Chapter 90

I have to get out of here to escape the unnecessary misunderstandings and the light novel-like situation.

I try to move my body.

Crack.

It seems I was holding onto my strength even while sleeping, as the restraints won’t come off.

‘I’m going to faint.’

This is a situation where neither option is viable.

I’m in a bind with no way out.

“Mmm, mmm...”

Squish.

Arisu holds me tighter.

It feels like I’m trapped in an ant hell from which there’s no escape.

The soft touch is no different from hell.

I suppress my body’s reaction with superhuman patience, as if I’m a boiling youth.

I can’t do this here.

‘Ugh.’

To make matters worse, sleep starts to overwhelm me.

No.

I can’t fall asleep.

Sharing a bed with a cute girl.

This is like a light novel protagonist’s situation...

My mind starts to drift.

*

Arisu felt warmth for the first time in a long while.

‘Mom... Dad...’

Since moving from the countryside in Wakayama Prefecture to Tokyo.

Arisu has been hiding her true identity and acting as the perfect student council president.

The memories are still vivid in her mind.

[You’re so clumsy, Arisu. You’re just a poor, awkward country girl.]

[Hey, Arisu. Why do you always trip and stumble? It’s really annoying.]

[Hey, Arisu. Do you really eat only tangerines every day? Don’t you get tired of it?]

[Look at her hairstyle and glasses. She’s so awkward.]

[Do you think someone like you could ever hold a boy’s hand?]

In her childhood.

She was ostracized and ridiculed just because she was a poor girl from the countryside.

When she awakened her powers and enrolled at Shuou Academy, Arisu made a vow.

She wouldn’t be ridiculed again.

She would be a proud eldest daughter and bring honor to her family.

She wouldn’t return to being the awkward country girl Arisu.

Through desperate efforts, Arisu shed her country girl image and was reborn as the perfect superhuman student council president, Saiouji Arisu.

But sometimes, actually every night, she wanted to return to being the country girl Arisu.

She wanted to act spoiled in front of her mom and dad like she used to.

Pretending to be a perfect lady while hiding her true identity and even suppressing her Kansai dialect in Tokyo was an enormous stress for her.

‘...So warm.’

For the first time in a long while, she feels warmth.

In her childhood.

When she came home crying after being ridiculed, her dad would hug her tightly and comfort her.

Kuma-chan is good, but nothing beats the warmth of Dad’s embrace.

“Dad...”

She doesn’t want to leave this warmth.

But her biological clock, which wakes her up every morning at 6 a.m. without fail, forcibly brings her back to reality.

Her head feels like it’s splitting.

Arisu groans.

She presses her temples.

“Ugh...”

She lifts her heavy eyelids.

The dawn is just breaking.

The faint sunlight filters through the large window.

A familiar face enters Arisu’s field of vision.

The sleeping black-haired boy, Kim Deok-sung.

And her own appearance, buried in his chest in a negligee.

“What is this...”

Just as Arisu’s face starts to heat up.

“Cough!”

All the memories from last night come flooding back.

The memory of drinking half a bottle of champagne, thinking it was a drink.

The memory of clinging to Kim Deok-sung and acting disgracefully, falling asleep in his arms.

The memory of spouting Kansai dialect in front of him.

They all come back to her mind clearly.

“...”

Thud.

Arisu’s heart sinks heavily.

Her face hardens.

She had always thought that her true identity must not be revealed.

She had been so careful for three years.

And now, to reveal it so absurdly.

“Crazy...”

Arisu bangs her head.

The trauma of her childhood comes back to her.

The memories of being ostracized and ridiculed for being a poor country girl.

Those terrifying memories she wanted to forget were only cast off when she came to Tokyo.

But now, the shadow she had shaken off is grabbing her ankle again.

Tears well up in Arisu’s eyes.

“Mom... Dad... What should I do...”

The feeling of a carefully built tower collapsing in an instant.

Just as Arisu was hugging herself, trying to calm down.

“Cough.”

Kim Deok-sung groans and opens his eyes.

“Eek!”

Arisu gasps.

“What time is it? President Senior.”

Feeling flustered, Arisu asks.

“D-did you hear anything yesterday?”

“I didn’t hear the Kansai dialect.”

Arisu bites her lip at Kim Deok-sung’s indifferent voice.

“You heard everything! Where are you getting these lies, Senior! And, and we... we...”

She trails off.

“W-w-we... slept in the same bed...”

Arisu covers her mouth.

That’s right.

She had slept in the same bed with her junior.

Fortunately, nothing happened, but the fact that they shared a bed was enough to stir the heart of a blossoming maiden.

“I-I’m here because of... this is all because of you, Kim Deok-sung! You, black-eared beast...”

Arisu, whose mental state has collapsed, puffs her cheeks and glares at Kim Deok-sung.

Thump.

Arisu, still blushing, nods her head.

“Understood. I will do as you say. Secret... I appreciate you keeping it for me, Kim Deok-sung.”

“It’s nothing. I’ll be going now.”

Kim Deok-sung shakes his head and gets up.

Arisu’s gaze follows his back.

“Th-that...”

“Goodbye.”

Just as Arisu was about to say something.

Kim Deok-sung opens the door and leaves.

Click.

The door closes.

*

I escape from Arisu’s room.

I take a deep breath.

“Phew. I’m alive.”

The feeling of relief is overwhelming as I get out of the thorny situation.

It was really a close call.

“Ugh, I’m tired.”

Even after sleeping, I don’t feel rested.

Maybe it’s because I was on edge.

I rub my temples with the back of my hand.

“Yawn.”

I stretch and yawn widely.

It’s the first time I’ve seen someone act so out of character since a freshman at the university I just entered drank too much without knowing their limit and got the whole group in trouble.

‘At least I didn’t throw up.’

If I had vomited, it would have been even worse.

Just thinking about it makes me shudder.

My body trembles.

I remember a classmate vomiting on my clothes during an MT.

‘Damn Kim Chang-su...’

Still, Arisu’s dialect didn’t get exposed, and I’ve sort of incurred a favor from her, so in the end, it’s quite a gain.

I didn’t explicitly mention the favor, but since the situation clearly had her at fault, and I said I’d just cover it up, it will act as a psychological burden and a sense of debt for her.

I know Arisu’s personality inside and out.

‘I’m lucky.’

Having established a connection with the student council president, Arisu, a key character, I can use it to my advantage in the future.

Of course, I can use the student council’s powerful authority, and it will make it easier to intervene in the cultural festival episode in Volume 7.

It was quite a good outcome for a moment of embarrassment.

I don’t want to do it again, though.

‘I need to get back to my room quickly.’

I have a lot to do today.

Just as I was hurrying along.

I see someone in the hallway.

A chocolate-brown bowl cut, glasses-wearing cute boy, Nagamine Reiji.

Next to him is another student helping with student council work.

Thud.

Nagamine Reiji, who saw me, drops the file he was holding.

The papers scatter on the floor.

“It’s you...! Kim Deok-sung?”

Nagamine’s eyes waver.

“Y-You, why are you... coming out of the president’s room! Answer me! Could you have... spent the whole night...?”

Despair fills Nagamine’s eyes.

The students around him start whispering.

“What? The president and the black-eared beast spent the night together in the same room?”

“What did they do all night? Could they have... on the bed...? No, that can’t be... Did the black-eared beast get to President Saiouji too?”

“To think he would go after President Saiouji... Truly, the black-eared beast... Now I’m in awe.”

“President Saiouji... No!! If she falls to the black-eared beast...!!”

Ah, damn.

Here we go again. Here we go.

“Could you have...”

“Why are you imagining such perverted things? Senior Nagamine, stop spreading rumors and get back to work.”

“N-no... My president... My president... Ahhh.”

Nagamine collapses in despair, like a glasses-wearing model student who has his childhood friend, a pure and innocent girl, NTR’d by a black-haired delinquent.

“Poor Senior Nagamine.”

“Compared to Kim, he looks like a loser.”

“Yeah. He looks like a boring nerd. Kim seems much more impressive. The tyrant on the bed, right?”

The extras gossip about the fallen Nagamine.

Nagamine, with his bowl cut and glasses, looks like a typical model student, and because I look like a delinquent, the atmosphere is like an NTR manga.

I’m going to faint.

“K-Kim Deok-sung. O-of course, you will... take responsibility for our president, right?”

Nagamine, wiping his tears, asks with a trembling voice.