Nagging
Even the disgusting becomes familiar if you look at it long enough.
Little by little, I was getting used to life in this world as well.
This morning, when I woke up to the sight of Jia humming a tune while wearing her school uniform skirt and an apron, I let out a sigh—yet the thought that it was only natural crossed my mind. That alone proved I was adjusting.
Guys wandering around in skirts and full makeup… no, male students doing that were simply normal here.
I had accepted it.
But then…
"Seonghyeonaaa~"
"..."
"Wow… your hands are seriously pretty… prettier than most guys, even."
What the hell was I supposed to do with a guy like this?
The male student sitting diagonally from me had deliberately shoved his chair backward—the one designed to face forward—just so he could stare at me.
He took one look at me and burst into delighted giggles.
"It's so uncomfortable~."
He started loosening his already-slack necktie even further.
Close your legs, you bastard…
Forced to sit back in a chair with a proper backrest while wearing that short skirt, the thing jutting out between his legs was half-visible, and my eyes felt like they were rotting out of my skull.
"Seonghyeon, let's compare hand sizes. I bet yours are huge, just like your height."
Chin propped on the backrest, eyes smiling, the guy in the diagonal seat extended just his hand toward me and gave it a little fluttery wave.
Hands?
Pretty hands?
Of course they were pretty.
Unless physical traits and beauty standards had been completely flipped, there was no way a man's hands could beat a woman's softness.
Sure, in a world like this the girls probably skimped on care while the guys slathered on hand cream and whatever, so maybe the male side looked better maintained overall.
But biological differences still existed, so of course my hands were going to be prettier.
And the person he was comparing them to wasn't some other girl—it was me.
Comparing skin beauty with me?
Compare something that actually stands a chance.
Honestly.
I hated saying it myself, but I was fucking gorgeous.
One little eye-smile from me and I could reel in the girls too.
Back at the academy where I only showed up once a month to collect my diploma, all I had to do was walk in and sneer and the girls would start shrieking, "Kyaaaaah!" There were even female students who called me unnie and fainted on the spot.
That was the level I was operating at.
...
Wait.
Why didn't I cash in on that back then?
If I'd just gone for it, I wouldn't have needed to beg any goddess—I could've built a harem right there.
Huh?
Huhhh?
Why the hell didn't I think of that?
Why?
There was even a girl who confessed and asked me to hold her.
Wait, what?
"Seonghyeon?"
"..."
"Why'd you suddenly space out like that… looking all dumb. Cute, though."
The male student cut into my thoughts with zero sense of timing.
He giggled and slyly poked my arm.
Thud…
This bastard had no social awareness whatsoever.
When someone ignores you, you're supposed to realize they don't want to deal with you and back off.
This guy seriously didn't know where the line was.
"Hey, shut up for a second. Fuck! I'm trying to think."
"W-what?"
"I said shut it. I've got something on my mind."
I finally snapped and let something ugly slip out.
This was serious and he was spouting nonsense.
"Ahahaha… Seonghyeon must've lived abroad so long he doesn't know… saying 'shut up' is really harsh…"
"What 'lived abroad'? I've never even left the country—I've only ever lived in Korea. Don't you understand Korean… no, plain Korean? Want me to say it again? I'm not telling you to be quiet—I'm telling you to shut the fuck up!"
I exploded.
If someone tells you to be quiet, you close your mouth and sit properly. You don't try to laugh it off.
...
The classroom went dead silent in an instant.
Every pair of eyes locked onto me.
What are you staring at?
I didn't look away. I glared right back at every single one of them.
If you can hold my gaze head-on, go ahead and try.
I met the eyes of everyone looking at me, one by one.
They dropped their gazes on their own.
The guys, of course—and even among the girls who looked like they might be somewhat tough, the moment their eyes met mine they flinched and turned away with scared expressions.
No princess coming to rescue the prince in distress, huh?
Fine. Then I'll say what I need to say.
"Were we friends since middle school? Or elementary school friends who split up and reunited in high school? Neither, right? We're strangers! We met for the first time yesterday. When the hell did you get close enough to call me 'Seonghyeonaaa~' like that? Huh?"
Did this guy think we were buddies?
Why was he acting so familiar?
We're just classmates, aren't we?
I had no idea when he'd decided it was okay to drop my surname and call my name with that cutesy tone.
"Uh, yeah. Same class, so let's just let that slide. Anyway, we're classmates, right? Right?"
Fine. Whatever.
Classmates, so he can call me that.
Then if we're classmates, at the very least he could wear clothes I can actually look at when he speaks to me.
Look at the state of him.
Necktie hanging loose, every button from the collar down to the chest undone so the shirt flared wide open left and right.
The skirt was shortened so much it was as short as the shorts Jihu had worn yesterday.
But those had been pants. This was a skirt!
Things I never wanted to see kept flashing into view and it was driving me crazy.
"If you're a student, wear normal clothes for once! When you talk I have to look at you whether I want to or not, but looking at that mess of yours is not a level I can handle!"
I wasn't asking for much.
Wearing a skirt?
I knew that was unavoidable.
This world was just like that.
Makeup?
Sss… seeing a different color between neck and face wasn't easy on the eyes, but if I kept looking I'd get used to it someday.
But not wearing anything underneath, pairing it with that short skirt, and poking me with manicured hands? That was something I couldn't get used to and didn't want to get used to.
And this guy reeked of cigarettes.
Every time he opened his mouth the thick nicotine smell made my head spin.
An example… I need an example…
I needed someone I could point to and say "be more like this."
Unfortunately the best possible example, Jia, sat on the complete opposite side of the room.
So I needed someone decent enough to serve as a stand-in, but everyone seemed to prefer miniskirts and treated the dress code like a mild suggestion, so I couldn't easily pick anyone out.
Right—my deskmate. At least that one looked normal yesterday.
I suddenly remembered how excellent my deskmate's outfit had looked the day before and turned to look.
Bravo.
I didn't say it out loud, but the admiration still rose on its own.
The perfect replacement example for Jia was sitting right here.
Neat to the absolute extreme.
The skirt hung all the way past the knees.
Unlike the thug in front of me, every single shirt button was fastened.
There was something a little unusual about this one too—but in a good way, not a bad one.
Why the scarf, though? It's not cold.
It was spring, nowhere near cold enough, yet my deskmate had a gray scarf wrapped tightly around the neck.
Thanks to that, the only skin showing was the face and hands.
Even the hands were currently out of sight—clamped tightly on the knees under the desk and trembling, probably because of the bad atmosphere. You wouldn't see them unless you deliberately looked.
I had no idea why anyone would wear a scarf in this weather, but this was the textbook specimen of a proper student.
It looked so good.
This was what student attire was supposed to look like.
Thud.
I lightly set my hand on my deskmate's head.
Flinch!!
The moment my hand touched, my deskmate trembled hard.
"Learn from this one."
"..."
"Look at this outfit. How normal is that? Right? Compared to you… aigoo…"
I shook my head like I couldn't even look at him anymore.
I laid the "I just saw something unspeakable" energy on thick, and the guy sitting diagonally from me flushed red, said nothing, and turned away.
He glared at my deskmate for a second before turning fully, but he still didn't say a single word to me.
Just sat there facing forward, fuming by himself.
I'd expected him to talk back, but clearly my flawless logic and perfect example had left him speechless.
Tremble…
"Huh?"
A massive tremor ran through the hand still resting on my deskmate's head.
When I looked, those eyes were darting up at me once, twice, reading my mood with pure fear.
"Ah, sorry."
I apologized and lifted my hand off the head.
Squeak.
The second my hand left, my deskmate dragged the chair away and put distance between us.
Then, as if something filthy had stuck to the hair, both hands started brushing it off frantically.
Hey, my hands aren't that dirty…
Putting distance was fine with me too.
I didn't want to be stuck next to a guy either.
But my hands weren't dirty…
Reacting like that was a little…
It hurt…
If a girl had reacted that way I might have understood, but the fact that it was a guy treating my hand like it was contaminated made me feel even more pathetic.
Watching my deskmate neatly rearrange the scarf and tilt the body to the right just to get farther from me, I let out a long, deep sigh.
The innermost stall of the bathroom.
White smoke was drifting out of it.
Inside the stall leaking smoke, three male students were clustered together.
Students, yet they were enjoying cigarette time like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Hoooo…
One of them blew out a stream of smoke and spoke with a mocking laugh.
"Our Hayeon got completely roasted, huh?"
"Shut up. Fuck."
"Kikik!"
"Don't laugh."
"Yes, yes~"
Even while saying he got it, the friend kept laughing, which only made Hayeon's mood worse.
"A bit more student-like…"
Remembering what had just happened in the classroom, Hayeon twisted his face in pure disgust.
Ptooey.
Hayeon spat on the floor.
Then he stepped on the spit and ground it in with his shoe.
His face was still burning red from the humiliation in front of everyone.
Hayeon held a hand out to his friend.
"Yeonju, one cigarette."
"Last one. Nope."
Yeonju showed the pack with a single cigarette left and refused.
"Ah, I'll pay you back. Just lend it."
"Nope~"
"Ah, come on!"
"Fine, fine. You're cute when you're mad."
Only after Hayeon snapped did Yeonju finally hand over a cigarette.
He lit it for Hayeon, who already had the cigarette between his lips, and asked,
"So what are you gonna do? Call Juwon noona?"
"I want to, but…"
"Want to, but?"
"Haa… he's so handsome I'm hesitating."
"What?"
"He's my type, fuck!"
He wanted nothing more than to call Juwon noona and make Seonghyeon pay for humiliating him in front of everyone.
That cold-eyed stare and the way he'd picked everything apart one by one had pissed him off, but the face was so good he didn't want anything that might ruin it.
If Juwon noona got involved, that handsome face would get smashed.
His real older sister.
If he explained what happened today to Juwon noona, there was no way it would end lightly.
Hayeon twirled a strand of hair around his finger and muttered,
"Honestly it was embarrassing, but it also kind of felt like he was worried about me, so it wasn't all bad…"
"Crazy bastard…"
"Those rose-tinted glasses are on thick."
Watching Hayeon blush while thinking about Seonghyeon, the other two smoking with him could only shake their heads like there was nothing to be done.
Truth was, both of them liked Seonghyeon too.
An exotic look that somehow didn't feel off-putting at all.
A charisma that didn't even spare a glance for the rest of the class.
Just the existence of Seonghyeon was enough to make their lower halves react on their own.
They'd wanted to make a move the second they saw him, but Hayeon had already claimed him on day one, so they couldn't freely step in.
"I'll just fix it like Seonghyeon said. That much isn't hard."
"Look at the devoted little wife over here."
"But that other guy… I kinda want to get a look at his hands."
"Who? Ah… Seonghyeon's deskmate? That Jiyun or whatever?"
"Yeah. That one. I don't like that Seonghyeon told me to learn from him. That basically means he likes him more than me."
Hayeon's eyes flashed cold.
At that look, the two smoking with him flinched for a second.
We're screwed…
Our class is about to have a funeral soon.
They both got the strong feeling that Hayeon was about to cause a major incident.
But they also knew there was no stopping Hayeon once his eyes looked like that, so they simply offered a silent prayer for Jiyun's soul and finished their cigarettes.