A Peaceful Day.
A Peaceful Day.
Friday afternoon.
I'd more or less adjusted to school. After switching seats with Kim Tae-oh and having Da-yeon sit next to me, I started thinking things over seriously.
We each had to decide which club to join by next week.
If we didn't decide, we'd be stuck doing independent study during club time.
To me, independent study was nothing more than a waste of time.
Da-yeon couldn't tear her eyes away from the club at the very bottom of the list.
"...Do you really want to join that?"
"Yeah!"
The Comics Club...
After looking over the clubs together, Da-yeon had pointed at the Comics Club, the one at the very bottom.
"Well... shall we at least go check it out?"
"Yeah!"
We found the club room and stood in front of the one marked Comics Club.
As luck would have it, the club room was in the area where the third-year classrooms were.
Who knows what the comics club members had been doing, but the club room was disgustingly filthy.
""......""
"Still want to do it?"
"...No..."
Da-yeon's face fell hard. I laughed and whispered in her ear.
"Of course, we can change things if we take over the club."
I walked right up and knocked on the door. The room went noisy.
Then the door opened.
The thick smell of cigarette smoke hit me.
I pinched my nose. Three people were staring at us with dumbfounded looks.
They all looked like third-years. Two of them were so fat they seemed to have trouble breathing.
The other one looked normal, but from the odor emanating most strongly from him, you could tell exactly who'd been smoking.
I started to wonder what the hell was wrong with these kids.
"Aren't you looking for more members?"
Their eyes went wide when they spotted me.
"Th... That's Ga-in!"
People making exaggerated faces like that when they saw me was something I was used to.
The two who seemed like they generally had timid personalities and the one I pegged as the smoker all nodded.
"Wanna come in for now?"
"I'll come in five minutes. How about you turn on that fan right there and open the windows first?"
"Ah... uh, hold on."
I grinned and spoke to Da-yeon, whose expression had suddenly turned so disappointed.
"We can just fix the place up ourselves, right?"
"Yeah..."
Five minutes later, when we went inside, the smell had mostly cleared out.
All three of them had their eyes shining as they looked at us.
"Why were you smoking."
"I needed some info for drawing a comic... so I tried it as an experiment..."
Looking around, I saw three laptops, and the place was covered with pictures of comic book characters.
And it was all female characters with totally ridiculous proportions...
'Hell, with a body like that, her spine would snap from the weight of her tits.'
'Actually, wait... maybe when Da-yeon grows up, it could be possible...?'
Setting aside such thoughts, I stared at the skinny guy.
"This club's getting shut down next semester, right? From lack of members."
"Yeah... you need at least three people to keep it going."
The brown-haired guy who'd opened the door was the club president. Compared to the two fat guys behind him who looked like perverts, he seemed way better.
Of course you shouldn't judge people solely by their looks, but there's a reason reading faces is a thing.
The two kept sneaking glances at me and Da-yeon, making exaggerated stretching motions like they were trying to show off.
The way their faces turned red was really something...
"Why don't you hand this place over to us?"
"...Should we just clean it out for you...?"
The cigarette smell was so bad that I briefly considered sending Ji-hoon over here to give them a proper re-education.
But seeing how their reactions were just pathetic, I almost felt sorry for them.
I was about to sit down on a chair next to me, but it was dirtier than I'd imagined, so I gave up.
"Let's start by tearing all these posters down..."
The character on the poster I was covering with my finger.
The outer garment barely qualified as clothing, and the female character wore extremely trashy underwear that exaggerated her absurd proportions.
When I stared right at them, the guys, apparently a little embarrassed themselves, turned red and quickly tore the posters down.
I'd come to see what kind of shit these deranged bastards were up to, and they turned out to be more normal than I thought.
Da-yeon looked at one of the laptops, and her eyes lit up.
"Oh! I read that one too!"
The guys drawing webtoons laughed awkwardly at Da-yeon's reaction.
"...Thanks."
Apart from basic equipment, the club had to earn all its own activity funds.
The system worked like this: you won prize money, paid the student council a 10% commission, and used the rest of the money to buy equipment.
All electronic devices needed by the club had to get a sticker through the student council.
That was because, however it might look, everyone here came from rich families, and people would just bring in endless amounts of gear otherwise.
Da-yeon tilted her head as she looked at the webtoon.
"Isn't this... really popular? I heard... an author with similar view counts makes tons of money..."
I listened as the club president spoke cautiously, watching my reaction.
Money earned from club activities was supposed to go to the club minus the 10%.
But the amount of money the Comics Club was bringing in was apparently so huge that only 5% went back to the club.
That sounded very interesting to me, so I wrote up a contract with the club president.
The gist was that the four of us would join the club, secure 90% according to the existing rules, keep 50% for the club, and the original three members would take the other 40%.
It might look like they were getting to freeload from one angle, but for people who'd been getting only 5%, they would now be getting a full eight times more.
The club president signed the contract I'd drawn up.
After telling them to start cleaning the club room, I headed straight for the student council without a second thought.
I kicked the door to the student council room without a second thought.
BOOM!
""...?""
It was a damn mess. Every kind of luxury item you could think of was crammed into the student council room.
And a guy was sitting arrogantly next to the council president.
I smiled brightly and spoke.
"Why don't you cough up the Comics Club commission."
Their faces started to sour,
but the pipsqueak who'd been sitting there so arrogantly flinched when Park Ji-hoon appeared behind me.
He seemed to have ties to Park Ji-hoon.
However, the others were still dumbfounded by my rude, cheeky attitude beyond mere boldness.
At that reaction, I smiled brightly and walked closer.
"Puke up the 128,400,000 won you've been gorging on for the past two years. If you don't want to turn this into a big deal."
About 130 million won, excluding the 5%...
The income those three middle-school kids had generated in two years was a bigger sum than I'd thought.
""......""
"If you don't want to, just say so quickly. I've already finished all the procedures in case of any... unexpected situations. I'm sure you know who my dad is. And Da-yeon's dad is Lee Jin-seok of Hanseong."
The people in the room had now grasped the situation. They started trying to read each other's reactions, so I nodded and immediately made a phone call.
"Can I borrow one of Hanseong's accountants?"
"H... hold on!!!"
"Oh? Hold on a moment. Looks like they still have something to say... I'll call you back later."
Of course, I hadn't actually called Lee Jin-seok.
The council president was watching the reaction of the guy who'd been sitting so arrogantly. The guy who'd been sitting so arrogantly spoke quietly too.
"What do you want me to do about it."
After taking a moment to assess the situation, the council president finally spoke.
They said they couldn't give me the money right now.
"Oh, reeeeally~? Then let's see the records of where you spent it."
"We can't... just show that to outsiders."
"Then I guess I'll call him too. I'm curious what the experts from Hanseong's accounting team will think."
In the end, I got my hands on the ledger and skimmed through it all in one go.
"Aha? How exactly do you manage to rack up 9,418,200 won a month eating at school?"
As I read, I finished the calculations simultaneously and explained each item one by one. The student council members were horrified.
More than anything, this ledger was seriously beyond belief.
It was so sloppy anyone walking down the street could see through it, representing the absolute height of corruption.
I handed the ledger to Tae-oh and said,
"I'll give you two weeks. If you don't want to regret it, puke everything back up except the items that are safe even if you get caught. You know what happens after that, right?"
And while looking at the ledger, I added,
"First, puke up whatever you have right now. That air conditioner, air purifier, and fridge look nice. I'll calculate the current value with used-item depreciation and get back to you."
I ordered Ji-hoon and Tae-oh to each carry one of the beds.
They picked up the two folding cots that were off to the side.
"We'll count these as interest. See you in two weeks~"
Like a whirlwind, we entered and like a whirlwind, we vanished. Only then did the people who realized the ledger had disappeared along with me start scrambling around in a frenzy.
After ransacking the student council, we were heading to the club room, carrying the stuff.
"I'm just a regular everyday normal motherfucker~"
""......""
Humming the song as I walked, I was at the club room before I knew it.
The people who were cleaning looked at the things we were carrying, and their eyes went wide.
After we set down our plundered goods, we started organizing with me in the lead.
Park Ji-hoon and Kim Tae-oh headed back to the council room to get the air conditioner and fridge.
The club room, which was more spacious than I'd thought, was also full of random books. But...
"Whoa... fuck!!! Tissues... whoa... so fucking disgusting... clean it up."
"S... sorry."
"Fuck, who the hell jerks off in here, holy shiiit!!! You nasty motherfuckers... I don't give a damn if it's precious to you or whatever. Get it all outside. If you don't want to regret it."
Getting cussed out by me, yet the two of them were blushing and enjoying it...
They were muttering something about it being a reward, which made my whole body crawl.
One of them was the club president.
'Whoa... you human waste bastards. This is why I read faces, you see? Fucking pricks.'
I said seriously,
"If there's any disgusting smell while we're around, or if I see a single tissue scrap like that again... I'll make sure you end up with a criminal record, no hesitation."
Only then did they snap out of it and start cleaning frantically.
After a massive deep-cleaning session went on for a while, with dismissal time approaching, I spoke to the seniors who kept glancing nervously at me.
"Assemble back here after the final bell. If you run, you're seriously dead."
""Yes!""
The club room cleaning didn't finish until after sunset, and even after that, the seniors kept repeating the process every lunch break.
After a week it was clean, but I wasn't satisfied with the wallpaper.
I checked the club's dedicated account and confirmed that 40 million won had been deposited.
After buying everything from wallpaper to adhesive, we started decorating the club room. We threw out all the old desks and bought new ones.
Then we bought a Simmons bed, an OLED TV, a massage chair, and four brand-new laptops, and the money was completely gone.
I immediately ran back to the student council and grabbed the council president by the throat, and money came right out.
After buying two more table PCs, I said to the seniors,
"Go ahead and take everything you're using."
Once the monthly settlement money came in, excluding the 88.4 million won I was supposed to recover, the account balance showed 15 million won.
As originally stated, I tried to give them 40%, but they wouldn't take it.
"That... you guys use it! We're happy just drawing the webtoons!"
'Thanks, you suckers. I won't refuse.'
Considering they still had a year left before graduation, this was a huge win.
I even replaced the dirty door panel and swapped the lock to a card key and passcode system.
All with the student council stickers slapped on.
After completely transforming the place, the Comics Club finally looked like somewhere people could actually live. We used curtains mounted on the ceiling to make a sleeping area.
Because of the hot weather, we ran the air conditioner and air purifier at the same time. Da-yeon was learning how to use a tablet.
Park Ji-hoon was asleep, and Kim Tae-oh was studying, from what I could see.
Now it finally felt like our hideout.
Feeling bad about spending the money for free, I drew backgrounds for the comics they were working on.
Usually people trace over photos, but for me now, that was a laughable notion.
While I was churning out comics at a crazy fast pace, I put the student council officers in a chokehold again. The student council seemed to have been pressuring the other club departments and even ended up dipping into their own personal funds.
Even so, scraping together 88.4 million won must have been tough, because they groveled and begged for forgiveness.
Such was the power of Hanseong...
After I'd squeezed out a reasonable amount, I told them to pay off the remaining 40 million won with monthly interest tacked on.
In exchange, I hauled every luxury item from the student council room that looked useful straight to our club room.
Putting on sunglasses inside the club room and making smoothies with the ice crusher...
This was paradise itself.
Things had been unusual since the day before, and sure enough, that day came.
My dad knew my cycle, so he was slowly starting to walk on eggshells.
Day two... suddenly a pain slammed into me, like someone was throwing an uppercut right into my gut.
When my face went pale, my dad got worried.
"Are you okay...?"
"Go away. It hurts."
"Should I... keep you home from school?"
"I have to go..."
Being fine and then getting hit with sporadic waves of pain was stressful.
More than anything, it felt disgustingly gross.
Worried that he might accidentally hurt my mood with his actions, given my already shitty personality, my dad was all in a tizzy.
I got in his car and went to school.
As I sat in the passenger seat looking outside, the overcast sky finally opened up into a downpour.
""......""
Today the rain was coming down hard. My dad started watching my reaction like a hawk.
"Ahaha, Daddy will call the school and tell th... why don't you just rest..."
"Forget it. Drive."
"Okay..."
Maybe it was because I'd had no school experience and couldn't get much education in my past life, but I really hated missing school no matter what.
Holding an umbrella, Kim Tae-oh and Da-yeon were waiting for me.
Knowing I wasn't feeling well, Da-yeon handed me a warm drink.
"Haah... of all days, it's muggy and hot..."
The humid, hot weather and the heat... feeling the peak of grossness, I got to the classroom and sat down at my desk.
Park Ji-hoon poked me from the side.
"Did you put on perfume?"
This son of a bitch usually never messed with me, so it made me wonder if he knew I was having a rough day.
"Don't mess with me... I'm in pain."
"Ah...?"
Realizing what I meant, Park Ji-hoon slowly nodded.
Adding insult to injury, to top it all off, we had PE class, of all things.
"Tell them I'm lying down."
"Yeah..."
"Tae-oh. Guard Da-yeon well."
"...Obviously."
"Brat, don't just say it... make sure no other guys can even meet her eyes."
"......."
I considered going to the club room, but Park Ji-hoon wouldn't be there either. The club room was in the third-year hallway, and on the way there, I felt like something exhausting might happen. So I took a painkiller and just laid my head down comfortably in the empty classroom.
And then... three male students came to the classroom where Si-yoon was asleep.