I was Thrown into an Unfamiliar Manga

4 a.m.
As always, I woke up at my regular time today. After packing a lunch in the kitchen, I changed into workout clothes and stepped outside to go jogging.
My usual jogging course is about 10km round trip.

There was a kind of romantic charm to running alone in the early morning air before the sun was fully up.
But today, there was one person accompanying me on that course.
It was none other than a former biker gang leader with an outdated regent haircut who, despite being the same age as me, called me Hyung-nim.

“Hyung-nim! Good morning, sir!”
“Yeah.”
For the next three days, I decided to stick with this guy, Goto Kazuya.

To be honest, I had no intention of taking on a disciple—it was obviously going to be exhausting, so I wanted to find a natural way to shake him off.
And for that purpose, I proposed a three-day hell course.
There was no way an average person who barely exercised could keep up with my usual workout routine.

Jogging beside me in sync, Goto said,
“It’s been a while since I’ve gone jogging like this! I used to run a lot back in middle school when I delivered newspapers!”
“Newspaper delivery? Why were you doing that in middle school? Were you short on pocket money?”

At that, Goto wiped under his nose with his finger and replied,
“My father walked out on us when I was three, and my mother raised me on her own after that.”
When Goto suddenly dropped such a heavy family story, I instinctively shut my mouth.

Honestly, that wasn’t the kind of response I was expecting at all.
Maybe sensing the awkward atmosphere, Goto laughed heartily and said it was fine.
‘No, I’m the one who’s not fine…’
Anyway, after running one full loop around the village along the riverbank, we headed to the public park I visited daily.

This park had workout equipment often used by middle-aged men and women, perfect for someone like me to exercise alone.
“How many pull-ups can you do?”
“Back in the day, I could do about five. But lately, I haven’t really tried, so I’m not sure.”

“All right. Watch closely.”
Saying that, I grabbed onto the pull-up bar.
My shoulders and arm muscles clenched with strain.

But I calmly cranked out about fifty pull-ups.
The key to proper pull-ups is the waist.
Using momentum to do pull-ups isn't effective from a fitness perspective, so good form like this is required.

Once the light warm-up was over, I told Goto to give it a try.
He swallowed nervously and, with a tense expression, shouted,
“Ossu!”

No, don’t shout like that—it’s embarrassing…
“Yes, Hyung-nim!”
Well, at least he listened well.

***
After finishing our morning workout, we retraced our steps and returned home.
It was exactly 6 a.m.

Since I had to leave the house by at least 7:10 to get to school, that left me with about an hour of spare time.
Showing a minimal amount of kindness, I gave Goto a solid meal and sent him off.
He was going to go home, wash up, and eat anyway, but I wanted to spare his single mother the extra trouble.

“Thank you, sir! The meal you made was really delicious!”
“Good. Then let’s meet again around 6 p.m.”
“Yes!”

Since both he and I had to go to school in the morning, there was no point in sticking together beyond this.
That’s why we agreed to meet again at 6 p.m., when I would’ve already returned from school, and planned to meet in front of the restaurant.
I watched him ride off on his bike, stretched, and climbed the stairs up to the second floor.

I had to start getting ready for school soon too.
***
When I arrived at school, the classroom was buzzing with energy.

It was probably because the midterm exams had just ended.
The day after what was basically the biggest hurdle of second year—of course the kids who’d been grinding hard lately were now all grinning, plotting ways to goof off.
“Yo. Kim Yu-seong.”

I returned Satoru’s greeting and took my seat.
“Did you get home all right yesterday?”
“Yeah. Thanks to a good friend, I got to enjoy the rare luxury of being surrounded by pretty girls. Yesterday was fun.”

“Well, glad to hear that.”
As I shrugged my shoulders, Satoru brought up a new topic.
“By the way, did you hear? Things are getting weird with the biker gangs in Tokyo lately.”

“Biker gangs? What’s going on all of a sudden?”
Before I realized it, I found myself tuning into Satoru’s story.
“Apparently the leader of Hyakki Yagyō, the gang that operates around Setagaya, got replaced recently. The newly appointed fourth-generation boss teamed up with guys from other gangs, and now the whole team is on the verge of breaking apart.”

When it comes to biker gang power struggles, they feel a lot weaker than actual yakuza wars, and I couldn’t help but see it that way.
Since we live in completely different worlds, I had no desire to understand them either—it had nothing to do with a normal person like me.
When I pressed him for a more interesting story, Satoru adjusted his glasses dramatically and said,

“This is actually top-secret info that hardly anyone knows, but I’ll tell you specially.”
“…What the hell is it?”
“How much do you know about the top three beauties of our school?”

“The top three what? What is that?”
“You idiot, calling yourself a guy and not knowing the Ichijo Academy’s top three beauties?”
“Stop saying weird stuff and just explain it in a way I can understand.”

“Tsk, I’d love to explain from beginning to end, but that would take too long, so I’ve got no choice.”
Satoru pushed up his index finger along his glasses and began to speak.
“First off, two of the three top beauties at Ichijo Academy are third-years. Student council president Saionji Kumiko and Kendo Club captain Fuma Yukika.”

What a coincidence—both people I already know.
The former I see weekly in the student council room, and the latter is someone I recently owed my life to.
She said she’d contact me soon, but I still haven’t heard anything. Who knows when she’ll ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) speak to me again.

All I could do was wait.
“And the last one is a first-year who’s supposed to start attending school next week.”
“Who’s the last one?”

Satoru puffed up his nose and replied,
“Brace yourself.”
“I won’t be shocked, just hurry up and say it.”

“It’s Minato Naoya, the rising national first-love talent.”
“Minato Nao…?”
“Even if you don’t care about celebrities, I’m sure you know her name. Just turning on the TV, her commercials play dozens of times a day.”

Out of curiosity, I dug through Kim Yu-seong’s memories from before the possession.
Just as Satoru said, she really was a massively famous celebrity.
A former child actor from a top-tier theater troupe.

“I didn’t know someone like that was attending our school.”
“Well, she was too busy with her celebrity work to come to school. But now she’s trying to move into the idol world too.”
Satoru proudly puffed out his chest as he said that.

“How do you know all this stuff so well?”
He raised his nose proudly and declared,
“I’m a triple-excellent member of Minato Naoya’s fanclub, number 100-something.”

His prideful expression made it painfully clear he was a full-on idol otaku.
No wonder he knew so much about her.
“How about this? Why don’t you take this chance to become a Naoya-fan too? If it’s now, I can guide you as a senior.”

“…I’ll politely decline.”
I was already too busy working out every day—I had no plans to waste time on a celebrity I’d never meet in my life.
While I was chatting away with Satoru about Minato Naoya, the protagonist Sakamoto Ryuji, his childhood friend Yaguchi Maiya, and even Rika and Sasha had all arrived at school.

First period on Thursday morning was math.
As a former science grad student, it was my favorite subject.
Last week, we were given self-study time because exams were coming up, so I thought we’d resume the curriculum today—but I was wrong.

The math teacher looked around the class and said,
“Today, we’ll be grading your midterm exam papers. Everyone, take out your tests.”
The math-phobes who’d been trying to avoid facing reality started collectively freaking out, clearly scared of seeing their scores.

One of them was Rika.
I shook my head as I watched the scene unfold.
Looks like a downpour of tears is about to fall on a lot of test papers today.

***
After school, I went straight home on the subway.
It was to keep the promise I made with Goto Kazuya this morning.

Usually, unless something special comes up, I head straight to the fitness club after school.
But today, to be considerate of the newcomer Goto, I decided to meet up with him midway and go together.
Our gym manager is always hungry for fresh newbies, so if I ask him to let Goto try it out for three days for free, he’ll happily agree with a smile.

Of course, that also means he’ll try to teach him a lot on the side.
“Hyung-nim! Did you return from school?”
Just as promised, Goto was waiting in front of the restaurant and bowed deeply as soon as he saw me walking from afar.

Seeing that, a passing child clutched their mother’s hand and asked,
“Mom, why is that older guy calling the younger guy Hyung-nim?”
“Shh, quiet. Let’s go.”

“……”
Yeah… I should probably stop him from doing that while we’re walking around together.