An Unordinary Man, a Woman Trying to Be Ordinary
Friday was a good day for just about everyone.
For the office worker grinding through the week, it meant the golden weekend ahead. For the student buried in endless studies, it promised a more leisurely tomorrow. A day most people could agree felt pleasant—that was Friday.
But it never applied to Kang Hyeona.
Kim Hyeongmin was far more irritable than usual. Park Hyorin had caught an earful for no real reason at all. He hadn’t aimed any of that venom at Hyeona herself, yet it still left a kind of scratch—the sort of irritation that settles under the skin.
Wasn’t that how it always went? The work you normally handled without a hitch suddenly blew up over some ridiculous excuse, and you were the one left cleaning up the mess. For Hyeona, that was right now.
It would still be a long while before the next wet-dream cycle. So what was the only real variable left?
Han Sein.
Only two days had passed since she first laid eyes on him, yet his life had already been turned completely upside down. As always, Kim Hyeongmin had marked him as more than just an ordinary toy. Family background, living situation, every scrap of environment—Hyeongmin had dug it all up with unusual speed. Proof of that was already visible: Sein’s academy life was deteriorating in real time. The students who used to cling to him now pretended he didn’t exist.
From Hyeona’s perspective, it was a bitterly sour sight.
Love at first sight? She had read about it in countless novels, had longed for it—and then it had actually happened. Yet she could never speak the feeling aloud. Cold reality forbade it. A toy marked by Kim Hyeongmin was something no one could ever defy. Sein would suffer, would crumble without end.
Human pain, she knew, came in two forms. The first was physical—the body’s agony. The second was mental—the torment of the heart. Hyeona felt the second kind constantly. Of course she did. The first man who had ever made her heart race was fated to become the untouchable “master’s” plaything.
Like anyone else, her mind refused to keep suffering. So the rationalizations began, smooth and natural.
In truth, she had never been excited by Han Sein at all. He had simply been a mysterious stranger she happened to glimpse. She had never even spoken a single word with him. In other words, Kang Hyeona started putting her heart in order. She piled on reason after reason, doing everything she could to quiet the turmoil inside her.
And then—
“Oh, sorry. You okay?”
From a little distance away, Hyeona watched the corner of the cafeteria with Kim Hyeongmin. Han Sein and Jeong Ayeong were eating together. Just as a flicker of envy stirred in her chest, Park Hyorin—following Hyeongmin’s order—began pouring milk over Sein’s head.
An apology tumbled from Hyorin’s mouth as if it had been an accident. Everyone knew it wasn’t.
The genre of the scene itself seemed to shift. Silence settled over the once-ordinary cafeteria of Hweorang Academy. A raw, open act of school violence. Yet not a single person spoke up. Everyone knew who had ordered it and whose power stood behind it; no one dared say the words out loud.
Hyeona quietly closed her eyes. Not because she couldn’t bear to watch Sein suffer—of course not. She was only resting them for a moment.
Perhaps it was coincidence, but in the middle of that dizzying scene her mind filled with the contents of a novel she had recently finished—one that had left a lingering aftertaste.
The Husband Waited in the Wheat Field.
The story of the male lead, the heroine’s official consort. During the ten years the female protagonist had run away, he had quietly performed the role of the household’s inner master. Even when treated unfairly, even when persecuted, he had preserved the dignity of a noble and the dignity of a husband. That character, that situation—those were what had moved Hyeona most deeply. The unyielding spirit a powerless, almost frail man could still display.
“It’s fine. It’s fine.”
“……?”
Hyeona’s eyes opened. She doubted her ears at the sound, then doubted her eyes at the sight.
Han Sein’s voice did not tremble. His expression did not shrink. In a situation anyone would call bullying—facing someone stronger and more frightening than himself, Park Hyorin—he calmly stated his own will. Exactly like the true heroine and official consort in that novel, like a man of dignified standing. Milk soaked him, yet he refused to be cowed by Hyorin’s presence; he shone brilliantly.
“I’m fine, so go.”
“Uh… uh…”
Even Park Hyorin looked so flustered she could only walk away with a dazed expression. Milk dripped steadily through black hair, from the crown of his head down to his neck. Even with his clothes soaked, he kept swallowing spoonfuls of rice. His face stayed exactly as he had claimed—completely unbothered.
Hyeona could say nothing. Yet in her mind, countless toys flashed past. Kim Hyeongmin’s toys. For at least nine years she had stood at his side and watched so many people break and wither. But she had never once seen a being shine like that. Everyone else had trembled with anxiety and fear, wanting only to escape the pain as soon as possible. Someone who stood tall, who radiated light the way the male lead of her novel had—such a person sent a deep wave through Kang Hyeona’s heart.
—Thump. Thump.
The feelings she had tried so hard to rationalize began to surge again. Kang Hyeona, twenty years old, an adult and a student of the Republic of Korea, started dreaming of a pure love that had no place in reality.
“Ah… tsk…”
A fishy smell rose thickly. Milk stench was something you never really got used to. Even if it was spring, the cold still lingered. Inside the academy the heating kept things warm enough, but going home would be the real problem.
—Whoosh.
I rinsed my hair lightly for now. If they were going to dump something, water would have been fine—why waste expensive milk? Just remembering the cafeteria still made my teeth grind. If the points hadn’t gone up, I definitely would have hit post-nut clarity. Getting bullied after coming to this world…
Anyway.
A sigh echoed through the quiet bathroom. What was I supposed to do about the clothes? I had put on a tough front and skipped cleaning up, and now I was regretting it. The soaked dress shirt and sweater weren’t completely drenched, but the sticky milk smell rising from them made them impossible to wear.
The one silver lining was that the nurse’s office was right nearby.
“…It’ll be fine, right?”
It would not be fine. The original Han Sein of this world shook his head with everything he had. Of course, that was just leftover knowledge talking; the one in control was still the me from my previous life. At worst it was just a short-sleeved T-shirt underneath, right? Aside from being a little damp from wiping off the milk, there was no real problem. Walking around in a milk-stinking uniform? Just imagining it was horrifying.
Still, I wasn’t completely out of options. The health office was on the first floor, so I decided to head there first. A faint sense of embarrassment crept up for no reason. Well—this world and this body were reversed. Even if I had lived a previous life, it was hard to claim this was completely “me.” Proof of that was the heat rising in my cheeks. I also felt a little chilly.
Please be careful of colds. Your body is frail.
Oh, for real? So I really was just cold? Well, bathrooms tended to be chilly, so it made sense.
Anyway.
Holding the uniform in one hand, I opened the door and stepped into the hallway. Lunch period was still going; girls’ eyes locked onto me. I didn’t acknowledge them—more accurately, I simply didn’t show that I noticed. Whether people stared or not, I was only heading to the nurse’s office. I ignored the whispers and the boys’ gazes alike.
—Knock knock knock.
Those two minutes felt like the longest in the world. Some girls stared openly; a few teachers even blinked and zoned out. In any case, after stopping by the health office I succeeded in borrowing a blanket as planned. When I explained that I’d gotten wet by accident, the male nurse handed it over without a word. Rumors spread faster than you expected. He was probably just another ordinary adult.
My steps back to class felt fairly light. It was Friday, after all—no need to worry about tomorrow’s clothes. The only problem was that roughly three periods still remained before the day ended.
Thinking about this and that, I returned to the classroom. The murmuring voices of the boys cut off at once. Had they been talking about me? Judging by the unhappy look on my precious seatmate Jeong Ayeong’s face, that seemed to be the case.
I walked slowly over to her side and heard a worried voice.
“S-sorry…”
“For what?”
“Th-the milk…”
“You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Still…”
The rising points spoke for her heart. She was probably blaming herself. I didn’t correct the thought. I simply kept talking.
“It’s fine. I can wash the clothes when I get home, and I already got a blanket.”
“Th-th-th-th…”
“Hm?”
“H-hurry and close it…!”
I casually opened the blanket to show her the inside. The T-shirt was still damp and sticky. It wasn’t like I was naked, yet Jeong Ayeong’s reaction went far beyond anything I expected.
—Drip…
A nosebleed gushed out. Even I couldn’t help being startled.