Chapter 37
Chapter 37
Ye Sa-ra's actions could only be described as 'unexpected'.
Actually, considering everything that had happened, her behavior had been somewhat strange from the moment she entered high school.
Students who had come from the same middle school, whether they'd shared a class with her or not, knew bits and pieces about what kind of person Ye Sa-ra was. A being who had given up on everything, who never approached others first. They said that in elementary school she'd craved attention and acted out in all sorts of bizarre ways. But by the time she graduated, she seemed to have accepted her circumstances and stopped wanting relationships with anyone.
Honestly, for the kids in her class, that was convenient. If the other party gave no particular reaction, it was naturally that much easier to ignore her.
However, Ye Sa-ra's behavior began to change starting from their middle school graduation.
Lee Su-a spoke to Ye Sa-ra.
And Ye Sa-ra actually responded.
The two even took a picture together at the graduation ceremony.
......A picture of Ye Sa-ra, one that hadn't even made it into the graduation album. The two of them took it together.
This was enough to cause a ripple. Lee Su-a had already made many friends within the school, and she was quite a popular kid. And yet she had committed what was practically a taboo act.
How should they deal with the existence that was Lee Su-a?
The conclusion the other students reached was simple. All they had to do was ignore Lee Su-a as well. Now that she and Ye Sa-ra were entangled, there was no way to talk to Lee Su-a without getting tangled up with Ye Sa-ra.
At first, a few kids tried talking to Lee Su-a while ignoring Ye Sa-ra, but it quickly became clear that you couldn't avoid Ye Sa-ra's name while talking to her. Lee Su-a carried a guilty conscience over having ignored Ye Sa-ra during her own middle school days. Whenever she talked to the others, she deliberately brought up Ye Sa-ra. Every time she did, the kids shut their mouths. In the end, before long, Lee Su-a inevitably became isolated just like Ye Sa-ra.
After entering high school, Ye Sa-ra made another friend.
This time, it was hard to treat her as ignorable. After all, the kid was an outside admit. She had no one you could call an acquaintance on campus. From the start, outside admits were in an easily ignored position, and it was easy to lump her together with Ye Sa-ra and ignore them both.
......That's what they had thought.
But the two got close. Too close.
Yu Ha-neul approached Ye Sa-ra without any hesitation. And Ye Sa-ra accepted Yu Ha-neul without any hesitation. The two chatted constantly during break time, and Yu Ha-neul would even prank Ye Sa-ra.
Ye Sa-ra and the rest of the class shared a relationship of mutual ignorance. But because of that dynamic, even her pretty face was hard to ignore perfectly. An appearance that drew people's eyes just by sitting still. Though hard to approach, that cold beauty lent her a haughty air. While they struggled to ignore her, Ye Sa-ra's aura as a 'flower on a cliff' was an undeniable truth.
Yet, Yu Ha-neul shattered that aura without a care.
Every time she poked Ye Sa-ra's side, Ye Sa-ra let out a weird but cute sound. A sound so utterly contradictory to her established image.
And because of that, it was funny.
Laughter is a physiological phenomenon. With rigorous training, it might be possible to forcibly hold it in. But over the past three years, the kids had never learned how to suppress their laughter. It wasn't like they had a real relationship beyond ignoring each other anyway.
......Lately, the kids sitting near Ye Sa-ra had been coming to the brutal realization that holding back laughter at a funny person was far harder than dealing with an annoying one or someone who yelped.
*
Since then, Ye Sa-ra had set off many things. She conversed with two extremely popular guys on campus. And these two weren't people you could just carelessly ignore. One was the heir to Homyeong Group, the largest conglomerate in the country after Yujin Group. He was handsome and very popular.
The other was a male student rumored to possibly become the next rising star of Korean football. Though the guy himself seemed to have no intention of betting his life on soccer, regardless, he was popular. The only women who would dislike a handsome, athletic man with a good personality were lesbians.
Sexual instinct is that hard to suppress. Not a single female student in this school could just casually ignore these two. So they simply hoped that while the two boys talked to them, they wouldn't bring up anything about Ye Sa-ra.
Yes. That prison of silence forcibly enclosing Ye Sa-ra's exterior was far thinner and weaker than the prison guards had thought.
......And today made that even more evident.
Kids in school tend to think, without realizing it, that school is their whole world. That thought usually isn't corrected easily until they graduate and start working. The best way to realize that all the social know-how they possessed was merely the clumsy gestures of a rookie in society is to go out into the world, face countless hostilities, and actually work.
Or have an outsider forcibly enlighten them.
Some lunatic photographer took a picture of Ye Sa-ra. And some insane media outlet bought the photo and wrote an article about it.
The article was even a dating scandal.
And it was plastered boldly across the main page of a portal site.
Granted, it didn't have the immense impact of a celebrity dating scandal.
But it was more than enough to spread rumors inside the closed society called 'school'.
Plus, both subjects of the dating scandal were in the same class.
......They couldn't help their eyes being drawn to the two of them.
Yes. No matter how much the kids in school treated Ye Sa-ra like an invisible person, people outside the school couldn't care less.
As the article spread to other media outlets, trending in online communities, and people started evaluating Ye Sa-ra and Yu Ha-neul's faces, figures, and clothes, there was no way that mere high school students could stop it.
Furthermore, the kids inside this school were still teenagers with their sexual curiosities in full bloom.
They get curious when they hear someone is dating. And if the two people dating are of the same sex, it draws even more attention.
And then there were their own worries.
If there were two homosexuals in the same class, how were they supposed to change clothes during PE? Even if the class ignored them, those two would still have eyes that could look at the rest of the class.
Even if they were treated as invisible, in the end, it was just an act. The two of them didn't actually become invisible.
And then, an incident occurred that hammered the final nail into the coffin of those worries.
"Here, come sit."
Ye Sa-ra looked at Yu Ha-neul and said with a bright smile. Many kids had stolen glances of Ye Sa-ra's eye-smiles before, but that brilliantly beaming expression was a first.
That innocent, pure look was so beautiful. So much so that they couldn't even keep their eyes from turning that way for a moment.
Besides, this was also a kind of declaration.
Whatever the rumors, whatever the dating scandal.
'We are actually like this, so what?'
It was imbued with that meaning.
At least, every kid in that class thought so.
Regardless of what Ye Sa-ra's true intentions were.
*
Yu Ha-neul, who had been standing there blankly for a long moment, suddenly smacked both of her own cheeks with a clap!
"Hup!"
And with that, she pulled herself together and walked over to me with confident, heavy steps.
Then she plopped down onto the chair I had pulled up next to mine.
Yeah, that's the only way you would come in.
Although the article content was written in a way that was extremely easy to misunderstand, the two of us are just friends.
But there's no need to go out of our way to prove that in front of everyone. It doesn't matter what anyone else thinks anyway.
No matter what Ye Sa-ra did, she was treated as if she 'didn't exist'.
Let's see them try to keep that up now.
Once seated, Yu Ha-neul rustled through her bag.
And as always, she pulled out a bag of chocolates. It was the kind of product where little chocolates were individually wrapped like candies.
She opened the large bag, took out one chocolate, and silently held it out to me.
I stared at the chocolate for a moment, then accepted it with my mouth. I felt like my lips might have brushed against her fingers, but Yu Ha-neul didn't seem to mind.
"Is it good?"
Yu Ha-neul asked, as always.
I nodded my head.
I don't really know what the kids around me were doing, but I could sense someone from far away craning their neck long to look this way.
Because we were sitting with our desks blatantly pushed together just before class.
If there were any slightly nosy kids around, this would be an irresistible sight they couldn't help but peek at. Though the ones close by seemed to be forcibly holding back since they'd make it too obvious if they looked at me.
Let's see how it goes during class.
*
The teacher entering the classroom saw Yu Ha-neul and me sitting stuck together, and his jaw dropped.
His mouth flapped open and shut a few times as if he was about to say something, but he soon closed it.
Yeah, what can you say.
At the very least, he can't single me out. Because that would violate the principle of ignoring me.
But it's also hard for him to single out Yu Ha-neul. If he singles her out, the first thing out of her mouth will be 'Why are we sitting like this?', and if he tries to explain the reason, he inevitably has to acknowledge my existence.
I am an invisible person, but I can't be 'perfectly' ignored either. He has to give me grades, and my name is written in the attendance book. The Yujin Group is greasing enough palms that I can even get a perfect attendance award without actually coming to school, so the moment Yu Ha-neul starts talking about me, it forces the fact that I exist in this space.
If not that—
"Yu Ha-neul, if you don't move that desk right now, I will deduct points from your attitude score."
Yeah, he could just come out swinging with a direct threat like that.
For Yu Ha-neul, who can attend this school only because of her high grades, even a single point deduction from her attitude score is a huge hit.
But despite the teacher's words, Yu Ha-neul stayed firmly planted in her seat.
"I—ah."
And just as she tried to rebel, I poked her side with my finger.
I shook my head at Yu Ha-neul.
"......."
Yu Ha-neul bit her lip.
"......Sorry."
It seemed she understood what I had been thinking when I pushed my desk next to hers. But she seemed frustrated that she couldn't be of any more help beyond this.
I got up along with Yu Ha-neul and helped her move the heavy desk back to its original position.
And then, after she had moved her chair—
I went and sat right down in that chair.
"......."
The classroom was enveloped in silence.
"......Take your seat."
The teacher said, his face flushing bright red. He was talking to Yu Ha-neul. He probably thought that if he did that, Yu Ha-neul would chase me out and sit back down in her own seat.
"......."
Yu Ha-neul hesitated for a moment, then tried to go and sit in my seat.
But her steps were stopped before she could take a single one.
Because I had grabbed the sleeve of Yu Ha-neul as she turned around.
To Yu Ha-neul, who looked down at me with surprised eyes, I shook my head once.
Then I patted my thigh with my hand.
"......Huh......?"
Yu Ha-neul's mouth fell open.
And everyone else's mouth in the classroom fell open.
I looked up at Yu Ha-neul and flashed her a grin.
That's right. I am an invisible person in this classroom. I have been for the past several years.
So, logically, isn't this chair I'm sitting in also empty?
I slowly turned my head and stared straight at the teacher, whose bangs were gradually dampening with cold sweat.
Go ahead, try to ignore this.
Seeing my confident smile, the teacher's face went deathly pale.