...
Nobody pays attention to the wind.
The hum of the katana slicing through the air was a sound that grounded me.
Here, in the training arena, the world came down to movement, speed, and the flow of the "Wind" that responded to my almost instinctive call.
Nobody pays attention to the wind, but I've always felt it.
Since I was little, back in rural Japan, in a small town where time seemed to move slower and traditions were as present as the smell of wet earth after the rain.
I felt this lightness, this affinity with the air that made me run faster than others, feel the leaves change direction even before the wind blew strong.
My gift wasn't fully awakened yet; without "Ascension" to reveal its true nature, I used it as I knew how: to be fast, to move like a shadow, the fifth fastest first-year at Cube.
"Slaash! Flassh! Classh!"
Faster.
More precise.
Stronger.
Each strike on the magical dummies was an attempt to push away the other wind, the one blowing inside me, that of insecurity, difficulty with Korean, the constant feeling of being a displaced foreigner.
Years here in South Korea, and I still stumbled over words, fearing the confused glances, the polite smiles that hid impatience. Training was my universal language, my silent refuge.
The dummies dissolved into bluish light.
I stopped, breath caught in my chest, the blade's tip grazing the ground. The physical relief was real, but the cold stone in my stomach remained.
It had settled there since yesterday, and today it intensified when the whispers confirmed:
"Theo was dating Chae Nayun."
Dating.
The word was normal, but for me, it carried an unreal weight.
It wasn't jealousy, I was sure.
The feeling was something else, deeper and more frightening:
"It was fear."
Fear of losing the only connection that seemed genuine in that immense, noisy place.
Theo, he was also a foreigner, but he moved with a confidence I never had.
And yet, he saw me.
When we formed Team 10, he extended his hand and said:
"You can call me Theo. I'll be in your care today."
And then, "Hazuki-san." Nobody else called me that, not since I came to live in South Korea. It was a small detail, a suffix of respect from my own culture, but one he used naturally. In that moment, I felt as if a small barrier had fallen.
With him, silence wasn't heavy, my few words didn't seem so awkward. He became my friend, my teammate. We faced monsters, climbed the icy mountain, explored a dark cave... I trusted him.
What if now that trust no longer has a place? What if the friendship, which was so important to me, is just secondary to him? The idea of going back to being just the quiet, fast Japanese cadet, without that anchor, hurt in a way that made me restless.
I returned the katana to its sheath, the click echoing in the arena.
"Impressive as always, Hazuki-san."
His voice, the familiar calm that, at that moment, seemed to amplify my anxiety. I turned quickly, feeling my blood rush and my heart pound faster.
Our eyes met. I could see in his gaze that he noticed the same distress I couldn't hide in the classroom. The insecurity laid bare, the irrational fear that he was already distant. I forced a smile, a mask I didn't know if it was good or not.
"Theo-kun."
My voice came out low, a small whisper, the usual hesitation present. The difficulty with Korean seemed to worsen when I was nervous.
"Didn't expect to see you here, heh."
I looked away, fixing my gaze on some point behind him. The next words came out almost choked, laden with a subtext I hoped he wouldn't notice:
"Congratulations on your relationship with Nayun, Theo-kun."
Theo took a small step forward, and the sound of his sneakers against the floor reverberated like thunder in my ears.
"Thanks, I guess."
He stopped in front of me and handed me a water bottle.
'Where did that come from?'
If it were anyone else, I would certainly ask where it came from, but since it was Theo, it was certain he must have pulled it from his magic storage.
"Thanks."
I took a quick gulp. The water was cold, and it scraped down my throat, helping me control my still stubbornly erratic breathing. Theo said nothing for a few seconds, just watched. I felt his gaze on me like the wind on leaves, subtle, yet impossible to ignore.
"W-what is it? Is there something in my hair?"
"Nothing, there's nothing on your face..."
He chuckled, and after looking in silence, Theo spoke.
"...Just as I thought, you're worried about something, huh."
My hand squeezed the bottle slightly, the plastic crackling softly under my fingers.
"It's nothing."
I replied quickly, afraid he'd think I was strange.
Theo arched an eyebrow, the way he always did when he didn't believe something but didn't press me.
"...It's just tiredness."
I tried again, looking down at the arena floor, where the training marks were still fresh.
"Trained too much, maybe."
"Hazuki-san, it hasn't even been thirty minutes since class ended."
He said, in a softer tone.
"You don't have to say anything if you don't want to. But if you want to, you can say anything. No rush."
My back tensed. My words too. But something inside me gave way, like a loose leaf being carried by the wind.
"It's just that..."
I paused, trying to find the right words.
"When I saw the news about you and Nayun, I felt strange."
I didn't look at him, but I felt him staring at me, waiting for me to speak.
"I'm not jealous, okay?"
I added quickly, so he wouldn't misunderstand me.
"I can't explain it. It was like the ground disappeared a little. Because..."
I took a step back, a little ashamed.
"You're my first friend here, Theo-kun. And I'm afraid of losing that."
The final sentence, the raw truth, finally escaped. I'm afraid our friendship will change, I'm afraid our relationship will become something where we are nothing more than teammates.
I'm afraid that now that he's dating, he'll stop being my friend.
The silence that followed my confession seemed to stretch, heavy with the vulnerability I had exposed. I lowered my head further, staring at my own feet, awaiting any reaction, a harsh word, a sigh of impatience, perhaps even a physical withdrawal.
Instead, I heard a low sound, almost a puff. I looked up, surprised, and saw Theo laughing. It wasn't a laugh of scorn or mockery; there was no malice there. It was a soft, almost affectionate laugh, the kind of laugh that said;
"You're overthinking it."
without needing words. That caught me off guard, and I felt my cheeks flush even more, a mixture of shame and a hint of relief.
"Hazuki-san..."
He began to say, the smile still on his lips, his voice filled with that calm that always reassured me. He seemed about to say exactly what I needed to hear, that nothing would change, that our friendship was important...
But he didn't get a chance.
"Hazukiii! There you are!"
Chae Nayun's energetic voice cut through the air like lightning, coming from the arena entrance. She appeared there, hands on her hips, a bright smile on her face, completely oblivious to the tense moment she had just interrupted.
Before I could process her arrival, or Theo could finish his sentence, Nayun was already by my side.
"Come on, come on! I have something to tell you! It's urgent!"
She grabbed my arm with the same impulsive naturalness with which she did everything, and began to pull me out of the arena.
I was completely taken by surprise. I looked back over my shoulder, just in time to see Theo's expression change from a reassuring smile to slight confusion. Our gazes crossed for a brief second, mine, probably, full of panic and silent apologies; his, a mute question mark.
I didn't have time to say anything. Nayun was already dragging me away, talking excitedly about something I could barely register, my mind still stuck on the interrupted conversation, the exposed confession, and Theo's gentle laugh that lingered in the air, without the conclusion I so longed for.
I was pulled along, just as I had seen happen with Yeonha earlier, leaving Theo behind, standing in the arena, probably as unsure of what to do as I felt at that moment.
...