A Woman's Intuition
Do you know the phrase "a woman's intuition"?
Of course, it was closer to a superstition, completely unproven by science or mathematics.
But anyone who has ever had a girlfriend or even just a female friend would know.
Sometimes, that intuition is so terrifyingly accurate it sends shivers down your spine.
Something smells fishy.
The female student wearing a nametag that read Lee Harin over her rather flat chest—especially when compared to Ayoung—was currently feeling that intuition tingle with immense force.
"...Mmh."
Should she try questioning Ayoung again right now, while she was lying face down on her desk, groaning?
But to approach her so recklessly...
We've barely been friends for a single day.
The relationship between Ayoung and Harin was still a bit too awkward to be called close.
Deciding to take a different approach, Harin began scanning Ayoung's surroundings, searching for anything that could serve as a clue.
The first thing I found strange was definitely those PE pants.
Harin stole a glance down at the PE pants Ayoung had changed into, lost in thought.
Why on earth did she change out of her skirt and into athletic pants before coming back to the classroom?
Of course, there was a simple explanation.
Her skirt had gotten wet.
If she took Ayoung's words at face value, there was nothing particularly strange about it.
But...
Something... something was off.
Harin's womanly intuition was screaming at her, warning her that something else was hidden behind that superficial excuse.
Instead of blindly believing Ayoung, Harin decided to piece the situation together in her own way.
If she hadn't changed because her skirt got wet...
...what other reasons would force her to change?
Two basic scenarios came to mind.
First, the skirt was damaged, perhaps torn for some reason. Second, as Ayoung claimed, it was wet, or perhaps stained by spilled food during lunch.
Since Ayoung had previously returned to class wearing a black hoodie because her white shirt was "torn," there was a distinct possibility that her skirt had suffered a similar fate.
With that thought in mind, Harin moved on to the next clue.
Ayoung's face and neck were definitely flushed to an unnatural degree...
Just as she thought, even with Ayoung lying face down, her neck was still stained a deep crimson.
Perhaps because her skin was normally so pale it bordered on translucent, the change was glaringly obvious.
Harin pondered.
What could cause someone's face and neck to flush like that?
Once again, two options presented themselves.
First, physical stimulation from an external source. Second, heat rising from within her body.
If it were the latter, then as Ayoung explained, she might just be feeling under the weather, causing her temperature to rise and her skin to flush.
But what if it was the former?
What if someone had touched and caressed Ayoung's face and neck so intensely that they left them flushed red?
For some reason, Harin felt that the former was much closer to the truth.
At that moment, the pieces of the puzzle rapidly fell into place, and a wild, scandalous scenario began to take shape in Harin's mind.
Ayoung's unusually weak, breathless voice. The skirt she changed out of because it was "wet." The skin flushed red from external stimulation. Ayoung's hypersensitive reactions to even the slightest touch.
And...
Before they went to eat lunch, Ayoung had clearly said this to the group of girls, including Harin:
"U-Um, I'm sorry... I promised to eat with Hajun."
Apologizing, Ayoung had left to meet her boyfriend.
And she had returned to the classroom just as lunch was about to end.
So, what was the conclusion?
...No way.
A highly suggestive realization flashed through Harin's mind.
A girl who spent the entire lunch break with her boyfriend returns to class with flushed skin, speaks in a weak, exhausted voice, and flinches sensitively at the slightest physical contact.
This... there was only one possible explanation.
Having caught countless students doing exactly this during her time on the student council in high school, Harin knew precisely what had transpired.
This is insane...
That same Ayoung, who always wore such an innocent, clueless expression, had just done that with her boyfriend during lunch?
Harin shook her head, unable to accept this shocking reality.
No, there was no way.
If it were any of her other friends—someone with a bit of dating experience—she would have just thought, well, we're adults now, so of course they'd do some heavy petting.
“No, he's my very first boyfriend...”
How could Ayoung, who had confessed that so shyly, already be doing that with her boyfriend?
And not even in a private, locked room, but right here inside the academy where countless students were walking around?
It completely defied Harin's common sense.
Even as she tried to rationalize it, a lingering sense of unease crawled over her skin.
Harin took a deep, stabilizing breath.
Right... there's no need to overthink this.
They weren't high schoolers anymore; they were adults.
Since they were no longer minors, if they had both consented, they were free to do whatever they wanted.
But...
...But I can at least double-check.
As Ayoung's friend, she felt she had the right to know that much.
It wasn't even that difficult.
Ayoung had mentioned earlier that she was going home with her boyfriend after classes ended today.
All she had to do was quietly tail them, gauge the atmosphere between them, and then head home.
Harin closed her eyes, finalizing her plan.
She desperately hoped this was all just a wild, baseless misunderstanding on her part.
"Ayoung."
Just as expected, the moment classes ended, her boyfriend, Hajun, came to her classroom so they could walk home together.
Hearing his voice, Ayoung sluggishly rose from her seat and walked over to him.
However...
"...Hajun."
Her reaction was undeniably strange.
Unlike this morning, Ayoung couldn't even look her boyfriend in the eye, keeping her head turned away.
It was a textbook display of intense embarrassment.
Something had definitely happened during lunch.
Please let me be wrong...
An ominous foreboding seemed to creep up from her toes.
Suppressing the feeling, Harin quietly began to follow Ayoung and Hajun.
"Ayoung, have you thought about which club you want to join?"
"Ah... well..."
Fortunately, despite the tense start, the two of them carried on a perfectly normal conversation like any ordinary couple.
Judging by their talk of clubs...
...they were probably planning to join the same one.
Or so Harin assumed.
"I think that club probably..."
"I see..."
So far, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Had she really just been overthinking it?
If there were some dark, scandalous secret between them, Ayoung's gaze toward Hajun wouldn't look this warm.
She didn't look anxious or tense, like someone being blackmailed or abused.
If anything, she looked completely head over heels for him.
Relieved by the surprisingly wholesome atmosphere, Harin let out a quiet breath.
Since I've already come this far, I'll just follow them up to that alleyway before heading back.
With that thought, she prepared to bring her brief investigation to an end.
But then—
Just as Ayoung and Hajun rounded the corner of the alleyway and vanished from her sight...
"Kyaah..."
A soft, stifled gasp echoed from down the path.
Startled out of her relaxed state, Harin's heart leaped, and she hurriedly quickened her pace.
...What happened?
Because the alley was narrow and deserted, Harin couldn't get too close without risking detection.
Instead, she carefully peeked her head around the corner of the brick wall to assess the situation.
Please let it be nothing...
Harin prayed desperately, but...
"...Ha-Hajun."
...the sight that met her eyes was something far removed from her innocent prayers.
"..."
Ayoung and Hajun were... embracing each other.
To be precise...
Their faces were so close their lips almost touched, and Hajun's hands were firmly planted on Ayoung's waist.
Held fast in his embrace, Ayoung offered no resistance whatsoever, her hands clasped together as she trembled like a leaf.
Meanwhile, Hajun looked down at her with an utterly expressionless face.
No matter how... no matter how much they were in love...
...doing something so intimate in an open, public alleyway was just wrong.
Overwhelmed by shock, Harin's knees buckled, and she slid down against the wall of the alley.
And then, she heard it.
"I was scared..."
At the sound of that trembling, vulnerable voice, Harin couldn't bear to listen any longer. She turned and fled.