Will Spring Arrive with the New Semester? (3)
They did manage to leave the school eventually. The lineup, though, was strange.
Han Yeo-reum was glued to Jin Gyeo-wool's side exactly as before, while Cha Ga-eul and Lee Yeong-bin walked ahead of them, maintaining an awkward distance.
"What? She's coming to lunch with us too? Are you two close?"
Truthfully, Jin Gyeo-wool hadn't done a thing. Lee Yeong-bin and the others had simply run with the conversation on their own, and somehow a four-person party had formed.
"Yeah. I've been looking out for her a lot."
"No way, for real? Auntie totally said you wouldn't have a single friend!"
"Han Yeo-reum! Why would you say that?!"
Gyeo-wool didn't even know who Lee Yeong-bin was, much less what kind of relationship she'd originally had with the other two. As a result, she couldn't help but get pushed to the sidelines like a spectator.
"Looks like you guys already had plans. Mind if we tag along?"
"Ah, yeah. Should we all go together?"
"More people is never a bad thing~! Let's go, let's go~!"
And so, somehow, the arrangement between Jin Gyeo-wool and Lee Yeong-bin ended up taking priority, with Han Yeo-reum and Cha Ga-eul simply inserting themselves into it.
Gyeo-wool was doing her best to make sense of a situation that had started rolling downhill entirely on its own. But stuck in the amnesiac heroine role, all she could really do was scoop up the flood of incoming information and cram it into her head.
The only time she got a chance to speak was whenever Yeo-reum occasionally tossed a word her way.
"What should we get, Gyeo-wool~?"
"This."
From the moment they left school, Jin Gyeo-wool had spoken exactly two words: "Pizza," and "Pizza Hut." Including the just-now "This," that made three total.
It wasn't that she lacked opportunities to talk. She was busy listening, for one thing — and reading the room made it hard to fire off answers on the spot.
If she carelessly said something like "Let's grab lunch" the way she had that morning, things would only get more tangled.
"Ah. Hang on a sec — bathroom."
The urge she'd been holding in finally caught up with her. Gyeo-wool fled from her friends as if making an escape.
Yeo-reum, who had been staring blankly at Lee Yeong-bin, spoke up.
"I get the general situation, but why are the kids so scared of Gyeo-wool~?"
From eternally optimistic Yeo-reum's point of view, she genuinely wondered whether the whole thing was really that big a deal. It wasn't as if she didn't know Yeong-bin had been the victim.
Ga-eul shot her a look across the table that said why would you even ask that, but Yeo-reum just shrugged as if to say so what.
Having his hair ripped out had been a major incident, but Yeong-bin spoke about it with the air of someone who had already achieved enlightenment on the subject.
"How do I put this…. When Gyeo-wool gets mad, she's kind of……. scary. Like she's possessed…?"
According to Yeong-bin's description, Hon Gyeo-wool's enraged scream had been horror-movie levels of chilling, and those big eyes that normally looked so gentle would go enormous and blaze with the kind of intensity that said she was ready to kill someone.
Coming from the victim himself, it had to be true.
There had been other reasons the class started giving Hon Gyeo-wool a wide berth after that day, but her sheer madness had definitely been the decisive factor.
And right in the middle of all that came the news of Lee Bom's death. Jin Gyeo-wool's expression, already cold, turned to solid ice after that — and even the teachers began leaving her alone, afraid of stirring up trouble.
That atmosphere had held until winter break began.
"As you know, her precious friend—"
"Ahem!"
Ga-eul cut Yeong-bin off with a sharp sound before he could finish.
As far as their friends knew right now, Jin Gyeo-wool had lost every memory of Lee Bom. There was no need to go poking at a scab.
She leaned in close to Yeong-bin's ear and murmured,
"Don't bring up Bom in front of Gyeo-wool."
"Ah. Okay."
Yeong-bin was flustered by the sudden closeness of a girl, but he grasped Ga-eul's intent soon enough.
Of course, without a full explanation attached, their exchange birthed yet another misunderstanding.
Her friend died a while ago, and even though she acts like she's fine on the outside, Jin Gyeo-wool is still carrying that grief. But she's decided to put her friend's death behind her and try to live right.
Yeong-bin found himself liking the idea of a Gyeo-wool who had steeled her will toward reform.
He asked Ga-eul,
"By any chance — did you guys transfer here because of Jin Gyeo-wool?"
Ga-eul flinched. She dropped her voice as low as it would go so Gyeo-wool, currently under Yeo-reum's full-body cling, wouldn't overhear.
"How did you know?"
"Well…. Transferring out of nowhere at this time of year, for one. And latching onto Jin Gyeo-wool the second you got here, for another…."
Yeong-bin said that any person in their right mind would never try to get close to Jin Gyeo-wool.
"So I figured that had to be it."
"You're sharp."
"I'm the class president. Comes with the territory."
"You were class president second semester?"
Watching Yeong-bin nod, Ga-eul — who had been first-semester class president at her previous school — allowed herself a faint smile. It had been a while since she'd met someone similar, and she was glad of it.
Being named second-semester class president meant you were someone the class looked up to — popular, in other words. Put differently, it also meant you were the person who understood the current state of the class better than anyone.
Ga-eul figured this had worked out well. There weren't many days left, but building a rapport with Yeong-bin couldn't hurt.
"Anyway, if you're here to look after Gyeo-wool, I'll help too."
"We'd be grateful if you did."
Arrangements had already been made with the school in advance: next year, the three girls would be in the same class again.
Ga-eul decided she'd watch him a little longer, and if she judged him suitable for protecting Gyeo-wool, she'd bring him into the fold.
In truth, she didn't even need to think that far. Homeroom teacher Kim Seongyeong had already built next year's Jin Gyeo-wool Reckless Behavior Defense Force.
Next year: Class 2-3.
Homeroom teacher Kim Seongyeong, forced into a second consecutive year because every other teacher had given up.
Lee Yeong-bin, slated to be first-semester class president and already turned into Kim Seongyeong's informant via the hair-loss incident.
And the close-range monitors Min Cheong-ha had handpicked — the snares meant to stop Gyeo-wool's abnormal behavior on the front lines: Cha Ga-eul and Han Yeo-reum.
Completely unaware of any of these established facts, Ga-eul offered Yeong-bin a cool little smile and held out her hand.
"Anyway, looking forward to working with you."
Yeong-bin clasped it as if he'd been waiting, and said,
"If you need anything, or have any favors to ask, just say the word anytime."
"Huh?"
Ga-eul asked him to repeat himself, thinking she'd misheard. Yeong-bin said it again, with emphasis.
"Ask me for as much as you want. I'm basically Jin Gyeo-wool's slave at this point. You guys are her friends, right? So work me just the same."
So… what exactly was that supposed to mean.
Ga-eul's eyes went wide with disbelief, and she fell silent.
"Don't think it's weird. It just kind of ended up that way."
Ga-eul glanced toward the bathrooms. Gyeo-wool still hadn't come back.
Gyeo-wool…. What on earth were you doing last year…?
At the start of the term she'd ripped out someone's hair. Second semester, she'd turned the newly elected class president into her slave. By year's end, she'd mouthed off at a teacher hard enough to get the woman driven out of the school.
Wasn't that a life-ruin tech tree no ordinary person could ever hope to experience?
After the meal, Lee Yeong-bin headed home, and Gyeo-wool was promptly dragged off by Han Yeo-reum.
Their destination turned out to be the apartment where Yeo-reum and Ga-eul lived alone — a place Min Cheong-ha had arranged while pushing through their forced transfer.
"Whoa… nice place."
The moment they opened the front door, a clean, pleasant scent greeted them. She'd heard some all-girl households were pigsties, but thankfully these two didn't seem to fall into that category.
"Even so, it's nothing compared to your place, right?"
"That's true. You still living in that house?"
"Uh. Yeah. Well."
Gyeo-wool was still answering in the vague, whatever-works style.
The place I'm living now is nice, after all. And I probably never moved.
Still, the attitude wasn't a bad thing. Thanks to it, she'd gathered a lot of information today.
Jin Gyeo-wool hadn't been a strange kid from early on.
Elementary school.
Lee Bom, Han Yeo-reum, Cha Ga-eul, Jin Gyeo-wool. The friends who named their group "Season" had been bright, close-knit, and famous for lighting up whatever class they were in.
Then in fifth grade, Yeo-reum and Ga-eul transferred away because of their parents' circumstances.
Wool-i definitely went weird after that.
Yeo-reum and Ga-eul were deliberately steering clear of any talk about Lee Bom. That alone made it clear Bom was something like a reverse scale for Gyeo-wool.
Something involving Lee Bom had clearly happened in fifth grade, after Yeo-reum and Ga-eul transferred. Afterward, Gyeo-wool and Bom had grown even tighter — and Gyeo-wool seemed to have become even more desperately attached to her.
Jin Gyeo-wool started growing up crooked. Then in the second semester of her first year of high school, even Lee Bom had to move to another region for family reasons, and there was no one left to stop her.
And so Jin Gyeo-wool became a hair-root thresher.
That's as far as I can reconstruct of Wool-i's past….
What she was most curious about was the story with Lee Bom — but no one would talk about her. Everyone was deliberately avoiding anything related to Bom.
The most appropriate person to ask directly would be Hon Gyeo-wool, but that felt far too cruel. It would be like killing a girl already drowning in despair over her friend's death a second time.
Better to just leave it buried and focus on reality.
Having reached her own conclusion, Gyeo-wool decided to completely reverse the passive attitude she'd been wearing until moments ago.
And what was there to agonize over, really? These lovely girls were offering to stay by her side.
"Hey, you guys want something to eat?"
According to what Jin Ju-yeong had told her, the monthly limit on the card in Jin Gyeo-wool's wallet was five million won.
Just being able to freely spend money that used to take months of work to scrape together — on herself and her friends — was already a huge happiness.
So no more overthinking. Take it easy.
In this far more comfortable environment, all Jin Gyeo-wool had to do was live doing whatever she wanted.
"Today's on me!"
That, however, was Gyeo-wool's perspective.
Her friends had things of their own they needed to do.
"About that, though, Gyeo-wool. Are you going to keep gaming?"
If Lee Yeong-bin was Kim Seongyeong's informant, then Yeo-reum and Ga-eul were Min Cheong-ha's.
Yeo-reum tended to act however she pleased without much thought, but Ga-eul was a girl of pure tenacity who threw herself into everything she did.
She hadn't been able to ask earlier with Yeong-bin present, but there was something Ga-eul needed to confirm as top priority.
"Back in fifth grade of elementary school… you said you wanted to become a pro gamer like Lee Do-jin. Is that dream still on the table?"
Because the pro-gamer dream itself was bound up with Lee Bom, it was a question she could only ask in a quiet space with just the three of them.
Even Ga-eul, who'd asked it, was nervous about what she'd do if Gyeo-wool reacted violently.
Fortunately, the one currently inside Jin Gyeo-wool was Bae Do-hyun — buzzing with excitement at the thought of becoming a pro Recon gamer — and thanks to his newly acquired abilities and body, he was more resolved than he'd ever been.
Gyeo-wool didn't hesitate for a second. She answered with full conviction.
"Of course. I'm going to become an even greater pro gamer than Lee Do-jin!"
At her forceful voice, a startled Yeo-reum muttered,
"Is she actually okay…."
They said the blacker a person's heart burned inside, the brighter they shone on the outside. You could never truly grasp what was in someone's heart from appearances alone.
Even to thoughtless Yeo-reum, that was how Gyeo-wool looked right now. Eighteen. An age most people would call very young.
Even across that short life, Gyeo-wool had never shone this brightly. Not even back in the elementary school days Yeo-reum and Ga-eul remembered.
Ga-eul scolded her in a voice only Yeo-reum could hear.
"Obviously. It's a lot better than holding a memorial rite because she wants to follow her friend into the grave."
Moving forward bright, cheerful, and hopeful about the future wasn't a bad thing.
But still — things that needed addressing needed addressing. A kid who wanted to become the world's greatest pro gamer treating the friend whose hair she'd ripped out like a slave could become a problem.
Worried for her old friend's future, Ga-eul asked carefully,
"So. That Yeong-bin kid — how did that happen, exactly?"
In other words: how did a perfectly normal-looking guy end up a slave.
Gyeo-wool, who'd been riding high on talk of a hopeful future, was thrown by the sudden conversational drift.
"Yeong-bin? Who's that?"
"That guy. The one we ate with today."
Ah, so his name was Lee Yeong-bin….
Sorry — no interest in guys. Somehow she'd gone all of fourth period without even thinking to look at his name tag. Gyeo-wool scratched the back of her neck with an awkward expression. Ever since the two friends had shown up, her gaze had been locked on Yeo-reum and Ga-eul the whole time.
"But what about him? What'd he do?"
"Well…. He said he helped you out all year…."
Even Ga-eul couldn't bring herself to say the word "slave" outright. Slavery, in modern society? Yeong-bin had to be exaggerating.
And that carefully moderate phrasing got freely reassembled in Gyeo-wool's thought circuits into this:
He helped me? Did he help Wool-i when she was struggling after Lee Bom died?
Lee Yeong-bin. So he really was a good guy? Even if being class president had left him no choice….
Gyeo-wool remembered how Yeong-bin had kept smiling at her all through lunch. Watching a guy smile at her had been somewhat revolting, but this was the man who'd looked after that wild, unhinged Hon Gyeo-wool.
Out of man-to-man respect, Gyeo-wool said,
"Ah. He's a good guy! He's kind!"
"……."
In that instant, Gyeo-wool sensed a strange atmosphere among her friends. It was the same atmosphere that had been hanging around ever since they'd been half-forced into lunch together.
Not wanting a good guy like Yeong-bin to get shut out by her friends, Gyeo-wool went and said something she didn't need to say.
"You guys be nice to him too. He's a good guy."
"Yeah? He did seem pretty nice!"
And at those words, the line Yeong-bin had spoken earlier auto-played in Ga-eul's head.
I'm basically Jin Gyeo-wool's slave at this point. You guys are her friends, right? So work me just the same.
Was this real. Was a modern-day slave system actually unfolding right in front of her eyes.
Ga-eul sighed and muttered quietly,
"Got it…."
But even so, working him like a slave was a bit much. Judging by Yeo-reum's attitude, it wouldn't be long before Yeong-bin naturally became Yeo-reum's slave too.
Blocking Gyeo-wool's impulsive behavior and improving her image had been the top priority of this transfer. Ga-eul decided that she, at least, would treat Yeong-bin well — just in case anything ugly came out of his mouth.