I Want to Drive Them Insane

Her face was close.

A moment ago, greeting her friends, she hadn't had a brighter face in the world. The look she turned on me was something else entirely—a cat watching a stranger, wary to the bone.

"I heard you put our club on your preference form... You didn't?"

How long had it even been since I'd handed that form to the homeroom teacher? Word had already gotten around. And if she'd come looking for me in person this fast, her interest in the club was anything but ordinary.

"If you mean the Anomalous Phenomena Research Club... then yeah."

The cat's glare vanished. Her face melted all at once, soft as thawing snow.

"Oh, so it is you. You don't have to be that tense. I only came over because I was curious."

"...Curious?"

"Ah— I mean we barely have any members, so a new person joining is kind of a big deal. I didn't mean it in a weird way. Anyway! Don't feel pressured. Just come in and take it easy."

How empty did a club have to be for a girl like her to come on this strong?

"Can I get your number?"

"...Sure."

I nodded and pulled out my phone. In the brief moment it took Baek Nahyeon to save the number, my thoughts drifted. Right. There was something I needed to think about.

Did Baek Nahyeon know? About the unreal things happening at this school. That was the whole reason I'd meant to join the club in the first place.

Then, as if she'd finished saving it, she looked up.

"Hey... can I ask you one thing?"

"Sure. What?"

"What got you interested enough to join? Do you like cryptids, maybe? Or are you more of a Backrooms and SCP person?"

"..."

...So that wasn't it?

The hope that had flickered up sank again. From the way she talked, this was an ordinary occult club. Fair enough. A club run by the school was hardly going to be some supernatural secret society. If it were, Haeyeon Gallery would have brought it up at least once or twice by now.

Well. I'm the one who said I'd join without actually looking into it.

Normally I would have dug through the gallery at lunch, but the USB incident had blown up right then and killed the plan. And what even was a cryptid? I'd heard of the Backrooms and SCP before, though I didn't really know either of them.

"..."

Baek Nahyeon was watching me, waiting to see what I'd say, and the pressure settled in—the kind that made it feel like I had to be into that stuff.

"U-urban legends... I like that kind of thing."

I barely got it out. It wasn't even a lie. What I was living through was an urban legend in itself, so the interest was real.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

"Really?"

Her eyes lit up again. She looked ready to fire off another question any second, but—

"There goes Baek Nahyeon, saying weird stuff again."

A voice laced with laughter cut in from the side. For me, it might as well have been salvation. I turned and found the girls from our class—the ones who'd been greeting Nahyeon earlier—looking this way and snickering. They were clearly pretty close.

"Look at the transfer student. He's totally flustered."

"Matching Nahyeon's tastes is pretty rough, yeah."

Nahyeon bristled and whipped her head around.

"What are you talking about? He said he likes it. If you don't know anything, stay out of it."

"Oh, yes, yes. I'm sure that's how it is. But does he actually like it?"

"Heh heh... if we bring that up..."

...So with her close friends, she was the one who got picked on?

"Nahyeon, you say everything's fine as long as you like it, so of course we're gonna be suspicious."

"That's right."

"Right about what."

Her friends seemed convinced I was deliberately humoring her.

"...It's not like that, right? Namgyu."

I was startled by how naturally she was already using my name, but that was secondary. Those pleading eyes, begging me to back her up—I couldn't bring myself to refuse.

"I really am interested. Unreal stuff... things ordinary common sense can't explain."

"See? He likes that kind of thing."

The moment I agreed, color rushed into Baek Nahyeon's face, like a starving cat that had just spotted food. Riding high, she declared:

"Ignore the clueless ones. Don't even engage."

She seemed to be fighting that battle all by herself, but anyway.

"Whoa..."

"Namgyu's got it bad too."

"He's matching her that hard?"

"Boys..."

No, I really was interested. More precisely, I was in a situation where I didn't have a choice but to be.

"Anyway, this is great. It'll be fun once you join. We still don't have many people, but still..."

She rattled on like that until it was genuinely almost time for the teacher to arrive, and only then did she turn to go.

...She really did love this stuff.

"Ah, I should get going. The club chat! I'll invite you later, so check it. And if you're curious about anything, ask me anytime."

She smiled bright to the very end and waved. Then, leaving her friends' teasing behind her, she scurried out of the classroom.

...We'd barely exchanged a few words, and it already felt like we'd become close friends.

Someone tapped me from the side. I turned to find my desk partner watching me with a strange look.

"...Get a grip."

"Why?"

"Look at your face right now."

"Me?"

I pressed a palm to my cheek. It was burning. I understood why Nahyeon's friends had piled on like that. Still, if I were making excuses... wouldn't anyone end up that way?

Honestly, how many high school boys could stay unmoved when a girl as pretty as Baek Nahyeon walked up to someone she'd just met, smiled without a shred of hesitation, and treated him like they were already close? I'd always been weak to people like that. Harmless people who slipped in naturally. When someone approached me that casually, my guard loosened whether I wanted it to or not.

My father's teaching had a hand in that, too. Be kind to the kind, and vicious to the vicious. I'd heard it from the time I was little, until the words had calloused my ears. Being stiff with Senior Han Saehee... the situation hadn't left me much choice.

I got home. Compared to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠yesterday, it felt like a pretty productive day. Was that why?

Out of habit I opened Haeyeon Gallery, and froze. The featured posts were plastered with talk about me.

So this had been about me for a while? Ever since that incident at lunch, the talk had apparently kept going, and my run-in with Baek Nahyeon had poured fuel on it. When I'd been ignored completely—not even mentioned—I hadn't known. Being the center of attention like this...

It isn't purely a good thing.

Strangers I couldn't even identify were watching my every move and assigning meaning however they liked. Things I'd done without a second thought had become material for judgment. It was hard not to feel unclean about it.

Whoa... what were these comments? They kept stretching on below that, too. They were fighting like crazy.

...Dizzy. This was making me dizzy. It was getting way too heated, so I closed the gallery.

"...Might as well eat."

Dad was working late again today. Dinner, as usual, I set out for myself. I reheated the rice, pulled the side dishes from the fridge, and laid them on the table. The moment I sat down and lifted a spoon, the phone I'd left there buzzed.

I checked it, thinking maybe my friends from back home had reached out. Instead I'd been invited to a new group chat. Right—Baek Nahyeon had said she'd add me to the club chat.

Nine people, including me... So it really wasn't a popular club.

I still couldn't tell who was who, but I greeted the people welcoming me first. After that, while I was chiming in at a reasonable level with the ordinary welcome-party mood—

You could tell from the chat that she was just saying it. But a different thought struck me—not about the chat. Out of nowhere, about Haeyeon Gallery.

Those people had said they couldn't properly see what happened after school. I'd seen plenty of posts complaining about exactly that. If the story moved forward out there, nothing frustrated them more. And right now, it was after school. On top of that, the gallery was at its hottest over me, Baek Nahyeon, and Han Saehee.

Would there ever be a better time?

Like someone possessed, I tapped at my phone.

Yeah. I wanted to drive them insane.

Catfish or not. Looks this, looks that. People who'd spent the whole day judging someone however they pleased, then fought among themselves with glee. Had I been holding onto it?

Of course I had.

I wasn't some celebrity. Complete strangers had been appraising me all day. How was I supposed to just let that slide? I'd sent the message with that in mind, and no answer came back.

No—the group chat had just... cut off.