JOURNEY OF LOVE: A MEMORABLE VACATION - PART 2 (Patreon)

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Note: This story is intended for mature audiences (18+) and all characters depicted are 18 years of age or older.

Part 2: Love Like In Manga?

I am Harlen, one of the members of the CSW Foreign Language Club. I just moved to the city at the beginning of 10th grade. Before that, I still lived with my family in a small village near the sea.

My hometown is not too rich, the population here is also relatively small, and most of them are elderly. Unlike schools in the city, in my hometown, each grade has only one class. There are even classes that have no students for several years in a row. The number of students in each class is less than 10. Therefore, I do not think I will be considered “handsome” by my peers in the city, because in all my years at home, no one has ever commented on me like that.

It seems that the standard of beauty in every place is different. The men in my fishing village often had large, muscular bodies, while I had a slender body from birth. My father used to say: “You don't look like a man at all!” Therefore, it is not difficult to understand that I still think of myself as someone with a bad appearance. I wanted to be like my father and uncles, but apparently, I just inherited the genome from my mother.

My mother was a city resident, a coral expert. During an exploration of the sea area of my hometown, her canoe unfortunately had a problem. It was my father who saved her and the love between them blossomed from there. To this day, she still conducts research in my hometown and sends the results of her analysis to her colleagues in the city.

The women of my fishing village are also quite muscular. Apparently, my mother's small, slim figure was nothing like the other women here. Therefore, when I was told that I looked like my mother, I didn't think I had such a good look for the people of the city! It is difficult to talk about beauty standards in a place where people do not pay too much attention to beauty.

At the beginning of high school, I was forced to move to the city if I wanted to continue studying for a reason I mentioned above: Not all grades have classes. In this place, most people only study until ninth grade and then follow their families to the sea to fish or do similar jobs. Not really, but very few people choose to go to high school.

I like studying more than doing manual work, also because of my small body. Therefore, my mother asked an acquaintance of hers in the city to arrange for me to continue my studies at high school. Surprisingly, from the first day I moved to the city, I was noticed by a lot of girls!

Because of the guilt of not being like the people in my hometown, I have been inherently shy since I was a child. Arriving in a place as large and full of people as a city, I was overwhelmed. Therefore, when I am noticed by others, instead of feeling happy or proud, I think I am more afraid. In short, at that time, I still think the reason the girls noticed me was probably because I was an ugly, country guy who had just moved to the city, not because I was “handsome”.

I was assigned to CSW High School. This is a large school with relatively expensive tuition. As a result, I realized something that I had never thought about before: “My mother lives in a poor countryside, but in reality she is not poor at all!” Well, that's not the main point.

CSW High School has a separate dormitory block for students living far from home. However, the number of students who have a home in the city to live in the dormitory is not small. Some do not like to be confined by their parents, some live too far from the city center. One room in the dormitory will have two students. When I knew this, I was a little nervous, because I didn't expect to be in contact with other people.

On the day I checked into the dormitory, I knew that the person living with me was a student in the 10th grade, named Tristan. He has an angular face and a strong body, even more muscular than the young men in my hometown. Tristan has always shown a friendly and enthusiastic attitude towards me, but because of my shy nature, I am still a bit afraid when interacting with him. Tristan doesn't seem to care much about it!

In addition to his impressive appearance, Tristan is also an excellent student, especially in Foreign Language. For that reason, he is always loved by schoolgirls. I wasn't jealous of him, because I knew that with my shyness, it would be a long time before I had a girlfriend. Tristan treats everyone gently and kindly, and me is no exception. He helped me a lot in getting used to the city life.

One day, when I visited the school's forum, I realized that I attracted girls myself. According to the introduction, I am “handsome” in my petite and intellectual form. I was very surprised, didn't think there was such a “handsome” type. Up to now, I kept imagining in my mind that a handsome person must have a standard physique like Tristan, but it turns out that, according to the information from the forum, there are countless types of handsome people who are clearly distinguished by schoolgirls.

From the day the beauty chart was first posted on the forum in the year I enrolled, I started to get more attention. This is not what I want! However, I can't remain a timid guy, shying away from others all the time. I need to improve my relationships, especially in the love relationship, which I have never felt before. This also comes from the reason of “not wanting to be different” only, because it seems that in this ranking, every schoolboys has a lover. I'm not so sure about that either!

I started reading romance novels or manga. The beautiful love in the story many times made me blush because of their sweetness. Not a few times, I tried to imagine myself as the male lead in a Shoujo Manga (Japanese girls' comics) and having a lover who was a schoolgirl at my school, but unfortunately, I did not have any feeling about the so-called love.

It was a memorable day! As I was struggling to find a book on the top shelf in the library, which can only be reached by ladders, the ladder lost its balance and I fell. In that moment, I thought that, with my small, weak body, I would definitely be in the hospital for a long time.

But… that didn't happen. When I opened my eyes, I was in the arms of someone. This person is someone I know, it's Tristan. He's breathing fast. That said, he had to run fast to catch me when I fell. I am really grateful to him! But… it seems that our position is not quite right now!

Through many situations in the Manga, I think of the pose of the male lead holding his lover like a princess. This makes me blush, because we are exactly in that position, with Tristan as the male lead… and me as the female lead, who is being held by him! Fortunately, the library doesn't have many visitors at the moment, so no one sees this embarrassing scene.

Tristan didn't seem to mind what I was thinking. Despite his shortness of breath, he asked me intermittently: “Are you… okay?!” I said: “No… it's okay! Thank you!” Tristan flashed a smile: “That's great! I don't want to see my roommate in the hospital. Being alone in the dorm room would be very lonely.” Of course, I know he's just joking, but I really appreciate it.

Since that day, whenever I read novels or Manga about love, I couldn't help but think of myself as the female characters of those stories. And… the face of the male character… always transformed into the face of Tristan. I became more and more shy before Tristan's intimate gestures, even though Tristan has always done so.

I started to grow jealous, but not jealous of Tristan. I envy the girls who are treated gently by Tristan. Why not me? I wish I, like those girls, could freely interact with Tristan! Although shy to interact directly with Tristan, but every time I'm with him, I feel very happy! I hope my time with Tristan will last forever.

Although we were in the same dorm room, the time I spent with him wasn't too much. Most of the time, we were at school. I was in a different class from him. My shyness did not allow me to meet him at school, I could only watch him from a distance. I personally feel very clearly, I already love Tristan! A love that should never have happened...

At the beginning of grade 11, I was so happy when I was arranged to attend the same class with Tristan by the school. The time we spend face-to-face has increased considerably. But obviously, that's not enough for me! I want to see him more! Therefore, I applied to join the Foreign Language Club, at that time there were only five members, including Tristan. I lied to him about “studying Korean.” Until then, I didn't even know a word of Korean. Maybe because of my love for Tristan, but in just a short year, my Korean has increased significantly.

Today, when I heard the proposal to “disguise as a woman” to participate in the vacation of the Foreign Language Club, my heart jumped for joy! Finally, I was able to appear in front of Tristan as a girl! There are only two days left until the holidays, but I feel this time is too long...

PART 3 >>