Elementary schoolers occupy the lowest rung of the school-life hierarchy.
Not just in age, but in size and knowledge too — compared to middle and high schoolers, they're practically toddlers.
Well, technically they are little kids, but regardless — it's probably the only period in public education where you could eat dirt off the ground and still escape judgment.
That said, even among the dirt-eaters, there's a pecking order.
Sixth graders are the kings of elementary school.
And among them, the ones with a reputation for throwing punches tend to strut around like they own the whole campus.
When there's no tiger in the valley, the fox rules as king.
Their little kingdom had carried on, year after year.
Top dogs, troublemakers — whatever you want to call them.
Even the teachers had come to accept it as a more or less natural phenomenon… or so they thought.
"Chae-won did that? No way."
"I… personally witnessed her land a headbutt, sir."
By all accounts, she was the model student, the honor student.
Top of the school, got along with everyone in class.
Striking looks that seemed almost too refined for her age, and impeccable manners with every teacher.
The staff simply couldn't bring themselves to believe that Lee Chae-won had beaten up a sixth-grade troublemaker — a whole year above her.
On top of that.
"I'm telling you, I didn't get hit!"
"There were that many witnesses, though…?"
Apparently because he'd been so proud of his reputation as top dog, Jang Jin-sol was desperately trying to hide the fact that he'd been pummeled by a fifth-grader. A girl, no less.
Word had already spread through the student grapevine — *"Hey, I heard that guy got beat up by a girl"* — but what could you do.
It was a matter of pride.
*How do I handle this.*
A sixth-grade delinquent who'd gone down to a younger class to flirt.
And the fifth-grade honor student who'd personally taught him a lesson.
Both were in the wrong, but teachers are human too — their sympathies quietly tilted toward one side.
The sixth grader was the one trying to sweep it under the rug in the first place, and his track record was already a mess.
They reprimanded each of them for their respective offenses and wrapped things up simply.
The homeroom teacher, meaning well, personally called Chae-won's parents to let them know not to worry.
And Lee Chae-won, none the wiser, skipped home thinking everything had been neatly resolved.
***
These days, the joy of my life is at home.
"Hehehe."
The moment school ended, I'd sprint straight back.
Since both my parents worked, I had the whole place to myself.
About three to five hours before they got home?
When I was little — back in the lower grades of elementary school — there was nothing to do alone and I thought I'd die of boredom. But not anymore.
*I've got Dad's laptop!*
The specs are low enough that it chugs sometimes, but once you get used to it, it's workable.
So what if there's a little lag.
The important thing is that I can play games.
[Grenade throw—!!]
"Too slow, sucker~ Amateur. Heheh."
A game I actually know finally came out.
It's an FPS called Dead Zone.
I used to play it pretty regularly even back in my goshiwon gaming-addict days.
It's a massively popular online game that's held its throne for a good long while.
I was decent at it too, so it was always a favorite.
*Was it always this fun?*
Maybe getting younger improved my reflexes?
Hitting my shots more consistently made it even more enjoyable.
[BangbaedongBbatta: h@ly sh!t you f**kers kill the corner sniper already been there all day and you keep dying for him you br@indead f**king m*rons]
"Heheh, just try and get me~"
His furious chat messages had me grinning ear to ear.
I'm controlling someone's emotions right now!
With the gleeful mindset of a seasoned troll, I kept weaving in and out of that corner, sniping away with even more persistence.
Bang—!
Shoot and retreat.
Fake a retreat, let him hear my footsteps, then sneak back — bang—!
Predict the grenade arc, stay clear, then pop back out — bang bang—!
After picking off about four people in a row, a familiar name caught my eye in the kill log.
[Woniwoni>.< ▄︻┻┳━一 BangbaedongBbatta]
"So that's the guy."
Once I had a face to the name, I hunted him down exclusively.
Bang—!
[Woniwoni>.< ▄︻┻┳━一 BangbaedongBbatta]
Bang bang—!
[Woniwoni>.< ▄︻┻┳━一 BangbaedongBbatta]
[BangbaedongBbatta: ugh f**k you play like sh!t. where do you live??]
It was absolutely not because his reactions were entertaining that I kept killing him.
Think of it as a sacred duty — culling toxic players from the ecosystem.
*Spamming garbage in chat like that! Take what you deserve.*
I kept putting bullets through his skull at a steady, consistent pace.
The team deathmatch was first to 100 kills, and I wrapped it up single-handedly with 30 kills.
BangbaedongBbatta accounted for about 10 of those deaths.
[BangbaedongBbatta: carried by team diff and acting like you're good lmaooo]
Still not over it, apparently — he was hammering away at the chat even in the lobby.
Tap tap tap—
[Woniwoni>.<: lol cope, overrated]
So I poured fuel on the fire.
Sure enough.
[BangbaedongBbatta: oh]
[BangbaedongBbatta: f222222ck where do you get off?? you're bad okay?? what kind of noob movement is that thinking you're hot stuff]
[BangbaedongBbatta: 1v1 me?? your name is ugly as hell you absolute menace]
[BangbaedongBbatta: yo let's go]
"Wow, he's really burning."
The fact that he was even talking about movement meant he'd picked up a thing or two somewhere.
But the footwork I use is the crystallized future technique, refined and honed by this game's most seasoned veterans.
It's only natural that anyone below top-ranker level wouldn't be able to appreciate its greatness.
"Hmm, at a time like this, the classic move is…"
[Woniwoni>.<: ur so bad lol]
Left him with that and walked out of the room.
A flood of rage-fueled friend requests came pouring in afterward, all ignored.
Part of me wanted to give him a proper lesson, but unfortunately, it was time to close the game.
Dad had helped me make the account, so he unavoidably knew I was secretly gaming — but Mom didn't.
I would never get caught.
*Mom would definitely have something to say about it.*
She'd been suggesting for a while now that instead of being home alone, I should spend that time at a tutoring academy or something.
But who did she think I was?
Eunha Elementary School's number one student.
I'd told her confidently that I had no need for academies.
And successfully defended my precious free time.
"Hehe, games are so fun."
Being young really is something~
Faster reaction time makes everything more enjoyable.
I'd already put the laptop away and was sprawled out on my bed resting when—
Beep beep beep beep—
About ten minutes later, Mom and Dad came in together.
"Welcome home!"
Food, I'm starving.
I greeted them the same as always, but—
"Lee Chae-won. Don't you have something to tell your mother?"
"Ahem."
Mom, ice-cold. Dad, nervously watching the room.
*Huh, what's going on.*
I had too many things to feel guilty about to just blurt something out carelessly.
At times like this, the only move is—
"Ehehe, dunno~"
Play dumb, always—
"I heard you got into a fight at school."
Oh no.
Dad, who would normally take my side, was just quietly reading the room — which meant Mom's anger was considerable.
I kept my voice low so as not to provoke her further.
"It was just… I handled it fine…"
"Winning a fight makes it okay? Did you ever stop to think that if you came home hurt, your mom and dad would be worried sick?"
"……"
I'd acted on impulse, so I had nothing to say.
There are times when I can't quite keep my emotions in check.
It just happened to be one of those moments.
Actually, for the past few days, my mood had been swinging all over the place in a way that was definitely not normal.
I didn't even really understand why I was like this.
Was it because I'd gotten younger?
Even now, something kept surging up inside me.
Mom was completely right, but I couldn't seem to be rational about it.
The corners of my eyes started to sting, and without meaning to, my lips began to quiver.
"Did you do something wrong, or didn't you."
"……"
I needed to say I did something wrong.
But the words just wouldn't come out.
*He was the one who made me feel gross first…*
"Did you apologize to the friend you hit?"
"……"
My head dropped on its own.
"Think about how much it must have hurt. Aren't you sorry?"
"…S—"
I was trying to say *sorry.*
My brain had clearly issued that command.
But my mouth opened on its own.
"S— that creep was the one who came onto me first! What do you even know, Mom!"
Oh no.
Even I flinched internally — but there was nothing I could do.
It was already done, so I fled to my room and slammed the door — bang—
Thud thud thud—
I hadn't meant to slam it that hard.
It came out way louder than I intended.
Maybe I could say it was the wind.
But making up excuses at this point was too scary with Mom out there, so I burrowed into my blanket like a hermit crab and hid.
Mom didn't storm into my room, but as time passed, that somehow felt even scarier.
She didn't even call me out for dinner.
I was genuinely hurt.
I cried alone, tears dripping down, and fell asleep just like that.
Dad might have come in at some point in the middle of the night, but I was too deep in sleep to be sure.
The first real clash with my parents.
I thought this cold war would drag on for a while — but it resolved itself the very next day, unexpectedly.
"Kyaaaa!!"
"What?! Chae-won, what happened?!"
I went to the bathroom in the morning and screamed when I saw the vivid red stain on my underwear.
And that was how our family finally understood the source of my mysterious emotional swings.
.
.
.
Damn it. My period.
Thankfully, the cramps were almost nonexistent.
That much was a blessing, I supposed — but experiencing firsthand what it meant for a person to become sharp-edged and irritable was not exactly a welcome sensation.
*At least now I know why. That's a relief.*
Mom seemed flustered too — she explained all sorts of things, and apologized.
Tears kept threatening to spill out for no reason, but that was probably the hormones too, right?
Anyway.
After a few days of being thoroughly doted on, I made it through my first period without incident.
And life returned to its peaceful, ordinary rhythm.
Same as always.
There were plenty of kids who wanted to duel me or trade cards.
"Ch— Chae-won, do you maybe want to come to the PC bang with us?"
Why are there suddenly so many more people asking me to play games together…?
It's not like I ever told anyone I played games.
"I think I know why."
"Hm? Why?"
"Because you said your ideal type was a guy who's good at games, remember?"
"What??"
Good grief.
*She's got a serious case of main character syndrome.*
Every single person who comes asking me to play games is interested in her?
That makes absolutely no sense.
In the world of guys, bonding over games is completely normal.
For gamers, there is only competition and the thrill of winning.
How could love possibly bloom in a place like that?
*It's a place where you kill enemies and yell at teammates to play better.*
I already knew online games were getting more and more popular, so to me this all seemed like a perfectly natural trend.
And also.
I'd sensed it since we were little, but Si-yeon kind of had a princess complex, didn't she.
*Hmm… no, never mind. Everyone's like that when they're young.*
I stopped myself from pointing it out.
That pure, innocent belief that the world revolves around her.
She really doesn't know boys at all.
I patted Si-yeon on the shoulder and let out a small laugh.
"You'll have your awakening someday."
"…Wow, I somehow feel like I just got massively insulted."
I avoided the narrowed glare Si-yeon was giving me and thought it over.
*I do kind of want to try a PC bang.*
I went all the time in my past life.
The thing holding me back was that PC bangs hadn't been upgraded to their modern state yet.
Which meant the specs and overall environment were probably going to leave a lot to be desired.
*Would it even be that different from Dad's laptop?*
My allowance was on the small side too, so spending money felt wasteful…
"Chae-won."
"Yeah?"
I was in the middle of talking myself out of it when Si-yeon spoke up.
"Then, want to go to the PC bang with me? Teach me how to play too."
"You?? Games??"
"What? Is that weird?"
Yeah.
She'd followed me around so much that since we were little I'd tried feeding her every kind of boy hobby — Duel King, soccer, you name it.
She'd spat every single one of them right back out.
She was the type who preferred feminine hobbies, to the point where she'd literally been knitting just moments ago.
"I want to try. I'm curious."
"Hmm… okay."
Well, just once.
*And honestly, going with Si-yeon is more comfortable than going with kids I'm not as close to.*
So after school, we headed to what was supposedly one of the newer PC bangs in the area.
"Ooh."
I'd expected a row of beat-up old computers just sitting there collecting money.
"Oh my — oh my god. There's no lag…!"
"What's lag?"
My expectations were completely off. The specs were way better than I'd thought.
Playing on Dad's laptop, I'd died plenty of unfair deaths — but on the PC bang computers…
*It's completely smooth!!*
Buzzing with excitement, I went on a rampage through the public matches.
Even dragging along a total beginner like Si-yeon, I kept winning match after match.
Insane.
This place was a whole new world.