The Entrance Ceremony
It was such an unexpected question that I could only sit there blinking, unable to form a single word. Hong Su-ryeon let out a soft Ah! and dropped her voice to a whisper quieter than before.
"Is it a secret from everyone else? If so, don't worry! No one keeps their mouth shut tighter than I do!"
People who said things like that usually had mouths light as feathers. I let out a sigh and spoke to Hong Su-ryeon, who wore the self-satisfied look of someone convinced she had done the right thing.
"There's no secret to keep in the first place. The Student Council Vice President and I aren't like that at all. She only walked me to Lily Hall because we ran into each other by chance, and she was worried a freshman like me might get lost."
"Ehh, is that so…"
Hong Su-ryeon made no effort to hide her disappointment. I nearly let an incredulous expression slip across my face, but I hastily got my features under control and pressed on.
"Besides, the Vice President and I are both girls. How would two girls even date each other?"
More importantly, Private Acacia Academy strictly forbade relationships of any kind—between opposite sexes or the same—on grounds of moral misconduct. Even the slightest hint of it could earn you demerits at minimum, or expulsion at worst. Asking someone if they were dating under those circumstances was extraordinarily rude.
But Hong Su-ryeon didn't catch the implication. She tilted her head and said,
"Can't girls date each other too? If you like someone, you can date them regardless of gender, right?"
That was something I actually agreed with. Beautiful girls dating other beautiful girls was a lovely sight—I'd deliberately enrolled at Private Acacia Academy just to see something like that.
Of course, I enjoyed watching yuri. Becoming the subject of it myself was another matter entirely. Just because you like horror movies doesn't mean you want to live through one. I wanted to watch from the sidelines as a thorough observer. At any rate, I buried that thought deep and sighed at Hong Su-ryeon's words.
"More than anything, if you start dating inside the academy, you're looking at demerits or straight-up expulsion. I worked hard to get in here—I'm not about to get kicked out over some love game."
"'Some love game'…"
"…Just checking, but you're not like that too, are you, Miss Hong Su-ryeon? Into other girls?"
I really had no desire to star in any yuri of my own. I wrapped my arms around myself protectively and edged back a little, and Hong Su-ryeon waved her hands in a flustered panic.
"N-no! It's not that I like girls! I just don't have any prejudices about love…!"
"…Is that so?"
"Yes! That's really it!"
"Well, if that's the case, then it doesn't matter."
I hadn't actually been that wary of her to begin with, so I relaxed my posture and shrugged. Hong Su-ryeon let out a long sigh of relief and wiped her forehead.
By then I'd finished unpacking completely. I stepped closer to Hong Su-ryeon, offered my hand, and said,
"Anyway, I look forward to spending the next year with you, Miss Hong Su-ryeon."
Once assigned, roommates didn't change for a full year unless there was a serious reason. That meant I'd be living with Hong Su-ryeon all through first year. If she'd been the yuri type, things might have gotten a bit awkward—but if not, being on friendly terms like this wouldn't be so bad.
Besides, she was rather pretty. Hong Su-ryeon looked back and forth between my outstretched hand and my face, then broke into a bright smile and grabbed it firmly.
"Yes! Let's get along!"
Honestly, the first day back at the dormitory was uneventful. We went out to the commercial district for a bit of bonding, but since the day before the entrance ceremony was a holiday, only a handful of places were open. At least one Western restaurant was still running, so we shared some pasta.
The taste was, well—exactly what you'd expect from Private Acacia, an academy that had converted an entire stretch of land for itself. It was so exquisite my tongue felt ready to break into song and dance. Su-ryeon seemed to feel the same; we polished off the pasta in a hurry (with all the proper young-lady manners, of course).
After that we traded light personal details, and in the end agreed to drop our surnames and call each other by first names alone. That had been Su-ryeon's idea, not mine. We were going to see each other for a whole year, she said—wouldn't first names help us get close faster?
I was more than willing to get along with Hong Su-ryeon—no, with Su-ryeon—so I accepted at once. Once we started using first names, the distance between us really did shrink a little, and the rest of the evening slipped by quickly.
Time passed, and morning arrived. The day of the entrance ceremony dawned.
"Wow…"
Su-ryeon, seated beside me, let out a murmur of awe and looked every which way. I wanted to tell her to stop gawking so undignifiedly—but I was no better, equally absorbed in surveying the auditorium where the ceremony would be held.
And how could I not be? Beyond the sheer splendor of the place, the second and third floors were packed with people who weren't even current students.
"Look over there! That's the Prime Minister. I've only ever seen him on television…!"
Not that I would have recognized him. I only blinked without answering, but Su-ryeon went on pointing here and there, rattling off names regardless—this one was the chairman of some conglomerate, that one was some cabinet minister, and so on.
How does she even know all this? I asked her with a puzzled look, and Su-ryeon scratched the back of her head with a sheepish little laugh.
"My father's a member of the National Assembly."
"…Ah. I see."
So you're a big deal yourself, huh? I nodded with belated understanding—and at the same time felt a chill run through me at the fact that even a National Assemblyman's daughter had been placed in Lily Hall rather than Acacia Hall.
Then just how powerful are the families of the people living in Acacia Hall?
While I was turning that over, a group of people mounted the platform.
"Wait—that person is…"
Someone I recognized was among them, and the words slipped out before I could stop them. Su-ryeon, who had been looking around, followed my gaze and spoke.
"The Student Council."
Vice President Seo-hee was mixed in with them, so there could be no mistake. We weren't the only ones to notice; the noisy auditorium gradually fell silent.
The woman who swept her gaze across the now-hushed hall brought her face close to the microphone and spoke.
"I trust you are all well. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Kang Ha-rin, President of the Student Council. A pleasure to meet you."
Applause poured out with her words. Thunderous applause for a mere introduction—I clapped along with a dazed expression, while Kang Ha-rin smiled as if long accustomed to it and gestured for quiet.
"Thank you most kindly for the warm welcome. It is a rare honor to receive such applause from so many distinguished guests—and all because I happen to be Student Council President."
She spoke with a sly playfulness that never once compromised a young lady's dignity, and soft laughter drifted down from the upper floors.
None of the freshmen laughed, of course. Every face had gone rigid at the mere name of the Student Council—as was only natural.
At Private Acacia Academy, the Student Council wielded absolute power over anything concerning the students. On the small end, they managed club budgets; on the large end, they could involve themselves in expulsions. The idea that crossing them could pile demerits on you overnight and get you thrown out was no idle threat. Even brand-new freshmen knew the Student Council's weight well enough that not a single person dared to relax.
Kang Ha-rin continued, looking over the new students.
"Today, at the threshold of spring when flowers begin to bloom, so many of you have gathered here."
"We commonly call a noble woman a young lady. At Private Acacia, every enrolled student is addressed as a young lady—yet not everyone will graduate as one."
"Improper conduct. Unchecked desire. Bad habits. Every year, countless buds who carry some reason they cannot become young ladies are expelled from this academy."
"I stand here as Student Council President to offer a word of counsel to all of you who have newly become young ladies."
"A moment of laziness. A moment of idle curiosity. A moment of complacency. Do not fall into those countless wrong moments. They will not let your potential bloom—they will slowly let it rot."
Kang Ha-rin smiled as she finished.
Applause erupted the instant she finished—far more fervent than the applause that had followed her introduction, shot through with genuine cheers.
The freshmen were no different. They kept their seats out of sheer propriety, but every one of them looked ready to leap up and shout.
Su-ryeon beside me was the same. She watched Kang Ha-rin step away with sparkling eyes, clapping so fast it was as if something had gotten loose inside her.
What about me, you ask? The Student Council President's speech had been fairly moving, sure—but not enough to make me cheer like that. Maybe it was because I'd originally been a man. While I was thinking that, Vice President Seo-hee took the microphone.
"Next, we will hear words of encouragement from the Chairwoman of the Board. Please maintain silence."
So it wasn't over. I watched a beautiful middle-aged woman take the stage and forced down a yawn that threatened to break free.
There wasn't much to say about what followed. The Chairwoman's address—unlike a principal's—was extraordinarily long, tedious, and stuffed full of every ornamental phrase imaginable. And just like a principal's speech, it induced sleep in anyone listening. A few freshmen were already nodding off under the weight of it. Sitting still only made the drowsiness twice as bad.
But actually falling asleep was out of the question. One reminder of where I was sitting should have been enough to keep anyone awake.
Private Acacia Academy had been founded to cultivate proper young ladies. And a young lady was expected to value proper conduct above all. You did not doze off just because a speech was boring.
Keeping my head straight, I rolled my eyes and saw young ladies wearing armbands continuously jotting something on their clipboards. They were probably evaluating the freshmen's attitudes.
If this had been a modern fantasy novel instead of a dating sim, academy life would have been brutal. Thinking that, I jabbed Su-ryeon—who had started to droop—in the side and woke her up.
"Nngh—!"
At any rate, the entrance ceremony proceeded without incident. The young ladies who had entered as valedictorian and salutatorian recited the freshman oath up front, and various other distinguished guests delivered their own addresses.
Only after all of that was finished did the entrance ceremony finally end. Of course, the ceremony ending didn't mean everything was over.
What remained was what they called OT for short—orientation.