Chapter 102
Though I'd gone to the trouble of laying out blankets on the floor so we could get ready for bed, every one of the girls had climbed onto my bed, leaving us barely enough room to turn over.
Since we were all huddled together beneath a single blanket, I felt like a fish neatly displayed at a supermarket.
We could only see each other's faces by the faint light given off by the mood lamp.
The children's breath brushing against my cheeks tickled.
“Ugh, I can't breathe! But what are we going to do now?”
Haru poked her head out from beneath the blanket and asked. Yuna, who already knew what we were going to do, was wearing a bright grin.
I decided to answer her question.
“Do you want to play a truth game now?”
“A truth game?”
“Yeah. It's a game where you have to tell only the truth when answering the other person's questions.”
Originally, this was a game I'd been saving for right before we fell asleep, after playing several board games and watching a movie.
I had been planning the perfect strategy: bring Yuna and Haru closer, then have them reconcile while sharing their pent-up feelings through a truth game.
But since they had already more or less reconciled, we didn't really need to do it anymore. Still, Yuna had pestered me so much that I reluctantly decided to play for a little while during the break.
“What happens if we lie...?”
Haru asked curiously.
“Well, then.”
I suddenly grabbed the mood lamp from above my head and shone it on my face.
“A ghost will eat you in the middle of the night.”
“Aaaah!”
“Ah! You startled me! What was that?”
“Anyway, you get it now, right? Do you want to play?”
“Yeah! I really want to try it.”
“Then Name, you can't lie either.”
“Of course not. That's the rule.”
Since I had to play along, I intended to tell the truth as much as possible.
“Do you have any questions you want to ask each other?”
“Hmm...”
Yuna and Haru fell into deep thought.
Since coming up with a question right away seemed difficult, I spoke first.
“Then, Seo Yuna.”
“Hm?”
I turned my head to the right and met Yuna's eyes.
“What's our Yuna's favorite anime?”
For reference, after visiting her house once, I had a pretty good grasp of her tastes.
I chose an appropriate question to show them that a truth game was supposed to involve questions that were difficult to answer.
As expected, Yuna's face turned as red as her hair.
“Th-the... Do I really have to answer?”
“Why? Wasn't Name's question an easy one?”
“N-no, it's just...”
Haru hugged me from behind and looked at Yuna over my shoulder.
“Don't tease me after you hear it, okay...? Th-there's something called Winx Club...”
“...? What's Winx Club?”
“I'll explain it instead. Winx Club is a magical-girl series about an ordinary girl who discovers that she has fairy powers, enrolls in Alfea, a school for fairies, and fights villains.”
“Hey, Name! You already knew all about it when you asked, didn't you!”
Yuna's face flushed bright red. She had screamed so loudly that my ears were ringing.
“Ooh... I see. So Yuna likes things like that.”
“Ugh, seriously... Ask Lee Haru too, quick.”
She kept pestering me as if she couldn't be the only one who had been put on the spot.
Since I hadn't talked with Haru very much and knew considerably less about her than I did about Yuna, I chose a safe question this time.
“Okay. Haru, if someone gave you and Yuna ten billion won, how would you split it with Yuna?”
“I'd just give it all to Yuna.”
“Really? You'd give all of it to me?”
The answer came immediately, without the slightest hesitation. Yuna's eyes sparkled as if she were touched.
“My family has plenty of money anyway, so I don't need it.”
Oh, right. Their family was rich.
I'd even forgotten it, despite the fact that Haru had just used the pure-gold sheet mask she'd brought from home.
At that rather absurd explanation, Yuna added, “Figures,” and the atmosphere that had finally begun to heat up deflated.
This wouldn't do. I had to move straight into the climax of the truth game.
“Yuna, Yuna. Is there a boy in your class you like?”
“Huh? Someone I like?”
“Yeah.”
It was only natural to ask who someone had a crush on when playing a truth game.
“Oh, I am kind of curious about this.”
“It feels like I'm the only one answering all the questions.”
“You can ask next. So?”
I was curious too. The way she was deliberating made me wonder if there really was someone.
But the answer we wanted never came.
“No, I don't think there is.”
“Why?”
“There's just no one in particular?”
“Name, do you know something?”
I turned halfway around again and whispered into Haru's ear.
“I'm pretty sure Sihu liked Yuna.”
“No way...! Really?”
“Yeah. I'm almost 99 percent certain.”
“What's Yoon Sihu going to do...! Poor thing.”
There was no way Yuna would simply sit there while we whispered to each other so cheerfully.
She threw off the blanket, climbed on top of us, and decided to interfere with all her might.
“Wait, Yuna, you're heavy...!”
“What are you talking about without me! I told you to let me hear too!”
“Hehe, Seo Yuna, you're secretly pretty popular, huh?”
“Of course. Yuna's cute.”
“Come to think of it, you're good at sports too. The last time you played dodgeball with the boys, you took on ten of them by yourself. That was pretty cool.”
Her heart softened again under the successive compliments, and she returned to her place.
“So what were you talking about?”
“Hmm. Should I tell you or not?”
“I think it would be okay to tell her.”
When Haru willingly took on the role of accomplice, I no longer felt any need to hide it.
Well, Yoon Sihu had been getting too full of himself lately anyway. He could take his punishment.
“Yuna.”
I called her name in a slightly more serious voice.
I wound her vivid red hair around my index finger and twirled it. It was more addictive than I'd expected, and it felt like it might become a habit whenever I talked to her.
“How would you feel if there were someone in our class who liked you?”
She had always been a loner at the academy.
She must have thought everyone hated her, but I wondered how she would react if she learned that someone had wanted to become friends with her for a long time.
“Who would like someone like me...?”
“Our Yuna is cute, good at studying, and sharp.”
“Honestly, I... haven't been very kind to my classmates.”
“What about Yoon Sihu?”
“Huh?”
“I think Sihu thinks pretty highly of you, in his own way.”
“Aaaah, I can't listen anymore...!”
Haru, rather than Yuna, made an even bigger fuss, saying it made her cringe.
“Ah... uh... it's...”
Yuna mumbled as if something inside her had broken.
“Sihu must hate me...”
“But I've noticed something too. Sihu seems to smile more often when he's with you. He's usually quiet and doesn't talk much.”
“See? Haru feels that way too. So when Sihu talks to you later, don't shut him down every time. Hang out with him.”
“Name, the truth game is so much fun. It's nighttime, but I can't sleep—what should I do!”
Yuna suddenly grew much quieter, while Haru began speaking more instead.
Perhaps Yuna was displeased that I was only bantering with Haru, because she took over the speaking turn in the truth game.
“Then Haru, was there anyone you liked at the academy?”
“Hmm... There was before, but not anymore.”
“Oh? Who?”
“Kim Hangyeol.”
“The girls hate him. Wasn't it the same for you?”
“Kim Hangyeol and I have known each other since we were little, you know?”
Even now, the fact that these children talked about “when they were little” only seemed cute to me.
“But you don't like him much anymore?”
“Yeah. Kim Hangyeol said he would only eat one bite of my ice cream, then ate almost all of it.”
“Haha...”
“So I stopped being friends with him for a week, I'm telling you! It was a limited-edition ice cream I'd wanted so badly...!”
It was fascinating how varied their reasons for disliking someone could be.
Sharing their secrets one by one was unexpectedly embarrassing, but also cathartic.
Perhaps because of that, Haru launched an attack at me with a sly smile.
“What about you, Name? Anyone?”
“Of course not.”
“Why?”
“Because you two are too young.”
“You always call us young. You're just as young as we are.”
“That's right, Lee Haru. It's not just me, is it? Name always treats me like a kid.”
“You are a kid, Seo Yuna.”
“I'm not! Teacher says that if you're a second-grader in the elementary division, you're not a kid anymore.”
She quoted something Ms. Jackie habitually said to control our class whenever it got noisy.
“Oh, that's what Ms. Jackie said! I can imitate her exactly. Ahem. ‘Class 2-A, you're not kids anymore. There are first-graders below you too, so you need to set a good example, right? Understand?’”
“Hwaaah, that's exactly her!”
We burst into giggles at Haru's excellent impression.
I especially wanted to give her bonus points for not missing the detail of adding English at the end.
* * *
The truth game gradually devolved into a versus game.
Learning about each other's tastes was one of the children's greatest pleasures too.
Thinking it was about time, Name called the girls together again for one last thing.
“Actually, there's a reason I invited you two to this pajama party today.”
“Huh? There is?”
Haru quietly nodded.
“Shall we sit down and talk for a minute?”
Name believed that apologies should be made face-to-face, so Name firmly took hold of the girls' arms.
They had all been in the same position for so long that they rose with a series of crackling sounds.
Then Name joined their hands so that Yuna and Haru could hold both of each other's hands.
“Do we really have to go this far...?”
“Yeah, you promised me..”
“Okay... Um, Yuna.”
Haru began in a soft, lilting voice.
“I said some really harsh things to you last year... Do you remember?”
“Mmhmm...”
“I said them because I spoke without thinking. I'm really sorry...”
“...”
“I had so much fun playing together today. We played Jenga, watched Tic-Tac while eating chicken, went on a picnic with Niobe unni, and played the truth game too—all of it.... Would you like to hang out again next time, with me inviting you? I'm really sorry, truly...”
It took only a moment for a quiet silence to fill the room that had been so boisterous.
Haru tilted her head back, while Yuna bit her lips tightly.
Neither of them knew what else to say.
Yuna's hands began to tremble.
Her difficult life at the academy flashed through her mind. At the same time, it overlapped with the happy memories of the pajama party.
Yuna slowly turned her head to look at Name.
‘You don't have to think so hard.’
Name smiled brightly at Yuna, signaling that everything was okay.
After thinking for a long while, Yuna took a deep breath.
“I know how badly I treated my classmates last year. I wanted to play with everyone, but since I was the only one who couldn't, I became even meaner.”
“If you knew, then why...?”
“I also knew that you tried to look after me in the second semester. Sniff... When everyone hated me, when the kids... called me the Yuna virus and hated even touching me, you were the only one who talked to me, Haru. Hic... But I overheard you talking behind my back with the other kids... I felt so betrayed...”
Yuna's face was soon covered in tears.
Even when she squeezed her eyes shut and tried to hold them back, droplets formed and streamed down her reddened cheeks.
“That was a misunderstanding! I... I...”
Haru couldn't continue.
She wasn't sure whether what she had done counted as talking behind Yuna's back.
Even if she had said it for Yuna's sake, she probably thought it might still have been backbiting.
“You acted friendly to my face and talked behind my back, so you were the person I hated most in Class 1-C, Lee Haru. Truly... Even now, maybe you're only doing this because Name told you to.”
“No...”
“You're the only friend I need, Name.”
The words struck Haru like a bolt from the blue.
Just when I thought the situation was taking a turn for the worse,
Yuna suddenly hugged Haru, who had lowered her head and was fidgeting.
“Hic... But you know... I really did think that before... But when we filled out that survey the other day, where we had to write down a friend's name... I was so sad because I could only write Name's name. I went home and cried so much—no, all day long...”
Even when she tried to press her lips shut, an emotion-choked sound burst through them.
Name mouthed to the flustered Haru that she should gently pat Yuna on the back.
The trembling passed through their hands and reached Haru as well.
“I think I've lived too selfishly... If I could really go back, I'd apologize to the whole class. And for hitting you too... I was so scared of myself that I couldn't sleep that night. I really wanted to say I was sorry, but sniff... I don't know why I did it either, hic... Did it hurt a lot?”
“Yeah... A little...?”
“Waaah, I'm sorry! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry...”
I had told Haru to make an apology, but instead she had become the one receiving apology after apology, leaving her at a loss.
Without even realizing that Haru was dazed, Yuna continued repeating that she was sorry.
“Then will you come with Name to the next pajama party?”
“Sniff... Yeah!”
Only then did the two girls' expressions brighten.
Fortunately, the regrets and resentments they had been holding seemed to melt away as they comforted each other.
Haru furtively wiped away her tears too, so Name brought over some tissues and came up beside her.
“Do you want to blow your nose too?”
“N-no...! I can do that myself!”
When Haru bristled, Name casually brought the tissue to Yuna's nose instead.
“Here, blow.”
“Snrrk...!”
“That's it. Everyone's tears sure won't dry today. Feeling a little better now?”
“Sniff... Yeah...”
Name tenderly held Yuna, who was still sniffling, in her arms.
“See? Apologizing isn't such a big deal, is it?”
It was a question directed at Haru.
“Yeah... Not as much as I thought.”
“Yuna said she likes you second-best after me, Haru.”
“Hey, we said we wouldn't tell her—mmph...!”
“Ahem, shh.”
Seeing that Name had been covering Yuna's mouth so often today, Haru giggled.
“You two are so funny—you really look like a mother and daughter!”
“Really? Then come over and be the dad. Then we'd be one perfect family.”
“Aah! I don't want to become a man!”
“I didn't become a woman because I wanted to either?”
“Huh...? But you're a girl?”
Name wore a meaningful expression. Haru would never understand what it meant for the rest of her life.