Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Honestly, I was a little nervous.
Not because of Yoon Da-ho, though. It was Yu Ha-neul suddenly jumping in that had me on edge.
The way Yoon Da-ho and Yu Ha-neul first met—that scene is crystal clear in my memory.
Well, it doesn't have to be perfect. I've seen that scene an absurd number of times in other works anyway, mainly in Korean dramas.
"What are you supposed to be?"
Yoon Da-ho eyed Yu Ha-neul as he spoke. The height difference was considerable, but he made no effort to lower his head, so his gaze had to rake downward just to look at her.
The textbook bad-boy heartthrob angle straight out of a drama. The exact pose of a sheltered chaebol young master meeting a working-class heroine.
"What are you supposed to be?"
Right. Yu Ha-neul was a character whose motif was drawn straight from the 'poor but fierce and confident' female lead of a Korean daily drama. Obviously, being looked down on by some tall guy wasn't about to make her wilt.
Yoon Da-ho's eyes swung back to me. 'What is this?' He didn't have to say it out loud; his whole face screamed it.
"Let go of Sara's arm. I don't know what this is about, but let go of her first before we talk."
Yu Ha-neul sounded angry.
"Sara......?"
A faint flicker of confusion crossed Yoon Da-ho's face. Then again, given his personality, he would never have called Ye Sa-ra's name that warmly. He likely had never even seen anyone who was that close with her.
"And who are you to butt into our conversation? How would you even know what we were talking about?"
"I don't know what you were talking about, but if you're going to talk, use your words. She's hurting."
"......."
A crease settled between Yoon Da-ho's brows.
Considering the game's setting, the logic of this world, and the clichés of a school like this, Yoon Da-ho was effectively the pinnacle of power here. Someone might laugh and say, how much power can a teenager really hold? But that's nothing more than an outside adult's perspective. For students forced to navigate the unspoken social hierarchy within the school, that hierarchy was no different from an absolute law they had to follow if they wanted a peaceful school life. And when the person at the top was someone you couldn't even be sure would face real consequences if you reported them for bullying, you had to be even more careful.
"You. What's your name?"
"My name?"
When Yoon Da-ho asked for her name, Yu Ha-neul hesitated for a beat. Then she glanced at me, I guessed as much from the slight turn of her head, and puffed out her chest with a show of bravado.
"I'm Yu Ha-neul."
"Yu Ha-neul?"
Yoon Da-ho's eyes narrowed.
"Can't say I remember a name like that."
He talked as though he genuinely kept every student's name stored in his head, but he didn't actually have them all. More precisely, only the names of students who might prove useful to Yoon Da-ho were in there. Since he was destined to become the head of the second-ranked conglomerate in the Republic of Korea's business world, he was expected to pre-vet even his human relationships, mostly at his family's urging rather than his own.
I knew this, of course, because I remembered the original scene where Yoon Da-ho and Yu Ha-neul met.
"What? Didn't see my name on your list of major corporate kids?"
Yu Ha-neul shot back, clearly a little angry.
"That's right. Which means you're nobody important."
Having answered with clear disinterest, Yoon Da-ho turned his face back toward me.
"You—"
"I wasn't done!"
Before Yoon Da-ho could get a word out at me, Yu Ha-neul pounced again. This time not just verbally—she grabbed the arm Yoon Da-ho was using to grip my wrist.
"Why does it matter whose kid someone is? Is that how everyone thinks here? You don't need to know someone's net worth to point out when they're doing something wrong!"
But Yoon Da-ho had already clocked Yu Ha-neul as an 'unnecessary' existence. He aimed an icy look at her and spoke.
"If you clawed your way here from some nameless working-class family, you must've put in a staggering amount of effort."
Oh, there it was. 'Working-class this-and-that.' The staple line of every insufferable young master lead.
Naturally, it was a line from 'If You Wish' too.
"If you got to attend this school on someone else's dime, you should be satisfied with that. Just keep your head down, get through it, and graduate. Get into a good university, graduate with good grades, and eventually you might land a job at a good company. So don't go sticking your nose into other people's complicated business."
"Other people's, money, sticking my nose—"
Yu Ha-neul was utterly speechless at the breathtaking garbage Yoon Da-ho had just spouted.
Yeah, this was exactly the scene. The details differ, of course. Ye Sa-ra wasn't in it then. The setup was different too; Yu Ha-neul offering to help after they bumped into each other on the street, only for him to slap her hand away and deliver the same line.
...Actually, now that I think about it, that's even more insufferable.
The reason I remember this scene so vividly, apart from seeing similar lines in a dozen other dramas, is that the streamer watched it happen and deadpanned, 'Welp, this bastard's a lost cause,' and immediately tried to switch to a different route.
Problem was, that exact exchange was the entry event for Yoon Da-ho's route.
In the end, the streamer tried to restart the game, but got pummeled by an avalanche of donations and had to clear the route through gritted teeth.
Back then I laughed so hard my stomach cramped.
Now, of course, this was my opportunity.
A chance to properly get on Yoon Da-ho's bad side and to get even more firmly close to the female protagonist, Yu Ha-neul.
Since the scene had left such a strong impression, I knew exactly what line was coming next.
"Working-class—"
"Working-class? You think that means we're clueless about everything?"
I slid in just in time to snipe Yu Ha-neul's line.
To be fair, she had run into him without looking where she was going in the moment. So she apologized properly and, with genuine sincerity, tried to cover the cost of the torn clothes and even the slight scrape.
Even so, Yoon Da-ho had flatly rejected the compensation and said that to her.
Sure, Hwayeong High School's uniforms are expensive. And someone like Yoon Da-ho, who only ever receives the highest-tier care at a university hospital, might reasonably assume the medical bills would be pricey.
But not so expensive that a 'working-class family' couldn't afford them.
The uniform might be pricey, but it wasn't a multi-million-won designer piece, and no matter how expensive hospital care is, treating a small scratch barely costs anything.
The one who knows nothing about working-class families is Yoon Da-ho himself. It was no different from a foreigner who knows nothing about Korea asking, 'Oh, can you even eat beef in Korea?' Discrimination born from sheer ignorance.
Yoon Da-ho's mouth fell open. Even Yu Ha-neul, who'd been about to speak, seemed to lose her words for a second.
"Think about it rationally. The question of whether it's okay to hit someone is just a basic moral issue. If having money means you go through life forgetting that, then you're basically just saying the rich are all a bunch of brainless pricks."
I stared straight up into Yoon Da-ho's shaken eyes. Truthfully, I was just running my mouth with whatever came out, but that was enough. Because from his perspective, I must've seemed to have snapped out of nowhere.
"Also, you keep saying 'working-class' this and 'working-class' that, and I really don't get what standard you're using. From where I'm standing, you're no different from working-class. I can't fathom why the number-two player in the business rankings thinks he can throw his weight around in front of number one. As far as I can see, you and the average person on the street are basically splitting hairs."
What? Mad about it? Are you mad? If you're mad, then try being number one. The family of thieves who got themselves an engagement just to gnaw a tiny piece off the top-ranked fortune sure has a lot of bluster.
Okay, strictly speaking, that wasn't much of a logical argument. How much of a gap could there really be between number one and number two? It certainly wasn't a chasm so massive that 'working-class' and 'number two' could be treated like splitting hairs.
So I was expecting a counterargument to fly my way at that point, but Yoon Da-ho only glared at me, seething, without managing a single rebuttal.
"Hm."
Silence settled for a moment. Not just Yoon Da-ho and Yu Ha-neul, every kid in the classroom who'd been watching us had frozen solid.
Had my statement really been that nuclear?
Well, everyone here besides Yoon Da-ho is ranked below number two. Now that I reconsidered, if I'd made that remark outside of school, it wouldn't have been strange at all to see it splashed across the news as a declaration that I looked down on the entire nation.
"Oh, but there is one thing this guy doesn't know."
Having said that, I narrowed my eyes again and glanced at Yu Ha-neul.
"He and I are engaged."
"......Uh....... Ah, e-eng—engaged!?"
Yu Ha-neul, who'd been gaping, shrieked in shock at my words. Right, we are a bit young to be tossing around words like engagement.
"I suppose that makes it all the more true that he shouldn't be using violence against me. Anyway, I'd appreciate it if you'd let go of my arm now. It's starting to go numb."
It wasn't just numb, actually—my fingertips were bone-white. With the sensation starting to fade, it wouldn't have surprised me at all if where Yoon Da-ho was gripping had already begun turning a vivid purple.
"......."
Yoon Da-ho, after that verbal pummeling, finally released my wrist. Though his eyes kept boring into me.
No idea what he thinks he did right to glare like that.
"Shall we go?"
It was the entrance ceremony, so I hadn't even brought a bag. There was no reason to go back inside and collect anything. The orientation pamphlets weren't useful beyond the ceremony day anyway.
"Uh, yeah......."
Yu Ha-neul answered, a little stiffly.
We left a still-smoldering Yoon Da-ho behind and headed out of the school.
Only then did I notice that students from the neighboring classrooms had crowded against their windows to stare at us.
What a spectacular debut.
*
"Um, h-hey, your arm—does it hurt?"
After we'd been walking in silence for a while, Yu Ha-neul hurried up behind me to ask.
"Oh, this. I'm fine."
It actually hurt like hell. While he'd been crushing my wrist earlier, I hadn't felt much, but now that I was free, a dull throb had set in, probably the fabric of my sleeve rubbing against the bruise. The way it stung and ached confirmed I was definitely going to have one.
But I didn't feel like showing it, so I put on a front. Besides, we were still in our winter uniforms, so nobody would find out anyway.
"Oh, yeah, okay......."
Yu Ha-neul seemed slightly intimidated, probably a little spooked after watching me tear into Yoon Da-ho so boldly. Had I gone overboard?
"Ah, right!"
Or so I'd thought, but that was completely wrong.
"That great restaurant I mentioned earlier! Want to go together? Since we got out early today—"
"Mm."
It was nice that Yu Ha-neul had bounced back, but that didn't mean I could go with her.
A black car was parked near the school gate. And beside it, Yang Hye-in was standing, waiting for me.
And—
"Ha-neul!"
Outside the gate, about six kids in a different school uniform from ours had gathered, waiting. Probably her middle-school friends who'd enrolled at another high school.
"Looks like your friends are waiting?"
"Uh, but, I mean, we could still hang out...... couldn't we?"
Under my gaze, Yu Ha-neul seemed to deflate a little again. Though, with my eyesight, I couldn't really read her expression well.
This Sixth Sense thing is seriously useless. That said, the more I looked, the more my eyes were adjusting to the blur, so if I kept at it every day for a few more months, I might actually be able to see Yu Ha-neul without squinting.
"I'm sorry, but I do have a prior engagement. I think I need to head off first."
When I said that, Yu Ha-neul finally gave a nod.
"Right...... if you've already got plans, I guess there's nothing for it. Then......"
"Then, I'll see you tomorrow. At school."
When I smiled and said that, Yu Ha-neul nodded again and answered, "Yeah," a bit listlessly.
We parted ways in front of the gate. Me, toward the black car that would take me to the mansion. Yu Ha-neul, toward the friends who'd been waiting outside.
"Welcome back. You've worked hard, young lady."
The moment I reached the car, Yang Hye-in bowed deeply at a perfect ninety degrees in a formal greeting. I accepted it with a nod, and just before getting into the car, I glanced over at Yu Ha-neul one more time.
She was standing a little apart from her friends, looking my way.
I gave a small wave, and only then did Yu Ha-neul smile, wave back at me, and rejoin her group.
"It seems you've made a friend,"
Yang Hye-in inquired quietly.
A friend, huh.
......Calling her a friend feels like a stretch when my reasons for talking to her were so calculated. My goal was survival, after all.
"......Who knows."
I couldn't bring myself to just outright call her my friend, so I answered somewhat vaguely.
*
Among the kids gushing about how pretty the uniform was, how incredibly fancy the school looked, and everything else they'd seen today, one of them asked Ha-neul a question.
"Oh yeah, but that girl you walked out with earlier. The one with black hair who looked super quiet and demure. She was so gorgeous. Is she already a friend?"
"Uh......."
Yu Ha-neul, who'd talked about the school but hadn't gotten around to everything that had happened inside, found herself at a loss for words.
......We're friends, right?
But even as she thought that, Yu Ha-neul couldn't feel certain.
At first, she'd believed that Sara saw people without any class-consciousness, but during that exchange with the boy Sara had called her fiancé, she'd felt a definite air of condescension.
Could she be one of those types who had so much money that they thought nothing of anyone below them?
"Hah."
What am I even thinking right now? Yu Ha-neul let out a laugh at how ridiculous she was being.
Sara was the first person at school to actually listen to what she had to say. That stuff she'd said was probably just in defense of her, too.
Of course, they grew up in different worlds, so they wouldn't have the exact same way of thinking. But that gap was something they could bridge over time.
"Yeah. She's the first friend I made at this school."
Yu Ha-neul decided to think of it that way.