Even on a School Uniform Date with My Junior, I'm Still an Outsider
After Kim Hayun and Lee Sunwoo made plans for their date, that evening came around at last.
“Hmmmm.”
Kim Hayun stood in front of the full-length mirror in her room, letting out a soft groan.
It wasn’t anything serious. She was just agonizing over the color of the cardigan she’d wear over her outfit for the date.
It was hot outside, but indoors the air-conditioning could make things chilly, so she’d already decided on a knit cardigan she could also use like a blanket.
Navy, or pink...
She couldn’t tell which one would look prettier.
So she kept holding the two cardigans up to her torso in turn, and since everything looked good to her no matter what she layered on top of it, she took photos of both try-ons and sent them off to ask her friends for their opinions.
The replies came back one by one.
Mo Yuna’s answer arrived quickly, and Chae Songha’s came later.
Neither one was particularly helpful, naturally.
She was just about to send that and hurl her phone onto the bed when—
Oh.
Another place she could ask for an opinion suddenly came to mind.
An anonymous board only accessible to students from the same school.
It was usually packed with useless posts, so she didn’t bother checking it on ordinary days, but it could come in handy at times like this.
Kim Hayun quickly opened the community app.
She scrolled down, ready to post about choosing an outer layer, but then—
Like a sparrow that couldn’t help stopping by the mill, her eyes landed on a post that looked mildly interesting.
Among Kim Hayun’s little hobbies was watching webtoons, so when she saw the title—
she clicked it as if possessed.
“Eh, what the heck.”
So it was something she was already reading.
She’d thought a new webtoon had appeared, but that wasn’t it. Her interest faded fast, and Kim Hayun hit back, switched categories, and made her own post.
She attached the try-on shots, but covered her face and the view of her room.
After waiting a moment, several comments appeared.
Aside from the first comment, which seemed angry for some reason, everyone else overwhelmingly recommended navy.
Good.
Then the cardigan color was settled: navy.
Kim Hayun put the pink cardigan back and was about to leave a thank-you reply when another comment came in in real time.
She’d shown her boyfriend that she’d worn mismatched underwear.
Just imagining it sent a wave of embarrassment rushing over her.
“......No way.”
Well.
Of course, Sunwoo and I are just going on a date to write an essay.
So that kind of thing probably won’t happen.
It really, really didn’t seem like it would happen.
Still. Um.
Just in case. Hoooowever slight the chance.
People never know what’ll happen in life, after all.
If something like that did happen, she should at least make sure she wore the prettiest underwear she owned so he wouldn’t be disappointed when he saw it.
“...Ahem.”
That was the slightly coquettish resolve Kim Hayun made to herself.
* * *
Usually, when people talk about a school-uniform date, they go to places like an amusement park.
That’s because if you buy tickets on-site at the box office while wearing a school uniform, they’ll sell them to you for almost half price.
So even though Kim Hayun had said the date spot was a secret, I naturally assumed we’d be going to an amusement park.
But right now, I was standing near a multiplex in the city center.
Because Kim Hayun had said our first date stop today was the movie theater.
Movies are something you can watch in whatever clothes you want, so I did wonder why this place in particular, but after talking with her on chat yesterday, she seemed absurdly excited for today’s date, so I didn’t say anything.
...Still.
That aside.
Maybe because I’d worn a school uniform for the first time in a long while, it felt weirdly awkward.
The last time I wore one was in high school, which meant it had already been more than three years, so I guess that part made sense.
But separate from that, everyone else seemed to think I looked odd too, because every person who passed by kept sneaking glances at me.
Honestly, the whole thing left me feeling kind of restless...
......
I could practically guess what the woman who just met my eyes was thinking.
What’s with that guy? He’s obviously an adult, so why is he walking around in a school uniform like that?
...Ugh.
I’d folded my arms with a stab of shame and leaned against a building pillar, staring off into the distance for no reason when—
“Huh?”
I heard a very familiar voice nearby.
I turned, and sure enough, it was Kim Hayun.
“Oppa!”
Her outfit was, naturally, a school uniform like mine. But—
Whoa...
Maybe because she’d been a high school student until last year, but unlike me, she didn’t look awkward in uniform at all.
No exaggeration, I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if people took one look at her and believed she was still in high school.
She looked so much like an ordinary student that I couldn’t believe she was my junior at the same school, and before I knew it I’d loosened my folded arms and gone a little slack-jawed.
“I’m sorry. Did you wait long?”
Kim Hayun smiled as she came toward me.
Now that she was close, I could see she’d tied a navy cardigan around her waist.
At this point, she looked exactly like a high school girl who’d just come out of class and was on her way to a date.
“No, I just got here too.”
“Hehe... really?”
We hadn’t even started the date yet, but she already looked so pleased, smiling brightly to herself.
Watching her like that, I couldn’t help thinking—
This is basically...
She reminded me of some girl from my school days, not that long ago, who kept coming up to me and talking to me when I was just one of the kids who studied all the time.
She had exactly the same vibe as Kim Hayun did now. She’d been in high school too, but she dyed her hair and wore makeup all the time.
“Oppa, it’s hot out here, so should we head inside first?”
Kim Hayun naturally hooked her arm through mine.
I looked down at Kim Hayun, with her light makeup and lashes that were absurdly long.
“Hayun, be honest with me.”
“Huh? About what?”
“You really didn’t smoke?”
I asked it indirectly, as if I were wondering whether she’d been a delinquent in high school.
Seriously, though.
Once I saw her in a school uniform, I couldn’t not ask.
No joke, I felt like I was getting a full-blown PTSD flashback. She reminded me of those delinquent girls in first year who kept bothering me and playing around with me...
“...?! Why, does my clothes smell like cigarettes?”
“Yeah. A little.”
Not strongly, but there was a faint smell to it.
Maybe sensing from my expression that I wasn’t joking, Kim Hayun lifted her arm and sniffed at her own uniform, then jolted in surprise.
“Ah, that’s because... when I was a student, I used to go to the PC Bang a lot in my uniform. ...The PC Bang!”
“Really?”
“......R-really. I swear it on the sky!”
Kim Hayun leaned her face closer to mine.
“If, if you don’t believe me, you can smell it yourself. See if there’s cigarette smell on my breath or not!”
And then I caught a suddenly clear sweet scent.
The same sugary fruit fragrance I’d noticed the last time we went to a PC Bang drifted from Kim Hayun.
She really does seem wronged.
For cigarette smoke to still be hanging around on a uniform she’d worn as a student, I had to wonder how often she’d been going there.
Still. Since she was saying that was the reason, I should probably believe her, even if I was a little suspicious.
“Fine, okay. I believe you.”
“......You’re just saying that, but you don’t actually believe me, do you?”
Kim Hayun asked back with a sulky face.
“No, I do believe you. You’re not the type to lie about stuff like that, Hayun.”
I smiled lightly.
The Kim Hayun I knew didn’t seem like the type to lie.
In fact, the problem was that she was too honest. Sometimes she’d just lunge ahead and say whatever came to mind.
“......”
Kim Hayun, looking up at me, went a little dazed.
She stared at me from a distance much closer than usual, then suddenly seemed to snap back to herself, whipped her head away, and let out a small cough.
“...W-well, then that’s fine. ...Yeah.”
She kept sneaking glances at me.
“...B-but, Oppa.”
“Yeah? What is it?”
“...Th-that. ...The school uniform you’re wearing right now.”
Kim Hayun, who kept glancing at me more than usual, said,
“Is it the one you used to wear when you were still in school...?”
“Ah, this?”
Of course not.
It wasn’t that strange for Kim Hayun to have kept her uniform, since she’d only graduated from high school last year, but I’d thrown mine away long ago, since I’d graduated ages ago.
The uniform I was wearing now had been rented from a nearby school-uniform shop with a deposit.
When I told her that, Kim Hayun nodded as if she understood, then gently touched my uniform shirt.
“Mm-hm, I see. That’s why. It looked so handsome...”
“Yours is the one you normally wore, right?”
“...Yes. I didn’t throw away the one I used to wear.”
So that’s how it was.
“Really? No wonder it fits you so well. It looks pretty.”
I smiled and complimented her with words similar to the praise I’d just received.
Then, as an afterthought, I added one more thing.
“You must’ve been crazy popular when you were a student, Hayun.”
And then—
“Ah, or maybe you still are now?”
“......”
I could see Kim Hayun’s face, the one clinging to my arm, slowly turning red.
I hadn’t intended to make her embarrassed, but...
“...Haa. Seriously. ...Why do you always hit so hard out of nowhere. ...Ugh.”
Kim Hayun muttered under her breath so quietly it was almost swallowed up.
“Huh? What was that?”
“...A-ah. Nothing!”
She tugged hard on my right arm, the one she was linked to.
“L-let’s go watch the movie. Hurry up!”
She clearly wanted to hide it.
“......Ah. It’s hot. So hot!”
But those cheeks, red as could be, were utterly impossible to hide.