They Were Twins?!
“Ugh... I can still hear my jaw rattling...”
After the whole ruckus settled down, Ms. Ji-hye bolted out of the classroom with her face burning red, and I stepped out with Seo-ah supporting me.
“Aww, sorry, sorry! But you were staring so lecherously that my fist just couldn't hold back!”
“When did I ever stare lecherously?! I was worried about the teacher who fell and just happened—purely by accident—to glance that way!!”
“Oh, please. You can't even talk your way out of it. Anyway, I'm hitting the bathroom real quick, so you go on ahead to class.”
Seo-ah gave my butt a light kick with her leg and then scampered off toward the restroom.
“Geez, that girl is something else.”
Rubbing my jaw gently, I opened the back door to our classroom—1st Year Class A.
Rattle.
It was break time, so the room was already filled with the noisy chatter of kids clustering into little groups of three and five. Even though they were all meeting for the first time, they were somehow carrying on conversations without a hitch.
Whew... At least no one's paying any attention to me.
Considering how much aggro I'd pulled during morning assembly thanks to Lee Eun-ha and Han Seo-ah, this blissful indifference felt downright sweet.
Thump, thump.
I trudged over to my assigned seat—the far back corner by the window—and dropped into it with a heavy sigh. Just as I was about to close my eyes and soak in the warm spring sunlight pouring through the glass—
Thud.
...?
Someone spun the chair at the desk in front of mine around and flopped into it backwards. At the same time, a rich, sweet vanilla scent—nothing like those cheap air fresheners—washed over me.
“Hi there?”
“...Huh?”
When I opened my eyes, the flashy gyaru I'd spotted that morning—Cha Si-a—was resting her chin on her hands and looking down at me with open curiosity. The buttons on her shirt still looked ready to burst, and her ash-blonde two-tone hair swayed along her shoulders.
“This morning you were straight-up living the harem-protagonist life. Getting hugged by some cat-like girl who rolled in out of nowhere, then filming a service scene with the homeroom teacher right here in the classroom.”
“...?!”
You've gotta be kidding me—she saw all of that?!
Cold sweat instantly ran down my spine. The classroom had been empty. How the hell had she witnessed that whole mess?
“Pffft, your eyes are screaming, ‘How did she see that when no one was in the classroom~?’”
“?!”
This girl looks like she doesn't have a single brain cell for reading the room, so why is her observational skill this sharp...?!
“N-no, that's not—I mean...!”
“Ahaha! Look how red your face is! So... how was it...? Give me your honest review of the teacher's mature underwear~”
“W-what are you even—!”
“Why~? Was it so good you want to keep it all to yourself~?”
Ah, I'm doomed.
No matter what I said at this point, it would just be tossing her delicious bait.
“That's... I mean...!”
I was frantically spinning my brain, trying to figure out how to escape this situation, when—
“You're noisy.”
A cool, flat voice rang out, as if it had dropped the temperature of the entire classroom below freezing. I glanced slightly upward and found the Ice Princess, Cha Ga-eun, standing behind Cha Si-a with her pure white hair swaying.
Translucent pale skin, cold blue eyes, a shirt buttoned all the way to the top, and a skirt that perfectly matched regulation length. In every possible way, she was the polar opposite of Cha Si-a—the absolute model of a perfect honor student.
“School isn't a playground. Stop bothering people at their desks and go back to your own seat.”
At Cha Ga-eun's razor-sharp scolding, Cha Si-a pouted and swept her hair back.
“Ugh, here comes the old fogey. I'm just talking to a classmate from my own class—what's it to you? Just because you're the twin sister doesn't mean you get to throw your weight around. So annoying.”
...Hold on. What?
Twins?
I momentarily doubted my own ears. These two living creatures who looked and acted completely different from head to toe were twins? Wait—both of them did share the surname Cha.
This isn't some light novel setup. How does it make any sense that polar-opposite beautiful twin sisters end up in the same class?
I was internally popping popcorn and watching the drama unfold with great interest when Cha Ga-eun's icy gaze slid over to me.
“That goes for you too.”
“Huh? Me?”
“Yes. Playing along and making a racket is the same thing. Do you think this is some marketplace? You're interrupting studying, so if you want to chatter, the two of you can hold hands and take it out to the hallway.”
Most guys would have been crushed under those ice-cold eyes and frigid tone, mumbling “S-sorry...” and tucking their tails between their legs. But something about it felt unfair.
I was just sitting here trying to rest during break like a normal person. Why am I catching strays too? Besides, I wasn't even talking that loud. The biggest noise source was your little sister Cha Si-a...!
For the first time in my life, I looked Cha Ga-eun straight in the eye and started talking back.
“I'll apologize for the noise. But she was the one who came over to my seat and started talking first. All I did was answer. And...”
I pointed with my chin at the wireless earbuds in her hand.
“You've been wearing those noise-cancelling earbuds this whole time. Your seat's all the way up front and mine's in the very back. Were we seriously yelling at the top of our lungs hard enough to punch through that? Or...”
I lifted one corner of my mouth into a small, sly smile.
“Have you been listening carefully to our conversation this whole time? Because it was pretty interesting.”
“...!”
For a split second it felt like the air in the classroom had frozen solid. I clearly saw Cha Ga-eun's eyes widen just a fraction. Living her whole life behind an untouchable wall, she had probably never met a guy who casually stabbed the bullseye and pushed back like this.
Her gaze flicked from my eyes to the corner of my mouth, then quickly scattered into empty air.
“...Interesting, you say. Aren't you suffering from a severe case of self-importance?”
She delivered the line as if it meant nothing, but when she turned and headed back to her seat, I saw it clearly: the snow-white shell of her ear, pale as a snow-covered mountain, had flushed the faintest peach color.
Pfft. Ice Princess, huh? She's got some surprisingly cute parts.
While I was still happily watching that ear, Cha Si-a—who had been sitting there in a daze—gaped at me with her mouth wide open.
“Whoa... what the hell are you...? You're the first guy who's ever talked back to my sister and lived!!”
“Lived...? The way you say it, people are gonna think your sister goes around beating people up.”
“No no, she doesn't hit with her fists—she hits with words! There was this one guy who crossed her once and she spent a whole three years verbally...! Ah, whatever. You're a real freak, you know that?”
Cha Si-a let out a disbelieving little laugh, then her eyes curved into crescent moons as she broke into a bright grin, clearly delighted.
“Ahaha! I like you! You're way more of a handful than I thought.”
She suddenly leaned her upper body toward me. The deep, dizzying curve between her shirt buttons filled my entire field of vision. The vanilla scent hit my nose even stronger, and her sultry lips came so close they nearly brushed my ear.
“Let's have fun from now on, Han Si-woo. I'll play with you extra nice.”
“...!”
My heart plummeted to the floor and then bounced right back up. This was foul play. No matter how much I armored my mental state, a pure, fully functioning twenty-year-old guy's instincts couldn't help but react unconsciously to that kind of physical sex appeal.
I was about to freeze solid while gulping hard when—
CRASH!!!
The back door slammed open with a sound like something shattering, and Han Seo-ah—who had gone to the bathroom—stormed into the classroom for some reason, seething with rage.
“Han Si-woooo!!!”
The moment her jewel-like, luminous orange eyes locked onto the sight of me pressed right up against Cha Si-a, they ignited into blazing flames.
“You—you you you...! The second I take my eyes off you, you're already flirting with some alley cat again!!!”
“Ah, alley cat? Hey, you finished talking?! Who even is this girl?!”
Cha Si-a fired right back, hands planted on her hips.
“What now... more chaos already...?”
“Dopamine's completely fried on the first day of school. Looks like we've got another fun show to watch!”
“Man, I really lucked out with this class assignment. If the first day is already this wild, I can't even imagine how much fun the rest of the year is gonna be~!”
In the blink of an eye, Seo-ah, Cha Si-a, and I had formed a perfect triangle that vacuumed up every scrap of aggro from the entire back of the classroom.
Far up front, Cha Ga-eun paused mid-page-turn on her workbook and shot us a look of pure disdain, while on the floor in front of my desk, Lee Eun-ha—who had been stealthing there the whole time—pulled her cat-ear hoodie down tighter and mumbled, “Unyaam... noisy again...”
My head is spinning. What the hell is this harem-novel bloodbath on the very first day of school...!