Dissonance-1

“Did you make up?”

A few days later. As Kang In-ho was about to grab his crutches, hearing the bell signaling lunchtime, Jeong Sanghoon, who sat next to him, asked.

Compared to how difficult it was for him to even start a conversation, it seemed they had become quite close.

“Make up with whom?”

In-ho tilted his head at the question that lacked context, and Jeong Sanghoon pointed with his chin towards Shin Jeonga.

In-ho and Sanghoon’s gazes slid towards Shin Jeonga.

Her expression had brightened recently, and she was in the middle of closing her textbook.

She put the textbook, filled with meaningless scribbles, into her desk drawer and turned her body abruptly towards him.

The two men averted their eyes and looked at each other.

“Well, something like that…”

In-ho gave an awkward smile.

“It’s good to make up. Are you having lunch with Jeonga again today?”

Sanghoon asked as if reconfirming something obvious, and In-ho slowly nodded.

“Enjoy your meal.”

Jeong Sanghoon left to join his friends, and In-ho looked wistfully at the door he had exited through.

“In-ho~”

Before he could even savor his wistfulness, Shin Jeonga stuck to his side like glue.

In-ho staggered from the weight.

“I’ll support you.”

It would have been much easier to do it alone, but he couldn’t reject her as strongly as before.

He pouted with a reluctant expression, and Shin Jeonga grabbed one of his shoulders and struggled to lift him up.

He awkwardly stood up with her support, which was worse than doing it alone, and was able to leave the classroom with the help of his crutches.

“Guess what’s for lunch today?”

Shin Jeonga asked cheerfully, as if hosting a quiz show.

Kang In-ho felt like he was back in the army and recalled the menu.

“I only remember the Gondre thistle rice.”

“Ew, that’s gross.”

Kang In-ho narrowed his eyes and glared at her as Shin Jeonga grumbled.

Gondre thistle rice is so delicious, although I only started eating it in my thirties…

He felt displeased that his favorite food was being underrated.

Regardless, Shin Jeonga was all smiles.

“Should we just go to the school store? Or the convenience store?”

Shin Jeonga suggested other options, as if she really didn’t like the lunch menu.

“Can’t you see my leg?”

It was only natural that Kang In-ho gave her a dumbfounded look.

Even if it was the school store, asking him to go to the convenience store… it was clearly quite a hassle for him with his injured leg.

“Then let’s go to the school store. Let’s eat bread, bread.”

Shin Jeonga grabbed his hand.

Being pulled along by her weak force, In-ho couldn’t hide his complicated expression.

The school store was located in a separate building away from the teachers.

Correction, it wasn’t a building, but a container that had been roughly decorated and used for business.

It was originally a warehouse for storing miscellaneous facility supplies, but it had been transformed into a more useful purpose.

Just like in front of the cafeteria, the school store was also crowded with people.

It wasn’t easy for a student with casts on his arms and legs to squeeze into that crowd.

“Stay here. I’ll go get it.”

Shin Jeonga clenched her fists as if telling him to trust her and threw herself directly into the tangled mess of students.

A few seconds after he saw her struggling to push her way through the male students.

Just as he was starting to worry about Shin Jeonga, who had disappeared into the crowd, she poked her face out from the massive collection of bodies.

“Help, get me out of here!!”

Shin Jeonga shouted urgently, and In-ho sighed and grabbed her to pull her out.

It was already hard enough to maintain his balance, and In-ho grumbled unhappily as he pulled her out.

“Here!”

Regardless, Shin Jeonga smiled brightly and handed him a bag of bread.

It was a little crushed, but the contents hadn’t spilled out, so he accepted it without complaint.

He and she found a suitable bench to sit on.

Located under the shade of a tree, it was a perfect spot to watch the people playing soccer on the field.

As the soccer-crazed students, who had devoured their food and rushed out to the field, started dividing into teams and running around, In-ho tore open the bread bag.

It was a chocolate roll cake.

“Give me the sticker if you’re not collecting them.”

It was bread that came with a character sticker, and a square paper wrapper was included with the bread.

“Here.”

In-ho handed it over, and Shin Jeonga smiled brightly as she received it.

She checked the sticker with sparkling eyes, and then her face crumpled.

“Ugh… I already have this one.”

Seeming greatly disappointed, she threw the sticker on the ground.

In-ho watched her and brought the bread to his mouth.

As the softly cut bread entered his mouth, sweetness spread throughout his mouth.

Perhaps because of the sugar, In-ho’s face softened a little, and he watched the scene unfolding before him.

A student who had dribbled alone, beating four students, and then scored with a mid-range shot was performing a series of four consecutive aerial flips as a celebration.

How the hell does he do that?

He thought to himself.

“The weather is cloudy, isn’t it?”

While quietly chewing on his bread, he heard Jeonga’s words.

In-ho looked up.

They say the autumn sky is high, but today the clouds were thick.

“Is it… going to rain? It wasn’t in the forecast.”

“Yeah… if it’s autumn rain, it’ll be a bit cold.”

Shin Jeonga agreed.

“……..”

In-ho didn’t say anything more and chewed his bread.

‘I should have bought some milk too.’

He grumbled inwardly.

That’s how time passed at school.

“Wow… it’s raining a lot.”

As the class was nearing its end, the rain started pouring down fiercely.

“It is.”

In-ho, whose head was filled with thoughts about Shin Jeonga these days, replied appropriately.

“Could I borrow an umbrella?”

“There should be one in the hallway, I’ll give it to you when I leave.”

“Okay, thank you. Well… shall we stop here for today?”

Yoon Sia glanced at her watch and said.

“Yes. Thank you for your hard work.”

“You’re the one who worked hard.”

Yoon Sia looked at Kang In-ho with admiration.

In-ho found a long umbrella in the hallway and handed it to Yoon Sia.

“Don’t come out.”

Despite Yoon Sia’s refusal, In-ho came out to the gate to see her off.

“It’s just in front of here.”

He carefully moved his feet, following behind Yoon Sia as she opened her umbrella.

Yoon Sia opened the huge iron gate and stepped out.

“The taxi will be here soon, so go in…”

Yoon Sia couldn’t finish her sentence and screamed in surprise.

At her strange behavior, In-ho also hurriedly went out the gate.

And what he saw was

“In-ho…”

Shin Jeonga was squatting in front of the gate, looking like a drowned rat.

“Jeonga. Why are you…?”

He asked with wide eyes, and Shin Jeonga gave a weak smile and said.

“I got caught. By my parents.”