Chapter 10: The Strange Boy, Lee Hwi-jun(10)

The bus stopped at the bus stop.

It was a familiar bus with a number that had a stop in front of Nakwon High School on its route.

But the bus, after stopping like that, left the bus stop without picking anyone up.

Even though there was a male student wearing a Nakwon High School uniform at the stop.

And the male student, who didn’t get on the bus to school and just let it pass by,

When their eyes met from a distance, as if waiting, he got up from the bench, and Yu Da-hyun felt a chill run down her spine.

Shivers—

She could feel goosebumps on the back of her neck.

“…I’m sure. He was waiting for me.”

The male student from her homeroom who had checked where she lived yesterday when Dara and she were walking together to her house, Yu Da-hyun, realizing that he had been waiting for her, shivered and reluctantly forced herself to take a step toward the bus stop.

“…It’s not like there hasn’t been someone like that before.”

It wasn’t the first time.

There had been times before when someone waited for her to go to school.

Was it back in elementary school?

There was a boy who always came to wait in front of her house early in the morning to go to school together.

Thinking about it, that boy had also been a classmate who sat next to her.

“…But why.”

Why did it feel different?

The boy who waited for her in elementary school had been her classmate too, and that boy also knew where she lived, just like this one.

So why did this male student, Lee Hwi-jun, feel so… creepy?

Why did it feel so unsettling?

Yu Da-hyun walked toward the bus stop, thinking about this.

And it wasn’t until she faced Lee Hwi-jun, who showed no change in expression despite seeing her, that she realized why she felt creeped out by him.

That boy had been smaller than her, but Lee Hwi-jun wasn’t taller than her either.

That boy had looked gentle, while Lee Hwi-jun had long bangs and didn’t look gloomy.

‘If he was waiting, at least he should have shown some sign of being happy to see me…’

That attitude.

It was that attitude that made all the difference between that boy and Lee Hwi-jun.

‘At least with that boy, it was easy to understand why he was doing it…’

The boy who had waited for her in front of her house, it was clear to see why.

He had been shy, blushing, but his face would brighten whenever he saw her, revealing that he liked her.

And in his waiting, there was a desire to spend time with her, a sense of “I woke up early to wait for you because I like you, so you should like me back.”

It was so obvious that Yu Da-hyun could just brush it off with a feeling of, “How cute, but I’m not interested, so he’ll stop anyway.”

But this guy, Lee Hwi-jun, was different.

She couldn’t tell what he was thinking or what his intentions were.

It was completely unreadable.

‘What is he doing this for…?’

Yu Da-hyun bit her lip and checked the time.

It was 7:00 AM, too early to be heading to school.

But Lee Hwi-jun had been waiting for her from such an early hour.

How long had he been waiting for her?

Why had he been waiting so early?

She didn’t know.

There had to be some reason or purpose for this effort,

But it couldn’t be that he liked her because he never showed any sign of being happy to see her.

Yu Da-hyun could not understand why Lee Hwi-jun was doing this.

‘What a strange kid…’

He was a strange, unsettling person who didn’t fit into her understanding.

Yu Da-hyun, thinking this, stood a distance away from the bus stop where Lee Hwi-jun was and waited for the bus.

“…Ha.”

Then, for the first time, Lee Hwi-jun reacted.

He sighed, as if displeased, and slowly walked toward her, pointing to the bench at the bus stop.

“…It’s dangerous to stand there like that. Sit and wait over there.”

What was dangerous?

The most dangerous-looking person at this bus stop seemed to be him.

Yu Da-hyun was about to respond rudely to him,

But—

The moment she turned her head to speak, she had to swallow her words.

His eyes were glaring sharply from behind his long bangs, staring directly at her.

“Ah, okay. I’ll sit…”

A strange sense of pressure she had never felt from a person before.

She unconsciously flinched at the feeling that something terrible would happen if she didn’t listen to him, so she quietly walked over to the bench and sat down, just as Lee Hwi-jun had said.

‘His gaze made me feel like he wouldn’t leave me alone if I didn’t do as he said…’

Yu Da-hyun could sense that in Lee Hwi-jun’s eyes for the first time, and that’s when she realized he wasn’t just strange, but actually scary.

She sat down on the bench, lowering her head and tightly closing her eyes.

By closing her eyes, she could feel someone’s gaze fixed on her.

She was creeped out, but she didn’t dare to open her eyes to confirm whose gaze it was.

If she opened her eyes and met that stare again, she felt like she might lose control.

So, she kept her eyes shut until the bus arrived, and once it did, she got on as quickly as possible, almost running.

Fortunately, once she was on the bus, she no longer felt his gaze on her.

***

“Hey, Seon-yul, are you working today…?”

“…Yeah, sorry.”

“It’s fine. It’s not your fault you’re busy. Good luck with your part-time job. Take care.”

After saying goodbye to her friend, Na Seon-yul, at school, Yoo Da-hyun returned to her seat to pack her bag, preparing to head home.

At that moment, she noticed Lee Hwi-jun, who was also packing his bag at the desk next to hers, getting ready to leave for home.

Seeing this, Yoo Da-hyun realized one simple fact.

‘…If this continues, I’ll end up going home with him again today.’

Since they lived in the same neighborhood, if she left the school as planned, with no unexpected events, she would end up on the same bus as him, just like yesterday.

The thought of that made her shudder as she mentally shouted.

‘Ugh, I really don’t want to go home with him… I absolutely refuse!’

That morning, Lee Hwi-jun had acted like nothing had happened, saying nothing to her and behaving like the quiet, well-behaved student he usually was.

However, the strange look he had given her earlier that day lingered in her mind all day, and she absolutely didn’t want to go home with him.

So, Yoo Da-hyun came up with a plan to avoid that situation.

Her plan was to change her departure time without Lee Hwi-jun noticing.

Pretending to head home, she slipped out of the classroom and checked to make sure Lee Hwi-jun hadn’t left yet.

Once she confirmed that he hadn’t, she quickly ran to the teacher’s office, hoping to avoid his gaze.

“Excuse me, teacher, can I study in the classroom today?”

“Hm? You want to study in the classroom? Sure, just make sure to return the key properly when you leave later.”

“Yes, of course.”

She had requested to use the classroom after school because, at Nagwon High, students could use school facilities freely until 10 PM as long as they made a prior request.

With the classroom use permission granted, Yoo Da-hyun peeked out from the teacher’s office and checked if Lee Hwi-jun was still around.

Once she confirmed he wasn’t, she entered the bathroom and waited there for about ten minutes, hoping to avoid running into him when he left the classroom.

‘…He should have left by now, right?’

After her ten-minute wait in the bathroom, she cautiously walked back toward the classroom and peeked through the window.

‘No one’s there…!’

She felt a sense of relief.

As long as Lee Hwi-jun wasn’t there, it didn’t matter who else was inside.

‘It’s going according to plan…!’

With a triumphant thought, she walked back to her desk and sat down, proud of herself.

If she hadn’t done this, it would have been more unusual, considering that if there were no special reason for Lee Hwi-jun to go home with her, he would have already gone home.

The thought of that made her shudder, and she didn’t even want to imagine it.

Even if he had some sort of stalker tendencies and had been trying to follow her home, he couldn’t have predicted this.

She had made sure to avoid him at all costs.

In the time it took for him to glance away, she had slipped away.

‘Unless he somehow put a surveillance camera on me, how would he know I was hiding in the bathroom and came back to the classroom?’

If, despite all this, Lee Hwi-jun had been waiting for her in the classroom, she would have been truly startled.

“Hah… I got rid of that weird guy, so I can just stay here for a bit and then leave.”

But her triumphant mood didn’t last long.

“…Sigh, what am I doing?”

As she realized how ridiculous her actions had been, she slumped over her desk, feeling embarrassed.

‘Ugh, maybe I overreacted. He’s probably not some stalker, desperately trying to follow me home. It was just that weird look he gave me this morning that got me all paranoid. I acted like some kind of paranoid delusional person…’

While she was flailing her arms and legs in embarrassment, the door to the classroom suddenly opened with a loud creak.

“…EEK?!”

The person who entered was none other than Lee Hwi-jun.

‘H-Him… why is he here…?!’

Seeing Lee Hwi-jun standing in the doorway, silently watching her, Yoo Da-hyun’s mind went blank.

‘Stalker…?’

She had been trying to avoid thinking about it, but it seemed like her worst fear might actually be real.

Yoo Da-hyun froze, unable to process what was happening.

Her heart was pounding in her chest as she stared at Lee Hwi-jun, who stood silently at the door, watching her with an unreadable expression.

For a brief moment, she considered making a run for it.

Her legs felt like they were made of stone, though, and she couldn’t seem to move.

She wanted to shout at him, ask him why he was here, but the words were stuck in her throat.

The tension in the room was suffocating.

Lee Hwi-jun’s gaze didn’t shift.

He simply stood there, his hands casually tucked into his pockets.

The silence between them stretched on, thick and awkward.

After what felt like an eternity, he finally spoke, his voice low but calm.

“You’re not going home yet?”

His tone was neutral, but there was something about it that made Yoo Da-hyun’s skin crawl.

It was as if he already knew the answer, as if he had been watching her the entire time.

Her mind raced for a moment, trying to come up with an excuse, some explanation, anything to justify her actions.

She couldn’t let him know the truth—how paranoid she had been about going home with him.

She couldn’t let him think she was afraid of him.

“No,” she replied quickly, trying to sound casual, though her voice wavered slightly.

“I was just… studying. I’m going to stay here for a while.”

Lee Hwi-jun didn’t say anything right away, just continued to stare at her.

It was as if he was weighing her response, trying to read something between the lines.

For a second, Yoo Da-hyun thought she might crack under the pressure.

“Right,” he said finally, his voice still steady. “I didn’t know you were into studying so much.”

Yoo Da-hyun swallowed, not sure how to respond.

Was he mocking her?

Or was it something else?

Was he… disappointed?

She couldn’t tell.

There was a beat of silence before Lee Hwi-jun stepped further into the room, moving toward the desk opposite hers.

He didn’t sit down, though; he just leaned against it, his eyes flicking toward the window briefly before returning to her.

Yoo Da-hyun’s breath caught in her throat.

She couldn’t help but notice how close he was now.

She felt a strange chill run down her spine.

“You know,” he said after a moment, his voice softer, almost like he was sharing a secret, “I’m not a stalker, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

Yoo Da-hyun’s heart skipped a beat at his words.

She hadn’t realized until then how much she had feared that exact thought.

“I never said you were,” she replied quickly, though her voice faltered.

She tried to sound convincing, but she knew she wasn’t fooling either of them.

Lee Hwi-jun chuckled softly, a small, almost amused smile tugging at his lips.

“I know. But I just wanted to make sure you don’t misunderstand.”

Yoo Da-hyun didn’t respond.

She couldn’t.

Her mind was spinning.

What was he trying to say?

Why was he here, in the classroom, when he could have easily gone home like everyone else?

For a brief moment, the thought crossed her mind—maybe he had been following her after all.

Maybe he knew exactly what she was doing, and this was his way of confronting her.

But then, just as quickly, she dismissed the idea.

She couldn’t allow herself to think that way.

She didn’t want to see him as a threat. She didn’t want to live in fear.

“So…” Lee Hwi-jun continued, breaking her train of thought.

“Are you planning to study here all night? Or are you just avoiding me?”

Yoo Da-hyun’s stomach churned at his words.

He said it casually, like a joke, but there was something about the way he said it that made her feel exposed, like she had just been caught in the act of something she wasn’t supposed to be doing.

She looked away, trying to hide her unease.

“I’m not avoiding you,” she said stiffly, though it felt like a lie.

“I just… wanted some quiet time to think.”

“Think, huh?” Lee Hwi-jun replied, his eyes narrowing slightly. “About what?”

Yoo Da-hyun opened her mouth to reply, but the words stuck in her throat.

She couldn’t tell him the truth, not even if she wanted to.

She didn’t even know what to say anymore.

Before she could come up with an answer, he sighed and stood up from the desk, pushing his hands into his pockets again.

“You’re really something, Da-hyun,” he said softly, almost as if to himself.

Yoo Da-hyun’s heart raced again.

She didn’t know if it was a compliment or an insult, and she didn’t know if she wanted to find out.

Without another word, Lee Hwi-jun turned and headed for the door, his footsteps slow but deliberate.

“See you tomorrow,” he called over his shoulder as he stepped out of the classroom, leaving Yoo Da-hyun alone with her racing thoughts.

She sat there for a long time, staring at the empty doorway, trying to make sense of what had just happened.

What did he mean by all of that?

Was he just being his usual cryptic self, or was there something more to his words?

She didn’t know.

All she knew was that her heart was still pounding in her chest, and the strange, unsettling feeling he had left behind was refusing to go away.

“See you tomorrow,” he had said.

But for some reason, the thought of seeing him again made her uneasy, like she was walking toward something she didn’t fully understand yet.

And she wasn’t sure if she was ready to find out.