Hakyun couldn’t concentrate. Two classes had gone by in the blink of an eye, and he had barely written anything down. In fact, if anyone asked him what the classes were about, he wouldn’t be able to answer. His mind was somewhere else, and he hated it.

  His eyes strayed from his note towards Nikolai where he was seated. He watched the boy intently, trying to find out if anything was different about him physically, but he couldn’t glean any information. Nikolai sat and listened to Instructor Park Minjee’s lessons without any worry in the world. He didn’t look troubled, or like he bore a weight on his shoulders that would drive anyone to rely on drugs.

  Were they overthinking it? Maybe Nikolai hadn’t been to Club Spiral but somewhere else in that vicinity. It was possible. In that case, going to a professor and divulging that information would only bring about trouble. But… What could have taken Nikolai to Itaewon if not what could be gotten from its bustling nightlife?

  Hakyun sighed deeply. He had tried to think of various explanations as to what was going on with Nikolai, but the only plausible one he could realize was exactly the same thing Merlin had said. Nikolai had been in Itaewon to buy steroids. Hakyun couldn’t shake that away from his head.

  “There won’t be any practical classes today, considering what you all went through yesterday,” said Instructor Park Minjee as soon as the bell rang while she packed up her things. “You all better use that time to rest.”

  “Yes, ma’am!!” the class responded in a chorus.

  Instructor Park Minjee frowned, flipping one of her hair’s twin ponytails over her shoulder. “I’ve told you… It’s ‘Instructor’, not ma’am. Geez.” She sighed deeply as the class burst into laughter. “Anyway, I’ll be sending your homeworks to you all later. You have until tomorrow morning to submit.”

  “But, Instructor, you said we should rest up,” a student said.

  Instructor Park Minjee nodded. “Yes. Rest up while doing your homework.”

  The class grumbled, but Instructor Park Minjee added nothing to her spoken words and left the class with a smile.

  Hakyun sighed again.

  “You’ve been sighing ever since we came to class; are you still bothered about that stuff?” Chima asked as he packed up his things. They were done with classes for the day, after all.

  Hakyun glanced at Chima before placing his head on the desk. “Why wouldn’t I be bothered? We’re about to ruin his life.”

  “I don’t know where you got that from, but we aren’t about to ruin his life,” Chima replied with a click of his tongue. “Anyway, get up, we have to meet up with Mel.”

  “You go,” said Hakyun. “I would like to take a quick nap.”

  “There’s no time for that, remember? We’re to head to Professor Dmitri’s office now.”

  “Yeah, I get it, all right. Just give me a brief moment,” Hakyun replied. “I’ll meet you back at the dorm, then we can go from there.”

  Chima took a deep breath and exhaled. “Stubborn as ever. Fine. Don’t be late or I’ll snap your wrist.”

  “Sure.”

  Chima left the class then, and Hakyun pulled his head free from the table. He glanced in Nikolai’s direction and found the boy still seated, shuffling through his notes. He was thankful that he had not left the class as soon as they had been dismissed.

  Hakyun packed up his things, stood up, and approached Nikolai.

  “Oh, hey, Hakyun. What’s up?” Nikolai asked as soon as Hakyun bobbed up beside him. “You look shitty. Didn’t you sleep at night?”

  Hakyun pressed his lips together. “Don’t mind me. How are you? Are you okay?”

  Nikolai blinked. “I don’t understand. Of course I’m okay. Never been better.”

  Hakyun bit the inside of his cheek. He thought to go straight to the point and ask Nikolai where he had gone to the day after their Grimoire sparring class, and if he had truly purchased steroids to enhance himself, but couldn’t bring himself to do it. Partly because he didn’t want it to turn out to be true, and partly because that would be too abrasive of him.

  However, he wanted to help the boy. It had always been hard for him to make friends; no one wanted to be close to the boy whose mother sold food on the streets at night, and whose father was a mere driver. Friends were determined by what both could offer to each other after all.

  But meeting Merlin, Chima, and Nikolai had taught him otherwise. If even one of them was in trouble, he would do everything in his power to help them. And, now, one was in desperate need of help.

  Hakyun realized at that moment that it would be harsh of them to just head straight to reporting Nikolai to a professor, even if that was his relative, before even listening to the boy. He had no idea how to help, but maybe if he heard things from Nikolai, why he went to Itaewon, and why he did what he did, then maybe he would be able to help out in some way.

  “Can we talk?” Hakyun asked.

  Nikolai chuckled. “We’re talking now, aren’t we?”

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  “No. I mean somewhere private,” Hakyun added, his usual playful mien nowhere to be found. Nikolai noticed this and became a lot more focused. “I have something to ask you.”

  “He’s late,” Merlin said as he stared out the window. The sun was going down, and evening was transitioning to night. “Why is he late?”

  “Don’t ask me,” said Chima, seated on the couch. “I’ve sent him countless messages already and he hasn’t replied.”

  Merlin walked back into the living room, restless. “Is it possible that he chickened out?”

  Chima stole a glance at Merlin and raised a brow. “Four-eyes might act like a scaredy cat sometimes, but I’ve never seen him run away from a fight. I doubt that’s what happened. Maybe he’s just caught up in something.”

  “It’s been six hours, Chima,” said Merlin. “We both did our homeworks, slept, ate, had our baths, and he still hasn’t come back. What exactly could have tied him down for six whole hours?”

  “Maybe he’s in the library?” proposed Chima. “That would explain the radio silence.”

  Merlin sighed. That was possible, but he highly doubted it. He just felt uneasy about the situation. Hakyun was definitely not at the library.

  A way to confirm suddenly popped up in Merlin’s head, and he instantly pulled out his phone.

  “I have a way to find out where he might be,” he said, drawing Chima’s attention.

  “And what would that be?”

  “Your classmates,” Merlin said. “One of them should have seen him.”

  Chima nodded. “You’re right. So, who are you about to ask.”

  “Who else?” Merlin shrugged. “My sister, of course.”

  Nora had her hands full. Having to study all day and come back to her dorm to see the face of her obnoxious roommate lounging about in the living room, making calls upon calls, always left her more sour than she always felt at the end of every day. And here she was again reliving that experience.

  Oh Jihye glanced at Nora as she walked in, then scoffed with a roll of her eyes as she turned away.

  “Of course! I told you, didn’t I?” she continued rambling on with whoever was on the other side of her phone. “It’s, like, so expensive.”

  Nora mocked Oh Jihye with an inaudible mimic of the girl’s words before trodding into her room and slamming the door shut. She couldn’t have been paired with anyone worse; if only they were three like every other room, perhaps things would have been a lot more bearable.

  Honestly, she had even tried in the first few days to be accommodating. After all, it would be rude of her to cause a rift between her and someone she didn’t know and discomfort the person, but Oh Jihye had turned out to not be as sensible as she was, and she was fine with shooting lasers at someone who lacked social fluidity.

  Nora threw her bag onto the table at the edge of her room and strolled to her cupboard where she took off her blazers. She was halfway unbuttoning her shirt when her phone suddenly rang. She glanced at it where she had left it on the bed, her blinks heavy. Then she neared it with a sigh when she couldn’t figure out who was calling from where she was, and picked it up. The caller ID: Nerd ?? stared back at her.

  “What’s so important that he’s calling and not sending a text instead?” she mumbled as she picked the call and put it on loudspeaker, throwing it back onto the bed.

  “Hey, Nora,” Merlin voiced from the other side of the phone, his tone laced with urgency.

  “Is there a problem?” asked Nora as she resumed changing out of her uniform.

  “I have a question to ask.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Have you seen Hakyun?”

  Nora paused and glanced at her phone. “Why are you asking me about the whereabouts of your roommate?”

  Merlin groaned. “Come on, Nora. Have you or have you not?”

  Nora’s eyes narrowed. Usually, she would be ready to drag the conversation out with Merlin, just so she could torment him, but he sounded in a hurry, so she decided to save her villainy for later.

  “I did see him,” she replied with a sigh. “While I was heading to the library, he was heading towards the Open field with that Russian guy. Uhm… What’s his name again?”

  “Nikolai,” Merlin answered with a lower tone than he had started with.

  Nora was certain now that something was wrong.

  “What is it?” she asked. “I hope you’re not keeping something from me, Merlin. I’ll hit you.”

  “No. No. It’s not that.” Merlin paused. “I think something’s wrong with Nikolai. Remember I fought him during the Grimoire sparring class?”

  “I do,” Nora replied.

  “Well, during the setting and disarming traps practical class, I don’t know if you noticed, but our battle was way different. And this wasn’t because of something like a change of location or the like; he was faster and his strikes were stronger. Significantly, Nora.”

  Nora pursed her lips. “Yeah. I did notice that too, but I didn’t think too much of it. What are you insinuating, Merlin?”

  Merlin paused for a second. “I think Nikolai is using steroids.”

  Nora’s eyes twitched. “That’s a hefty accusation, Merlin. What if you’re wrong?”

  “We snuck out yesterday. Chima, Hakyun, and me,” Merlin said. “We invaded the guardhouse and sought out Nikolai’s records and traced his movement to a club in Itaewon: Club Spiral. I think that’s where he bought the steroids.”

  Nora was dumbstruck. She wanted to yell at him that he had had the gall to not only raid the Academy’s guardhouse, but sneak out. But she was too tired to do that. So, instead, she took a breath and heaved out deeply.

  “Chima, are you there?” she asked.

  “Huh? Why are you—yeah, I’m here.” Merlin was cut off by Chima.

  Nora rubbed her forehead. “How could you let Merlin do something so dumb?”

  Chima was silent for a few seconds. “I understand. We messed up; but everything went smoothly, so cut us some slack, will you? I think Nikolai is messing himself up, and we have to help him.”

  Nora sighed. “All right. Do you guys have a plan then?”

  “We do,” replied Chima. “But, first, we have to get to Hakyun. If he went with Nikolai and is taking too long to get back, I fear that they might have gotten into a fight. And…” He stopped.

  “And if Nikolai is strong enough to fight on the same level as Merlin as he is now, he may have beaten the living daylights out of Hakyun. Is that it?” Nora said.

  “Yes,” said Chima. “I’m sure Hakyun is trying to talk him out of what he’s doing, be a listening ear sort of, and then advise him to open up to the professors. But I doubt Nikolai will do that. It’s one of the reasons we decided to just go to a professor ourselves.”

  “Which professor are you planning to ask for help?”

  “Professor Dmitri,” said Merlin.

  “All right.” Nora zipped up the jacket of her tracksuit. She had been preparing as they were discussing. “Merlin, get Professor Dmitri. Chima, meet me on the path to the library in a minute. Don’t be late.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Merlin and Chima replied in unison.