Chapter 11
Chapter 11
Even before I entered this body, I was someone who had built a wall between myself and exercise. Ever since I was little, I couldn't understand kids running around playing. I couldn't understand why the moment it was time for P.E., they all dashed outside to kick a ball. People who listed jogging as a hobby, people who found joy in cycling, people who practically lived at the gym whenever they had free time; I couldn't understand those people at all.
Sure, I know that taking care of your body is a good thing. It's healthy, and above all, if you build muscle you look good. But even so, I never felt a reason why I should do it.
To put it bluntly, my original face was never something you could call good-looking. Even if I somehow trained my muscles, assuming I could even do that, I'd still end up wondering: would I really have gotten a romantic partner out of it? There was no one I particularly needed to look good for, so there was no reason to work on it. That was why I didn't bother with exercise.
And exercise, by its nature, is paying to suffer. I hated suffering.
So why am I running myself ragged right now?
"Come on, just a little more! You can do it! You can do it!"
Keeping pace beside my wobbly, struggling legs and shouting those words was none other than the blond upperclassman, Nam Da-un.
Unlike the other club presidents who had refused to even let me try when they saw I was hanging around, Nam Da-un had let out an annoyed "tch" as if I wasn't to his liking, and yet here he was, coaching me with incredible enthusiasm. I mean, if you don't like me, just refuse me!
Why are you so serious about this!
Did he catch a glimpse of me after I changed into my gym clothes and spot the look of a clueless newbie? Did he suddenly feel the urge to raise me up, like some veteran hardcore gamer smurfing in the rookie queues?
No, more importantly, why am I here running like this right now?
When I came to my senses, running next to me wasn't only Nam Da-un. Yu Ha-neul and Lee Su-a were running alongside me too, matching my unsteady pace. Unlike Nam Da-un, they'd finished their own fitness test before I started running and apparently didn't have the energy left to shout encouragements. But the fact they could keep up with me even in that state just underscored how slow I was.
Humiliating.
Way off in the distance, students who looked like soccer club members were all murmuring and watching us. They were probably the type who thought they shouldn't approach me carelessly either.
I don't know the details about Nam Da-un's setting. He wasn't a character the streamer pursued, and it's not like I played If You Wish myself. But isn't there a standard setup for male leads in dating sims? Good-looking, popular with women whether they're rich or poor, and usually well-liked.
Well, it's not as if Ye Sa-ra is a character who comes nowhere near that title.
She does have money. Honestly, her money isn't just a lot—it's transcendent. Ye Sa-ra's 5.7 percent inheritance share alone is enough to devour the second-largest conglomerate in the Republic of Korea.
Enough to make you suspect Homyeong Group arranged the engagement purely for that individual inheritance share.
Frankly, compared to the insane title that is "Ye Sa-ra," Yoon Da-ho's nickname, the "Crown Prince" of Homyeong Group, can only come off as laughable. There's a reason Yoon Da-ho shut his mouth when I threw out that line about "commoners like you" last time.
She's beautiful too, genuinely beautiful. Honestly, setting aside figure, among all the people I've met so far, no one's appearance surpassed the face of Ye Sa-ra that I'm forced to see in the mirror every day. Yu Ha-neul was hard to judge since I couldn't see her face clearly, and it took one of the heroines, Lee Su-a, to even reach a level comparable to Ye Sa-ra. Though, of course, both Lee Su-a and Yu Ha-neul did have far better figures than Ye Sa-ra.
Maybe she's popular too. It's just my speculation, but the people around Ye Sa-ra can't approach her for various reasons. It wouldn't be strange at all if a few people admired Ye Sa-ra from afar. If you think of her as a proud flower blooming atop a cliff, wouldn't she even seem mysterious?
But that doesn't translate to being "well-liked."
Because Ye Sa-ra had extremely few people she interacted with. No, if I hadn't entered this body and allowed Yu Ha-neul and Lee Su-a to approach, she probably still wouldn't have a single friend. Naturally, there wouldn't be anyone willing to help Ye Sa-ra, even to this extent.
Yes. "Helping."
"Come on, just a little more! Seriously, just a few more steps and you're done!"
From the way Nam Da-un was shouting beside my gasping, panting self, I sensed only a genuine intent to build up my stamina. It didn't seem half-hearted at all, and it didn't feel like he was trying to torment me. It was a complete one-eighty from the way he'd clicked his tongue, "tch", at me earlier.
Not that I was at all happy about it, of course.
"Ah, I, can't, anymore...."
My strength completely drained, I stopped my staggering legs and collapsed. I dropped to my knees on the ground. Since the surface was urethane, not sand, it didn't really hurt.
Still on my hands, I crumpled forward. Drool dripped from my mouth, but I had no strength to wipe it away.
"Hm."
Watching me from the side, Nam Da-un didn't seem winded at all. Well, considering how hard I'd been running without managing any real speed.
"Still, you did get through one lap."
...I ran that hard and only managed one lap?
When I looked up in disbelief, my eyes met Nam Da-un's.
"Tch."
And the moment our eyes met, Nam Da-un made that sound again.
I mean, why? If there's a reason, I'd appreciate him telling me. If he's a male lead from the original story, he's one of the sources of Ye Sa-ra's ruin. If he keeps treating me like that, I'm going to get paranoid.
"Well, fine."
Nam Da-un said that and turned his gaze away from me. Then, looking at Yu Ha-neul and Lee Su-a, he spoke.
"Honestly, you two aside, there's no way I can let this one join. Forget soccer—she can't even run properly."
...
Hearing that pisses me off. Even if it's true.
"Though, seeing as you two brought her here, you probably didn't intend for her to actually join in the first place."
Nam Da-un scratched the back of his head and sighed heavily. I was annoyed, but the image suited him. Dragging him into a school youth romance drama means you wouldn't need to worry about narrative plausibility or whatever. If anyone asked, you could just say "his face is the plausibility" and move on.
Yoon Da-ho? His personality would probably get him gossiped about before the drama even started filming.
"Still, if she herself has the will to keep going, I can help with basic conditioning at least. She'll build stamina just from coming here and running like this every day."
This... every day...?
Is he saying he wants to kill me?
I looked up at Yu Ha-neul and Lee Su-a for help, but—
"That's great!"
"Come practice with us every day!"
—that was the only answer I got.
Desperate, I looked up at Nam Da-un. No, come on, every time our eyes met, you openly acted like you hated me. Why are you being weirdly nice?
But when our eyes met, Nam Da-un just slightly averted his gaze.
Seriously, what is it?
*
In the end, regardless of my own will, it was decided that I'd be coming here every day for stamina training.
When I thought about it, I'd basically walked myself right into this. And considering that there really weren't many people at this school kind enough to have a genuine "conversation" with me, Nam Da-un was highly likely to be a genuinely decent person in his own way.
Thanks to that, I could make a guess about my Sixth Sense too. Up until now, the only people I'd seen whose faces glowed were the ones who actually spoke to Ye Sa-ra. Well, there were people like Yoon Da-ho and Yang Hye-in too, if I thought about it, but no one would call Yoon Da-ho a "good" person, and Yang Hye-in was my personal maid.
Or does it show me the faces of "people who will be helpful to me"?
No, that doesn't explain why Ye Sa-ra was hostile to Yu Ha-neul. Unless Yu Ha-neul was simply so unlikable to Ye Sa-ra that she could ignore that "Sixth Sense"—
...
Well, it's not a question I can answer by thinking about it now. And honestly, it's not something I can find out at this point anyway. Now, I'm the one who is Ye Sa-ra.
"Well, thank you."
I wasn't really thankful, but I said it out of courtesy and bowed my head. He had helped me exercise, after all. Back when I used to read internet stories about gym veterans schooling clueless newbies, a comment like "Wish I could get free personal training like that" would always follow. This is different from gym training, but it's still definitely something I should be grateful for.
...My legs were still trembling and my shoulders were stiff, but at least I'd gotten a rough idea about my Sixth Sense, so I could call it a win.
"Thank you!"
"We'll be in your care!"
Lee Su-a and Yu Ha-neul answered energetically as well.
"Uh, yeah."
Nam Da-un replied with his hands in his uniform pockets and his gaze turned slightly away. Come to think of it, this guy's still in his school uniform. Does he not have gym clothes or something?
"..."
"..."
A brief awkward silence.
"...Then we'll be going now."
Only after I said that,
"Uh, yeah. Go on."
did Nam Da-un's answer come back.
I turned around at once. And, of course, I wobbled slightly as I turned. My legs were on the verge of giving out. Fortunately, Yu Ha-neul and Lee Su-a steadied me from both sides, so the humiliating scene of collapsing from just one lap of the track was avoided.
...Anyway, coming to the soccer club for running, not even the track and field club. Something about this feels a little off.
That thought crossed my mind as I walked away.
*
"Hey, Da-un!"
Only after Ye Sa-ra's retreating figure had vanished into the distance did the soccer club captain, who'd been keeping far away as if genuinely afraid, come running over.
"You, you, are you out of your mind?! What were you thinking dragging Ye Sa-ra here? You want the whole club to go down in flames?"
The captain was bigger than Nam Da-un. Despite having the kind of massive build that would make anyone think twice about picking a fight, here he was, so scared of one first-year girl that he'd been watching from way off in the distance.
"Captain, you're scared of a little first-year?"
When Da-un asked with a tone of disbelief, the captain's whole body shuddered. One of the other club members who had also been keeping his distance with the captain spoke up.
"Of course we're scared! Everyone who's ever gotten close to her ended up miserable! Our parents told us over and over not to go near her!"
"The incarnation of walking misfortune—you never heard that?"
"..."
Nam Da-un was also a student who had attended Hwayeong Academy Foundation schools since elementary school. There was no way he hadn't heard.
No, rather than that, "knew" might be the better word.
Because he remembered a girl with large eyes, trembling with anxiety as she looked at him.
Even if the contact had been one-sidedly cut off.
"Ah, whatever. It's done, so just know about it. Seeing weaklings right in front of me pisses me off."
"You punk! Just because you're the ace doesn't mean you can run your mouth like—!"
"Well, we'll find out later whether she's really the incarnation of misfortune or not."
"You punk—!"
"Ah, can't hear you, can't hear you. Captain, aren't we practicing? School just started again; haven't we been slacking way too much?"
In the end, the captain, in a manner unbecoming his senior-year status, could only clutch the back of his neck.