Moving Into the Dorm
After I was accepted into Geumgang Academy.
I tried to spend as much time with my family as I possibly could.
Since I would have to leave Seoul and live in Academy City from now on, it would be hard to see them for a while.
Maybe I wasn’t the only one thinking that, because my family also tried to stay home as much as possible.
“Is there anything you want to eat? Or your dad said he’d be home early today, so should we go out to eat?”
“Oppa! After I get back from the sword hall, let’s take Mongsuni for a walk together!”
“I’m home. I took vacation next week, so should we all go somewhere?”
Aside from going to Pilates, Mother didn’t make plans with anyone else, and Yeeun came straight home after finishing at the sword hall to hang out with me.
Even Father, who had always come home late after being buried in overtime, started returning earlier.
Thanks to that, we were able to make happy memories together—eating dinner as a family, playing games, and taking time to go on trips.
[Go Eunbi]: Guys! Are you all doing well? I want to see you soon! (≧◡≦)
[Lackey Geum]: (A photo of the triplets each eating one whole chicken)
[Lackey Eun]: We’re eating chicken!
[Lackey Dong]: You guys have a good dinner too lol
[Go Eunbi]: Wow, what the heck!? Can you each really eat an entire chicken by yourselves?
[Me]: What kind of Hunter can’t even eat one chicken? If you want to become a Hunter, one chicken per person is the bare minimum.
[Go Eunbi]: You’ll get fat like that, you know?
[Me]: Don’t you train as much as you eat?
[Go Eunbi]: ^^;
[Me]: Don’t just play around. Make sure you train too.
[Go Eunbi]: Yes... I was already thinking I should lose some weight because I’ve been eating too much lately and feel like I gained some...
[Me]: I’ll make you a training course. Want to follow it?
[Go Eunbi]: Huh? Really? Then of course I’d like that! Is it a course they teach at the Divine Sword Do Family?
[Me]: It’s one I modified from that. I’ll send it to you in a private chat.
[Lackey Geum]: My lady, please
[Lackey Eun]: Do not
[Lackey Dong]: Cross that river ㅠㅠ
[Me]: Sss—
[Lackey Geum]: Loyalty, loyalty!
[Lackey Eun]: Loyalty, loyalty!
[Lackey Dong]: Loyalty, loyalty!
[Yeon Haneul]: I feel like I’ve gained weight lately too, so I’m trying to eat less TnT
[Go Eunbi]: Oh, my comrade!
[Me]: What do you mean, gained weight? Eat more.
[Yeon Haneul]: No, I really did gain weight.
[Me]: Not in my eyes.
[Yeon Haneul]: Really? You mean it, right? You can’t say my face got all puffy when you see me tomorrow, okay?
[Go Eunbi]: Um, Gyeonwoo? I feel like the way you treat Haneul and me is a little different??
[Me]: Haneul does well on her own even if I don’t say anything.
[Go Eunbi]: That’s so mean, sob sob
[Go Eunbi]: By the way, Haneul, which part do you like when you eat chicken?
[Yeon Haneul]: I like the drumsticks!
[Me]: I like chicken breast.
[Yong Haerang]: Do Gyeonwoo! Our thoughts are aligned! Dry breast meat is what makes a man!
:
[Lisa]: Sorry. I only just saw the chat.
[Lisa]: I want to eat chicken too...
Yeon Haneul and the triplets were like that, and when I got in touch with the people I had befriended during the entrance exam, everyone seemed to be spending their time in similar ways.
Then, before I knew it, with only a few days left until the entrance ceremony, the day came for me to leave for Academy City.
“I’ll be off.”
“We’ll be going now, Mother, Father. And Yeeun.”
“Both of you, take care of yourselves. If you get sick, don’t endure it—make sure you go to the hospital. And don’t skip meals.”
“Right. Contact us when you arrive.”
“Oppa! Unni! Have a safe trip!”
An early morning at the end of February.
My family came outside in weather where the cold still hadn’t faded and saw Yeon Haneul and me off.
We said goodbye to them and headed toward the station where the triplets would be waiting.
Unlike when we had gone to take the entrance exam, we had much more luggage with us.
“Give me your suitcase. I’ll carry it.”
“It’s okay. You have a lot of luggage too. I can carry it by myself.”
“The ground is slippery because of the snow. Are you really okay? Be careful.”
“Yeah, you too, Gyeonwoo.”
“If I’d known it’d be like this, maybe I should’ve taken Dad up on his offer to drive us earlier...”
“Then why did you refuse? Because you didn’t want to trouble Father?”
“Not really... I just wanted to look around the neighborhood a little.”
“I think I know how you feel. You’re going to miss it a lot. Once we start living in Academy City, we won’t be able to see it for a while, right?”
“Even so, we’ll come back during vacation.”
When I breathed out, white vapor escaped my mouth.
As I walked to the station with Yeon Haneul, we chatted quietly.
“There they come!”
“Heeeey! Do Gyeonwoooo!”
“Late again, are you!”
“You got a problem with that?”
“No, that’s not what we meant...”
“It snowed a lot yesterday, didn’t it?”
“The road’s slippery, so we meant you should’ve come even more slowly! Ahaha...”
We met up with the triplets in front of the station.
Then, through the warp gate, we moved to Academy City in one go.
* * *
Students of Geumgang Academy were required to live in the dormitories.
Unless there was a special reason, they could not find a separate residence.
That meant we, too, had to live in the dormitories on campus until we graduated.
That was precisely why we had come to Geumgang Academy with a few days left before the entrance ceremony.
‘Because we have to move into the dorms and unpack before the entrance ceremony.’
Once the semester began, things would be chaotic, so we needed to organize our luggage in advance.
With backpacks on our shoulders and suitcases in tow, we made our way to where the dormitories were located.
“I thought this the first time we came too, but this campus is ridiculously huge.”
“Yeah... If we live here from now on, even going anywhere will be a hassle. I can see why the seniors in the administrative division ride bicycles or kickboards around campus, and why they don’t leave campus unless they have to.”
Just walking around would count as exercise.
That was how vast the campus was.
On top of that, the dormitories were deep inside, so we had to walk quite a distance.
It wasn’t particularly difficult for us, since we were entering the combat division, but as Yeon Haneul said, it seemed like it would be fairly tough for students entering divisions that didn’t use their bodies much.
‘If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve come through the rear gate. I’ll use the rear gate from now on.’
I regretted it belatedly.
Even so, we were gradually getting closer to the dormitory area.
Around us, I could also see students dragging suitcases like us and heading in the same direction.
Before long, the dormitory district came into view.
“Wow... That’s a dormitory? It’s an apartment complex.”
“Even considering there are over ten thousand students in the combat division, it’s huge.”
“So that’s where we’re going to live...”
Looking up at the buildings, each with their own distinct features,
the triplets let out exclamations of admiration.
And they weren’t the only ones.
“Wow...”
Yeon Haneul also stopped in place and stared blankly up at the buildings.
Her rabbit ears moved this way and that, as if they were hopping.
She seemed excited.
I understood how she felt.
‘She must be happy to have a room of her own for the first time in her life.’
For Yeon Haneul, who had lived in an orphanage, there had been no such thing as personal space.
She had always shared a room with girls around her age.
Even after the orphanage was expanded with support from the Seven-Colored Witch Hong Yena and the Divine Sword Do Family, the situation had not changed greatly.
The only difference was that fewer people shared the same room.
Of course, if she had wanted it, she probably could have used a room alone, but she had not wished for that.
—You don’t have your own room?
—The director said the orphanage expansion happened thanks to me, so she’d give me a separate room. But I don’t want to receive special treatment.
To Yeon Haneul, the people at the orphanage were precious family.
She didn’t want cracks to form in that relationship over something trivial.
So even though she could have gotten a room, she had refused without hesitation.
—I used to want a room, but I don’t think about it as much anymore. Because I’m going to become a Hunter later, right? Once I become a Hunter, I’ll make a lot of money, so I can get a room then.
—At that point, why not buy a house instead of a room?
—Oh, that sounds good too. I think it’d be nice if it had a garden and was spacious.
—Wouldn’t be bad to let rabbits loose there and raise them either.
—...I’m not planning to raise rabbits, though?
—I’m planning to.
—Huh? It’s my house, though?
—Why? I can’t raise them at your house?
—No, that’s not it...
Because I remembered the conversation we had back then,
I knew very well how much Yeon Haneul longed for a room.
“Let’s hurry up and get our dorm rooms. You said you wanted to decorate your room.”
“Ah, yeah!”
I snapped Yeon Haneul back to reality.
Coming to her senses, she smiled warmly and ran over to me.
We continued walking.
* * *
Including the combat division,
Geumgang Academy, whose student numbers easily exceeded the ten-thousand mark, had as many as twelve dormitories.
Diamond, Sapphire, Ruby, Chrysoberyl, Topaz, Garnet, Lapis Lazuli, Emerald, Amethyst, Peridot, Opal, and Turquoise.
The dormitories, each with different names, varied in service and facilities according to the order listed above.
As one could tell from that, students could not freely choose whichever dormitory they wanted.
Dormitory assignments were strictly differentiated according to the grades students earned in the previous semester.
“Is it because this is Emerald? There’s an emerald attached to the dormitory signboard.”
“As far as I know... that gem probably has magic on it that protects the dormitory.”
“Then the other dormitories have them too?”
“As far as I know, yes. I think the effects of the magic inherent in each gem differ too.”
“They even differentiate protective magic... So ability really is everything.”
“The world of Hunters is rife with meritocracy. It’s nothing strange. Come on, let’s go inside.”
Naturally, we hadn’t even held the entrance ceremony yet, so there was no way we had grades from the previous semester.
Instead, in the case of freshmen like us, middle school records and entrance exam scores served in place of previous semester grades.
However, the dormitories we could be assigned to were limited to the bottom five: Emerald, Amethyst, Peridot, Opal, and Turquoise.
It was meant to say that if we wanted to live in better dormitories, we should not be satisfied with our current state and should progress even further.
‘There’s probably also an implication that we generally won’t be as good as the second- and third-years.’
In the case of Yeon Haneul and me, who had shown excellent results in the entrance exam, we were assigned to Emerald Dormitory, the highest among the five.
The same went for the triplets, Go Eunbi, Lisa, and Yong Haerang, who had placed in the top twenty percent.
Min Arin, Nam Yuri, and Cha Eunsol, whom I had no way of hearing from, were probably living in the same dormitory as well.
In any case.
“Student Do Gyeonwoo, Student Yeon Haneul. And Students Woo Geumdong, Woo Eundong, and Woo Dongdong. You may take the keycards here.”
After arriving at Emerald Dormitory, we completed the move-in procedure at the first-floor desk.
We took our keycards and went to the elevator that would take us to our rooms.
To ride the elevator, we had to authenticate our keycards on the device installed in front of the doors.
“Anyone can come and go on the first floor, and from the second floor up, you need a keycard.”
“Probably for security. Haneul, what floor should I press?”
“The fourteenth floor for me, please.”
“The seventh floor for us!”
“But even after coming to the Academy, we’re using the same room...”
“A three-person room, side by side...”
It seemed the dormitory floors were divided by gender, with men using the odd-numbered floors and women using the even-numbered floors.
My room was on the fifteenth floor.
As Yeon Haneul and the triplets requested, I pressed the elevator buttons.
The triplets, who had confirmed once again at the desk that they had been assigned to the same room, wore gloomy expressions.
“We’re in the top twenty percent, in our own way...”
“So why are we in a three-person room instead of single rooms?”
“This is seriously too much.”
“They must be differentiating even within the same dormitory according to grades.”
“Damn it, this stupid meritocracy...”
“If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve lowered my score so I could get into Amethyst Dormitory instead...”
“Then we would’ve gotten single rooms.”
“If anything, isn’t it more comfortable for you guys to share a room? You’ve been in the same room from when you were in your mother’s womb until now.”
“That’s exactly why we need single rooms.”
“Do Gyeonwoo, you don’t understand how we feel.”
“We need personal space too...”
“Then why didn’t you ask your mother not to give birth to you as triplets?”
“Wow... Do Gyeonwoo, you crossed the line.”
“Now he’s making mom jokes.”
“Did you just insult our mom?”
“I never insulted your mother. Now, get off already.”
The elevator stopped on the seventh floor.
I quickly ushered the grumbling triplets outside.
After giving them a perfunctory wave, I pressed the button and closed the doors.
Before long, it stopped on the floor where Yeon Haneul’s room was.
“The fourteenth floor is different starting from the hallway. The floor the twins got off on earlier looked ordinary.”
“Yeah… The walls and the lighting are pretty. Then I’ll get going.”
“Contact me later.”
“Okay.”
Yeon Haneul got off the elevator.
She tapped her key card against the machine installed in the hallway and went inside.
Watching her disappear down the far end of the corridor, I felt a pang of regret.
‘So you have to verify your access on each floor too. At this rate, I might be able to get off on the men’s floors, but I may not be able to get off on the women’s floors.’
I had been planning to drop by Yeon Haneul’s room from time to time, or eat the meals she made.
Unfortunately, it seemed that wouldn’t be possible.
I took my eyes off the closing doors and let out a sigh.
[This is the fifteenth floor.]
Soon, I arrived at the top floor.
Just as Yeon Haneul had done a moment ago, I tapped my key card against the machine in the hallway and passed through.
“Let’s see, my room is…”
The room was at the very end.
I unlocked the door with my key card and opened it.
The first thing that caught my eye was the parcel boxes placed right in the entryway.
“Looks like they arrived safely, thank goodness.”
They were packages sent from home to coincide with my move into the dormitory.
After checking the names written on the three boxes, I stepped into the room.
I set down the luggage I had brought with me to one side, then looked around the room.
“This isn’t bad.”
It was smaller than my room at home.
Still, it seemed comfortable enough for me to use on my own.
There was a bed and a bathroom, as well as a refrigerator, and even a simple kitchen area.
‘I wonder if I’ll actually cook for myself, though… I feel like I’ll use that microwave over there more. Or maybe boil cup noodles with the kettle.’
It wasn’t as if there was any harm in having it.
Since it wasn’t like I couldn’t cook, I might end up using it from time to time.
I turned on the faucet in the kitchen to check that water came out.
Then I walked toward the place where sunlight was pouring in.
I drew back the curtains, opened the door, and stepped out onto the veranda.
“…I like it.”
The natural light was good, and so was the view.
Below the fifteen-story building, I could see a full view of the Academy grounds bathed in sunlight.
The cold wind brushing past my face made my mind feel clear.
Not bad.
I quietly took in the scenery.
From today until the end of the semester, this was the place where I would live.
I Became the Childhood Friend of the Mid-Boss