New School
It was the morning of the third day since enrolling at the new school.
Even after graduating from his previous school, some habits just didn't fade away. There was a boy who had arrived early in the morning, not bothering to study like he was supposed to, just sitting at his desk enjoying a game on his smartphone.
To that boy—
"Hey. Who do you like better?"
His friend, who must have just arrived, tossed his backpack carelessly onto his desk and sat down, suddenly throwing out this question.
"What are you talking about all of a sudden?"
He had no idea what nonsense his friend was spouting first thing in the morning. He tried to focus back on his game, letting the words go in one ear and out the other, but his friend wouldn't let him off that easily.
"Who else? I'm talking about the girls in our class."
"Our class, huh..."
In the classroom the two of them had been assigned to at their new school, there were an unusual number of pretty girls. If there was just one in a whole school it would cause a commotion, but having nearly nine in a single grade — in a single class, no less — had naturally caused their standards for women to skyrocket exponentially.
"I don't know."
They made ordinary girls look like squids by comparison.
No, to be honest, aside from about three of them, the rest possessed such overwhelmingly stunning beauty that he couldn't even dare to harbor romantic feelings for them.
And what would be the point anyway? Girls like that wouldn't even give them a second glance — guys like them were a dime a dozen everywhere.
"Come on. You must have at least one, right?"
Even after he said he didn't know, his friend kept poking and prodding persistently, making it impossible to concentrate on the game.
Eventually, his character died a meaningless death.
He let out a soft sigh and closed his eyes briefly.
He'd been right on the verge of breaking his high score, and dying so pointlessly made him furious — even if this was a friend he'd known for years.
But he couldn't start a fight over a stupid game, either.
He forcibly swallowed his anger and set his smartphone down.
"I mean... there is someone."
It was a contradictory statement — saying he didn't know earlier, but now admitting there was someone. But this was something like an instinct he couldn't help. As long as you were born male, it was only natural to develop feelings when an attractive member of the opposite sex was right next to you.
And so, even if the probability of actually getting together with her was close to zero, the feeling of liking someone that had bloomed so easily didn't disappear as easily as it had appeared.
"Who is it?"
"......"
His friend's expression carried a clear determination to hear it right this instant. He frowned and pressed his lips tight.
Knowing this guy's personality, there was no way he'd keep it a secret, so he just couldn't bring himself to say it.
But thinking about those girls — the ones who had stolen not just the hearts of boys from their school but from other schools as well — it wasn't really something to be embarrassed about.
After all, most of the guys were already sharing information about who liked whom, so people found out naturally anyway.
He wasn't really sure why.
Anyway—
"Mijin."
He figured it'd be fine if the other kids found out who he liked. Because he also knew roughly who everyone else liked.
"Ooh. Kim Mijin?"
"Yeah."
"Kim Mijin is no joke either."
He had fallen for the beauty who acted like she had no interest in her surroundings. Even when someone spoke to her, if the topic wasn't important or worth remembering, she would just flat-out ignore them and walk past, possessing a cold charm.
For this reason, the number of boys who had been ignored after trying to talk to her was countless.
Calling it a cold charm was putting it nicely — it was more than enough to get her called rude and cursed out in every way possible.
Despite all that, Kim Mijin was incredibly popular.
And that made sense — she had an absurdly pretty face and a figure that was remarkably curvaceous for a student, so in a way, it was only natural.
"Then who's yours?"
"Me...?"
Now he was curious who his friend liked. Since he'd confessed first, his friend should come clean too.
But his friend hesitated for a moment, only opening his mouth after being prodded once more.
"I like... Nayoung..."
"You crazy bastard."
"Ah, shit... I know. I know."
The moment he heard the name come out of his friend's mouth, a curse slipped out.
"Come on, man. Seriously? Why go after a girl who already has a boyfriend?"
"I told you, I know. But what the hell am I supposed to do about it... It's not like I can control my heart."
"Ugh..."
It wasn't that he couldn't understand.
The standard for who was prettier varied from person to person — it couldn't be clearly defined. Someone one person thought was plain could be the most beautiful person in the world to someone else.
But Han Nayoung shattered that rule completely.
Kim Mijin, Park Chaeyeon, Lee Eunbi — they all boasted incredible beauty that wouldn't make anyone suspicious if they called themselves celebrities. But standing next to Han Nayoung, most of their beauty tended to get overshadowed.
That was why, even knowing she had a boyfriend, there were still plenty of foolish guys who kept giving their hearts to her.
His friend was just one of them.
"Han Nayoung is a lost cause, man. Pick someone else."
It's been known since ancient times — you don't mess with a woman who's taken.
Even though her boyfriend was in the same class as the two of them, and even though he hadn't shown up to school yet — missing even the entrance ceremony due to personal reasons — some lines still had to be respected.
Of course, even if it wasn't her, the odds of him or his friend successfully hitting on any of the other girls were so low they might as well be nonexistent.
"Ah, fuck. Life."
He grumbled, opening his bag and roughly pulling out his textbooks and stationery, shoving them into the drawer of his desk.
"I'm so fucking jealous of Lee Jihoon, dating Han Nayoung."
Even though he'd only seen her for three days, he could tell in an instant what an amazing woman Han Nayoung was. Pretty, with an incredible body, super nice, and her personality couldn't be faulted either.
If someone created a heroine like that in a fantasy-filled web novel, there would definitely be people criticizing it for being too unrealistic.
"Yeah, you're right..."
He agreed, glancing behind him.
There, by the window at the very back, he spotted a group of six beautiful girls gathered together.
From Kim Mijin, whom he had a crush on, to Park Chaeyeon, Lee Eunbi, and then Han Seohyeon, Kim Jia, and Kwon Doa.
Kim Jia and Kwon Doa had just arrived, so they hadn't even put down their bookbags yet, laughing and chatting with each other.
Han Seohyeon, Kim Jia, and Kwon Doa were pretty in their own right, but standing next to the other three, they seemed ordinary — a bizarre effect.
Whether they knew it or not, it was amazing that the three of them kept hanging around together.
Anyway. Today, Kim Mijin was—
"Beautiful..."
She really was beautiful.
Leaning her back against the window frame, looking down at her smartphone screen.
Bathed in the strong sunlight streaming in from outside, her already pale skin seemed to glow, looking even whiter, and her long straight hair swayed in the breeze that drifted gently through the open window vent.
Even if he took a random picture right now, it would come out like a pictorial he could sell.
For a while, he couldn't tear his eyes away from Kim Mijin, staring blankly.
Not just him — his friend, who claimed to like Han Nayoung, also had his gaze fixed absentmindedly, even though she wasn't there.
It wasn't just the two of them. The other boys had already become prisoners of the girls, their stares locked on.
"Ah...! I, I saw that too!"
One of the girls, who had been eavesdropping on their conversation, jumped in the moment a topic she knew came up, approaching as if she'd been waiting for it.
"Oh...! You saw it too? Wasn't it fun?"
"Yeah! It was so fun. I especially liked the part where..."
Naturally, an unrivaled clique had formed in the classroom, and even the other girls wanted to be part of it. So the girl standing beside them, chatting away, was working hard to get closer to them.
The reaction wasn't bad, either.
Kim Mijin, who had been staring at her smartphone the whole time, even glanced over once or twice.
Whenever he saw things like that, he blamed his parents for the first time for being born male.
Even if he was ugly, if he'd been born a girl, he would have at least tried to squeeze into that group.
It's not like he had any chance of dating them anyway.
A sigh welled up at the disappointing and bleak reality.
Still, he held onto a small hope that someday he might be able to talk to them casually.
And even further, he let his imagination run wild with fantasies of their relationship developing beyond friendship into something more.
Just thinking about it brought a smile to his lips.
Creak.
The back door opened.
He figured someone must have arrived at school, and didn't pay much attention at first.
"Huh?"
"Ah...!"
"Oh...!"
The reactions from Park Chaeyeon, Kim Mijin, and Lee Eunbi were blatant.
Thinking it might be Nayoung, he turned his gaze.
Sure enough, Nayoung, whose smile suited her so perfectly, was entering the classroom with a greeting.
Right beside her, silver hair was the first thing that caught his eye — giving her a mixed-race feel, with an almost expressionless face that seemed similar to Mijin's in a way, but even colder and harder. Kang Chaerin followed behind her.
Normally, that would have been it.
But there was someone else with the two of them.
A boy he'd never seen before was blatantly following the two of them into the classroom.
He seemed like one of those idiots who couldn't take a hint and kept pushing even when rejected.
He'd seen it plenty of times before — bad seeds from the second and third years, or even from their own grade, constantly hitting on them despite being told no. So the thought came naturally.
On top of that, despite having a plain face, his body was built like he worked out, all bulky and muscular.
But then—
"What's up, Wallet. You're early?"
"Welcome back...!"
"......"
Park Chaeyeon greeted him with a bright smile.
Eunbi, who was so shy she struggled to talk to not just boys but even girls, spoke up first.
Kim Mijin, who might spare a glance but would quickly lose interest, kept her eyes fixed on the boy for a long time.
And above all—
"Haha. Work finished faster than I expected."
His arm was wrapped around Nayoung's waist.
He immediately knew — this was Lee Jihoon.