I Was Someone Who Needed a Friend
I was someone who needed a friend.
I'd only gotten ordinary pro-level skill, but given who I was up against, winning wasn't all that hard.
Is it because everyone's just starting out? They're all so green.
Sure, every so often someone flashed talent sharp as an awl, but none of them were good enough to beat me once I had pro-level play under my belt.
The result?
I hit Challenger within a month of picking League back up.
You have been promoted to Challenger rank.
That'll do.
Playing League again after so long had taught me a few things.
Chief among them: League of Legends was terrible for your mental health.
The goal I'd set for myself when I was given this new life was to live happily. The last thing I wanted was to sit around taking stress damage from a game.
This is far enough.
So the second I hit Challenger, I deleted the account.
I wouldn't be touching League again anyway.
2014.
I was finally eight years old.
And what did that mean?
It means I have to start elementary school.
The thought of spending time with other kids again made me bristle, but there was no way around it.
Born in South Korea, you had to go at least through middle school.
Can't I get a free pass for round two of life?
Of course not.
Baekho Elementary School
In the end, I enrolled at the elementary school closest to home.
The same one I'd attended in my previous life.
Elementary school wasn't really a problem back then.
I just didn't have friends. There was no bullying.
The boys had their usual pecking-order contests, but I'd always been dead last, so I never had to care much about that either.
Besides, this time I'm going in as a girl.
I wouldn't have to scrap for rank with little boys.
Back then, I still didn't know.
That I wasn't going to be the problem.
For a month after elementary school started, a quiet scouting war played out.
It was the process of deciding who was weak and who was strong.
Doesn't matter to me.
People said girls had their own power struggles, but that only really showed up in the upper grades.
Among first-grade girls, there was no such thing.
The problem was the boys.
Ordinarily I wouldn't have cared, but…
Lee Hajun, assigned to the same class as me, was the issue.
He was good-looking enough that the girls were always stuck to him, and that was never going to sit well with the other boys.
Which was how, on April 1st, 2014, he ended up getting challenged to a fight.
"Hey. After school, out on the field."
"Why?"
"We're throwing down."
"Me and you?"
Lee Hajun pointed at himself with wide, innocent eyes, then at the other boy.
"Yeah."
"That's not gonna work… You're shorter than me."
"Fighting isn't all about height!"
Hajun's accidental jab cracked the boy's solemn tone for a second, but he pulled himself together and pressed on.
"Ahem. Anyway, don't run. Show up."
At that, Hajun beamed.
"Okay, I'll be there! I'm gonna win anyway, so there's no reason not to!"
"We'll see if you're still making that face after I beat you up."
The kid—using some pretty strong wording for a first-grader—stalked off, and I turned to Hajun.
"You sure you can win?"
"Yep!"
"Based on…?"
"Because I'm the strongest after Yena."
"?"
Doesn't that just mean you're last place? I'm the only person he's ever fought.
"Just run."
Fighting wasn't a bad idea in itself. But that only applied when you had a shot at winning.
Honestly, the odds looked bleak for a kid who lost to me—someone who'd spent thirty years in a past-life body that topped out at 158 centimeters and 31 kilograms.
"Don't worry! I'll win!"
Where is this confidence even coming from…?
I couldn't begin to understand it, but once he'd said that much, all I could do was back off.
Even this kid had pride, after all.
"I can't wait!"
…He does, right?
After school, around sunset.
A crowd had gathered on the Baekho Elementary field.
All first-graders.
Roughly thirty of them, maybe.
Quite the turnout.
Can he actually win…?
I was honestly worried.
The kid couldn't fight.
When we'd sparred one-on-one for fun, he'd lost to me—that was how bad he was.
Haa. If he loses, I'll just comfort him.
Buy him the tteokbokki he liked. That ought to do it.
First-graders brawling weren't going to get seriously hurt anyway.
Still, better stay close just in case.
Close enough to step in anytime.
And right then, the fight was about to start.
Lee Hajun and the nameless boy faced each other.
"Ha! Didn't think you'd actually show without running! I'll give you credit for the guts!"
"I'm going to win. Why would I run…?"
"Grr! We'll see if you can still talk like that when this is over!"
Hooked by the taunt, the nameless boy swung a fist.
It was a first-grader's punch, so the power behind it was pathetically low. But against another first-grader, it still looked more than enough to land a critical hit.
Dodge—!
My eyes flew wide—and then the counter I never saw coming started.
Hajun caught the swinging hand, then drove his free fist straight into the nameless boy's solar plexus!
"Guh—"
The solar plexus hurt badly even when you braced for it.
Getting hit there completely open?
The impact went beyond imagination.
The boy crumpled, and everyone stared at Hajun with stunned eyes.
I was one of them, of course.
Come to think of it… I was the one who taught him that.
I'd been wondering how he'd even thought to aim for the solar plexus. No need. I was the one who'd told him it was a human weak point in the first place.
So… is it over?
I was still reading the room, wondering if the fight was finished, when he walked over to me.
"Let's go home!"
"Y-yeah. We should."
It was already almost seven.
The sun would be fully down soon, and it was better to be home before then.
Our parents would worry.
"I'm heading out first!"
"See you tomorrow."
Leaving the spectators and the boy still down from the solar-plexus hit behind, we headed home.
By the next day, the rumor had spread so fast that not a single kid was left who didn't know how the fight had gone.
"They say that guy's the Great Demon King Lee Hajun!"
"For real? With a face like that?"
"Don't fall for the face! The ones who let their guard down because of it end up getting their teeth knocked out and wearing dentures!"
What even is this…?
Somehow the kid smiling so brightly beside me had transformed into a creature you absolutely should not touch.
Well, he did beat the heaviest kid in the whole first grade. No wonder a rumor like that took off.
The boy Hajun fought had been fatter and taller than most. But Hajun was taller still, and any concern that he looked relatively skinny had been wiped out by yesterday's fight.
In other words:
There wouldn't be a single first-grader gutsy enough to pick a fight with Lee Hajun now.
Is this actually a good thing…?
If kids had kept coming at him like some kind of dojo-crusher gauntlet, it would've been exhausting. Ending it with one fight might actually be better.
He's not going to pull the mom card, is he…?
Truth was, kids had one more tactic available before adulthood: calling Mom.
Thankfully, though, this kid knew how to take a loss.
"I lost the fight. Tattling to your mom is what cowards do!"
The second I asked, the fierce reaction burst out—but it wasn't a bad one.
This kid's actually pretty decent, huh?
"Want some chocolate?"
"H-huh? Yeah, I'll take it if you're giving."
"Here. Eat up and hang in there. Life's long."
Whatever happened in elementary school got forgotten the moment you grew up anyway.
There was no need to load this fight with too much meaning.
Even if Hajun hadn't been the one to face him, somebody else would have ended up throwing down with that kid.
Still, school life's going to get easier.
Nobody would be picking pointless fights with him now.
Lee Hajun was the strongest in the first grade.
Alright. Time to enjoy a peaceful school life again.
"Yena, wanna try Buldak? It's this new ramyeon that just came out. People say it's insanely spicy, so I really wanna try it!"
"Sure, let's eat."
Weird?
Elementary school was surprisingly fun.
Why is it fun?
There had to be a reason. A reason it was fun.
I thought for a moment—and then it hit me.
Why school felt different from my past life.
It was fun because I had a friend…!
In my previous life, I'd been alone for all twelve years of elementary, middle, and high school. I ate lunch alone. During PE, I got paired with the teacher.
But now? Whatever we did, it was with that kid Lee Hajun.
Maybe because I'd known him since we were little. We just clicked, and the time I spent with him had stopped being a chore and turned into something I actually enjoyed.
I thought I was an extreme introvert.
But being an I didn't mean you had to go everywhere alone.
I still got drained the second I walked into a crowd.
But now I could even enjoy those moments.
Thanks to the idiot grinning next to me.
"It's spicy!"
"Drink some milk."
"Buy me some!"
"Haa~ You out of money?"
"I already spent this week's allowance!"
"Here."
I handed him a thousand won, and the second he took it he was back with milk.
Watching him dive back into the Buldak with the milk beside him, I thought:
It wasn't that I hadn't needed friends. I'd simply never had one, so I'd never realized how much I did.
I was someone who needed a friend.
A little tear slipped out.
If I'd had even one friend like this kid in my past life, I never would have thought of that life as unhappy.
"Yena, are you crying?"
"I'm not crying!"
"I heard if you laugh while you're crying, you grow a horn on your butt!"
"Then I wasn't crying, so I won't grow one!"
"Yeah, if you really weren't crying, that checks out!"
I was just glad I'd gotten one now.
A friend.