I’m the Pitiful One, Damn it.

Walking with Ye-rin reminded me of old memories.

We were just walking, but people’s gazes began to gather one by one.

From the moment we passed through the school gate, I could feel everyone’s eyes turning toward us.

Some stared blankly, unable to hide their admiration.

Some pretended not to be interested but peeked with their heads slightly tilted.

Someone who made people stop in their tracks and unconsciously turn around.

That was my girlfriend.

…It’s been a while.

I had forgotten this feeling since I’d been walking alone or just with Se-ah for the past few years.

Rather than finding these varied gazes burdensome,

They only made me realize that Ye-rin had returned to my side.

So I didn’t entirely dislike it.

“Ye-rin, which class are you in?”

“I think it was… Class 4.”

“That’s too bad. If it were Class 3, you’d be in the same class I was in last year.”

“Ugh, I know…”

While this hallway was familiar to me from going back and forth last year, it was unfamiliar to Ye-rin.

So I headed toward where the second-year classrooms were gathered, intending to show her the classroom locations.

Arriving in front of Class 4 for second-year students.

Peeking through the window into the classroom, I could see Se-ah, who had left earlier, chatting with a group of girls.

“You’re in the same class as Se-ah. That’s good.”

“Yes, I think I’ll be able to adjust easily…”

“That’s right.”

When Ye-rin tried to unlink her arm as if to thank me for bringing her, this time I prevented her from doing so.

“…?”

“Let’s go in together.”

“…Together?”

“Yes.”

Originally, I had planned to just see her to the classroom and then part ways.

But why?

Suddenly, I remembered Ye-rin’s “declaration of war” from the past.

At first, Ye-rin seemed puzzled by my unexplained behavior, but soon, as if she understood my intention,

A smile gradually spread across her face.

“Yes, I’d like that…”

Slide-

When we opened the classroom door and entered, the students’ eyes in the classroom turned toward us.

It didn’t take long for their initially indifferent gazes to change to admiration and curiosity.

“Oppa! Ye-rin!”

Se-ah quickly spotted us and waved, running toward us with a dash before flinging herself at Ye-rin.

“Kyaaa, Ye-rin! I missed you so much~!!!”

“Hehe, I missed you too.”

“You were similar to me before you left, but when did you get this big~!”

ㅡ What are you talking about? I don’t think you were similar even before she left.

Height, or other parts.

I thought Ye-rin was overwhelmingly superior in many ways, but I tactfully kept my mouth shut.

“By the way, you two came with your arms linked in public~?”

As if to say “look at them~!”

Se-ah spoke with a grin.

“We’re a couple, so this much is nothing.”

“Wow, acting so casual. Inside you must be giggling with happiness!”

How did she know?

“…Will you be quiet?”

“Was I right…?”

“…I wasn’t giggling.”

…Probably.

When I pinched Se-ah’s mouth for hitting the mark, she made an “ubebep” sound.

“Ugh, fine. Oppa, hurry up and leave! Ye-rin is mine now.”

Ah.

When the warm and soft sensation on my arm suddenly disappeared, I felt disappointed.

I almost asked for it back without realizing it.

“…Oppa, I understand how you feel right now, but aren’t you being too disappointed?”

“…Was it that obvious?”

“I thought you’d lost a country or something…”

I was sad that Se-ah couldn’t understand that while it wasn’t a country, I had lost a man’s fantasy.

Ye-rin approached me, who was looking sulky, and gently took my hand.

“Oppa. I’ll come to your classroom during lunch…”

“…You will?”

“Yes, to greet your friends too…”

Ye-rin smiled and fiddled with my hand.

“Okay… You have to contact me right away if anything happens, okay?”

“Yes, I will…”

“And if you don’t know anything about the school structure or rules, contact me right away. Oh, and if by any chance…”

“…Oppa. What are you, a guardian? Hurry up and leave!”

“No, but…”

“I’ll take good care of Ye-rin, so just go!”

They say raising a sister is of no use.

But thinking that Ye-rin would need time to get close to other girls, I thought I should slowly leave.

Since I could see the students who had been whispering while looking this way since we entered.

The female students had eyes filled with curiosity, and the male students had eyes filled with dismay directed at us, so the purpose of coming here was as good as achieved.

Before being pushed out of the classroom by Se-ah, who seemed thoroughly annoyed,

My eyes met with Ye-rin, who was smiling at me.

“See you later, Ye-rin.”

“See you later, oppa…”

…This is a problem.

The first period hadn’t even started yet.

But I was already looking forward to lunch time.

**

Ugh, my arm is cold…

Having lost the bonfire, no, the padding that was Ye-rin.

I headed to the third-year classroom, whimpering “waa” feebly, dragging my feet.

Why did mom give birth to me so early?

She could have held out just one more year.

Making comments that would make my mom shed tears of blood if she heard, I headed to my assigned classroom, where I saw students gathered in front of our class, murmuring.

…Is someone fighting on the first day?

As I passed through the students thinking “What’s going on?” and glanced inside the classroom, I immediately understood the reason.

Come to think of it, he was the original.

If Ye-rin was in the second year,

I had forgotten that this guy would be in the third year.

“Hey, Seo Jin-hyuk. Long time no see?”

Though he had become more manly than before, seeing the familiar face chatting and giggling with Yoon Do-hyun in the middle of the classroom,

I approached with an unconscious grin.

Seo Jin-hyuk, seeing me, also grinned.

“What do you mean, long time no see? Are you in this class too?”

“I’m here because I’m in this class. Would I come just to see you?”

“Look at this disrespect after seeing me for the first time in a while.”

Though we spoke like that, we both chuckled, and somehow it felt comfortable.

Ye-rin.

Seo Jin-hyuk.

It felt like my daily life had completely returned at last.

Somehow, I felt at ease.

“By the way, don’t tell me Yoon Do-hyun is in the same class too?”

“What do you mean ‘don’t tell me’?”

“‘Don’t tell me’ means ‘don’t tell me’~ Don’t you know Korean better than me who’s been in America?”

“Han Woo-jin, Seo Jin-hyuk, you two are causing double trouble. What are you, Kim Cheomji? If you’re happy to be in the same class as your hyung, just say so, you bastards.”

“But I’m not happy, how can I say I am?”

“Agreed. Give 500 upvotes if you’re Han Woo-jin and not happy at all.”

“I’m Han Woo-jin and I pressed upvote 500 times.”

As Seo Jin-hyuk and I took turns making snide remarks, Yoon Do-hyun trembled as if he really wanted to kill us.

Ahh, this is it.

It didn’t taste the same alone, but beating Yoon Do-hyun was the best.

Indeed, the two of us were idiots, but we were the strongest.

“Fine, enough. Hey, Han Woo-jin. Did you know Seo Jin-hyuk was coming today?”

“I didn’t know either. I only found out when I saw his face just now.”

“I almost felt sad thinking I was the only one not told. But wait, if he’s back, doesn’t that mean your girlfriend is back too?”

“I just walked to school with her?”

“Then why didn’t you know she was coming?”

How would I know when they didn’t tell me, you idiot…!

I momentarily felt upset at Yoon Do-hyun’s question, which seemed to imply he couldn’t understand.

“…She said she wanted to surprise me, so she kept it a secret.”

“…Really?”

“Would I lie about it?”

“As expected. She’s tough, so tough… always so scary…”

“How is Ye-rin tough, you jerk? Your face is the tough one.”

“This guy always insults my face when he has nothing to say, you muscle pig.”

“That’s because you’re always acting up, you bast…”

“Hey, hey, stop it, you ugly guys.”

“You’re just a corpse without your face.”

“Agreed.”

“…The harmony between guys who were just fighting is amazing. But wait, isn’t ‘corpse’ going too far?”

Seo Jin-hyuk spoke as if wronged, but there was no one here to sympathize with him.

So all three of us just burst into laughter.

“Hehe, ah. I thought I would feel nostalgic seeing you guys. But there’s nothing like that. You just seem like guys I saw yesterday.”

“Agreed. I thought I would feel somewhat moved seeing Seo Jin-hyuk, but he seems the same except for a slight cheese smell from his body.”

“Anyway, treat us to snacks at the school store later. My wallet has finally returned. You’ve been using my money for 4 years, what a waste.”

“Yoon Do-hyun, that guy is really crazy.”

While we were saying “you’re crazier,” “no, you’re crazier” to each other, one of the friends who had been in the same class in the second year spoke to me.

“Hey, Woo-jin.”

“Yeah?”

“Do you know the transfer student?”

“Ah, we’ve been friends since middle school, and he just went to America for a while. He’s also my girlfriend’s older brother.”

“Oh? Then your girlfriend came back too?”

“Of course she did.”

Since I had been a person who claimed to have a girlfriend while having the photo of an unusually pretty girl as my profile picture for two years,

Perhaps because they were finally able to witness the truth of the “girlfriend claimer,” expectation seeped into the gazes of the surrounding students.

“Do the guys know Ye-rin?”

Seo Jin-hyuk, who had been listening from the side, asked as if curious.

“My profile picture is Ye-rin. The guys were very curious about her.”

“Ah~ I see. But what’s there to be curious about? She looks exactly like her photo.”

Because that photo was unbelievably pretty.

From the perspective of her older brother who sees her every day, he might not have thought that was the reason, so it was a casual remark from Seo Jin-hyuk’s standpoint.

But the official statement from her own brother that she looked exactly like her photo raised the expectations of the students even more.

One of them couldn’t contain his curiosity and opened his mouth.

“…She really looks exactly the same?”

“Yeah. I’ve seen her several times, and she looks exactly the same. My sister doesn’t take good photos, so she wouldn’t know how to edit them.”

“Wow, shit, that’s crazy…”

“He was a thief all along, damn…”

“Who said Han Woo-jin was pitiful? I’m the pitiful one, damn it.”

Seo Jin-hyuk was right.

Ye-rin had never felt the need to edit her photos, nor had she ever felt the necessity.

Instead of spending time on that, she would take one more photo to send to me.

Though everyone didn’t want to believe it, looking at Seo Jin-hyuk in front of them, they could guess what his sister might look like.

They looked at me as if they were dying of envy, which made me embarrassed, so I turned my head.

Then, among the students who seemed to have gathered after hearing the rumors about Seo Jin-hyuk, my eyes met a familiar face.

Lee Yu-ri.

To Lee Yu-ri, who smiled awkwardly at me,

I also smiled awkwardly and greeted her.