Chapter 8. This year for sure! (7)
Because Soi was sleeping stuck to me so tightly, as if she thought I might just leave somewhere, I was pressed even harder against the wall than usual when I woke up in the morning.
Still, my mood was a tiny bit better than when I heard that news yesterday.
Yeah. Come to think of it, wouldn't things stay the same anyway?
Because they said that now, it's not just one person, but a much larger force has been deployed around us.
And disturbances like the last one have become hard to repeat. They've put in a huge amount of security since then, increased the manpower, and above all, they say it's not like everyone who was arrested could have broken out of prison.
So, drawing attention somewhere else to make all the guards leave and then coming to meet me in person... that's probably impossible.
I decided to think that way.
Maybe because my expression had improved a little, Yujin-ajumma and Dohyun-ajeossi also looked slightly relieved during breakfast.
I ate just like any other day and went to school just like any other day—but the atmosphere was different from usual.
The gazes that had stopped looking at us were now directed at us again.
To be precise, they were directed at me.
The story about the prison break was reported extensively on the news yesterday. It wasn't the kind of story that could be hidden in the first place.
It was the kind of story that needed to be made known to people as much as possible, warning them to be careful. Naturally, we received emergency disaster texts too.
Yujin-ajumma said it was absolutely not my fault, but reasons are usually whatever the person attaching them wants them to be.
These kids, too, seemed to think for some reason that I was the cause.
......Well, fine.
Let's ignore it.
I think I know the reason, at least.
Regardless of what anyone says, this school really was attacked by that woman.
The homeroom teacher started coming back to school when the next grade started, but still jumped at even the smallest sounds, and the kids probably developed traumas big and small, too. Of course, they didn't end up being my homeroom teacher this year.
Maybe that's why the kids who were in the same class in the first year were all completely scattered into different classes when we moved up to the second year.
So, I can understand that much.
But.
Whisper, whisper.
Still, whispering sounds can be heard around us.
Honestly, at this point, I don't even know if this is backstabbing or not. Are they trying to make me feel bad somehow?
Is it that mentality where they think I'll be more comfortable if I just transfer schools?
......It happens often. Creating a target that everyone hates, an 'evil' target in their minds, and taking it out on them.
So, it's fine. Someone like me. Even I would have thought to connect it that way, and in fact, even I am connecting it right now, aren't I?
But.
"But Soi...... is still sticking to her."
"I know, right? The two of them, seriously."
Is she incapable of learning?
Or is it just because I'm pretending not to notice?
Maybe it was confidence. The confidence that she would never get hurt.
Jja-ak!
The sound was loud.
Enough to make all the kids jump in surprise.
To be honest, enough to make even me flustered.
I can't make the excuse that 'I didn't mean to.' Because I did hope that they would be surprised and scared.
But even so, I didn't intend to make such a loud noise.
Soi looked at me with her eyes wide open.
Before I could even answer.
Jjeok.
The window cracked.
The window on the hallway side.
Jjeo-jeok, jjeok.
As if it were the sound of electricity flowing, little by little, creating white lines like a spiderweb.
The kids sitting near it jumped up in surprise. Everyone's face was pale. My face must have turned pale, too.
My palm stings a little. As if I had slammed the desk.
Hul-jjeok.
Someone sniffles.
The murmuring among the kids spreads, then goes quiet in an instant.
Everyone looked at me.
It's not a gaze that looks down on me.
Rather, the opposite.
Eyes filled only with fear.
If a superpower is a knife, a superhuman is someone who is always carrying a knife.
It's not dangerous as long as you don't swing it. But, if it's someone who has swung it even once. If it's someone who has shown the blade, even jokingly.
Naturally, everyone would be scared.
Jjeo-jeok, jjeo-jeok.
Only the sound of the glass cracking rings out in the classroom.
During the short time until the teacher came running, no one spoke a word.
*
"......."
"......."
"......Lua-ya."
"......Yes."
It was the natural sequence of events.
If a child commits a major wrongdoing at school, isn't it the procedure to call the parents? It would be natural for Yujin-ajumma and Dohyun-ajeossi to come to the school.
Actually, this much was quite lenient, considering the faces of the two of them.
Normally, they would have sent me home immediately and kept me separated from the 'victim students' until a disciplinary committee or something like that was held later.
The reason they left it at this for now might be because the teachers also knew to some extent how I was being treated within the school.
Even when they gave warnings and told them not to do it. Because there were kids who did it even more precisely because they said that.
"Is this...... what you did?"
Carefully.
I'm the one who did wrong, so why does Yujin-ajumma have to be so careful, as if she's scared?
I just kept my mouth shut.
Because I didn't want to talk.
I had been holding it in somehow, fearing this would happen.
Regardless of the circumstances, in this society, superhumans are always treated as the 'strong'. Thinking about the admiration I received even before Seo Arin appeared in front of me, it's certainly true that having a superpower makes a person seem special.
But that also means, conversely, that those who are not superhumans are the weak.
A position where if even the slightest conflict arises, you end up receiving that much disadvantage.
Yujin-ajumma's hand came up onto my hand.
"......Shall we go home and talk?"
Carefully.
Even though I'm the one who did wrong and I'm the one being stubborn, Yujin-ajumma said that with an apologetic expression, as if it were all her fault.
I bit my lip.
I didn't want that. I couldn't say I liked this school entirely, but I didn't want to leave like I was being kicked out like this.
But I couldn't just keep holding out, either.
In the end, I nodded.
*
Whisper, whisper.
Even while I was packing my bag, the kids were whispering.
As if they knew it would turn out like this again this time.
I didn't actually hit anyone, but since I used my superpower to scare them, it's natural that I'd be kicked out. As if to say they were right all along.
I didn't hear them say 'Witch' directly, but wouldn't that word have been exchanged in those whispers?
"......."
Soi was packing her bag with me, keeping her mouth shut. She had done nothing wrong, and she was clearly a kid whose school life would have been fine just by not hanging out with me, yet she chose to go home with me.
All of that made me feel so sorry, and I didn't like it, and anyway, various thoughts were all mixed up.
"......You guys."
But even though I hadn't opened my mouth, Soi opened hers first.
Because her voice sounded a bit like a growl, the class went quiet in an instant again.
The gazes gathered on Soi.
"You guys, isn't this too much?"
Soi asked in the quiet classroom.
"Soi."
I grabbed Soi's arm.
Soi was about to say something more, but after seeing my expression, she shut her mouth tight.
"......."
And she made an expression like she was about to cry because she was so frustrated.
My heart is beating wildly.
I feel like I'm going crazy with anger. But I don't know how to release that anger. If I go wild here, it won't just be me, but Yujin-ajumma and Dohyun-ajeossi will also be in big trouble.
And there was Chaeyi, too. It wouldn't end with just paying for the broken items. Since they are that famous, they would definitely link it and make a fuss as if I had committed a huge crime. As if just being close to me was a mistake—
Pang!
Once again, the windowpane rang out.
The kids jumped up from their seats in surprise again.
The gazes are focused on me.
But......
Pang!
The sound is heard again.
Pang! Pang! Pang!
One after another, something hits the window.
The kids who had stood up in a rush hurriedly backed away from the window.
This time, it wasn't the hallway-side window, but the window facing outside.
It was the window in the direction where I sit.
On one of those windows, something red and round was drawn. A round, slightly dripping picture, as if someone had thrown a paintball and burst it.
But, soon.
Tang!
At the window that rang out loudly like a gunshot, I also flinched and stepped back.
It wasn't an 'invisible hand'. Because, no matter how much an invisible hand hits a window, it's invisible in the first place.
The thing hitting the window was a bird.
A pure white bird. About the size of a small puppy, not a bird that just lives normally in this country.
Quite unfittingly, it was a parrot.
Kwang!
To the point that even the window frame shook, the bird flew again and rammed into the window.
And—
Jjaeng-geurang, the window shattered, and the bird, its pure white feathers turned red and bloody, entered the classroom.
The kids scream. With a completely different intensity than when I hit the window earlier, loudly enough to tear one's ears.
Some hurriedly ran out of the classroom.
The parrot, which had flopped onto a desk in the middle of the classroom like a corpse, stood up abruptly, as if that were all a lie.
I once saw a video of a chicken walking around for a bit after its head had been cut off.
Just like that, the parrot, with one side of its head sunken in and its eyes not normal, looked around as if to say it was perfectly alive.
And made eye contact with me.
And looking at me and Soi packing our bags, it looked back and forth at the kids standing up from their seats.
The parrot, having turned its head back to me, said.
"Who are you?"
It's a strange sound.
You could even say it's ridiculous. Because it's a parrot. Because it's that kind of voice.
But the words that followed next were not funny at all.
"Who did this?"
—Because, as if it were my mother, the parrot asked that, as if it were worried about me.