Chapter 3: I Am Kwan Dae-ha (3)
"That scared me. Why are you standing here instead of entering?"
A slim beauty stood before me. With porcelain white skin and a tall stature of 170cm, despite wearing a school uniform, her coquettishness and sexiness was not something that high schoolers would possess.
"Ah, sorry."
I walked past her with an indifferent look.
Ahh, please tell me she just stopped by to see her friends. Please, please. Please walk away to another class, or even better, a class further down the hallway.
"Ah, wait a moment."
I flinched at her words.
What? Why is she calling me?
I had many doubts at that moment, but I couldn’t stay still just like that so I turned around slowly.
Don’t be scared. Don’t be scared. Everything will be over if she finds anything strange. You need to calm down.
I answered with the calmest expression possible, "Yes? What’s wrong?"
"No, I just want to say that we are finally in the same class. You are Dae-ha, right? I heard a lot about you."
"Is that so? I hope it's nothing bad."
I answered calmly, but I was screaming inwardly.
Arghhhhhhh! So we really are in the same class! Damn it! Damn it! I should lie low like a dead rat this year!
"Huh? Where are you going?"
"Hmm? I’m going to my seat. Do you have anything else to say?"
"Ah, no. Not really. Got it."
I left her with a wry look on her face and headed towards my seat. Our school pre-assigned seats for their students like how they would assign classes, so there was no need to fight for seats and one could just head to their designated seat. But the assigned seat could still be changed by informing the teacher.
"It has been a while."
"Ah. Y-yeah. How have you been?"
I felt baffled at that calm voice.
Ahh, damn it. Kim Dong-min is in the same class too…
"No, not really good."
"Huh? Did something bad happen?"
"Rather than bad, it’s troublesome… but I’ve already solved it."
I was convinced that the hassle was certainly not something ordinary students would experience such as having your vacation homework delayed or having an argument with a friend. Perhaps, that hassle was on a larger scale and he would have solved it in an even more dramatic way. But of course, I was not interested in what that hassle was or how he solved it at all.
"Ah, hi."
"Yes, hello."
I sat on my seat. My partner was a pretty cute looking female student. Usually, I would have shouted ‘Lucky~!’, but I was feeling a little depressed now.
"Now~ This is the beginning of a new semester, but you all know this right? You have to prepare now if you don't want to have a hard time when you reach your senior year. It's different now that you’re juniors."
A new teacher in his mid-thirties was talking about everything. In summary, he was telling us not to play but study. And he just kept rambling on.
"...So introduce yourselves one by one so we can match your names to your faces. You will be seeing each other for a year anyway. So, let’s start from the first student."
"Eh, haha. How awkward. Um, nice to meet you. I am…"
Everyone stood up in turns and introduced themselves. I was number 27 so it was still quite a while. I glanced at the titles of my classmates. Fortunately, they all looked ordinary. I might really cry if there was anyone else besides Kyung-eun and Dong-min.
"Nice to meet you! I am Lee Kyung-eun. My hobby is watching TV and I don’t really have any specialities. Studying is important but let’s get along with each other~!"
Lee Kyung-eun, who was seated in front of me, smiled brightly.
Ah, damn it. She’s too close.
But as I sit behind her, I can clearly feel that she really had a nice body. For a woman, she was quite tall. Her slim legs and slender waist formed a beautiful S shape. In addition, her body felt more like a well-trained sword rather than having been born with it. Maybe that was why it looked solid? Or did she exercise diligently?
‘No matter how I look, she’s someone that can’t help being popular.’
With her amiable personality, captivating looks, and thorough self-care, it wouldn’t be surprising if she were to become a celebrity, since she looks like Little-Miss-Perfect. Nevertheless, there was one flaw that covers all her virtues.
Human Slayer.
Right, that title. That title was an enormous flaw. Frankly speaking, I wouldn't believe she'd killed someone, but unfortunately, I had never seen a case where the titles were wrong, so I could only be careful.
‘Now that I think about it, I have never seen her with another title besides that one.’
I called it the permanent title. It would appear when someone achieved a special condition or had done a special action, their title would not change as often and they would be stuck with it. An example would be my father, and most recently my brother, whom I wasn't sure what he had done to obtain the title Ghost Blade.
The same went for Dong-min, but it was hard to grasp the condition or state of someone that had a permanent title at a glance. In simple terms, if I see someone with the title 'Itching to pick up a fight, Yoon Jung-min' from afar, I would avoid him. But I couldn't tell at a glance if he wanted to fight anyone because of the permanent title. I would have to go through the Classification process. If I wanted to know the current conditions or thoughts of people with permanent titles, I would have to concentrate for a moment as their titles do not change often.
"Hmm."
I suddenly became curious about Kyung-eun’s current condition and began classification. It was simple. I was close enough to her, and even though her back was facing me, I could still see her title clearly, so I was able to use my ability easily.
‘Let’s see… I should check her latest status than her current mindset.’
I looked into 'Status', and selected 'Present'. Of course, the whole process was only visible to me, and I felt comfortable doing it as I was quite used to it. And her title was manifested like this.
Won-il High School.
Got rid of someone this morning too, Lee Kyung Eun.
"..."
Oh, My, God.
"What’s wrong? You don’t look good. Are you feeling sick?"
"I'm okay. Thank you."
I smiled at my cute partner who was kind enough to worry about me and then looked at my textbook calmly. However, my head was still in turmoil.
Got rid? Got rid of someone? Who did she get rid of? What does this morning ‘too’ mean?
"I’m Park Young-woong. Nice to meet…"
"If I have to name a hobby, it’s reading…"
"Hi~ I’m Min~"
The self-introductions continued as my head was in turmoil. The introductions of thirty people were diverse. There were some that introduced themselves in the usual way and some who tried to make others laugh with a gag. And next up was the guy on my left.
"I’m Kim Dong-min. I hope we get along well."
He had quite a peculiar tone when speaking. Additionally, he always stayed in the corner and did not socialize with anyone. Anyone with a nasty temper would want to provoke him, but so far no one had bothered him.
No. There were a few who provoked him once or twice, but the day passed quietly somehow; the following day, the bullies and students who provoked him would appear with the titles 'Nearly Dead' or 'Scared to Death'.
Drrr.
I stood up as it was my turn next. I felt burdened standing in front of a crowd, but I was quite used to getting attention because of my popular father.
I glanced around and said with the most solemn expression possible, "My surname is Kwan and my name is Dae-ha."
So together...
"Kwandaeha-da." [1]
"Pft!"
"Hup!"
"Kek….!"
Laughter was heard everywhere.
Huhuhu. How was my lethal name joke? Of course, I felt like I was cutting my name, but it would be convenient in many ways to create a friendly image at the beginning of the semester. I love peace but I wasn't the type to stay in a corner without interacting with anyone. Well, this word play was a rare one that only happened once a year, so be thankful for it. Still, the word play on my name only started because of a movie that came out during my first year of middle school, so strictly speaking, the number of times I’d used this joke could be counted with one hand.
"Ah... I’m Lee Seon-ae. Um, Uh, nice to meet you!"
'Shy, Lee Seon-ae' appeared above her head, as she sat down with her head bowed and her face flushed. Even her title was cute. I felt my heart getting healed in this depressing situation.
As it was the first day, the classes were not as tough overall. The teachers explained what they were going to do during the classes instead of teaching, and time passed quickly while listening to those unwholesome explanations. All the classes had ended by lunchtime.
To be honest, I didn't really like our school, but the only thing I liked about it was that all classes end before 5 pm. Well, it might seem like they were urging us to go to an academy [2] after, but my father didn't like academies much so there was no need to go to one. He said he would rather teach me himself if my grades were not good. In fact, no matter what kind of instructor they were, they wouldn’t do any better than my father.
"I should go home."
I took out my cell phone as I left the classroom. Of course, I thought of heading back with my brother. I could have gone looking for my brother since his classroom was a floor below, but it was quite awkward to walk amongst the seniors whom I’m not familiar with.
-Hey, Dae-ha. What’s up?
"I’m about to go home. Are you in the classroom?"
-Yes. Ah, but I’m sorry. I’m going somewhere else.
"With your friends?"
-Yes.
A truly sorry voice.
Hm~ Did his friends ask him to hang out with them? Well, it’s possible since he’s really popular.
"Alright. Try not to be late."
-Alright. Watch out for the cars.
"What am I, a kid?"
I ended the call while grumbling and picked up my backpack.
Well, I can just rest when I get home.
But someone approached me when I was about to take out my shoes from the cabinet.
"Heyy."
"Ah, is that you, Jae-seok?"
The guy who approached me was in the same class as me back when we were in our freshmen year. His name was Bae Jae-seok. He was a tall guy with a big physique. He didn’t learn martial arts professionally, but he had quite the personality and was a natural-born fighter so not even bullies could approach him easily. But he had a good nature, so it was easy to get along with him.
"Ah, it’s unfortunate they split us up."
"Well, does it really matter since our classes are just next to each other?"
"It does. If we were in the same class, I could snatch some of the girls flocking around you who are interested in your father."
"Excuse me."
I looked at Jae-seok with a wicked heart and sighed inwardly. Well, his words weren’t wrong. When I was a freshman I had a lot of trouble with girls who approached me relentlessly. Of course, it wasn't that I was popular, but because of my father.
"Are there still many girls pestering you to invite them to your house?"
"They settled down because I kept rejecting them."
"Why? They are cute. You should carefully select and invite them. Who knows? They may give up on the pheasant and aim for the chicken, which is you."
Jae-seok let out a burst of laughter that would make one feel bad listening to it. But I shook my head.
"There will be no end to it if I start inviting them over. Well, that’s why my relationship with the girls almost got ruined, but my dad solved it."
"Huh? How?"
"He visited three official fan clubs and told them, ‘I will hate you if you keep bothering my son~’."
Jae-seok’s eyes widened at my words.
"Ohoo~ He came down personally? It must have been quite a ruckus…"
"Who cares?"
Well, I was glad that all the girls who approached me are gone. Their interest annoyed me, and I refused to be their stepping stone heading towards my father. Moreover, it was frustrating to have girls with ulterior motives, such as telling me to do homework with them.
There were even girls that said to me, ‘Do you want to call me mom?’ What were they talking about? Was that something to say to a boy of the same age?
"Whatever the case, do you have anything planned after school?"
"Not really. Why?" I muttered, as he was finally getting to the main topic.
The reason for that was because of the title 'Wants to ask you something, Bae Jae-seok' that was floating above his head.
However, what he brought up was rather unexpected even for me.
"Do you want to go to the arcade?"
"The arcade?"
1. -da. This Korean sentence is how they introduce themselves which means "I am xxx", and when translated it also means magnanimous.
2. read: after-school tuition centres. It's common for Korean parents to send their kids to these study academies.
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