A heavy silence fell.

Having grasped the situation, I quietly glared at Allen. The others who had been startled were also trying to approach me.

Allen glanced at me and knelt down in front of me, reaching out his hand before the others could come closer.

“Sorry, Juno. I was so surprised that I couldn’t catch you in time. Are you okay? Your clothes are soaked. We should quickly get out of here. You’ll catch a cold.”

Allen smiled innocently with his green eyes, just like he did with his parents. He even added concern for me in a gentle voice.

Next to him, Victor quickly approached and scolded Allen.

“Hey, you idiot. You should have quickly grabbed her hand! How could you miss that?”

“I said I’m sorry.”

I took both Allen and Victor’s outstretched hands and stood up.

Even after getting out of the stream, my expression was dark, so Allen tilted his head.

“Are you very cold? Wear mine. Your lips are turning blue. You can return it later.”

Allen said that as he draped his coat over my shoulders.

I silently wrapped the coat around me and thought.

‘Allen Jade… He clearly could have reached out further, but he didn’t.’

It was a sufficient distance.

To begin with, it wasn’t a far distance even for a normal person, so how could someone with S-grade agility not be able to grab the hand of a falling person?

“You’ll really catch a cold, Juno. Let’s use a simple healing skill… huh?”

Teacher Gina put her hand on my forehead.

“Your body is cold, but your head is hot. You’re already showing signs of a cold.”

I buried my face in the coat and thought.

‘Allen Jade, that bastard. I’ll get my revenge someday…’

* * *

Come to think of it, Juno and Allen weren’t the type of childhood friends who were so close, inseparable, and lived for each other in a ticklish and heartwarming way.

It’s a common cliché in teen movies for childhood friends of the opposite sex to start seeing each other as potential love interests after going through puberty, but that doesn’t apply to Juno and Allen.

Unlike their parents who remembered Allen quite favorably, the two of them had always been friends who were too busy fighting since they were young.

“Allen teased me first.”

“No, it’s not true. Juno hit me first.”

Before puberty, they were about the same height and weight, and since they lived next door to each other, there were many minor clashes.

They had known each other since they were very young, living next door, and they attended the same schools until Allen moved to England.

Moreover, Allen’s parents were often busy, so he frequently stayed at our house. Imagine how much time they spent together. They were practically like siblings.

‘Young Juno was no pushover, but Allen had quite a temper too.’

They both had personalities where they absolutely had to get back at each other if wronged.

When they fought, it was always serious, and there were days when they would quickly apologize with tears in their eyes, but they would soon fight again as if nothing had happened.

As they got older, they started using their heads a bit more, secretly pinching each other or playing mean pranks.

Anyway, the two of them weren’t the beautifully edited childhood friends from media, but real friends who saw the best and worst of each other while bickering.

‘Still, it’s true that they only had each other. After Allen left for England, Juno had no friends and gradually became gloomy.’

Juno, who used to be lively and chatty while fighting with Allen, slowly changed to a calm temperament after Allen left. It was because the healthy and deep relationship where they could fiercely fight and then make up again to hang out had disappeared.

Just as Juno’s personality had changed 180 degrees, I thought Allen, who suddenly appeared and acted obedient, had simply matured with age, but…

‘Mature, my foot. He deliberately didn’t catch her, that’s what it is.’

He even dared to smile prettily in front of the adults and pretend to be regretful, despite seeing her fall into the water and intentionally missing her.

The funny thing is, when Allen entered elementary school, whenever there was a problem, he would say a few words to the adults with a face more angelic and prettier than the other kids, and then everyone would take Allen’s side.

From then on, the way the two of them fought changed from an equal match of strength to a battle of wits and charm.

And of course, Juno couldn’t seriously compete against Allen in those areas.

‘This crazy psychopath with a different face in front and behind. His personality is still the same as when he was young. What’s the use of just having a pretty face.’

That vile bastard. That despicable bastard!

“He must have embarrassed me for not contacting him and told me not to come to his house. Or maybe he took revenge by forcibly preventing me from going to the dungeon alone?”

Pretending to be a model student in front of adults and doing mischievous things behind their backs was the same then and now.

I ground my teeth at his two-faced nature.

Even after closing the gate at the American football stadium, articles poured out.

Most of them were about Allen, who was from the New York team, collaborating with others.

Since Allen was the center of attention for all reporters, most of the articles were about him.

Even that was annoying.

At some point, reporters started checking the time when high school dungeon teams closed dungeons and wrote arbitrary articles comparing team versus team.

Although they received recommendations from various places for ethical reasons, it seemed to be a way to capture readers’ interest.

Still, how could they do that? Even if the minors weren’t risking their lives, they were working together to protect the Earth, so how could they write such competitive articles?

It felt like they would soon start gambling too.

After closing the mine dungeon, Allen suddenly stopped visiting our house or contacting me separately.

Is peace finally coming?

Just as I was trying to enjoy a peaceful school life, Mr. Robin, the history teacher, called me.

“Juno, you know that the essay submission deadline is next week, right?”

“What? Essay?”

I abruptly stopped and stared at him.

“Don’t tell me you’re pretending to hear it for the first time? I’m sure I made an announcement and posted it on the bulletin board. I know you’re busy closing dungeons, but you’ll have to submit the essay on time. You can’t go to college with just bonus points and without submitting essays.”

“I… I must have forgotten about it. By the way, what was the essay topic?”

Then, Mr. Robin let out a deep sigh with a face full of inertia.

“It’s an essay where you write your views on the Peloponnesian War.”

“Pelo-what… Yes.”

“You can take any angle you want. You remember what we learned in class, right? The minimum length is 10 pages.”

Ugh.

“If you don’t like it, read ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ and write a 20-page reflection. Table of contents required.”

Ugh!

“No…! I’ll write 10 pages on the Pelo-something War.”

“Go ahead then.”

I returned to my seat with a desperate expression as if I was holding a bomb.

No matter how diligently I close dungeons, bonus points are just bonus points, and I can’t go to college with only bonus points. It’s a given. Faithful attendance, essay submission, and curricular activities also require management.

‘Damn it. I don’t know about other subjects, but I suck at history.’

History, especially Western history, is my weakness. It would be great if someone could help me.

I came out of the classroom and started wandering the hallway, looking for a target.

The first thing that caught my eye was Alex and Jin chatting in front of the cabinet.

I immediately called out to them.

“Jin, can I talk to you for a moment?”

“Huh? Aren’t you Juno?”

“You’ve won an award in the school memorization contest before. I saw your name in the school trophy showcase.”

“That’s right. It was in 10th grade.”

History is ultimately a subject that lists things that happened in the past. So if you have a good memory, you must be knowledgeable about history, right?

“Could you help me with my Western history essay? I’m not asking you to do it for me, I just want to consult you…”

“Western history? I don’t know about that.”

“Why don’t you know? Isn’t it just a memorization subject? It should be a subject you’re good at?”

Then, Jin made a gesture of lifting something above his brow with his thumb and index finger.

It seemed to be glasses.

He wasn’t wearing glasses, so why was he pretending to lift them…?

“I’m sorry, but I only remember what I like. Things like the history of the Gundam series, or which episodes out of the 700-episode anime series my favorite character appears in, or the worldview of the spin-off drawn by the author – I’m knowledgeable about those.”

“Gundam? Spin-off…? What’s that? Not Spinoza? No, then how did you win the memorization contest? If it was a topic you weren’t even interested in, how did you win?”

“That was just because I needed money to buy figures, so I memorized it in a hurry to get the prize money.”

“…I see.”

I stared at Jin, having lost my motivation.

Somehow, I felt like I shouldn’t talk to him anymore. I had a feeling that if I stayed with Jin any longer, I would fall into some kind of deep swamp.

“Okay, I see. Then I’ll get going.”

I felt strangely tired even though I hadn’t done anything extraordinary.

I left Alex and Jin and crossed the hallway. Then, I came across the club room where the school newspaper club worked.

Just then, Michelle was coming out with a few newspapers in her hand.

“Oh, look who it is. Juno? Did you come to give an interview to our newspaper club as an Awakened?”

“Hi, Michelle. An interview with just me wouldn’t sell, would it?”

It seemed like she had just finished printing the school newspaper.

Seeing me staring at the newspaper, Michelle made a sinister expression.

“Why, are you curious about what’s inside?”

“Obviously, it’ll be an article about Victor’s game last week.”

“That’s right. But there’s a very special point.”

“A special point?”

With a strange uneasiness, I took the newspaper from Michelle.

As expected, the photo on the front page was shocking.

“Did you really publish this?”

I shouted in disbelief.

The newspaper had a huge photo of me and Victor sitting side by side on the horn-shaped goalposts.

“I sent a few to Victor and told him to pick one. He happily picked it, remember? I took that opportunity to get more interviews from him. He seemed to really like it. He said he would save the original too…”

“Just getting Victor’s consent is enough? What about my consent?”

“Huh? Didn’t you hear Victor saying he wanted it on the front page? I thought you agreed too.”

Michelle said with a laugh.

“I even retouched it for you. I covered up some of your freckles too.”

I immediately flipped the page to check the other articles.

The next page was a full-page interview with Victor.

It was a photo of him in his American football uniform, taking off his helmet and giving a thumbs up to the camera. This was normal.

But the next scandal photo was unbelievable.

It was a photo of Victor calling me from under the stands and me looking down at him from above, having a conversation.

“Are you crazy…?”

I sighed.