Right from the first day, the sports teacher asked me to check out the girls' football club. Ajin also suggested I consider some other athletic clubs, and I had an offer from Chin to join the manga club, which didn't make any sense at all because at least the sports teacher and Ajin saw my physical ability. Chin on the other hand never saw me draw or even ask if I had any interest in such things. He just straight out asked me to join the manga club probably so they could have a pretty flower to look at during their club activity times.
Yeah, right, like I had any interest in becoming a fap material for these geeks.
However, I wanted to check the club out. I knew Chin and his club mates gathered in their secluded little club room every lunchtime, presumably working on some sort of a doujinshi.
Of course, I was very aware that this was not something someone like Jenn would be interested in, and guys like Chin were not someone that Jenn would ever associate herself with. Not that I knew Jenn's social life habits, but a girl like that simply didn't hang out with these kinda guys, geeks or otakus or weebs or whatever you may call them.
I thought things through on my way to school in the morning though and realized that there were a few reasons why checking them out would be a good idea. First of all, I genuinely wanted to join them as my old self before. It was something I was interested in, and I could draw manga-type illustrations to a passable level as a keen hobbyist - one of the very few things that I was actually capable of. Secondly, what Soojin said yesterday kind of stuck in my head - "You think you are going to be some kind of a princess among plebs here?"
Yes, I would have enjoyed my new status in the old environment where I was once at the bottom of the class hierarchy. It would be sweet to look down on others for a change and be someone who was respected and admired by everyone.
But I instinctively knew that wasn't going to end well for me. I wasn't sure I could keep up the princess act. It could all come crumbling down at some point and I just end up being a laughing stock after failing to live up to the expectations that were set too high from the start. Also, as someone who was at the bottom tier before, I knew those at the top weren't universally liked. Yes, they were looked up to by some kids, but I wouldn't be wrong in saying they were also hated in equal amounts, although that was done more discreetly. And of course, as someone familiar with various manga tropes I knew that a pretty girl with a bit of goofiness can be very appealing.
So I decided to make it my mission for my second day at school to break everyone's expectations and go check out the manga club. Sorry to disappoint those who were eagerly waiting for a chance to hate me for being stuck up, but nope, I won't be the one to look down and stomp on these guys. Besides, keeping up a perfect girl act was hard, but being able to have some goofiness would let me te-he my way through some sticky situations in the future that will inevitably arise. I just knew school life wasn't gonna be completely smooth sailing even as Jenn. Soojin showing hostility from the first day was a concern. Showing some awkward weirdness on my second day should disarm her hostility a little, for a while at least.
"Chin, that was your name right?"
I walked over to Chin's desk right after the first class finished. Chin was doing something on his desk (probably doodling) and looked up to see me, and seemed awestruck as if he'd been approached by a real goddess. And it wasn't only Chin. Many eyes in class were cast in our direction and I could see Ajin standing up and walking over to me.
"Ye-, yes"
"You were talking about manga club yesterday"
"Ye…huh?"
"I will take up on your offer to check out the manga club today"
"Wha- what?! Really?!"
He wasn't a timid geek. He was unashamedly proud of what he liked and was energetic.
"I'm not saying I will join the club. But you were the first one in the school to offer me to check out the club. I appreciate that. So if it's okay with you guys I would like to at least see what the club is like"
"Oh man, that's awesome! Thank you, like really, thank you"
"Are you sure, Jenn?", Ajin was now standing next to me asking in a concerned voice.
"It's okay, it's not like a lion's den is it?"
"Let me go with you-, just in case…"
Just in case what? But well, that's just how things must have seemed. To the eyes of someone so caring as Ajin, it must have looked like I was a clueless posh girl about to visit a ghetto full of horny wolves.
"Sure. Thank you"
The rest of the morning classes passed uneventfully, and excited Chin led me and Ajin to the club room during lunchtime.
"Hey guys, we have someone new interested in our club!", Chin shouted as he opened the door.
I saw that everyone was busy drawing things, and all of them looked confused and surprised as they saw me enter the room with Ajin.
"Huh?"
"Er… a girl?"
"For real?"
I just acknowledged them with a smile and casually asked, just as I'd practiced in my mind earlier.
"So, what do you guys do here?"
"We are a manga club, so we draw manga. That's what we do"
"Well, I could have guessed that much. I meant are you guys working on any story or are you just drawing illustrations?"
"Jenn, are you really interested in this?", Ajin whispered into my ear. Jesus, I'm still not used to this and it gave me tingles, which I tried my best to hide.
"Sure, I'm just curious"
"I'm glad you asked! We are actually drawing our first doujinshi. Our target is to have it finished before the school festival in autumn so we can display them and sell them at that time"
"That sounds great. What kind of story is it?"
"Well, we were originally going for the usual school romance stuff…"
Pffft. As if you guys know or experienced anything like that, but welp, neither did I so maybe I'm not one to talk.
"You 'were'? How about now?"
"Er… something happened in our class and that gave us some ideas"
Huh?
"We had a guy… erm… jump off a bridge and almost died, apparently he's still alive though"
Ouch. I totally did not expect to hear about myself like this all of a sudden. My heart was starting to beat a little faster.
"Pssst. Don't say unnecessary things to Jenn. You will frighten her", Ajin intercepted.
"It really happened though", Chin shrugged.
"So…. How does that change your original story?", I asked as calmly as possible.
"You see, originally our MC was going to be an average and unremarkable guy. That's how things are normally. An average dude finding his love and things work out somehow"
"Uh-huh"
"Then we thought, hey, let's give it a little bit of twist. Instead of making the MC an average Joe, why don't we make things a bit darker? So we revised our plot a bit and now the MC is someone who gets bullied in class and almost driven to suicide but is saved by a beautiful girl from his school that he's never met before, and one thing leads to another and things work out. We thought that would make the story more dramatic"
"THAT, is like totally inappropriate", Ajin firmly objected.
Ah… this hurt a bit. So that's how it was. Everybody knew I was getting bullied. Everybody knew it was so bad that it might have been the reason I jumped. Yet nobody did anything to stop the bullying. Nobody did anything to reach out to me, but now I was being used as a doujin character.
My heart was now thumping. I ddi't think it was really from any anger. It was just the rush of my old emotions coming back to me as I listened to these words.
"So, what do you think?", Chin just ignored Ajin and asked me directly.
"I think it's interesting"
"Yes! So are you joining the manga club?"
"Too early to say. But I will be happy to read what you guys are working on if it's okay"
"Sure thing! We'd appreciate any kind of feedback. You know, to be honest, we are struggling with the girl character… we are, er… not so familiar with how girls think and act. It would be great to have a girl comment on our plot and scripts"
"I see. I hope I can help"
With that, I put on my best smile to silently announce my leave and walked back to our class with Ajin.
Well, what you guys don't know is - I could probably make a comment or two about the male MC too. But I'll keep that quiet for now.