Trrrrring~ Trrrrring~ Trrrri….
A tiring morning.
"...."
I turned off my phone alarm, which read 7:10.
Trrri—.
"Ugh…."
As usual, I dragged my half-asleep body to the bathroom to relieve myself. After a quick wash-up, I went out to the living room.
"You're awake~?"
When I got to the living room, my mom greeted me.
On the dining table, the savory aroma of food wafted through the air. Mom's cooking was always ready around this time.
"Yeah…."
With my eyes half-open, I sat down at the spot where a bowl of rice and utensils were set.
But then. 'The amount of rice….'
It was a mountain of rice, piled high enough to see at a glance. It reminded me of a *gobongbap*—a heaping mound of rice.
"Mom, I don't eat this much in the morning…."
I found it a bit overwhelming to eat so much for breakfast, so I said with a hint of a whine in my voice.
"Then just leave some~"
"Um…."
But when she says that, it makes it hard to leave it behind….
"Then, leave some," she said….
'Now I have no choice but to eat it all….'
Am I just weird? Feeling inexplicably sorry at her words, I ended up shoveling the rice into my mouth.
"What's with you? Just a moment ago you said you couldn't eat it all…. Was Mom's cooking that good?"
"Uh… I guess I just kept eating and finished it."
"Really? Well, hurry up and get ready. You have to go to school."
"Okay."
My name is Park Dowol.
I am currently a third-year high school student preparing for college entrance exams and the CSAT.
My family consists of me, my older brother, and my mom. And our cat, Kkami.
The reason I didn't mention my dad is that they're divorced, and we just don't see him anymore.
Rustle, rustle.
'…Should be good.'
I went into my room, put on my school uniform, and headed to the entrance.
"Meow~."
I stroked Kkami, who followed me to the door, then waved to my mom with a quick goodbye.
"I'm leaving."
"Be careful~."
Click.
I opened the door. Stepping outside, I checked the time.
"34 minutes… ah."
I'm going to be late.
After seeing the time, I ran like crazy towards the bus stop, my bag flying behind me.
I ran and ran, and it was 7:37.
[150]
When I arrived at the bus stop.
"Going downtown~?"
"Grandma! Are you deaf? I already said yes three times…."
"What was that~?"
"Aaaaargh…!"
Luckily (?), someone else was still getting on the bus, so I barely managed to get on.
Beep, thank you.
I tapped my card and sat in an empty seat.
"Hah…. Heok…."
I panted, trying to catch my breath from running.
'Phew~ It's a good thing my house is close to the bus stop….'
I felt a sense of mental relief. I fought off drowsiness in my seat, and before I knew it, we had arrived at my stop.
Pshhhh—!
Beep, alighting.
I tapped my card for no reason and got off the bus. The crosswalk light was just turning…. I was able to get to school right away.
"Hah… I want to go home…."
This place called school. 'Why does all my energy drain away the moment I get here….'
Not even a minute had passed since I arrived at the main gate, but I had already declared my desire to go home with a voice full of sighs.
Suppressing that feeling, I trudged up to my classroom with listless steps.
Screech.
"Oh, hi~"
"Uh, hey…."
When I opened the door and entered the classroom, my classmate Seokin greeted me.
I waved back, hung my bag on my desk, and sat down.
"You're early again today."
"Well, it's the usual…."
Seokin naturally sat in the empty seat behind me, and as if by some unspoken agreement, we killed time with some pointless conversation.
"Oh, Chun-sik, welcome."
"What did you bring this time?"
As time passed, the classroom filled with the chatter of other students.
The clock ticked closer to homeroom.
Screech, thud-!
"Alright everyone, your teacher had something to do, so I'm a bit late. Let's quickly take attendance first."
The teacher came in with a loud door sound. And with attendance, my daily routine began.
"Here."
1st Period. Advanced Korean.
"Textbook…. Ah, right. Everyone. Do you know what an anchovy's least favorite school is?"
""....""
"High school. (*godeung-hakgyo*, where *godeung* also means mackerel)... Textbook page 124…."
2nd Period. Speech and Writing.
"In the third line, the character…."
"Zzz…."
"Snnoooooore~ …snoooore~"
"…This will be on the test."
"z…. …."
"Snore, ugh…."
"…?"
3rd Period. Japanese Culture.
"In Japan, to greet someone or ask how they are, you say 'Ogenki desu ka.' Come on, repeat after me."
"Kimi no okasan, ogenki desu ka~?"
"Oh. She's doing just fine. Come here."
"Aah, Teacher…!"
"Hahahahaha"
"You crazy bastard lol"
4th Period. Probability and Statistics.
[There are 2 first-year students, 2 second-year students, and 3 third-year students. When these 7 students are seated around a circular table at regular intervals, what is the number of cases where the first-year students sit next to each other and the second-year students sit next to each other?]
(Note: Rotations that result in the same arrangement are considered identical.)
"...."
Ding-dong-deng-dong~.
"Enjoy your lunch."
"Yes~."
"Hey, they have the Jamaican whole chicken leg today."
"For real? Dude, let's go."
'…I'll do it next period.'
I put my books in my bag. Since it was a class that required moving classrooms, I went back to my homeroom and hung my bag on my desk again.
"Yo, you're here? Let's go before the line gets long."
During lunchtime, I would chat with Seokin, who was waiting in the classroom, and we'd head to the cafeteria together.
We waited in a long line, got our food on our trays, and sat down in some empty seats.
"Whoa, as expected. —Mmm. This chicken leg knows the answer."
"You think so."
"…Your reaction is so lukewarm…. …Ah. Hey, Dowol. Did you hear?"
Seokin started tearing into his chicken leg as soon as he sat down… then, as if a topic had just occurred to him, he suddenly asked me.
"What?"
"For the Economics and Mathematics performance assessment, we have to give a presentation that's between one and three minutes long…."
"I know."
"Oh, you do…? Right. You're taking Economics and Math, aren't you?"
"Yeah."
"Oh~ Then you'll be presenting too~"
"Today."
"?"
"It's today. My presentation day."
With those words, I picked up the chicken leg with my chopsticks and moved it to Seokin's tray.
"You're not eating it?"
Ignoring Seokin's question, I started clearing my tray, putting the leftovers in the soup bowl.
"Hey, you're leaving already…?"
"Yeah. I lost my appetite…. I'm going."
I got up from my seat. As I returned my tray, I left the noisy cafeteria and checked my schedule for the next class.
'Well, not that I need to look….'
It feels hopeless.
Sure, I had the PowerPoint file ready on a USB, and I'd also written down the script in a notebook, but….
The thing I was worried about was whether we had to do it completely from memory.
"Hoo- Whew~ …It's a bit, low…."
I took a deep breath to calm myself down. I seem to be sighing a lot today.
'…I need to practice.'
I decided to review the script one more time.
I went back to the classroom.
______________
"This concludes my presentation. Thank you."
Clap- Clap-! Clap- Clap- Clap-!
When the presentation ended, the sound of perfunctory applause filled the classroom.
But a few people seemed to have genuinely liked it, as the sound of their clapping was different from the formal kind.
Maybe that's why I started to feel nervous.
"Alright, that was a good presentation."
"Next is… Park Dowol?"
"…! Yes."
"Are you ready?"
"Ah… Yes, I am."
"Then please come to the front and give your presentation."
"Yes."
Just from having my name called, my heart was pounding, a bit of sweat trickled down my forehead, and my back was already damp with it.
Feeling every beat of my heart, I came to the front, plugged my USB into the laptop, and opened my PowerPoint file.
"When you're ready to present, please press the timer there and begin."
At the teacher's words, I mentally ran through the script I had memorized one last time, steeled myself, and then.
I pressed the timer.
Beep-!
"Ah… uh, hello…? M-my name is Park Dowol, and I'll be presenting today… The topic I will be presenting on is…."
Thump-thump! Thump-thump! Thump-thump!
The sound of my heart spread throughout my entire body.
It was as if my body had become a wide-open cave, and the sound was an echo reverberating within it.
My breath caught in my throat.
"Um… so in the pa…st? The exchange rate was…."
My whole body was getting soaked in sweat.
Beads of sweat were visibly forming on my forehead, and my back had been drenched for a while now.
But the sweat wouldn't stop, it felt like rain was pouring down on my head.
An umbrella….
I needed an umbrella to protect me from the rain.
"Currently… the changes in the exchange rate-"
My legs wouldn't stop shaking as if I were tap dancing, and my arms and body trembled as if they were on vibrate mode.
My mouth, as if to advertise my body's vibrate mode, repeatedly stuttered and stammered, while my eyes swung back and forth between the PowerPoint and empty space like a pendulum.
"That concludes my presentation. Thank you…."
Beep-!
When I reached the last slide, I rushed through the closing remarks as if I were fleeing and pressed the timer.
Clap- clap- clap-
The sound of perfunctory applause filled the classroom. That was it. Just that familiar, dry, lifeless applause.
"Please tell me the time on the timer."
"Ah…. Yes, it's 1 minute and 12 seconds."
"Okay, you may be seated. Next student..."
1 minute and 12 seconds. It was a short amount of time. But for me… it was a hellish time.
.
.
.
Beep- Beep- Beep- Click-!
Thud.
School ended, and I arrived home. I kicked off my shoes and immediately went to my room, throwing myself onto the bed.
"Hooo… this is nice…."
The soft, plush comfort. Couldn't I just fall asleep like this?
I thought about it, but I had to put away my uniform.
And I needed to wash my sticky, sweaty body, so I chose a temporary farewell to my bed.
I went into the bathroom. I put my change of clothes in the towel cabinet and left my dirty clothes by the bathroom door.
I turned on the shower and looked in the mirror while waiting for the water to heat up.
The first thing I saw was my black hair in a two-block cut and slightly dark, gull-wing eyebrows.
My eyes, with their rather large black pupils, had double eyelids, and the corners were slightly slanted.
Below them were dark circles, and my skin was already ravaged by acne.
My nose was neither particularly sharp nor blunt, just an ordinary nose, and I had small lips.
Since I hadn't shaved recently, my mustache and beard were a dark shade and looked disheveled.
My body was a bit thin, but perhaps due to attending an all-boys middle and high school, I had some muscle on my stomach and arms.
I was about 172cm tall, and my shoulders were a little narrow compared to my face.
Anyway, besides that, there was armpit hair, nose hair, back acne. And down below, leg hair and… um… anyway, there's hair.
Honestly, I was once a high school boy, too.
I might say I don't care about my appearance, but I couldn't wear shorts because of my leg hair and had to endure sweltering summers because of my armpit hair.
Even if I shaved it, it just grows back and grows back and grows back, and I don't have the money for hair removal.
'It would've been nice if I just had eyebrows and hair on my head….'
As I was deep in thought about my appearance, I saw steam rising, which brought my thoughts to a halt, and I started my shower.
The shower didn't take long.
Rinse my body, shampoo my hair, lather up with body wash.
Being a guy, it didn't take long to bathe.
I dried myself off with a towel, then put on the fresh undershirt and underwear I had placed in the towel cabinet.
Creak.
I took the laundry I had left by the door to the washing machine.
I went into my room, turned on the light, lay on my bed, and looked at my phone.
5:57 PM. It was time. I opened an app on my phone.
Blue—! Archive—!
Neru's rough, powerful, and refreshing voice rang out.
That's right. Blue Archive.
It's a game my brother recommended to me.
At first, I was disgusted and said I wouldn't play it, but my brother kept insisting, stealing my phone and not giving it back, installing it while I was sleeping….
He tried every trick in the book until we got into a fight over why I wouldn't play it, so I finally gave in….
Now, I'm the one collecting Blue Archive merchandise, watching Blue Archive-related videos, art, fan creations, lore books, and everything else….
Now, the tables had turned, and my brother was the one sick of it.
For the record, my brother is currently in the military, so he doesn't come home.
We just contact each other occasionally…? From what I hear, he doesn't even have time for that.
[VICTORY]
By the time I finished my thoughts, I had cleared all my daily missions.
I collected the rewards.
"Now what… Huh? When did you get here…."
With nothing left to do, I was fiddling with Kkami, who had appeared on my bed at some point, when I heard the sound of the password being entered on the door lock.
It seemed Mom was back from work.
After that, everything went by in a flash.
I ate the dinner Mom prepared, lay in bed watching Shorts until it was time to sleep, brushed my teeth in the bathroom.
Then back to my room, turn off the lights, and lie down in bed.
An utterly predictable day, as clear as day. Today was another one of those days.
"...."
...It was a hard day.
And yet, I'll go to school again tomorrow...….
I hated it...… I was annoyed… I was sick of it-, I'm getting angry–!
I just hated it, I hated everything, and I don't know why I even have to do presentations.
I wish people would stop tormenting me, and I felt frustrated and pathetic with myself for not being able to do a single presentation properly.
'Just… just.. all of it-'
I hate it.
And so, my vision went black.