SSS-Class Revival Hunter-Chapter 145: The Friends (1)

“You’re going to help me?”

The class president smiled bitterly. “Yeah, well, though I shouldn’t talk too patronizingly about this kind of matter...”

Has he always been so expressive?

He seemed a little off to me. We had been in the same class since the first year of high school, but I never really talked to him before.

“I’m running for student council president this year to get a recommendation letter for a university... Anyway, I want to become the student council president, so I need to try to resolve any problems that arise in class. I’m not sure how to solve this, but I’ll talk to Kim Yul. Do you know his phone number?”

“Uh... Wait a second.”

While looking through my contacts list, I realized that the class president didn’t know Kim Yul’s number. All my classmates who had watched the videos with me knew it. In other words...

The class president isn’t the mastermind.

There was still a possibility that he was just acting.

No way. He’s an ordinary model student, so he had no way of obtaining the videos.

I was sure the class president was not the culprit.

I nodded, signaling that I had found the number, but the class president said, “Ah, no. It’d be a little inappropriate to talk about this over the phone. I’ll just privately talk to him at school tomorrow. Would that work?”

“Uh, yeah, you’re right. It’s inappropriate. Well, thank you for the help.”

“If you’re truly grateful, please vote for me, not your girlfriend.”

“Alright.”

My girlfriend and I already broke up today. The class president didn’t seem to know that, so this gave me one more reason to remove him from the list of suspects.

I was beginning to have some hope.

Okay. It’s not over yet. It’s not over! If just one person supports me, I can use them to come up with a plan. This won’t last for much longer. After a while, my friends will return to normal.

From that day on, the class president really took action. I couldn’t tell exactly how he was doing it, but it seemed like he was actively using the model student image he had built up over the years.

The following afternoon, the class president told me, “Okay. I finished talking with Kim Yul.”

The two of us had a secret meeting in the empty classroom. Once again, I didn’t go down to the cafeteria. My classmates continued to subtly ostracize me, so I didn’t want to get swayed by them.

“Really? What did he say?”

“He wants you to formally apologize in front of all your friends. He’ll never accept your apology if you only do it in front of his face. If you apologize sincerely so that others can see it, he’ll forgive you.”

What a crazy guy. What kind of apology was that?

Kim Yul was no different from his classmates. He was just trying to embarrass me with this shit because he wanted to taste power a little longer.

“He was very adamant that he’ll never forgive you if the apology doesn’t feel sincere. It seemed he was really angry at you because I couldn’t read anything else from his face.”

I’m going to go insane. Can’t I just give him one million won and be done with it?

He would take it because he was a beggar.

“What does he mean by sincerity? How do I show sincerity?”

“Well, I’m not sure about that either... Anyway, he said it’s important to apologize in front of the other students, so how about making a speech in advance?”

The class president sounded slightly annoyed. Perhaps he finally realized that the situation was more complicated than he had thought.

Shit. My school life and future depended on this. Hell, my life was at stake here. If he decided to pretend to be nice, he had to be responsible until the end!

“Yeah, I should try writing a speech. Phew...” I put on the most pitiful look I could muster. After all, I had to put on the performance of my lifetime. “I was a real idiot. Why did I bully Kim Yul? All the kids were doing it, so I joined in without even thinking much about it. Shit, I shouldn’t have done that.”

Come on, feel sorry for me. Have pity on me. I’m a human being. I know how to feel regret and I want to repent for my mistakes. I didn’t commit a mortal sin, goddammit! Go ahead and take pity on me!

“Kim Yul has every right to be angry at me. I could have stopped them, but... Phew, I really feel bad now. If I could, I would apologize in front of the entire school. Really.”

The class president stared at me with thoughtful eyes. It was difficult to imagine what was going on in his head, but there was no doubt that he was intently listening to what I was saying.

He jumped up from his seat. “I have an idea.”

“Huh?”

“I thought of a way for Kim Yul to forgive you. Just wait a moment. I’m going to make a quick trip to the teachers’ office.”

And just like that, he was gone.

I was dumbstruck. What was wrong with him? I absentmindedly took a bite of my bread[1] in the otherwise empty classroom. By the time I halfway nibbled through the bread, the class president came back.

“Okay! I got the teacher’s confirmation.”

“Confirmation for what?”

“I’m talking about the student council president election speech. I asked if someone who isn’t a candidate can go up to the podium, and he said there is no rule against it.”

The class president flashed a confident smile. The corners of his mouth were a little wet, as if he had dropped by the bathroom.

The sourc𝗲 of this content is freēwēbηovel.c૦m.

“You said you would apologize in front of the entire school if you could. And I was thinking about what to write in my speech to beat your girlfriend, so this is good.”

“Uh...”

“Hear me out.”

The class president sat down and took out a notebook. His pen left fancy cursives on the paper, though his handwriting was quite old-fashioned.

“You apologize to Kim Yul, then I take over the microphone and continue my speech by saying, ‘The school environment I want to create as the student council president is one where we admit and forgive each other’s wrongdoings.’ Do you understand what I’m trying to do here?”

I wasn’t sure.

“My speech is going to have a story, unlike those speeches that just make promises!”

Right...

“I don’t know what your girlfriend’s speech is going to be like, but she’s super rich, that much is obvious. She’ll probably say that she’ll spend her own money to install a perfume dispenser in all the school restrooms, and make sure the toilet paper doesn’t run out. She’ll try to tempt the other students with things like that. If it’s about making promises, my chances of winning are zero, so... Yeah, I should fight her with a story.”

He wrote some catchphrases in his notebook.

—The student council that solves problems! The student council that keeps you all connected! We will be your emergency communication channel!

“Uhhhh...”

The class president’s eyes sparkled. “How does that sound?”

Very corny.

“Now is the era of storytelling! I’m sick of bathroom perfume dispensers, toilet paper, or anything of that sort. We’ve heard those kinds of promises in every election since elementary school. This will work. Let’s go with the storytelling strategy!”

Well, the student council election was an event defined by corny promises, like proper communication between the council and the students and other convincing lies. The idea the class president came up with right now didn’t seem bad.

I’d had this feeling for a while, but I really couldn’t believe it. This bastard isn’t interested in anything other than his own election!

Even though he was the class president, I had been wondering why he was going out of his way to help me. He was just a selfish bastard who wanted to use me to gain votes in the election. From the looks of it, he seemed indifferent to what was happening in the class, to Kim Yul, or me being ostracized, and only got involved because he figured out a way to boost his popularity for the election. And the reason for running for class president was to get into a good university, not to actually help the students!

But it helped me completely set aside my doubts.

Yeah, this guy is just like me.

The class president and I were like two peas in a pod. He thought and worried about the future, hoping to enter a good university and live a good life. Not many people would seriously aim to become a student council president in hopes of receiving a recommendation letter for their admission to Seoul National University.

He’s just like me.

He was much more trustworthy than those who pretended to be nice for no particular reason. Once he grew up, he would definitely turn out successful.

“But only a few days are left until the election. Are you sure it’s okay to change your speech because of me?”

The class president smiled. “It’s okay. Winning is what matters most. If I include making posters and all that, I devoted twenty hours to the election when I could have been studying, so I can’t lose.”

This bastard really thinks like me.

I trusted him more, even feeling a sense of kinship.

“Okay, Class President. I’ll help you with anything I can, but you should help me too. Please tell my classmates that I want to make up for my mistakes. I’m truly sorry for everything, and I want to be friends again if possible.”

“Yeah, I will. Let’s make this a win-win situation.”

The two of us shook hands. I was going to help him with the election. Even though I couldn’t help him with it in the open, I edited the speech and planned the election campaign together with him. Although my classmates still ostracized me, just having something to do at school gave me a strong sense of stability.

As the sunset seeped into the room, only two of us were left in the classroom of Year 2 Class 5.

The class president was satisfied with my apology and the election speech. “Whoa, you’re good at writing. We will win for sure as long as you put up a good act.”

I tilted my head. “Act? What act?”

“Hmm? You don’t actually feel sorry for Kim Yul at all.”

I didn’t confirm nor deny that.

“Oh, it’s okay. I’m not blaming you. I don’t think it’s important that your apology is sincere or not, but you should apologize nonetheless. I don’t get what it means to be sincere either.”

The class president handed me back the apology note.

“You’re saying sorry to him in front of the entire school despite how embarrassing that will be for you. Where can you find an apology more sincere than that? How many times you say you’re sorry or how sorry you actually feel doesn’t really matter. You should prove it by actually doing something to remediate your wrongdoings. On that note, you’re a thousand times better than the other students.”

Hmm. Umm...

“I asked Kim Yul yesterday if anyone had properly apologized to him so far, but he said no one had. I heard that you were the only one who asked him how to get his forgiveness. Seriously, the kids in our class are shameless.”

“Class President, you...”

He really was just like me! I was a little impressed.

“Ah, well, that’s good news for me. If you were to say ‘Vote for my girlfriend!’ I would have lost a few dozen votes at least. I pity you for getting ostracized, but honestly, I’m glad this happened to you.”

I blinked. “Wow, you’re such a dickhead...”

“Yeah, thanks, but isn’t everyone like that?”

I laughed because he was right. It was the first time I had laughed since my girlfriend dumped me.

This guy really knows something.

Humans were scumbags and animals. If humans appeared docile, it was simply because they had turned into livestock. Only those who figured this out fast would survive.

[Your immersion level is 100%.]

Then they would get to be hyenas, not baby goats. If they were lucky, they could even become lions. Some people complained that human relationships were difficult, but it was because they tried to see other people as humans. It was a lot easier to see your peers as animals.

If someone didn’t have any friends, that was because there was no benefit to staying with them. They should at least help others relieve their stress by playing together. People only had a lot of friends if those friends could gain something out of the friendship.

That was how the world worked. True friendship was born only from people’s interests.

If I’m with him, I won’t suffer any losses at least.

I grinned. “Class President, do you want to be my friend?”

He chuckled. “Let’s do that after I get elected as the student council president. The speech is pretty good, but try editing it some more. I’m doing a lot right now to get you and the other classmates to apologize. If I don’t get elected, this is all for nothing.”

“Alright, alright. I’ll give you a really awesome speech. And I’ll cry my eyes out as I give my apology! I, Hwang Eun-Seo, shall devote myself to making you the student council president of Shinseo High School!”

“Yes, that sounds great. I look forward to seeing the fully edited version of my speech, Mr. Eun-Seo.”

We chuckled together.

1. There is a snack bar within Korean high and middle schools. The schools provide meals, but the students go there a lot if they don’t like the food being served in the cafeteria. ☜