146) Chapter 21. ......Huh? (5)

Thinking back on the memories of my previous life, I wasn’t the type to study especially hard on a regular basis.

To be precise, I was more the type to “play around while worrying.”

It was exam season, so I worried about it, and I’d sit in front of my desk pretending to study, but I didn’t actually want to study, so I’d waste time doing other things instead. Then only right before the exam would I start thinking things like, “Still, if I stay up all night today, I can secure six more hours.”

And naturally, almost all my friends were like that too. Maybe it would’ve been different if I’d hung around kids who ranked first in the whole school, but that wasn’t the case either.

But this life was a little different.

When I was in elementary school, people half-jokingly called me a prodigy. Well, I’d become a child while retaining the memories of an adult, so it wasn’t even a matter of simply being able to solve problems at the level of those kids—I already “knew everything.”

Even if I considered intentionally getting some wrong, I had no idea where the line for “getting an appropriate amount wrong” even was, so throughout childhood I simply lived as a kid who was good at studying.

The problem started once I entered middle school.

I still consistently ranked near the top, but that wasn’t because I was genuinely a genius. It was simply because I worked as hard as I possibly could. Since I’d always had excellent grades in elementary school, I didn’t want to show Auntie Yujin or Uncle Dohyun my grades suddenly dropping.

Up until the point I quit middle school, I studied extremely hard.

Soi and Chae-yi also played a huge role in creating that atmosphere. The two of them would enter full-on exam-study mode starting around two weeks before tests and study diligently.

Contrary to how Seo Rua’s grades had been bad in the original story, my grades in this world were also more than good enough to rank near the top.

And after becoming a high school student, Hyeonji—who even shared a room with me—was incredibly serious about studying.

“......”

So the studying atmosphere in the room was one where it was practically impossible not to study.

While studying so hard, I suddenly felt like something was missing.

Like someone was absent.

Ah.

Right. Jinwoo.

*

“......Jinwoo?”

A week before finals, while getting ready to go to school, I suddenly brought it up, and Soi and Chae-yi tilted their heads at the same time.

No, uh.

You don’t have to stare at me that frighteningly, do you?

Once exam season started, we hadn’t even gone out to hang around on weekends anymore.

In the mornings, we’d briefly leave the dormitory and bring Jinwoo along to cafés or restaurants inside the school.

The café was for a change of pace and a bit of a walk. And the restaurant was...... because Jinwoo still didn’t have any “male friends.”

Jinwoo had said that if she didn’t eat dinner with us, she’d just starve alone in her room.

And that was just dinner—so what do you think weekends were like?

If she skipped all three meals on Saturday and Sunday.

......Well, before she started hanging out with us on weekends, she still managed to show up alive at school every Monday, so she must’ve eaten something at least.

Well, eating is eating.

Since this was an academy story, naturally the original work also had scenes of studying. Ordinary scenes where Jinwoo studied together with the heroines after meeting them.

Even aside from the dormitories, the Academy had plenty of places to study. Like I said, there were cafés, and even if not cafés, there were all kinds of resting spaces inside the buildings.

“Hmph.”

Chae-yi let out another ominous snort.

“Rua, you’ve been paying an awful lot of attention to Jinwoo lately.”

“U-uh? Ah, no, it’s just, she uses a different dormitory from us......”

I swallowed the words she’s pitiful. Even if I genuinely thought that, saying it directly to her would only hurt her instead.

As someone who’d gone through a genuinely pitiful period during middle school, I knew that very well.

“Wouldn’t Jinwoo just study on her own anyway? From what I’ve seen, her grades aren’t even that bad.”

Not on our level maybe, but Jinwoo’s grades were still objectively good enough to be considered excellent.

“Mm, well......”

But still.

Even so.

I couldn’t help constantly worrying about her.

It’s not that I particularly like Jinwoo. We just became friends, and I want to care about her as a friend.

It’s not something you really feel while you’re still attending school, but once you graduate, you often end up thinking, “Ah, I should’ve had more fun back then.”

What if I’d been a little braver and talked to people more, made friends with them? What if I’d suggested going somewhere together? Thoughts like that keep coming back.

And honestly, it was also a debt weighing on my heart.

If things had followed the original story, Jinwoo would’ve already been surrounded by heroines, accidentally slipping and burying her face in someone’s chest, touching someone’s butt, getting sandwiched between heroines—no, now that I think about it like this, she’s actually kind of infuriating.

We’re both girls, so why was she the one all the heroines became sexually attracted to? Honestly, if someone kept touching every part of your body like that, shouldn’t all affection for them disappear instead? And in the end, she didn’t even end up with just one person—she got together with all of them.

......Well, that’s only the story of the original work. In this world, everything got derailed because of me, didn’t it?

So it felt a little too cruel for that child’s youth to simply disappear.

“......”

But even without knowing the original story, anyone who knew Jinwoo’s circumstances could objectively tell that Jinwoo was in a “pitiful” position.

In the end, Soi and Chae-yi looked at each other and let out deep sighs.

“Well, can’t be helped. That kid’s personality is weirdly gloomy, so if we leave her alone, she’ll probably just keep digging herself deeper underground alone.”

“Mm, th-that’s not quite......”

I started to object to Chae-yi’s words, then shut my mouth.

Mm, actually, it is that bad.

She’s the kind of kid who got hugged with her face buried in someone’s chest and then fainted while having a nosebleed.

......Wait. What is this? Looking at it this way, shouldn’t Jinwoo be the one worried about her health instead? At least I’ve never fainted like that.

“What should we do?”

Chae-yi asked while looking toward Soi and Hyeonji.

Soi shrugged, while Hyeonji sank into thought briefly before—

“......Let’s do it together.”

She answered shortly like that.

I’d expected Soi’s reaction. Her answer basically meant she didn’t care much whether Jinwoo was there or not.

But I hadn’t expected Hyeonji to answer like this.

No, it’s not like Hyeonji has a bad personality or anything.

It’s just... how should I put it? Since she’s usually expressionless, she doesn’t really seem like the type to take a huge interest in the people around her.

“So, Jinwoo’s going to study with us too......?”

When I asked cautiously, Soi, Chae-yi, and Hyeonji nodded.

Inside, I let out a small sigh of relief.

*

“R-really?”

At the suggestion that we study together after school, Jinwoo’s eyes sparkled.

Seeing her this happy over something like this made my conscience sting again for no reason. In the original story, Jinwoo had even run away trying to avoid the heroines’ advances.

Even if I wanted to make her popular now, unfortunately, I had no idea how.

If I knew how to become popular, I would’ve become popular myself long ago.

The method Soi and Chae-yi used—making lots of friends first, then naturally hanging out together through a “my friends are your friends” kind of thing—felt like a completely different world to me.

“Yeah. Let’s study together at a decent café.”

Just in case, I’d already checked the atmosphere there beforehand.

If it were a café outside the Academy, it might’ve been considered rude behavior, but cafés inside the Academy didn’t seem to mind much. Because it was inside the Academy.

After all, the customers were 100 percent students or staff, so studying there apparently wasn’t considered a nuisance.

Shiver.

......Shiver?

At my words, Jinwoo trembled once, making me stare blankly in slight shock.

She was only trembling because she was conscious of us watching, but if things had gone slightly differently, she might’ve started hopping around on the spot.

Seriously, this girl really doesn’t have any friends.

If she’d attended an academy or cram school during middle school, she probably would’ve at least experienced studying together with people before.

......Let’s not think too deeply about it. I feel like I’ll end up depressed too.

*

Even if we gathered after school to study, it wasn’t like the atmosphere became noisy and lively.

Maybe it would’ve been different if we were the type of kids who said we were studying but actually just gathered to chat, but me, Soi, Chae-yi, Hyeonji—and above all, Jinwoo too—were all people who’d gathered because we genuinely intended to study seriously.

We basically just occupied a table for five, periodically ordered drinks and desserts, and read books or copied notes.

But even just that much made Jinwoo’s expression extremely bright. Bright enough to make me feel strangely guilty.

Ugh, I invited her to ease my guilt, but now the guilt just keeps piling up more and more.

Yeah, maybe Chae-yi wasn’t entirely wrong. I really had been paying too much attention to Jinwoo lately.

“So, for the weekend, are we going home to study?”

“Well, that was already the plan originally, wasn’t it?”

Chae-yi said while puffing out her lips.

Last week, we’d stayed in the dormitory to study instead of going home so we could focus.

But the reason we were going home this time was because we were planning to bring Jinwoo too.

Chae-yi made a cute expression like she was jealous because another friend had been added around me, but she didn’t openly oppose what I said either.

“Y-yeah! I’ll go!”

Jinwoo’s voice became so loud that I quickly raised a finger in front of my lips, and Jinwoo shut her mouth.

This kid keeps forgetting that she’s disguised as a boy.

No, at this point, it’s kind of... how should I put it.

I feel like the people around us are starting to look at things strangely too?

Are rumors spreading that Jinwoo built herself a harem or something?

......Actually, rumors like that might be preferable.

Because I'm starting to worry about what happens if the other boys begin getting jealous at this rate.

.........

No, I mean, not me.

Like, um, Soi or Chae-yi could easily have boys they secretly like, right? Yeah.

I-I’m absolutely not saying this while assuming I’d be popular among boys, okay? Yeah.

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Pub: 27 May 2026 06:40 UTC

Edit: 28 May 2026 01:45 UTC

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