I Don’t Want To Be An Ojakgyo

"My goal is to become a knight, so there's going to be a lot of instances when I'm looked down upon. If you get angry like this every time that happens, that'll be a problem."

I laughed and shook my head. Hylli always denied that he lost to me before, but recently he was always bragging about how he lost against me. Losing against me was something to brag about, apparently.

It was normal for people to be embarrassed about their losses, but Hylli seemed to be proud of his losses and seemed to look at them as a sign of growth. Even though those losses weren't…completely honest.

Hylli always seemed proud of his losses and used them to show me how much he had improved. It was kind of cute when he smiled brightly and bragged about how his skills had improved so much because of me.

Recently, I'd also started a collection of moments when I was proud of Hylli. It felt like I was filling up a baby scrapbook.

Hylli and I walked together to the cafeteria before he began to speak.

"Seeing him made me think about how I had been rude to you before. I wanted to tell you for a while now, but you don't have to try and help me get closer to Hestia."

"What?"

"The way of the sword is more exciting. I'm almost right in front of my swordsman mastery. I don't want to focus on anything else right now."

It seemed that I had completely crushed Hylli's love interest flag. Seeing him focus more on his princely duties than romance didn't make me feel even a droplet of guilt. None at all. Hell yeah. Less burdens on me.

"Your highness, you're so unpleasant. I hope you grow even more unpleasant into a great sword master, then into an emperor with power and prestige and take care of m……"

"Haha, I got it. Don't worry. With your skills, you'll be more than able to get into the first order of knights. Your swordsmanship may need a lot of work, but your magic skills do more than enough to cover that. You'll be able to stand proudly in the top ranks."

"Hell yeah."

Hylli and I laughed together. This was why it was great to have a friend that you could help and get help from. Knowing that I had an assuredly bright future ahead of me made me happy and confident. Haha.

I wanted to put my arms around Hylli's shoulders, but my arms were too short–they wouldn't reach. So I stood on the tips of my toes to grab at his hair instead.

After we walked a bit further, the delicious aroma of food began to flood into our noses.

Hylli and I both began to run together to the cafeteria.

Today was an especially windy day. I ran a few more laps after eating at the cafeteria and came out covered in dust. I showered off all of the dirt and grime. When I got out of the bathroom, I saw Hazel practicing braiding hair in different styles on fake hair.

Hazel, who had her hair in a pretty updo, immediately brightened as she saw me exit the bathroom.

"Shushu! What do you think about this hairstyle? It's going into our hair magazine for the newest publication. Isn't it pretty?"

Hazel twisted and turned a strand of fake hair here and there to make a flower shape. Then, she put that hair flower onto her hair and pinned it.

"It's pretty."

I said, shaking the water out of my hair. My wet bangs blocked my sight, so everything was a bit blurry. I swept my bangs back and raised a single eyebrow. I looked closely at the hair sample that Hazel showed me and nodded.

"It's pretty. It suits you."

Hazel smiled gleefully when I told her that it looked good on her, then patted the empty seat next to her a few times. Then, she fumbled for something under the bed and took out some hair care equipment.

"Shushu, do you want to try this hairstyle too? What do you think about being a magazine model for our family's business?"

I smiled at an excited Hazel then pondered. Honestly this kind of calm and pretty hairstyle suited Hestia much more than me. She did have that image. And Hestia's hair color and eye color suited flowers more than me.

"Well, I have a friend named Hestia, should I call her over? I think this hairstyle will fit Hestia more than me. She'll be a great model."

Hazel tried to remember who Hestia was, then excitedly said that she found her model. But Hazel couldn't seem to give me up as a model as she showed me another hairstyle. It was one where the model had all of their side hair shaved off, with only a round patch of hair remaining. I knew it was a joke, but I made sure to refuse. Twice.

I headed over to Hestia's dorm room to call her over. Hestia's roommate was a fourth-year senior, and that particular senior never really stayed in their room. Because of that, it was almost as if it was Hestia's room alone.

When I entered the room, Hestia was lying on her bed. She immediately sat up and ran to where I was. When I opened the door, she looked sad and teary-eyed, but as soon as she turned to look at me, she gave me a sunny smile. She ran towards me like a child running towards their parents who bought dinner. Hestia held a fistful of letters in her hands.

"Shushu! I was going to go look for you first! Shushu came to see me first!"

Hestia opened her arms wide and gave me a hug. She hugged me so tight that my feet almost lifted off the floor, so I tapped Hestia lightly. Are you showing off your height? Put me down. Hestia, who had been busy rubbing her face into my hair, looked at my annoyed expression and laughed, loud and clear.

"Anyway, Shushu, do you want to read some of these?"

"Aren't these your love letters? Can I read them?"

"Mhm, it's okay because it's Shushu. Hehe."

Hestia shoved a bunch of letters towards me. Even though she was smiling, Hestia looked exhausted.

I looked at Hestia as she urged me to read these letters, then began to read. The letters were all from boys, and it seemed like there was one from the boy from earlier. It seemed that he had rewritten the whole thing.

"……."

I slowly read through the words in the dim lighting.

"…..you were sexier than any of the girls that I'd ever seen whenever I passed by you every morning. I love seeing you wear that tight uniform of yours. I feel like I'm going to go crazy whenever I think of you. I can't sleep at night. You're the one that made me feel this way."

I quietly read the words in the letter out loud.

Most of the letters were confessing their love, but they weren't as innocent as they should have been. There were people rating Hestia's face and her body. More than there should've been. My brows furrowed in distaste.

[Even if I have to buy your whole family, I'm going to make you mine. Then, I'll love you as much as you deserve.]

I read through another letter and felt blood rushing straight to my head. It felt like the blood vessels in my eyes were about to explode.

This time, it was a letter that was dripping with obsession. Saying things like how they were going to capture her and make her their hostage, how it was her fault that she had seduced them. And other absolutely bullshit claims.

I hadn't known what was in the letters that I had passed on because I had never read them. I'd only played around with kids like Hylli and Cory, and thought that everyone else was going to be just as innocent.

Of course, there were probably letters that were just as innocent as I had assumed. Not everybody that liked Hestia was going to be disgusting trash. But I didn't know that these kinds of letters would be mixed in. I only thought that it was going to be about their feelings towards her.

[You're pretty, but there's nothing in that pretty little head of yours. Stop acting all coy. You may act like that now, but you're just going to be under some other guy and……..]

"Who the hell is this."

Hestia shrugged her shoulders. In the midst of all of those nameless letters, there were letters that talked about how they hated Hestia after loving her for so long. From what Hestia told me, there were letters like this ever so often when she checked her locker.

I took out all of the disgusting letters and shoved the innocent ones back at Hestia.

"These letters, can I keep them?"

"Mm? Yeah. But whyyy?"

I was going to dig through every single magic device in the school and dig through their usage records to figure out who they were. If I couldn't find them like that, I was going to make some kind of fingerprint scanner to know who these scumbags were.

When I found the culprits that decided to put down Hestia with degrading words, I was going to pull all of their weaknesses and publicly humiliate them within the school. Then, I was going to call them up one by one and beat them all up. I'd even bring Hylli into it to make sure they could never live in peace again.

"….I'll throw them away for you."

I stood still for a while, caught up in my future plans. Hestia seemed surprised as she blinked her wide eyes. I shoved the letters into my pocket.

Hestia forcefully pulled the corners of her lips up into a smile. There was a deep sense of forlornness in her expression. She spread her thin, long hands towards me and pulled me back into a hug.

"No matter where I go, it feels like I'm at home. It's nauseating."

She sighed above my head and began to cry. She spoke in a small, slightly shaky voice to herself, then startled when she said 'nauseating,' as if she hadn't realized it herself. She bit her lips. Then, she rubbed her face on my shoulder. This was a habit of Hestia's from childhood that meant she wanted to be comforted. I put my hand over her back and gently patted her.

"Shushu. They said that my existence was like a flower. Every single one of them said that they were going to break me. Am I supposed to be like those flowers that my mother shows off at home for her flower arrangements?"

Her shaky voice muddled her pronunciation somewhat, but it was clear to hear. I reached my arms up to sweep up her bangs and sighed deeply.

"You may be as pretty as a flower, but your existence, your presence isn't like one at all. Our Karim is pretty too, so he gets told that he's like a flower, too. You don't have to think about any other meaning behind it."

"…….."

"Also, who's the one that said that they'd break you? Who the hell uses 'break' towards another person? Bring them here. I'll break their neck."

My breath began to turn ragged from my anger. Just as my breaths began to come faster, Hestia hugged me so tightly that I couldn't breathe. I pushed her away slightly and held her hand.

"Let's go have some fun."

I dragged a gloomy looking Hestia towards my dorm room.

Hazel whined about how we took so long, so I filled her in about what had happened. Then, once Hazel learned about everything that had happened to Hestia, Hazel began to braid Hestia's hair into pretty braids as she exploded into unimaginable, absolutely unholy curse words.

Hestia's face brightened as she listened to Hazel's curses. Then, Hestia quietly began to whisper Hazel's unholy curses. The scene reminded me of a baby imitating their mother and learning how to speak, so I quietly blocked Hestia's ears with my hands.

Once Hestia's hair was put into pretty braids, she partnered up with Hazel and began to fiddle with my hair. They pulled my hair into a single braid, then into multiple braids. Hestia and I looked through Hazel's magazines and wondered what to put in the newest edition. We dolled ourselves up and took pictures with the new photo device that we bought.

Then, after playing around for hours, we all fell asleep in our room. We all ended up waking up late.