The Unwanted Attention and My Proposal
Thanks to Minseong, we got to take the entrance ceremony photos and ended up a bit behind, so we hurried to catch up.
But one step late, and we mixed in with the other classes.
"...Wow."
"...What? What?"
Because of that, the kids in the other classes ended up staring at Sia’s appearance.
I felt bad for Sia, thinking I’d accidentally made her popular by suggesting we take pictures.
But Sia didn’t seem bothered at all.
Anyway, we managed to get back to our class in a hurry.
Once inside the classroom, the homeroom teacher said,
"For now, most of the teachers will be spending the day with orientation. So don’t mess around during class—concentrate and listen, okay?"
"""Yes!"""
"Ah, and one more thing.
"What?"
"Our school is a no-phone zone."
"""Wooooooow!"""
The moment the teacher finished, the whole class erupted in cheers.
Honestly, I was relieved too.
It felt nice not to have my phone around, even if it was a bit inconvenient.
I’d mentioned before that in middle school, without phones, seeing Sia felt a little tricky.
But now we were in the same class, so it was no big deal anymore.
"Still, don’t get caught using your phone during class, understand?"
"Yes!"
"Understood!"
"Good. I trust you all. Everyone, study hard and get ready for class."
"""Yes!"""
That’s how high school life officially began.
Just like the teacher promised, the teachers didn’t start any actual lessons that day.
Sia hadn’t brought her textbook, but luckily there were no classes, so she sailed right through.
The teachers gave us a quick rundown of how their lessons would go and let us get to know each other with some simple mini-games.
Most of the games…
"Alright, now pair up with your partner and write your activity sheet."
They were the classic partner-swapping mini-games.
But the problem was my partner was Sia, and since we’d known each other since kindergarten, we already shared almost everything.
So the questions turned into simple short-answer ones where I had to fill in the correct reply.
Then Sia said,
"Siwoo, how about we bet who gets the penalty for the wrong answers?"
Sia had a pretty competitive streak.
"Sure, I’m in."
I accepted her challenge, honestly because I knew I was ahead.
The questions were filled with basic info about the other person—name, hometown, middle school graduation, hobbies, likes, dislikes, favorite subjects, least favorite subjects, motto, even MBTI.
It was a surprisingly varied list.
I started confidently writing the answers.
Since we knew each other so well, I had to be perfect—no omissions.
So I wrote everything with extra care.
After we finished at what felt like the same speed,
"Alright, let’s grade each other."
"Okay."
We started checking each other’s activity sheets.
Since we’d been friends so long, Sia nailed every single one of my items.
Thinking "as expected," I looked at hers and found only one strike-through.
Sia glanced up with a small smile and said,
"You missed one question, so one point deduction."
"What? Which one did I miss?"
"If I tell you, it won’t be fun. Hehe, anyway, I won."
"No… where on earth…."
I tried to protest, but the timer ran out and the teacher announced the end, so I lost by just one point.
"Hehe, you’ll have to wait for your punishment."
"...Don’t be too expensive."
"Don’t worry, it’s not material."
Sia always said she didn’t want expensive things, and I knew it was just our little joke.
Anyway, the day passed.
◇◇◇◇◇
A week had passed since we started high school.
It felt like time had flown by ridiculously fast.
Honestly, I thought moving from middle school to high school wouldn’t feel that different, but it had hit me harder than expected.
Classes were now fifty minutes, and the schedule had doubled to seven periods, with only Friday having six.
The dismissal time had also pushed to five o’clock, much later than middle school.
But humans are adaptive creatures, so we started adjusting to high school life.
The one thing that wasn’t adapting well was…
ㅡWussssh.
"Hey, is that them?"
"Looks like it."
"Wow… she’s pretty."
"Compared to her, I’d say she’s more celebrity material."
Students from other classes had started coming over, and I was starting to feel the pressure.
The teacher knew they were coming to see Sia, so he tried to seat her right by the door to block the view through the window.
But now they were just peeking their heads out the door, staring openly.
The worst were the upperclassmen.
I wasn’t sure why, but second- and third-years were full of delinquents.
The first-years just heard rumors that Sia was pretty and came to check her out.
The second- and third-years started openly hitting on her.
They made lines that were dangerously close to crossing into something cute.
The teacher understood at first, thinking it was just because Sia was pretty and they were interested, but when the upperclassmen kept trying, he snapped.
"Get out! Don’t you dare stay!"
He started getting genuinely angry.
The first-year and second-year PE teachers also started cracking down, thinking the behavior had gone too far.
After they started enforcing rules, visits to our class almost disappeared.
They still came with excuses like "I’m looking for a friend in our class," but it was definitely an improvement.
I thought our school life was finally getting better.
But then…
ㅡWiiing~
"Again?"
"...Yeah."
Instead of coming in person, they were now texting Sia to flirt.
[What are you doing?]
[Hi, my name is.]
[Do you have a boyfriend?]
[Should I introduce you to the school?]
They had a whole repertoire of messages trying to reach Sia.
I had no idea how they got her number, but the teacher said they wouldn’t be able to do anything about it if we reported them.
At first Sia hadn’t minded, but after almost three weeks of this, she was starting to get annoyed.
Honestly, even I was annoyed as a bystander, but how much must Sia be suffering?
Sia was worrying a lot in private, but the moment she saw me, she smiled right away.
Like everything was fine.
I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.
On top of that, I was furious that I couldn’t do anything to help.
Of course Sia told me not to worry, but even without that, I couldn’t do much for the entire second- and third-year groups.
I kept turning things over in my mind and suddenly came up with a good idea.
Right then, I said,
"Sia."
"Huh? What is it?"
"How about we pretend to date?"
"Huh?"
It was just pretending to be in a relationship.
Honestly, it wasn’t a bad idea.
The whole reason those guys were approaching her was because she didn’t have a boyfriend, so if I stepped in as her "boyfriend," I could chase them off.
Plus, it would make things feel more natural between Sia and the others.
I wanted her to know I liked her this much… and the others to see that we were a real couple.
Of course I knew it was a bit shameless, but I didn’t want Sia to look at someone else that way.
Even if my feelings were shameless.
So I told Sia, "Let’s do it."
Sia hesitated and said,
"W-well… um… that means… we pretend to date so I can chase them away, right?"
"...Yeah, that’s right."
"...S-Siu, are you really okay?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"I-I just… you might get hurt because of me…."
Even in this situation, Sia was worrying about me.
Seeing Sia care about me made my heart feel strangely warm.
Knowing she was worried about me, even if it was fake, and she was okay with playing the boyfriend role.
I hid my happiness as best I could and said,
"Of course I’m okay."
"Then… can I ask a favor?"
"Sure, leave it to me."
The moment I said that, I thought it would be reassuring.
"Then… where do you want to go, Siwoo?"
"Huh? Suddenly?"
"Yeah, if we’re going to do the boyfriend act, we need to take couple photos somewhere."
"Oh… so that’s what you mean?"
"Of course! Otherwise, no one would believe us."
"I guess… that makes sense."
I got persuaded by Sia, and we decided to go out together this weekend.
Of course, I hadn’t meant to actually do something this serious when I offered to help, but I didn’t expect things to turn out like this.