Chapter 20
Chapter 20
Everyone seemed strangely determined to feed me.
Admittedly, Lee Su-a and Yu Ha-neul had a track record. Last time during lunch they'd heaped things onto my plate and I hadn't been able to finish. And it hadn't just been a matter of not eating—trying to force it all down anyway out of consideration for their goodwill, I'd almost gotten sick.
Maybe they'd fully realized their mistake back then, because all day today Yu Ha-neul stuck to the seat beside me and kept handing me sweets—small portions, but sugary and high-calorie.
Chocolate, caramel, soft candy.
Honestly, I was curious just how much food she was lugging around in that bag.
Every break period the sweet scent grew so strong that the kids around us couldn't help sneaking glances. I mean, they were teenagers still in the middle of growing. Barely a month out of middle school, even. The only difference was that their parents had a little more money than most.
I'd gone to an all-boys high school, so I didn't know much about teenage girls' eating habits, but I'd heard they could rival teenage boys'. Not literally as much, obviously; that was just how the saying went. So being drawn in by the smell wasn't unusual.
Still, apparently their resolve not to talk to me was stronger than their will to cadge a piece of candy. Outside of a brief flicker in their eyes, they didn't show much of a reaction. In particular, the ones who glanced my way and happened to meet my gaze hurriedly turned their heads and never looked back.
Well, whatever they did didn't matter. Even if they showed up in the game, they'd be labeled something like 'Female Student 1' with no name at all. No CGs either, obviously. Which meant they had zero involvement in the story.
...How did it go originally, though.
Well, it depended on the route. In the Shin So-hee route from the footage I'd watched, things weren't much different from now. Yu Ha-neul got ignored like this by the other kids in class, eventually became friends with Lee Su-a, the one person who'd actually talk to her, and thanks to that, she managed to make a few friends at school she could chat with, more or less.
But she was still bullied at school, no question. Then one day, after bumping into Shin So-hee on the street, the two of them hit it off, and for the first time in her life she skipped school, sneaked off on a trip without her parents knowing, discovered what she truly enjoyed, and in the end quit the superficial environment of Hwayeong High School altogether to transfer to Shin So-hee's school. That was the story.
At a glance it might look like a straightforward string of teenage-girl rebellion, but the creator had woven in their own reflections on exam-driven school life and a modern society that only cares about appearances while ignoring what's inside. More than anything, the way the story meticulously depicted Shin So-hee and Yu Ha-neul gradually growing closer and coming to treasure each other had earned it high praise.
Anyway, in that route the other students don't really change. Later, when Yu Ha-neul leaves Hwayeong High School, they jeer at her from behind, but Lee Su-a smilingly shuts them up with a cutting remark while pretending to know nothing—that's about the extent of it.
I didn't know much about the Lee Su-a route or the Ye Sa-ra Route since the streamer hadn't played those.
And... the issue was the other route the streamer had played: the Yoon Da-ho route.
In that route, Ye Sa-ra uses her authority to grab the students by the collar and shake them around. The bullying escalates far beyond simply ignoring her—pouring water over Yu Ha-neul's head while she's in the bathroom stall, tearing her gym clothes, leaving filth on her desk. It gets extremely vicious.
I don't know for sure, but in the other two male-character routes Ye Sa-ra likely throws her weight around the same way. Which meant that even though Ye Sa-ra was an actual dateable character, she ended up a character people absolutely hated. Honestly, more people probably just watched the streamer's broadcast than actually played the game themselves, so almost no one knew her backstory well enough to sympathize.
Not that the backstory made her any more sympathetic, given the kind of things she did.
But still.
Honestly, there was one thing worth learning from that Ye Sa-ra.
How in the world did she manage to seize and wield that much power?
To all practical purposes, Ye Sa-ra had lived her life isolated from society. So thoroughly cut off that she shouldn't have even known how to use power. How had a kid like that gotten the other students in the palm of her hand?
...Well, probably something you couldn't know without talking to her directly.
No, in plenty of other novels, when you possess someone the memories come bundled too, so why is there nothing here but the ability?!
"Ehee."
Yu Ha-neul poked me in the side again, and I turned my head to tell her, this time for real, to cut it out—
Right on cue, she popped another piece of chocolate into my mouth.
The light radiating from Yu Ha-neul's face was a little easier to handle now. Or rather, having faced the product of this ability every day over the past few days, I felt like I was getting the hang of controlling it. I still wasn't at a level where I could freely turn it on and off, but if I narrowed my eyes and gazed steadily, the glow on Yu Ha-neul's face dimmed just enough for me to make out her expression.
And the Yu Ha-neul I saw like that was beaming, as if she was so proud of having put something in my mouth.
They do say you can't spit on a smiling face.
Seeing that face, I found I no longer wanted to complain, so I just chewed the chocolate in silence.
Amid the sweetness spreading through my mouth, I caught a slight bitterness.
...Come to think of it, I'd never had another girl my age feed me things like this.
Thinking about it, maybe this side of life wasn't so bad after all.
Though I had no idea how long it would last.
*
At lunch I got a piece of candy from Lee Su-a too, and even as I headed to my club after class, I was nibbling bits of chocolate the two of them handed me.
Were they just going to keep giving because I accepted without refusing? Was this like feeding an animal?
Well, it didn't really matter, since it tasted good. The pieces they gave me were genuinely tiny, so there wasn't much reason for my stomach to get upset.
I wasn't too worried about gaining weight. Since entering Ye Sa-ra's body I hadn't exactly been snacking regularly, and above all Ye Sa-ra's body was alarmingly thin to begin with. Packing on weight right away could actually be harmful to her health, so that was out, but to move properly going forward I did need to build up my body to some degree.
Considering Ye Sa-ra couldn't eat a large amount in one sitting, physically, a few small cookies or candies that didn't strain her stomach too much wouldn't be a problem....Probably not a problem, right? I'm not an expert, so I honestly don't know.
The high point came right after I'd gone to the soccer club like usual and run myself ragged alongside Nam Da-un.
As I lay sprawled on the ground, gasping for breath, something suddenly thrust into my line of sight.
A tumbler with a thick straw sticking out of it.
The person holding out that cup, of all people, was Nam Da-un.
"Drink."
At that abrupt command I silently accepted it and drank.
...It tasted like a chocolate shake.
Did I look like I was that into sweets?
"Did you bring a chocolate shake?"
I asked with a surprised expression while shaking the tumbler to show. Nam Da-un gave me a look that said, What are you talking about?
"That's a protein supplement."
"...Am I going to the gym or something?"
"The gym isn't the issue; your baseline stamina is. You don't even have the stamina that other people just take for granted. Don't tell me you just sit there doing nothing during PE?"
"...."
Put like that, I had no comeback. Because in PE I really did do nothing.
But that wasn't entirely my fault.
The practical activities we did in PE were mostly things you couldn't do alone. If it was just sitting at a desk taking a test, a teacher could silently hand out and collect the papers without a word. But for grading based on physical activity, teacher and student alike had to cooperate. And when the activity was something like dodgeball or volleyball, cooperating with other students became absolutely mandatory.
So the teachers simply chose to pull Ye Sa-ra to the back.
And though this is slightly awkward to say, Yu Ha-neul was being tacitly excluded from PE alongside her, for being the only person in class who hung around Ye Sa-ra.
"At least try to move a little. Getting consistent exercise in your daily life helps too."
"Yes! I'll help!"
Yu Ha-neul, who'd been listening from the side, raised her hand high.
"I'll help too!"
Lee Su-a thrust her hand up as well, calling out like that, and smacked hands with Yu Ha-neul in a high five.
"Yay!"
When had the two of them grown so in sync? Then again, a moderate workout had a way of lifting your mood. If the kids who saw each other every day after school got along, that was easier for me too. Fine by me.
"...You. Show even half the enthusiasm these two have. What's the point if the person doing the exercise has less motivation than the people helping her?"
"Yaaaay...."
I raised my hand slightly and gave a deflated-sounding echo. Nam Da-un let out a long sigh.
*
"...Are you planning to climb the wall again today?"
Even though I hadn't said a word, Nam Da-un followed me right up to the wall and asked, as if it were news.
"Going out the main gate gets me caught. I'm thinking I'll go home this way until they find out."
"Saying you go 'home' this way sounds a bit weird, phrasing-wise..."
Still, Nam Da-un lent me a hand as earnestly as ever. The expression was one of resignation, but at least he wasn't grumbling openly like yesterday.
"Don't worry. I'll manage to climb it on my own before long."
"You were groaning like crazy just getting up there, so that's not convincing in the slightest. Also, don't stand there and boldly announce to your upperclassman that you're planning to climb the wall."
"And yet you're already an accomplice."
"...."
Nam Da-un fixed me with a long glare and abruptly let go.
"Ah, wai—"
Having not even prepared to fall, I—
"Eeyahack!"
—dropped with a strange shriek.
Thud.
And just like yesterday, I landed on the ground in a fluster after a much shorter time in the air than I'd expected.
"...."
"...."
My eyes met squarely with the person standing right in front of me.
Under the eaves where I'd landed, leaning against the wall with her back to it—a gyaru character with tanned skin and blonde hair who looked like she'd stepped out of a painting. Needless to say, Shin So-hee.
"...How much did you see?"
From when I was groaning and lowering my legs.
Meaning Shin So-hee had been quietly watching my lower half dangling from the eaves. Then, startled when Nam Da-un let go, she'd gotten a front-row view of me falling with that bizarre sound.
"...."
Well... it was better than shoving my panties right in her face, I guess...
...Still, I couldn't help being mortified.