Prologue Story

Time did not stop while I was pondering and continued to pass quickly.

In the meantime, the test results were released.

The report card hadn’t come out yet, but the written test scores were easy to check.

This time, the top scorer in the written test was Min-hee.

What the heck? We were honestly shocked.

“Humph! Despite how I look, my memory is amazing. Even my brother is amazed by it.”

“Then why didn’t you get first place before?”

“I fell asleep during Korean class because it was boring! I didn’t get why the main character was crying in the story! Also, I marked the math answers wrong…”

“Min-hee, that’s nothing to brag about.”

“It’s true.”

“In-ha and Han-soo are so mean!”

Han-soo and In-ha, who were both astonished, let out sighs.

Honestly, I felt the same way.

Min-hee, you… with such a good memory…

But, Min-hee seemed to lack sensitivity, even though she was smart.

She didn’t seem to understand the emotions of the narrator in stories.

In fact, she didn’t even like reading books, so she almost always dozed off during Korean class.

Hearing that, I started to feel curious.

“Then how did you score a perfect score this time?”

“Well, this time I listened to everything, and I memorized the entire textbook!”

Wow, Min-hee. With such a great mind… sigh…

Anyway, it turned out that Min-hee’s memory seemed quite impressive.

Not just impressive—it was almost like perfect recall.

According to Min-hee, it was all genetic. Her dad apparently had the same ability.

‘Wow. So that kind of thing can be inherited?’

When I heard that, I had nothing to say.

After taking the test, life felt more relaxed.

I could do whatever I wanted during class time.

With the empty hours, my mind became filled with all sorts of thoughts.

The one occupying most of my thoughts was the rank exam—that is, things related to Eun-hee unnie.

As the date of the rank exam drew closer, my worries grew deeper.

Things I had overheard about Eun-hee unnie’s situation, her feelings, and her hopes were all intertwined in my mind…

Even setting aside the romantic details, Eun-hee unnie’s situation kept lingering in my thoughts.

It was largely because I understood the excitement and anxiety of having a dream.

She had helped us during the festival, and I thought that, as a thank-you, I should cheer her on in a meaningful way.

But I wasn’t very good at things like that.

So, I kept pondering what I should do.

After several days of thinking, I came up with one idea.

‘Yeah, a fan letter!’

I’ve said this several times, but I’m really bad at expressing things verbally to others.

Instead, since I was a novelist in a past life, I had a decent talent for writing.

So, I decided to go with an old-fashioned method this time.

Though it was a bit embarrassing, I’d put the fan letter in Eun-hee unnie’s locker or desk drawer!

According to Min-hee, most of the high school classrooms were empty these days because of the rank exams.

It was the perfect time to deliver a fan letter without being noticed.

Of course, since it was a fan letter, I didn’t have the courage to give it to her directly…or rather, I had no courage for that.

I made this plan in my head and shared it with In-ha.

In-ha thought about it briefly and nodded, saying it sounded good.

“Alright. Then I’ll do it too. Unnie helped me as well. I’m not good at writing letters, so maybe I’ll give her some chocolates instead?”

“That sounds good.”

I agreed, imagining secretly placing some gifts in Eun-hee unnie’s desk drawer, when Min-hee suddenly jumped in from behind.

“No way! If you leave it secretly, it’ll just get thrown away!”

“Ack!”

Startled, as I hadn’t been paying attention to my surroundings, I felt my heart racing.

It turned out that not only Min-hee was there, but also Shia, Han-soo, and Hyun-ho.

I held my pounding chest and questioned Min-hee, momentarily embarrassed that we’d been caught, but then realized it probably didn’t matter.

“Thrown away?”

“Geez, Yoo Eun-ha, don’t you know? Eun-hee unnie gets lots of fan letters and gifts. But my brother says some of them are suspicious. Since she has fans, she also has rivals and even stalkers. So the food gifts usually get tossed out by my brother, Seonghu oppa, or Juyeon unnie.”

“Really?”

Min-hee nodded repeatedly.

“Yes, Eun-hee Unnie isn’t good at refusing things, so she tries to eat everything given to her. Her brother and sisters end up screening them all. So if you’re going to give her food, you need to put your name on it.”

Grrr, I groaned, folding my arms.

“Putting my name and sneaking it in is more embarrassing than just giving it to her directly…”

In-ha looked at me in confusion as I hesitated.

Well, she probably wouldn’t understand these bashful feelings of mine.

“Is that so?”

“Yes, very much.”

Min-hee also looked puzzled.

“Then just give it to her directly. You’re cheering her on, right? Should I hand it over through my brother? Since I’m cheering her on too, the one who’s most eager for this rank exam is Eun-hee unnie. So I’d like to give her a gift, too. Isn’t that fine?”

“No, it’s not.”

I spoke firmly, my face twisting with embarrassment.

Everyone looked surprised at my unusually adamant refusal.

Caught in a mix of guilt, I fidgeted nervously.

Eun-hee unnie said she would confess to Seonghu oppa if she achieved B rank.

Min-hee’s brother, Senior Ji-hyun, had confessed to Eun-hee unnie.

So if I gave Eun-hee unnie a gift to cheer her on, it would also indirectly support her love life.

Asking Senior Ji-hyun, who had a crush on Eun-hee unnie, to deliver that message would be… a little too cruel.

Having experienced love, I knew how painful that would be.

After thinking it over and over, I finally spoke, despite my guilt toward Senior Ji-hyun—or perhaps precisely because of it.

“I’ll give it to her myself.”

“Huh? Are you sure? I thought you were embarrassed…”

“No, on second thought, I think it’d be better this way, since I want to include a thank-you message.”

“Really? Then I’ll join you since I’m preparing something too.”

“Thank you!”

I sent In-ha a heartfelt look, and she smiled faintly.

Then Min-hee cheerfully added, “I’ll do it too! I want to cheer her on!”

Meanwhile, Hyun-ho chimed in as well.

“Then, since we’re the guys, we should cheer for Ji-hyun and Chunho. If the three girls support a girl, we should support the guys.”

I nodded in agreement.

Going in a group seemed less embarrassing.

Han-soo also nodded approvingly, and Shia, a bit belatedly, raised his hand, saying he’d join too.

But since this was turning into a real project… I hesitated.

“Then, shouldn’t we tell the teachers or Seonghu oppa that we’re cheering them on too?”

“……”

“Or even our parents…”

“……”

After some deliberation, we finally reached a decision.

In-ha and I would personally give Eun-hee unnie our gratitude and encouragement gifts.

In addition, we would all distribute flowers or chocolates to everyone we wanted to cheer for.

We gathered to discuss the gifts.

“Should we make paper flowers?”

“No way. I’m terrible at making flowers. I planned to buy them.”

“What? Eun-ha, you’re bad at that? That’s unexpected~.”

“What about decorating the chocolates with flowers?”

I, along with In-ha and Min-hee, took the lead in brainstorming ideas.

At one point, Han-soo asked, “But why chocolate and flowers?”

“Well, In-ha and I wanted to give flowers to Eun-hee Unnie to show our gratitude.

Chocolates are a common gift to give encouragement, so we just added it in.

We were also thinking of writing a letter, but since we’ll say it in person, we decided to skip that part.”

Han-soo nodded in understanding.

We continued to discuss, face to face.

What kind of flowers? Which type? Color? How many?

And most importantly, chocolate!

“Should we buy it?”

“Can we make it ourselves?”

“Should we add a magic potion? One that gives courage?”

“……”

We all racked our brains.

It’s hard to expect too much from elementary students.

Besides, I wasn’t great at handicrafts.

Especially things like arts and crafts!

And I couldn’t just spend all my allowance.

In the end, I was the one who came up with a solution.

“Let’s just prepare materials for paper flowers and artificial flowers!”

“Huh? How?”

“I’ll learn how to make them. But my clumsy hands will make a mess, so… ugh… I’ll use Written Magic to glue them together.”

“Awesome!”

“That’s great!”

My Written Magic was technically “script-based magic”, but it was rooted in “command-based spells”.

We first gathered the materials for the paper flowers.

We either bought or borrowed the necessary supplies, like wires, paper tape, glue, or bond.

Using online instructions, we folded and cut the origami paper into petal shapes.

Then, I used Written Magic.

As the magic activated, the prepared materials moved by themselves to complete the flowers.

The petals floated and gathered, the paper folded, glue adhered, tape wrapped…

The materials floated in an orderly manner and neatly stacked as beautiful paper flowers before us.

In this way, we managed to make paper flowers quickly.

For the chocolate, we made it all by hand.

Though I wasn’t skilled at crafts, I was somewhat good at cooking.

We used the home economics classroom for the cooking.

Our school allows us to reserve rooms for different activities, like the magic practice room, home economics room, and art room.

I taught my friends how to make chocolates, and they followed along.

Fortunately, the school provided all the necessary ingredients.

We chopped the chocolate, added cream, heated, stirred, poured it into molds…

And just like that, we finished the chocolates.

“Cute!”

“Heart shapes…for the guys…”

“It’s fine. Just mix them all together.”

We managed the wrapping with careful attention.

We tied the bags with thin wire ties and added ribbons.

Just tying the ribbon alone was too advanced for us.

Even though I knew the tying technique best, Han-soo and In-ha ended up tying the prettiest ribbons, which was amusing.

Han-soo gave me a strange look.

“For someone who seems to have the best dexterity…”

“Please…don’t say anything…”

I, uh, am good at hands-on work in my own way!

It’s just that most of my handiwork ends up sloppy…

I’m pretty decent at knitting and embroidery.

Also, beads… But I’m no good at tying ribbons.

They always end up crooked.

If I try origami, I can’t fold sharply; if I handle clay, it always cracks…

Oh, that’s why I’m incompatible with Earth magic.

What a pointless, useless thought.

‘Well, whatever! We’ve finished everything anyway!’

Three days before the rank exam, we had everything ready.

I kept all the prepared items with me, except for those meant for each of our parents.

Just in case, I stored them in the Pocket Dimension of my student ID.

That night, I found it hard to sleep, haunted by embarrassing thoughts of the future.

The next morning, I woke up early as usual to prepare for school.

Before heading out, as planned, I gave my parents the chocolates and flowers with words of encouragement.

When they asked why I was doing something unusual like this, I explained honestly that I was giving unnie a gift of gratitude for her help and decided to include everyone I knew.

My parents laughed and thanked me.

Giving gifts to parents was simple enough.

Only Han-soo, among the boys, gifted chocolates and flowers to his parents, as Shia and Hyun-ho’s parents weren’t taking the rank exam this year.

“Seeing Han-soo’s mom surprised, asking, ‘What’s gotten into you? Do you have a fever?’ was hilarious…”

“Shut up!”

Han-soo blushed furiously, listening to Hyun-ho gossip about him.

Though it was all good-natured in the end.

In contrast, Min-hee’s expression wasn’t as cheerful.

“My brother leaves early these days. Since there’s no place to train properly at home… by the time I wake up, he’s already gone.”

But we reassured Min-hee, saying this might actually be better.

Wouldn’t it be simpler to give gifts to our high school seniors all at once?

Besides, because we’d made too much chocolate yesterday, we ended up using a basket just for the high school seniors’ gifts.

They’d probably know how to divide it up among themselves.

On top, we scattered the paper flowers we (technically) made ourselves.

However, the gifts that In-ha and I personally prepared for Eun-hee unnie were a bit grander.

It was, after all, a thank-you gift.

And Eun-hee unnie was the one I wanted to cheer on the most.

They always trained together around this time, so it was perfect.

It made sense for strong people to train together; it’s more efficient.

They could practice sparring the most.

I heard that the magician rank exam was essentially conducted as a dungeon exploration.

Newcomers to the exam start from the lowest level and gradually advance, while those who’d taken it before start at their previous level.

The dungeon location is random, and inside are various traps.

They might even have to face magicians, chimeras, magic beasts, or monsters that appear in novels—there’s plenty to fight.

Of course, combat isn’t everything.

The “dungeon” is an environment crammed with all kinds of settings.

Sometimes, they might need to help someone, or at times, they might get lost.

While navigating the dungeon, they assess one’s magic skill and power, recording the details to determine the rank.

But there’s no doubt they’d be facing challenges.

It was only natural for them to train together frequently.

We planned to visit the seniors after lunch, in the afternoon.

During break time, we gave our homeroom teacher a chocolate and a single flower.

The teacher was delighted.

We looked for Teacher Joon-hwi and Teacher Min, but it seemed neither of them had come to school today.