Still, We Were Friends Once
Maybe it was because Wa Sol noona had opened up more about herself to me yesterday. From the moment morning came, noona was being unusually honest.
How honest?
“Time to get up and wash.”
“Mmm… then Gachi, carry me there and wash me.”
She asked me to wash her.
“I’ll change first and then we’ll go to your place. That way we can stay together the whole time.”
She refused to be apart for even a second.
“Ahh~”
She asked me to feed her.
This brake-less affection from the noona who had poured out her honest feelings yesterday—would it only last through yesterday?
Or was this becoming the default…
I had told myself that once we got to school, with other people around, things would settle down.
“Can’t we just not go?”
“We can’t…”
“I skipped class last time too, so Gachi can also…”
“That was only because Professor Yu Eun-yeong understood the circumstances.”
“But still…”
At the classroom door, noona clutched my sleeve with both hands and would not let go. Anyone watching would have thought we were heading off to a battlefield…
Of course the seniors inside the classroom could see us like this.
They were split between those watching us with gentle eyes and those glaring with murderous intent (mostly the guys glaring at me).
“Hey, look at that guy’s neck…”
“Haa, is this for real…”
I could hear the ones sending the latter kind of looks muttering something, but I couldn’t make out the words. It was burdensome enough that I decided it was time to leave.
“Anyway, our classes end at the same time. I’ll come straight back here. Just hold on until then.”
“Okay… do you really have to?”
Wa Sol noona looked up at me like a rain-soaked kitten.
…
I’m really simple.
My heart was pounding so hard…
Embarrassed to show that side of myself so openly, I decided to leave the moment noona stepped into the classroom.
“Hey.”
“…Yes?”
Someone spoke to me. When I turned toward the voice…
“…Ah.”
It was a senior I had seen once before. The one who had asked Wa Sol noona why she was dating me.
The wavy hair and the watch on his left wrist told me he was probably the Je-cheol senior who had appeared in Wa Sol’s stories.
“Hello?”
“…Yeah. Got a minute to talk?”
He glanced at my neck for a moment, then asked in a lower tone than before. The atmosphere wasn’t as uncomfortable as with that other person, but knowing his situation, I still didn’t feel at ease.
In a situation like this, an introvert like me would normally refuse Je-cheol senior’s request on the spot.
“Yes, that’s fine.”
I couldn’t run away now. I was Wa Sol’s boyfriend.
“Then… let’s step outside. Ah, I’m Je-cheol. Wa Sol’s… classmate.”
“Yes. I know. In various ways.”
Various ways. Realizing what that meant, Je-cheol senior gave a bitter smile.
“I know about you too… you’re famous.”
“…Yes.”
I still found his attitude uncomfortable, but I decided to follow him for now.
We left the department building and moved to a bench by the vending machines.
“Want something to drink?”
“I’ll have the same as you.”
“Okay… here.”
The drink Je-cheol senior handed me was hot chocolate. Surprisingly, he liked sweet things.
“Thanks, I’ll enjoy it.”
“Yeah… gulp.”
So I sat on the same bench as Je-cheol senior and drank hot chocolate with him.
…What even is this situation…
“You.”
A low voice cut through the awkward silence.
I looked at Je-cheol senior while sipping the hot chocolate.
“How did you end up dating Wa Sol?”
“…Do I really have to say?”
“No, you don’t have to. Just… curious.”
On the outside, Je-cheol senior looked handsome and reliable. But right now he seemed weak and small.
Like his soul had left him.
I could tell him this much.
“Nothing special happened. I just met noona by chance. Met her by chance again. Then before I knew it I started taking an interest in her, and when I came to my senses… she had already seeped into my heart.”
“…By chance…”
Je-cheol senior seemed especially bothered by the “by chance” part.
He tossed the empty hot chocolate can into the trash and asked me again.
“Who confessed first?”
“…Do I have to answer that too?”
“Ah, sorry. I was prying too much…”
He apologized, as if even he thought he had gone a little too far.
…Well, there was no real reason to hide it.
“…Noona did first.”
He flinched.
“Wa Sol… I see. So that’s how it was…”
The words he exhaled like a sigh carried something. I couldn’t name the emotion, but Je-cheol senior just stared at the sky, recalling something.
“I heard from Yun-a once. That the person who suits Wa Sol is… a fated person. I thought no such person existed, but…”
Fated?
Does that even exist in real life… The moment I thought that, all the chance meetings that had drawn me and Wa Sol noona closer came flooding back.
Could this also be called fate?
“When I got counseling from Professor Yu Eun-yeong before, I heard something. You can just let the words of someone you don’t care about slide past, but you can’t do that with someone precious.”
It was the same thing I had heard from Wa Sol noona. Definitely… true.
“Looking back, Wa Sol always brushed off my suggestions to be alone together from the very beginning. Using Yun-a as an excuse. That means I never had a chance from the start.”
“…That’s not something you say in front of her boyfriend.”
“Bear with me. I just want to vent a little…”
I didn’t know why I had to bear with it.
Anyway, Je-cheol senior still seemed to have lingering feelings. Well, that was why he had asked “why?” back then. With such a sad face…
“I heard. That person came here?”
That person.
He hadn’t even said the name, yet I knew immediately who he meant.
“Yes. I’m planning to meet them again soon.”
“…Thinking of settling it?”
“More precisely, I’m thinking of cleaning it up. That person… is of no help at all to our future.”
Looking at the open hostility Wa Sol noona had shown yesterday, it didn’t seem like the relationship with that person would ever improve, and I could tell noona didn’t want it to either.
So I had to get rid of them.
As someone who loved her.
“I might become a bit of a bad person… but it can’t be helped.”
“What, do you know something?”
What do I know…
After hearing Wa Sol noona’s story, the fragments of information I had picked up felt like puzzle pieces clicking into place inside my head. Not every piece was fitted yet, but the sensation was familiar.
That occasional sensory intuition.
It didn’t always point to the correct answer. But most of the time it pointed somewhere close to the truth.
“I know the words that will hurt that person. I’ll confirm whether those facts are true… and explain that there’s no longer any reason for them to stay by Wa Sol’s side.”
“Is that to protect Wa Sol?”
“Wa Sol noona can already protect herself. No matter what that person says, she won’t be swayed by their words anymore.”
Just looking at how openly she had shown hostility toward that person yesterday was enough to know. The Wa Sol noona of now was stronger than the noona I hadn’t known.
…Since she was a Valkyrie, maybe that was only natural.
“Rather, Wa Sol noona will worry about me. Afraid that I might get swayed by that person the way the old noona did. So I want to put her mind at ease.”
“…You’re really different from me.”
Of course we were different. This person and I differed in appearance, age, personality—everything.
Unlike me, he knew how to dress flashily, was older than me, and was probably calmer and more popular with people.
This senior who must have been popular.
He had only ever looked at one woman. And now it could never be.
“Me, you know. I wanted to protect Wa Sol. She’s pretty, sure, but more than that, she always seemed like she’d break if you poked her. She felt so precarious.”
“That’s a Wa Sol noona I don’t know. The noona I know is cool, mature, and has a strong heart.”
Even with that past, the way she streamed in front of thousands of people.
How much had she struggled, gotten frustrated, and gotten back up to become who she was now.
Knowing that, I could never describe noona as weak.
“Of course I want to protect noona too, but I don’t particularly think of just protecting her. I just… want us to lean on each other and be together.”
“…Being together, huh. If I had only wished for that, maybe things would have been a little different.”
“Who knows. Anyway… it’s something that never happened.”
“Yeah.”
Je-cheol senior said that and stood up from the bench.
His expression now… I couldn’t honestly call it good, but I thought it was better than the last time I had seen him.
“You said you want to know whether the words that will hurt that person are true, right?”
“Yes. I still don’t know how to go about it.”
“Professor Yu Eun-yeong.”
“…Yes?”
Suddenly he mentioned Professor Yu Eun-yeong’s name.
Then Je-cheol senior gave me a number.
“This is Professor Yu Eun-yeong’s number. Ask her directly.”
“…The person involved?”
“Yeah.”
The person involved. Je-cheol senior seemed to vaguely sense why I had called Professor Yu Eun-yeong that.
“I haven’t figured everything out. But if you’ve realized more than I have, asking directly will be faster.”
So this was what an extrovert was like.
Not thinking alone, but immediately asking someone for help.
…For some reason I felt a strange sense of defeat.
“Why are you doing this for me?”
“…I don’t know either. Maybe I’m just… venting to the winner out of a sense of defeat.”
Winner… me?
Had we been thinking the opposite of each other…
“Anyway, don’t worry about me. I have no intention of bothering Wa Sol anymore.”
Saying that, Je-cheol senior looked for a moment toward the classroom where Wa Sol noona was taking class, then left the bench.
Then, quietly but in a lonely voice, he said to me:
“Still… we were friends once.”