The Wake the Exams Left Behind
The exams had swept through and passed, leaving their mark behind.
After the storm of grade-checking season blew over, the third-years—whose entire transcripts for rolling admissions were now locked in—moved on to full-fledged college counseling based on those results.
Do you have a school in mind? With grades like these, you could probably aim for this school or that one. And so on.
During lunch, after school, it made no difference—teachers and students alike bent their heads together in earnest consultation.
"Nothing been wearing on you lately?"
Yeoncheong's counseling session, by contrast, unfolded in a comparatively relaxed atmosphere.
She'd declared long ago that she was going the regular admissions route, so the teacher had expected her session to run a little differently from the friends preparing for rolling admissions.
Still, the first question—delivered in a voice so soft it sounded less like college counseling and more like a heart-to-heart—took Yeoncheong by surprise, and she blinked back at her.
"Sorry?"
At that, the teacher glanced down at the student record file where her final exam scores and overall transcript were recorded.
"Nothing needing makeups this time, so clearly you haven't been slacking on schoolwork even while prepping for the regular admissions track."
She went on, holding up the printout of her mock exam results, her lips moving thoughtfully.
"Your mock scores have been climbing steadily, too. It's a teensy bit odd that you haven't settled on a target university or department yet... but honestly? You're doing well."
"Ah... that's a relief."
At the word well, Yeoncheong let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding.
Teacher Jisu swept aside the paper crammed with numbers and the stack of college admissions guides. Then, dragging her chair closer, she narrowed the distance between herself and her student.
"It's just that your face has looked off lately. That's why I'm asking. Is something weighing on you?"
At her teacher's words—that college mattered, of course, but that she herself mattered most—Yeoncheong nearly burst into tears.
Truthfully, Yeoncheong thought she'd adapted almost perfectly by now, but Teacher Jisu, who had promised from the very start to see things through to the end, had apparently been keeping her firmly within her sights all along.
How on earth had she ended up with a homeroom teacher like this?
Before she knew it, she wanted to unburden everything in her heart—but she couldn't exactly bring herself to say that her recent gloom was all because of a maid outfit.
"Is it something hard to talk about?"
Had some tiny shift in her expression given her away?
Teacher Jisu took Yeoncheong's hands in both of hers, reassuring her.
"That's exactly why we're doing this in the counseling room instead of the staff room. Speak freely, all right?"
Come to think of it... everyone else had theirs in the staff room, yet hers alone was here. One small mystery, unexpectedly solved.
The more sincerely her homeroom teacher looked after her, the harder the truth became to say.
Still, she couldn't keep worrying the woman forever, so Yeoncheong gave a vague, rounded explanation—only the parts she could actually share.
"Mm... I see. Well, hearts don't always beat in perfect rhythm, do they?"
When Yeoncheong mentioned a small clash between friends (not entirely a lie), the teacher nodded slowly.
She hadn't named anyone, but with a certain group always glued together, it wasn't hard to guess.
"Still—you two haven't had some kind of falling-out, have you?"
"No, nothing like that."
This would only deepen the poor woman's worry for nothing.
Waving her hands, shaking her head—Yeoncheong deployed every gesture she had to convey no.
Such an intense reaction might well have invited suspicion, but it read far too cute for that, with not a shred of real gravity behind it.
Teacher Jisu said she understood, then caught her student's head as it spun back and forth like a whirligig.
"If it wasn't a serious fight, then it's not really a problem for a teacher to step into... Instead, there's just one thing I want to tell you."
Choosing her words with care, her homeroom teacher fell briefly silent, lips pursing.
"You know how they say the friends you have now can be friends for life? In your case especially, Yeoncheong, I think that could be true."
Out of consideration, the teacher swallowed the rest of the sentence—but Yeoncheong knew exactly what she meant.
"So if it's nothing serious, it's better to smooth things over quickly. It'd be such a waste to drift apart over some trivial little thing."
Perhaps because her own experience was folded into those words.
They struck deep in Yeoncheong's chest, and she nodded slowly.
Reading her student's reaction, Teacher Jisu realized she'd gotten too solemn and broke into an sheepish smile.
"Kids like those don't exactly grow on trees, after all. Right?"
"...Right."
The girl who'd shown up at her house after she'd stopped coming to school. The friends who, knowing everything, hadn't turned away but accepted her exactly as she was.
The words were so spot-on that Yeoncheong couldn't help a small snort of laughter.
A tiny smile blossoming across a face that had been dark for days.
"Now then—shall we actually start the counseling?"
Relieved, the teacher pulled the books she'd set aside back in front of them.
***
After that, the session proceeded like everyone else's—a brief, ordinary college counseling.
Having a goal versus not having one mattered, apparently. She was assigned homework: decide as soon as possible on a university or department she actually wanted to attend. With that, the counseling wrapped up.
Stacking the materials she'd brought into a single pile, Teacher Jisu added a parting remark.
"I said as soon as possible, but I'm not forcing you to decide. It only means that if you have one, it'll give you that much more motivation."
"Yes. Thank you."
Yeoncheong bowed, rose from her seat, and had just gripped the doorknob when the teacher called her back.
"Yes?"
"Oh—and tell Suyeon that if there's anything she wants to do for the club's final activity, to submit a proposal or whatever, and soon."
Yeoncheong had assumed it would be about college. It wasn't.
"Ah—okay."
She was headed to the club room anyway, so she gave a light nod and stepped out of the counseling room.
The central walkway linking one building to the next. As she walked the path she crossed every day, the teacher's words drifted back to her.
Friends for life...
She felt it every time she looked at adults like the Board Chairman and Teacher Jisu.
Maybe, as compensation for turning into a girl against impossible odds, fate had decided to send her good people.
And among them—Suyeon and Seoha, and then Hasol and Nayun besides.
She no longer thought of becoming a girl as a misfortune, but meeting those four was, without question, the greatest stroke of luck in her life.
She could say it a hundred times and it would never be too many.
It wasn't merely that they'd accepted her even knowing her secret—they were simply, purely, wonderful people to know.
In fact, the grade improvement Teacher Jisu had just praised surely owed something to those clever, diligent friends, and because they had been the ones to reach out to her first, without reserve, adapting had come that much easier.
Though occasionally they went so far that it became a problem...
That much, I can put up with, right?
The good still far outweighed the bad.
She couldn't keep worrying Teacher Jisu forever, and she was tired of sulking over something unavoidable.
So Yeoncheong decided, on the contrary, to look on the bright side.
Seoha wanted her in the maid outfit simply because she wanted to see her look cute. In other words, it had to be the same intention as all those earlier attempts to force her into a skirt.
They just wanted to laugh and tease her watching her blush and squirm, that was all.
Thinking of it that way put her a bit more at ease. It would even make a fun memory from summer break.
Right. Like they'd make me wear anything actually weird? It's all just for making memories and having fun. They're my girlfriends, after all.
Before she knew it, Yeoncheong stood before the club room door. Having settled her thoughts, she flung it open with spirit.
Seoha and Suyeon, whispering with grave faces. Whatever it was, it must have been important—they didn't even notice her come in.
What were they talking about? Grinning, she quietly leaned in to listen.
"I only bought the one. Yeah... one outfit won't be enough for three days, will it?"
"Obviously not. It's three days, so you have to put her in at least two. Ah—do you have the budget?"
Waving a hand lightly, Seoha brushed her friend's worry aside.
"Don't worry about the money. For the outfits—maid outfits again, all of them?"
"I looked it up, and apparently anything with white frills or an apron counts as a maid cosplay. Should we look for something like a bunny girl with an apron? I think we can push it through."
SLAM!
Yeoncheong shut the door again and stepped back out into the hallway, covering her face with both hands.
Ms. Jisu... do you really think I can be friends with those two for life?
Here she was, straining to think as charitably as possible, while the other party showed not the slightest intention of showing her any mercy.
***
"Ahaha... what are you doing back so early?"
Perhaps there had been some attempt at secrecy after all—Suyeon laughed awkwardly, trying to smooth over the atmosphere.
But the moment Yeoncheong replayed it—buying outfits in advance and planning to force the issue—she could imagine exactly what she'd be wearing. Steeling herself against the embarrassment, her lips moved.
"Let me say this up front. I agreed to a maid outfit. 'Maid. Outfit.' Only."
"Tch. Well. Obviously."
Beside her friend, who clicked her tongue and nodded, Seoha flashed a grin and corrected the record.
"Let's be precise. It's maid outfits and this and that. Yeoncheong, dear, all you need to bring is yourself."
Arguing here would only cost her.
Besides... she'd never actually won one of these fights anyway...
"Whew... I know. I know, okay."
Having conceded the facts with commendable speed, Yeoncheong changed the subject by relaying Teacher Jisu's message word for word.
"Ah... our final club activity..."
"Summer break's almost here, so..."
Too busy dreaming of their vacation, they'd completely forgotten about it. Regret clouded both friends' faces in an instant.
When the first semester ended, all official club activities for the third-years would end with it.
They'd cleaned the room themselves, arranged everything on the shelves with their own hands. They'd sometimes snuck in to rest during lunch, studied for exams here together late into the night.
It was the place they'd spent the most time in after their own classroom, a hideout that had served them faithfully—by now, there wasn't a corner their hands hadn't touched.
Just as all three were slipping unbidden into nostalgia, the first to snap back to reality was the club president, Suyeon.
Clapping her hands to rouse Seoha and Yeoncheong, she deliberately raised her voice to lift the mood.
"Okay, first things first—let's figure out what we're doing for the finale. Ms. Jisu said to submit a proposal fast, right?"
The option of doing nothing wasn't on the table.
But they'd poured every ounce of energy into finals, and nothing came to mind on the spot.
From Suyeon's suggestion that they go enjoy some other school's festival as spectators, to Seoha's that they visit somewhere worth writing into their student records—thoughts tumbled out in a jumble, every one of them missing by a hair.
Yeoncheong's opinion that it would be nice if Hasol and Nayun could join too was accepted, but that settled only who, not what. The question of the activity itself remained at a standstill.
"Haa~ it's our last one, so I want to do something that actually feels like a club, you know?"
"What counts as feeling like a club?"
"You know. That whole... youth thing. That whatever-it-is vibe."
Suyeon sprawled across the desk, stringing together word fragments that refused to become a sentence.
Somehow, though, Yeoncheong felt she understood—and didn't press further, continuing to ponder instead.
"Then should we go stargazing or something?"
At Seoha's proposal—her own best interpretation of what her friend wanted—Suyeon shot up from the desk and shouted.
"That's it!"
Going to see the stars together, one last time—who could say no to that?
There were no objections.
Suyeon bubbled over, insisting this had been exactly what she'd wanted all along, and soon, with Yeoncheong's agreement, the final club activity was decided by unanimous vote.