Chapter 58
* * *
Jinuri’s eyes darted left and right.
Perhaps she was conscious of the attention around her; she looked around the classroom as she approached hesitantly.
“···Thanks for yesterday.”
She held out her hand as she spoke in a whisper.
What she handed me was a chocolate bar, one packed with nuts at that.
Nut-filled chocolate bars weren’t too expensive, and they were easy to eat, so they were among my preferred snacks.
“Is this what you mentioned yesterday?”
I nodded slightly at her question.
She had asked me over text yesterday what I liked. I guessed this was what she had intended to give me.
— “Did something happen between them···?”
Shin Ayoung’s Minimi looked over here and tilted its upper body from side to side.
It wore a subtly suggestive expression.
···There had been something.
Though it was probably going in a different direction from what she was thinking.
“···?”
I was about to sit down when I saw Isol and narrowed my eyes.
For some reason,
Isol’s head was hanging low.
“···What is it?”
“···Nothing.”
She waved both hands from side to side. Her gaze was still fixed on the floor.
— “What if I look weird?”
Isol’s Minimi timidly fidgeted with its hands.
What did she mean, look weird?
“······.”
As I examined Isol, I noticed something different from usual.
Come to think of it,
the atmosphere around her was subtly different.
“···Did you put on makeup?”
Flinch—
Isol’s body jerked.
She moved stiffly, like someone who had done something wrong.
“···Why, does it look weird···?”
She glanced at me, gauging my reaction.
“No··· You don’t usually wear any.”
“···I felt like it today.”
“By yourself?”
“Nooo··· Nuri helped me.”
For a first attempt, she had done surprisingly well.
“······.”
I quietly looked at her.
Once I realized she had put on makeup, I could feel the difference.
Her already delicate appearance had become even more radiant.
If she had usually leaned a little more toward cute, now her femininity stood out much more.
“I guess models really are different.”
The makeup was barely noticeable. It blended into her features as if it were part of her natural appearance.
“Really···?”
The tension slowly drained from her stiff shoulders.
Isol seemed relieved by my words, then
— “······?”
her expression oddly hardened.
— “···But··· is that it? That I look like a model?”
Isol’s Minimi furrowed its brows.
It was technically a compliment, but she didn’t seem to feel as though she had received one···.
That was the strange, ambiguous expression she wore.
I had thought I was complimenting her naturally.
From Isol’s perspective, apparently she hadn’t liked it very much.
“······.”
Still,
even if I had made a forced fuss over it, I felt like all that would have shown was the awkwardness.
‘Besides···.’
The truth was,
you were only surprised when someone ugly suddenly became pretty.
You didn’t exactly react in shock just because someone who was already pretty put on some makeup, did you?
Maybe it would be different with a professional’s touch······.
But ordinary high school makeup couldn’t create an extreme change in someone’s appearance.
— “···Is it because of Seungah···? My standards are pointlessly high.”
The Minimi clenched its fists in frustration.
I had nothing to say to that.
I couldn’t deny it.
“······.”
···That aside.
I slowly lowered my gaze.
Toward the top of my desk.
— “···Should I try wearing makeup too···?”
I could see Shin Ayoung’s Minimi mulling over that question.
Her behavior had been strange lately.
Especially recently.
Since when had it been like this?
Had it been since her noise suddenly grew louder?
It felt as though the psychological distance between us had suddenly shrunk.
“······.”
My thoughts became a little complicated.
.
.
.
“The Sports Day is the day after tomorrow, right?”
““Yes!””
The students answered the teacher’s question energetically.
Their voices sure were loud at times like this.
A short Sports Day had been scheduled before the final exams began. It was the last bit of fun before exam season.
“The class shirts are here, so check your sizes and take one each. Decide which events to enter under the class president’s direction and submit the list before the end of homeroom.”
The teacher left the classroom after saying that.
It had been a brief but to-the-point homeroom announcement.
“You remember the size you ordered, right? Take one each.”
When the class president opened the delivery box, the students lined up in front of it one by one.
Our class shirt was a fairly standard basketball jersey.
We had originally planned to get soccer jerseys, but another class had claimed them first.
So we had chosen these instead.
‘Not bad.’
I turned the jersey around in its plastic bag. There was nothing particularly awkward about it, and it looked easy to wear.
At least it was better than a dinosaur costume or cosplay clothes.
“Now we need to decide which events to enter——”
The class president continued while looking down at the paper.
There were all sorts of events.
Tug-of-war, soccer, relay races, team jump rope, three-legged races, and so on······.
“Does anyone here have an event they’re confident in? Raise your hand.”
The students raised their hands at that.
“······.”
I rarely raised my hand if I could help it.
I preferred watching to running myself.
Since we were required to participate in at least one event besides the team events, I waited for another event to come up.
“All right, that one’s settled. Next——”
······And things continued like that.
Eventually, it was time for the final event: soccer. The event I had been waiting for.
It wasn’t a team event, but
“We’re short on people for soccer. What are we going to do?”
Just as one of the guys had said,
it was an event we would have to participate in because we were short on people.
There were ten boys in our class.
We were short by exactly one person.
“Or should we just make do with ten?”
“No, they said the girls have to fill the shortage. They’re going to balance the gender ratio for every match.”
The class president answered that way.
“Oh, Ayoung’s doing it for our class.”
I turned around slightly at those words.
Her eyebrows bobbed up and down, and her face said she hadn’t expected me to turn around so suddenly.
Soon, she gave me a small eye-smile. It was a triumphant smile.
“···Are you okay with that?”
I leaned my chair back slightly as I asked.
Shin Ayoung nodded faintly.
“Yeah, I said I’d do it. I can at least play defense.”
“Really?”
When I checked what she was thinking,
Shin Ayoung’s Minimi looked carefree as well. It merely smoothed down its hair.
— “If I have to do one, soccer’s probably the best choice. Seungho’s here too···.”
It didn’t seem like she had been forced into it.
She was naturally good at physical activities, and I remembered how quickly she had learned to skate last time.
It didn’t seem like there was anything to worry about.
“Then could everyone playing soccer come over here for a moment? Let’s decide the positions quickly.”
The class president gathered the students.
Maybe it was because there was a separate prize for the soccer tournament.
Everyone was taking it seriously.
I got up from my seat and headed over with Shin Ayoung.
‘Should I play defense too?’
I should take whichever position was left.
Just as I was making up my mind,
things always had a way of going in an unexpected direction.
“Seungho, you be the goalie.”
“···Me?”
“Yeah.”
The vice class president asked me to do it.
He was one of the guys who went to play soccer with the others during every break.
“Just do it once. There’s no one else if you don’t.”
The vice class president’s eyes sparkled. Seeing another guy act like that gave me a strange feeling.
'But···.'
Why was he asking me?
I wondered if we had ever played together before.
‘Ah.’
A memory came back to me.
Come to think of it, we had played together once during P.E.
—“You did block pretty well last time··· Otherwise I’d have to do it···.”
The vice class president’s Minimi muttered. Apparently, he didn’t want to play goalie himself.
“All right.”
I nodded.
I was more confident in this than in jostling around with the taller guys.
“Awesome. Then we’ve got our goalie, right?”
He wrote my name on the paper with a delighted grin.
Lee Seungho and Shin Ayoung.
The two names were written in similar positions.
“···.”
Shin Ayoung’s expression brightened strangely when she saw that.
* * *
“Want to try it on?”
Jinuri took the jersey and called Isol over.
There was no one else she could ask.
Shin Ayoung had disappeared to decide the soccer positions.
“The class shirt?”
“Yeah, in case the size doesn’t fit.”
“Okay.”
Isol had been lazily leaning back in her chair, but she stood up.
She agreed surprisingly easily.
I had thought she would be more bothered by it.
Maybe she had secretly wanted to try it on.
“Oh, the fitting room’s empty.”
When they entered the changing room, there wasn’t another student in sight.
She took off her uniform and pulled the basketball tank top on over her white T-shirt.
She put a headband over her forehead as well,
then tried tying her hair back.
“Hmm······.”
Jinuri fell into thought.
When she looked in the mirror mounted on the wall, something seemed a little plain.
Let’s change it a little.
She tied the shirt up so that her midriff was subtly exposed.
“······.”
She turned her body from side to side.
Hmm, this was good enough.
“How is it?”
Isol, who had been struggling to change, looked at Jinuri with her eyes opened wide.
“······!”
She hurried over and reached out to cover Jinuri’s stomach.
“It’s, it’s so embarrassing···.”
Isol’s gaze wandered, unable to settle anywhere.
Was she a model and still didn’t wear clothes like this?
“What’s wrong? It’s fashion. Fashion.”
“······.”
There was no answer.
The expression Isol wore as she looked at Jinuri held some subtle, complicated emotions.
Hmm.
What was wrong with her?