“Oh! It’s Becca Gray and Bruno Brooks. See that football team jacket?”
“Yeah. I see it. But doesn’t Bruno have a girlfriend?”
“That’s why it’s such a big deal!”
Mia and Abigail started making a fuss, even clapping their hands with high-pitched voices. Even though they were whispering, their voices were a bit loud because they were excited.
Bruno Brooks was an 11th grader on the football team, a big guy who looked kind of like a gorilla. But he had an extremely pretty girlfriend, so they were famous as a beauty and the beast couple. That girlfriend was Hannah Powell, Harper’s childhood friend, and one of the kids who had greeted me.
“Hey, he’s coming!”
“Shh, shh!”
Abigail suddenly made a fuss while looking behind my back. Mia covered her friend’s mouth and read the mood, and I also shifted my gaze to where they were looking.
“Ah.”
Bruno Brooks, wearing a large football team jacket befitting his huge build, was entering the hallway. He seemed not to know about the misfortune that had befallen him yet, as his expression was bright. He didn’t seem to notice that everyone in the hallway was watching him either.
“Good morning!”
“Uh, huh? Good morning!”
Bruno greeted someone. The other person seemed a bit flustered, smiled awkwardly, then discovered something and opened their eyes wide.
“Whoa, look…… Hannah’s coming.”
A small voice of unknown origin spread out. Bruno also noticed that his beautiful girlfriend, Hannah Powell, had arrived and smiled brightly.
“Babe!”
“……”
Hannah Powell was approaching Bruno with a determined face, her heels clicking. All the kids subtly cleared the way, so it looked like she was walking on a runway made just for her. Even though she was already quite tall, she was wearing high heels with quite a high heel, so her eye level looked about the same as mine.
“She looks especially pretty today……”
Mia muttered. It was true. She was always a beauty, but today it seemed like she’d really put effort into getting dressed up. A sweet perfume scent came from her as she passed in front of me.
“Babe. I missed you so much last night I thought I’d die.”
Ugh. Bruno said something cheesy while caressing Hannah’s well-styled hair.
“Get your dirty hands off me!”
Smack! Hannah swatted Bruno’s hand away. Hannah’s long nails with sparkling gems scratched Bruno’s palm. Ugh, that must hurt. Drip, drip, blood flowed from Bruno’s hand.
“Ow! That hurts! What the hell is going on!”
Not even embarrassed by that King Kong-like build, Bruno whined while holding his injured wrist. Hannah twisted her lips.
“It hurts? That hurts?”
“Of course it hurts! Look, it’s bleeding! Will you treat it?”
“Fuck off!”
“Ugh!”
THWACK! That was the sound Hannah’s hand made as it swung across Bruno’s cheek. Not a sharp ‘smack!’ but a dull ‘thwack!’. Bruno’s head turned to the side, and of course a bright red handprint appeared on his cheek.
“You dare to cheat? I dated you solely because you were kind despite being ugly, and you dare?”
“Wait, wait! Cheat? What are you talking about!”
Thwack, thwack, thwack! Hannah started diligently hitting her boyfriend—no, ex-boyfriend—with what looked like a hard handbag. Bruno shouted while crumpling his large build. He clearly had something to feel guilty about, but his skill at playing dumb was excellent.
“You! And that bitch Becca! Kissing! It’s all over Stargram!”
“What? Stargram?”
“Yeah! Bluedale Saver!”
Hannah, who had been diligently beating Bruno, bowed her head deeply. Is she crying? ……No. Her face when she suddenly lifted her head was just dry. It must have been because she didn’t want to show her face all scrunched up like a demon and flushed red.
“Of all people, me, Hannah Powell’s boyfriend is cheating? My boyfriend? I’m so embarrassed because of you I could die! I can’t come to school anymore!”
Following her high-pitched voice, click! Click! Click! Loud shoe sounds echoed through the hallway. Hannah walked diligently in the opposite direction from Bruno.
“Move!”
“Ugh!”
She even smacked the shoulder of a guy standing there dazedly—thwack! That skinny-as-paper guy staggered and fell with a thud!
“Bluedale Saver! Fuck, what even is that!”
Bruno, who shouted like King Kong, frantically tapped at his phone, which looked just like a toy when held in those hands. And when he finally confirmed that photo, he looked around with deeply furrowed eyes.
“Fuck, who is this. Huh? Who is it!”
Everyone avoided his gaze and buried their heads in their lockers. And after that incident, Bluedale Saver’s followers increased sixfold. That number was more than the total number of students at Bluedale High School.
* * *
Bluedale Saver. I definitely hadn’t heard any related information from the System. When I asked if it knew anything,
*IDK :(*
was the answer I got. What is it? Who’s running it? I also followed that account and looked at the posts diligently. Besides Bruno and Hannah, photos of other kids were posted too. Various kinds. A photo of some girl famous for her slim figure vomiting, and a photo of some guy famous for being rich stealing items from a store.
All the posts had comments like these:
*Bruno Brooks cheated with Becca Gray.*
*Elina Washington’s model-like body is thanks to anorexia.*
*Benjamin Ford suffers from kleptomania. His parents spend over $50,000 on hush money alone.*
“System, do you know this information too?”
*Of course! XD The System is smart!*
“Then are you running this?”
*NO! The System doesn’t do stalker stuff like that!*
“Then what is it……”
An account that reveals the secrets of school kids in detail, even things the System doesn’t know. It was suspicious.
“What are you looking at?”
“Oh, just something……”
I smiled and shook my head at Dave as he got in the car. I had gotten in his car first with the key Dave gave me and was waiting.
“Dave, do you know about Bluedale Saver?”
“That creepy stalker? I didn’t follow it because it’s gross. Did you?”
Dave, who was fastening his seatbelt, scrunched up his face. It is creepy and stalkerish.
“……Of course I didn’t!”
But as long as I needed to know everything happening at school in detail, I had no choice but to follow it.
“But you’re not busy today?”
“Nope, not busy. I have plenty of time to give you.”
Dave, holding the steering wheel, smiled brightly. It was a sunny and clear smile. ……That young punk is really teasing his hyung. I’m the same for falling for it. Since I decided to try liking him, I’d been falling without brakes.
“But where are we going?”
“Do you like water?”
“Water?”
I tilted my head at the sudden question. Dave laughed and tapped my cheek lightly.
The place Dave brought me to was an indoor swimming pool. The lights were off so it was dim, perhaps because it wasn’t in operation, and there wasn’t a single person inside. Thinking it might be trespassing, I lowered my voice and whispered.
“Is it okay to just come in here?”
“Yeah. This place is run by my dad’s friend. I come here often when there’s no one around. It’s quiet and nice.”
Ah, then that’s a relief. I thought we were doing something bad again.
“Why a swimming pool? Do you like swimming?”
I knelt down and splashed water toward Dave. Dave went “Ugh!” and scrunched up his face for a moment, but soon smiled broadly.
“Yeah, I like it.”
That fresh face was too sunny and clear. Feeling like my face would turn red, I dropped my head down and mumbled.
“But I don’t have a swimsuit.”
“I don’t either.”
“Then how are we going to swim?”
“We just do it.”
Dave shrugged his shoulders, then without hesitation threw off his top. I was startled and averted my eyes. I heard giggling sounds.
“Why are you acting like someone who’s never seen a man’s body before?”
“Because you suddenly took it off, I was surprised……!”
“Then should I warn you before taking it off? July, this time I’m going to take off my pants. Don’t be surprised. I warned you?”
“……”
He’s annoying. But he really wasn’t hateful. I heard rustling sounds of him taking off his clothes next to me. Come to think of it, American kids really swam well in just their underwear. Was it because they grew up in neighborhoods with swimming pools at home? As a Korean, I still felt reluctant to enter a swimming pool without a swimsuit.
“Whoa!”
I heard a splash sound and water splashed all toward me. I glared at Dave with my clothes and hair soaking wet. Dave giggled.
“Not coming in?”
“Just you go in!”
“Your clothes are already wet. How about coming in?”
“I don’t want to.”
I stubbornly refused for no reason, rolled up my pant legs, took off my socks, and kicked my feet. Cool water came between my toes and wetted my feet. Dave swam cutting through the water with quite impressive skill. Dave, playing in the water without even goggles or anything, looked free.
Meanwhile, I tapped the water surface with my heels—thump, thump! Thump, thump! Doing this like a child made me feel like a kid. Come to think of it, the last time I went to a swimming pool was when I was in elementary school. The elementary school I attended had a swimming pool, so I learned survival swimming. After that, I had no reason to go to a swimming pool. I’d never even seen a water park. The only exercise I did to build stamina for studying was running.
“July, your feet are white.”
Dave, who had gone back and forth across the pool several times without getting tired, waved at me from far away. I waved back too, and Dave’s hand approached me and carefully wrapped around my foot.
