Retire 540
by Cristae540 (Hunter Academy Side Story 7) The School Nurse_1
January 1st.
New Year!
Last year’s diary was honestly a failure, but this year I’ll try to keep up with it more consistently.
January 2nd.
Even though it’s winter break, I’m at school so much it doesn’t even feel like vacation, and with the teachers gone, it’s boring.
They said they’d bring back gifts after their business trip, but maybe they’re just not coming back because they don’t want to give us anything?
January 9th.
I’ve fallen behind again… But it’s not my fault, really! I was busy!!
What kind of break is this? Why do I have homework during vacation? My sister just teases me and says she’s a graduate, so she won’t help. So annoying. She should just get held back.
January 30th.
The teachers are back!!
Actually, they’ve been back for a bit. As soon as they arrived, they got busy preparing for graduation, so it’s been hectic. I’m nowhere near graduating yet, so I just watched from the sidelines.
I looked up bouquets online to give to my sister, but I doubt they deliver out here. I’ll have to ask Woo teacher to take me to a flower shop.
I should change my goal for this year. At least don’t forget the diary exists.
February 17th.
Hello, diary. See, I didn’t forget you. I just haven’t written because I’ve been busy!
A new student is coming next week. They say she’s French and a pianist. Why would someone like that come to a school like this? Wants to be a Hunter? I’m not sure if she’ll really come…
Does she know what kind of place this is? What if she’s been scammed? She says she hasn’t, but I think Kang Tae-woo definitely was.
I’ll be nice to her.
February 20th.
I went to see my sister’s new apartment. I’m jealous. I want to escape the dorms, too.
Now that my sister and Eun-young have both moved out, the dorm is way too empty. Seo-hyun said she’d stay to keep learning from Teacher Chae-min, but… it’s not the same.
Eun-young said I can use the spare room in her apartment if I want. My sister hated that idea, but I’ll visit often anyway.
February 21st.
Tomorrow, the new student arrives!!
I asked Woo teacher, and thankfully, she speaks Korean well. Eun-young is the only one who knows any French, so if she didn’t speak Korean, we’d be in trouble.
March 24th.
For midterms, I’m going into a dungeon with Tae-woo. Since there are so few of us, Woo teacher will be the leader this time instead of Teacher Tae-kyung, who really hates it. So Woo teacher said Teacher Kyung will go in, too.
Teacher Kyung is in charge of protecting Abel. It’s supposed to be a dungeon “sampler.” That kid… hmm. I still don’t really know what to make of him, honestly.
Teacher Kyung threw a fit about not wanting to go, but Woo teacher scolded him, saying if he’s getting paid, he has to work.
April 9th.
Dungeon! Tomorrow!
April 11th.
Hunter Academy High School.
“Ow!”
“Don’t be such a baby.”
“Ah, teacher! I’m not being a baby!”
Yoo Ji-eun pouted, lips sticking out in a sulky frown. There was a character bandage stuck across her nose.
“…Can’t I take this off?”
“No.”
Daniel, who was examining Ji-eun’s knees and shins, answered firmly. Woo Hee-jae set down the stack of papers he’d brought and gave Ji-eun a stern look.
“Who told you to play with dragonflies?”
“I—I wasn’t playing!”
Ji-eun stammered in protest.
“It was just so pretty, I wanted to get a closer look!”
“And what if you got close?”
“What? Am I not allowed to look?!”
“You went in there to clear the dungeon.”
“Ugh.”
Ji-eun shrank back and fell silent. Woo Hee-jae sighed at the sight, and Daniel, sensing the mood, took his hands off Ji-eun’s shin.
“Just be careful for another couple of days. It’s not a serious injury, but if you don’t properly treat jewel dragonfly venom, it can be a hassle, so bear with it a little longer.”
“Yes, teacher…”
Ji-eun drooped even more.
Without another word, Daniel peeled the bandage from her nose. Underneath were two small red dots, stained with blood—the marks left by the infamous dragonfly. The edges of the red marks were faintly tinged with blue.
Daniel applied ointment to the bites, then took out a new bandage. It had an annoyingly cute pink cat character on it.
Ji-eun looked like she was about to cry.
“Oh, please. Teacher Daniel, can’t you use a normal one? How old do you think I am, wearing something like this?”
“Sorry, but this is all I have.”
“This is a conspiracy! Why are these the only ones?! That cat isn’t even famous in Korea. Why does the school even have these? It’s Teacher Kyung, isn’t it? This is his doing!”
“As long as it works, does it really matter what it looks like?”
Daniel smiled gently as he stuck the bandage on Ji-eun’s nose. Ji-eun’s shoulders slumped.
“So from now on, don’t just run off after something shiny.”
“But nobody said there’d be jewel dragonflies…”
“Dungeon reports aren’t always accurate. Did you forget what happened in the Okinawa dungeon last year?”
Ji-eun shrank even further.
“Are we done with treatment?”
“Yes.”
“I need to talk to Teacher Daniel, so you can go. Take your report with you.”
“My report?”
Woo Hee-jae pointed to the stack of papers on the desk.
“It’s your dungeon activity log. Go over it with Tae-woo and make a corrections notebook.”
“Ugh. Okay.”
Clutching the report to her chest, Ji-eun shuffled out of the nurse’s office. Daniel watched her go, then, as soon as the door closed, frowned and turned a sharp gaze on Woo Hee-jae.
“What is it this time?”
“Your Korean has improved a lot.”
“You can’t help it when you work with Korean Hunters. Is this about Daseon?”
“No, not Daseon.”
Woo Hee-jae waved a hand and sat down in the chair Ji-eun had just vacated. The metal chair creaked ominously.
“Isn’t it boring to just stay at the school? There aren’t many students. It wouldn’t hurt to take the occasional trip to Daseon.”
“I’m starting to forget where I’m actually employed.”
“Haha. Isn’t that how work always is? It’s got to be better than your last job, though.”
“……”
Daniel had no reply to that.
“To be honest, the school doesn’t really need you right now. The regular school nurse is enough… With only three students, having a full-time medic is overkill. But if you just wanted a break, I understand. Want to take a vacation?”
Woo Hee-jae smiled gently as he spoke. Daniel glared at him as if he’d stab him if he had a knife, but eventually just sighed.
“…Are you going to keep calling me Daniel?”
It was as good as a declaration of surrender.
He couldn’t help it. He’d fled the US to escape being buried in work, and looking at things now, Woo Hee-jae had actually offered him a decent lifeline. The rumors coming through his contacts back in America, and the meetings between Guild Mimi, Daseon, and the Association, all made it clear.
If he’d stayed at his old job, he would have been thrown into the thick of things with no preparation. Here, at least, even if Woo Hee-jae’s smooth talk hid some ulterior motives, all he had to do was treat a few bug bites…
……
It would be a lie to say he wasn’t bored. But the boredom could be remedied with a trip to Daseon.
Daniel was utterly defeated. Sensing this, Woo Hee-jae gave a sly smile.
“The students all know you as Daniel. And you really are Daniel, aren’t you?”
“Well… It is my middle name.”
Daniel laughed awkwardly.
“Even if I was with an intelligence agency, it’s not like I’m doing undercover work. If I just give a vague answer, people fill in the blanks themselves.”
Woo Hee-jae laughed heartily at Daniel’s words.
But the laughter stopped there. Woo Hee-jae, who always took the children’s injuries and treatment seriously, hadn’t come to the nurse’s office—interrupting Ji-eun’s care—just for idle chat.
Daniel—Anthony Daniel Jennings—watched Woo Hee-jae’s expression. It didn’t seem urgent.
Woo Hee-jae, for his part, noticed Daniel’s scrutiny.
“You’ve heard about the new students coming, right?”
“Yes.”
Daniel straightened his posture.
If there was one thing he’d learned since working at this school last year, it was this: anything involving the children had to be taken seriously.
Daniel thought that was only natural.
“They… their circumstances are what they are.”
“Like Tae-woo and Sophia?”
“Yes.”
Woo Hee-jae nodded stiffly, then added the name Daniel had deliberately left out.
“And I-rok, too.”
Daniel didn’t know the whole story.
But he did know that Woo Hee-jae and the children he’d just mentioned had all grown up in a cult. As soon as Daniel had transferred to Guild Mimi and settled into the Academy, Hong Seok-young and Woo Hee-jae had carefully explained it to him.
It would be a lie to say he wasn’t shocked. But after hearing the explanation, a lot of things he’d overheard in America started to make sense.
Woo Hee-jae had personal reasons for what he did.
As a Hunter and a healer who had worked for the government for a long time, Daniel had seen many things. If Woo Hee-jae had chosen to pursue revenge through legal means, Daniel could help. Not that he expected his help would be wanted.
No, what Woo Hee-jae needed from Daniel wasn’t that.
“When the children arrive, please give them a full checkup.”
“Have you explained it to them?”
“Yes. They’re not that young. They all understood why it was necessary. In fact, it reassured them. They must have had their own doubts.”
Daniel had received both the request and the related experimental data from Woo Hee-jae.
“I trust you’ll be careful with security.”
Let’s not forget: when it came to the children, this school was always sincere.
“Of course. Didn’t I say so?”
The documents, handed over as paper instead of data, felt especially heavy.
“I’m a doctor. I don’t play games with human lives.”
It would be a long and difficult process to determine whether years of experiments had actually affected the children’s bodies.
Maybe there was no effect, or maybe there was, but Daniel might not be able to find it.
But Daniel Jennings was a doctor.
He couldn’t remember the exact day he decided to become one. But the feeling he got when he healed someone, when he saw someone survive a wound that should have been fatal, had never faded.
Daniel would do his best for the children entrusted to him.
And it wasn’t just a few kids. There were many more children raised in the Ark’s lab. This research would help them if anything ever happened in the future.
“When do they arrive?”
“In two days. The paperwork was finished last week, but there were delays because of guardians and such. I’d hoped to bring them in before April.”
“I’d say this is still pretty fast.”
“Well… With only one first-year, Kim Abel, he’s been anxious, so I wanted to reassure him.”
“Ah, that kid.”
At the mention of Kim Abel, Daniel gave a wry smile.
“You haven’t talked to him since the dungeon, have you?”
“Uh… I’ve been so busy with Ji-eun. Had to hand off the activity report, too.”
“I thought he’d be quiet, since he’s a pianist.”
“He was quiet, wasn’t he?”
“He’ll need proper training. You see it a lot as a healer.”
Woo Hee-jae raised an eyebrow. Daniel smiled, half in amusement, half in concern.
“Hunters who fall from the sky.”