Volume 1 / Chapter 7: A Creepy Fatty

 "Hey beauty , what's your name?" From across the room, he called out to Mo Xueyao as if they were alone.  

Honestly, it felt overly familiar.  

It made Mo Xueyao uncomfortable.   If he'd yelled, 'Hey dude, what's your name?' she might have naturally told him.  

But hearing 'beauty' made her feel harassed, her skin crawling.  

First, she wasn't used to being a girl yet. Second, his flippant tone was deeply unpleasant.  

"Sit down." The command came from Class President Li Wanyan, seated by the corridor window. Her tone, cool and firm, brooked no argument, like she was commanding a dog.  

"...Cough." The chubby boy scratched his head awkwardly, resignedly dropping his bag beside Li Wanyan.  

"Did you do your homework?"  

"Hah... haha... gotta hit the bathroom..." The portly boy forced a laugh, trying to bolt with his bag, but Li Wanyan yanked him back down.  

"Gao Yuan." Li Wanyan enunciated his name with deliberate gravity, then asked again, word by word, "Did. You. Finish. Your. Homework?"  

"Ah... haha... you know... lovely weather today... and we've got a new beauty in class... the one who took a month off, right? Gotta say hi, yeah?" Gao Yuan plastered on a foolish grin, desperately trying to deflect.  

"If you didn't do it, I suggest you start now. Copying is not an option."  

"Aaaah—!" Gao Yuan groaned, tugging at his hair. "Class Prez! You don't have to brown-nose this hard!"  

Li Wanyan didn't reply, just fixed him with a stare.  

He shrank back, voice instantly dropping. "Teacher told you to keep an eye on me, not treat me like a dog on a leash... And everyone else is copying anyway..."  

The moment the words left his mouth, glares shot his way from several classmates busy copying homework.  

"Teacher told me to manage you. The others are not my concern," Li Wanyan stated seriously. "Take out your homework."  

"Uh... well... I kinda did some... heh... heh..." Gao Yuan chuckled nervously, pulling out his assignment.  

Regrettably, half the pages were blank.  

"Do it yourself. Ask me if you don't understand." Li Wanyan paused, then added, "If I catch you copying, I will tell the teacher."  

"Argh...this is torture..."

Mo Xueyao couldn't help but smirk with epicaricacy.  

This obnoxious jerk getting what he deserves was a satisfying outcome!  

But the guy was genuinely creepy. Even while desperately scribbling answers, he kept sneaking glances her way. When he caught Mo Xueyao looking back, he waggled his eyebrows and mouthed a silent 'hi'.  

...Where did a guy shaped like a sack of potatoes get that kind of confidence?  

He looked like a human dumpling!  

A certified chubby chub.  

Mo Xueyao turned her head away, pointedly ignoring him.  

Her holiday homework had been delivered by Li Wanyan. Despite missing the first month of high school, she'd completed it all, discovering gaps in her understanding along the way and going back to study. Thankfully, the early units were relatively straightforward, allowing Mo Xueyao to grasp nearly everything through self-study.  

Mo Xueyao had arrived at school at 6:30 AM. It was now 7:10.  

Most students trickled in around this time.  

By 7:30, nearly everyone was present, except for the habitual latecomers or those who loved cutting it close.  

Mo Xueyao's deskmate still hadn't arrived; the chair beside her remained empty.  

She wondered what her deskmate would be like.  

As time passed, her nerves tightened.  

Hmm... best if it's just an average guy. Easier to talk to.

Definitely not some super handsome one...

Mo Xueyao felt overly handsome guys tended to be narcissistic. It was tolerable when she was a guy, but now as a girl, she'd probably have to endure constant preening.  

That would be insufferable.  

Plus... it would just make her jealous.  

Why do they get to be handsome guys, while I'm stuck as a girl? – thoughts like that would inevitably bubble up.  

A girl would be okay too, she supposed.  

Though... she probably wouldn't know how to interact with one.  

Just then, the Chinese class representative stepped onto the podium to lead the morning reading.  

The teacher hadn't arrived yet, so the classroom buzzed with noise.  

Only a handful of students followed along; the rest were occupied with their own things.  

Huff, huff—! A girl, biting into a slice of bread and looking even smaller than Mo Xueyao, rushed breathlessly into the room. She slumped into her seat with a sigh. "Made it... just before the teacher..."  

Her seat was right beside Mo Xueyao. She was the deskmate.  

She wore her hair in twin ponytails and looked incredibly young – someone might mistake her for a seventh-grader.  

She was much shorter than Mo Xueyao, barely scraping five feet approx. 1.5m.  

The kind of girl a boy could easily scoop up.  

Not stunningly beautiful, but certainly not plain, with a cuteness that invited approachability.  

She munched her bread slice while rapidly pulling homework and textbooks from her bag. Finally leaning back, she devoured the bread with an appetite that defied her petite frame.  

"Mmmph? Oh!" Only then did she notice Mo Xueyao beside her.  

"Uh... hi," Mo Xueyao offered an awkward smile.  

"Oh! Hi! You're the girl who took a month off, right?"  

"Yeah... that's me," Mo Xueyao replied, a touch resigned. "Uh... health stuff."  

"Mmhmm! I know your name! You're—Mo Xueyao!"  

Mo Xueyao was surprised, and a little touched, that someone knew her name.  

They'd never met, yet she remembered...  

"How do you know my name?"  

"Seating chart! See, it's on the podium." She pointed towards the teacher's desk, then gulped down a large mouthful of water to wash down the last of the bread, making Mo Xueyao worry for her delicate throat. "Oh, I'm Wang Jiale~"  

"Wang Jiale?" Mo Xueyao repeated.  

Not particularly unique, even a common girl's name.  

But it suited her vibe.  

"This is how you write it." Wang Jiale pointed to the name on her homework book.  

The handwriting clashed dramatically with her small stature.  

The characters were huge, sprawling beyond the standard lines and boxes.  

But because she used a fine pen, the large characters lacked force, looking like inflated balloons.  

"Mm..." Mo Xueyao paused, unsure what to say next.  

Luckily, Wang Jiale felt no awkwardness. She had already picked up her Chinese textbook and started the morning reading...  

A few minutes later, the homeroom teacher entered the classroom.  

Her presence instantly brought a semblance of order to the reading; the other noises quieted significantly.  

She was a young woman wearing a pair of very lively white knee-high socks.  

Her legs alone... were truly enviable.  

Mo Xueyao didn't dare look closely at her face, though, as the teacher was scanning the students below with a serious gaze, checking for slackers.  

"Li Wanyan, did Gao Yuan finish his homework today?" The teacher walked over to the class president's desk.  

"He finished it after arriving this morning," Li Wanyan reported, glancing at Gao Yuan's sheepish grin but omitting the part about 'most of it being guesswork'.  

"Do it at home next time, understand?" The teacher placed a hand on Gao Yuan's head and ruffled it vigorously. "Ew—why is your head so greasy? Didn't wash it?"  

"I did wash it!" Gao Yuan looked utterly wronged, then flashed a distinctly lecherous grin. "Teacher, those white knee-highs are lookin' sharp today."  

"Quite the connoisseur, aren't you?" The teacher didn't get angry; instead, she laughed and pinched his chubby cheek hard. "Brat, no respect for your elders."  

"Aiya, Teacher Ye, you're so pretty, gotta compliment you! Happy teacher, prettier teacher!" The creepy fatty, Gao Yuan, laid it on thick like his mouth was full of honey.  

His sleazy expression utterly ruined the flattery.  

"Alright, save the sweet talk for other girls." The teacher tapped the Chinese textbook in front of him. "Read properly. I can't hear you."  

"Yes, ma'am!" Gao Yuan boomed, immediately launching into an overly loud recitation.  

However, unfamiliar with the text, he stumbled over the words. Reading fast, it sounded like garbled chanting, disrupting the class rhythm and provoking scattered laughter.  

Just as the class finally dissolved into open giggles, the bell for morning exercises rang.  

But today was the first day of the new term. Though it was a Friday schedule, the exercise time was replaced by a morning assembly speech.  

Honestly, Mo Xueyao would have preferred doing calisthenics and being done with it.  

Assembly speeches meant standing still, listening to dull monologues – pure torture.  

The morning sun was hidden behind soft white clouds. In hot weather, this would be welcome relief.  

But today was already cool enough; a bit of sun would have been warm and comforting.  

Yet the sun stubbornly refused to show, leaving the cold wind to whip around every student.  

The girls' winter uniforms hadn't been issued yet. So most cold-sensitive girls, Mo Xueyao included, stood shivering slightly in the breeze, arms wrapped around themselves for warmth.  

The summer girls' uniform was just too thin.