SRS 39

“Today was only a simple tour, so you don’t need to feel discouraged. During second semester we’ll visit the intermediate Spirit Realm, so Yohan, you’ll meet a good spirit then!”

Since not a single spirit came anywhere near him for the entire tour, Professor Shinbi gently patted Yohan’s back to comfort him.

Second semester. Yohan frowned. That’s way too far. His eyes drifted toward Mikael.

“What?”

“You… did you succeed in forming a spirit contract in second semester?”

“No.”

“Why not?”

“It was the same as this time.”

“……”

“They say you can visit the advanced Spirit Realm in second year, but I didn’t get promoted.”

The young man shrugged. Yohan suddenly worried he had poked at something painful and awkwardly patted Mikael’s back. In response to the clumsy attempt at comfort, Mikael’s mouth curved in an amused grin.

“You’re comforting me?”

“…Maybe?”

“You don’t need to. I don’t think you’ll be much different from me.”

“……”

The irritating part was that he didn’t sound like he was joking.

Yohan put more strength in the hand patting Mikael’s back. A loud thump rang out, and the man staggered with a pained noise. He acted like a mountain at every other moment, yet only in times like this did he pretend to be fragile. It was obviously an act, so Yohan didn’t bat an eyelash and simply waited for him to regain balance.

Flustered by that cold reaction, Mikael straightened himself. As expected, he had been exaggerating.

“…You hit a lot harder than I expected. Was that revenge?”

“No, comfort.”

“Aha.”

Revenge. Mikael whispered the word and chuckled quietly. Yohan sighed, thinking he probably found joy in teasing him whenever he could.

“…If you couldn’t form a contract in second semester either, why did you take Spirit Studies again? You’re just going to get the same result.”

He pushed aside his irritation and asked something he had been wondering about. Mikael, who had been acting casually the entire time, suddenly paused. He stared silently at Yohan for a moment, then stretched his arms.

“…Well. You never know, right? It could be different this time.”

As he stretched, his long limbs drew Yohan’s gaze, making him roll his eyes before showing a surprised expression. It felt strange hearing Mikael say something almost hopeful.

And not only that…

“You sound like you really want to form a contract.”

He heard something that almost sounded like longing in his voice.

“……”

The gray eyes looking at Yohan curved beautifully. Something about that perfect arc felt strange.

“If that’s what you see, then that’s what it is.”

“…Yes.”

The tone, the atmosphere, the subtle signals reminded Yohan of the promise he’d made with Mikael, so he didn’t insist further.

Yohan now knew the gestures and speech Mikael used whenever he didn’t want to answer something.

So it must be related to the secret he’s been hiding.

Yohan guessed and remained beside Mikael in silence, unlike the excited classmates chasing spirits, until the end of class.

“Alright, let’s head back!”

Professor Shinbi led them out of the Spirit Realm. Yohan felt the same nausea as before and turned pale.

Because they transferred from the Spirit Realm’s clear, pure air back into the Nameless Realm, the nausea got worse this time and lingered stubbornly.

Suddenly Mikael’s hand touched Yohan’s forehead. A bit of coolness spread, and his vision cleared. The nausea quickly faded, and Yohan exclaimed in surprised. He caught a whiff of a subtle mint scent.

“…What was that?”

“Hm?”

“You did something.”

“Not really. I didn’t do anything.”

The student told an obvious lie. His eyes showed he wasn’t even trying to hide it properly, only asking Yohan to let it pass. Yohan narrowed his eyes, then exhaled slowly, standing up straight again after having leaned half his weight onto Mikael without noticing.

“…Thank you.”

Since Mikael had helped him, he offered his thanks. Mikael smiled, looking strangely relaxed.

˚ʚ♡ɞ˚

“It’s the weekend! Finally the weekend!”

“Im Suhyeok, stop being so loud.”

“Ugh…”

After a week that felt like an entire month, the weekend finally arrived. It was their first weekend since official enrollment. Suhyeok threw himself onto the bed in excitement, and Kylus sounded annoyed.

Mikael was still on his bed. The weekend was the one time they were freed from the rule that banned them from sleeping more than four hours at once, so Mikael often slept in.

He looks like someone who’d never sleep, but unexpectedly he does.

…Or does he? Maybe he doesn’t?

Since Mikael normally slept the latest and woke the earliest, Yohan tilted his head and got out of bed.

“Yohan, aren’t you excited for the weekend?”

“…I’m happy, but like Kylus said, you don’t need to make that much noise.”

“…What kind of life did you live back there that you can take three major classes and still talk like that? Shouldn’t you be the happiest one today?”

Suhyeok complained, baffled by how calm Yohan was despite having no classes today. Yohan rubbed his cheek.

He was about to defend himself, then realized he didn’t even know why he needed to defend himself and stopped. Suhyeok suddenly jumped up.

“No way. If I leave you like this, your weekend’s going to be horribly boring. I’ll handle this.”

“Sit.”

“Don’t thank me too much. I’m used to this kind of role.”

“Stop acting cool for no reason and move.”

Kylus shot Suhyeok down without even pausing for breath, as if Suhyeok was trying to heroically sacrifice himself so they could have a fun weekend. Yohan stared at the two bickering and slipped into the bathroom. By the time he finished washing up, Suhyeok had already been defeated and was surrendering.

…Why does he challenge Kylus when he can’t win against him physically?

Yohan wondered again at Suhyeok’s mysterious mindset when Mikael slowly uncurled himself from under the blanket. One of Mikael’s strengths was that he could sleep soundly through any amount of noise.

Tap tap. With eyes half closed from sleep, he patted the space before his bed. Yohan cleared his throat once, then walked over. As soon as he sat, Mikael used wind magic to dry Yohan’s hair.

“Thanks.”

“It’s fine. You don’t have stamina.”

“…I still have enough stamina to dry my own hair.”

After hearing from Kylus that Yohan had been so drained after Taming class that Kylus had to dry his hair for him, Mikael occasionally helped. Remembering the sympathetic look Mikael had given him upon hearing that, Yohan felt embarrassed.

He couldn’t shake the strange feeling that his friend had somehow formed the wrong image of him, so while he was still thinking about that, Mikael yawned and headed for the bathroom.

“Let’s go look around the school! Come on! Please! I’m begging you, let’s go outside and breathe fresh air!”

Once Mikael came back out, Suhyeok flopped dramatically onto his bed like a child throwing a tantrum. Complaining that the roommates of 304 were boring, he begged them to go outside because he wanted to breathe fresh air. Yohan opened the window.

Whoosh!

A cool, almost cold wind immediately rushed inside.

“It’s fresh again.”

Kylus nodded. Suhyeok stared at Yohan and Kylus in disbelief before realizing persuasion wouldn’t work on them. He clicked his tongue. Yohan didn’t understand why Suhyeok insisted on going out when he could finally enjoy a quiet weekend indoors, so he sat on his bed with his Spirit Studies textbook.

“Why do you want to go out that much? You walked around the school a lot before official enrollment.”

During the first month, everyone except Mikael lacked knowledge about Fantasiademia, so they spent weekends mapping the first-year area. But that had been out of necessity, and now they didn’t need to. When Yohan asked, Suhyeok looked at him as if he couldn’t understand him at all. They simply didn’t understand each other.

“It just feels suffocating. And it’s a waste of time. On weekdays we can’t do anything because of classes and training, so I need the weekend to walk around freely.”

“I see.”

“Yohan. If you’re the one who asked first, can you at least listen seriously?”

Yohan nodded dismissively and went back to his textbook, making Suhyeok grumble. Yohan pressed his temples. Judging by Suhyeok’s persistence and bright mood today, this wasn’t something he’d drop in a few hours.

“……”

Kylus must have sensed the same thing, because even he wore a rare expression of annoyance as he stared at Suhyeok. In the end, the students of Room 304 gave in to his stubbornness.

“So? What exactly do you want to do outside?”

“…Well. Nothing specific. I just wanted to go out.”

Since the three of them cooperated for once, Suhyeok was at least honest. Yohan sighed, he wasn’t surprised, and the three students started thinking of what they could do to keep Suhyeok entertained so he wouldn’t hover over them all day.

But it was unnecessary effort.

Booom!

“Argh!”

“Holy crap! A professor is attacking us! A professor is breaking down the dorm barrier!”

Before they could decide anything, something happened that made even the idea of planning their weekend feel like a luxury.