Chapter 151
Chapter 151
Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 151
Chapter Title: I'll Prove It
"I know you and the transfer student are hitting it off."
"……."
"I'm not oblivious. I know I'm the one who forced my way in... or actually, that I couldn't even do that."
"……."
"But I still stuck around pretending not to know. Acting like I didn't notice anything... like I didn't get what you meant by not crossing the line."
"……."
"My pride doesn't matter."
Behind Seo Jae-kyeom as he said that, the swan lights twinkled.
His hair dyed red by the light, the dark night sky, and faintly leaking from afar, someone's singing voice.
Can't sing a song that's already ended...
If I'd seen Seo Jae-kyeom's tears at some point in the past, I might have cried along with him... but now, it just felt regrettable.
Seo Jae-kyeom was too late.
Why didn't you say it eleven years earlier?
"You."
I said, avoiding Seo Jae-kyeom's gaze.
"In just a few months, you'll look back on today as the biggest black mark in your life."
"……."
"You originally liked Ji-su, right? If you came to like me this much in a few months... then conversely, you could hate me just as much in a few months."
"……."
"Baek Eun-ju, Yang Da-jeong, Kim Hae-in... you don't even know what those girls are up to now. Isn't staying friends better than ending up like that?"
As I spoke persuasively, Seo Jae-kyeom followed right up.
"Then what if I just like you until I graduate?"
"...Seo Jae-kyeom."
"I get it. It's natural for you to think that way. I understand. So let me prove it."
"Seo Jae-kyeom."
"Just give me one chance, okay?"
-No matter how much you say you love me, can that heart from back then really come back just because you call it...
"...Sorry."
I looked up at Seo Jae-kyeom.
"I'm not interested anymore, Jae-kyeom."
Whether your feelings are real or not, whether they last years or end tomorrow, whether you prove it or not...
"I don't care."
Searching the internet a week before the school trip for Truth Game tips to glimpse even a piece of your true feelings, spending the whole 2-night 3-day trip anxiously trying to pry something out while watching your every move.
'Do you like anyone?', 'Who's the one you like most in our class?', 'If you had to date one person from our class?'
No, actually...
'What do you think of me?', 'Do you still feel the same as in March when you rejected my confession?', 'What am I to you?'
Ji-su gets to, but I don't?
Even a fleeting whim is fine, even a few days is enough. If your feelings for me changed even a little during that time,
...can't you like me?
That Kang Da-hye is gone now.
"Seo Jae-kyeom. I'm not curious about your feelings anymore."
"……."
"I told you not to cross the line. That we can't even be friends."
-Seems like it has to be you, isn't it pathetic saying that? Then what about me...
"……."
"……."
-Can't sing a song that's already ended...
Even to my own ears, my words sounded cold.
Especially to Seo Jae-kyeom, who had been quietly shedding tears without a single sob since earlier—it felt overly harsh.
But Seo Jae-kyeom...
Still crying silently, Seo Jae-kyeom said.
"Still, I'll prove it."
"……."
"I won't ask you to watch me do it. ...I don't even deserve that."
"……."
"I'll prove it on my own. Then someday, if your heart happens to turn and you glance back... I'll be there."
"……."
"For as long as you liked me, even longer... I'll like you."
"...I've liked you for over six years?"
"Doesn't matter."
Seo Jae-kyeom wiped his cheek with his palm and lifted the corner of his mouth.
It wasn't his usual relaxed smile. It was a total mess. Even more so with his face wet.
But somehow, Seo Jae-kyeom smiled.
As if relieved after spilling it all out.
Seeing that smile, a sudden thought struck me.
'...I didn't know everything about Seo Jae-kyeom after all.'
I believed Ga-eun, Eun-ji, even Seo Jae-kyeom's mom, and Jang Ji-won too could change.
Why did I draw a line only with Seo Jae-kyeom, thinking 'you'll always be the same'?
Seo Jae-kyeom had changed.
He wasn't the Seo Jae-kyeom I knew before regression anymore.
I had to admit that.
...Separate from the fact that I no longer liked Seo Jae-kyeom.
-Waaaaah!
-Waaaaaaaah!
-Yes! I heard it great~ So my score is!
The song ended.
Once a song ends, it leaves the stage, and a new one begins.
No one knows what it will be.
Seo Jae-kyeom nodded toward my chin.
"Kang Da-hye. Your phone's ringing."
"...Oh."
In a dazed mood, I held the phone to my ear.
-Kang Da-hye?
It was Fake Su-hwan.
"Where are you guys?!"
-Us? We're just hanging out in the room right now. What? That guy again? Got it, I'll go room to room... Ah, do you know? Have you seen her?
"She hasn't shown up. Her friend said she saw her."
I hung up and said to Seo Jae-kyeom.
Glancing over, Teacher Ggok-gok had given up and gone inside too.
We practically ran into the annex, heading to the floor where I'd met Fake Su-hwan yesterday. Park Su-hwan, waiting at the stairs, raised his hand.
"Where's Jang Ji-won?"
"That's..."
"Why?"
"It's another class's girls' room, and when I knocked, they wouldn't open..."
"So what do we do?"
"We can get in through our class's girls' room balcony."
"……."
"……."
Jang Ji-won
The troubles she's caused me so far...
Are truly countless.
☆Don't try this at home★
☆Not a joke★
"Aaaah! Let go!"
"Let go of what! You crazy bitch!"
The girls' room beyond the balcony was a sight to behold.
A group of girls grabbing Jang Ji-won's hair, shaking it, kicking her... Next to Jang Ji-won getting thoroughly beaten, three or four guys stood with arms crossed, snickering.
"Girls are scary~"
"Whoa, epic. Nice kick."
And such.
They were so immersed, they didn't even notice the three of us climbing over the balcony.
"Someone's boyfriend..."
'Figures.'
The guy from Ggok-gok's group that hung out with Jang Ji-won must be that girl's boyfriend. He got caught sneaking around with a girl from another school behind his girlfriend's back.
Then they should team up and beat the guy—what's this...?
"Stop! Stop it!"
I shoved the girls holding Jang Ji-won's hair. Not expecting reinforcements, they tumbled over.
I grabbed Jang Ji-won and pulled her up.
Her hair half-ripped out, nose bleeding, nail marks on her neck... total mess.
"Kang... Da-hye?"
"What. Mad that a girl came to save you?"
For you, there's even Seo Jae-kyeom here. I nodded toward him.
"Who's 'someone's boyfriend'?"
"Huh?"
"Who was the guy you were messing around with? Tell me quick."
"That... that guy's..."
The one slumped in the corner over there?
"Got it?"
Thwack! I threw a punch. Confirmed he slammed into the wall, then...
"What are you doing? Run!"
No, not toward the balcony!
"Hweeeeng... I'm never dating again... Men are all trash... They don't appreciate kindness and betray you instead..."
"Yeah. Please. Ple~ase do."
Honestly, Jang Ji-won, your personality is trash?
That trash personality stands out when you date.
=Can pretend to be normal if not dating.
Quit dating and live like a normal person! Seriously consider spy as a career goal!
Patting Jang Ji-won, who was sobbing into me despite having Seo Jae-kyeom right there, I asked.
"Are you good at leaving comments on the internet?"
To my question, Jang Ji-won, mid-sob, hiccupped back.
"That time... sniff... when my ex went to Lotte World... I fought in the comments with that bitch he went with..."
"Good. Then become a National Intelligence Service agent."
Decided. Your career path.
"Harsh to say to the one who got hit, but consider yourself lucky today, Jang Ji-won."
"Sniff..."
"We showed up right on time and that's all it was. What if they were from some Korean Serial Killer High School or something...?"
"That hurts, hearing 'serial killer'."
Park Su-hwan, who had no idea why he was even here, chimed in.
"Not going?"
I gave him a dirty look. He clutched his chest like he was hurt.
"I helped..."
"That's why we're letting your school kids off without calling the cops."
"Tch."
"Go on now. Delete my number for real this time."
"Tch!"
Turning to leave, Park Su-hwan said.
"Oh, Kang Da-hye."
"What."
"Can I keep texting you?"
"No!"
"Then wanna meet up in college? I'm pretty good at studying."
Pfft.
Not 'pretty good'—actually good.
"Sure, let's meet at the freshman welcome after getting into the same college. I'll tell you where I'm going now, so come there too."
"...Where are you going?"
"Korea University."
If you don't get in, don't contact me!
At that, Seo Jae-kyeom, whose eyes were starting to swell, burst out laughing so hard.
As we headed back to the auditorium, Seo Jae-kyeom said.
"Kang Da-hye. You know I have no pride."
"You have a lot of pride."
"Nah, not anymore. I threw it away."
"……."
"From now on, I'll cling to you. Shamelessly. Even if you draw a line, I'll bring correction tape and erase it."
"...Even if my feelings don't change?"
"They will."
Seo Jae-kyeom winked at me looking up. With his red eyes, it wasn't that cool.
"Just watch."
"Yeah..."
That confidence was definitely the Seo Jae-kyeom I knew.
"...So you're not really thinking of not being friends with me anymore, right? That wasn't sincere back then?"
"Hm..."
"Why won't you answer, Kang Da-hye!"
"...Seeing you two makes me think maybe it's okay if I date someone too..."
"Hey. Jang Ji-won."
Get it together?