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Chapter 56
I never knew that a friend could enrich one’s daily life so much.
Up until now, the only people Jaeylin had known as “friends” were those who bullied her back at the orphanage.
That was why she thought it was fine not having any. If people like that were what counted as friends, it was better to have none at all.
But Stephan was different. Stephan was the one who taught Jaeylin what a friend could truly mean.
“Sniff… I’m sorry. I didn’t know any better and just kept avoiding you.”
“N-no, I’m the one who should be sorry. Stephan, you already helped me enough. You even contacted me before the committee meeting, and even if you were disappointed in me, you still came.”
Stephan rubbed at the tears welling up in his eyes with his forearm. The skin around his eyes turned red from the rough fabric.
“Well, that much is only natural for a friend to do. And I wasn’t disappointed in you at all. I just felt bad about how I treated you. You’re already my perfect friend.”
Jaeylin gazed at Stephan with eyes brimming with emotion. Stephan’s eyes were the same.
“S-so then… we’re reconciled now, right?”
“Of course! We never really fought in the first place!”
“Stephan…!”
“Puppy!”
The two called each other’s names and hugged tightly. Watching them, Adrian’s face crumpled like a tin can kicked down the street. Unbelievable, he thought.
“I-I’m more sorry. You’re my first real friend, so I’m clumsy at this. But if you teach me, I’ll learn.”
“No! You don’t need to learn anything. You’re already the best.”
“N-no, still…”
“I said no!”
Jaeylin’s sniffles and Stephan’s wailing filled the clubroom. Clinging to each other, they endlessly repeated the words “No, it’s my fault.”
Adrian looked at them sourly, wondering what on earth was supposed to “not be the case.”
His presence had long been erased in this space. The clubroom had become a world belonging only to Jaeylin and Stephan.
It was like a scene from a cheap melodrama. Their faces were a mess of tears and snot, unbearable to look at.
Just as Adrian opened his mouth to demand what they were doing, someone knocked and entered the room. Lionel appeared, stealing the words from Adrian’s tongue.
“What’s going on here?”
Lionel’s voice carried a faint note of confusion.
Faced with this teary sob-fest, he looked visibly startled.
But despite Lionel’s appearance, Stephan and Jaeylin remained utterly absorbed in their own world.
Lionel’s eyes swept over their tightly linked arms and tear-soaked faces.
“What are you doing here?”
Adrian spoke up in place of the flustered Stephan and Jaeylin. But his reply wasn’t really an answer to Lionel’s question.
Ignoring Adrian completely, Lionel stepped toward Stephan and Jaeylin.
When he lightly tapped Jaeylin’s shoulder with his finger, she finally noticed him and blinked her moist eyes wide.
“Huh? S-senior?”
Startled, Jaeylin pulled away from Stephan. Lionel smoothly slid into the gap between them, separating the two.
“I had some free time, so I stopped by. I have to go do penalty cleaning soon anyway, so I thought it’d be good if we went together.”
“Oh, r-right! Today’s cleaning duty.”
Caught up with Stephan, Jaeylin had completely forgotten it was her day for cleaning duty. She felt oddly guilty toward Lionel.
“Wait—how did you even know I was here?”
“On my way back from morning training, I ran into Nathan. He said he saw you heading toward the student center. I thought you might be here, and lucky guess—you were.”
Jaeylin hadn’t seen Nathan, but it seemed he had spotted her entering the student center from afar.
“I-I see.”
“So… did something happen between you two?”
Lionel looked down at Jaeylin’s tearstained eyes with concern.
“Uh… I messed up, and Stephan got upset with me.”
Sniffling into a handkerchief, Stephan quickly denied it.
“No! Jaeylin didn’t do anything wrong. It’s all my fault!”
“N-no, it’s my fault. I’m sorry.”
“Enough already! Don’t you get tired of saying ‘it’s not’ all the time?”
Adrian snapped in irritation. Stephan pouted but then shut his mouth tight.
Feeling awkward, Stephan turned his frustration onto Lionel.
“Why’d you even come in here? You’re not a club member.”
Come to think of it, it was Lionel who had led Jaeylin into breaking the rules. If not for him, she wouldn’t have been humiliated at the committee meeting, nor would she have quarreled with Stephan.
That thought made his words harsher.
“Ah, I told Jaeylin she should get your permission if she wanted to visit here, but I forgot. I know I’m not a member, but can I stay a little while?”
“No way! You rotten Lionel! You tricked our innocent Jaeylin into breaking school rules. Get out of here!”
Even with Stephan pointing accusingly, Lionel admitted his fault without a trace of annoyance.
“You’re right. I only meant to help, but I wasn’t thinking. I ended up causing trouble.”
With Lionel yielding so easily, Stephan grew even bolder in his criticism.
“Exactly! It’s all your fault! If it weren’t for you, Jaeylin wouldn’t have been suspected like that. So apologize to her!”
Before Jaeylin could object, Lionel spoke first.
Turning to her with softened eyes, he bowed his head.
“I’m sorry, Jaeylin. It’s all my fault. I’ll be more careful from now on.”
“See? That’s more like it,” Stephan agreed, nodding vigorously.
“So… now can I stay here?”
Checking the watch strapped to his wrist, Lionel smiled slyly at Stephan while asking for permission.
“Yeah, yeah… wait, what?”
Before Stephan realized it, he had essentially allowed Lionel to stay in the clubroom.
To leave no room for him to backtrack, Lionel quickly sealed it with a “Thanks.”
He dragged over a nearby chair for Jaeylin and then sat down beside her.
Watching Lionel’s fox-like maneuver, Adrian clicked his tongue quietly.
For a moment, he thought Stephan had seen through Lionel’s sly nature when he shouted at him earlier. But of course not—Stephan was no match for someone as cunning as Lionel.
With Lionel sitting there smugly, Adrian felt suffocated. Sweat started to bead on his forehead.
He glanced under the sofa. The magic stored in the array had almost completely run out, leaving it faint and weak.
So it wasn’t just Lionel’s presence making him overheat—the array had run dry.
Unbuttoning a few more buttons, Adrian flapped his shirt for air. He hadn’t even bothered with a tie, and his sleeves were already rolled up. With his shirt half-unbuttoned, he looked nothing like a student of the empire’s prestigious academy—more like a back-alley thug.
Lionel narrowed his eyes, studying him. Adrian’s appearance had always been somewhat sloppy, but now it was beyond acceptable. He didn’t like it.
“Damn, the moment the magic runs out, it gets unbearably hot. Peanut, charge me up a little, will you?”
Without thinking, Jaeylin stood up to help. But Stephan jumped in to stop her.
“Why are you making Jaeylin do it? Don’t you have hands? Don’t you have magic? Do it yourself!”
Inwardly, Lionel agreed.
“I already tried. My magic output’s unstable right now—I can’t channel properly. If I could do it myself, why would I ask Peanut?”
“I-it’s fine. I’ll do it. It’s not hard.”
As Jaeylin moved toward Adrian, Lionel blocked her.
“Sit down. I’ll do it. Okay, Adrian?”
“No way. Why would I take your magic?”
Adrian’s face twisted at Lionel’s offer.
But when Lionel leaned close, Adrian noticed the frosty expression on his face. Oddly enough, he liked it.
A small laugh escaped Adrian’s lips. This snake only shows his true nature in front of me.
“Perfect. The academy’s star himself waiting on me like this.”
Chuckling smugly, Adrian watched Lionel’s face crack ever so slightly. Lionel charged only the bare minimum of magic into him before returning to his seat.
“Seriously, Adrian’s practically fused with that sofa. If I don’t drag him off, he won’t even go to class. He eats and sleeps here too,” Stephan grumbled.
“What else am I supposed to do? The second I leave, it’s too hot to think straight.”
After a short while lying there, Adrian raised his head toward Jaeylin.
“Peanut, isn’t there some way around this? During the last exam, you managed to move the magic circle. Can’t you do that here too?”
“Um… i-it’s possible, but…”
Adrian had only asked half-seriously, but her hesitant confirmation made him shoot upright on the sofa.
His face lit up with joy—the brightest expression Jaeylin had ever seen on him.
