episode_0023

The news of Yuri Lee leaving early without notice quickly spread among third graders.

Even though leaving school early without notice was not trivial, I wonder if it was enough to cause rumors, but the problem was that the target was Lee Yu-ri.

Who is Yuri Lee?

He was the top student in his grade and had never missed first place in the school since his freshman year. Since then, he had been working on the student council and was a famous gifted student who was rumored to be the ace of the student council.

To this day, he still holds the title of first place in the school and is now the student council president.

I was the type of person who had to worry about whether to go to medical school or law school because I didn’t lack anything in terms of college entrance exam or school grades, and if I wanted to, I was almost guaranteed admission to every university in Korea, including Seoul National University.

But Lee Yu-ri left school early without permission last week.

From the morning, the story spread from the third graders in our class to other classes, and from the third graders to some of the first and second graders in the club.

After first and second graders found out, the rumor quickly spread throughout the school.

This was usually nothing more than gossip that wouldn’t last a day, but it also meant that a person named Lee Yu-ri was a famous person in the Jinsu Church.

But it would be nice if the rumors ended there.

“Now that I think about it, student council president, don’t you hang out with Han Seongjin quite often these days?”

“I think I saw you two going home together after school the other day.”

“Huh? me too! I thought it must have been an illusion, but was it real?”

“Then… did you two hang out together?”

“Hey, there’s no way the student council president would hang out with a guy like Han Seongjin…”

“I don’t think you two have gone home together more than once or twice? The student council president used to always hang out with Gong Young-bae, but that doesn’t happen these days, right?”

“Didn’t you see me in the student cafeteria last week? The two of you fighting really fiercely?”

“Did the student council president switch men and fight because of that?”

“Wow… Is it because Yuri Lee looks like she doesn’t know anything about that, that you’re crossing her fingers?”

“The student council president cheated?”

“She said she already slept with Han Seongjin!”

The rumors started to spread, and before I knew it, Yu-ri Lee was becoming a slut who had become attached to me and abandoned Gong Yeong-bae, who had been like a half-lover.

Perhaps because of the rumor, Gong Young-bae tried to say something to Lee Yu-ri after the third period ended, but Lee Yu-ri very coldly slapped Gong Young-bae’s hand away and walked away.

Judging from his expression and attitude, it seemed like he was slowly starting to feel stressed, although he didn’t show it.

I don’t mind spreading any number of bad rumors based on facts about me, but I decided to stop the spread of strange rumors about Lee Yu-ri.

I pretend to be strong on the outside, but I’m softer than I think and my heart is easily swayed, so I’ll pretend like nothing’s wrong and pile up the hurt.

“Hey, what are you guys doing?”

“Hee Iik!”

When I intervened, the female students who were enlarged and reproduced rumors among themselves jumped up in fear.

I pushed the one who was the most talkative out of them against the wall and growled with a threatening expression while deliberately showing my forearms in an exaggerated manner.

“You guys have a knack for turning people into idiots behind the scenes? Me and the student council president have never even held hands, so when did we start dating and even have sex?”

In fact, we held hands once.

Even with their hands clasped like a couple who loves each other very much.

However, Lee Yu-ri was drunk at the time, so she wasn’t normal and couldn’t remember, and she would never do that if she was sober, so let’s give it a no count.

“Ah, no… we heard that too…”

“What did you hear? To some bastard. Bring it with you.”

“Ugh, uhhh…”

” Hey, you like rumors so much, but didn’t you really hear my rumors? Rumor has it that if I’m in a shitty mood, women will be fans too?”

“Heui profit!!”

Unfortunately, the rumor was true.

When Han Seong-jin, not me, was in a really bad mood, he was like a woman, and there were many times when he would hit me in the face.

… The more I look back on my memories, the more my life is like trash.

“Han Seongjin! What are you doing!”

Lee Yu-ri, who saw me threatening the girls, rushed over and shouted at me.

I heard that voice, but I didn’t let go of my threatening stance toward the girls who were reproducing the rumor, and my gaze was still fixed.

Yuri Yu-ri, who couldn’t see it, forcibly pulled me away and hit me.

“What are you doing?! Do you really want to go to the disciplinary committee? Follow me to the student council room!”

“… Hey, if you really don’t want to be searched on the street, watch your mouth.”

“Han Seongjin!!!”

Lee Yuri forcibly dragged me.

While going to the student council room, I could hear the sounds of extremely nervous girls crying from behind.

Yuri Lee opened the locked student council room door, leaving us alone in the empty student council room.

Yuri Lee sighed and glared at me with resentment.

“What’s wrong with you? What are you doing to them?”

“They make people into idiots by spreading rumors.”

“Why beat up someone and threaten them just because of that? And that too for girls? Are you this kind of person? To me… To me…”

“For you? Speak.”

“Me… To be honest, you were very gentle and kind to me! If you behave like that to other kids, you won’t have any weird rumors about you! If you don’t like being talked about so much, just endure it once and do it to other kids like you did to me-”

“You are mistaken.”

“…?”

Yuri Lee looked like she didn’t know what was going on.

He makes this expression a lot when he’s with me, and it’s such a cute face every time I see him.

“What I’m trying to stop is your rumor, not mine.”

“My rumor…? No, I don’t care, so you can just leave it alone!”

“I don’t think it matters?”

“…?”

“I can’t even get angry because I’m afraid my reputation will be tarnished if I get angry, but since I get angry, I keep my mouth shut like angry kids. I already hate it, but even Gong Young-bae said something to you earlier. You must be so annoyed now, right?

Even if I pretend like I don’t care about the rumor going on about you, my speed is completely black right now. If I stay still, I get more and more concerned, so as soon as it’s break time, I open up the workbook I’ve already solved and don’t even move my sharpie.

Even if you try to show on the outside that ‘I’m fine~’, I can clearly see what’s going on inside you.”

“You… You…”

Lee Yu-ri says with an expression, ‘How can you do that?’

Since I already knew everything about Yu-ri Lee’s personality and tendencies, I had a rough idea of what she was feeling right now, and most of my guesses were correct.

“There have been a lot of rumors about me since long ago, but do you really care about them now? But you’re not? Anyway, wouldn’t it be better to be the student council president who was top of the school and pretty, like before, rather than being known as a slut who hangs around with Iljin? That’s why I got angry on you instead.”

I said that and stroked Yuri’s head.

I thought that this level of skinship would be acceptable now.

As expected, Yuri Lee just felt my touch without saying anything while my rough hand was gently stroking the top of her head.

And when I took my hand away, she looked at me trembling with mixed emotions.

“I really hate you…”

“That’s too much. I gave you the best comfort I could give you.”

“That’s the problem! Why… why are you doing this to me… why are you doing this to me? To other kids, it’s the same as before, but why is it only me… who is so kind to me? Why are you treating me so gently? Why do you keep making me feel weird? If you keep doing this, I really…”

I really think you’ll like it.

Those words couldn’t come out of Yu-ri Lee’s mouth.

“Okay. Since you told me not to do that, I won’t do anything like before. But the fact that the two of us hung out together is a really ridiculous rumor, so just tell me not to tell you that, okay?”

“Okay…”

I moved to my seat right next to Lee Yu-ri.

Yu-ri Lee was just looking at me with her lips tightly closed, as if she was holding back tears.

“And if you’re upset, don’t hoard it and release it. It’s sick, that thing. What I’m saying is tell the kids not to spread strange rumors. This is what the student council president says about the top student in the whole school. Do you think the kids will be upset? I’m scared, so even if I have to force myself to endure it, if you ask, the kids will listen.”

“Okay…”

“Tsk, anyway, you work a lot like a child.”

“I’m sorry…”

“Well, since we’re here, should we just stay here for a moment during the break? To relieve my mood.”

“……”

Yuri Lee stared at me for a moment and then adjusted her chair so that she was facing me diagonally.

And he silently leaned his eyes on my shoulder.

“You must have been very stressed.”

“… I’ll stay like this for a moment.”

The shoulder where Yuri’s eyes touched felt slightly moist and warm.

I wanted to hug him, but I held back.

Because there is order in everything.

We stayed quietly like that in the student council room, with Yuri leaning her head against me and me accepting her.

#####

“Senior! Are the rumors true? That you held hands and danced around with your senior and Yuri?”

At lunchtime, Suyeon Choi heard the rumor that was spreading among second graders and ran over to ask.

“Don’t you remember who I was with that day?”

“Ah.”

“But why did you come all the way here to check that?”

“Hehehehe. No, no! From what I heard, you and Yuri go home together, and it seems like you get along well in many ways, right?”

“So?”

“I had no clue at all, but I would like to congratulate you on becoming such a relationship with Yuri-senpai! And on top of that, I also came to brag a little!”

“Boasting?”

“Heeheehee… yum!”

Suyeon Choi smiled brightly and thrust her cell phone in front of me.

A chat message with Gong Young-bae appeared on the screen.

Surprisingly, the first message came from Gong Young-bae.

The content starts with how are you doing these days, and it’s been a long time since you dated together, but you’re bored, and it’s light flirting comments like whether you have time on weekdays or weekends.

The time spent…

‘It’s break time for third period, right?’

I was certain that he sent a text message to Choi Su-yeon after that because he tried to talk to Yu-ri Lee, but she completely ignored him.

‘This bastard… I’m dying of jealousy because of the rumors between Yuri and me, but since Yuri ignored me, did you change your course this way? ‘What on earth do you think of Sooyeon?’

Cause jealousy.

It was an obvious ploy to make Lee Yu-ri jealous by showing her flirting with Choi Soo-yeon and make her look back at herself.

It’s obvious that Choi Soo-yeon will definitely say yes if he asks her to meet him, so he’s going to take advantage of her like this?

I smiled at Choi Su-yeon, barely holding back my anger.

“What, are you doing well too?”

Choi Su-yeon spread her fingers in a V shape, her face turning slightly red.

“Hehehe, it just so happened that it happened like that. Until yesterday, I had almost given up on it. Isn’t it amazing that we both thought we were failures, but surprisingly we were successful?

so! Thank you for everything going well with Senior Yuri… or even congratulations! I also came because I wanted to show off! Youngbae and I will get along much better, so I will often give you dating advice from now on!”

My relationship with Sooyeon Choi is not that deep yet.

We hung out and spent time together, but that was it.

Like Yu-ri Lee, we were not able to see each other in the same class all the time, and because our houses were in different directions, there was significantly less time to see each other. Crucially, like Yu-ri Lee, there was a lack of a big opportunity for their relationship to develop rapidly.

That’s why she, who liked Gong Young-bae from the beginning, quickly became happy when Gong Young-bae tried to approach her.

but…

‘Will Gong Young-bae, who approached you with such dirty intentions, treat you properly?’

I felt sorry for Choi Su-yeon.

It could have been over after being hurt once, but you would inevitably be hurt a second time.

I can’t stop you from getting hurt a second time.

No, even if it could be prevented, it would not be prevented. In fact, the timing would be brought forward.

Just like Lee Yu-ri, Choi Soo-yeon needs to see the bottom of Gong Young-bae at least once.

‘Gong Young-bae, thanks to your greed to keep all three of them in the fishing grounds while not responding to the wishes of the others, you will soon lose your second girl as well.’