"A dream?"
"Yeah. What do you want to be when you grow up? What kind of person do you want to become?"
"…Hmm. Let me think about it."
While waiting for Ryuzaki's answer, Arisu savored the ramen one small sip at a time.
No matter how many times she tasted it, it was genuinely, obscenely spicy.
But she didn't stop.
She kept thinking that if she kept eating, she might catch a glimpse of what Ryuzaki's life was like.
"…Honestly, I don't really know right now. What I want to be when I grow up."
"Is that so?"
"But… right now."
Arisu's eyes went wide.
"Right now… I just love studying."
That dark emotion that had been pressing down on the corners of his mouth.
The feeling she hadn't been able to see the bottom of — it vanished completely, in an instant.
"That alone makes me happy."
Oh.
This guy is just an idiot.
"What kind of answer is that."
An idiot who loves studying more than anything.
In that moment, Ryuzaki looked radiant.
So radiant it was almost blinding.
—Why can't you do this! Your sister gets it right away when I teach her!
For Arisu, studying had always been a means of proof.
Proof that she was no less than her sister.
And that her sister's sacrifice had not been in vain.
So she had to do it.
Whether she liked it or not.
She had to cut into her sleep to solve problems she never wanted to solve.
She had been running forward like that, eyes fixed ahead, for over a decade.
Just as her sister had, she too had reached the very top.
But all that remained was emptiness.
—Arisu is so smart, I'm sure she can do anything. What do you want to be someday?
At the start of the school year.
She had never been able to answer Yukio-sensei's question.
Because she didn't know.
For her, studying had always been nothing more than a means of proof — not a path toward becoming something.
What do I actually want to become?
That question had lived in her chest for a long, long time.
And today, Arisu had met someone who resembled her.
A boy who might even surpass her sister.
He, too, didn't know what he wanted to become.
"……"
But Ryuzaki was different.
He didn't use studying as a means to an end.
He loved the very thing she had only ever treated as a tool.
And on that love alone, he had carried himself through each and every day.
'…I think I'm starting to understand.'
Every time Arisu looked at Ryuzaki, she felt a wall she couldn't explain.
She had spent so long wondering what that wall was.
Now she finally understood.
She had been looking at the result.
He had been in love with the process.
At this rate…
There's no way I can win.
A single hot tear traced its way down the corner of her eye.
"…Arisu? Why are you suddenly crying? Was it really that spicy?"
Ryuzaki blinked at her, flustered, and asked in a rush.
Arisu couldn't bring herself to look at him directly.
"No… it's just."
Her throat tightened.
"I'm jealous of you, Ryuzaki."
She was jealous of him.
I want to love something too.
I want to be that kind of person too.
The sobbing wouldn't stop easily.
Then, a soft touch brushed past the corner of her eye.
"You get jealous over the strangest things."
It was Ryuzaki.
He was carefully dabbing her tears with a tissue he'd pulled from somewhere.
Then, as if trying to lift the heavy mood, he pointed at his own face and grinned crookedly.
"What's there to be jealous of in a mug like this?"
It was a strained smile — the effort behind it was plain to see.
His face was the kind that could look frightening, depending on how you looked at it.
"…There's something."
For some reason, a laugh escaped Arisu.
With the laugh, the tangled mess inside her began, little by little, to find its place again.
I want to be like him.
Like someone who knows how to truly love something.
That thought filled her mind completely.
So — let me watch him and learn.
How does a person come to love something that deeply?
How he studies, how he finds joy in it, how he loves something.
If I watch from beside him, imitate him, follow his lead —
Maybe someday she'd be able to love something too.
"Ryuzaki."
"What."
"Just felt like saying your name."
"What's that supposed to mean. Oh, and I'm thinking of joining a club. Any recommendations…"
Hiragi Arisu, first-year high school student.
Today.
In her life, where she hadn't been able to see even one step ahead —
a lighthouse had lit its flame.
A dazzling lighthouse that would illuminate the road before her.
***
The next day. School.
I've been mulling over whether to join a club.
My goal in high school is to get into a good university.
To do that, I need to take care of not just my grades, but my extracurricular record as well.
From what I've looked up, club activities carry quite a bit of weight in Japanese school records for university admissions.
—A club? You should definitely join one. It'll help a lot with university entrance exams. And you get to enjoy your youth while you're at it.
My homeroom teacher, Yukio-sensei, had said something like that to me once.
And of course, our Ryuzaki — true to form — had yet to join a single club.
Actually, that part isn't so bad.
If he'd gone and joined a sports team, getting him out of it would've been its own headache.
The problem was figuring out which club to choose.
With no clear direction for the future, I had no sense of what would actually be useful.
I'd brought it up with Arisu last night, and she'd said:
—Let's join the baking club together! We'd get to eat delicious bread every day!
So I let it go in one ear and out the other.
That's so like her.
A small laugh slipped out.
Anyway, I figured it'd be better to hear someone else's advice than to keep agonizing alone, so I went to find my homeroom teacher.
"So… you're saying you came because you don't know which club to join?"
"Yes."
"I'm genuinely moved. The only times you ever came to talk to me one-on-one were when you'd gotten into a fight and I had to ask you what happened. I never thought we'd be having a wholesome conversation like this."
Yukio-sensei smiled warmly and dabbed at a tiny tear forming at the corner of his eye with one finger.
It was such a reaction you'd only see in a rom-com manga that I felt strangely unsettled.
"Tell me. What kind of club are you thinking?"
"One that'll help with university entrance exams."
"Not even trying to hide it… Well, any club will help to some degree. Which direction are you thinking for your future?"
"Embarrassingly, I haven't been able to figure that out yet."
"Hmm, that does make it tricky."
Yukio-sensei crossed his arms, hummed thoughtfully, and genuinely mulled it over alongside me.
"The library club… might be useful in a variety of ways, but the impact might be a bit limited…"
He was approaching my problem with the same seriousness as if it were his own.
He could easily have brushed it off.
Was it because this world was inside a rom-com?
Or was it simply the kind of person Yukio was?
This person was clearly different from the teachers I'd known in my past life.
"Hmm… showing dedication through athletics isn't a bad angle either. What do you think?"
"I'd prefer something with as little emotional interaction with other members as possible."
"You ask for a lot. Is that even realistic? Clubs exist so students can help and cooperate with each other."
"That's fair."
My additional request sent Yukio-sensei back into deep thought.
—Slide.
The door to the faculty office opened, and a girl stepped in.
She walked calmly over to Yukio-sensei and handed him an envelope of documents.
"These are the student council documents due for submission this week."
"Ah, right. You've worked hard, Sae-a."
"Yes. Then."
She gave the teacher a small bow and turned to leave.
As she did, her eyes met mine.
An answer sharp as a blade, with not a trace of emotion.
Eyes with a cutting edge that looked like they could draw blood.
An atmosphere that radiated cold.
I knew who she was.
One of the losing heroines from the original story.
And the student council president of Asahi High School — the only Korean character in the series.
Lee Sae-a.
The gaze she directed down at me carried a faint, unmistakable wariness.
But that wasn't what mattered.
Because I had just spotted a very attractive option.
The moment Lee Sae-a left the faculty office, I turned to Yukio-sensei with a question.
"Sensei."
"What is it?"
"Would joining the student council help with university entrance exams?"
"It would, wouldn't it? It'd be far better than most clubs, I'd say."
Handle only the assigned work, and the rest is free time.
Whatever time is left, I can use freely in the quiet student council room.
It helps with university admissions.
And above all — the president is Lee Sae-a.
'Meaning I won't get worn down by people.'
I'd read the original. I knew.
She was someone who had grown tired of relying on others.
"…If you're joining with impure motives, I can't allow it."
"It's nothing like that."
Just as I am.
***
After school.
Lee Sae-a had finally finished her long, grueling battle with the paperwork.
"…Ugh."
She let out a small groan and stretched.
"It's already this late."
Lucky it was a day with nothing else scheduled — any other day, she'd have been hopelessly late with no way out of it.
Was it because she was slow at her work?
Hardly.
Her processing speed was fast enough to hold its own against most elite professionals.
Even so, there was a reason she always ended up buried in documents alone until late.
"…I wonder if I can keep being stubborn about this."
Asahi High School's student council had no secretary and no treasurer.
Because she, as student council president, was handling both roles herself.
She was managing most — no, nearly all — of the student council's work on her own.
She could have recruited a secretary or treasurer to ease the burden, but she hadn't.
It was her stubbornness.
Still, she had to be honest — she was starting to run low on steam.
There was simply too much work.
Was there anyone suitable?
She scrolled through her contacts.
There was no one she could call.
"……"
So in the end, she had no choice but to endure it alone.
—Knock knock knock.
Just then, a knock came at the door.
"Who is it?"
—I've come because I have something to ask.
"You may come in."
At this hour, there shouldn't be anyone coming to find her…
She was tilting her head inwardly in puzzlement when the door to the student council room opened.
"What brings you here?"
A student with dark skin and a menacing dragon tattoo on display.
The kind of person who could be summed up in a single word: delinquent.
He was unmistakably a troublemaker — and he opened his mouth.
"I came because I want to join the student council."
Lee Sae-a answered without hesitation.
"Request denied."
