I Chose the Plain Girl Instead of the Class’s Top Three Beauties, and Somehow She Became the Heroine - 73

Chapter 73: Changes Around Me

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《Sora Mukei’s POV》

Hiroko-san had praised me. Because of that, I got up a little earlier in the morning. I set my alarm thirty minutes earlier than usual, and once I got out of bed, I headed straight to the sink. I traced through the order Souma-kun had told me in my head.

Wash my face → press away the water droplets with a towel → toner → lotion, and then moisturize my lips with the colorless lip balm I’d gotten from Kiritani Mizuki-san. For my eyebrows, I combed them into place and plucked just the single stray hair with tweezers. Overdoing it was forbidden.

I wasn’t knowledgeable about beauty care, so I made sure to do properly only what I understood. I had trimmed my nails the night before, so even my fingertips looked neat. Cleanliness was what mattered most. I used the dryer from the roots, lifting the base of my bangs before drying everything, then took a pea-sized amount of wax into my palm.

“From the inside outward. Don’t apply it just on the surface.”

Souma-kun’s voice replayed in my head like a spell. After lightly adjusting the flow with a comb at the end, my hair settled into an angle that let light easily reach my eyes. I had ironed my uniform shirt the night before. There wasn’t a single wrinkle on the collar. I checked the shoulder line of my blazer, and made sure my tie knot had one shallow dimple. Just keeping each item clean added up to an overall sense of cleanliness.

I polished my shoes and checked my posture. I lengthened my neck just a little and lifted my solar plexus upward. My movements were quiet. I maintained the proper posture I’d trained through karate. I closed the door slowly. I didn’t toss my phone onto the desk. Making sure I didn’t look rough, I gave myself some breathing room and took a deep breath in front of the mirror. An unfamiliar, properly put-together version of me stood there.

On the way to school, I made sure not to forget, turning all of this into a habit. I ran into Akira at the shoe lockers.

“Sora, good morn—hey, hey, hey. Huh? Who are you?”

“What do you mean, who? Morning, Akira.”

“What happened to your hair? Your eyebrows? Your collar? What happened to everything?”

I laughed at Akira’s over-the-top reaction.

“I got a bit of advice. You remember Kiritani-san’s older brother, right? Souma-kun.”

“Huh? The guy who’s an actor and shows up in dramas and stuff?”

“Yeah. That’s him.”

“Isn’t he a monster-tier handsome guy? What, is this some kind of cheat event?!”

I told him about when I met Souma-kun and how I’d consulted him because I wanted to become cooler.

“He told me to keep hair and eyebrows minimal, and focus on cleanliness, posture, fit, and behavior. That was enough. He lightly fixed things up for me at the studio, and we even went together to a clothing shop to choose clothes.”

“Damn. Maybe I should ask him too. I feel like I’d get rejected right at the entrance just on cleanliness alone.”

“Start with washing your face and drying the roots of your bedhead. And your nails, too. If it’s okay with you, I can teach you what I learned.”

“Guh… suddenly this got way too realistic. Yeah, teach me. Better yet, introduce me to him!”

“If I get the chance.”

We walked down the hallway. My stride wasn’t rushed, my back stayed straight. I felt just a little more attention than usual. I could feel flickers of air vibrating from the side and the front. Maybe it was just my imagination though.

I quietly opened the classroom door. The moment I stepped inside, I felt like I heard a few girls softly gasp.

“Mukei-kun!”

Miura-san waved brightly, just as she always did. It was the same as usual, yet there was a brief, assessing blink—just one beat—before she broke into a perfect smile.

“Good morning, Miura-san.”

“Morning! Mukei-kun, you’re looking good today~. Is it the gap? Yeah, yeah, you pass!”

“I don’t know what I passed, but thank you.”

The girls around us giggled quietly.

“He really feels different.”

“So yesterday’s photo was real.”

Fragments of conversation reached my ears. I let them slide off with a smile so things wouldn’t get too noisy. Careful, deliberate movements. That was today’s theme.

“…Good morning.”

I heard Hiroko-san’s voice slightly behind me and turned around. Light caught her newly shortened hair. Our eyes met, and her eyes widened just for an instant.

“Good morning, Hiroko-san.”

“Yes. Um… It really suits you. You look cool.”

“Thank you. I worked hard this morning because I want to make it a habit.”

My throat felt just a little dry. The lingering feeling from last night’s meeting overlapped with the morning in the classroom. Hiroko-san’s cheeks faintly colored, but she continued in her usual calm voice.

“Today, at lunch… Can you go to the bench?”

“I can. I’m looking forward to the soup.”

“Hehe. It’s minestrone today.”

It was a short exchange, but the tension drained from my shoulders. No matter how restless the classroom atmosphere became, this place alone stayed the same. It was the place I wanted to protect the most.

“Sora, get to your seat. Homeroom’s starting.”

Akira nudged me with his elbow.

“Hey, you know… Even your voice sounds more put together somehow.”

“Probably because of my posture? Apparently it’s easier to project your voice when your neck is straight.”

“What kind of voice training is that? Damn it, I’m starting my own cleanliness journey today. I’ll start with polishing my shoes.”

“That’s oddly specific.”

Before I sat down, another girl at the back of the classroom gave me a small wave.

“Mukei-kun, I saw yesterday’s photo. You looked cool.”

Yesterday’s photo? I wasn’t sure what she meant, but I responded with a small bow. I closed the door quietly and pulled out my chair without making a sound. Inside my chest, a signal rang. The words from bystanders were just noise. What mattered was handling what was right in front of me, one thing at a time.

Cleanliness, posture, fit, behavior and sincerity. When lunchtime came, I would go to the bench. This season of sharing things halfway wasn’t over yet. Today, I would sit in that familiar place as a properly put-together version of myself. Just that alone felt like more than enough progress.

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