Tangled Threads (9)
Tae-il felt like the whole day had been a dream.
He'd pissed off Ayane that morning and gotten the cold shoulder, shared a deeper conversation than usual with Sakuya around noon, and then, out of nowhere in the afternoon, Iris had come out swinging with a full-on coming-out.
All of that in just half a day. Not even a full day—half!
It was so surreal that even after Iris bolted, Tae-il stood there dumbfounded, frozen like a statue. The plot had accelerated way too fast for his brain to keep up.
"What the hell? Is this what they call the peak of life in Japan?"
Tae-il muttered to himself in a daze as he descended the stairs.
Gurgle.
"Oh... right, I haven't even had lunch yet."
Tae-il rubbed his protesting stomach and headed to the school store.
The lady tidying up spotted him and greeted him warmly, handing over a melon bread. She winked, saying she'd saved one just for him.
Thrust suddenly into melon bread ownership, Tae-il gave an awkward smile and slipped out of the store.
"Never thought I'd end up eating one of these."
At a glance, the bread looked less like a melon and more like a turtle shell—the very one that kicked off the original story.
Tae-il let out a hollow chuckle as he realized why the day had felt like a storm.
"So the original story starts today, huh."
He glared at the melon bread in his hand like it was the enemy, then took a massive bite.
Maybe because he already knew the original had gone completely off the rails, Tae-il didn't feel any particular joy at recognizing this "glorious" starting point.
Summer nights are short.
The students of Yuuma High School were still buzzing with youthful energy, even as time chased them down.
"She's got some moves."
Tae-il sat blankly on a bench, munching his melon bread all forlorn-like while watching the track team.
Suddenly, Ayane crossed his mind.
The pitiful image of her alone in the bathroom, nibbling at a melon bread with her delicate little hands, overlaid onto Tae-il's vision. It was downright heartbreaking.
'Will she forgive me...?'
There was still no reply from her.
Tae-il typed out "Whatcha doing?" but ended up closing the app without sending it.
Deep down, he wanted to call and keep ringing until she picked up.
But pointless male pride and the fear of making things worse by blindly following Arthur's advice held him back.
If he couldn't make up with Ayane like this, he might just off himself—screw the dreams.
"Aaaah! If I'd known it'd be like this, I should've gotten more detailed advice!"
Tae-il lightly tapped his forehead with the corner of his smartphone.
A sigh escaped him at his own patheticness.
"No helping it."
After agonizing over it, Tae-il decided to wait quietly for Ayane until the end of the school day.
"If she ignores me even then..."
His smartphone buzzed violently as he started searching online for suicide spots.
It was a message from his mother.
"Mom...?"
His head was already pounding from Ayane alone, and now this extra worry piled on top. Tae-il scratched his head.
"If they come back, I won't be able to work for a while."
Mountains upon mountains of obstacles.
He could only work late into the night because his parents were away. Once they returned, no more guitar playing, and even computer work would get interrupted.
The steps to chase his dream kept stacking up, but his plans kept getting tangled and retangled.
The encounter with Iris today was something Tae-il had wanted, too. But not this indiscriminate storm of a meeting. He'd imagined something more cinematic, more fateful.
The fresh, tender vibe of youth, something that stirred pure emotions.
But she'd barreled in like a storm without any buildup and vanished just as fast.
"Ah."
Come to think of it, it was typhoon season in summer.
"Talk about staying true to life."
Like a natural disaster, Iris had stirred up yet another problem.
Tae-il recalled the horde of students in the hallway who'd witnessed his contact with Iris. Against his hopes, rumors might spread across the whole school by tomorrow.
"Life..."
Just thinking about Ayane grilling him made cold sweat trickle down already.
Closing his eyes plunged the world into darkness.
It felt like his future.
Sakuya alone had pissed her off that much just by mentioning recruitment. Now Iris was involved too? Tae-il couldn't even guess how massive Ayane's rage would be.
Even when Ayane went full Kuro-ne mode before, it hadn't been a real issue because the cause of her darkening wasn't Tae-il.
A little concession from him, a bit of coaxing, and she'd calm right down.
The guilt of knowing she was blatantly in the wrong kept her dark side hidden, making her act like a meek lamb in front of him.
But this conflict was unmistakably his fault.
It wouldn't resolve unless he completely cut ties with those two.
"Man, rom-com protagonists are all totally insane."
This was just from maintaining friendly relations with girls—not even a harem—and he was already sweating bullets. How the hell did they manage to pull three, four, five girls into a harem?
Tae-il was starting to genuinely admire them. Arthur, who'd nearly fucked up juggling two, didn't count.
'Stamina? Guess guys really run on that stuff?'
Tae-il shook his head. He didn't want to be ruled by base desires.
He'd witnessed plenty of times how men wrecked themselves chasing lower-half urges. Weirdly, most musicians had messy girl situations.
The indie scene was a swampy hellhole swirling with sordid desires.
The so-called "real ones" were too busy cranking out tracks in dingy studios reeking of grime, rehearsing, and slinging part-time gigs for activity funds.
Tae-il had been like that early on. He'd quit quick, though.
"But seriously, why'd Iris come find me?"
Tae-il tossed the empty bread wrapper haphazardly into the trash and recalled Iris bragging about being a first-gen Lute fan before leaving.
Sure, joining your favorite group's fan club first was brag-worthy in hobby circles.
"But did I ever tell her I like BARD?"
Not that he remembered.
Tae-il thought back to their first encounter.
Sunset-lit hallway, him spouting idiotic words of comfort. And Iris staring at him like he was some exotic creature.
Scratching his head furiously at the vivid black history, he arrived at the classroom.
He grabbed his bag, which he'd left behind after getting dragged off by Iris.
"Shin-jang?"
Tae-il froze mid-step.
The hallway was empty except for him. Turning around, there stood Ayane with a surprised look.
"Ayane?"
"Ah, I accidentally talked to him."
Ayane stuck out her tongue and lightly bonked her own head.
Tae-il blinked in confusion. Morals committee duties shouldn't be over for hours yet.
"You're done for the day already?"
"Yeah. The seniors were nice and let me off early. Shin-jang's here for his bag?"
"Yup."
The two naturally fell into step side by side down the hallway. Familiarity and awkwardness danced together between them. In the half-forced silence, Tae-il kept stealing glances at Ayane's face.
"Uh, hey, Ayane..."
"It's okay."
Ayane cut him off.
"What happened this morning... Actually, Ayane was the one in the wrong, right?"
"No, it's not like it was that big a deal..."
"It was wrong. Ayane lashed out without any right to."
Ayane gave a wry smile. Just like Arthur had said.
Ayane had cooled off and was now apologizing to Tae-il in turn. Her apology was refreshingly cool, almost invigorating, like it scratched an itch deep inside.
Only then did Tae-il realize he hadn't really done anything wrong.
But.
Something felt off. It wasn't quite the outcome he'd hoped for.
"Still..."
"Right. And one more thing."
Ayane cut him off again.
She looked up at him with a gentle, smiling gaze.
"You don't have to wait for Ayane after school anymore."
"Huh?"
"You're gonna be super busy from now on with band stuff, right?"
"Well, yeah, b-but...?"
Lounging around like this was already weird, honestly.
Normally, Tae-il should've been running around nonstop. Sticking to the original members was too idealistic. He needed to scout other paths.
And to recruit, he'd have to hit up every Live House himself.
But he hadn't. Because he thought he had to look after Ayane.
He'd planned to bring it up someday, but Ayane had beaten him to it.
It should've felt relieving.
'But my chest feels stuffy.'
Like the bread from earlier was stuck in his gut.
His stomach burned, crudely put.
Regardless of Tae-il's stuffy feelings, Ayane kept talking.
"Ayane feels bad for hogging Shin-jang's time all the time."
"You sure you'll be okay?"
"When have I ever not been?"
Ayane pouted her lips out a good three inches, grumbling like he didn't trust her.
Tae-il was at a loss for words.
"Ayane's not a kid anymore. Thanks for worrying, Shin-jang, but it's time to graduate."
No need to spell out what she was graduating from.
Tae-il still saw Ayane as someone he needed to protect. He'd used his guilt over twisting the original as an excuse to keep her caged like a pet.
He'd watched her every move, granted her every wish, and jumped to fix any problem like it was his own.
The owner can't understand why the pet gets mad.
They feed it, house it, play with it—what's there to be angry about?
They vaguely think they've done something wrong but skip figuring it out, just soothing it with food.
Their relationship had been similar.
Tae-il had always assumed he was at fault whenever Ayane got mad, without knowing why.
'So that's how it was.'
He realized that despite calling her his childhood friend, they'd never been equals.
Protector and protected.
The tangled mess of threads unraveled smoothly.
Ayane unclasped her hands behind her back and trotted ahead.
Once she'd pulled ahead, she spun around, the sunset at her back, beaming brightly.
"Mom said Ayane relies on Shin-jang too much. That I can't do that."
"Yuuna said that?"
"Yeah. I thought about it a ton, and Mom was right. Ayane's been taking it for granted that she can rely on Shin-jang, that he'll always be by her side."
Tae-il had been the same, really.
At least until adulthood, he'd assumed they'd always be together.
"And Ayane's got something she wants to try now. So this is the perfect chance to build some independence."
"Can't I help?"
"If Shin-jang helps, it defeats the purpose. 'Me' wants to challenge it alone."
Ayane flashed a bright smile.
No trace of the dark mood from morning, or the negative feelings, or her twisted heart.
"So Ayane hogging Shin-jang's time ends today."
Tae-il burst into a big grin at the oddly lingering deadline.
"Just up till today, huh?"
"Yeah! Otherwise, skipping our morning talk feels like a waste!"
"That was all your fault."
"Shin-jang. Keep that up, and Ayane takes back what she just said?"
"Wouldn't dream of it, princess."
"Eww! So cheesy..."
Tae-il quickened his pace to catch up with Ayane.
Soon walking side by side again, they formed a much more relaxed atmosphere than before.
Ayane stepped even closer to Tae-il.
"Ayane's got tons to tell Shin-jang today. Look forward to it."
"Saying that kinda scares me. Can't you just skip it?"
"Nope. Shin-jang has no veto power. Your Ayane duty ends today."
Ayane ground her teeth playfully, determined to get her money's worth.
"So."
Tae-il stepped over the school gate, his shadow stretched long by the sunset sky, and glanced back.
"What're you gonna ask?"
"Hold on. Lemme think..."
Ayane tapped her chin with her index finger, then clapped and hopped over the gate.
A perfectly balanced, safe landing.
Her shoe lightly stepped on the head of Tae-il's shadow.
"First off!"
Ayane pointed dramatically at Tae-il.
"Care to explain that confession from Arisugawa today?!"
"Ahh. That."
How'd she figure it out so fast?
Tae-il was inwardly shocked but kept his tone calm and steady.
As if it was no big deal.
And then.
Seizing her moment of laxness, he bolted forward without looking back.
"Sorry!"
"Ahh! Shin-jang, that's cheating! Stop right thereee! I won't let you go till you spill everything!"
Legs, save me! Can't get caught!
Tae-il pumped his legs desperately.
If Sakuya saw this, she'd say he looked more desperate than during the PE practicals.
What?!
"Gotcha!"
As expected of a weakling, he got caught right away.