Is that it?
“That’s not all. The number of repeat viewers is increasing in real-time due to the special perks being offered.”
Han Seo-Jin taps her tablet screen.
What? It’s not over yet?
Suddenly, the screen switches from YouTube to a portal site article.
[Is this real about the Black-haired Boy Hero perks? LOL]
[Random photo card of Makoto just dropped! Anyone wanna trade with Shinozaki?]
[- Honestly, Makoto is a bit…]
[- Who even likes Makoto?]
[- Jiiiiiiii….]
[Honestly, Shinozaki is the real deal LOL]
[The animation art was absolutely stunning! No one can deny Shinozaki LOL]
[- Hey… these guys… lovely… Olivia… is the real deal…!]
[- Ne-da-tul! LOL]
[- Of course, the best art goes to senior Kasumi; she’s the real deal!]
[- How can they even compare with the beautiful Eri-ring whose beauty is impossible to depict in art?!]
[Someone just dashed out of JGV Wangsimni with all the perks! OMG!]
[Scalpers are ruthless.]
[- Who is it?]
[- Are they crazy? LOL]
[- I’ve heard that YouTube wreckers have already stolen all the scalper’s new stuff! (link)]
[- Getting roasted in real-time! LOL]
[One-liners]
[A tribute to the hero of our time ★★★★★]
[Perfect harmony between reality and ideal ★★★★★]
[A triumph for Korean animation ★★★★★]
[The hero’s story is good but the ending is a bit disappointing ★★★★☆]
[- Who gave a 9 at the end?]
[- They must be blind! LOL]
[- This is why I can’t trust critics these days! LOL]
[- Critics’ level is so pathetic, tsk tsk.]
[Celebrity sightings validating their repeat reservations for the Black-haired Boy’s hero tale…]
[Record-breaking opening performance for ‘The Hero’s Tale of the Black-haired Boy’ leads to a significant increase in screenings with 90% pre-booking rate…]
[(Embarrassing self-portrait) Selling overpriced tickets and ‘ghosting’ on perks… The ugly truth of our society.]
[Samjeong Economic Research Institute reports “Hero ‘Kim Deok-Sung’s economic impact approximates 10 trillion won with direct, indirect, promotional, and security effects.” A focused analysis on the economic effect of Hero Kim Deok-Sung.]
[Political figures and local leaders group-watched ‘The Hero’s Tale of the Black-haired Boy’… The theater was a sea of tears.]
[Hollywood star Brad, who came to Korea, was asked about the Black-haired Boy’s Hero tale, “I know Mr. Kim well. I plan to go see that movie right now.”]
[‘The Hero’s Tale of the Black-haired Boy’ is vying for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature…]
The continuous wave of nationalism party is disorienting.
It feels like peeking into the abyss of Lruie.
I think I understand what it feels like to go crazy just by watching.
Meanwhile, why are you two playing around?
Why aim for an Academy Award?
Why insult the critics? Have you all collectively lost your minds?
I’m so embarrassed I could die.
“Okay, you did well, so it’s fine to stop looking now.”
I can’t hold it in any longer.
I waved my hand and handed the tablet to her.
Han Seo-Jin nodded her head.
“Understood.”
“I’m going to sleep now. I’m tired.”
After changing into comfortable casual clothes and lying on the soft mattress, sleep came naturally.
It’s time to sleep.
“Have a good night.”
Click.
Han Seo-Jin turns off the light.
[Good night, partner. Thanks for today.]
With the Black Prince’s parting words, I drifted into sleep.
*
The morning of the second day of the cultural festival.
Student Council President’s Office.
It was an impressive office, spacious and elegantly decorated, symbolizing the immense power of the Shuo Academy Student Council.
Sitting there was a silver-haired beautiful girl reviewing a mountain of executive committee documents piled high on her desk.
The Student Council President representing all of Shuo’s students, Saionji Aris.
“Hmm…”
Aris trails off her words.
She wanted to focus on the documents, but couldn’t concentrate.
The events from yesterday kept coming to mind.
The first day of the cultural festival.
Memories of that day, where she was with Kim Deok-Sung under the pretense of an on-site inspection, lingered in Aris’s mind.
Checking points together, enjoying snacks at the student-run stalls, visiting the Cosplay Cafe, watching a movie, and even stopping by the haunted house together.
‘Anyone can see that this was definitely a date course…’
Thinking that far made Aris’s face flush red.
Thump.
Her heart raced.
Aris shook her head.
“No, that’s not a date. It was merely part of the on-site inspection.”
She denied her own feelings in a low mutter.
As the Student Council President and the Executive Committee Chair, she was just carrying out an inspection.
Yes, that’s all it was.
[If you gather your straying heart and gather your courage to win love, a bright future awaits.]
The fortune-telling result she heard yesterday echoed in her ears.
Have courage.
Aris shook her head, thinking that those words felt like they were pushing her from behind.
“That’s nothing more than superstition. I don’t believe it.”
Fortune-telling is superstition.
She doesn’t believe it.
As Aris struggled to erase the love luck result from her mind, another voice from the vice president echoed in her ears.
[For instance, your happy marriage with the one you have feelings for. Just imagine greeting them home in nothing but an apron while you prepare dinner, or bathe, or maybe even say, ‘Me first?’ Now that’s a marriage life, President.]
Zing.
Aris’s face turned crimson.
An apron, nude.
Dinner, bathing, or maybe even “me first?”
She swears she never had such scoundrel-like fantasies.
But if she were to graduate from the academy and get married…
‘Then…’
He might not be a bad candidate for marriage.
If he accepted her despite knowing her secret and identity, perhaps they could have a happy married life.
With that thought, Aris wrapped her hands around her flushed cheeks.
“What kind of scoundrel fantasy am I having? I…”
Aris scolded herself while washing her face.
Thump, thump.
Yet, despite her wishes, her heart was racing as if it would burst.
Aris bit her lip.
Suga bites her lip.
“But the anime was a bit like that.”
In Aris’s mind, the memory of watching “The Hero Tale of the Black-haired Boy” with Kim Deok-Sung pops up.
Olivia, Makoto, Eri, Rin, and Kasumi had their parts well represented, but Aris’s role was nearly nonexistent.
She was on the level of a supporting character, not even a heroine.
“That amount of screen time is ridiculous! Just thinking about what happened with Kim Deok-Sung in Kyoto…”
Up to that point, Aris was muttering to herself when she hastily covered her mouth.
The incident of sleeping together in Kyoto was something she and Kim Deok-Sung had promised to forget.
A secret just between the two of them, something they couldn’t tell anyone else.
Just their secret.
At that thought, Aris’s face turned red again.
“Come to think of it, that was the first time, wasn’t it?”
It was when her identity as a country girl was revealed not by Seira but by someone else.
The image of her past self popped up in Aris’s mind.
Clumsy braids, high-alcohol eyeglasses, stuttering, timid, and with a heavy dialect, she had been bullied in such a shabby form.
“There’s no way I can go back to being that.”
How hard she had worked to discard the image of a country girl.
From correcting her dialect to receiving elite upper-class education.
The current Student Council President Saionji Aris was the result of desperate efforts made out of sight.
Aris didn’t want to lose that image.
She didn’t want to return to being pointed at and ridiculed again.
For the sake of her family back home.
And for her sick mother, who worried every day because of her timidness.
Now that she had become the head of her family, she couldn’t collapse here.
“I am no longer that country girl but the Student Council President of Shuo and a perfect super-being. I need to act according to my position.”
Aris’s face hardened.
She had relaxed a lot recently.
She needed to pull herself together.
Now was not the time for that.
She still couldn’t abandon her duties as the Student Council President.
Just as Aris was calming her racing heart, there was a creak.
The door opened.
Aris’s calm silver gaze turned toward the open door.
There stood Olivia, a beautiful girl with stunning platinum blonde hair that contrasted with Aris.
Next to her were Rin, Eri, Makoto, and Kasumi.
Finally, Haru came in, closing the door behind her.
“What brings you here?”
Aris’s gaze fixed on Olivia.
With a thud.
Olivia stepped forward and stammered, “I-I-I’m here to declare war on behalf of everyone here! President!”
Her face flushed as she stumbled over her words.
“Princess, hang in there.”
“Olivia, don’t stutter too much.”
Eri and Haru’s encouraging words reached Olivia’s ears.
Thump, thump.
Olivia’s heart raced.
Olivia’s blue eyes locked onto Aris’s silver ones.
Although she was the top student, the platinum-haired knight princess, and a noble princess from France, she couldn’t help but feel tense in front of the strongest and the Student Council President, Saionji Aris.
Especially since Aris showed no change in expression upon hearing the words ‘declaration of war.’
“What does that mean?”
Twitch.
Aris’s eyebrows twitched.
“I-I mean it literally!”
With a thud.
Olivia pulled a beauty pageant poster from her bag and placed it on the desk.
“The Miss Shuo Selection Contest…?”
“The w-winner here becomes that king idiot’s… I mean Kim Deok-Sung’s partner for the folkloric dance! I’m declaring war!”
“Do what you want!”
Olivia shouts with a face flushed bright red.
Thump.
Her heart pounds.
Everyone’s gaze turns to Aris.
Aris’s eyes drift towards the poster for the Shuo Hero Academy selection contest.
The word “Huyaje” floats in her ear.
Huyaje.
The academy legend that says couples are formed from the boy and girl who dance the folk dance in front of the campfire springs to mind.
Thump.
Aris’s heart races.
But unlike before, Aris quickly calms her feelings.
‘I don’t believe in superstitions.’
Fortune-telling, academy legends.
They’re all just nonsense.
If they’re dancing the folk dance together, it’s clear they already have some mutual affection.
The folk dance is merely a catalyst; the outcome of being a couple is already practically decided.
So there’s no need to give much meaning to academy legends.
Above all, she is the Student Council President.
There’s no time to participate in beauty contests.
Just managing the cultural festival is already more than enough work.
Besides, didn’t she prepare herself earlier?
No more slacking off.
She decided to be faithful to her duties as Student Council President.
No going back to the past.
Having suppressed her budding feelings and rationalized herself, Aris speaks in a slightly trembling voice.
“…Do as you wish.”
Everyone’s eyes widen at Aris’s unexpected reaction.
“I am the Student Council President of Shuo… I have no time to entertain your silly declarations.”
Even Haru, who knows everything, couldn’t help but be surprised by Aris’s response.
A silence falls.
Haru steps forward and speaks.
“Hey, A-chan, what’s wrong? I totally don’t understand. Did you eat something weird? Or maybe later…”
“Kurosawa.”
Aris cuts her off.
“I’m not A-chan; I am Saionji Aris. From now on, please address me as Senpai Saionji, or President Senpai, with proper respect.”
“Eeeeeh…”
Haru’s hands tremble slightly at Aris’s cold gaze and serious response.
With Aris’s rejection, Haru’s plan had completely gone awry.
As everyone is flustered, Aris speaks.
“Is that all you have to say? I have a meeting with the organizing committee, so I must be going now. Goodbye.”
Clack, clack.
Aris organizes some documents, slips them into a file, tucks it under her arm, and rises from her seat.
With a cold breeze, Aris strides out of the Student Council President’s Office.
Watching her retreating figure, Haru murmurs in a trembling voice.
“A-chan, what the heck…”
Clack.
The door to the Student Council President’s office shuts, swallowing Haru’s words.
*
At the same time.
In the hallway of the Student Council Hall.
In the early morning, the hallway is empty.
There stands Maeda Shinji.
The blue shaggy-haired pretty boy wears a smirk on his lips.
Maeda Shinji’s glasses gleam.
[It’s D-day.]
[I hope you haven’t forgotten our promise.]
A message from an unknown sender reflects in Maeda Shinji’s glasses.
Today is the day.
“Hehehe, just wait, Saionji Aris.”
Today is the day he punishes Aris for mingling with the common folk and reveals her true identity to the world.
And the day he takes her under his control.
Shinji conceals his sly grin, adjusts his glasses, and puts his phone back into his pocket.
It was the start of the second day of the cultural festival.
