Yu Jiwon (2)
The first time I met Woojin was back in middle school.
I wasn't the flashy, attention-grabbing type like I am now.
I wore thick glasses, tied my hair back tightly, and always huddled in the back corner of the classroom, buried in a novel—no real presence at all.
No one ever talked to me, and I fully believed my gloomy youth would just quietly fade away like that until graduation.
Until that boy approached me.
"Hey. What're you reading?"
During one break time, a shadow suddenly fell over my desk.
"Huh…? Oh…?"
"That book. A novel?"
A boy standing with the sunlight at his back.
He rested his chin on my desk and struck up a conversation without a hint of hesitation.
"I read novels sometimes too. What genre do you usually go for?"
"I… um… I…"
"Hmm~? You wouldn't happen to be into, like… guy-on-guy stuff… or whatever, right?"
He teased me with a mischievous wink.
My face flushed tomato-red, and I waved my hands frantically.
"N-no, it's not like that…!"
"Pfft, haha, just kidding, kidding. I'm Lee Woojin. You?"
"Uh… I'm… Y-Yu Jiwon…."
That short conversation.
It was our beginning, and we got close fast.
…Or so I thought. Truth is, we never really did.
Just as my first crush was about to bloom, she showed up, right on cue.
"Hey, Lee Woojin! You bullying someone else again?"
"N-no, it's not like that~ Haeun, you just don't get it… Ow!"
A dazzlingly pretty girl burst in through the classroom front door—Baek Haeun.
She naturally stepped right in front of me, then pinched Woojin's ear and yanked.
"Sorry about that! If Woojin bullies you, tell me right away!"
She smiled at me, then smacked Woojin's back and dragged him toward her seat.
"It huuurts…! It's not like that—! We were just sharing a secret!"
As he was pulled away, Woojin turned back toward me, yelling like he was wronged.
Secret.
A secret shared with my first friend.
I clutched my book tight, calming my pounding heart.
Back then, I innocently believed that.
As long as we stayed at this school, we'd keep talking about that secret whenever we had a chance.
But contrary to my expectations.
After that day, Woojin never came to my desk even once.
…Was it all in my head? Did I just delusionally think I was special, all alone?)
Baek Haeun shining brilliantly in the middle of the classroom, and Lee Woojin naturally by her side, laughing and chatting.
There was no room for me in their perfect world.
From afar, watching them, I quietly endured the pathetic inferiority complex welling up behind my thick glasses.
If I could sparkle like Baek Haeun too… would Woojin look at me again?)
That was around the end of my gloomy middle school crush.
One day, while cleaning the classroom, I overheard Woojin chatting with his classmates.
[Hey, Woojin. Where's your first-choice high school?]
[Me…? Uh, Haeun High, I guess?]
[Haeun High? Why go that far?]
[Nah, just… it's close to home?]
Woojin's casual reply.
Then another friend nearby threw in a pointed joke.
[By the way, you haven't been hanging with Baek Haeun lately. You two fight or something?]
[Shut up.]
Woojin cut the conversation short irritably, but in my head, gripping the broom, only one word sank deep.
Haeun High.
Haeun High School.
That night, without a second thought, I put Haeun High as my first choice.
And miraculously, I got in.
On top of that, I was thrilled to my core when I learned I was in the same class as Woojin.
…Until I found out my eternal complex—Baek Haeun—was in the same class too.
Either way, I'd changed.
Ditched the glasses for contacts, lost weight ruthlessly, learned makeup.
On the first day of high school, with my completely revamped style, what would Woojin say?
"Wait, you're that Yu Jiwon from back then? You got so pretty!"—something like that, surprised?
Heart swelling, during break time, I approached Woojin's desk.
"Woojin."
I greeted him shyly, and Woojin, who was reading a book, looked up.
Just like I'd hoped, Woojin's face flushed bright red.
He was clearly flustered by my drastically prettier appearance.
"Uh… hi…?"
"Yeah…."
I suppressed my surging emotions, waiting for his next words.
But what came out of Woojin's mouth froze my inflated heart cold.
"But… do I know you?"
"……Huh?"
Woojin's eyes held not a speck of the memories we'd shared back then.
He was treating me like a total stranger girl.
After that day, I sank into utter despair and couldn't bring myself to talk to him anymore.
I just watched him quietly from afar, like the old me.
The high school Lee Woojin was a completely different person from middle school.
He was thoroughly on the outs in class, and during every break, he'd plug in earphones, hole up in a corner, and just read novels on his phone.
Just like… the old me.
Woojin. Why'd you change so much?)
The answer to my question came during PE, when everyone else was out on the field.
Pleading a stomachache to head to the nurse, I stayed alone in the empty classroom and, as if drawn by a spell, approached Woojin's desk.
In Woojin's desk drawer sat his forgotten smartphone, just as he'd left it.
With trembling hands, I picked it up, turned on the screen, and tapped the most recently used browser app.
Search history and visited community lists scrolled into view.
"……?"
My brow furrowed in eerie confusion.
What were these creepy words?
Why… why is he looking at this crap?)
In my shocked eyes, Woojin's anonymous community posts and comments came into sharp focus.
"……."
My fingertips trembled around the smartphone.
Finally, every puzzle piece clicked together in a chillingly perfect fit.
Baek Haeun suddenly becoming an outcast at school, the weird rumors spreading, and every time, Lee Woojin swooping in like a white knight to save her— all those "coincidences."
They weren't coincidences.
"Haa…."
I carefully placed the smartphone back in the drawer.
A normal girl would've spread rumors like "Wh-what is this?!"
But I was different.
"......."
Instead, a bizarre possessiveness toward Woojin began to fill the emptiness in my chest.
"Woojin…."
In the empty classroom, I draped myself over his desk, tracing the spot that still held his scent with my fingers, smiling.
"If you're a bad boy… maybe I can be bad just once too, right?"
Our real secret started over from there.
Shaking off the creepy remnants of the past, time snapped back to the present classroom.
Afternoon, after lunch.
Yu Jiwon, seated at her desk, had been noticeably deflated ever since coming back from the bathroom earlier.
Normally, she'd come to my desk every break, hook her arm in mine, and chatter away, but now she just slumped over her desk, stealing glances at me.
She even started skipping class altogether some days, hanging on the outskirts.
…What's up with her?)
I wondered briefly at her empty seat but soon shrugged it off indifferently.
Whatever. Honestly, it was a hassle always playing along. If she backs off on her own, that's easier for me.
The dull afternoon classes finally wrapped up, and it was homeroom.
The homeroom teacher tapped the podium to grab the kids' attention.
"Alright, everyone, listen up! You all know our Haeun High festival is in a couple weeks, right? Decide on a booth for our class by the end of this week. Got it? Dismissed!"
The second the teacher left, the classroom buzzed with festival talk.
"Hey, Woojin! Basketball after school?"
Kang Minjae, slinging his bag, spun a basketball on his finger as he approached.
"Eh… sure, been a while."
To shake off the lethargy, I followed them to the court.
Mid-game, sweat dripping as we passed the ball, Minwoo suddenly asked.
"By the way, no plans with Jiwon today?"
"Yeah, come to think of it… haven't seen you two together lately?"
Minjae joined in with the sharp question.
My heart skipped, wondering if I was busted, but I stopped my dribble and flashed a perfectly natural smile.
"Nah, we meet up weekends a lot. Movies and stuff. That new one that opened—'The Man Who Lives with Nyan'? We saw that too."
"Oh, for real? I gotta watch that! Hey, wanna hit the theater after this?"
Thankfully, the simpletons bought my lie hook, line, and sinker.
I swallowed a silent sigh of relief and silently shot the ball toward the rim amid the quiet.
The basketball swished cleanly through the net.
But my mind was tangled in some inexplicable unease.
Sunset.
Flapping my sweat-soaked uniform as I entered the apartment hallway, I froze the moment I reached my door.
"……."
Under the dim sensor light in the hall.
Leaning crookedly against the wall by my door was a familiar silhouette—Baek Haeun.
We hadn't crossed paths in a while, and she stood there motionless, head down.
I hesitated for a second but soon ignored her like nothing was wrong and stepped toward the door lock.
"This time…."
Just as I reached for the keypad, Haeun's calm voice stopped my hand.
I let out a short sigh and turned.
"For the festival this time… have you decided what our class should do?"
Her question made me scoff in disbelief.
"No idea. Why ask me? Isn't that your call? You're class rep, not to mention student council president."
"When I'm swamped with student council stuff… you're basically the class rep."
Haeun lifted her head and stared straight at me.
I met her gaze without flinching and countered logically, coldly.
"That was just the homeroom teacher asking me to help out temporarily during the election. There's a vice rep anyway—why me specifically?"
"Th-that… was…"
My sharp line-drawing made her big eyes waver in momentary panic.
But Haeun didn't crumple into tears or run like before.
She schooled her expression and took a slow step toward me.
"So… you got nothing you wanna do?"
"Not really."
I turned away, annoyed, trying to brush her off.
That was when it happened.
Thud—!!
"…Huh?!"
The distance closed in an instant.
Haeun grabbed my wrist roughly and shoved me hard against the door.
"You…!"