In Place of Lua
*Cough, cough, cough*
*Sniff…*
Lua hacked out a cough, then noisily sniffed back a runny nose.
The sight of it was almost cute, but that wasn't the point right now.
"Why did you even come to school?"
"Today's… sniff… the presentation…"
"Presentation or not, there's no reason to come when you're this sick. It's not like we don't know the script."
"Nuh-uh… I have to… I said I would…"
"Sick people need to rest."
"I'm fiiine…"
*Cough, cough*
Watching her turn her head and cough made a spark of irritation try to catch. There was no reason for Lua to put herself through this. A sick person showing up determined to present was nonsense from the start. She was so diligent it was almost ridiculous.
"Where's the presentation script?"
"Here… cough, cough… sniff…"
She was coughing even as she spoke. I pressed a hand to her forehead, then to my own.
"Wh… what're you doiiing… cough…"
"What do you think? Checking your fever."
She was burning up. Just making it to school in that condition was practically heroic.
"Ugh… Forget it. I'll do the presentation."
"Huh…?"
"You just rest. Leave early if you have to."
"I'm really okay, though…"
"If you were okay, you wouldn't have handed me the script the second I asked for it."
She was so out of it she couldn't even see through that obvious little test. I sat her down at her desk, then went over to Jihye Kim and Goeun Lee.
"Sorry, but can I do the presentation?"
"What? You?"
"Where's Lua?"
"She's sick."
Both of them glanced toward Lua and immediately nodded, as if that settled it.
"…Yeah, making a kid in that state present is a bit much."
"But are you going to be okay? With presenting?"
"I'll be fine. I've done it a few times. You've seen me before, haven't you?"
"Well… that's true."
This might sound a little cynical, but when it comes to group projects, two jobs are the easiest by far. One is research. The other is presenting.
Personally, I think presenting is the easier of the two. Research decides the quality of the whole thing, so the person doing it has to scrape together as much information as possible. The presenter, on the other hand? No need for that kind of effort. You just take everything the others already put together and learn it. There might be a lot to study and memorize, but in terms of pure hassle, presenting is surprisingly light work.
"Have you got all the material down?"
"Who do you think made the video? Of course I've got it all down."
I would never say this in front of her, but Lua's voice was so good that just making the video had basically counted as studying.
……Come to think of it, something was weird. The recording she'd sent over had been ridiculously clean. How had she gotten the audio that polished? Did she have a mic or something?
No. That wasn't the important part. The important part was how thoroughly I'd locked the material in.
I handed the script to Jihye Kim and spoke with absolute confidence.
"Quiz me on anything in there. I'll get it all."
"……What year was Danjong born?"
"1441."
"Year he died?"
"1452."
"His real name?"
"Yi Hong-wi."
Jihye kept firing questions after that, and I answered every one as best I could. She finally nodded and handed the script back.
"You've basically memorized the whole thing."
"You end up learning it naturally when you make the video."
"That's fair. You have to watch it until you're sick of it."
She looked at me with a slightly more serious voice.
"Think you can pull it off?"
Ordinarily I would have taken a step back and just watched things unfold. Grades weren't exactly my top priority, and with a video of that quality already finished, I'd done my part.
The reason I was stepping up anyway was that I knew how hard Lua had worked. Even after sending the full recording, she'd messaged that she'd re-record any problem spots right away. She'd given real-time feedback while I was building the video. On top of that, she'd almost single-handedly handled the structure and the source-video research.
And while doing all of that, she'd still studied hard and never skipped her workouts. If a girl like that was suffering through a cold, coughing her lungs out, then the least I could do was this much. As her friend, if nothing else.
"Trust me."
So that was the only thing I could say. Trust me.
Honestly, I must have looked completely unreliable to those two. My grades were so bad you could count up from the bottom and find me in no time, and sleeping through class was basically my default. To a pair of model students, I must have been pretty hard to look at.
Which was exactly why I asked them to trust me. Forget who I used to be. Trust who I am now.
And our two model students…
"……Alright. We're counting on you."
"I'll trust you."
…said they would trust me.
I nodded right away, thanked them, and went straight back to my seat. Then, instead of sleeping the way I usually would, I started reading the presentation script Lua had written. Reading it, and reading it again.
I needed to cut down on mispronunciations as much as possible and project so people could actually hear me. If I read it enough times, it would stick to my mouth a little and the delivery would come out cleaner… or so I hoped.
I practiced like that, studied during class, then practiced again with the script in hand during every break, and before I knew it fourth period had arrived.
Fourth period was history. In other words, it was time for me to present.
Lua was still clearly miserable, but she never stopped taking notes. Worried about her, I kept offering suggestions through written notes.
We went around and around like a hamster on a wheel until I finally gave up. The girl was way too stubborn.
Anyway, leaving stubborn Miss Lua behind me, the moment the history teacher walked in I headed straight for the front of the board to present.
And then…
"Group Three will now begin its presentation."
…for the first time, I started a presentation I had volunteered for myself.
Somehow, it was over. I had no idea whether I'd done well or not.
What I clearly remembered was that everyone clapped, and that Jihye Kim and Goeun Lee smiled at me like I'd done a good job.
And Lua never saw my presentation.
Maybe because she was just too sick—she'd ended up leaving early after third period. That fact left me a little disappointed, and somewhere else a little happy. Happy that she hadn't stubbornly forced herself to stay while she was sick.
Even without her there, I studied pretty hard after that. I took notes when I needed to, memorized what I needed to, and by the time I finished studying, school was already over.
So this is how fast school ends when you don't sleep through it, I thought.
I grabbed my bag roughly and headed home, then checked CocoaTalk for a moment. Waiting for me were compliments from Jihye Kim and Goeun Lee.
Getting praised like that felt strangely awkward.
Meanwhile, Lua had read the messages and still hadn't answered. That stung a little, but it didn't really matter.
I was about to barge in anyway.
The second I got home I changed into casual clothes, grabbed a mask, and told Mom.
"Mom, I'm gonna swing by Lua's for a bit."
"Have fun~"
Thanking her for sending me off so easily, I headed straight for Lua's place. Three minutes was plenty—it was the apartment building right next door.
Of course, I didn't actually get there in three minutes. I stopped at the convenience store to pick up some drinks. An electrolyte drink for Lua, plus a couple more as gifts, all carefully gathered up.
Anyway, I went into the neighboring building, rode the elevator up, and headed for Lua's front door.
*Ding-dong~ Ding-dong~*
"Yes~"
At the sound of her mom's voice from inside, I got my greeting ready. The moment she opened the door, I bowed my head.
"Hello, Auntie…!"
"Oh my, Jinwoo. Come in, will you?"
"Yes, excuse me."
Once inside, I handed the drinks over right away and asked about Lua.
"Um, is Lua feeling okay?"
"Lua? She's sleeping right now, but… hmm…"
Auntie looked toward Lua's closed door, then patted me on the shoulder.
"You might catch it, so could you just head home for today? I'll make sure to tell her you came."
"……Yes, of course."
Well, barging into a sleeping girl's room would be rude. I glanced once at the door to Lua's room and turned to leave her house. Or rather, I was about to.
Until the door creaked open and Lua came out.
"Jinwoo… where're you goiiing…"
"Lua?"
"I said where're you going…"
"……Home?"
Without another word, Lua latched onto my sleeve. The grip was pitifully weak, but I couldn't shake her hand off. She dragged me into her room.
And Lua's room—which I was seeing for the first time in years—
……looked nothing like what I'd expected.