IDWF 30

Koon’s expression slowly soured as he stared at the dog-tail grass in his hands. I watched him with a relaxed smile before speaking as if something had just occurred to me.

“Oh, don’t worry. I dug it up carefully without damaging the roots, so it won’t die if you replant it.”

Koon’s eyebrow twitched. Even with that rotten expression on his face, he reluctantly accepted the grass I offered him.

Then, after staring at it for a moment, he suddenly let out a low chuckle.

The sound instantly ruined my mood.

Why are you laughing? You’re supposed to be angrier.

Koon looked at the rose in my hand with an oddly satisfied expression. It almost looked like the smile of a victor.

“You. Do you know the name of that rose?”

I flashed him a bright smile.

I’ve been waiting for you to say that, you bastard.

“Yeah. It’s Jonnenshireum. The flower meaning is rejection. But I’m the one who wants to reject my partner, so I don’t know why you’re the one giving me something like that.”

The smile vanished from Koon’s face in an instant. Feeling immensely satisfied, I curled my lips upward.

Did you think you were the only one who came prepared with a flower named something ridiculous like “Jonnenshireum”?

“Oh, then do you happen to know the name of this grass?”

A flicker of unease crossed Koon’s eyes. He asked in a dubious tone,

“Wasn’t it just some random weed you picked?”

“My, I was giving it to my partner. Why would I pick just any random weed? Do I look that heartless to you?”

“Yes.”

What an honest child.

As a reward, I decided to tell him the truth.

“It’s gaeswipssari.”

“…?”

Seeing his face fill with question marks brought me a strange sense of delight.

Yes. This was exactly the kind of expression I wanted to see.

For the first time, I was able to smile sincerely—not a fake smile, but one bubbling up from deep within me.

“Doesn’t that name suit you perfectly? Gaeswipssari.”

Koon stared at me like I was unbelievable.

“Huh? Why are you looking at me like that? I only said the name of the plant. Gaeswipssari.”

“……”

“Hm? What was that? Gaeswipssari?”

“……”

“Oh dear, our precious gaeswipssari says Mister Koon should make sure to eat three meals a day. How thoughtful.”

“…Stop.”

I ignored him and tried to tease him even more.

Unfortunately, just then the instructor’s voice rang out, forcing me to stop.

“Everyone, attention. It looks like the flower exchange is mostly finished, so we’ll move on to actual practice. Start with greetings, then hands.”

The instructor and the assistant instructor greeted each other lightly. The female instructor gently placed her hand atop the male assistant’s.

Following their example, I greeted Koon and waited for him to offer his hand.

The rule was that the man extended his hand first, and the woman placed hers on top.

But no matter how long I waited, Koon never held his hand out to me. The corners of my lips twitched.

So this is how you want to play it?

“Hey.”

“…Yes.”

“What are you doing? Give me your hand.”

“I don’t want to.”

Seeing that stubborn look on his face awakened my competitive spirit.

I liked physical affection, but unless I was fairly close to someone, I usually avoided touching people.

Still, given the situation, I decided to make an exception.

I stepped closer to Koon and placed my finger beneath his chin. Then, almost seductively, I slid my finger smoothly down the side of his neck.

“What are you—”

Startled by the sudden touch, he stepped backward. I didn’t miss the opening and quickly grabbed his hand.

“What do you think you’re doing?!”

Smack!

With incredible force, he instantly slapped my hand away. Too shocked, I couldn’t even feel the pain and just stared blankly at Koon.

Koon himself looked stunned too, as though he hadn’t expected to hit me that hard.

“…You.”

My hand throbbed where he hit it, but I wasn’t angry.

Partly because I had been at fault too.

But mostly because the moment I grabbed his hand, I realized something.

Why he was willing to give up points rather than dance with his partner.

Why he refused to hold my hand.

The first thing I felt when I touched Koon’s hand was moisture.

No—calling it moisture wasn’t enough. His hand had been drenched.

He’d said he washed his hands, but it was midsummer now, and enough time had passed for them to dry.

In that brief instant, I understood.

Koon had localized hyperhidrosis.

I concluded it was localized because areas that normally sweated easily—his forehead and the back of his neck—were perfectly dry.

Now that I thought about it, he’d been wiping his hands with a handkerchief every chance he got.

Back when I didn’t know anything, I’d simply assumed he was a pampered noble with a cleanliness obsession.

“Koon. You…”

When I called his name, his wandering violet eyes finally turned toward me.

And that was when someone suddenly shoved themselves between us.

“Whoa, are you two fighting?”

It was a male student I’d never seen before. I thought I at least recognized everyone in our class, even if we weren’t close.

He grinned leisurely.

“I’ve been watching for a while, and this ba— I mean, Koon, looks like he really doesn’t want to dance with his partner. Right?”

Both of us just stared at him in silence.

His sudden appearance had completely caught us off guard.

Unfazed by the silence, the boy continued as though we’d already answered.

“My partner had some family issues and ended up leaving the academy for a few weeks.”

“……”

“So now I have to practice dancing alone… but seeing as Koon doesn’t seem interested in dancing, I was wondering—if it’s okay with you—how about I become Rien’s partner instead?”

The boy suddenly extended his hand toward me.

“What do you think?”

He asked while looking only at me, as if Koon’s opinion didn’t matter in the slightest.

Slowly, I placed my hand in his.

For some reason, it felt like I was being drawn in.

When I took the boy’s hand, Koon stared at our joined hands for a moment.

“Do as you please.”

Then he walked over to the instructor, said something quietly, and left the dance room altogether.

Just like that, my partner had changed in the blink of an eye.

I looked at the face of the boy holding my hand.

No matter how much I looked, I couldn’t remember ever seeing him before.

And there was something indescribably strange about him.

Even while looking directly at his face, it somehow felt hard to make out his features clearly.

I discreetly checked his name tag.

“Simon.”

A familiar name. But had Simon always looked like this?

Once I consciously recognized him as Simon and looked again, his face suddenly seemed much clearer.

“Ah, Rien. There’s actually something I couldn’t say earlier.”

I pulled myself from my thoughts and met his eyes.

The moment our gazes locked, Simon flinched and quickly looked away.

“I’m kind of awkward, so I get really nervous.”

I wondered what he meant, but then I noticed his hand trembling violently.

His heartbeat was so frantic I could practically feel it too.

“Pfft.”

I accidentally let out a short laugh.

So after acting all relaxed, this was the truth.

For some reason, he reminded me of Karsion.

“Thanks for becoming my partner, Simon.”

I truly meant it.

Meanwhile, in Karsion and Fior’s class…

Fior was lazily yawning when he noticed that Karsion was listening to class unusually attentively.

“Oh? What’s gotten into him?”

But after several minutes passed and Karsion still barely moved at all, Fior began to feel something was off.

He reached out and smacked Karsion on the back.

“Hey, you haven’t moved a musc— huh…?”

But his hand never made contact.

Instead, it passed straight through Karsion’s body.

“What the hell?!”

Fior jerked his hand back in horror.

What he thought was Karsion turned out to be a highly realistic illusion.

Only then did Fior piece the situation together, his eyes turning dull with resignation.

Apparently Karsion had skipped class again, going so far as to leave behind a magical illusion in his place while he went off to do some insane nonsense.

Fior could only pray no innocent bystanders ended up dead because of it.

“Huh?”

Now that I looked at it, the hand Koon hit yesterday looked suspiciously fine.

I bruised easily, so I’d expected it to turn blue and purple by the next day.

Come to think of it, after I held Simon’s hand, I didn’t feel that lingering ache anymore either. Almost like someone had cast healing magic on me.

Though that was probably just my imagination.

Still, not bruising was definitely something to celebrate.

I stretched lightly to loosen my stiff body before sitting down to write a letter to my aunt.

Writing letters to Aunt had become part of my weekend routine.

While writing, a certain face suddenly came to mind.

Of all times, why did that face have to appear on this sacred weekend morning? My luck was terrible.

Thinking about it, the letters Erhan had sent had already nearly filled an entire drawer.

Without thinking, I opened the drawer containing the letters. A heavy lavender scent wafted out immediately, making me frown.

His hypocrisy disgusted me to no end.

I let out a deep sigh from the bottom of my lungs.

For now, being at the academy meant I didn’t have to see “them,” but after graduation, I’d have to continue living with Aunt until I found a job.

“If I want to avoid running into them, I’ll need to move out immediately after graduating.”

…Which meant I needed money. But where was I supposed to get it?

Back when my parents were alive, our family had actually been quite wealthy.

My father didn’t earn money because he handled all the household chores, but my mother had been a highly skilled herbalist.

However, after my parents fell ill with some unknown disease, our finances rapidly drained away.

We hired famous physicians, summoned priests, bought rare medicinal herbs, experimented endlessly trying to cure them…

And because Mother’s work combined herbalism with alchemy, the material costs were easily doubled or worse.

In the end, my parents still passed away, but I didn’t regret spending the money.

If we’d tried to save it instead, I would’ve regretted that forever.

And besides, Aunt had raised me without lacking anything after I was left alone.

Money, huh.

I couldn’t shamelessly keep relying on Aunt after everything she’d done for me…

Still, I had several incredibly useful herbal recipes. If I played my cards right, maybe I could make money with those.

“Ugh, whatever.”

Overwhelmed by complicated thoughts, I dropped my forehead onto the desk with a thud and ruffled my hair violently.

As I turned my head sideways, the dried herbs hanging nearby caught my eye.

Come to think of it, it was about time Malgami’s skin condition started acting up again.

“I should make the treatment first.”

Annoying as she was, I wasn’t cold-hearted enough to knowingly watch her skin rot away without doing anything.

Besides, I was the only person capable of making a cure for Barmon Knirina.

After all, it was a recipe my late mother had created.

I rose from my seat to prepare the treatment for Malgami.

As I sorted through various herbs, one particular plant caught my eye.

Dao Tranto.

A sweat suppressant.

In other words, an herb capable of making medicine for hyperhidrosis.

“Maybe I’ll help Malgami, but I’m definitely never helping you.”

I muttered the words to no one in particular.