It was magic practical class.
Today was individual practice in controlling mana output. Each student was assigned one crystal orb. The day’s task was to infuse it with mana and make it glow a specific color. It was beginner level. To Minjun, it meant nothing.
Isabel’s body reacted as though the crystal orb would split apart if mana was infused into it. Too much. Controlling output was not the problem; reducing output was. That was why the professor looked worried whenever he glanced at Minjun.
‘It’s only natural for focus to rise right before a deadline.’
Minjun stood before the crystal orb.
The practice room was spacious. Each student had plenty of room. Today was individual practice, so there was no chance of bumping into the person beside you. However, Minjun’s assigned spot was two seats away from Chloe. It probably had not been intentional. The professor had arranged the seating. And yet, that distance of two seats felt as though it had taken on meaning by accident.
Chloe was already standing in front of her own crystal orb. She was not looking toward Minjun. She was focused on the orb. With the sleeves of her uniform slightly rolled up, she had extended her arm forward. From the folded edge of her sleeve to her wrist, the back of her hand, and the tips of her fingers. That line was revealed beneath the window light of the afternoon practice room.
Minjun looked ahead.
He looked at his own crystal orb.
---
He began to infuse mana slowly.
Minjun still did not fully understand the way Isabel’s body handled mana. He only understood it through comparisons drawn from his office experience. That thing that suddenly rose, like concentration right before a deadline. Raising it was possible, but lowering it was the problem.
Slowly.
Bit by bit.
The crystal orb began to glow very faintly. It was going well.
That was when it happened.
The professor moved through the practice room while giving individual guidance to another student. His path led toward Minjun. As he passed by, he looked at Minjun’s crystal orb. There was a reaction. The professor stopped and took out a recording tool. He wrote something down.
The moment Minjun became aware of that gaze.
The mana wavered.
He should not have become conscious of it, but he did. Like making work mistakes when the audit team came in. Mistakes he normally never made would happen during an audit. Minjun knew that, and yet he could not stop it.
The crystal orb reacted.
The reaction was excessive.
---
Light surged up.
The crystal orb brightened at a rapid pace. The transparent sphere filled from within with white light. That light spread into the air. Minjun tried to cut off the mana. But once the output rose, Isabel’s body did not stop easily. Like deadline-level focus activating during a meeting and making the presentation never end.
The crystal orb vibrated as though it had been struck.
And Minjun’s center of gravity shook.
His standing posture collapsed backward. He could not tell whether it was the repulsive force of the light or whether his foot had slipped. What mattered was that Isabel’s body was now tilting backward.
‘Ah, I’m falling.’
As he thought that, something caught his wrist.
Fingers. Long, slender fingers. A force that wrapped completely around his wrist. It was not strong. But it was precise. It grasped his wrist accurately, and with that force, it caught Minjun’s tilted center of gravity.
He did not fall.
Minjun stopped.
---
It was Chloe.
Minjun did not know how she had crossed the distance of two seats. She was simply there. Holding his wrist. He could feel the placement of each and every one of her fingers against his wrist. Her thumb was touching the inside. Right above the place where his pulse beat.
Chloe was catching her breath. It was the breathing of someone who had run over quickly. Her chest moved slightly faster. The front of her uniform pulled taut and returned with each subtle breath. Her golden eyes were looking at Minjun. She was close. The two-seat distance had already disappeared, and now they were within reach of each other’s hands.
“Are you all right?”
Her voice was low. Lower than usual. That, more clearly than the fact that she had run, told him how close this distance was.
“……Yes.”
Minjun said.
Chloe did not let go.
The hand holding his wrist remained as it was. One second passed. Two seconds passed. She did not let go.
Minjun looked down at that hand.
Chloe’s fingers were gripping his wrist. His wrist was thin. Chloe’s fingers wrapped around its circumference with room to spare. It was that wrist Sylvia had looked at yesterday, thinking it seemed so thin it might break if held. That was the place Chloe was holding now.
‘It seems like she’s going to let go, but she isn’t.’
---
“Lady Esther.”
Chloe called him.
“May I call you by your name?”
It was abrupt. While still holding his wrist. In that situation. Without warning.
Minjun looked at Chloe.
Chloe’s eyes were looking at him. Her green eyes were a deeper color from this distance. The color they became when one stepped beneath the shade of trees. There was something inside them. Something warm. But warmth was not all there was. Deeper within, beneath that warmth, there was something else.
May I call you by your name?
Those words hung in the air.
Minjun felt his cheeks heating up. It was Isabel’s body. This body had a way of flushing. It began behind the ears and spread toward the cheekbones. That was happening now.
‘This is because of the mana recoil. My output suddenly rose and then got cut off, so my body temperature is increasing.’
‘And because my wrist is being held, the heat can’t be released outside.’
‘It can be explained perfectly.’
Chloe’s eyes looked at Minjun’s cheeks. And stopped there.
The corners of her lips rose very slightly. It was too small to call a smile. But it was clear that something had changed. That change was not across her whole face, but only at one corner of her mouth.
“Are you all right?”
It was the same question as before. But this time, it was different. Before, it had been a question for someone about to fall. This time, it was about something else.
His cheeks grew even hotter.
---
The professor approached.
“Miss Esther, today’s mana output—”
Chloe let go of his wrist.
Naturally. As if she had noticed the professor coming closer and stepped back. She returned to the distance of two seats. As if nothing had happened, she stood before her own crystal orb.
Minjun looked at his wrist.
It felt as though the places Chloe’s fingers had touched were still there. In reality, there was nothing. It was not as if marks remained on his wrist. And yet he could feel it. As if warmth remained. As if that temperature had not yet vanished from the place where his pulse beat.
After finishing his conversation with the professor, Minjun looked toward Chloe.
Chloe was focused on her own crystal orb. She did not look this way. As she lowered her sleeve again, she covered her wrist. The motion was natural.
However, the area below her ears had changed.
It was a flush. A color spreading from below Chloe’s ears toward her cheeks. Chloe did not seem to know. If she had known, she would have tried to cover it with her hand. Without knowing, while looking at the crystal orb, that color was there.
‘……Her cheeks are red too.’
‘Is it because of the same mana recoil?’
‘No.’
‘I don’t think it is.’
Minjun picked up the crystal orb.
The crystal orb was cold in his palm. It was the cooled temperature of the thing that had emitted light earlier. That cold contrasted with the warmth remaining on his wrist.
There was still a long time before class ended.
And Chloe probably knew that she had not yet received an answer to her question about whether she could call him by his name. Whether not answering was refusal or postponement.
Minjun looked straight ahead.
His wrist was still warm.
That was not mana recoil.
Even knowing that, he decided to pretend he did not. For now.
---
It was after class ended.
The students left the practice room. Minjun also rose. He put the crystal orb back in its place and picked up his bag. Today’s class could not be organized in his head. His mana output had exploded, he had nearly fallen, his wrist had been caught. He had been asked whether she could call him by his name. And he had not answered.
There were four items.
None of them could be sorted out.
As he left the practice room, Chloe was standing by the door.
She was waiting. Clearly. It was after all the other students had left. Chloe made no attempt to hide that she had been waiting.
“Lady Esther.”
“……”
“If my question earlier made you uncomfortable, you may forget it.”
Minjun looked at Chloe.
There was no flush on Chloe’s face. The blush that had been there during practice had completely disappeared. Her face was calm. But her hand was different. The hand emerging from the end of her uniform sleeve was lightly holding her opposite arm. Her own arm. Unconsciously. Those fingers were the fingers that had held Minjun’s wrist earlier.
‘How am I supposed to forget if you stand there like this while telling me I can forget it?’
As Minjun passed by Chloe, he said,
“I haven’t forgotten.”
That was all he said.
Chloe froze.
Minjun stepped out into the corridor. He did not look back. But he could feel that Chloe was not moving. He could feel that she was still standing there in front of the door. Her gaze was touching his back.
He walked down the corridor.
Evening light came in through the corridor windows. Silver hair caught that light. With each step, light and shadow alternated. On Isabel’s hair, the orange glow changed, disappeared, and returned.
His wrist was still warm. Precisely at the place where his pulse beat.
‘I said I hadn’t forgotten.’
‘How Chloe will take what that means.’
‘I said it knowing that.’
Minjun looked ahead.
At the end of the corridor, Sylvia Kant was walking toward him. Holding files. The student council armband was visible. Her direction was exactly toward him.
Their steps drew closer.
Sylvia looked at Minjun’s wrist. For an instant. Then she looked at Minjun’s face.
He could feel her trying to read something in those golden eyes. As her gaze rose from his wrist to his face, Sylvia’s jawline tightened slightly. As if she were suppressing something.
The two passed each other in the corridor.
Sylvia said nothing. Minjun said nothing either.
But after Sylvia passed him, he heard the sound of footsteps stop behind him.
One second. Two seconds.
Then the footsteps began again.
Minjun did not look back.
He felt like he knew why Sylvia had stopped. And he did not want to know. If he pretended to know, there would be more things to think about next time.
The evening light entered one last time through the window at the end of the corridor.
His wrist did not cool.