When Park Ha-eun appeared, I accidentally swallowed the meatball in my mouth without realizing it. It seemed that Ye-ji was just as flustered, as a chopstick she was holding dropped, creating a small noise.
“Suddenly?”
In fact, it wasn’t sudden. Just yesterday, she had shown interest in spending time with me (though it wasn’t a date request), and this morning, she had even bandaged my wrist, pushing aside a struggling Ye-ji.
Park Ha-eun’s arrival wasn’t like a sudden natural disaster. Rather, there had already been many foreshadowing events.
So, my legs. Stop trembling embarrassingly, will you? Even though I’m the Golden Sun, when the heroine comes to me on her own, I should be rejoicing with a ‘Hooray~~’ instead of being so tense that I’m clutching my chest (or rather, I wanted to clutch my buttocks).
“…Well, if it’s just for a moment.”
“Hehe. Thanks, Ji-woon.”
I had considered refusing, but it seemed unlikely that Park Ha-eun would give up easily. Usually, she would be smiling brightly, but now, for some reason, her expression was strangely lifeless.
Was it because of what happened last night? No, that couldn’t be it, as she had been no different than usual until the class. It was as if she had just witnessed something upsetting.
I don’t know who dared to upset the main heroine of the story, but that person is pitiable. This is the world within a dating simulation game, ruled by Yoon Dong-gun and Park Ha-eun. You’re done for, unknown culprit.
“Hold on. I never gave permission?”
As I was silently offering a prayer for the one who had upset Park Ha-eun, someone among us spoke first. Surprisingly, it wasn’t Park Ha-eun, but Ye-ji, who was sitting across from me, growling.
Was it because of Ji-woon’s influence? Ye-ji had already harbored resentment towards Park Ha-eun even before meeting her. It’s likely that Ji-woon never said anything good about her, so it might have been expected.
But the problem was, she seemed to dislike her too much. Like someone who was enjoying a treat and then had it snatched away by an intruder, Ye-ji was sharpening her already fierce gaze.
Should I quickly intervene if they start fighting? It was a moment of confusion.
“I’m sorry, Ye-ji. It’ll only be for a moment, is that okay? I’m worried about Ji-woon’s injury.”
“That injury, ‘I’ treated it well, didn’t I? You don’t have to worry, Park Ha-eun.”
“That’s strange. I clearly remember doing it ‘together.’ Isn’t that right, Ji-woon?”
Park Ha-eun was still smiling, but it didn’t feel like a genuine smile. Rather, it seemed subtly tinged with discomfort.
Eventually, the sparks flew my way. Was it really such a big deal who had treated the injury? It was understandable for Ye-ji, who often took pride in strange things, but I couldn’t fathom why Park Ha-eun was getting involved in this race.
Moreover, Park Ha-eun seemed to have closed the distance since yesterday. I remembered exchanging words from a distance, but today she had invaded my personal space without hesitation. We were so close that moving just 5cm would mean touching each other.
“At first, you (Ye-ji) took care of me, and at the end, you (Park Ha-eun) finished it off well. Why are you bickering over such a thing, like children?”
I was just saying, Ji-woon. I wasn’t bickering…”
Park Ha-eun, who suddenly seemed to be in a better mood, shyly continued the conversation as usual. What’s with this emotional rollercoaster? Was Park Ha-eun always such a character?
While I was pondering over Park
Ha-eun’s perplexing change of heart, a sharp pain in my leg snapped me out of my thoughts.
“Ouch…!”
“What’s wrong all of a sudden, Ji-woon? Are you hurt?”
“No… It’s nothing.”
Suppressing the pinching pain, I cautiously created some distance from Park Ha-eun, who had boldly encroached on my safe zone. I suspected that Ye-ji had used her toes to pinch the inside of my thigh.
If you have an issue, just say it. Do you really need to resort to violence, Ye-ji? Moreover, if she had miscalculated the distance even slightly, she could have pinched something far more precious than my thigh. If that had happened, I probably wouldn’t have been able to stand up due to various problems.
Anyway, considering she could do this while wearing socks, Ye-ji seemed to have quite the skill with her feet. In fact, I wondered if she might have a unique talent that would allow her to excel in some underground field.
Nevertheless, I couldn’t keep enduring the pain, so I lightly flexed my thigh to flick away Ye-ji’s toes. Her surprised expression, with eyes wide open, was quite memorable.
“So, what brings you here? If it’s about the promise you mentioned before, it seems you’ve come too early.”
“No, no, it’s not that… I was wondering if I could teach you how to wrap the bandage…”
Park Ha-eun fidgeted with her hands and spoke timidly. Was this the reaction of someone who came to teach? It felt so wrong that it almost caused cognitive dissonance.
As I stared at her, Park Ha-eun blushed and waved her hands dismissively.
“It’s not like I have any other intentions… You have to unwrap the bandage when you shower, and you need to know how to wrap it again at home, right…? So I thought… maybe it would be easier for you if I taught you…”
“Is that the only reason you came?”
“…Yeah.”
It was a curious situation where the teacher seemed more embarrassed than the student.
Despite everything, Park Ha-eun was incredibly cute. I barely managed to suppress a fatherly smile at her slightly puffed cheeks, with the patience of a saint. I didn’t want to get pinched by
Ye-ji again.
“Alright. If that’s all.”
“Hehe… Thank you, Ji-woon.”
Was this something to be thanked for? Aren’t you too kind, you little… How do you plan to navigate through this harsh world with such a mindset?
From an observer’s perspective, she didn’t inspire much confidence.
But then again, I couldn’t possibly watch over Park Ha-eun for the rest of her life. I’m the villain. You’re the protagonist. There’s also ‘I’m the Teacher, and You’re the Student!’, so we were never meant to mix.
Despite that, I couldn’t help but be aware of her touch on my wrist. Why were her hands so small and soft? It made me wonder if this is how it felt when Teacher Choi Da-in was about ten years younger.
“So, you fix it here like this… and after you put this part in at the end and secure it… Ta-da! How is it? Doesn’t it come undone?”
“Hmm… It does seem quite comfortable.”
“Hehe, right? I learned it from my mom. She said if someone around you gets hurt, you should do it like this.”
After watching it twice, the method of wrapping naturally became familiar to me. Park Ha-eun’s kind instruction played a big part. Her voice was so calm that it made it easy to concentrate.
But then I thought, these guys don’t even need to wrap a bandage. Who wraps a bandage around a minor scratch? To others, it might look like I was almost hit by a truck.
“Yeah, thanks. But you can go now. As I said before…”
“Ah… Yes…! Thank you for your time,
Ji-woon. Then…”
Did she not want to hear me say it was inconvenient? Before those words could come out, Park Ha-eun hurriedly left.
Honestly, it felt a bit uncomfortable. Such a kind person. Moreover, she was still not fully recovered from the accident last night, and I had to keep pushing her away.
But what can I do? I can’t risk a bad ending, and Ye-ji’s gaze from across was not to be taken lightly. Even now, she was sending me a heated look. Judging by the danger level, she seemed to be on the verge of evolving from cute Yeji to fierce Yeji.
“Ye-ji, shall we go to the convenience store? I’ll pay.”
“…No thanks. I’m not in the mood right now.”
“That’s too bad. I heard that the snack bar got famous melon bread from Japan today. They say they’re only selling twenty pieces on a first-come, first-served basis?”
“Le-Let’s go right now!!!”
…She was truly a simple-minded cat.
***
“The melon bread was delicious… I want to eat it again!”
“Sure, let’s go buy and eat it together next time.”
“Hehe, is that a promise? If you break it, you’ll get a cat punch, okay?”
“Why bother with your weak strength. We’re going to be late. Just go inside.”
“Okay. Oh! You know you have to wait for me after class, right? You can’t forget and go home first, okay? Really, you can’t!”
Even as she entered her class, Yeji kept reminding me until the end. The gazes of those around us were still not very welcoming, and I worried they might shift to Ye-ji as well.
She truly had the qualities of a ‘social butterfly,’ but still, the other party was this Ji-woon. It wouldn’t be good for Ye-ji to be seen continuously associated with me.
Of course, she didn’t seem to care about the gazes at all; in fact, she seemed to enjoy sticking close to me. After all, if she had been worried about that, she wouldn’t have remained Ji-woon’s best friend since middle school. It was just needless worry.
Yes, needless worry. Compared to the presence that had just appeared before me, such concerns were trivial and insignificant.
Because.
“…Can we talk for a moment? Ji-woon.”
Standing before me now was Yoon Dong-gun, the protagonist of the story.
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