I Don’t Want To Be An Ojakgyo

It had been approximately a week after Eric confessed to me. You guys know how old-timey couples count how many days they've been together? This world didn't have an app or anything that counted the days for you, so I folded my fingers to count how many days it had been since I had begun dating the kid named Eric.

It's been around ten days since we began going out. The Orde Empire didn't have a particular custom about counting days, but it was something that I just wanted to do.

In my previous life, I had given a lot of things that I wanted to do because I was too busy with my part-time jobs and with taking care of my younger siblings. In my previous life, when my classmates showed off in class and said, "It's been 100 days since I started going out with my boyfriend!" I always thought it was childish. I must've been jealous, because that was exactly what I was doing now.

When I saw kids happily dating and in love, I couldn't seem to take my eyes off of them. It was great to see them talk to each other to learn more about each other and care for their partner, but it also made my stomach hurt from jealousy. I'm only admitting this now because I'm in a relationship too. I said it was worthless, but I was really jealous.

I didn't really have any problems with Eric until now. We were both awkward and unfamiliar with each other so there was still a bit of distance between us, but time would probably lessen this gap between us.

Eric was the one that confessed, but I had a feeling like I was the one that was more invested in the relationship. Seeing as how I was always thinking about what I should help out with or what I should do for him.

I had always guessed that I would go out of my way to please the other person if I was ever in a relationship, but seeing myself do just that gave me chills. I was trying to turn it down, too, just in case I came off as too pushy.

This was the first time I had dated anyone, so I felt like I needed some tips and advice.

I remembered that Swanhaden had been reading a pink book about dating and wanted to borrow the book from him, but soon remembered that all the pages had become paper cranes. I gave up.

So, the first person I wanted to get advice from was my closest friend, Hestia.

After learning that I was going out with Eric, Hestia, 1) was completely dumbfounded, 2) grew extremely angry, and finally, cried as she apologized.

I didn't know why she was apologizing, but I wiped her tears from her face and just asked for some dating tips. Hestia was famous for being an expert when it came to romance. Guys were always falling on their feet and clung onto Hestia, and she was an expert at the art of making the other person fold.

It wasn't like I wanted to be manipulative in my relationship or something, but I was embarrassed to say that I was afraid that Eric would regret confessing to me and get sick of me.

Hestia seemed to be in a state of shock after listening to that fact, and angrily yelled, "There's no way someone would get sick of you!" She tightly gripped her uniform skirt as she looked anxious. She thumped her feet and bit at her nails.

It looked like she had a lot of things she wanted to say to me, but she stayed mum about it and chose her words carefully. And, at my request for some advice, she turned around and left the room without a single word.

The next day, Hestia wrote me a short thesis.

The title was 'An Observation of Shuraina's Charm'. I gave up after reading a page of it. God, Hestia, I asked for dating advice. I didn't know why she was behaving so randomly. She had obviously put in a ton of effort and hard work into this, so I thanked her, but she ripped at her hair as she looked glum.

When I felt that I couldn't get any advice from Hestia, I went to Cory for some advice.

Cory, similar to me, didn't have a bit of dating experience either. But because Cory was a guy like Eric, I wondered if I could get some advice from him. I could ask guys around our age about what they liked, and I also wanted some little tips here and there.

These days, we were working on fostering and taking care of the more calm monsters in our model. We made separate living areas for the calm, cute-looking monsters, and the two of us moved busily.

We sat facing each other, the table sitting between us, as we munched on snacks and worked on our parts of the project.

Once we were almost done with our monster residence repairs, I carefully built up my courage to talk to Cory.

"Cory. Can I ask you someting?"

Cory stayed focused on his work as I spoke, and just shifted his gaze towards me before nodding.

"What do boys around your age like?"

At my question, Cory raised his head and narrowed his eyes as he stared at me. It must've been quite a random question–he seemed a bit flustered.

"Why?"

"Just, curious."

Cory slammed the pen he was using to draw a circle with down onto the ground and thought deeply for a while. He looked a bit shocked, but he soon shook his head. Cory stared down with his chin on his hand for a moment before staring straight at me.

"If the gift is from someone I like, then anything would be good."

"Ohhh……"

It was a better, more acceptable response than what I had been hoping for.

The person that Eric liked, embarrassingly, was me, and if the person they liked gave the gift, then would that be good enough? Eric hadn't done anything for me because we were dating, but it would be nice to give a letter or a gift. He looked like he had liked the letter that I had written last time….. Not that I really knew, anyway.

I wondered if I should tell Cory that I was going out with Eric or not before speaking.

"I decided to go out with a kid named Eric."

When I said so emotionlessly, Cory emotionlessly responded.

Cory haphazardly nodded and continued assembling the device in his hand. But he soon looked up.

He tilted his head as if he noticed something off in the statement that he had just said, then muttered, "Go out?" quietly to himself again.

"I think I might have heard something wrong just now. Can you say it again?"

"I'm going out with Eric?"

"……….!"

Cory's eyes grew wide as he stared a hole into my face.

"Going out?"

"Yeah."

"All of a sudden?"

When he just stared at me with disbelief, I raised my eyebrow in response.

Why, couldn't I date someone? Everyone seemed to ignore it, but I was the one that was confessed to.

Cory stared at my face before huffing out a fake laugh. He put his hand on his chin again.

"No, I'm not making fun of you."

Cory buried his face into his hand and then muttered, "Euuuugh……." as if he was in pain.

He put the pen in his hand back down and flopped onto the desk.

He stared up at me from his position, head resting on his flopped arm. His fierce, yet soft-looking green eyes glanced at me, then at the scattered materials on his desk.

He poked at the pieces angrily as he scowled. He flicked at a piece with his finger and made it roll onto the floor, but he didn't seem to even want to pick it up. He just glanced at me before sighing deeply.

"So the reason you looked so happy was because of him…"

"Did I look happy?"

"A loooot."

Cory seemed to be in shock that I was going out with someone. His eyes were wide and looked glazed over before emotionlessly responding. Cory pulled up the blanket on his shoulders up to his head, then flopped back onto the desk and made a moaning sound.

Was he feeling betrayed because we were both eternally single and I had joined the couples team? Well, sure, if Cory ever went out with someone, I would feel shocked, and maybe a bit betrayed. Kind of like a, 'You're dating before I get to?' feeling of betrayal.

"First, congrats, Shushu. If you like him so much, I don't think I can say anything about it."

Cory said, face still buried in the desk. His hair was a mess, and his green eyes that peeked from behind his blond hair still looked as soft as usual.

He scrunched his forehead for a moment as he thought about something. He tilted his head and jokingly asked.

"You're not going to go all distant on me just because you're dating, right?"

"Who knows. Maybe we need to keep a bit of distance."

"But whyyyyyyyyyy….."

Cory and I were incredibly close friends, but it might not look that way for Eric. I didn't think I could hang out with him like before.

Cory nodded as if he understood, but he pouted. Then, he whined in a quiet voice.

"I didn't think there would be much of a difference."

So this is the limit for friends.

Cory buried his face into his hands again and sighed deeply again.

He rubbed his face into his hands for a while before moaning again, then stayed quiet. He looked a bit anxious. Then, he lowered his hands that covered his face, then looked at me with a scowl on his face.

"Shushu, did you know?"

"what?"

"These days, lovers get married before they hold their hands."

"Don't joke around. You held my hand."

When I frowned and refuted Cory's weird statement, his face suddenly grew a dark red. His face was so red that it reminded me of a ripe tomato. He fanned his face with his hand for a moment before he controlled his breathing back to normal. Then, he looked at me with a strict expression on his face.

"No, that's possible because we're friends, but it's different for lovers."

"How's it different."

"You hold hands after you marry, kiss after you've been married for ten years, and then make out with then after thirty years of marriage. I read it in a magazine, but that's apparently the appropriate speed."

"You just don't like that I'm dating, don't you."

"Yeah."

If that actually was how it went, then it wouldn't be weird for me to break up with Eric. I couldn't help but break out into laughter at Cory's dating tips. It was funny to see Cory trying to pick at the issue in hand–he never did that. When I laughed out loud, Cory stared at me, sighed, then buried his head into his arms again as he moaned.

As we continued to quietly chatter, we suddenly heard a knock on our door. As if they were hesitating, the knocks were quiet at first then grew louder after they didn't get a response. If it wasn't Swan, who was planning on joining next year, then the club was just the two of us for now. There wasn't anybody who should be coming in.

We wondered who it was, so Cory and I stared at each other and tilted our heads in confusion. I loudly told the person to come in. The door soon opened, and a familiar face entered the room.

"Shuraina?"

The person who had knocked was none other than Eric. Eric seemed to be on his way to his afternoon swordsmanship class. He had already changed into his training outfit. I glanced at the clock to see that club activities were almost over.

"Oh, uh, hello."

Eric stumbled on his words as he greeted Cory first. Cory, who was sitting crookedly on the sofa, nodded his head haphazardly.

It felt like Cory's eyes were brighter and fiercer than normal.

Eric seemed incredibly scared of Cory. Cory's rank had a bit to do with it, but it had a lot to do with his fierce eyes and the aura around him.

It had been approximately a week after Eric confessed to me. You guys know how old-timey couples count how many days they've been together? This world didn't have an app or anything that counted the days for you, so I folded my fingers to count how many days it had been since I had begun dating the kid named Eric.

It's been around ten days since we began going out. The Orde Empire didn't have a particular custom about counting days, but it was something that I just wanted to do.

In my previous life, I had given a lot of things that I wanted to do because I was too busy with my part-time jobs and with taking care of my younger siblings. In my previous life, when my classmates showed off in class and said, "It's been 100 days since I started going out with my boyfriend!" I always thought it was childish. I must've been jealous, because that was exactly what I was doing now.

When I saw kids happily dating and in love, I couldn't seem to take my eyes off of them. It was great to see them talk to each other to learn more about each other and care for their partner, but it also made my stomach hurt from jealousy. I'm only admitting this now because I'm in a relationship too. I said it was worthless, but I was really jealous.

I didn't really have any problems with Eric until now. We were both awkward and unfamiliar with each other so there was still a bit of distance between us, but time would probably lessen this gap between us.

Eric was the one that confessed, but I had a feeling like I was the one that was more invested in the relationship. Seeing as how I was always thinking about what I should help out with or what I should do for him.

I had always guessed that I would go out of my way to please the other person if I was ever in a relationship, but seeing myself do just that gave me chills. I was trying to turn it down, too, just in case I came off as too pushy.

This was the first time I had dated anyone, so I felt like I needed some tips and advice.

I remembered that Swanhaden had been reading a pink book about dating and wanted to borrow the book from him, but soon remembered that all the pages had become paper cranes. I gave up.

So, the first person I wanted to get advice from was my closest friend, Hestia.

After learning that I was going out with Eric, Hestia, 1) was completely dumbfounded, 2) grew extremely angry, and finally, cried as she apologized.

I didn't know why she was apologizing, but I wiped her tears from her face and just asked for some dating tips. Hestia was famous for being an expert when it came to romance. Guys were always falling on their feet and clung onto Hestia, and she was an expert at the art of making the other person fold.

It wasn't like I wanted to be manipulative in my relationship or something, but I was embarrassed to say that I was afraid that Eric would regret confessing to me and get sick of me.

Hestia seemed to be in a state of shock after listening to that fact, and angrily yelled, "There's no way someone would get sick of you!" She tightly gripped her uniform skirt as she looked anxious. She thumped her feet and bit at her nails.

It looked like she had a lot of things she wanted to say to me, but she stayed mum about it and chose her words carefully. And, at my request for some advice, she turned around and left the room without a single word.

The next day, Hestia wrote me a short thesis.

The title was 'An Observation of Shuraina's Charm'. I gave up after reading a page of it. God, Hestia, I asked for dating advice. I didn't know why she was behaving so randomly. She had obviously put in a ton of effort and hard work into this, so I thanked her, but she ripped at her hair as she looked glum.

When I felt that I couldn't get any advice from Hestia, I went to Cory for some advice.

Cory, similar to me, didn't have a bit of dating experience either. But because Cory was a guy like Eric, I wondered if I could get some advice from him. I could ask guys around our age about what they liked, and I also wanted some little tips here and there.

These days, we were working on fostering and taking care of the more calm monsters in our model. We made separate living areas for the calm, cute-looking monsters, and the two of us moved busily.

We sat facing each other, the table sitting between us, as we munched on snacks and worked on our parts of the project.

Once we were almost done with our monster residence repairs, I carefully built up my courage to talk to Cory.

"Cory. Can I ask you someting?"

Cory stayed focused on his work as I spoke, and just shifted his gaze towards me before nodding.

"What do boys around your age like?"

At my question, Cory raised his head and narrowed his eyes as he stared at me. It must've been quite a random question–he seemed a bit flustered.

"Why?""Just, curious."

Cory slammed the pen he was using to draw a circle with down onto the ground and thought deeply for a while. He looked a bit shocked, but he soon shook his head. Cory stared down with his chin on his hand for a moment before staring straight at me.

"If the gift is from someone I like, then anything would be good.""Ohhh……"

It was a better, more acceptable response than what I had been hoping for.

The person that Eric liked, embarrassingly, was me, and if the person they liked gave the gift, then would that be good enough? Eric hadn't done anything for me because we were dating, but it would be nice to give a letter or a gift. He looked like he had liked the letter that I had written last time….. Not that I really knew, anyway.

I wondered if I should tell Cory that I was going out with Eric or not before speaking.

"I decided to go out with a kid named Eric.""Ohhh. Is that so."

When I said so emotionlessly, Cory emotionlessly responded.

Cory haphazardly nodded and continued assembling the device in his hand. But he soon looked up.

He tilted his head as if he noticed something off in the statement that he had just said, then muttered, "Go out?" quietly to himself again.

"I think I might have heard something wrong just now. Can you say it again?"

"I'm going out with Eric?"

Cory's eyes grew wide as he stared a hole into my face.

"Going out?"

"Yeah."

When he just stared at me with disbelief, I raised my eyebrow in response.

Why, couldn't I date someone? Everyone seemed to ignore it, but I was the one that was confessed to.

Cory stared at my face before huffing out a fake laugh. He put his hand on his chin again.

"No, I'm not making fun of you."

Cory buried his face into his hand and then muttered, "Euuuugh……." as if he was in pain.

He put the pen in his hand back down and flopped onto the desk.

He stared up at me from his position, head resting on his flopped arm. His fierce, yet soft-looking green eyes glanced at me, then at the scattered materials on his desk.

He poked at the pieces angrily as he scowled. He flicked at a piece with his finger and made it roll onto the floor, but he didn't seem to even want to pick it up. He just glanced at me before sighing deeply.

"So the reason you looked so happy was because of him…"

"Did I look happy?"

Cory seemed to be in shock that I was going out with someone. His eyes were wide and looked glazed over before emotionlessly responding. Cory pulled up the blanket on his shoulders up to his head, then flopped back onto the desk and made a moaning sound.

Was he feeling betrayed because we were both eternally single and I had joined the couples team? Well, sure, if Cory ever went out with someone, I would feel shocked, and maybe a bit betrayed. Kind of like a, 'You're dating before I get to?' feeling of betrayal.

"First, congrats, Shushu. If you like him so much, I don't think I can say anything about it."

Cory said, face still buried in the desk. His hair was a mess, and his green eyes that peeked from behind his blond hair still looked as soft as usual.

He scrunched his forehead for a moment as he thought about something. He tilted his head and jokingly asked.

"You're not going to go all distant on me just because you're dating, right?"

"Who knows. Maybe we need to keep a bit of distance."

Cory and I were incredibly close friends, but it might not look that way for Eric. I didn't think I could hang out with him like before.

Cory nodded as if he understood, but he pouted. Then, he whined in a quiet voice.

"I didn't think there would be much of a difference."

So this is the limit for friends.

Cory buried his face into his hands again and sighed deeply again.

He rubbed his face into his hands for a while before moaning again, then stayed quiet. He looked a bit anxious. Then, he lowered his hands that covered his face, then looked at me with a scowl on his face.

"Shushu, did you know?"

"what?"

"These days, lovers get married before they hold their hands."

When I frowned and refuted Cory's weird statement, his face suddenly grew a dark red. His face was so red that it reminded me of a ripe tomato. He fanned his face with his hand for a moment before he controlled his breathing back to normal. Then, he looked at me with a strict expression on his face.

"No, that's possible because we're friends, but it's different for lovers."

"How's it different."

"You hold hands after you marry, kiss after you've been married for ten years, and then make out with then after thirty years of marriage. I read it in a magazine, but that's apparently the appropriate speed."

"You just don't like that I'm dating, don't you."

If that actually was how it went, then it wouldn't be weird for me to break up with Eric. I couldn't help but break out into laughter at Cory's dating tips. It was funny to see Cory trying to pick at the issue in hand–he never did that. When I laughed out loud, Cory stared at me, sighed, then buried his head into his arms again as he moaned.

As we continued to quietly chatter, we suddenly heard a knock on our door. As if they were hesitating, the knocks were quiet at first then grew louder after they didn't get a response. If it wasn't Swan, who was planning on joining next year, then the club was just the two of us for now. There wasn't anybody who should be coming in.

We wondered who it was, so Cory and I stared at each other and tilted our heads in confusion. I loudly told the person to come in. The door soon opened, and a familiar face entered the room.

"Shuraina?"

The person who had knocked was none other than Eric. Eric seemed to be on his way to his afternoon swordsmanship class. He had already changed into his training outfit. I glanced at the clock to see that club activities were almost over.

"Oh, uh, hello."

Eric stumbled on his words as he greeted Cory first. Cory, who was sitting crookedly on the sofa, nodded his head haphazardly.

It felt like Cory's eyes were brighter and fiercer than normal.

Eric seemed incredibly scared of Cory. Cory's rank had a bit to do with it, but it had a lot to do with his fierce eyes and the aura around him.

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