After that shocking first encounter with the protagonist, I deliberately applied to a private high school quite far from my original school district in order to live an ordinary life.
There was a public high school just a ten-minute walk from my house, but I figured too many people there would know the middle-school Kim Yu-seong, so it was a necessary choice.
The private high school I applied to was not only known for its expensive tuition, but its academic standards were also higher than most, making admission impossible with just average grades.
This might seem like I was burdening my parents for my own selfish desires, but I proudly earned a full scholarship by graduating at the top of my class.
I'll never forget the look on my parents' faces when I told them.
They were overjoyed, saying they never knew their son, who always seemed to be just lazing around at home, was so good at his studies.
They never said it, but it seems they had been subtly worried.
As soon as I graduated from middle school, I cleaned up my ridiculously otaku-like room, just as I had planned.
Of course, I didn't throw everything away. I just took down things like the posters on the walls and sold the figures and other merchandise on second-hand websites.
I couldn't just arbitrarily erase the only traces left by the boy named Kim Yu-seong, and I'd grown rather fond of it all after frantically poring over it for half a year to imitate his behavior.
In particular, the samurai manga drawn by an author named Kishimoto Musashi was incredibly fun.
I had become a fan before I even realized it.
After I finished cleaning my room, I brought in some workout equipment to fill the empty space.
One thing I learned during my time in grad school was that physical fitness is national strength.
You have to start exercising while you're young to avoid suffering from minor illnesses when you get old.
Kim Yu-seong's body, that of a typical indoor type, was quite frail compared to my original one, so I wanted to build up a decent amount of muscle.
If I got bigger, fewer people would look down on me for being a Zainichi Korean.
And so, during my last semester of middle school, I began to radically transform Kim Yu-seong's feeble body.
***
The private Ichijo Academy.
It was one of Tokyo's most prestigious private high schools, known to be a school exclusively for the wealthy.
And it was where I would be spending the next three years.
In April, when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, I stood on stage as the representative of the new students, thanks to the title of valedictorian I had proudly seized by outperforming the best and brightest who had applied to this high school.
As I stepped up to the podium and gripped the microphone, I could feel hundreds of eyes on me.
Honestly, I was a little intimidated.
I wasn't used to being in the spotlight like this.
"In this blooming April, we, the new students, await the new encounters that..."
Not even knowing what I was reading, I quickly recited the welcome address someone else had written and stepped down from the stage.
My heart was still pounding even after I returned to my seat.
Although the first day of school started with an unwanted event, I was able to adapt to my new school life quickly.
Perhaps because I had stood on stage as the freshman representative, many people approached me casually.
Of course, most of them came to ask questions about schoolwork, but I much preferred receiving this kind of attention.
In middle school, I was so busy playing the part of the old Kim Yu-seong that I had no one to talk to besides the friends and teachers I had already known.
About half a year passed like that.
Thanks to my diligent daily self-training, I had a massive growth spurt, and the newly appointed student council president scouted me to be the student council secretary.
I had already joined the board game club, so I politely declined. But the student council president, with her black hime-cut hair, thrust her ever-present fan at me and laughed, "For a mere commoner to ignore my invitation! How amusing! That makes me like you even more! Ohohohoho!" before forcibly changing my club affiliation.
At the time, I was dumbfounded by the actions of this strangely powerful student council president, but once I got used to it, it was fine.
The president, who came from a prestigious noble family, was a bit vain but was never stingy with her own people.
Thanks to her, I gained many advantages in school life, so it all balanced out.
As for the board game club, I could visit even if I wasn't a member, so I had no major complaints about being forced to switch.
While handling my duties as the student council secretary, I naturally had more opportunities to look at the student roster for the entire school. It was then that I belatedly realized that among this year's new freshmen were Sakamoto Ryuji, the protagonist of 'Scramble Love,' and his childhood friend, Yaguchi Maiya.
I had specifically chosen a private high school a thirty-minute train ride away to avoid getting involved with the original protagonist, so I never imagined we would end up attending the same school.
'I need to be careful not to get involved with them from now on.'
My current goal was to graduate from school normally and get a normal job.
That was for the sake of the deceased Kim Yu-seong, and for my own future life.
If I got entangled with the original protagonist, Sakamoto Ryuji, and got caught up in his affairs, my peaceful school life would be as good as over.
That's just how the romantic comedy genre works.
From that day on, I doubled my personal workout time after school.
It was to prepare for an uncertain future.
My parents, who had initially been pleased with my exercising, started to tell me I was overdoing it, but that wasn't enough to extinguish my desire for muscle.
In the world of a manga, it was possible to build muscles of a size that would be utterly impossible without steroids.
The daily changes in my body made me diligent about consuming protein, even if I skipped carbs.
And so, after slaughtering hundreds of chickens and spending half a year repeating high-intensity training at the gym right after school—
A demon took up residence on my back.
***
Looking back on it now, my first year of high school seemed like the most fulfilling year of my life.
In middle school, I had been shorter than most girls, but after I started training in earnest, my height shot up to 186cm, and my entire body was now covered in solid, hard-earned muscle.
Compared to my formerly scrawny self, I had obtained an overwhelmingly powerful physique.
I might have gotten a little carried away with the training, but in the world of a rom-com, you never knew what might happen, so it couldn't be helped.
At least in the romantic comedy manga I had read, it was common for things like aliens, ghosts, or yakuza to appear.
I hadn't actually read the crucial 'Scramble Love,' so I didn't know the details, but since it fell into the shonen manga category, it wouldn't be strange for it to have some crazy premise.
In any case, the first, second, and third semesters flew by breathlessly.
I entered my second year, still holding onto my position as the top student in my grade.
People around me wondered when a guy who did nothing but work out all day ever found the time to study, but unfortunately for them, I was a man who could study and exercise at the same time.
For example, when memorizing ten English vocabulary words, I would give myself a penalty like ten squats for every word I got wrong. The desire to avoid the extra work would make me grit my teeth and memorize them.
It was an effective method for me, and I became particularly strong in subjects that required memorization.
But despite all my painstaking efforts, I faced the greatest crisis of my life as soon as I became a second-year student.
Because, of all things, I ended up in the same class as Sakamoto Ryuji, whom I had never had to interact with in our first year since we were in different classes.
Sakamoto Ryuji, like a typical manga protagonist, sat in the back row, by the window.
The distance between him and me was barely three meters, even with a desk between us.
My considerable sitting height had naturally landed me a seat at the very back of the class, which proved to be my undoing.
If I had known this would happen, I would have had one less scoop of protein powder.
"Ryuji! We're in the same class again this year!"
"What, you again?"
Just then, the one who spoke to Sakamoto Ryuji with a cheerful voice was Yaguchi Maiya, the one who becomes the final winner in the original story.
As if to perfectly embody the classic childhood friend heroine, she had a look that was simple at first glance but moderately pretty.
Her only distinguishing feature was the checkered headband she wore, which made it clear that Yaguchi Maiya wasn't one to follow the latest trends like other high school girls these days.
Fortunately, the first day of school ended with just some simple recreational activities, so no major incidents occurred.
But the very next day, with the surprise appearance of a blonde transfer student who was obviously a main heroine, I was certain.
The original story of 'Scramble Love' had already begun.