At Perry's words, Rudin nodded. Transfer students would start the 3rd year course at FDS, and since Calevik was in his 2nd year last year, if he passed, he would be taking most of his major classes with him.
"Did you guys know that Tigercats are that scary?"
At Rudin's question, Garnet and Perry answered in turn.
"We didn't see them often in Plemil, but there are many Tigercats in Cairn, so we run into them from time to time. They have a more imposing aura than Pussycats."
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"I often meet Tigercats and Lioncats among my clients, so I see them often. They're a little scary at first, but when you talk to them, you realize that many of them are just ordinary, good people."
Perry was a jewelry designer for 'Radiante', a fairly famous accessory brand in Feladia, so she often met with upper-class people who wanted to have jewelry custom-made to their liking. But even she had never seen a tycoon as great as the Alstadt Family.
"If I get accepted as a transfer student, will that Alstadt Family kid reveal what happened before to the school?"
Seeing Rudin mumbling in a gloomy voice, Perry shook her head.
"No. He won't care about that at all. He might have even completely forgotten your face."
"Really?"
"Yeah. To the upper species, Pussycats are just 'Pussycats'. We're not even worth distinguishing their faces. Besides, that Alstadt guy is a troublemaker and doesn't come to school often."
Garnet, who had been disagreeing with Perry all along, agreed with her this time.
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"I think so too. When you think about it, you didn't commit such a big crime. Of course, you used school supplies without permission, but you didn't use any materials that were worn out or lost except for a little thread and a button, and you didn't break anything. It's wrong, but I don't think it's a big enough deal to have your transfer canceled if it's revealed."
Perry nodded at his words. Only then did Rudin, who had been carrying a heavy burden in his heart, smile on his small, white face.
The next day, Rudin, who had submitted his application, went to Plemil with Garnet to persuade his parents. His parents were worried about Rudin, but after hearing that Garnet, their reliable eldest son, would live in the same officetel as Rudin and always pay attention, they decided to support their youngest child's dream.
Rudin had graduated from the Department of Fashion Design at a cyber university, so he didn't need to take any additional major courses to meet the minimum credits required for transfer. He brought his major books from his hometown and prepared for the first written exam. Rudin worked as a cleaner during the day and studied until dawn at night, preparing for the exam in earnest.
Having passed the first exam safely, Rudin took the second exam. The second exam was a practical assignment in two areas: 'Fashion Illustration' and 'Clothing Construction and Production'. Both were things that Rudin had enjoyed doing since he was seven years old.
However, he was sweating because it wasn't about making ordinary clothes. The nine applicants who gathered at the fashion design department's second exam venue turned pale as soon as the clothing production materials were revealed.
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There wasn't even fabric, let alone anything similar. All that could be seen were industrial materials such as vinyl straps used to tie up moving boxes, aluminum foil, fishing nets, wire, and transparent silicone tape. With that, they had to create something that looked like clothes that a person could wear in 100 minutes.
Rudin was the first of the panicked applicants to move. He used the provided paper and colored pencils to complete a fashion illustration sketch in 10 minutes and began to bring materials and start production.
First, he made a refreshing tank top with a checkerboard design by weaving white and blue vinyl straps horizontally and vertically. For the bottoms, he finely cut and layered white netting and sewed it together with a sewing machine to create a knitted long skirt.
He filled the waist with a transparent belt made of silicone tape and wire, and even made a large accessory decoration that looked like a silver chain necklace by rolling up cooking foil and carving it stylishly with scissors. It was a reference to a necklace he had seen in his sister Garnet's portfolio.
When the bell rang to signal the end, Rudin was the only one who had aesthetically and flawlessly created something that looked like clothes that could actually be worn. He was so busy calming his racing heart that he didn't notice Professor Kwangbeom quietly smiling behind him.
A few days after the third interview was completed, the list of successful candidates was announced. Rudin, who had confirmed his exam number on the list of successful candidates on the website, held Garnet's hand tightly and wiped away the tears that were welling up in his eyes.
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Rudin, the only Pussycat among the three design department transfer students who were finally selected after competing at a rate of 47:1, was listed as the top applicant.
***
"You have to chew carefully so you don't choke."
Garnet carefully placed a small bowl of warm mushroom soup in front of Rudin. On the table were croissants, eclairs, scrambled eggs, and fruit salad. There was also steaming black tea. Rudin, who took a bite of the crispy eclair, nodded.
"Yeah. I will."
He was trying hard to look nonchalant, but Garnet could clearly see how nervous his younger brother was. After all, he was going to school today as a student in the very place where he had been working as a cleaner for three months.
"Did you install the student app properly?"
Garnet, who was eating soup, asked as if he had suddenly remembered. FDS students had a dedicated app installed on their smartphones just for them. With it, they could enter the school building, check attendance, check announcements, borrow books, and use on-campus facilities, and they could also create chat rooms like SNS to communicate with each other.
Rudin nodded to Garnet once more, placed his hand on his chest, and took a deep breath.
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"I've done all the preparations I can. Now all that's left is… to adapt."
He had become quite accustomed to meeting upper species beastmen while working as a cleaner, but quietly cleaning with his face covered with a hat and mask was as different as heaven and earth from sitting in the same classroom and taking classes.
"You'll definitely do well. If you get bullied even a little bit, you have to tell me. I'll sue them all without leniency. Got it?"
Looking at Garnet, who was repeating the words he had heard countless times since he was a child, Rudin nodded with a croissant in his mouth.
"It's your first day of school today too, right? I hope the kids you're in charge of are nice."
Garnet, a public high school art teacher, was said to be in charge of the second grade this year. Rudin was proud of his brother, who was a school teacher, but he was also worried because he had heard so many stories about how tough the students were these days. Garnet bit into a sandwich made with a croissant, scrambled eggs, and salad.
"They're the kids I taught last year, and they're mostly okay, even though they cause trouble sometimes."
After finishing their meal, the brothers brushed their teeth side by side. Rudin was very grateful that he had been able to extend the contract for the house he had rented for a short period of time during his cleaning job, allowing him to continue staying in the same officetel as Garnet.
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Garnet decided to drive Rudin to the subway station, so they left the house together. As soon as they left the front door, Rudin was purely impressed by Garnet, who had completely hidden his cat ears without a trace.
"How do you hide your ears and tail so well?"
Garnet smiled at the question that Rudin had asked him more than a hundred times since he was a child.
"I'm just born with it. Are you still so envious of that?"
"Yeah."
Garnet thought that it couldn't be helped that he felt that way even more on a day like today.
The upper species considered it shameful to reveal their animalized bodies and ridiculed Pussycats who walked around with their ears and tails exposed. Even if they could hide them perfectly like Garnet, it wasn't much of a good thing. The discriminatory consciousness that 'a Pussycat is a Pussycat, no matter how much you try to hide it' was deeply rooted in their minds.
"I've always thought your ears were really cute since you were little. And I still do."
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Garnet, who skillfully turned the steering wheel, continued.
"And I've never disliked having a Snicat in the family, not at all."
That much was true. He was often worried because he was weak and had different physical characteristics than others, but his younger brother, who was six years younger than him, was still cute and lovely in Garnet's eyes, even as a grown adult.
Garnet ruffled Rudin's fine hair, stroking the back of his head, who was smiling faintly as if he was embarrassed.
"So don't be intimidated. You're my proud younger brother who makes the best clothes in Plemil. Now you're going to be like that in Cairn too, so go with your shoulders straight and come back well."
"Yeah… thank you so much, hyung."
Rudin thought once again that most of the luck allotted to his life had probably already been used to meet such a good family, and that he didn't regret it at all.
Having received Garnet's support and having made all sorts of resolutions firmly in the subway all the way here…
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The moment he entered the FDS main gate, Rudin felt as if his body had shrunk in half.
He didn't know what the upper species were eating to grow so big, but even the female students were often taller than Rudin, and they were all active and full of energy.
Because of the tension of having to walk among them, Rudin's big eyes became even rounder, and his cat ears were slightly flattened back.
Arriving at the entrance of the 30-story building, Rudin called up the student ID barcode from the FDS-only app, scanned it, and entered. To be entering this place with a 'student ID' instead of a cleaning staff ID… Rudin was secretly moved.
Rudin stood in front of the student elevator. He was truly grateful that he had become familiar with this place after cleaning the fashion design department's exclusive floor for three months. Snicats were inherently timid and sensitive, so it took them twice as long as others to adapt to new places.
"Hey, I think that's him."
"What?"
"That Pussycat who passed the transfer exam at the top of his class."
"Oh, really?"
When Rudin heard someone behind him talking about him, he tried hard not to twitch his ears.
This would happen frequently in the future. Rudin was the only Pussycat student currently enrolled in the Department of Design. There were many Pussycats working in various parts of the school, but none among the students, so Rudin was bound to attract attention whether he liked it or not.
He had come here after passing through a difficult process to study design at the best university in the country. He had obtained a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and received a scholarship of an unimaginable amount. It was too precious a time to be intimidated and shrink just because the superior species gossiped and sneered. Rudin decided to act as confidently as possible.
In that sense, he chose a seat at the very front of the classroom. Honestly, he wanted to sit somewhere in the back, but he thought he would be buried by the large superior species and wouldn't be able to see the blackboard at all. Still, the center was too much of a burden, so Rudin chose the window seat in the far corner.
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As he moved forward, he glanced around and noticed that Calevik Roshaff Alstadt was not in the classroom. He didn't know if he hadn't arrived yet or if he wouldn't come at all, but he was greatly relieved that he wasn't visible for now.
"Wow, it's really a Pussycat."
"It is."
"He's so small."
Rudin heard people whispering behind him. He had never felt that he was 'so small' in his life, but he resigned himself to the fact that he couldn't help but hear such comments here.
"The day has come when I have to take classes in the same classroom as a Pussycat. The country is going to ruin."
"It's annoying. I feel like the school's level has dropped significantly."
"Isn't he ashamed to walk around with his ears and tail all exposed like that? It must feel like walking around naked."
"What can we do? It's their species trait."
They were saying it so openly that there was no way he couldn't hear it, but Rudin tried to focus on reading the textbook he had brought.
The first class was 「Advanced Fashion Draping」, a required course for his major. Draping was a technique of making clothes by directly applying fabric to a person's body or a mannequin and cutting it three-dimensionally, and it was one of Rudin's specialties.
Since it has come to this, I will overwhelm everyone with my skills.
With Rudin's firm determination, the curtain finally rose on his design school life.
After spending a hectic first week and entering the second week, Rudin realized that he would be completely isolated in the fashion design department. It was as if they had set some kind of rule, as no one spoke to him.
The two other students who passed the transfer exam with Rudin were majoring in industrial design and architectural design. Moreover, they were also superior species, so he had no comrades in similar situations to rely on.
He wasn't particularly bothered or saddened by having to be alone. There were occasionally people whispering behind his back, calling him an inferior Pussycat or something, but they didn't openly insult or harass him, and there weren't any hooligan-like students shouting at him to get lost. Rudin was able to endure it as long as they didn't directly harm him.
"Now, I will announce the important evaluation weights. Attendance is 10 points, written exam is 30 points, individual assignment is 30 points, and team assignment is 30 points."
The students groaned and complained in small voices at the explanation of Professor Kwangbeom, who was in charge of the 「Men's Wear Pattern Design」 course.
The superior species, who were mainly individualistic, did not like team assignments that required collaboration. They tended to have very strong personalities and were reluctant to bend their opinions.
There was even an unwritten rule for FDS professors who had to teach superior species who were accustomed to command and dictatorship but were weak in concession and compromise.
'Do not give team assignments until the second year. Even after the third year, limit it to only necessary cases.'
Rudin, who had a gentle nature and was accustomed to consideration and compromise, was also afraid of group assignments. It was because no one would accept him as a team member.
He was currently the invisible man of the department, or at best, no different from an auditor. He wondered if he could really find a colleague who would perform the assignment on an equal footing.
"One team is limited to 2 to 4 people. If there are more, there will definitely be free riders. Even if they are on the same team, the scores will be assigned differently individually, so you should describe your role in the assignment as detailed as possible. I'll give you time now, so form a team and report the list."
The students, who had been murmuring, got up one by one and walked around the classroom. They had already been going to school together for two years, so everyone had at least one or two close friends.
Rudin looked around the classroom with an uneasy expression. Those who briefly made eye contact with Rudin quickly turned their heads as if they hadn't seen him. Becoming anxious, Rudin drooped his cat ears without knowing what to do.
What should I do? If I can't join any team as it is, can I do the assignment alone? Or will the professor forcibly put me on any team with a small number of people? What if that team doesn't give me any role? Should I take courage and talk to someone? What if I get more ignored and ridiculed?
While Rudin was worrying, the students went to the professor one after another and reported the list of teams. He couldn't just sit still like this. Rudin jumped up from his seat.
He cautiously approached the male students who were still talking to each other. The Feladia beastmen tended to show some characteristics of their species in their appearance even without deliberately transforming into animals, and the two seemed to be Highcat and Servalcat, which were very rarely found here.
"Excuse me…"
When Rudin spoke, the two looked at Rudin at the same time. They already had ridicule and contempt on their faces, so Rudin was terrified. The Highcat male student raised his chin.
"What?"
Rudin swallowed hard and spoke slowly.
"If you have room in your team…"
The Highcat and Servalcat looked at each other and snorted. Rudin, intending to finish what he had to say since he had already taken the plunge, was about to continue when the Servalcat frowned.
"Damn it, when you're having bad luck, all sorts of parasites stick to you and make a fuss."
Rudin was stunned for a moment. He couldn't quite believe that he was being spoken to like that. But the Highcat next to him added fuel to the fire.
"Hey. You must be looking down on us because we're not the highest species, but if you don't get your dirty face out of here right now, I'll rip off that annoying tail of yours that keeps wagging."
Rudin, who had turned pale, couldn't say anything and hurried back to his seat. His heart, which had been directly hit by verbal abuse, was pounding like crazy. He could hear the Highcat and Servalcat openly giggling behind him.
If he was being treated like this just because he was a Pussycat, what would happen when it was revealed that he was a Snicat? What sin was it to be a Pussycat that he had to hear such harsh words? Rudin was trapped in a veil of humiliation and fear, unable to move from his seat.
"It seems that most of the team formations have been completed now."
At Professor Kwangbeom's words, the students returned to their seats. Professor Kwangbeom, who was comparing the attendance book with the team list, stopped at a certain name. He raised his head and called out the name of someone who did not belong to any team, his eyes shining brightly.
"Rudin Greenwood."
Rudin, who was concentrating on stabilizing his breathing by holding his trembling hands tightly together, was startled and raised his head when he heard his name.
"Y-yes…?"
Kwangbeom's sharp gaze reached the far corner of the classroom. A Pussycat with a face so small that it was amazing that it had eyes, nose, and mouth was looking at him with a bewildered expression.
It was that Pussycat who had been cleaning the reference room and standing there reading books endlessly, who had been crouching in the empty practice room after class and making doll clothes as if possessed, and who had ignited the teacher's heart with his talent that was superior to anyone sitting in this place in the three transfer exams.
"You don't have a team."
Kwangbeom said with a puzzled look, seeing his face, which seemed to be pale for some reason. Rudin, unable to find words to answer, mumbled softly.
"I, that's… well…"
"Let's see. Yes, you can team up with a student who hasn't joined any team yet. He just came in there."
Rudin, looking in the direction of the back door that Professor Kwangbeom was pointing to, opened his mouth wide without realizing it.
The man in question, Calevik Roshaff Alstadt, was just entering the classroom with a frown on his face.
Rudin had not seen Calevik in any classroom throughout the past week, which was the first week of the new semester. He couldn't find him anywhere on campus, not only in the classroom but also in the school cafeteria, library, sports field, or anywhere else. Rudin had been relieved, thinking that he might have taken a leave of absence since he was so completely absent.
In FDS, the unique values of the apps that students had were linked to the devices at the entrance of each classroom, and their entry and exit records were automatically transmitted to the professors' management apps. So, since the professors didn't usually do separate attendance checks during class, Rudin didn't even know that Calevik was taking the same class as him.
"Calevik Roshaff Alstadt, I will deduct 0.5 points from your attendance score for being late. And in this class, you have to do a team assignment, but since you came late, there is only one person left, so you have to be a team with him."
Today, Calevik came wearing pants that were overly baggy with a pattern that looked like a world map printed in full color, a black and white checkered crew neck knit that could easily hold a game of Go on the back, and huge, bright red cowhide basketball shoes that could fit about two of Rudin's feet.
He appeared empty-handed without even a bag or a pen, and at Kwangbeom's words, he frowned as if he had heard unspeakable words.
"Who has to what with whom?"
At Calevik's dumbfounded question, Professor Kwangbeom calmly pointed to Rudin without even twitching an eyebrow.
"Rudin Greenwood, sitting over there, will be your teammate. You will cooperate with him to carry out the assignment in the future."
Rudin couldn't bring himself to look at Calevik and just stared at the textbook spread out on his desk. Why did it have to be 'that' Calevik…? Rudin couldn't even be happy that he had a teammate.
Rudin found it difficult to concentrate on the class that followed. Rudin had been mainly making women's doll clothes, so he had been greatly looking forward to learning about men's wear patterns properly, but his head was full of worries.
Will Calevik cooperate with the team assignment? He's someone who doesn't even come to school properly.
At that time, a conversation between students that he had heard while working as a cleaner suddenly came to Rudin's mind.
'It's annoying, should I just skip it?'
'Don't. The professor is Kwangbeom.'
'Haa… Crazy Tiger Kwangbeom! I wish someone would skin that bastard and make a carpet out of it.'
'Hey, even crazy Cale can't miss Kwangbeom's class. That professor's eyes are crazy from the start.'
They clearly said, 'Even crazy Cale can't miss Kwangbeom's class.' So, can I assume that he will come to this class taught by Professor Kwangbeom, even if he is late?
But how do I divide the roles? He still didn't know how to use a sewing machine, did he? Still, he's a third-year student, so surely he's drawn a clothing pattern at least once.
As he was worrying about this and that, the class was over before he knew it. Rudin glanced back. The superior species students were surrounding Calevik's seat.
"Cale, why didn't you come last week? You usually didn't miss Professor Loebe's class."
"Are those Kelhmes new shoes? The color is really intense and pretty."
"Calevik, have you lost weight? Your jawline seems sharper."
"Did you really go horseback riding at the villa in Austen during the vacation? There was a sighting of you on SNS. They said your face and proportions were completely crazy, and it felt like they had an audience with a prince on a white horse, it was a complete mess."
Calevik didn't respond to any of the words with a nonchalant expression. Leon Mathias Kruger, the Lioncat male student who had previously told Rudin that he could take the remaining fabric in the practice room, changed the subject.
"Cale, what are you going to do about the team assignment? You're not going to do it as the professor said, are you? There's a spot on our team, do you want to join? Julian, Bertha, and I are on a team."
The one called 'Bertha' was the Jaguarcat female student who had told Rudin to just throw away the remaining fabric on the workbench. She was an intellectual-looking beauty with dark gray short hair and a slender, attractive figure.
Rudin became anxious at the thought that he might lose his only teammate. But he didn't have the slightest courage to break through that group of superior species, grab Calevik's hand, and drag him out, saying that he was his team.
As Rudin was biting his lip and not knowing what to do, Calevik suddenly turned his head and looked at him.
"Huh…"
The moment he heard Calevik's short exclamation, Rudin remembered that Calevik was the only one who had properly seen his face when he was a cleaner. He always covered his face with a hat and mask while working, but he had taken them off and been bare-faced only when he was making a dress in the practice room.
After hearing his sister Perry's words that the day's happenings would be very trivial to Calevik and that the superior species couldn't even distinguish Pussycats one by one, Rudin had thought that Calevik might have completely forgotten about him.
But seeing his dumbfounded expression now, it seemed that he had a better eye than he thought. How absurd would it be that the cleaner who secretly used the practice room was taking the same class as him and was even on the same team?
"Um… if you have time, I'd like to discuss the team assignment for a moment…"
Rudin, who had gotten a little closer, mustered up the courage to speak as he made eye contact with Calevik.
Unlike before when he was a cleaning staff, he was now a classmate in the same department and was three years older than him, so he dropped the honorifics, but Rudin was very nervous because of the tremendous pressure he exuded. He was also anxious because Cale's reaction to his words was completely unpredictable.
Cale, who had been glaring at Rudin for a moment through the sneering students, jumped up from his seat. Cale, whose eye level was much higher than Leon, the tallest of those gathered, turned his body with a stiff expression. He left the classroom without saying a word.
"Ha, why is his personality so trashy?"
"How can a person who has everything become so twisted?"
"Colorblind crazy bastard. He never fails to disappoint with every outfit he wears."
Those who had been trying their best to gain Cale's favor with kind faces just a moment ago had turned 180 degrees and were spewing insults.
Of course, it was largely because Cale had ignored their stories and left without responding, but Rudin felt a slight sense of kinship that Cale might also have no place to belong, just like him.
"It's okay. It's not like Cale is doing that for a day or two. Let's go eat."
Leon soothed his friends with a good-natured smile. Rudin quickly packed his textbooks and stationery into his bag and ran out of the classroom. Fortunately, Calevik was still standing in front of the elevator without going down yet.
"Excuse me, wait a minute…!"
Rudin ran and called out to Calevik in a loud voice. Cale, who was about to board the elevator that had just arrived, turned his head.
Rudin, who had reached him while panting, grabbed his chest. He had been weak since he was a child, so he would be in great pain with his breath catching in his throat after running even a little faster.
"About… the team assignment… I want to talk…"
Cale, who had lowered his eyes and was looking down at Rudin's perky cat ears and round head, spat out indifferently.
"I'm not doing it."
"What…?"
"I'm not doing the practice assignments or whatever. So, team up with the other guys or whatever, do as you please."
Calevik finished speaking and got on the elevator. Rudin quickly followed him inside. He looked at Calevik, who was glaring down at him with a displeased expression, and spoke with earnestness.
"No one wants me on their team."
Calevik frowned, looking puzzled. Rudin figured that someone who had people flocking to them, asking to be on a team together, might not understand, so he added,
"I'm a transfer student who just came here, so I don't have any friends, and as you can see, I'm a Pussycat, so…"
The elevator arrived at the first floor. Calevik strode out as if he hadn't heard a thing. Rudin hurried after him, but Calevik's strides were so long, perhaps because of his long legs, that Rudin had to almost run to keep up.
"Um…, I'm a top transfer student, so I get a scholarship, but I have to maintain a GPA of B+ or higher to keep it. If it's lower than that, I have to pay the full tuition, and I don't have that kind of money. So I have to study hard, and I have to do well on the assignments."
No matter what Rudin chattered beside him, Calevik just kept walking. But Rudin figured it was fortunate enough that he wasn't spewing abuse like the Highcat and Servalcat who had spoken to him in the lecture hall earlier, so he continued to talk to himself.
"If you don't want to do the assignments or you're too lazy, I can take on a lot of the work. You can just come up with design ideas or choose the colors of the fabric, or something like that… and if that's too much trouble, you can just let me put your name on the team as a member…"
Calevik stopped walking and turned to look at him. Rudin, who had stopped along with him, shrank back and lowered his head. He wanted to be as confident as possible, but the Tigercat's aura was too intimidating for Rudin to handle with his will.
Calevik's heavy voice landed above Rudin's head, which was cowering with its ears flattened.
"Looking at the way I dress, you want me to come up with design ideas or choose fabric colors? Does it matter to you how the assignment turns out?"
Rudin slowly raised his head. A new fact had come to light.
Calevik knew very well that he was a fashion terrorist.
If he was just terribly lacking in the sense of choosing clothes, he could simply ask a personal shopper or secretary to pick out decent clothes for him, as a member of a wealthy family. But Calevik didn't do that. Then his bizarre attire must reflect some firmly calculated intention.
Whether it was rebellion, resistance, or the manifestation of attention-seeking behavior.
"The assignment and choosing clothes to wear are separate things… I like making women's dresses with lots of lace, but I don't dress like that."
Calevik let out a short, hollow laugh at Rudin's answer. Encouraged that he didn't particularly refute his words, Rudin quickly pressed on.
"Um, then how about this? I'll pick out something, whether it's a pattern or fabric, and show it to you, and you just say 'I like it' or 'I don't like it.' Then we'll be making all the decisions together…"
"What if I say I don't like all hundred things you show me?"
"Hmm…, then I'll show you the hundred and first thing. If you don't care anyway, you probably wouldn't even notice if I just showed you about ten things over and over… If I keep trying until you pick something, wouldn't you eventually pick one just to get rid of me…?"
Was this being honest, stupid, foolish, or clever? Calevik was dumbfounded.
But he couldn't deny that this Pussycat transfer student had grasped Calevik's own characteristics very keenly. Even if he showed him only six or seven things over and over, he probably wouldn't know the difference.
"You're pathetic."
Calevik said coldly. Despite the highly offensive remark, there was no change in Rudin's expression.
"It might look that way, but the one who's desperate has no choice but to be pathetic."
"What are you desperate for?"
"My grades and scholarship depend on it. You… maybe you don't have anything to be desperate for because you can go to school even if you don't study or do assignments and your grades are terrible, but I'm not like that. I don't care if I have to keep begging like this, I really want to study here."
Calevik couldn't think of anything to say in response. In the first place, he lacked a sense of obligation to end conversations well and basic manners. He had lived his life acting in a way that he would leave whenever he didn't want to talk, regardless of whether the other person was offended or not.
The more he talked to this small Pussycat, the more he felt like a piece of trash, which made Calevik feel bad. Perhaps it was even more uncomfortable because there was no one around him who spoke so frankly to him. Wanting to get out of this place quickly, he started walking in the direction where he had parked his car.
"Wait, just a moment…! Actually, I wanted to say thank you all along."
What was this about now? Calevik stopped, taken aback by the unexpected words, and glared at him. Rudin instinctively flinched and swallowed hard.
"When I was working as a cleaner before… you didn't report me for using the sewing machine in the practice room without permission… and my, my personal information wasn't revealed, and I got the chance to study at this great school…"
Report? Forgiveness? Personal information? What on earth was he talking about? To place such great significance on a brief encounter with a Pussycat that was a dime a dozen, to the point of talking about reporting and whatnot, was an enormous case of self-consciousness.
"I'm truly grateful… I wanted to formally express my gratitude."
Rudin bowed deeply. Calevik didn't want to get involved with this strange creature any further, so he quickly left the scene. Strangely, he felt uncomfortable.
He never wanted to see him again.