It was Liam’s cheerful comment that announced the start of round two. Touch football was something we promised to do together before coming here, so this time I participated in the activity without skipping out.
But as if they were too stupid to even remember how touch football is played, Blair and Hazel kept tackling. Especially a lot to me, Liam, and Virgil, excluding the girls. The funny part here is that they didn’t tackle Nathan much, probably because if they got physical with him, they’d likely get crushed instead.
“You guys are really pathetic.”
Leda, who couldn’t stand it anymore, shot a comment at Blair and Hazel, and the touch football game, which had zero fun, ended. Liam approached the battered Virgil and apologized for making him suffer by making a needless suggestion. Virgil said it was okay and immediately went to find Alice and started whispering something with her. Then he went straight near Sophia and started putting on a painful act, an awkward performance.
“Ah, ah, ow ow, it hurts……”
“……”
Sophia, who had just been quietly watching Virgil, who was obviously acting, asked about his well-being as soon as she made eye contact with Liam.
“Are you okay?”
“No, think about it. A weak guy like me got hit by football players, how could I be fine?”
“That’s true but…… Anyway, can you get up?”
“Ah, no.”
Sophia held the hand of the exaggerating Virgil and helped him up, then glanced at Liam again and headed toward Leda’s beach house with Virgil. Then Leda also said she’d be bored without Sophia and followed her. There were two people whose expressions crumpled watching this scene—Olivia and Alice.
I understand why Olivia, who usually ignored Sophia and wanted to get close to Leda, wouldn’t welcome this situation. But why is Alice like that? While I was wondering, Alice herself came and told me.
“Honestly, I’m sad. It’s not that Leda didn’t try to reconcile me and Sophia, but she kept taking her side until the end, and like now, I’m the only one left out of the group.”
That doesn’t mean the friends she’s hanging out with now are inferior to Leda or Sophia at all, Alice added. And she said Liam Blake, the number one factor in her and Sophia’s split, was the worst guy of all.
“Me?”
When Liam, who was nearby, asked in surprise, Alice made a fierce expression at him and shouted like this.
“Yeah, you bastard! I’m finally saying it now. You drove a wedge between me and Sophia! With those damn DMs. Hey, did you think I didn’t see you hitting on Sophia behind my back?”
“……Ah.”
At Alice’s interrogation, Liam didn’t strongly affirm or deny, just made a short “Ah” sound. Then he spoke to Alice with an expression as if dealing with something quite annoying.
“You really are bothersome.”
“What?”
“Annoying.”
As soon as Liam finished speaking, Alice strode up to him and violently slapped him across the face. At the sharp smack, everyone’s attention focused on Liam and Alice, but only Liam stood tall facing Alice without being shaken, making eye contact with her. Intimidated by that appearance, Alice made a tearful face then ran to my side. I looked back and forth between the two and asked if it was okay, could either of them please explain the situation.
“Cheick, you can’t hang out with Liam Blake. He’s just a devil who uses people’s hearts while pretending to be all sorts of things.”
Alice said that and claimed both she and Sophia were victims deceived by Liam. At this, Liam sighed deeply and asked me if we could talk for a moment. Then Alice pulled my arm tightly as if she wouldn’t let me go, and discovering this, Liam glared at her with cold eyes.
“Let go.”
When Liam grabbed my opposite arm and spoke, Alice gripped my arm even tighter.
“What right do you have to tell me to let go or not? I have the right to tell the kids about you. I won’t feel satisfied unless I expose all of your sordid true face here!”
“……I don’t really understand what you guys are talking about.”
At the words I barely managed to get out after watching their reactions, Alice asked me to listen to her story first.
“Okay. But I’ll listen to Liam’s story too. Is that okay?”
“That’s for you to decide.”
Alice spoke curtly as if tossing it out with dissatisfaction, then brought up the incident when she stood up for Liam and her when the cheerleader girls were gossiping about Olivia and Liam’s relationship.
“On the day that happened, he came to me and said this. Not to care about whatever was said about him. Really making a person feel embarrassed.”
“Ah…… I didn’t do well that day either, but it’s also true that you were excessively meddlesome.”
When Liam said to Alice, Alice let out an empty laugh, “Huh.”
“Did I do it with bad intentions? I just thought of you as a friend, so I wanted to defend you.”
“Whatever your intentions, I was uncomfortable……”
While listening to the two of them bicker, I traced back the memory of that day. That day, Liam didn’t want to get involved with the kids fighting about him. But after hearing a certain ‘story’ from me, he went to Alice and these kids, said something, and came back. The words ‘do it your way.’ After hearing exactly those words.
Right, is this Liam’s way? That day I saw Liam return very calmly and naturally thought he must have resolved things well. Even though she was meddlesome, to rebuke Alice and be so nonchalant about it…….
“……What about the DM story you exchanged with Sophia?”
“I’ll do that when Sophia is present too. So let’s move.”
Alice grabbed my arm and headed toward where Sophia and Virgil were. Liam followed beside us and tried to make eye contact with me, but I deliberately avoided his gaze.
Alice, who returned to Leda’s beach house, claimed that on the day of the incident, Liam sent her an insincere two-line apology DM and then ‘hit on’ Sophia in some way.
“He completely brushed me off with two lines of DM and pushed the annoying work onto Sophia. Whether he wanted to make up with me for real by moving her, or whether he knew what kind of people me and her were and wanted us to fight each other, I really—really don’t know…… But probably the latter, right?”
Alice said if Liam really wanted to make up with her, he would have come to see her in person a hundred times over.
“The DM content was so clever, right? Pretending to be kind, pitiful, innocent, desperately wanting to reconcile with me…… He made all sorts of appeals to Sophia, but when you interpret the content, it’s exactly this: ‘Won’t you fight that bitch Alice Miller for me?’ Right? Am I wrong?”
At Alice’s words, Sophia, whose complexion turned pale, asked Alice how she read the DMs she exchanged with Liam.
“How did I read them? I read them in that stupid diary you’re still keeping even after getting humiliated by Olivia Torin! I don’t know how you thought to even print it out and paste it in. But how could I not read it? Hey, you should come to your senses with this opportunity too. Liam Blake isn’t that amazing person you think he is! No more, no less, he’s just human trash!”
“No, that’s enough…… Alice, you’re the worst too.”
With both fists clenched tight and trembling, Sophia said to Alice.
“I never said you could read that diary. Plus, you know what happened to me before, and you’re doing the same thing, humiliating me in front of everyone……”
“I’m not trying to humiliate you! I just came forward because I have something to expose about Liam Blake.”
“I don’t care about that anymore! I’m just angry at you. I believed we were friends, so how could you do this?”
Sophia asked Alice in a tearful voice, then ran outside. At this, Leda immediately ran after Sophia.
Perhaps bewildered that Sophia was more angry about what she did than what Liam did, Alice watched where Sophia had left for a while, then sat down with a thud as if her legs had given out. At this, her friends helped her up, then all left somewhere together.
“Ugh…… What’s with this mess? Whatever, I should just drink.”
Hazel, who seemed completely uninterested in what had been happening, said while taking out some alcohol from the refrigerator. Olivia just sipped alcohol following him, and didn’t seem to have any intention of taking any other action. At this, Blair tried to ask the two for alcohol, then suddenly muttered to herself as if something occurred to her and headed upstairs to a room.
“I came to have fun and what is this bolt from the blue……”
With Blair’s muttering as the end, only silence lingered in the living room. Now it was my turn to listen to Liam’s story, but somehow I didn’t have the confidence to listen. So when I was just killing time without hastily putting anything into action, Virgil tapped me and asked if we could talk alone. When I hesitated about what to do, Liam readily left the room, saying to talk with Virgil first.
“Hey, Cheick.”
Unlike Liam, who calls me by a nickname when we’re alone, Virgil only calls me by a nickname on very special occasions. I nodded lightly to show I was listening, and Virgil confided that his heart was too confused right now.
“I actually think this way. There aren’t only very good people in the world, and conversely there aren’t only bad people, and usually the most people are gathered in between.”
“……I think so too.”
“Liam’s like that too. A few days ago when he first said he’d go to Comic-Con with me, I don’t know how grateful I was. But now that this happened, my head just thinks this guy also has good parts and bad parts and this time the bad parts were revealed…… But when I think he played around with Sophia’s goodwill, I’m too resentful. How about you?”
At Virgil’s words, I conveyed that I was thinking very similarly to him right now. Right, like most people, Liam would also have good points and bad points. However, that ‘bad point,’ well I have to hear Liam’s explanation first to know, but as I feel it right now, it approaches too terribly. The part where he can act nonchalant even after embarrassing others, or the part where he uses someone’s goodwill. That’s too…….
“The person having the hardest time right now must be Sophia, but I can’t be by her side even at a moment like this.”
Virgil muttered while looking at the floor in a self-blaming voice.
“No. Sophia might need you right now.”
“Is, is that so?”
