What If It Gets Stolen Away?
“There’s no one who’d turn down a chance to get close to the most popular person in school. Thanks for suggesting we become friends.”
Wooju extended his hand. I took it for a light handshake. His fingers were subtly thick at the joints for a girl, and the firm texture pressing against my palm confirmed it. Sure enough, my man’s intuition hadn’t been wrong. This guy was one hundred percent male—and not just any guy, but an exquisitely crafted otokonoko capable of shattering the common sense of this entire world.
Yet Wooju’s eyes told a completely different story from his pretty face. Staring straight at me, those pupils carried a strange mix of wariness and calculated probing. It reminded me of a kitten cautiously watching an unfamiliar beast that had wandered into its territory.
Oh ho, would you look at this?
In this other world, did guys really size each other up like this? So this was what an eye fight looked like?
I let out a quiet snort of laughter inside. After surviving the military in my previous life—constantly reading the room around my seniors—this kind of intimidation from a mere high schooler (and a pretty boy at that) was downright adorable.
I didn’t look away. Instead, I met Wooju’s gaze head-on, a relaxed smile playing on my lips.
“….”
“….”
Inside the library’s heavy silence, a wordless war unfolded between just the two of us.
Wooju narrowed his eyes, trying to pressure me, but to me it only looked like a baby cat puffing up its fur, unable to even hiss properly and instead letting out a cute little mewl of protest.
Aah, as expected—even when pretty kids get angry, it still looks like a painting.
Unfortunately, there was one person interpreting the entire atmosphere in a completely different way.
“U-um… why are you two acting like that? The mood is kind of……”
Daseul, who had been watching from the side, fidgeted restlessly and interrupted. I wondered how this situation looked through her eyes. The school’s top pretty boy (me) and the library’s beautiful girl (Wooju) had met, immediately clasped hands, and were now staring deeply into each other’s eyes.
This was straight out of a romance manhwa—the exact panel when the protagonists fall in love at first sight.
Ah, no doubt she’s already spiraling into another wild delusion.
The way her eyes were trembling told me everything. She was definitely writing a tragic scenario in her head: a fateful encounter between a handsome boy and a beautiful girl, with the gloomy girl getting NTR’d in the process. That pure, innocent look of hers—misreading the tension between Han Wooju and me, then feeling left out—was honestly hilarious. People who wear their hearts that transparently are just fun.
I decided it was time to end the prank. If I kept this up, Daseul might burst into another nosebleed or bolt from the library.
“Haha! Wooju, you’ve got some serious eyes there. I almost got charmed without realizing it.”
I grinned slyly and gave his shoulder a light pat. The classic, unreserved friendliness of a social butterfly. Wooju flinched at the sudden physical contact.
“Alright! Anyway, we’re in the library, so it got a little noisy, huh? Sorry about that, everyone! We’ll be quiet from now on.”
-Heup.
I could hear people sucking in sharp breaths all around us. It was the sound of relief—the top predator that had invaded their sanctuary had chosen to back off instead of causing chaos.
Even though I could view myself somewhat in the third person after the possession, seeing this made it clear how easy it would be to become arrogant. When everyone bends over backward to accommodate you and tiptoes around your every move, staying humble takes real effort.
Of course, I wasn’t the type to turn into that kind of trashy, arrogant bastard. I’d show the proper consideration and follow the original rules of this place.
“Hmm… So what kind of books do you two usually read?”
I lowered my voice to a whisper, holding my palm beside my lips. This wasn’t exactly a silent study zone, so it should be fine.
“I read pretty much everything. Philosophy, psychology, natural sciences, literature—I don’t discriminate. My goal is to finish every book in this library before I graduate.”
Ooh. A model-student answer. So this otokonoko crossdressing friend of mine even had the honor-student trait.
In comparison…
“I-I usually read manga… or light novels and web novels that have been approved…”
Yeah, yeah. Let’s just live healthily. Healthily. For our poor, unfortunate Miss Im Daseul, expecting anything else would be asking too much.
“Really? Then I’ll check out some manga too. Got any recommendations?”
“R-recommendations? For beginners, the webtoon collections in the popular section over there are probably the easiest to get into… Yeah.”
“Then I’ll give them a try. What about you, our model student… Wooju? Don’t you have any suggestions?”
“Hmm… Ah, I’m not trying to be sarcastic or anything. But the books I usually read are probably very different from what you’d be interested in.”
“True! That makes sense. And I don’t mind stuff like that, so just talk comfortably. A friend of a friend is a friend, right?”
Philosophy books would be way too heavy for a yankee who seemed to have built a wall against reading. Even the original me had only touched modern literature at best and wouldn’t have given those books a second glance.
“Then… for manga, try this one! You’ve gotta read this.”
I grabbed a random interesting-looking comic and started flipping through it. It was a slice-of-life story about military life, but since every character was a woman, it had a surprisingly fun twist. I even found myself relating to the military parts.
Before I knew it, I had lost track of time reading.
-Ding-dong-dang-dong.
“Oh, there’s the prep bell. It was nice meeting you today! Wooju! We’re heading out now—what class are you in? Same direction as us?”
“No, I’m in the opposite direction. I’ll check out the books I was reading and leave a little later, so you two can go ahead.”
“Ah, see you later, Wooju.”
I grabbed Daseul’s wrist and left the library. The moment we stepped into the hallway, our little curled-up armadillo started squirming. Now that we were alone, she clearly had something to say. She had been fidgeting the entire time I was reading the manga. I had just pretended not to notice.
“S-Siwoo… Earlier with Wooju, you two were… staring at each other like you were having a whole conversation with your eyes.”
“Huh? I was just looking because Wooju’s so pretty. Why, jealous?”
“J-jealous?! No way! It’s just… you two looked really good together, so……”
Daseul hung her head low, her voice shrinking into a mumble. As expected, that’s what she had wanted to talk about. She really took note of every little thing.
I lightly ruffled the back of her hair and chuckled.
“Are you dumb? What, did you think we’d instantly hit it off the moment we met? Come on, let’s hurry. We’ll be late.”
The whole way back to the classroom, Daseul wore a dazed expression, but she looked far more relieved than before. Of course, inside her head the love-triangle simulation—gloomy girl caught between pretty boy and pretty girl—was probably still running at full speed.
After that strange three-way standoff in the library, the afternoon classes flew by in the blink of an eye. Honestly, none of the material had a chance of sticking. I was already a yankee who struggled to focus in class, but with Daseul’s ragged breathing coming from the seat beside me and her occasional “Hiiik!” as she banged her head against the desk, concentration was impossible.
-Ding-dong-dang-dong.
Finally the closing bell rang, and the classroom instantly flooded with a sense of liberation. And at the center of that liberation, as always, a typhoon named Kang Siwoo was blowing.
“Yo, Kang Siwoo! Karaoke today? I practiced some new songs.”
“Nah, it’s PC bang time! Hey Siwoo, that game event you mentioned last time ends today, right?”
The classroom’s social crowd swarmed around my desk. Whether I had eaten lunch with Daseul or not, to them Kang Siwoo was still the ultimate popular guy they wanted to hang out with.
Maybe because it was a gender-reversed world, the girls’ invitations were aggressive and blatantly obvious. Hanging out after school was always tempting. The old me would have gone along without hesitation, but the current me was different.
These friends of mine remained in my memories, but the feeling was far more vivid than mere recollection. Right beside me was a much more entertaining, much more delicious toy than any noisy group gathering.
I packed my bag and sneaked a glance at the neighboring seat. Daseul had already finished packing and was waiting for the perfect ninja-like moment to slip out of the classroom. Her plan to escape while I was distracted by my friends was painfully obvious.
“Hmm, what should I do today?”
I rested my chin on my hand, pretending to think it over while every girl surrounding me stared with sparkling eyes. They were all waiting for the words “Yeah, let’s go!” to leave my mouth.
But my gaze was locked on Daseul’s back as she stealthily crept toward the rear door.
“Hey, Im Daseul.”
“H-hiiik?!”
At my single call, her entire body froze mid-step. It was such a perfect freeze-frame that I almost laughed out loud.
Chuckling, I stood up and walked over to her. I could feel the social crowd’s eyes filling with pure shock. Silent screams of ‘No way, again?’ and ‘For real, with that gloomy girl?’ filled the classroom.
“You were just going to leave? I told you today’s the first day of training.”
“B-but… you should go hang out with your friends……”
“Friends? Oh, you mean them?”
I turned around and gave the group a casual wave.
“Sorry, guys. I’ve got supplementary lessons with my desk mate today.”
“S-supplementary lessons? Siwoo, you don’t even study!”
“Not schoolwork. Life lessons.”
I answered with a sly grin and leaned in until my face was right in front of Daseul’s. The way her eyes darted around in panic was quite the sight.
I lowered my voice and whispered directly into her ear.
“So, what should we do today? Karaoke? PC bang? Or……”
I paused, staring straight into her eyes. The noise around us faded away until only the current between the two of us remained.
With the most modest yet most provocative smile in the world, I asked:
“What do you think, Daseul? I’ll go wherever you want. If you’re really busy, I can just go play with my friends instead. No problem.”
“…!”
Daseul’s face flushed bright red in an instant, like it might explode. In the common sense of this world—and in sheer nuance—a guy saying to a girl, “I’ll go wherever you want,” was essentially the same as surrendering completely: Do whatever you want with me today.
And yet I had casually mentioned it was fine if she wanted me to go with my friends. It meant I had nothing to lose.
Around us, gasps of “Whoa, insane……” and “Is Kang Siwoo crazy?” erupted.
Taking the commotion as background music, I winked at the frozen Daseul.
Well? How are you going to act now, Miss Im Daseul? If you can’t muster the courage right now, it’ll get stolen away.