Chapter 3: Extra commits to practicing smiling.

Sejeong’s seat was decided to be next to mine.

Because I thought the seat next to me would be more convenient for me to play the role of a helper.

In the comic, her seat was behind ‘Kim Hayeon’.

The only reason was that it was easy to bully her because there was no one next to her, and the only person she could talk to was herself.

But now, even if she sat behind me, it would only be more difficult to take care of her.

“Heave-ho.”

I moved the new desk and chair to the side where Sohee’s desk was.

“It’s my seat…”

“I’ll buy you a hamburger after school.”

“…Are we going together? Then, well…”

Sohee, the owner of the original seat, resisted a little, but I was able to get her to give in by buying her a hamburger set after school.

Actually, she asked me why I took on the role of helper before talking about the seat.

Didn’t I not want to do such a bothersome thing?

She asked if, perhaps, there was another reason.

If I had hinted that I wanted to bully Yoon Sejeong, they might have gone down the same path as the original.

But I gave a slightly different answer.

-I wanted to be friends.

I don’t know if they were convinced by that.

On the outside, they said ‘Really?’ and introduced themselves to Yoon Sejeong by saying their names normally, but you can never know what’s inside a person’s heart.

Perhaps, in the depths of that appearance, excited at the thought of eating a hamburger, that one word might be buried as a seed.

But it was fine.

As long as I got past the worst-case scenario.

“Um…”

“Hmm?”

I felt a tug on my clothes, and when I turned around, Sejeong was looking up at me and fidgeting.

“Instead of someone else’s seat, I can sit in the back…”

What is she talking about?

“Are you taller than me?”

“…No.”

Yoon Sejeong is the shortest among the characters in the comic.

I think it was 163cm.

Of course, I don’t know if she’s that tall now, but since I’m about 171cm, she looked about that tall.

“It’ll be easier to see the blackboard if you’re next to me than if you’re stuck behind me. Besides, you don’t have a textbook right now, do you?”

“…How did you know?”
Because you didn’t have it in the comics either.

On the first day of transfer, no one showed her the textbook, so she had nothing to do but take notes on what the teacher was saying.

It was the beginning of bullying.

“Our academy’s textbooks are quite large, and I saw that you didn’t bring anything, including a locker and a bag, so I knew.”

And, even without that knowledge, I could have known that she didn’t have a textbook.

If you look closely around her, you can easily figure it out.

I said that and pushed Yoon Sejeong’s desk closer to mine.

“We can look at the textbook together, right?”

“…Thank you.”

‘I’m getting thanked for something like this…’

My conscience pricked me. I didn’t have much of a conscience left, but that’s how I felt.

Anyway, step 1 is complete.

The remaining problem was that the seat Sohee would sit in would be quite far from us…

“Um.”

“…Yes?”

“Can you, switch seats?”

“Ah, no, that…”

“I’m asking you, okay?”

Sohee was smiling and threatening the kid who was sitting in front of her seat to give up her seat.

What is she doing when the kid she just met is next to her?

She’s hiding behind me and is scared.

‘…Let’s intervene.’

I also secretly hope that she will give up her seat, but taking a seat like that will be annoying if it gets to the teacher’s ears later.

If I explain the situation and speak carefully, she’ll understand.

“Um…”

I’m sorry, but can you understand because it’s for the transfer student?

I was going to say exactly this.

Really.

As gently as possible, so as not to scare her.

“Eek, I, I’m sorry. I’ll switch quickly!”

However, the girl whose name I didn’t know lifted the desk and left her seat before she could even hear those words.

I know this because I just moved it, but it’s heavier than you think.

But as if she couldn’t feel the weight, she lifted the desk with both hands and moved it at once to the empty seat where Sohee should have gone.

…I don’t think she’s in a sports club or anything.

“…Am I scary?”

I don’t know about the kids I knew from middle school, but I didn’t do anything to the kids in this class for a month.

All I did was nod off in the back seat.

I took care of things like being on duty without missing out.

So even though the homeroom teacher scolds me for my learning attitude, she’s quite fond of me as a person.

That’s also the reason why she readily agreed when I offered to take on the role of helper for the transfer student.

-It seems like you’re trying to live quietly in high school compared to middle school!

…She’s probably thinking something like that.

People tend to think better of someone who does 100 bad things and 1 good thing than someone who does 100 good things and 1 bad thing.

Of course, this is also a thought that can be had because the homeroom teacher is a teacher who was appointed when I entered high school.

The ending in the comic due to that attitude wasn’t very good, but the fact that she’s a teacher who doesn’t judge by rumors is commendable.

…At least this time, I have to make sure she doesn’t get transferred.

“…A little?”
“She does have an intimidating presence when you see her up close.”

Sohee and Jia each answered when they heard my muttering.

‘Kim Hayeon’s face is a strong impression…’

Actually, I was basing this thought on the face I saw in the comic in my past life.

The face that became reality from the comic, even if you say it looks strong, honestly, I don’t know where it looks strong.

From my point of view, it was my face that I had seen since I was born.

There’s no way I’d feel scared of a face I see every day.

“Do I look scary?”

It was appropriate to leave this judgment to Yoon Sejeong, who just saw me for the first time.

Still, I thought she might say something a little nice because I greeted her with a smile.

However, she mumbled, “A little…” and avoided my eyes.

That small whisper-like word hit me harder than the words I heard from the two next to me.

‘My face is holding me back in this life too…’

What’s the point of being pretty?

It’s the same if people are scared.

‘…First, I need to fix my expression.’

The good thing is that unlike my past life, I’m a fairly pretty girl.

Even if I can’t do anything about the original, if I make my expression brighter, most of it can be covered.

“Wait a minute.”
“Yes?”

I turned my face away so that Yoon Sejeong couldn’t see it, touched my mouth, maintained a smiling expression, and turned my head.

“How is it now?”

“…….”

Huh? Why is she turning her head?

“…Th, that kind of expression, I don’t think you should show it to others.”
“…Is it that bad?”
“Show me too!”

Hearing Sohee’s words, I turned my face, and she turned her face the same way.

“What kind of face is it that…”

Jia also saw my face and reacted the same way.

What on earth does my face look like?

I only have the sensation that I’m maintaining a smiling face, so I couldn’t understand their reactions.

“Phew… My mouth hurts.”

There was no one else to show it to, and it was almost class time, so I returned my face to its original state.

“So, how was the expression I just made? Was it scary? Was it not scary?”

“…I think it’s best to be your usual self.”

“It wasn’t scary, but it was a little bit.”

‘Is it that bad?’

Then, I should put the smiling expression strategy on hold until I practice and get better.

If I smile to get along with people, but it makes them move away, it’s counterproductive.

I’m glad I didn’t smile when I first met Yoon Sejeong’s eyes.

“I…”

“Hmm?”

Clatter.

“The bell didn’t ring because it’s broken. The broadcasting club should go check it quickly… There, sit down quickly. Class starts right away.”

“…No, it’s nothing.”

Yoon Sejeong seemed to be about to say something, but when the teacher came in, she stopped talking and took out her pen.

‘It probably wasn’t that important.’

Thinking it wasn’t a big deal, I pushed the textbook I had placed so that she could see it better a little further to the side.

‘…I’ve already studied all of this.’

This is the conclusion Yoon Sejeong reached after listening intently for a few minutes.

The transfer exam was similar in subjects to the high school 1st year midterm exam, but the scope was incomparably wider and more complex.

So people said that Aria Academy made the exam difficult to prevent mid-term transfer students from being accepted.

However, Yoon Sejeong passed all those exams and succeeded in transferring to Aria Academy.

The reason she took the transfer exam instead of the entrance exam was simple.

The math teacher who taught her in the high school of another academy wrote a letter of recommendation to Aria Academy.

Sejeong, who knew that her father’s bankruptcy meant that she didn’t have enough money to pay for the next semester at the academy she was attending, focused on studying to receive the full scholarship given to Aria Academy transfer students, and succeeded in passing.

So she succeeded in creating a way to live.

The only thing left was to adapt well to the academy, but she was more worried about that part than the exam.

-Sejeong? Nice to meet you. I didn’t expect a transfer student to come to class A, which I’m in charge of…

Fortunately, the homeroom teacher she first met seemed to have a good personality, and the facilities were incomparable to the academy she attended.

The only thing left was whether or not she could get along with the members of the class.

She didn’t even wish for friends.

She thought it would be nice if she could at least have someone she knew.

And, she met her.

-I’m Kim Hayeon. Nice to meet you. Sejeong-ah.

‘…She’s a strange person.’

It was a short conversation of about 20 minutes.

The person who was nodding off in the sunlight next to her was the strangest person she had ever seen.

My first impression was that she was pretty, but somehow scary.

So when she accepted my greeting, I couldn’t help but smile.

Her actions really didn’t match.

I had never known that the awkward shaking of her hand could look so cute.

It was the same with what she did before class.

She quickly became dejected when one of the students said she was scared.

She practiced a smiling expression right away because I said she was a little scary.

‘Her smiling face was prettier than I thought.’

It was stiff, but it made me imagine how pretty she would be if she smiled naturally.

Hayeon’s expression was stiff, but each and every action she took revealed what kind of mood she was feeling.

She was a charming child that I wanted to keep watching.

I wanted to get closer to her.

I wanted to know more about her.

I wanted to introduce her to my childhood friend, who told me to come to him if I couldn’t fit into the class, saying that I had made such a close friend.

‘But… I don’t think my friends like me very much.’

Even now, the two people who are pretending to look ahead and moving their bodies moderately to glance back.

Jin Sohee and Han Jia, I think.

Hayeon doesn’t seem to notice, but they send me disapproving looks whenever they see me.

They probably think that their seats were taken away.

‘…It’s scary, but.’

If they had given me those looks for another reason, I might have easily given up the reason.

The biggest reason for coming to the academy was to graduate.

But for some reason, I didn’t want to give up now.

Hayeon was the first friend I made.