Intermission Jitters

Seo Jian was pouring water into a cup when she suddenly glanced to the side. Her mother, Kim Yujin, was standing right there at the sink, doing the dinner dishes like always. The reason she was washing up after nine at night was simply because Yujin had gotten home past eight. Watching her out of the corner of her eye, Jian wet her throat and spoke up.

“Mom, did I seem weird at all today?”

“…Hm? What do you mean?”

Kim Yujin must not have heard her daughter’s voice over the running water, because she only tilted her head slightly and kept scrubbing. Jian tried again.

“I mean, like… have I been acting different from usual? Or looking strange or anything like that.”

“……Hm?”

Only then did Yujin pause the water. She turned and looked at her daughter, scanning her slowly from head to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠toe. After a long, careful inspection, Yujin’s brows furrowed. Her gaze had settled on Jian’s upper body—specifically the prominent swell of her chest beneath the oversized hoodie.

“Oh… did I buy you the wrong bra size last time? Or have they gotten even bigger? If it’s uncomfortable, we can go together tomorrow and get new ones right away.”

“Wh-what are you even talking about?!”

The completely off-target answer made Jian’s face flush bright red as she shouted. Seeing her daughter’s reaction, Yujin apologized for not understanding and went back to the dishes.

“Haa…”

Jian was utterly speechless. She chugged the rest of her water and shook her head. That was when Seo Jihyun snuck up behind her without warning. With zero hesitation, her little sister slipped both hands under Jian’s hoodie and started kneading her breasts.

“Kyaa!”

“Hmm. Doesn’t seem like your size has changed at all, sis. Well, if they got any bigger than this it’d basically be an accident. Yep.”

“Are you insane?! You wanna die?!”

“Eek! She’s mad!”

Jihyun immediately bolted to her room and locked the door. All Jian could do was pound on it uselessly while yelling.

“Hey! Seo Jihyun! Open this door right now!”

“You asked if anything about you had changed, so I checked for myself!”

“I meant if my behavior had changed, you idiot!”

“Then there’s nothing to worry about! You’re exactly the same as usual!”

In the end, Jian couldn’t even vent her anger properly. She stormed back to her own room, fuming.

“Ughhhhh!”

She threw herself onto the bed. Hugging a fluffy blanket like a body pillow, she rolled back and forth across the mattress. After about ten full rolls, the heat of her rage finally cooled enough for rational thought to return.

Judging from how her family had just reacted, it didn’t seem like there was anything noticeably different about her behavior or mental state. Jian pushed the blanket aside and slowly sat up.

“What the… that Common Sense Alteration thing or whatever. It wasn’t a big deal after all?”

She’d had lunch and dinner with Hanbin without any problems. Talking with her family had felt normal too. Changing clothes at home had been fine. Even when she thought back to studying at the reading room earlier, nothing major had gone wrong. Looking back on the entire day, it really had been just like any other.

Except for that one brief mission in the morning, of course.

This is all because Kim Hanbin scared the crap out of me. I spent the whole day on edge because of what he said.

She felt like she’d been ripped off. When she saw him at the reading room tomorrow, she’d have to give him a good smack on the head to feel better. Jian pulled out the phone she’d left in her pocket and immediately sent a message.

It was her own way of being considerate in case he was still studying. The little “1” next to the message disappeared quickly. But the reply didn’t come until a while later—right around the time Jian had pulled up those embarrassing photos she’d taken before and was scrolling through them again.

“If you’re gonna say something, just say the whole thing. Why send it like this and make me ask?”

Jian pouted and typed back.

They were just studying at the same reading room anyway, so it didn’t really matter what time he showed up. Still, she decided to ask.

This reply took a full minute.

“Argh! Just tell me everything at once!”

“If you’d just told me all that from the start, it wouldn’t have killed you. Seriously.”

There was no point sending any more messages. She closed the chat window right away and opened her gallery app again. She selected every single one of those risky photos she’d taken earlier and hadn’t been able to delete—just in case. This time she pressed the delete button without hesitation.

Watching the album empty out cleanly… Seo Jian thought to herself that it really was a relief the penalty hadn’t been a big deal. Just as she’d suspected, nothing strange had happened all day. Suddenly her lips felt itchy, so she rubbed the back of her hand across them.

Normally I would’ve already been inside the study area hitting the books by now… but instead I was standing in front of the glass door of the Happy Reading Room, hesitating about whether to open it.

The message about stopping by the hospital had obviously been a lie. On top of that, I’d lied to my parents saying I had something to print. At this rate, I wasn’t sure I’d even be able to finish my repeat year properly…

It was all because of that damn duration that I’d deliberately shown up after ten o’clock. Since I had no idea what the exact trigger was, the safest bet was to avoid meeting Jian within those twenty-four hours.

I carefully pushed the door open so the little bell above it wouldn’t ring and slipped inside. The grandmother who ran the place was nowhere to be seen—she was usually away from the counter anyway. The rest area was completely empty. The only shoes in the rack belonged to Jian.

“So she is here after all.”

Well, of course she was. She’d probably come early and started studying already.

“Maybe I should’ve just come in the afternoon for sure…”

I stood in front of the study room door, unable to bring myself to go in, pacing back and forth for a long time. Then a voice suddenly came from behind me.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

“Whoa! You scared me!”

I spun around in surprise and saw Seo Jian standing there with both hands shoved into the pockets of her gray hoodie, head tilted.

“You’re the one scaring me. Why are you just standing here? If you’re not going in, move. I want to go inside.”

“Oh? Uh, yeah. I’m going in.”

When I stepped aside, Jian walked right past me like it was nothing and entered the study room. She really was acting completely normal. She didn’t suddenly lunge at my lips like she had yesterday, and she behaved as if nothing had happened at all.

“Phew.”

I sat down and let out a long sigh. It looked like the penalty was finally over. But even though it was over, it wasn’t exactly a simple problem… Ever since yesterday, that moment kept flashing through my mind over and over. I wasn’t sure if I should call it my first kiss, but that intense kiss in the middle of a crowded subway car… I had a feeling I’d never forget it, in more ways than one.

…Did that idiot not remember any of it?

I had no idea what she was thinking as she sat there studying. I’d managed to solve about seven math problems—mostly by scribbling meaningless formulas—when Jian came over and tapped my shoulder. She jerked her chin toward the door. It was already 11:30 in the morning.

When she suggested we just grab something quick at the convenience store, I followed her down the stairs from the reading room hallway. About halfway down the stairs to the second floor, Jian suddenly stopped.

“Hey, after we eat lunch today… wanna do one more mission?”

“…Out of nowhere?”

“It’s not out of nowhere.”

She held up her open palm toward me.

“We were supposed to get a million won reward, but we didn’t get anything. And the penalty turned out to be no big deal anyway.”

“……”

“Do you have any idea how worried I was because you scared me so much yesterday? Before I even showered when I got home, I was so nervous I might suddenly start acting ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠weird that I took my clothes off while totally on edge.”

Judging from her reaction, it seemed Seo Jian genuinely didn’t remember anything she’d done yesterday. Or maybe it had already blended into her memory as something completely natural. It was possible she simply hadn’t had a reason to think back on such a minor event. There was a very small chance she was just pretending not to know, but her attitude was so natural that it didn’t seem likely.

Whichever it was, I didn’t think bringing it up would be a good idea. I decided to just go along with her for now.

“So you want to do a mission right away?”

“Yeah. The original rule was that we had to do at least one per week. We never said we could only do one.”

“Riiight… I guess that’s how it was?”

“It is. Dummy.”

Thump.

Jian gave me a light smack on the head and then bounded down the stairs two or three at a time.

“This ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠is insane. Seriously.”

I muttered quietly as I watched her back. That whiteboard seemed a lot more dangerous than I’d first thought.

“What the hell is an intermission?”

“…It says it’s a break period.”

After eating lunch, we stood in front of the whiteboard again for the first time in a day. The moment I saw it, I realized there really wasn’t a single thing we could predict about any of this.