Chapter 87
Chapter 87
"She's been following you around since earlier."
Lunchtime.
The mealtime group had grown.
So-hee joining us was only natural. Not because she was my maid and I couldn't turn her away, but because I had no intention of ignoring a friend who now attended the same school. Even if she'd said she wanted to eat separately, calling her over would've been the right move.
"Wow, lunch here is fancy. Guess you really do get what you pay for with those tuition fees."
So-hee wore a beaming smile, and surprisingly didn't pile her plate high with food.
I'd half-expected her to load it up, remembering that first meal together at the mansion, but she'd taken even less than Ha-neul or Su-a. Not that the comparison to what I'd taken onto my own plate meant much.
"Huh? Oh, this? Eh, whatever. I get fancy food three meals a day now anyway. Had a solid breakfast too, so it's no big deal."
When my eyes flicked between the other girls' plates and hers, So-hee apparently guessed what I was about to say and answered like that.
In other words, she'd already eaten a lot at breakfast and wasn't really hungry now.
......Just how much had she eaten?
Still, that felt like a step too far to actually ask, so I quietly tried to pull my plate toward me—
"Ah, please wait a moment, miss."
So-hee spoke, then pulled a handkerchief from her uniform pocket and unfolded it.
She spread the flimsy cloth with practiced ease and laid it across my lap. The handkerchief was incredibly thin, so thin that even though it came from a pocket and was folded in half, it easily covered about half my thigh.
"......What's this?"
"A napkin."
So-hee looked at the white napkin now resting on my thigh and sounded utterly self-satisfied.
I still hadn't figured out her criteria for switching between formal and casual speech, though. Did she forget about it normally and only remember when maid duties crossed her mind?
......Not that it mattered either way.
"Napkin?"
So-hee nodded.
Then she sat back down without any further explanation.
.......
I mean, sure. Fine.
I remembered reading somewhere, maybe in some fantasy novel, that in extremely expensive restaurants, napkins sometimes sit on the table before the meal arrives, and placing a napkin on your lap is proper etiquette.
Well, I did use napkins at the mansion sometimes. Occasionally Yang Hye-in would spread one across my lap for me, and occasionally I'd do it myself.
But I'd never used one at school before.
......Eh. Was it really worth dwelling on?
At school, I simply hadn't had a maid trailing me, so there'd never been a reason to bother. Now, I did have a maid trailing me. She just happened to be wearing a school uniform instead of a maid's uniform.
I decided to let it go and turned back to my plate, only to find it and the utensils arranged with startling precision. You know those poster illustrations where the plate, fork, and knife are laid out in perfect alignment? That exact image came to mind—fork, plate, and knife resting in a flawless row.
Given a little more time, she probably would've tucked a placemat under the plate too.
The only imperfection in the whole display was the food I'd randomly scooped onto the plate myself.
So-hee was taking In-su's legacy more seriously than I'd expected.
"Um...... thanks?"
"Think nothing of it. I merely did what needed to be done."
At my praise, So-hee gave a slight bow in my direction. She didn't rise from her seat, but she still managed a reasonably dignified air. Not quite to Yang Hye-in's standard, but then again, she'd only officially become a maid a single day ago.
.......
If I answered any further, this really would turn into a conversation between a lady and her maid, so I simply picked up the fork and knife from either side of the plate.
Ha-neul and Su-a, who'd been staring blankly at us until then, finally picked up their own utensils.
They'd probably just been watching in stunned disbelief at how absurd the whole scene was—
But the uninvited guest sitting at this table with us clearly didn't see it that way.
"......Just as I thought."
I stopped the fork and knife I'd been about to apply to the plate. I raised my head and looked at the girl seated diagonally across from me.
On my left sat So-hee, on my right Ha-neul. Su-a sat almost directly opposite me.
Since we were at a round table, this seating arrangement should have meant two pairs facing each other, but So-hee and Ha-neul had both scooted closer to me, which left a little extra space.
And the person who'd claimed that gap between Su-a and So-hee was none other than the Disciplinary Committee Member—er, Son A-reum.
I'd nearly forgotten her name from always just calling her "the Disciplinary Committee Member." Thank goodness this school's name tags use hangul, not hanja. Back when I was in high school, they'd made us use hanja name tags for pointless character study, which made learning everyone's names a massive pain.
I had no idea what exactly was "just as she thought," but seeing her blended so naturally into our table, I couldn't just let it pass without a single word.
"Hey, so, how'd you end up here?"
At my question, Son A-reum declared with perfect boldness,
"To watch you, obviously."
Huh.
Not like I even needed watching—I already stood out plenty. Just listening to the stories about me floating around campus would tell someone exactly what I'd done today.
Not that I'd done much today.
Aside from the other kids growing terrified thanks to So-hee and Ha-neul.
"Yeah? You discover anything impressive?"
I asked, spearing a piece of meat with my fork. Was this beef?
.......
Son A-reum fell deep into thought.
And kept thinking for a good long while.
Made sense. She might have been able to say something about So-hee this morning, but she had no way of knowing what had happened inside my classroom. Once the rumor spread that'd be one thing, but today's incident was the kind of story the students themselves knew they shouldn't recklessly spread.
The homeroom teacher had taken money, from someone she absolutely shouldn't have.
Over a billion won, at that.
Thanks to that, my own classmates were probably frantically weighing whether they now had to ignore me.
A story like that getting out would obviously make things that much more dangerous.
"......What about the fact that there's no one around here?"
Son A-reum asked.
Ah. Right.
The surrounding tables were indeed empty. Even though the rest of the student cafeteria was packed and buzzing with students, this area was deserted. It was like I'd cleared it all out so I could eat in comfort.
From the perspective of someone who didn't know anything, it did look open to misunderstanding.
"You think I cleared them out?"
.......
As I stared straight at Son A-reum and popped a piece of meat into my mouth, she looked slightly flustered.
Right, if I said it wasn't me, she had no way to argue back.
Even if she grabbed some kids who ignored me and asked them, all she'd get back was some nonsensical answer about there being nothing there. The way this school's students talked was surprisingly consistent.
"Besides, focusing strictly on the fact that they'd 'cleared out on their own,' it was technically true. I'd never once asked anyone to move. I'd simply eaten in this spot consistently for the past two weeks, and it had naturally become our fixed table."
"You've never once sat near us either. Have we ever said anything to you?"
"Ugh......."
Right. Trying to complain about it now was pretty awkward grounds.
Son A-reum couldn't mount any further rebuttal.
And in the middle of all that, she still cleaned her plate.
Well, fair. The food here was good.
*
"Since you're already here, want to chat?"
When Son A-reum followed us out after we'd finished eating, I tossed her that suggestion.
She wrapped her arms around herself and said,
"Whatever you say, I'm not letting you convince me of anything!"
.......
No, I literally just meant chat.
Besides my immediate friends, the only people at school who ever exchanged words with me were Nam Da-un, Yoon Da-ho, and maybe the Soccer Club captain. Team Leader Han Ga-ram was completely invisible during lunch.
"I'm not trying to convince you of anything. You just looked like you wanted to talk, so I suggested it."
I just shrugged, then asked,
"No?"
.......
Son A-reum stared at me with her mouth slightly open, then suddenly startled like something had just occurred to her.
"Forget it!"
And with that shout, she spun around and marched off.
......She'd clearly seemed like she wanted to talk.
I knew she was prickly with everyone, but she gave off the air of someone who genuinely wanted to talk to people. It wasn't that my intuition was especially sharp.
You know the type, right? Someone who says they hate people, but really it's not about hating people at all—they just feel awkward talking to others, so they protect themselves that way.
People who rationalize having a lot of enemies by thinking, "It's not that they're ostracizing me—I'm the one ostracizing them."
I knew because I'd been like that myself. Or rather, it was a necessary mindset in certain kinds of social life, honestly.
And so, even with someone who was willing to listen, you ended up lashing out before you even realized it.
It wasn't done out of real malice, and she wasn't really failing to understand anything, so I wasn't particularly angry either.
I shrugged one more time for no particular reason and turned around, only to meet eyes with the three people staring straight at me.
"......Why are you all looking at me like that?"
At my question, the three of them let out a deep sigh as if they couldn't believe me.
Was saying something like that to Son A-reum so ridiculous it was baffling?
"No, seriously, what's with the reaction."
"What's the point of saying anything."
So-hee answered. From the way she rubbed a hand down her face, her expression seemed to carry fresh worry, though what exactly she was so worried about I couldn't guess.
"I mean, I don't think making more friends is a bad thing......."
Ha-neul muttered. Exactly. It wasn't bad.
"Where am I even supposed to start explaining......."
Su-a murmured quietly, but not quietly enough that I couldn't hear.......Was the problem really that fundamental?
"Ah, is it because I tried to talk to someone who's hostile to me?"
All three of them sighed at once.
No, would you please just tell me!