“Yeah. Let’s go to the 5th floor.”
In-sae must have sensed something strange too, as he immediately climbed the stairs. The Rainbow Gang, who discovered us, shouted.
“What? There are still guys remaining here.”
“Shi-dan, follow me.”
In-sae looked uncomfortable, as if he didn’t want to hear them. I quickly climbed the stairs following In-sae. Soon, kids who looked like villains no matter how you looked at them chased after us menacingly.
“Why are they chasing us?”
I wanted to look back to see if they were still chasing us, but I held back and focused on getting to the 5th floor. The sound of several people’s footsteps echoed loudly on the stairs, thud, thud. In-sae climbed the stairs almost dragging me along.
“We’re here, 5th floor.”
“Yeah, we’re here.”
I walked leisurely and opened the door to just any classroom. In-sae also walked slowly, regardless of whether the Rainbow Gang was chasing us or not.
“Excuse me. Is it okay for students from another school to enter without permission?”
I said politely while making eye contact with the teacher who was in the middle of class inside the classroom. The gazes of the third-year sunbaes who were in class focused on me. I smiled courteously and pointed at the Rainbow Gang.
“They suddenly chased after us. I’m sorry for interrupting the class.”
“They said there definitely wouldn’t be anyone at Aseon High around this time?”
“They’re third-years, they have to study for the college entrance exam, obviously.”
Contrary to the gang members’ cringeworthy way of speaking, one third-year sunbae answered dryly. I let out a sigh of frustration.
“I guess they didn’t investigate properly.”
It’s truly a pitiful level. The Rainbow Gang tried to cry out in anger but stopped. That’s right, everyone’s studying, so it wouldn’t be polite to shout.
The teacher who called security grabbed the gang members and began scolding them. No matter how you look at it, they’re sloppy. If you’re going to investigate, do it properly. The Rainbow Gang was indignant.
“Oh Hye-seong, that bastard gave us wrong information.”
“You who confess everything on your own! So cool.”
I was about to go down the stairs again to go home when I clapped my hands in admiration. You who even have the sense to tell us who the spy is, villain score 100 points!
“In-sae, do you have Lee Seung’s phone number? Let me know so I can report this.”
“I don’t.”
“Who are you calling right now after saying you don’t have it?”
“Seo Lee Seung.”
I made a dumbfounded expression at In-sae’s answer. In-sae put the phone to his ear without caring about my gaze. The dial tone could be heard faintly, and In-sae grabbed my hand and went down the stairs.
[Hello?]
As soon as I heard Lee Seung’s voice, I shouted.
“I’m reporting a spy. Someone named Oh Hye-seong, the kids who secretly entered the school said it directly.”
“That’s what he says.”
In-sae reacted dryly and took the phone away from his ear.
“You’re hanging up like that again?”
“Yeah. He’ll text me later.”
In-sae answered my question and hung up the phone. Lee Seung’s voice could be heard faintly before it cut off. I felt bad for Lee Seung for no reason. I said as I went down to the 1st floor.
“Going up stairs is surprisingly tiring. I got all my exercise for today.”
I tried going down two steps at once.
“Going down is fun though.”
Having found it fun, I jumped down three steps at once. In-sae smiled calmly.
I looked down at my left hand. In-sae had been naturally holding my hand since he made the phone call earlier. Should I just leave it? But in the end, I said with an awkward air.
“How long are you going to keep holding this?”
“Ah.”
In-sae cleanly let go and moved away. I was about to say it was okay to keep holding it but gave up. I’m not just attracted to In-sae alone, so I don’t think I should.
Feeling guilty for a moment, I slowly went down the stairs. This time, only the footsteps of exactly two people could be heard on the stairs. It seemed nice to listen to, being calm and all.
***
The next morning was somehow restless. I was sitting still when the class president shouted in a sharp voice.
“But I told them to bring the jump rope, so why isn’t he coming?”
“Let’s wait a bit longer.”
“Hey, our jump rope broke!”
A kid who opened the door and came in suddenly shouted. I looked at the kid and asked with a surprised expression.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that long jump rope we use for group jumping broke.”
The class atmosphere suddenly became cold. The class president, who seemed flustered, rolled their eyes and asked.
“How did that happen?”
“I don’t know. It was left in the storage room, but the items were all scattered too.”
“I heard students from another school broke in yesterday. Wasn’t it them who did that?”
Seon-yoon frowned. Hee-ae pulled down the zipper of his gym uniform slightly as if he was suffocating and said.
“Let’s first ask the teacher if they can replace it.”
“Mm, I guess we’ll have to. Let’s hurry and go to the gym.”
I also agreed with Hee-ae’s words and stood up from my seat. The kids who had been whispering headed to the gym one by one. The PE teacher checked the clock and gestured.
“You guys are the first class today. Go to the storage room and bring one ball each.”
“They said it’s both an auditorium and a gym, but it really is spacious.”
We headed to the storage room at the back of the gym. The heavy storage room door could only be barely opened by pushing hard. Inside the storage room, items were messily placed in disarray even though they had been organized.
The basket containing the balls was in the deepest part of the storage room. I touched something wrong and a lot of dust rose up. I coughed lightly and picked up a ball. Hee-ae brought up a topic.
“Did you hear that story?”
“What story?”
“Our school’s gym is directly adjacent to the school wall, right? So…”
The ball rolled and fell from Hee-ae’s hand. I caught the ball that rolled to my feet and handed it to him. Hee-ae, who caught the ball, finished his sentence.
“…Lee Seung said there might be a passage leading outside.”
“That’s like an urban legend.”
“He also said the students from another school yesterday might have entered through the passage too.”
In the meantime, Lee Seung and the fan club kids also entered the storage room and took balls. Hee-ae added in a lukewarm tone.
“I don’t think it’s true though.”
“But PE storage rooms are usually kind of suspicious places.”
I answered while tapping the unusually empty wall several times. Hee-ae stuck close to my side, pretending to investigate the wall. I subtly avoided Hee-ae with a confused heart.
“Don’t avoid me.”
Hee-ae made direct eye contact with me. He had been organizing diligently earlier, but Hee-ae’s hair was already sticking out. Hee-ae made a tearful face with that fresh face and grabbed my sleeve tightly. I said as if nothing was wrong.
“Why would I avoid a friend? I never did that.”
“You avoided me. And are we still friends?”
“…”
I didn’t answer Hee-ae’s words and lightly kicked a box that was in the way with my foot. The box slid away easily as if there was nothing in it. Hee-ae asked sweetly.
“Do you really think of me as a friend?”
There was a pile of empty boxes in one corner of the storage room. I couldn’t bring myself to answer Hee-ae’s question. I just kept pushing the boxes aside for no reason.
“Answer me.”
“Hee-ae, you said you’d try to change my thoughts from now on, right?”
“Yeah, I said let’s make it so you can think of me in another way besides friends.”
Hee-ae answered immediately without a hint of hesitation. The memory of the confession came to mind and I quickly averted my gaze.
“As I thought, we’re not friends anymore. You’re conscious of me right now too.”
As I kept hesitating, Hee-ae drew the conclusion instead. It wasn’t entirely wrong, so I felt complicated. I’m wondering if I should cut off my feelings even now.
But I also didn’t want to let go of the three of them. I don’t know what to do with these contradictory feelings. Unable to do this or that, I kept being swayed by the three of them.
In frustration, I pushed away one considerably large box. Strangely, wind blew in. It was peculiar. I muttered while looking at the boxes.
“I said not to touch or kick anything.”
“Whoa.”
Lee Seung, who had been watching from the side, felt the wind and exclaimed somewhat frivolously. Hee-ae also turned his attention to the boxes, then pushed away all the pile of boxes.
In the spot where the boxes had been pushed away, there was one dog hole dug out. The dog hole led all the way outside, so the sidewalk blocks laid on the pavement could be faintly seen. I pointed at the dog hole and asked.
“What is this?”
“Class 1! I told you to bring balls, are you making them? What on earth are you doing…”
As if the iron door wasn’t even heavy, the teacher opened the storage room door wide and came in. I shouldn’t have kicked anything. If I had just stayed still, I would have only had to make a fuss from the side.
“What were you guys doing just now?”
“Teacher, there’s a dog hole here. I mean, a passage leading outside.”
I answered the teacher’s question and moved to the side. The teacher checked the dog hole and stopped tapping the attendance book with their hand.
“A dog hole?… Okay. I understand that, but you’ve already made us several minutes late. Hurry up, grab your balls and go out.”
The teacher made a gesture for us to go away. We quickly went outside. Hee-ae frowned slightly.
“I didn’t think there would really be one. What if someone was going in and out through there?”
“Thanks to this we found out, so we can block it this time.”
I answered while shaking my head. As expected, our school needs to do security inspections again. Hee-ae, whose expression had relaxed, put his arm around my neck.
“But to discover something like this, it’s amazing. I guess someone came in through the dog hole and that’s why the jump rope broke today.”
I fell into thought for a moment. A kid from the side ran over, waving a jump rope.
“Guys! They gave us a new jump rope. Isn’t that fortunate?”
“Yeah, that’s fortunate.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
