Extreme? Corruption Warning — Side Story) The Story of a Righteous but Somehow Wrong Lee Seon-ah: Episode 1

I must warn you, dear readers, before we begin this side story.

“…I don’t want to go to the academy.”

I lay buried under my blanket, staring blankly at the pure white ceiling before wiping away the dried tears clinging to the corners of my eyes and forcing myself out of bed. Still in a daze, I shuffled into the kitchen, forced down a tasteless breakfast of toast and milk, then threw on my crumpled uniform and prepared to head to school.

“I’m off…”

My hollow greeting echoed through the empty house. But the familiar scene stirred no particular emotion in me. After all, this was nothing more than a spell — a wish that ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠someone, anyone, would be home to hear it.

I locked the heavy front door with a solid click and joined the stream of students heading toward the academy. As I walked along in a stupor, occasionally catching the curious glances of the kids around me, I suddenly froze in place.

Up ahead, a beautiful girl with long black hair was anxiously turning her head this way and that.

…Cha Eun-jung.

One of my closest friends — or rather, what she used to be.

I had tried so hard to forget, but the memories came flooding back anyway. The night at the karaoke room… when she had almost raped me. And everything that happened afterward.

It was the day after our first-semester final exams. I had noticed Eun-jung seemed down, so I dragged her to the karaoke room to cheer her up. I watched her carefully, and when she finally seemed a little better, I offered some words of comfort.

But for some reason, instead of feeling better, her mood only grew darker.

With an angry scowl, she grabbed my breasts hard and sneered, “We’re friends, so it’s okay for me to touch you like this, right?”

…If it had ended there, maybe things would have been okay.

But the moment my breasts were kneaded like that, a sharp, electric jolt of pleasure — the first I had ever felt as a woman — surged through me. Before I could stop myself, I let out an embarrassingly lewd sound.

I don’t know if Eun-jung had always liked girls. What I do know is that, in that moment, she looked at me and felt undeniable sexual desire — even though I was another girl.

Enough desire that she tried to force herself on me when I resisted.

I shoved her away with all my strength and yelled at her, asking what the hell she was doing to her friend. Only then did she seem to snap out of it. She blinked with a dazed expression, then begged for forgiveness in a trembling voice.

Since I didn’t want to push my best friend any further, I swallowed my shock and told her we could just pretend it never happened.

But after that day… whenever we met during vacation, Eun-jung would sometimes scan my body with dangerous eyes, and her touches began crossing far beyond what friends should do.

Every time, I warned her and pushed her away, but she only listened in the moment. A few days later, she would always cross the line again.

As I kept responding leniently, her touches grew bolder and bolder… until yesterday, when she grabbed my face and tried to force a kiss on me while saying, “We’re friends, so it’s fine, right?”

Of course I panicked and shoved her backward. I left her sitting on the floor with a stunned look on her face and ran straight home.

If I had been given even a little more time to collect myself, things might have been different. But of all days, today just had to be the first day of the new semester. So here I was, completely unprepared, face to face with her again.

While I hesitated to take another step, Eun-jung, who had been anxiously looking around, finally spotted me.

“…Hi.”

“…”

She hurried over with quick, small steps and greeted me with an anxious expression. I silently nodded in return, then slightly turned my face away to avoid her searching gaze.

“…Seon-ah.”

Eun-jung took both my hands and held them tightly. A chill ran down my spine, and the sudden urge to yank my hands free nearly overwhelmed me — but I forced myself to endure it.

“I’m really sorry. Yesterday… it was all my fault. From now on, I’ll never…”

Just as I suspected. Of course it would be like ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠this again.

She looked up at me with those innocent eyes while casually spitting out promises she had no intention of keeping.

“…Eun-jung. I’m not stupid.”

“…?”

When she gave me a confused look, I explained it again so even an idiot could understand.

“I kept believing you and putting up with it until now, but… I don’t think I can anymore.”

I had tried to tolerate light rubbing and accidental touches, but yesterday’s forced kiss was too far. Kissing between friends? If I let this continue, there was no telling how much further she would go under the excuse that we were “just friends.” I couldn’t even imagine it anymore.

I pulled my hands free from her grasp and turned my body away from her.

“W-wait…!”

She grabbed my arm tightly and whispered urgently into my ear, her voice on the verge of tears.

“You probably think you’re the only one who’s been holding back, but that’s not true. I’ve been… enduring it too. Over and over and over…”

The slower she spoke, the rougher her breathing became.

“You have no idea what I’ve been holding back inside, what I’ve been fighting against all this time…”

“And what exactly were you holding back that made you do something like that?”

“……Do you really want to know?”

“…No. I don’t want to know anything about you anymore.”

I gently pushed away the now-stiff Eun-jung, who had frozen in the middle of her whisper.

“Let’s keep our distance for a while.”

It was essentially a declaration of the end of our friendship. I still didn’t understand how we had gone from being so close to this.

Swallowing the pain that felt like part of my heart was being ripped out, I left the wounded-looking Eun-jung behind and walked toward the academy.

“S-Seon-ah…! It was really just a mistake, I swear…”

She came running after me in a panic and grabbed my wrist. I forcibly shook her hand off.

“Just listen to me for a second…”

I kept walking forward, desperately ignoring her pleas.

“……If you’re going to be like this, then I have no choice either!”

A little later, I heard her voice behind me, thick with venom. But afraid my heart would weaken if I looked back, I clenched my teeth and kept walking without turning around.

“I can’t give up on you. Do you understand? I will never, ever give up on Lee Seon-ah…!”

I’m sorry, Eun-jung.

I think I have to give up on you now.

I quietly wiped away the tears blurring my vision and said my silent goodbye to her in my heart.

A few days later, a strange rumor began to spread among the first-year girls at the academy.

The rumor claimed that Lee Seon-ah from Class 1-A — who had maintained an overwhelming lead for first place in the entire grade during the first semester — had actually been sleeping with a teacher in exchange for leaked exam questions.

When I first heard about it through the grapevine, I thought such an absurd rumor would die out quickly. There was no clear evidence, and my reputation had always been good because I often helped other female students.

I was sure the other kids wouldn’t believe it, and even if some did, the misunderstanding would be cleared up soon.

But then the teacher in charge of the first-years suddenly took an unexplained leave of absence, and the rumor rapidly gained credibility among the students.

After that, my reputation plummeted day by day. The few friends who had still talked to me began to distance themselves one by one.

Even so, only Kim Han-na continued to spend time with me. She knew exactly what kind of insults she was receiving because of it, yet she still came to find me without fail during every break.

Before long, I couldn’t stand watching her get unfairly badmouthed because of me anymore. Sobbing, I pushed her away, telling her she shouldn’t be around me.

And then came the day when I was completely isolated from my entire grade and class.

“…Everyone, let’s have a quick meeting.”

During CA period, under Eun-jung’s lead, a class meeting was held with me as the main topic.

Eun-jung walked confidently through the quiet classroom and stopped in front of the teacher’s desk. She tapped her fingers lightly on the surface and slowly opened her mouth ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠to address the entire class.

“You all know, right? Because Seon-ah was spreading her legs for a teacher, our class reputation has taken a huge hit.”

“…”

“Even if it’s Seon-ah, isn’t it unfair that the rest of us, who did nothing wrong, have to receive weird looks? Even I, who has a powerful family background, am being talked about behind my back… What about the rest of you?”

All the girls in class glanced at me at once before turning their eyes back to Eun-jung.

“I ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠don’t think we can just leave Seon-ah like this. Now that she doesn’t have a teacher to sleep with anymore, she might start flirting with another one.”

Even though I was being accused of something so ridiculous, I couldn’t even bring myself to say that it was unfair. I bit down hard on my lower lip and hung my head.

A dizzying sensation swirled in my mind, and a faint wave of nausea rose in my throat.

“And on top of that, she hasn’t received any punishment even though she committed such a wrongdoing. In that case… shouldn’t we be the ones to punish her ourselves? Since we’re the ones suffering because of her, we have the right, don’t we?”

As every girl in the class nodded in agreement, Eun-jung gave me a gentle, angelic smile and beckoned to me with a flutter of her fingers.

“Seon-ah. Could you come up here for a moment?”

N-no…

“Girls, bring Seon-ah over.”

At Eun-jung’s command, the girls sitting around me swarmed over and grabbed me. I was dragged toward the teacher’s desk, offering weak resistance… but I was afraid they might get hurt if I struggled too hard, so I eventually gave up and let myself be pulled along quietly.

The friends who dragged me followed Eun-jung’s instructions and roughly shoved my body onto the desk in front of the lectern.

Even if it’s punishment… they’ll probably just tease me a little, right? They’re all good girls who have never been mean to anyone before.

Just as I was clinging to that small hope, Eun-jung’s cold, decisive voice rang in my ear.

“Strip her.”

…What?

Before I could even look at Eun-jung in shock, the girls pounced on me and began tearing off my blouse and skirt. Only then did my mind snap back to reality. I thrashed around, trying to resist them… but even though they were girls, with each of them hanging onto my arms and legs and putting their full weight on me, there was no way I could escape.

In the end, they stripped off my blouse, bra, skirt, and even my panties. I was left lying completely naked on the desk.

The girls surrounding me swallowed audibly as they stared down at my body. My face burned bright red with humiliation.

“Everyone in front, step aside for a second.”

Eun-jung walked around the lectern, pushed through the crowd of girls, and stood directly in front of me. Then, with a relaxed expression, she leaned over my body as if she were about to lie on top of me… and whispered in an extremely quiet voice right next to my ear.

“Seon-ah. Do you remember… what I said back then?”

“…Huh?”

“I told you I would never give up on you. See? In the end, you’ve fallen right into my hands, haven’t you?”

What… was Eun-jung even saying right now?

I looked up at her with a stupid, disbelieving expression, unable to process her words as she smiled brightly down at me.