The Unspoken Tension
“But… about Seo Hyein. She’s kind of… off, don’t you think?” Yuhwa said this while biting into a Pepero stick with a sharp *snap*. It sounded like a casual, throwaway comment, but it was hardly a topic I could just brush off. I flinched, glancing at her. My own thoughts were instantly derailed, forced to focus on her words. Yuhwa seemed to notice my reaction.
“Why?” I asked. She quickly crunched through the rest of the Pepero with her front teeth, likely to clear her mouth so she could speak more easily.
“It might just be in my head, but I don’t think she likes me very much.” Yuhwa stared off into the empty air, offering her assessment. Honestly, I couldn't help but be surprised. Considering their relationship in the original story, hearing this now left me with a lot to process. Besides, they hadn’t even interacted enough for her to get that kind of vibe, had they? What exactly made her feel that way?
“Why do you think that?”
“It’s just a feeling. Even earlier, I was the one who kept starting the conversation, right? But her expression was sour, and she sounded like she was forcing herself to answer.” Yuhwa uncrossed her legs and began swinging them back and forth. She must have been talking about when we gathered for group work. It was true… from Yuhwa’s perspective, she might have felt that way, but it was likely just because of the awkwardness surrounding me. A classic case of a misunderstanding.
“Ah… I don’t think she’s like that, though.”
“Really?” Yuhwa shot me a sidelong glance before returning her gaze to her toes. Her legs were still swinging back and forth, dangling in the air.
“But if you’re sitting right next to each other, you’d think you’d talk, right?”
“I guess?”
“But instead of talking, she just stares at me like she’s got some kind of grudge…”
“Did she… really?”
“Yeah, I think she doesn’t like me. She’s giving off this weirdly unpleasant vibe, you know? Ugh, why the hell is she acting like that?” After calmly explaining her observations, Yuhwa’s true personality finally slipped out at the end. Hearing that, I realized she had every reason to feel that way. If things kept going like this… the two of them were headed for a falling out. Even though the world setting had changed quite a bit, were Yuhwa and Hyein destined for catastrophe after all? I had assumed that by acting like Yuhwa’s personal punching bag, I could keep my relationship with Hyein on a separate track. Either way, this was problematic. It felt like a real problem.
“It’s probably a misunderstanding… You’re meeting for the first time, there’s no way she’d just hate you for no reason. She’s not the type of person to have that kind of bad character.”
That was why I said that. I thought it was for the sake of peace in this world. And for the peace of my own story, too.
“What do you know about her? Didn’t you just talk to her for the first time during group work today? Why do you keep insisting she’s not that kind of person?”
However, my intentions didn’t seem to come across clearly. Yuhwa snapped at me in an annoyed tone. My attempt at mediation was… wait. Why was I even trying to mediate? The thought suddenly left me feeling confused. Right, I had nothing to be worried about. Whether their relationship soured or not had nothing to do with me. I just needed to focus on my own business. So why was I speaking as if I were representing Hyein’s side, just like Yuhwa said? It seemed my subconscious didn’t want to paint Hyein as a bad person. Was I actually worried about her?
“Fine… do whatever you want. Maybe you’re right. I’m not trying to take anyone’s side.”
“Ugh, is that so? Anyway, she’s a bit sketchy. I don’t know what her problem is with me. Is she jealous? This is why I hate girls.” Yuhwa sighed in frustration and stuck another Pepero in her mouth. At that exact moment, Hyein returned to the classroom from the school store. I quickly turned my body and faced my desk, feeling like I’d been caught bad-mouthing someone. Yuhwa, however, remained turned toward the side, eating her Pepero—facing Hyein’s seat. As Hyein sat down, she glanced at Yuhwa. It was probably just a natural flow of her gaze.
“So you really bought those for Yuhwa?” Jisu, who had walked in with Hyein, said as she sat down. Her voice was full of mischief.
“Well, yeah.” Since it sounded like she was talking to me, I answered simply.
“You’re so sweet! You even went to the store for her.” Jisu clasped her hands together, offering her commentary. I guess I should take that as a compliment.
“Haha… well, it’s not that hard.” Ah, come to think of it, I was supposed to tell them I wouldn’t do this stuff anymore. I missed my chance.
“You… you’re only doing it because Yuhwa is pretty, right?!” Jisu then blurted that out with a playful lilt in her voice. At that, I felt Hyein’s gaze turn icy. It was too vivid a sensation to dismiss as just my imagination.
“That’s why he’s my 1st Fan. He knows a pretty face when he sees one.” Yuhwa, who had been listening silently, chimed in while munching on her Pepero. I didn’t have to worry about her self-esteem, that was for sure. She had no trouble saying things like that herself.
“That’s not it, and besides, when did I ever become your 1st Fan?” If I let that slide, it would be set in stone that I was running errands for Yuhwa for that reason. I quickly tried to correct her. To be more precise… there was a lot I wanted to say, but anyway.
“But Hyein is super pretty too, doesn’t she have a 1st Fan?” While I was listening to their chatter, Jisu’s comment made me choke on my own breath. Right… if I had to be technical, Hyein’s 1st Fan used to be me. That was in the past, of course, not anymore.
“Yeah, Hyein is pretty enough. Don’t you have anyone following you around?” Yuhwa added, as if agreeing with Jisu.
“Me? I don’t need anything like that.” Hyein, who had been reading our conversation only with her eyes, replied. She rested her chin on one hand and continued.
“I don’t really like making friends do things for me. Whether they’re a fan or whatever.” She said it indifferently, her gaze fixed on Jisu. The atmosphere turned as thin as ice at her words. I could feel the chill throughout my entire body. Right, that comment just now… it wasn’t to defend me. Hyein had no reason to defend me, and she used to treat me like that in the past anyway. That meant… it was closer to her just saying it because she didn’t like Yuhwa. At this rate, it really felt like a catastrophe was imminent.
“Oh… really? Is it because you’ve never had one?”
“Who knows. Anyway, I’m fine with it.”
“Ahaha… Hyein, want some jelly? Do you want some jelly?” Seeing that the conversation was getting a bit precarious even to a third party, Jisu hurriedly tried to move past it by opening her bag of jelly. I found it difficult to say anything else, so I turned my body back to face the front. Right, I had to think of this as a story unrelated to me. Just then, I felt a kick from the seat behind me strike my chair hard. The meaning behind that action… I dared to infer that it meant, ‘And you still say she doesn’t hate me?’ I didn’t know why she was taking her anger out on me.
When all the classes ended and the commute home began, I waited for a while. I waited for the other students to leave first, and for Hyein to head out. I didn’t want to watch her walk home with her group in real-time. Our paths overlapped, after all. If I followed her too clumsily, she might find out that I lived in the same Officetel. Then, the relationship with me that she wanted to hide might be exposed. As expected… I walked the quiet path home alone. After passing through a few alleys, I was quite far from the school. Starting tomorrow, there was a place I had to visit. Right, there was a character in the original work who had always bothered me. The person who sat on a bench every lunch hour, watching people pass by as if they were scenery. They were special enough that I couldn’t just dismiss them as "Character A," but they never appeared in the main plot. I thought of them as an Easter Egg. Well… anyway, I wondered if that character was still there.
As I was turning these thoughts over in my head, I reached the final corner near my Officetel. And at that corner, I had no choice but to stop dead in my tracks.
“…….”
Why was Seo Hyein still here? She was leaning against the wall of the alley, showing no signs of heading into the Officetel. The fact that she was still lingering here could only mean one thing. Did she have some business left? Was she… waiting for someone else? Was it that guy? My brain conjured up images of Hyein and that man. I bit my lower lip, trying to scatter the increasingly vivid images in my head. I shouldn’t get buried in useless thoughts; I just needed to find a way back. With that in mind, I stepped backward, trying to slip out of the alley where Hyein was standing.
And at that moment, my phone rang loudly. A ringtone that should have been on vibration mode, ringing out of place. Startled, I grabbed my phone. On the screen, an awkward call interface prompted me to answer. It looked like a call from Instagram. And the caller was Do Yuhwa. What… what was this about?
I answered the call quickly and moved away from the alley where Hyein was standing. In the process, I thought I heard a voice calling out to me, but I didn’t pay much attention to it.