I Became the Terminally Ill Character in My Friend’s Academy Novel – Chapter 19

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: JayM
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After the spar, Kim Ga-eul felt dazed.

The match was declared a draw, but she alone knew the truth.

-“Let’s do our best, shall we?”

His approach, as he said those words, wasn’t a reckless charge, nor was it an act of desperation as the instructor had suggested.

He simply dodged as he approached because he could.

His movements weren’t those of a martial arts master, nor were they instinctive.

He truly just calmly dodged as he approached her.

If he hadn’t pretended to collapse after being hit by her weakest whip attack while smiling at the end, it wouldn’t have ended in a draw.

No, even a draw was dangerous.

The fact that she had tied with someone she constantly called a loser and looked down on would raise suspicions.

She looked around and made eye contact with a boy.

A look of disdain was subtly mixed within his indifferent gaze.

The eyes of Cheon Yoo-hak, the boy she admired so much, were icy.

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Ah, fucking hell.

My eyes really hurt.

I didn’t expect them to hurt more than the whip attack.

I hadn’t realized that even just a brief period of Enhancement would make my eyes scream in pain.

Today, I learned another lesson.

Thanks to the slight recovery boost from the Saint’s Will, I was feeling a bit better now, but Enhancement was more taxing than I thought.

Enhancing my entire eye instead of just focusing on my eyesight would probably be less strenuous, but simply enhancing my eyes wouldn’t have been enough to achieve the performance of seeing through all the whip strikes due to my pathetic base eyesight.

Since my goal this time was to instill fear in a single person, I had to endure this level of pain.

The only consolation was that, thanks to the training grounds and the training weapon with its latest technology, the area where I was hit by the whip didn’t scar.

Well, anyway, it was a satisfactory result.

“So-hyun.”

It would have been perfect if it weren’t for Professor Cathy’s summons, though I didn’t know how she found out.

If she had been angry, I would have felt wronged, but her sad gaze made me feel guilty.

“I heard about what happened during the spar.”

What? What was the problem?

“Even if you wanted to handle it yourself, you shouldn’t have resorted to that kind of method.”

Ah, was it the part where I stabbed a girl in the neck with a dagger? Perhaps my dagger, thrust in the name of equality without gender discrimination under the ideology of heroism, wasn’t that acceptable from a societal perspective.

“You used your talent, didn’t you?”

“Ah, yes.”

Ah, so that was the problem.

“So-hyun, I’ll be honest. I know about the penalty of your talent.”

I see. I also knew that she knew, and as secret friends, we knew each other’s secrets.

“You just barely recovered, and yet you used it again for this? You should have asked me to mediate instead. I’m your homeroom teacher, after all.”

That was the problem.

If I had told her about it, the bullying would have stopped, but there was a high chance I wouldn’t be able to manipulate the situation to my liking.

And would she believe me if I said, “No, I just wanted to do my best, and there were no personal feelings involved!” when she already knew about my talent’s penalty?

If I were her, I would tell myself to stop talking nonsense.

Who would use their innate Qi for that reason?

“So-hyun.”

Ugh.

My secret friend was reliable, but I felt like I had misjudged our level of closeness.

Of course, she was a character who was kind and close to everyone, not just me, but calling me in after school just because I used my innate Qi recklessly felt a bit excessive.

…Or not?

She would probably be worried if a student in her class used their innate Qi in a spar just to teach a girl a lesson.

“Let’s make a promise.”

“What?”

“It doesn’t matter how small it is, but if anything happens, you’ll always talk to me about it. And even if something does happen before you can talk to me, try not to use your talent.”

You should say something more reasonable. I knew my secret friend lacked a sense of reality, but this was a bit much.

“Then I’ll definitely come save you.”

She held out her pinky as if making a promise to a child.

This gesture…

-Then I’ll definitely help you.

…reminded me of someone who made a similar promise to me when I was young.

Without realizing how embarrassing it was, I linked my pinky finger with hers.

Ah, damn it. I should have refused.

“Thank you for making the promise.”

Honestly, I wouldn’t be able to keep this promise.

I still had a lot to do. No, I hadn’t even started yet.

Still, I felt like I should at least try to restrain myself in front of her.

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By the time our conversation ended, the sun was already setting.

Kang Ha-ni had told me to go ahead of her since her business might take a while, and since she had probably already eaten dinner, I figured I’d eat something outside before going back to the dormitory.

As I stretched and looked ahead while wondering what to have for dinner, I clearly saw something I would have normally missed.

The butt was walking with Cheon Yoo-hak with an anxious expression.

Seeing them head to a deserted area made me feel uneasy.

Judging by her expression, it wasn’t a confession, and I could roughly guess what it was about.

Although Cheon Yoo-hak had a strange personality, he wasn’t a psychopath, so it wouldn’t escalate to murder. But going to a secluded place like that usually didn’t mean anything good.

“Ah, shit.”

If I hadn’t seen it, I could have just ignored it and pondered which dish was more deserving of the title “dinner”: sundubu jjigae or soondae gukbap. But now that I had seen it, I couldn’t just ignore it.

I followed them discreetly and saw that there were already a few people gathered there.

The self-proclaimed Cheon Yoo-hak follower, Kim Ga-eul, and her group were cowering while surrounded by Cheon Yoo-hak’s real companions.

Since Kim Ga-eul was the last one they were waiting for, Cheon Yoo-hak, the one who had brought her, naturally joined his companions and stood in the middle.

“Yes, I saw you in class today. Kim Ga-eul, was it?”

“Y-yes, Yoo-hak.”

“Yoo-hak?”

“Huh…?”

Ah, that bastard was doing it again.

He had gotten a taste for it.

“Are we close enough to call each other by name?”

Should she call him “Young Master Yoo-hak, heir of the Cheon family” then?

“No, um, not yet, but…”

“Not yet? You’re funny.”

A sharp-looking female cadet next to Cheon Yoo-hak scoffed at her.

“You said you’d prove that you were better than him, and asked for a chance. But you got your ass kicked instead.”

Judging by her decent rhyming, she seemed to be a rapper.

She was probably referring to me.

“It wasn’t a loss, it was a draw…”

“That’s even more pathetic than losing. You were so confident back then. I was wondering what you were going to show us, but in the end, you chose a spar? With someone who can barely lift a 30kg dumbbell? It would have been pathetic whether you won or lost, so why are you proud of a draw?”

She was covering her mouth, but it was obvious she was mocking Kim Ga-eul.

“Ah, maybe you did well, for your level, right? You fought fairly and tied with someone Yoo-hak acknowledged, so you must be on par with us.”

“Stop it.”

Cheon Yoo-hak stopped her from teasing Kim Ga-eul further.

Of course, it wasn’t out of pity for Kim Ga-eul. If my guess was correct, Kim Ga-eul was in for quite a shock.

“You’ll only get dirtier by talking to her.”

Yes.

Cheon Yoo-hak, that bastard, was incredibly annoying to those he didn’t acknowledge, but he became somewhat sweet to those that he did.

Kim Ga-eul’s expression, which had been slightly touched by Cheon Yoo-hak’s first words, crumbled.

“But Yoo-hak, it’s annoying to see her acting like that, and her talent is nothing special either.”

“Are you going to kick every annoying thing you see on the street? You’ll only get your shoes dirty.”

Ah, Kim Ga-eul started crying.

It was understandable. She wasn’t just being deemed as useless by the person she liked, she was practically being treated like trash by him. Anyone would want to cry after that.

“Look at her. Did we bully you? Did we hit you? Why are you crying? You spread rumors about others and had guys who liked you bully them, but now that you’re on the receiving end, you’re crying?”

“Watch your language. Uncouth.”

Not denying the content was a very Cheon Yoo-hak thing to do.

“Hey, honestly, I’m grateful. I was going to object no matter what you did, but you stepped up and gave me a reason to tell you off. You know what? Yoo-hak hates girls like you the most. Not just delinquents, but girls who use people’s affections, stir up trouble, and then pretend to be innocent.”

Kim Ga-eul looked at Cheon Yoo-hak with tearful, almost lifeless eyes.

“Hate?”

He shook his head.

He was a truly cruel bastard.

“Can you hate something you’re not even interested in?”

Ugh, kids these days were brutal.

“Yoo-hak, let’s go.”

“No, I have more to say, so you guys go ahead.”

“You’re not going to accept her, are you?”

“If that’s what you think, then you still don’t know me very well.”

“Just kidding. I made a reservation at the restaurant, so come quickly~”

Cheon Yoo-hak’s real companions left as a group.

I didn’t know how much more cruelly he was going to berate her, but it wasn’t my role to intervene and stop him or comfort Kim Ga-eul afterward.

Lilac would probably comfort her tomorrow.

“Are you leaving?”

Just as I turned around to leave, Cheon Yoo-hak looked at me and asked.

…He wasn’t talking to me, was he? How did he know I was hiding behind the building?

“I told you before, you’re terrible at hiding your presence. You can’t fool me.”

Damn it.

I was caught.

Kim Ga-eul turned and looked at me.

I wished there was anger in her eyes, but they were too empty instead.

“I dislike worthless things, but I believe those who I acknowledge should be given their proper place and power. At least they shouldn’t be insulted by those who don’t know their place.”

“…So, I should be grateful that you took care of it for me?”

“No, I’m just saying. And don’t misunderstand, I didn’t intend to step in. My teammates allowed it because she was being annoying, claiming she would prove she was better than you within the week.”

“Are you saying it’s not your responsibility?”

“I can’t say that. It’s a problem caused by my teammates, after all.”

He really didn’t concede a single point.

“Are you dissatisfied?”

“Yeah, kind of.”

“Yes, that’s the spirit. Those who hold grudges against bugs just because they were annoyed by them are all the same.”

I didn’t feel any sympathy for Kim Ga-eul’s situation.

She started the fight and was greedy.

Not satisfied with being the president of Yoo-hak’s unofficial fan club, she tried to get closer to him but failed.

She tried to make herself look bigger by stepping on others, so she had to endure the hell that awaited her tomorrow.

If there was anything I pitied about her, it was that she was born to be used as a consumable, unable to become a true villain.

That was all.

“You’ve always been irritable, yet strangely kind to trash.”

“What?”

“No, I won’t interfere if you’ve made up your mind. I’ll be going.”

Cheon Yoo-hak said that, turned around, and left.

I looked at Ga-eul for a moment without saying anything.

“What, loser? Do you want to insult me now that I’ve been rejected? Or do you pity me?”

“No.”

“Ha, laugh if you want. I don’t care if you laugh at me.”

She seemed to be imitating Cheon Yoo-hak, but with her tearful eyes, it didn’t resemble him at all.

“I’m not laughing.”

And I wouldn’t pity her either.

Comforting her wasn’t my role.

Moreover…

“I’m definitely not laughing.”

I didn’t feel like mocking a character created by my friend, even if she was disposable.

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T/N – The MC is like Kazuma, a proponent of true gender equality. Also, damn, Yoo-hak and his group didn’t hold back at all. Yoo-hak himself was quite savage. Maybe it was Yoo-hak who was the true advocate of gender equality after all. He equally disdains everyone he doesn’t acknowledge.

If you find any mistakes, feel free to point them out in the comments.