Chapter 34: Getting Caught (2)

“Cast them as leads?”

The head of student affairs asked Juho suspiciously, accompanied by an intimidating tilt of their chin. Their harsh expression and piercing gaze remained unchanged.

Yet their tone had softened somewhat.

Perhaps even they were internally flustered by this unexpected development.

They must know Juho was an aspiring film director. They were probably trying to determine if this was just a false excuse to defend us.

Of course it was a false excuse. I hadn’t even heard about casting leads, let alone making a new film. And So-yul had only started talking to Juho quite recently.

So our lifeline hung on Juho’s acting ability.

As I watched with equal parts worry and hope, Juho spoke without changing expression:

“Yes. For the arts festival, I had to plan, prepare, direct, act, and edit everything alone – it was exhausting. I realized I needed to delegate at least the acting. So for my next project, I wanted to pick a handsome guy and pretty girl from my friends. But after choosing them, their acting skills were somewhat…”

The lies flowed smoothly.

Juho followed with a smile, asking “You understand, right?” Though the teacher didn’t even twitch their lips, they didn’t seem about to object either.

Well, what could they do? A third party had suddenly appeared explaining the situation.

All the teacher had witnessed was us watching a movie together. Unless they’d caught us holding hands or something, they had no evidence to disprove Juho’s claim.

“Hmm…”

The teacher wrinkled their nose in clear displeasure, then turned their head. After looking back and forth between where So-yul and I stood, they finally fixed their gaze on me.

“Is what we just heard true?”

They seemed almost convinced.

Barely suppressing a smile, I answered:

“Ah, yes. They saw our acting and sighed, then told us to just watch movies. We were sitting there awkwardly watching.”

“Then why didn’t you say this earlier?”

“Well, we were watching a movie together, that part was true. I didn’t want to speak carelessly in case it sounded like an excuse.”

“…Tch.”

The teacher clicked their tongue loudly enough for us to hear. Clearly meaning they had no counter-argument. Even if suspicions remained, circumstantial evidence alone wasn’t enough to take action.

I met their eyes steadily, letting them tsk all they wanted.

After a moment, they spoke with a thoroughly annoyed expression:

“Fine.”

Then lifting their chin at me:

“But you two did something worthy of suspicion. And Park Juho, you created a suspicious situation. All three of you come to the staff room tomorrow. While it won’t be formal discipline, I’ll need reflection papers from each of you.”

Reflection papers would be useless but were probably just for their pride. Still, far better than actual discipline. At least we wouldn’t have to worry about expulsion.

Having resolved this not-quite-misunderstanding, the head of student affairs added:

“The dorms close soon, so clean up quickly and head back. And shouldn’t you be focusing on studying and piano practice? Don’t spend too much time helping with someone else’s films.”

With that final advice, they left the club room.

They didn’t completely forbid helping – probably because for Juho, film was like studying was for me or piano for So-yul. Hard to say we shouldn’t help at all.

Anyway… somehow we’d managed to survive another major crisis.

It was almost laughable how many times we willingly stepped onto thin ice.

The club room door closed and the echoing footsteps in the corridor gradually faded. When we finally heard the elevator chime in the distance, I let out a relieved sigh. Two more sighs followed.

I finally looked over at So-yul.

Despite escaping mortal danger, her expression remained dark. No, more than just not bright – she looked thoroughly dejected. Her gaze stayed fixed on the floor, unable to lift her eyes.

Occasionally wiping her eyes… it seemed the emotions stirred up by mentioning her parents hadn’t settled yet.

Though very late, I moved to her side.

Even as I approached, So-yul kept rubbing her eyes without turning her head.

“Are you okay?”

“…Yeah.”

Her answer came in such a thin voice it seemed about to break. Naturally it was choked with tears. Though I wanted to stroke her fragile back to comfort her… I absolutely couldn’t.

Right now, there was someone openly watching us.

Juho’s eyes had rolled our way. Their face was full of disbelief. Though I wasn’t sure, they seemed to be asking “What are you two doing?”

Finally Juho’s lips parted.

“Well then.”

They let out a small laugh and:

“Now how about you tell me what’s really going on between you two?”

◎

We had 15 minutes until the dorms closed. Plus this wasn’t exactly a simple relationship. I wasn’t sure we had enough time to make Juho understand.

But fortunately:

Juho had already pretty much figured out our relationship.

After seating So-yul, who was in no state to talk, in a chair, I explained our relationship to Juho while cleaning up the club room.

Starting from our first meeting, becoming fake lovers. Meeting secretly all this time, and what had happened just before Juho arrived today.

Of course, I didn’t forget to thank them for coming to help.

After listening calmly to my full explanation, Juho nodded broadly and commented:

“You two really have some incredible thought processes.”

It definitely wasn’t praise.

Juho snorted and continued:

“I thought something seemed suspicious. First you randomly tried to visit the club room then gave up. Then suddenly asking to borrow it.”

“You said I could borrow it.”

“I didn’t mind lending it, but I didn’t think you’d actually use it.”

Juho smiled faintly and:

“Plus that time you were searching ‘Han So-yul’ online…”

“Hey.”

How could they reveal such secrets in front of the person herself? As I cut them off intending to stop them, Juho just laughed “Ah, sorry.” Their attitude wasn’t sorry at all.

I wondered if So-yul had heard. Worried about this, I tried to discreetly check her reaction… and our eyes met directly.

Unable to fully avoid or look straight at her. As I awkwardly held her gaze, So-yul giggled silently.

Then opening her puffy eyes slightly, she said:

“…Hmm, was I that interesting to you?”

Teasing while sniffling didn’t have much effect.

“…Just, you know.”

Though I wasn’t exactly embarrassed either.

“Pfft.”

Finding my response amusing, So-yul let out a small laugh. Yeah, laugh all you want. Better than seeing you sad and hurting.

Juho continued:

“So I wondered if maybe you liked Han So-yul, or if you two were dating. Then today you said you needed to watch lectures. I had something I’d left in the club room anyway, so I came to check.”

Pausing here, Juho gave a quiet laugh and:

“The door was open. The head of student affairs’ voice was echoing through the whole corridor. Plus words like ‘dating’ and ‘discipline’ kept coming up. It was quite a scene.”

“Yeah, I thought we were completely done for.”

“You brought it on yourselves.”

Well, they were absolutely right.

“So I peeked at the situation a bit before coming in. Fortunately the scenario I’d thought up worked. Though until you explained, I thought you two were actually dating.”

“Well, I can see why… Anyway, thanks. We definitely would’ve been disciplined if you hadn’t come.”

“You helped me before. Consider this paying you back.”

Juho was truly an admirable person, waving it off with a smile like this. The teacher might have added “insolence” to our charges if they hadn’t been convinced.

Though Juho said this just repaid past help, weighing the value… hadn’t I actually gone into debt to Juho this time?

As if waiting for me to reach this conclusion, Juho spoke up:

“Speaking of which, there’s something I’d like to ask you two.”

After this intriguingly vague opening, Juho suddenly stopped and:

“Hey, we need to get back before the dorms close. Can we talk about this separately later, the three of us?”

“Ah.”

Now that they mentioned it, the dorms would close soon. Adding walking time, we were cutting it close. Whatever it was didn’t absolutely need to be discussed right here and now, so we’d better move.

“Sure. We can do it before or after class tomorrow.”

Juho nodded slightly at my answer.

Ending the conversation, I turned around. So-yul was staring blankly up at us both from her chair. Though she’d stopped crying, clear tear tracks remained even without moisture in her eyes. She still sniffled occasionally.

I approached So-yul and bent down to her eye level.

“Can you walk?”

“…Yeah.”

So-yul gave a tiny nod.

She’d barely been able to stand earlier, but seemed much better now. That was fortunate. No matter what, I couldn’t exactly escort her to the girls’ dorm.

As I was internally relieved about this:

So-yul stretched out one hand toward me with a brilliantly fresh smile.

“I can walk, but I can’t get up.”

“…What?”

As I asked in confusion, So-yul giggled and:

“What should we do? We’ll be late for curfew at this rate.”

Added this prodding comment.

It was hard to believe this was the same person who’d been crying earlier. How did her emotions change so rapidly? Well, maybe it was problematic for someone ordinary to try understanding a genius’s thought process.

Anyway, I didn’t want to be late either.

So I extended my hand – specifically my index finger – toward So-yul.

Lightly gripping the finger I offered, So-yul used it to pull herself up.

Her weight was as light as her small frame, the pulling force quite gentle. Well, maybe she mostly got up herself and just held my finger.

After standing and straightening her clothes, So-yul looked up at me and tilted her head slightly.

“Thanks.”

“…Whatever. Let’s just hurry.”

“Okay.”

Despite my gruff response, So-yul answered with a bright eye-smile.

Just like So-yul to always be thinking of ways to tease. It was almost incredible how she didn’t miss a chance to tease even in situations like today.

As I turned around thinking this, Juho was making a wry smile behind me.

“…You two get along well.”

I had nothing to say to that.