7 - Evaluation. Afterward.
7 - Evaluation. Afterward.
What.
What the hell is going on here?
The glass surrounding us was not ordinary glass.
It was a magic mirror that allowed people to see us from behind it.
Right.
So that's why there were stairs at the entrance of the examination hall.
They were watching us from directly below this place.
I looked around.
Middle-aged men were looking up at us from below.
"Kyah!"
In an instant, I pulled down my skirt and sat down on the floor.
It was because of unbearable shame.
Three women are staring at me.
With looks telling me I'm strange.
Am I the weird one?
Why don't they think this is natural?
Do these bitches have no sense of shame at all?
What's even more irritating are the men beyond the glass.
They're giggling and pointing at me covering my skirt.
I can't hear what they're saying, but it auto-plays in my head.
Kyah, what's that bitch counting on to sit there? -
Looks like she wants to become livestock. I'll take her. -
Ah, I was about to choose her! -
Then you should've picked her quickly instead of wasting time appraising the weird bitch. -
It was as if I could hear exactly that.
I thought of the Magic Mirror Room.
A system where they watch the prostitutes beyond the mirror and make their choices.
I remember the words those bastards who were entertained with my money would whisper and giggle about.
Their faces and the expressions of the humans beyond that glass right now are exactly the same.
That's right.
I'm being treated like a prostitute.
'Fuck fuck fuck fuck.'
Curses kept spilling out inside me.
My intuition is telling me.
This isn't about the exam being important.
The men beyond the glass.
The choice.
I have to be chosen.
Only then did I think I understood why that man called my father had given me whore clothes.
It wasn't because he was a pervert who dressed his daughter in sexy clothes.
It's because he knows the true nature of this exam.
Fool.
I'm a fool.
This world is so different from the world I knew.
I thought based on my own standards.
I thought, since it's an exam, I just needed to do well on it.
Because being chosen by men is something that could never happen in the world I lived in.
Family.
Mom, Dad, and my little brother.
They wouldn't have wished for me to end up badly.
But I ignored them.
I judged everything arbitrarily by my own standards.
Ah......
I'm so foolish.
I'm really such an idiot......
"Ah... f......!"
I quickly covered my mouth to stop a curse from almost slipping out.
Directly below me.
A blonde woman was looking up at me together with a middle-aged man.
That woman was the one who had tried to hit me in the schoolyard.
She's sneering.
Which means......
I'm screwed.
I was certain from that face.
I will get the lowest score at the evaluation event.
That woman is listening to what the men are saying.
If the evaluation of me had been good, that bitch who hates me would've had a contorted face.
But the fact that she's smiling is proof that things aren't going well for me.
Annoying.
It was so incredibly annoying.
Of all people, that bitch was looking at me like I was a zoo monkey and smiling, and I couldn't stand the sight of it.
Fuck.
Fuck.
Fuck!!
I want to curse.
I want to get up right now and flip everything over.
But if I do, it's over.
Even the faintest thread of hope will disappear.
What do I do.
What the hell am I supposed to do......
BEEP-.
Suddenly, a dry alarm sound rang through the entire space.
Ururru.
The men who had been choosing us began to file out in a rush.
[With this, the Elite Female Graduate School entrance examination has come to an end. All examinees, you have worked hard.]
"Phew."
"Haah......"
The women who had been striking sexy poses like in the glass rooms of the red-light district began to let out sighs.
They had been tense as well.
Aah.
I sat there, my body completely stiff.
I was truly out of my mind.
The murmuring sounds gradually faded.
The blurry afterimages of the women moving before my eyes gradually disappeared as well.
The end.
It's over.
It's an end with no answer.
Judging from Dad's reaction.
And my little brother's reaction... I'm really in big trouble.
My body trembles.
But my mind itself was less afraid than what my body was feeling.
'They wouldn't go as far as killing me, right?'
A vague hope.
That was barely holding up my body, which felt like it was about to pass out.
"Hey, you crazy bitch, you sure took your sweet time getting ready, didn't you?"
A girl with blue short hair standing next to me before I knew it.
She was glaring at me while wearing a thick black long coat.
Come to think of it... she was the one who was in front of me.
She definitely seemed wary of me.
Is she also my enemy like the blonde?
Fuck... just how many enemies has this body made?
"Sorry."
I apologized because I had no strength to fight.
Because my mind and stamina were at rock bottom right now.
"...What? What's wrong with you? Did you eat something bad?"
The girl is startled by my apology.
What.
She's not an enemy?
"You must have been really shocked. Hey, let's get out of here fast. Let's go eat the miracle cure!"
Miracle cure?
"Th... what is the miracle cure...?"
"Agh!! Why have you become such a frustrating bitch?!"
She stomps her feet in a huff.
She stops for a moment, then glares at me.
"Something's off. Are you really the Yuna I knew?"
Yeah, that's right.
I'm not Yuna.
......
No.
Let's not think that way.
"I am... Yuna."
"Hmm......"
She looks me over from head to toe.
"Then what's the miracle cure?"
For a moment, I was at a loss for words.
It's a secret code between just the two of them... how would I know?
"It's malatang, but today I want to eat tteokbokki."
The words came out of my mouth automatically.
I was surprised myself, but I couldn't even manage a surprised expression.
I said it to her with a smile.
As if I had momentarily lost control of my body.
"What's with you? Why are you suddenly like this?"
But the girl's eyes were full of bewilderment.
"You used to hate it so much whenever I said let's eat tteokbokki, so why are you suddenly like this?"
"Because... this might be the last time."
I still hadn't regained control of my body.
...This body.
Did its original owner foresee a bad future, perhaps?
Tak!
She pats my shoulder, then immediately turns around.
"...You little minx! Why are you saying such gloomy things! Nothing's been decided yet!"
Tuk.
Tutuk.
Hot droplets fall from my eyes.
"Hey...! Why... why are you crying!"
Even the short-haired girl saying those words has tears welling up in her eyes.
"...Let's go quickly! I'm the tteokbokki killer, remember? Just trust me! I'll take you to the most delicious place!"
Hwak.
She grabs my hand and pulls me.
Her hand is cold and damp.
She didn't look at me.
She quickly wiped her face while I wasn't looking.
It felt strange.
Everything felt like it was over, and yet.
That strange feeling of being comforted.
**
"How is it? Delicious, right?"
This friend's name is Seo Miyoung.
She's a friend.
Judging by how she treats me, she seems to be my best friend.
"I never imagined I'd come here with you, girl."
I just smiled.
Because I didn't know how to talk, honestly.
When that's the case, the best thing to do is listen without saying anything.
After all, chatting isn't about having someone listen to the content.
It's about relieving the speaker's stress.
I need to listen to her chatter and figure things out.
This world.
And this body I now have.
The woman named Yuna, that is.
The sound of chewing rice cakes rings out.
It's a tteokbokki place in front of the school, but we're the only customers.
The tteokbokki was hot, but strangely, it felt cold.
"Okay. I need to get to the bottom of this!"
Miyoung stops eating her tteokbokki and looks at me.
That look wasn't pity.
It was expectation.
"How was the exam?"
"Huh?"
"That... the written test?"
"Of course! Anyway, you can't tell whether you did well at the evaluation event or not."
No, Miyoung.
I can tell.
That blonde bitch with the sports car who looked up at me from below.
Because her satisfied expression meant the result that my evaluation wasn't good.
"...Things like the written test... aren't important."
"It IS important!"
Miyoung shrieks.
"What's wrong with you? Are you really Yuna?"
She glares at me.
I get stubborn too.
I'm the type who loathes hypocrisy that just offers empty words of concern and only says nice things.
So I glared back at her slightly.
"What are you trying to say? I'm Yuna."
"No matter how I look at it, you're not the Yuna I knew."
"It must be your imagination."
"No!"
Miyoung jumps up.
"You, who thought the written test was so important, why are you suddenly calling it something trivial?!"
I was at a loss for words.
What should I say?
Silence.
A tteokbokki place with no one else.
Us, sitting across from each other with tteokbokki in front of us.
We were adults, but... no, Miyoung was pure... and I felt so sorry that this pure girl was talking about such a terrible reality... I lowered my head.
"You said you wanted to get into graduate school with your skills, so you dressed up all nicely, didn't you?"
The girl looking at me looked like she was about to burst into tears at any moment.
"You were the one who had hope, so why are you suddenly like this?"
Miyoung grabs my hand.
"The written test ratio went up this time, right? You said you'd bet on that."
"......"
Miyoung's face gradually darkens.
Her face gradually lowers.
A face with tears flowing.
She probably doesn't want to show me that face all scrunched up in tears.
I envied the original owner of this body.
A rival.
She's a rival, but.
I was so envious that she had a friend who could worry and cry for her like this.
"Yuna. You're my hope."
She gripped my hand harder.
"Because you're my hope, you'll definitely pass the Women's Graduate School."
I couldn't stay still any longer.
Kkok.
I warmly covered her two hands with my other hand.
"Thank you. I'll definitely pass."
Her encouragement.
It definitely gave me strength.
And it became hope.
And then.
The day of the successful candidate announcement.
Failed.
I failed the graduate school.