Chapter 112
Chapter 112
A graduation ceremony I would never have attended under normal circumstances.
Honestly, even attending it had been worse than not going at all. Throughout middle school, I'd been invisible, yet somehow my grades always hovered right around the class average, and I never had a single absence, early dismissal, or tardy on my record.
Probably to avoid drawing attention.
Yeah, that must have been it. If a chaebol heiress missed too much school and ended up getting expelled over it, the scandal alone would have been a disaster.
Whatever the reason, that person did go to graduation.
Even though no one would have spoken to her the whole time she sat in that classroom.
Did she understand that kind of loneliness too?
And on the way back after the ceremony, she encountered a single miracle.
"I see."
I murmured, looking at the photo on the smartphone screen.
It wasn't my phone. It was Lee Su-a's. She said it was taken at the middle school graduation.
A photo taken together in front of the school gate, almost as if leaving behind proof.
Even though it must have been her first time taking a picture with anyone outside of family, 'I' was smiling softly in it. Lee Su-a, standing next to me, was far more nervous—her face flushed red, her posture stiff.
The first person who'd ever spoken to me at that school was Lee Su-a.
Maybe that triggered some feeling in 'me.'
The emotion I sensed from the photo was joy. So faint I couldn't describe it in any detail, but seeing Lee Su-a talking to me, I felt that 'joy.'
"So it was you. The first person who ever talked to me."
When I murmured that, Lee Su-a's face went bright red, just like in the photo. It was cute. I really did think it'd be nice to have a little sister like her. Though that would require completely different parents.
...Growing up in another family, somewhere other than this, might not have been so bad either.
I had memories of my father. But I had almost no memories of my mother.
Wouldn't it have been better to be born into a family that got along, even if they didn't have this much money?
What would that person have thought?
...Well, whatever the situation, whatever she was thinking, I doubt she ever gave up and ran away.
"No, it's not just because I talked to you."
Lee Su-a said it like a defense, her face still red.
"I was just the one who said something first. You were the one who accepted it..."
The bodyguard who'd been tailing me had apparently tried to stop me from answering. That made sense. Keeping people away was probably exactly what he'd been ordered to do, and he had to do his job since he was being paid for it.
But she apparently saw things differently.
With just a few words, she'd coolly brushed off the bodyguard, taken a picture with Lee Su-a like it was nothing, and left without a backward glance.
...Lee Su-a didn't phrase it exactly like that, but judging by the expression on her face and the feeling in her voice as she told the story, that's what it had seemed like to her.
"I see."
If it had been me, I wouldn't have even been able to answer Lee Su-a.
I probably would have thrown away what might have been the first real chance in my life to make an actual friend.
...Really, no matter how I thought about it, she was a different person from me.
*
"...";
I was silently staring at Yu Ha-neul. Under my gaze, Yu Ha-neul was sweating bullets.
Even Shin So-hee, who normally loved hugging me at every opportunity, must have read something in my expression—she'd pulled her body way back, clearing a path for my line of sight.
We were in the classroom.
Class hadn't started yet, but everyone was relatively quiet. Honestly, it was always like that. Whether I was there or not, whether people were noisy or not, the atmosphere was different from middle school.
Probably because that person had once taken this whole school by the throat.
Not that it mattered—we never paid much attention either way.
"...So what you're saying is, I climbed on top of you?"
When I slowly opened my mouth and asked, Yu Ha-neul nodded.
"Yeah."
"During class."
"Mm."
"In front of other people."
"...Yeah."
The looks the other kids were giving me weren't shock; they were more like bemusement. Which meant I really had pulled something like that.
...Why?
"To get people's attention."
Yu Ha-neul told me the reason, reading my face.
"...";
I had no idea what to say to that.
Clearly, after arriving at this school, that person had been relentlessly trying to draw eyes. Disrupting teachers' lessons, openly insulting them on a personal level; it seemed like those had been a kind of warning too.
And the most reliable way to get everyone's attention on campus was to do something that, rationally speaking, you should absolutely never do.
Okay, I got the reasoning.
I just hadn't imagined she'd actually go through with it.
...I felt the image I'd built up of her cracking a little.
The impression I'd had was of someone meticulously planning everything out, calmly executing each step, but now I was starting to think she was the type to just act on impulse as things came to her.
Not that I didn't want to meet her anymore.
"So, um...";
When I couldn't bring myself to finish the sentence, Yu Ha-neul took a breath and spoke.
"Yeah. That's the most 'intense' thing I ever experienced with you."
Right; I was the one who'd asked her to tell me about a memory like that. And she'd just given me what I asked for.
Part of me wanted to turn around and confirm it with the kid behind or in front of me, but I still didn't have the nerve to just talk to people like that.
"...Okay."
And honestly, more than anything, I wasn't sure I'd trust those kids' words over Yu Ha-neul's.
So I had no choice but to accept it and move on.
During our brief silence, the front door of the classroom slid open with a rattle.
The teacher walked in without a word, and right on cue, the bell for class rang.
"All right, everyone settle down."
The teacher glanced our way, then opened the attendance book.
While roll was called and class got underway, I was thinking.
The reason I'd been able to come back to the surface was because I'd collided with my own most intense memory.
Which meant that if I could access an intense memory that person had experienced while in this body, I might be able to bring her back. There was no rule saying the logic only worked one way.
The most intense memory that person possessed was too dangerous to use.
Gathering fragments of memory bit by bit to assemble one big one could take too long, and there was no guarantee it would even work.
...In that case.
What if I recreated one of the memories that seemed especially intense?
"...";
To be honest, something about it bothered me.
Not because I'd be doing it with a girl; that wasn't the issue. It was more... emotional, I guess.
Yeah. The fact that I'd have to do that kind of thing with Yu Ha-neul.
It's not that I disliked Yu Ha-neul. If someone asked me to pick between like and dislike, I'd definitely say 'like.'
But that feeling wasn't the same as wanting to do 'that kind of thing' with her.
Still, even so...
If it meant getting that person back without hurting her?
There was no reason not to go through with it.
Right. Fine.
I took a deep breath.
Then I pushed my chair back and stood up.
"Ye Sa-ra?"
I heard the teacher call my name, but I ignored her.
Seeing me walk toward Yu Ha-neul, she must have had a bad feeling—she called out something else, but the words didn't register.
My heart was pounding.
Was it because I was nervous about what I was about to do?
Or was it because I was getting close to that 'intense memory' and that person's memories were starting to stir?
I really hoped it was the latter.
A shame I never would have felt under normal circumstances flooded my entire body.
The teacher kept calling my name, flustered, and the kids around me had their eyes wide open, staring up at me.
Like they already knew exactly what was about to happen.
...Judging by their reactions, Yu Ha-neul's story was definitely true.
Yu Ha-neul, Shin So-hee, and I, the three of us, had walked out of the classroom together plenty of times before. What had they thought back then?
Under everyone's stares, I tried not to tremble.
Then I went up to Yu Ha-neul, who was looking up at me with wide, round eyes, and said:
"Would you mind pulling your chair back?"
Yu Ha-neul was smart enough to understand exactly what I meant.
"...You're going to do it?"
"Yeah."
"...";
At my answer, Yu Ha-neul lowered her head for a moment of silence, then nodded.
Scrape.
I heard the chair drag backward.
"...";
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. All right. Let's see what happens.
...The fact that I was even having this kind of reckless, half-baked idea; it was all that person's fault.
...When I see her, I am not letting this slide.
Anyway, I decided to think of it that way.
I slowly parted my legs. Then, in an awkward half-crouch, I lowered myself onto Yu Ha-neul's thighs.
They were much softer and more yielding than I'd expected. It wasn't uncomfortable.
The skirt and underwear were surprisingly thin material, apparently.
I shivered for a second at that bare sensation, that warmth.
My breathing quickened.
Was this 'just' embarrassment too?
"...S-so, now, what do I...?"
When I asked with my eyes still shut, Yu Ha-neul silently took my hands. A pathetic little "eep" escaped my mouth.
My hands ended up resting on both of Yu Ha-neul's shoulders, I think.
I felt her hands wrap around my waist.
"Nngh...";
...and my upper body pulled in close against her.
Lukewarm air pressed all the way up to my lips.
"...Back then, Sara had her eyes open."
"...";
Yu Ha-neul whispered it.
I couldn't hear anything around us anymore. Only the pounding of my heart thudded in my ears.
"How about opening your eyes?"
Right. This was all so I could meet that person.
I took a big breath, and instantly regretted it. The lukewarm air near my face rushed straight into my mouth, catching me off guard. It was a miracle I didn't cough.
Holding my breath, I opened my eyes.
Yu Ha-neul was practically glaring at me.
Our eyes met straight on, our heartbeats overlapping. A ringing filled my ears—wiiiing.
...Slowly, I felt my consciousness receding.