*
[Gidan S / Serhi A]
Uju tried his best to ignore the prickling of his conscience as he lowered Serhi’s score a little.
‘Sorry, big brother Serhi.’
It wasn’t that he held a grudge against Serhi.
It was simply that Gu Huiyeon had become Geuru’s partner for the chick class’s independent assignment this semester, and Uju coveted that spot.
As if she somehow knew that he liked Geuru, Gu Huiyeon had slyly proposed a deal.
Gu Huiyeon
I’ll switch partners with you,
Gu Huiyeon
so can’t you give Gidan-oppa a higher score?
Gu Huiyeon
(tearful emoticon)
If it had been any other assignment, he would never have stooped to such dirty tricks—
For the semester’s independent assignment, the students had to choose a topic freely with their partners and then write a report based on what they had learned at kindergarten.
Since it was an assignment to be submitted at the end of the semester, it inevitably meant spending quite a long time together with one’s partner.
He couldn’t let such an opportunity slip away.
Uju steeled his resolve once more.
Ever since Mephisto had taken human form, he had been growing increasingly anxious.
Until now, he had never considered Mephisto a rival because he was a bird, but apparently, not only was he human-shaped now, he even liked Geuru.
And that wasn’t all. Human-form Mephisto was finely featured and pretty, too.
Yes, being pretty was a problem.
As far as Uju was concerned, Geuru was a face fanatic—the type who went wild over pretty and handsome faces.
Hadn’t she called him “Pretty Uju” from the very first time they met, simply because he was pretty?
Even now, the only things Uju had to flaunt before Geuru were his face and his fame, which wounded his pride considerably.
What if Geuru switched from Pretty Uju to Pretty Mephi…?
His heart plummeted with a thud.
‘This is the worst.’
He, not Mephisto, had to be the one showing Geuru how cool and pretty he could be.
To do that, he needed to spend more time with her.
‘So it can’t be helped.’
Just as Uju lifted his head after convincing himself of this—
“……?!”
He met a pair of sunset-colored eyes staring straight at him.
Uju inhaled sharply in alarm. Why was Mephisto looking at him like that?
Flustered, Uju instinctively hid the tablet behind his back.
Mephisto narrowed his eyes, then, as though he had sensed something from Uju’s reaction, tilted his beak into a sly smile.
‘No way!’
Cackling wickedly—“Ppi-p-p-p!”—Mephisto hopped down onto Geuru’s shoulder and tried to whisper something into her ear.
“W-wait!”
“Umm?”
Geuru, who had been holding the chick tube, turned her head around in a circle.
“Uju, why’re you like that?”
“Ah, no……”
When Mephisto teasingly pressed his beak to Geuru’s ear again, Uju’s shoulders jerked and his whole body went rigid.
After repeating the teasing gesture several times, Mephisto grinned like a satiated predator.
‘Damn it!’
He’d been caught red-handed!
“Ppi-p-p-p!”
Mephisto cackled at Uju’s anguish and gestured toward the side with his wing.
He meant that they would talk about this later.
Uju, crestfallen, had no choice but to nod.
“……?”
Geuru tilted her head in confusion and toddled over.
“Uju, why’d you suddenly lose all your stwengf?”
“No, it’s nothing……”
“Ooh?”
Geuru smiled brightly and rubbed his shoulders, telling him to cheer up.
“Cheer up, cheer up!”
This time, it was Mephisto who began to boil with rage.
Uju deliberately leaned slightly against Geuru and smiled at Mephisto.
Tremble, tremble!
Then, pretending to be weak, he asked in a feeble voice,
“Geuru.”
“Mm?”
“What kind of person do you like?”
What kind of person?
Geuru sniffed as she fell briefly into thought, then pulled the tube she was sliding down back up.
“Jijon.”
“……O-other than Jijon?”
“Uuumm—”
Geuru made a cute little sound as she pondered for a moment, and then—
“Jijon.”
The tone with which she said Jijon was as firm as someone shouting “Neutral country!” in the middle of a square.
……Then the method of deciding the winner was clear. He had no choice but to determine which of them was the Jijon best suited to Geuru.
First, he had to defeat that tiny, shameless bird.
When Uju steeled himself and glared at Mephisto, Mephisto began glaring right back.
As their staring contest continued, a Mephisto-kick flew toward Uju’s face.
But—
Swoosh—
“……!”
Uju blocked the kick with his palm and shoved Mephisto away with all his strength.
Mephisto went flying, then hurriedly flapped his wings and righted himself.
Sparks flew from their eyes. They were on the verge of breaking into a full-blown fight.
‘Uju and Mephi are having fun playing together.’
The one who had dropped a nuclear bomb between Mephisto and Uju, Geuru, lightly skipped over to where Serhi and Gidan were filming their training video.
‘A conduct evaluation!’
Peeking over to see whether the older brothers were working hard and taking notes on the tablet, she was approached by Son Taeha from Team One, who crouched down on one knee in front of her.
“Geuru-geuru, what are you doing?”
“I’m seeing if you oppas are behaving pwoperly.”
“Pweh?”
“Behaving!”
Geuru showed him the tablet, which contained a list.
“Oh, conduct. Right, ‘behaving.’ Heh. That’s important, yeah. But what’s this?”
Son Taeha pointed at the names and scores written beside conduct.
“Oh, that? I gotta choose the top one among the oppas.”
“The top one?”
Serhi and Gidan, who had been lying on sunbeds, pricked up their ears.
“Yesh, the top hyung!”
“The top?”
“With whom?”
Upon hearing something interesting, Team One and the filming crew began gathering around.
They murmured as they looked at the tablet.
“Ooh, physical score~”
“Oh~ Conduct and popularity scores, too?”
“Wow, if all of these are high, then he really would be the top hyung.”
As Team One teased him, Gidan chuckled and lay back down.
“The older brothers have found another excuse to compete.”
“Looks like it.”
Serhi gave a derisive snort and sprang to his feet.
“Who cares about that kind of thing?”
After saying it coolly, Serhi tossed off his shirt.
“Ooh!”
Geuru let out an admiring exclamation and picked up her tablet pen.
For some reason, that irritated Gidan a little, and his eyebrow twitched.
“Big brother Ser-Ser…… full of motibation……”
“……”
“Big brother Gidan…… behabing pwoperly……”
Gidan, who had been listening quietly, half rose and objected.
“That’s not ‘behaving properly.’ It’s ‘proper conduct.’”
“Hmm?”
Geuru looked up at him innocently, a question mark appearing above her head.
Gidan gazed at her as though she were adorable, then turned his eyes toward Serhi.
Serhi was doing some simple stretches in front of the pool’s diving board.
Gidan, too, quietly got to his feet and stood beside him.
Their gazes collided.
“You really don’t care? About being the top?”
Gidan asked with a teasing, crooked smile. Serhi’s face creased slightly.
“Yeah. You seem worried you’ll lose to me.”
“Scared?”
“Hah!”
“How about a contest to see who gets tired first?”
“Anytime.”
Splash!
Gidan and Serhi jumped into the pool and began swimming.
*
The swimming pool was, quite literally, a complete mess.
Gidan and Serhi were making dozens of laps around the track in the name of an endurance contest, while Uju and Mephisto were fighting over who was the Jijon.
Team One and the filming crew bet on who would win, then shouted and cheered with money on the line.
Meanwhile, Geuru, the one who had created this entire uproar, sat on the edge of the pool with her chin propped on her hands, her elbows resting on top of the tube.
She was bored!
Watching with a tablet to see who would win was incredibly dull.
“Haaaaaam—”
Geuru yawned so widely that her mouth seemed to split apart.
Seeing the adults, drunk on madness because the betting pot had grown so large, shouting themselves hoarse for Gidan and Serhi, Geuru narrowed her eyes.
Just then, Nayeon came and sat beside her.
“Which side are you on, unni?”
At Geuru’s question, Nayeon smiled faintly and shook her head.
“I didn’t place a bet. It’s not very nice for friends to argue over who’s above and who’s below.”
Really? Geuru blinked, her mouth hanging open in an “ah.”
Nayeon squealed that she was adorable and vigorously stroked Geuru’s cheeks.
Geuru giggled and hugged Nayeon tightly.
‘Is it not nice?’
Puffy clouds began rising inside Geuru’s head.
A white baby lamb wearing red horn-rimmed glasses lined up Uju, Huiyeon, Mephisto, Beilaak, Luxifer, and several other friends according to their scores.
The friends with high scores looked proud, while those with low scores wiped away their tears with gloomy faces.
But they were all precious friends of Geuru’s.
“Geuru thinks unni’s right, too.”
It wasn’t nice to say that one friend had a higher score than another.
Now that she had lost interest in their contest, Geuru was about to plop into the pool to play in the water when Beilaak, wearing a tube, paddled over with his feet flapping.
“Mumu.” (What foolish idiots, all of them.)
The ugly hamster lay back in his tube as if swimming on his back and shook his head from side to side.
“Cute.”
Geuru smiled shyly and poked Beilaak’s plump cheek.
“……”
Beilaak, who had been expressionless, rolled his eyes awkwardly and blushed.
When Geuru spun his tube around and around, he leisurely enjoyed the water and said,
“Mumumum.” (I believe the winner this time is the adorable me.)