Chapter 35
Afterward, the teacher ended the conversation by telling me not to ignore anything strange and to be sure to speak up if I noticed something. Honestly, I thought the teacher was right. If I were an ordinary girl, I would naturally have felt uncomfortable when a boy gave me such an intense stare and gone to the teacher to say, 'There's a boy named Jinwoo who keeps staring at me and following me around. It makes me uncomfortable.'
"Jia, did something happen?"
"Huh? No, nothing happened."
Since I didn't think it was something I needed to tell anyone else, I decided to keep quiet for now. I should find out whether Jinwoo really did it because he wanted to make friends.
"Then do you want to go get some bread after first period?"
"Yeah, let's do that."
First period began, but the atmosphere wasn't very good. The incident seemed to be known by every teacher at school, so class proceeded quietly, with the teacher teaching and the students listening in silence. I could even feel a strange tension in the air, which made break time feel more important than usual.
"What do you want to eat?"
"Hmm... I want a chocolate cream bun."
Yuna and I bought bread and drinks from the vending machine and ate them in the classroom, but even though the classroom atmosphere was gloomy, the girls still paid me plenty of attention.
"Jia, do you like chocolate cream?"
"I eat all kinds of bread."
"I see~ Do you want to go out together this weekend?"
"Huh? Where?"
I wanted to rest at home on weekends... Now that I was attending school, I had no choice during the week, but I wanted to relax at home on the weekends. Unnie might finish work late on weekday evenings or have dinner with her coworkers, so I didn't mind eating out on a weekday evening, but...
"Hahaha... I don't know if I'll have time."
"Check your schedule and be sure to let me know when you're free, okay?"
"I want to treat Jia to something delicious~"
What did she even mean by that...? Though I looked like this, these girls were actually much younger than me, so going out with them on the weekend and eating together would probably be uncomfortable. I should come up with a reasonable excuse.
"I don't know whether I'll have time, but I'll check."
"Okay! Be sure to check and let me know, okay?"
They smiled at me so brightly and spoke so warmly that I felt strange, as though I were deceiving them. Still, if it meant seeing Yuna smile, should I go with them?
"Come to think of it, we still haven't exchanged numbers. Should we do it now?"
"U-Um, sure..."
It was really hard to refuse to exchange numbers. It was a perfectly ordinary thing, and refusing would have been stranger, so I had no choice but to give them my number. As class continued, I decided to talk to Jinwoo today. I told the girls, 'I have something personal to take care of after lunch, so you can go back to the classroom without me today,' but they seemed disappointed, as though they still wanted to become closer to me.
"Jinwoo, could you come out into the hallway for a moment?"
"Me??"
I waited until the girls had stopped talking to me for a moment and Yuna had gone to the faculty office, then spoke to Jinwoo. He was startled, but nodded to confirm that I'd heard him correctly.
"I'm sorry... I only did that because I really wanted to become friends with you. I didn't know it would make you uncomfortable..."
"No, Jinwoo. You just wanted to make friends, right?"
"Th-That's..."
Jinwoo listened to me and only nodded.
"Of course, Yuna thinks badly of you, and the other girls might feel the same way. But I think it's okay for me to be friends with you."
"Jia! What are you doing with Jinwoo??"
Oh, Yuna was already back...? Hadn't she been talking with the teacher for quite a while? What was going on? Yuna had caught me in the act, and I had no choice but to let her pull me back into the classroom.
"Jia, I told you to stay away from Jinwoo."
"W-Well... You see..."
"Hmph! I don't like Jia when she ignores me!"
"It's not that I ignored you..."
Oh no, Yuna was sulking now. At this rate, it would be hard not only to get her and Jinwoo to reconcile but even to calm Yuna down. Oh, my head... Since Jinwoo was a boy too, maybe I should send him off to get along with the other boys.
"I only came out into the hallway because Jinwoo said he wanted to apologize, Yuna."
"...Really?"
"Yes, really."
"Then come over to my house."
Huh? Why had the conversation suddenly turned into that? Was she saying that since I had upset her, I should come to her house and play with her? Hmm, this was troublesome... Time passed, and as soon as lunch break began, the girls took me by the hand and led me to the cafeteria.
'Hmm... My strength has gotten so low that I can only be dragged wherever people pull me...'
This really showed me how weak I had become. I was being dragged around even by girls my own age... If the other person were a boy, I wouldn't be able to resist at all. I understood why the girls wanted to protect me, but... while we were lining up to get our food, a sharp burst of pain suddenly hit me!
"Jia, are you all right?"
"It hurts a little, but... I'll go to the nurse's office as soon as I finish eating."
It was only natural for them to worry about me. They were girls, after all, so they knew that pain well, and after our brief conversation earlier, they had decided that if it could make me faint, it must be incredibly painful. I couldn't exactly contradict them. If I had been taken to the hospital and then said, 'I'm fine, everyone. It doesn't hurt that much,' I would only have looked like a fragile child desperately pretending to be strong.
"It looks like everyone's finished eating... Is it okay if I go with you?"
"I'm happy just watching Jia eat."
"Me too."
"Jia's so cute."
"I want to feed her all sorts of things."
Their words made me feel embarrassed, but if that was how I looked to other people, I decided to accept it and move on. Since I was a high school student, the portions seemed larger. Even though I asked for only a little, it was still a bit much for me, so I had to throw some of my lunch away in the leftovers bin again today.
"Jia, take care of yourself, okay?"
"Be careful around boys, all right?"
"If I see you talking to Jinwoo again, I'll sulk."
While the other girls simply worried about me, Yuna was threatening me. I nodded to show that I understood, went to the nurse's office, took some medicine, and used a hot pack for about ten minutes before leaving. The nurse had said, 'It'll probably take thirty minutes before you feel better... Are you sure you're okay?' But I had something I needed to tell Jinwoo, so I merely nodded, said goodbye to the nurse, and headed back to the classroom.
"Jinwoo."
"Gah?!"
"...Why are you so startled?"
"Yuna said she wouldn't let it slide if I came near Jia one more time..."
Yuna had threatened him... After calming Jinwoo down, I brought him to the counseling room.
"Huh...? Why are we in the counseling room...?"
"I wanted to talk with you, so I borrowed one of the counseling rooms for a little while."
"Y-You didn't have to go that far..."
"You want to make friends, don't you?"
Because I was a girl, Jinwoo seemed extremely wary and reluctant, but when I brought up the subject of friendship, he quietly followed me into the counseling room.
"Jinwoo."
"Yeah..."
"You want to make friends again, don't you?"
"That's right."
"But you have trouble approaching people, so you haven't been able to make any friends yet."
"...That's right too..."
I tried to give Jinwoo some confidence. I told him that if he approached people boldly and told them that he wanted to become friends, there would be someone willing to be his friend. I also asked him to stop secretly following me and ask whether he could come along with us like last time. But Jinwoo still seemed afraid of Yuna. He said, 'I can't do that... If I get even a little closer to you, Yuna will...' and clearly feared her.
"Then let's try to build up your courage little by little, okay? Yuna and I sit right in front of you, so we can't keep living like this forever."
"I don't know if I can do it, but I'll try to be brave..."
If I entered the classroom with Jinwoo, the girls who had told me to be careful around boys and Yuna would definitely get angry. So I asked Jinwoo to bear with me and entered the classroom five minutes before him.
"Jia! Did everything go all right?"
As soon as I opened the classroom door, Yuna clung to me. Seeing that, I thought it had been a good idea to enter separately.
"Yeah, nothing happened."
"Jia's so weak that I worry whenever I leave you alone. Let's go to the bathroom together too."
"W-Well, that's a little..."
For ordinary girls, going to the bathroom together might be perfectly normal...? But I was embarrassed. Please leave me alone, Yuna... After keeping the pain at bay with painkillers, I asked Yuna one question when school ended.
"Yuna, doesn't our school have evening self-study?"
"No. They say anyone who wants to study will do it on their own, so what's the point of keeping us here until late?"
"I see. That's a relief."
I had to go to the uniform shop, so I packed my bag and left the classroom. Yuna grabbed my shoulder and said, 'Jia, let's go home together,' but I pointed out that our homes seemed to be in opposite directions. Only after emphasizing that we couldn't go home together did I manage to leave by myself.
"Hello~"
"Ah~ Jia's here? Your gym clothes are all finished."
"Thank you. Has everything been paid for?"
"Your older sister came by this morning and paid for everything."
"I understand. Goodbye~"
Fortunately, the uniform shop wasn't very far from home, so I arrived quickly. There was still some time before Unnie came home, and I took out my phone, thinking I might look at it for a while. Before I knew it, I had been invited to the girls' group chat for Class 3.
[Jia~]
[Hi~]
Greetings poured in from the ten girls in the class, excluding me, so I replied with a [Hi~] of my own. I had liked how quiet my phone was, but I guessed that was over now...
"Ah, my stomach hurts... I need to use a hot pack..."
I felt I couldn't endure it without help anymore, so I roughly took off my uniform, lay down on the bed, and began using a hot pack.
"Ugh... It hurts so much..."
Honestly, at school, whenever I said I was in pain, I couldn't imagine how shocked the students who had seen me taken to the hospital would be or how much they would try to take care of me. So I had decided it was better not to worry them in the first place. I went to the nurse's office to use a hot pack or endured the pain by taking the strong painkiller I was allowed to take only once a day.
'They said it was a somewhat special painkiller made for me...'
It wasn't a narcotic, but I had heard that it had been made for the intense pain I experienced, so it was a little too strong for an ordinary person to take. I also thought it was better to take medicine and stay conscious than to faint, which was why I took it. But if the pain hadn't been so severe that I felt I could barely endure it, I would have simply tried to bear it.
"Ugh, I need to use the bathroom..."
Whenever I felt even a slight urge, I had to go right away, so it was inconvenient having to visit the bathroom so often. I knew holding it in wasn't good either, but...
'Huh? Why is my phone ringing nonstop?'
When I checked, it was the Class 3 girls' group chat I had been invited to earlier. Most of the messages were about whether we should go out over the weekend or Friday evening, and what kind of food I liked... The constant stream of notifications was making me a little dizzy, so I turned them off for now and sent, 'I don't have any particular preferences, but I'll let you know later when I'm free.' Then...
[How about pasta?]
[Just ordinary tteokbokki?]
[Or tonkatsu to fill us up?]
[Sushi!]
[Hamburgers, chicken, or pizza?]
And so on... Countless questions about what we should eat for dinner poured in. They even mentioned dishes that would be difficult to eat at lunch, but since no one mentioned going to the movies or anywhere else, it seemed they had decided to have dinner together on Friday evening.
'All eleven of us... together? I can already imagine how loud it'll be...'
It would probably be better to split up into groups, but then I would have to go out multiple times... Ah, I don't know. My stomach hurts... I'm going to sleep...
*
Sigh... What should I do? Fortunately, Jia herself said she was fine with it, but Yuna, who sat beside her, seemed extremely angry... Secretly following her was definitely wrong, but... the boys had already formed their own groups. They were split into groups of four, so if I joined one, it would make an odd number... It would be awkward to force my way in.
'The game those guys like to play is the number-one most popular game...'
I really, really didn't want to play that popular five-on-five game. I didn't understand what was fun about it, or why people clung to a game while hurling family insults and curses at one another and getting furious. Wasn't that just insane? If we were going to play something, wouldn't a battle royale be better...?
"I know. It's not that the game itself is fun; it's fun because everyone plays together."
Sigh... Should I just give up on making friends and live alone...?
"Little brother, what's wrong?"
"Ah, well..."
I told my sister that I still hadn't made any friends, and that although the transfer student named Jia was trying to become friends with me, the girl sitting beside her kept stopping her.
"Hmm... Did Jinwoo do something wrong?"
"I want to become friends with her, but I can't find the courage..."
"You were secretly following her? That girl named Jia has just been putting up with all of it."
"I-I know... I apologized for that..."
"Did she forgive you?"
"She didn't directly forgive me for that specific thing... She said it was okay, but that she wanted me to stop secretly following her and build up the courage to talk to her face-to-face..."
After hearing that much, my sister either found me frustrating or thought I was pathetic for secretly following someone, because she sighed.
"Talk to her as soon as you get to school. It would be even better if your seats are nearby."
"I'm in the very back, and the girl who blocks me and Jia sit right in front of me..."
"You idiot, when everything is already set up for you, how can you knock away the spoon right in front of your mouth...?"
My sister advised me to stop stalking her, build up my courage, and approach her properly, but... I didn't know if I could do it. Huh? Come to think of it, tomorrow was phy...sical... education? Jia would probably take the test she couldn't finish on Tuesday... Oh, my head...