The textbooks distributed by the school are piled up on one side of my desk.
I’ve already surpassed my sitting height with ease.
It’s definitely true that Sephiron Elementary School’s curriculum is far ahead of Sea Star Elementary School’s.
The top textbook happened to be math, so I casually glanced through the table of contents.
Basic operations with large numbers, properties of plane shapes, fractions and decimals, and so on.
By the last page, there’s even greatest common divisors and multiples, but still, it seems difficult to fully implement even a 1-circle magic with these things.
At best, maybe just “Light,” “Heat,” or “Cool” magic?
The individual lockers were located in another small room connecting from the back of the classroom.
As I opened the door and stepped in, a sight of 25 lockers tightly packed together awaited me.
With 21 students in Class A, the number of lockers was definitely sufficient.
Before break time arrived, the homeroom teacher told us that after we finish organizing our textbooks, we could enjoy our free time.
To move nearly twenty volumes of textbooks, it seemed like I would need to make at least three trips.
At first, I tried to lift ten at once, but my body stumbled, so I decided to drop my greed.
“I’ll open the locker for you.”
“Thanks.”
A cute little girl with her hair in twin tails kindly opened locker number 6 for me.
The locker was designed in a triple-layer structure for easy storage. It seems that a wealthy academy is just different.
As I started to neatly stack the books from the innermost space, the girl who just helped me didn’t leave and kept standing next to me.
“What did you talk about with Yoon Si-hoo?”
“Hmm?”
“You talked about a wizard earlier, right?”
“Oh, I said if you’re slow with magic, you’ll die.”
Now that I think about it, she was the kid sitting right behind me.
It seemed she found our conversation quite interesting.
“Yoon Si-hoo is a genius. You don’t have the right to give him advice.”
I guess my assumption was wrong.
The girl shot me a sarcastic remark.
I couldn’t quite grasp why she was looking at me with that grumpy expression.
By the time I finished organizing the remaining 13 books, the bell rang, signifying break time.
“Hey, Name! It’s Swedish for hello!”
“Hello, Seori.”
“You remembered my name! I’m touched!”
“It hasn’t been that long since we last saw each other.”
With Han Seori leading the way, several students flocked to my desk.
Thanks to that, Si-hoo was naturally pushed out of the crowd and his seat was taken over by Seori.
“New student? Transfer student? Anyway, hello!”
“Hey, Han Seori, why are you being all friendly with the new student by yourself!”
“We’re really friends, okay? And stop hitting my head!”
“Where’s Ara Star Elementary? I’ve never heard of it before.”
It was really chaotic.
With a variety of greetings, my classmates encircled my desk.
It seemed everyone was gathered except for that red-haired kid who teased me earlier and Yoon Si-hoo.
“Since Name looks confused, can you all ask one by one?”
Seori stepped in to organize the traffic.
Since I’d eventually get to know everyone, the little ones were whispering amongst themselves, curious about me.
“Where are you from? Did you come from another academy?”
“Duh, didn’t I just say I was from Ara Star Elementary!”
“Shh! Why are you all being so noisy?”
“I’m from Dobong-gu.”
Since it was a small school where there was only one class per grade, it was no surprise the kids from Gangnam didn’t know.
“How do you know Seori? Did you meet before?”
“I already told you, we became friends by fighting.”
“How can we believe what you say, Seori?”
Now that I think about it, I can’t see Ji-hye. She was supposed to be Seori’s best friend, but it seems like our class has split.
“I’m a neighbor. We live in the same complex and met at the playground.”
“Then did you really win against the older kids?”
“I didn’t fight.”
I just subdued them and ran away.
“What are you saying, Name! You used your super cool magic and defeated them all!”
“I knew it was a lie from Seori.”
“It’s true, ugh.”
I didn’t answer every question they threw at me.
At this rate, they might even ask about the color of my panties.
Seori cleverly noticed that I was uncomfortable and pleaded with the kids to stop asking questions.
Instead, we decided to do introductions.
That way, I could learn the names of my classmates one by one.
“Lee Ha-ru is super rich. His grandpa is the vice president of the Samyeon Group! If you want something to eat, just ask him to buy it for you. He’s a sucker, so he’ll never refuse.”
“Why are you boasting about that, Kim Han-gyeol? And didn’t I tell you not to say it in front of others!”
“Your uncle is the head of the Raon Clan. Rich people always hang out together.”
“Am I rich? I hardly get any allowance.”
It was clear that the level of wealth among the students at Sephiron Academy was on a different plane.
Perhaps it was because the gifted students in the elementary division were mostly perfected through their parents’ early education, unlike the high division where individuals are chosen based on their talent and effort.
Even though we all wore the same school uniform, it was impossible to hide the premium vibes that flowed from details like their bags and shoes.
It was a stark contrast to Ara Star Elementary, where kids couldn’t even afford decent slippers and dragged around torn ones.
“If you talk all at once, the new student will get confused. Let’s introduce ourselves one by one!”
“It’s fine, I remember everyone. You’re Jeon Nuri, next to you is Hwang Hye-jeong. And next to you is Go Kyung-won, right?”
“Uh? Yeah, that’s right…”
“Oooooooh, new student! Very smart! Si-hoo should be worried!”
With Korean names, I could memorize hundreds of them in this space.
Especially after meeting the aristocrats of Kaizen who have lengthy names and bizarre middle names, I’ve built up a tolerance for this.
In that sense, it’s pretty comforting that there are overlapping surnames in Korea.
“What about that red-haired friend? What’s her name?”
I pointed to the girl talking to Yoon Si-hoo in the hallway.
“Oh, are you talking about Jae-wang…?”
Kim Han-gyeol squinted his eyes.
He seemed displeased at the very mention of her name, tightly biting his lower lip.
“Her name is Jae-wang?”
That’s quite a bold name considering her cute appearance.
Next to me, Ha-ru hesitated, and unable to pretend to not know, whispered into my ear.
“It’s not Jae-wang, it’s Jae-wang… she’s a rather unpopular outcast.”
*
“Are you really not going to eat? We’re treating you.”
Ji-hye said, sucking on her ice cream.
“Yeah, it’s time for my meds.”
Even though the Melona looked really tasty, I had to hold back.
Seori and I joined Ji-hye from the adjacent class, settling down at a northern snack stand.
“Seo Yu-na? The girl who always follows Yoon Si-hoo? She’s the second in the whole school, right?”
While we casually discussed the academy, Ji-hye mentioned she knew someone with that name.
“You probably know Seori better than I do.”
“She was in Class C in her first year.”
“She used to come in front of our class every break.”
“Was that so?”
“You were probably too busy playing with the other kids to notice?”
Seo Yu-na… what a name.
“I heard earlier that Lee Ha-ru and Kim Han-gyeol really dislike her.”
Seori told Ji-hye about what had happened earlier.
“Is that so? The rumors say Seo Yu-na has a bit of a weird personality.”
“Personality?”
“Now that I think about it, she did that to Seori last year too. At Sports Day, you lent her your pants, and she returned them dirty without washing them.”
“Did that happen? I don’t remember well.”
She didn’t seem like a bad person compared to the rumors.
Though she had a pile of books to move, she had to make an effort to open my locker for me.
“Does she like Yoon Si-hoo?”
“Definitely not! In fact, she probably hates him a lot!”
Ji-hye looked horrified and shook her head vigorously.
“I think she dislikes those who are better than her. Plus, well… Si-hoo is first place.”
Is she being competitive? Seori made a cautious guess.
“Si-hoo does study well.”
“Right. Probably only Si-hoo and Yu-na have finished all the elementary content.”
“Total monsters, aren’t they? I keep failing at multiplication and division…”
If Seori’s words were true, then it made sense why Yu-na might try to undermine me.
Honestly, it was a bit frustrating to be treated like this even by an eight-year-old.
But I wasn’t planning to befriend everyone from the start, so if it happens again, I could simply ignore it.
“It’s nice that you and Seori are in the same class… I’m all alone in Class B, feeling lonely.”
“Oh, poor Ji-hye, feeling lonely? Don’t worry! We’ll come to see you every time. Plus, there are plenty of nice kids in Class B, so I’ll introduce you to them later!”
“What do you think of the academy, Name? Is it different from other schools?”
“There are definitely a lot of rich kids in this neighborhood.”
“Right? Especially since it’s Class A, it’s probably worse.”
With CEOs, famous clan heads, hospital directors, university presidents, and so on.
I wonder what it would feel like to meet someone like that even once in my life.
“Still, the kids are all kind.”
The carefree attitude of the well-off is different.
The kids at Merlin Orphanage stole each other’s belongings and sometimes got into fights, but at least these kids probably wouldn’t do that.
“But don’t let your guard down. We have the aptitude test this afternoon, so now the real academy life is starting.”
Ji-hye suddenly stood up and told me to get my act together.
She warned me not to underestimate the endless homework and tests, as well as practical evaluations that await.
Seori nodded next to her, chiming in with a “Right, right.”
“How does the aptitude test work? Is it every subject?”
“No, just Magic Studies! 20 multiple choice questions and 5 subjective questions. It’s not a test that affects your grades, so there aren’t any specific areas to study.”
“Well then, I don’t need to worry about it.”
“If you don’t make it into the top 20 two times in a row on the aptitude test, you might have to switch classes in the second semester! Plus, since it’s a test where the grade rankings are made public, it’s really important!”
“Come on, you don’t trust our new student?”
Seori tightly held my hand.
“Win against Yoon Si-hoo and Seo Yu-na this time. Just crush their proud little noses!”
