Chapter 64
* * *
“You’re interested in Seungho?”
Jinuri’s expression went blank at the question.
“···Huh?”
It was an unexpected, bewildering question.
“···.”
Isol quietly waited for Jinuri to answer. She didn’t move a muscle.
“Uh···.”
What was she supposed to say?
Generally speaking, this was what Jinuri knew Isol to be like.
She would let out a silly laugh. Or after lunch, she would doze off from post-meal sleepiness.
She was never serious and always seemed languid,
so Jinuri had never imagined she would ask a question like this.
“···.”
But.
The Isol before her now was strangely serious.
The sight of her at that moment felt somehow unfamiliar.
“···What, sorry?”
Flustered, Jinuri ended up asking stupidly.
“···.”
Isol’s long eyelashes blinked slowly.
She drew in a breath.
“···I asked if you’re interested. In Seungho.”
She asked again.
There was no mistaking what she’d heard.
At the question, Jinuri’s thoughts jammed tight like a tangled skein of thread.
“So, when you say ‘interested’···.”
What did interested mean?
Jinuri wondered what kind of interest Isol meant.
No.
Probably not.
She continued, asking just to make sure.
“···Romantically?”
No matter how she thought about it, this was the only possibility Jinuri could come up with.
What else could someone mean by asking if she was interested?
“···.”
Isol quietly nodded.
“Heh, hmm.”
So that was it.
It was indeed a romantic topic.
Jinuri fidgeted, caught off guard by the unexpected subject.
Never mind why Isol had suddenly brought up a conversation like this.
“···Why, why do you think that??”
Jinuri tapped the ground with the toe of her shoe. She couldn’t keep still.
“···.”
Isol was silent for a moment, as if thinking.
Then she answered, subtly averting her gaze.
“···It just seemed that way.”
“It did···?”
Apparently it was just a feeling.
With an answer like that, it was hard to know what to say.
“Then what part of it?”
Jinuri asked as she went up the stairs.
She moved to find somewhere empty. Having this conversation in front of the water dispenser felt awkward.
“You two talk well together.”
Isol followed close behind her and answered.
“That’s because we’re friends.”
“And you’re close, too.”
“Uh··· Were we?”
At Isol’s words, Jinuri looked back on herself. Had they really been that close?
“Your expression is different when you talk to Lee Seungho than when you talk to us.”
“? Isn’t it the same?”
Jinuri glanced at Isol with only her eyes.
“It is different.”
Isol looked at her as if asking what she was talking about.
“You look so excited.”
She pointed to the corners of her mouth with her finger.
···Ah.
So that was what it was.
‘This is bad···.’
Jinuri broke into a cold sweat. She was shriveling up like a piece of seaweed.
This had been a blunder. She acknowledged her own mistake.
‘I couldn’t control myself···.’
She had enjoyed talking otaku stuff with Lee Seungho far too much.
It couldn’t really be helped.
It had been a long time. Since she had no one at school to have conversations like that with, she had gotten too excited without realizing it.
‘It must have been incredibly obvious compared to how I usually am···?’
Jinuri herself knew that she normally didn’t smile or laugh that much.
With other people, she only gave a customary, easygoing laugh.
Thinking about it that way, how she looked now must have been different from usual.
Interested in Lee Seungho······.
To the people around her, it probably looked that way naturally.
“······.”
But it wasn’t.
It wasn’t a completely wrong guess, but the direction was wrong.
It was the opposite.
···For now, she should make an excuse.
It was for her own sake, but also for Lee Seungho’s.
“Come on—”
Jinuri scratched the back of her neck awkwardly.
“I don’t have any feelings for him.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, we’re just friends. Just friends.”
He might feel differently.
But at least she didn’t.
* * *
“We’re just friends. Just friends.”
Jinuri waved both hands from side to side.
On the surface, that was truly how it seemed.
She looked as though she genuinely had no feelings at all.
“······.”
Watching her, Isol cooled her head.
‘Even so···.’
She couldn’t let her guard down completely.
Even as she listened to Jinuri’s answer, Isol didn’t take it at face value.
She couldn’t feel fully relieved. She had experience with this already.
She knew feelings could always change.
‘Of course. That’s true.’
Had she herself not been the same, and not just anyone else?
Only a few months ago, she hadn’t had any interest in Lee Seungho.
She hadn’t even known who he was.
And now, look at her.
“···Ahem.”
Isol let out a small cough. Remembering that made her feel a little embarrassed.
How would her past self react if she saw her as she was now?
She would probably be horrified and tremble, thinking it was impossible.
“······.”
That was how much it had changed her.
This feeling brought about that level of change.
‘It doesn’t look like Nuri was lying······.’
Even so, it didn’t feel entirely true.
Just as Shin Ayoung hadn’t noticed her own feelings, there was no guarantee Jinuri was any different.
‘Should I question her further?’
She felt the need to find out for sure.
Isol cautiously broached the subject.
“But··· what were you and Seungho talking about earlier?”
“Uh, huh?”
“···I was just curious too.”
What could possibly have been so interesting?
Jinuri usually didn’t react strongly to any topic. She never seemed particularly interested.
The one thing she was somewhat interested in was music, but even then, she didn’t get especially excited.
But she was different when talking to him.
The expression on Jinuri’s face when she talked with Lee Seungho wouldn’t leave Isol’s mind.
“Uh, uh···.”
Jinuri’s eyes darted around. She looked extremely flustered.
Was she thinking about how to answer?
“Well···?”
The end of her words stretched out awkwardly.
“What was it again? It probably wasn’t anything important? Uh, we were just chatting.”
Jinuri fumbled her way through it, trying to change the subject.
She was pretending not to know. It showed.
“···.”
Isol’s expression slowly sank. Her forehead grew damp.
‘That expression again.’
Jinuri’s ears were burning. She looked embarrassed.
She was acting like someone hiding a secret she couldn’t tell.
If it wasn’t anything important, would she have to hide it this much?
Isol felt a sense of crisis.
“···.”
Isol puffed out her cheeks and fidgeted with her fingers.
‘···This is all Lee Seungho’s fault.’
Isol grumbled as she thought of him, who wasn’t there.
There was a saying that excessively nice men weren’t very good either, and now she understood what it meant.
More than anything, there were too many competitors.
The problem was that they were all formidable girls.
With ordinary girls, she could have overwhelmed them with her looks. But the girls involved with him were anything but ordinary, so even that wouldn’t be easy.
‘Ah.’
Isol let out a short sigh.
‘···I should’ve just asked for help.’
She was beginning to regret telling Lee Seungah that she would handle it herself.
“······.”
A sense of injustice welled up inside her.
The whole situation felt unfair.
Because I liked him first.
* * *
“Phew···.”
I washed my face and came out onto the field.
After playing in several matches, my face was drenched in sweat, so rinsing it with water seemed like the better option.
I patted the drops of water from my face with a sports towel.
I returned to the bench, but none of the others were there.
More precisely, only Shin Ayoung was sitting there.
“Where are the others?”
I dropped down beside her.
“I don’t know. I think they went to get some water?”
Shin Ayoung shrugged and naturally held a bag of snacks out toward me.
I looked down at it.
“I’ve never seen this one before. Is it new?”
“Yeah.”
“Oh—”
I couldn’t resist.
I promptly grabbed one.
Munch, munch.
It was salty and crispy, with a satisfying crunch.
— “···I kind of want to poke her cheek once.”
Minimi muttered blankly.
—Ahem!
I hurriedly took a drink of water.
···I almost spat the snack right back out.
Shin Ayoung. Every now and then, she would blurt out thoughts I never expected.
“Eat slowly. There’s plenty.”
“···Yeah.”
“······.”
Shin Ayoung watched me quietly, then asked,
“What score?”
She was asking me to rate the snack.
“Hmm··· seven points··· No, 7.5 points.”
“Out of ten?”
“Yeah.”
“Hmm···.”
Shin Ayoung nodded.
— “That’s a pretty good reaction.”
Minimi let out a triumphant laugh, as if it had been the one receiving the compliment.
— “···You said it was sponsored for advertising, right? You said it hasn’t launched yet··· Should I ask Dad to bring me some more?”
So that was why I thought it was new. It really hadn’t been released yet.
— “------.”
“?”
At the sudden noise, I turned my head slightly and saw Jinuri and Isol walking over from the other side.
They were coming side by side, but for some reason, an odd atmosphere hung between them.
Isol looked the same as usual, though.
···Jinuri was walking stiffly.
She stood out enormously.
“···Oh, you’re back?”
Maybe because of the atmosphere, I greeted them awkwardly without meaning to.
“Yeah.”
Isol took the seat beside me.
She crossed her legs, rested her chin on them, and gave me a sidelong glance.
— “------”
Isol’s Minimi emitted a burst of noise.
Then, it abruptly turned its head.
“···?”
Wondering what was wrong, I examined her closely.
Minimi’s profile looked different from usual. Her cheek was subtly puffed out.
“···.”
Could it be?
Was she sulking?