Strange Things Keep Sticking to My Little Brother
Seoul International High School was a prestigious institution directly operated by the nation. Commonly referred to as a gifted school, it stood as Korea’s top elite high school. The admission requirements were notoriously strict, and the competition wasn’t limited to domestic applicants alone. In return, simply graduating from here guaranteed recognition of your abilities by any major corporation in the world.
Naturally, the single position of student council president at a school like this carried influence that couldn’t even be compared to other schools. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call her the face of all Korean high school students. The very symbol of Korean academic excellence! The icon of Korea’s intense youth education fervor. Every year, the student council president received a presidential commendation upon election. And yet…
“Ughhh…”
In Class S of the third-year cohort, the students kept stealing glances toward the back of the room with disbelieving eyes throughout the morning classes. The student council president, who always sat in the back and was respected as an elite who devoted herself completely to her studies, had been slumped over her desk the entire fourth period, unable to focus.
Rain or shine. Fever or not. Even when she had a cast on from being dumped by her little brother. She had always been the type to study like a perfectly calculated robot. Was she slacking off because this was her final year before graduation? No, if she had been that complacent, she never would have become student council president in the first place.
From the very beginning, none of her classmates in the same class would ever think of Han Chaewon as some kind of slacker. So then, who in the world had broken their queen like this?
Ring ring ring~♫
The bell signaling lunch break rang. As usual, Chaewon unconsciously reached for the five-layer lunchbox she had prepared to eat with her little brother. But the moment she opened the container, it hit her. Today, there was no little brother to share all this food with.
“I’m going to try eating with Elena on Monday.”
Her little brother, who had recently made a friend and was over the moon about it, had told her last night with a bright smile he had never shown her before.
“O-Oh… I see…”
And she had given him permission. Even though she had already finished packing the lunchbox… In her heart, she wanted to grab onto his pants leg and beg him to keep eating with her. But Shinwoo would hate that. So she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
If only she had been better developed than that girl. Mom approved, her little sister didn’t have the power to stop it, and she herself… fell short physically. That sly fox. Aside from her body, Chaewon was overwhelmingly superior in every other way.
In this prestigious high school, the difference between grade levels was completely different from regular high schools. In a place that valued ability above all, grade level was the most basic hierarchy. While it wasn’t a rigid caste system, the school’s policy of grade retention meant the gap between upperclassmen and underclassmen was like heaven and earth.
And among the mere four third-year classrooms, Class S gathered only the most outstanding talents. Even the class president of Class A—the best among the twelve first-year classes—would be nothing more than a trivial achievement in the eyes of Chaewon, who had already served as vice president since her first year.
“Hic… Sob…”
To think that the great Han Chaewon was shedding tears over just one guy like that. The student council president, who had been eating the charred egg fry she had made herself, suddenly began sobbing uncontrollably. The classmates who had been eating their lunches in the same room froze mid-bite, completely stunned by the sudden situation.
What on earth was going on with her today? The entire Class S, who had been looking forward to seeing that male underclassman again today, had suddenly fallen victim to this disaster. Should they bring the vice president from Class A next door? How were they supposed to comfort someone who used to be like an ice queen? Everyone was worrying when—
“Heyy. Student council president. Hiya.”
Like they say, speak of the tiger and it appears. A student opened the back door of the classroom, carrying her own lunchbox. The fact that she casually called out to Chaewon suggested she was a fellow third-year of similar status, yet if not for the high school uniform, one would easily believe she was an elementary schooler. A tiny girl with a childlike build.
Silver hair as shaggy as a wild beast’s fur. Grey eyes that always looked sleepy. A physique that made her believable as a friend of Shinwoo’s little sister, Mijin. The vice student council president of this prestigious school—Lee Hana.
“Vice president!”
“Please comfort the president quickly!”
The Class S students rushed over to the petite vice president and practically trapped her. Hana’s face ended up buried in someone’s chest… and for a moment, she almost fell asleep because the sensation felt so nice.
“Stop sleeping already!”
“Y-Yeah? Yawn. Even if you say that, I need to know why you’re all acting like this before I can help.”
“W-Well…”
In front of the classmates who had gathered around her, Hana, whose eyes always looked sleepy, couldn’t help but widen them when she saw Chaewon’s red, tear-swollen eyes.
“Huh…? Chaewon. Did you… cry?”
“……No.”
She totally cried. What the heck.
They had known each other since their first year, but this was such a shocking revelation that Hana found herself nodding alone in amazement. She had come over out of boredom only to witness her friend’s vulnerable side. In that case, as a fellow friend, it was only right to comfort her!
It was annoying, tiring, and she was sleepy, but Hana rubbed her drowsy eyes and decided to put in some effort this time. After thinking it over, the strategy she came up with was no different from what Shinwoo—someone who had zero social skills in his previous life—would have done.
It was simply building rapport.
“Yawn. Now that I think about it… Your little brother is pretty cool, huh?”
The classmates who had been watching the vice president with sparkling eyes all flinched. Hana, completely ignoring them, saw her friend’s tears stop abruptly and thought to herself that it was working. In her mind, she imagined a cool guy petting her head.
She continued speaking.
“It’s my first time seeing a guy, but he was the best one I’ve ever seen. If I had a little brother like that, I wouldn’t need any other wishes.”
“…So what are you trying to say?”
“Can I eat a meal with him sometime too?”
Bang!!
The sly smile on Hana’s lips snapped shut. When she looked up, Chaewon had completely stopped crying. She looked energized, but was it just her imagination that a red aura seemed to be radiating from her?
“Any more than this…”
“C-Chaewon?”
“I can’t let other women get close to Shinwoo…”
“Hwaaa… Did I… say something wrong?”
Hana looked around with a pale face. Seeing all her classmates nodding in unison, she went “Aha!” and scratched the back of her head. Meanwhile, Chaewon stood before her with a blazing expression. If there was a character in a manga who had completely surrendered to rage, this was exactly what they would look like.
“Chaewon. S-Spare me, okay?”
“I… I… I have to protect him.”
“Hwaaaaa… Her eyes have completely rolled back, haven’t they?”
“What’s wrong with her development anyway? If you can fit a stick between her breasts, that’s basically the same body, right?”
“She’s completely lost in her own world and saying embarrassing things without a care…”
Hana trembled like a mouse in front of a cat. On the verge of death, she squeaked out in grievance.
“W-Why are you doing this to me?! Just a little while ago, a second-year tried to take your brother away! I thought it would be fine for me too, so I came over! This is so unfair!”
“…Second-year?”
Those words brought Chaewon back to her senses. With a refreshed expression, she grabbed both of Hana’s cheeks instead of her shoulders. She had meant to grab her shoulders, but the height difference was too severe… Anyway, she kept questioning her.
“Hey, Hana. What do you mean? Tell me in detail.”
“Hwaaaang. I don’t really know either. I just went down to the first-year classrooms where your brother is a little while ago and happened to see it. So…”
Roughly ten minutes earlier.
This time, Shinwoo was sitting with his desk pushed against Elena’s, eating the lunchbox she had packed. True to her seriousness about food, he couldn’t help but swallow hard as he looked at the colorful side dishes.
“Why… are you just staring like that?”
“Ah, it’s just so beautiful…”
Shinwoo spoke in a slightly dazed tone. This wasn’t just a lunchbox—it was practically a work of art. There were expensive delicacies like eel and abalone among them.
“…! Hmph! It’s only natural… Eat before it gets cold. …I put some things that are good for a man’s body in there too.”
Elena had mumbled something at the end, but her voice was so quiet that Shinwoo didn’t catch it. He wondered if it was really okay to keep getting food from a friend like this. Feeling apologetic, he still swallowed the drool he had never shown in front of his sister’s charred egg fry.
And just as he picked up his chopsticks to finally eat—
“Shinwoo… underclassman. That’s you, right?”
A female student he had never seen before suddenly appeared beside him, politely clasping her hands. Shinwoo tilted his head, not recognizing her, but Elena immediately realized she was a second-year senior. The color of her name tag was different from theirs.
It was an unwritten rule not to bother someone while they were eating. Yet the next words from the suddenly appearing second-year senior were:
“Could you come with me for a moment?”
“Right now?”
“Yes. As for the meal… we’ve prepared something even more luxurious for you separately.”
At those words, even though she was a senior, Elena felt upset. The ‘Super Special Lunchbox’ she had made with help from the National Intelligence Service seemed about to go to waste.
But—
“Then I’ll go later.”
“Y-Yes…?”
“I already have a prior engagement with Elena.”
Shinwoo rejected her outright. Elena’s ruby eyes sparkled. He could have hesitated a little, but as expected, this was why she didn’t want to let him go.
On the other hand, the second-year senior whose plan had gone wrong from the very first step. Although she was facing a man, she trusted her own backing. So she decided to push a little harder this time.
“Shinwoo, underclassman. Our school, as you know, is an educational facility recognized worldwide, meant only for gifted individuals.”
“…! Really?”
“Yes. And given the atmosphere of a school like this, the etiquette between seniors and juniors is very strict.”
On the surface, she seemed to be explaining the school’s hierarchy in detail, but to summarize, it came down to this:
“As a junior, you should respect what I, your senior, say.”
A subtle threat. Even though she was the one speaking to a man, her own heart was pounding harder than his. But my backing is someone who wouldn’t dare touch even a man like him! Thinking that, the second-year senior secretly felt thrilled at the thought that she had intimidated a guy.
“Really? Then I’ll go too.”
However, the moment she saw the student council president who had approached from behind and draped an arm around his shoulder, she nearly fainted. Shinwoo also looked at his sister in surprise, not knowing when she had arrived.
Currently, his sister was radiating killing intent while carrying a cute creature around her waist that looked like Mijin’s friend.
“Uhehehe… Chaewon. No matter how you look at it, if you commit murder, you’ll get expelled…!”
“Shut up for a second. First I need to know who the opponent is. I have to see the face before I beat them up or whatever.”
“Ueeek… That still means you’re going to kill them…!”