An extracurricular activity that had the students participate in running their class, helping them recognize themselves as members of the class and develop a sense of responsibility.
Until last year, I had been in charge of classroom beautification, but this year, I joined the library committee with Yeon Haneul.
The library committee was responsible for managing the books students donated to the class.
“Everyone has the books you brought from home, right? Leave the books with Haneul and Gyeonu, and you two make a list of them.”
“Yes.”
During homeroom.
It seemed the homeroom teacher intended to entrust the work to Yeon Haneul and me, who had volunteered for the library committee.
I had no complaints about that.
It was a chance to become closer to Yeon Haneul.
“But how do we make the list?”
“The teacher should have a form. I’ll go get it later.”
“Then please do.”
According to what Yeon Haneul told me, she had been on the library committee last year as well, so she had some experience.
Thanks to that, all I had to do was follow Yeon Haneul’s instructions.
“We’re supposed to give the books to you two, right?”
“Here. Check my name off. My name is In Gi-nam. My surname is In, and my given name is Gi-nam.”
“In Gi-nam… You’re number twenty-eight, right? I’ve confirmed your name.”
Whenever Yeon Haneul added the books the students submitted to the list, I put identification-number stickers on them and shelved them.
I also organized the books in the classroom whenever I had a spare moment.
“You were number one when we chose our seats, right? So your name was In Gi-nam. Now that I think about it, you’re a popular man with no popularity.”
“Sniff….”
That was how I stayed at my seat even during breaks, except when I went to the bathroom.
“Hey.”
“Yeah.”
As a result, I had plenty of opportunities to talk with Yeon Haneul.
Perhaps she had lowered her guard to some extent, because she sometimes spoke to me first.
“Why did you apply for the library committee?”
“Because I wanted to become friends with you.”
“You always say things like that…. Do you enjoy teasing me?”
“Yep!”
“You really are….”
Yeon Haneul glared at me sharply while grumbling in a disgruntled voice.
As for me, I could only feel a little aggrieved. I had answered her question honestly, after all.
Regardless, she spoke to me again.
“Do you like reading books too?”
“I don’t really like books. I prefer web novels.”
“Ah… I see. I thought you liked books too….”
Rabbit ears drooped in an instant.
Judging by her reaction, she seemed disappointed that I wasn’t a fellow book lover.
‘Should I have said I liked books?’
Seeing her reaction, I wondered if I should change my answer even now.
But she quickly regained her spirits and let the words slip out almost like a mutter.
“…I read web novels too.”
“Really? What do you read?”
“Just… this and that in the romance-fantasy genre. But I don’t read them often… I only read them occasionally through the ‘wait-for-free’ system.”
“So you don’t buy the permanent-access passes.”
“I don’t get much pocket money….”
One permanent-access pass cost only one hundred won.
Then again, from Yeon Haneul’s perspective, even that could feel like a burden.
Taking her circumstances into consideration, I decided not to say anything more.
Instead, I changed the subject.
“I heard you like watching dramas too.”
“Huh? How did you know?”
“You said so during your self-introduction.”
“Ah… You remembered. That’s right. Every day, I watch dramas with the director and the other teachers.”
“What are you watching?”
“Um… Luxury House, today?”
“My mom and younger sister have been enjoying that one lately too.”
“Oh, really? It is incredibly popular. But you have a younger sister?”
“She’s seven this year.”
“A seven-year-old watches that drama? It’s rated nineteen-plus….”
“Then how do you watch it?”
“Ah. I suppose that’s true.”
Every emotion was written plainly across her face.
Once the subject shifted to dramas, I noticed Yeon Haneul’s eyes sparkling.
Her rabbit ears were standing straight up as well.
‘I want to touch them.’
Would they be softer than Mongsil’s ears?
There were many nerves concentrated in a rabbit’s ears. That was why even Mongsil didn’t particularly like having his ears touched.
I suspected Yeon Haneul would be the same.
Even if we became close, I probably wouldn’t be able to touch her ears carelessly.
I regretted that inwardly, then continued to indulge her in conversation.
“You don’t watch it?”
“I watch it sometimes from the side too, and it really is entertaining.”
“Right? The teachers say the same thing. They keep asking how something can be so entertaining.”
“What I feel while watching it is….”
“Yeah.”
“Even if someone who died comes back to life, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s entertaining. That’s what I find myself thinking. Is it because it’s a makjang drama, so it doesn’t need much… plausibility?”
“That’s the charm of makjang. Makjang dramas don’t care about things like plausibility in the first place.”
“Even so, they should follow it to some degree. If I wrote a story like that, I would at least….”
“You. Do you think making a makjang is easy? It’s incredibly difficult. A story is makjang precisely because it’s calculated and constructed that way.”
“Is that so?”
“I’m telling you, it is. And you know….”
Yeon Haneul launched into a passionate lecture.
I quietly listened to her discourse on makjang dramas.
The more I listened, the more persuasive she became.
‘Well, it’s not as if I’m in any position to criticize makjang stories anymore. I’ve been reincarnated into the world of a game, after all.’
* * *
He was a strange boy.
Yeon Haneul couldn’t help but think that about the boy sitting beside her.
‘What is he thinking?’
Do Gyeonu of the Divine Sword Do Clan.
Although she didn’t have a single friend, she knew about him.
It would have been stranger if she didn’t.
The Divine Sword Do Clan, to which Do Gyeonu belonged, was a family prestigious enough to be counted among the Ten Great Families.
‘Why would someone like him…?’
That was why she found it so puzzling.
There was no reason for him to speak to someone with no background whatsoever, someone like her, in such a friendly manner.
‘Is it because he doesn’t have any friends either?’
Of course, she had considered that possibility as well.
Yeon Haneul knew that, despite being a member of a prestigious family, he was timid and cried easily—nothing like what one would expect from someone of such a family.
It was a story famous throughout the school.
The fact that he was being bullied, too.
‘But I don’t think that’s it….’
Even so, she rejected the thought.
Only a small number of students bullied Do Gyeonu.
Those who could bully someone from a prestigious family either had a background powerful enough to do so or had been ordered to by someone like that.
The other students were merely staying out of it because they didn’t want to get involved.
Her situation was completely different.
So while Yeon Haneul was grateful that Do Gyeonu spoke to her, she was also secretly worried.
‘Is it really okay for him to talk to me?’
She couldn’t help worrying that he might be bullied even more severely than before simply for spending time with her.
She had grown used to this situation and could endure it now by gritting her teeth.
But he wouldn’t be able to do that.
She didn’t want to cause him trouble because of her.
It would be enough if she alone was unhappy.
Therefore, the best thing she could do was….
‘I should ignore him.’
She had gotten swept up in the flow of things somehow.
But from now on, Yeon Haneul resolved to keep her distance from Do Gyeonu.
Her resolve collapsed during lunch the very next day.
He suddenly spoke to her.
“Let’s go eat.”
“Huh?”
“It’s lunchtime. Aren’t you going to eat?”
“Uh, um… I am, but….”
“You don’t know anyone else in the class, so eat with me. Or do you have someone else you usually eat with?”
“…No, I don’t.”
She had always eaten alone at lunchtime.
Having heard something she hadn’t heard even once since the early years of elementary school, Yeon Haneul’s mind went blank.
She didn’t know how to refuse.
That brief hesitation caused her to tacitly accept his offer.
He reached his own conclusion.
“Then let’s go.”
“W-wait!”
“Huh? Why?”
She had to refuse quickly, even now.
Yeon Haneul pulled herself together before she could get swept up in the situation.
Then she grabbed the sleeve of Do Gyeonu, who had abruptly risen from his seat.
He looked at her in bewilderment.
Summoning her courage, Yeon Haneul said….
“If, if we go now, there’ll be a lot of people, so we’ll have to wait in line for a long time. So, so… let’s go a little later.”
“…Really?”
You idiot. Stupid. Poop rabbit.
She couldn’t bring herself to coldly reject his kindness.
As she made Do Gyeonu sit back down, she lowered her overheated head.
And then came the long-awaited lunch break.
“Oh, this is good.”
“…It is.”
Yeon Haneul ate lunch with Do Gyeonu.
She could feel the gazes of everyone around them pouring over them.
It must have been the same for him.
And yet he was savoring his lunch without paying them any attention.
Unlike her, who couldn’t even tell whether the food was going into her nose or her mouth.
Only after she gradually became accustomed to the attention was she able to enjoy her lunch.
‘…It’s good.’
Had it always tasted this good?
Was it because she hadn’t eaten school lunch in a long time?
She didn’t know. She had no idea.
But she cleaned every last bit of food from the tray she had taken that day.
They even went for a walk because the weather was nice.
Only afterward did the thought occur to her.
“Ah, I shouldn’t be doing this….”
“Doing what?”
“…Nothing.”
Before she knew it, she had ended up enjoying herself.
Yeon Haneul quickly looked away.
* * *
A month had passed since I recalled the memories of my previous life.
Just as time continued to flow smoothly, my school life was proceeding very smoothly as well.
I had grown somewhat close to Yeon Haneul.
“I read the book you lent me before, and it was surprisingly interesting.”
“Really? It was, right? Then how about reading this one too?”
“What kind of book is that?”
“Well, it’s about….”
During break time.
Yeon Haneul pretended to read while repeatedly stealing glances at me.
By now, I could more or less guess why she did that.
It was a signal that she wanted me to speak to her.
Sure enough, the moment I spoke to her, she put down her book and replied.
“Do you want to watch a video of Mongsil I took yesterday? He’s doing a binky.”
“A binky? What’s that?”
“When rabbits are happy, they get excited and jump around. It’s amazing and fun to watch.”
“Hmm…. Sure.”
I played the video on my smartphone.
Yeon Haneul leaned toward me and watched a video of Mongsil jumping into the air and shaking his head.
“Wow…. He jumps so high.”
“Mongsil is pretty impressive.”
“That aside, you talk about Mongsil every day. You keep going on about Mongsil, Mongsil, and now you’re making me want to see him too.”
“Then do you want to come see him?”
“Huh?”
Perk, perk.
Yeon Haneul’s rabbit ears twitched.
She looked a little surprised.
I lifted my head from the smartphone and invited her, our eyes meeting.
“What are you doing after school?”
“Nothing….”
“Then do you want to come see him today?”
“…”
We already ate lunch together, so surely it would be all right to invite her home.
With that vague expectation in my heart, I waited for her answer.
Faced with an invitation she hadn’t expected, she conveyed all sorts of reactions through her rabbit ears.
Then she cautiously watched my expression while fidgeting with her fingers.
A timid voice slipped out.
“Um, you know….”
“Yeah.”
“If you hang around with me, you’ll be ostracized too. So….”
“But I’m already being bullied, aren’t I?”
That was a lie.
I wasn’t being bullied anymore.
If anything, I should say I was the one doing the bullying.
―D-Do Gyeonu! Run, quick!
―If you make eye contact with him, you’ll die!
―Don’t leave me behind! Let’s go together!
Lately, whenever the triplets saw me, they trembled and fled, while at the swordsmanship hall, being my sparring partners and getting thoroughly beaten had become part of their daily routine.
“Besides, if you and I get ostracized together, doesn’t that mean we aren’t really being ostracized?”
“…”
Yeon Haneul, unaware of the truth, seemed to lose her words for a moment.
Then her face faintly trembled as though she might cry, before drawing into a smile as if nothing had happened.
“You’re really strange.”
“Me? What’s strange?”
“Just… everything.”
With a little snicker.
She covered the corners of her mouth, trying to hide the laughter escaping her.
It was the first time I had seen her laugh like that.
It looked very nice on her.
Nice enough to remain in my memory.
“All right, I’d like to. I want to see him too.”
And that was how we became friends.
I became the middle boss’s childhood friend.