Becoming the Guide of the Mysophobic Villain? Absolutely Not! - Side Story 1

Irene Magnolia.

She was a newly appointed Level-7 civil servant at the Center. She had ranked second in the appointment exam.

Her peers were quite interested in the fact that Irene was the runner-up. They couldn’t help but exclaim how unfair the world was, marveling that someone as beautiful as her could also achieve such high scores.

Of course, Irene didn’t feel particularly moved by those compliments. She was already well aware of how superior she was to others in areas that didn’t involve socializing.

Still, she was curious. If she was the runner-up, then who had taken the top spot?

She had no idea, but one thing was certain.

It definitely wasn’t the dullard of a colleague sitting next to her.

Her colleague’s name was Rose. It suited her pink hair perfectly.

It was hard to guess her age. Her small stature and delicate features made her look quite young, but the more Irene observed her, the more ambiguous it became.

After all, the way she worked with lifeless eyes made her seem like a weary adult completely devoid of any childhood innocence.

Rose spent 98% of her daily life with unfocused eyes, showing not even a trace of the passion or energy expected from a new civil servant. She went through everything lethargically.

Even after sitting next to each other for over a month, Irene had never spoken with Rose outside of necessary work matters.

Of course, considering that Irene had already earned the reputation of being “unpleasant” from her peers in the first week of her appointment, she accepted it. The other two colleagues assigned to the same department as Rose also shared the same sentiment.

Yet, there were two moments in a day when Rose’s expression would light up and she would seem full of life. Those moments were during mealtime and just before leaving work.

Perhaps because of this, Irene found herself glancing at Rose whenever lunch or quitting time drew near, wondering just how foolish she would look this time.

When Rose puffed out her round cheeks and smiled brightly… Irene had to admit, even if she didn’t want to, that it was rather cute.

It was almost fascinating to see that someone who spent her days acting like a worn-out, middle-aged manager could smile like that.

Of course, that sight never lasted long. Rose would always be the first to leave the office with nothing more than a quick, formal “Good work!” as she hurried out the door.

Around that time, Irene started to acknowledge something—reluctantly, though she didn’t want to.

She found herself constantly observing Rose.

And Irene concluded that this was inevitable.

“…Hey!”

When Irene shouted, the two colleagues sitting across from her flinched in surprise.

Ignoring them, Irene grabbed Rose’s wrist.

Why Rose had filled her tumbler to the brim when she always spilled it, why she placed it in the path of her arm, and why she never bothered to close the lid—none of it made any sense to Irene, but she let it slide.

She had already tutted to herself, thinking, ‘She’s going to spill it again…’ just before Rose’s elbow brushed against the tumbler, and it tipped over.

Rose’s desk was now a pool of water, but even then, Irene simply furrowed her delicate brow without saying a word.

As long as it didn’t affect her, it didn’t matter if the neighboring desk was flooded.

But what Rose did next was something Irene just couldn’t tolerate.

Rose, who had been staring blankly at her soaked desk, suddenly extended her sleeve…

“Tissues are right here!”

Fortunately, Irene managed to shove a tissue into Rose’s hand before she could wipe the desk with her sleeve.

With a disinterested expression, Rose slowly started wiping down the desk. It was a scene that could only make Irene’s blood boil.

In the end, Irene couldn’t hold back and asked sharply.

“Are you insane? Why would you try to wipe it with your sleeve when the tissues are right in front of you?”

“It’s just clean water anyway…”

“But if your sleeve gets wet, it’ll be uncomfortable! And then if it touches the documents while you’re working, everything will get soaked!”

“Ugh, nagging…”

Rose grumbled as if she didn’t want to hear it, making Irene feel as though her lifespan had just shortened by ten days.

To be fair, when this sort of thing happened for the first time, Irene didn’t always get angry. In fact, she had even tried to understand Rose, thinking, ‘Maybe something’s wrong with her.’

But it wasn’t long before a shocking truth was revealed.

“Even though second-ranked Irene has no manners, at least she works hard.”

One day, Irene overheard the seniors gossiping about the juniors.