Chapter 29
Before I knew it, all the perceptive students had left, and only three people, myself included, remained in the classroom.
Baek Seol-ah and Seo Ahyeon began a war of words, firing sharp looks at each other without yielding an inch.
“……How amusing. A girl who even has a boyfriend on the side? That’s not something you get to say, is it, Ahyeon?”
Baek Seol-ah was the one who fired the opening shot.
She pointed out Seo Ahyeon’s hypocrisy with a cold sneer.
“What do you mean, someone else’s man? What about Kim Minjun, Ahyeon? Are you planning to break up with him?”
Then she leisurely crossed her arms and cast Seo Ahyeon a rather chilling sidelong glance.
Even though that gaze was not directed at me, I had no choice but to shiver as though struck by a chill.
During the past year, when Baek Seol-ah and I had been closer to enemies than friends, even I had never seen such a deep chill emanating from her.
The emotions dwelling in Baek Seol-ah’s eyes as she looked down on Seo Ahyeon right now must have been fundamentally different from those she had directed at me until last year.
Even the things she said were unusually harsh. Her way of speaking was unlike her usual self, striking straight at the point.
Baek Seol-ah charged at Seo Ahyeon with considerable emotion, unlike her normal self, though.
“Yes. I’m going to break up with him.”
“……!?”
She probably hadn’t expected things to go this far either—the extent to which Seo Ahyeon had ultimately pulled herself together after falling apart once last weekend.
After receiving comfort from me, kindling new romantic feelings, and rolling around in bed, she had decided what to do with her future.
Who could have imagined that she would declare her breakup with Kim Minjun without a moment’s hesitation?
Thus, when Baek Seol-ah heard Seo Ahyeon’s answer, her eyes widened and she froze for a moment.
“I’ve already made my decision. I don’t know why, but unlike you, Seol-ah, who keeps vaguely hovering around Han Taeyang despite having Lee Hyeonseong……”
“……Deci-sion?”
That momentary stiffness was probably a fatal opening. At least, when it came to women’s arguments.
The moment Seo Ahyeon spotted her chance, she did not let it slip and immediately went on the offensive.
She openly lifted her chin and stated her intentions with a mocking smile directed at Baek Seol-ah, whose pupils were trembling.
“From now on, I’ve decided to choose a man who genuinely cherishes me, even if his relationships with women aren’t exactly clean, instead of a man who constantly looks down on me.”
“……”
“Compared to that, what about you, Seol-ah?”
“What……?”
Nor did Seo Ahyeon stop there. She relentlessly pressed Baek Seol-ah without giving her a moment to breathe.
“I still haven’t heard it from Han Taeyang—the reason you keep hanging around him these days.”
“……That’s……”
Naturally, it was a topic Baek Seol-ah could only fall silent over, looking cornered.
How could she possibly say it herself?
That her boyfriend had an utterly bizarre sexual preference called NTS, and that was why she was acting this way.
‘……She might actually understand right away.’
Of course, since I knew all the secrets on both sides, another thought occurred to me.
Honestly, even if Baek Seol-ah revealed the relationship among the three of us—Lee Hyeonseong, her, and me.
Seo Ahyeon might be able to accept it without much fuss. Wasn’t that actually the case?
After all, she herself had rushed out after receiving a similar command from Kim Minjun.
Strictly speaking, Lee Hyeonseong’s netorare preference and Kim Minjun’s instructions differed qualitatively in their intent, purpose, and the depth of the affection they contained, but.
‘In any case, the resemblance is obvious.’
Anyway, just as I was staring blankly into the distance and thinking such ultimately meaningless thoughts.
Seo Ahyeon had already hugged me with extraordinary tenderness, pressing my head against her chest as she said.
“I do know what you’re like, Seol-ah……. But just in case, I’ll ask you.”
“W-what?”
As Baek Seol-ah avoided her gaze with a dim expression, as though she had been struck to the core─.
Seo Ahyeon asked, filled with embarrassment and a suspicion that probably stemmed from her feelings for me.
“Are you stringing him along?”
“……Huh?!”
Seo Ahyeon tossed out that one sentence with a sharp look in her eyes, and Baek Seol-ah cried out in twice as much bewilderment as before.
I was actually just as startled. I had been sitting between the two girls like a stone statue throughout their argument, but now I widened my eyes and turned toward Seo Ahyeon.
But Seo Ahyeon’s expression was serious. As though she could not make sense of the situation any other way.
“I mean, isn’t that what it looks like? Why would a girl who already has a boyfriend stick so close to another man that she even becomes the subject of rumors……? Even if it isn’t cheating, if you’re trying to keep him as one of your options……”
“N-no, it’s not that!”
Baek Seol-ah cut her off mid-sentence, looking aggrieved.
Perhaps she could tolerate arguing later, but she desperately waved her hands and protested, unwilling to be misunderstood that way by her friend Seo Ahyeon.
“It’s really, really not like that. I understand what you’re suspicious of, Ahyeon, but honestly.”
“……Ahem. Yes, Seo Ahyeon. I can’t tell you the details either, but Baek Seolgi is telling the truth.”
Around then, I slipped in as well, adding my testimony in an attempt to prove Baek Seol-ah’s innocence.
Keeping people on the hook? As if she were the type. The entire academy knew Baek Seol-ah wasn’t that kind of person.
Even if I couldn’t tell her the truth as it was, I could at least correct that misconception.
Perhaps my support had come at the right moment, because Baek Seol-ah shot me a glance and expressed her gratitude with her eyes.
Just as I gave her a small nod.
“……Han Taeyang, are you taking Seol-ah’s side right now? Not mine?”
“……”
So much for the right timing. I had tried to help one side clear up a misunderstanding, only for a new problem to erupt on the other side.
Seo Ahyeon glared at me with a chilling expression, and I kept my mouth shut while sweating profusely.
“You even have a nickname for her……. You really……”
What are you talking about, Ahyeon-ah?
‘A nickname?’
Could she possibly mean ‘Baek Seolgi’ right now? I was so dumbfounded that I found myself speechless in turn.
This time, I had really just blurted it out out of habit, without any particular intent. How was that a nickname?
If anything, it was a derogatory name. At least from the person in question’s perspective, it was unquestionably closer to the latter.
‘Right……?’
I turned toward Baek Seol-ah, seeking agreement and sympathy for the absurdity I felt inside, but good grief.
Of all days, things that startled me just kept happening one after another today.
Naturally, I had assumed Baek Seol-ah would get angry as usual and declare that the name I called her was a serious derogatory term(?).
“……Heh.”
But instead, she gave a pleased little hum and shrugged her shoulders.
Seo Ahyeon’s brow twitched, and Baek Seol-ah deliberately gave her a mocking smile.
“Jealousy is ugly. Sorry, Ahyeon, but it looks like Han Taeyang is taking my side, not yours?”
“Hey. When did I?”
I hurriedly protested Baek Seol-ah’s outrageous act of pouring oil on the fire instead of water.
I swear, I hadn’t taken anyone’s side or supported either of them during the argument just now.
I had merely intervened briefly as a mediator to prevent an unnecessary misunderstanding from arising.
I turned toward Seo Ahyeon with a flustered expression, hoping to prove my innocence.
Surely, if she saw this sincere expression and gaze, she would realize that I had done nothing wrong.
“Taeyang……”
“……”
No. Seo Ahyeon genuinely looked hurt, her eyes drooping sadly.
She looked exactly like a soaked black puppy, and it was driving me crazy with frustration.
By then, the initiative had once again passed to Baek Seol-ah. Riding that momentum, she puffed out her chest and spoke to Seo Ahyeon, who was making a pitiful face and going ‘whimper’.
“Well, this is what you call a bond of trust. I don’t know what happened between you and Han Taeyang last weekend……. But you can’t intrude on the bond between him and me that easily, can you?”
“……Uuuh.”
Baek Seol-ah actually made Seo Ahyeon tearful. Seo Ahyeon’s arms tightened around my neck as though trying to strangle me, making my face pale slightly despite her sorrowful expression, while I let out a hollow laugh inwardly.
‘A bond?’
I had no idea there was anything like that between Baek Seol-ah and me. What an astonishing discovery.
It was such news that even I was only learning of it today.
In any case, the result of the two girls’ battle of nerves—which had been short if you called it short, and long if you called it long—seemed to be a narrow victory for Baek Seol-ah.
Of course, they had each landed one critical blow on the other, so it was hardly a meaningful result.
Anyway, I gently slipped out of Seo Ahyeon’s embrace and stroked her head as she immediately hugged me in turn and buried her face against me, as though she had been waiting for the chance.
“Seo Ahyeon, your next class is in the afternoon, right? Go back to your dorm and get some rest until then. Wash your face too. You won’t be able to do anything in that condition.”
“Mmm……”
“You didn’t forget the password, did you?”
“Mmm-hmm.”
Seo Ahyeon pressed the crown of her head into my palm as though asking me to pet her more vigorously, and I chuckled before doing as she wished.
Quite apart from that, however, Baek Seol-ah’s expression hardened at the natural exchange between Seo Ahyeon and me.
“……Password? Dorm? What are you talking about? Han Taeyang, where are you sending Ahyeon right now?”
“Huh……?”
She asked in a noticeably stiff voice.
Just as I went ‘Ah~’ and began choosing how to explain, Seo Ahyeon suddenly slipped out of my arms and poked her head out.
“I live with him. Forget bonds or whatever—I already use his dorm like it’s my own home.”
“……”
“If you understand, Baek Seol-ah, stop hitting on my man. Bleh.”
Before I had any chance to stop her, she spilled out all those words in an instant, gave my cheek a ‘peck’, and ran away.
At the end, she even stuck her tongue out at Baek Seol-ah, being childish in a way that was truly like a little kid.
‘……She sure loves kissing me, huh.’
I rubbed the spot on my cheek where the soft sensation had touched me once more before disappearing, then turned toward Baek Seol-ah with a slightly awkward expression.
She looked completely out of it, as though she had been hit head-on by the bombshell Seo Ahyeon had dropped and left behind.
At first she was simply dazed, then, perhaps realizing what had happened a beat late, she suddenly looked deeply offended, and finally shot me a resentful glare.
Faced with a reaction that looked exactly like one a pouting girlfriend might show, I scratched my cheek and─.
“Hey, Baek Seol-ah.”
With one eye narrowed, just in case, I asked her.
I did not beat around the bush. I was completely direct.
“Do you happen to like me?”
“……Huh?!”
Even though I naturally thought the answer would be no, I voiced the one and only reasonable possibility that had occurred to me just then.
At that single question, Baek Seol-ah’s normally fierce face suddenly flushed a bright, fiery red.