Chapter 63
* * *
I ran after Jinuri.
Perhaps because we moved quickly, we were the first to cross the finish line.
Of course, according to the rules, all the other team members had to cross too. Still, it was a good start.
“Here. I brought him.”
“Let me check that.”
The student council staff member in charge accepted the paper Jinuri held out.
“···Yes, it’s confirmed.”
The staff member handed the paper back with the look of someone who had seen something they shouldn’t have.
— “Good grief··· Who came up with an event like this?”
The Minimi grumbled and clicked its tongue.
Seeing that reaction made me curious.
“What did it say on the paper?”
I looked down at the paper Jinuri was holding.
She discreetly unfolded it to show me.
[Someone with whom you share a certain secret.]
“Something like that···.”
I wondered if there was anything like that between us.
···Thinking about it, there was.
I remembered what had happened at the animation convention. If that counted as a secret, then it was one.
“Heh.”
Jinuri let out a faint scoff. It was a smug laugh.
Apparently, she was happy to have found a friend who shared her interests.
“Huff, huff···.”
Not long after, Shin Ayoung reached the finish line.
She was holding a bag of snacks, though I had no idea where she had gotten it. Apparently, some of the things people had to fetch were ordinary items like that.
“···.”
Shin Ayoung caught her breath and looked back and forth between Jinuri and me.
— “···What’s going on with you two?”
The Minimi spoke in a somewhat dissatisfied tone.
Tap, tap, tap—
She quietly approached us.
“You got here really fast, huh? I had to bring back some snacks.”
Shin Ayoung showed us her paper.
Jinuri looked at it and let out a drawn-out “Hmm.” It sounded impressed.
“Oh— You picked a pretty vague one, but you found it really well?”
“I got it from the Korean teacher.”
Shin Ayoung gestured discreetly behind her. The Korean teacher was sitting on a bench, snacking on the treats.
“But what did your paper say?”
“Huh, wha—?”
Faced with the sudden question, Jinuri failed to hide her fluster for an instant.
“···No, I was just wondering because you brought Seungho. What was it?”
Shin Ayoung gave off a subtly suggestive air. She naturally moved closer to Jinuri.
“No, it’s just···.”
Jinuri’s pupils darted up, down, left, and right.
— “What should I do!?”
The Minimi, unable to contain its panic, emitted a burst of noise.
“It wasn’t anything important···!”
Her voice cracked.
Jinuri realized it too and froze like a stone.
She forced out a haha—smile, but her expression was unmistakably that of someone who was flustered.
“···.”
The sweat running down her forehead looked like a cold sweat. No, perhaps it really was.
— “Tsk···.”
At that vague excuse, Shin Ayoung’s Minimi made a conflicted expression.
Sss— Its brows drew together.
“Come on~ What was it?”
“···.”
“If it wasn’t anything important, just show me. Okay?”
She smiled sweetly. With a subtle smile in her eyes, she asked in a gentle voice.
— “···What on earth was it that she was hiding?”
But it was thinking something else entirely.
Shin Ayoung’s Minimi was already filled with suspicion.
That expression. It looked like a reaction I had seen somewhere before.
Mostly from Isol.
The feeling was different, but it was the same kind of reaction.
“···.”
Watching it made it hard to breathe.
No matter how I thought about it, Jinuri and I were the cause.
So why were they reacting this strongly? That was the first question that came to mind.
As far as I knew, I hadn’t done anything. Yet it felt as though reactions much bigger than the distance between us were coming back to me.
‘···I’ll think about it later.’
I put that question aside for the moment. There was something more urgent.
First···.
I should help Jinuri.
She looked like she might collapse at any moment, like a sunfish.
“It wasn’t anything important.”
I cut into their conversation and racked my brain.
“Huh? What was it?”
“It said to bring a male friend.”
I said it casually.
“What?”
Shin Ayoung’s expression abruptly stiffened.
At the sudden appearance of those words, her gaze wandered helplessly through the air.
“I think it meant a male friend···. It’s just··· the wording sounds kind of strange if you say it outright.”
I added that this was why Jinuri hadn’t been able to say it carelessly. It was an excuse to cover for her.
I thought it was probably the best excuse available. It was the best I could come up with.
“Ah···.”
Shin Ayoung glanced at Jinuri.
Then she nodded, saying she understood.
— “Right, it’s Nuri. I figured it probably wasn’t anything important.”
Shin Ayoung’s Minimi acted as though it understood.
It nodded repeatedly, humming in agreement.
— “Phew···.”
Seeing that, Jinuri let out a relieved sigh inwardly.
She wiped away her cold sweat, as if thinking she had somehow managed to resolve it···.
— “···Seriously, that’s the excuse you went with? You’re making it so obvious.”
It muttered that.
The Minimi waved its hands like it was embarrassed.
“···.”
···I was a little annoyed.
* * *
“Uweegh···!”
The last person to arrive was Isol.
Isol crossed the finish line in a precarious run.
The person she had brought was Park Minji.
She had panicked at the sudden situation, and Minji was the person she had hurriedly brought along.
Of all the people she could bring, Minji was the only one she could call somewhat close.
“Huff···heek···.”
“Hah··· huff···.”
Isol and Park Minji panted, drenched in sweat. Neither of them was in good shape.
— Class 2, Section 1! Arriving in third place!
The student council president’s voice, overseeing the event, rang out through the speakers.
Since Isol had been last, Class 2, Section 1’s ranking was decided the moment she crossed the finish line.
“···.”
Isol wiped her sweat with her sleeve and pushed back her dangling bangs.
Through the strands of hair, she saw Jinuri looking delighted.
“Good work, everyone. We did pretty well, all things considered!”
Jinuri nodded with her arms crossed, apparently satisfied with their result.
On the surface, she looked genuinely happy. If this had been any other situation, I would have taken it at face value···.
But the moment the person she had brought became Lee Seungho,
I couldn’t stop the images churning through my mind.
“···Are you all right, Senior Minji?”
“Uweegh.”
Lee Seungho handed a sports drink to Park Minji, who looked ready to collapse.
“···.”
Isol hovered around Jinuri. She was so bothered that she couldn’t keep still.
She checked to see whether Jinuri was holding the paper, but···.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t.
There was no sign of it.
“? Why?”
Jinuri noticed her and met her eyes.
“···Hmm.”
Isol looked away. She shook her head as if to say it was nothing.
‘That paper.’
She was terribly curious about what had been written on the paper Jinuri had picked, but···.
With Lee Seungho right beside her, she didn’t have the courage to ask outright.
‘Besides.’
If what she was imagining was correct,
if Jinuri was like that too,
she honestly didn’t trust herself to control her expression.
.
.
.
Sports Day continued.
“···.”
Isol sat quietly on a bench, staring blankly at the field.
In the distance, two people stood on the artificial turf. Lee Seungho and Jinuri.
They were waiting for the mixed-gender relay to begin.
Lee Seungho had always been a fast runner, and Jinuri was one of the faster girls,
so the two of them had ended up together again.
‘What are they talking about?’
Isol’s eyelashes drooped.
“···.”
“···.”
The two of them chatted about something or other.
Then Jinuri let out a faint laugh. She looked excited somehow.
They were too far away for Isol to hear what they were saying, but their mood was plainly visible.
“···.”
Isol rubbed her damp palms briskly against her thighs.
She felt a sense of danger.
Had she ever seen Jinuri look that excited before?
···No, she hadn’t.
At least not recently. She wasn’t like that at school. The only time she had seen it was during the school trip.
It was hard to say whether Jinuri had feelings for him. But she didn’t look as though she had none, either.
“Hmm.”
No matter how she looked at it, that was how it seemed.
She didn’t feel the same certainty as she had with Shin Ayoung, but a strange sense of crisis had taken its place.
She wondered what she should do.
‘···She isn’t reacting much, either.’
Isol turned to the girl sitting beside her.
“···.”
Shin Ayoung put a potato chip in her mouth and munched on it.
‘What is going on?’
Was she simply unaware? Or was she waiting to watch things a little longer?
As always, she observed the two of them with an impassive expression.
‘This won’t do.’
The moment the relay ended, Isol sprang to her feet.
If Shin Ayoung was going to sit still, Isol intended to do something herself.
“Where are you going?”
“To Nuri.”
Isol gave a vague answer to Shin Ayoung’s question and started moving.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
She headed off to find Jinuri. Her footsteps were stiff.
Finding her wasn’t difficult. Jinuri stood out too much for that.
Isol spotted her drinking greedily from the water dispenser.
“Jinuri.”
“···?”
At the call, Jinuri’s eyes grew wide.
She was startled by the way Isol addressed her. Isol never usually called her by her surname.
“Ahem··· Nuri.”
Isol corrected herself.
Admitting that she had gotten a little worked up, she calmed herself down.
“What is it?”
Jinuri gave her an easygoing smile.
“Nuri. Do you, by any chance···.”
What should she ask? She had already decided on the question.
Even though she had prepared it in advance in her head,
“···By any chance.”
the words wouldn’t come out easily. Her mouth twisted into a straight line, as if it were stuck shut.
Her gaze fell to the floor.
···For some reason, she felt that way.
Her eyes traced the lines between the tiles.
“···.”
···Even so, she felt she had to say it.
Isol abruptly lifted her head and
“Are you interested in Seungho?”
finally
blurted out the sentence impulsively.