Chapter 230: Woke Up Famous
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 230: Woke Up Famous
The night before, after a fierce battle with Ivan, I managed to learn Hayate's final secret art, Nagi, and barely claimed victory.
After that, I rode home in a car driven by Boris, washed up quickly, and went to bed. I woke up to the sound of chirping sparrows.
Chirp! Chirp!
"......"
It seemed the fatigue had built up without me realizing.
Perhaps because I'd had a deep sleep for the first time in a while, my head felt clearer than usual.
But the moment I saw the bright sky outside my window, I realized something was wrong and shot up from my bed.
"Ugh!"
My left cheek throbbed as if I had a cavity, maybe because I moved so suddenly.
I cupped the spot where I'd been punched last night with my palm and checked the time.
[6:40]
"...Did I oversleep?"
It looked like I'd have to skip my morning workout.
Besides, it hadn't even been twelve hours since I took the Ghost Pill, so my body wasn't in the best condition anyway. In a way, it was a blessing in disguise.
Before leaving my room, I meticulously checked my body in the mirror for any bruises, then got dressed and headed to the kitchen.
"Good morning."
"You're up late today, aren't you?"
"I think it's because I got in a little late yesterday."
I poured a cup of barley tea and drank it as I asked my mother a question.
"Where's the President?"
"What are you talking about? The Miss President left the house a week ago, remember?"
"Ah, right."
I scratched the back of my head awkwardly and glanced at the storage room where the President had stayed for about a month.
'Yoo-Sung-kun! Breakfast is ready! Your mother's spicy stir-fried pork is delicious!'
The President's energetic voice still played on a loop in my head.
I guess that just goes to show how much she had infiltrated my daily life.
"How much rice do you want?"
"A lot, please. I'm starving."
"Alright."
I placed the heaping bowl of rice my mother handed me on the table and recalled something the President had said before.
'I plan to rise to the top of the Saionji family. That's the only way I can date you openly, Yoo-Sung-kun. Will you support me in that?'
Realistically, it's impossible for someone from a prestigious family like the President to date an ordinary commoner like me, let alone a Zainichi Korean.
That was why she had run away from home and why we had dated in secret.
But we couldn't hide it or keep it quiet forever.
Unwilling to break up with me just because her family opposed it, the President had returned home with the ambition of taking control of the Saionji family in place of her grandfather, who had collapsed on the day of her engagement ceremony.
She said she would ask for my help if she needed it, but seeing as she hadn't made any requests so far, it seemed she planned to handle it on her own from the start.
Well, that was just like her.
"Eat up, and have some more. I made plenty of braised pork and potatoes."
"Ah, yes."
Pulled from my thoughts, I heard my mother, who was wiping her wet hands on a dishcloth, and hurriedly began to eat.
*
After finishing an extremely standard breakfast of white rice, braised pork and potatoes, and miso soup, I quickly washed up and changed into my school uniform.
'The cultural festival is already next week.'
Monday, after the Saturday and Sunday break.
November 13th was the day of Ichijo Academy's cultural festival, the 'Fujiwara Festival.'
The reason the school festival was called the Fujiwara Festival is that the school's founders, the Ichijo family, are a branch of the Fujiwara (藤原) clan.
Yes, the same Fujiwara family as Fujiwara Sai, the man the President almost had an arranged marriage with.
Though, it seemed the Saionji family actually had more influence over the academy.
Click!
"I'm heading out."
"Okay~"
After saying goodbye to my parents, who were still eating breakfast in the kitchen, I opened the front door and stepped outside.
A blue sky, a wide-open view.
It was the same neighborhood scenery as always.
I like this town.
In modern society, where people's sensibilities are gradually drying up, a town where neighbors are full of affection is a rare thing.
I walked briskly down the stairs, glanced at our shop's sign, and headed for the subway station to get to school.
*
"Morning!"
"Hey, Ryuji."
"Good morning, Kim-kun."
"Yeah, good to see you too, Yaguchi."
I met the two of them, who were practically my neighborhood friends, at the subway station and greeted them warmly.
"Good morning, Oppa."
"Yuika, morning to you too."
We exchanged the usual pleasantries and boarded the subway heading to school.
"By the way, Kim-kun, what happened to your chin?"
"Huh? This? I bumped it a little while working out yesterday."
I said, laughing awkwardly.
The truth was that it was a bruise from where Ivan had hit me, but with the honor student image I maintained at school, it was hard to tell the truth.
Not to mention, I wasn't the type of person to get beaten up.
"Geez, you should be more careful. That must hurt."
"Hahaha, thanks for the concern."
Fortunately, Yaguchi didn't seem suspicious, and Yuika also appeared to believe me when I said I got hurt while exercising.
But it seemed the two ghosts tagging along with Ryuji weren't fooled.
「Hmm, you might be able to fool the Contractor, but you can't fool my eyes.」
Mahes suddenly flew over to my side, narrowing his eyes as he stared at my chin.
「Kim Yoo-Sung, I sense an unfamiliar ki from your body. It seems you fought another warrior yesterday, didn't you?」
How did he know?
As I flinched and stared at him, Mahes crossed his arms with a smug look.
「It's faded quite a bit, but I can still sense the lingering scent of ki on you. For the smell to be this strong, he must have been an incredible powerhouse.」
What is he, some kind of animal?
I gave the foreign ghost, who could apparently distinguish people's ki by smell, a look of disbelief.
Chiaki, who had been listening to Mahes's story with interest, seemed to have her curiosity piqued as well. She sidled up close to me and asked.
「So who'd you fight? If you were going to fight, you should've called Ryuji. So I could watch.」
"It's just... something that happened. It was related to Sasha's father."
「Sasha's father? You mean that crazy muscle-head we saw last week?」
He wasn't exactly wrong, but coming from him, it sounded kind of vulgar.
"...Yeah."
When I nodded in agreement, Mahes let out a "Hoh-" of admiration, as if recalling that day.
「I knew he was no ordinary man the moment I saw him, but I never imagined he was this strong. To inflict such a wound on the warrior of the sun, whom I have acknowledged.」
First, to correct one of his misconceptions, I wasn't any "warrior of the sun."
It was just a nickname the fight-addict Mahes had come up with on his own.
"You went through a lot, Yoo-Sung. Getting caught up in that kind of trouble."
Ryuji, who had finally grasped the situation after listening to the exchange between Mahes and me, patted my shoulder consolingly.
These were incidents he might have experienced himself if not for me, so while I was grateful for his comfort, I also felt a little uneasy.
It was because I felt like I was taking on all the hardships that Ryuji was supposed to face.
But it's good manners not to show such things, so I smiled and said thanks, then changed the subject.
After a few more stops, the subway quickly became packed.
It was the morning rush hour from hell, so suffocating that we naturally fell silent and fixed our eyes on our phones.
Well, that was perfectly normal, so it didn't bother me.
But for some reason, the back of my head felt itchy today.
How should I put it? It felt like someone was secretly watching me.
Being tall and having a menacing face, this wasn't the first time I'd received this kind of attention.
But today felt a little different.
It was as if I was being watched by a large, unspecified group of people.
I could have expressed my discomfort, but in a crowded place like this, telling people not to look would be an inconvenience in itself, so I decided to just bear with it until I got to school.
I figured the attention would fade away if I just didn't react.
But what do you know?
Contrary to my expectations, the feeling of being watched followed me all the way until I got off at the school's station.
And it was only after I arrived at the school gate that I realized why I was getting so much attention today.
"There he is! That's the student, Kim Yoo-Sung!"
To my surprise, what greeted me as I arrived at school was an incredible number of cameras.
*
"Kim Yoo-Sung-kun! Are you the person in the video that's currently going viral online?!"
"What is your relationship with Japan's pride, the four-time GOF champion, Fuma Kotaro-san!"
"Could you please share your personal thoughts!"
"How did you come to know Chairman Ivan, the head of the Easter Egg Company!"
A feast of questions poured down on me from all sides, like a barrage of cannon fire.
I looked around, completely dumbfounded.
Dozens of broadcast cameras were surrounding me, filming me intently.
'How did this happen?'
I had no clue.
What viral video were they even talking about?
I'd been so busy training for the past week that I hadn't had a chance to watch Niconico Douga or YouTube. I hurriedly took out my phone and searched.
And there it was, proudly sitting at number one on the real-time trending videos list.
It was a fancam, filmed in real-time, of me fighting Fuma Kotaro on the street when he suddenly attacked me a week ago.
"...Shit."
I'm so fucked.