Chapter 9: The Strange Boy, Lee Hwi-jun(9)

“…You said yesterday you wouldn’t be riding the bus anymore.”

In the morning, on her way to school, Yoo Dahyun muttered with a baffled expression as she arrived at the bus stop.

“…I wasn’t going to, but I overslept.”

It was because Lee Huijun was sitting on the bench at the bus stop with a shameless expression on his face.

Just yesterday, after school, he had acted all cool, saying he wouldn’t be riding the bus anymore and that they wouldn’t be on the same bus during their commute.

‘Overslept? Ha. I bet when he got home, he realized it’d be a shame to miss the chance to ride the bus with me.’

Yoo Dahyun smirked inwardly, convinced that Lee Huijun was lying just to ride the bus with her.

It wasn’t the first time guys tried to pretend their actions were coincidental just to be around her more.

Having been surrounded by guys like that since she was young, Yoo Dahyun naturally assumed Lee Huijun was just another one of them.

‘Sigh… Being pretty is nice and all, but times like this? It’s just exhausting.’

Yoo Dahyun thought of her beauty as a blessing.

After all, when comparing being pretty to not, the pros far outweighed the cons.

But her looks, which easily attracted the opposite sex, were a double-edged sword.

She constantly had to deal with guys trying every sort of trick.

Honestly, if someone just expressed their interest in a clear and straightforward way, she didn’t really mind.

In fact, she kind of enjoyed it.

Watching guys try hard to get her attention made her feel good about herself, and it was amusing too.

The real issue was the kind who did weird stuff just to get noticed.

Like when she was younger—boys who would randomly hit her as she passed or lift her skirt.

‘What even goes through their minds when they do stuff like that? Do they not realize they’re killing any chance they had?’

She really couldn’t understand it.

Then, when she ended up ignoring them coldly, they’d cry and say it was because they liked her.

If that’s how it was going to end, why even act that way to begin with?

As Yoo Dahyun was lost in thought, she glanced sideways at Lee Huijun and thought:

‘In that sense… this guy’s a bit different from the others. There’s something… off about him.’

Weird and mysterious—that was her impression of Lee Huijun.

Based on yesterday’s weird act at the bus stop and how he was making excuses just to ride the bus with her today, it seemed like he liked her.

But in most cases, when a guy liked her and she showed a little interest, they would get visibly excited or happy.

Lee Huijun didn’t.

In fact, at school yesterday, he genuinely looked like he didn’t enjoy her attention.

Other guys, whether in a good or bad way, always clung to the interest she showed them…

So Lee Huijun was a case she’d never seen before, and that alone made him seem strange to her.

Just as she was thinking that—Shff.

Lee Huijun, who had been sitting on the bench, suddenly stood up and walked over to stand right behind her at the front of the bus stop.

‘What the…? Why’s he suddenly behind me…?’

Startled by his sudden movement, Yoo Dahyun tensed up in surprise. But then she calmed herself and thought:

‘No, this might actually be good. I can see what this guy’s really up to.’

Maybe this was her chance to figure out this weird boy’s true nature.

So Yoo Dahyun deliberately left Lee Huijun standing behind her without saying anything.

She wanted to see what he would do.

If he tried to touch her or sneak peeks like yesterday, then she’d know he was just another pervy guy.

How would she even know if someone behind her was staring at her?

Well, don’t women always say they can tell when someone’s looking at them?

Having been stared at by guys all her life, Yoo Dahyun had developed a strong instinct for sensing eyes on her.

Even if someone was behind her, she could still feel their gaze.

She was setting a sort of trap.

‘Just try touching me or peeking. I’ll call you out on the spot.’

Prepared to make a scene if he did anything suspicious, Yoo Dahyun waited.

And waited.

But no matter how long she waited, the opportunity never came.

‘…What the? He’s not even looking at me.’

Lee Huijun didn’t make a move, didn’t even glance her way.

Yoo Dahyun had expected him to do something so she could call him out—but he didn’t even spare her a look.

Baffled by this unexpected reaction, she subtly turned her head to look behind her.

And when she saw him, she felt even more confused.

‘He’s not even on his phone?’

Lee Huijun was just quietly staring off into empty space.

If he had been on his phone or looking at something, she could understand.

But here he was, with a pretty girl right in front of him, and he was just staring at nothing.

Could it be he was too shy to look at her?

Given how adamantly he denied liking her yesterday, maybe he was just really shy and couldn’t bring himself to look at her up close.

That would make sense—if he were the shy type.

But a shy guy wouldn’t just boldly walk up behind her like that…

‘Ugh, I don’t get him. What’s his deal? He’s weird.’

Try as she might, Yoo Dahyun just couldn’t understand his behavior with her usual logic.

So she decided to just think of Lee Huijun as a strange guy.

‘Forget it. No point wasting energy on someone this weird—it’s just a loss for me.’

As her friend Na Seonyul had advised her yesterday, it was best to ignore him.

With that thought, Yoo Dahyun boarded the bus to school.

‘Ugh, now I’m in a bad mood all because of this weirdo. Why’d I even bother?’

Just as she got on the bus, she felt a chill run down her spine, like someone was staring a hole through her from behind.

But that must’ve just been her bad mood.

Because when she checked the bus mirror to confirm, Lee Huijun’s eyes hadn’t been on her even once.

***

“Seonyul, are you free today?”

“No, I have to work again.”

“Really? Ugh, you used to work only every few days, but now it’s almost every day. Isn’t it exhausting?”

“It’s not exhausting, just annoying. I suddenly got more shifts, so I have to go in every day. Let’s hang out next time I get a day off. I gotta run.”

“Okay, bye.”

After school, in the crowd of students leaving the classroom, Yoo Dahyun waved goodbye to Na Seonyul, who rushed off, saying she was busy.

Na Seonyul was a friend Yoo Dahyun had made after entering Nakwon High School.

Her sharp eyes and unusual fashion sense were off-putting at first, but she had approached Dahyun warmly, wanting to be friends—and they quickly grew close enough to hang out together.

Seonyul had been working a part-time job since the start of the semester, probably to earn pocket money.

But lately, she had been working every single day, so they hadn’t been able to hang out, which left Dahyun feeling a bit down.

“Yoo Dahyun, wait a sec.”

“Huh? Ah… What is it?”

Hearing someone call her, Yoo Dahyun turned around and her expression stiffened slightly.

It was Lee Huijun who had called her.

She had planned to completely ignore him today and hadn’t said a single word to him all day—so why was he suddenly—as she was thinking, she looked around and realized something about the situation.

He’d waited until after school to approach her?

Could it be…

‘…Is he going to confess or something?’

His personality aside, with that gloomy haircut and shady vibe, he wasn’t her type at all…

While Yoo Dahyun was agonizing over how to turn down a confession cleanly and without any awkward aftermath, Lee Huijun pulled out an envelope from his pocket and handed it to her.

“Here, for the phone repair.”

“Ah… ahem.”

Now that she thought about it, there was something she was supposed to get from him… She had completely forgotten.

Feeling embarrassed for jumping to conclusions on her own, Yoo Dahyun blushed slightly and cleared her throat as she took the envelope and checked inside.

Inside was 300,000 won in cash.

Once she confirmed the amount, Lee Huijun asked,

“That should be enough, right?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, it’s just right.”

Yoo Dahyun nodded as she replied, but in truth, that was a lie.

Yesterday, when she had gone to the phone repair shop, the cost to fix the screen was a whopping 700,000 won.

If it hadn’t been for the insurance her parents signed up for when they bought the phone—thinking she’d probably break it soon due to her carelessness—she would’ve had to pay the full amount.

Thankfully, with the insurance covering most of it, she only had to pay 30% of the repair cost: 230,000 won.

But Yoo Dahyun didn’t bother telling Lee Huijun that.

After all, if it hadn’t been for him, her phone wouldn’t have been broken in the first place—so wasn’t it fair to get a little more out of him?

‘I got smacked by Mom for wrecking my phone a day after getting it, and I had to go all the way to the repair shop myself—getting an extra 70,000 won doesn’t seem too unfair.’

Besides, even if he was just a high school student, someone who lived in the same expensive neighborhood as her probably wouldn’t be too burdened by 70,000 won.

With that reasoning, she felt no real guilt about getting a little extra for the repair.

Now that the last bit of lingering connection—phone repair fees—was resolved, Yoo Dahyun decided to stop paying attention to Lee Huijun, that bizarre boy.

“…Weren’t you walking to school? You said you only took the bus because you were late.”

“I figured taking the bus would save time.”

“…Really?”

So even when she saw Lee Huijun on the same bus as her on the way home, she didn’t say anything, thinking he’d already forgotten what he said yesterday.

“Ugh…!”

“What’s wrong?”

“…No, it’s nothing.”

Even when she felt an unsettling gaze behind her after getting off the bus and turned around to see Lee Huijun shamelessly pretending like he didn’t know anything, she let it go.

“…Hey, is your house in this direction too?”

“Yeah.”

“…I see.”

She didn’t know if he really lived in the same direction, but he followed her home from a distance, and only left after seemingly making sure she had entered her house.

Even then, she tried not to overthink it.

But the next morning.

For some reason, she woke up early and decided to head to school earlier than usual. At 7 a.m., when she stepped outside—

“…Huh?”

From a distance, she could see the bus stop.

She watched as the school bus passed right by.

‘Did he… just let that bus go by?’

There was a male student sitting on the bench at the bus stop, and he didn’t get on. He just let the bus pass.

‘…Why?’

Maybe it was just some trivial thing she didn’t need to care about.

But what if that boy who let the bus go by—

—was the same boy who transferred into her class and sat next to her?

—was someone who already knew she took that bus to school?

—was the same boy who followed her home yesterday and made sure to see where she lived?

‘No way… was he waiting for me?’

And if that same boy stood up from the bench the moment he made eye contact with her—like he didn’t need to let the bus go by anymore—Shiver.

There was no way Yoo Dahyun could ignore it anymore after witnessing that.