Acquired the Scam Rune in the Academy

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“……”

Silence flows over the icy lake.

I should say something, but my brain has stopped working and I’ve lost the words.

So…

You’re asking to kiss?

No, more precisely, a peck on the lips?

‘That’s not the main issue here.’

I shake my head, flustered and spewing out any random thoughts.

And the level of intimacy is quite high.

I don’t know if her reason is genuine or not, but that was the given situation.

“Juyeon.”

I tidy up my slightly complicated thoughts a bit, and call out to her.

What I’m about to ask now isn’t a response to her suggestion, or a concrete question about her rune awakening.

Rather, it’s a question that digs a little deeper inside.

Kang Juyeon looks at me with shaking eyes.

“…Yeah.”

But when it comes time to ask, I find myself at a loss for words too.

However, with some hesitation, I slowly open my mouth.

It took a lot of time and accumulated worries to ask this question…

But it was a question that had to be asked in order to move forward.

“Do you… like me?”

“……!!”

In truth, it’s an issue I’ve overlooked for a long time.

Packaged under the name of friendship…

Those who have slowly crossed that line towards me.

Labeled as comrades…

Those who have gradually revealed non-comrade-like feelings.

I was aware of the girls showing affection towards me.

Based on the direction of my feelings and my guess, there are 3 girls.

And that affection is most likely…

Romantic affection. Since the way they act towards me is completely different from how they act towards Park Jin-woo, another guy.

Even so, I intentionally ignored their advances until now.

‘…Because I was confused too.’

That was partly because they hadn’t directly confessed their feelings themselves, but moreso because I couldn’t focus my feelings on just one person either.

They were all precious to me, all special.

I couldn’t choose any one.

These sorts of feelings were new to me in life, so I avoided the issue itself in confusion.

I wasn’t sure what was what, so I had suppressed my own feelings.

‘But…’

But now, the situation has changed a little.

She’s trying to cross the last line that remained in my heart.

As such, now I really need…

To redefine the ambiguous relationships I’ve had until now.

“…I don’t know.”

A sudden, direct question.

Kang Juyeon lowers her head in embarrassment at that.

Seeing that, I became more convinced.

That the kiss for rune awakening…

Was just an excuse she made up.

When someone you asked a favor of suddenly asks if you like them, the natural reaction wouldn’t be I don’t know but rather feeling weirded out.

No matter how I looked at it, it wasn’t the reaction of someone desperate for that request to be fulfilled.

I moved next to Kang Juyeon and looked at her.

“Juyeon. Tell me honestly. Do you really need a kiss to awaken your rune?”

“……”

Kang Juyeon still wouldn’t meet my eyes, but soon she shook her head…

And told me the truth.

“…No.”

I figured as much.

It was a bit surprising that Kang Juyeon would tell such a lie, but I didn’t think there would be an awakening condition that extreme.

Unless the Red Dragon Canelles and the dragon knight of that era had been lovers, such an excessive condition wouldn’t make sense rationally.

I asked her slowly, without urgency.

“Then?”

“I… wanted to confirm it.”

“Confirm?”

“Yes.”

Kang Juyeon, who had looked away…

At some point, met my eyes.

Her eyes still shook anxiously.

But like she always had until now.

Her gaze was proud and self-assured.

“When I’m with you… My heart keeps fluttering.”

Is that why…

Lengthy expressions spill from Kang Juyeon’s mouth, from whom I usually only get terse replies.

For Kang Juyeon, this represented tremendous courage I hadn’t seen before.

“My eyes meet yours and I tremble. Your hand touches mine and I’m startled.”

Kang Juyeon looks at me.

I look back at Kang Juyeon as well.

In that meeting of our gazes…

There was a profound exchange between our hearts that couldn’t simply be explained in words.

“Thinking of you puts me in a good mood… Seeing your face when I picture you makes me want to see you.”

She brings her two small hands together to her chest.

The sound of her own heartbeat.

It’s like she’s trying to directly feel it with that gesture.

“If this is what liking someone feels like, then that must be it.”

Kang Juyeon speaks with her eyes closed slightly.

And once more…

She shakes her head and opens her eyes.

“But if not, then I don’t know. So… because I didn’t know, I wanted to confirm it.”

These feelings that Kang Juyeon is experiencing for the first time in her life.

Are they just a momentary wave?

Or an eternal ocean?

Until she crashes into them herself…

No one could be certain.

That’s probably why she told that kind of lie and wanted to confirm her true feelings from me.

“I see.”

Seeing that…

I unconsciously nod my head.

I imagined just how much time Kang Juyeon had spent thinking alone until today.

And how long she had worried all by herself.

Her courage now was the result.

Her confession just now was the result.

Having barely worked up the courage to spill everything she felt…

Kang Juyeon shone more brilliantly in this moment than anyone else today.

Now it was time I responded to that courage.

“Let’s confirm it, then.”

I narrow the already small distance between us.

I gently wrap one hand around the back of Kang Juyeon’s head.

Then lightly shift my body…

And press my lips onto hers.

An intensely dizzying sensation, as if I can’t breathe.

A sweet scent spreads throughout my body.

I can’t see anything.

I can’t hear anything.

The icy lake, glimmering clear blue.

In the middle of nowhere on it…

Only each other’s warmth could be felt, piercingly.

That’s how…

Without saying a single word.

We kept our lips pressed together for a long while.

It was Christmas Eve night, with pure white snow falling.

***

Ippotranslation

***

Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul.

The spacious mansion of S-grade Holder Kang Woo-hyun.

Inside, in a room so big it could be called a living room.

The interior is covered in simple, no-nonsense furniture and items tidily organized, not allowing for any deviation.

Even the papers and research journals on the desk only contain content about high-ranking magic, indicating the eccentric personality of the room’s owner when it comes to work.

“……”

However, the room’s owner, who is a female.

Kang Woo-hyun’s daughter and only child, Kang Juyeon.

She is…

Lying alone on the bed in her room.

At a loss for what to do, rolling arond.

“…Hehe.”

And an unbelievable laughter escapes from her.

Embarrassment, shame, joy, happiness…

Complex emotions that can’t fully be put into words constantly appear on her face.

Right now, Kang Juyeon’s heart…

Was completely filled with someone else.

“Jae-hyun…”

From her lips spills that same name she’s called out countless times now.

Do Jae-hyun.

The man who captivated her gaze at some point.

The man who came to receive her affection at some point.

At some point, without her even realizing…

The man she came to like.

She wanted to keep calling out his name.

The memories from today were that absolutely unforgettable to Kang Juyeon.

That these unbelievable moments happened…

Just earlier this very evening.

The fact that it occurred mere hours ago was most important right now.

“……”

Kang Juyeon slowly brings her hand to her lips.

Her lips that still held warmth.

His lingering traces that she had searched for countless times…

Remained right here even now.

And once more…

She recollects the memory.

– Let’s confirm it, then.

“Kyaa!”

Another unbelievable sound comes from her mouth.

Thud thud thud-.

Her fists, possessing quite some strength, pound the bed.

Whoosh-

And the flames she has to protect ignite and burn her pillow.

Oh well.

The broken bed can be fixed and the burnt pillow replaced.

What was important to Kang Juyeon right now weren’t those consumer goods.

“Hehe…”

His rough hand gently wrapping around her head.

The soft sensation of him stealing her lips.

Those unbelievable moments that felt like a dream…

Unfolded right in front of her eyes just earlier tonight.

The fact that it happened just a few hours ago… That was most important now.

“Oh, that’s right.”

At that thought, Kang Juyeon picked up her phone.

She wanted to revel in this joyful Christmas Eve a bit more, but she had to tell her friends about what happened.

– Hehe. Then from today, we’re cooperative allies! If progress happens in the relationship with Jae-hyun, we’ll update each other and help out!

Kang Juyeon, Moon Ga-eun, and Kim Chae-eun.

The cafe meeting with those three girls that day.

On the surface, the purpose of that meeting was to discuss Christmas plans.

But… Kim Chae-eun’s real intention in gathering them was different.

And that was… for them to understand, respect, and cooperate with each other’s feelings going forward.

To persuade and pledge that.

The examples she used of ‘Liam Hendricks’ and ‘Public interest in the recent special law regarding Holders’ were… Enough to understand that purpose.

Kang Juyeon had consented to that opinion as well, and the <Ice Garden> date location recommendation also came from Kim Chae-eun.

“First… I should tell Ga-eun.”

Since they had established that sort of relationship,

She had to tell her friends about what happened today.

She didn’t know how the relationships might change going forward, but Kang Juyeon was also on the side of cheering on her friends’ relationships.

So Kang Juyeon called Moon Ga-eun and briefly explained what happened today.

And…

– What? You kissed Jae-hyun?!

“It’s not kissing, it was a peck.”

– That’s the same thing, you fiery fox! Betrayal, betrayal–!!

The cooperative relationship established that day was at risk of crumbling within 1 minute.

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