Cho-yeon muttered to himself.
“This is why it shouldn’t be unnecessarily big.”
I smiled at Cho-yeon’s muttering.
I thought there would be no one, but suddenly one person jumped out in front. I gasped in surprise. When it looked like I would collide with him, Cho-yeon, who had been following, pulled me back. Thanks to that, I escaped from the situation just before collision.
“This is why you shouldn’t run in the library. Sorry about that.”
I recognized the familiar appearance. It’s Seo Lee Seung.
“Did you come to research too?”
Lee Seung roughly nodded his head. Cho-yeon, who lost interest, headed to another bookshelf. He must be going to find other books while I’m talking. Lee Seung, who had been quietly watching, suddenly said.
“You like them, right?”
I immediately turned around in surprise. He had an ‘of course’ expression. I felt like a place even I didn’t know about had been poked.
“Don’t do it ambiguously, decide for sure.”
Lee Seung continued. I looked at him in surprise, thinking Lee Seung was scolding me, but he looked worried. He looked at my expression and added hopefully.
“I heard someone at the high school next door went around with 5 people. Breaking common sense might not be bad.”
“That’s really encouraging.”
I teased Lee Seung mischievously and ended the conversation. Lee Seung tried to run again but perhaps conscious of the surrounding gazes, he walked out slowly.
It was quite a while after he left that Cho-yeon came with several books. When I counted the number of books, exactly one was missing.
“……If we just find this book, we can leave.”
I said while turning my head. According to what was written, this was the right place, but I couldn’t see the book at all. I circled the bookshelf several times.
Perhaps frustrated that I was still wandering, Cho-yeon quickly pulled out one book. It was the title I was looking for. He handed me the book and said.
“Now that we found it, let’s go.”
“You’re good at finding things?”
Whether I was impressed or not, Cho-yeon pushed through between the bookshelves and leisurely escaped. Several kids around my age were sitting in chairs. I wondered what they were talking about, but it was a completely unexpected story.
“Han Cho-yeon? He had a bad reputation before, but he apologized for everything and has been living quietly lately.”
When I heard the familiar name, I couldn’t hide my flustered feelings. I looked at those kids with a surprised expression. Cho-yeon, who was in front, quickly went outside. I’m worried and anxious about Cho-yeon.
“Look at them gossiping.”
I said while chasing after Cho-yeon. The kids who saw Cho-yeon whispered even more quietly. I threw out any words because I didn’t want to hear that sound.
“Cho-yeon, do you want to eat tofu for dinner today? To commemorate your rehabilitation.”
“He caused trouble before and I cleaned it all up, now I’m remembering it again.”
Cho-yeon pointed at himself and closed his eyes as if his head hurt.
At Cho-yeon’s words, I also recalled things from long ago. At our school, the kids treated Cho-yeon like an idol because he went around with the Five Great Kings. But that was our school’s story, and it took quite a while for him to shed his third-rate villain image.
“I’m glad it passed easily this time. But it’s better not to come to this library anymore.”
“There’s no reason to come. Just return this and it’s over.”
He threw the book very lightly and caught it. I examined his expression but he didn’t seem to care about what just happened.
“If I knew I’d possess someone, I would have watched more episodes. Really.”
I said half seriously. Cho-yeon took out his phone and spat out.
“Hearing your story lately keeps making me recall how I lived before being possessed.”
“I’ll be quiet.”
I said only that and closed my mouth. Cho-yeon smiled seeing me become quiet. It didn’t seem like he said it seriously.
“Your emotional ups and downs are quite noisy. Don’t make it more annoying by closing your mouth when you say you’ll be quiet.”
Cho-yeon said that and didn’t say anything for a moment. I naturally relaxed my mouth that I had deliberately clamped shut at Cho-yeon’s words. He just asked out of trivial curiosity.
“You said your family was all the same, right?”
I didn’t answer Cho-yeon’s words and just smiled. Unlike me, Cho-yeon’s family is completely different, so it’s hard to answer right away. Of course, it’s not my fault, but somehow I feel sorry to Cho-yeon.
“I didn’t tell you to do that. I was just suddenly curious.”
Cho-yeon looked at my expression and shouted. Still, I was intimidated by the guilt. The weight of the bookbag on my shoulder felt especially heavier.
***
I was thinking about Cho-yeon for a moment when I came to my senses. I suddenly remembered going to the library yesterday. Hee-ae, who was standing next to me, raised his head and said.
“It feels like your attention has been focused elsewhere lately. Even while talking, you were thinking about other things a lot, right?”
Hee-ae looked worried but also upset on one hand. Recently, he said similar things like this a lot. He seemed to feel that I was neglecting him.
‘There’s more than one or two people I should apologize to.’
I thought to myself. I decided to think this was all my fault. Hee-ae noticed I was feeling sorry and said.
“If you’re sorry, hang out with me after school today. It’s been really long since just the two of us were in the classroom.”
Hee-ae must have felt the sunlight shining through the window wasn’t enough, so he opened the window completely. Following yesterday, today as well, I ended up meeting the kids after school.
Hee-ae leaned his arm on the window frame and stared blankly somewhere. I asked Hee-ae.
“It’ll be dinner time soon after school, so what will we do at that time?”
“You know there’s a mountain next to here? I’ve climbed it many times and it’s not that high.”
“That mountain behind? So there are people who climb it.”
“You didn’t know? Quite a lot of people climb it. The scenery there in the evening is nice, so I wanted to see it together.”
When I showed a lukewarm reaction, Hee-ae seemed to fall into thought. Then he looked at me again and smiled. If it’s a mountain, I hate it, but I wanted to go together. I asked while meeting Hee-ae’s eyes.
“Will you be okay going alone in the evening after we part?”
“Yeah, you don’t need to worry.”
Hee-ae answered confidently. Soon, school ended and Hee-ae led the way first. Perhaps excited, his steps occasionally quickened. Then when he felt he went too far ahead, he would step backwards to my side again.
The mountain was there if you went straight left from school. I think I heard neighborhood people praise the mineral spring there several times saying it was good. It’s not very believable.
“I should have moved toward the intersection when I moved here. It’s inconvenient because you and I are in completely opposite directions.”
Hee-ae complained while walking.
We climbed the mountain. As Hee-ae said, it didn’t take long to reach the summit. Even so, the sun that had gotten shorter because it was autumn had already set by the time we climbed to the top. Contrary to the darkening surroundings, the lights of the buildings became brighter.
The lights in people’s rooms and company offices were turning on. The surrounding air became cold. Perhaps embarrassed, Hee-ae trailed off.
“It’s not high, so it’s not quite ‘I can see our whole neighborhood’ but……”
“It’s not bad. I can see all the way to our school. Looking at the lights on the upper floors of the main building, they must be having evening self-study.”
I pointed at our school. Unlike the lower floors, the lights on the upper floors were brightly lit. Hee-ae also slowly scanned the school from bottom following my gaze.
While walking along the mountain path, I found a part where the railing was low. When I went that way, Hee-ae looked at me with a clueless expression. I muttered to myself.
“The railing is a bit low here.”
“Huh? You’ll fall if you do that.”
When I bent my waist down, Hee-ae approached in shock. He straightened me up properly and pulled me back completely.
“Be careful. Ah, I really hate high places.”
Hee-ae sighed. Hee-ae mumbled the latter part as if murmuring, but it was barely audible enough for me. He doesn’t seem to like high places very much.
I remember the school trip. We climbed a mountain then too, and Hee-ae suddenly grabbed me. He must have done it because he hated high places.
Somehow the situation is similar to now. Just now Hee-ae also did something that could be called almost overprotective. I laughed.
“Why are you so restless? I think you can let go of this.”
I looked down at Hee-ae’s hand. Hee-ae tightly gripped my clothes and pulled me back, blocking my steps whenever I went to places that seemed dangerous.
Hee-ae smiled as if he didn’t quite understand what I said. I walked around the surroundings for a while, then when I had nothing to do, I sat perched on the pavilion. Hee-ae looked at the sky where stars were just about to rise and said.
“You hate exercise, so climbing the mountain wasn’t fun, right? But the scenery was nice like I said, wasn’t it?”
Hee-ae smiled brightly. I answered while my gaze was stolen by him.
“It was nice.”
“Why are you saying it while looking at me?”
Perhaps Hee-ae felt good, his voice tone went up a little. He seemed about to cover his face with his hands, then put his hands down again.
I continued looking at Hee-ae. And I thought of Cho-yeon and In-sae. Before long, I realized. That I couldn’t choose just one of the three. Before I could even realize it, the emotion rose first. I bit my lip and stopped in that state of looking at empty space.
“Is that a habit too? You’ll bleed if you do that.”
Hee-ae, who noticed I was biting my lip, said. He frowned when he said the word blood. Hee-ae grabbed my hand with an unobstructed touch and removed it from my lip. I was surprised that Hee-ae was so nonchalant.
Anyway, the surroundings suddenly seem to feel cold. My face is hot, so it’s definitely not a sign of a cold. It became troublesome.
‘As expected, that’s how it is.’
Actually, I should have already known. I lightly blamed myself. It was really long and difficult to keep denying it until now. Conversely, accepting it was absurdly easy. Hee-ae, who had been looking at me continuously, made a puzzled expression and asked.
“Did you turn red because you’re cold?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
