Utsukushii Kare/ My Beautiful Man [ENGLISH TRANSLATION]

Chapter-1; PART-3: He is Beautiful

Translator: White Lotus

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While cleaning the chemistry lab room, Hira was suddenly hit from behind by a boy and almost dropped the beaker he was washing.

The boy, who bumped into him, made a perfunctory apology.

"Oh sorry."

"Miki, stop bullying Hii-kun."

"I wasn't bullying him. I just stumbled and bumped into him."

"Nah, that was on purpose. Poor Hii-kun."

And then everyone burst into laughter.

There was no specific meaning in their laughter. Laughter was only the easiest form of unity, as well as the exclusion of others. Hira, who was the target of the laughter, kept his head lowered as he continued to wash the chemical-stained beaker.

Although the cleaning team consisted of six members, only Hira was the one who was doing the cleaning properly.

It doesn't matter if I'm alone, or invisible, I just want to spend this year peacefully.

It had only been a month since the day of class change, but the little hope of Hira went into smoke.

Due to the incident of his stuttering "hi hi hi" on the first day of school, Hira had been given the nickname "Hii-kun". It was an unpleasant nickname, but there was no way for anyone to know the real origin behind this nickname just by hearing it.

Even when they called him "Hii-kun" loudly in the hallway, the teachers just walked past him with a look that seemed to say how beautiful it was to have a good friendship.

The group of boys, who had given Hira this disdainful nickname, was the most popular in the class. It wasn't like they had good grades or were better at athletics. They just naturally dominated everyone around with their strong attitude and loud voices. In a place like school, where monkeys on the verge of becoming true human beings gathered, they were the strongest. Even without any valid reason, everyone thought as long as they didn't go against that group of boys, they could consider themselves as winners*.

(T/N: *As long as everyone doesn't go against those boys, it would be good for them.)

Hira was the exact opposite. He thought that as long as they didn't find any reason to stomp on him, it was okay for him to be considered a loser. Once the class system was organized, reversing the situation was extremely difficult in any world.

"Ah, it's too hot. I want to drink juice."

Shirota, the most flamboyant member of the group, spoke up. His spiky brown hair made him look stupid.

"I want a Coke. The red one."

As Miki chimed in, the other two also began to clamor by saying "Me too, me too."

Here it comes...

As expected, they called him by the name "Hii-kun!", as if they were calling a dog. Hira heaved a sigh of giving up.

At first, they just made fun of him by calling him by that terrible nickname, but now they made him buy drinks and snacks, or run to the convenience store in front of the school, like a complete servant. Even so, this was still better than the torturous bullying. Hira tried to make himself think that way. Hira's way of giving up and accepting everything with the thought of "it is better than this" or " it is better than that", made him keep falling further and further into the lower tier. Sometimes he wondered how long this cycle would continue. If this continued even when he became an adult, then he had no dreams or hopes for his future.