I Don’t Want to be a Villainess

It didn’t take a week for her to realize the reality.

To monitor their wicked deeds, Son Ah-reum had no choice but to stick with ‘those three’ for almost a week. Of course, during class, monitoring them was impossible, and she didn’t follow them outside of school. Doing that would amount to a criminal act in itself.

Here and there, she couldn’t help but doubt. Ye Sara didn’t blatantly engage in malicious acts as Son Ah-reum imagined. At first glance, it seemed that Ye Sara wasn’t intentionally causing harm; rather, she appeared to be completely indifferent to what others thought.

The strange behaviors that occurred at the beginning of the semester had, by now, nearly ceased. Ye Sara had apparently behaved well in class for the past week. There were no more additional rumors circulating about the affectionate interactions between Yoo Ha-neul and her, and as time went by, even the teachers slowly regained their composure.

…But it wasn’t accurate to say that ‘nothing had changed.’

During lunchtime, when the longest gap appeared, following Ye Sara’s group seemed to other students to be an entirely different reason that Son Ah-reum hadn’t thought of. They probably thought she was trying to get close to Ye Sara’s group for real instead of looking for evidence of their wrongdoing.

Son Ah-reum thought that it might indeed seem that way.

Even if she sat near Ye Sara’s group, no one said anything. They didn’t kick her out for sitting at a nearby empty spot; they were simply curious why she sat a little farther away today.

Of course, that didn’t mean they welcomed her warmly. They didn’t ignore her, but they also didn’t make an effort to invite her. Those three treated Son Ah-reum somewhat neutrally.

At first, she thought it was a kind of trick. To confuse her, leading her to misinterpret the facts. She believed that if she showed signs of genuinely wanting to delude herself, they would begin to reveal their true colors and try to charm her.

But unlike Son Ah-reum’s thinking, it was actually the other kids who moved first and not Ye Sara.

No, in a sense, it might be more accurate to say that her peers ‘didn’t move’ at all.

Until now, Son Ah-reum had been in a position of being ignored in class. However, that ‘ignoring’ felt like being regarded as something insignificant. Growing up in a less-than-ordinary family, and poor by monetary standards, the other ‘wealthy’ kids openly disregarded her.

Even when important matters arose, they would only respond after being spoken to multiple times, and when she got angry at those kids, they often responded with annoyance or snickers.

However, the ‘ignoring’ she began to face after following Ye Sara’s group was different.

It was like she wasn’t there at all, treated like a transparent person; the kids began to act as if Son Ah-reum simply wasn’t there.

The kids who would at least respond when she spoke to them now ignored her completely, no matter how many times she called out to them.

The kids who used to show signs of annoyance if they bumped into her now walked away as if they had never bumped into anyone.

At least the teachers’ reactions hadn’t changed—though it was questionable whether it could even be called a ‘reaction’ in the first place.

Even for Son Ah-reum, who was utterly isolated, she didn’t have no friends at all.

Her relationship with the Student Council Chairwoman and other scholarship students in the same grade was fairly good.

However, even those kids began to ignore her one by one.

Of course, it was a bit different from the wealthy kids. They seemed to feel guilt, frowning slightly while avoiding her gaze, or would whisper apologies when nobody else was around.

“Sorry. But I really want to lead an ordinary school life…”

When she heard those words from one kid, it felt like she had been hit on the back of the head with a hammer.

And those words left deeper wounds on Son Ah-reum’s heart than the other instances of ‘ignoring’ she had experienced until now.

Why that was, she still wasn’t sure.

Yeah, it had been a week.

In just a week, Son Ah-reum had become isolated at a rapid pace.

Only then did she realize.

Even in the midst of her isolation, Sara’s group treated her as if it didn’t matter if she intruded upon them.

They didn’t act as if she wasn’t there, nor did they openly ignore her. When Son Ah-reum made a fuss, they fussed back, and when she spoke to them normally, they responded in kind.

After following them around, Son Ah-reum finally understood that what the Student Council Chairwoman had said was the absolute truth.

The kids treated Ye Sara’s group the same way they treated Son Ah-reum.

Ignoring Ye Sara no matter what she did. At least, they tried to ignore her.

That was not merely letting the situation slide but, literally, attempting to ‘disregard’ the other person.

Ye Sara was merely trying to break through the situation of being disregarded. Son Ah-reum just observed that scene.

“…So, what did I say?”

The Student Council Chairwoman sighed heavily as they met in the Student Council Room.

Was it because they were alone that the Chairwoman even gave her a response? Son Ah-reum, sitting with her head down, couldn’t say a word.

“…”

The Student Council Chairwoman scratched the back of her head with her fingers, letting out another sigh.

“Honestly, just cut ties now. If you think your relationship with them is completely over, other kids will treat you just like before.”

That might be true.

But what would be different if she returned to those days of being ‘disregarded’?

More than anything, Son Ah-reum had scolded Ye Sara not to ‘bully other kids.’ It seemed too much for her to join in the actions of other kids bullying Ye Sara.

In the end, Son Ah-reum couldn’t say anything to the Student Council Chairwoman.

*

Lunchtime.

Although Son Ah-reum had boldly inserted herself into Ye Sara’s group daily, today, she just couldn’t bring herself to do it.

Suspicion turned into certainty, and now that certainty felt like fact, she had no reason to be around them anymore.

But at the same time, she couldn’t go back to her usual self either. She had hastily determined someone as the bad guy and thought of the victim as the perpetrator. Knowing all that, she couldn’t just go ahead and bully those kids.

She decided to stop following those kids during breaks.

And just like that, the real Son Ah-reum became totally alone.

No one spoke to her anymore, and even when someone did, they didn’t acknowledge her.

But ultimately, that was something she had brought upon herself. She couldn’t even plead to anyone.

In the end, Son Ah-reum found herself hopelessly isolated.

Even in such a situation, it was a bit funny that she was still hungry.

Powerlessly getting up from her seat and trudging out of the classroom, not a single kid looked her way.

She made her way to the cafeteria, collecting her food.

As she moved her feet as usual, she stopped in front of an empty seat.

It seemed Ye Sara’s group hadn’t arrived yet.

“……”

After staring blankly at the empty chair for a moment, she promptly turned and searched for another empty spot.

Finding a seat in the corner, she sat down.

Since not much time had passed since lunchtime officially began, there were quite a few empty seats around.

However, no matter how long time passed, the area around her didn’t fill up. As students gradually increased and the cafeteria became crowded, others didn’t come near Son Ah-reum. Even a few kids who hadn’t quite grasped the situation would come over, only to be led away to another seat by someone else.

So this is how it felt.

It was only then that Son Ah-reum somewhat understood Ye Sara’s feelings.

Having been disregarded so much by others, she felt like screaming: “I’m here!”

In fact, she did just that and ultimately succeeded in making friends.

But Son Ah-reum couldn’t do anything.

“……”

She hastened her eating. She thought that if she quickly finished and stepped out of the building, perhaps it would alleviate her feelings even slightly.

In that moment, while she was eagerly moving her hands—

A sound startled her, cling, coming from the seat beside her.

She flinched and looked up to see a small plate, filled with food, placed down beside her.

“Why are you eating alone?”

An unbothered voice asked. For some reason, those eyes looked at her with narrowed eyelids.

That kid casually sat down next to Son Ah-reum. Then, one by one, kids gathered around her; one after the other.

“Uh, uh, your seats…”

“There’s no designated seat in the cafeteria, is there?”

Ye Sara looked around as if checking on Son Ah-reum and said, “If there’s somewhere you wanna sit, just come and sit.”

Somewhere to sit.

Son Ah-reum swallowed hard at that remark.

“……”

Her hand holding the fork trembled slightly.

Her vision blurred for a moment.

“…Sorry.”

“…Huh?”

As she seemed to awkwardly lift her fork to eat, upon hearing Son Ah-reum’s voice, which was moist with tears, Ye Sara looked surprised and turned her gaze.

And then, even more surprised when she looked at Son Ah-reum.

“…Are you crying?”

With a sniffle, Son Ah-reum said, “I’m sorry. I was wrong. I’m so sorry…”

And then she broke down into tears.

*

“Uh, no.”

“Why is she like this?”

For some reason, seeing Son Ah-reum, who was eating tucked away in the corner glowing strangely, made Ye Sara come over, but unexpectedly found her apologizing and suddenly tearing up.

“……”

Since they weren’t that close, it might be strange to hug her, so Ye Sara handed her a handkerchief, but Son Ah-reum buried her face in it and cried.

What’s going on? Did I do something wrong?

No, more importantly, why is her face glowing like that? Other kids at least show some expression, but the light emanating from her face? It was completely inexplicable.

It seemed there was some kind of trigger, but since that was originally part of Ye Sara’s abilities, it was something I couldn’t judge alone.

…Speaking of which, I would need to pay more attention to my relationship with her going forward. Just the potential for more people like Son Ah-reum to start glowing was already promising enough. Reflecting on her relationship with Son Ah-reum and figuring out how it happened would be a crucial method too.

And aside from that, it seemed she had become isolated after following me around. Honestly, I can’t say I’m entirely at fault for that.

…Teachers had nearly regained their calm over the past week, so maybe it’s finally time to shake things up again.

And I really need to find Ye Sara.

So many things to do.

Well, that was all I could hope for.

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