Third Year, Confirming Her Heart
A Valentine's Day had passed, leaving behind the life achievement of 2 confessions — and 2 rejections.
Suyeon, who always led the conversation in the group chat, had gone quiet, and Seoha's replies, which used to come back promptly whenever you asked her something, were somehow lackluster too.
Hasol and Nayun caught on quickly that something big had happened between the three of them.
Both of them wanted nothing more than to march straight over to Yeoncheong's apartment and demand every detail... but it wasn't as if they always had the time, and with less than two weeks left until the new semester began, the pair had to settle for creating a group chat without Suyeon and Seoha and getting a brief rundown of what had gone down.
From Hasol, whose fury practically screamed through the screen, to Nayun, visibly straining to hold back the curses boiling up inside her.
Yeoncheong finally realized, albeit a bit late, that she had done something very, very wrong.
She'd only added it because she figured it would sting less than a flat rejection.
But judging by her friends' reactions, the line after the rejection had been the bigger crime.
At heart, what Yeoncheong had feared most was her friendships shattering because of a confession. So she'd had no idea those words amounted to drawing a permanent line under the confessor.
Given her friends' reactions — especially the way the usually meek and gentle Hasol was radiating menace — Yeoncheong grew to dread the coming March.
True, it was all the result of a misunderstanding born from eavesdropping, and true, she'd brought it on herself — but either way, she had failed to unravel Suyeon's firmly entrenched misconception.
And with Seoha, she'd poured out her heart complete with that world-class embarrassment of a "butterfly effect" metaphor, only to still find things awkward between them.
So when Yeoncheong walked through the school gates and into her new classroom, carrying both worry and hope, the welcome she received was:
"Ha Yeoncheong. Get over here."
A summons from Hasol, bristling with barely contained anger.
Maybe because it was the first day, most students had gathered with the friends they already knew, so Nayun was right there beside Hasol.
"Where's Suyeon?"
"Not here."
But there was Siyeon, Suyeon's twin, the spitting image of her.
Apparently, this time it was Siyeon rather than Suyeon who shared her class.
Yeoncheong had only a moment to marvel at the fresh combination before Hasol tilted her head toward an empty seat in the back, and Yeoncheong obediently sat down.
It's always the gentle ones who are most dangerous when they're angry.
The best strategy in moments like this was to surrender first, so Yeoncheong immediately lowered her eyes like a guilty puppy. It did nothing to quell Hasol's wrath.
Whap. Whap.
Palms came flying without warning.
She remembered feeling this way the time she'd taken a forehead flick — the woman had a deceptively stinging hand.
"Ah— ow! Hasol! Use your words! Let's use words!"
The good friend granted the request. At no point, however, had she promised to stop hitting.
Whap. Whap. Whap. Whap. Whap.
"If you're! Going to! Reject someone! Just reject them! Why did you have to say all that!"
"I didn't know it would come across like that!"
The excuse she'd already used once, however, didn't fly this time either.
If anything, it only provoked her further. Hasol turned to the classmates who had been quietly watching.
"You didn't know? Really. Okay, everyone. Give me a hand here. She needs to be taught a lesson."
"Gladly. She's struggling anyway — let's just pin her down and step on her."
Who knew when a chance like this, with Hasol leading the charge, would come around again?
Delighted, Nayun went so far as to knock Yeoncheong flat and step on her. Siyeon, who had been put through all manner of hardship thanks to her soggy, mopey sister, lent a hand as well — no, a foot.
"Wait, what?! Siyeon, why YOU?!"
"Sorry. My sister's put me through a lot at home lately."
Maybe because the third-year classrooms were in chaos on the first day back, or maybe because Nayun and Siyeon had surrounded her.
"Ow! Somebody's actually stepping on me?! WHO is stepping on me—owww!"
Not a single soul in the class came to the aid of Yeoncheong's pitiful cries.
A little while later — perhaps because it was the first day of the semester — Teacher Jisu came in slightly late, took one look at Yeoncheong sprawled on the floor, and said:
"Hm? Yeoncheong, are you okay?"
"N...no... I'm not okay..."
There was plenty to talk about, but with the homeroom teacher arriving and the opening ceremony still to be held in the gymnasium afterward, it wasn't until lunchtime that Yeoncheong could finally give them the full account of what had happened on Valentine's Day.
"Haah... I get what you were thinking when you said it, but... hearing it out loud just makes me mad all over again."
Yeoncheong flinched at Hasol's long sigh. In a crumpled, timid voice, she voiced the question she hadn't managed to ask earlier.
"Th-then... what was Siyeon doing there earlier?"
"Oh, that."
Hasol explained briefly why Siyeon had been part of the ambush.
She, too, had somehow ended up hearing about the tangled relationship between the three of them. That Suyeon had known Seoha was going to confess. That since Suyeon herself had been rejected, she probably believed Yeoncheong and Seoha were now dating. And so on.
The kind of information only someone living under the same roof could know.
"Ah, so that's why..."
Only then did the puzzle pieces begin to click into place for Yeoncheong.
No wonder Suyeon's shock had seemed disproportionately large, even though the rejection line had been identical. If she believed Yeoncheong had chosen Seoha over her, it made perfect sense.
"Haah... well, then we've got a problem."
"Why? What did you do now?"
"She went off to eat lunch with Seoha. Just the two of them."
Thwack.
"Ngh— H-Hasol. My... my bone... you hit my bone..."
Today of all days, Hasol's fists were moving faster than her words.
Yeoncheong clutched her arm, stung by the completely untelegraphed punch.
"Are you insane? If you're going to go, you should've dragged Suyeon with you somehow!"
"It took everything I had just to get Seoha to come! I went the second we were done and Suyeon had already disappeared..."
Apparently the "let's stay friends" line had hit her hard enough, because Seoha had only agreed to eat with her after Yeoncheong pleaded that eating alone was too lonely.
In fact, not a single word had been exchanged between them during the meal.
"Still. Come on."
Hasol kept glaring at her, but this line of conversation wasn't going anywhere. That role was normally Hasol's, and with her in her current state, Nayun waved a hand and cut in to change the subject.
"Okay. Okay. Let's drop that for now. Instead, one question."
"...What?"
"Are you seriously planning to stay just friends with those two? Forever?"
"Huh?"
When Yeoncheong made it clear she had no idea what she meant, Hasol spelled it out.
"Say you somehow clear up the misunderstandings and everything else. Then what? That's the question. There's no guarantee you'll never end up in this situation again."
"Exactly. Talk it out, once and for all. Do you really feel nothing for either of them?"
Suyeon and Seoha had been close friends to Hasol and Nayun too — a whole year of shared ups and downs. After all they'd been through together, that bond was beyond words. Neither of them wanted to watch it fizzle out into distant politeness.
Knowing that full well, Yeoncheong shared with her two friends the answer she'd reached after endless deliberation.
"......Nothing. I don't."
Even after hearing her answer, Hasol and Nayun stared at her for a long, long moment.
Nayun was the first to wrinkle her face and lick her lips.
"Bullshit."
"Huh?"
Yeoncheong startled at the harsh word she hadn't heard in ages and shot back a look.
Hasol didn't say anything, but she clearly agreed — arms crossed, eyes boring into Yeoncheong.
"You really feel nothing? After everything we've watched for the past year?"
A full year, no less.
If she'd wanted to push them away, she could have pushed. If she'd wanted to draw a line, there had been countless moments to draw it.
But Yeoncheong had done nothing. And Nayun, who understood exactly what that silence meant, asked just in case.
"You... you're not still weighing this against that, are you?"
Yeoncheong jolted, froze for a split-second of buffering, then shook her head — but with four eyes watching her from up close, there was no way she wasn't caught.
With a sigh, Hasol reeled off a string of excuses on her friend's behalf, then scolded her for refusing to look honestly at her own heart.
"Yeoncheong. We can't know everything you're worried about. But Seoha and Suyeon have almost certainly wrestled with the same questions — and they confessed to you anyway."
Nayun jabbed Yeoncheong in the chest for good measure as she added:
"I get it, it's your nature. You hate hurting anyone, so you think everything to death. But before you do all that, shouldn't you at least know your own honest heart?"
"My honest heart..."
"That's right."
The classroom was noisy enough already, but Nayun glanced around once more and lowered her voice.
"That you used to be a boy. That it'd be girls together. Your fear of ruining the friendship — whatever else. Throw it all out. Just think about it as a human being, person to person."
Her friend's words: set aside everything you're supposed to factor in.
Of course there were things to consider even when choosing love — but in Nayun's eyes, Yeoncheong was agonizing far too much.
Person to person.
She'd never once tried it, but Yeoncheong obediently followed the advice.
She trusted that neither of them would give her advice that would cost her. And the answer her thoughts always arrived at was one and the same.
Even that answer felt wishy-washy, unsatisfying to her — so maybe, just this once, she could do things her friends' way.
The silence stretched on.
Hasol and Nayun waited patiently. It was only natural she'd need time — she'd never let herself think that way before.
How much time had passed, as the classroom grew noisier with students trickling back from lunch?
When her deliberation was finished, Yeoncheong's lips parted softly.
"......I think I do. Have feelings."
Just as her two friends had done for her, the moment Yeoncheong finally bared her hard-won truth—
"Haah..."
"See? I knew it."
Hasol bowed her head deeply. Nayun smacked her desk.
Only now did Yeoncheong grasp the subtle difference in her own feelings — but her friends reacted as if they'd known all along.
She blinked her round eyes.
"What? Why aren't you two surprised?"
"Maybe the others couldn't tell, but we've been watching all this time. There's nothing to be surprised about."
"Daengcheong. You think we clawed you up like this over a couple of words if we didn't already know everything?"
The two of them looked so utterly composed — if anything, relieved — that for a moment Yeoncheong wondered if this whole thing was an elaborate hidden-camera prank that had been in the works since Valentine's Day.
But thankfully(?), Hasol's next words reminded her this was very much real.
"Haah... then why on earth did you reject the confessions..."
Those blazing golden eyes bored into her like a lightning strike, and Yeoncheong quietly lowered her head.
In the end, lunchtime passed without any real progress.
Being third-years, they were already being crushed under a crushingly passionate course load from day one, and before she knew it, the end of the day had arrived.
"Alright, you all survived the first day back. Some of you will be quitting your clubs now that you're third-years — if you want to apply to use the school study room, come see me."
"Yes, ma'am~"
"Oh, and Yeoncheong — go next door, bring Suyeon with you, and come to the staff room. I have something to discuss about the clubs."
"Yes."
The teacher, chin in hand and mulling over whether she'd forgotten anything, lightly rapped the podium and looked out at the class.
"And... I think that's it. We're done for today."
"Thank you!"
"See you tomorrow, Teacher!"
Her classmates streamed out of the classroom in clusters, and Teacher Jisu led the students who wanted the study room off toward the staff room.
And Yeoncheong—
"Yeoncheong! This is it. There's no better chance than this."
—was hurriedly grabbing her bag amid Nayun's frantic commotion.
A misunderstanding was best cleared up as fast as possible, and now that she'd confirmed she did have feelings of her own, there was no reason to drag things out.
The trouble was, she had to actually see Suyeon first — and with Suyeon actively avoiding her, that was easier said than done.
But now she had club business as an excuse to meet. Neither Yeoncheong nor her two friends wanted to let this opening slip by.
Worried she might fumble it somehow, Hasol was shoving her along by the back and chattering nonstop.
"Just like you told us. Let her know you'd been agonizing over this too. That way she'll understand your rejection didn't mean what she thinks it meant."
"I said I get it. I'm not a child..."
"Funny, coming from someone who didn't even know her own heart until five minutes ago."
"..."
Confronted with Nayun's surgically precise jab, Yeoncheong had no comeback.
And so, buoyed by the encouragement(?) of Nayun and Hasol, she headed for the next classroom over—
"Hey! Those two are fighting!"
"Somebody get a teacher!"
Third year — the most crucial year of high school — and a full-blown brawl had broken out on the very first day back.
A student who appeared to be from Class 2 rushed out of the room in a panic. Deeper inside the classroom, at the center of a crowd that had surged in from every direction, shrill, heated shouts flew thick and fast.
"You crazy— let go of her!"
"Then take back what you said earlier!!!"
"Kyaah! My hair! MY HAIR!"
"Take that! And that!"
Only voices could be heard, but the atmosphere was vicious.
They were long past the age when fighting was supposed to be a phase. Just as Yeoncheong found herself wondering who on earth still brawled like this—
"Uh, the one doing the fighting? That's Suyeon."
"What, Suyeon? OUR Suyeon?"
"Yeah..."
Thanks to Hasol rising on tiptoe to peer into the crowd, they learned that the party single-handedly trading blows with four others was, in fact, Suyeon.