Gender Reversed Geum Taeyang - Chapter 39

Chapter 39 – The Fanatic (3)

It’s 6AM. The daily schedule at the orphanage hasn’t started yet, but if I don’t get up now, my whole day will be thrown off.

It takes about an hour to bathe, dry my hair, and complete various preparations, so by 7AM I’m ready.

It’s too early to head to school, which starts at 9AM.

I start my morning studies. Having to look at math problems first thing in the morning is quite unpleasant, but there’s no helping it.

My brother Yuhan told me to study at a more relaxed pace, but I can’t be slacking off when he’s the one suffering for my sake.

Before I know it, it’s 7:30AM.

I haven’t managed to solve many problems – high school math tends to take a long time per question.

The outside is starting to get noisier. The other kids are waking up now and the orphanage is beginning its daily operations. Leaving around this time should let me get to school right on time.

Haram High School has decent facilities, but the downside is that it’s a bit far from Yohan’s orphanage.

Well, my brother did insist that I exercise, so I guess I can’t complain about the 1-hour walk.

My own pace would actually get me there in 40 minutes, but still.

Summer is about to start soon. No, it may have already begun.

The sun has been up for a while. During spring, this walking pace wasn’t an issue, but now I’m starting to sweat.

If my hair was still down, it would have been pretty tough.

I roll up my shirt sleeves and loosen my tie. I think a few people are staring at me.

Does it look a bit messy? But I don’t really care what others think, as long as I don’t look unsightly to my brother.

After walking for a while, the school gates come into view. As usual, there’s a teacher standing guard.

I’m not sure why they’re going through the trouble, but I don’t really care either.

My long hair that completely covers my waist is tied back in a ponytail, so it’s bound to stand out.

There used to be some teachers who viewed it negatively, and I was even called out for having dyed brown hair before, but now that it’s back to pure black, that issue has gone away.

“Good morning.”

“…Yeah.”

A rather displeased expression. I’ve lived the opposite of a model student life since enrolling.

But lately I’ve been showing some improvement, so the reaction isn’t as bad as it had been.

It’s 8:15AM. I’ve arrived quite early.

Right now, there’s only one person in the classroom – a studious female student who I’ve been getting closer to lately through her help with my studies.

Thanks to her, I’ve also been able to start talking to the other students, so she’s been a great help to me in many ways.

I greet her casually and sit at my desk to finish the math problems I was working on this morning. I ask her for help on the difficult ones.

Just like in the morning, by the time I’ve gone through a few more problems, time has flown by, and Shijun, who isn’t very considerate, has plopped down next to me and started chattering.

He’s my closest friend right now, and my brother told me to focus more on school life than studies, so I don’t have any reason to view him negatively.

Chatting with him passes the time until 9AM – homeroom.

Another day begins.

###

7th period, P.E. class.

All the lessons have been completed, but there are about 10 minutes left before the period ends, so we’re given free time.

I was thinking of trying to memorize some English vocabulary among the students who don’t like sports, but…

My brother has banned me from studying during P.E., so…

Anyway, for those 10 minutes, I kicked a ball around.

Since school will be ending soon, I ran around a bit vigorously, and ended up sweating quite a bit.

As I lifted the hem of my gym clothes to wipe my face, I heard some murmuring from the group of boys.

It seems they were all staring at me… Probably because my white undershirt was peeking out a bit.

High school boys can be such hypocrites, acting all proper in front of others, but becoming quite unsavory when in their own groups.

Of course, not all of them are like that, but at least those who were flustered and whispering about me – they belong to that category.

I should be more careful. I’m grooming myself to impress my brother, not to show off to other boys.

I quickly changed back into my school uniform in the bathroom and returned to the classroom.

The closing ceremony started soon after.

There wasn’t really any content that caught my ear.

Since this week I’ll be going to my brother’s place after school to help out, I was just waiting impatiently for this time to pass.

For some reason, the constant stream of notices coming in today is really annoying me.

“Next week… Parent… Household… Confirmation…”

Hmm. The more notices, the longer the closing ceremony tends to be.

Come to think of it, wasn’t I on cleaning duty this week?

I sighed softly.

Life. Nothing ever goes right.

###

White background with swirling green and orange.

The expression is a bit strange, I know.

Anyway, I’m currently eating a vegetable porridge. There’s a lot… of vegetables in it.

Sehee really doesn’t have much of a sense for cooking, does she?

If I have to eat this a few more times, the refrigerator will probably be left with just zucchini and carrots.

Ah, mushrooms and onions were added too, so those will be dwindling as well.

But why does an injured person have to eat porridge?

Hmm… Because of Sehee’s hopeful expression, I’ll try to eat this tastily.

Sehee had proposed something to me yesterday. Or rather, it was her one-sided request.

She said she’ll come to my place after school and help me out.

I kind of expected as much, and sure enough, as soon as school ended, she came straight here and started taking care of my meals.

My back still hasn’t improved much, so while I can manage going to the bathroom, it’s difficult for me to sit down and eat.

Sehee offered to feed me, but as an adult man, I do have a sense of dignity.

Thinking about how I was pitied and mocked in front of hundreds of people, that dignity is still hanging on, barely.

Anyway, I’ve now propped myself up on a mountain of blankets and pillows, and I’m eating the porridge while leaning back.

Was it made with salt water? How’s the seasoning?

As an experienced cook with over 6 years of living alone, I have all kinds of advice on the tip of my tongue, but…

“Sehee… This is…”

“Isn’t it delicious?! I looked up a lot on YouTube and made this! I’ll make something different for you tomorrow!”

I couldn’t bring myself to say anything to the girl staring at me intently from beside the bed.

But I am grateful for her thoughtfulness, so I managed to finish the porridge, washing it down with water.

After that… There’s no game console at my place, and since I can’t use the computer because of my back, we just started chatting.

I’m a guy and Sehee’s a girl from a parallel world, so I was a bit skeptical if just talking would be fun, but thinking about it, Ari and I used to spend time like this too, and Sehee and I have a lot in common, so it’s not a big issue.

In fact, there are quite a few upsides to Sehee being here.

It’s significantly reduced my boredom.

While I’m on break from broadcasting due to my injury, just lying around all day has its limits. I could only watch my phone for so long before it got old, and when I tried calling my friend Ari, she never picked up, so I had no one to hang out with.

But now that Sehee’s here, I can spend a few hours a day enjoying myself.

I really lucked out in having a little sister like her.

Our conversations tend to gravitate towards school life.

From what Sehee’s telling me, it sounds like she’s been diligently exercising, attentively listening in class, and getting closer to her classmates.

She’s really been following my advice well.

During our talk, my eyes fell on Sehee’s backpack.

Curious, I asked,

“Hey Sehee, can I take a look at your bag?”

“Huh? My bag? Sure, I guess.”

“I just wanted to see what kinds of things kids these days carry around.”

“There’s probably nothing much… Here.”

Wow, the contents are quite shocking.

Crammed with all kinds of workbooks, textbooks, and haphazardly shoved-in gym clothes.

The gym clothes are whatever, that’s probably the average for high school girls around here, but the sheer amount of books – just how much studying is she doing these days?

“You… don’t just study all the time, right?”

“Of course not. Didn’t my oppa tell me not to?”

The abnormal number of books does raise some suspicion.

As I was looking through the books, a bundle of papers caught my eye.

“What’s this?”

“Oh, those are probably just some school notices. They gave out a lot of them today.”

The contents seemed pretty useless.

They must have distributed them for some reason, but to me they just looked pointless.

However, as I quickly flipped through the stack, one particular notice stood out.

[Parent Observation Classes]

It says no separate application is needed, and interested parents can just show up at the scheduled time to observe the classes.

Ah, I remember getting teased a lot about this back in elementary school.

Looks like by high school, the students don’t really care if their parents come or not. I’m a bit envious, but it’s in the past now.

Come to think of it, Sehee probably had similar experiences, being from an orphanage like me.

Thinking about it, an interesting idea occurs to me.

‘Maybe I should go take a look?’

Since my broadcasts are in the evenings, it doesn’t conflict with the class schedule.

It could create a nice little memory for Sehee’s school life.

“Oppa? What’s that about?”

“Hm? Oh, I was just taking a quick look. It’s nothing.”

I casually mixed the stack of papers back into Sehee’s bag.

Hmm.

Surprises are always fun.

(End of chapter)