to the triplets? You can have the room to yourself, and we’ll meet at the exam venue.”
“…”
“Then it’s settled?”
“…Not at all.”
“Hmm?”
“Their room would be cramped.”
“Probably.”
“And their room must be really messy.”
“How do you know?”
“You can tell from their personalities.”
“They probably don’t clean their room.”
“And they probably don’t ventilate it either. Probably don’t care about laundry…”
“So?”
“Compared to that, this room is much bigger. Even if I use it alone, there’s plenty of space.”
“It’s a one-room apartment?”
“…Just go to them or whatever, do as you please. I don’t care anymore.”
“Alright? Then I’ll stay here.”
“…”
“Where else would I go besides here? I prefer sharing a room with you over the triplets. Don’t I?”
“You should’ve said that earlier…”
“Hey, but Ha-neul, my arm hurts. Could you stop pinching?”
“I know all about your fake injuries.”
As revenge for my teasing,
she not only pinched my arm but also twisted it around.
Her hand then moved to my side.
“You’re using mana now…!”
“Hmph, when did I?”
That’s underhanded.
I didn’t even use mana to touch her bunny ears.
I wriggled to escape her relentless grip.
In the process, I missed her soft murmur.
“If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve brought prettier clothes… I was only thinking about the exam and packed dull stuff.”
“I’m going to shower! Just you try peeking.”
“Don’t peek.”
After unpacking her luggage from the suitcase, Yeon Ha-neul grabbed a change of clothes and hurried into the bathroom.
Soon, she poked her head out from inside and repeatedly emphasized to me,
“Just you try peeking, just you try peeking, just you try peeking…”
Her red eyes were wide with determination.
Her piercing gaze was fixed on me.
I clicked my tongue at her reaction.
“I won’t look, I won’t look, I’m telling you I won’t look.”
“Really, really, really won’t you?”
“If you keep saying that, I might just barge into the bathroom out of impulse.”
“Go ahead and try….”
Though she spoke boldly, her nervousness was clear.
Yeon Ha-neul shut the bathroom door with a determined look.
I tried to turn away from the bathroom she’d entered.
But then.
My gaze froze.
“…”
Sitting on the edge of the bed, the bathroom directly in front of me had a wall made of semi-transparent glass.
As a result, Yeon Ha-neul inside appeared as a blurry silhouette…
“Ha-neul, I’m sorry.”
I saw nothing.
Only a faint silhouette, barely distinguishable.
No, not even that.
I hastily turned my body to avoid seeing the bathroom.
Whoosh.
A moment later, the sound of water filled the air.
That sound oddly created an indescribable tension.
“I tried not to notice, but I keep unconsciously being aware…”
I groaned.
Though I’d been pretending to be unfazed by sharing a room with her, I was just as flustered.
I didn’t show it because if I got embarrassed, Yeon Ha-neul would feel even more awkward.
So, I’d been acting nonchalant, but I hadn’t expected a surprise attack like this.
I shouldn’t be flustered by something like this. Even if I become a student at the academy right away, I’ll often have to rough it or share rooms—can’t get flustered by this…
Still, sharing the same bed wasn’t something that would happen under normal circumstances.
My face twisted at the thought.
I needed to distract myself.
“I should wait until Ha-neul is done and solve this.”
At that moment, the exam ticket attached to my chest caught my eye.
I took it off.
“This is how it’s done, right?”
I channelled mana into the part where “Gangnam” was written.
Then, the mana I’d channelled rose as translucent shards.
“…”
The shards hovered within a certain range of the exam ticket.
There seemed to be dozens of them.
“So, I need to piece these together.”
There was no explanation for the problem.
It was up to the examinee to infer it.
I examined the hovering shards, focusing on their shapes.
Some shards naturally seemed to fit together.
It’s a 3D puzzle.
Concluding that, I reached for the shards.
“The puzzle fits.”
Two shards merged.
The seam was invisible as if they’d been one from the start.
I continued matching the shards.
The tiny shards, like finger joints, gradually grew larger.
It seemed the number of shards had halved.
That’s when the problem began.
“There are too many shards with the same shape.”
I frowned.
The shards lacked minute differences.
When I overlapped them to check, they matched perfectly.
“Maybe I can ignore these.”
There are identical A, B, and C shards.
And D, E, and F shards that can combine with the three.
Can the puzzle be completed by matching them in any combination?
Of course not.
“The exam can’t be this easy.”
I needed to think differently.
Perhaps there’s another approach.
“Ah.”
Why was I relying only on my eyes?
A sudden thought struck me.
Immediately, I channelled mana to enhance my vision.
To see mana phenomena invisible to the naked eye.
“My hunch was right.”
Though the shards appeared simple, they contained mana circuits inside.
Even shards with the same shape had different mana circuits upon closer inspection.
It was a double-layered puzzle.
“So, I need to use both my eyes and mana vision to solve it.”
No need to overcomplicate things.
For shards with different shapes, rely on sight; for identical ones, match them based on mana circuits.
Of course, solving the puzzle by seeing only the mana circuits was possible.
However, visualizing the overall structure of the scattered shards was difficult.
“No need to make it harder.”
It’s a qualification exam, after all.
Gangnam Academy didn’t intend for it to be this tricky.
Showing basic abilities suffices.
Before long.
“…Done.”
I completed the 3D puzzle.
A many-faceted shape slowly rotated above the exam ticket.
It strongly resembled a diamond.
No, it must be a diamond.
“…”
Gangnam Academy’s symbolic stone is a diamond.
I stared blankly at the diamond, now glowing blue as its internal runes activated.
My mana resides within it—what a profound feeling.
The previously blank lower part of the exam ticket now displayed an examinee number.
I checked the number.
“Congratulations on solving the problem.”
“Ah, Ha-neul.”
By then, she’d come out.
Dressed in a white gown, a faint fragrance emanated from her.
“When did you come out?”
“I’ve been out for a while. I just didn’t want to interrupt you while you were solving the problem.”
“Oh, I see.”
I reabsorbed the mana I’d channelled into the exam ticket.
The glowing blue diamond dissipated into mana particles.
Yeon Ha-neul looked disappointed.
“Aww, keep it a bit longer. It was so pretty.”
“It drains a fair bit of mana. Plus, I need to shower now.”
“Well, can’t be helped. While you’re showering, I should solve my problem.”
“Yeah, you do that.”
“I need to come out within an hour. I have to keep the exam ticket on from now on.”
“Got it.”
Now that we’re sharing a room, there’s an upside.
While one showers, the other can guard the exam ticket from being stolen.
I handed my exam ticket to Yeon Ha-neul and went to shower.
“Ah, Ha-neul.”
“What?”
Suddenly, an idea struck me.
Half in the bathroom, I said to her, sitting on the bed,
“Don’t you dare peek.”
“I won’t peek!”
“Really? I trust you.”
“I have no reason to peek, so don’t worry and just shower… Whoa…”
Whoosh.
Hmm, oh, ah, yeah.
I hummed a tune to myself.
Leave a Reply