Back Then, Back Then, Back Then, Part 4
I was washing my hands, which were stained red.
The cold tap water washed away the blood spilled by the father of a once-precious childhood friend.
Why?
To think Lee Ga-rang's father and mother were members of the Baekyeom Sect...
"Hae-in, you're here to see Ga-rang. Come on in!"
A fleeting fragment of the past, like an old film reel of unknown origin, seemed to replay in the reflection of my eyes in the mirror.
Only the indifferent sound of the running tap water filled the sink.
Gush, gush, gush.
Although the bloodstains of Lee Ga-rang's father, Lee Hyuk, had now been washed down the drain...
I kept scrubbing my hands under the running water.
They were clean now, and by all rights, I should have felt cleansed.
Yet, the flush of heat rising to my skin...
...could not be hidden, not even by the rushing water.
As if wasting water,
the sink began to overflow.
I plunged my head into the spilling water...
After a moment, I lifted my head, panting heavily. Without even shaking off the water,
I walked out of the public restroom.
It was Saturday, so the streets were packed with people.
But there was no one who would approach me with a warm smile...
No one at all.
Leaning against a building wall, I watched the passing crowd...
...as if observing ornamental fish in an aquarium.
Couples holding hands, groups of friends hanging out,
a young child holding both parents' hands, smiling like a sunflower...
"Oh Hae-in, what are you doing? Are you looking at fish again? Don't you ever get tired of them?"
The friends who used to say things like that to me...
One day,
the moment I was branded a school bully...
...they all cut me out of their lives.
"Apologize... Please, just give us a sincere apology... Only then can I... forgive you..."
To those three girls who sobbed, begging me to at least say I was sorry...
I had screamed that I didn't do it.
I shouted that I had never exploited their pain...
...but in the end, it was all dismissed as deception.
And they abandoned me.
And just a little while ago...
...they misunderstood me once again.
Once more, I was cast aside.
I'm exhausted.
Our relationship, hanging by a thread...
...it was probably right for me to let it go.
My frustrating behavior, the reunion with girls whose hearts had frozen over...
Even if it was orchestrated by an outside conspiracy...
...it was irreversible.
Our old bond had frozen solid,
and I realized I didn't even have tears left to melt it.
Only the water from my hair dripped onto the ground.
My eyes showed no sign of crying.
I pushed myself off the wall and called my father.
I wanted to tell him the truth about Lee Ga-rang's parents, but...
...only the automated voice telling me he couldn't answer came through the speaker.
"What's going on... Is he busy?"
My mother, my relatives...
...none of them answered.
Could it be?
Buzz.
A text message arrived.
I worried for nothing.
I sent my father a text explaining what happened today, and then...
...headed home.
As I walked, I began to realize that the words Lee Ga-rang's father, Lee Hyuk, had spewed...
...were completely untrustworthy.
In the first place, the way they lured me out was amateurish.
From Yu Min-su's parents using Min-su to show me a declaration of war video...
...to dragging me to a restaurant just to provoke me...
...it was all so pathetic.
I began to blame myself for falling for such obvious bait, realizing I had been easily provoked due to the lingering resentment of being framed as a bully.
Besides, the "Yang" person Yu Min-su mentioned in the group chat... was probably the counselor, Yangchigi.
Whoever they were,
they seemed like a much sloppier group than I thought. It felt like they had grown arrogant after succeeding just once.
That was my conclusion.
They were likely a new cult that had merely stolen the name of the Baekyeom Sect.
Thanks to them, my high-end lunch was ruined, and I didn't even get to cleanse my palate with dessert.
Looking ridiculous, I was walking back alone when...
"What are you doing?"
The person speaking to me was someone whose voice had become familiar...
Eun Na-rin.
Lee Ga-rang's father, mother, and the restaurant employee were loaded into ambulances and rushed to the emergency room.
Ga-rang rode along in the ambulance, reassuring her friends and telling them not to worry.
Cha Sang-hui and Gong Na-rin wanted to go with her, but...
"Thanks, everyone... You must be tired, so go home and rest..."
Swallowing her trembling, Ga-rang tried to reassure her friends, who were consumed by worry.
Perhaps she didn't want to burden them with any more despair.
Understanding Ga-rang's feelings, Sang-hui and Na-rin...
...could do nothing but watch the ambulance speed away toward the hospital.
"What is all this..."
Cha Sang-hui closed her eyes, wishing the scene she had witnessed today...
...was just a nightmare.
"Let's go..."
Gong Na-rin patted Sang-hui's shoulder this time.
Opening her eyes, Sang-hui forced a relaxed smile for Na-rin's sake and took her hand.
"Why the long face? Big sis will protect you."
"...Can you actually protect me?"
"Hey, you want to die?"
Sang-hui's red eyes, flushed like Rudolph's nose, crinkled in a slight smile.
Na-rin's blue eyes smiled back, matching her friend's expression.
The two of them looked like close sisters.
By now, it was midday.
The two girls decided to buy a get-well gift for Ga-rang and her parents.
Holding hands tightly, they walked through the bustling shopping district.
—Look over there. Are those the girls?
—Oh my? ...Yes, that half-Korean girl, her Japanese mother...
—And that brown-haired girl, her family...
Unfortunately, the quiet whispers of middle-aged women on a cafe terrace who recognized the girls...
...carried on the wind and reached their ears.
Sang-hui flinched, wanting to march over and tell them to shut their mouths.
But Na-rin held her back, murmuring that confronting them would only waste their breath.
In the end, walking hand-in-hand, the two girls...
...felt a cold sense of betrayal once again from the boy they had believed would protect them.
Yet, even so...
...despite everything...
"Don't pay them any mind. That's just an appetizer. Back when we were at our worst..."
"...Don't talk about it."
Na-rin tried to lighten the mood by saying this was nothing compared to when the rumors first broke,
but at the sound of Sang-hui's choked voice, she could only silently squeeze her hand.
The two of them entered a shop and bought the gift.
In silence.
On their way back, holding the gift and each other's hands in quiet melancholy,
Sang-hui's phone rang.
"Yes... Sigh... I get it, so just wait for me..."
She hung up.
Sang-hui thrust the gift she was carrying into Na-rin's arms.
"I don't think I can walk you home. I have to go."
Before Na-rin could even speak, Sang-hui rushed off.
Knowing Sang-hui was leaving because of her father again, Na-rin felt a wave of helplessness at her inability to help.
Now, she was walking back through the shopping district alone.
Clutching the gift tightly in both hands, she walked...
...only to see Oh Hae-in standing ahead of her.
He was with someone else.
A girl about his age, with black hair and purple eyes...
...linking arms with him.
In that instant, as if she were the one who had committed a crime...
...she froze.
Did she still harbor feelings for the boy who had caused them so much sorrow and resentment?
Was there still a piece of him left in her heart?
Oh Hae-in hadn't noticed his childhood friend yet.
He was simply looking at the black-haired girl...
...wearing the same smile he used to show his old friends.
"Na-rin. I'm really not in the mood to hang out right now..."
"Why? Just stay with your noona. You look paler than usual today, which actually suits you."
Na-rin.
Gong Na-rin doubted her own ears.
Oh Hae-in was calling someone else...
...by the name he used to say only to her.
That name.
He was saying it to a complete stranger.
No.
That name was only meant for me...
Why do you have the name Na-rin too...?
Who even are you...?
I'm the one who should be by Oh Hae-in's side.
Why is that black-haired girl linking arms with him?
Even we never got to do that...
The girl with the glossy brown hair...
...without even realizing it...
...began to draw closer to the two of them.
Clutching the gift in one hand, while her other hand...
Why...
Why did you abandon us for another woman?
You were the one in the wrong.
If you had just apologized properly from the start,
we would have forgiven you, and we could have...
Step, step.
Standing in front of a franchise store, Oh Hae-in and the black-haired girl didn't notice someone approaching from behind.
Her quiet footsteps slipped through the crowd...
...closing the distance to her old friend.
To Gong Na-rin, the time spent walking toward them felt like an eternity.
This was a first.
She didn't understand why she was breaking out in a cold sweat.
Even when the irreversible mistake she had made in her childhood was exposed to her friends...
...and the rest of the world, she hadn't felt like this.
Because back then, back then, back then... Hae-in was there.
When the three of us cried and begged him not to do it...
...we believed he was silently acting as our shield. But we were betrayed.
Surely... you weren't just playing with us from the very beginning?
In the exact same place, the three of us looked only at you...
Only you,
Only you,
Only you,
Only you.
"Na-rin. When are we going in?"
...You really were playing with us, weren't you?
He called that woman Na-rin again?
Gong Na-rin's steps were slowed by the gift she carried.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Eun Na-rin was absorbed in her phone, searching for a coupon...
...and now, the three of them...
Gong Na-rin reached out to place her hand on Oh Hae-in's shoulder,
but just as Eun Na-rin moved, exclaiming she had found the coupon...
...her hand brushed Eun Na-rin's shoulder instead.
Na-rin touching Na-rin...
"Huh? On my shoulder...?"
Eun Na-rin looked at Gong Na-rin with a puzzled expression.
The two girls who shared the name Na-rin...
...and Oh Hae-in could only stare at them in silence.