Became an American Retro Novelist - Chapter 136



Only Noblemtl

136.

Prom, the culmination of high school years, was an event that every student who had a solid school life dreamed of. Although there were aspects that were exaggerated by the media and group consciousness, most people remember this party, where they wore a tuxedo and dress for the first time, as the greatest memory of their school days.

So, people who saw the title ‘About T: Prom’ started reading the novel expecting to see Tony and Alice attending the prom together.

But God used the first part of the story to pique the readers’ interest by showing another side of the event called ‘Prom’.

The prom that God expressed through ‘About T: Prom’ was ‘the last.’

Prom, a ballroom event that is said to have originated at Ivy League universities in the 1800s, is most likely to have originated from ancient Greek coming-of-age rites.

Everyone who was in the process of growing from a child to an adult willingly accepted that consciousness, but unfortunately, there was one thing that the children in that position were unaware of.

It was the fact that once you become an adult, you can never go back to being a child.

Tony vaguely realized that fact.

Prom poses continued everywhere, and students went wild, turning the school into a carnival scene. The teachers also showed some tolerance during the prom period, and the atmosphere at the school gradually became more like the Christmas season.

But Tony wasn’t caught up in it.

He was scheduled to attend the University of Notre Dame after graduation. Perhaps because of this, his family’s attitude toward him had become much more lenient than before.

Tony felt a little uncomfortable when the evaluation changed in an instant, but he was able to let it go after hearing Alice’s words. Even though his father was a pushy man, he had paid for his first college tuition anyway.

And when we did that, a bigger change than we expected occurred.

Tony got some ‘advice’ from his father.

“”father.”

“······What is it?”

My father sips whiskey alone at home every night.

That image was always uncomfortable and unpleasant. The father Tony remembered was closer to ordering his son to live this way, that his current way was wrong, rather than talking to him.

But now Tony decided that maybe his father had a reason for doing so.

“Did your father go to the prom?”

“I’m back. It was a school event.”

“How was it? Well, did you have any regrets or anything?”

“I didn’t care because I had to go to college and study.”

“That’s so fatherly.”

“······Tony.”

“huh?”

“I don’t regret it, but it took a long time to get there.”

Why did ‘that’ father talk for so long?

The whiskey in the glass he was holding shook slightly. Tony, who had been standing there for a while with his eyes drawn to the amber liquid, felt a little awkward and quietly listened to what his father was saying.

“That’s a waste of time. So, do something right now that you won’t regret.”

“······.”

That might be the greatest advice a father who has ‘lived that way’ can give.

But I don’t know.

‘That kid went somewhere else.’

He turned around with a bitter expression, but even so, his father’s words remained deep in his heart.

“What, what, what, what······!”

Kate Moore muttered, her eyes wide.

A morning after reading episode 4 of ‘About T: Prom’.

She jumped up from her seat without even thinking about putting on her glasses and couldn’t hide her bewilderment at the unbelievable turn of events.

“Tony and Alice are going to different universities?! They’re not going to go to the same university, but before that, they confirm their feelings for each other and become sweethearts?!”

Kate, who could not accept that fact, went to see God as soon as she got to school.

And shouted.

“Wait a minute, let me talk!”

“······.”

“Why are you looking so upset?!”

“······If you give me 10 dollars, I’ll talk to you for 1 minute.”

“Oh, really? Let’s see······.”

Kate rummaging through her pockets.

The god in front of him sighed.

“Okay. You don’t know how to joke. Kid.”

“Oh, God?”

Alexa, sitting across from him, asked with a slightly anxious look on her face.

“what’s the matter?”

“Oh, this guy is a huge fan of ‘SEEN’ and unfortunately he found out my true identity.”

A god who whispers in a small voice so that those around him cannot hear.

Kate objected when she heard that.

“Who, who is your fan-!”

“Okay, okay. I’ll sign it. It’ll cost you thirty dollars. Sorry, I’ll be back in a minute.”

“Yeah, yeah, take care on your way.”

Alexa nodded, convinced by God’s words.

After standing up and leaving the cutest thing in the world behind, Shin gestured to Kate with his finger and went out first. Kate watched him blankly for a moment before following him.

God put her in a locker room where no one really went, and he made a blatant expression of discomfort. ······It was a tactic often used by school bullies to ostracize nerds.

Shin let out a deep sigh, never thinking that he would use that on the ace of the broadcasting club, and Kate shouted.

“Okay, sleep······! What are you! What the heck!”

“Weren’t you talking about novels?”

“That’s true, but it’s true!”

“What? Could you speak quietly? I don’t want anyone to know.”

“Oh, I see. I apologize for that.”

“······Even an apology?”

“Well, it seems like there are a lot of people in the school who want to find out who God is, and you don’t want to get caught, right? Right? I’m smart, so I figured it out quickly, but the idiots here don’t know. I’ll keep it a secret until the end.”

“If it’s to that extent, then it’s serious, my friend.”

“Oh, anyway!”

Kate Moore, who believes that only she knows the identity of God and is proud of it.

I was wondering where the heartless broadcasting elite had gone.

“Why don’t you two go to the same school?”

“······Please contact the Los Angeles Times directly, dear reader.”

“This is a legitimate protest as a reader! Send them both to the same school immediately!”

“Um, Kate?”

God smiled faintly.

“I really appreciate you reading my novel with interest, but I’ll take care of writing it myself.”

“Ugh, ugh······.”

A god who appears gentle, but draws a very strong line.

Kate, momentarily frightened by the sight, changed her question.

“Then, can you tell me this? Why don’t you two go to the same college?”

“Isn’t that obvious? Even you and I, who came in first and second, don’t go to the same university. Wouldn’t it be more improbable for them to go to the same university?”

“Yeah, that’s right. I heard you got into Harvard and Rice this time? Rumors have already spread all over the school. Not only the teachers, but even the kids are going crazy over a crazy guy coming out of our school.”

“······I’ll take that as a compliment. But I’m going to a different university than those two. And I got into the University of Iowa, too.”

“What? To Iowa?! No, but where else? Where?”

“What are you going to do about it?”

“Oh, you could tell me!”

“It’ll be a different university anyway. Oh, right. Stanford.”

“Stanford······? Why are you going there?”

“There is a reason for that.”

“Oh my god······! I’m in Stanford too!”

Kate shouts with her eyes wide open.

Before him, God became frozen like a stone.

“You, Stanford? Why?”

“Because it’s close to home! You too?!”

“Oh, shit. This is totally ruined.”

“Hey!! I, I hate myself more!”

“Why do you keep talking to me if you hate me so much?”

“It’s because I like ‘God’, not you!”

“······.”

God felt the image of Kate Moore within him gradually crumbling.

***

There must have been at least 4,000 universities in the United States.

In that situation, going to the same university was rather strange. Even if you chose a similar major and had similar grades, it wasn’t easy. This was because there were more things to consider than you might think when going to university.

‘Starting with tuition and housing issues.’

Even if students study hard and receive scholarships, there are many cases where they do not go on to a good university because the housing problem in the area is not resolved.

‘In fact, it’s kind of funny that Kate and I ended up going to the same school.’

Should we say that it’s fortunate that we each chose different majors?

Besides, I don’t know what he thinks of me, but it seems like he doesn’t plan on doing anything with the fact that I’m ‘SEEN’ anymore. Sometimes he comes here with a fan mentality(?) and talks about how the novel was, what he found interesting, and what he didn’t like, but I still didn’t hate it.

Because besides Alexa, Jiwoo, and Doofy, there was someone else who spoke directly to me about the contents of the novel.

‘About T: Prom’ continues to be serialized.

After hearing his father’s advice, Tony started preparing for the proposal with his friends.

Tony hears various ideas and even sees the proposal scene himself.

He finally decided to buy a giant pizza box and propose to Alice, and he went to a group of nerds at school.

He shows them his proposal pose and asks them what they think.

They were nerd boys who simply applauded, saying it was great, but Tony realized that their reactions were not sincere after meeting Alice, so he tried to win their favor and hear their sincerity by telling them the Spider-Man story he heard from Alice.

It was in that scene that the true colors of the nerd boys I had created, based on the nerd guys at the comic book store, were revealed.

『“······Who is your favorite villain in Spider-Man?”

“Uh, well, what?”

“joker?”

“That, that guy! That guy! That guy is the best!”

“You’ve been caught lying, Anthony Miles!”

“What······!”

“Joker is Batman’s arch-enemy! Batman is a member of DC Comics! He’s a crazy criminal who will never meet Marvel’s Spider-Man!”

“Hey, there’s a crossover too.”

Nerd boys who are more sincere and talkative than anyone else when it comes to things they know.

The football boys who followed Tony to show off his proposal quickly became annoyed, but Tony showed himself as a mediator between them and eventually won the nerd boys’ favor.

By borrowing the Spider-Man issue, he hears their honest thoughts.

[Isn’t it that the person receiving the proposal doesn’t think about it enough?]

[Honestly, I think I’d be a little scared if I received a proposal like that.]

[Yeah. A bunch of big football club kids come out and they’re carrying huge pizza boxes.]

Tony, who was deeply shocked by those words, fell into serious thought again.

A proposal pose that doesn’t consider the recipient’s position at all.

Come to think of it, no matter how many friends Alice had made since Homecoming Day, she would definitely be scared if a bunch of big football club members showed up.

He was deeply troubled, thinking, ‘What should I do······.’

The nerd guys at Kitten’s Comic Book Store gave the following review of this development:

“There’s one thing that doesn’t match the historical facts.”

They pointed out the last scene of episode 6.

Tony had an open conversation with the nerd boys. In the process, he learned how they proposed, and he was deeply impressed by their quiet way of handling it, unlike the members of the football club who liked to make a lot of noise.

I wondered where the problem was, so I tilted my head and asked Bill, who was representing the nerd guys.

“In what way?”

“The ‘real’ one doesn’t even think about proposing.”

“······.”

“None of us could talk to a girl in high school.”

“Oh, sorry.”

I don’t know why, but I felt like I needed to apologize.

No, but the kids at our school are doing well on their own.

Could it be that these are the ‘real ones among the real ones’?

Bill, who was slightly dumbfounded, chuckled and continued to talk about his impressions of the novel.

“Still, Tony is a man you can’t help but acknowledge.”

“Oh, that’s right! If it’s that guy, I can leave ‘our Alice’ to him!”

“Since when did you become ‘Our Alice’?”

“From the beginning of the series.”

“But if Tony does this, won’t Alice feel uneasy and anxious?”

“That’s right. I’ve heard some strange things from Hannah, but that’s entirely possible.”

As expected, since they are people who have been exposed to this type of media a lot, they came up with their own rational analysis.

I said it with a businesslike smile on my face in front of them.

“Please look forward to the next episode.”

This part was the most ‘delicious’ part in my opinion.

About T: Prom Episode 6 ends with Tony figuring out how to express his feelings to Alice and propose to her with the help of the nerd boys.

In the following 7th episode, I briefly shifted the point of view to Alice’s side, making the readers imagine this.

‘When will Tony propose?!’

It made me think of it that way even more because the story starts with Tony and Alice meeting up over the weekend.

Alice was caught up in the atmosphere of the school and her head was full of thoughts about the prom, and even though she thought it would never happen, she secretly wanted to go to the prom with Tony.

And Tony was planning to propose to Alice today.

“Gyaaaaaaah-!!”

“You’re crazy! You’re crazy!”

“This part is really good! It just comes in all of a sudden!”

Back to school.

The female students, who were huge fans of the ‘About T’ series and attended class together every Thursday morning, were all excited and screaming.

I unconsciously clenched my fist at their reaction and listened in silence as they continued to share their thoughts on the work.

“And isn’t Tony really cute when you see him from Alice’s perspective?!”

“That’s right! And Alice didn’t notice!”

“That’s cute too······!!”

“You two really need to get married quickly! Really!”

“Two kids? Three?”

“Five or more!”

Tony and Alice take a quick stroll around downtown on the weekend, stopping here and there.

There’s a part where Tony goes to buy a t-shirt and asks, “Should I help you choose something for you?” and Alice blushes and walks away, and he reproaches himself for saying something wrong.

There’s a part where Alice gets so excited and engrossed in a book that Tony finds cute and quietly watches her, and he starts to feel anxious that he might be oblivious.

The sight of the two people seemed so lovely from an outsider’s perspective.

······That was their honest impression.

“Writer Shin is really crazy! How can he write something like this!”

“This is our school! You’re the same age as us!”

“Ha, I really want to meet you and get your autograph before I graduate.”

“You must be a woman, right? You know how to write such sweet romances!”

“No, if you look at ‘Double Spy’, there’s a higher chance it’s a guy.”

“Wouldn’t it be better if a man wrote this kind of novel?”

As I watched the schoolgirls chatting, I thought:

‘······I guess I should start uncovering the truth before it gets any more serious.’

The fact that I ‘SEEN’.

Perhaps not only them, but many people in this school are wondering about this.

End

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