episode_0010

Two shabbily dressed men approached the girl.

“Uh, um. I, I have to go to the academy….”

The girl stammered, trying to suppress her trembling voice as she took a step back.

But the men didn’t easily let go of the girl.

“What academy? Let’s just go have some fun for a day.”

Without clearly expressing her refusal, the girl hesitated while the men stood in front of her.

“Aww, she’s so cute.”

It was too late for the girl to scream now; she was too timid and scared.

‘Oh, Dad… Mom….’

She should have gone to the academy quickly.

It was my fault for wasting time in such a place.

As the girl blamed herself and fell into fear, just then, when the men were about to reach out to her.

“Stop!”

The eyes of the girl and the men turned to one place.

There, a boy was looking at them.

The girl couldn’t take her eyes off the handsome boy of her age.

Feeling grateful that he came to rescue her, the girl shed a tear.

“What’s up, punk?”

However, the boy’s face quickly hardened at the menacing look of the men, who showed no signs of stopping.

Though he bravely stepped forward, the boy seemed frightened without a plan.

Then, another boy appeared.

The girl couldn’t take her eyes off the boy.

Undoubtedly, he was the prince.

Like the protagonist in the storybook she read last night, tossing and turning in bed….

Despite his cold demeanor, the girl felt warmth in the boy’s eyes as he briefly examined her.

And so,

The prince defeated the villain and saved the princess.

The warmth she felt from holding hands with the boy filled the girl’s heart.

It felt like her heart was going to burst….

When the boy looked at the blushing girl with concern.

Following the boy’s gaze, the girl’s black and white world was vividly filled with color in her reality.

In her imagination, the girl was already a beautiful princess, embraced in her own prince’s arms.

Finally, the girl’s reality.

It was a moment when a fairytale-like story unfolded.

* * *

Lee So-yoon, who had been gloomy, suddenly got angry.

“Idiot.”

So-yoon needlessly teased Lee Ji, who was hiding something from her.

Then she buried her head in her desk.

“Suddenly?”

“I don’t know, idiot.”

I like you so much, but you don’t understand this feeling.

“It’s not a big deal, so I’ll post it in the group chat later. You should see it too.”

Talking secretly with someone else.

Hiding it from me.

So-yoon hated Lee Ji for that.

…

She hated it.

…But she still liked him too much.

So much so that,

Lee Ji’s voice, trying hard to comfort her, was so nice.

As if the anger she felt just now was a lie.

Afraid that her smile, which had unknowingly crept up like a fool, might show.

So-yoon buried her face deeper in her arms.

* * *

In the end, Lee So-yoon remained stubborn, not turning her head in the first period.

During the break in the first period.

“…Lee So-yoon.”

“…What.”

“Wanna go to the snack bar together?”

“…Hmph.”

Darn it. It’s not working.

I need to solve this fundamental problem.

I quickly took out my phone and wrote a long post in the group chat as an announcement.

It was a conversation with Sung Yoo-rin.

“Here. The conversation I had with Sung Yoo-rin earlier.”

As So-yoon turned her head only to check the announcement, she pouted.

“…If it’s something like this, you could have just told me.”

“No, it’s just that I didn’t want to say it twice.”

So-yoon’s fierce glare was intimidating.

“Am I a bother to you?”

“Oh, no. I’m sorry.”

This is bad. I tried to comfort her.

Still, thankfully, Isuyoon, who had relaxed her expression, let out a deep sigh and playfully nudged the shoulder of Isea, who was chatting with Yoon Jiwu in the front row.

“Hey, guys. Did you check the group chat?”

“Huh? No. What’s up? I’ll check it now.”

Isea and Yoon Jiwu both took out their phones simultaneously.

After a moment, Yoon Jiwu, who had checked the contents, spoke up.

“Oh! Right. It’s Se-ah’s birthday soon. Are we spending it at Sung Yurin’s house this year?”

“Heh. Thanks for remembering everyone.”

“Of course. We’ve spent it together every year.”

That’s true. How many times now? Oh, am I the tenth?

“Come to think of it, when are Yurin and Yeonseo’s birthdays?”

I casually glanced at the two.

Sung Yurin, who was always studying even during break time, and Hong Yeonseo, who was chatting with the girls in the class.

Isea, who heard my words, gave me a sharp look.

“Jin, you. You don’t check the group chat often, do you?”

“……Uh.”

At that, the three of us sighed simultaneously.

If you sigh too often, you’ll get wrinkles, you guys.

“Bring up the conversation we had when we first invited Yurin and Yeonseo to the group chat.”

I quickly scrolled through the conversation on my phone and indeed, there was a conversation where we exchanged greetings and various small talk.

I guess I was a bit indifferent to this.

“Ahem.”

I cleared my throat to defuse the situation and changed the subject.

No, well. Actually, the group chat is so noisy that everyone turns off the notifications… And it’s too much of a hassle to go through all the piled-up messages, so I just delete the numbers.

…Am I the only one who does that?

“Seoijin is really indifferent in this regard.”

I probably don’t want to hear that I’m indifferent from the protagonist of the harem love story, who is probably the most clueless person in the world.

But in this situation, where my fault was clear, I had nothing to say.

After confirming both of their birthdays, I put my phone back in my pocket.

“They’re both a long way off.”

Sung Yurin’s birthday is in August. Hong Yeonseo’s is in July.

As a TMI, Isuyoon was born in May. I was born in December. Yoon Jiwu was born in January.

With two more people added to the group, there were two more ‘annoying level top’ insider events of remembering birthdays.

I hope my birthday ends with just sending greetings through the chat and gifts being sent via bank transfer.

It probably won’t happen though.

“Ah. I’m tired.”

As I lay my head on the desk, Isea playfully tapped my head.

“You shouldn’t sleep.”

“I’m just lying down for a bit during break time.”

* * *

I managed to endure the second period of math,

…But in the end, I couldn’t withstand the third period of social studies and dozed off.

During the break of the third period,

Finally feeling completely relieved, I headed to the school store with Isuyoon.

I didn’t go to snack before lunch, but Isuyoon said she forgot to buy a notebook for her club activities, so I decided to go with her to wake up.

“Jina.”

“Yeah.”

“Have you decided on Se-ah’s gift?”

“No. Not yet. We should decide together.”

“Yeah! Hehe.”

Since becoming close in middle school, Isuyoon and I have been thinking about and buying Se-ah’s birthday gift together.

Yoon Jiwu prepared well on his own.

I had a hard time choosing other people’s gifts, so I asked Isuyoon for help, and she suggested we choose together. Since then, we’ve been going together every year.

When we arrived at the school store, the unique large-scale school store greeted us.

But as the store was big, there were more people inside, making it quite crowded, so I held Isuyoon’s hand and made our way through the crowd.

“You’re holding on well.”

“Uh….”

I felt Isuyoon’s small hand holding onto my uniform.

I squeezed through the crowd.

Fortunately, once we got near the entrance, the situation inside was relatively okay.

“They should widen the cashier and entrance area.”

There’s a bottleneck there.

“Oh, the notebooks… Ah, they’re over there.”

I helped the petite Isuyun find the location of the notebook instead.

Following closely behind, Isuyun rummaged through the pile of notebooks and quickly pulled out one with a plain design.

“Will this do?”

“Yeah.”

Isuyun liked simple designs.

She didn’t have any hair accessories or phone accessories that other girls her age would have. She also didn’t pay much attention to her casual fashion.

It was only because of Isea’s influence that she started to care a bit about her appearance.

Otherwise, she probably wouldn’t even bother putting on makeup, despite being naturally beautiful.

“Is there anything else you want to buy?”

When I asked, Isuyun looked around, hesitated for a moment, and then said, “Hmm… maybe some candy?”

Pointing to a small container of candy, Isuyun, who liked sweets, said, “Candy? It’s almost lunchtime.”

“You can leave it and eat it later.”

Isuyun picked up the small container of candy and then looked at me.

“What about Jin?”

“I’m good. I just came out to wake up.”

“Oh! Then how about this?”

Isuyun showed me a pack of gum.

“I’ll buy it for you. Since you came with me, heh.”

I wasn’t broke, but I decided to accept her small gesture of kindness and nodded before we headed to the checkout counter.

After a short wait, Isuyun handed me the gum after paying.

“Here. Eat one if you get hungry after lunch.”

“Thanks.”

With our items in hand, we once again squeezed through the crowd at the entrance and headed to the classroom.

* * *

After school.

“Then I’ll contact you this weekend!”

“Okay.”

After making plans to meet Isuyun over the weekend, we headed to our respective clubs for after-school activities.

Passing through the familiar wide campus road, I arrived at the building where the subculture club was located.

It seemed like the seniors’ classes were ending a bit later today, as I was the first one to arrive.

I received the key from the building management office, opened the door to the club room, turned on the lights, opened the windows to let out the stuffy air, and then closed the windows after a while to let the dust settle.

I then took a mug from home and put a spoonful of hot chocolate powder, which I had also brought from home, into it. I added hot water from the water dispenser.

All set.

On my first day as a club member, I sat in my space, which I had made using a bookshelf table in the corner.

It hadn’t been long since I joined the club, but my presence was already evident.

After briefly looking around the empty club room, I set up my pen and paper.

I usually draw on a tablet at home, but since I didn’t have one here, I practiced drawing concept art on paper.

Unless something special happened, club activities were like this.

Each member doing their own tasks in the club.

It was a minor club, after all. There were coaches and directors in places like sports clubs, but here, there were only four members.

If we just went home, nothing much would happen.

Other small clubs probably had similar situations. It was surprising that no problems arose.

Ah, this was the world of a romantic comedy.

…Anyway, despite that, there were things to gain from club activities, and the seniors were interesting, so I continued to attend regularly.

Enjoying the three essential nutrients of hot chocolate, tranquility, and solitude.

The door suddenly swung open.

“Junior!!”

“…Yes, senior.”

Having lost two of the three essential nutrients, I was in a state of low energy, but I managed to reply without showing any signs of fatigue.

“Junior. Is the girl you went to the store with today your girlfriend?”

There are too many exclamation marks. Senior. It’s too loud.

More importantly, what?

“Just a friend I’ve known since middle school. We’re even in the same class now. Not a girlfriend, just a female friend.”

“Despite that, you two seem really close!!”

That day. For some reason, I ended up calming down the overly excited director,

and as a result, the hot chocolate that was once steaming hot only allowed me one sip before the rest turned cold.

Sorry, hot chocolate. I couldn’t save you.