Falling for Them (4)
The clock had just passed ten at night. Lee Yu-ri, who had been studying in her room, felt her phone vibrate. Without much thought, she checked it—only to freeze mid-problem when she saw the sender's name.
"Han Seong-jin...? Why is he..."
The message was extremely short.
The moment she read the last word, Yu-ri's face flushed hot. She fanned herself frantically to cool down.
"What the hell? Not 'if you have time' but 'make time'? What, did you leave something with me? And a date...? Why would I do something like that with you..."
Because I like you.
Suddenly, Han Seong-jin's voice from last Saturday echoed in her head.
"Why would I... Why..."
By the time she snapped out of it, she had already replied.
"Aaaagh! Agh! I'm getting dragged along by this guy again! What am I even doing?!"
Yu-ri slammed her phone down, flopped face-first onto her bed, and started banging her head against the pillow while screaming.
Before she could finish wrestling with the pillow, Seong-jin's reply arrived almost immediately.
No more messages came from Han Seong-jin, but Yu-ri stayed face-down on the bed, repeatedly scrolling up and down through their short exchange.
Following last week, she would be spending time with him again this weekend. It wouldn't be as luxurious as before, but the thought of quietly walking together in a park didn't sound so bad.
But... just the two of us walking in a park? That's seriously something only couples would—
Because I like you.
Seong-jin's voice popped up in her mind again. Overwhelmed with embarrassment, Yu-ri buried her entire face deep into the pillow.
She had pretended to accept reluctantly through text, but deep down, she was quite happy that he wanted to see her again this week after last week. Steam seemed to rise from between her ears and the back of her head that weren't buried in the pillow.
Yu-ri hated herself a little more for secretly rejoicing at Han Seong-jin's date proposal.
Perhaps because she had seized an opportunity to get closer to Gong Yeong-bae, Choi Su-yeon had been slacking off noticeably more often throughout the week. On Wednesday, she had even gone so far as to lie about some nonexistent emergency just to force the manager to cover her shift so she could go on an evening date with Yeong-bae.
Was a girl blinded by love always this terrifying?
Damn it, Gong Yeong-bae, you really are a piece of shit. She's this happy with just a little attention, but you're so greedy you keep her in your damn fish tank.
Meanwhile, the manager—who had no idea why Su-yeon had ditched her shift—was actually feeling sorry for her during the unusually peaceful workday.
"Poor Su-yeon really has terrible luck. There hasn't been a single day like today where those underage delinquents didn't come by begging for cigarettes, but of all days she picks today to sprain her leg."
"Ah, Manager, you don't know, do you?"
"Hm? Don't know what?"
"Those delinquent girls probably won't be coming by this convenience store anymore."
"Huh? Why? That was our store's biggest headache—why the sudden change?"
"As long as I'm here, they won't. I told them not to come. Or more accurately, they can't come."
"......?"
"Anyway, nothing will happen while I'm on shift. So Manager, please don't fire me and keep me around for a long time, okay?"
"Uh? Y-yeah..."
While working, Su-yeon occasionally sent me photos from her date with Gong Yeong-bae and bragged about them. It seemed she was planning to follow the same date course I had taken with Yu-ri, but on the weekend.
She sent various shots—some with only half her face visible and Yeong-bae in the background, others that looked like he had taken them for her—while constantly texting Jealous? Jealous, right? to show off.
And after every bout of bragging, she would always add, 'Senior, you don't want to lose Yu-ri senior either, so manage her properly!'
I roughly understood why Su-yeon was acting this way.
She never really liked Yu-ri to begin with.
In the original novel Love in School, Choi Su-yeon had always viewed Lee Yu-ri with considerable displeasure. The fact that Yu-ri was the childhood friend of the guy she liked was reason enough to dislike her. On top of that, Su-yeon was outwardly part of the second-year delinquent crowd, while Yu-ri was the model-student type who hated delinquents. There was no way they could get along.
Su-yeon was the kind of character who was always anxious, feeling like she was losing out to Yu-ri in status. Now that she saw me getting closer to Yu-ri, she probably didn't want to miss this chance.
If Yu-ri were taken out of the picture, the only ones left around Gong Yeong-bae would be Su-yeon herself and Jeong Eun-ji. Since Eun-ji's relationship with Yeong-bae wasn't as deep as Yu-ri's, she must have judged that she had a shot.
Therefore, the more I got along with Yu-ri, the more she believed she could get along with Yeong-bae—so she kept egging me on.
Of course, she had no idea who was actually being egged on here.
I played along with Su-yeon's rhythm, giving her pleasant replies like Looks good or You two match well. Excited, she chattered away even more through text.
Of course, unfortunately, I would never get to eat anything from Su-yeon for that particular reason.
A week flew by in the blink of an eye.
As expected, the rumors about me and Yu-ri didn't last long and quickly died down. I had threatened people once, Yu-ri had fiercely denied the completely false claim that we had skipped class together, and we weren't celebrities anyway—there simply wasn't enough gossip fuel to keep it burning.
And today, Saturday, I had three events lined up.
First was my date with Yu-ri.
Second was the finishing blow to make Choi Su-yeon completely mine.
And the last, third one was...
It was the day of the Jinsu High all-grade delinquent gathering.
Originally, Han Seong-jin had reigned as king at this event decided since the beginning of the semester. He made the first- and second-years bring him meat, alcohol, and cigarettes. He was always chosen as king during the king game, arbitrarily pairing people up and forcing strip games, recreating Sodom and Gomorrah. Any girl he liked, he would take and fuck senseless. When he got tired of one, he'd call for another. From first-year to third-year, every girl's top choice was Han Seong-jin. The other guys could only settle for the girls he had used and discarded.
But I wasn't attending this gathering to reign as king like before.
I planned to show my face at dinner, declare that I was completely washing my hands of this life and would never get involved again, then leave.
That was for later. For now, while we were together, I had to make sure our Yu-ri had a good time.
When I looked outside, I saw that it was raining quite heavily.
"Not exactly great date weather."
If the rain made Choi Su-yeon and Gong Yeong-bae cancel their date, today's plan would lose a lot of its meaning.
Before heading out, I texted Su-yeon to check the situation.
When her reply came a moment later, I smiled with satisfaction.
"Gotta love that drive."
After confirming Su-yeon's schedule, I quickly got ready and left the house to meet Yu-ri.
When I arrived in front of her apartment, I saw her standing inside the first-floor entrance, looking up at the rainy sky. I waved from the parking area, and she immediately came outside, opening her umbrella as she approached me.
"The weather's pretty bad today."
"Still, you were looking forward to going on a date with me, right?"
"I wasn't."
Her face was clearly screaming I was looking forward to it~. I chuckled and stepped closer to her.
"But why are you opening the umbrella?"
"What are you talking about? It's raining."
"One umbrella is enough."
"...?"
"We can just go like this."
"Kyaa?!"
I wrapped an arm around Yu-ri's waist and pulled her toward me. She fell helplessly into my embrace. In a voice full of panic, she cried out.
"Th-the umbrella! The umbrella's getting ruined!"
"Then we can just close it."
"Wh-wh-wh-what are you saying! We can just walk separately, why are you making us look like—!"
"You're going to close the umbrella, right?"
I stared straight into her eyes as I asked. When our gazes met, Yu-ri's mouth opened and closed wordlessly before she hung her head.
"Ugh..."
Then she closed her own umbrella.