Home/For some reason, the male leads avoid my guiding/ch 8

Chapter 8. There Was Never a Grade G (8)

Baek Cheol-yeon was staring intently at Sua.

"What are you looking at? It's uncomfortable."

Sua asked again, but Baek Cheol-yeon didn't respond.

As she glared at him while chewing her food, Sua was overcome with a familiar sense of dread.

A mischievous glint had suddenly appeared in Baek Cheol-yeon's eyes.

Sua was racking her brain to figure out how to shove something into his mouth to stop him from saying whatever he was about to say.

But she was a step too late.

"Oh-ho-ho. Is it yummy?"

"......"

That bastard. She knew he'd do this.

Sua frantically rubbed her arms as goosebumps erupted. Even seeing her reaction, Baek Cheol-yeon didn't stop.

"Our Sua is eating well. Wouldn't it have been nice if you'd eaten like this yesterday too?"

"Shut up..."

Sua gritted her teeth. Her grip on the spoon tightened.

"If my baby gets sick, darling will be very, very sad."

"Ugh."

Sua covered her mouth and pretended to gag.

This was one of Baek Cheol-yeon's favorite ways to tease Sua.

He especially went harder when there were other people around. Whether he was pretending to be a siscon or whatever.

She tried sending a help signal to Ahn Ji-hyun with her eyes, but it was completely ignored.

Ahn Ji-hyun's gaze was fixed solely on Baek Cheol-yeon.

Eventually, Baek Cheol-yeon wrapped his arm around Sua's neck. Then he vigorously patted her head. As if he'd run into a friendly stray dog on the street.

"Am I a dog? You son of a..."

Even with her harsh wording, Baek Cheol-yeon's eyes widened, and then he burst into a big grin.

"The listening dog is excited, darling!"

Ha, seriously.

Just as her blood was boiling inside—

The arm around Sua's neck was released with a flustered motion. At the same time, another voice rang out.

"Hey, Baek Cheol-yeon. If you're done eating, you need to get out. What are you doing here!"

A male student dragged Baek Cheol-yeon away by the neck. One of the kids he often hung out with.

'Thank you, Baek Cheol-yeon's friend.'

Sua silently thanked her savior.

She'd almost had a repeat of what happened during morning assembly.

Throwing up in the cafeteria—that would've been such a nuisance.

Only after Baek Cheol-yeon had completely disappeared from view did Ahn Ji-hyun speak.

"He's really— quite good-looking."

"What?"

That flashy appearance?

Sua was worried about Ahn Ji-hyun's terrible taste.

Even giving him a generous evaluation because he was her cousin, by her standards he didn't meet the quota for "handsome."

'Does he think he's an idol or something?'

His bleached-white hair changed colors depending on his mood. Some days pink, some days blue, some days green.

And the large and small piercings dangling from his earlobes—she didn't even know how many there were. One day she'd count them.

Sua let out a deep sigh and said.

"Forget it. Looking cool as a delinquent only lasts so long?"

"A delinquent? Cheol-yeon studies better than you do. Plus, he was selected for the dormitory as an honor student, right?"

"Hmph, that's..."

At Ahn Ji-hyun's immediate rebuttal, Sua clamped her mouth shut like a clam.

"His grades prove Cheol-yeon isn't a delinquent. What can you prove with, Miss Bong-suk?"

The consecutive attacks made Sua's face pout a little.

Seeing that, Ahn Ji-hyun laughed and then made a face like she'd remembered something.

"Oh, my sister said they did a vote in her grade recently."

Ahn Ji-hyun had a younger sister one year below her. She was currently in 11th grade at the same academy.

"What kind of vote?"

"A popularity vote for male students."

"Good grief, what a thing to..."

Sua, who had been exasperated, trailed off at Ahn Ji-hyun's next words.

"But apparently first place was Cheol-yeon."

"......"

In Sua's opinion, the female students at this academy seriously needed some taste education.

They should make it a subject. For the sake of their future.

To pick such a hopeless case as the number one popularity vote. While she was still reeling from the shock, Ahn Ji-hyun continued.

"Right? There's a tie for first place, but still, first place is first place."

Whoa. There was another such hopeless case in this world. Astonishing. Sua became genuinely curious.

"Who's that hopeless— I mean, who's the co-first place?"

"I don't know the details. I heard he transferred in this year."

Just as she was thinking she'd like to see that face—

"Look, there he comes."

Sua reflexively turned her head.

And for a moment, she stopped breathing. She even muttered without realizing it.

"What is that, that..."

Is that even human?

The rest of the words didn't come out and were swallowed back down.

Beside her, Ahn Ji-hyun kept letting out admiring exclamations.

"Wow, seriously. Insanely handsome. I can see why he's tied with Cheol-yeon. No matter how many times I see it, I can't get used to that face. It's literally a face gifted by the gods."

Sua slowly nodded in agreement. It was a different kind of shock from when she'd first seen Ki Woo-sol.

Jet-black hair. Large but subtly upturned eyes. Violet-colored irises within. A beauty mark beneath them.

If Ki Woo-sol was a five-member group idol under brilliant spotlights, then this one was an underground idol known only to those in the know?

No, rather, the intense maknae of a band with a desperate handful of fans? Especially with an overwhelming aura that made it seem like he'd be wearing a guitar slung over his shoulder.

Ten years later, if he became a great artist and said "There was a time when I was like that," it would suit him perfectly.

The fact that he could embody both a tragic and a young master vibe at once.

Those two coexisting in him—he was truly a back-alley face gifted by the gods.

That's why it was so baffling. That Baek Cheol-yeon was tied for first place with such a person.

As she was staring at him in a daze—

"...?"

Why does it seem like he's looking this way?

When you witness a face like that, does it make you develop an axe-grinding complex or something?

Sua wondered if she should look away. But soon, at the unexpected reaction on his face, she tilted her head.

'Surprise?'

That handsome tragic young master seemed like the type who would take everything in stride.

It's not that he didn't feel ordinary emotions like surprise, anger, or joy—it's just that they seemed far removed from him.

Seeing his surprised expression, Sua blinked in surprise as well.

'Ah, no way.'

Was he surprised thinking "Oh, there are squids that look like that in this world too"?

This was a context that provoked some defensiveness in her, yet was also understandable.

She'd never particularly had complaints about her face while living in this world, but if you were someone with a face like Ki Woo-sol's or his?

'Everyone except themselves must look like squids.'

Once she'd sorted out the situation to this extent, her mind began to calm down rapidly.

Now composed, Sua regained her composure and averted her gaze from him.

When she turned her gaze forward, Ahn Ji-hyun still seemed unable to break free, looking like she might drool.

Sua let out a shallow sigh and spoke.

"Are you done eating?"

Ahn Ji-hyun blinked, her face like a child waking from a dream, with stars in her eyes.

She maximized her daze by sucking in a breath through her teeth. Then she opened her mouth.

"Uh, yeah. I'm done."

"Let's go, then."

Ahn Ji-hyun kept glancing regretfully toward the tragic young master, but didn't object and picked up her tray.

---

---

And so now, inside the classroom.

Sua was loosening her wrists like an athlete facing a decisive moment.

Ahn Ji-hyun beside her asked what all the fuss was about with a puzzled look, but it didn't register.

Depending on what number she drew now, the fate of her entire year would be decided—of course she was serious.

After one final deep breath, Sua slowly reached her hand into the box containing the number slips.

This one's crumpled—eliminated. This one's not folded enough—eliminated. This one's folded too many times—eliminated!

While five or six slips passed through Sua's hand, the students waiting behind urged her on, saying lunchtime would end at this rate.

Then her hand caught a neatly folded slip.

'This is it.'

Sua drew the momentous slip from the box.

---

---

Here sat one dazed female student.

'Oh my...'

She recalled some academic paper that said humans instinctively have "gut feelings."

This gut feeling is something innate that humans have for survival, and if you ignore or neglect it, you'll head toward an irreversible worst-case scenario—once again realizing this.

Sua felt that her recent self, who had neglected the recalled past life and discovered she was Grade G, overlapped with her current self.

Was this how SpongeBob in square pants felt? A famous song lyric passed through her mind.

'I shouldn't have done that.'

She should have appealed more strongly.

That the teacher didn't need to rearrange everyone's seats just because of her—or at least provided more specifics, like a warning that she might have a handsome-face allergy.

If she had, could this situation have been avoided?

In her dazed state, she vaguely heard Ahn Ji-hyun clicking her tongue beside her.

"At this point, it's like you two planned this together, isn't it?"

"That can't be..."

"Hmm, if not that, then fate?"

"Even more nonsense..."

As Sua shot back with a blank face, Ahn Ji-hyun crossed her arms and tilted her head curiously.

"What's the big deal? Ki Woo-sol might be a bit of a unique character, but he's not a bad person."

This perceptive one. Ahn Ji-hyun had completely disregarded the "front-seat motion sickness" and was speaking.

Which meant she already knew. That Sua didn't have motion sickness and just didn't want to be deskmates with Ki Woo-sol.

"Well, given your tendencies, I can see why you wouldn't want to be tangled up with him."

Since Ahn Ji-hyun knew Sua didn't like standing out, she seemed to accept it more readily than expected.

"Good luck. Being friends is always a good thing. He's S-rank, after all."

S-rank—short for S-grade.

'That's exactly why it's not good, Ji-hyun.'

Being S-rank made him someone she had to avoid even more. In the end, this was how things turned out.

'What do I do...?'

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