Ch.65I Don’t Even Like a Quarter of Someone Like You (2)

After pouring out all the emotions we had been holding in,

we sat in our respective chairs, catching our breath for a moment.

It wasn’t that we had stopped talking.

But we needed to set aside our heightened emotions for a while.

“Phew…”

“…”

“Um… about what I said earlier…”

“Shut up. Be quiet.”

“O-okay…”

I had unintentionally thrown some embarrassing words at Do Hamin as well.

‘Rubbing it with cleansing tissues makes it come off quickly.’

While we calmed our heated emotions through a moment of silence,

I wiped off the doodle that Do Hamin had drawn on my forehead.

Since it was done with a water-based marker,

there wasn’t much difficulty removing it with cleansing tissues like those used for removing makeup.

If it had been graffiti painted with permanent marker on some university wall,

I would have had to live with it like a slave’s brand.

Then would Do Hamin, who made the mark, become the owner?

That might actually be beneficial for Ban Do-young.

“How is it? Is it all gone?”

I showed my forehead to Do Hamin to confirm that the doodle had completely disappeared.

“Ah… there’s a little bit left at the edge. On the upper part of your forehead.”

“Then you wipe it off with this.”

“O-okay. Give me the tissue. I’ll do it.”

“Don’t hurt me. Don’t press too hard like you did earlier.”

“Ah, I know. I’ll be as gentle as possible.”

“Wipe it like you’re polishing a precious treasure. Carefully. Do you know how much this face is worth? It’s a face that attracts readers just by being on the cover.”

“I-I’m trying to wipe it off, so stop talking and moving your face. It makes it harder to clean.”

Since possessing Ban Do-young’s body, I had figured out basic makeup techniques as I needed to act the part of the heroine.

It was also necessary to create as much common ground as possible when talking with Sa-hyang and Hye-rang.

Of course, since the original was already so excellent, even with just basic makeup techniques,

I had no trouble being called the Immortal Goddess—ah, not anymore.

The High School Goddess.

The doodle that Do Hamin drew on my forehead could have been removed much faster

if I had done it myself while looking in a mirror, like when removing makeup,

but I deliberately relied on his eyes and hands instead of a mirror.

I needed to give him the opportunity to clean up the doodle he had made.

Otherwise, he would have just carried around his guilt and sense of responsibility, feeling stifled.

“T-this seems different from regular wet wipes. The smell and texture are different.”

“It’s a cleansing tissue. Remember it well, you’ll find it useful later too.”

“W-why would I need something like this when I don’t even wear makeup?”

“Where else? You’ll use it to remove the camouflage cream on your face when you’re in the military.”

“M-military…?”

As soon as the word “military” came up, cold sweat ran down Do Hamin’s face as he was wiping off the doodle.

Well, at this age, that word does start to hit with some tension.

“Heheh, scared?”

“W-who’s scared?”

“Don’t worry. When you go to the military, I’ll send you plenty of cleansing tissues and whatever else you need.”

“N-no thanks… S-surely by the time I go to the military, Korea will be unified anyway…”

“Hmph, I too once had a time when I thought like that.”

“W-why are you suddenly making such a gloomy face?”

“It’s nothing. Just keep wiping.”

“…O-okay.”

Do Hamin continued to wipe away the traces of the doodle with his large hands that didn’t match his small build.

Though his hands were quite big, the touch on my forehead felt more delicate than rough.

I could feel through the sensation on my forehead that he was doing his best to control his strength.

“Phew… I think it’s all clean now.”

“Let me see.”

While Do Hamin was wiping off the doodle, I took out the hand mirror I had been hiding in my pocket and checked my forehead.

The traces of the tic-tac-toe, which had been like a tag following the foreheads, had completely disappeared,

returning to the pretty forehead of Miss Ban Do-young as usual.

“Hmm, it’s back to normal. Good job, Do Hamin Cleaning.”

“Even if you say it like some dry cleaning service… A-anyway, has your anger subsided a bit…?”

“Since you worked hard to erase it, I’ll let it go this time. As you said… it was partly my own doing too.”

“Whew… that’s a relief.”

“By the way, Do Hamin. You’ve been secretly fantasizing about doing this while looking at my face, haven’t you? ‘Someday I’ll defile that forehead with my lucky pen, it’s no different from marking her, hehehe’… something like that?”

“N-no, that’s not it…”

“Hmm… really?”

“I-it might sound like an excuse since I already did it, but… really, it’s not like that.”

Do Hamin’s face turned red, but he couldn’t raise his voice.

He couldn’t actively resist since he had done something wrong himself.

Not bad.

Mutual fault.

From now on, I think I can let slide one or two of his pranks or provocations.

Now that Do Hamin has played a prank on me or made a mistake even once, he won’t be able to get as actively angry or serious about my pranks as before.

I knew that an n:0 state couldn’t continue indefinitely.

One-sided interest or pranks alone wouldn’t be enough to move our current progress forward.

So I was planning to pretend to fall for one of his pranks.

I never expected such an unexpected blow to come my way.

I acknowledge it, Do Hamin.

The point you just scored wasn’t a handicap, but a victory achieved by your own skill.

But there won’t be any more points

you can score from me “today.”

Why, you ask?

-Buzz…!

Because “today” just ended.

“A vibration? Did someone call you…? At this hour?”

“No, it’s an alarm. An alarm saying it’s midnight. I set it in advance.”

“Oh, I see… Huh?”

Do Hamin’s hands went limp, his face blank with shock.

The cleansing tissues he had gathered in both hands to throw in the trash fluttered down to the floor.

“Why an alarm at midnight… No, more importantly, it’s midnight now… you mean 00:00? But the wall clock already passed 12 o’clock earlier, didn’t it?”

Do Hamin urgently pressed his face against the veranda window,

checking the clock hanging above the closet in my room.

As he had confirmed earlier,

the clock above the closet had already passed 12 o’clock,

and was pointing to 12:20.

“It’s definitely 12:20.”

“The clock in my room runs 20 minutes fast.”

“…Huh?”

Do Hamin, who had been looking only at the closet clock.

Realizing something was wrong, he opened the veranda window and entered the room.

“My phone… Ah, it was charging earlier because the battery was low.”

Do Hamin unplugged his phone from the fast charger on the desk and urgently checked the time.

[20xx/04/01/Saturday]

[00:00 AM]

“00:00… April 1st…”

His phone, which he had plugged into the desk charger before playing the Zero Rhyme Game due to low battery, was also showing exactly 00:00,

indicating that the date had changed to the “real” April 1st.

“S-so it really is midnight now… which means…”

“Ta-da! Now for the shocking truth! From this moment on is the real April Fools’ Day!”

“The real April Fools’…? Then what? When I said I liked you during that Zero Rhyme Game that you said could only be played on April Fools’ Day…”

“It becomes a truth that didn’t receive the grace of April Fools’ Day…?”

“Ahhh…”

Do Hamin collapsed where he stood, as if the strength had drained from his legs.

His face had turned so red that it was noticeable even in the dark room with the lights off, as if all the blood meant for his legs had rushed to his head.

“Y-you knew from the beginning that the closet clock was 20 minutes fast, but you told me it was midnight…! You knew everything all along, didn’t you!”

With his face red from the blood rush,

Do Hamin shouted at me with tearful eyes.

“No, I had no idea about any of this?”

I raised both hands and shook my head, pretending not to know.

Of course, I obviously knew.

I just said the opposite because it was April Fools’ Day.

“Anyway, I heard your confession that you like me, Do Hamin. To make such a bold confession on a day that’s not even April Fools’, our Do Hamin really has guts.”

“No… that! That was something I said because I thought it was April Fools’ Day…! It wasn’t sincere!”

“Our Do Hamin. The lies are flowing so smoothly now that it’s the ‘real April Fools’ Day.'”

“It’s not! I don’t like you…!”

“The fact is that’s also an April Fools’ lie.”

“It’s true…! Someone like you… I don’t even like a quarter of a quarter!”

Wow, if this were an animated webtoon world rather than just a webtoon,

that line from Do Hamin would have been accompanied by the title logo popping up with a “bang!”

I looked up at the night sky just in case,

but unfortunately, no such effect appeared.

“It’s true… not even a quarter of a quarter… I don’t like you… not even a quarter of a quarter…”

Do Hamin, still sitting on the floor,

repeated those words in a voice that was fading like a candle flame in the wind.

“Okay, okay. I get it. Your face is too red right now. Put some strength in your legs and try to stand up.”

“…I-I can get up by myself. Don’t touch me.”

Do Hamin brushed off my hand and managed to straighten his legs and stand up by pushing against the ground with his fist.

“Should we go out for some fresh air? Cool down your face too.”

“…Alright.”

I suggested to Do Hamin that we go for a walk together.

Do Hamin didn’t meet my gaze, but he nodded in agreement to the suggestion of getting some fresh air.

“…But where are you thinking of going?”

“The cherry blossom path your mom mentioned in her text. There’s one behind my house too.”

“Ah… I saw it from the veranda window earlier. But why there of all places?”

“Do you know what cherry blossoms symbolize?”

“…I do know. My mom likes flowers. I think it’s something like purity.”

“That’s right, virginity and innocence.”

“W-why do you always have to…”

“Virginity and innocence, that’s just like you and me, isn’t it?”