I Don’t Want to be a Villainess

“It’s no good after all.”

Saying it while looking at someone’s face seems a bit rude, doesn’t it? I squinted and looked up, but Yoo Ha-neul, who had already adapted to my expression in just a day, showed no signs of being scared.

“Sara, you lack stamina.”

Yoo Ha-neul bluntly stated the fact.

“I admit it.”

It was certainly true. Ye Sara’s body was absurdly weak. Perhaps due to the effects of mental abuse, it seemed she had not been able to properly eat even the meals that were served three times a day. How long had it been that even after I entered this body, putting food in her stomach was a struggle?

It wasn’t just that she sometimes had a little to eat; perhaps there were times she skipped meals altogether? Maybe that’s why Yang Hye-in insisted on feeding her soup, fearing I would just prepare it and not eat.

Right. Somehow, now that I’ve entered someone else’s body, I had become a master of self-objectification. It was natural to see things objectively since I was another person.

Yoo Ha-neul seemed somewhat flustered by my refreshing admission. Did she think I would argue even a little?

“Uh, um…?”

After hearing my words, Yoo Ha-neul rolled her eyes slightly and then shook her head as if to clear her thoughts.

“No, you can’t just accept that. You need to build some stamina. Otherwise, you’ll definitely collapse one day and get seriously hurt.”

Unless someone suddenly jumps out and hits my back, it seems unlikely. I had been diligently eating lately. Even Yang Hye-in, the maid, often looked like she couldn’t quite adapt during meal times. Of course, I still hadn’t had a complete meal yet, but at least compared to a month ago, I had gained a bit of… weight. At least, that’s what I thought.

After all, there was no reason to refuse meals. The food served in the mansion was all delicious.

And for a school with expensive tuition, this school’s cafeteria was luxurious too.

Goodness, a buffet for school meals? This school must not be receiving any free lunch support. Just judging from one meal today, it certainly didn’t look like a meal that could be funded by subsidies. It wasn’t even a buffet where food was thrown together haphazardly, lacking taste; each dish was prepared with care, albeit with fewer options. Even amidst the wealthy and often dismissive people here, this buffet-style meal made the students’ eyes light up.

While the meal was a buffet, the cafeteria didn’t look much different from a regular school cafeteria, which might create some cognitive dissonance, but who cares? As long as it’s tasty… Actually, that’s probably because the creator didn’t plan on drawing a background and just slapped a photo of a regular school cafeteria onto the CG background.

But even with such a delicious buffet, I was still a single plate kind of person.

By the way, can’t I just sit down? Standing in the cafeteria makes everyone stare at us. It was particularly conspicuous because no one came near the three of us. Thankfully, Yoo Ha-neul, having nodded to understand something on her own, soon sat back down.

“That’s true.”

After Yoo Ha-neul sat down, Lee Soo-ah, who had been keenly listening to our conversation, spoke up.

“Will that be enough for lunch?”

…Indeed.

While I had described it as ‘a plate’, the total amount of food I had taken wouldn’t even fill half a plate. A few pieces of salad and meat were all I had. I hadn’t even brought any dessert or snacks. It wouldn’t make sense to take more than I could eat, right? Throwing it away would be a waste!

On the other hand, Lee Soo-ah and Yoo Ha-neul had piled on their food enough to shake the very image of ‘high school girls’.

Lee Soo-ah had neatly organized mostly sweet foods, while Yoo Ha-neul resembled someone who was enjoying a buffet for the first time and had taken a bit of everything.

Both of them clearly wore expressions that said they wouldn’t leave anything behind. Well, teenagers didn’t vary much whether they were boys or girls. After all, during that age, you tended to eat a lot because you were expending energy. In fact, it was rather strange that I was the one eating so little.

“This is a lot for me too.”

I replied, but Lee Soo-ah didn’t seem to believe me very much. No, I’m really not pretending!

Maybe I wouldn’t even finish what was on this plate?

As I was thinking that, suddenly Yoo Ha-neul dumped her meat dish onto my plate.

“No, I really can’t eat this much—”

Before I could finish, Lee Soo-ah also dropped a chunk of meat from her plate onto mine.

“……”

Food on my plate tripled in an instant.

What’s going on? Is this some sort of hazing?

I slightly frowned and alternated my gaze between Yoo Ha-neul and Lee Soo-ah, but both of them were smiling brightly. Though Yoo Ha-neul’s was more of a half-guessing smile.

It felt like being confronted with a grandma’s face who just keeps piling food onto your plate even when you said you couldn’t eat anymore.

“Meat is the best for building stamina.”

“Right. That’s what gives you strength.”

I knew that even though I wasn’t a vegetarian.

I thought about trying to mention my eating capacity again, but I just let out a deep sigh. Fine, I’ll eat.

As I sighed and started moving my fork and knife, they both wore pleased smiles. I’m not your granddaughter, you know.

And naturally, I couldn’t even eat a third of the meat that appeared on my plate.

*

“Ugh.”

As I expected, I felt pretty bad throughout the afternoon classes. However, I stopped short of feeling like I would throw up, but I still didn’t feel well for several hours.

Should I be carrying around digestive medicine?

Surprisingly, it was helpful that nobody I knew approached me during this time. I mean, in a life-or-death situation, it might be a different story, but the fact that they pretended not to notice me even when I was periodically saying “ugh” was a kind act—though not necessarily out of goodwill.

“Are you okay?”

Of course, not everyone ignored me.

Yoo Ha-neul, the root cause of my current state, didn’t look away. She noticed I wasn’t well all afternoon and kept asking about my condition every time a class ended.

“I’m fine…”

Honestly, I wasn’t very fine. But when you see someone genuinely worried about you, it’s hard to say anything different.

“I’m sorry. I should have listened to you at lunch.”

Well, right.

That answer rose to the tip of my tongue, but I managed to hold it back. Yoo Ha-neul and Lee Soo-ah weren’t acting out of malice; they just genuinely didn’t realize that I shouldn’t have eaten that much.

Still, by the time school ended, I felt a lot better. I was asked if I wanted to go to the nurse’s office in between classes, but I refused. I figured the teachers didn’t care about me outside of calling roll, so why would the health teacher be any different? I thought it would be better to head home and get checked out at the mansion.

I was just waiting for school to end when—

“Uh, um…”

“Starting today, there’s a club recruitment…”

Usually, high schools in South Korea don’t pay much attention to extracurricular activities unless they directly benefit their careers, like sports clubs. Most of the time, it was just an extension of classes where students just pick something loosely based on friends and spend their activity hours doing little.

But, of course, this world—one from a visual novel—is different. Thinking about it, this world is still located in South Korea, and there wouldn’t be much difference from a typical school. It’s just that Hwayoung High School is unique.

At Hwayoung High School, each student looks for their desired club, even if it’s not mandatory. A club isn’t something that’s particularly beneficial for putting on a resume, either. Excluding sports, most are just hobbies—book clubs, movie appreciation, photography, art, etc.; places for students to engage in what they want to do.

However, the students here aren’t your average students.

They identify the affiliations and positions of classmates, converse to build relationships, and pave the way for their future wealth and power. For them, break time and lunch hour are even for socializing. From a young age, they sharpen their networking skills to take advantage of them in adulthood.

You might think, why engage in such cumbersome activities during teenage years? But considering how long friendships formed during these years last, you can somewhat understand why they would want to be active now.

So, club activities are undoubtedly important to them. Especially since many clubs straddle the line between ‘hobby’ and regular interest, it’s a good chance to meet like-minded peers, expanding connections even beyond the classroom.

That’s why I had absolutely no intention of joining a club.

I’d just be treated like a transparent person anyway. It would be uncomfortable for everyone else. Wouldn’t it be much more convenient to go straight home as soon as school ends?

“But, Sara, don’t you go straight home after school? You don’t exercise at home anyway.”

“…”

Yoo Ha-neul accurately struck me with a fact.

Indeed, I had every intention of lounging on my bed after heading home.

“So, does that mean I should join a sports club?”

Where had she gathered these? Yoo Ha-neul had a bunch of club application forms in her hands.

Softball, basketball, volleyball, track… All sports that sound utterly intimidating just to hear their names. These are not clubs I’d join!

When I looked at the application forms with a bewildered expression, Yoo Ha-neul nodded vigorously.

“If you join a sports club and train together, you’ll definitely see your stamina increase!”

“…”

Wouldn’t I die? No, I mean it seriously. Ye Sara’s body might not withstand that level of exercise.

But Yoo Ha-neul seemed to have already made up her mind. She was already swinging her arms and striding down the hallway.

I glanced at Lee Soo-ah for some assistance, but she merely wore a somewhat regretful expression.

…Looks like both sides agreed that I needed to build up stamina.

*

I had always hated exercise. I didn’t even do simple stretches at home.

While I agreed that we needed to increase Ye Sara’s stamina, my plan was to do it through nutrition. If I ate a well-balanced diet, I figured my weight would naturally increase, and at the very least, I would gain some basic stamina for survival.

However, Yoo Ha-neul had a troubling idea that stamina must come from exercise.

…And knowing the game content, I could somewhat understand that philosophy. Almost all options for raising the ‘stamina’ stat in the game revolved around exercising. If you have that mindset shaped by those choices, it’s not too strange to think that way.

But thankfully, it seemed that my disdain for exercise was reciprocated by exercise itself.

To be precise, it seemed that the ‘sports clubs’ hated me.

“Sorry, we take baseball seriously here. It’s not a place where you can just join because you want to.”

That was the fifth rejection.

The heads of the sports teams would initially greet Yoo Ha-neul with a bright smile, only to go pale upon seeing me behind her.

For good reason, it was ‘Ye Sara’ applying to a club.

Given that she’d likely never had a club before, it made sense since she had people following her around who hindered her from making friends. That application form wasn’t meant for me but for Yoo Ha-neul.

The heads, who probably didn’t know our relationship yet, had likely been swayed by Yoo Ha-neul’s energetic presence during break to send the invitation. And I guessed Yoo Ha-neul wanted to join and drag me along to build some basic stamina.

But what could I do? They all turned me down.

“Can’t we just give up and go home now?”

I asked, but Yoo Ha-neul shook her head. Then she stuck the last application form in my face, saying, “There’s still one left.”

Is this some sort of comic relief?

*

The place Yoo Ha-neul brought me to was the ‘soccer club’.

Soccer club? I felt that I would likely lose to a soccer ball. Lee Soo-ah was supportive of my participating in club activities, but even so, she didn’t expect me to be in the soccer club.

Is this school’s soccer team co-ed? Perhaps there are separate teams for girls and boys?

“……”

And I stiffened as soon as I saw the head of the soccer club.

A senior character with yellow hair slicked back, looking exactly like someone out of a visual novel playing football or baseball. With suspiciously fair skin for someone who should be running around on a field, the senior was looking at us with green eyes.

“So, you want to join the soccer club?”

“Yes!”

“You’re the only one I’ve invited to join.”

“Oh, these girls are…”

But before Yoo Ha-neul could even respond, the senior’s eyes darted to Lee Soo-ah and then landed on me.

With his shirt buttons completely undone, revealing a white t-shirt underneath, his disheveled appearance was somewhat delinquent-like, yet there was a faint glow coming from his face.

This was the first time I had seen such a phenomenon on a male figure since coming into this world.

Perhaps he had been running just before, as he was not wearing a jacket or vest. Maybe he just liked being active and running around even before changing into gym clothes?

Usually, other students would overlook me without a second glance, but this senior character was looking directly at me.

And seeing that, I was convinced. This person was undoubtedly one of the targets from ‘if you wish.’

One of the three male character routes.

His name was—

“Tch.”

…Nam Da-un.

Staring at the senior who clicked his tongue at me as soon as he saw me, I was puzzled—

“Well, alright. The three of you come along.”

He said that and swiftly turned away, striding towards the field.

What the heck? Is he nice, or is he bad? I’d appreciate a clear signal on that!

“I finally did it!”

Yoo Ha-neul, seemingly oblivious to the senior’s behavior, exclaimed while jumping up and down.

…..

I glanced pleadingly at Lee Soo-ah for help, but she just awkwardly smiled back.

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