Chapter 92
Chapter 92
"...What?"
The question slipped out before I could stop myself.
Not that I was strictly obligated to use polite speech with Ha-neul. I'm not some etiquette-obsessed noble daughter from a medieval romance fantasy—I'm just a teenager in a modern-school dating sim. When do high schoolers even use formal language with each other? Mostly just with upperclassmen they aren't close to. And even that tends to drop once you actually get to know them.
...The reason I was letting my mind wander like this was probably because some part of me was still desperately trying to escape the current situation.
Right now, the only people on this rooftop were Ha-neul and me. So-hee was most likely still crouched by the rooftop door, grumbling nonstop about the whole thing.
I felt a little guilty toward So-hee, but honestly, I was also relieved I'd left her there.
...So. How exactly did we end up here?
*
During first period, Ha-neul suddenly stood straight up, walked over to my desk, and tapped my shoulder.
"...What?"
Ha-neul looked at me and asked:
"Can we talk for a moment?"
"...Is it not something we can discuss here?"
Caught off guard by the fact that Ha-neul had approached me first, I asked. She didn't glance around or pause to think—she just nodded right away.
"Yeah. It's something we need to talk about alone."
"Uh..."
I flicked a glance toward the teacher at the front. He'd been watching us with obvious unease, but the moment our eyes met, he hurriedly looked away.
Ever since So-hee dropped her bombshell yesterday, things had been like this.
I didn't know exactly which teachers Yang Hye-in's bribery had reached, but given the amount involved, I doubted it was split between just one or two. That young teacher was probably on the list.
They couldn't completely ignore us.
That was just how it was now.
But even so, the teachers' outward attitude toward me hadn't changed much. I still walked out of class whenever I felt like it and came back whenever I wanted, and nobody stopped me. If I skipped school entirely, my attendance would probably still get marked as present.
Right, the attitude hadn't changed.
What had changed was the emotion behind it.
Whenever they looked at me, or at my so-called "inner circle," the teachers wore this oddly frightened expression. I had a rough idea why. It scared them that they could no longer control me.
And after what had happened when So-hee transferred into this school, they couldn't touch So-hee either.
In a way, the teachers were mistaken. They probably looked at my personal maid casually throwing around over a billion won and thought, if someone like her can do that, how much can the girl openly defying us actually wield? Up until now I'd been a docile lamb who didn't even know how to get angry, but ever since entering high school, I'd clearly changed.
The numbers were still small, but my faction was forming inside the school.
There were students who could no longer afford to dismiss me, and a growing awareness among the teachers that they couldn't just keep ignoring me.
All of this in just two weeks since the entrance ceremony.
Right now they were probably turning it over and over in their heads. The chairwoman, who might hold far more power than I do, but who was too far away. And me, the one they had to see every single day.
They had to be weighing which side to take.
Not that I had any intention of accepting those so-called teachers.
Anyway, the entire time Ha-neul and I were talking, the teacher kept glancing at us nervously.
...Maybe he'd already lumped Ha-neul in with me.
"But if we leave the classroom..."
Even knowing that, I still couldn't be sure. All I had from the teachers was attitude and emotion, none of them had ever made any direct overtures to me.
Would walking out of class like this affect Ha-neul's grades?
As if she'd already guessed what I was thinking, Ha-neul turned toward the teacher and spoke in a clear voice.
"Sir."
"Huh? Uh, uhh..."
He clearly hadn't expected her to address him. Startled, the teacher fumbled and dropped his chalk. The brand-new stick he'd barely started using shattered the instant it hit the floor.
"May I go to the restroom for a moment?"
The teacher rolled his eyes for a few seconds.
"S-sure. Just... don't be too long."
His voice trailed off at the end.
"..."
The whole sequence was so brazen I just stared at Ha-neul with my mouth hanging open.
"Can we talk?"
Ha-neul asked me again.
"...Fine."
When I stood up, So-hee, at the desk beside me, stood up just as brazenly to follow. Though calling it a desk was generous, So-hee's spot sat between two desks, in a space that ought to have been empty.
That's right. Given that she'd literally bribed her way into this seat, So-hee was the one person nobody could truly touch.
...When even a maid commanded that level of deference at this school, it was no wonder they couldn't treat me carelessly.
The outward result was the same—"ignore." But the process now had fear baked into it.
And not fear of the chairwoman. Fear of me.
I knew this wasn't a purely positive development. But that didn't mean it was only worse than before, either.
If I could use that fear properly, Ye Sa-ra wouldn't have to remain a mere icon of misfortune forever.
"Let's go."
At my words, Ha-neul and So-hee started moving.
There was nobody left in that classroom who would stop us.
Though, to be fair, nobody ever had.
*
"So-hee."
"Yeah?"
We stopped in front of the rooftop door. Ha-neul spoke.
"There's something the two of us need to discuss alone. Could you wait here for a bit?"
So-hee's brow furrowed slightly. She tilted her head.
"..."
For a moment she just looked at Ha-neul, her expression completely unreadable. But I had the distinct feeling So-hee was going to refuse.
She didn't.
"That conversation... is it the one I'm thinking of?"
That conversation?
"...No. Probably not."
Huh?
It felt like they were both in on something I didn't know about.
"What are you talking about?"
"Nothing, forget it."
Even when I asked, So-hee just shrugged.
"Well, fine. If it's personal stuff. Even a maid shouldn't stick her nose into her master's private life, I guess. That's what you told me too, senior."
She said the words, but her expression remained unreadable—this subtle, hard-to-describe look. As if she were thinking that Yang Hye-in never followed that rule... as if she were repeating something she'd been taught without actually believing it herself.
Ha-neul dipped her head slightly toward So-hee as she leaned against the door, unexpectedly obedient.
"Thanks."
So-hee waved a hand dismissively, like it was too much effort to respond.
And so the two of us stepped through the rooftop door—
—which brought us to now.
What Ha-neul was showing me was a will. The will Ye Sa-ra had written, once.
"..."
I stared down at it, slack-jawed, then looked at Ha-neul.
"...Did you go through my room?"
Now that I thought about it, Ha-neul, So-hee, and Su-a had all been in my room plenty of times. And while I was showering, the three of them were always there without me.
And the very first time they'd come to sleep over, they'd opened my closet door without a second thought.
"So you do know where this was kept."
"..."
I couldn't deny it. Not if I already knew exactly where she'd found it.
"Yang Hye-in gave it to me. I was the one who took it. Here."
Ha-neul twitched her hand, signaling she wanted me to take it. With trembling fingers, I accepted the letter and carefully folded it back along its original creases.
"...That woman gave it to you?"
I slipped the letter into the inner pocket of my uniform and pressed further.
"Yeah. Apparently she went through your room before the chairwoman came over."
"..."
"Don't worry. It doesn't seem like the chairwoman knows about it."
She was probably right. If the chairwoman had seen it, she wouldn't have left me alone. Honestly, it wouldn't have surprised me if she'd actually kidnapped me and locked me up somewhere I couldn't do anything.
"...So,"
I leveled every ounce of wariness I had at Ha-neul, more than I'd ever shown her before. When I narrowed my eyes at her, she flinched, her shoulders drawing inward with a slightly wounded expression. That stung a little, somewhere deep in my chest. But I had to confirm something.
"Why did you bring me all the way up here to hand me this letter? You must want to ask me something. That's why you called me out here, isn't it?"
"..."
Ha-neul looked down at the ground, thinking for a moment. Then she lifted her head and met my eyes.
Her expression was tense.
"That letter... you wrote it, right?"
"...What?"
No.
"I" didn't write it.
But right now, I was "Sara."
So.
"Yeah."
"Are you sure?"
Even after my answer, Ha-neul asked again.
"...Why? Is there a problem?"
There were plenty of problems. The problem that I wasn't the original owner of this body. The problem that the original owner might already be dead.
...The problem that the real Sara might never come back.
I'd confirmed that the body still held memories, but to verify anything, I might have to meet Choi Na-kyung, the only real link to Ye Sa-ra, over and over again.
But none of that was something I could discuss right now.
So I answered with a bit of an edge.
"..."
Ha-neul didn't ask again.
She just walked a few steps toward me.
What did she want to say?
Judging by the question, had she already convinced herself I wasn't the real Ye Sa-ra?
...Yu Ha-neul was originally the female protagonist of the game. And in the game, she possessed a Sixth Sense strong enough to filter out some of the wrong Choice Options.
Even if that was just a convenience feature in the game, just like the light I could see glowing from Ha-neul's face, she might also be using that Sixth Sense as a real ability.
Right. She must have a lot of questions.
But Ha-neul didn't ask me anything else.
She just came closer, and pulled me into a hug.
"It's okay."
She whispered it.
"Even if you don't remember anything yet, it's okay. Whether you get your memories back or not—do whatever you want."
And then, tightening her arms around me,
"I'll be right here beside you the whole time."
She added it in a voice even smaller than before.