The Unwanted Gathering
Lunch break ended, and the class that followed immediately was the one involving group projects. Come to think of it… we hadn't actually done anything yet. No division of labor, nothing decided other than me being the group leader. “Alright, everyone! Let’s gather into your groups!” the teacher announced, signaling the start of the project. At once, the sound of desks scraping against the floor echoed from all directions.
“This class is such a breeze, right? We just chat in our groups until the period ends. Don’t you think?” Jisu said with a bright smile as she sidled up next to me. I wanted to think so, too. I wanted to be that relaxed and carefree, but the reality was… being in a group with Hyein was incredibly uncomfortable.
“I want you to have the PowerPoint presentations made and submitted by next week’s class! Understood?” the teacher announced the deadline. Next week, huh… that meant we had to finish everything by this weekend at the latest.
“Dohyun, shouldn’t we start preparing soon?” Jisu asked first, prompted by the teacher’s words. Hearing that, the two people sitting in front of me turned to look at me as well. What was this suffocating pressure?
“Then, shall we start by dividing up the roles?” I pushed their gazes aside and started organizing the logistics. Dividing the work among ourselves would undoubtedly be the most efficient method.
“Instead of splitting it up… can’t we all just do it together?” Jisu suggested a different approach. Given the “we” she used, it seemed other groups were doing it that way, but that didn’t mean we had to…
“No, let’s split it up,” Hyein, who had been listening silently, finally spoke. It seemed Hyein also had complaints about the “all together” method. Probably the same complaints I had. Yes, being forced to stick together like this was still a headache for both of us.
“Why? We can just do it together. It sounds like it’d be fun.” As soon as Hyein spoke, Yuhwa shot down her opinion with cold precision. Since Yuhwa clearly didn’t like Hyein, it was likely she was just disagreeing for the sake of it.
“Dohyun, what about you?” Jisu, having heard both sides, asked for my final decision.
“I also think it’s better to divide the roles separately.” It was the obvious answer. It should have been the obvious answer, but…
“Gah!!” I let out a sharp cry. Yes, Do Yuhwa had stomped on my foot with the intention of crushing it. Judging by the way she slammed her heel down, it was clearly intentional. What was she so unhappy about? Did she think I was taking Seo Hyein’s side again? From the surface, it might look that way, but in reality, it was the exact opposite.
“Well, it’s 2-to-2, so let’s decide with rock-paper-scissors!” Jisu proposed a compromise. Well, with the situation as it was, there really wasn’t a better way.
In the end… it was decided that we would all meet up.
“Then, how about we meet this Saturday?” Jisu said in a slightly excited voice, perhaps thrilled at the prospect of us all gathering. Well… if we were going to do it, we’d have to get it all done on Saturday. I nodded, thinking as much.
“I’m fine with that.” Yuhwa didn’t seem to have any complaints either. That left only Hyein.
“Ah… I have plans on Saturday.” Damn. Was it really that hard for all four of us to sync our schedules? I thought that simply, right up until I heard Jisu’s next words.
“Plans? With Junhyuk?” Jisu asked, looking at Hyein. Junhyuk… the moment I heard that name, a sharp, stinging sensation hit my chest. My brain didn’t care much, but that sensation was something I couldn’t control.
“Yeah, he asked me to go see a movie together.”
“Just the two of you?” Stop. I didn’t want to hear it. I didn’t want to know the details. Just talk about that stuff between yourselves.
“……No, other friends are coming too.” Hyein hesitated before answering. It didn’t seem like they were going to see a movie alone. At the same time, the stinging in my chest eased. Was this… relief?
“Then don’t come. We’ll just do it the three of us. It can’t be helped.” Yuhwa, who had been listening to their conversation, chimed in. And with that, for some reason, a subtle war of nerves unfolded between the two.
“But I can’t just do that. We’re all supposed to do this together, so how can I just be the one to miss out…”
“Then what do you want me to do? You’re the one who said you have plans with them.” Yuhwa said with a sigh, looking frustrated. “That’s why I suggested we divide the roles separately in the first place! Then I could just do my part and send you off, right?”
“But? We already concluded that we’d meet up to do it.”
“Then isn’t there an option to change the day? Why are you telling me not to come right away?” Hyein’s voice was also quite emotional. She seemed to be speaking relatively more calmly than Yuhwa, but I could tell. That girl… she was definitely pissed off right now.
“I was trying to accommodate you. Why? Is there a problem? You get to go to your plans… and if we finish the homework ourselves, isn’t that a total win for you?”
“…Oh, I see. I didn’t know you were such a kind person. I never imagined that someone who makes others do all sorts of things would be so considerate of my situation. I’ve re-evaluated you, Yuhwa. But sorry, you don’t have to worry about me that much.” Hyein said with a soft, smiling gaze. Conversely, the corners of Yuhwa’s eyebrows were twitching. If I left it like this, the group project would be the least of our worries; the whole thing would fall apart. I felt the need to intervene.
“On a different day…” I had intended to say that at first. It seemed like the most realistic alternative from my perspective. But in the end, I couldn’t spit those words out. Or rather, I chose not to.
“Let’s just do it ourselves like Yuhwa said. She has plans, so what can we do? It’s true that we decided on the meeting date suddenly.” I rephrased my words. Honestly… I was uncomfortable being in the same room as Hyein. If I could decline, it would be much more beneficial for me to do so. …Benefit or not, I just hated it. I hated that I kept having to stick to Hyein like this. Jisu and Yuhwa. I actually preferred gathering as the three of us.
“What?” As soon as I finished speaking, Hyein sharpened her tone. Yes, it was just one word. “What.” But the pressure behind it was immense. Considering the act we usually put on, Hyein wouldn’t usually question me so directly. Yet, the fact that it slipped out meant she was pretty worked up. Naturally, the pressure was palpable.
“It can’t be helped. Instead, you make the PowerPoint at home separately. We’ll do the research.” I said that because it would have been strange for me to stay silent here. However, I didn’t bow my head to that pressure. I stood my ground on the position I had taken. And there was no room to refute what I had said. She had said earlier that if we gave her her own tasks, she’d handle them herself. There couldn’t be a clearer answer than this.
“Ah… is that so?” Hyein said in an unpleasant voice. The corners of her lips twitched unnaturally. It felt like she was trying to force a smile. Yes, you couldn’t really refute my words, could you?
“W-when are the other days available?” This time, Jisu joined the conversation, seemingly trying to help Hyein’s position. Did she feel like we were pushing Hyein too hard? Hyein seemed to calm her heightened emotions after hearing Jisu’s words.
“No, it’s fine. I’ll come on Saturday. Just make the meeting time a bit later.” Perhaps she had calmed down a little, as she spoke in a calm voice afterward. Look at this girl…
“T-then!! How about around 4 PM on Saturday? Is that okay with everyone?” Jisu hurriedly tried to wrap up the matter. And so, it seemed we would all be gathering… at 4 PM on Saturday.
The homeroom period, signaling the end of the school day. After homeroom ended, I spent some time organizing my things. Naturally, other students rushed out in a hurry. I preferred leaving leisurely rather than getting caught in the peak of the chaos. After a while, the classroom became quiet. I took out my bag, which I had hung up, and prepared to leave.
“Ah, I’m so tired!” At that moment, Do Yuhwa suddenly jumped up from her seat and said that.
“You scared me…” I was genuinely startled. I hadn’t even realized she was still there. Besides, why was she still here?
“Are you leaving?” Yuhwa asked.
“I have to. But why were you still here?”
“Just because…” Yuhwa trailed off and moved on. Then, she immediately brought up something else.
“But what was up with you earlier?!”
“What?” We naturally walked out the back door together and kept walking side by side.
“You took my side earlier, for no reason!”
“Ah…” It wasn’t like I did it specifically to take Yuhwa’s side. Honestly, I had felt uncomfortable too, which was why I said it. But still, since she felt that way and was grateful… I wasn’t about to ruin it by saying otherwise.
“Of course. I’d take your side… why would I take Seo Hyein’s side? I’m closer to you.” And now, I could say that readily. At the very least, it was true that I was closer to Do Yuhwa.
“Right! Now you’re making sense.” Yuhwa wore a smug expression. I didn’t bother to respond to that.
“But you know, you don’t actually have anyone else you’re this close to besides me, right?” Since I remained silent, Yuhwa threw a painful question at me.
“What’s your intention?!”
“It’s true, isn’t it? Do you have anyone else you’re close to besides me? You’re not even that close to Jisu, right? See? You don’t, do you?” For some reason, Yuhwa pressed me persistently. Such persistent questioning almost made it seem like she wished that were actually the case.
“……Are you saying that just to tease me?” Or perhaps she wanted to say that she had many friends other than me. What benefit would there be in bragging about that to me…
“Nooo-? I’m just asking. I haven’t really seen any.”
“I’m going to make some from now on… so can you stop hitting where it hurts?” Besides, it was definitely partly your fault that I hadn’t been able to make friends. Of course, I had decided to leave that unsaid. Well… since I hadn’t said it out loud, it was fine.
“Puhahaha-! You’re hilarious!” Yuhwa laughed as if it were pathetic. I didn’t know why she was suddenly picking a fight over this.
“If you have me as a friend, that should be…” As we were going down the stairs, Yuhwa was about to say something else, but my attention was diverted elsewhere.
“Nabi-sunbae…?!” It was because I had run into the senior who was walking up the stairs. She was struggling, clutching a box about the size of her own torso, climbing the stairs precariously. Because of that, I had no choice but to rush my attention toward her.
“Hm…?” The senior’s voice was faint. It seemed the sound couldn’t travel far, blocked by the box. I immediately took the box from her. Holding it myself, I realized it wasn’t just large; it was quite heavy. I wondered how anyone could make a person like her carry a box like this.
“I’m fine…” the senior said, wiping the sweat from her forehead with one hand.
“Where were you taking this?” I asked, holding the box in my arms.
“To the Discipline Committee room…”
“I’ll carry it. Just show me the way.”
“Eh? Ah, no. I’ll do it.”
“Even so… I can’t just pretend I didn’t see you carrying something this big.”
“…Thank you.” As I was talking to the senior for a moment, I realized that Yuhwa was watching us intently.
“Yuhwa, you go ahead. I think I need to help with this.”
“Ah… yeah. Okay.” Yuhwa said that and left the spot. She left behind a somewhat bitter tone. Maybe it was because we were in front of a Discipline Committee senior, or maybe she was self-conscious. After all, the rumors about us hadn’t completely died down yet.
“Should I put it here?”
“Yes, thank you so much. You saved me.” We arrived at the Discipline Committee room following Nabi-sunbae. I placed the large box in the corner and looked around the interior for a moment.
“It’s quite spacious, isn’t it?”
“Yes, sit comfortably and rest for a bit. No other committee members are coming today.” Nabi-sunbae said that and took a few snacks out of a drawer. I sat on the black leather sofa.
“Here, have some of this too. Thanks for the help.”
“Yes.” I took the snack and held it in my hand. In the quiet, somewhat solemn atmosphere of the room, even the sound of the snack wrapper felt loud. And then, there was the vibration ringing from my pants pocket.
“I think your phone is vibrating?” The senior seemed to have heard the short vibration, too. I put my hand in my pocket and took out my phone. Someone had sent a text… was it Do Yuhwa? I checked my phone with that thought, but the sender of the text was Seo Hyein.