Ch.46Chapter 46. Bea..Beau..(1)

“Is that her? The one Jake has his eye on?”

“Yeah, that’s right. The one with silver hair.”

“Bad luck for her. Why’d she have to get on Jake’s bad side?”

“She’s already done for. Hehehe.”

The moment Cuss entered the school building, she felt countless eyes on her.

This time, particularly tall students were glancing her way and whispering.

“Hey! Freshman!”

“Huh…?”

“You’d better watch yourself! Jake’s got his eyes wide open, watching your every move!”

“…”

Some even bumped her bag as they passed by with that warning.

Only one thought crossed Cuss’s mind after hearing this.

‘Who the hell is Jake?’

She couldn’t understand why they kept talking about someone she’d never heard of.

Whoever it was, if they picked a fight, she’d just knock them down.

Juliane and Jinsoo would handle the aftermath.

Cuss didn’t care and headed straight for the classroom.

“Hmph.”

Of course, she remembered to turn sideways when passing through the door so her backpack wouldn’t get caught.

She wouldn’t make the same mistake twice, or rather, three times.

Looking around the classroom, something seemed odd.

Everyone had large backpacks beside their desks instead of cute little book bags.

Tom was the only one with a small bag.

“Tsk…”

Tom glanced at Cuss then quickly turned away.

What was that little runt’s problem?

As Cuss shook her head, she spotted Alice.

Suddenly in a better mood, she rushed to the seat next to Alice.

“Cuss! You’re here?”

“Hehe. Look at this, human.”

She eagerly showed Alice her phone first.

A white body with a black panel.

A magnificent-looking phone.

But Alice just tilted her head, giving no response.

“What… is that?”

“It’s a phone. What do you think!”

“Um… I’ve never seen that model before?”

“What do you think!”

“Hmm… is it an old model?”

“What do you think!”

Cuss kept proudly pushing the phone forward.

Finally realizing Cuss’s intention, Alice changed her expression and clapped her hands.

“Ah! Aaaah! W-wow! You even have a phone!”

“Hehehe.”

Praise me more, human.

I made this tiny human amazed.

I can control human emotions!

Cuss was basking in superiority when suddenly…

“So how do you turn this on?”

“Huh?”

It was then that Cuss realized she hadn’t learned how to use the phone from Jinsoo.

Her crossed arms fell apart as her expression went blank.

“Huh? Uhhh…?”

“Don’t tell me you don’t know how to use it?”

“I-I know.”

She had seen Jinsoo use it before.

Cuss held the phone and kept tapping the black panel with her finger.

When there was no response and she started to panic, Alice’s finger touched a button on the side, and the screen suddenly lit up.

“Whoa!”

“What? Why are you surprised? Cuss, is this your first time using a phone?”

“…”

As Alice started giggling, Cuss’s cheeks turned red.

This wasn’t right.

Instead of earning the tiny human’s respect, she was getting taught by her.

“I’ve never seen one like this either… but hey, except for the touchscreen, it’s pretty much the same? I’ll teach you everything. Come here.”

“…Fine.”

Cuss sat down next to Alice with a sulky expression to listen to her explanation.

She had heard from Jinsoo that humans couldn’t be perfect.

But I’m not human.

So I should be perfect!

Cuss’s pride was shattering into pieces.

“This is what we call the home button.”

“This scene feels familiar…”

“Hmm? What do you mean?”

“Nothing.”

Alice’s phone tutorial continued for quite some time.

Cuss nodded along to talk of WiFi, data, and other terms, but she understood less than half of it.

She was just glad she properly understood the basic functions she wanted—calls and texts.

“Ah! Right! Your phone number! Give me your phone number!”

“Okay. Here.”

“Hmm…”

Alice typed her number and handed the phone back.

Cuss memorized it carefully.

So I just dial this number and press the call button.

“But what does this phone icon mean?”

“Huh?”

“This one here. The curved icon that looks like a banana. Aren’t you curious?”

“…?”

Cuss looked at Alice like she was looking at a bug.

How could this little human not know this?

“It’s modeled after a telephone.”

“Telephones don’t look like that.”

“Yes, they do. The one at our house does.”

“Oh come on, how could that be a telephone~”

Watching Alice laugh, Cuss momentarily wanted to smack her but decided against it.

Sometimes Jinsoo would mutter things like “kids these days…” and now Cuss understood that feeling.

“Alright. The bell has rung, everyone. Please quiet… wait, what’s this?”

Jane’s expression turned strange as she entered the classroom.

Huge masses were positioned between the desks like barriers.

It took her a while to realize they were all backpacks.

“Please… put all bags at the back of the room…”

Jane felt a headache coming on.

***

“Aaaagh! It hurts! It hurts!”

“It doesn’t hurt… I turned off the pain system, so why…”

The repair technician was sweating profusely at the piercing screams.

There were kids waiting outside too.

Now he noticed the children’s eyes trembling.

“M-mom, does that hurt?”

“No, that lady is just exaggerating. It’s okay.”

“Hiing! It really hurts!”

“…”

Juliane, who had her right arm out, shed a tear.

It hadn’t hurt at all when she was shot, but somehow she always felt phantom pain whenever she came to the repair shop.

“Aaaagh!”

“I haven’t even touched you with the tweezers yet…”

“…”

Juliane bit her lip in embarrassment.

No more screaming, for real this time.

She felt a bit ashamed when she noticed children peeking through the door.

“Geez. You should have come sooner. The incendiary round melted into the synthetic skin, making it hard to remove.”

“I didn’t have time… I just did some basic treatment at home.”

“You’re the first person I’ve seen who got shot and didn’t get repairs because they were busy. The armor plate is deformed too, so we’ll need to replace it.”

“S-so…”

“Yes. A simple synthetic skin refill won’t do. Do you want us to remove all the skin and replace the armor plate, or replace the entire hand?”

“Ugh…”

“The latter is much more expensive. But the former takes more time.”

She really hated having her hand removed and reattached.

The feeling was just awful.

It made her feel like she was returning to that helpless state when she had lost all her limbs…

Juliane made her decision and slowly raised her head.

“I’ll replace the whole thing.”

“Understood. Additional part replacements aren’t covered by health insurance, so there will be an extra charge…”

“Please bill the Justice Department.”

“Yes, understood.”

Since she was injured on the job, she figured she could charge this much.

With that mindset, Juliane had already used up half of her department’s budget.

“Now I’m going to remove your hand.”

“J-just a moment. Let me take a deep breath first. Hoo. Ha. Hoo. HYAAAAAAAH?!”

“Waaaaaah! Mommy! It must really hurt!”

“That lady is crying, mom!”

The repair shop quickly turned into a sea of tears.

***

“Monday’s second period is PE. We’ll be moving to the gym, so everyone line up in the hallway~”

PE class.

Cuss’s nerves stood on end at those words.

This was the class Jinsoo had specifically warned her to be careful about.

“Bring your gym clothes too~”

She took out her gym clothes from her bag.

A T-shirt. And pants.

Cuss gulped.

Whether she could hide her tentacles or not depended on today’s PE class.

“Finally PE class! Cuss, are you good at any sports? I really like ballet.”

“Ballet?”

“Yeah. You know, dancing in tights and leotards.”

“Tights? Leotards?”

“Um… clothes that fit very tight to your body.”

Then ballet was definitely out of the question.

Her tentacles would be completely visible.

“I like wrestling.”

“W-wrestling?”

Alice was startled and fell slightly behind, but quickly caught up to Cuss’s side.

She had thought something was off when Cuss one-sidedly beat up Tom before, but to think she was learning wrestling…

Knowing this now, Cuss walking with clenched fists and stiff posture looked even cooler.

“It’s fun. Wrestling.”

“I see…”

“The best part is when the strong human male who enters looking cool ends up screaming at the end.”

“…!”

She doesn’t lose even against strong men?!

Even though Cuss was tall for a first-year, could she really be that strong?

Alice’s mouth fell open as she looked up at Cuss.

My goodness.

Cuss started to look even bigger than usual.

“Change into your gym clothes in the locker rooms. I’ll give you five minutes~”

The boys rushed to the boys’ locker room.

The girls rushed to the girls’ locker room.

But Cuss just stood there, hesitating.

“What’s wrong? Why aren’t you moving?”

“I want to change in the bathroom.”

“Why?”

“I don’t like showing my body…”

Cuss turned her head away and hunched her shoulders.

Alice’s eyes widened at the sight.

The strong, manly Cuss from just moments ago had completely disappeared, replaced by an adorably shy, just physically large girl.