Chapter 45
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: Preliminary Preparations (6)
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Yung wasn't always a stuttering shut-in kid, apparently.
Even though she was a Zainichi Korean, her sociable nature and pretty face made her quite popular back then. If anything, she was closer to one of the popular crowd.
She even chatted easily with her otaku friends without any prejudice, sharing all sorts of otaku info.
Thanks to that, she had plenty of friends in middle school, and lots of guys confessed to her.
Of course, she wasn't interested in dating back then, so she turned them all down.
But even someone like her had one big problem.
"Ow!"
"What? You okay?"
She had what people call a "lucky pervert" constitution.
She'd trip by accident and end up buried in the chest of some handsome guy walking in front of her.
-Thud.
"Ah, sorry."
"Nngh... I-It's, f-fine."
Or a good-looking guy would trip and pin her against the wall—stuff like that. She had a real lucky pervert vibe going on.
In middle school, it wasn't much of an issue.
It was a small local school with not many people, mostly kids she'd known forever, and they all knew about her quirk since she was little.
The trouble started after she became a high schooler.
When she entered high school and her friends went to nearby schools, Yung—who'd been hanging out in the top ranks of her class—ended up at a high school with a tough deviation score system, the Japanese equivalent of a strict grading scale.
She'd originally planned to go to a school nearby, but her parents strongly opposed it, and that was that.
"You can aim higher than that."
"Honey, it'll be so much easier to become a lawyer or doctor from there. Okay?"
Her parents saw their kid not as an individual person, but as a trophy.
But up to that point, things were still fine.
She made friends at the new school too.
Then, about half a year into high school, it all blew up.
Rumors started spreading at school—weird ones about her.
Rumors that she was deliberately tripping to seduce guys or throwing herself into their arms.
At first, Yung ignored them. This kind of gossip was common in her old school too.
Those things usually died down if you just stayed quiet.
And that's pretty much what happened.
Only the people who hated her were spreading it; it wasn't the mainstream opinion.
The real problem came next.
There was this senior famous for being super handsome.
He was dating someone in Yung's grade, but suddenly dumped her and confessed to Yung.
The only interaction they'd had was him helping her once when she nearly tripped.
It was already sketchy, but his confession line was something else.
"I felt fate with you!"
He claimed he'd felt destiny from that one little help and confessed to her.
You might think that couldn't happen in real life, but reality's a sewer sometimes.
Naturally, Yung rejected him.
She figured that would calm things down.
But no.
Whether it was his ex or whoever, people started rumors again—this time saying her "lucky pervert" acts were all deliberate seductions, and she'd already hooked a few guys.
The difference was, this time it reeked of real malice, sticky grudges, and clear intent.
Yung handled it the same way.
She smiled like always, said the rumors were fake, that there was no way, and quietly kept going to school.
Of course she did. At home, she had to be the good daughter. No making a fuss.
She hoped it'd pass quietly like before, but sadly, it didn't.
In middle school, she had long-time friends; here, she didn't.
Before she knew it, she was isolated, a total outcast.
She had to check her shoes in the shoe locker every time she arrived at school. Last time, she'd gotten pricked by pins.
Then she'd rush to the bathroom, grab a mop, and clean the graffiti and insults off her desk.
Her locker was stuffed with all sorts of filth.
Yeah, she'd been branded the school's plaything.
Even so, she kept going to school quietly.
They treated her like air, but she attended classes diligently, aced the pop quizzes, and stayed in the top ranks.
That just pissed off the ones with grudges even more. They started spreading rumors too vile to repeat, crossing way over the line.
Like her doing compensated dating, selling her body, or giving it up to anyone who asked.
Yung figured if she stayed quiet a bit longer, the baseless crap would fade.
But reality got even shittier.
While she kept her mouth shut, she became the school's public slut.
Makes sense, right?
Well, even in Korea it's not much different, so Japan probably wasn't either.
The worst part? She overheard her old friend saying that stuff while hiding in the bathroom.
From then on, Yung stopped talking much and started stuttering around others.
Humans' two-faced nature had traumatized her.
Already seriously considering dropping out amid the personality-assassinating rumors and bullying, the incident that finally ended her school life happened.
She was reading quietly in the study hall late to avoid people, but some delinquent seniors—rumored to have yakuza ties—spotted her.
"Hey, how much for some compensated dating?"
"Yeah, yeah. Let me have a go too~"
"Heh. You guys hogging her? My turn!"
The delinquents grabbed her, dragged her to a secluded spot, and demanded she give them her body.
"N-No... I h-hate that!"
No, it wasn't a demand—it was a threat.
"Hey, we're being nice here. You think you can say no?"
"Man, she's so innocent~"
"That's what you get for not managing your rep."
"Kyaa—mmph! Mmph!!"
"Heh heh. Screaming like that ruins the fun."
They pinned her arms and mouth, trying to rape her.
Luckily, it didn't happen.
"You punks! What the hell are you doing!!"
A strict PE teacher famous for patrolling spotted them.
After that, Yung made it home safely, but her spirit was broken.
She was scared of men now. People in general, but men especially.
So she holed up at home.
Actually, she couldn't even do that. Her parents called their runaway daughter a coward.
Her family scolded her for tarnishing their reputation instead of comforting her and told her to go back to school.
She found her parents so repulsive that she went to live with her uncle and aunt, who'd doted on her before.
Thanks to her skilled programmer uncle, she learned coding.
She spent a few years there, learning programming and job skills, saved up, went independent, and that's how she got to now—that was Yung's life story so far.
"Sniff... B-Because of this stupid constitution, I just cause trouble for everyone... Make people worry needlessly..."
I listened to Yung for a bit, then snapped my fingers.
-Snap.
As soon as I did, the life drained from her teary face. I sighed deeply.
"Haa..."
Honestly, her story sounded hard to believe from my perspective.
I'd been half-forced to quit school right at the start of my first year, after all.
Even when Haruka had a similar experience before, I couldn't relate for the same reason.
Is high school really full of this much bullying?
I'd heard it was all dreams and hope.
Parents, well, they can be like that.
If not, there were two possibilities: both were special cases, or...
'She's lying.'
I hate interrogating like this personally, but I need to check the truth.
If she lied to me...
'Like before... Nah, just let it go.'
No need to act like old times here. Think of it as stepping in shit.
So I asked her under hypnosis.
"Yung, everything you just said is completely true, right? Not a single lie?"
"Yes..."
"One more time. Lua, is all that the truth?"
"Yes..."
Good, no lies in what she said.
'Haa... Alright, glad it's real.'
I relaxed for a moment. But then it made even less sense.
'Why'd she apologize to me, then?'
Why apologize? I didn't get it.
She hadn't done anything wrong, really.
All she'd done was react lukewarmly to the rumors.
If it were me, I'd have buried it under bigger scandals, Korean politics-style.
"Yung. Why'd you apologize to me?"
"B-Because of my weird habits, I showed you ugly stuff... I think it's all my fault..."
"Did you feel the same way when those high school friends bullied you?"
"Yes..."
Is she a pushover or just saintly?
I pondered while she was still hypnotized.
If you empathize with her words and comfort her, she will be...
The tip suggested that, but ending it there? Is that true salvation? I thought about it.
"That's not for me to decide."
It's up to her.
If it's not her choice, it's meaningless.
Right now, I'm just clearing the screen's mission.
Probably, release the hypnosis, empathize a bit, and she'll save herself.
'But.'
Even if the mission fails, I had something I wanted to tell her.
I released the hypnosis and said,
"Honestly, I can't say there's zero fault on your part in that story."
"Y-Yes?"
"At least when you left school, you should've punched those bullies in the face."
"Eh?"
"If someone's hating on you for no reason, give them one. If they slap your right cheek, smash their jaw. And make the reason about them, not you."
"Th-That... Yes...?"
Yung didn't seem to get what I meant.
So I spelled it out.
"In other words, even if someone hates you, don't blame yourself—blame the asshole who made them."
Finally, she seemed to understand.
"B-But that'd be a nuisance..."
"You can nuisance the shit out of the guy who slapped your face."
"R-Really okay?"
"Yeah. At least to the ones screwing with you."
"R-Really?"
I nodded every time she asked.
"Sniff... R-Really? Really okay? Shouldn't I just stay quiet...?"
Hearing my affirmation, the knot in her heart seemed to unravel—tears welled up in her eyes, hidden by her bangs.
I gently brushed her hair back from her forehead and said,
"Stay quiet, and they see you as a pushover and slap you again. That's the world. Hit both their cheeks first."
"Pfft. Wh-What even is that..."
She laughed through her tears at my bluntness, cried and laughed for a while, then got sleepy and started dozing off. I laid her down comfortably.
Once in bed, already exhausted Yung was on the verge of sleep. Before drifting off, she murmured to me,
"Th-Thank you so much..."
The side episode complete screen popped up, but more than that, I hoped she'd rest easy.
After leaving her room, I said to Miharu-san, who'd been waiting,
"Let's go now."
"Yung is..."
"Sleeping peacefully, so don't worry."
Miharu-san's eyes went wide at my words. She peeked into Yung's room, confirmed she was asleep, and gave me a relieved look.
'Am I that untrustworthy?'
Thinking that, I headed to the entrance with Miharu-san to leave Yung's house.
"That's why girls flock around him..."
Before we left, I caught Miharu-san's quiet mutter, but it was probably my imagination.