Chapter 16
***
“···Wow, that’s crazy.”
At my muttering,
Kang Han-sol, who had been walking ahead, came to a slight stop.
“···Huh? What’s wrong?”
“No... I just saw something strange.”
“···?”
He tilted his head with an expression that said he’d seen something odd, then turned forward again.
I discreetly covered my mouth.
I was so surprised that I accidentally let the sound escape.
I should be more careful.
.
.
.
“···.”
We arrived at a deserted area behind the school.
I stopped a few paces away from Kang Han-sol.
Chirp-chirp—
There wasn’t a sign of anyone around. The only thing I could hear was the faint chirping of birds.
I glanced around and spoke first.
“What did you want to talk to me about?”
···Actually, I already knew.
Still, I had to ask, if only for appearances.
“···Ahem.”
Kang Han-sol cleared his throat slightly.
After a brief pause.
And a short silence.
“···Sujin and I decided to start dating.”
He blurted it out.
“···Wow.”
Crazy.
I was surprised again when I heard it. It was absurd even hearing it a second time.
My mouth fell wide open.
It was a completely different topic from what I had expected before reading his thoughts.
···No.
I had certainly advised Kim Su-jin to try seducing him.
But I hadn’t expected it to actually work.
This guy, Kang Han-sol. He’d fallen for it with frightening ease.
I could almost understand why Jinuri had rejected him twice.
“How did that happen?”
“···I don’t know, it just sort of happened?”
Kang Han-sol avoided answering, turning his gaze away.
“Hmm.”
— “I didn’t realize I was so weak to someone coming on to me.”
···I see.
Kim Su-jin must have approached him more aggressively than I’d expected.
Had she managed to worm her way into Kang Han-sol’s wounded heart after he’d been rejected?
Kim Su-jin was scarier than I’d thought, too.
“I was going to keep it a secret, but... I figured I should tell you, at least. I heard you counseled Sujin too?”
“I did... counsel her.”
Did this really work?
Even thinking about it again left me dumbfounded.
“···Anyway, keep it a secret.”
I urged Kang Han-sol to do so.
Not for my sake, but for his.
“···Yeah, I was planning to anyway.”
“Is that all you wanted to say?”
“Oh, right.”
Kang Han-sol took something out of his bag.
That’s it. The thing.
The thing you attach next to an electric guitar... what was it called again?
Oh, right. An effects pedal.
“You left this in the clubroom. You’ll need it when you practice.”
Kang Han-sol rubbed the back of his neck as he continued.
“Tell Nuri that she can come back to the band club anytime if she changes her mind. Considering the situation and all... I felt awkward going myself... So, please do that for me.”
I looked down at the effects pedal he held out.
“···.”
Who knows.
It felt strange to be the one delivering the message, too.
To be honest, the situation itself was absurd.
Under normal circumstances, I would have told him to deliver it himself.
“···Tch.”
But Jinuri was involved.
I figured making her meet him again for no reason would only stress her out.
That was what bothered me more.
“Buy me something from the snack bar sometime.”
I said that as I accepted the effects pedal.
“Sure.”
“···Oh. Don’t come near the counseling club for a while, either.”
He probably wouldn’t have time to come anyway, what with dating, but running into him for no reason would be tiring.
Kang Han-sol nodded without saying anything else.
“Thanks for everything.”
Kang Han-sol said that as he left first.
···Now that he’s dating, he seems a little gentler.
Is he really that happy?
“···.”
I watched the direction he disappeared in for a moment, then slowly started walking the other way.
Let’s really go home now.
“Finally found you...!”
···What now?
As soon as Kang Han-sol disappeared, I narrowed my eyes at the voice of a third party, then—
? What is it?
I looked puzzled when I spotted Jinuri running toward me.
Why is she here?
Didn’t she go home earlier?
She ran right up to me and looked me over from head to toe.
“Hey. Are you okay?”
“···What?”
“I heard Kang Han-sol took you somewhere. ...Did something happen with him?”
— “I definitely heard that some other people went with you.”
Could she have come looking for me because she was worried about that?
“He didn’t say anything weird to you, did he?”
“No.”
I shook my head at Jinuri’s question.
Let’s not bring up anything else for no reason.
“He said he called me to thank me for counseling him last time.”
Oh, right.
I immediately handed her the effects pedal I was holding.
“He also asked me to give you this while I was at it.”
“···Ah.”
Jinuri’s expression visibly relaxed when she saw it.
“What? I got startled for nothing...”
She looked like she was thinking, So it really wasn’t anything.
Watching her, I felt a little mischievous.
“Oh... Are you worried about me right now?”
At my teasing remark,
“Yeah.”
she answered.
A firm answer came back.
— “I’d feel bad if you got dragged into this because of me.”
Along with the thought that followed.
“···.”
···That came out of nowhere.
That actually startled me.
“Still, just in case, let’s go together.”
Saying that, she lightly thumped my back with her fist.
“···.”
She had such an easygoing personality.
She was beautiful enough to rival a celebrity.
And she dressed well and even liked anime—a female friend?
“···You were the problem.”
I shook my head and started walking first.
“Huh? What was...?”
Even the way she slowly blinked her innocent eyes, as if she had no idea what I meant—
She flirted as naturally as breathing.
She really was a fox. A fox.
***
Several days passed after that little incident···.
Actually, even if something like that happened, it wasn’t as though daily life changed much.
Especially not for a student.
Go to school, study, go home.
It was just the same cycle repeated.
“The results for today’s third mock exam are out, so when I call your name, come up one at a time and collect your score report.”
Today, though, there was a slightly unusual event mixed in.
“Let’s see...”
I carefully unfolded my score report.
“Oh...”
I got almost every question right in every subject, with only one or two exceptions. I even got some subjects completely right.
It was among the best results I’d ever gotten on a mock exam.
Even so, I wasn’t particularly proud.
This result was largely thanks to my ability, after all.
···It would have been strange if I had done poorly.
I could compare answers with other people during the exam, for one...
And I could focus my studying on only the parts the teachers considered important.
There was no way I wouldn’t do well.
I looked around to see how everyone else had done.
“A-young, how did you do? Did you get good results?”
In the next section over, I saw Shin A-young surrounded by the others.
“I think I got about as well as I expected.”
— “Wow, I absolutely crushed that mock exam!”
Hmm, looks like she did well.
She was good at studying, too.
She probably did better than me.
“···.”
Then.
Our eyes met.
Shin A-young’s eyebrows rose slightly,
and she covered the corners of her mouth with one hand as she silently moved her lips.
‘Today’
‘PC bang’
‘Going?’
She was asking if I was going to the PC bang.
Did I need to answer her?
I conveyed my answer to her with only the shape of my mouth.
···Today.
Club.
At that, Shin A-young’s neck stiffened.
She was smiling, but her parted lips pressed into a straight line.
— “Are you seriously not going because you lost last time···?!”
Shin A-young’s mini-me was hopping up and down in place.
I ignored the sound and turned my gaze to the other side.
Jinuri was sitting beside me.
“Looks like you did well on the third mock exam?”
Jinuri said that as she looked at my expression.
Without a word, I slid my results sheet toward her.
“What? How did you do so well?”
Her eyes widened slightly.
“It’s all thanks to my ability.”
It really was thanks to my ability.
“What about you?”
“So-so? Honestly, it isn’t that important to me.”
“That’s true.”
The other students were the same.
Regardless of their scores, the mood in the class was cheerful.
The results had just come out, and it was only a mock exam, after all.
Since Myeonghwa High was an arts high school, everyone tended to place more importance on departmental exams than grades.
Of course, some students did study, but apparently not in our class.
“···.”
Except for one person.
‘···What is this.’
I stole a glance at the seat behind me and saw Lee Sol’s face.
She was looking down at her score report with her chin propped on her hand.
It was just that.
She was unusually quiet compared to normal.
Her face, visible between her falling strands of hair, was clearly subdued somehow.
.
.
.
After school.
I came to the clubroom and narrowed my eyes slightly.
“···.”
Something.
Something was strange.
Even now.
“···.”
Just as I was about to sit down on the sofa—
—Flump.
A soft sensation rose against my backside.
Looking down, I saw a cushion had been placed there.
“···.”
When I looked to the side, Lee Sol was there.
It was obvious she was the one who had put it there.
It had been like this since earlier.
I didn’t know why. If I did, would I be sitting here wondering?
And it wasn’t just a one-time thing, either.
“Seung-ho, there should be the counseling report we used last time over there, right? Could you bring it to me?”
Senior Minji called to me from inside the counseling room.
“On the shelf?”
“Over there. Right there.”
Ah, found it. There it is.
As I casually got up from my seat.
Tap-tap.
Lee Sol moved a step ahead of me.
She took out the report and promptly held it out to Senior Minji.
“Here you go.”
“···Oh. Thanks?”
The senior accepted it with a slightly flustered look.
— “What is this? What’s going on? Did she eat something bad?”
So that was what she thought, too.
Senior Minji seemed confused as well.
“···.”
Or maybe I should test it.
I deliberately ran a hand down my body and spoke.
“It’s a little chilly...”
In an instant, a soft fabric popped up right in front of my nose.
Lee Sol had held it out.
“Are you cold? Want a blanket?”
“···Oh, thanks.”
A warm blanket wrapped around my body.
That made it certain.
She really was trying to make a good impression on me.
It was starting to feel burdensome. I needed to end this situation soon.
“···Is there something you want to say to me?”
“···.”
Lee Sol took out her wallet.
She fumbled around and placed several ten-thousand-won bills on the desk.
Then she pushed them toward me.
···What on earth is this?
“Teach me how to study.”
I froze.
Not only me, but everyone in the clubroom stopped moving.
For a moment.
I wondered if I had heard correctly.
What did she want me to teach her?
Had those really been the words that just came out of Lee Sol’s mouth?
Lee Sol?
I asked again, my question filled with doubt.
“What?”
Lee Sol tilted her head slightly at the question.
“······Could you please teach me how to study?”
She asked again, this time politely.
No.
I didn’t mean you had to ask politely.