Chapter 39
Chapter 39
Even after that, the teacher called Yu Ha-neul to the front several more times.
It seemed like a desperate attempt to stop us from making a scene, but in the end, every move backfired.
Yu Ha-neul's expression softened every time she came back from the front. Actually, saying she was 'brimming with confidence' would be more accurate. Her steps, stiff and tense at first, became longer and more relaxed, and the pace at which she solved problems on the board grew quicker.
Not once did Yu Ha-neul get a single problem wrong... and since she never did, the teacher had no choice but to let her sit back down, right?
Anyway, the reason I say the teacher's constant calling of Yu Ha-neul backfired was—
"Um, uh, Ha-neul."
I said, looking at Yu Ha-neul's face.
Yes. I was 'looking at her face'.
And not just in profile, but straight on.
......The way we were seated had turned into something far more provocative than before.
How should I put this...
We were facing each other, and I was practically sitting in Yu Ha-neul's lap, held in her arms.
Thankfully, there was a desk behind me, so I could lean back against it as much as possible, but even so, I seriously doubted whether Yu Ha-neul could actually study like this.
"......."
Yu Ha-neul, for her part, just gave me a confident grin.
You're the one who wanted to do this first.
She looked like she was saying exactly that.
No.
No.
Well, it's just...
I mean.
It's true that I suggested we start this first.
But no matter how I thought about it, do friends of the same sex really go this far? Even as a joke? Had she seriously decided to go to the most extreme lengths to help me become a spectacle?
Of course, the power of this pose was incredible.
The kids around us, who had been clenching their jaws and trying to ignore us, couldn't tear their eyes away. They still pretended not to look, but I could clearly see their eyes darting back toward us every few seconds.
So... the effect was outstanding.
It was outstanding.
But this was a position even I found excruciatingly embarrassing, and I'd resolved to become a spectacle.
At this distance, if one of us exhaled, the breath would touch the other's face directly.
"Yu! Yu Ha-neul!"
The teacher at the front called Yu Ha-neul again.
"Come out and solve this problem!"
His voice cracked; he was openly flustered.
"......."
I tried to stand up silently and get out of the way,
but Yu Ha-neul shot up from her seat right then and there.
"Whoa."
I was shoved backward by Yu Ha-neul and nearly toppled over. There was a heavy desk behind me, but a desk isn't exactly designed to hold up tens of kilograms of body weight when someone falls backward.
As I flailed my arms and fell backward, a hand firmly caught my waist.
......It was Yu Ha-neul.
Before I knew it, Yu Ha-neul had caught me by the waist and I was standing upright. My flailing hand ended up resting on her shoulder as she pulled me close.
When I came to my senses under the bright lights, Yu Ha-neul's face was right in front of mine.
The breath I exhaled mixed with hers.
I couldn't hear anything except the sound of Yu Ha-neul's breathing.
My heart pounded madly, pumping blood through my veins. My face was probably flushed bright red from the rush of blood sent up by my frantic heart.
Yu Ha-neul was staring straight into my face.
"Yu Ha-neul!"
The frozen moment was shattered by the teacher standing at the front. He was clearly furious, but faced with our behavior and at a loss for words, all he could do was call Yu Ha-neul's name in the sternest voice he could manage.
Yu Ha-neul's hand tightened slightly around me. I tensed up, stiffening my body, but Yu Ha-neul simply tugged me straight, keeping me from falling.
Then, after flashing me a smile, she strode confidently toward where the teacher stood.
"......."
What is this.
I feel like I've lost.
No, it's more like I've lost something. Though I have no idea what I lost.
......I don't really want to think about it more than that.
*
Yu Ha-neul had a rough idea of what Sara was thinking. She must have decided that if she and Yu Ha-neul acted strangely together at school, where she was openly ignored, people would no longer be able to pretend she didn't exist. Yu Ha-neul wasn't completely sure, but that was her best guess.
Of course, that assumption changed the moment she sat down on Sara's lap.
Yu Ha-neul usually tried to act confident about her choices, but honestly, this time she couldn't stay that confident. It was embarrassing, yes, but more than that, simply sitting on top of Sara made her feel like she was doing something terribly wrong. And why wouldn't she? The person she was sitting on was, after all, none other than Sara. The one with low Stamina who barely ate.
As she endured the lesson in that position, hearing the teacher call her name felt like a relief. Honestly, being pressed against Sara hadn't felt bad, but truthfully, she felt like this was a bit too much. No matter how much people treated Sara like a ghost, it wasn't as if Sara wasn't there.
They knew Sara was there, and that's exactly why they acted that way, to ignore her.
That meant the kids in the class, and the teacher at the front, could see very clearly that she was sitting on top of Sara.
While writing the solution on the board with chalk, Yu Ha-neul slowly calmed herself. Once her heart rate dropped a little, her head started working properly again.
......Why did Sara suddenly start doing this today?
If she wanted to improve the way people treated her, she could have asked for help the moment she made a friend.
Had she been unable to trust me until now?
......Or had she genuinely misunderstood that 'range of physical contact between friends' I taught her? Was this her way of showing how close we'd gotten?
Or, did Sara actually believe we'd gotten 'this close'?
Well, of course, from Yu Ha-neul's perspective, this wasn't bad at all. Sara was pretty. She wanted to keep being close friends with her. No, if she were being honest, she wanted to get 'even closer'.
But still, the sudden shift in distance overnight felt somehow... off.
Yu Ha-neul set the chalk down with a soft clack.
"Y-yes, excellent."
She didn't attend cram schools or have private tutors, but Yu Ha-neul always prepared and reviewed her work thoroughly. She had no reason to get a textbook-level question wrong.
She turned around and started walking back toward where Sara was sitting.
Sara, seated in her chair, looked up at her with a piercing gaze.
It was an innocent expression, full of curiosity, as if she truly had no clue about anything. A remarkably serene look for someone who'd just had Yu Ha-neul on her lap.
"......."
That made her kind of annoyed.
It wasn't Sara's fault. She'd been isolated from the world since childhood, trapped in a cage. Her only sexual knowledge was probably whatever the school taught, so she couldn't possibly understand relationships beyond that.
Plus, there was that bit of misleading information Yu Ha-neul had mistakenly planted in her head last weekend.
So, this really wasn't Sara's fault.
Yet, something deep inside Yu Ha-neul didn't sit right at all.
I mean, just think about it.
What if Sara kept living her life with this distorted sense of distance? What if she acted this casually with someone else she considered a friend?
Who knows what Sara herself might think, but the other person could take it completely the wrong way.
And if that misunderstanding turned into action...
"......."
Yu Ha-neul quietly looked down at Sara. Her legs were so slender they looked thin, and her body appeared gaunt even in her winter uniform.
Surely, if someone tried to overpower Sara with force, she wouldn't be able to put up any real resistance.
Yes, things ending up like this was Yu Ha-neul's responsibility.
Therefore, it was also Yu Ha-neul's responsibility to teach Sara proper boundaries.
That's the proper attitude of someone taking responsibility!
Having come to that conclusion, Yu Ha-neul immediately grabbed Sara's wrist and pulled her up. As expected, Sara was pulled up by Yu Ha-neul's hand far too easily.
Then, as she sat back down, she pulled Sara along with her.
"Ahit?"
With her trademark sound, Sara was pulled into Yu Ha-neul's arms once again.
It was almost like a seated Princess Carry.
Sara's face flushed red in an instant. She was finally beginning to learn about 'personal distance'.
How about that? Embarrassing, isn't it?
After class, I'll explain with words that you shouldn't do this kind of embarrassing thing carelessly.
......But for now, since we're in the middle of class, let's quietly focus on the lesson.
And so, Yu Ha-neul spent the entire class period getting up whenever the teacher called her name. And every time she sat back down, she settled Sara onto her lap in a different position. Each time, the red on Sara's face ripened deeper and deeper.
By the time class finally ended, Sara was frozen in Yu Ha-neul's arms, her face bright red and unable to breathe properly.
...... I won.
She had no idea what she'd won against, but Yu Ha-neul felt that emotion while looking at Sara.
......And simultaneously, she also felt like she'd lost something.
*
"......."
"......."
That was how the first class ended, and break time arrived.
The teacher bolted out of the classroom the instant the bell rang through the speakers.
Silence still reigned over the classroom. Not even the sound of breathing could be heard.
I returned to my seat, and Yu Ha-neul sat in hers.
......I can't look at her face.
Well, when you get down to it, I was the one who started this. I was the one who exploited my relationship with Yu Ha-neul without her prior agreement, so everything that spiraled to this point was undeniably my fault.
......But still.
Even so!
From the halfway point on, whether she got carried away or whatever, Yu Ha-neul practically toyed with me, sitting me this way and that!
The female protagonist is scary. Truly, she lived up to her reputation as a protagonist who charmed people regardless of gender. Was her personal initiative this devastating compared to the choices a player made for her? The player must have acted as her restraint mechanism inside the game.
......Could it be she's actually fallen for me? Had she really decided to move from friendship to romance? I'd been suspecting that ever since she wrapped her arms around my waist.
Well, it's not like it's a bad thing if she falls for me.
But if that happened, things would probably get a whole lot weirder than I'd ever imagined...
I sat like that, staring at my desk, for about a minute when I heard something scraping against the floor beside me. I turned my head slightly to see Yu Ha-neul dragging her chair over next to me.
"How was it?"
Yu Ha-neul asked me.
How was it... it was way more humiliating than I ever imagined.
Yes. 'Humiliating' was more accurate than merely 'embarrassing'. Those are two subtly different words. The first describes an emotion that, when recalled in the middle of the night, makes you kick your blankets in cringing agony. The latter is an emotion that reddens your face and keeps you from falling asleep. Of course, if I had to choose, the latter was definitely preferable.
It was preferable, but...
"It was embarrassing, right?"
Yu Ha-neul spoke to me gently, like she was handling a small child.
When I didn't say anything, Yu Ha-neul continued.
"No matter how friendly you are with someone, a sense of personal distance is important. If you get too close, the other person might feel flustered, or they might seriously misunderstand your intentions..."
And with that, she began lecturing me about personal space.
"......."
As I listened to her, I could feel my burning red face slowly cooling down.
Ah. Now I see what's going on.
Yu Ha-neul thinks I have a poor grasp of personal distance with people.
So, since we were already engaging in this kind of behavior, she decided to use it as an opportunity to give me a direct demonstration.
"......."
After listening to Yu Ha-neul's continuing explanation for a moment, I poked her in the side.
"Ah."
Yu Ha-neul's speech cut off. I extended my hand to her as she looked at me, flustered.
"Your phone."
"Huh? Oh, okay."
Though caught off guard by my sudden request, Yu Ha-neul readily handed over her smartphone.
I searched my name in the browser. Fortunately, the article still hadn't been taken down and was right there.
I selected the article and showed Yu Ha-neul the huge photo of the two of us plastered across it.
"......."
Yu Ha-neul stared at it for a second, looking as if she didn't understand what I was showing her,
"Whaaat!?"
and then cried out in surprise.
From the look of it, she was seeing this article for the first time.
"......."
At her reaction, I pressed my hand to my forehead.