Third Year, When It's Time to Admit It
To understand the chaotic scene of Suyeon brawling, we need to rewind the clock just a little.
It was the moment Class 1 had finished their closing announcements slightly earlier than usual.
Suyeon, convinced by her great misunderstanding that Yeoncheong was dating Seoha, had spent the entire day avoiding conversation with Seoha as much as possible, too busy dodging Yeoncheong, who kept coming by every break between classes.
Having come to understand the feelings of a friend she'd once chased around in a game of tag, one enormous problem still remained for her...
'What am I supposed to do about the club?'
The club with just the two of them was the problem. Yeoncheong had said she'd keep joining club activities for as long as Suyeon wanted her to, but with her so firmly convinced that Yeoncheong was dating Seoha, she couldn't be sure that old promise still held.
Maybe I should just quit the club and focus on studying. Just as Suyeon was brooding over it, an unpleasant conversation drifted into her ears.
"That Ha Yeoncheong girl? She's kind of a lot, isn't she?"
"Who, her?"
"You know. Last year, during the sports festival, she pulled that attention-seeker act, and then at the festival she went half-naked doing puppy impressions."
"...Ohhh~ now I remember."
Gossip about Yeoncheong, from girls who had never even seen her face.
Suyeon glanced sideways at Seoha, who seemed to have been listening to the conversation as well. Having known her for a year, Suyeon could tell at a glance that her friend, who looked expressionless on the surface, was angry.
What on earth were they talking about, that Yeoncheong had come up?
Well, honestly, the process didn't matter. The gossip might have surfaced simply because a lull in conversation had let Yeoncheong — conspicuous in all sorts of ways — become a topic. Or it could have been a group bonding exercise, tearing apart someone whose usual behavior or looks they didn't like.
In other words, an extremely common occurrence.
Suyeon and Hasol, close with everyone and reluctant to sling idle gossip; Nayun, who in this respect was masculine in the best sense; and Seoha, who visibly despised that sort of topic just from looking at her.
It was actually the four around Yeoncheong who were the unusual ones.
Anyway. It left a bad taste in her mouth, but even Seoha, her supposed rival, just sat there quietly. Suyeon was about to slip away from her seat when it happened.
"You mean that attention-whore girl?"
"Yeah, that's her. That's her."
At the loud, cackling voices, Suyeon's feet rooted themselves to the floor and refused to move.
"No, it wasn't just puppy impressions, was it? She was buttering people up. Didn't that look like experience talking?"
"Exactly. I'm telling you, it's guaranteed. She's a pro, a pro."
"She skipped school for a while last year, remember?"
"Who knows? Maybe if we all chip in and ask nicely, she'd do it for us too?"
What exactly was supposed to be funny?
Vulgar backbiting, demeaning her as the sort who'd be loose. How could people make it into this school and still turn out like that? There had to be some law dictating that a certain percentage of such people would appear anywhere, without fail.
And for some reason, Seoha — who looked furious — just sat there doing nothing.
Suyeon, who had been about to walk out of the classroom, had no choice but to change direction.
"Excuse me... don't you think that's going a bit far?"
That was how it started — politely enough.
But what unfolded before Yeoncheong's eyes now was a vicious battlefield.
"Move! Get out of the way!"
The moment Hasol told her the one fighting was Suyeon, Yeoncheong pushed into the crowd of onlookers who were doing nothing but watching.
"Kyaa! You psycho, let go!"
"Take back what you said! Apologize!"
"It's got nothing to do with you, so quit freaking yelling! Somebody get her off me!"
Even in the middle of it all, she clung to her opponent with everything she had, shrieking for an apology.
The scene inside, once Yeoncheong finally broke through the crowd, was worse than she'd imagined. Chairs and desks toppled over, of course; Suyeon's hair was a wild tangle, for some reason her blazer was rolling around on the floor, her uniform shirt had come untucked — a complete mess. Scratches marked the skin of her face and elsewhere.
They fought differently than boys, maybe, but a girls' brawl had its own uniquely chilling aura.
Yeoncheong, who had clenched her fists for an instant, shook her head side to side. She hadn't pushed through all these people to jump into the fight herself. Mediation came first — with that thought, she wedged her body between Suyeon and the other girl.
"Hey! Baek Suyeon!"
And in that position, she shouted her friend's name with everything she had. Of everyone fighting, Suyeon was the only one she knew, so there was no other choice.
Startled, Suyeon lifted her head, and both fighters froze, staring at Yeoncheong, who had barged in out of nowhere.
"Ye, Yeoncheong..."
A absolute wreck of herself, Suyeon's panic was plain to see.
Yeoncheong reached out to touch her wounds, then snapped back to her senses and hardened her expression.
"What did you fight over?"
"Well..."
"I said, what was it about?"
At the commanding tone, so unlike her usual self, Suyeon's lips fluttered.
"They, they were talking behind your back, so I..."
"Ha."
A hollow laugh? A sigh? Something like it escaped her before she could stop it.
It was absurd — she'd been dodging Suyeon at every turn, acting like she didn't want to see her, yet she'd blown up over that kind of talk.
She had plenty she wanted to say, but first, Yeoncheong pulled Suyeon to her feet. Perhaps because of the lopsided numbers, her condition was far worse than her opponent's.
For a moment, it seemed the commotion would die down thanks to Yeoncheong's intervention...
But people whose mouths are their problem always make their mouths their problem. It was the leader of the gossiping pack who said the wrong thing.
"Ha... damn. This crazy bitch. Get her out of here. They say birds of a feather — why is she yelling at me..."
"Birds of a feather?"
There was no way Suyeon would pick a fight for no reason, so the claim about the gossip was surely true. Which meant "birds of a feather" was obviously meant as an insult, too.
And then.
Some people get angrier at insults to their family and friends than at insults to themselves.
"Hey. What did you just say?"
Yeoncheong was exactly that kind of person.
A situation that had seemed to be over grew heavy under her low voice. She, who had come to break up the fight, glared at the group of girls with a ferocity that outstripped even Suyeon's from moments before.
"S-so what! Did I say something I can't say? You're always together, aren't you! Th-that's what hanging out in packs means!"
"I don't think that's what you meant, though?"
At the flimsy excuse, the corner of Yeoncheong's mouth twisted.
She'd barely been holding back the fire that had shot through her at the sight of Suyeon's state. She was not the sort to stand quietly by while a stranger insulted her friend along with everyone else.
The atmosphere Yeoncheong gave off was so menacing that everyone around them began to get nervous.
It was... something different from how an ordinary girl looks when she's angry.
And Hasol, who knew the reason — who had realized Yeoncheong was the same type as her — and Nayun, who had an older brother (though he would absolutely never admit to being that type), shouted out.
"Hey, stop Yeoncheong!"
"Suyeon, hold her back!"
"Uh, um...?"
The very moment Suyeon, nearest to her, was shaking her head side to side—
"You little bitch!"
Yeoncheong spat out a crisp curse and kicked a chair sprawled nearby.
"Kyaa!"
A girl toppled under the flying chair. And then, as if the fight from moments ago had all been child's play, Yeoncheong climbed right on top of her and started throwing punches.
"Kyaaaah!"
The students watching shrieked and fell back.
"Are you insane?! Somebody stop her, don't just stand there!"
"Yeoncheong! Stop it! Calm down! Calm down!"
Hasol and Nayun threw themselves at Yeoncheong to hold her back.
A small room used for everything from admissions counseling to school violence consultations. Yeoncheong and Suyeon sat inside it.
The staff were holding a meeting to gather statements from the parties involved and the witnesses, so the message was: stay put and wait. The girls they'd fought with were presumably waiting somewhere as well.
It was an important hour that might decide the severity of their punishment, but what mattered to Yeoncheong was something else entirely.
The process had involved a few (minor?) issues, but she'd succeeded in securing a spot alone with Suyeon. If she wanted to clear up the misunderstanding, now was the time.
"Suyeon. Baaek~ Su~yeon~?"
But when even her desperate calls couldn't get a single glance, Yeoncheong pouted her lips and stood up from her seat. Dragging her chair over to press close beside her friend, she tilted her head and leaned it on Suyeon's shoulder.
Startled by the unexpected contact, Suyeon's lips trembled.
"I'm sorry. For butting in over something that wasn't my business. And... you don't have to do this for me anymore."
The lines poured out smoothly, as if she'd rehearsed them.
Her tone suggested she'd already made her peace, but her voice dripped with lingering feeling.
Suyeon tried, carefully, to pull her head away — but Yeoncheong pressed down harder, firmer.
"There's a lot I really want to say to you."
Taking her friend's silence as one answer, Yeoncheong folded down her fingers one by one as she spoke.
"First — a friend from another club told me that in situations like this, you're not supposed to say sorry. You're supposed to say thank you."
"I didn't fight because they were insulting me. I fought because they were insulting my friend."
Someone who would do this even for Yeoncheong, who wasn't even someone she liked. Then what about Seoha? Her moment of envy was brief.
"And lastly... I turned down Seoha's confession. When she said let's stay friends, she meant it innocently — she just wanted us to keep getting along well from now on."
"Huh?"
Yeoncheong, now sitting upright without her noticing, seized Suyeon's frozen cheek and yanked it hard.
"Ghwayuh..."
"What. I'm. Saying. Is. Stop making up weird delusions on your own. That situation you're imagining? It doesn't exist."
At that, Suyeon's murky eyes seemed to clear for a moment — and then, before she knew it, they were brimming with tears.
She'd been suffering alone in her head, and the word "delusion" released the tension all at once. Only then did her wounds start to sting, and the sadness came flooding in.
Of course, Yeoncheong — who had only ever received comfort, never given it — panicked and had no idea what to do.
"Huh? Hey, hey! Don't cry. I seriously don't know what to do here."
But when do tears ever obey an order not to fall?
In the end, Suyeon began to sob, and Yeoncheong drew on everything she'd learned from her own experiences: she held her friend and patted her back.
But apparently that touched off yet another switch.
Suyeon buried her face completely and wailed, and Yeoncheong, at a total loss, simply offered her chest and kept patting her back.
And then.
'Hmm... this isn't a good time to go in...'
Seoha, bearing good news, waited outside the door for things to settle down inside.
A little while later.
"...Okay. I'm fine now."
Suyeon hid her wrecked face. She must have been embarrassed.
Yeoncheong had cried in front of her own father once, but sobbing like that in front of a friend — it was only natural.
"Your uniform... I'm sorry."
"It's fine. My house is close, don't worry about it."
Who knew how many tears she'd poured out — the chest of Yeoncheong's uniform was soaked through.
Suyeon belatedly showed signs of apology, but Yeoncheong waved her hands as if it were truly nothing.
Suyeon smacked her own cheeks a couple of times and forcibly dragged her voice out of its slump.
"Then... why did Seoha's texts drop off?"
"Because I turned down her confession. She said she needed time to sort out her feelings."
Suyeon had assumed she was just busy cuddling up to Yeoncheong on the side... and realized anew just how colossal her misunderstanding had been.
Which meant Yeoncheong and Seoha must still be awkward with each other. This time, I'll be the one who helps, Suyeon thought, her lips trembling with resolve.
"I'll bring Seoha to your place tomorrow. I should apologize for eavesdropping too..."
"You heard all of it, so no apology necessary?"
"Kyaaah!"
Speak of the tiger and it shall appear.
The moment Seoha's voice sounded, Suyeon flinched, and Yeoncheong screamed and latched onto her friend.
Seoha, as if wondering what on earth was so surprising, shut the door firmly and sat down in front of the two of them.
"You're not ghosts. Getting startled like that kind of hurts my feelings."
"N-no, wait... you heard all of it?"
"Mm. Did you not notice your door was cracked open? Everything carried out into the hallway."
Suyeon had been watching Yeoncheong's face, and Yeoncheong had still been riding the adrenaline of the fight. Nobody had been minding the door.
The one silver lining was that the person who'd overheard was Seoha — meaning there was no need to have the same conversation twice.
The process had been rocky, but Suyeon's misunderstanding was resolved at least in its first stage, and Seoha, as if she'd been waiting for exactly this, arrived — and the three of them were gathered in one place.
As if the world itself were nudging Yeoncheong forward at this very moment.
"Um... you guys. I have one more crazy thing to say. Will you hear me out?"
If there was ever a time to admit it, there was no better moment than now.
"What is it?"
"Were you maybe a delinquent before? Something like that?"
Seoha tilted her head to one side. Suyeon, eyes swollen like dumplings, snickered and teased.
Honestly, even now, Yeoncheong had plenty she was agonizing over.
Should she, or shouldn't she? She couldn't say two different things with one mouth, after all.
But ever since getting an earful from Hasol and Nayun, her thinking had shifted a little — okay, a lot.
She felt she'd done a terrible thing to two friends who had shown her their true feelings for nearly a year. She'd thought she'd examined her own heart fairly seriously, too, only to realize she'd been dodging it with excuse after excuse.
She had no guarantees about the future, but she'd gained a certain confidence about what she needed to do now.
And since dragging things out had almost never led anywhere good, they were apparently starting to get anxious.
"Why are you taking so long?"
"Right? There must be even more hidden past. Yeoncheong, I'm scared now."
The sight was so endearing that Yeoncheong couldn't help but let out a small laugh.
They were cute.
What was so hard about admitting this one thing? Why had she dodged and weaved for so long?
Her friends had shown her their true hearts for nearly a year. So now, Yeoncheong decided, it was only right that she finally answer that sincerity in kind — even if belatedly, she could show a little of her own.
"I... I think I have feelings for you two. I want to take back my rejection."
Suyeon and Seoha had no idea what she meant.
The first day back at school, roughly two weeks after Valentine's Day — Yeoncheong had just dropped the kind of remark that could drive a person insane: a retraction of her rejection.