Chapter 7
Chapter 7
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 7
Chapter Title: Girlfriend
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Monday afternoon, the first lecture of the week.
"You look pretty good today?"
As usual, I'd claimed the spot in the very back row, right in the corner, when my friend wandered over and struck up a conversation.
"Eh. You've never seen me on a bad day, have you?"
"Really?"
"If I'm feeling even a little off, I just skip class."
"Smart move."
My friend cracked a wry smile.
Well, skipping altogether has to be better than dragging yourself to the lecture hall just to mess around. The professor wouldn't look kindly on that either.
"Still, you seem especially good today."
I set my laptop down on the desk and replied. My friend shot back, "Yeah, right?"
"Is it that housekeeper helping out?"
"Hmm, probably something like that."
I couldn't say for sure, but it seemed likely.
Thanks to Si-eun coming in as the housekeeper, I'd started waking up (relatively) early and eating proper meals. Nothing else had changed, so if my complexion looked better, it had to be because of that.
But even counting from last Friday, it'd only been four days since she started. How badly had I been living before for effects to show up this fast?
My friend crossed his arms and nodded.
"Worth every penny of that 500,000 won a month. You finally look a bit human."
"I didn't look human before?"
"Well... not exactly. More like someone I didn't wanna talk to."
He let out a hearty laugh while saying something pretty harsh.
To think he'd been talking to me all this time looking like that. What a grateful guy. Or maybe he was gunning for a Nobel Peace Prize someday.
Then my friend clapped a hand on my shoulder.
"You've always been decent-looking anyway, and now you look like a proper person. Plus, living with a housekeeper means you're not awkward talking to girls anymore."
He rambled on like that, patted my back a few times,
and added,
"It's about time you got a girlfriend."
"Girlfriend talk again..."
I told him he needed to make a friend first.
It was as unwelcome as advice from relatives during the holidays. I furrowed my brow in mild annoyance, and he made some half-hearted apologetic gesture before heading off.
If he wanted to brag about his girlfriend, he should do it with the other guys. I had neither the desire nor the ability to get one myself.
I let out a light sigh and checked my watch. About five minutes until the lecture started. Time to start messing around.
I hit the power button on my laptop and waited for it to boot up.
This week, from my designated seat in the very back corner,
another week was about to kick off just like...
"Planning to mess around again today?"
...or so I thought.
A soft, melodic voice came from beside me.
Was she talking to me?
I turned to check, and a unfamiliar girl in the seat two spots over was looking right at me.
"Whoa."
I blurted out something weird in surprise.
"Whoa?"
"N-no, sorry. You startled me."
"Ahaha. Sorry. I just spoke up out of nowhere, huh?"
The girl apologized with a warm laugh.
She had semi-long hair with a brownish tint and big, round eyes that stood out. From her seated height, she seemed way smaller than me. Made me wonder if she was in middle or high school.
She flashed a bright smile and scooted over one more seat closer.
"You always sit in the back row, right?"
"Uh, yeah, pretty much."
I stammered a reply, and she clapped her hands together.
"Then we're back-row buddies!"
"Back-row buddies?"
"Ahaha. I always sit in the very back too. If I don't wanna listen, I just flop down and sleep!"
"Not really something to say out loud..."
"What's wrong with that? You said something similar to your friend earlier."
Something similar? Oh, when I told him, "If I'm feeling even a little off, I just skip class."
Hm? And she called me sunbae? As I hesitated, she covered her mouth with an "Oops,"
then bowed her head slightly.
"Come to think of it, I didn't introduce myself."
"I'm Han So-hye, a sophomore. Oh, feel free to talk casually!"
"Uh, okay... I'm Lee Hwi-min, a junior."
"Ahaha. Nice name."
"Uh, you think so?"
"Totally."
She giggled softly,
then said,
"Let's get along as back-row buddies. Even though the semester's already been going a bit."
"Uh, yeah. Sure."
She smiled once more at my response and scooted back to her original seat two spots away.
Han So-hye must've been sitting in the back all along. Of course, I wouldn't have noticed since I barely paid attention to anyone, not even the professor up front.
She was incredibly lively. The total opposite of me—night and day.
Just that short chat had drained all the mental energy I'd stockpiled over the weekend. I felt my condition plummeting. Maybe I should skip tomorrow's lecture...
Lost in those thoughts, I sensed eyes on me from the front.
I glanced ahead and saw Si-eun staring right at me, her face completely expressionless.
What the...?
◎
"I didn't know you had another friend."
"Huh?"
That evening.
I was wrestling with the grilled fish on the menu when Si-eun suddenly brought it up.
"I thought you only had one friend. But I saw you talking to someone else today, so I was surprised."
"Oh."
The thing from lecture.
She figured I only had one friend, but there were two, which shocked her. And the second one wasn't even a friend—that made it even more pathetic.
Too lazy to explain, I stayed quiet, but Si-eun tossed out another line.
"It just popped into my head."
"Yeah."
"If you get a girlfriend, I'll probably get kicked out, right?"
"...Did you eat something weird?"
"If I did, you'd have eaten it too."
"True."
No weird symptoms in my body, so we definitely hadn't.
So why was she saying something so bizarre out of the blue?
"Dunno? If I got a girlfriend? Never really thought about it."
I vaguely replied while picking bones out of the fish.
For the record, I don't like grilled fish. Having to debone it yourself while eating? Probably the most annoying food in the world.
"Right? If you had a girlfriend, it'd be weird living with another girl. You could just ask her to handle little chores around the house."
"Yeah, makes sense."
I nodded casually as I popped a deboned piece into my mouth.
Deboning's a pain, but it tastes good. I'd learned that from the past few days. Si-eun's cooking skills were reliable.
After chewing and swallowing, I looked up to find Si-eun staring at me. What? Did I answer too half-heartedly and piss her off?
"Why do you ask?"
She whipped her face away and said,
"Just... seeing you chat with that girl today made me think of it."
"Jealous?"
"..."
"Sorry."
She bit her lip and glared, so an apology slipped out immediately.
"No, it's... I figured as long as I don't quit, I'd keep getting that steady 500,000 won a month. But then I realized you could kick me out any day."
She seemed pretty serious about it.
"Who knows. Instead of worrying if I get a girlfriend, it'd be more useful to fret about what happens if the Earth blows up tomorrow."
"Why?"
"No friends, so how would I get a girlfriend?"
"They say nothing's impossible."
Si-eun wagged her index finger like she was lecturing me.
"I don't know everything, but isn't that girl your second-closest person at school? First among girls. Sounds like pretty good odds to me."
Second place after one chat? Rankings were way too easy to climb. Anyway, nothing would happen with her. Some things really were impossible.
"No, but."
I started, and Si-eun tilted her head. Looking at her, I continued.
"Second place... if we're splitting hairs, wouldn't that be you?"
"...Me?"
She blinked her big eyes in bewilderment, and I nodded emphatically.
"Yeah."
The girl today had just randomly talked to me. Total stranger, didn't even know her name.
But I knew quite a bit about Si-eun, and tied together by the housekeeper gig, we'd talked dozens of times already. Hell, we were talking right now.
At my words, Si-eun just blinked those big eyes a few more times,
then said,
"What? You like me?"
"No. I don't like people."
"What kinda chuunibyou nonsense is that?"
She averted her gaze and spoke again.
"Well, anyway... nothing's ever gonna happen between us."
I agreed completely.
"Same here."
She didn't say another word after my short agreement.
The slight pout on her face was probably just my imagination.