I Don’t Want to be a Villainess

Among the three heroines, including Ye Sara, ‘Shin So-hee’ had a somewhat detached setting compared to the other characters.

First off, the school is different. Unlike the other heroines who attend the affluent Hwayoung High School, Shin So-hee goes to an ordinary high school nearby. Although she’s labeled as a ‘Gyaru character’, following the trend of looking pure despite appearances, she embodies a role similar to Yoon Da-ho, who belongs to the Yuri route.

In other words, even though she attends a different school, it means she can be easily targeted without much development.

As the creator claimed, once you clear a few easily accessible routes in ‘If You Wish’, it becomes easier to capture other characters…

For example, Yoon Da-ho represents the standard in the Normal route. He’s an arrogant male character who demonstrates how the protagonist’s development alters the responses of targets, allowing for easy targeting no matter how you develop him, thereby providing a rough idea of how ‘development’ influences targeting other characters… or so the wiki sez.

Shin So-hee was fundamentally created for the same purpose, but with subtle differences.

In this world, it’s not particularly weird for women to date women. Yes, it’s not ‘very’ weird. However, saying it’s perfectly ‘normal’ would be pushing it.

Most people still think it’s generally expected that men fall for women and vice versa, which is similar to the ordinary world I lived in, but there isn’t a strong societal resistance against same-sex relationships.

Therefore, in the world of ‘If You Wish’, there’s a slight aversion to homosexuality or a rather peculiar perspective on it.

Yoo Ha-neul, being a character controlled by the player, allows for sexual orientation and character details to be determined by player choices. Thus, those settings are of little concern. But the heroines you target are different.

Lee Soo-ah and Ye Sara are fundamentally bi, not lesbians. Growing up in an environment with little exposure to homosexuality, they naturally think it’s perfectly normal to feel sexual attraction towards men. Obviously, targeting them means overcoming that question of, ‘Uh, do I actually like her? She’s a girl too?’

Hence, targeting these two requires more careful development than starting with a male character route armed with the ‘opposite gender’ advantage. Yoo Ha-neul needs to align with their preferences as accurately as possible.

But Shin So-hee doesn’t need such a setting. Because she’s outright set up as a lesbian.

She outright doesn’t like men. She feels sexual attraction and desire towards women. Naturally, Yoo Ha-neul starts with the ‘female’ characteristic, unlike other male characters when going for targets.

Of course, if she were just like any other male character, it wouldn’t mean much as a tutorial for the Yuri route.

Thus, Shin So-hee had a smaller obstacle compared to other heroines: the ‘struggle with sexual identity’.

She is certain that she likes women, but she grapples with whether it’s right to feel sexual curiosity or fantasy about her friends. Yet, if an opportunity to date someone were presented, she could readily shed those worries.

So, Shin So-hee is treated as akin to a tutorial in the Yuri route.

If you wonder how I know so much about this character without playing the game, it’s simple. The streamer played through the Yuri route, which featured Shin So-hee. Her design struck a direct hit with the streamer’s preference, and they started playing aiming for the Yuri route, rating it much more favorably than the distressing and cancer-inducing Yoon Da-ho route.

It’s likely the various analyses on the wiki were written more diligently by fans who watched the streamer’s videos than by actual players of the game. There’s far less written about Ye Sara or Lee Soo-ah.

…Of course, Yoo Ha-neul and Shin So-hee’s first meeting wasn’t as disturbingly stimulating as it is now.

Thud.

The red lollipop Shin So-hee had in her mouth fell to the ground, making a sound. For a moment, my gaze settled on the legs of Shin So-hee, who was squatting on her seat in a short school uniform skirt. In contrast to Ye Sara’s bony legs, hers looked undeniably healthy and robust.

After several seconds of her staring blankly up at me, Shin So-hee finally grasped the situation and pulled out her earbuds.

“…What’s up?”

Shin So-hee glared at me with narrowed eyes.

…Right, no matter how much of a lesbian she is, suddenly lifting up a skirt in front of someone would definitely be perceived as sexual harassment.

…Or would it?

I imagined characters like Ye Sara casually lifting their skirts while walking by. I’d seriously consider reporting it to the police, but would it really ruin my mood? Rather, it’d probably make me super worried. I’d wonder if there was something mentally wrong or if they were being threatened.

Moreover, to be honest, I have had my share of sexual fantasies involving girls in school uniforms…

Realizing that some of those fantasies were part of the videos I watched, I suddenly felt a severe case of ‘sage time’.

Had my sexual threshold warped that much?

Shin So-hee, crouching in front of me, slowly began to rise.

“Are you ignoring what I just said?”

“Ah, no, it’s not like that…”

“What do you mean if not? Huh?”

Shin So-hee grabbed my collar.

Gah, just moments ago, her face had been blushing adorably when I thought she looked quite pretty, but now with her grabbing my collar, I felt slightly scared. Memories of facing school bullies back in middle school resurfaced, triggering some trauma.

But this time, there was no question that I had genuinely done something wrong.

…Or was it?

Of course, it’s true that I crossed a line I didn’t have to. But who would imagine that crossing it would result in someone’s head ending up under my skirt?

Thinking back, I probably should have looked down first, huh? Yeah, I messed up. It wasn’t exclusively a skirt scenario; I could’ve bumped into someone walking by regardless.

“Ah, huh, uh.”

In my fluster, I stammered out,

“I-I’m sorry.”

I managed to force out that apology.

“Is that all?!”

Shin So-hee yelled.

Well, it’s true that saying sorry isn’t all there is…

If I’m not ending it there, what on earth am I supposed to do?

But it seemed Shin So-hee was just flaring up in anger, with no follow-up thoughts coming to her. Report it to the police for sexual harassment? I mean, would this even be considered a serious matter?

“Someone squatting under the eaves suddenly fell from above and shoved their head under my skirt!” How embarrassing would it be to say that!

I thought once more, racking my brain to empathize with Shin So-hee.

Alright, so it’s a tad weird for a cute girl to suddenly have her skirts lifted—let’s turn it back to a same-sex situation.

What if a man in just underwear fell from the sky and that part jutted out right in front of her—

I couldn’t even finish that thought as my face went pale.

Just thinking about it was horrendous. Although Shin So-hee’s sexual orientation is lesbian, she’s obviously still in the stage of pondering her sexual identity. Suddenly having that happen right in her face would be enough to make her jump.

“Wait—!”

Someone called out confidently, crashing down from over the wall.

“What the hell are you doing grabbing Sara’s collar all of a sudden?!”

“…?”

Shin So-hee’s eyebrows narrowed. Still holding my collar, she gazed at the clueless ally who just appeared.

…The confrontation was lit up by her sudden bright appearance.

The female protagonist, Yoo Ha-neul, literally fell from the sky.

Well, if we get technical, it was on the other side of the wall. But anyway, to my eyes, that’s how it appeared.

*

Teenage dilemmas come in many varieties, but if there’s one utterly frustrating and hopeless worry, it’s the whole ‘liking someone’ dilemma.

Shin So-hee didn’t have a specific person she liked. In other words, she had yet to meet the type one would call a ‘first love’. Instead, Shin So-hee liked most of her friends. Thanks to her cheerful personality since childhood, she had garnered admiration from local girls and liked almost everyone she was close with.

However, if that was merely the feeling of liking someone as a friend, it wouldn’t be much of a worry.

First and foremost, Shin So-hee had never been interested in boys. She could think a handsome guy was good-looking or marvel at a well-built guy, but she had never thought about wanting to date them or being impressed like girls her age did.

Although her peers seemed to think her outlook was refreshing.

However, what really troubled Shin So-hee wasn’t that aspect.

She thought it would eventually work out when she eventually met a guy she liked, so not dating men was really no biggie.

The trouble arose as she grew up and hit puberty, becoming sexually mature.

There comes a time in life when everyone, regardless of gender, harbors sexual curiosity. Boys ponder what it’d be like dating a pretty girl, while girls might think how splendid it would be dating a dashing young man.

Curiously enough, most of Shin So-hee’s fantasies revolved around the girls around her.

…While she might not think about marriage, she’d find herself staring at her friend’s lips for too long, wondering what kind of reaction they’d have if she confessed, or oddly tingling at any physical contact.

Feeling this way towards the children she’d previously regarded as ordinary filled her with an oppressive sense of self-hatred.

It was awkward to talk about it, and even searching it online yielded only textbook responses. Nothing but platitudes about how it wasn’t wrong, that it was just individual nature… but not a single piece of advice on how to tackle her current situation.

“Are you going alone? Really?”

“Yeah. I just need some time to think.”

Eventually, she split from her friends today and walked alone. In truth, she had nowhere in particular to go. She just needed some time to think while walking.

While wandering, her legs eventually tired, leading her to crouch against a wall for a moment—

And suddenly, a white panty landed with a thud right in front of her.

Not just the panty. The person wearing it was there too. A bare leg without stockings. Though a touch pitifully skinny, the skin was exceptionally white and beautiful.

What was this? What am I looking at right now?

In that instant, she couldn’t make sense of the situation. Did I imagine it due to too much internal fantasy? For a fleeting moment, she genuinely pondered if her brain was having some sort of episode.

Moments later, the panty took a step back.

Whoosh, the cloth that had been over her head fell down. Shin So-hee was completely unaware that something was on her head. Only after the owner of that garment had stepped back did she realize that it was a skirt.

It wasn’t a school uniform she had ever seen before. She knew of the nearby elite students’ school very well.

The uniform of Hwayoung High School.

And the one wearing it was, of course, an incredibly beautiful ‘young lady.’

“…What the hell?”

In an instant, her temper flared.

She had often heard that Hwayoung High School students were incredibly arrogant. They’d often ignore you or look down on you if you approached them—But to go this far with such a prank?

Was she kidding? She was already distressed as it was!

“Are you ignoring what I just said?!”

Shin So-hee slowly rose and directed her inquiry towards the unresponsive girl.

“Ah, no, it’s not like that…”

“What do you mean if not? Huh?”

Fuming, she seized the collar of the girl right in front of her.

Then Shin So-hee found herself confronting a serious dilemma.

Fortuitously, the face of the girl she was yanking was—

Incredibly beautiful.

“Ah, huh, uh.”

Moreover, the sound that slipped out in her astonishment was even cute.

For a moment, Shin So-hee couldn’t help but recall the slender lower half she had just seen.

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