The Arsonist
The girl who declared she would make me fall in love with her was now putting that declaration into practice. Why?
Because… my hand…
In front of me now, she no longer held back. She was openly showing affection. Of course, she wasn’t standing there shouting, “We’re dating!” to the whole world, but the amount of skinship she’d started showing was on a whole new level. For example, during class when there was a little break in between. Knock knock. “…?” Hihi…
She would glance at my face, give a bright smile. Siwoo, let’s go together! Hugs. When we were going to move class, she would stick right next to me and hold my hand tight. Now every eye in the classroom was locked on us. Especially the guys’ eyes. I’m going to kill you. Kill you. Kill you. Kill you. Hey, go get a hammer… bring in some death energy. Say Mishima Shuzo. …What does that even mean…?
Anyway, I had suddenly become the center of attention for the whole class. Of course, the bad kind. So when I asked if I hated being the focus of so much attention… my answer was “No.”
After all, it was coming from Sia liking me, so it felt good. My shoulders even seemed a little straighter. But as the distance between me and Sia started changing, everyone figured out that we were dating. Well… I understood. We were doing couple-like things, after all. Naturally, the rumor that the school’s top celebrity Sia was dating spread like wildfire. The classmates who wanted to verify it all crowded around Sia. They asked if we were really dating, and when I answered “Not yet,” they kept coming. “Sia, are you and Siwoo dating?” “Not yet, no.” “Aw, you two have been glued together this whole time. It’s embarrassing, right?” “It’s really not yet.” “Then why are you sticking even closer than before?” “Because I like it.” “Eeee.” “For real?” “Yep.”
When Sia gave that answer, the kids who heard it started spreading the rumor again. At first it spread properly, but as the words got passed around, they started twisting. Suddenly, I went from being Sia’s childhood friend and the only person who knew her secret weakness to some kind of shameless thug who trapped her in a pond. Of course, the self-proclaimed male friends of Sia heard the rumor and immediately called her. Most of them were just cursing me out while worrying about her. Almost all of them who cursed me got blocked by Sia. Among them was a second-year senior… so by now it was probably all over the school.
Sia looked really down. “Sorry, Siwoo…” Thinking that the bad rumors spreading about me were her fault. Well… at first I was shocked by how fast the rumor spread, but honestly, I thought it was actually okay. Because once everything got aired out, no one else would glare at Sia. It was better to just clean the slate like this. To be honest, I was already getting annoyed at the guys who kept trying to get close to Sia and secretly hit on her. Even though I didn’t mean it, seeing Sia’s surroundings get cleaned up felt incredibly satisfying. But Sia was worried that my reputation had hit rock bottom, so she went around explaining herself to everyone. And because classmates who went to the same middle school as us also helped clear things up, the cursing died down too. Of course, this was separate from that. Target confirmed. I will secure it as soon as possible. What is this… what’s going on? Gotcha! Nooo!
At lunchtime, after we finished eating and were heading back, I got dragged straight back in front of the class. When Sia saw me being dragged, she looked like she was wondering what to do, so I gestured for her to be fine and let them take me. The four of them led me to the bench we talked about yesterday. It was clearly just an ordinary bench back then, but in this situation it looked like some kind of interrogation room. They sat me on the bench, the rest of them plopped down on the other side, and finally someone spoke. You have no right to remain silent, you can hire a lawyer, and whatever you say is death. No, isn’t this weird? Shut up, human traitor. Our four years of friendship have come to this? No, we’re not even dating yet… I said I would tell you when I start dating. Shut up! I saw it with my own two eyes! You two were throwing sugar all over the place while flirting! You’re saying that’s not dating? Right! I saw it too! Just looking at you two gave me diabetes! What are you talking about… Donghyuk, you got fat and… Shut up! I got fat because of this traitor! No way…
I had expected something like this, but the reason they came was obviously because they heard the rumor I was spreading. They probably came to check if we were really dating or not…
I told you before, if we start dating, I will tell you first. Shut up! You can tell from the way we’re acting that we’re dating! If that’s not dating, then what are we supposed to be?! No, you idiots… Well… even though we were saying that, they were just joking around. How long had we been friends? Of course it was just a joke. …This is really harsh. Minseong, do you have a taser? …Probably. It was just a joke, right? Yeah, if that’s not dating, then what’s the relationship between the two of you? Hmm… If I said this straight out, Sia is hitting on me… I would really feel like I was going to die. We’re just on a date. Ha… Siiii…
What? Can’t you just hold it in for one hour? Would I? Ha… I’m really jealous… I mean, if dating is this much, what would I even do if we actually start dating? No… what’s there left to change? Honestly, I asked out of genuine curiosity, thinking there wasn’t much left to change. But Seonghun and Donghyuk, even Minseong was looking at me with pity in his eyes. So nothing’s changing then? You’re such a funny guy. Anyway, our relationship is still like this, so don’t misunderstand. Then stop flirting, or else I’ll set fire to every single thing in the school and yell “Arsonist?” I didn’t do it on purpose… …Sia…
Okay, that’s enough. Let go! Let go! I’m handling that idiot today. It’s already let go…
Hmph… anyway… so you did not betray us, I see. Yeah, then can we go now? Thinking it was finally over, I started to get up from my seat. Wait, it’s not over yet. Hearing that it wasn’t over, I sat back down. What now? You heard that you got reported to the upperclassmen, right? It’s fine. If you get bullied, just tell us and we’ll handle it. Donghyuk, you’re weak. It’s fine, Minseong will take care of it all. Yeah, a guy who does jiu-jitsu black belt and box as a hobby can’t be beaten. No… that’s not it… Anyway, it’s really fine, right? Yeah, it’s all resolved. Really? When I said everything was taken care of, everyone looked at me with doubtful eyes. I don’t really know either, but Sia took care of it. … Really? That’s good, but…
You told Sia to do that… what if something happens…
It wasn’t something I discussed with Sia in advance, but an idea suddenly popped into my head. They cursed at me over the phone. Ooh… if it’s Sia cursing, I can cry buckets. That’s reliable… Really, no need to worry. But to my surprise, everyone seemed to accept it. Curious why they all believed it. Why do all of you believe it? You don’t know? It’s because Sia, not you…
Hey, hey, enough. You said you don’t do that in front of Siwoo. Ah… you don’t have to. No, there’s no way you would say that after teasing people like this. Ah, we don’t want to die because of Sia, so we’ll stop here. Yeah, since I’ve seen you’re fine, I’ll go! Hey, let’s go to the vending machine while we’re at it. With that, Seonghun and Donghyuk walked into the school building first. I was walking in with Minseong when… Hey, Siwoo. Are you really thinking about dating Sia?
I was thinking it was just a joke like before, so I looked at Minseong. But he had a very serious face. I knew better than anyone that Minseong never gossips about people behind their backs, so I couldn’t understand why he was suddenly asking this. Why do you keep asking that? Well… what should I even say… just some kind of intuition. … If the others heard what Minseong said just now, they would have told him to shut up, but this was Minseong with that serious look, and his intuition was usually right, so I couldn’t just ignore it. For example, if we were supposed to meet friends today and Minseong said he felt bad and asked me to bring an umbrella, it would always rain. Besides small things, there were big things too, so we pretty much listened to Minseong’s advice. But… I’m not saying I don’t trust your intuition, but I like Sia. … Thank you for the advice anyway. … No, it was just something I said, so ignore it. My intuition is all wrong when it comes to people. … Okay, got it. Maybe Minseong’s intuition activated because Sia is a succubus. But even if Minseong is close, he can’t reveal her secret, so we just moved on.