Chapter 59
Chapter 59
Since the meeting with the Student Council President took less time than I'd expected, I couldn't use the excuse that I had no time to exercise after school today.
I briefly considered making up an excuse, but by the time that thought crossed my mind, Ha-neul and Lee Su-a had already grabbed my arms from both sides and were dragging me toward the gymnasium.
......Today, I absolutely must not get cocky and try to fight the ball.
At the very least, I made that resolution while being hauled off to the gym, and then—
Shin So-hee was juggling a soccer ball with her feet.
"Huh?"
She kicked the ball back up before it hit the ground, caught it on her forehead, and popped it up again. She tried to flick it with her heel as it dropped behind her, but couldn't connect properly, and the ball rolled away behind Shin So-hee's back.
"Ah, damn. It's been a while, so it's not working right."
"Whoa, you're pretty good at this!"
The captain, who'd been watching from close by, spoke up.
"What, are you in a soccer club at school or something?"
"Why would I be? I'm too busy just trying to get home after school."
Shin So-hee answered with a slight frown. The captain said to her,
"Really? That's too bad."
The captain didn't press the issue. He liked soccer but had no intention of making a career out of it, after all.
Come to think of it, he didn't seem to be an outside admit, either. In that case, he probably knew very little about the world outside Hwayeong High School. Even if someone genuinely wanted to play soccer but couldn't because their family couldn't support them, or if someone believed they had to find a job quickly because of financial difficulties—he wouldn't be able to relate to that.
No, more than simply not relating, it was probably that such thoughts wouldn't even occur to him in the first place. He'd lived his whole life in a wealthy household, after all.
Shin So-hee wasn't the type of character who dedicated her life to soccer or had some dream that was crushed. She wasn't the type of character who thought she had to become something, either. She was just the kind of character who charged straight at whatever she liked that was right in front of her. In the original story, that refreshing personality was what let her sweep away Yu Ha-neul's worries so breezily, and—
No, wait.
"......So-hee?"
At my call, Shin So-hee, who'd been talking with the captain, whipped her head toward me. Her indifferent expression immediately softened.
And then, as if she realized her expression had changed, she hurriedly cleared her throat, gathered herself, and went back to her usual aloof look.
She was, in truth, an excellent Tanned Blond Tsundere character.
"How did you get in here?"
As I approached Shin So-hee and asked, she shrugged as if it were nothing.
"I climbed the wall."
The atmosphere around us froze solid at those words.
"What......?"
When I asked again blankly, Shin So-hee scratched the side of her head with her index finger.
"Well, the staff blocked me when I tried to go through the main gate."
Of course they'd block a student from another school trying to come in without permission.
This wasn't some ordinary high school; it was a school attended exclusively by the children of the country's most prominent wealthy families.
......She said they blocked her from getting in, so she climbed the wall.
"Yep."
"......."
I felt like I should offer some kind of rebuttal, but she declared it so brazenly that, on the contrary, I had nothing to say.
"Where?"
"The place you guys always go over."
"......."
Once again, silence fell around us.
Ah, right. I do climb the wall pretty much every day myself.
"Nobody said anything to you on your way here?"
"Never ran into any school staff. The students all avoided me once your name came up."
Honestly, the school staff probably would've avoided her too if my name had come up.
The reason the students who didn't talk to her didn't suspect Shin So-hee was...... maybe because she herself was so brazen that they assumed she must've gotten permission from someone to be here.
"No, hold on."
The captain, who'd been listening from the side, cut in.
"So, are you telling me you're currently trespassing at this school?"
"If it's trespassing, then I guess it's trespassing."
Shin So-hee answered indifferently.
No, you don't have to call it trespassing for it to still be trespassing.
"In the first place, our school doesn't just block everyone from other schools unconditionally. In the mornings, the old guys from the early-morning soccer club even come and play and then leave. Locking the main gate and refusing to let anyone in at all—isn't that way too uptight? It isn't even an elementary school."
Well, sure, there are schools like that.
Thinking back, I think the high school I attended used to let the older men rent the field on weekends for soccer and stuff.
But that was because the school gave them permission!
"So, do you not like it? Me being here. Should I leave?"
"Huh? Ah, no......."
If I told her to leave in this situation, wouldn't that just make me the bad guy?
The captain, who seemed to have let something go ever since he made me roll around yesterday, looked back and forth between us and asked, sounding as if I were somehow a member of the soccer club.
"Are you two acquainted?"
"We spent last night together."
Before I could even answer, Shin So-hee quickly responded and wrapped her arm around my neck.
Then she pulled me in and pressed my face against the side of her chest.
The sensation was soft, warm, and slightly damp. There was a fragrant fruity scent—whether it was fabric softener or something she sprayed on separately, I couldn't tell. A smell I'd encountered somewhere before. Though I couldn't remember exactly where.
"Right? Right?"
And with her other hand, she ruffled my hair wildly. I wasn't sure if it was because she'd been playing with the ball just moments before, but her body was extremely warm.
"Mmph, wait, let me—"
I struggled, but it seemed Shin So-hee's athletic ability and strength were leagues above Ye Sa-ra's.
When I tried to push her away, Shin So-hee just hugged my head even tighter with both arms.
......Ah, fine. Do whatever you want. Do whatever you want.
This was all probably just an act to provoke misunderstandings from people watching, after all.
It was only after I completely gave up on escaping that embrace and let my arms fall limp that Shin So-hee finally loosened her hold.
"Pwah."
Barely liberated, I took a deep breath, then looked around again.
Ha-neul and Lee Su-a were glaring at Shin So-hee, their faces flushed bright red. Shin So-hee's face was bright red too, but her expression was overflowing with smug satisfaction.
"......."
The captain was staring at us with his mouth hanging open, a blank expression on his face.
The soccer club members watching from far off had their faces flushed bright red as well.
"......Impressive."
Nam Da-un, who'd been watching the two of us quietly, was genuinely admiring.
"Hey, new kid."
The captain called me, tapping me on the shoulder with a finger.
"Yes?"
The captain leaned his head toward me, a little intrusively, and asked in a low voice,
"You four, are you that kind of relationship?"
"......Uh......."
Looking at Shin So-hee and Ha-neul bickering fiercely, and Lee Su-a flustered and panicking beside the two of them, I thought for a moment, then answered.
"That...... would be the case, yes?"
Since they were acting like that right out in the open, it was probably fine to just answer that way, right?
"You're something else, new kid!"
The captain suddenly smacked me hard on the back, making me lurch forward for a second.
"So, uh. Could you maybe teach me how to be popular?"
Behind him, Nam Da-un was watching the captain with a somewhat pitying look on his face.
Uh.......
A way to be popular.
I had absolutely no clue.
I looked quietly at Shin So-hee and Ha-neul, who were glaring at each other.
Right. I really don't know. All I'd done was say a few words to each of them. If anything, beyond that, it's more like I'm the one getting swept up by those three.
Maybe that's it?
You just have to reincarnate as a villainess?
......Nah, no way.
*
Lately, Yang Hye-in had been feeling a profound sense of dissonance.
Why had the young lady suddenly developed such a bright personality?
Why had she started making friends like that?
How had she figured out how to reject and fight back against the people who oppressed her?
......Of course, none of that was a bad thing.
It wasn't a bad thing, but it was strange.
From the perspective of Yang Hye-in, who had attended Young Lady Ye Sa-ra for three years now, there had never been a single incident that looked like a "trigger."
Young Lady Ye Sa-ra had always simply lived quietly.
If she had to name an incident, it would be when the young lady was suddenly taken to the hospital. The day she saw wounds that were likely assumed to be self-harm.
But even that felt insufficient as a "trigger." Because nothing like that had ever happened before. For the self-harm or the hospital visit to occur at all, there had to have been a reason that incident itself happened in the first place.
"......."
And so, Yang Hye-in found herself arriving at a single thought.
It was good that the young lady had become more outgoing. It was good that she'd found friends and started smiling. The fact that she now spoke to Yang Hye-in herself was certainly a good thing, too.
The possibility that those friends liked the young lady in a slightly different sense—provided they didn't cross the line too far, that might even be a good thing.......Though it would probably require a bit more investigation.
But: why had she come to think that way?
What had led her to do something that would win the Chairwoman over?
If she didn't learn the answer, she clearly wouldn't be able to help the young lady properly.
......Up until now, Yang Hye-in, like the other servants, had merely remained one of the perpetrators.
It hadn't even been a full month since she'd changed her mind. But most likely, because of the events that had transpired in that span of less than a month, Yang Hye-in would not be permitted to stay at Ye Sa-ra's side in the future.
Into the position Sara left vacant, a new, expressionless, well-trained professional maid would be placed.
And that maid would, naturally, very likely be on the Chairwoman's side. Just as Yang Hye-in herself had been for the past three years.
She'd thought she had about a month left, but now that the Chairwoman had changed her mind, even that had become difficult. She would probably be dismissed before the week was out.
"......."
Yang Hye-in brought her fingerprint to the door lock beside Ye Sa-ra's room.
Beep-beep-beep-beep, went the sound of the numbers being entered automatically.
The lock released, and she opened the door and stepped into the young lady's room.
The only person authorized to tidy Young Lady Ye Sa-ra's room was her personal maid, Yang Hye-in. Of course, even Yang Hye-in was only permitted to clean and organize; she had no right to rummage through the young lady's belongings at will.
But this time, she intended to overstep that authority a little.
She had no intention of making the excuse that this was for the young lady's sake. While she did want to help, her true motive, the personal desire to simply know the reason, was what drove this action.
However—
Yang Hye-in closed the door again. She heard the sound of the internal locking mechanism rotating and the door sealing shut.
She turned her body and quietly looked around the spacious room.
If there was a place where the young lady would keep her personal belongings, there was only one.
The wardrobe was something Yang Hye-in opened every time the seasons changed or whenever she put away the laundry. The cabinets in the bathroom and shower room were her responsibility, too. Naturally, the only space the young lady could use for strictly private purposes was her desk drawer.
Without hesitation, Yang Hye-in went straight to the desk.
She knelt down in front of it.
She opened the first drawer. A pencil case, a few ballpoint pens, and some pencils were rolling around inside.
She opened the second drawer. A few cheap trinkets, bought who-knew-when, were scattered about.
"......."
And then she opened the last drawer.
Inside lay one thick notebook, a torn-open envelope, and a single pill bottle.
"......."
Yang Hye-in stared down at them for a moment, then slowly reached out and took the objects out of the drawer.