READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 1
I’m in a really bad mood.
Why? Because right in front of me, there were students practically hugging each other and about to kiss.
If you’re a student, shouldn’t you be studying? Why are you already messing around with dating?
Ugh, am I being too much of a cranky old fart?
“Ji-eun, Ji-eun.”
“What?”
“Are you jealous?”
“……”
“Jealous, huh? You are jealous, right?”
“……”
As I pondered what to say to my childhood friend who was poking me in the ribs while teasing me, I seriously considered it.
I hate couples. I have hated them since I was a kid.
There’s really no big reason.
I just wasn’t in a couple myself.
Right? Honestly, just the thought of having someone next to me being a happy relationship is hard for me to imagine.
I could ask, “Aren’t there other types of relationships?” but, well, sadly, I’ve barely had one of those.
I mean, I’m not particularly likable, and I don’t have looks, talent, or money.
“So if you’re that jealous, why didn’t you just date the person who confessed to you last time?”
“……That’s because they confessed to you, not me.”
“Where’s that logic from?”
“It’s a thing! You know, when a really pretty girl is with a less pretty girl, people tend to think the less pretty one might actually have a chance.”
“How do you manage to joke like that?”
No, I’m serious.
“Even so, aren’t you cute enough to catch at least one guy? I’m sure someone would accept your confession!”
It’s easy to say that…
Well, I guess objectively I could say that ‘there’s a chance.’ If you ask whether I have no subjective thoughts, I’d have nothing to say, but I’m sure I don’t have an unappealing face either.
The problem is, even if I could date, I can’t just go out with anyone.
I have no time, no money, and a mountain of things to do—and on top of that, I like girls.
Yeah, I like girls.
Right now, I’m one.
You might ask what’s the problem with a girl liking another girl in this day and age, but that’s just what other people do, and it has nothing to do with me.
Above all, the situation I’m currently in is quite ‘special.’
Date a high school student? No matter how bad I am, I wouldn’t be that shameless. Sure, I’m technically a high school student too, but that’s another story. A 25-year-old dating a 16-year-old is enough for societal controversy. For the record, both sides are of legal age.
You might think it’s odd to point out the age gap. You might even think I’m crazy for assuming I’ll date a high school student at that age.
There’s a story behind it.
Well, where should I start?
Thinking about it, it seems like ages ago. It’s becoming a bit hazy. If I don’t read what I wrote in my notebook, it gets quite confusing.
So…
Yes, I was an ordinary college student.
It was a nameless college in a region barely outside of Gyeonggi-do that never had a full enrollment of freshmen. The school had a total of five buildings, one of which was the oldest and most insignificant— the dormitory.
Even in a place where the student body isn’t fully populated, there’s always a shortage of dorm rooms. The school had no intention of increasing that number.
Some of the classrooms had bathrooms where you had to squat to sit on the toilet.
It’s that kind of place, yet the rental prices for nearby one-room apartments were pretty high. My parents and I decided to just commute rather than live there, and I rode the school bus for an hour and a half to two hours each way.
Ah, yes. That’s right. After serving in the army, I did that commuting for over a year. Looking back, I have no idea what I was thinking.
Anyway…
On the shaky bus, I, of course, had plenty of time to spare, and if I had no assignments to do with that time, I’d either sleep or find something else to kill the time.
I mostly read webtoons or web novels.
It’s not that I had a hipster streak… I was simply a hard-core otaku, reading Japanese web novels through a browser translation tool, or anyway, I mostly read stories that had that ‘vibe.’ You know, the kinds of stories that would get popular if they were adapted into anime in Japan.
As for webtoons, I usually read ones that were posted on blogs or other community sites, not from official serialization sites.
Most of them would either stop updating for no reason, or if new episodes did come, it’d be once a year, or sometimes the series would go on to be officially serialized, resulting in a cutoff of previous updates.
And the one thing I hated the most was the latter of ‘official serialization.’
Why?
Isn’t it great when a manga you like gets fully serialized? Episodes come out regularly, and the author benefits too; usually, it’s even colored, and the rough sketches become refined.
The problem, however, is that the ‘raw’ essence disappears.
Typically, the things posted on blogs or sites start out as short stories. And usually, those shorts feature provocative content to grab attention.
Characters might be undressing, have large breasts, their dialogues might be extremely suggestive, and those characteristics often lead to those comics becoming hilariously funny.
Yet the problem with such provocative content is that it makes it hard to extend the story.
For example, let’s say there’s a cliche in traditional magical girl stories: a magical girl transforms and strikes a signature pose without needing anyone to tell her to. The battles between the magical girl and the villain exist in a way that the other people are oblivious, and generally, the storyline revolves around conflict between friends or romance.
Now imagine there’s a comic that pokes fun at those cliches.
The magical girl feels embarrassed about transforming, prefers hand-to-hand combat to magic due to the realism around her, the villains might attack while she’s transforming, their fights become newsworthy, there’s an organization managing the magical girls, civil servants are having a tough time, and citizens protest…
All of that could be made funny through satire.
But all those ‘realistic’ settings end up taking the story seriously.
Yeah. That’s the trap.
Comedic novels serialized as webtoons tend to mix oddly serious content as they progress, turning the comedy into something that’s not comedic anymore.
The ‘magical girl’ story I was reading was similar.
“Hey, hey.”
“Yeah?”
The pink-haired girl beside me nudged my arm.
She’s a childhood friend who just happened to become one in this world too.
Unless she’s an idol or something that requires that hair color, how many high school students do you think walk around with such perfect pink hair?
Plus, she’s had that hair since we first met in elementary school.
According to her, it’s her ‘natural color.’
…Well, fine, I’ll let it slide.
There’s absolutely no reason it couldn’t happen, after all. It’s conceivable that a person could have such an incredibly unique genetic trait.
But still…
Like that purple bobbed hair that just walked by.
Or the green ponytail next to it.
Orange, light green, blue, sky blue, navy blue, yellow… Oh right, yellow is a natural color too. Oops.
Anyway, the hair colors of the people passing by are just so colorful.
And nine times out of ten, those with such vibrant hair colors usually matched with that color in their body hair too—at least, the visible eyebrows or eyelashes I could see.
It’s like something out of a comic. In this world, that’s considered ‘normal.’
“Why? Do you feel lonely because you don’t have anyone to spend Christmas with? Should I keep you company?”
“…Sorry, I have plans that day.”
“Oh?”
The face of my pink-haired childhood friend turned a bit smirky.
“Are you secretly dating some boyfriend on the side?”
Having a girlfriend while in college is my goal.
I mean, I’ve never had a chance to date during college. I even nearly died without it.
…Well, if I consider my current ‘special’ situation, I’m not sure how likely that is.
“Anyway, I’m busy.”
Yeah, I’m busy.
Of all things, I’m working part-time for an evil organization in a magical girl story.
Legally speaking, it’s not a typical job for an evil organization, but still.
…To be honest, it’s amazing that the girl in front of me doesn’t realize it.
This girl in front of me is, well…
Eun-ha, the magical girl ‘Happy Cherry Blossom,’ who belongs to the Galactic Federation. All the magical girls active in Korea take on flower names, but she’s the only one that ends with ‘Blossom,’ so everyone just calls her ‘Blossom.’
What a delightfully uninspiring naming sense.
Well, it’s a one-off blog comic strip, so I guess that’s expected. They probably just slapped on names that came to mind.
The prefix ‘Happy—’ is kind of like the official slogan of the Galactic Federation: “Our Federation works for the happiness of planets in the universe!” It’s a sort of black comedy unique to that webtoon.
That said, it doesn’t mean she’s an alien. She’s human.
…Well, let’s leave that story for later.
“Then… Are we meeting here again today?”
“Yeah.”
On our way back from school.
We always parted ways at the bus stop.
The bus goes that way. I walk in the other direction. It’s better to save even a penny.
Of course, I’ve never invited friends to my place.
Honestly, even if a girl like her didn’t bother to talk to me, I wouldn’t have much to say either.
“Don’t you wait?”
I let out a deep sigh.
My breath formed a white cloud in the cold air.
I stopped my steps and turned towards ‘Blossom.’
How many times have I lost to her in a fight?
If I lose, I’ll lose my transformation power; I’ve been careful not to be exposed for almost a year now.
Honestly, at this point, it’s grown into a weird determination.
…Although, to think that I, a mere non-officer, could beat someone who’s quite the representative of her magical girl group sounds ridiculous.
“…Three minutes left.”
“Hey, why are you counting the time so much?”
As I muttered while looking at the time on the bus stop board, Blossom waved her hand dismissively.
I exhaled again.
“…You could have just been with your friends as usual. Why? Did they all get boyfriends now?”
In response to my words, my childhood friend whistled and turned away.
“Well, it feels like our relationship has grown a bit distant lately. I thought it wouldn’t hurt to walk home together once in a while as old friends!”
“…Really?”
I looked at the bus stop display again.
“It says it’s arriving soon.”
“Oh, really.”
Blossom glanced at the display with a bit of disappointment.
“Um… Ji-eun.”
Then she hesitated a bit before talking to me.
“What?”
“Have I done something recently that might have upset you?”
“……”
I tried to suppress an expression asking what she was talking about as I looked at Blossom, and she tilted her head and looked at me with raised eyebrows.
Her hands were clasped behind her back, and her toes were tapping against the floor.
“No, it’s just that you’ve seemed a bit cold lately.”
“…That’s not true.”
I exhaled a white breath again.
“…I just think, haah, I’m not sure. Thinking about spending this Christmas that way gets me down, I guess.”
“Is that so? Then it isn’t my fault, right?”
“Did you do anything wrong?”
“Um… no, I’m not sure.”
“Then it doesn’t exist. Since I don’t know either.”
When I said that, Blossom—
—No, Ha-yoon laughed.
“Is that so? Then it’s fine.”
What in the world is considered ‘fine’?
In that moment, the bus arrived.
“Then let’s meet again after Christmas!”
Ha-yoon waved at me, and I waved back.
It’d be nice if vacation started right after Christmas.
As I thought that while watching the bus leave, I turned around and started walking.
…It’s cold this winter too.
I should buy a lot of hot packs to put in my combat suit. I’m glad I saved some money on bus fare.
I breathed in the chilly air and thought that.