오작교는 싫습니다

73

The stretches that Hestia and I always did as we walked back to our dorms were no more for now. We were too focused on studying. Instead, we ended up staying in the library until the night curfew to study.

When classes ended for the day, I grabbed a blanket, coffee, and other my study items and headed over to the library. Hestia now knew more history facts and was better at me in our empire language class. When we were studying, Hestia always helped me with my history and language classes while I helped Hestia with her beginner magic, math, and other classes.

Cory looked at the two us in awe.

“You guys really don’t look good. Relax.”

Cory said, frowning worriedly. He was looking at magic-related books in the library.

With his unkempt hair pulled lightly back into a ponytail, Cory stared down at me with a stiff expression. Then, he put down the book he was holding and walked to the librarian. After speaking to them for a while, Cory borrowed a ruler from them and stood in front of me.

With the clear ruler in his hand, Cory carefully placed it next to my face. I tilted my head towards him, confused.

“Stay still.”

Cory put one hand on the back of my head to keep it in place. Some of his hair covered his face as he faced downwards to look at me.

Face down and leaning towards me, he pulled in closer to check something. Then, he put the ruler back to my face and looked back and forth between the two.

What, was he trying to measure how big my face was? When I asked what he was doing, he didn’t reply and instead muttered, “It’s too serious……” to himself. My face contorted into a scowl when I heard that. Was the size of my face supposed to be something serious?

Cory placed the ruler exactly under my eyes. It was cold. Not too long after, Cory placed the ruler in his uniform pocket and sighed. Kind of like how a doctor sighs during a check-up.

“3.45 centimeters.”

“What is?”

“That’s how long your dark circles are.”

“Why would you measure that?”

“….anyone who had longer dark circles than me always ended up passing out.”

Cory said that his dark circles usually measured at 3 centimeters.

After listening to something that sounded like superstitious nonsense, I took the ruler and walked over to Hestia to measure her dark circles. Wow. It was 4 centimeters.

That was a bit of a shock. I stared at Hestia’s and my reflection on the mirror. The two of us had dark shadows under our eyes. Our hair was a total bird’s nest that was tied back, and we didn’t even eat proper meals so we were both looking pretty hungry.

Cory’s worries seemed pretty sound. I smiled slightly.

Cory, who had continued to watch the two of us study with an unpleasant expression, ended up joining our study session. We had formed a small study group. The reason why Cory ended up joining was simple.

“Don’t you dare get another nosebleed like last time.”

He was our security guard.

Cory had seen my bloody nose last time and had joined us in case we went too far.

Once Cory joined our study session, he began to study for history–something that he didn’t even care about before. Of course, I had asked him to help us study.