Chapter 23: Academy Heroine's Right Diagonal Back Seat

 Chapter 23

[Ddingdingding~ Good morning~ Ddingdingding~ Ba-ba-ba Ba-ba Ba-ba-ba-ba Good mo-]

The loud alarm sound echoed in my head.

I fumbled around for quite a while, trying to find my phone beside my pillow, my hands trembling slightly, before I could finally turn off the alarm.

Thanks to that, I got to start my morning in the worst mood possible. Damn it.

I staggered to my feet, roughly threw off my clothes, and stepped under the shower.

The warm water made me feel a little better as I let it heat my body for a moment.

But that improved mood vanished the moment I opened the refrigerator without thinking.

Come to think of it, I didn't do any grocery shopping yesterday...

Unintentionally, my grip tightened, and the refrigerator door closed with a loud bang.

Maintaining an empty stomach seemed to have sharpened my nerves.

I felt like a watermelon with a bunch of rubber bands wrapped around it, ready to explode if someone so much as touched me.

I’ve never experienced it, but if I were cursed, I imagine it would feel something like this.

At this point, I might be on the same level as Sylvia in her Magical Elf mode, or even higher...

I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

After a few deep breaths to calm my mind, I left the house.

*

Cleaning the classroom with the class president, greeting the kids as they arrived.

It was a morning no different from usual, until Sylvia opened the classroom door and entered.

She smiled as she accepted the kids' greetings, not looking particularly irritated.

If she were in the same mood as yesterday, the kids wouldn’t have dared to greet her in the first place.

It was a bit surprising to see her seemingly fine in just one day.

Did she drink some kind of anti-magic potion or something?

I quietly greeted Sylvia as she took her seat, "Hello..."

Sylvia glanced at me and returned my greeting with a smile.

As soon as I saw that smile, my hands started trembling.

If she had ignored me or treated me coldly, it wouldn’t have been so shocking.

Sylvia accepting my greeting as if nothing had happened yesterday was a very bad sign for me.

That smile felt like a programmed, reflexive action from Sylvia.

Even if a complete stranger were sitting in my seat, she would have given the same smile.

If her affection level had dropped, I could work to raise it again.

But right now, it felt like the affection gauge itself had vanished.

I sensed that Sylvia was consciously trying to treat me as if I were nobody.

Considering what happened yesterday, honestly, it was too sudden.

There had to be a trigger; no one changes their attitude so quickly without a reason.

As I watched Sylvia, I noticed her expression harden slightly.

Following her gaze, I saw Yoon Si-woo entering the classroom.

Sylvia immediately regained her composure and greeted Yoon Si-woo, but it was different from usual.

Sylvia, who always looked like a girl in love when interacting with Yoon Si-woo, showed no noticeable change in expression while greeting him.

The cold atmosphere between them since yesterday morning came to mind.

Clearly, there was something I didn’t know.

*

It was lunchtime.

Unlike yesterday, Sylvia was eating beside Yoon Si-woo as usual.

But it still wasn’t the same.

Sylvia, who used to match her eating pace to Yoon Si-woo’s, was now just eating at her own pace.

While I was observing Sylvia, thinking it was odd, her ears perked up, and she quickly finished her meal and ran to the store to buy macarons.

After living like that for a few days, my body seemed to respond out of habit.

It was only after buying the macarons that I remembered Sylvia had said she didn't need them yesterday.

I decided to see her reaction anyway.

Approaching Sylvia, who was leisurely eating, with the macarons, she paused and put down her utensils slightly.

"Do you need something from me?" she asked.

"Um... here..." I said, offering the macarons.

Sylvia smiled and said, "Like I said yesterday, you don't have to buy me these anymore. We’re nothing to each other now, right?"

Though she was smiling, it was a firm rejection.

I could tell she was determined not to accept anything from me anymore.

Leaving Sylvia, who resumed eating, behind, I exited the cafeteria.

I needed to find out what happened.

With that thought, I returned to the classroom.

Yoon Si-woo was sitting at his desk.

I walked up to Yoon Si-woo and tapped him on the shoulder.

Thinking about it, this was the first time I had initiated a conversation with him.

I didn’t like talking to this guy, but I had no choice...

With that in mind, I hesitated a bit before quietly speaking to Yoon Si-woo, who turned to look at me.

"...I need to talk to you alone. Can you come outside for a moment?"

Leaving Yoon Si-woo, who looked inexplicably dumbfounded, I stepped outside the classroom.

He’ll follow on his own.

I walked quickly down the stairs, and soon I heard the clattering sound of footsteps following me.

I found a suitable place to talk behind the school building and waited. Soon, Yoon Si-woo arrived.

"...What do you want to talk about?" Yoon Si-woo, his face slightly flushed as if he had run, asked me.

He had good physical abilities, but the fact that his face turned red from running such a short distance indicated a lack of stamina.

Feeling a bit disdainful, I spoke to Yoon Si-woo.

"It's nothing big, I just have something to ask."

"Ah... okay. What do you want to ask?"

His face quickly returned to normal, thanks to his fast recovery. Come to think of it, one of his holy swords boosted physical abilities and recovery rates.

It was probably the Sword of Indomitable Will.

Suppressing my anger at Yoon Si-woo, who was relying on his items, I asked with a somewhat disappointed look on his face.

"Yesterday, I was late. Did you say anything to Sylvia before I arrived?"

Yoon Si-woo’s face stiffened at my question.

I didn’t know what he was thinking, but he was clearly flustered.

"...Did Sylvia tell you something?"

I was the one asking the question, so why was he questioning me?

I glared at Yoon Si-woo as I replied.

“Did you hear anything?” 

Yoon Si-woo asked, waving his hands as if to dismiss the whole thing. 

“I really didn’t say much! I just told Sylvia to stop accepting macarons from you.”

...What?

Thinking I must have heard wrong, I asked him again.

“...What did you just say?”

“I told Sylvia to stop accepting macarons from you...”

I could hear the grinding sound from my clenched teeth.

It was because of this guy.

Realizing that Sylvia's reaction was all because of Yoon Si-woo, I felt the suppressed emotions boiling inside me.

Don’t show it.

Hold it in, just like you have been.

I repeated this to myself, but something inside me pushed past my control and spilled out in the form of words.

“Why the hell... did you do that without my permission?”

Today, my nerves were particularly on edge, and I couldn’t suppress it.

My face, which I tried to keep expressionless, twisted on its own.

“You buying macarons for Sylvia every day must be a burden on you.”

The sheer audacity of his clueless expression made my anger flare.

What does he know to talk like that?

“What makes you think you can make that judgment...”

Do you have any idea what it means to me to give macarons to Sylvia?

You don’t know.

Because if you did, you’d never say that.

I swallowed words that I couldn’t let out.

If I didn’t, I felt like I would explode from holding it all in.

“I was just thinking of you-!”

But seeing Yoon Si-woo's face, crying out like he was the one wronged,

the watermelon with the rubber bands wound tightly around it

finally burst.

“If you really cared about me-!!!!”

A loud voice erupted, built up from all the restraint.

The dam holding back my emotions broke with a sound like a scream or a wail.

In my blurry vision, I could see Yoon Si-woo’s shocked face.

Tears streamed down, remnants of my burst emotions.

Breathing heavily, I took a step closer to Yoon Si-woo.

“Please...”

One more step.

I must have shown a pathetically twisted face.

I moved slightly faster than Yoon Si-woo, who was stepping back in confusion.

“Please...”

The final step.

Grabbing Yoon Si-woo’s collar, I pleaded.

With genuine emotion, not a lie to deceive the Sword of Truth.

“Just leave me alone...”

After pouring it all out, my first thought was that I had made a mistake.

I shoved away Yoon Si-woo’s collar and turned to flee.

I rushed to the restroom, turned on the cold water, and washed my face for a long time, eventually managing to put on a blank expression.

I focused all my nerves on just that.

I didn’t really remember how I finished school and got home.

*

As soon as I got home, I buried my face in the pillow.

A promise made with a pinky finger must be kept.

I recalled the promise I made with my father.

To live strongly, no matter how hard things got.

I promised to live.

Yoon Si-woo is the protagonist.

The protagonist always survives until the end, but is always at the center of events.

People around the protagonist get caught up in those events and die.

To survive as long as possible, I needed to stay close to the last person standing, excluding the protagonist.

Sylvia, who survived till the end.

To stay close to her, I had to become her friend.

I had to befriend Sylvia.

Sylvia and

become

friends.

My hands trembled.

I clasped them together and closed my eyes.

PREVIOUS | TOC | NEXT