episode_0098

monday.

I opened my eyes to the morning sunlight and sighed as soon as I woke up.

“Can I pick you up…”

After what happened on Saturday, there were only one chat between me and Yuri.

[Me]: I’m really sorry, Yuri.

[Yuri]: Yeah…

That was it.

The two of us had never stopped chatting for a single day, but we stayed silent all weekend, which brought on a truly unpleasant feeling of loneliness.

I felt that way even more because I didn’t even talk to Suyeon out of guilt.

As I approached Monday in that state, I couldn’t tell what kind of face I should see from Yuri.

What does Yuri think?

Should I smile and treat him like usual, or should he look at me with a cold expression and disdain?

Can I go meet her as if nothing happened?

Or should I just avoid her for the time being, like a criminal?

But even if you do that, you’ll still see your face in the classroom the moment you arrive at the academy, right?

Are we… going to get awkward?

After thinking for a long time from the moment I opened my eyes to the moment I walked out the front door, I finally made a decision.

I go in front of Yuri’s house.

Even if that had happened.

Even if what I do is so shameless that people who see it are dumbfounded.

The beginning of a man and woman becoming distant may be due to a very trivial reason.

For example, the possibility that Yuri might feel distant from me because I’m scared and don’t visit her today.

Even if I was criticized and criticized, I decided to face it head on.

When I went to the front of Yuri’s house, I saw Yuri coming out earlier than usual and sitting on the bench in front of the house.

“Yuri, good… morning…”

As I approached her, I was startled and hesitated.

Because there were two bandages on Yuri’s face.

Yuri, who saw me approaching, got up from her seat and approached me as if nothing had happened.

“Good morning.”

“Is it Yuri? Your face is like that…”

“…… I fell.”

Yuri is really bad at lying.

When I saw her answering while rolling her eyes back and forth and avoiding eye contact, I knew right away that it was a lie.

No way, that wound…

“Yuri… did you fight with your sister?”

“…… No.”

It’s a lie again.

Doesn’t she know that she’s the type of person who gets very noticeable when she lies?

I put my hand on the bandage on Yuri’s cheek and gently traced it, apologizing in a trembling voice.

“… I’m sorry, Yuri. You didn’t do anything wrong, so why are you like this…”

“……”

“I’m really sorry…”

“My sister started the fight first. It’s okay.”

“It’s all my fault.”

I muttered in despair.

How did something like this happen because one of my former sex partners was my current girlfriend’s older sister?

No, even if such coincidences did not overlap, the countless karma of the past would have eventually caught up with me at some point.

‘It can’t go on like this.’

The idea that Han Seong-jin’s past is the past and that since I have decided to be rehabilitated, I can live like a normal person from now on.

I was too complacent.

Even if I live a normal life from now on, the things I did in the past will not disappear.

Even though Jeong Eun-ji had an enormous hatred for me because of that, I didn’t care because she was handling it well.

However, the past eventually caught up with me and caused my girlfriend Yuri, who had done nothing wrong, and her older sister to fight.

Even though I was the one who should have been hit.

This karma had to be cleared away.

At least to prevent the same thing from happening again.

The walk to school that day between Yuri and I was much more awkward than before we started dating, and the silence was quite long.

……

Yuri, who had two bandages on her face, caused concern among her classmates as soon as she arrived at school.

“Oh my, Yuri, what is on your face? Are you hurt?”

“Oh, I slipped…”

Yuri lied again, but the kids who didn’t know Yuri’s lying habits thought it was just that and accepted it.

The two bandages on Yuri’s face were like a symbol of my karma, so it was very difficult for me to look at her.

In the end, even though we were in the same class and taking the same classes, the amount of words we spoke to each other drastically decreased.

I don’t have the courage to look at glass.

And Yuri… I don’t know what she’s thinking, but I think her rejection of me has heightened considerably.

“Seong~Jin~Seon~Bae♥ Came to play today too… Huh?”

Suyeon, who had always seen Yuri sitting on my lap whenever she came to our class during recess, tilted her head when she saw the two of us standing quite far apart.

“Why is Yuri not on your lap?”

“Just… something like that happened.”

“Hmm…”

Suyeon looked at me and Yuri alternately from a distance and asked quietly.

“Senior, did you fight?”

“It wasn’t exactly a fight…”

“Senior, you really didn’t hit Yuri, did you?”

“You’re crazy. I won’t do something like that anymore, even if I die.”

“Looking at the atmosphere, I don’t think you should criticize that senior too much. What should I do?”

Su-yeon was very perceptive and had an excellent ability to understand the atmosphere.

She is a woman who usually uses her abilities to upset Yuri, but she also knows how to fall when she needs to fall.

“Suyeon, right now… no, I think it would be better to go back for a while today.”

“Hing… I need to supplement the senior’s ingredients… Okay. Well then, see you later today at lunch.”

Suyeon licked her lips and gently held my hand before leaving the classroom again.

Yuri seemed to be in a very sad mood, but since most of the cause was me, I didn’t dare to be the first to offer comfort.

If I had just done something wrong, I would have apologized and it would have been over, but I turned my biological sister into a pillar sister and they even started fighting because of me.

In the end, I had to spend another day without being able to make Yuri feel better that day.

And the next day, the June mock exam began.

Yuri, who was still in a very down mood, took the test in that state, and when the first period Korean ended, her expression became even worse than before.

After completing English, math… and the last subject, Yuri gave a provisional grade and buried her face on the desk, sighing in despair.

“Yuri, are you okay?”

“Huhhh… Sniff…”

Eventually, Yuri couldn’t control his emotions and started crying.

Mid-80s for three subjects.

This was the worst score for her, who had scored all 100 grades on her grades and had never missed a 1st grade in all subjects on mock exams.

If ordinary students heard this, they would get angry and ask who they are kidding, but it was also evidence that Yuri was mentally shaken.

I didn’t even dare to look at Yuri’s face because I felt like it was my responsibility too.

‘It’s about who makes whom happy, you idiot…’

The reason I decided to take Yuri, Soo-yeon, and Jeong Eun-ji was because I thought that their feelings for Gong Young-bae were not being reciprocated in the end.

I wanted to find their lost happiness.

If they could be happy together with Gong Young-bae, I would have tried to connect all three of them with Gong Young-bae.

I knew that wasn’t the case, so I tried to give her the happiness that Gong Young-bae couldn’t give her.

But what is this?

Yuri, who accepted me even though she knew that my past was messy and that we were both going to meet at the same time, ended up getting hurt by my past and fighting with her older sister, and her mentality was broken and her grades were ruined.

Still, do I have the right to say that I am making Yuri happy?

I am…

Knock knock.

As I was holding my head, someone knocked on my desk.

When I raised my head, I saw Gong Young-bae standing in front of my seat.

“Han Seong-jin, please talk to me for a moment.”

#####

Rooftop of the academy building.

It was a kind of hideout where mostly gangsters would meet after class, but now there was no one there.

Gong Young-bae and I were there alone.

Gong Young-bae was the first to speak.

“What did you do to Yuri?”

“What?”

“Why is there a scar on Yuri’s face? What did he do to sigh like that and ruin the exam like that?”

“It has nothing to do with you.”

“Why doesn’t it matter! Yuri is…”

“She’s my girlfriend. I have nothing to do with you.”

At my words, Gong Young-bae’s eyes twitched widely.

But he mustered up his courage and confronted me.

“You hit Yuri, right?”

“Don’t be a damn thing.”

“There have been rumors like that since a long time ago. Do you think I don’t know? He took Yuri as his girlfriend, gaslighted her, and made her strange-”

“I told you not to be a dick.”

“Aren’t you sorry to Yuri!? If I had met a proper man instead of you, it wouldn’t have been so weird… Ugh!”

I can’t listen any more.

While I was already very distraught and in a bad mood, when I heard Gong Young-bae’s bullshit, I exploded with anger and lifted him up by the collar with one hand.

“That’s why he’s such a fucking bastard. Well, are you saying it would have been different if you were Yuri’s boyfriend instead of me? Who knows the feelings of the three of Yuri, Suyeon, and Eunji, but plays with them and weighs their affections?”

“Kek… Keuk…”

“I hit Yuri? Are you gaslighting? How much will I try to make Yuri happy-”

For a moment I stopped talking.

Because I couldn’t say for sure whether Yuri was really happy because of me right now.

I felt sorry for Yuri and was annoyed at the idiot who was messing around with me, and I growled as I almost threw Gong Young-bae against the wall.

“Stay out of my sight from now on. If you act like a fool, you will be left behind.”

“……”

Annoyed by everything, I slammed the rooftop door and went down.

#####

“씨발… 씨발… 한성진 이 개새끼… 키 크고 힘 세다고 지가 뭐라도 된 거 마냥…”

Gong Young-bae did not come down from the rooftop, but continued muttering and swearing at Han Seong-jin.

Meanwhile, the rooftop door opened again, and this time a much larger number of footsteps were heard.

“Ah, how the fuck are we going to get this bastard Han Seongjin out?”

“Do you really just close your eyes and say it once? I can’t see any answer other than that. This bastard’s expression yesterday and today is so bad that if you say something wrong, you’ll be screwed.”

“Really, we just have to trick them once and that’s it, but if we tell them, they’ll be suspicious, ha…”

Some voices were slightly familiar and some were not.

Gong Young-bae, who was at the back of the structure where the door to the rooftop was opened, walked toward the sound of the voice and appeared.

“Over there.”

“!!!”

“What, what!”

The group, who had not expected anyone to be there, were startled and put themselves on guard, but then sighed in relief when they confirmed that the enemy was nothing serious.

“Ah, fuck, someone did it. You thought you were screwed. What are you?”

“You guys talked about Han Seongjin earlier.”

“Hey, don’t be a fuss, just get out of here, okay?”

“I can help you.”

“…?”

Gong Young-bae continued speaking as he took a step closer to the group of soldiers.

“I have a favor to ask of you.”

“This guy is funny. What. Let’s hear it.”

“I will try to bring out Han Seong-jin somehow. So…”

For a brief moment, there was a terrifying silence.

“Han Seongjin, please kill that bastard.”