I naturally ended my conversation with Cha Woodan and turned my head. Cha Jeoh, who immediately met eyes with me, grinned happily just because and thrust out what he’d brought.
“Peaches. Yellow peaches.”
What Cha Jeoh held in his hand was a cylindrical can.
“Do you like peaches?”
My gaze that had been staring blankly at the can moved to Cha Jeoh. Since I wasn’t giving an answer and only blinking, Cha Jeoh’s face that had been gradually relaxing soon drooped completely into a crying face.
“You don’t like peaches…?”
I appreciated that Cha Jeoh anew, with a feeling different from Cha Woodan.
Cha Jeoh’s attitude and behavior had also changed compared to when I first met him. Whether he knew it or not, since he had no intention of trying to hide it, it was much more noticeable and felt more tangible to me than Cha Woodan.
‘Should I say he’s become a bit… dog-like.’
Not as an insult like “son of a bitch,” but he’d literally become like a ‘dog.’ The way he acted like a large dog scattering fur even without a tail, the way he made a crying face and whined at a single word from me—it was exactly like that.
It seemed to be a change that occurred from when Cha Jeoh caught me trying to go somewhere across the schoolyard when the fire door leading to the second floor had opened. From then on, Cha Jeoh was particularly restless around me and tried to stick to me at every turn unless it was an unavoidable situation.
‘Do they need me that much?’
Why? The ability I awakened is only good for me, unsuitable for helping and leading others or the same group.
I’d known from the beginning that the Cha twins had a favorable impression of me, and that’s why I judged they wouldn’t harm me and joined them. But usually favorable impressions had such triggers or reasons.
Moreover, the favorable impression they showed at the time was something different from simple friendship, perhaps something heterogeneous even inferior to friendship. That’s why I could so easily make up my mind that I should leave when the time came.
“Hayoung-ah, Hayoung-ah.”
I emerged from my locked thoughts. Then Cha Jeoh, who had already opened the can lid and been waiting, abruptly held out a fork toward me.
“Ah, say ahh.”
A piece of yellow peach gleaming with juice soaked in sugar was stuck on the fork. Staring at him who was supporting it with his other palm in case that sticky juice dripped onto the sheets or my body, I asked slowly.
“Where did you get the fork from?”
What Cha Jeoh used to stab the peach piece and hold out to me wasn’t a disposable plastic fork commonly seen at convenience stores. Instead, what was balanced well in his grip was a metal fork from who knows where.
Not a spoon or chopsticks, and it didn’t seem like forks would have been in the school cafeteria. To my question, Cha Jeoh answered without hesitation as if asking something obvious.
“I brought it.”
“From where?”
“Nearby, while wandering around.”
It was an answer just as natural as that calm tone. Enough to make even me feel like I’d asked something pointless.
With the twins’ personalities, they probably brought a fork from some household or restaurant and even washed it cleanly with drinking water. I wondered if there was another survivor living so wastefully and luxuriously like this.
“So Hayoung, you too, if there’s something you want, just say it. We’ll get it for you.”
Not to say if I needed something, but to say if I wanted something.
When I opened my mouth without answering, the fork moved endlessly carefully and entered inside. Feeling the sweet fragrance of juice spreading on the tip of my tongue, I slowly began to chew only after the fork leaving the peach behind withdrew.
Then a finger suddenly popped out from my right. Without warning, it approached close and poked my cheek.
“It’s soft.”
The toneless voice was closer to a declarative sentence simply reciting objective facts rather than admiration. When I rolled my eyes to stare at Cha Woodan, he smiled gently. Yet far from withdrawing the hand that poked my cheek, he removed it briefly then pressed and squished it again.
Hadn’t one of the twins poked my cheek last time too? I think it was when I was drowsy with sleep…
“Cheeks are originally soft.”
“Really? I’ve never touched other people’s cheeks so I wouldn’t know.”
Then why my cheek?
I didn’t press Cha Woodan who read the question revealed in my eyes yet pretended not to know and didn’t react. I just opened my mouth to the voice heard from my left again, and quietly received and ate the peach while rolling my eyes.
Without recognizing that I had become excessively accustomed to the twins’ skinship.
***
I furrowed my brow slightly and looked up at the two people standing before me, precisely at the student council president who had stepped forward.
“Sunbae, is your leg okay?”
Cha Woodan had switched shifts and left, so the one occupying my side now was Cha Jeoh. Though he wasn’t deliberately blocking the two people standing by the bedside, the pressure and fishy expression rising from Cha Jeoh were extraordinary. It was a momentum as if he would immediately draw his sword and swing it if things went slightly wrong.
What’s more, strictly speaking, Cha Jeoh could be called more dangerous than Cha Woodan. He possessed a combat-type ability that could immediately injure opponents, and had a disposition more emotional and impulsive than ordinary people. So from the student council president’s position, it would be burdensome, but he consistently showed an unwavering appearance with a smile throughout.
“I heard. That healer sunbae who followed Hayoung sunbae is still unconscious.”
Though it was a story everyone already knew and information that didn’t need to be hidden, hearing it through the student council president’s mouth didn’t feel very good. Even seeing me like that, he just kept grinning.
“That’s unfortunate. Currently, all the healers belonging to Hanul High also refuse to care for patients.”
My vigilance loosened at the meaninglessly dragging conversation. As Cha Jeoh also seemed to think not much different from me and twisted his lips, the student council president finally stepped aside. Then he pointed to another male student barely standing on trembling legs.
“He’s Go Siyoon, a second-year student.”
Second-year student, Go something. Naturally, it was a name I was hearing for the first time, and a face I was seeing for the first time. However, whether it was a familiar face to Cha Jeoh, he looked the male student up and down then openly clicked his tongue.
“Why did you bring this bastard here? Are you offering him up like a sacrifice? To kill him?”
The male student flinched at the self-deprecating question full of sincerity. Just as my eyes narrowed further, the student council president continued.
“Would I bring someone to be killed? Siyoon said he wanted to apologize to Hayoung sunbae.”
“Huh. Apologize.”
“Hayoung sunbae, this friend is that person. The one who mistakenly hit sunbae’s leg with an arrow.”
Ah.
I let out a soundless exclamation. But that was all—just because he was the person who left a wound on my calf didn’t mean non-existent interest or curiosity suddenly bloomed. Though I hadn’t been without suspicion before, seeing him trembling like that now, it didn’t seem like he’d deliberately aimed at me, and since the wound could be cleanly treated once Lee Gojun woke up, no ill feelings remained.
However, since my dry expression often caused misunderstandings, the male student opened and closed his mouth with an even paler complexion. Then without anyone saying anything, he bent his waist. It was close to a right angle.
“I’m, I’m sorry! I also, I also didn’t know I would mistakenly hit someone else… I absolutely never make mistakes like that, but I was so nervous then…”
“How dare you rationalize on your own after messing up someone’s leg.”
“Hi, hiiik…!”
When Cha Jeoh shot back with his edge fully sharpened, the male student trembled and stepped back. The sound bursting through those gaps sounded quite pitiful, but if I saw his face that looked like he was about to cry right away, he would definitely seem to be the victim, not me.
While I stared blankly at the male student, Cha Jeoh didn’t stop bristling.
“And if you’re going to apologize, shouldn’t you at least kneel? It’s not like you just grazed him, you stuck an arrow in someone’s leg?”
“Th, that…”
“Can’t do it? Should I shatter those knees so you’ll obediently kneel?”
The hesitating male student momentarily lost his balance and swayed. As if he’d been waiting, the student council president who reached out his arm before he fell skillfully supported him.
“You’ve apologized, so go on out now. Sunbae would have understood your feelings well.”
“Bullshit, fuck. Who said you could…”
“Siyoon-ah.”
The male student who had been alternately looking between the student council president and Cha Jeoh with unfocused, wavering eyes soon whipped around. Then he fumbled and rushed to the art room door. Watching that back and closing my eyes, another palm layer went on top of my eyes.
Soon the door opened roughly, then closed with a careful movement contrary to that. It was the noise and presence of pressing the door firmly closed for fear that a gap would form from the recoil if it was slammed shut.
‘Did he give advance notice before the student council president came here?’
Since there was no way the twins or the Lee Gojun brothers would have gone around blabbing about my ability, the culprit was most likely the student council president. And if so, then probably several students in the student council president’s vicinity also knew information about me through word of mouth.
Cha Jeoh’s hand fell away from me. When I slowly lifted my eyelids from which the warm heat had departed, I met the student council president’s black pupils still reflecting me.
