When I Got Marked by an Iljin
After the entrance ceremony, the kids clustered into little groups and headed for their assigned classrooms.
I had to get to mine as well, so I slung my bag over my shoulder and started walking. Not having a single friend who'd come up from the same middle school made it a little lonely, sure — but I was a natural-born assa, an outsider, so this kind of thing actually suited me just fine.
I'd run into my childhood friend, Yoon Se-ah, before the ceremony, but it hadn't been that big of a deal. She'd changed a lot from the girl in my memories... quite a lot, actually. Then again, I hadn't seen her once since she'd transferred away in elementary school. Plenty of time had passed for her to change. Nothing strange about that.
"Hey, I-byeol. What class are you in?"
"...Class 3."
Yoon Se-ah, who'd been hanging with another group — the iljin crowd, from the looks of it — had somehow drifted over to ask. A pack of kids who looked like her followers trailed after her.
...This was extremely uncomfortable. I hadn't gotten marked by my childhood friend-turned-iljin on day one, had I?
I tried putting a little space between us as she came up, but Se-ah closed the gap immediately. I'd really prefer she didn't take an interest in me...
I gave up and just kept walking.
"Class 3? I'm in Class 3 too. Lucky, huh? Let's get along from now on, yeah? Just like old times."
"Uh..."
She grinned and thumped me on the shoulder. That hurt, you brat. Worse than the hit, though, were the looks from the guys flanking her and trailing behind. Terrifying.
Guys who were clearly into Se-ah. Handsome ones, even. If this were a drama, they'd be the male leads.
Calling her the heroine feels a little off, though.
Her face was pretty enough, sure. But her personality... if I had to pick, she was closer to a villainess than a female lead.
I rubbed the spot she'd hit for no good reason and headed for the classroom. Se-ah and her crew had already pulled ahead and left me behind. Popular, huh...
I sighed inwardly, stepped into the building, and went looking for Grade 1 Class 3.
The first-year floor was on the fourth, which meant stairs. Why first-years got the fourth floor and third-years the second, I had no idea. Second-years were on the second floor as well. The first floor housed the cafeteria, the canteen, and a bunch of multipurpose rooms.
I'd come by beforehand to look around, so I already had a rough map of the school in my head. No need to sightsee. Right now, getting to class and claiming a seat came first.
Please tell me the seats aren't assigned by name...
My name being Han I-byeol, I could easily get stuck in the back. And my eyesight was already pretty bad. I owned a pair of glasses, but I didn't wear them day to day. Nearsighted. I only borrowed a tool's help when I needed to see something far off.
Praying the seating wasn't alphabetical, I arrived at the classroom.
I opened the door and found about half the class already there. Aside from two quiet types, everyone else had already found a pack. Even if society ran on connections, this was a little too harsh on assas like me. They should just make a separate class for outsiders.
Seats are... free choice, looks like.
Yoon Se-ah and her crew had already claimed the back row, so seating apparently didn't matter. I was about to pick a spot with a decent view of the blackboard—
"I-byeol! Sit here. The seat next to me's empty. You always liked the window seats, remember?"
...I did like window seats, yeah. But this was the back of the room, and I really didn't want a seat in the middle of the iljin...
Of course Se-ah had no way of knowing that. And considering the rest of my school life, refusing wasn't an option. In the end, I took a seat in the back, far from the blackboard — right next to Yoon Se-ah.
The sunlight was nice, at least... but my mood was somehow overcast. I'd wanted a seat up front.
Se-ah, of course, smiled in satisfaction and went right back to chatting with her group.
"I get to sit next to Se-ah too~!"
"You sure do~."
"I wanted to sit next to Se-ah too!"
"You can sit with us next time~."
"Se-ah, you play favorites with Ji-hyun waaay too much..."
"I like Woo-rim too~."
The cliché that a villainess always comes with a handmaiden trio popped into my head. And the villainess and her handmaidens were always besties. Ugh... this feeling, like I was watching a ropan unfold in real time.
Se-ah laughed with her friends, looking at her phone, and around her the guys — especially three particularly good-looking ones — had all kinds of smiles in their eyes. From a guy's perspective, those honey-dripping gazes were nauseating. Ugh. Creepy.
I did my best to ignore it and decided to look at my phone until the rest of the class and the homeroom teacher showed up. ...While still listening to the voices next to me, of course.
"Back in middle school, at least both seats next to Se-ah were empty, which was niiice... but he's Se-ah's friend, so what can you do."
"Not a friend. A ttaggari. He's a loser, isn't he?"
The white-haired guy corrected Ji-hyun. He smirked. Ugh... scary.
Please don't take an interest in me.
I prayed inwardly and kept listening anyway.
"If he's Noona's friend, he's our friend too!"
"Hmm... it's a little early to call him a friend..."
"Jae-beom! Call me Noona too!"
"Ji-hyun is Ji-hyun. Why would you be Noona? Se-ah Noona is Se-ah Noona."
"That's discrimination! But you're cute, so forgiven!"
One of the girls gave me a vaguely smiling sidelong glance. Yeah. We're not friends yet. I don't even want to be. And don't call a guy cute... it's making my stomach turn...
The kid they called Jae-beom was a blond. Short, too, and he seemed to get doted on from every direction. Not mixed-race, exactly — didn't give off that vibe. Even if the school had a free hair policy, dyeing it was a bit...
Am I being too old-fashioned...?
Could just be because I'm an assa. There was a white-haired guy here too, so whatever...
"Se-ah. Aren't you cold?"
"Hm? Mmm~. A little? It's March, so it's still kinda chilly. Why? Jung Si-hyuk, you got a heat pack or something?"
The dark-blue-haired one. The kid called Jung Si-hyuk shook his head, then suddenly shrugged off his own mai and draped the blazer over Se-ah's shoulders.
At that, Jae-beom and the silver-hair — Ryu Chang-ho — stiffened, just a little. Ugh. Vicious.
"Ooh. Si-hyuk's got taste~."
The girls squealed and stamped their feet like it was the best thing ever. Earthquake incoming. Please stop...
More than that, I'd never seen someone put their feelings on display like that. That was drama-only material. Judging by how everyone reacted, they'd been like this in middle school too.
"Nice. Thanks? Jung Si-hyuk."
"Yeah."
"...Tsk."
"I could give Noona my mai too..."
"Your mai wouldn't even fit me, you know...?"
It probably would, though. Hwang Jae-beom was small compared to the other guys, but he was about the same size as a taller girl. Se-ah knew that too. She was just teasing him.
"Hm! Never mind. It's not actually that cold."
After wearing it for maybe a minute, Se-ah handed the mai back to Jung Si-hyuk. Si-hyuk was quiet, but he looked faintly disappointed. The other two turned their heads slightly and smiled. That was a sneer.
And then... Se-ah glanced at me. Just for a second.
...What. Did she catch me eavesdropping? I glued my eyes even harder to my phone.
Anyway, I passed the time listening to their chatter until the rest of the students arrived, and finally the homeroom teacher walked in. First day of school, no textbooks, and there wasn't a teacher alive crazy enough to start covering material.
"Alright! Nice to meet you all, but everybody up. We're going to the auditorium to pick up your textbooks."
"......"
Scratch that.
When we got to the auditorium, an endless stretch of boxes was waiting. In front of them, students from another class were handing out textbooks. Class 2, most likely. There were three first-year classes in total, so we were apparently last.
"Everyone go grab your books and head back to class. That's eleven books, so check the count!"
Compared to middle school, it felt like the number of subjects had jumped by about half. High school really was a different beast.
"Ugh, why are there more than ten books."
"Wasn't middle school about the same?"
Complaints rippled through the crowd around me. Complain all you want — nothing's going to change. All you could do was pray the next three years would fly by.
That aside, Se-ah had left her mai behind. She looked cold even from here. Back in the classroom there'd been heating, so she'd said she was fine. This was the auditorium. I was wearing my mai right now and it still felt oddly chilly.
She'd always been the type to leave her things lying around as a kid... guess she still hadn't grown out of it. Well. The guys next to her would take theirs off for her again, wouldn't they?
"Name?"
"Yoon Se-ah."
Apparently not. Nobody had stepped up so far. She only ever lacked awareness at times like this.
I had no choice. I took off the mai I was wearing, before Se-ah went up to get her textbooks.
"Se-ah."
I called her the way I used to, and draped the mai over her shoulders. Back when we were kids, I'd looked after Se-ah a lot, so this kind of thing was a habit baked into my body.
Se-ah flinched for a second, then looked at me. Her lips twitched, like she was about to say something. Then she closed her mouth and clutched the mai a little tighter. The tips of her ears had gone pink. She must have been freezing.
"...Thanks? Loser."
"Give it back when we get to class."
I'm cold too, you know. I left that part unsaid, watched her receive her textbooks, then got mine after.
I was about to leave carrying eleven textbooks when Se-ah's group — specifically the three guys — were staring at me. All three of them, looking annoyed.
...Scary. I hurried out of the auditorium and headed back to class.
The textbooks were pretty, well, heavy.
"Give me the mai."
"Don't wanna?"
When I got back to class, Se-ah had already finished putting her things away — and she was wearing my mai. Not draped over her shoulders... actually wearing it. Both arms in the sleeves and everything.
Didn't she say the classroom wasn't cold.
"Loser. I'm borrowing this for a bit, 'kay? I'll give it back after school~."
Se-ah smiled sweetly and shook the mai's wrist cuff. Since it was mine, it hung oversized on her all around.
"If you want, you can wear mine."
"It wouldn't even fit..."
"Then oh well~. Your loss."
She hid that smug little smile behind the sleeve. The cuff sat strangely close to her nose.
Looks like I'd been thoroughly marked from day one.
