Cat Mania

26. The Bully, the Minor Villain

'That moment...' Giwook was reminiscing Cale and Jeongsu's match. 'It for a split second, but I definitely saw a shield appear in front of Cale.' He furrowed his brows. 'But he said his power was transformation, or did he lie about that? His thinking was good, but his strength was poor...'

The matches had been finished. Jiwoo won against Jihye. Jihye won against Gangwoo, and Gangwoo won against Taeyoung.

The injured were sent to the infirmary in the building.

Now they were sent to eat lunch.

"I wonder what we'll be learning tomorrow." Jihye started the conversation. "I can't wait!"

"Yeah, me too." Gangwoo joined in.

They were alone in the cafeteria, just the seven of them sitting around one table with many empty tables around.

"I wonder how the other students are doing." Jihye started wondering.

"I bet they're getting much better treatment than us." Jeongsu spoke out, in a harsh tone. "Like better meals, better teachers.."

"Hey! You don't even know how our professor is yet!" Jihye tried arguing with her gentle voice.

"But.." Jiwoo spoke up, "shouldn't we at least be grateful to the groups that brought us here? I heard unaffiliated awakeners don't receive goodwill from other awakeners, so this is already big for us."

They all stopped to look at him, making Jiwoo more nervous.

"That's right.." Jihye agreed, but it was an awkward agreement.

The mood after that stayed low.

'Why's he acting all friendly? He was like that at the start of class as well.'

"Start running."

"H- huh?"

It was the next class.

Giwook repeated, "start running."

"Y- yes!"

The kids listened, though they were still confused.

'Why're you doing this to me!?' Cale wanted to scream. 'And why're those kids so fast?!'

Jiwoo and Wooin were running twice as fast as them. While Gangwoo and Jeongsu were running in front of them. Jihye, Taeyoung, and Cale were last, Cale being dead last.

They continued for hours.

"Haa..." Cale laid on the floor, completely drained.

"Are you okay, Cale?" Jiwoo asked, concerned. He didn't expect Cale to have so little stamina.

"I'm... (not) fine..." Cale said in between breaths.

"Go to lunch now." Giwook told the kids as he left the room.

"I can't believe it!" Jihye cried out. "He made us run for the entire class!"

"I know right." Gangwoo agreed. "I thought we'll at least learn something useful here."

"Yeah!"

Taeyoung quietly ate. He couldn't possibly speak when he was already weak even with his awakened power.

"We shouldn't judge his teaching style just yet." Jiwoo tried reasoning.

"What do you know?" Jihye asked, a bit mean. "I bet you'll get accepted into Shinhwa right after this is over. You're already strong as is."

"That's not it!" Jiwoo disagreed. "It's not easy to get into a group. Even if they did bring me here, taking in a recently discovered awakener is risky for them."