“It’s great coming in!”
Deb shouted excitedly, but I, who was sinking beneath the water going bubble-bubble, was definitely not great. I had learned survival swimming when I was very young, but that was all. After that, I only devoted myself to entrance exam studies, so my swimming skills were close to the worst. The exercises I was somewhat good at were the ones that gave points for PE performance assessments. Water came rushing into my nose and mouth.
“Cough, cough!”
Only after a long while did I finally stand up holding onto the wall and pour out coughs. With water entering my nose and ears, my nose stung and my ears felt stuffy. I wasn’t on friendly terms with water. But somehow this felt like déjà vu…
Ah, right. It was like this when I went to the pool with David before too. David had dropped me into the pool. I was coughing and David kept saying “Bless you,” which was annoying. Deb and Dave. Just like those identical names, as expected of friends, their actions were the same too…
“Dave Olson! How can you just drop people like that!”
A loud voice with strong vibrations flowed into my stuffy ears filled with water. It was loud enough to echo throughout the yard. Cough, cough, as I turned around while shaking off my coughs, I saw David with his face completely crumpled.
He seemed angry somehow. He was glaring hard at his friend after all. Then he suddenly turned toward me, pushed through the water and approached, then began patting my back.
“July, are you okay?”
“I’m, fine…”
Why is he like this? It’s the same thing you did to me before. I was more flustered by David suddenly making a fuss than by falling into the water.
“This won’t do.”
David, who jumped right out of the pool, roughly put on just his jeans, then grabbed both my arms as I was still floundering in the water and pulled me up.
“You’re all wet…”
David clicked his tongue while looking at me sprawled on the floor. Just like he said, my coat, shirt, pants, and socks were all soaked through. Cough, cough! My nose still stung so I poured out the remaining coughs. But something covered my shoulders, so I turned my head. David was crouching next to me.
“At least wear that.”
What covered my shoulders was David’s football team jacket.
“It’ll get all wet though.”
“It’s fine. I can wash it. Get up. Let’s at least go to the bathroom. You can’t go home like this. Hey, Deb! I’m taking out any of your clothes to wear! Of course your clothes are too shabby and small so they won’t fit though!”
David yelled toward Deb, who was still swimming in the pool, while supporting me. Deb, who had only his neck sticking out of the water like the Loch Ness Monster, submerged his head underwater as if escaping and swam underwater. And instead of answering, he only raised his hand with the middle finger up above the water surface. Just like the Terminator.
Whether what they said about Deb and David being close was true, David knew the way around this house as if it were his own. It meant he led me upstairs to the bathroom in the most secluded spot.
Even until then, he was supporting me. I could walk on my own since I was just startled for a moment and not hurt. But because my feet felt heavy from the shoes filled with squelching, squelching water, I just let my body go with it.
When we opened the bathroom door and entered, kids who had been kissing while stuck together turned around in surprise to look behind them. Their clothes were quite disheveled, so it seemed they were planning to go all the way.
“Could you leave?”
At that one word from David who smiled brightly, that couple hurriedly fixed their clothes, got up from their seats, and rushed outside. David, who had sat me on the edge of the bathtub, looked down at me and sighed.
“What should we do. If I sent you home in this state, your parents would definitely be shocked, and I’d get terribly scolded. First, try taking off the jacket.”
“Okay.”
I did as David instructed and neatly placed the football team jacket that had been draped over my shoulders to the side, then took off my suit jacket. It didn’t come off easily because it was soaked with water, so I could barely take it off only after receiving David’s help. Drip-drip, plop! When I turned the jacket upside down, the water contained in its pockets poured straight down.
“Stay here. I’ll go rummage around to see if there’s anything to change into.”
“Got it.”
Well, even if he told me to go somewhere, I couldn’t go in this state. I nodded quietly. David chuckled, then turned his body and went outside the bathroom. The water droplets on his bare back flowed into the valley in the middle of his back. Come to think of it, David was half-naked.
He should put on clothes himself first. The fact that we had walked here with our bodies touching in that state was endlessly embarrassing. For no reason, I tapped, tapped the bathtub with my fingertip, then took off my shoes and socks. Water trickled out from my shoes too.
“My dress shoes…”
They’re leather, so they’ll definitely be ruined, right? I should have just worn sneakers. It was a mistake from the start to ride a bicycle wearing leather dress shoes. But the time limit decreased so quickly that I didn’t even have the presence of mind to change shoes.
I stacked the two socks with dirty sole parts neatly, then wrung out the water. After repeating that several times, they seemed fairly dry. If I use a dryer to dry them like this, wouldn’t it be okay? Ah, let me wipe my body first.
I got up from my seat and rummaged around the bathroom. I found something suspicious but pretended not to see it before I could finally find a towel. The moment I was about to pull out plenty of towels, fling! the door opened from behind me. I thought it would be David.
“Did you find clothes to change into?”
“…”
But there was no answer coming back. I, who had wiped my face with the fluffy towel and turned my head back, also ended up closing my mouth.
“…Ah, so this is the place where you have dinner with your relative elder?”
“…”
It was Joel. With his arms crossed, standing crookedly by the door, the corners of his mouth were raised crookedly. Joel looked me up and down, then immediately burst out with a strong sneer.
“You look like that to have dinner? Huh?”
“…”
“Fuck… I was trying to spend some time with you out of pity, but you said you had to go so I let you go… What, relative elder? Dinner? Family matters?”
Thud! Thud! Thoom! As the rough footstep sounds grew louder and he approached closer, I shrunk my body and quickly stepped back. But no matter how spacious a bathroom was, it was still a bathroom. Joel, who was now standing right in front of me, pressed against the wall to block the side so I couldn’t escape, then quietly looked down at me.
“Is this what’s trendy these days? Having dinner looking like a drowned rat? Huh?”
“Th, that’s…”
“That’s what!”
I flinched like a mouse before a tiger. I opened my mouth for now, but I had nothing to say. I had my own circumstances, but they were too much “my own” for Joel to understand. And I couldn’t even explain. Because I’d have to explain affection and everything else one by one.
Avoiding Joel’s gaze and just rolling my eyes, my chin was soon grabbed and my face was pulled.
“Look at me.”
“…”
“Just try avoiding my eyes. I’ll gouge out your eyeballs right there.”
I quickly put strength into my eyes that I was about to close and looked at Joel. I still wanted to avoid his gaze. Joel’s face, which seemed angry, was too fierce.
“Come to think of it, you shouldn’t have anyone you know here, so how exactly did you come… Ah.”
Joel’s gaze, which had been searching the surroundings like a hungry beast, stopped somewhere. I was relieved that he wasn’t looking at me, then felt anxious from Joel’s behavior of staring intently at something.
I turned my head with creaks and squeaks like a broken doll and barely looked that way. There lay David’s football team jacket that I had folded neatly.
“…”
This is bad! But David’s not the only one on the football team, and there’s also the absurd probability that I joined the football team in the meantime…!
“July. I found clothes to change… Joel?”
Argh! As expected, the world didn’t help me! The moment the door flung open, I prayed hundreds of times that it would be someone else. But as per my bad premonition, the person who opened the door and entered was David. David Evans, who was holding clothes in his arms but wearing nothing on his upper body, whom Joel immensely hated.
I couldn’t see Joel’s expression as he turned his head back toward David. But I could tell that the veins in his temples were wriggling quite violently.
“Fuck…”
The moment Joel’s gaze turned from David to me felt slow as if in slow motion. But it was only a very brief instant, so I soon ended up making eye contact with Joel again.
“Urk!”
The grip of Joel’s hand holding my face became even stronger. Joel glared at me with bloodshot eyes.
“Ha, right, right… So you were playing around with that bastard, you were playing me?”
“Urk, uurk!”
How could I be playing you! I don’t have that much guts! I barely moved my lips that protruded like a beak, pressed by Joel’s hand. But proper words didn’t come out. It was frustrating. After shaking my head violently, I stopped my actions at the voice I suddenly heard.
“July Baek.”
“…”
This was the first time Joel called me by my full name like this. I got goosebumps all over. Joel, who released my face as if throwing it, glared at me while slowly stepping back. Those green eyes blazed like very hot fire.
“Fuck.”
Joel turned his back and walked strongly—thud, thud, thud—then bam! hit David’s shoulder hard as he passed. I, who had been standing with my back against the cold wall, blinked my eyes slowly, unable to believe the system window that had appeared in the meantime.
**NEW!**
**’Joel Gomez’s affection has decreased by 20!**
The affection dropped by 20 in an instant. Strangely, the first thought that came to mind wasn’t ‘How hard did I work to build up that affection! What a waste!’ It was the anxiety of ‘Is Joel very disappointed? Is he hurt? What should I do?’
“Ugh, that bastard… July, are you okay?”
Even at the moment David, who had been knocked over by Joel, got up staggering, I was only looking at the number 20. That system window seemed to be telling me this.
That trying to catch two rabbits at once was ultimately a self-defeating move that would only fail. That I was just stupid for not being able to give up my greed.
