Chapter 3
Chapter 3
Episode 3 I Ran Into the Transfer Student of the Yuri Game.
“Hey, are there some weird rumors about me or something?”
“Hm? Why are you suddenly asking that?”
After arriving at school during homeroom, I was with my usual idiot friend and decided to ask something that had been bothering me.
Judging by the way he asked back in confusion, it wasn’t the reaction of someone hearing about rumors for the first time. Rather, it was the distinct sense of someone who had definitely heard something before, which made me feel a strange kind of pity inside.
“What kind of rumors?”
“There are a lot of them. But why are you suddenly curious now? Weren’t you Mr. Cold Sun who always walks his own path no matter what people say?”
“Hurry up and tell me, Baek Pig.”
“I told you not to call me that.”
Well then maybe stop grinning in such an irritating way all the time.
Still, the nickname really rolled off the tongue perfectly.
Baek Daeji. Baek Pig.
His grandfather who named him was seriously amazing.
“Come on, tell me already. You’re good at knowing these things.”
“……If you insist that much, fine. But don’t blame me afterward.”
“That intro was way too long. Just spit it out already.”
Baek Daeji frowned for a moment before eventually grinning for some reason. I knew that expression well. It was the disgusting smile he always made whenever he found a good opportunity to mess with me.
“Being popular sure is tough. You know there’s a rumor going around recently that you’re a playboy who toys with girls and dumps them after using them?”
“What!?”
No, why!? Hearing a rumor that completely surpassed my imagination made my jaw drop as my mind went blank.
“That’s slander!”
“Of course you’d say that. But other people don’t think so.”
“Ugh!”
Right, what mattered was how other people saw me. But still, being rumored to be some trashy guy who used girls and threw them away?
“Why would rumors like that even start!?”
My voice trembled even to my own ears as I felt like collapsing right there. I barely resisted the urge to bury my face into the desk while the irritating laughter beside me continued stabbing at my nerves.
“Why do you think? It’s all karma from your usual behavior.”
“Hah? I can hit you for that, right?”
“Don’t say that while already clenching your fist! Your punches seriously hurt!”
What an exaggeration.
“Your emotions are written all over your face right now. You’re thinking I’m a coward.”
“Forget that. What’s supposedly wrong with my usual behavior? I haven’t done anything problematic.”
I always attended class properly, maintained high grades on tests and exams, and even teachers thought highly of me. Saying this myself sounded conceited, but I was basically an honor student.
“Well sure, your grades are fine. But your relationships with girls are complicated.”
“I’ve been single my whole life.”
“That’s true, but how many confessions did you get from upperclassmen last semester?”
“……Two.”
“And from girls in our grade?”
“……Five.”
“That’s exactly the problem, you idiot!”
Exploding like a volcano, Baek Daeji grabbed my collar.
The sudden shouting drew the classroom’s attention toward us, but once everyone realized it was just us again, they all looked away like, “Ah, the usual.”
Wasn’t our class way too used to this?
“You shameless bastard. Do you really think you qualify to call yourself forever single!? Upperclassmen like you, girls in your grade like you, and you’ve received seven confessions when I’ve never even gotten one! I’m always the one confessing while fully prepared to get rejected! Do you know how many times I’ve sunk without achieving anything!? Meanwhile girls just flock to you naturally while you do nothing……! You lucky bastard!”
“Let go.”
“I can’t forgive you! Never!!!”
There he goes having another episode.
Normally, yelling like this in a classroom would make people uncomfortable, but unfortunately our class—or more accurately, everyone in our grade—had become so accustomed to my conversations and his outbursts that they all treated it like background noise.
Though honestly, being treated as a package set with Baek Daeji felt a little unfair.
“You’re a guy who could get a girlfriend anytime you wanted, so why won’t you date someone!? Just go get a girlfriend already!?”
“You actually want me to get a girlfriend?”
“Yeah!”
“That’s surprising. I thought you’d grind your teeth over it.”
“If a premium guy like you keeps staying single, all the girls will keep staring at you and won’t even glance at me.”
Ahh, so that was what he meant.
“It’d benefit me way more if you hurry up and get a girlfriend. Plus, if you finally start dating someone, I can finally escape those rumors too.”
“Huh? Rumors? There’s more?”
The playboy rumors were already shocking enough, and there was still more?
“……I know it’s not true, but you know…….”
“Why are you hesitating so much? Just say it clearly.”
“……Yangyang, you don’t happen to be into BL, right?”
“Die.”
“Gyaaaah!”
What kind of nonsense was this idiot spewing now? I’d stayed quiet and listened long enough, but now he was uttering complete insanity.
It was an insult to my character. A statement denying my very existence.
As his friend, I needed to fix his broken brain.
“That hurts! Your slaps seriously hurt!”
“That’s because you keep talking nonsense. Learn moderation when saying insane things.”
“There really are rumors like that though! What am I supposed to do!?”
“……For real?”
“Oh yes, for real.”
“……This world’s gone insane.”
“It’s all your own fault.”
No, seriously why!?
“You’ve got the face, the personality, the brains, and thanks to your foreign bloodline you’ve got the body too. You’re a guy who could date whenever you wanted, girls practically chase after you, but you keep rejecting everyone coldly. Of course weird rumors like that start popping up.”
“Ugh!”
I hated that his explanation made enough sense for me to understand.
“But why am I the target in those rumors? This is a complete insult to my dignity.”
“What can you do? I’m the closest male friend you have.”
“Let’s cut ties starting today.”
“I’d love that too. But even if we stopped being friends now, the rumors wouldn’t die down. They’d probably get even worse.”
“Damn it!”
I could already picture people spreading rumors about us having some lovers’ quarrel, making me want to smash my head into a wall.
“Still, almost nobody seriously believes it. Our class, our grade, and the seniors who know you just laugh it off as a joke. But the first-years are different. The freshmen who entered this year haven’t met you personally yet, so some of them seriously believe those rumors.”
“The homo rumors?”
“Nobody believes those, obviously. But the rumors about you playing with girls and dumping them? There are definitely freshmen who believe those seriously.”
“Ugh!”
Why!? Why would anyone seriously believe rumors like that!?
“I just want one true love!”
“A guy named Geum Taeyang with blond hair calling himself devoted to pure love really is bizarre.”
“Are you discriminating against blond people right now!? What’s wrong with Taeyang wanting pure love!? Nowadays even golden-haired bad boys believe in pure love!”
That’s right. I was a typical high school boy who admired sincere romance and dreamed of true love.
Someday, I wanted to meet my own girlfriend, fall in love, marry happily, and build a warm family just like my parents.
“If that’s what you want, then why do you keep hesitating? Plenty of girls like you.”
“I can’t date someone without feelings.”
“But they have feelings for you, don’t they?”
“Even if they do, I don’t. It’s only proper manners to answer someone who seriously confessed to me honestly.”
“Seriously, your standards for romance are way too strict. That’s why you can’t get a girlfriend.”
“And you’re way too shallow.”
I was still a healthy Korean high school boy. Of course I always wanted romance.
But you couldn’t just date anybody randomly, could you?
I knew my view on love was heavy. I also knew casual dating was common these days.
Even so.
Even so, I wanted something more sincere than that.
“At this rate, I’m gonna get a girlfriend before you do. And when that happens, I’m gonna laugh at you all I want.”
“Can you even do that?”
“Don’t underestimate me too much. Sure, I’ve experienced nothing but failure and defeat so far. But every failure helps me improve through trial and error. Someday I’ll land one huge success!”
“I’ll wait without expecting much.”
Though honestly, I doubted that day would ever come.
“Baek Daeji, move aside for a second.”
“Huh? What?”
“Just hurry up.”
When I pulled Baek Daeji aside from in front of the school gate, the girl hidden behind him was finally revealed.
How long had she been standing there? I hadn’t sensed her presence at all.
The hidden heroine of the yuri game and transfer student, In Yuna, was standing there.
“Uwah!?”
Baek Daeji also seemed unaware she was there and jumped in shock, but In Yuna simply walked lightly through the gate and headed toward the classroom. On the way to her seat, she glanced at me and slightly lowered her head.
“Thank you.”
“No, we should be the ones apologizing.”
“It’s fine.”
After exchanging those brief greetings, In Yuna passed by me and sat at her desk, calmly taking out a tablet from her bag and already preparing for class.
“Hey.”
“Why are you suddenly frowning?”
“This bastard already made a move on the transfer student in one day!”
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
Why was this idiot suddenly freaking out again?
“I’m definitely getting a girlfriend before you and making you jealous! Got it!? Prepare yourself!”
Morning classes ended, and lunchtime arrived.
Baek Daeji, who had somehow gotten fired up during homeroom, declared he couldn’t eat with me today either, leaving lonely old me to wonder where I should have lunch alone.
“Where should I eat today? The weather’s nice, so maybe there.”
I had a personal favorite spot where people rarely gathered this early in the semester, making it peaceful enough to quietly enjoy lunch.
‘Alright then, let’s go.’
Since the semester had only just started, I assumed nobody would be there. But when I arrived, reality differed from my expectations enough to make a dumb sound escape me.
“Eh.”
“Hm?”
In Yuna? Why was she here?
The small resting area with a little fountain and benches was somewhere even teachers rarely visited, much less students.
Yet an unexpected guest had already arrived before me.
‘So we meet again.’
I hadn’t planned on getting involved with the world of the yuri game if possible, yet here I was meeting her again today after yesterday.
Should I call this bad luck?
‘Guess today’s no good.’
Eating lunch alone with a girl? No matter how I felt, it’d probably make her uncomfortable. She was already a transfer student unfamiliar with the school, so eating lunch with a male student would definitely be a high hurdle and make her nervous.
“It’s okay.”
“Huh?”
“You don’t have to go somewhere else. You can stay here. You came to eat lunch, right?”
“……Are you really sure?”
“Yeah. And Taeyang seems like a kind person.”
“……Hearing you say that makes me happy.”
In that case, maybe I should accept her kindness.
‘Ah, but wait.’
How did I somehow end up eating lunch together with a capture target from the yuri game?
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