“……What good does knowing do?”
Why is he being like this? I was a bit, no, considerably flustered. I shook my head vigorously. It was to shake off that hand. But when he grabbed even harder, my jawbone stung.
“Why aren’t you saying anything, huh? Did those bastards do something?”
“‘Those bastards’……!”
No matter what, isn’t that too harsh to say about my parents and hyung? My arm bent inward in that moment. When I yelled loudly, Joel swept over my face with an ominous gaze. Then, he let go of my face as if throwing it. In that instant, with my cheek flesh pressed down, I closed my jaw and bit the inside of my mouth.
“Ah!”
I tasted blood. That, that bastard, why is he really acting like that! I glared while holding my cheek. I couldn’t figure him out at all.
“You’re only stupid to me, so don’t go around listening to that kind of talk from other bastards. If someone calls you stupid…… Yeah, blow that blockhead away.”
“The only person here who calls me stupid is you!”
It was utterly absurd. Besides my family, the only person who called me stupid was Joel. How could I blow my mom, dad, and hyung’s heads off! And my family here didn’t say such bad things to me.
“You said other bastards did too!”
Joel yelled as if asking where I got that nonsense.
“They did, but……! Not in this neighborhood! The only person in this neighborhood who calls me stupid is you!”
“I’m the only one in this neighborhood?”
“Yeah!”
I shouted toward Joel, who was raising one eyebrow. Joel’s expression, crumpled as if angry, softened for some reason.
“Right. Only listen to that from me.”
“No, I don’t want to hear it in the first place!”
“That can’t be helped. It’s not my fault that you’re stupid.”
“Ha!”
The way he crossed his arms and spoke in a deliberately stern voice was utterly absurd. No, I’m not stupid! And that’s not my fault either! It’s! Because! You! Talk! Like! Shit! I wanted to shout loudly, but the inside of my mouth, which kept bleeding, hurt. When I felt around with the tip of my tongue, the skin had come off and was slightly ragged.
“Why are you holding your cheek?”
“I bit my flesh because of you! You bastard!”
“How is that because of me? You’re treating your lifesaver so roughly. Open your mouth.”
“Ahk!”
Joel grabbed my jaw again and forced my mouth open. Even though it was inside so nothing would be visible anyway, Joel looked inside my mouth with a serious face like a dentist. After observing my mouth like that for a while, Joel suddenly asked.
“So which side is it?”
“……”
This bastard, this is ridiculous. Since I couldn’t speak with my mouth open, I pointed with the tip of my tongue to the ragged side.
“Ah, here?”
Nod nod, I bobbed my head. Joel tilted my head to the side so the affected area could be seen better, then stared intently at the inside flesh of my mouth.
“So what do you want me to do about it? You can’t even apply medicine. What, you want me to suck it?”
“Never, mind!”
Joel’s mouth seemed to be gradually getting closer, so I put strength into pushing Joel away. Joel raised his eyebrows with wrinkles between his brows somewhere.
“Why, you’re asking me to treat it. I’ll suck it well for you?”
“I didn’t ask you to treat it. And suck what! Are you a doctor? A leech?”
Smack smack, when I closed my mouth a few times, the taste of blood gradually faded. I thought if I just left it alone, it would heal on its own.
“Why didn’t you take out the piercing?”
“I told you I don’t know how to take it out.”
“Should I take it out now?”
“……Never mind.”
I absolutely hadn’t forgotten what Joel had done to me last time when he said he’d take out my tongue piercing. I clutched the bicycle handlebars and stepped back hesitantly.
“Who’s going to eat you? Huh?”
You seem like you would, more than enough. It felt like you’d open that solid jaw wide and crunch! Crunch! Chew me up starting from my head.
“Just get in the car. I don’t want to be late.”
“……”
Joel had a somehow dissatisfied face but obediently got in his car. And just when I was about to step on the pedals, he blocked the front of my bicycle with his arm and said.
“Saving your life, keep that as a debt.”
“Can’t I just buy you a few meals?”
“Would that be enough? Huh? The price of a life is so trivial. I’ll charge you interest thoroughly and collect it later! Don’t forget, stupid!”
I’m not stupid! My aggrieved protest didn’t reach Joel. Because Joel, who had both hands on the steering wheel, suddenly vrooom! Started the car hurriedly. Toward Joel, who disappeared at a speed too fast for a bicycle to even attempt to try, I held up my middle finger for a long time.
* * *
23, 18, 12, 5, 13…….
After arriving at school, I pretended to rummage through my cabinet while reading the affection levels of the kids around me. None came out high enough to satisfy the quest. How should I raise affection? I roughly compiled statistics using the results from kids in the hallway.
Girls’ affection was significantly higher than boys’, and the affection of those I’d talked to a few times was similarly higher than those I’d only exchanged greetings with. Then it meant I needed to talk frequently and become close after all……. Though there was no time limit on the quest, to succeed as quickly as possible, it was best to target the three people with the highest affection.
But really strangely, besides family, the person with the highest affection was Joel. A whopping 43. It was quite a high number, but looking at his behavior, it was an unbelievable figure.
Isn’t there an error in affection measurement?
There’s no such error! The system was made precisely! XO
I threw the question at the system inwardly and only got scolded. Joel’s affection was so unbelievable that I kept having doubts. But, what’s that? When I accessed the status window of someone I’d talked to a few times and whose face was familiar, I ended up doubting my eyes.
Affection: 『Cannot be viewed』
“Hi, July.”
“……Hi, Natalia.”
I waved my hand with a dazed face toward Natalia, who smiled brightly at me.
<Character Status Window>
◈ Name: Natalia Newton
◈ Age: 17 (11th grade)
◈ Popularity: 52%
◈ Affection: 『Cannot be viewed』
◈ Nicknames: Brown Hair, Zero Presence, Nerd, Who?, Nana-talia New-newton
◈ Special Notes: The only protagonist of ‘Pizza Saver’, has scopophobia and stage fright
“Seeing that she kissed David Evans, there must definitely be some charm I don’t know about. Looking closely, she seems pretty and has a good body!”
I asked the system inwardly again.
There’s no error in the affection stat, right?
🙁 (Don’t want to say it twice.)
But why…… can I not read Natalia’s affection only in her status window? I can see her popularity that has risen exponentially since the kiss photo with Dave broke. Is it because she’s the main protagonist? But all the other protagonists can be read well?
“July.”
“……”
Right, see. Even now like this…….
<Character Status Window>
◈ Name: David Evans
◈ Age: 16 (11th grade)
◈ Popularity: 97%
◈ Affection: 24♥
◈ Nicknames: Dave, The Only Quarterback, Bluedale’s Sweetheart, Bluedale’s Lover of All, Bluedale’s Hot Guy, Bluedale Heart Breaker
◈ Special Notes: Quarterback of Bluedale High School’s football team The Savers, protagonist of the drama ‘Pizza Saver’
“If I could kiss David just once, you can take everything I have!”
I can see Dave’s affection, one of the important protagonists.
“July?”
“Yeah, hi.”
I gave a very perfunctory smile toward Dave, who was tilting his head while wearing a football team jacket, then gathered the books I needed for class. At that obviously careless attitude, Dave slightly furrowed his brow but soon smiled again.
“July, see you later.”
Dave left after greeting me persistently, and I headed to the classroom where I had class. It was literature class. We were continuing to learn Emily Brontë’s 『Wuthering Heights』, and also…….
“Seventh, are you stalking me?”
Joel was taking this class. Last time, he sent me a note asking for 10 dollars and tormented me, so I couldn’t properly listen to the class.
I gave a forced “haha” laugh toward Joel, who was making baseless suspicions.
“Who stalks like this? And I started taking this class first, you know?”
I passed by Joel and sat in the very front seat. And I tried to ignore Joel’s pointless picking by firmly covering both ears. However, since my palms didn’t have a noise canceling function, they didn’t block out Joel’s “Puhahaha!” laughter.
Still, staying still like that, time passed before I knew it, and all the students filled their seats. The teacher, who had just come in and was about to prepare for class, went out to the hallway briefly at a knock knock! sound, then came back in with someone. It was a small boy with curly hair and skin so pale it was white.
“Now, kids. This friend transferred here. Where did you say you’re from?”
“……Texas.”
Transferring in 12th grade. Is he a military child or something? It’ll be disadvantageous when going to college, and wow his voice is really small, he must be timid—I had such thoughts.
“Right. From Texas…… what was your name?”
“……Berts.”
“What?”
“……Berts.”
When the teacher leaned his face toward him, the boy shrank his body even more. He was worse than Natalia, who was said to have scopophobia and stage fright. ……Isn’t the ‘Musical’ keyword going to activate again at this rate? Just as anxiety struck, the boy couldn’t hold back and yelled.
“Roberts! Bryan! Roberts! Bryan Roberts!”
“……”
“……”
The boy fumed, unable to control his anger, and everyone in the classroom including the teacher fell silent. For some reason, feeling a sense of déjà vu from the name, I tilted my head, then froze as is.
Bryan Roberts. In the latter half of the original drama, it was the name of the terrorist who caused the gun terror in which Joel died.
