The Two Massive Soft Masses Against My Chest
Ugh, damn it...
The situation was way more of a shitshow than I'd imagined.
"I'll wipe it for you, Teach!! Just stay still!!"
"Why the hell are you wiping me, you lunatic?! I brought the tissues myself!!"
"Teacher! Are you hurt anywhere?! Let me help you up...!"
This wasn't even a scene from a zombie movie. A pack of blood-boiling adult male students had swarmed the young, pretty female teacher sprawled on the floor and were throwing an absolute circus around her.
Of course, you didn't need me to spell out that their eyes weren't fixed on her well-being—they were glued to the hem of her H-line skirt that had ridden up dangerously high and the black stockings beneath it.
These shameful excuses for men.
"N-no...! Kyaaah! Stay away from meee...!"
Teacher Ji-hye stayed flat on the floor, eyes brimming with tears as she desperately yanked her skirt down. But the spilled soup had made the floor slick, and she couldn't even get her body under control. It was a pathetic sight.
At this rate, our poor homeroom teacher's mental state was going to shatter into pieces on the very first day of school.
"Hey. Move."
I clicked my tongue and strode straight into the crowd.
— Whoosh!
Then I grabbed the shoulder of the buzz-cut guy at the front who was drooling as he reached for the teacher and yanked him back hard.
"What the hell?! Who do you think you are barging in—hick?!"
The buzz-cut turned with an annoyed glare, took one look at my face and build, and instantly flinched, stumbling over his words.
Three years of choking down chicken breast and enduring hellish iron-pumping had paid off. Right now my physique was leagues above any guy my age.
No one would dare act up lightly.
"Why are you still standing there? Wipe that drool off already."
"Y-yeah... s-sorry..."
When I dropped my voice low and tossed the words out, the buzz-cut and the rest of the horny hyenas packing the area started parting left and right like the Red Sea.
Whew... Good thing I bulked up.
I walked right up to Teacher Ji-hye, who was still sitting on the floor trembling.
— Flap!
I shrugged off my school blazer without a second of hesitation and draped it over her lower body.
"...Eh?"
Her round rabbit eyes flicked down to her legs covered by my blazer, then slowly climbed until they met mine.
"Uh, uhh...? S-Si-woo...?"
Looking up at me with tears still clinging to her lashes, her expression was so pitiful and yet so stimulating that my heart dropped straight to the floor for a second and then bounced back up like a spring.
But if I let anything show here, I'd just become Horny Monkey Number One alongside the rest of those guys.
So I kept my face as blank as possible and thrust a hand out to her.
"Can you stand? Are you hurt anywhere?"
"Ah... th-that's..."
She carefully took my hand. Hers was so small and soft I could barely believe it belonged to an adult woman.
And as she had no choice but to rely on my grip while trying to get up with my blazer still wrapped around her waist—
— Sway...
"Ayat...!"
She must have slammed her knee hard when she fell earlier. She let out a short whimper and lost her balance again, tipping straight toward me.
"Easy."
— Thud!
I reflexively threw an arm out and locked it tight around her waist.
In that instant, the overwhelming volume and violent curves unique to an adult woman slammed directly into my chest through her suit jacket.
A luxurious floral perfume mixed with the sweet scent of her sweat hit my nose and nearly blew every fuse in my head.
No... Don't fall apart here, Han Si-woo...!!
The lecherous demon inside me tried to riot, but I bit my tongue and barely managed to keep my expression under control.
Then I looked at her face and spoke.
"You need to be careful. Looks like you twisted your ankle."
"Hweeing... I-I'm sorry, Si-woo...! I must be heavy...!"
Her face had flushed red all the way down her neck as she squirmed in my arms.
"Stay still. You'll only hurt yourself more."
I spoke firmly and settled her securely against my side for support.
"Yo... who's that guy? His body's insane."
"Apparently he's Han Si-woo from Class 1-A? The one who was eating with Cha Si-a earlier."
"Holy shit... Face is clean and body's like that, no wonder girls like Cha Si-a stick to him... Life is so fucking unfair. Maybe I should bulk up too..."
"Worry about fixing your face first before you think about bulking."
Heh~ Nice, nice~ This kind of attention is exactly what I wanted!
Inside I was popping champagne, but outside I kept a blank face and started walking her out of the cafeteria.
Then I glanced back toward our table.
"..."
Seo-ah was trembling so hard it looked like she might snap the spoon in her hand any second.
Si-a rested her chin on her palm and watched me with sparkling eyes that said Oh-ho, not bad.
And Eun-ha was dozing off while chewing on a piece of meat.
Haa... When I get back to the classroom later, Seo-ah's going to beat me up again.
I pushed the painfully predictable exhaustion of the future aside and left the cafeteria, heading for the first-floor hallway where the nurse's office was.
"Huu... I keep causing nothing but trouble... My dignity as a homeroom teacher is already in ruins on the first day..."
The whole way down the empty hallway, Teacher Ji-hye stayed glued to my side with her head hanging low in full self-reproach mode.
The way she clutched my blazer—still warm with my scent—around her waist with those tiny hands was honestly driving my protective instincts completely wild.
Who would ever look at this person and think she was a teacher in her mid-to-late twenties? You could easily believe she was a noona our age, or even a little sister.
"Well, life can dump a whole tidal wave of things that don't go your way in a single day. But at least nothing catastrophic like a broken bone happened, so that's something."
"E-even so... If it hadn't been for you, Si-woo, something really bad could've happened earlier... The kids just kept... kept coming closer..."
She shuddered as the horrible memory resurfaced.
"From now on, skip the high heels and wear sneakers. Looking neat is important, sure, but the most important thing is you yourself, Teacher."
"Hiing... But... it was my first day, so I wanted to look pretty..."
"You're already pretty enough, so don't worry."
"...Eh?"
...Huh? What did I just...
What kind of insane thing had just come out of my mouth?
Words that should have stayed locked inside my head had slipped past the filter of my mouth without permission.
This was a clear broadcasting accident.
I turned my head stiffly like a broken robot and found Teacher Ji-hye had stopped walking, round eyes staring up at me.
And not long after, I watched in real time as her pale cheeks flushed the color of a peach.
"Uh... that is, what I meant was... y-you're pretty as a teacher...! Even from far away you give off this vibe of 'That person's a teacher!' You're always cool like that!! Haha!!..."
"Ah, ahaha...! R-right...? Y-yeah... Thank you, Si-woo..."
She lowered her reddened face and fidgeted awkwardly with the hem of my blazer wrapped around her waist.
"..."
Awkward silence filled the hallway.
The only sound was the quiet click of her heels and my indoor shoes against the floor.
I endured the suffocating awkwardness as we rounded the corner—
— Clack.
And ran straight into someone coming the other way.
"Oh?"
"...?"
Snow-white hair.
Skin so pale it looked translucent.
And those dry, ice-cold blue eyes that seemed to drop the temperature around her.
It was the Ice Princess herself, Cha Ga-eun—the one who had crushed her chopsticks and coolly walked out of the cafeteria earlier.
Ga-eun stood there holding a can of coffee, looking our way.
Her gaze moved in order from me in just my shirt, to the teacher half-leaning into my arms, to my school blazer wrapped around the teacher's waist.
"..."
For a split second her eyebrows twitched ever so slightly.
I could feel that strange irritation rising again beneath her usual blank expression.
"Um, er... Cha Ga-eun? Did you finish eating...?"
Teacher Ji-hye carefully broke the awkward silence with a greeting.
"...Yes. I ate well."
Ga-eun answered shortly, then locked her eyes back on me.
"Busy, aren't you. Causing a scene like some animal farm in the cafeteria, and now you're even seducing the homeroom teacher."
"Seducing? Don't you think that's a little much? I'm just helping someone who got hurt."
When I shot back, Ga-eun snorted.
"Helping? Why don't you check where your hand is before you say that."
"...Huk!"
I looked down at her words and found my right hand wrapped snugly, firmly around the teacher's slender waist.
"...!"
I'd probably been holding her like that ever since I caught her when she lost her balance earlier and just never found the right moment to let go.
"Ah, ah...! I-I'm so sorry, Teacher...!"
"Hic...! N-no, it's fineee...! I was the one who asked for help...!"
I yanked my hand away in shock, and the teacher flailed in surprise and nearly toppled over again—I barely managed to grab her shoulder and steady her.
Watching the whole chaotic mess, Ga-eun let out a long sigh loaded with contempt.
"You're completely hopeless. Horny bastard."
Cha Ga-eun delivered the cold verdict, brushed past me with a sharp bump of her shoulder, and walked off down the hallway.
"Seriously, why does she only pick fights with me? Did I even do anything wrong?"
I grumbled under my breath at the unfairness while watching Ga-eun's retreating back.
That wasn't an Ice Princess—that was just a pure personality wreck.
Between the chopsticks earlier and now this, she must have some serious grudge against me.
"U-um, Si-woo..."
"Yes? What is it, Teacher?"
Just then Teacher Ji-hye lightly tugged on the hem of my shirt and carefully opened her mouth.
"That... thank you for catching me earlier. Y-you seem like a really... nice student..."
"...!"
Nice.
The second that word left her mouth, old trauma flashed through my mind.
The cursed word that always came after being ignored for my looks, treated like a pushover, and finally dumped with a "You're such a nice guy."
But.
The "nice" I was hearing right now was nothing like that goddamn curse tag I used to know.
Both of Teacher Ji-hye's cheeks were flushed pink, and the eyes looking up at me were clearly mixed with goodwill and embarrassment.
The sweet, electrifying reward that came when a good-looking guy showed kindness.
Once the outside changed, even the meaning of the word had flipped completely.
Still.
"...It's nothing. You must've been really startled yourself, Teacher. Get some good rest in the nurse's office."
I managed to lift one corner of my mouth into a gentle smile.
"Ah... th-thank youuu..."
She dipped her head low, both cheeks still rosy.
And with that, I lightly supported her shoulder again and started walking toward the nurse's office.
I knew full well she hadn't meant "nice" the way it used to be used.
My head understood that perfectly, yet the scar still left in my chest like an old wound kept throbbing as if a needle were stabbing my heart.