The first few days of being a first-year middle school student.
Some kids behave similarly to how they did in elementary school.
But that doesn’t last long.
Watching my mature classmates in the same grade gradually diminishes such behavior.
Especially when I see students who openly rebel and choose actions that adults say shouldn’t be done during breaks, it solidifies that behavior even more.
In fact, it’s not so much maturity but just kids mimicking adults.
Finding a conversation without swearing is harder, and it’s full of garbage acting like they are the center of the world.
It’s fine if they’re just playing among themselves, but these trashy kids target those who still haven’t shed their elementary school facade.
The fresh middle schoolers are learning from here.
They learn about the “invisible methods to avoid being seen by crazy people” that are prevalent in the world.
However, those who can’t adapt, who still have their minds stuck in elementary school, naturally become targets for attack.
In my case, where I’m constantly slipping out to the restroom during class, I couldn’t completely escape those kids.
“Sigh.”
As I sneak out during class, I take a deep breath and soar through the sky at this moment.
The first thought while flying in the clear sky is…
‘The place I’m returning to after defeating the monster isn’t home, but school…’
I don’t even care what kind of monster it is; I’m already thinking about what comes after.
I haven’t even started defeating it yet, but my energy is already gone.
With Gomteng guiding me, just as I think we’ve almost arrived—
“Hmm?”
The flustered sound of Gomteng’s grunt.
Right after that, a weighty mumble that stops my flight reaches my ears.
“There are no monster reactions anymore?”
“What nonsense are you talking about?”
With my flight coming to a halt, silence follows.
When I ask what kind of nonsense it is, Gomteng’s brain, which always tries to come up with an excuse first when something happens, spits out the most plausible words.
“Uh, could it be that Siyeon took care of it?”
“Ugh… really?”
That sounds plausible enough, so I scratched my head and calmly returned to my original restroom to release my transformation.
The time taken to go and return was about 8 minutes – was the monster closer to Siyeon’s school?
In that brief time, we’ve already moved on to page 3.
If the monster keeps picking these times during class to show up, it would be hard to study even if I wanted to.
That said, I wasn’t planning on studying honestly from the start.
“Did the poop kid arrive?”
“I’ll kill you.”
My nickname in the group that I hang out with is Poop Kid.
I suddenly run to the restroom even in silence, so it was indeed a fitting nickname among my close friends.
If they were ordinary girls, they would’ve just said they’d kill me with words or something like that…
“Ah, ah! It hurts! Aah!”
Using the Iron Claw that I diligently trained with Gomteng since elementary school.
Immediately, Sunhyuk screams.
Even if I consider it a moderate workout, I usually weight train with grip trainers and dumbbells, so my strength easily surpasses those who just rely on physical traits from gender.
Unless it’s the boys who are too big with small hands that can’t grip me, I can still hold my own.
As I let go after squeezing him for a bit, Sunhyuk gently rubs his forehead where my thumb and index finger touched.
And then, some boys around burst into laughter.
“Wow, you lost to a girl.”
“No, Mari is really strong! Hey, you should arm wrestle her once.”
The spot borrowed from another student for arm wrestling.
Sunhyuk, who was sitting across from me, stood up, and next, Dongha, who has a decent build, took the seat.
He probably sat down out of curiosity, even if there was nothing on the line, but Sunhyuk subtly questioned Dongha.
“If you win, what do you get?”
“I’ll treat you to a Gopchang-flavored hot dog for lunch.”
At the sudden end of the conversation, a match that brings me no gain was about to start.
If I win, I won’t get anything?
Just when that thought hit me, I grabbed Dongha’s hand, taking the posture reminiscent of a proper arm wrestling technique.
The feeling when first locking hands for arm wrestling hits instantly.
Ah… I’m going to lose… ah… I’m going to win… ah… this one feels a bit tense.
Initially, my side feels like, I’ll win this…
“Okay, Mari.”
“Yeah?”
“Even split, cool?”
Just as I realized one of the senses among the three of us, Dongha must have sensed it too.
As soon as our hands touched, Dongha suddenly proposed a rigged match.
The reward is half a hot dog.
“Cool.”
“Hey, you crazy idiots.”
As soon as the match started, I relaxed all my strength in my arm and gave up.
Is it a victory without reward or a defeat with a reward?
Considering putting in the effort, it’s an obvious result.
Having witnessed the proposal and establishment of the rigged match right in front of him, Sunhyuk couldn’t hold it in and finally cursed.
“Come on, don’t mess around, put in some real strength.”
“Okay.”
“What about the hot dog?”
“I’ll buy it, you bastard.”
Finally, after hearing that he would buy a hot dog, the rematch for arm wrestling began.
There was no reward, but it was a struggle tied to our pride.
No twisting the wrist, a third party calls for the start.
“One, two… three!”
With Taehyun’s starting signal, the moment our grip and strength combined.
The game of arm wrestling unexpectedly ends in an instant.
In the first 3 seconds, the winner or loser is almost determined.
Either getting flipped or flipping the opponent.
This round ended the same way.
Of course, it resulted in me flipping him.
“Whoa, you’re really strong.”
“Do you work out separately?”
“Of course, if you don’t want to crumble, better start exercising early.”
Lifting my arm, which may seem trivial compared to the boys, I pressed my other hand against the bulging muscle.
Typically, ordinary girls don’t pick exercise as a hobby in middle school.
At best, concerns about dieting or those who have targeted their future in that direction.
Most are like that, so Taehyun, leaning against the wall, asked me.
“So, Mari, are you going to join a sports club?”
“No? Why would I do that?”
I negated it as if it was completely obvious.
For a club, I plan to choose something that looks like it’s doing nothing indoors.
Broadcasting club, band club, English debate club, peer counseling… all useless.
If I have to do something, it’s the best to sit inside just messing around with crayons or colored pencils.
I decline club activities that seem annoying and burdensome.
Is there any need to roast alive in the summer or freeze in the winter?
“Aren’t you someone who likes to exercise?”
“Liking something and having to do it are two completely different things.”
“What are you talking about?”
‘You’ll realize it once you hit your 30s.’
With a generous gaze toward the naive kids underestimating the flow of time, after several classes, lunch break arrived.
This time could be called the longest break during school hours.
Not pleased with the lunch menu, I headed to the store instead of the cafeteria.
Once we realized the meal served today is a disaster, our little group of four quickly sought out the store.
While chewing on half of a successfully snagged hot dog, I walked toward the register.
The first bite was mine.
After paying for the bread that was in the fridge and heading near the microwave, Dongha, holding the remaining half of the bread, muttered.
“Isn’t this an indirect kiss?”
“What kind of 90s Japanese anime girl nonsense are you spouting?”
Setting the microwave for 40 seconds while scolding Dongha for using such outdated words, everyone knew I’m not a person to care about that kind of thing, and then Sunhyuk chimed in to Dongha.
“Just eat it.”
“Then how many kisses have I had with the mouth breathers?”
After a smoothly handled lunch period with the bread,
After finishing the cleaning duty, which involves giving students more responsibility than during elementary school, I returned home.
Since today was my turn for cleaning duty, maybe that’s why Siyeon was already back at home.
Now that Siyeon seems to be doing well with monster exterminations, she deserves to be treated like a proper Magical Girl.
Thus, acknowledging Siyeon as a Magical Girl… the rule we both established.
“If the last digit of the date is even, I go, and if odd, Siyeon goes.”
“Okay.”
On days when the last digit of the date is 0 or even, it’s my turn to initiate,
Both of us often end up going to the restroom a few minutes before the monster alert rings, so we can’t just return after defeating the monster.
If one person ends up handling it like today before the other arrives, one person is left hanging.
To avoid situations like that, we decided to assign odd and even days to go out, so there’s no overlapping, and one can rest comfortably.
Anyhow, it seems Siyeon acknowledged this, as she left a short answer.
Not wanting the conversation to end like this, I subtly praised what happened today as I headed to my room.
“You did well on the monster extermination today; you finished it before I even got there.”
“Uh? Wasn’t that Mari?”
“What?”
What’s that supposed to mean?
If it’s not between the two of us, who else could it be?
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