Entrance Ceremony (1)
("Si-woo? Haha... he's such a 'nice' guy...")
("Han Si-woo? Who was that again... Oh right~ the 'nice' kid you always borrow notes from during exam season?")
("I'm sorry, Si-woo... to me, you're just a 'nice' friend...")
Nice.
In Chinese characters, it was the character for goodness.
The dictionary definition: having a kind and upright heart or conduct.
From the age of five all the way to nineteen, that word had clung to me like a permanent tag, trailing after me wherever I went.
To some people it might sound like a compliment, a word with a positive meaning. To me, it was nothing short of a curse.
("But what's so bad about being called nice? It's a good thing, right? Better than getting insulted.")
Shut up.
That was the kind of thing only clueless popular kids would say.
You people wouldn't understand.
When a good-looking guy picks up a pencil someone dropped on the floor, the girl blushes and stammers, "Th-thank you... If you're free later, want to grab coffee with me...? I just want to buy you something to say thanks..." Or she gushes, "He's handsome and his personality is perfect."
But when I pick up the pencil?
The girl pulls her hand back awkwardly, forces a sheepish smile, and says something like, "Ah... thanks... Si-woo really is nice, huh...?" Or, "Si-woo might not be much else, but he-he's seriously so nice...!"
...Fuck.
Just thinking about it again is pissing me off...
Anyway, the conclusion was this: the meaning of "nice" completely flips depending on the quality of the person's face.
So why the long buildup? What was I even trying to say?
...Honestly, I didn't have some grand point.
It was just me venting.
...What? Got a problem with that?
Anyway, because of my looks, I'd spent my entire life as a total bore.
I decided it was time I started enjoying life a little.
And for that, I first had to change this body of mine.
From the first day of high school all the way to graduation day—three full years.
I genuinely thought I was going to die.
But they say after hardship comes happiness.
For the past three years I bulked up like crazy while sticking to a strict diet, and I thoroughly studied every male beauty YouTube channel I could find. The result?
I ended up with a solid gym-bro physique that made anyone who looked at me think, "Yeah, this guy works out," and my hair styling and makeup skills were good enough to casually slap most girls my age in the face.
It had been a truly long, grueling period of endurance.
Now... all that was left was to go wild.
That night, I was so excited about the academy life waiting for me that I couldn't sleep at all.
Finally, tomorrow... Tomorrow my golden age begins...! Alright... I'm going to make the most of these five years at the academy and build my own harem kingdom...!!
"Haa... I'm too worked up to sleep. Maybe I'll just knock out a hundred push-ups real quick and then hit the hay."
And so the night before the entrance ceremony grew deeper.
"...So this is the class I'll be stuck in for the next year."
After the entrance ceremony ended, I stood in front of the door to 1st Year Class A, the classroom I'd been assigned to.
Beyond the door, the classroom still held that quiet, awkward atmosphere unique to the start of a new semester.
"Hoo... No. If I get swept up in the mood, I'll end up half-assing everything."
For my spectacular debut, a half-hearted entrance just wouldn't cut it.
I needed an appearance that would leave a strong impression on my new classmates.
"Alright... then...!"
- Bang!
- Thud, thud.
- ...Plop.
"....."
Fuck...!
I'd completely forgotten.
Right now I only looked flashy on the outside. Inside, I was still a pure, concentrated twenty-year-old shut-in loser who'd been fermenting for ages.
A guy like that suddenly standing in front of the teacher's desk and confidently greeting the whole class like some popular kid? Completely impossible.
Hell, even actual popular kids wouldn't do something that stupid.
Anyway, the fact that I was even thinking this crap proved I hadn't even started the "l" in "loser escape" yet.
Ah, whatever...
Like a dog that had been trained by endless repetition, my body automatically dragged itself to the familiar back-corner seat right by the window. I plopped down, propped my chin on my hand, and blankly stared out at the scenery outside.
The sky today was a clean, paint-like blue without a single cloud, making the high-rise buildings sparkle especially brightly under the sunlight.
"...It's disgustingly pretty..."
While I was gazing at the cityscape that was almost annoyingly beautiful today—
"Kyaa! He's here!!"
"What do we do, what do we do!"
...What?
At the sudden shy squeals of girls coming from the hallway, I turned my head without thinking.
What's going on...
I squinted and looked carefully down the hallway. A guy with blond hair and golden eyes who looked like some pretty-boy parasite was opening the back door and walking into my class.
He ran a hand through his flowing blond hair and winked at the girls beside him.
"Kyaaaa!!!"
Oh, give me a break...
What kind of rom-com anime plot was this...
I was still marveling at the fact that something that only happened in rom-coms could actually occur in real life when—
- Rattle.
The back door of 1st Year Class A opened once more.
"..."
This time there was no commotion like before.
Instead, the surrounding students started whispering one by one.
"Hey... that's her, right? The 'Ice Princess.'"
"Yeah, that's her... My friend went to the same middle school as her and said that in six years, not only has she never seen her smile, she's never even seen her look annoyed or angry."
"And she never once dropped from first place in the entire school from middle school all the way through high school, right? Pretty face and top grades... She's a real monster. If her personality was just a little better, she'd be insanely popular..."
Ice... Princess...?
I took a closer look at the name tag on the chest of the girl they were calling the Ice Princess. It read Cha Ga-eun.
- Thud, thud.
As if the whispers around her meant nothing at all, Cha Ga-eun walked with her pure white hair swaying, her expression completely blank, and sat in the leftmost seat in the very front row.
- Rustle...
Then, as if this situation was completely familiar, she casually put on a pair of noise-canceling wireless earbuds, pulled out a thick workbook, and started studying with the soft scratch-scratch of her pencil.
Studying on the very first day of school. I figured you probably had to be that hardcore to stay first in the entire school for six straight years.
- Bang!
About ten minutes later, a much more forceful door sound slammed into my ears.
Who is it this time?
Curious about what kind of student would show up next, I was just about to turn my head when—
"Han Si-woo~!!"
- Crash!!
"Guhk!!"
Before I could even turn around, something clamped around me from behind with crushing force.
"Wh-who...!"
"Hehe, try and guess~"
The mysterious person squeezing me tightly from behind completely ignored my question and giggled as she whispered right next to my ear, telling me to figure out who she was.
"H-how am I supposed to know that... Wait... this voice and way of talking... No way... Han Seo-ah?!"
"Hehe~ Correct!"
Apparently satisfied with my answer, Han Seo-ah smoothly released the arms that had been crushing me.
Whew... I almost died from lack of oxygen, you crazy gorilla of a girl.
Only then did I turn around and look at Han Seo-ah's face.
"Hehe~"
"...What's so funny."
"I'm just happy to see my childhood friend~!"
That was right.
This cute beauty with shoulder-length orange hair, matching jewel-like orange eyes that looked like they'd had gems set into them, and even a little snaggletooth sticking out like a grain of rice—this was none other than my childhood friend, Han Seo-ah.
My mother and Han Seo-ah's mother had been best friends since kindergarten and still were to this day.
Because of that, from the moment we were born until now, I'd naturally become friends with my mom's friend's daughter and maintained this long-lasting connection.
"By the way, didn't you say you were going to be a competitive swimmer and go to a specialized academy for that? Why'd you come to a regular one?"
"Ah...! Th-that's~..."
"...?"
At my question, Han Seo-ah's eyes darted around as she scratched the back of her neck.
Was there some reason she couldn't talk about?
"Well, you see...! Ah, ah...!! Actually, this big sister was worried you'd have trouble adjusting to academy life and end up lonely all by yourself, so I came along myself! Hehe, how about it? Grateful, right??"
"Unnecessary worry..."
She rolled her eyes this way and that, then suddenly clapped her hands and raised her index finger as she rattled off the words at machine-gun speed.
Honestly, anyone who wasn't an idiot could tell Han Seo-ah wasn't properly answering my question right now.
But I had no intention of grilling her about it.
If she didn't want to talk about it, forcing the issue would only leave a bad result for both of us. That much was obvious.
Well... she'd tell me on her own eventually.
"Anyway, if you were enrolling in the same academy as me, you could've at least given me a heads-up. When we talked yesterday you didn't say a single word about it."
"Ehehe, I wanted to surprise you!"
"Ugh... You haven't changed a bit since middle school..."
"Hehe, but you've changed a ton since middle school! Your hair looks styled and your body is super..."
- Whip!
"...Huh?"
What's with her all of a sudden.
Han Seo-ah had been complimenting my hair, then her gaze dropped to my body—and she suddenly whipped her head away.
Looking closer, her ears and face seemed a little red... Why?
Was the heater blowing especially hard at this seat? Well, I had unbuttoned my shirt pretty far because I was hot, enough that my collarbones and a bit of chest were showing.
While I was staring at her face with that question in mind—
- Rattle!
The classroom door opened once again.