43. You Don't Know About This, Do You?
43. You Don't Know About This, Do You?
43. You Don't Know About This, Do You?
Yu Ha-yeon held my hand as if she had no intention of letting go.
I took a moment to steady my startled heart.
Why is she so aggressive today...?
Normally, Yu Ha-yeon would snap at me and act stubborn instead of being honest.
But now?
She was actively making moves on me—a playful smile on her lips but deadly serious eyes—
acting as if we had genuinely become a couple.
Wait, is she actually seeing me as a man...?
Nah. No way.
Her? See me as a man?
Just like I thought of Yu Ha-yeon as family, she surely thought of me the same way.
Come on. Familial feelings don't just turn romantic. This isn't a drama...
In dramas, childhood friends are always oblivious to their own feelings, dragging out frustrating scenes.
But this place was a game that felt like reality.
Having grown up with me since childhood, there was no way she saw me as anything but family.
Yu Ha-yeon was so deep into the date practice that I'd almost started to wonder. She must have wanted me to answer "lovers" instead of "childhood friends"—she squeezed my hand tight and bit her lip hard.
Ugh, I shouldn't be thinking like this...
We were a fake couple, but the situation felt off-kilter because I was getting self-conscious.
Yu Ha-yeon biting her lip like that made the word 'cute' flicker through my head, just a little.
Just as Yu Ha-yeon was teetering on the edge of looking like a romantic prospect,
the classroom's front door opened, and our homeroom teacher Shin Si-hwa walked in.
I seized the chance to escape from Yu Ha-yeon's interlocked fingers.
"Y-Yu Ha-yeon! Th-the teacher's here!"
"...Tch."
Yu Ha-yeon clicked her tongue, apparently disappointed she hadn't gotten her answer.
She turned her head to look at Shin Si-hwa.
I followed her gaze toward Shin Si-hwa, who stood in front of the modern blackboard.
Shin Si-hwa had her hair tied back with a band and wore her usual white dress shirt and black skirt.
She scanned the whole class, checking for absent students.
Once she confirmed everyone was present, me included, she cleared her throat with an "ahem" and began homeroom.
"Good morning, everyone. It's been a while since I've seen full attendance, so I'm a bit moved..."
She looked at me with a pleased smile.
More precisely, she was probably looking at the space between me and Yu Ha-yeon.
She clearly fancied herself a little Cupid.
After finishing the morning greeting, Shin Si-hwa got to the main point.
"Anyway, everyone! We have a new transfer student joining our class!"
A transfer student.
At the news, the students started chattering with their neighbors.
Amid the chatter, I caught the conversation of the male students in front of me.
"Hope it's a girl..."
"Right, our class desperately needs girls..."
"Desperately...?"
Then, one of the male students suddenly whipped his head around to look at me.
What, did he have something to say?
He seemed to mull something over for a moment, then turned back forward.
"Nah. Now that I think about it, I hope it's a guy."
"...Yeah, a guy might be better."
So the misunderstanding hadn't fully cleared up yet.
I had a pretty good idea what they were worried about.
Yu Ha-yeon's childhood friend. Na Yu-na's only friend.
It was only natural they'd be wary of me, the guy connected to the two girls rumored to be the prettiest in class.
Amid all this,
Yu Ha-yeon unexpectedly showed interest in the transfer student.
"Han Si-jun. That transfer student... could it be..."
Could it be.
That pink-haired girl.
The moment she was about to ask me that question,
the classroom's front door opened, and in walked the very Ban Ha-na Yu Ha-yeon had suspected.
"..."
Yu Ha-yeon fixed Ban Ha-na with dead-fish eyes.
Whenever Yu Ha-yeon got those eyes, I could never tell what she was thinking,
and that alone scared me.
I turned my head to look at Ban Ha-na, who was bouncing in with quick little steps.
Ban Ha-na's entrance drew considerable attention from the students.
"It's a girl! A girl!!"
"Wait... is she really our age...?"
The students showed a wide spectrum of reactions as they welcomed Ban Ha-na.
The exact opposite of the reception I'd gotten when I walked into this classroom.
Shin Si-hwa quieted the welcoming mood,
then began the introduction.
"This is Miss Ban Ha-na, our transfer student. She's a year younger but received early admission in recognition of her ability. Let's all get along! Understood?"
The students murmured acknowledgment,
and Shin Si-hwa prompted Ban Ha-na to introduce herself to the class.
Will she manage...?
This was Ban Ha-na's first time standing in front of so many students.
Her verbal skills were worth worrying about.
In that situation,
Ban Ha-na opened her small mouth, her body trembling.
"I-I-I'm... B-Ban Ha-na."
Ban Ha-na spoke in a shaky voice, eyes squeezed tightly shut.
Shin Si-hwa looked flustered, as if only just realizing her own oversight.
Then the trembling Ban Ha-na turned her head and met my eyes.
The moment our gazes locked, Ban Ha-na's face brightened.
I gave a discreet wave so the other students wouldn't notice,
and she seemed to draw strength from it, regaining her energy.
Of course, I couldn't hide that from Yu Ha-yeon right next to me.
"Han Si-jun. Are you cheating on me right now...?"
"What do you mean, cheating..."
Yu Ha-yeon furrowed her brows, suspicious.
If just waving at Ban Ha-na counted as cheating,
then her standards for cheating had to be seriously broken.
Dismissing the idle thought,
I turned my gaze back to Ban Ha-na.
As if she'd found her courage, she shouted to the students.
"N-Nice to meet you! H-Hello!"
She'd been told to introduce herself, so she literally just gave the greeting.
Unable to watch any longer, Shin Si-hwa tried to help with a question.
"We'll wrap up the introduction here...! Miss Ban Ha-na, is there anything you like?"
"Umm..."
Ban Ha-na fell into deep thought at the question.
Having spent a fair amount of time with her, I knew the kinds of things she liked.
Rabbit dolls. Specifically, rabbit dolls that walk on two legs.
Ban Ha-na firmly believed that while rabbits have four legs, they walk on two like humans.
No matter how many times I tried to explain, she refused to accept it, so I'd given up on rabbit common sense.
If this was Ban Ha-na, she would definitely say rabbits.
She opened her small lips, and just as I predicted, she said she liked rabbit dolls... or not.
"I like Si-jun! I like Si-jun!"
"..."
A hush fell over Class 1-A at Ban Ha-na's shouted confession that she liked me.
"That little bitch..."
The only sound reaching my ears was the growl of Yu Ha-yeon's voice beside me.
I stared at Ban Ha-na, the root cause of this disaster.
She was grinning away, as if she had no idea what she'd just set off.
Ha-na. I gave you two whole chicken legs.
And this is how you repay me...?
"A... a love triangle, is it..."
Haha.
Shin Si-hwa's hollow laugh echoed through the classroom,
and I felt the oppressive weight of every student's stare land squarely on me.
***
After Ban Ha-na's bomb of a remark.
Once morning homeroom ended and Shin Si-hwa left the room,
the students' reactions were explosive.
"She said she likes Han Si-jun...!?"
"Yeah! I like Si-jun! Si-jun is nice!"
Ban Ha-na sat in the seat in front of me, chatting with students.
She was surrounded by girls, fielding a barrage of questions.
Ban Ha-na looked overwhelmed by the attention, but she kept sneaking glances at me
while answering their questions.
"When did you start liking him?"
"From the first time I saw him!"
The students squealed in response to Ban Ha-na's answer.
Mixed in with all of it was Yu Ha-yeon's reaction, too.
"Ugh... from the first time she saw him, she says. Falls in love in three seconds. No principles. Han Si-jun, doesn't a girl like that seem cheap?"
"Why are you asking me."
"No, I'm right. Feelings that form in a short time don't last long. They say feelings grow deeper the longer they last, don't they?"
Did they...?
Yu Ha-yeon's words had a strange persuasiveness to them.
She was clearly on guard against the sudden appearance of Ban Ha-na.
Since Ban Ha-na seemed so simple, Yu Ha-yeon apparently hadn't considered the idea that I might have seduced her.
Lucky me.
I turned my head at the stinging glares coming from the front of the classroom.
It was the student Park Ji-woo I'd noticed before and a few other girls.
Those girls were speaking to me with their eyes.
'Didn't they say they were dating...?'
Girls shooting sharp looks at me, their gazes darting back and forth between Yu Ha-yeon and me.
They seemed to be the students Yu Ha-yeon had told about our relationship,
and they were looking at me like I was trash cheating despite having a girlfriend.
I did my best to ignore their stares and looked at Ban Ha-na, still surrounded by the crowd.
More precisely, at the chair Ban Ha-na was sitting in.
Just moments ago, a male student had been using it.
Which meant Ban Ha-na had taken that male student's seat.
Knowing the full story behind the incident, I silently apologized to the guy.
...Sorry, man.
The male student who gave up his seat to Ban Ha-na for the sake of peace.
The events leading up to his sacrifice went like this.
'I want to sit next to Si-jun...'
'Huh...?'
It started with Ban Ha-na eyeing Yu Ha-yeon's seat, and a subtle war of nerves broke out between the two.
'This is my seat, shorty. With that tiny height of yours, if you sit in the back row, you won't even see the blackboard. Why don't you just go sit up front?'
"I don't wanna! I wanna sit next to Si-jun!!"
Ban Ha-na, hell-bent on seizing Yu Ha-yeon's spot.
And Yu Ha-yeon, deliberately pushing Ban Ha-na's buttons.
A war of nerves where neither side would back down an inch.
I tried to mediate between them, but
two pairs of eyes asking, 'Si-jun. Whose side are you on?' promptly shut my mouth.
A fight felt imminent.
Exchanging glares, the two maintained their silent standoff.
A quiet situation that was about to get very loud.
And in that quietly smoldering conflict,
a hero was bound to appear.
'H-here, sit here... I'll move up front...'
The male student in front of me gave up his seat to Ban Ha-na.
I couldn't tell if he'd yielded out of goodwill
or if the heat of their tension had driven him to flee,
but the fact remained: he was a hero who had prevented an ugly fight.
Lost in that recollection, I silently thanked the guy and thought,
Is this really okay?
In front of me, Ban Ha-na of Black Dawn.
Beside me, Yu Ha-yeon the childhood friend.
The atmosphere around me, with two people who were dying to tear each other apart coexisting.
The tension was so thick it felt like it could explode at any second if I weren't in the middle.
The students questioning Ban Ha-na all returned to their seats,
and the freed Ban Ha-na turned her chair around and whispered to me.
"Si-jun. That woman keeps staring at me. I'm scared."
"She's not even a kid, saying she's scared. Si-jun can't stand childish people. Didn't you know that?"
"...Ha-na isn't a kid. Ha-na is an adult. Si-jun likes Ha-na."
They were like oil and water, with no sign of ever getting better.
Watching their bickering, a thought crossed my mind.
I don't know which one of them is the kid...
Yu Ha-yeon, who had regressed to childishness herself just to get at Ban Ha-na, was showing her photos of us together on her phone—a performance that bordered on psychological torment.
"You don't know Han Si-jun from four years ago, do you? Well, I do!"
"I-I have photos too...!"
Yu Ha-yeon showed the photos just briefly, deliberately stoking Ban Ha-na's curiosity.
She seemed to be secretly enjoying herself.
"This one is a photo from the lake. You want to see it? Too bad, I'm not showing you."
"G-Give me Si-jun...! Give me a Si-jun the same size as me...!"
Yu Ha-yeon listed off memories with me, tormenting Ban Ha-na all the while.
She was reveling in a deep sense of superiority.
"Haah..."
I just felt embarrassed by my childhood friend and wanted to crawl into a hole somewhere.