Rebirth – 5

Kang In-ho couldn’t remember how he spent the afternoon classes after that.

He felt like he had been diligently taking notes and solving problems, but when he tried to recall, it was like being a traveler wandering aimlessly in a hazy fog.

He snapped back to reality during the after-school briefing.

The homeroom teacher, making it obvious how much he couldn’t be bothered, finished the briefing, and everyone in the classroom rushed out of the school.

“See you tomorrow.”

Even as Jeong Sanghoon from the next seat greeted him and left, Inho mechanically nodded, his gaze still fixed on empty space.

Before he knew it, two students remained in the empty classroom.

Kang In-ho and Shin Jeonga, Shin Jeonga and Kang In-ho.

They hadn’t acknowledged each other for days, but today was different.

Shin Jeonga got up from her seat, and the chair made a scraping sound as it moved across the floor.

Shin Jeonga, who had already packed her bag, came and stood next to Kang In-ho’s desk.

“Let’s go.”

Shin Jeonga spoke to him cautiously.

“…Okay.”

Kang In-ho, unable to hide his complicated expression, got up from his seat.

After leaving the school, Shin Jeonga went to a cafe.

It was nothing special, just a franchise cafe, but it had a large store on the second floor.

The two sat in a secluded corner on the quiet second floor.

“Honestly, I thought you’d ignore me….”

Shin Jeonga smiled awkwardly.

She really didn’t seem to expect him to talk to her so readily.

“Ah… well….”

He couldn’t bring himself to say that it was because of what he had heard from Kim Jin-tae, and trailed off.

“It doesn’t matter. What does the reason matter?”

Forcing a bright smile, Shin Jeonga placed her hand over Inho’s hand on the table.

“I’m just grateful that you came this far.”

Kang In-ho felt a twisting in his gut at the sight of Shin Jeonga’s desolate smile.

“So… what do you want to talk about?”

Kang In-ho asked cautiously, taken aback by Shin Jeonga’s uncharacteristically demure demeanor.

“Um….”

Shin Jeonga seemed hesitant to speak, tracing the rim of her coffee cup with her index finger.

And the longer she hesitated, the drier Kang In-ho’s mouth became.

He still didn’t know what she was going to say, but his intuition was sounding an alarm.

-You’re screwed.

He quickly picked up his cup and swallowed the coffee. Not drank, swallowed.

As he filled his mouth with the bitter black liquid, his dazed mind seemed to clear up a little.

Shin Jeonga continued to trace the rim of the cup with her finger.

“Inho.”

The ice in the cup clattered and collapsed.

Kang In-ho looked at Shin Jeonga.

She was still looking at her drink, moving her lips slightly as if muttering to herself.

“I….”

It was a small sound, but the meaning of the words was clearly conveyed to Inho’s ears.

Kang In-ho froze in the position he was in, staring at Shin Jeonga.

He kept moving his lips.

He seemed to have a lot to say.

But he couldn’t bring himself to say anything heartless or insensitive.

Because he remembered what Kim Jin-tae had told him.

“Ah….”

A meaningless sigh fell heavily on the table.

A silence fell. A situation continued where no one could easily speak.

Kang In-ho held back his words, and Shin Jeonga watched his facial expressions.

“I know it’s hard to believe….”

Shin Jeonga said in a barely audible voice.

She trembled like a criminal.

“But it’s true… I only did it with you.”

Like a criminal pleading innocence, she sought Inho’s recognition.

“……..”

Knowing that no words would be enough, Kang In-ho maintained his silence.

Perhaps taking his silence as a rejection, Shin Jeonga bit her lower lip slightly and took something out of her bag.

It was a pink and white piece of plastic.

Shin Jeonga gently pushed the thermometer-like object towards him.

“…Ah.”

A short exclamation escaped his lips.

Seeing the two red lines clearly visible on it, Kang In-ho heard a hallucination of someone whispering in his ear.

-You’re screwed.

As it turned out, Shin Jeonga wasn’t looking for an immediate answer when she came to Kang In-ho.

“Well, since you know too… so….”

“Yeah. That’s right.”

It wasn’t that he didn’t think she might be lying.

But Shin Jeonga’s face, her attitude, and even the evidence she brought, all screamed that it was true.

What’s the point of crossing so many dimensions if I’ve never experienced something like this?

Kang In-ho thought.

“First of all, it’s still early… let’s take some time to think.”

“What about your parents….”

He started to speak, then stopped.

Because he realized it was a stupid question.

“Haha, of course….”

Shin Jeonga smiled bitterly.

“…Sorry.”

He thought of many things to say, but in the end, he uttered a cliché apology.

“It’s okay. This is my responsibility too.”

Shin Jeonga replied with a brighter face than before.

The ice in the cup clattered and collapsed again.

“Inho, you won’t pretend you don’t know, will you?”

Shin Jeonga leaned in closer to him, as if wanting reassurance.

“…How can I pretend I don’t know?”

Kang In-ho reassured Shin Jeonga, leaning back.

Shin Jeonga smiled at his words.

“Thank you. I feel a little stronger now that you say that.”

She spoke like someone who had been pulled out of a deep swamp.

There wasn’t much conversation after that.

They just drank the coffee on the table.

The only difference was that the distance between them as they walked down the street had narrowed.

Shin Jeonga had moved about two steps closer to him.

Clatter, Inho’s heart collapsed.

Whether she knew his feelings or not, Shin Jeonga had a happy look on her face.