Why...?
After leaving the health room, I trudged along until I found myself standing in the familiar hallway of my apartment building.
"Woojin… are you okay? You look like you're in a lot of pain…."
Baek Haeun, walking beside me, asked with concern as she glanced at my split lip and the bruise on my cheek.
Even though Choi Jia's group had beaten me like a dog, these things happen in life, don't they?
"I-I'm fine! Haha… It's nothing. It'll heal in no time."
When I forced a laugh and tried to act tough, Haeun stepped closer and gently took my injured hand in both of hers.
"Really… you're sure you're okay? Don't worry too much…. It feels like the kids are being way too hard on you."
"......"
Haeun's gentle comfort made my throat tighten.
The memory of my classmates staring at me like I was an insect flashed through my mind, and I lowered my head, barely managing to speak.
"Ahaha… Really… it's all a misunderstanding. I mean… I didn't do it on purpose…."
I trailed off with a pathetic excuse.
Haeun looked down at me in silence, then let out a soft, strange little hum through her lips.
"I see…. A misunderstanding~."
She gazed at Woojin with sticky eyes, as if she knew everything yet found it adorable.
"……Huh?"
Startled by how different her tone was from usual, I lifted my head to look at her.
Her eyes were nothing like before—she was smiling like a predator eyeing its prey.
"H-Haeun…? Your expression just now…."
"Huh? What about it, Woojin? Is there something on my face?"
But the chilling moment vanished like a lie, and Haeun returned to her usual bright, worried childhood-friend expression.
"More importantly, you look like walking is hard for you. Will you be okay? Tomorrow… do you want to go to school together?"
It was a shy offer.
That spine-chilling look from earlier must have been my imagination.
[Haeun is this worried about me, and I'm doubting her?]
[Lee Woojin. You've finally lost your mind.]
Even the angel in front of me was saying that?
Only then did I relax and nod quickly.
"Yeah… it's been a while… sure."
"Okay! Then see you tomorrow morning~."
Haeun waved her pretty hand and slipped into her apartment next door.
Left alone in the hallway, I stared at her closed door and clenched my fist.
Yeah. Who cares if other people call me trash?
As long as Haeun believes in me and only looks at me, that's enough.
That alone is enough.
Even though Yu Jiwon blew up that bomb and the whole school thinks I'm a psychopathic pervert.
Even though Choi Jia's crew beat me until my body was wrecked.
In the end, Baek Haeun is still perfectly by my side, isn't she?
So what if the early plan went a little off track?
['Even the Titanic, on the verge of sinking after hitting a massive iceberg, would've been fine if it had changed course earlier!']
I grinned through my split lip and pulled out the grand metaphor.
['That's right. I, Lee Woojin, am the great Titanic that perfectly corrected its course and avoided the oncoming iceberg! Hahaha!']
Just as I was celebrating with a tearful mental victory fanfare—
I stopped trying to enter the door code and caught my reflection in the keypad.
My school shirt was missing buttons, covered in dirt, and looked like a rag, while my lip was split and crusted with blood.
"…Ah, shit."
The great Titanic from moments ago instantly crumpled before the reality of the massive iceberg.
"What do I do…. Mom's going to flip out when she sees me like this…."
***
Beep—
Click—
I slipped into the house like a thief.
Suah, who had been lying on the living-room sofa playing with her phone, poked her head out.
"Oppa~ Why are you so late? I heard the festival prep let everyone out early today."
"Ah… well, something came up."
I pressed myself against the wall and scurried toward my room, trying to hide the bruises on my face and my torn uniform.
But there was no escaping Lee Suah's ghostly sharp eyes.
"Oppa…. W-wait. What the…?!"
Suah sprang off the sofa and grabbed my shoulder.
"Oppa… what happened to your face?! And why is your uniform like that?! Did someone hit you?!"
Her eyes widened like a rabbit's in shock.
She looked ready to call Mom right away.
To protect what little pride I had left as a guy, I furrowed my brows and tried to bluff.
"Ah, shut up! Who got hit? Some guys were acting up, so I just taught them a lesson, that's all."
I struck a pose like the legendary fighter who took on seventeen people alone, but to Suah I just looked like an idiot brother who got beaten like a dog.
"A lesson, my ass…. You got your ass kicked and came home like this."
Suah clicked her tongue in disappointment.
I seized the moment and desperately clasped my hands together, begging.
"Suah… please, please don't tell Mom and Dad! Okay? I'll buy you chicken this weekend! I'm begging you!!"
The great Titanic captain who had just claimed to have educated the delinquents was now bowing pathetically in front of his little sister.
"Haa… Fine. Just go put some ointment on, you idiot."
"Hey, Lee Suah. Thanks, seriously!!"
I ignored her scolding and rushed into my room, slamming the door shut.
That long, miserable, pathetic day finally came to an end.
***
The next morning.
With ointment slathered thickly over my swollen face, I grabbed my bag much earlier than usual and stepped out the door.
"Oppa… you're leaving already?"
Suah asked, rubbing her eyes as she came out of the bathroom with messy hair.
"Yeah. Well… something came up."
"It's always 'something came up.' You're so dumb."
Suah mumbled around the toothbrush in her mouth and gave me a pitying look.
"What do you know? There are complicated adult reasons for everything."
"Adult reasons? Getting beaten half to death outside yesterday was an adult reason too?"
"Y-Yah!! Shh! Be quiet, you idiot!!"
I panicked, afraid Mom would wake up in the master bedroom, and covered Suah's mouth.
"I-I'm off!"
I shoved my feet into my shoes and bolted out of the house.
The moment I reached the hallway, I headed straight for the door of the apartment next door—Haeun's place.
Why?
Because yesterday she had clearly promised to go to school together.
I leaned against the wall, heart fluttering, and waited for her to come out.
But…
Five minutes passed, then ten, and the firmly closed door showed no sign of opening.
Click—
Instead, it was my own front door that opened.
Suah, neatly dressed in her uniform with her bag on, stepped out and froze when she saw me.
"Eek? Oppa, you're still here? Don't tell me you're waiting for Haeun-unnie?"
"Shut up. You go to school already."
When I waved my hand to shoo her away, Suah clicked her tongue.
"Oppa, if you don't leave soon you're going to be late. And Haeun-unnie's the student council president, right? She probably went early already."
"……Huh?"
Suah's fact-bomb made my heart sink.
['Th-that's right? Haeun is the student council president, so….']
No.
She definitely promised me yesterday.
Baek Haeun likes me, so she'll definitely come out to keep that promise.
"Suah, you go first. I'll head over on my own."
"Haa… Whatever. Just don't blame me if you get detention for being late."
Suah shook her head and took the elevator down first.
Even after she left, I stood my ground.
Five minutes, ten minutes… and finally twenty minutes passed.
My phone already showed a time that guaranteed I would be late.
"......"
Standing alone in the hallway, I felt utterly pathetic.
But I forced the corners of my mouth up and let out a hollow laugh.
"Ahaha…. Haeun must've overslept because she was tired yesterday…. Yeah. She was probably exhausted from taking care of me at the health room so late."
I muttered excuses to an empty hallway.
When even thirty minutes passed with no sign of her, my flimsy hope finally hit rock bottom.
"……Sh-she probably just forgot."
I lowered my head and dragged my heavy feet toward school.
The spring breeze brushed my cheek, but all it brought to my wounded face was pain.
When I reached the front door of the classroom, I took a deep breath and opened it.
And the first thing that entered my sight was—
"Puhaha, seriously? That's insane!"
Baek Haeun, sitting near my desk with the other students, chatting away with the brightest smile in the world.
"……!"
My heart dropped.
It wasn't that she overslept or couldn't come because she was sick.
Haeun was perfectly fine, had arrived early as usual, and was blooming with laughter in the center of everyone like nothing had happened.
While I had wasted thirty minutes like an idiot in an empty hallway.
"Lee Woojin."
Our homeroom teacher's sharp voice rang out toward me as I stood there dazed.
"You're late today, so stay after school and clean up."
"…Yes."
I lowered my head and staggered toward my seat.
As I crossed the classroom, the students' blatant whispers rained down like arrows.
"Ugh… late on top of everything. Why does he even come to school?"
"Probably stayed up all night reading weird pervert novels again. Right?"
"Isn't he basically a potential criminal? Ugh, I don't want to get involved with him even when we're adults."
The contempt pierced like knives.
I sat down and pretended to take out my books like nothing was wrong, but my eyes kept drifting to the back of Haeun's head in the diagonal seat ahead.
['Haeun…? You… you clearly said yesterday that we should go together…. Why… why did you leave first? Why…?']