The School Idol Is Happy Today, Too
Today was Monday, which meant a full week had already passed since the world flipped upside down.
With a little time under my belt, I'd managed to figure out a few more things.
It was yesterday, I think — I'd been watching soccer out of idle curiosity when I realized Messi still existed in this world.
Not just Messi, either. Ronaldo, Neymar — they were all here.
They existed, sure… but the catch was that only their last names had stayed the same. Their first names were different, and so were their genders.
Messi's full name was now Lionella Messi. Son Heung-min had become Son Hyo-min.
As for their looks — before I'd landed in this reversed world, I'd once watched one of those "soccer player gender-swap ideal type World Cup" videos, and they looked exactly like that.
Still, their skills were the same as ever, so soccer remained fun enough to watch.
I had no idea what criteria decided who got gender-swapped and who didn't, but as long as it didn't happen to the people around me, I figured it wasn't my problem.
Anyway. On the way to school this morning, Maru had said,
"Chan, Chan! Who are you giving it to this time?"
—which sounded ominous enough that I checked the calendar to see what day it was. White Day.
Even in the reversed world, the absolute rule that guys give something to girls on White Day hadn't changed, which was probably why Maru had asked me that. The important part, though—
"Did I give something to someone?"
"Chan… even if you got half-bullied into it, you're supposed to remember, right?"
"…Yeah. Yeah, I know, but I just can't recall…."
"Oh, Chan. The kids begged so hard every year that you've been randomly picking one person and giving them something since middle school."
"…Do they actually like the snacks they get?"
"Of course! It's from our school idol!"
Idol? What kind of otaku nonsense—
This wasn't some light novel high school crawling with anime tropes. It was a normal high school. Where the hell did a "school idol" come from, and why did everyone keep calling me that?
But what was I supposed to do? I hadn't bought anything this year.
And for good reason — I'd been scrambling to make up the money I'd lost from missing my part-time shift a week ago. I couldn't exactly waste cash on a bunch of cheap snacks.
On the other hand, after hearing Maru talk, skipping the annual giveaway would probably crush the kids pretty hard….
"Wait, for real? They're gonna be so disappointed…."
"I feel a little bad about that… Should I do something else…?"
"Oh, right! It doesn't even have to be a physical gift — it's from our school idol, after all!"
That damn idol thing again….
Of all the things to become in a reversed world, why did it have to be something that left me fretting over this?
I was still turning it over in my head when we reached the classroom, and sure enough — the second the door opened, a pack of girls locked onto the back entrance with terrifying reaction speed.
Having that many people stare at you at once went past "awkward" and straight into "genuinely scary," so I really wished they'd cut it out.
I sent Maru in first, closed the back door, and headed for my seat. The eyes on me thinned out a little.
Curious what had happened, I looked over and spotted Maru in the distance, holding court with the girls.
"Hey, everyone~! Chan says he's sorry he couldn't buy snacks today, so he prepared something even better! You can look forward to it!"
That — that absolute lunatic—!
The girls' stares intensified after Maru's announcement, boring into me even harder.
I had no idea how long I endured those uncomfortable eyes before the front door opened and the teacher walked in.
Even she seemed to notice the classroom atmosphere was off, because she asked right away,
"What's going on? Why is everyone so fired up?"
And Maru, of course, answered.
"Chan promised to do something nice for everyone for White Day!"
"Oh my, is that so? I'm jealous. Youth. Teacher had her moments too, you know…."
I realized two things in that moment.
One: I might have still been holding on to a tiny bit of faith.
The faith that even if the reversed world had turned our school into something out of a light novel, the teacher would still be normal.
That faith.
Immediately betrayed….
…And two: I currently wanted to beat the living hell out of Maru.
I was staring daggers at him with that exact desire written all over my face, so Maru answered me in kind.
Index finger pressed to his cheek, head tilted just so—
"Hmm~? Why are you staring so hard? Do you like me that much?"
…I genuinely wanted to kill him.
I spent first period Korean History drowning in pure rage, and then second period rolled around.
Everyone started getting up and heading somewhere, so I asked the friend sitting next to me,
"Hey… what's this period? Where's everyone going?"
My friend nearly jumped out of their skin, flung their book and pencil case into the air, and whipped around to face me. And then they said—
"A-ah, ah! D-did you just… speak to me?"
Yes. You absolute weirdo.
I, in my infinite grace, just spoke to y— damn it….
On the surface, this friend was almost painfully pretty and cute. How had things ended up like this…?
Honestly, maybe I hadn't just landed in a reversed world. Maybe I'd fallen into a novel.
How else could a reaction like that even be possible in a Korean high school?
Was I having this dream because I was the kind of guy who watched otaku anime?
Could I even be sure I wasn't a brain in a vat right now…?
"A-ah, I'm so sorry! You went out of your way to ask me, and I should answer. I just got so overwhelmed with emotion, you know. About this period? Ah, right. But first — how do I know Chan-nim, you ask? Heh heh. It was after school, back in our first year of high school. Even then, Chan-nim was the brightest person in the whole school, and compared to Chan-nim I was nothing more than a tiny insect buzzing around a fragrant flower. But when I saw Chan-nim smiling on the way home after school, I was drawn as if by gravity, and I followed Chan-nim all the way to your house, and from that day I made a decision, and I wished — please, next year, let me be in the same class as Chan-nim. And so from that day on, every single day, I bowed one hundred and eight times toward the cross, and……."
…I was losing my mind. Truly…….
The world was already in this state, and still no meteor was falling, no sky was splitting open?
Don't lie to me, universe.
A world like this going under would be a net gain for the entire cosmos.
Well. It turned out to be music class.
Forgetting the schedule was on me, sure — but I had to tip my hat in genuine respect to the friend who spent the entire rest of break muttering when a few words would have done the job.
Our classroom was on the third floor; the music room was in the basement.
We filed in.
Maybe it was the underground location, but the place had the damp, warehouse-like feel of a storage room at first glance. That aside, the interior was packed with enough instruments that you couldn't possibly mistake it for anything but a music room.
A piano, of course, plus guitars, drums, a trumpet……. A trumpet?
Why was there a trumpet? Did our school even have an orchestra?
Anyway, the sheer variety of instruments was another reminder that our school, at least when it came to funding, was no joke.
The bell rang and class began.
Just as she'd announced last period, the teacher said we'd be learning a song.
She also explained the method — and that was where the problem started.
We'd all sing through it together once, and then each person would come up front and perform the whole thing solo.
It was a teaching method so cruel even Satan would have wept.
The teacher seemed at least somewhat aware of how vicious it was; after the students kept complaining, she changed it from one person to two. But going up front to sing was still nerve-wracking no matter what — the intensity had shifted, not the fundamental cruelty.
So the kids keeping up the chorus of complaints wasn't strange at all, and neither was the teacher, thoroughly fed up, mandating that every duo be a boy-girl pair and swapping the song for a love song.
What was strange was this world itself.
"Alright, we'll draw lots. Sit with whoever you get paired with."
With that, she started the lottery on the TV hooked up to her laptop.
Pairs formed one after another, and I still hadn't been drawn by the end.
Which meant the last remaining girl was my partner—
"Aaaah, this is destiny, it has to be! My prayers every night before bed have finally been answered! Aaaah, how can the world be so beautiful!"
"Aaaah! This is ridiculous, seriously. I'm going insane!! This doesn't count! Draw again, draw again!"
Of course the last girl left standing was that friend from earlier — pretty face, deeply unfortunate brain.
"What can you do, Chan? Like she said, maybe you two are destined. Stop making a scene and just practice already."
Haa… Fine. At this point, it was easier to just accept it as inevitable.
Worst case, this friend didn't hate me — if anything, she was on the "likes me" side of things, so it couldn't be that bad.
The trap was that the "liking" looked a lot closer to worship.
"Aaaah! Chan-nim! This is surely destiny, the red thread of fate—!"
"Okay, okay. Can we just practice?"
"Y-yes, of course. U-um… may I ask one favor?"
"…What is it?"
"Well…."
"Well?"
"It's just…."
"It's just?"
"I don't know if someone like me has any right to say this…."
"Don't know?"
"This humble one has but one earnest plea—"
"Just say it! I'll do it if I can!!"
I was going to die of frustration. If I left her alone, I'd clearly expire of natural causes long before she ever got to the point.
"When the song ends… could you give me one good, tight hug?"
"Sure! I'll do it! See, if you'd just said it like th… wait, huh?"
"W-wow! Th-thank you so much! I'll give it everything I've got — body and soul!"
"Uh… y-yeah…. Let's do our best…?"
…Huh?