As they drew near the place where the teacher and students were gathered, voices reached them. They were chatting lightly before class began.
Hasol, spotting Seoha and Yeoncheong running over, said,
“Teach, everyone’s here.”
“Yeah? You sure everyone’s here?”
Hasol nodded with a face full of certainty. No sooner had Yeoncheong and Seoha arrived than the bell announcing the start of class rang from the direction of the school.
“You all know who I am, so I don’t need to introduce myself, right?”
“No. We have a transfer student.”
“A transfer student... Ah, was Class 1 the class with the transfer student?”
When the PE teacher looked around for the transfer student, the students parted like the Red Sea. The two ended up facing each other in a rather unusual way.
“Hello, I’m the PE teacher, Min Hayoung.”
“I’m Ha Yeoncheong.”
“Good. Don’t get hurt. That’s the one thing you need to remember in my class.”
The teacher who introduced herself as Min Hayoung smiled brightly. She looked about as young as their homeroom teacher, Ms. Jisu. Perhaps because she was in charge of PE, or perhaps because she was a young teacher, she was very friendly with the students.
As if she had been waiting for this moment, Hasol shot her hand into the air and cut in.
“Teach, in that spirit, I think today would be a great day for free time.”
“No. Way. If I give you free time, half of you will just sit around and rest. And how many times have I told you we have to do physical fitness testing today? Your first class got delayed, so we absolutely have to do it today.”
It was the conversation the students had been having with Ms. Hayoung even before Yeoncheong arrived. With the teacher putting it that way, even Hasol had no choice but to back down.
“If we finish early, we can rest, right?”
At Hasol’s attitude, now making no attempt to hide her intentions, Ms. Hayoung let out a light, incredulous laugh.
“Fine, if you finish early.”
Hayoung nodded as if she couldn’t win. Starting with Hasol, motivation began to well up in the eyes of the students who had been acting annoyed.
***
The classmates bustled about for the physical fitness test, which would be done by attendance number—in other words, in alphabetical order by name. Hasol and Suyeon followed Ms. Hayoung and helped prepare the various measuring equipment.
‘This school really is nice.’
A private school, and a wealthy one at that. An athletic field covered in artificial turf, a track, tennis courts visible across the way, and even all sorts of small measuring devices. It was clear they spared no expense.
Yeoncheong, whose name came last in order, stood at the very back, repeatedly clenching and unclenching her fists.
After becoming a girl, Yeoncheong had undergone all sorts of tests at the hospital and confirmed that she was healthy. But apart from that, she knew nothing about her current physical abilities.
All she knew was that while moving boxes for the move, nothing cartoonish had happened, like suddenly becoming stronger.
At the beep of a machine signaling the start, Yeoncheong raised her head. The first event was the shuttle run between fluorescent cones.
‘Still, wouldn’t I be better than the girls?’
Yeoncheong thought that as she watched her classmates drop out quickly. Considering they spent more than half the day sitting at desks, it was only natural.
Ms. Hayoung barked at them not to fool around just to rest sooner, but to the students who were trying their best in their own way, it was a meaningless shout.
‘There are some who are good at it, too.’
Hasol and Suyeon, who looked lively at a glance, went without saying, and a girl named Nayun with a yellow ponytail moved in a way that clearly felt athletic. Seoha, too, finished the shuttle run lightly, as if to ask what there was that she couldn’t do.
“All right, let’s start the last group.”
Yeoncheong’s turn came as part of the final group, and the confident Yeoncheong came to understand the objective state of her stamina.
***
As soon as the shuttle run ended, Yeoncheong collapsed onto the artificial turf. Her red jacket rose and fell with her rough breathing.
Ms. Hayoung praised Yeoncheong for running with all her might, even shouting as she pushed herself, but Yeoncheong did not feel the same.
‘Was this... always this hard...?’
Her score was above average, but Yeoncheong, who had considered herself fairly confident in her stamina, was troubled. For having run so hard she was practically screaming, it felt disappointing. But she had no time to feel dejected. Since Yeoncheong had gone last, they had to prepare for the next event.
What awaited the troubled Yeoncheong was the flexibility test, the one she was least confident in. Unlike the shuttle run, which measured endurance, her turn came quickly.
Suyeon, who was helping the teacher record the results, called Yeoncheong.
“Yeoncheong, it’s your turn.”
“Already?”
With Hasol and Suyeon taking the initiative to help the teacher, the testing was proceeding smoothly.
Yeoncheong sat with her knees straight and took a light, deep breath. This time, determined not to get a negative score, she bent her body forward, and the board her hands touched slid smoothly ahead.
She was only bewildered by the unexpected result for a moment. At Suyeon’s voice announcing the record, Yeoncheong raised her head.
“Really?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
Just in case, Suyeon checked the record again and nodded. Far from a negative number, Yeoncheong was stunned by her first-ever double-digit score.
Next came muscular strength measurement using a grip strength meter, followed by the 50-meter dash.
The unfamiliar numbers written on the record sheet Suyeon held. By that point, even Yeoncheong had no choice but to admit it.
That she had become a girl no different from the friends before her eyes. It was more certain than the explanations at the hospital, filled with difficult terminology.
Yeoncheong smacked her lips bitterly, as if some part of her had thought she was different somehow.
Suyeon looked at the stopwatch Hasol showed her and filled in the final record. Seeing that, Hasol called for the teacher.
“Teach, we’re done now, right?”
“We still have BMI measurement left...”
When the students sent her pleading looks, Ms. Hayoung scratched her head.
“Let’s do that next time. I’ll let the nurse know.”
Ms. Hayoung, receiving the record sheet from Suyeon, said,
“Don’t go into the classroom. And don’t get hurt.”
As if they had been waiting, the students gathered in their groups and took a break. Ms. Hayoung said another class would be using the equipment later and told them to move the measuring devices.
Hasol and Suyeon grumbled. Yeoncheong, who had finished being tested last, was nearby, and the two sent her looks asking for help.
“Sh-should I help?”
“We’d be grateful if you did.”
Seeing the two of them smile brightly, Yeoncheong realized she had been had. The realization came one beat too late.
The three of them gathered the cones, grip strength meters, and flexibility measuring tool, then headed toward the storage room across the field. They set the items down in front of the storage room.
“Thanks, seriously.”
“It’s nothing.”
“More importantly, Yeoncheong, you’re better at sports than I thought.”
“Am I? I was a little disappointed, though.”
Talking about the fitness test, the three of them crossed the open tennis court. Taking a shortcut even for a short distance was human instinct.
The direction Yeoncheong took and the direction the other two took diverged slightly. Hasol and Suyeon went around to avoid the net, but Yeoncheong went straight. Seeking a shortcut even within a shortcut was also instinct.
Hasol and Suyeon passed beside the net, and Yeoncheong hopped lightly to jump over it.
And then the incident happened. They had measured strength, flexibility, endurance, and so on, but not jumping power. That was the cause.
Even though she had jumped with what she considered all her might, her line of sight remained low. Yeoncheong realized something was wrong.
‘Uh, this is a little...’
Her foot caught on the taut net, and the body that had been moving forward changed course. With her lower body stopped, her upper body kept moving and tilted forward, and soon she toppled over.
‘Really low.’
In an instant, facing the ground, Yeoncheong hurriedly twisted her body. It was an instinctive movement, one that told her she couldn’t fall headfirst.
Under the illusion that time had slowed, what Yeoncheong saw as she turned her head was Hasol and Suyeon with their eyes round and mouths open.
Then she saw the unusually blue sky, and with a thud, the world went black.
***
In her second year at Hwalyeong High School, school nurse Lee Haeun liked her new school. The leisurely nurse’s office was proof of that.
‘Yes, this is the life of a school nurse I imagined.’
Occasionally, female students who weren’t feeling well would lie down for a while before leaving, but that much was cute. Compared to the boys’ high school where she had worked before.
As those days came to mind, Haeun’s forehead furrowed.
It had been an everyday occurrence for someone to break something over the smallest things, or to not come in until they were swollen all over. When a big accident happened and she had to run to where the injured student was, Haeun would sometimes wonder whether she was a school nurse or an emergency doctor.
As she calmed herself while smelling the aroma of coffee, Haeun’s ears reacted to the sound of someone running down the hallway. Even after more than a year, her body remembered anxiety.
‘No way... right?’
Haeun, trying to deny it as she shook her head, flinched at the sound of the door being roughly opened. Behind Ms. Hayoung, who was breathing hard, a female student was being carried on her back.
Haeun knew by instinct. Her peaceful school life would end today.
***
An unfamiliar ceiling.
Yeoncheong opened her eyes and shot upright in the nurse’s office bed. The school nurse, startled to see Yeoncheong rise at a perfect right angle, stroked her chest in relief.
“No, why would you get up like that?”
As Yeoncheong looked around, trying to grasp the situation, Nurse Haeun explained.
“You remember falling and fainting, right?”
“Ah...”
“Judging by your face, your memory’s fine.”
When the memories from before she collapsed came back, Yeoncheong covered her face with both hands. Haeun came closer and examined Yeoncheong.
“Does your head hurt? Or anywhere else?”
Yeoncheong moved her body this way and that, then shook her head.
“You had a cut on the side of your forehead, so I treated just that. It seemed like simple fainting, so I kept you in the nurse’s office for now, but just in case, make sure you go to the hospital. Got it?”
“Aw, I’m fine—”
Haeun cut Yeoncheong off.
“I’m not suggesting that you go, all right? You absolutely have to?”
“Yes...”
“You’re the transfer student, right? You’re not one of the boys, so be a little careful.”
At the word boys, Yeoncheong jumped in surprise. Thanks to the bell ringing at just that moment, Haeun did not notice.
“School’s over. Hurry on back to your classroom. The kids were really worried.”
“It’s over?”
“Yes. I was worried sick, wondering if I’d have to take you to the hospital if you didn’t wake up.”
The busy school nurse pushed Yeoncheong out into the hallway.
When she entered through the back door of the classroom, the gazes of Ms. Jisu, who was in the middle of the closing homeroom, and all her classmates focused on her.
“Yeoncheong, are you all right?”
“Yes. I’m not badly hurt, and she said I should go to the hospital just in case.”
Yeoncheong awkwardly sat down, and the homeroom teacher returned for the moment to what she had been saying and wrapped up the closing homeroom. Among the students packing their things, Hasol and Suyeon were the first to approach her.
Yeoncheong soothed the two, who felt guilty that she had gotten hurt while helping them. Seoha had organized the class Yeoncheong had missed in her notes and handed them over. After receiving worried greetings from the other students as well, Yeoncheong slowly cleared her desk.
Yeoncheong picked up her uniform, hesitated briefly, then put it in her bag. She was going home anyway. There was no need to change back into her uniform.
As for how she would change after PE class, that worry was postponed until next time.