Ch.25My Side or Their Side (7)

“Scared? You’ve got the guts to call me a slut to my face, but not confident enough to take your own virginity?”

“S-stay back!”

*THUD!*

As An Seong-kyeong backed away, her gestures knocked over the folding chairs placed beside the shelf.

The chairs collapsed like dominoes, sending a thick cloud of dust rising over the storage room.

“Eek!”

“Don’t run away! Stand and fight!”

Seong-kyeong tried to hide in the dust, but in this narrow storage room, no matter how quickly she fled, she soon came within reach of my arms.

*Click*

Seong-kyeong, wearing a school uniform skirt rather than gym clothes, had much more difficulty moving around.

Her delicate arms, suggesting she rarely exercised, were quickly caught in my grasp.

“L-let go of this!”

“People naturally cling to what they don’t have, or distance themselves from what they despise.”

“What are you suddenly talking about…!”

“You were so obsessed with putting me down, but when it comes time to prove I’m a slut, why are you running away? Perhaps you’re not confident in your hand?”

“…”

The class president couldn’t respond, as if something was caught in her throat.

“Don’t tell me, Class President.”

“…Fine. I’m not a virgin, so what? That precious label… I’ve already torn it off.”

.

.

.

“…How ridiculous.”

I said, looking at Seong-kyeong who was crouched in the corner of the storage room, her head lowered below her knees.

Though I said it was ridiculous, I wasn’t actually laughing.

Rather than laughter, it was more like a hollow feeling escaping in the form of breath—a bitter chuckle, a sigh.

“You pretend to be a model student, talking about studying and maintaining a learning atmosphere, but behind closed doors, you do everything you criticize? I see you in a new light.”

“…Shut up. I only did it once.”

Seong-kyeong wiped her reddened eyes behind her glasses while biting her lip.

Contrary to her emphasis on purity and her contempt for me whom she thought lacked it, surprisingly, Seong-kyeong had climbed the adult ladder before Ban Do-young, who was the main heroine.

“So, who did you give that one time to?”

“…”

“What? I can at least ask that much. Or should I show you mine first, for five minutes right here?”

“…No thanks. Good for you, being a precious virgin.”

Seong-kyeong clicked her tongue and turned her head away.

Perhaps my playful behavior in front of her had helped somewhat.

Or maybe she thought she had nothing more to lose.

After a moment, Seong-kyeong opened her mouth with a deep sigh.

“…Senior Yeong-tae. It was him.”

“…Who’s that?”

“The soccer team captain senior that Ban Do-young dated for three days in middle school.”

So who is that, you nerd?

“What? You really look like you don’t know. Don’t tell me you actually don’t remember?”

There was no problem with Do-ha-min who didn’t know the past Ban Do-young, but in conversations with people like Sa-hyang, Hye-rang, and Dad who knew the past Ban Do-young, conversations would occasionally go awry like this.

I was possessed in Ban Do-young’s body and could vaguely follow the talents that body had, but I couldn’t share the memories Ban Do-young had before the possession.

It was a problem that arose because the intersection of our memories was different.

The same was true for Seong-kyeong.

Though they weren’t close enough to be called best friends like Sa-hyang and Hye-rang, having attended the same school, she inevitably knew about Ban Do-young’s past.

“Ah… Was he kind of short? Wore glasses? With slightly wavy hair?”

“Those are Do-ha-min’s characteristics.”

“Oh, right.”

“Sigh… You really don’t remember. Fine, Senior Yeong-tae was just that insignificant to you. But he was my crush throughout middle school.”

Seong-kyeong’s voice diminished like a dying flame on a candle.

Shame and embarrassment about the past, yet unable to deny those emotions because they were genuine—these tangled feelings of lingering attachment flowed from Seong-kyeong’s mouth in a trembling tone with sighs.

“When I heard he broke up with you, Ban Do-young, I thought I might have a chance… Maybe for me too.”

“Why, because your breast size is similar?”

“…I’m being serious, so listen properly.”

“Sure, Miss Slut.”

“Ugh…”

After trying to keep it a secret as if it were a lifelong one, Seong-kyeong now demanded my attention, drawing my gaze.

“Senior Yeong-tae said he preferred modest girls. You, Ban Do-young, received many confessions and were popular, so you naturally wouldn’t be his type, and I had no experience with boys then, so I thought he might like me. So we secretly met in the storage room like now…”

“I see, you had your pure love here just like you called out Do-ha-min.”

“What’s ‘pure love’?”

Bulsa Middle School and Bulsa High School, which Ban Do-young attended, were run by the same foundation, so they shared the gymnasium building used for physical education.

Therefore, the gym storage room they used was exactly the same as now.

Seong-kyeong was a child who naturally took on the role of class president even in middle school.

So other children were used to Seong-kyeong being the class president, and they wrote her name on the ballot when voting.

In other words, she would have been the class president then too, so borrowing or taking the key to the gym storage room wouldn’t have been difficult, just like today.

The soccer team captain she confessed to, being a sports team captain, wouldn’t have seemed strange coming and going to the gym either.

The position of “class president,” created to help maintain school rules smoothly, conversely gave her the “right” to enter “the room you can’t leave until you do it” more freely than anyone else in this school.

“I thought you were born just to stand at attention and bow, but I never knew our slut class president had such a backstory.”

“Ugh, I’m not a slut! I told you I only did it once!”

“0 and 1 are different.”

“Fine, good for you, Virgin Mary!”

To think I’d be officially recognized as a virgin by Seong-kyeong.

The main heroine of the work was indeed different.

“So, you met the senior you had a crush on, but why did you only do it once?”

“…Because I was dumped.”

At my question, Seong-kyeong lowered her head again, which she had raised in anger towards me.

“The day I first did it with Senior Yeong-tae, he dumped me right after. He said he did it because my chest was similar to yours, but he couldn’t date me. Said he couldn’t bring himself to look at my face.”

“…”

“I liked him so much… really… I really thought I could be with him… I believed I could replace you, Ban Do-young, just that once.”

Seong-kyeong buried her face, trying to turn away from memories she couldn’t face.

But painful memories leave their mark not in the eyes, but in the mind and heart.

She couldn’t escape by averting her eyes or turning her head.

“In the end, I couldn’t be your replacement for the senior. I was just entertainment for a moment of deviation, nothing more, nothing less. Just like Do-ha-min you’re keeping around now… right?”

“You’re getting cocky, girl.”

“…Huh?”

*SLAP!*

I swung my right hand toward Seong-kyeong’s left cheek.

Ban Do-young’s delicate hand might be small in size, but as the daughter of a kendo dojo owner, its power was quite remarkable.

Soon enough, Seong-kyeong’s cheek turned bright red.

“Don’t make a fuss about getting slapped in the face, you started it first.”

“…”

Seong-kyeong touched her swollen left cheek and looked up at me with a dazed expression.

“You know, I don’t particularly care whether you call me a slut or not, or whether the guy I supposedly dated lives as that bastard’s cock sleeve or not.”

“…”

“But I can’t tolerate you calling Do-ha-min to an empty gym storage room, an unused club room, or the nurse’s office with an H-cup nurse wearing a tight corset and garter belt.”

“W-what are you talking about?”

“Stay away from Do-ha-min.”

Having consumed numerous pure love stories, I was able to quickly deal with today’s emergency situation.

It was a close call.

Even if I desperately preserved Ban Do-young’s virginity, if Do-ha-min lost his virginity to another girl, it would distance us from the ideal ending that <Half of Ban Do> could have.

In that case, the possibility of me returning to my original world would naturally diminish.

“Try bringing Do-ha-min to one of these ‘rooms you can’t leave until you do it’ one more time. I’ll make sure a school violence committee is convened immediately, all-ages rating or not. Understand?”

“I know… I know.”

“You really understand, right?”

“I said I do. I was just telling Do-ha-min not to hang out with you guys because I was afraid he’d be used as a toy like I was… If that’s not really the case, I won’t interfere between you anymore.”

“Good, that’s settled then.”

I helped Seong-kyeong, who was slumped on the storage room floor, to her feet and dusted off her school uniform skirt.

“So now the class president and I are on the same side again, right?”

“…Same side?”

“Yes, same side.”

“…”

“Oh, not answering properly, slut?”

“Ugh! I told you I only did it once!”

“Hahaha!”

Seong-kyeong’s fists, which she swung with furrowed brows, were quite sharp, but compared to her verbal attacks, the aftertaste quickly disappeared.

.

.

.

“Ah, there they are coming out.”

When I came out of the storage room with Seong-kyeong, Sa-hyang, Hye-rang, and Do-ha-min were waiting for us in front of the door.

“Did the talk go well?”

“Of course, we cleared up all misunderstandings and agreed not to hold grudges. Right, Class President?”

“…Yes. I admit I was wrong. I’m sorry for calling you a slut.”

“Um, you really just talked, right? No violence or anything?”

Do-ha-min asked worriedly, seeing Seong-kyeong’s red, swollen cheek and her docile compliance, but Seong-kyeong couldn’t easily answer his question, perhaps because of the promise she had just made with me.

“Why, why aren’t you answering?”

“…Sorry. I don’t think I should talk to you right now, Do-ha-min.”

“Huh? What does that mean, Class President…?”

“Anyway, let’s go now. The PE class is over.”

“Phew, I guess we’ll have to do the badminton drink bet next time. I was hoping to get a Zero Lime from Satan’s offspring this time.”

“…Well, I’m glad you two worked things out.”

Five minutes before the end of the third period, as the assembly time approached, we left the gym and headed toward the center of the playground.

“Hey! Ball coming your way!”

*WHOOSH!*

That’s when it happened.

A soccer ball lunged toward us as we stood in front of the gym door.

“Huh?”

“Watch out! Duck your head!”

“Huh?”

Do-ha-min’s arm pushed my and Sa-hyang’s backs, tilting our upper bodies.

We clearly felt the wind as the soccer ball passed over our backs.

“Ugh!”

*THUD!*

The ball that flew from the playground knocked off Do-ha-min’s face and glasses, laying him flat on the gym floor.

“Hey… hey, model student!”

“You. Nosebleed…!”

“Eek! Are you okay, Ha-min?”

“Ugh…”

Fortunately, he seemed conscious, but he couldn’t speak.

A dark red stream was flowing down from under his nose over his lips.

“Hey, you first-years over there! Can you kick the ball back?”

A male student in a red gym uniform approached, waving his hand, recognizing us as first-years by our blue gym uniforms.

They were second-year seniors who were using the playground during the same PE time.

“Oh? It’s Ban Do-young? So you did come to Bulsa High!”

“…Se-Senior Yeong-tae.”

“Is that bastard?”

A tall, tanned-skinned young man who had knocked down a student without apology and was asking for the ball back—this was Senior Yeong-tae, the former soccer team captain who had dumped Seong-kyeong.

“Oh, Seong-kyeong is here too. Anyway, Do-young, it’s good to see you! I’m so happy to see you here again! Did you come to Bulsa High to see me again? If so, I’m really happy!”

“…Hey, Class President.”

“Huh?”

“I told you earlier. I’d show you what happens when someone messes with Do-ha-min.”

“…Oh.”

*THUMP!*

The soccer ball that had knocked down Do-ha-min bounced and came to my feet.

Without a moment’s hesitation, I curled my foot around the ball and sent it back where it came from.

“Ugh!”

“Are you okay, Senior Shim Yeong-tae?!”

*THWACK!*

The spinning ball hit Senior Yeong-tae directly between his legs.

“That’s a fireball, you son of a bitch.”