Jung Woojin’s eyes became wet in an instant and suddenly tears began to drip down. The flustered kids patted Woojin, but the tears didn’t stop.
“Hey, why are you crying!”
“I really didn’t know… What should I do? What if Chiwon cries?”
The gymnasium was in chaos. Woojin was crying, and the kids who had been flustered and troubled floundered around not knowing what to do. That’s when I remembered what Grandfather had said.
He said that if you treat someone sincerely, they’ll understand. I jumped up from my seat.
“Wh-where are you going?”
“I’ll bring Chiwon back.”
Junsu looked at me with a bewildered face. I could see him thinking that the kid who couldn’t even talk to him had suddenly changed. But since that wasn’t what was important right now, I strode over and threw open the gymnasium door.
If you went toward the corner of the schoolyard, there was a water tap. Since he’d said he was washing his hands, I vaguely thought Chiwon would be there and moved my feet. He could have avoided the situation with the excuse of washing his hands and gone somewhere else, but at that time I was too flustered to think of that. And fortunately, Chiwon really was washing his hands at the water tap.
Chiwon’s back looked especially dispirited. Occasionally it seemed to heave as if sighing. What should I say as my first words? It was good that I’d boldly followed him out, but the problem was I hadn’t thought about what came next. Standing about five steps away from Chiwon, I hesitated while choosing my words. But before I could even speak, Chiwon turned off the tap and turned around.
“Kyaa!”
His eyes went round as if quite startled. I was just as surprised, but I apologized first. It was my fault for standing there silently.
“Ah… sorry for startling you.”
“…No, it’s okay…”
Chiwon, who had blinked a few times, lowered his shoulders that he’d straightened in surprise, still with a bewildered face. Silence immediately fell between us. Chiwon just kept blankly staring at my face. Unable to endure the awkwardness, I immediately got to the main point.
“I didn’t ask with bad intentions toward you.”
“Huh?”
Water droplets were dripping from Chiwon’s fingertips. It was still chilly, so if he left them like that, his hands would freeze. I suppressed the impulse to wipe those hands and continued speaking.
“To be precise, they were probably trying to tease me. Since my name is Eorin, talking about that and then. So it wasn’t with bad intentions.”
Jung Woojin and the other kids weren’t the type to deliberately put someone in a difficult situation with malice. We’d only spent a few weeks together, but I could still tell that much.
“I’m sorry.”
Even so, just because there was no malice didn’t mean he wouldn’t be hurt. I apologized while observing Chiwon’s face. But Chiwon rather lowered his head and his eyes reddened. While I couldn’t continue speaking in my confusion, Chiwon opened his mouth.
“I know.”
“Huh?”
“I know it wasn’t with bad intentions. Woo, Woojin, Jung Woojin probably didn’t know. …I’m sorry.”
Chiwon’s face, apologizing instead, grew increasingly red. I thought that maybe Chiwon’s eyes reddening might not be from crying. Just like some people’s ears turn red first when embarrassed or flustered, or their necks redden, maybe Chiwon’s eye area was like that.
But why was Chiwon apologizing? Chiwon hadn’t done anything wrong at all.
“Can I ask what you’re sorry about?”
“I don’t have friends my age at the orphanage or school, so… I don’t really know how to talk comfortably about those things. I’m not good with words either… If I had spoken well, it would have been okay. The atmosphere got weird because of me… Ah, and I didn’t consider your feelings. It must have been an uncomfortable topic for you too, I’m sorry.”
With a face like he’d bitten his tongue, Chiwon continued speaking haltingly. I realized I had to completely overturn everything I’d been thinking about Chiwon. Chiwon was a completely different kid from my imagination, to the extent that I couldn’t dismiss it as just thinking he was cuter than I’d thought. Only then did I understand why Chiwon was apologizing. And at that very moment, I almost laughed, so I covered my face and muttered.
“What. So that’s why you had that expression. That was an apologetic face. I see.”
Though Chiwon was silent, he was actually just clumsy, and he was a kid who liked hanging out with others enough to break into a big smile at the suggestion to play basketball next time. As expected, that day hadn’t been a lie. Chiwon was a tremendously kind person, and honest too. Just like that clumsy but lovely tree scent. I wanted to boast to Junsu right away. See, Chiwon is a good kid, right? But afraid Chiwon would misunderstand if he saw my laughter, I firmly suppressed it.
Still, the happy emotion wasn’t easily erased. In the end, I extended my hand to Chiwon with a face where the remnants of laughter remained. Chiwon was standing there blankly looking at me, as if it was strange that I was laughing at his apology. Ah, this won’t do. I smiled brightly. I really liked Chiwon.
“Let’s go. The kids wanted to apologize.”
I held Chiwon’s hand and returned to the gymnasium. It was half on purpose. Hoping his coldly chilled hand would warm up even a little. At my leading hand, Chiwon followed along behind without a word.
When I opened the gymnasium door, the kids came rushing over in a swarm, surrounding Chiwon and wailing. Thinking they should have time to apologize, I watched quietly, but as Chiwon’s eyes gradually reddened, I pushed the kids back. Then only the sobbing Jung Woojin remained in front of Chiwon. Chiwon, who seemed surprised by Woojin’s apology with his bright red nose sniffling and crying, soon began to console Woojin. And he looked quite skilled at it.
Don’t cry, okay? Chiwon’s face smiling as he said that had a different expression from what I’d seen until now. It was exactly like an older brother looking at a troublemaking younger sibling. I then recalled that Chiwon had very many younger siblings. A handkerchief with a teddy bear pattern even came out of Chiwon’s pocket, and seeing that, several kids blinked and looked at Chiwon. Certainly, kids who carried handkerchiefs around were very rare.
As Chiwon gently consoled him, Woojin, who had been crying even louder, must have found that insufficient, because he suddenly pulled Chiwon into a hug and started sobbing. As I was watching that quietly, Junsu, who had been observing my expression from the side, suddenly grinned and then conspicuously ran over there, hugging both Chiwon and Woojin at once and pretending to cry. Then the other kids also attached themselves one by one and hugged Chiwon.
To be honest, I was thinking they were a bit petty. While I was being so careful about even talking to him, it felt unfair that those guys were hugging him without hesitation. Watching Chiwon smiling while buried among the kids, I calmed down the commotion. Fortunately, the class bell rang just then.
“What did you talk about with Chiwon?”
“…Who knows.”
While heading to the school store, Junsu slyly asked me. But I didn’t really want to tell him. Though I was a little sulky from what happened earlier, more than that, I wanted to keep what happened with Chiwon between just the two of us. Even when Junsu grumbled that I was petty, I firmly pretended not to know.
“Kim Eorin is really stingy…”
“Just buy a steamed bun, quickly.”
When I pushed Junsu’s back, grumbling but still, Junsu bought two steamed buns and held one out to me. When I glanced inside the store, Woojin was buying strawberry milk for Chiwon.
“Aren’t you going to go talk to him?”
“Mm. I don’t think now is the right time…”
Chiwon had said earlier that he had no friends. And if right now was the moment Chiwon was becoming friends with Woojin, I didn’t want to interfere. But thinking about it that way, couldn’t what happened earlier at the water tap also be called the moment Chiwon and I became friends? I held a childish question.
It was the first time I’d ever been this obsessed with a relationship with someone. Unlike when dealing with other kids, when it came to Chiwon, I was concerned about everything from start to finish. How Chiwon would think, how Chiwon would take it, how I would look in Chiwon’s eyes. That was also why I became careful when dealing with Chiwon. But even if that was the case for me, it seemed the other kids also weakened the same way toward Chiwon. Though it was nothing much, they carefully called his name rather than just saying “hey, hey,” or they didn’t use language mixed with profanity with Chiwon. I could understand it for myself since I had various background connections with Chiwon, but why were the other kids like that?
“Um, Kim Eo- Eorin-ah.”
“Huh?”
While going back and forth with Junsu exchanging meaningless words, I heard a voice calling my name from the side. Realizing it was Chiwon’s voice, I turned around in surprise to see Chiwon looking at me with a steamed bun and strawberry milk in both hands.
“Ah, um, sorry if I startled you.”
“Oh, no…”
I shook my head with a bewildered face. It was the first time Chiwon had spoken to me first.
“Earlier at the water tap… thank you.”
As if that was his business, after saying that much, Chiwon smiled slightly. Having no immunity to such sincere expressions of gratitude, I couldn’t continue speaking and shook my head. Still, because I wanted to talk more with Chiwon, I changed the subject.
“Your steamed bun will get cold, Chiwon-ah. Aren’t you going to eat it?”
This was the first time I’d called Chiwon’s name while looking into his eyes. Chiwon didn’t seem to particularly care, but rather I was relieved. Because he didn’t seem to dislike me being friendly.
“Ah, I was going to eat it in the classroom.”
“If you do that, it’ll all get stolen. You have to eat these right away. Those guys are all beasts. They don’t miss opportunities, you know?”
Then Junsu very skillfully jumped in. Naturally joining the conversation was Junsu’s amazing point. While I was inwardly sticking out my tongue, Chiwon, who had been looking down at the steamed bun after hearing Junsu’s words, took a big bite of the bun.
“…”
It was funny that he quickly ate it at the mention of it being stolen by beasts, but Chiwon’s face, having bitten into the steamed bun, puffed up rosily. It was exactly the kind of face that said, “I’m happy eating a warm, delicious steamed bun.” Looking at his plump cheeks, we tried hard to hold back our laughter, but Junsu ultimately failed. Watching Junsu laugh loudly, Chiwon made a puzzled expression. Junsu suppressed his laughter with chuckles and continued with various stories.
