The End of the World
I spent another uneventful day and brought Aju home with me. Thankfully, today’s Aju seemed to be in a slightly better mood than yesterday.
She hadn’t come out as late as the first day either—she’d left right at dismissal time. Maybe something in her heart had shifted.
“Riha oppa, you must be really hungry, right?”
“Just hearing you say that made me hungry.”
“Hehe, wait a moment. I’ll make dinner right now.”
The moment we got home, Aju started preparing the meal. Honestly, I felt a little guilty making a student who was preparing for exams keep cooking like this, wasting both her time and energy.
But if I tried to cook instead, there was a very real chance I’d end up throwing away all the ingredients we’d bought.
Unfortunately, I was the kind of person who couldn’t even boil ramen properly, so I couldn’t help her at all. In the end, I just sat quietly and watched as Aju put on her apron and started cooking in the kitchen.
<>
“You’re back.”
Daeho, whom I’d asked to guard Aju, slipped into the house through the window the moment she headed to the kitchen. I glanced toward Aju in the kitchen, then led Daeho into the bedroom.
“So, did you find anything special?”
<>
Yesterday’s incident. That would be the scene where I drew all the attention, walked up to Aju, picked her up, and carried her out of school.
More importantly… badmouthing her? How petty.
“Let’s watch the footage first. I need to know exactly what kind of crap they’re saying.”
<>
“There’s a thing called ‘lying on a bed of gall.’ It’s about licking the gallbladder to never forget your desire for revenge. I need to hear the filth coming out of their mouths so I don’t lose sight of my original purpose.”
<>
I ignored Daeho, who was throwing in unnecessary jabs, and removed the chip from the tracking device. (I also took the tracker off him while I was at it…)
Then I plugged the chip into the computer and checked the video inside.
The first scene was of quickly descending from a tree at the height of the third floor. It must have been filmed when Daeho left the building.
“…It looks like a movie, honestly.”
<>
The parkour footage from a cat’s point of view had the speed and intensity of a decent action film. It wouldn’t be bad to keep feeling this thrill, but that wasn’t our real goal, so I rewound the video a little.
I skipped ahead to around the time Daeho arrived at school.
“Huh? Who’s that? Looks like a total delinquent. Dyed his hair blond too.”
<>
“Hmm…”
He was too far away for me to see his face clearly, and I didn’t know his name. Maybe I was being too suspicious. For now, I’d put the blond on hold.
“Alright… we can pretty much skip the class hours, right?”
<>
“Can’t be helped.”
Given that Aju’s school placed heavy importance on academics, nothing much happened during class time or the short breaks in between. No one spoke to Aju, but that was the same as always—Aju had been completely focused on studying anyway.
“…Wait, the person sitting behind Aju. Isn’t that the blond from earlier?”
<>
“He gets up during class but sleeps through everything else?”
<>
Looking at him, he clearly doesn’t sleep during actual class time, so he’s probably a top student. Not interested in the people around him, huh…
It was just a gut feeling, but I had the impression that this blond had little to do with Aju’s current situation.
“Anyway, let’s skip all the class time. The breaks too… we can fast-forward through those. So when should we watch?”
<>
At Daeho’s suggestion, I changed the timestamp to noon. The video began to move again. It seemed Daeho had started moving once Aju and the other students went to eat.
“…You could probably make a pretty good parkour video with this.”
<>
“Fair point.”
I hadn’t been entirely serious. Still, I couldn’t help but be slightly impressed by how dynamic the footage was as I continued watching.
Finally, the video stopped, showing Aju eating her lunch.
…Aju, sitting far away from everyone else, eating alone.
“…Tsk.”
Everyone except Aju had formed their own little groups, laughing and chatting as they ate. The contrast with Aju’s lonely figure made anger flare up inside me, and I clicked my tongue.
<>
“Got it.”
I couldn’t stand watching that scene any longer, so I fast-forwarded a bit as Daeho suggested. The view changed to the back of the school building.
Aju wasn’t even in this scene. Instead, I saw the girls I’d glimpsed yesterday along with a few other students I didn’t recognize.
“…These are the ones, right?”
<>
“…”
I kept my mouth shut and focused on the video. I wanted to hear every single word these bastards were spewing.
I was now certain these were the right people. The way they could say such garbage without even changing their expressions…
The one who said that was the girl whose eyes had met mine yesterday. The same girl who had immediately tucked her tail and avoided my gaze the moment we locked eyes was acting all tough now that I wasn’t around.
<…The fuck did you just say?>
The male student who was teasing the girl from yesterday casually brushed off her sharp glare. From what I’d heard so far, it seemed like she was the main cause of Aju’s current situation.
<…You’re the same, aren’t you? Just another idiot who fell for her flirting.>
<…>
At that moment, the male student from earlier shut his mouth and quietly stared at her. The students around them began watching the two carefully. Just as the boy and girl silently glared at each other—
~~~
The school bell rang across the entire building, signaling that lunch was almost over. As soon as it sounded, the group stood up as if it were the most natural thing in the world and headed back to the classroom.
Unfortunately, nothing noteworthy happened after that.
“…What comes after?”
<>
“…I see.”
I stopped the video, transferred it to the computer, and removed the chip. Then, very quietly—
“…Haa.”
I let out a long sigh to cool my anger.
There hadn’t been anything particularly special. But I could now roughly guess why Aju had ended up in this situation.
“In the end, Aju didn’t do anything wrong.”
<<…You already expected that, didn’t you?>>
“Yeah. I knew it.”
I simply couldn’t imagine Aju doing anything bad enough to deserve this kind of treatment. So of course I had assumed she wasn’t at fault.
But after actually listening to their conversation, it seemed the girl had grown jealous of Aju for some reason, and the boy, while helping her, had taken revenge because Aju had rejected him.
Seriously…
“They’re not even giving me room to consider forgiving them.”
<>
“Well, that’s true.”
So, what now? At the moment, we were severely lacking information. Of course, we might eventually get our hands on something we could use to strike back, but that was far too passive. Above all, it would mean Aju had to endure this situation for who knows how long.
“It’d be nice if there was someone we could ask about this.”
<>
“Tsk, I don’t understand why anyone would care about that kind of thing.”
<>
Ugh, isn’t there anyone? Someone who doesn’t care about these people and would tell me about Aju’s situation…
…Huh?
“Hey, speaking of which, that blond from earlier. You said he doesn’t talk to Aju either, right?”
<>
“…Maybe he’s someone we could ask?”
<<…Him?>>
Daeho sounded surprised at first, but after thinking for a moment, he continued.
<>
“Right?”
A blond female student who clearly kept everyone at arm’s length. The wall she built didn’t just stop her from reaching out—it also prevented others from reaching in.
In other words, that blond was likely independent from the influence of that group.
“So how should we ask her? Is there a way to run into her naturally…?”
<>
“Contact info… Should I just approach her on the street and ask for her number?”
<>
“Want me to throw you outside?”
I hadn’t been serious about hitting on her, of course. If the situation ever came up, I could just ask her directly about Aju’s current circumstances.
“Hmm… Oh, wait a second.”
An idea suddenly popped into my head.
I really didn’t want to do it… but at the moment, it was the most reliable method.
“That woman… she’s working as a teacher at that school, right?”
<<…You don’t mean Eunhye noona, do you?>>
“Yeah.”
The violet-haired woman who had once smashed a left straight punch into my face. If it was An Eunhye, then…
<>
“Haa, I wish I hadn’t thought of it.”
I’d come up with a solution, but I never expected it to be this annoying.
To think the day would come when I’d have to contact that woman first.
This really must be the end of the world.