The Disciplinary Committee's Athletic Girl, Jeong Eun-ji (2)
On the benches set up around the outdoor athletic field of Jinsu High Education Academy, two girls were sitting together. One had a short bob haircut and a healthy, toned physique full of vitality. The other had long, silky black hair and an explosively voluptuous figure. The eyes of passing male students kept drifting toward them, but neither girl paid the slightest attention.
Jeong Eun-ji sat with her arms crossed, fingers tapping impatiently, radiating the aura of someone conducting an interrogation. In contrast, Lee Yu-ri looked like a criminal trying to avoid eye contact, her gaze sliding away guiltily.
“Yuri.”
“Yeah?”
“Why the hell have you been glued to that bastard Han Seong-jin lately?”
“Glued? Who says I’ve been—”
“You really think you haven’t?”
Lee Yu-ri fell silent. Aside from the first week of the semester, even she had to admit she’d been stuck to Han Seong-jin almost nonstop. Her first instinct was denial. But when that option was cut off, she chose the second one.
“N-no, but… Han Seong-jin… he’s changed a lot. He’s nothing like the rumors.”
The second option: persuasion.
“Haa?”
“He’s surprisingly k-kind! He’s really gentle, and thoughtful too. He listens to people really well and even considers other people’s feelings—”
“Yuri… do you actually like Han Seong-jin?”
Flinch!
At Jeong Eun-ji’s sharp accusation, Lee Yu-ri froze like she’d swallowed a whole jar of honey. Seeing her best friend unable to answer, Jeong Eun-ji’s mouth fell open in utter disbelief.
“Wait… for real? When those rumors went around about you two dating, I thought it was so ridiculous I didn’t even pay attention… but it was actually true?”
“It’s not! We’re not dating yet… Hic!”
“Yet???”
Jeong Eun-ji practically screamed. Lee Yu-ri realized her slip-up and quickly clapped a hand over her mouth, but it was already too late.
“Yet? So you’re saying if the chance comes soon, you’ll actually date him? Yuri, have you lost your mind?”
“N-no, that’s not what I meant, Eun-ji. Listen—”
“Do you even know what kind of bastard Han Seong-jin is?! He’s human garbage!”
“……Huh?”
Lee Yu-ri, who had been flustered and fumbling, stopped short at Jeong Eun-ji’s outburst. The short-haired girl began spitting words like machine-gun fire.
“Do you know how much of a piece of trash that guy is? You know we went to the same middle school, right? Back then, one of my friends in the track club got pregnant by him and was forced to have an abortion—at fifteen! She wasn’t even a person for months after that! And that’s not all! Last year he got dragged off by the cops after a gang fight with Eunbong Technical High! Drinking and smoking since middle school was basic for him, and he even punched a teacher who tried to discipline him. You think the number of kids who ended up in the hospital after getting beaten by him was just one or two? You’ve probably heard all the rumors already! And you’re telling me you’re hanging around with a guy who’s not even human? I can understand Choi Su-yeon since she runs with the same crowd, but you, Yuri??”
“He might have been like that in the past, but…! He’s not anymore! He said he’s going to live properly from now on! And he hasn’t done anything weird this year!”
Lee Yu-ri’s third option: faith. She wasn’t completely ignorant of Han Seong-jin’s flashy past, but the version of him she had experienced firsthand was surprisingly decent compared to the rumors. So she had decided to believe he had truly changed.
But Jeong Eun-ji flatly rejected that.
“A dog can’t change its habits. You think his rotten nature is going to change just because he’s behaved for one measly month? And even if we set him aside—why are you acting like this? You’re the student council president! Shouldn’t you be the first one to deal with trash like him? Yet you’re saying ‘not yet’ like you’re planning to date him… Do you have any idea how it feels to watch my best friend acting all lovey-dovey with a piece of garbage like that?”
“You don’t know anything… Ugh…”
The final option: anger. Lee Yu-ri, who had already given away a huge chunk of her heart to Han Seong-jin, had a massive case of love goggles on. Watching Jeong Eun-ji viciously badmouth him was starting to make her genuinely furious.
“So… that’s your answer? You really like that bastard that much? Why? What exactly do you see in him? He’s just playing with you!”
“Don’t make me laugh! What do you know to talk like that?! Do you have any idea how good he was to me when I was really struggling lately? You know what? You sound exactly like Gong Yeong-bae right now.”
“Yuri, why are you being like this? Fine, since we’re talking about it! What about Yeong-bae? You like Yeong-bae, don’t you?!”
“No. Not anymore.”
Jeong Eun-ji also liked Gong Yeong-bae, and she and Lee Yu-ri had even shared that fact with each other. Hearing her close friend—who was also her romantic rival—declare that she was giving up on Gong Yeong-bae left Jeong Eun-ji unsure whether she should feel happy or upset.
“You… you really think that trash is that great? Why are you acting so unlike yourself over some garbage like him…”
“What does ‘like myself’ even mean? I decide my own life. Neither you nor Gong Yeong-bae has any right to butt in. Sorry, but if you don’t have anything else to say, I’m leaving.”
Thoroughly enraged, Lee Yu-ri shot up from the bench and stormed off without waiting for another word. Jeong Eun-ji sat there stunned by her friend’s transformation, then stood up with a look of grim determination on her face.
After enjoying a quick convenience-store date with Choi Su-yeon, I returned to the classroom only to find Jeong Eun-ji marching straight toward my desk.
“Hey, Han Seong-jin. We need to talk.”
“Sure. Talk.”
Jeong Eun-ji slammed her palm down on my desk with a loud smack and glared down at me with an overbearing attitude. She was probably the only girl in the entire school who could take this kind of stance toward the old Han Seong-jin.
“What the hell did you do to Yuri?”
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Bullshit! If you didn’t do anything, why would Yuri suddenly change like that? You definitely did something! Tell me! What did you do to her?!”
“God, you’re so fucking loud. What did I do? When she was having a hard time I just listened to her vent, comforted her a bit, took her out sometimes. Stuff like that.”
“I knew it! You’re only after her body! Just like you did to my friend back in middle school!”
“Your friend?”
“You got my friend pregnant in your second year of middle school and made her get an abortion! You think I’d forget that?!”
Unfortunately, that incident really wasn’t in my memory at all. Which meant that for the original Han Seong-jin, getting a girl pregnant and forcing an abortion hadn’t even been memorable enough to stick in his head.
‘This guy really is way worse than I thought.’
Of course it was a hundred percent my fault. But even though I was in this body, it wasn’t really something I had done. Should I apologize?
I knew the normal thing would be to apologize, but I doubted Jeong Eun-ji would accept it anyway. More importantly, apologizing to the wrong person wouldn’t mean anything.
‘Should I just go full trash mode?’
The method to make Jeong Eun-ji mine. Showing her the reformed, kind, gentle side I’d shown Lee Yu-ri and Choi Su-yeon would be pointless. Her hostility toward me was already sky-high and her personality was fierce; she already saw me as nothing but trash. Being nice to her would only make her suspicious that I had some ulterior motive.
The original Han Seong-jin had made her his by straight-up raping her and then blackmailing her with the photos he took—an utterly erotic-manga method. But that would make me no different from him, so that route was sealed off.
‘She seems to know roughly about my relationship with Yuri… In that case, maybe it’d actually be easier to approach her by acting like complete trash just for her?’
I decided to become trash.
“Did something like that happen? I don’t remember.”
“You…!”
Unable to hold back her rage, Jeong Eun-ji lunged at me with a fist flying. I caught it lightly with one hand. No matter how athletic and strong she was for a girl, she was nowhere near a heavyweight thug like me.
“Look at how quick you are with your hands. Hey, I said I don’t remember. What do you want me to do? Should I make up a fake memory and bow to the air or something?”
“What? You fucking son of a bitch!!!”
“I don’t remember it, and it happened years ago in middle school. I’m not hanging out with the delinquents anymore and I’m trying to live properly. Yet here you come, digging up some old shit I don’t even remember and chewing me out. What exactly do you want from me?”
“You piece of… Don’t you dare lay a hand on Yuri. If you do, I won’t just sit back and watch.”
“And if you don’t sit back? What, you gonna fight me? I could knock you out with one punch. Think you can handle that?”
“You… you’d hit a girl?”
“Yeah. If a girl acts like a bitch, I’ll hit her. Didn’t you know?”
“You disgusting piece of trash… And you’re saying you want to date Yuri? Live properly?”
“She’s the exception. I’d never hit Yuri. I actually want things to work out with her. I already confessed to her, you know?”
At those words, Jeong Eun-ji’s face showed the most shocked expression she’d worn all day.
“C-confessed…?”
“Yeah. So now I’m just waiting for her answer. Isn’t it a little late to be throwing a tantrum about it?”
“Absolutely not!!!”
Jeong Eun-ji yanked her fist out of my grip and shouted at the top of her lungs.
“Jesus, you scared me. Why are you screaming like that? And what do you mean ‘not’? Are you Yuri’s mom or something?”
“Over my dead body! A guy like you with Yuri… And why have you been acting so familiar, calling her ‘Yuri, Yuri’ this whole time? I’d rather die than watch that! No matter what it takes, I’m going to keep you away from her! The two of you will never be together!”
After yelling that, Jeong Eun-ji stormed back to her seat, fuming. A little later, Lee Yu-ri returned. I waved at her. The moment she saw me, she hurried over and sat right beside me.
“Hey, where did you go earlier? You disappeared and I couldn’t fi—”
“Seong-jin, come over to my house this weekend and let’s study together. To prepare for the pop quiz.”
Lee Yu-ri spoke as if she were being chased, no composure left in her voice. Did she fight with Jeong Eun-ji outside, asking why she was meeting a guy like me?
Almost as soon as the words left her mouth, Jeong Eun-ji shot up from her seat and marched back over to us.
“Studying!”
Even though both Yu-ri and I stared at her blankly, she met our eyes without flinching and shouted.
“I’ll… I’ll join too! If we’re going to ask each other about things we don’t know and teach one another, three people is better, right?”
Jeong Eun-ji, come and get it.