A Traitor Named Nabi
Just the two of us.
How long had it been since I last walked to school with someone other than Chaeeun? I couldn't even remember.
Elementary school, maybe?
Back then other kids would occasionally tag along on our walk, but after that, I didn't think it had ever happened again. Either Kim Chaeeun overslept and I went alone, or we went together.
It was always one of those two. Which meant walking to school with an entirely different person was… a thoroughly unfamiliar experience.
"……"
"……"
So unfamiliar, in fact, that not a single word passed between us for the entire walk to school.
Is she normally like this?
Kim Hyewon was showing me yet another side of herself, quite different from yesterday. Yesterday she'd been a blunt girl spouting things I couldn't make heads or tails of; today she was just blunt.
Then again, honestly, this was the more familiar version of her. Sure, we'd started walking to school together and talking a lot more since yesterday, but I'd barely exchanged a handful of words with her before that.
It was rare even to see her talking with other people inside the school. Things had gotten to the point where I'd once overheard students passing by mutter things about her like "the Ice Princess" or "a pretty face with a rotten attitude."
Anyway.
Maybe that was why. For whatever reason, this stretch of time — walking to school beside her — was agonizingly awkward. I had no idea how Kim Hyewon felt about it, but I figured she was probably in the same boat.
…Or is she not?
Looking at that unbothered face of hers, she seemed like she wasn't thinking about anything at all.
Hmm.
That was when it happened.
Meow.
A cheese-colored cat darted out of the alleyway. The moment Kim Hyewon spotted the calico, her face lit up and she headed straight for it.
"……?"
"There you are."
When she crouched down and reached out her hand, the cat rubbed itself against her fingers with a practiced, almost habitual motion. I could see the corners of her mouth curl upward.
Watching her, it struck me all over again just how pretty she was. To be honest, as long as she kept her mouth shut, she was the very picture of a standoffish cold beauty.
That same Kim Hyewon, smiling faintly at a small animal… it was like something out of a painting.
As I stood quietly watching from behind, she turned to look at me.
"Baek Seojun, come over here too."
"Me?"
"Yeah."
I stepped closer as she beckoned and crouched down beside her.
Up close, it's actually really cute.
The fur was so clean I wondered if it was really a stray at all. At this level, wasn't it somebody's pet out on a walk? But then, there was no collar or name tag around its neck, so it didn't seem like the hand-raised type either.
"It's the cat I run into every single morning on the way to school. Its name is Nabi."
"Nabi?"
"Yeah. Every cat's name is Nabi. That's just the rule."
"…Ah. Got it."
Well, it was an incredibly common name, but it suited the little guy. While I was nodding to myself in acceptance, she casually scooped Nabi up, and the cat's body stretched out long in her grip.
"Do you like cats?"
"Hmm… I do, I guess?"
If you asked whether I was a cat person or a dog person, I'd say cat. If I had to pick, I did like cats.
"You pass."
Pass what, exactly?
The moment my fondness for cats was confirmed, she immediately held out the stretched-out cheese tabby — a.k.a. Nabi — toward me.
"…Take him?"
"Yeah. Hold him like I do, see? Like this."
"Hm."
Under those bright, expectant eyes of hers, I cautiously took Nabi into my arms. I'd worried the little calico might squirm while being passed from her hands to mine and claw me to shreds, but…
"…He's so calm."
"Right?"
Thankfully, nothing of the sort happened. Nabi rested in my hands with perfect docility.
Actually holding a cat was, how should I put it… warm and fuzzy, and a little squishy too. Especially for someone like me who knew how temperamental most cats could be, it was fascinating that a stray could be this placid.
"He's incredibly smart, you know."
Kim Hyewon's voice rose slightly, as if she were quietly proud of the fact.
"Okay, give him back now."
"Got it."
And then — the very moment I was about to hand Nabi back to her.
"…Huh?"
No sooner had Nabi landed in her hands than he wriggled free and leapt toward my shoulder.
Boing.
"……?"
Perched on my shoulder, Nabi gave my face a single lick and then rubbed his body against my collar. The weight settling on my shoulder was surprisingly substantial.
"Na… Nabi?"
Kim Hyewon froze solid on the spot.
It was the look of someone betrayed by a person they trusted… no.
The look of someone betrayed by a cat they trusted.
Mraow.
"……"
She looked back and forth between the softly mewling Nabi and my face. For some reason, meeting her eyes became difficult. I couldn't tell if she was looking at me like I was the enemy who'd stolen her beloved cat, or… not.
It was a suffocating stretch of time. As it dragged on, Nabi took the initiative and hopped down from my shoulder. The aloof little thing threw us one last sidelong glance and padded back into the depths of the alley.
He never once looked in Kim Hyewon's direction, right up to the end.
With Nabi gone, she stared after the alley with frantic eyes.
"Nabi… are you looking at his face because he's male…?"
I decided to pretend I hadn't heard her muttering beside me.
"So, um, Hyewon?"
"……"
"Shall we get going again?"
…
"…Yeah."
And so went our awkward walk to school.
We arrived at school.
As I walked into the classroom alongside Kim Hyewon, I could feel the eyes of a few students on us. It was 8:20 — a bit later than my usual arrival.
Just as we were heading to our desks together, the girl who'd gotten to school ahead of us stepped in front of me.
"You're late again today, Seojun?"
What was I supposed to say to that?
But before I could open my mouth, her eyes flicked to Kim Hyewon standing beside me.
"And next to you is… did you two come together?"
"Yeah."
The answer hadn't come from me — it came from Kim Hyewon.
Chaeeun's eyes widened slightly, as if she hadn't expected Hyewon to answer. At the same time, I could see a flicker of puzzlement cross her face. From where she stood, she'd never once seen me arrive with anyone else. All the more so when that someone was Kim Hyewon, who wasn't close with a single person in the class.
"How did that happen?"
"We just ran into each other on the way."
Once again, it was Kim Hyewon who answered. Chaeeun had clearly been looking at me when she asked, but it was Hyewon who kept replying. Unable to hide her confusion any longer, Chaeeun turned to stare at her.
"Are you two… close?"
Her tone was flat and certain — there was no way they could be. It carried the confidence of someone who believed she knew everything there was to know about me, Baek Seojun. And honestly, to some extent, she wasn't wrong.
But.
"Yeah. We're close."
Now that I'd made up my mind to put our relationship behind me, things were different.
And Hyewon didn't stop at answering — she looped her arm through mine.
Swoosh—
At the sight, Kim Chaeeun's eyes went wide with shock. After a moment, she looked at me as if to ask what on earth was going on.
Of course, I was every bit as flustered as she looked. I hadn't seen that coming either.
But there was no way I could let it show. I smoothed my expression so that none of my surprise leaked out. In the end, having gathered no information, Chaeeun probed at me carefully.
"…Since when have you two been close? I never knew about this."
"It hasn't been that long, actually."
"Really? Well, that's great that you've gotten close to our Seojun. Will you keep being good friends with him from now on?"
She said it as if she were the one granting permission. That attitude probably came from her confidence that she, of all people, knew her childhood friend best.
But.
"Sure. Thanks."
"……"
When Hyewon accepted it without missing a beat, a chill settled over the air. Chaeeun's eyes narrowed at the scene before her, while Kim Hyewon wore an expressionless face that betrayed nothing of what she was thinking.
I couldn't read the room at all.
But sensing the murmuring around us, I decided that staying like this would draw far too much attention. I'd talk with Hyewon later; for now, I changed the subject.
"Chaeeun, did you walk to school alone today?"
At that instant, I saw her flinch. As if the icy atmosphere from moments ago had been a lie, it vanished without a trace, and she scratched her head with a sheepish look.
"W-well, I came with another friend."
Another friend.
Another friend, huh.
Wearing that face, and calling him a "friend"? That was far too bashful an expression for a mere friend. She'd never once made that face around me.
Truly.
So she did come with Yang Jinhyeok, after all.
Instinctively, I understood that her "friend" was anything but just a friend.
But.
"I see. Well then, can we get to our seats now?"
"Oh! Y-yeah, sorry, I was blocking you. My bad, Seojun."
"It's fine."
I gave no visible reaction. Unlike her, I brushed past it as if nothing had happened.
No — at least on the surface, I brushed it off as nothing. Asking her right now whether she'd come to school with that boy Yang Jinhyeok would have meant nothing. All we had to do was go our separate ways.
Kim Chaeeun would leave her childhood friend behind and chase after love, and I would let go of my lingering feelings and live for myself.
Kim Hyewon gazed at me quietly for a moment, then took the seat beside mine. Before long, the bell rang, the teacher walked in, and class began.
.
.
.
.
.
Four long class periods flew by in a flash. The moment the bell rang, a flood of students stampeded toward the cafeteria.
Normally, I ate lunch with Chaeeun. It had been our routine ever since elementary school. But now that I'd resolved to put distance between us, I was wondering what to do — and the answer arrived on its own.
Yang Jinhyeok, the boy Chaeeun liked, had come looking for her at the front of the classroom.
The moment she spotted him, Chaeeun's face brightened noticeably. Then she turned back to me.
"Seojun, would it be okay if Jinhyeok joined us for lunch?"
"…Yeah, that's fine."
"Really? Thank you!"
Watching her light up like that, a bitter taste crept into my mouth. If only she'd ever looked at me that way instead of some other guy.
"Actually, Chaeeun — I don't mind, so just leave me out and eat together, just you two."
"Huh? Why?"
"It's better that way. You want to end up with him, don't you?"
At the words end up with, I could see Chaeeun's face flush red. My chest ached, but I forced a smile.
"Honestly, Jinhyeok and I have never even talked, so it'd just be awkward if I tagged along. And that'd make things uncomfortable for you too, so eat together without me."
"But…"
"Just hurry up and go, Chaeeun. Keep this up and Jinhyeok will leave."
"O-okay…!"
And off she went toward Yang Jinhyeok.
Without so much as a backward glance.
I swallowed the bitterness and was just thinking I might head to the school store alone when Kim Hyewon, who hadn't left yet, came up to me.
"Want to go eat?"
"…Together?"
"Yeah. We're the only two left, aren't we?"
She wasn't wrong.
We were indeed the only two left in the classroom, but…
"…Don't you usually have friends you eat lunch with?"
If I remembered right, even though she had no friends in this class, there were a couple of girls from other classes she ate with at lunch. And sure enough, Kim Hyewon nodded.
"I do."
"Is it okay if I join them?"
"No."
She shook her head.
"You're eating with me. Just the two of us."
"Huh?"