The World Has Become Strange
The world has become strange.
I hate the world.
I hate my parents.
I hate myself.
If the world had been a little kinder to live in, if my parents had been a little more decent people, if I myself had been a little wiser, I wouldn't be living this miserably right now.
What sin did I commit to deserve a life like this?
It was last spring—around this time of year—that my parents left the world.
Dad came back dead two weeks after he went missing, and Mom wasted away from the shock until she finally passed.
All that remained for me afterward was an enormous debt. A gambling debt totaling 120 million won that, even now, at this very moment, continues to balloon at a terrifying speed.
Back then I was too stupid to renounce the inheritance in time. By the moment I learned such a system even existed, it was already too late. And because it was gambling debt, bankruptcy or personal rehabilitation were off the table. I had no choice but to pay it off with nothing but my own income.
Of course a gambling debt of that size was never going to be normal. Sure enough, the loan sharks showed up two or three times a month and raised every kind of hell they could.
"Those fucking bastards…."
Mornings never put me in a good mood to begin with, but today I had overslept, skipped washing up entirely, and come out with nothing but a hat jammed down over my head. My temper was even fouler than usual. That was probably why I was muttering every curse I could think of when a bright, lively voice called out from behind me.
"Chan~ Lee Chan! Let's go together!"
The guy sprinting toward me from a distance was Maru, my childhood friend from way back—pretty much the only friend I had managed to keep all these years. That didn't mean I could tell him the full truth about my situation, though.
"Haaah… huff. Come on, walk with me already!"
"We'll see each other in the classroom anyway. Why bother?"
"You're seriously cold, you know that? No wonder you don't have any friends."
"……."
I couldn't exactly deny it, so I just kept quiet and let him talk. Even so, the stream of chatter that followed kept digging at something raw inside me. On top of that, Maru started complaining about how our school sat on a hill, how climbing it made his legs thicker, and a dozen other strange little gripes. I did my best to tune him out as we walked.
After the usual morning ordeal of climbing the hill and then the stairs, we finally reached the classroom. The second we stepped inside, Maru made a beeline for his girlfriend, who had arrived ahead of us, and launched into an over-the-top greeting.
"Babe, I'm here!"
"Babe! Why are you so late… I missed you so much."
"Ugh…."
They had been together until late last night, yet here they were putting on every sickening couple act imaginable. I left the eyesore behind and dropped into my seat. My mood, of course, only got worse.
That stretch of morning time before classes began was the one place I could empty out a little of the heaviness in my chest and pretend to be ordinary. A bare-minimum control mechanism so I wouldn't completely lose it, I guess. Still, the exhaustion won out. I folded my arms on the desk and dozed off for a bit.
I don't know how much time passed before the door opened and our homeroom teacher walked in. Our school shared teachers with the middle school in the same district, so I had known her since then. Personally we weren't close—she taught English—but she was young and pretty enough that she had an actual fan club among the students.
"Everyone take your seats. Let's start morning assembly."
Even this early, her appearance was flawless, not a single hair out of place. The whole class snapped to attention in an instant.
"…All right, that about wraps it up. You all know the counseling sessions for the kids who missed last time are today, right? We have to finish every single one by today, so don't forget to stay after. Especially you, Chan—you absolutely have to stay today. No excuses!"
"Yes…"
I had a part-time job right after school. This was going to be a problem. If I finished as fast as possible and ran the whole way, maybe I could still make it on time.
Haa… this really sucks.
I let out a sigh full of self-pity. Maru came over with a worried look on his face.
"Chan, something wrong? Why the long face? Did you skip breakfast? Want me to grab you some bread? Or are you feeling sick somewhere—"
"No… no, I'm fine…."
"Hmm… if you say so. Oh right—PE is free time today. What do you want to do?"
"I don't know…."
Sorry, Maru, but every time you hover like that it gets a little heavy. Feeling a twinge of guilt, I pulled the change of clothes from my bag and started to get ready. The moment I peeled off my outer shirt, the temperature in the classroom seemed to drop.
I glanced around, puzzled by the sudden shift, and found every girl in the room staring at me with terrifying intensity. Maru's jaw had dropped so far it looked ready to hit the floor.
"Why are you all—"
"Chan, are you insane?! This is the classroom!"
"What's the big deal… wait, your eyes are actually scary right now."
It wasn't just talk. His eyes really were scary—like the look Mom used to give me when I was little and in trouble.
"Crazy! Stop taking it off! Everyone's staring! Hey, girls! Eyes off him!"
Wasn't that a massive overreaction? I still had a white T-shirt underneath. It was just a regular guy's upper body. Who cared?
Before I could think anything else, Maru dragged me out of the room. He hauled me into a partitioned changing room.
A changing room? Did our school even have a boys' changing room?
We only ever had a girls' one. Girls went there to change; guys just changed in the classroom. When had this appeared?
After what felt like hours of Maru's dense, nonstop lecturing, I finally made it out to the field. It was March, still a little chilly, but the weather was the kind I personally loved.
Tweet—!
"Gather up, line up. You heard from the next class, right? Free time today, so do whatever you want. Just don't get hurt."
"""Yes!"""
"PE captain, get them warmed up. If anything happens, come find me."
With that, the teacher headed for the bench and started doing push-ups. We finished the warm-up under the captain's calls and scattered.
"Chan! What should we do? Just sit in the stands and talk?"
"Hmm… I kind of want to move around."
"Yeah? Hmm… what now?"
While we were still deciding, I spotted a group of kids clustered around a soccer ball in the middle of the field.
"Maru, want to play soccer?"
"Soccer? Us? Isn't that a girls' thing?"
"Huh…? What are you talking about?"
"Never mind! If you want to play, we'll play. Let's go! I'll talk to Jisu."
Maru grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the center. Up close I could see the group clearly—every single one of them was a girl.
…What the hell is this?
Did this even make sense? PE class, soccer of all sports—something that should naturally draw more guys than girls—and yet there wasn't a single guy in sight.
Actually, things had felt off all morning. On the way to school I'd seen a guy practically draped over a girl as they walked. The whole class had stared holes through me when I started changing. Maru himself had been weirder than usual. Looking back, the sense of wrongness had been stacking up the whole time.
Now that I was finally noticing it, something… something was definitely strange. It wasn't like anyone would stage a massive hidden-camera prank just to mess with a nobody like me. The only conclusion left was that the world itself had gone strange.
Strange world or not, getting the soccer game organized turned out to be surprisingly easy. Kim Jisu, Maru's girlfriend, seemed to carry real weight among the girls. One word from her and most of them nodded and welcomed us in.
"All right, let's divide teams quick with a captains' match."
"Okay~ Jisu's one captain. Who else?"
"What do you mean who? If Jisu's one, the other has to be the best too. Seola! Stop messing with the ball and get over here for rock-paper-scissors…! Hey! Hey! Come on already! We're playing a game!"
In this flipped world, Jisu and the girl they called Seola seemed to be the class aces. I already knew Kim Jisu a little through Maru, but Baek Seol was someone I'd never even spoken to. From the faint memories I could dig up, she used to give off a quiet, bookish vibe—the type who'd volunteer for library duty or blackboard cleaning. Not this energetic version at all.
Thinking back to before the world changed, it seemed people's personalities had shifted in small ways, the same way Maru's had. Maru only changed a little; this girl had changed a lot. The degree probably varied from person to person.
By the time I finished that thought, the teams were almost set. Maru and I ended up on opposite sides—probably because they figured our skills were about equal. Secretly pleased, since I was pretty confident in sports, I headed over to my new teammates.
"Uh… hey, everyone. Where should I go?"
"Ah—ah—ah?! Th-that… um… just one handshake…?"
"…Huh? Well, sure…."
The second I spoke first, the girl literally jumped in place. It was Seola—the same one who'd been casually dribbling the ball like we didn't even exist a minute ago. She stammered out a request for a handshake, looking desperately earnest. Half in a daze I held out my hand.
"Th-thank you! I'm never washing this hand for the rest of my life!"
"No, please wash it…."
She dropped the most over-the-top line imaginable. Whether that was the new world talking or just how popular kids acted, I couldn't tell—but it didn't feel bad. No guy alive hates getting flattered by a pretty girl. Even if one exists, I'm not him.
"Any positions left open?"
"Oh, right! Just pick wherever you want! Hehe…."
"Yeah? Then I'll take center. And you can drop the formal talk—speak casually."
"Aaa, okay! Looking forward to it!"
"Heh. Yeah. Let's do this."
While Seola was busy fawning, a few of the other girls were giving me openly skeptical looks. The worst of them kicked at the dirt and sighed loud enough for everyone to hear. They clearly knew center was the most important spot in school soccer and, for some reason, had already decided I couldn't handle it.
Fine. I'd just show them with my feet. The idea of playing the "secretly strong" card made my heart beat a little faster.
"Okay~ we're starting~!"