I Have a Fiancee in a Parallel World

10 – Change your clothes…take a shower

“What should I do? Seriously, it was supposed to be five laps around the playground today!”

Seojeong approached Jini, who was biting her nails.

“You didn’t answer a single question? You know if that crazy math teacher asks, you have to do it, right? What should we do, Jini…”

Jini had not done any of the homework given last week, only biting her nails continuously.

The math teacher, who was known for her strictness, always gave enough time when assigning homework.

She would give an amount that everyone could do if they put in a little effort.

However, she would punish the students who didn’t do their homework, even though she had given them the opportunity.

She was famous for never giving in or being lenient.

“…Ah! Jini, where did you go?”

“Kang Jihun? Why? Did you ask him to buy snacks?”

“He’s in the same class as us, with the same math teacher. Maybe he didn’t receive the workbook either?”

“Ah!!”

Jini’s expression turned into a Eureka moment.

Soon, Jihun entered through the back door and approached Jini.

“Jini, here’s this and this. Wow, there were so many people, I waited for a long time.”

Jihun took out cookies and milk from his bag and handed them to Jini, smiling happily.

Suddenly, Jini’s expression changed in Jihun’s eyes, and she seemed to be on the verge of tears.

“J-Jini, why are you like that? Did I bring the snacks too late? Or is something wrong?”

“Tsk…you eat the cookies. I have to prepare for the punishment.”

“Punishment? What punishment?”

“I don’t know, Kim Sooryeon said if I don’t bring the workbook, she will make me do five laps around the playground. But I forgot the workbook.”

“Oh? What should we do then! I’ll go to your house right now and bring it. Is your mother at home?”

“Ah…no, it’s not…I lost it. Yes, yes, I lost it… What should I do? Ugh.”

While observing her tear-streaked face, Jihun left a brief message and swiftly exited through the door.

“Wow, this jerk just won the Best Actor award.”

Jinhee responded with a wry smile to Soojeong’s comment, who had been watching from the side all along.

“Oh, it’s just a piece of cake~ We planned to go to the study cafe with Changhoon, but my thighs are too sore to go~”

“You’re not even studying, why follow him to the study cafe? Has Changhoon still not gotten over it?”

“I don’t know. He’s really stubborn and annoying. Hey, go away, stop bothering us.”

Jihun reappeared through the classroom back door, and immediately, Jinhee’s eyes fell on the workbook he was holding in his hands.

***

Jinhee, sitting on the floor, watched as Jihun approached from a distance.

A fleeting memory crossed her mind, and as Jihun brought something, it overlapped with the past.

‘A workbook… Is it… No, why am I thinking of old memories at a time like this— Legs?’

Sitting on the ground, Jinhee emptied her mind.

Her skirt and shoes were covered in dirt and mud.

Jinhee had performed the Gate Punishment mission several times as an 8th class hunter.

She had seen many colleagues injured by monster attacks, and she had also been injured herself.

Hunters inevitably had to be accustomed to death and injury.

Expressions like having a weak stomach were not applicable to hunters.

However, as a first-year academy student, she didn’t seem to be such a professional hunter.

“Ugh… Ugh.”

“Ugh… What are you… doing?”

Approaching Jinhee, who was vomiting, Jihun stopped a few steps in front of her.

Then, he casually threw Changhoon’s leg in front of her.

“Jinhee… You’re a hunter too, right? Why is your stomach so weak?”

“Ugh..! Finding that disgusting is weirder… Ugh.”

“Ugh, I can’t stand being with you because you’re so filthy. Anyway, I brought this guy’s leg as promised. Now, I’ll take it to the healer and… when he wakes up… you know, right? hehehe.”

With a sinister expression, Jihun attempted to turn away, but Jinhee urgently called out to him.

“Hey, Kang Jihun. Wait… just a moment.”

“Yeah, what? Don’t come near me, you’re dirty and smelly. Stay there and speak.”

*Squelch*

Jinhee felt intense anger as Jihun, who couldn’t even move a muscle against her, spoke so rudely.

“This… Lee… What’s happened to you? Did you really get resurrected?”

“No? I’m just a Grade E Hunter. I’m researching how to increase my Hunter level. I’ll be going to the academy soon to study, so stop bothering me.”

Jinhee continued to look at Jihoon, who kept saying he was nothing, and suddenly felt a strange flutter in her chest.

“Hey… just wait for a moment. Let’s talk…”

“Rather than that, isn’t it better to take that guy to a healer quickly? If you delay it further and can’t reattach his leg… Jinhee, will it be fine for Changhoon to have one less leg?”

“Oh… what…”

Jihoon immediately spoke as if praising himself.

“Hey! It was a much bigger love than I thought, right? Impressive, Jinhee! Still, change your clothes, wash up a bit, and take care of him… got it?”

Having said all he wanted, Jihoon didn’t look back and rushed to the food truck.

Changhoon, who had collapsed, was being moved by other academy students who had gathered to watch.

Jinhee went to the front of the food truck and carefully lifted Changhoon’s leg, just as before.

“Uh… eww…”

Jinhee gagged again.

Jihoon looked at her from a distance.

“Why does she keep doing that? Did she drink too much last night?”

***

Jihoon received a hotdog from the owner and headed back to the academy.

At that moment, someone blocked Jihoon’s path.

“Are you Kang Jihoon from Class 11?”

The girl blocking Jihoon had long pink hair, wore black leggings that hugged her legs, and a crop top that revealed her midriff. Her ample chest seemed ready to burst out of her top, and her subtly downturned eyes exuded a seductive atmosphere.

“…Who are you to use informal speech on a first meeting? You don’t look that young.”

Jihoon took a big bite of his hotdog with a sullen expression.

“We’re classmates. I’m Han Sojeong from Class 2. You can speak casually, too. Oh, you already are?”

“Uh… you’re an academy student? I thought you were a yoga instructor or something.”

“Oh… I’m just on a jog right now, that’s why! I live in the academy dorms, so… Anyway, that’s not important. What happened to you earlier? I was watching the whole thing.”

“Did you dye your hair pink? That color isn’t common.”

“Yeah, I dyed it… Why do you keep saying strange things? I was asking what you did with Changhoon. You’re an E-rank Hunter, right?”

“In a world without Hunters, strength and speed are everything. I was just faster than him.”

Sojeong listened to Jihoon’s casually spoken words and pondered thoughtfully with her chin resting on her hand.

Jihoon remained, finishing the leftover hotdog in front of her.

“Well… What you’re saying does make sense. Did you happen to get scouted by a guild?”

“A guild? No, I haven’t.”

“How about trying the entrance test then? Our dad runs a guild…”

Before Jihoon could say more, Jihoon abruptly changed his course, causing Sojeong to stick close and match his pace.

“Hey, why don’t you give it a try? Our dad runs a small guild, and this time, he signed a really strange gate-clearing contract. That’s why there are people…”

“Oh, come on… I need to study at the academy right now, not work.”

With those words, Jihoon disappeared in the blink of an eye, stepping onto a crosswalk.

From Sojeong’s eyes that momentarily lost sight of him, disbelief emerges.

“He’s really unusual, isn’t he?”

Sojeong looks in the direction Jihoon moved. He had already become a speck and was disappearing.

***

“If I join a guild, it’ll take away time from studying and researching at the academy. I might need more money, but I have to find a way to minimize the time lost. There’s no better place than the academy for leveling up my hunter abilities and researching skills.”

Jihoon was still weak in his hunter abilities, and he hadn’t studied much about skills and their side effects.

If he spent a lot of time earning money through martial arts, there was no way he could improve his hunter abilities.

And if that happened, he might never see Yeonhwa again.

Never see Yeonhwa again.

That was something Jihoon couldn’t accept.

“- Right?”

Professor Jin Seok-hyun, who stood in front of him, found Jihoon’s distant look in this completely unreasonable situation frustrating.

“What?”

This guy is really lost in thought.

“Aren’t we seeing each other too often?”

“Oh… Yes, you’re right. Nice to see you.”

“Nice to see… Ugh.”

Professor Jin took a deep breath, clutched his neck, and then continued.

“So… you got your leg cut by a Class 6 monster this time?”

“Yes! But I cut it clean, so if I go to a healer-type hunter, I can get it fixed quickly!”

“Are you a psychopath?”

Professor Jin Seok-hyun threw a question at Jihoon, not in reprimand or rebuke, but pure curiosity.

Now, more than how this guy is acting like this, it was the why that began to pique his curiosity.