Lunchtime Investigation
Poke, poke!
In the end the weekend slipped by without me managing to do a single useful thing. Harin left the house again on Saturday, but I couldn’t bring myself to tail her. Sunday I was stuck working from morning until night.
Still, all of that was just preparation for Monday’s momentum. The moment lunch period arrived I changed into the school uniform and headed straight for the campus.
Waggle-waggle…
Lunchtime, of course—students everywhere. Even with the country’s low birthrate, a mega-school like this still boasted nearly a thousand kids. The grounds alone rivaled a small university campus. Naturally I’d taken precautions so I wouldn’t have the misfortune of running smack into Harin head-on.
Shashak!
I pulled on a mask under the excuse of blocking yellow dust. Even Harin herself wouldn’t recognize me now. Time to review the plan.
Harin had a boyfriend—or at the very least a crush. A girl who’d only moved into the neighborhood four months ago couldn’t possibly have started dating someone outside school. Therefore the guy had to be inside these walls. At lunch they might be eating together, or maybe sneaking off somewhere quiet for a little hand-holding.
First step: find Harin. Watch from a distance long enough and the outline of Kang Harin’s man would start to take shape…
“Hello?”
“...?”
Was that just my imagination? Someone had definitely greeted me. But common sense said there was no one at this school who would ever say hello to me—
“Hel… lo?”
“...!?”
A second greeting. At this point it was worth considering that the greeting might not even be aimed at me.
I had no choice but to turn my head. And there she was—the one and only person in this entire school who could possibly greet me.
“Huh? Eunju?”
It was Eunju. Not Teacher Kim Eunju, the one who’d dragged me into a swamp of affection—Park Eunju, the classmate I’d approached to dig up information on Harin.
But something felt off. How had she recognized me?
“How’d you know it was me?”
“Well, no name tag… and you just look like a senior somehow.”
“...”
My camouflage had been pathetic. Apparently a mask alone couldn’t hide me. Next time I’d have to grab a pair of thick black-rimmed glasses or something.
“R-right… so you’ve been well?”
“Same as always. Though a few things have changed a little…”
“Glad to hear you’re doing okay.”
“...?”
Eunju just stared at me in silence, her big eyes sparkling. What? Was I supposed to ask a follow-up about the “few things that have changed”?
“Come to think of it, did you make up with that senior? The one who was going to be your running mate and then suddenly dropped out—”
“No. I haven’t really talked to her again. Instead… I registered as a candidate.”
“I see… Wait, no you don’t! You said you weren’t running!”
“Isn’t that what you wanted me to do?”
“...”
When did I ever want that? Teacher Eunju had been curious, and I’d just steered the conversation that way so my identity wouldn’t get exposed. Sure, my middle-aged-man “young fogey” instincts had nearly derailed things, but in the end I’d admitted I was wrong and told her to follow her heart, hadn’t I?
“O-of course I wanted you to. But like you said, finding a running mate isn’t exactly easy.”
“I got lucky. I went around every third-year classroom looking for someone willing to run, and that afternoon I finally found a senior who said she’d do it with me. We barely made the deadline. Do you know Oh Yuna, third year?”
“No idea. Like I told you before, I only transferred here recently.”
I had the sinking feeling I’d made a huge mistake. Here I was regretting that I couldn’t control my own momentary emotions, yet somehow I’d pushed a kid who couldn’t take responsibility down the exact same path. I had no right to meddle in other people’s lives. I couldn’t even handle my own daughter properly—what business did a half-baked adult like me have influencing a decision that would shape this girl’s entire year?
“I see… So how’d you end up in A Team, then? If you only transferred recently there shouldn’t have been any reason for that.”
“Beats me… That’s what I want to know most of all.”
A Team again? Honestly I was curious myself, so I’d done a little digging over the weekend. Came up empty. The school was famous enough that its wiki was well-maintained, but searching for “Team” only turned up the blue-team/white-team split for sports day. Nothing else.
“...”
Awkward silence settled in. We’d long since run out of things worth saying to each other. Better to wrap up this uncomfortable meeting and go look for Harin…
Wait a second—she was in the same class as Harin. They might not be close enough to know every detail about each other, but she ought to have caught at least the rumors floating around, right?
“Hey, Eunju? Mind if I ask you one thing?”
“What is it?”
“About Harin in your class—does she have a boyfriend right now?”
“Harin…? I’m not really sure…”
“Even if not a boyfriend, any guy she’s close with?”
“Why are you suddenly asking that?”
“...”
She was a pro at questions that left you with nothing to say. Or rather, I still hadn’t fully established my identity as “high-school-boy me.”
Fortunately I didn’t have to answer. A third party cut in.
“Who’s this?”
A girl wearing the same red name tag as Eunju. A little shorter—early 160s—with round, clear eyes and soft baby fat that made her look exactly like a hamster. She was clearly Eunju’s friend, and she’d just barged in and started tugging on Eunju’s blazer with two fingers. The whole thing was so cute I almost wanted to adopt her as a second daughter.
“Ah, this is…”
“Just call me Teemo. Back at my old school I always played top Teemo whenever we ran five-man parties.”
I jumped in first, sensing another identity question coming. But of course both Eunju and the human hamster just tilted their heads, completely lost.
“But calling a senior by a nickname feels a bit…”
“It’s fine! Honestly I never liked my real name and was planning to change it soon anyway. Until then, Teemo’s good.”
“If that’s what you want, okay. Oh, this is Wonhui—our classmate.”
So the human hamster was also in Harin’s class? Was it really okay for me to keep showing my face to more and more of Harin’s friends?
“How do you know this oppa?”
“Huh? Oh… I mentioned it before. He’s the senior who helped me register as a candidate again.”
“Oppa’s that oppa?”
“...?”
Eunju, why are you going around talking about other people’s business? And wasn’t this getting completely out of hand?
Even if Harin and I were only on so-so terms right now, who knew when they might get closer? If word of me reached Harin’s ears, what then?
Shake, shake…
No. The only things Eunju knew were that I was in A Team and that my nickname was Teemo. I wasn’t going to show up at school every day for a whole year. Once I got the information I needed I’d never see them again, so it was still fine for now.
“So what were you two talking about?”
“He keeps asking about Harin. Just now he asked if she has a guy she’s meeting…”
“Why? Oppa, do you like Harin?!”
“...”
Why did the conversation always go there? She was casually saying things that made my guilt exceed its credit limit just from listening.
“D-does that even make sense? Why would I like Harin?”
“Then why are you asking about her boyfriend? How do you even know Harin?”
“Me? I just… know her name by chance. I was asking for reference, that’s all. It’s ab-so-lute-ly not what you’re thinking.”
“Weird… If you’re not interested, why ask something like that? Oh—oppa, did you hear ‘that rumor’ too?”
“What rumor?”
A sharp instinct hit me. This hamster-faced Wonhui had definitely heard something. Eunju, looking completely clueless, turned to her.
“You know something?”
“Yep! Kids were saying they saw Harin walking down the street with some guy. Harin insisted he wasn’t her boyfriend, but you know how it is—when people lie they get flustered and talk super fast? Harin was exactly like that.”
“I see…”
I see…? No you don’t, Eunju! My own daughter is out there meeting some guy behind her father’s back and you’re just casually going “I see”?
Not that it mattered—Eunju knew nothing about our relationship, so there was no point getting heated. Finding out who the guy was came first.
“Who the hell is he? Someone who goes to your school?”
“Your school…? Oppa, don’t you go to our school?”
“S-sorry. I only transferred recently so my school spirit’s still lacking. Anyway, what’s the guy look like? Is he good at studying? Has he ever caused any trouble? What do his parents do?”
“How would I know any of that? And why do you care? You said you don’t like Harin.”
“I’m just worried about her…”
“Why are you worried about Harin? See! You totally have a thing for her!”
“I do not!”
I raised my voice without meaning to. Far from being scared, Wonhui just frowned like “What’s wrong with this oppa?” In the end Eunju had to mediate.
“It’s just a rumor. Why don’t you just ask Harin yourself?”
“I’d love to, but I can’t, that’s why. Haa… So you two really don’t know anything?”
“No…”
Eunju wore an expression that said she had no idea why this conversation was even happening. Wonhui, on the other hand, was beaming like she’d just scored a massive scoop.
Things were only getting worse. If the guy was an insider it might be one thing, but if Harin had met him completely outside school, I’d have no choice but to start tailing her for real.
Sssrrk…
Just then another figure appeared. Same red name tag, this one engraved with the name Su Mokhwa. Unusual name.
About the same height as Wonhui, with bangs cut so straight they looked measured with a ruler. She had a habit of slightly parting her lips without realizing it, revealing two rabbit-like front teeth.
Poke, poke!
Was she scared of me? She hid half her body behind Eunju and silently jabbed her twice in the side.
“Huh? Ah… this is a senior from our school. I told you before, right? He helped me register as a candidate.”
“...?”
What was this? Mokhwa hadn’t said a single word—just poked Eunju’s side twice—and Eunju somehow understood perfectly and introduced me on the spot?
Poke, poke…
Mokhwa jabbed her side twice more. Whether from wariness toward me or something else, she hadn’t made a single sound since arriving.
“He’s changing his name soon, so for now he wants us to call him ‘Teemo.’ What was that again… what was it, senior?”
“I transferred this year. At my old school whenever we ran five-man parties I always played top Teemo. So just call me Teemo.”
She didn’t look like she planned to call me that anyway—did I really need to explain? She nodded, then poked Eunju’s side again. Poke, poke.
“Right! Do you know anything about the guy Harin’s supposedly meeting?”
Eunju must have decided direct communication between me and Mokhwa was impossible, so she asked the question for me. Right now, though, I was far more curious about how these two even communicated than about Harin’s boyfriend.
Poke, poke…
I’d met plenty of shy, introverted people, but never anyone as silent as Mokhwa. Yet the way she kept diligently poking sides made it clear she wasn’t on some vow of silence.
“Sorry, senior. Mokhwa says she doesn’t know anything either.”
“R-really? Well then…”
Poke, poke…
“No, Mokhwa. He said he doesn’t like Harin or anything like that.”
Poke, poke…
“Mokhwa says she’s glad she got to meet you, senior.”
“...”
She’d been hiding behind Eunju and only poking her side the whole time—where exactly was the “glad to meet you” coming from? Even now she just stared up at me blankly, swallowing dryly, her stiff face showing zero expression change.
Ding-dong… dang-dong…
Meanwhile lunch period ended. The three of them said a light goodbye and left. Of course, even then Mokhwa poked Eunju’s side instead of looking at me. Poke, poke!
Hoo… That wrapped up the day’s schedule. I’d achieved a few of my goals, but the risks had snowballed just as much.
Two more kids at this school now knew I existed. The problem was that every single one of them was in the same class as Harin—yet not one of them was actually close to her.
This wouldn’t do. I’d have to come to school one more time.