episode_0011

“… … Huh?”

No, why is he here?

They say that when people are too shocked, their voices don’t come out, and that’s exactly right.

When I saw Aki’s figure through the vaguely open back door, I was so surprised that I felt out of breath and my whole body flinched.

“… … Ah.”

As soon as Aki made eye contact with me, he blushed slightly and took a step back.

At that shy behavior, my mind was immediately filled with a thousand thoughts.

‘What, why is Aki in front of our classroom? Did you hear everything? You heard me and Jaehyun talking from beginning to end? Oh no, that can’t be possible. You probably didn’t hear everything because the next class was also having a funeral. Yes, that’s right. But it’s still highly likely that you heard it from the middle. Then, the reason why I shouted that I decided to marry Aki… … .’

──That’s right.

Aki took a step back.

I came to my senses at the sound of slippers echoing through the strangely quiet air in the hallway, and approached Aki while holding a linen rag.

“Aki, when did you come… ?”

“Now, wait a minute… !”

Aki raised his right hand and held out his palm as if to stop him from coming any closer.

“Hey, Uju~chan… … ?”

“Uh, huh?”

“It is true that Watashi (me) and Uju~chan decided to get married, but… … . Well, I don’t think it’s a good idea to shout that loudly in front of people… … .”

“… … .”

You heard it all.

I stopped in place, feeling my hands and feet becoming stiff.

Aki glanced at me, who was standing there awkwardly, as if I were a statue, and muttered one more word.

“Two, it’s okay to do that when it’s just the two of us… . I wish I had been more self-respectful when other people see it… … .”

“… … No.”

What is he talking about?

Aki If you say that, you’ll think that I confess all kinds of love when it’s just the two of us.

“… .”

As if my hunch was correct, Jaehyun, who was standing between us, looked at me with a lukewarm gaze.

“Wait a minute, Jaehyun, I think you’re misunderstanding something… … .”

“Ah, well… .”

Jaehyun scratched his cheek shyly.

“Yes, have a pretty love… ?”

“… … No, it’s not like that!”

──Crack!

The moment he shouted at Jaehyun, who had a strange misunderstanding, Aki quickly backed away and started running towards somewhere.

I don’t know why, but I immediately felt like I had to catch Aki, so I immediately threw down the gunny sack and shouted.

“Jaehyun! I’m really sorry, but I’m going to go catch Aki!”

“Hey, wait a minute-!”

The moment I was about to go out the back door and follow Aki, Jaehyun took out my school bag from my seat and threw it to me.

I quickly grabbed my backpack, and Jaehyun waved his hand as if telling me to go quickly.

“Just take the bag with you. I will finish the cleaning.”

“Huh? no… .”

“Okay, just go. Instead, I’m going to brush off today’s work with this. Okay?”

“Ah, yes! Okay!”

I’m not sure what they were trying to say, but I wasn’t in a position to do anything.

After saying hello to Jaehyun, I ran out into the hallway and found Aki’s back, who hadn’t gone far yet.

He immediately ran quickly and caught up with Aki in an instant.

“… … Akiya!”

“Oh… .”

Aki’s jumping speed was faster than expected, so I thought it would be difficult to catch him, but it was surprisingly easy.

But this wasn’t important right now, so I took a deep breath and took Aki to the corner of the hallway.

“Phew… … . Akiya, why were you there? No, why did you run away before that?”

Thanks to this, I’m out of breath from doing exercise that I shouldn’t have to do.

Aki, who was cornered, looked at me breathing heavily, wriggled her fingers together, and muttered.

“ also feels like I need to run away… ?”

“… Huh?”

“Well, Uju~chan’s face was so bright red. So I thought you were angry at Aki… … ?”

“Oh, I did… ?”

Since I don’t have a mirror, I can’t check the condition of my face, but when I saw Aki say this, he seemed to have turned red enough to make me think he was angry.

‘Well, it’s worth it… ‘

Because it was like making a promise that we often made when we were young and proudly saying it in front of the other person… … .

“I’m not angry, Aki.”

“Ugh, otherwise it’s okay… . By the way, Watashi (me) came to check on Uju~chan because he didn’t come for a long time. I wonder if something is wrong.”

“No, nothing happened. I was just cleaning the classroom and I was late… .”

“Ahang, I see… .”

“… … .”

“… … .”

The misunderstanding that had built up was resolved with just a few words, but as soon as the excitement subsided, a deep sense of shame came over me.

Even if I chased down and caught Aki, who suddenly ran away, the words that came out of my mouth would not be as if they had never been said.

‘… … ‘I want to turn back time.’

I want to go back for about five minutes and stop myself from saying those words.

No, I want to force my mouth to be covered, even if it means hitting me.

So much so that if God said to me, ‘Give me 10 years of your life and I will turn the clock back 5 minutes,’ I would nod and say that I would do just that.

However, in the reality I live in, such a miracle could not have happened.

“But… … . Uju~chan… ?”

“… … Ugh, why?”

“Even when I asked him, he said he didn’t remember, but in fact, he did remember that promise… … ?”

“Huh? What promise?”

“You promise that when you grow up, Uju~chan and I will marry… .”

Aki has said the last thing I want to hear at this point.

“… … Wow.”

I closed my mouth.

This is because I couldn’t think of anything to say back to the grinning Aki.

Actually, no matter what I said, it probably wouldn’t have made sense… … .

“You know, Uju~chan wants to marry me later… ?”

“… … .”

A laugh that clearly looks like someone is trying to make fun of me.

My fists automatically clenched.

It’s because I want to hit myself for saying something like that.

“Huh? Uju~chan, tell me once. Do you want to marry Watashi? Yes, huh?”

“… … Stop, Aki.”

“Why? I’m curious. Uju~chan, you want to marry Aki, right? huh? Tell me, do you want to get married? Kiss me too, okay? Ugh~?”

“Stop… ! Jebaal, stop it baby… … !”

* * *

“… … Something like this happened, Teacher Yoona.”

Jjook, side-.

Aki sucked on the orange juice and lightly licked the tip of his lips.

“Hmm, I see… .”

Aki and Woojoo’s tutor, female college student Yuna Kim, who heard everything that had happened a little while ago, which was probably 100% the dark story of the main universe, nodded as they picked up cookies placed as snacks and ate them.

“It looks like the universe likes Aki a lot?”

“… … Yes? Uju~chan likes me a lot.”

Aki pretends not to like it, pretends to be annoyed and clears his throat.

Even though she didn’t know who was acting, everything was obvious when seen through a third party’s eyes, so Kim Yuna looked at Aki and smiled.

‘… … cute.’

Maybe it’s because he’s still a 14-year-old kid, but it’s really cute that Woo-joo brags about it as soon as he leaves to run errands for his mom.

“Then what about Aki?”

“Yes, yes?”

“Woo Joo says she likes Aki, but Aki doesn’t like Joo Joo?”

Aki’s movement as he tried to reach for the orange juice stopped.

“… … Oh, what.”

Aki stayed still with a look of embarrassment on his face, but then moved his body creaking like a machine and picked up a glass of orange juice.

“Well, if you have to classify it as whether you like it or not, it’s definitely the one you like, right?”

“Not like that, just rationally. Not like, but love. Oh, no. Aki is of mixed Japanese and French descent… . Um, is it あい(love) or Amour(love)?”

“Teacher Yoona, the words you mentioned both mean love… ?”

“Aha, really? Sorry~”

Yuna Kim smiled kindly.

‘Oh, that doesn’t work.’

“But you roughly understand the nuance, right? I will never tell the universe. Which one is Aki?”

“… … love.”

“Oh my… !”

Close to “, like… ?”

“… huh? What are you talking about? If it’s like, it’s like, and if it’s love, it’s love.”

“Mo, I don’t know. Me too, well… … .”

Aki’s face turns slightly red and he avoids Kim Yuna’s gaze.

Kim Yuna looked at Aki, who was subtly avoiding answering, and suddenly a playful spirit appeared.

“… … Oh, really?”

Kim Yuna put her arms on the crooked desk, clasped her hands together, and placed her chin on them.

“Teacher loves the universe~?”

“… … ?!”

Aki opened his eyes.

“What, what? Teacher Yoona is the universe~chan… ? Why, why… ?!”

“Because Woo Joo is handsome, right? He’s polite, cute, sincere, and good at studying. He’s the absolute best groom.”

“Ah, no… ! Well, still. Teacher Yoona is a college student. The age difference is only 7 years… … !”

“Yeah, so I’m not going to do anything right now.”

“That’s right?! Because Uju~chan is too young for Teacher Yoona. And Teacher Yoona can meet many other boyfriends-.”

“But, wouldn’t it be okay after just 6 years? In 6 years, Woo-joo will be 20 years old and you will be 27. Then there’s no problem, right?”

“… … Damn, dame (no)!”

Aki raised his voice without realizing it.

Kim Yuna seemed to have worked well with her provocation, so she smiled on the inside and tilted her head on the outside, pretending not to notice.

“Huh? What?”

“Oh, no. Oh, what about Uju~chan… . He’s not the kind of boy that Teacher Yoona thinks he is!”

“He’s not the kind of boy I think he is, so what’s wrong?”

“Wooju~chan is… … . Oh, first of all, it’s not as polite as it looks! It’s not even that cute! Also, he’s not sincere, so every weekend I have to come to wake him up, and again, and again… !”

Around this time, Aki, who had been duped by a shallow provocation, was holding his head tightly and continuing to gossip about the main universe that was not present.

Kim Yuna looked at Aki happily, but suddenly looked behind her and was startled.

“Oh my, space… ?”

“… … !”

For a moment, goosebumps appeared on the back of Aki’s neck.

‘Oh, I definitely said I was going to run errands for my mother…’ … ?!’

I said it would take about 20 minutes because it was a long way, so I told him to take it easy until I came, but it was only 5 minutes ago that he was already back.

For a moment, Aki’s head spun around and he thought of a way to alleviate this situation. However, it was impossible to come up with a good excuse in that short period of time.

‘Well, let’s say sorry first… .’

I decided to apologize first without making any other excuses.

“Wow, Uju~chan! I’m sorry, Watashi was gone for a moment──.”

So I quickly turned my head back.

“Uh… ?”

For some reason, there was no one in the direction Kim Yuna was looking.

“Sorry, I’m just kidding~”

“… … Ah.”

What, it was a joke.

After realizing that there was no universe behind him, Aki, completely exhausted, sat down without realizing it.

“What, I was surprised. Teacher Yoona… .”

“I’m sorry, but it’s our Aki. It looks like you care a lot about the universe while pretending you don’t?”

“Of course I care!”

“Really? Why, why do you care?”

“Hmph, I don’t know. I won’t talk about this with Teacher Yoona anymore… !”

“Really? Then is it okay if I date Woo Joo later?”

“Well, that and this are different! And I told you. Uju~chan is more unfaithful than Teacher Yoona thinks──.”

“… … Huh?”

At that time, Kim Yuna’s expression hardened.

This time, Aki thought Kim Yuna was playing a prank and asked, “If I fooled you once, am I going to fool you twice?” I tried to shoot back, ‘Teacher Yoona, I’m not an idiot!’

“Hey, it’s space. Don’t misunderstand and listen to what the teacher says. Aki definitely didn’t mean that when he said that, but he misunderstood what I told him, right? So don’t be angry… .”

When I saw Kim Yuna, who looked towards the door with a really embarrassed expression and started talking gibberish, I was able to get an intuition right away.

This time it wasn’t a joke or anything.

“Woo, Uju~chan… !”

Aki felt goosebumps rising on her back and turned around.

“… … Huh?”

But, this time too, there was no one.

Aki reflexively looked at Yuna Kim.

Kim Yuna stuck out her tongue.

“Sorry, that’s a lie♡”

“… … Oh really, Yoona-sss-!!”