Home/For some reason, the male leads avoid my guiding/ch 2

Chapter 2. There Was Never a Grade G (2)

While walking toward the order displayed on the electronic board, Sua noticed a woman who looked unsteady.

'Why does that person look so bad...?'

The woman, whose face had turned deathly pale, looked as if she might collapse at any moment.

Sua moved slowly, ready to catch her if she fell.

And just as expected, the woman's body wobbled and she began to crumple.

Sua, who happened to be in the perfect position to support her, reached out her hand. She safely prevented the woman from falling.

"Are you alrigh—"

But Sua trailed off as she witnessed something strange.

'Smoke...?'

The moment she grasped the woman's bare skin, something like white smoke was rising from her hands.

And at the same time, she felt the energy residing in her body abruptly drain out.

Startled, she let go immediately.

'No, no.'

This was exactly like the situation in her dream.

Sua stumbled backward and fled toward the examination room.

From behind, it sounded like the woman was expressing gratitude, but it didn't reach her ears.

But.

She only realized after opening the door that the examination room was no different from the gates of hell.

"C? No, Grade... G?"

The staff member assisting with the awakening test picked up the fresh results the machine had spat out and muttered.

The result sheet had various things written on it—physical abilities, name, age, and so on—but undoubtedly the largest letters on it were the alphabet indicating the grade.

Both the staff member and Sua wore dazed expressions.

"What, what is this...?"

The staff member, as if determined to add another wrinkle to their brow, crumpled the result sheet like a furrowed forehead and checked it again.

Sua peeked at the result sheet from beside them, her face turning pale.

"Di-did it break?"

The staff member banged roughly on the machine worth over a billion won. Either the staff member had lost their mind, or the machine had gone haywire.

So she was perfectly fine—the staff member was talking nonsense, and she'd briefly been seeing and hearing things—that was what Sua wanted to believe.

'Grade G? Grade G? That Grade G I saw in my dream?'

A grade unheard of. A grade from her imagination that she'd only learned about right before opening her eyes today.

So why was that alphabet written in huge letters on the paper?

Ah, wait—had she developed some kind of precognitive ability?

No, if that were the case, that was a problem in itself.

'If so, that means I'll die just like in my dream.'

Haha. Sua let out a hollow laugh, desperate to deny the reality of the situation—whether it was the staff member's gaze or anything else.

But the staff member probably didn't know, nor care to know, how Sua felt.

"Student, do you want to take the test one more time?"

"Yes."

The answer came without a moment's hesitation.

But.

"That's strange? Did the machine really break?"

It came out as Grade G again.

"Just one more time."

"Huh? That'll be tough on your body."

"No! Just one more time!"

"Oh, you startled me. Okay, okay."

Please, please...!

She cried out desperately in her heart as she entered the machine room.

"It looks like you're just Grade G, student. I've really never seen a grade like this before."

It came out as Grade G once more.

"Ah..."

A single exclamation that contained so much.

Whether it was because she'd taken the test three times in a row, or because she was in shock over being Grade G—her vision started turning yellow.

'This can't be.'

This really can't be! Why is it the same as my dream! I don't want to die...

After that, her vision went completely dark.

---

---

"Are you crazy?"

Her cousin Baek Cheol-yeon looked at Sua with a disapproving face.

When Sua didn't respond and focused on her meal, another jab came her way.

"Or have you lost your mind?"

"Shut up. Ugh, this tastes terrible."

"Then is hospital food supposed to taste good?"

Baek Cheol-yeon tilted his head sideways and twisted one corner of his mouth upward. He looked incredulous.

Seeing that face made her lose her appetite even more—not that the hospital food was good to begin with.

"Can you get lost? I'll manage on my own."

Sua placed her half-eaten tray on the cart and hid herself under the covers.

But Baek Cheol-yeon's voice from outside the blanket continued.

"Are you insane? How could you think to take the test three times in a row? Even athletes get dizzy after taking it twice in a row."

Athletes often wanted to become Awakened.

Because if they awakened on top of their natural athletic abilities, they'd gain even more outstanding physical capabilities.

Perhaps that's why many athletes couldn't accept being non-awakened and would take the test twice in a row.

After taking it consecutively, they'd inevitably come out staggering and unable to pull themselves together.

But Sua wasn't even a healthy athlete, and she'd usually feel sick even after taking it just once.

So from Baek Cheol-yeon's perspective, Sua taking it three times in a row must have looked insane.

'But I can't exactly say I did it because I didn't want to believe that Grade G means I'm going to die.'

A truth she couldn't speak aloud.

Sua let out a silent sigh of frustration. Meanwhile, Baek Cheol-yeon was audibly sighing right next to her.

"The staff member's not in their right mind either. How could they let you do it three times?"

"I asked them to."

"Why? Because you got Grade G?"

"Yeah. Since it's a grade that doesn't exist."

The grades for Awakened individuals originally only went from F at the bottom to S—seven grades total.

Grade G was unprecedented.

Awakened individuals could find out what abilities they possessed on their own, and the Management Bureau collected this information.

Even if it was quiet now, the center might contact her soon. Asking what abilities she had as a Grade G.

Whether she was Grade G or Grade C, it was a necessary procedure, but she needed to think of a suitable excuse beforehand.

But Baek Cheol-yeon, ignorant of Sua's inner thoughts, just said what he wanted to say.

"So what if it's Grade G? It comes after F. Fits you perfectly, you weakling."

"F—"

It was true that she was weak, but it wasn't something she wanted to hear from her cousin who was a year younger.

She was already racking her brain because she couldn't come up with any excuse!

Sua threw her pillow and shouted.

"Get out!"

---

---

As she'd feared, the Awakened Management Bureau called. Just as expected, to ask what ability she'd awakened with.

Sua, who had been agonizing over what excuse to give, couldn't think of any plausible fib.

She'd just have to play dumb for now.

"I don't know."

Then, from the other side of the phone, a deliberately stern voice came through.

· "It's extremely rare for an Awakened person not to know what their own awakening ability is."

But Bong Sua was second to none when it came to shamelessness.

"I can't tell you what I don't know."

· "Is that so?"

"...Yes."

Bong Sua—shameless, but not particularly talented at lying.

Fortunately, it was only over the phone, so at least they couldn't see her sweating profusely.

After several rounds of back-and-forth, the conversation finally concluded. The victor was Sua.

· "If that's really the case, then there's nothing we can do. If you find out later, please be sure to let us know."

"Yes."

Just as Sua was twisting the corner of her mouth into a triumphant smile—

· "Until then, we'll postpone applying the benefits that Awakened individuals receive."

"......"

· "Awakened pass for public transportation, tax deductions for Awakened individuals, provision of the latest model smartphones exclusively for Awakened, dungeon entry rights and restrictions on profits generated from dungeon entry—please be aware of these."

"......"

· "Hello? Miss Bong Sua? Did you hear me?"

"...Yes."

And so the call ended.

Baek Cheol-yeon, being more studious than he looked, had already left saying he was going to the academy, and her aunt was at work.

So no one witnessed Sua's devastated expression.

'Ugh!'

Awakened pass for public transportation! She didn't pay taxes herself, but it would apply to her aunt as her guardian! Ugh, the latest phone!

The only part she wasn't tempted by was the dungeon entry rights.

While she was holding back tears over the lost Awakened benefits—

Another benefit the Management Bureau staff member hadn't mentioned during the call passed through Sua's mind.

"Dormitory..."

The Awakened-only dormitory provided by the academy. Surely they wouldn't withhold that too, right?

She'd never once thought about wanting to become an Awakened, but honestly, the benefits that came with it were tempting.

Especially as a student, the parts Sua could make the most use of were the latest phone and the dormitory.

But the latest phone had already gone down the drain.

The only remaining hope was the dormitory.

Since dormitory provision was at the academy principal's discretion, it wasn't completely without odds. She absolutely wanted to secure the dormitory benefit.

'Please, please...!'

Just as Sua was performing her prayer ritual—

Another call came in not long after the previous one had ended. But this time, she couldn't easily press the answer button.

"Spam?"

It was because the call was coming from an unknown number.

Students usually didn't get many spam calls, but Sua's phone number was apparently one her father had used before.

Which might be why she received calls from unknown numbers often.

Thinking this was one of those, Sua pressed the reject call button.

Without any idea what that call was for.

---

---

Her hospital stay was quite short—just two days. There was no need for it to be longer. It was more like treatment for recovery of strength.

Soon feeling energetic again, Sua was discharged by herself.

Two days of her golden vacation had been lost to hospitalization.

Determined to make the most of the remaining time, her steps looked positively vigorous.

With energy that made it hard to believe she'd been hospitalized at all, she reached the front of her apartment complex.

'Huh? But why are there so many people?'

Sua lived with her aunt and Baek Cheol-yeon in an apartment complex.

But in front of the complex, a large crowd of people was gathered.

As if there'd been a fire inside and everyone had evacuated.

Suddenly worried that there might actually have been a fire, Sua quickened her pace.

"What's going on?"

The crowd was too thick for her to even enter the entrance. She asked the person blocking her path.

Without even turning to look at Sua, the person in front answered.

"What's going on? They came to catch a big story."

"A big story?"

Looking closely, she saw a camera in the man's hand.

A reporter? But what big story were they here for? Had a celebrity moved in?

If so, she was curious who it was. Her curiosity piqued, Sua asked again.

"What kind of person?"

But an unexpected answer came back to her casual question.

"Something 'first' is always an exclusive."

"F...first?"

"Yes, so don't talk to me and—huh?"

The reporter's head turned, and his eyes met Sua's directly.

After a few seconds of silence, the man's mouth dropped open as he shouted.

"I found her!"

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