An Accident Occurs
Finals were closing in.
Thanks to that, I was back to studying for exams with Lua.
Of course, the atmosphere was a little different from last semester. Back then I hadn't known Lua was Kuroa Lulu, and she never would have imagined she'd get found out, either.
Scratch, scratch.
Scratch, scratch.
The sound of pens on paper filled the silence between us, and it was Lua who finally broke it for good.
"…Jinwoo, let's take a short break."
"A short break? What time do you think it is?"
"Two. We've already been at it an hour."
"Fine… all right……"
I stretched hard, working the stiffness out of a body locked up from studying, and Lua watched me with a faint smile.
"You're studying well."
"My grades are nowhere near that level."
"I wouldn't be so sure. You're going to land seventh or eighth in our class. You might even climb higher after this exam."
"So at least I might get right under Jihye Kim, then."
Jihye Kim sat somewhere around second or third in our class. First place was locked down by Lua, with Jihye and one other student fighting over second and third. If my grades rose any further from here, that would put me right under Jihye, wouldn't it?
At my words, Lua smiled softly and nodded.
"You could manage that easily enough."
"That'd be nice. It'd mean I'd at least crack the top twenty in the liberal arts track. That's a grade three, right?"
"Exactly. Especially since you're good at math. You could even aim for a grade two or better there."
Math, the subject I'd restarted with Lua's help, was the one climbing the steepest. Right now, the only person in class whose math score was clearly higher than mine was the Miss Lua Im sitting in front of me.
"If that actually happens, my mom will probably throw a whole meat feast."
"Can I crash that, then? I feel like I've got a decent stake in your scores."
"Of course you can."
"I'm not forgetting you said that."
Lua smiled again. Looking at that smile, I was sure of it once more.
"Hey, Lua Im."
"What?"
"You should smile like that more often. You'd be even more popular than you are now."
The truth was, Lua looked ridiculously pretty when she smiled. She was already beautiful on the surface, but separate from that, her image ran ice-cold. That was probably what kept her popularity in check. The only people Lua even talked to in class were the vice class president, Jihye Kim, and me. If she'd been the type who smiled easily and got along with everyone, she would have been the biggest star in our school, not just our class. She would have gotten confessions left and right, too.
……Confessions?
I set the ballpoint pen in my hand down on the desk, then carefully tried the question on her.
"Hey, Lua."
"Hm? What is it?"
"There's something I'm curious about. Can I ask?"
"What's with you all of a sudden?"
Lua tilted her head like my behavior was weird, but she didn't tell me not to ask. Taking courage from that, I threw her a question that could easily have been incredibly rude.
"……Have you ever gotten a confession while at school?"
She answered without the slightest hesitation.
"I have. Three times in first year, once in second."
Three in first year, one in second. Four times in total. So the guys really had just looked at Lua's face and gone for it.
"So what did you do?"
"What do you think I did? Have you ever heard a single rumor about me dating anyone?"
…I didn't think I had. When I shook my head, Lua looked at me and nodded.
"Right. I've never dated anyone, not even once."
"…Lifelong single?"
"You're one too."
Well. That shut me up. I pouted a little, but some kind of relief settled over me all the same. Relief that our Ruru wouldn't have to spark any fan wars. ……Or was that really what the relief was about? I wasn't sure. Honestly, I didn't particularly want to know. I just wanted to take the thought as it was, exactly as it sat.
"What about you, then, Jinwoo? Never gotten a confession? Or have you confessed to anyone?"
"Never got one. Never tried, either."
"Hmm… so that's why you keep hitting on that underclassman? A second-year?"
"Hey, when did I ever hit on anyone."
"You did. How is keeping personal contact with an underclassman you met at the festival not hitting on her."
Put like that, I had nothing to say again.
"But it's really not like that. We just have the same hobby, so we message. Zero other intentions."
"Can you show me?"
"Yeah, of course."
Even as I answered, the question hit me—why did I have to show Lua my CocoaTalk message history? But more than that doubt, I was completely clean and unashamed of what I'd said, so I answered that way.
Lua squinted at me, then turned her head and stood up from her seat.
"Hmph."
"…Where are you going?"
"The bathroom. And don't even think about getting up and following me, you pervert."
"Absolutely not. Have I lost my mind?"
Maybe my answer was funnier than I thought, because Lua only gave a small laugh. She left my room and headed straight for the bathroom, and I grew more and more dizzy. What even was all of this. What kind of conversation had that been. Underneath the dizziness, of course, sat everything Lua had just said. Lua Im truly had a talent for making people feel strange. And yet, the way she kept working at things was cool. The way she kept trying to move forward was almost dazzling. I'd thought I couldn't even dream of keeping up.
But looking back on it now, I'd just been too scared. The path Lua walked was one I could have followed after all, and if I hadn't flinched ahead of time, there never would have been a stretch where I drifted away from her and then had to get close again. Moments I really, truly regretted. At the same time, I was grateful to her. Grateful for the Lua who was friends with me again, the Lua who studied with me and helped me, the Lua who showed me that wonderful smile. To me, she was a kind of salvation.
Of course, "salvation" was too grand a word. She was just being a little closer with me again, that was all. But when I looked at how I'd gotten close to her again, how I'd started studying and actually putting effort into school life, I found myself thinking maybe "salvation" wasn't so far off after all.
I was staring at my book without bothering to hide the smile that had risen on its own when—
"Kyaaaaaaah!?"
Lua's scream rang out from the bathroom.
"Hey, Lua Im, what the h—"
I bolted for the bathroom and pounded on the door. In that same instant, her scream came again.
"Don't come in, you pervert bastrrrrard!!"
What on earth was she doing. What was going on. I was panicking, fretting with no idea what to do, when the bathroom door opened. And I saw her. Lua, completely soaked.
"I was just trying to wash my hands… I turned on the faucet… and water suddenly came out of the showerhead…"
……Ah. Right. We'd just replaced the shower. Dad had said that while they were changing the shower, they'd swapped the faucet too and hooked them up separately. Lua, who hadn't known that, had walked right into disaster.
"Uuuuugh…"
December was creeping closer—though saying that, it was still only early November—so Lua could easily catch a cold. That left me with only one option.
"Hang on a second."
I left Lua where she was and went into my room. Then I grabbed some of my clothes and headed back to her.
"Put these on for now."
"These…? These are your clothes…"
"You want to stay in wet ones, then?"
"No… I'll just run home real quick…"
"Looking like that?"
Lua looked down at herself—and only then flushed red. She was wearing a thin white top. Which meant everything underneath was showing through.
"Th-th… th-th-th…!!"
Lua's face went scarlet, and I had no choice but to look away, ignoring her. Honestly, this wasn't my fault. It was hers. Who told her to stand there defenseless under a shower blast?
"You pervert bastrrrrrrrrd!!"
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
The iron flail of Lua's rage started punishing me, and I writhed under the pain of those blows.
"Aaaaagh, aagh, that hurts! It hurts! It huuurts!"
"It's supposed to hurt! I'm hitting you! You! Giant! Pervert! Bastard!!"
"I said I'm sorryyyyy!!"
After I'd been beaten and rolled around on the floor for a while, Lua finally seemed to feel better and looked down at me.
"……I'm going into your room to change, so do not come in. You pervert bastard."
"Okay, okay, I got it…"
Lua left me behind, went into my room, and started changing, while I lay face-down on the floor and thought back on what I'd just seen. Lua's wet hair. Her body, visible through the soaked clothes. Her face, dyed completely red. Remembering all of it, my heart kept pounding.