Became a Social Outcast
Suddenly I felt a sense of betrayal.
Whether they had only been pretending to be friendly or had genuinely tried to get close to me, the male students who used to hang around me now wouldn't even spare me a glance. They were too busy looking the other way.
It was hard to believe something like this could happen in just a few days. I had half intended for it to turn out this way, but now that it was real, a hollow, sorrowful feeling settled in my chest.
The only silver lining, if you could call it that, was this.
You have acquired 1 Point.
"Can I borrow an eraser?"
"U-uh..."
I was starting to get closer to Jeong Ayeong.
As if I had poked at some old PTSD, she answered timidly with her eyes cast down. Even so, I could feel her gaze flicking toward me every so often.
I deliberately tilted my head just enough to meet her eyes.
Ayeong's eyes went wide, as if she had taken a physical blow.
"You should look at me when you answer."
"O-okay..."
"Good girl."
This was a good development. I didn't have the time to waste on the male students who squealed at the slightest thing.
When I stared at Ayeong without blinking, her reactions became almost comically lively. Her body twitched; she kept wondering why I was looking at her and tried to dodge my gaze.
Then—
"D-do you need something...?"
"Nothing. I just thought you'd look pretty if you cut your bangs."
Her expression went past awkward and straight into the verge of tears. As if she had taken a direct hit to the heart, she buried her face against the desk to hide it.
Her large chest flattened against the wood, and from the side the view was spectacular.
Ugh, she really was cute.
Even when she was frustrating, that pretty face made it easy to forgive her. Was this what people meant by a nerd girl?
"Uuuh..."
Ayeong let out a pained little sound while still face-down on the desk.
It wasn't a chronic illness or arrhythmia. She had simply been hit with a full-force crush on Han Sein.
A classic heart-throb.
She was twenty years old, yet she was still a complete romantic novice. After more than three years of relentless bullying, she had never managed to make a single friend, let alone a boyfriend. Her personality had grown steadily more withdrawn, and the only things that comforted her were online communities and programming.
In a way it was only natural. She was bullied at school and too frightened to go outside, so the only leisure she could safely enjoy was whatever she could do from the comfort of her own bed. Finding something she could do in the safety of her room and pouring herself into it—that was the best a bullied student could manage.
But now her world was beginning to change.
The communities she frequented were always full of sensational stories. As a student she inevitably absorbed every wild rumor about men. Yet the Han Sein she saw with her own eyes was nothing like the men those forums described.
Aside from those red eyes, he was a handsome male student who treated her as if it were the most natural thing in the world. And was his personality rotten? Not at all. She kept remembering that soft, gentle voice and the way he had stepped forward without hesitation to help her.
To Ayeong, who had grown used to nothing but gender conflict and horror stories online, he was a completely new kind of shock. And that shock, put another way, was the flutter of first love.
It announced the beginning of her first love.
—Poke, poke.
How long had she kept her face buried in the dark desk? A light touch on her shoulder made Ayeong slowly lift her head.
If it had been Park Hyorin, she would have been smacked across the back of the skull first. Instead, the end of her raised gaze found Han Sein.
The more she looked at that face, the harder it became to keep her expression under control. In her head she had already imagined their grandchildren.
Sein spoke in his usual deadpan tone.
"It's fourth period—Computer Science. Let's go."
"Ah... okay."
The corner of Ayeong's mouth twisted into a crooked little smile. More precisely, it was a smile laced with pleasure.
As she slowly rose from her seat she felt the stares. The other girls in the class were looking at her with open envy. Sein treated only her with this strange, special friendliness. He exchanged greetings with the other girls, sure, but there always seemed to be a wall between them.
So the other girls' eyes mixed jealousy with longing—something almost instinctive. Ayeong understood it at once.
But her expression darkened a little.
She knew better than anyone what Sein's position in this class was becoming. She couldn't simply feel happy about it.
Ayeong thought of Kim Hyeongmin—the boy who had tormented her since middle school. The first and most vicious method he used was always the same.
"......."
He made the entire class treat his chosen toy like an invisible person.
Right now, not a single person was speaking to Han Sein. Compared to the first day of school, the situation had completely reversed.
Ayeong couldn't erase the anxiety rising in her chest. She simply walked, step by step, toward the computer lab.
"Whoa, that's insane."
"It's nothing special..."
They say even a caterpillar has a talent for rolling, and in Computer Science class Jeong Ayeong was basically Lü Bu reborn. She seemed to have an absurd gift for programming. Even the problems that looked genuinely difficult she solved without breaking a sweat.
I had zoned out for a moment and suddenly the lesson had raced far ahead, leaving me gasping for air. Meanwhile the girl who had been zoning out right beside me was casually typing away as if nothing had happened. She was even writing down material that wasn't in the lesson at all. She was clearly a genius.
"You already know all this?"
"Yeah... it's fun."
"You're good at math and good at computers, huh."
"C language."
"Hm?"
"It's C language."
"Ah, right. C language..."
Was that really so important?
Anyway, Ayeong was clearly weak to praise; she made no effort to hide the way the corners of her mouth kept twitching. Or rather, she simply couldn't hide it. Unfamiliar things always worked that way.
So I launched a special Han Sein praise offensive.
"You're seriously amazing!"
"H-huuh..."
"You're the best."
"I... I'm the best..."
She's the best, she's the best, she's the best! Our Ayeong is number one!
I poured every ounce of my soul into the forbidden technique. Ayeong's cheeks grew steadily redder. The eyes that already couldn't meet mine started trembling violently. The hands that had been flying across the keyboard gathered neatly together and fidgeted. Her breathing turned unstable—somewhere between sticky and sweet.
"I heard competent women are the sexiest."
"Hup...!!"
The word "sexy" must have worked like a stimulant. With ten minutes left in class she finished the remaining assignment in under a minute and muttered,
"S-sexy... Am I... sexy...?"
"...Y-yeah. Sexy. Definitely sexy."
Our eyes met for a split second.
Could a look alone make the back of your neck prickle like that? If I hadn't just experienced it myself I never would have believed it. My body locked up. The heat in her gaze was so intense it almost burned. The desire swimming in those eyes was on a completely different level from anything I had felt from other women. For a moment it even felt dangerous.
This time I was the one who looked away.
The awkward atmosphere only loosened when the end-of-class bell rang.
"Lunchtime."
"Eat well."
Lunch period arrived. We packed up our books and returned to the classroom. Students filtered out in their usual groups to eat.
Today was different from usual. Maybe because of the clear line that had been drawn, the male students who used to eat with me had long since vanished. That left only Ayeong and me alone in the classroom.
"Sein."
"Yeah?"
The atmosphere felt almost like a confession. No. Even if she had zero experience, we had only just reached the level of friends, right?
Ayeong's gaze as she looked down at me wavered. Her trembling voice and fidgeting fingers were full of anxiety. They say emotions are contagious—I felt a sudden dread that I was about to get hit by an eight-ton truck of sudden acceleration.
Ayeong's lips began to part.
I struck first.
"Ayeong."
"Se— u-uh?"
"Want to eat lunch together?"
"Ah, aah... Yes!"
Ayeong's face lit up instantly. Thankfully it hadn't been a confession attack; the whole mood brightened. That radiant smile briefly chased away the gloomy atmosphere that usually clung to her.
She could look that normal all along, and yet... Kim Hyeongmin suddenly felt even more hateful.
"I... I was going to ask you too..."
"Is that so."
"B-but why... with me..."
"We're friends, right?"
"We are...?"
Yeah. Friends.
It was the word that defined our relationship for now, and at the same time the word that would pull her emotions higher. A kind of line—and a safety device.
How would Ayeong, who had never had a single friend, react?
"Okay. Friends."
"Yeah. Friends."
In less than a week, Jeong Ayeong and I had become friends!
Carrying that enormous achievement, we headed for the cafeteria.
"C-can you really eat all that?"
"Yeah."
There were complicated reasons, but Ayeong stared at the mountain of rice and side dishes on my tray with open astonishment. Fair enough—it easily looked like two or three portions. But I had no choice. School lunch was free, and loading up now to cut food expenses later was only natural. Even if I made sure my sister ate a proper breakfast, I still needed to eat less myself. It wasn't overeating; I stayed within reasonable limits.
While we were getting the spicy stir-fried pork, Ayeong's body suddenly shrank in on itself.
"You don't like milk?"
"A little..."
Her reaction was way too strong for a simple dislike. She looked as if she had a thorn stuck in her mouth and couldn't hide the discomfort.
Standing around talking while the line moved wasn't ideal, so we quickly found a quiet table and started eating.
"Did you leave something behind?"
"Ah, no..."
Her expression was almost funny. Could opposite emotions really coexist like that? Anxiety sat thick on her face, yet the simple fact that we were eating together put a smile there too. An expression that was neither one thing nor the other.
And then her anxiety became reality sooner than expected.
"Oops!"
"……."
Park Hyorin's voice rang out behind me, and the cold wet sensation of liquid poured over the crown of my head.
It was far too blatant to call an accident. And yet not a single person in the cafeteria paid any attention to the "mistake."
"……."
"Oh my, sorry. Are you okay?"
The sour smell of milk filled my nose. It ran down from the top of my head, more dizzying than usual. White liquid dripped steadily through my black hair.
I quietly pushed my tray forward so the milk wouldn't get into the rice.