“Sorry, I’m sorry…”
“Hey, fuck. Hm? Hey. You apologize looking someone in the eyes.”
The high schooler at the front stepped forward boldly. Kwon Woojoo, who had swallowed his breath with a pale face, stepped back two or three steps. Then he tried to raise his head and met eyes with the high schooler before him, rolling his eyes that wavered unable to find direction.
But that seemed to upset the high schooler again.
“Why are you opening your eyes like that? Feeling wronged? Dissatisfied? What exactly?”
…No. It wasn’t that he particularly upset him, he just needed a suitable target to use for venting.
I moved my steps to hurriedly intervene between them. Just as I was stepping toward the battleground, prying through the gap of students stuck close together.
A touch that was firm though not rough grabbed my wrist. Then without even giving me time to react, it lightly pulled me backward. While I stumbled back trying to balance my tilting body, he passed by me and stepped forward.
What was captured in my lukewarm vision was the back of some male student who seemed unusually tall compared to his peers. As I looked at him wearing a gym uniform jacket carelessly and staggered again, there was an arm gently wrapping around and supporting my back.
“You should be careful.”
A low voice echoed by my ear. Soon, only after confirming I was standing with strength in my two legs did he fall away from me. Then he headed there following the male student in the gym uniform jacket who had gone ahead.
To my eardrums standing blankly trying to grasp the situation that had suddenly passed by, a voice with an even fiercer tone dug in.
“This bastard, to a sunbae right now…!”
I turned my head sharply. Seeing the hand raised high to the sky that must be aimed at Kwon Woojoo, I belatedly moved my feet. But before I could even take a step, another grip that suddenly appeared snatched the high schooler’s wrist. It was a brutish force completely different from when it had grabbed and pulled my arm just before.
“Who’s whose sunbae, bastard? You’re not even from the same school.”
Gym uniform jacket. Though I still couldn’t see his face, it was him from just now.
“N-no… that is, I mean…”
The high schooler with a face paler than Kwon Woojoo’s spouted shabby excuses. At that, sounds of the gym uniform jacket guy thoroughly retorting and mocking continued, but instead of lending them my ears, I turned my head to Kwon Woojoo still frozen in that spot.
Soon just as I was about to open my mouth, thwack! A rough striking sound of hitting a person followed. I could see Kwon Woojoo, startled, blocking his own mouth.
At that, I closed my mouth briefly, then slowly raised my voice.
“Kwon Woojoo.”
Even at the low voice keeping distant, Kwon Woojoo reacted immediately. He who whipped around to look at me trembled, then showed complex emotions tangled with relief and sorrow filling his face.
“Hyung…!”
I felt the other male student who had been beside Kwon Woojoo and moved following the gym uniform jacket staring at me with a persistent gaze. But I silently stared at Kwon Woojoo without bothering to roll my eyes.
“What are you doing there? Come here.”
Kwon Woojoo ran to me through the crowd as if he’d been waiting. After quickly scanning him to check if he was injured anywhere, I turned my back without regret.
“Why are you here?”
“Well, I just had something to buy so I came to this area…”
Even while moving away from the school gate, the violent noise behind didn’t stop, and the persistent gaze following me didn’t fall away either. Ignoring all of it to the end, I led Kwon Woojoo and turned the corner of the path.
***
The sky at sunset was dyed entirely red. Lying in bed and blankly looking up outside the window, I suddenly opened my mouth.
“Lee Gojun.”
Lee Gojun, who had pulled a chair beside the bed to sit and was scribbling something in a thick notebook, raised his head sharply.
“Hm? Why? Do you need something?”
The twins did that too, and whenever I called Lee Gojun, he first brought up “Do you need something?” or “Is something uncomfortable?” It was true that I’d become accustomed to living receiving help like their attendance, but rather, the ones who’d quickly adapted and even become satisfied seemed to be them more than me.
I slowly moved my gaze. I stared blankly at Lee Gojun sitting with his back to the window.
“You said last time. That the twins cause an incident once a year without fail, and the most famous among them was the incident last autumn.”
“Ah… right. That’s right.”
“What happened?”
Lee Gojun, who had lowered his notebook onto his lap, slowly rolled his eyes. After confirming Cha Jeoh who had disappeared into the depths of the art room warehouse hadn’t returned yet, he lowered his voice and whispered.
“Cha Jeoh nearly turned one of his classmates into half a cripple. The other two beside him weren’t in good shape either.”
“……”
“At the school gate, he stepped forward to help a middle school student who was wrongly caught and suffering, then the fight grew… of course it was closer to one-sided assault rather than a fight. Both the process and the result.”
Lee Gojun crossed his arms to embrace his own body and trembled.
“…Why did he go that far?”
“I wasn’t there at that scene either so it’s not accurate, but probably he didn’t throw a punch from the start. He tried to just give a warning and let them go, but they couldn’t get their minds straight and insisted on charging again, so he didn’t leave them alone.”
Lee Gojun, who had been looking at me just blinking, added words.
“There’s another theory too. That those guys were people who’d been on the twins’ bad side usually, so the twins used that day’s incident as justification for revenge.”
“……”
“Because the twins aren’t the dispositions to suddenly intervene with a sense of justice to save one student they don’t even know.”
At least to me, one year was a vaguely lengthy time. That’s why memories and scenes from autumn, that day at the time, had long since faded to the point where it was hard to recall them in detail.
So even when I first met the twins in the art room and lived together afterward, I hadn’t recalled that day. No, even if I had recalled it, I probably wouldn’t have connected the two male students from that time with the twins by my side.
‘But they were the same people.’
Cha Woodan had used the expression stalker to me this afternoon.
‘…Did I encounter the twins again after that day?’
Those two people whose faces I couldn’t even see, it seems like I paid particular attention to them.
“Why are the two of you sticking so close together?”
The low voice that suddenly interjected was no less than that of any horror movie. Lee Gojun, who couldn’t even scream, belatedly let out his blocked breath. Then he straightened up his waist that had been leaning toward me to whisper softly.
“No, just, we were discussing something important…”
Perhaps that cool voice had quite startled his heart, as Lee Gojun nervously gauged Cha Jeoh’s mood after a long time.
Cha Jeoh, who had been looking at Lee Gojun irritably, turned his gaze full of warmth as if asking ‘when was that’ and reflected me. Watching him carefully sit perched on the bedside, I raised my body that had been lying down, struggling.
“Do you have something worth discussing with him?”
Behind Cha Jeoh, I could see Lee Gojun desperately nodding his head. His head shaking up and down ceaselessly looked like it might just fall off if things went slightly wrong.
“…Yeah. A little.”
“What kind? Can’t you discuss it with Cha Woodan or me?”
I could see Cha Jeoh’s eyes drooping. It was exactly like a puppy that had lost its food. After appreciating him briefly, I opened my mouth.
“No. Thinking about it, it’s a problem I can discuss with you guys, so I was about to send Lee Gojun back now.”
“Ah, oh! I should go. I should go quickly.”
Lee Gojun, who had gathered his notebook and pen, rose fumbling.
“Hayoung-ah, I’ll come back later for evening worship.”
“What evening worship…”
Before Cha Jeoh’s words could finish, Lee Gojun who had turned his back moved his steps busily. As familiar hands covered my eyes, the noise of the door opening and closing followed softly.
Soon Cha Jeoh, who had removed his hands from me, muttered discontentedly.
“If I’d known this would happen, I should have founded the Church of Hayoung.”
I turned to look at Cha Jeoh, wondering what he was suddenly talking about.
“Why all of a sudden?”
“Because you seem to quite like the Church of Hayoung.”
“…Me?”
When exactly?
“You pushed that guy away and bounced him several times then moderately accepted him again. It’s not like you’re playing with people.”
…Really when?
“Rather, even now if I…”
Not knowing what bizarre words he might add this time, I suddenly grabbed Cha Jeoh’s collar. He who was about to speak closed his mouth and moved his gaze to me. After meeting eyes with him briefly, I awkwardly uttered a sentence I’d almost never used in my life.
“I’m hungry.”
Cha Jeoh opened his two eyes wide, then soon held a smile.
“Right, sorry. I brought something for you to eat then forgot about it.”
He who responded picked out a tuna can among what he’d brought from the warehouse. Then as if pleased, he opened the can lid with unhesitating hands and gripped metal chopsticks.
“Our Hayoung can’t be hungry.”
“…I’ve always been curious, but what does it feel like for you guys to feed me and take care of me like this? Does it feel like raising a Tamagotchi?”
“No. Completely different.”
Cha Jeoh gave an answer without a moment’s consideration.
“Just… I’m happy. I don’t know about Cha Woodan, but I am.”
Soon Cha Jeoh moved the chopsticks and picked up a chopstick-full of plain tuna. Soon supporting the canned food as a saucer, he held out the chopsticks toward my mouth.
Opening my mouth belatedly, I silently received it.
