A Misunderstanding That Isn't One
To anyone who didn't know my situation, it might have landed as something else entirely.
I'd tossed the words out lightly, and a boy who'd transferred in all of two days ago had jumped at the chance to meet. Of course that would throw her.
……Had I come off like I was hitting on her?
Someone like Baek Nahyeon probably had plenty of guys sidling up on the regular, all smiles and let's be friends. And she treated even people she was meeting for the first time without a shred of reserve, which would only make it worse.
I might have looked exactly like one of them.
It wasn't just Nahyeon. The whole group chat had gone stunned, which meant anyone looking at it would have read the moment the same way.
And at the end of that brief, awkward quiet, Baek Nahyeon's messages arrived.
She'd already agreed to meet. There was no backing out now.
……Since it had come to this, I might as well look around the school neighborhood. I barely knew anything about this part of town anyway.
After school I'd gone home and done nothing but scroll the gallery and eat, so I changed clothes and was out the door in no time.
Heading for the School Front Gate, I found Baek Nahyeon.
Light-blue hair you could pick out from a distance in a single glance.
She was standing beneath a street tree beside the gate, talking with someone.
She's not alone?
Looking closer, two girls I'd never seen were with Nahyeon.
She must have been hanging out with friends. Or…… maybe meeting one-on-one had felt like too much, and she'd called them.
The three of them were laughing over something or other when Baek Nahyeon spotted me and shot her hand up first.
"Namgyu! Over here!"
I crossed to her at a quick pace, and she introduced the two friends at her side.
We traded greetings one by one, and the moment they were done, her friends broke into sly smiles.
"Ooh… a club friend, same as Nahyeon."
"Wow, you've got guts. I'm rooting for you."
……Figures. Her friends had all decided I was the one making a move.
"What are you even saying."
Baek Nahyeon shot back at once, but it went in one ear and out the other.
"Whaaat. I'm complimenting him? I said I'm rooting for you."
"Rooting for what! Seriously, stop saying weird stuff."
Having to shut that down with a full-body cringe every single time had to be exhausting. Of course, that reaction was exactly why they teased her harder.
……I felt bad for no good reason.
I really needed to be careful from now on.
"Anyway, don't mind them. They're always extra with the jokes."
"Yeah. It's fine."
"Whoa… so manly. Very manly."
Baek Nahyeon did her best to ignore the friend grinning ear to ear and turned to me.
"So… where do you want to start looking around?"
She genuinely seemed ready to show me the sights, and I was grateful, but put on the spot like that I had nothing to say. I didn't even know what was in this neighborhood. Ask me where I wanted to go first and I wouldn't know how to answer.
Maybe she caught the look on my face, because the friend who'd been watching from the side cut in.
"Looking around? What looking around. You gonna do a full lap of the neighborhood or something? Let's just hang out. We'll see everything if we wander around anyway, right?"
"Oh, should we?"
"Yeah. Let's hit a karaoke place. I wanna sing."
Sharp friends. That part was nice, but…… I'd stepped in it in a different sense. How much was I going to suffer today…….
They said we'd hang out, and hang out we did, to our hearts' content.
Karaoke, a quick stop at a café, and photos at the very end.
I hadn't wanted it to go this far…….
We'd met late, after dinner, so night was already deep on that alone. I'd meant to split when we left the café, but they grabbed me and insisted we had to take pictures, and it ran even later.
Being sandwiched between three girls was awkward, but they really did seem set on showing a good time to a guy who'd only just transferred here, so the mood itself was easy.
Well… every so often they slipped in a joke that nudged me and Baek Nahyeon together, but I'd braced for it and didn't give them a reaction at all. I felt bad for Nahyeon anyway, and that kind of thing only dies down if you give it nothing.
"Thanks for today."
"Oh, come on. It was fun. Get home safe."
We said our last goodbyes, and I lifted a hand lightly to the girls waving theirs.
Only after I turned away did the breath I'd been holding burst out.
Hoo…….
They were all easy to be around, and I could feel them trying to look out for me, so it was comfortable—but they'd also drained me dry. I'd burned through every scrap of social stamina I'd been letting go stale.
Still… if I looked at it kindly, I'd traded a little embarrassment for three new friends. That had to count for something.
After Namgyu left first, the three who remained watched his back for a moment.
"Today was kinda fun, actually. I thought Namgyu was gonna be super quiet at first."
"Please. From the second he asked Nahyeon out, quiet was nowhere in the picture."
"…You're still on that?"
Baek Nahyeon shot her a fed-up look, but her friend only snorted, unbothered.
"And who was it that yanked us out while we were having a perfectly good time?"
"That's—…… you two just happened to be nearby. It's nicer when we all hang out together."
Nahyeon's voice shrank, as if even she found her own excuse awkward. The other two, of course, scoffed.
"Go on, cover the sky with your palm."
"If Nahyeon covers it with her chest, it might actually work."
"Ahh… you're so mean."
Only when Baek Nahyeon glared did the teasing stop. Even they didn't actually want to see her truly angry.
"Okay, okay. I'll stop. But if you're in the same club, you're in for it."
"Which is why I said you shouldn't be that nice the first time you meet someone. Didn't unni tell you? She did, didn't she."
Still, of one thing they were certain: Namgyu liked Baek Nahyeon.
"He does seem to have some sense, though. Like he was trying not to show it at all?"
Now that she thought about it…… when he'd texted asking if they could meet today, he'd been all in. Once they actually met, he'd turned careful. It showed.
Baek Nahyeon felt a little guilty herself.
Maybe they'd made him walk on eggshells.
"……Which is why you two need to stop teasing like that."
"But it's funny."
The next day.
During break, the noisy classroom door opened.
The same light-blue hair from yesterday swayed in the doorway.
Baek Nahyeon's catlike eyes peeked through the gap.
And they met mine.
The corners of her eyes curved.
Then a hand popped up beside her head.
"Namgyu, hi."
A little dazed, I lifted a hand in return.
Baek Nahyeon had come to our class again.
Club activities hadn't even started…… and this was already the third time we'd run into each other because of the club.
All I could say was that her people skills were genuinely something else.
"Did you get home okay yesterday?"
What had looked like an ordinary greeting soon colored with apology.
"Sorry about yesterday. The girls joked way too much……."
"It's fine. I knew it was just jokes."
She'd come because she wanted to say she was sorry.
When I told her it was fine, she smiled, soft and bright.
"I'm looking forward to the club. I think it'll be fun doing it together."
We traded a few more words after that, and then Baek Nahyeon turned away.
She didn't leave the classroom right away. True to form as the social GOAT, she folded in with the girls in our class and started talking.
Meanwhile, I checked the gallery.
Plenty of people were clearly watching Baek Nahyeon, because related posts went up in real time.
And once that one landed, similar posts started stacking one after another.
I'd told myself I needed to be careful going forward, but seeing the reactions, the corner of my mouth crept up anyway.
Taking that misunderstanding yesterday and running with it had been worth it after all.
I was wearing a satisfied smile at what looked like a collective meltdown when—
"…That happy, huh."
The seat beside me.
My desk partner was watching this way, chin propped on his hand. Brows faintly drawn, and something almost pitying in his eyes.
"What?"
"Nothing, just… your grin was hanging off your ears."
He wasn't wrong about the grin. Of course it was. Things had gone exactly as I'd planned.
But he'd taken it the wrong way.
"Haa. I get it. Baek Nahyeon's always like that. Nice to everybody……."
With a face that was oddly serious, he tapped my shoulder.
"But don't read too much into it. I'm saying this for your sake."
Only then did I understand what he meant.
Did this guy think I was grinning like an idiot because I'd talked to Baek Nahyeon?
If it had actually sounded like he meant well, I might have let it go—but the look on my desk partner's face rubbed me the wrong way. Less genuine worry than a jeer telling me to wake up.
I was about to tell him to mind his own business when a voice carried from across the room.
"If we're talking about Nahyeon, count us in."
I turned my head. A few girls on the far side of the classroom were looking this way.
His voice must have reached them too.
Even Baek Nahyeon was glancing over, awkward.
……Ah.
This had nothing to do with me.
He was the one who'd started running his mouth about Baek Nahyeon, and the one playing expert while doling out advice. How he got through this mess was entirely his problem to figure out.