Chapter 16: The president glances at the extra next to her.

I ended up giving a ride to a junior I met by chance.

She didn’t seem very keen on it, but after pushing her semi-forcibly, I succeeded in getting her to sit in the passenger seat.

‘Why is that?’

Normally, I wouldn’t have forced it like this.

I probably would have just parted ways.

And, I would have looked forward to meeting her next time.

But, I didn’t want to just part ways.

If I peeled off the wrapping paper of consideration for the junior who won me the doll, I could faintly see my own desire to not part ways like this.

‘…….’

I’ve never had anyone ride in my car while attending the academy.

The space inside the car was the only place where I could be alone.

Even so, I didn’t think about that at all when I offered the junior a ride.

And that too, to someone I just met yesterday.

‘……She’s a strange person.’

I found out yesterday, but she was apparently suspended from middle school for violence.

The next most severe disciplinary action after expulsion from the academy.

Usually, people who are suspended from Aria Academy don’t adjust well even if they return, and most of them drop out or are expelled.

Even if they return, the people they used to hang out with leave, and most of the students don’t even talk to them.

On top of that, Aria Academy has elementary, middle, and high school on one site, and unless something big happens, the composition of people is similar, so rumors tend to spread.

Except for special cases like the transfer student who hangs out with her, it was clear that the rumor that she was suspended for using violence had already spread throughout the first year of high school.

-The minutes of the disciplinary committee meeting of the middle school? Wait a minute……I need to ask the middle school president about that.

However, the reason she used violence that I saw in the minutes of the disciplinary committee meeting.

Seeing the content of her friend’s testimony, I could fully understand why she used excessive violence.

That’s probably why she was only suspended even though she hit the youngest daughter of a large corporation called Hanseong Corporation.

She probably wouldn’t have been suspended if the content was made public.

But, she didn’t make the content public just for her friend.

Among the people I knew, there was no one like her.

It was an interest that started from curiosity, but as I learned more about this person, I felt that my interest was not cut off, but rather grew even bigger.

I wanted to know more about her as a person.

It’s the same now.

I kept looking at the side profile of the junior who was looking out the window.

However, since getting in the car, neither I nor the junior said anything to each other.

It wasn’t that I didn’t have anything to say.

‘Which club did you decide to join?’ or, ‘Thank you for winning the doll today.’ I could have easily started with words like that and continued the conversation until we arrived at her house.

I had practiced conversations to build rapport with the other person in any situation, so as not to make them feel awkward, to the point of being sick of it.

However, right now, my mouth wouldn’t open even more than when I met her in front of the claw machine earlier.

It was a really strange experience.

I didn’t feel awkward.

Rather, it was closer to a comfortable feeling.

It was a feeling that I couldn’t define in one word, a feeling that I couldn’t experience in the days when I was busy reacting to the emotions of the person next to me.

Joy is red, sadness is blue.

Then, what color does this feeling have?

If I could know, would the junior be feeling the same way as me now?

The junior reflected in the window was just staring out with an expressionless face, so I couldn’t read her emotions at all.

Her eyes were originally slightly reddish-brown, but they were dyed orange by the sunset coming in through the window.

The hair that naturally flowed down her chin was the same.

Other than that, I couldn’t tell anything.

I couldn’t see any ‘color’ from the moment I first saw her.

I could clearly see the emotions of the driver driving in front, but I couldn’t see any color from her.

That could have been a fear for me.

Because I’m already used to seeing other people’s emotions.

I could have raised my guard against someone whose ability doesn’t work.

-The president is not really my type.

-Let’s just end it with both of us being the same. There won’t be a next time.

-Instead of just a doll, how about we say it’s the first collaborative work between you and me, Senior, to commemorate our reconciliation yesterday?

She was a cheeky junior.

But, I didn’t dislike that junior.

I wanted to know more about the junior whose emotions I couldn’t see.

“You can drop me off over there.”

-Yes. I’ll drop you off at the door, Miss.

“……Miss.”

At the junior’s words, the running car stopped.

There stood a two-story house with a small yard.

A house dyed in the color of the sunset, with each window dyed in the color of the sunset.

‘It’s a pretty house.’

It was a little small, but it felt more like a place where people lived than the imperial palace, which boasts an enormous size, or the mansion where I’m currently staying while attending the academy.

So this is where she lived.

-I’ll open it for you.

Click.

After the driver’s words came out of the speaker, the door on the junior’s side opens.

The driver personally opened it for her.

“You really don’t have to…….”

‘……Cute.’

It was natural for me, but the junior was making a bewildered expression as if she had seen a new world.

I’ve been receiving the same service from the same driver since I was a child, but it was understandable that she would make that expression when being considerate of someone who was more than 40 years older than her.

That being said, it was quite cute that the person who was coolly saying things while winning dolls just a while ago was showing this kind of reaction now.

“Thank you for the ride, Senior.”

The junior lightly greeted me before getting out of the car.

She didn’t have to greet me.

“Then…….”

See you later at the academy.

I swallowed the cliché greeting that was about to come out.

Rather than a greeting with no definite time, I wanted to make a promise.

If I don’t, she won’t meet me.

From the perspective of having lived as a princess until now, I should scold her for being really absurd and arrogant, but what can I do?

She said I’m not her type.

Then, the person who wants to get close has no choice but to lose.

“Then, see you at the convenience store again next week at this time. Junior.”

“Yes?”

“I’m ordering you as a princess, so make sure you come out, okay?”

‘I ended up making a promise on the spur of the moment.’

I was overwhelmed by Lee Seorin’s momentum and ended up accepting the promise to meet at the convenience store.

What on earth is she trying to do?

I could do something like a claw machine comfortably, but the fact that she made a promise on purpose makes me think she’s going to do something else.

I sighed at myself for somehow ending up helping the princess’s commoner experience, and stood in front of the house.

‘……Right, the doll.’

When I looked at the doll in my left hand, it was wrinkled because I had given it strength.

It’ll probably smooth out soon, but it would be prettier to give it after it’s restored.

Instead of holding it in my hand, I put the doll in the convenience store plastic bag and opened the door.

“I’m home…….”

“Kyaaat!”

When I opened the door, my sister was falling right in front of me.

Thanks to my immediate reaction, I was able to catch her safely before her nose broke.

I’m glad I put the doll in the plastic bag beforehand.

If I had made a mistake, I could have fallen too.

“Ugh…….”

“Are you hurt?”

“My back might hurt a little…….”

“Then I’ll carry you like this?”

“Huh!?”

I lifted my sister with both hands.

‘Wow, it’s so hard?’

I thought it would be easy because my sister is thin, but my whole body creaked more than I expected.

Thinking that I should quickly move her to the sofa, I roughly kicked off my shoes and entered the living room.

“……Phew, that was tiring.”

After laying my sister on the sofa, I also sat down nearby.

“I’m, still light though.”

My sister mumbled sulkily, perhaps thinking that I said it was tiring because she was heavy.

I tapped her knee, and she smiled brightly and laid her head on my lap.

“I could only carry you because you’re this size, I wouldn’t be able to carry you if you were as big as when you enter high school, you know?”

“……Is that so?”

“Yeah.”

“Then, I should be held by you a lot before I get bigger, right?”

Why are you going that way, Sister?

Are you planning to give me more pain than you just felt when you fell?

The back is a treasure for both men and women, a treasure.

Thinking back to when I was working in a factory in my previous life and my herniated disc burst, I still get chills down my spine.

“So, why were you right in front of the door?”

Putting those things aside for now, I ask the part I was curious about.

Considering the position where she fell, it didn’t seem like she was trying to open the door and come out.

“Th, that’s……actually, I saw an expensive-looking car stop in front of the house, so I was looking to see what was going on.”

“I see?”

Certainly, it was a car that was noticeable enough to be seen from the living room, so it was understandable.

If I were in my sister’s position, I would have looked from the front door to see what was going on.

“So, Sister.”

The eyes of my sister, who said that, were sparkling brightly even though she was lying down and looking at me.

‘Is she not hurt?’

Seeing that look, I had a feeling that a bothersome question was coming.

“What’s your relationship with the princess!?”

It was the correct answer.

“……We’re just seniors and juniors.”

I omitted all the content that would be bothersome, and conveyed only the facts plainly, excluding words that my sister might misunderstand.

“Just, seniors and juniors?”

However, my sister didn’t seem to believe it.

She was chewing on my words with an expression that seemed to say it was ridiculous for her sister to form such a relationship.

“Hmm……Okay. I’ll believe you, Sister. As long as you don’t cause the same kind of trouble as you did in middle school, I can understand everything.”

“What do you understand. You little kid.”

“Ouch…….”

I pressed her forehead lightly with my finger.

“I have no intention of causing trouble anyway, so don’t worry.”

My sister was one of the reasons why I shouldn’t meet the same ending as the comic.

How could I rot in a place like a prison, leaving this kind of sister behind?

‘She’s definitely changed somewhere.’