Entrance Ceremony (5)
First, let me make one thing clear: I am by no means some righteous soul who cannot stand injustice, or who refuses to walk past bullying without stepping in.
When something unfair happens, I turn my head and tell myself it isn't my problem. When someone is being tormented, I look the other way and pretend not to see. I'm just an ordinary person—the kind you find anywhere.
Of course, that said, watching Shin So-hye get bullied was genuinely painful to look at.
But even so, the idea of bolting upright like this, drawing every eye in the room—I can say with absolute certainty that I had no such intention whatsoever!
So why did I stand? To explain that, you need to understand the body I now inhabit: Yu Ha-eun.
The original Yu Ha-eun had been so fiery she was once called the alley boss of her neighborhood—and it wasn't simply because she was a wild, unbridled tomboy.
According to her mother, whenever the children she played with got bullied or hit by someone, she was always the first to charge in and throw a punch at the ringleader. Her sense of loyalty ran that deep.
And people with that kind of loyalty tend, more often than not, to be good-natured souls who simply cannot walk past something unreasonable or unjust without intervening. It was baked into her nature.
That nature kept firing off on its own even after I possessed Yu Ha-eun's body.
As someone who put safety first and wanted nothing more than a peaceful life, I tried to resist the instincts carved into this flesh—but the moment I witnessed something that crossed the line (the kind of thing even I found hard to stomach), my body moved before I did.
This situation was no different. I smiled at the thirteen pairs of eyes now fixed on me. Cold sweat, of course, was pouring freely down my back.
Ha-eun, it's your body, so moving however you like is fine—but could you at least give me a plan before you take over?
"What is it, you?"
"Ah—"
Since I simply stood there smiling without a word, Yoon Seo-a shoved Shin So-hye aside and came toward me.
Running off with a breezy Oh, I was just heading to the restroom, ohoho was no longer an option. I wet my dry lips with my tongue, offered a slight bow of greeting to the approaching Yoon Seo-a, and opened my mouth.
"Hello, Miss Yoon Seo-a. My name is Yu Ha-eun."
"Do you imagine I asked so that I might hear your name?"
Of course not. I kept the smile plastered on and continued.
"It doesn't seem that way, no."
"Then you must already understand what I meant, Miss Yu Ha-eun. Would you care to explain why a young lady who conducts herself so properly would rise from her seat while making such an unpleasant noise?"
The smile that came so naturally to her face, the soft and gentle voice—it was a lovely enough performance to win the favor of a hundred people. To me, though, Yoon Seo-a looked more oppressive than the King of Hell himself.
My heart hammered. Whatever answer I gave would decide the next four years here—and perhaps everything after. But if I said nothing at all, all I would accomplish was creating a Shin So-hye Mark II.
I took a short breath and spoke.
"I thought it might be best if you stopped around there."
"Best if I stopped around there? Don't tell me you're warning me?"
"Not a warning—I'd prefer you take it as advice. It seems the teacher who will be in charge of us is on her way."
"And how would you know that?"
How would I know? Because I could already hear the footsteps from way down the hall. I tilted my head slightly, glanced toward the corridor, and said,
"Can't you hear them? Those crisp, measured footsteps coming from the direction of Class A?"
"Footsteps?"
At my words, Yoon Seo-a frowned in puzzlement and strained her ears toward the hallway. She wasn't the only one—the young ladies seated nearest the corridor did the same.
Unless their hearing was defective, they would catch the sound of heels clicking across the marble corridor at a steady, even pace, drawing closer.
Until now they had been too busy enjoying Shin So-hye's torment to notice. In the sudden quiet, though, it would be hard to miss.
"…You're right. There are footsteps coming this way."
"Could it really be the teacher, like she said?"
As the young ladies murmured among themselves, Yoon Seo-a's eyes swung back to me.
This time it wasn't the decorated gaze from before, but a fierce, predatory look—the kind that sizes up prey. My body trembled on its own, yet I held the smile and pretended at composure.
…The urge to crumple right then and there and insist it was nothing was overwhelming, but still.
"Even for you, Miss Yoon Seo-a, getting caught by a teacher bullying a classmate wouldn't be ideal, would it? That's why I suggested it might be best if you stopped around there."
I had to finish what I'd started, so I forced my trembling voice under control and spoke. Yoon Seo-a stared through me in silence, then tossed out,
"What did you say your name was?"
…She wasn't asking because she genuinely didn't know. However villainous her behavior, the fact that she had been admitted here meant she wasn't stupid.
In other words, she would not forget a name she had heard less than five minutes ago. The intent behind the question was simple.
From now on, I'll be watching you. I ignored the sweat sliding down the back of my neck and answered.
"Yu Ha-eun."
"Yes, Miss Yu Ha-eun. Would you care to join me for tea sometime? I suspect we have a great deal to discuss between us."
No, I don't particularly want to talk with you. And we don't have a great deal of anything. I wanted to say exactly that—but I couldn't go scattering ashes over a meal already cooked. So I smiled sweetly and nodded.
"I'll be waiting for the day you invite me, Miss Yoon Seo-a."
At that, Yoon Seo-a let out a short, amused breath and returned to her seat. Once the center of the commotion was back in place, the young ladies who had been whispering and staring began, one by one, to look away.
Even so, one pair of eyes remained fixed on me. When I turned that way, Shin So-hye—who had been secretly watching—flinched in fright, hunched her shoulders, and looked aside.
And yet she kept stealing glances, as if she had a great deal she wanted to say.
Sorry, but I don't have the strength left to comfort you right now. I quietly let out a long, exhausted breath and sank back into my chair.
I had come to Private Acacia Academy wanting to see a yuri paradise full of pretty girls going kyaa-kyaa, fuu-fuu—not this kind of darkness. And mediating it was even further from the plan!
Maybe I should have just gone to First Academy after all. I was staring blankly into that thought when the firmly shut front door opened smoothly and a mature beauty walked in.
The way she moved naturally to the teacher's podium suggested she was the instructor who would take charge of Class D from here on.
She smiled gently and addressed us.
"To all of you who have newly become young ladies—I trust you are well? For the coming year, I will be educating you into fine young ladies as the Senior Officer of Class 1-D. My name is Maria."
Not a teacher—a Senior Officer. I filed the new information away and listened carefully to Senior Officer Maria's words.
"I myself am a graduate of this very place, Private Acacia, so when I look at my junior young ladies I find myself overflowing with the desire to treat you well. Even so, I cannot embrace those who disrupt the academy's good order."
Senior Officer Maria's gaze settled on Yoon Seo-a, who sat in the front row by the window.
Does she already know what happened in class just now? I stared at her in surprise. Yoon Seo-a let out a dissatisfied breath.
"Hmph."
"Of course, among the excellent young ladies gathered here, a certain degree of competition is only natural. Even so, one must never act in a manner unbecoming of one's dignity."
Unfazed by Yoon Seo-a's surly attitude, Senior Officer Maria continued.
"A true young lady must never lose her composure or her dignity, no matter the situation. One must not surrender to momentary emotion, nor force through a wrong judgment simply because one insists it is right. Those of you who heard the Student Council President's speech at today's entrance ceremony will, I trust, understand."
At the pointed words, several young ladies flinched. The implication that she already knew what had taken place in the classroom before her arrival was unmistakable—so the reaction was only natural.
The power to issue demerits and expulsions to young ladies did not belong solely to the Student Council and the Conduct Maintenance Department. Teachers—no, Senior Officers—held it as well.
Those authorities had originally been theirs, after all. Senior Officer Maria, who had been wearing a smile paired with strict eyes, soon softened into a warm, smiling gaze and said,
"I believe that sermon has been quite enough, so let us move on to the main topic. First of all, since this is the first day of the entrance ceremony, there will be no classes."
No one made a sound, but color bloomed across every face. For all their talk of being proper young ladies, until very recently these girls had lived free and unrestrained lives. No one wanted to sit through stifling lessons from day one.
And me? Naturally I was cheering in complete silence! Unlike yesterday, the commercial district would be open for regular business. The plan was that the moment orientation ended, I would head out for training and a tour of the shops.
Even the one pasta place that had been open had tasted like heaven—I could only imagine what the others would be like. Senior Officer Maria went on.
"And orientation itself will simply consist of each of you coming forward one by one to introduce yourselves to the rest of the class. Ah—of course, this too counts toward your evaluation as young ladies, so do give it your utmost sincerity."
Self-introductions? I stared at Senior Officer Maria in dismay. Several others wore the same startled look, but she only beamed and continued.
"Well then. Shall we begin with the young lady in the very front seat?"
The first one called was Yoon Seo-a. She rose from her seat with a look of pure indifference, then composed her features into those of a lofty young lady and strode arrogantly to the podium.
"I trust you are well. My name is Yoon Seo-a. My father currently serves as the Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and my mother works at a foreign embassy."
Not just the father—her mother's credentials were no joke either. As I thought that, Yoon Seo-a lifted her chin and declared,
"For unavoidable reasons I find myself sharing Class D for now, but before next year arrives I will have risen to Class A. So commit my face to memory. If not now, you will rarely have the chance to see it."
Radiating arrogance and a noble aura in equal measure, Yoon Seo-a turned her head toward Senior Officer Maria.
"That concludes my introduction, Senior Officer Maria."
"A touch arrogant, perhaps—but for a young lady, carrying oneself with that kind of bearing is important in its own right. Very well done, Miss Yoon Seo-a."
"Then, would the next young lady please come forward?" At Senior Officer Maria's continuing voice, I bit my lip.
In a place where even a parent's occupation counted as power, having it laid bare that I came from a single-parent household with an ordinary office worker for a parent was never going to be a good thing.
But there was nothing I could do to stop it. One by one, in order, the self-introductions were already underway.
And when my turn arrived and I stood at the podium, I opened my mouth in a state of half-enlightenment.
To confess my own unremarkableness.