NOVEL NEXT Chapter 90
I need to get out of here to escape unnecessary misunderstandings and light novel scenarios.
I try to move my body.
Creak.
Even while sleeping, it seems I’m being held tightly; I can’t break free.
“I’m going crazy.”
I’m in a situation where I can’t go this way or that. It’s a true deadlock.
“Mmm, mmm…”
Aris hugs me even tighter.
I feel like I’m trapped in an ant lion pit—impossible to escape.
The soft sensation is like a hell of its own.
Already, my boiling youthful body is responding, which I suppress with superhuman patience.
I shouldn’t be like this here.
“Ugh.”
As if on top of everything else, I’m getting sleepy.
No way.
I can’t sleep.
Sleeping in the same bed as a beautiful girl?
What kind of light novel protagonist situation is this…?
My mind goes blank.
*
Aris felt a warmth she hadn’t in a long time.
“Mom… Dad…”
Since moving from the rural Wakayama Prefecture to Tokyo.
Aris has been pretending to be the perfect Student Council President while hiding her true identity.
Those memories are still vivid in her mind.
[Look at Aris, she’s a poor, country bumpkin.]
[Hey, Aris. Why are you always tripping and clumsy? I’m really getting sick of it.]
[Hey, Aris. I heard you live on nothing but tangerines. Aren’t you tired of it?]
[Just look at her hairstyle and glasses. So outdated.]
[With such a country look, do you think you can even hold a guy’s hand?]
Childhood.
She was bullied simply for being the daughter of a poor rural family and for her country style. It was a horrific memory.
After awakening her special abilities and entering Shuo Hero Academy, Aris made a vow.
She wouldn’t be teased again.
She would become a proud eldest daughter who could shine a light on her household.
She wouldn’t return to being the country girl Aris.
Thus, with desperate efforts, Aris shed her rural girl image and was reborn as the perfect superhuman Student Council President, Saionji Aris.
But once in a while.
No, actually every night, she wanted to revert back to the rural girl Aris, not the Student Council President.
She wanted to act spoiled with her mom and dad like when she was a kid.
Pretending to be the perfect lady all alone while hiding her identity in far-off Tokyo, enduring the Kansai dialect was an enormous stress for her.
“…It feels warm.”
For the first time in a long while, she felt a coziness.
In her childhood.
When she was bullied and returned home, her dad would hug her tightly and comfort her. That warmth was the best feeling.
Kuma-chan is nice, but nothing beats a dad’s embrace.
“Dad’s arms are the best.”
“Abuji…”
I don’t want to escape from this warmth.
But every day, without skipping a single one, her biological clock wakes Aris up at 6 AM.
Her head feels like it’s going to split.
Aris lets out a groan.
She presses her temples.
“Uugh…”
She lifts her heavy eyelids.
The break of dawn.
Faint sunlight filters through the glass.
In Aris’s line of sight is a familiar face.
The sleeping black-haired boy, Kim Deok-Sung.
And there’s her own face buried in his chest, dressed in a negligee.
“What in the world…”
Just then, Aris’s face turns hot.
“Guh!”
With a headache, last night’s memories flood back.
The memory of thinking it was soda and drinking half a bottle of champagne.
The memory of acting foolishly while hugging Kim Deok-Sung and sleeping in his arms.
Even the memory of randomly spouting Kansai dialect in front of him.
They vividly replay in her mind.
“……”
Her heart sinks.
Her face stiffens.
Finally recalling everything, Aris screams as she splashes her face with cold water.
“AAAAAHHHHH!!!”
Nothing happened, right? (Illustration included)
“Ugh!”
Aris covers her mouth with her hand, stifling her own scream.
Her face turns red.
“Eek!”
Thump.
Thump, thump.
Her heart races as if it’s about to burst.
“W-what did I even…”
Panic grips Aris, and her hands tremble.
Sitting curled up on the bed with her knees drawn close, she compulsively pulls at her beautiful silver hair.
“I went crazy. This gasan (bizarre person) really went off the rails…”
Aris’s vision darkens.
Her true identity has been exposed.
And it’s all because of her own mistake.
Her cheeks tremble.
Her silver eyes waver.
“Uuugh…”
What should I do?
She asks herself, but no answer comes.
She thought she mustn’t be discovered.
After three years of carefulness and caution.
To be found out so ridiculously like this.
“I went crazy…”
Aris bangs her head in frustration.
Memories of childhood trauma flood back.
Being ostracized and despised for being a country girl, for being poor.
She was finally able to shake off those terrible memories after coming to Tokyo.
But now, the shadow she thought she’d cast away is gripping her ankles again.
Tears well up in Aris’s eyes.
“Mommy… Appa… What should I do…?”
The feeling of her painstakingly built tower crumbling in an instant.
Just then, as Aris wraps her arms around her chest,
“Ugh.”
Kim Deok-Sung groans and opens his eyes.
“Eek!”
Aris gasps.
“What time is it? Senior President.”
With disheveled hair, Kim Deok-Sung asks with a nonchalant expression.
The moment she faces him, the outrageous events from yesterday flood back into her mind.
His embrace inexplicably warm, reminiscent of a father’s arms.
Aris’s heart races wildly.
Her face turns bright red.
As she turns away from him, she slaps her cheeks, one on each side.
“Get your head straight!”
Aris steadies herself.
“Ahem, hem.”
She clears her throat.
“M-Mr. Kim Deok-Sung.”
“What do you want?”
“Did you hear about it yesterday?”
“I couldn’t understand a thing if it’s in Kansai dialect.”
Aris bites her lip at Kim Deok-Sung’s indifferent tone.
“I-I heard everything! W-Where did you get your lies from, senior!! T-That I-I slept in the same bed with you······.”
She trails off.
Cough.
“W-What about sharing a bed······.”
Having gotten that far, Aris covers her mouth.
Yes.
She ended up sleeping in the same bed with a junior yesterday.
Fortunately, nothing happened, but the mere fact that they shared a bed was enough to stir the heart of a blossoming maiden.
“I-I’m like this because of you······. This, this is all your fault, Kim Deok-Sung! Y-You black beast······.”
With her mental state breaking down, Aris puffs her cheeks and glares at Kim Deok-Sung.
Swish.
Aris crosses her arms over her chest, sneaking glances at him as she speaks.
“Y-You know if you tell anyone about this, it’ll be bad, right······? This goes to the grave······.”
“Nothing happened yesterday.”
Kim Deok-Sung cuts off her words.
“N-Nothing······ happened······?”
Aris responds, dumbfounded.
“Yeah. The fact that you spoke in dialect and that we slept in the same bed, all of it didn’t happen and I don’t know anything about it. It’s just······ nonexistent.”
Aris’s face brightens.
Her fractured mental state and boiling heart settle down.
She asks in a trembling voice.
“Y-You’re saying you’ll keep it a secret······? Without any conditions······?”
“What conditions would I want? I’ll keep it a secret. Just don’t drink recklessly again. Now you’re okay, so calm down and get back to your usual self. Please, senior.”
Kim Deok-Sung, holding back a throbbing headache, frowns.
Aris mumbles with a dazed expression.
“My usual self······.”
Hearing his words, her pounding heart strangely calms down.
Is it because Kim Deok-Sung said he would keep her secret?
Aris nods with a lingering blush on her cheeks.
“I understand. I’ll do that. Thank you for saying you’ll keep it a secret, Mr. Kim Deok-Sung.”
“It’s nothing much, so it’s alright. I’ll be going now.”
Kim Deok-Sung shakes his head and gets up.
Aris’s gaze follows his departing figure.
“Umm······.”
“Goodbye.”
The moment Aris tries to say something, Kim Deok-Sung opens the door and leaves.
Thud.
The door closes.
*
She leaves Aris’s accommodation.
Takes a deep breath.
“Phew. I made it.”
Stepping out of that prickly situation, a weight lifts off her shoulders.
It was truly a near-death experience.
“Ugh, I’m exhausted.”
Even sleep feels insufficient.
Is it because she was so tense?
She rubs her puffy eyes with the back of her hand.
“Yawn.”
She stretches while yawning widely.
It’s the first time she’s seen someone so wrecked since her freshman orientation when they drank recklessly, not knowing their limits, and ended up with the entire group hit hard.
“Glad I didn’t throw up.”
If she had lost her lunch, that would have been a whole different level of hardship.
It must have been tough.
Just thinking about it is horrifying.
My body shivers.
I remember a classmate from MT who threw up on my clothes while drinking.
‘Kim Chang-Soo, that damn······.’
Anyway, I didn’t let slip Aris’s dialect, and since I kind of settled a debt in my heart with her, it’s actually quite advantageous if you think about it.
I didn’t explicitly mention the debt, but in a clear situation where it was her fault, she just let it slide without saying anything.
Considering Aris’s kind and gentle personality, that’s more of a psychological burden and debt for her.
She probably knows everything about Aris’s personality.
‘Lucky me.’
Now that I’ve made connections with Aris, the Student Council President, I can leverage this going forward.
Of course, using the suspiciously powerful Student Council authority, I should also be able to intervene more smoothly in the culture festival episode in Volume 7.
For a brief moment of embarrassment, the result was pretty good.
I wouldn’t want to do it again, though.
‘I need to get back to my room quickly.’
I still have quite a bit to do today.
Just as I was hurrying along.
I see someone in the corridor.
A chocolate-colored bowl haircut, a bespectacled pretty boy—it’s Nagamine Reiji.
Next to him, I spot another student helping out in the Student Council.
Thud.
Nagamine Reiji drops the folder he was holding when he spots me.
The documents scatter chaotically on the floor.
“You······! Kim Deok-Sung?”
Nagamine Reiji’s eyes are shaking.
“Y-You, why······ are you coming out of the president’s room······? Answer me! You weren’t, by any chance······. together all night?”
A glimmer of despair seems to flicker in Nagamine’s eyes.
The other students who heard him start whispering.
“What? The president and the Black Beast spent the night in the same room?”
“What did they do all night? Don’t tell me they were on the bed······. Oh, that can’t be right? The Student Council President has fallen into the hands of the Black Beast?”
“To reach out to the Student Council President······. Truly, the Black Beast······ has become something to admire now.”
“Saionji-senpai······. No way!! If you lose to the Black Beast!!”
Oh, for crying out loud.
Here we go again. Starting again.
“Surely you didn’t······ with the president…”
“What kind of perverted imagination is that, Nagamine-senpai? Stop being ridiculous and get to work.”
“Oh, no······. My president······. My president······. Waaaahhh.”
Nagamine is crumpled on the ground in despair, like a male protagonist whose childhood friend, a black-haired beauty, gets NTR’d by a blonde tanned delinquent.
“Nagamine-senpai, poor thing.”
“Compared to Kim, he definitely gives off a loser vibe, doesn’t he?”
“Right? He looks like a nerd. It seems boring. I bet Kim’s way more impressive. They say he’s a tyrant on the bed!”
The extras gossip as they watch Nagamine crumpled on the floor.
Nagamine happened to have the nerdy glasses and bowl-cut look, and with my delinquent vibe, it really does feel like a scenario from an NTR manga.
I’m losing my mind.
“K-Kim Deok-Sung. You, you have to take responsibility for our president, right?”
Nagamine, wiping his tears, speaks in a trembling voice.