Even If We've Drifted Apart
September passed, and October arrived.
With the coming of October, Lua and I finally found ourselves no longer sitting side by side.
“It was pretty comfortable for a few months there.”
“You better not start sleeping through class just because I’m not next to you.”
“I would never. Studying’s kind of become a habit by now.”
“Really?”
“…Really.”
When I answered “really,” Lua gave me a soft little smile.
“Then that’s a relief.”
A relief? Yeah, if you looked at it that way, it was a relief in its own right.
At least this was better than sprawling out and sleeping through class, never studying, and watching my grades tank.
Anyway, once the seats were reassigned, the person next to me turned out to be someone fairly familiar.
“Kim Jihye?”
“Hi. Looking forward to the next month.”
Kim Jihye—the girl who’d once done a group project with Lua and me.
Sitting with our desks pushed together, Jihye and I naturally fell into chatting about this and that.
Honestly, I hadn’t even expected her to start a conversation, but apparently my image with her was better than I’d thought.
“You’ve been studying pretty hard lately, huh?”
“There’s this someone who lives somewhere who keeps waking me up whenever I try to sleep instead of studying.”
“Ah~ Lua?”
When I nodded, Jihye looked at me with a strange expression.
Naturally, that strange look was followed by an even stranger question.
“So, are you two dating?”
“What kind of weird question is that?”
“You two are always stuck together. Looks like you even go to and from school together.”
“We stuck together because we were seatmates, and the commuting just happened because our homes are in the exact same direction.”
“Next door?”
“More like the next apartment building over.”
Jihye’s eyes sparkled with clear interest.
That look was a little burdensome, and I felt a strong urge to cut the conversation short.
But before I could wrap it up, the chatterbox fired off another question first.
“So, you want to date Lua, don’t you?”
“…Absolutely not.”
“For real?”
“…For real.”
Maybe because I’d hesitated for a second, Jihye jumped to her own conclusion.
“Aww, that’s a lie. You totally want to date her.”
“I really don’t.”
“Then picture this. How would you feel if some other guy was sitting next to Lua?”
If some other guy was next to Lua?
“…That guy would be exhausted as hell.”
“Huh?”
“Im Lua’s personality is secretly exhausting. Once she latches onto something, she digs into it like crazy. She studies hard too, so if you’re next to her you end up working just as hard. Plus she doesn’t get jokes, which is annoying, and when things go south she gets physical. Super tiring.”
I kept rambling, but even as the words left my mouth I could feel it.
I wasn’t saying that any guy next to Lua would be tired—I was saying that no guy should be allowed next to her at all.
It was basically a kind of rationalization.
Jihye stared at me with a thoroughly fed-up look.
“You know her that well and you’re still not dating?”
“We’re not dating; we’re just friends.”
“Normal opposite-sex friends don’t know each other that well.”
“We’re childhood friends.”
“How long have you known each other?”
“Since we were five.”
“That’s a long time.”
Yeah. It really had been a long time.
We’d only gotten close again recently, but that didn’t erase all the years Lua and I had spent together.
Thinking about it, little Lua hadn’t been all that different from the Lua of now. She’d been mature then, and she was mature now.
The difference was her appearance.
The current Lua gave off a powerful sense of beauty. You could even call her elegant without it feeling like a stretch.
But the Lua of the past had been overwhelmingly cute. First impression: pure princess.
Though it turned out she was a tyrant, not a princess.
While I was nodding to myself, Jihye thrust a book at me.
“Oh right, Seo Jinwoo. Look at this.”
“This? What is it?”
The book was titled Introduction to Video Editing, and just looking at it made my head hurt.
“There’s a part I don’t really get, so I wanted to ask…”
Listening to Jihye’s questions, I became certain of one thing.
Besides Im Lua, there was one more person who overestimated me way too much.
Hey, Miss Kim Jihye? I’m just an average editor who clips VTuber videos. I’ve never studied editing theory like this even once. Directing during filming? Even less so.
I’m just a guy who cuts existing footage and edits it. That’s all.
After enduring Jihye’s barrage of questions and ending the day thoroughly drained, I headed out to walk home with Lua as usual.
But something was off with Lua.
Normally she would have been waiting for me subtly by the school gate, but today she just strode off without so much as a glance my way.
I hurried after her. Lua stared straight at me, then whipped her head away.
What the hell had I done wrong this time?
I shoved that question deep down and approached her.
“Lua, let’s go together.”
As I quickened my steps toward her, Lua picked up her pace even more.
I closed in faster, and she walked even quicker, almost like she was running away.
In the end I broke into a light jog and managed to catch her.
“Why are you going alone?”
Lua answered without a moment’s hesitation.
“You can just go with Jihye.”
“…Huh?”
What was she even talking about? I stared at her in disbelief, only for Lua to glare back at me fiercely.
“You two looked super close. Why don’t you just hang out together?”
“…Excuse me?”
I was so dumbfounded that formal speech slipped out without me noticing.
Lua left me standing there and marched across the crosswalk toward home. I grabbed her wrist.
When I took her wrist, Lua stopped and looked at me.
Why had I grabbed her? Even I didn’t understand my own action.
But one thing was certain: I didn’t want to let her go like this.
“…Hey, Lua.”
“What.”
“If you’re okay with it… want to grab some street food?”
“…Street food?”
I’d just said whatever came to mind since I had nothing prepared, but luckily it seemed to pique her interest.
“I’ll treat you.”
“…No, I’ll pay. I make good money.”
I knew by now. Lua made way more money than I did.
Knowing that, I could only nod quietly.
“Yeah, I’ll let you treat me this time.”
“That’s more like it.”
Lua smiled as if she were looking after a little brother, once I’d agreed to freeload.
Somehow, even though it had only been a few hours, seeing her smile again made that uncomfortable feeling from earlier melt away.
So instead of heading straight home, we went to the snack shop right next to our apartments.
“Jinwoo, what do you want?”
“Cup of tteokbokki is fine.”
“Just that? Get the chicken gangjeong.”
“Cup chicken gangjeong is too expensive.”
A cup of tteokbokki was 800 won each, while the chicken gangjeong was 2,500 won. Almost three times the price—no way.
“Hmm~ Auntie. Two cup chicken gangjeongs, please!”
“Two cup chicken gangjeongs~ Wait about ten minutes~”
“Yes~”
Lua ordered the cup chicken gangjeongs without properly checking with me. She even paid in cash right away, so I couldn’t even try to cover it.
As I blinked in fluster, Lua declared proudly:
“This noona makes good money!”
“…I see.”
“Hehe~”
Seeing her laugh so confidently, for a second it felt like I was looking at Lulu.
Yeah. I’d just gotten a free chicken gangjeong from my oshi. Like a random gift drop.
Thinking that, we waited about ten minutes until the freshly fried chicken gangjeong arrived in front of us.
“Thanks for the food.”
“Yeah, eat up.”
We headed outside holding our cups of chicken gangjeong.
And while eating it, we had the short conversation we hadn’t managed earlier.
“You looked really close with Jihye.”
“It was just because of the video stuff. And she asked if you and I were dating.”
“Is that so… So what did you say?”
“I told her straight. We’re not like that.”
“Right, we’re… friends, yeah.”
-Crunch!
Once we started eating the chicken gangjeong, the conversation cut off.
In that ambiguous, awkward atmosphere, I blurted out whatever came to mind just to break it.
“…Besides, I’m not even that close with her. Friends, I guess, but it’s still awkward. I like you way more.”
“…Then that’s a relief.”
A relief? Is it? What’s a relief?
Sometimes Lua said things I just couldn’t understand.
Regardless, this was what mattered.
“I’m not like that with Kim Jihye, so don’t worry too much.”
“…Okay. Thanks.”
After that conversation, we just talked normally about games while eating the chicken gangjeong.
Back then, I was too dense to properly realize.
What kind of conversation that had really been.