episode_0006

The evening before.

Yu-ri Lee returned home with her hands still on her cheeks, feeling her heart pounding.

“I’m here… ”

On Yuri’s return home, her older sister, who was sprawled out on the living room sofa in her underwear watching TV, stuck her head out.

Her hair was dyed brown and well maintained with a layered perm, and like her younger brother, she had long eyelashes, but unlike her younger brother, she had a mole around her mouth instead of under her eyes.

Although her body volume was slightly less than that of her younger brother, objectively speaking, she was a beauty who could be said to belong to the very top tier.

“Are you here? The student council president must be busy, seeing as he has been coming at this time since the first day of the semester~”

“Huh? uh… ”

“Huh? Why is he like that?”

Lee Yu-ri’s older sister, Lee Yu-min, sensed that her younger brother was in an unusual mood, so she got up and approached him.

“Why is your face so red? My eyes are blurry.”

“Huh? Oh, nothing happened?”

“There is no such thing. You’ve never made an expression like this before. Well, judging by this sister’s incredible sixth sense… You’re a man! Right!?”

Lee Yu-ri, furious, jumped up and pushed Yu-min Lee.

“Oh, what? It’s not like that?! Put some clothes on!”

“Who is it? who? Is this the guy you’ve been hanging out with for a long time? Who said that? Backstroke?”

“Gong Young-bae! And it’s not him! hot… ”

Lee Yu-ri made a mistake while speaking, and Lee Yu-min’s eyes lit up even more and she clung to her younger brother even more.

“Oh my, look at him! Did you find another man? Then what is Gong Young-bae? Enjoy? Did you know that my younger brother could also manage the fishery? You’re an adult now! Who is the other man? Handsome? What kind of kid are you? Have you already done it?”

“Oh, it’s not like that! And by the way, you think I’m your sister?! I’m going to take a shower, so go away!”

Lee Yu-ri pushed her sister away and went into the room and closed the door, and Lee Yu-min lay down on the sofa again and muttered.

“Sigh, Ji-unni looks like she got broken up with by a man, but my younger brother is just playing around and the world is so unfair. It’s unfair.”

… …

After showering and finishing dinner, Yu-ri Lee continued to feel the feel of Han Seong-jin’s big, hard back lingering on her cheek.

‘it’s crazy… I’ve never received anything like that from Youngbae… And with the best team in the academy… I guess I’m really crazy… ‘

No matter how hard I tried to erase the memories from before, there was nothing I could do about the experience I felt through my skin.

Then, Yu-ri Lee suddenly thought of Han Seong-jin’s overflowing lunch box that she couldn’t eat.

‘ah… Now that I think about it, he said it was his dinner and tomorrow morning… ‘

Han Seong-jin saved him by throwing away his food, even though he said it wasn’t much.

No matter how much she detests such bastards, Lee Yu-ri’s conscience is too pricked to accept such help and pretend not to notice.

Yuri Lee closed her eyes and stood up with a decision made.

‘Yes, it just gets rid of the debt! Otherwise, I don’t know what he’ll do using today’s work as an excuse, so I’ll just eliminate the trouble!’

Then, I went to the kitchen, showed off my housekeeping skills, and started making food.

“It’s really worthless. It’s worthless.”

While listening to my older sister Lee Yu-min muttering behind me.

#####

“So you packed the lunch box yourself?”

“Yeah, right! It doesn’t have any other meaning, so don’t misunderstand it for no reason! Because I just crumpled up the leftover food at home!”

To save money, I couldn’t buy a new lunch box, and I had only eaten triangle gimbap for breakfast, so I was quite hungry.

At such a time, Yu-ri Lee’s lunch box was like a rope sent down from the sky.

When I opened the lid of the lunch box, a menu appeared that had everything from steaming white rice, Vienna topped with ketchup, stir-fried anchovies, stir-fried kimchi, and egg rolls.

“Sniff. Mmm~ Smell~ Maybe it’s because it’s a lunch box made with love by our chairman, so the smell is special, right?”

“No, someone put affection into it! Is this just repayment for the debt I owed yesterday!? And class starts a little later, so why have I opened my lunch box already?”

“Just looking at it, it looks like it took a while to make, but you should eat it when it tastes best before it gets cold. And I’m hungry now because I only ate one samkim.”

I immediately picked up the spoon from the lunch box that Lee Yu-ri had packed and started eating the lunch box.

Yuri Lee’s homemade lunch box was as delicious as it looked. Much better than a convenience store lunch box.

As I was forgetting my lunch box in the classroom before the first period even started, the students’ eyes were naturally focused on me.

It didn’t matter to me, but Yuri Lee, who was leaning on the window frame next to my desk, lowered her head and didn’t know what to do, as if she felt burdened by the gazes of her classmates.

In the end, I saved Yu-ri Lee once again.

“Hey, what are you guys looking at? Is this your first time seeing people eat? It’s so burdensome that I can’t even eat.”

“Hiik… !”

When I spoke with a bit of force in my voice, the students all turned and looked desperately ahead.

After creating an atmosphere of fear among my classmates, Lee Yu-ri saw me calmly eating again and said something.

“Do you really have to scare me like that?”

“You also felt burdened by their gaze.”

“Well, that’s not it! You can speak a little more softly!”

“It doesn’t suit me.”

While Yuri let out a small sigh, I ate my lunch box as if I was hiding my eyes.

Yu-ri Lee’s eyes widened when she saw the lunch box with not a single grain of rice left in it.

“Did you eat all of that?”

“Because it’s delicious, it goes down easily. And in the first place, I eat all of this out of gratitude to the person who made it.”

“That, that… they say? Hmm, then give it to me now.”

“Well, just leave it in the bag until the academy ends? Then it smells bad and is hard to wash because it dries up. I’ll wash it properly and give it to you, so just leave it alone.”

“You… Washing the dishes?”

“Then you thought I couldn’t even do that?”

“No, the issue is not whether you can do it or not, but the fact that you wash dishes should be called an image or something very unexpected…”

At that time, the classroom door opened and the homeroom teacher came in for the morning assembly.

“Now, is there anyone missing? Attendance from now on… hmm? Sniff, wait a minute, what does that smell like? Who ate?”

The teacher wasn’t about to conduct a class, but instead sniffed the lunch box I had just eaten.

“Who forgets their lunch box in the classroom, leaving it smelly in the morning? Who is it?”

“I ate it.”

The penalty period for cleaning my classroom after school was extended by three more days.

#####

As Lee Yu-ri sat down, the words of Han Seong-jin, who ate the lunch she had packed without leaving a single grain of rice behind, kept ringing in her head.

In the first place, people eat this kind of food out of gratitude to the person who made it.

‘Youngbae… I’ve never finished eating my lunch box… ‘

Even when I was in elementary school or middle school, I packed lunches for Gong Young-bae a few times when we went on picnics or festivals.

However, Gong Young-bae never ate all of her lunch box.

There were various reasons, such as because my mouth was short, because my stomach was full, and because I was afraid of gaining weight unnecessarily.

Even though she never showed it, Lee Yu-ri was deeply hurt when she saw the lunch box that she packed for Gong Young-bae but always came back with more than half left.

Is my lunch box tasteless? Did I do something useless to Youngbae?

On the other hand, Han Seong-jin continued to say that her lunch box was very delicious.

They even made comments that seemed out of place and common sense, such as saying that they had worked hard to make it, and that it was polite to eat it all out of sincerity.

For the first time, Lee Yu-ri saw how her lunch box satisfied others.

Even though the target was Han Seong-jin, who had no answer, I felt satisfaction and joy welling up in a corner of my heart.

Even after eating everything, he was considerate of Lee Yu-ri until the end, saying that he would take care of all the troublesome cleanup and return it to her.

Have you ever received this kind of consideration from Gong Young-bae?

Yuri Lee stopped thinking about making more unnecessary comparisons.

‘Let’s not worry about strange things for no reason. Basically, it’s different for each person. That guy isn’t that good, and Youngbae isn’t weird, right.’

But there was no way to stop my heart from racing.

Meanwhile, Gong Young-bae bit his fingernails and glanced at Yu-ri Lee.

Only one day had passed, but Lee Yu-ri’s attitude toward Han Seong-jin had noticeably softened.

Lee Yu-ri was uncomfortable sharing the same space with the same type of bullies as Han Seong-jin, so she even brought a lunch box for Han Seong-jin.

‘Yuri…’ That lunch box… You didn’t bring it for me, did you? You’ve never packed a lunch for anyone but me… Why to such a bastard… ‘

Gong Young-bae held his head, denying reality.

‘Well, I guess I’ve found a weakness. Otherwise, there’s no way Yuri would do anything to that bastard he hates so much. ‘We can talk slowly later.’

Gong Young-bae calmed down by deciding to talk to Yu-ri Lee around lunchtime.

Little did they know that it would make their relationship grow further apart.