Spring Arrives with the New Semester (1)

Roughly four weeks until the new semester.

The school year he had so desperately wanted to avoid had finally come knocking.

"This is so uncomfortable…."

It also meant that Jin Gyeo-wool — who had spent every day at home in nothing but comfy sweats — now had to put on a girls' school uniform.

Technically, after just one week of classes, spring break would start all over again. But preparing for that single week turned out to be more hellish than he ever could have imagined.

Ten minutes before he had to leave for school. With the Recon client still open, Jin Gyeo-wool double-checked the results of everything he had trained for throughout winter break.

It had been an unbroken streak of truly staggering effort.

He had streamed every single day of the break without rest, grinding ranked games like a man possessed — over and over and over again.

There had been that sudden two-and-a-half-day waste in the middle thanks to the girls' monthly visitor, but that was only a brief detour.

Bae Do-hyun had never in his life seen that much blood, yet somehow — maybe because he was mid–Soul Assimilation with Gyeo-wool — he hadn't been all that shaken. The real panic hit once the assimilation ended. He had no idea how to deal with any of it and flailed around in total confusion. He'd even changed clothes, sat back down, and immediately had blood streaming out all over again, forcing him into a second shower.

After roughly two days of scrambling, he finally looked up how to handle it online, asked the housekeeper to bring him sanitary pads — and by pure coincidence, the "magic" ended at the exact same moment.

Gyeo-wool swore he'd be fully prepared for Mother Nature's next assault next month, burning with fighting spirit. In most gender-bender stories, this was one of those classic large-scale disaster events that left the protagonist flustered and helpless. To Gyeo-wool, charging forward like an enraged bull, it was nothing more than an annoying roadblock standing in his way.

By the time school was about to start, Gyeo-wool had played Recon a total of 450 times. Roughly half of those games had been in the mid lane.

The first time he played mid with Montblanc, a warning chime had gone off — that was because a new entry had been added to the Memory Log, and thanks to that, he'd racked up a solid amount of Memory Erosion bonuses.

The period fiasco had burned some time, but the mid-lane games had more or less made up for it.

3rd-Class Cognitive Ability and 3rd-Class Athletic Ability. In tier terms, that put him somewhere between top-end Diamond and Master. Gyeo-wool's actual rank after his last game yesterday had been Diamond I, 55 LP.

And at last, hitting 10% had unlocked a special bonus. Not only could he now check the detailed specs of every ability he held, but even without turning on Soul Assimilation, he could use a portion of Hon Gyeo-wool's Athletic Ability as if it were his own.

The Memory Erosion rate was climbing faster than he'd originally expected — but Soul Assimilation was like a drug. He couldn't just quit cold turkey.

The interesting part was that "specialization" automatically optimized the held ability toward whichever field had received the highest investment over the past month.

A hundred percent might have been a little much….

Athletic Ability at 100% Recon specialization. That was living proof that outside of eating, sleeping, and washing up, he had done absolutely nothing but League of Council.

Cognitive Ability hadn't hit 100% Recon investment only because some of his mental bandwidth had gone toward streaming. Even that, though, hadn't cracked 10%.

From becoming Jin Gyeo-wool on January 1st to today, February 9th — Gyeo-wool had spent that entire stretch doing nothing but League of Council.

Studying? As if. He hadn't studied a day in his life even as Bae Do-hyun. Exercise had been whatever he got from his usual part-time jobs.

Thinking, with genuine admiration, that the version of himself who'd lived this completely insane for Recon was pretty impressive, Gyeo-wool shut down the computer and finished getting ready for school.

"Gyeo-wool, are you ready? It's time."

The housekeeper opened the door to let her know it was time to leave. Now that he actually knew she was the housekeeper, Jin Gyeo-wool offered a faint smile and slung his bag over his shoulder.

"Yes, ma'am. Heading out now."

"You dressed warm enough?"

"Yes."

Of course he had. He didn't want to wear any of it, but a school skirt alone was never going to keep out the still-biting chill of a February morning — not with cold wind whipping straight up between his legs.

In my entire life, I never thought I'd be putting on stockings….

Fleece-lined ones, no less. Bae Do-hyun hadn't even known such a revolutionary product existed. They looked like ordinary stockings, but the inside was packed full of warm fuzz.

He'd even opened a window as a test while wearing them, and it had been surprisingly bearable. Incredible stuff.

I should bow to the people who develop clothing….

Gyeo-wool pulled on a coat with a soft fur-trimmed hood and fastened the buttons. Some girls went out in nothing but a long padded jacket and bare legs, but that was beyond what Gyeo-wool could pull off. And wearing fleece stockings plus a long padded jacket would cook him alive. Besides — even though the stockings had been uncomfortable at first, the longer he wore them, the more they gave him this weird, pants-like sense of security that made him not want to take them off.

After that complicated chain of reasoning, Jin Gyeo-wool finally left the house for school.

"Still… it feels so empty."

But this hollow feeling between the skirt — when was that ever going to get fixed? It was a pretty chocolate-brown A-line pleated skirt, but to him it was nothing but an uncomfortable piece of clothing.

The skirt fluttering with every step kept snagging his attention, but caring about it meant losing. Hadn't he already worn it during yesterday's stream just to prepare for today? The viewers had no idea, of course.

Optimistically deciding that once the Memory Erosion climbed a little higher this would all sort itself out naturally, Gyeo-wool boarded the village bus headed for school.

The faculty office was busier than it had been in a long time. The heating was cranked up high, filling every corner with warmth.

In one corner of that office, two girls sat on round folding chairs, waiting for their teacher so they could head up to the classroom.

A small humidifier puffed out soft white steam. One of the two girls — a round-eyed, easygoing-looking girl — playfully sliced the white vapor up and down with her fingers.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Bored?"

"Obviously…. Ugh… I miss those damn idiots…."

"Can't be helped."

Jet-black hair cut neatly at shoulder length. Low-prescription nearsighted glasses for the astigmatism and myopia that came from staring at books too long.

A regulation-length uniform skirt, a pretty beige blazer layered under a black coat — a monochrome girl through and through. Sharp features and a matching stiff way of speaking. Cha Ga-eul.

By contrast: a blindingly white long padded jacket. A uniform skirt hiked up as short as it would go. Subtle color makeup on her cheeks and around her eyes that she'd tried hard to hide from the teachers but hadn't quite managed.

A girl who had dialed her own flashiness all the way down — and still somehow dyed everything around her in bright colors. The round-faced, easygoing Han Yeo-reum.

"We could've just transferred in March. Why did we have to rush it like this?"

"……Go ask your mom. You were fine with it when our parents were around and you agreed. Now you're complaining?"

"Ugh~ I didn't know they'd process the transfer this suddenly~! I didn't even get to properly tell Hana and Doye…."

"? You didn't call them separately?"

"I was gonna wait and talk to them together with you."

"I already did."

"Huuuuh. Ga-eul. You for real. You did that alone?"

"I figured you obviously would have."

The two girls who looked like they shouldn't get along at all kept up their grumbling and bickering.

"We're only in school this week before break starts again anyway. Let's go see them together, okay?"

"Not sure I'll have time with academy classes."

"Ha…. Your mom is seriously something else. We only moved a week ago."

"A week is plenty of time ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to transfer academies and finish registration."

"……I'm so done with this, seriously~"

Just as their conversation was wrapping up, Kim Seongyeong returned from the faculty meeting for the short spring term.

"Sorry, girls. Did you wait long?"

"Ah, no." "Nope~"

Even Hwasong High was feeling the winds of change in the academic calendar, and Kim Seongyeong looked busier than usual today.

"They're abolishing the February term starting next year, so this year it's only one week. It's a transitional period, so all the teachers are a bit scattered right now… sorry about that."

Both girls smiled and said it was fine.

"Shall we head up, then? The classes will reshuffle again in a week, but you should at least introduce yourselves to the friends you'll be with for this week."

"Yes." "Yeees."

Even once they went upstairs, both girls had only one real objective.

The reason they'd transferred so suddenly at this time of year in the first place was because of one particular problem child.

Jin Gyeo-wool. The number-one mad dog of Hwasong High — the one behind the Hair Harvest Incident and the Drop-Dead Incident.

Two girls had come from a new city in Gyeonggi Province specifically to keep her in check.

Meanwhile, Jin Gyeo-wool — on his way to the classroom — had hit a snag.

Even Jin Ju-yeong, who knew a fair amount of detail about his little sister, had no idea what grade or class she was in.

Which made sense. They didn't even go to the same school. Knowing that much would have been excessive. That was full-on siscon territory. And it was important not to forget that the only reason Ju-yeong knew so much about Gyeo-wool in the first place was because of all the various incidents she'd caused.

But summoning Hon Gyeo-wool for this felt wrong too. He didn't want to burn the Incense Candle — something he barely had enough of for important events — on something this trivial.

"Where is it…."

He'd somehow made it up to the second floor, where the first-year classrooms were. The problem was what came next. That floor alone had ten classrooms — Class 1 through Class 10.

Deciding that a one-in-ten random guess was too much of a gamble, he stood there frowning at the hallway. That was when someone appeared behind him and tapped his shoulder.

"Jin Gyeo-wool. What are you doing?"

It was a face he definitely didn't know. Well — of course he didn't. Gyeo-wool flinched and edged back slightly.

"Ah. Uh…. Just, nothing!"

With his upgraded 3rd-Class Cognitive Ability, Gyeo-wool rapidly searched for a solution. How could he get to his own classroom naturally without making the other person suspicious?

Wait. The fact that he ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠talked to me means… this guy's in the same class?

An ordinary-looking boy, except for an absolutely ridiculous amount of hair — the kind that seemed to grow like a mushroom. Gyeo-wool's gaze snagged on it for a second before he asked the boy, who was watching him with a thoughtful look.

"You heading to class right now?"

"Yeah. Wanna come with?"

He'd just gotten the number-one best possible answer. Gyeo-wool cheered internally and nodded twice with a smile.

Falling into step half a pace diagonally behind the boy, Gyeo-wool slowly looked him up and down.

He looked about ten centimeters taller than Gyeo-wool's mere 160 cm. Beyond that, there was almost nothing distinctive about him.

They passed Class 1, Class 2, then Class 3 and Class 4. The classroom must have been a ways off, because the silence between them stretched out naturally, and Gyeo-wool tossed out a line without thinking.

"Hey, uh…. Wanna grab ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠lunch together later?"

He genuinely hadn't thought about it at all.

According to Ju-yeong, she had no friends except Lee Bom — and yet this boy had spoken to her first. That basically meant they got along fine, even if they weren't close friends.

Sure, Bae Do-hyun had lost every friend he'd had after graduating high school, but this much was still well within the realm of expectation.

That was the only reason he'd suggested it. Even if she was a loner, eating lunch alone at school was just too pathetic.

"Uh… l-lunch? With me?"

But the boy looked massively shocked. It was just a casual offer to eat cafeteria food together — his reaction was way over the top for that.

Right. I'm Jin Gyeo-wool right now.

Only then did it hit him. He was a girl — and setting aside the hellish personality, an extremely attractive one.

Of course, there was a more serious problem than even he had realized.

Hwasong High's February term only ran through fourth period, and the cafeteria didn't operate for lunch.

On top of that, the boy walking beside her right now — Lee Yeong-bin. Gyeo-wool had no idea, but he was the very victim of the Hair Root Harvest Incident….