Impulse. An overwhelming impulse. Kim Cheol was swept up in an intense surge that felt like it would blow away all of his rationality.
'Wh... why am I...'
Wanting to kneel before a fellow student he'd never seen before in his life? Just a moment ago, if he hadn't desperately poured all his strength into his ankles and calves, he would have cut a truly pathetic figure. It was dangerous. Having barely scraped past a moment where that was all he could say, Kim Cheol wiped the cold sweat on his forehead with the back of his hand. That was when a perfectly reasonable suspicion flashed through his mind.
'Could it be... that I'm intimidated by a student in my same year?'
If not, then how else could one explain his breathing quickening, his gaze averting, and his legs going weak the moment he locked eyes with the other person? But Kim Cheol couldn't accept reality.
'What a joke!'
This Kim Cheol—who had stood out since middle school thanks to his superhuman physique and the monstrous strength to match—intimidated by a classmate? Impossible. No, it was something that absolutely must not happen.
"Cheol-ah, what's wrong?" "Are you sick?"
Amid the seniors' concerns, Kim Cheol tensed the muscles in his neck.
"I'm perfectly fine, seniors!"
Yes, I'm perfectly fine. Kim Cheol nodded, convincing himself.
'It must have been momentary dizziness from skipping breakfast this morning.'
To prove the hypothesis he'd just formed, Kim Cheol slowly raised his head and looked at the other school's freshman again. There stood a first-year high school student who, while well-built, was nothing but a straw stick compared to himself. A smile crept onto Kim Cheol's face as he finally regained his composure. A smirk.
'...See there.'
As if he'd ever be intimidated by a guy who didn't even look like he could fill one punch. Kim Cheol straightened the upper body he'd been hunched over, and his face had returned to its original cocky expression. Seeing the sudden change, the worried Hwaseong Tech track team members also smiled again once they saw his face looking fine.
"Whew, you had us worried." "Our first-year really has some showmanship, doesn't he?"
Smiling in response to the seniors' encouraging pats on his shoulder, Kim Cheol fixed his gaze back on Jin-Woo.
'How embarrassing—of all times, I had to get dizzy right when I locked eyes with that guy...'
Kim Cheol decided he had to somehow return the embarrassment to the other person, caused by that unfortunate timing. The best way to escape a humiliating situation was to establish dominance first.
'...'
Come to think of it, that first-year was staring right back at him with insolent, wide-open eyes despite not being worth a single punch? Kim Cheol had never once let a guy like that go unpunished.
"Hey."
His voice dropped low as he jerked his chin toward the back of the athletic field.
"I've got something to say to you, so come follow me to the back for a sec."
Ooooh—! The Hwaseong Tech track team members whistled at their junior's boldness, while Jin-Woo's seniors hurriedly blocked him from instinctively following Kim Cheol.
"Jin-Woo, murder is not okay!" "Are you seriously thinking of drawing blood on competition day? Hold it in." "Just consider it saving someone's life and hold back."
Jin-Woo smiled and removed their hands.
"Nothing will happen, seniors. There's nothing to worry about."
The seniors then confirmed once more that the other party would be safe.
"You promise, right? Nothing's gonna happen?" "We trust you, hyung." "That guy—he'll walk back on his own two feet?"
Jin-Woo nodded with a smile to reassure the seniors, then quickly followed after the already-vanished Kim Cheol.
'...'
Watching this, Hwaseong Tech's track team captain Jo Gi-Seok walked over with a disbelieving expression.
"You guys... are you for real?"
Choi Tae-Ung, who had briefly glanced at Jo Gi-Seok's face, turned back to look worriedly in the direction Jin-Woo had gone.
"Don't talk to me right now. I'm a mess."
Having watched Jin-Woo's monstrous athletic ability from the side all this time, Choi Tae-Ung silently prayed from the bottom of his heart that this Kim Cheol guy wouldn't go too far.
* * *
While following Kim Cheol, Jin-Woo had felt a small sense of anticipation. He wondered if Kim Cheol might have gotten his memories back too. If so—what kind of reaction would Kim Cheol, the human, show toward those memories, as opposed to the former shadow soldier "Iron"? But seeing the look in Kim Cheol's eyes when he turned around, it didn't seem like he'd called Jin-Woo over to bring up the old days.
"Hey."
Kim Cheol's hostile gaze looked down at Jin-Woo.
"You think I'm a joke just because we're standing in the same arena wearing school uniforms?"
Kim Cheol was angry, but. The sight of the agitated Kim Cheol brought to mind the time he'd been rampaging wildly at the Red Gate, and without any particular thought, Jin-Woo just let out a little laugh. Back then it had been annoying, but wasn't it all a memory now? However, for Kim Cheol, who had absolutely no memories of those times, Jin-Woo's smile apparently didn't sit very well.
"You bastard, just because I let you look—"
Kim Cheol's rough hand seized Jin-Woo by the collar in the blink of an eye. And then—waahhh—! From the shadows, the shadow soldiers' cheers erupted in unison.
[Iron is back!] [Welcome back, Iron!] [My Lord, if you would leave Belion to me, I will give him a thorough re-education to ensure this never happens again...] '......'
It seemed the shadow soldiers could use some instruction on how to adapt to civilized society. Clicking his tongue, Jin-Woo peered into Kim Cheol's pupils. It was clearly a provocation, but the affection from Kim Cheol's shadow soldier days kept any ill will from forming. If anything, a curiosity stirred within him: if I touched Kim Cheol's body right now, would his memories come back?
'...'
Kim Cheol also sensed something from Jin-Woo's gaze and swallowed dryly.
'What is this...?'
In the old days, a punch would have flown at the person who mocked him without batting an eye—track team suspension or not. But instead of anger or a desire for punishment, a deeper, purer emotion stirred at the bottom of his heart. At that moment, Jin-Woo gently grabbed Kim Cheol's wrist, which had been hesitating about what to do. Jin-Woo's fingertips touched Kim Cheol. And then.
"Huh...?"
A waterfall of tears poured from Kim Cheol's eyes. Tears whose reason he couldn't even guess poured endlessly. Then, with his legs giving out, Kim Cheol finally collapsed to the ground.
"Why...?"
Kim Cheol looked up at Jin-Woo. He tried to find an answer in Jin-Woo, but Jin-Woo could only smile bitterly.
'If I hadn't shared the Monarch's memories with him before, the memories wouldn't return even with physical contact.'
Unless he deliberately revived them. Jin-Woo thought about those with whom he'd shared memories during the erased timeline.
'Chairman Woo Jin-Cheol... and...'
Norma Selner. He wondered if she, too, might hold memories from the erased timeline. With that thought, Jin-Woo turned to leave. He had no more business with "Iron"—no, with "Kim Cheol." The man was now living as a human, not a shadow soldier. But. Kim Cheol stopped Jin-Woo before he could walk away.
"W-wait... hold on."
Kim Cheol quickly wiped his eyes and hurried to his feet. When Jin-Woo's gaze landed on him—the tears had stopped, but the tip of his nose was still red—Kim Cheol asked in a choked voice.
"Is this... what they call love?"
A torrent of intense emotion he'd never experienced in his entire life. Having misunderstood the cause, Kim Cheol was dead serious.
"......"
Jin-Woo had to stare at Kim Cheol for a moment, struck by a powerful shock as though he'd been hit in the back of the head. Then he let out a deep sigh.
"......This won't do."
He couldn't just leave the guy to spend his entire life under a misunderstanding about his sexual identity. As Jin-Woo approached, Kim Cheol blushed like a girl in love. However. With a single snap of Jin-Woo's fingers, the expression vanished from Kim Cheol's face. Standing before Kim Cheol, whose eyes had gone unfocused, Jin-Woo recited a false memory to replace the one he had erased.
"So basically... you picked a fight with me, and then happened to find out that I'm a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend of your dad's, and that's what made all those uncomfortable feelings go away."
Kim Cheol nodded blankly.
"Also..."
For a moment, Jin-Woo recalled the image of Kim Cheol back when he'd been Iron—weeping bitterly just before they parted ways when the "Cup of Reincarnation" was about to be used. A faint smile crossed his face as he continued.
"Live a good life from now on. You fought to protect this world too, so carry that pride with you." "...Yes."
When Kim Cheol's quiet answer escaped his lips, Jin-Woo released the hypnosis he'd placed on him. Snap.
"Huh... huh?"
As consciousness returned and a confused look settled on Kim Cheol's face, he belatedly noticed Jin-Woo already walking away from him. Jin-Woo waved warmly, as though parting with a friend he'd met after a long time.
"See you next time!" "Oh... yeah."
Kim Cheol reflexively waved back and smiled along.
'Good.'
A pleasant smile rose on Jin-Woo's face as he turned away. With that unexpected reunion with an old comrade having gone well, it was now truly time to go look for that child. Just then, an announcement rang out across the entire athletic field.
—The middle school division preliminary matches will begin shortly. Athletes, please gather at the competition venue.
* * *
At the back of the nearly deserted athletic field, a young girl who had struggled over to the shade of a tree collapsed onto the ground. With trembling hands, she took off one shoe and peeled off her sock. Her swollen ankle spoke volumes about her condition. Biting her lower lip hard and glaring at her ankle, the girl closed her eyes and leaned her head against the tree trunk. It had been a mistake. A runner beside her had bumped her shoulder, causing her to land wrong. Despite the injury being far from light, she had somehow managed to pass the first preliminary round. But with a leg like this, the remaining matches would be impossible.
'Damn it...'
She was furious. She didn't want to end what might be the final competition of her middle school years like this, with an injury.
'So...'
So just keep running. A conclusion that could only come from the naive mind of a middle school student who still hadn't shed the taint of youth. Since ancient times, it had been the job of adults to stop children from going down the wrong path.
"Going to hide the injury?"
The girl flinched at the words of a male student who walked out from behind the tree without a sound. The boy didn't look at her, gazing instead at something far away.
"Even though someone who ran like that ended up wrecking their ankle, spent over a year recovering, and ultimately became a nobody athlete who regrets this choice for the rest of their life?"
The boy smiled down at the girl, whose eyes had gone wide.
"I'm talking about someone I know. Someone I know."
A strange person saying strange things. But instead of leaving, the girl—Cha Hae-In—studied the boy.
'A track team runner...? A high schooler?'
The boy smelled nice. That scent was the pure mana flowing from Jin-Woo, and the fact that Hae-In had the rare constitution to detect mana through her sense of smell was a story for much later. Lowering himself to face the flustered Hae-In, Jin-Woo gently placed his hand on her swollen ankle.
"Ah..."
Hae-In flinched momentarily but didn't resist. And when Jin-Woo's hand lifted from Hae-In's ankle—it was completely healed. Hae-In looked up at Jin-Woo with astonished eyes.
"Run without regrets. You only get one chance."
The S-rank Hunter Hae-In who had fought monsters had been radiant, but so was Hae-In, glistening with sweat under the spring sunlight. As Jin-Woo stood up with a smile, Hae-In quickly grabbed his wrist.
"W-wait a moment." "...?"
Had something changed as a result of the contact just now? Meeting Jin-Woo's curious gaze head-on, Hae-In's face flushed slightly.
"Um, haven't we... met somewhere before?"
How much courage it had taken to get that single question out—after the words left her lips, Hae-In's face was red all the way to the nape of her neck.
"Running." "What?"
To the flustered Hae-In, Jin-Woo answered with a smile.
"Race me, and if you beat me even once, I'll answer your question." "...I saw you, hyung. You placed first in every single preliminary event."
Jin-Woo grinned and stood up.
"Then I'll consider that a forfeit."
Just then.
"Th-then!"
Cha Hae-In gathered her courage once more and spoke.
"What about this—whenever the preliminary finals record I'm about to set later gets broken, how about that as my answer?"
Jin-Woo lowered his head and stifled a laugh.
'She's just as pure now as she was when she was a kid.'
For a moment, Jin-Woo seriously considered setting a new world record in a high school track event, then nodded with his smile still intact.
"Deal."
Having successfully changed the terms of the bet, Hae-In beamed.
'You won't be smiling later.'
Jin-Woo turned back from Hae-In, suppressing his laughter, and headed for the competition venue. That day—what was merely an ordinary preliminary match on a bright spring day—produced the all-time best record for a high school boys' athlete. And the track team that Jin-Woo belonged to defeated their rival, Hwaseong Tech, and claimed first place overall.