Let's Clear Up the Misunderstanding
All through fourth period, I didn't hear a single sound. All because of four little syllables.
Talk... she wants to talk...?
We'd never really had anything you could call a conversation, so I couldn't begin to guess what she meant to say. Had she dug up my home address so she could blackmail me? Or had she forgotten her blood pack today...? Don't tell me she was furious because I'd handed her those crushed cookies yesterday. If that was it, I needed to sprint to the school store this instant—
Something rustled.
Three dollars and fifty cents. My wallet was already sagging, but this was the best I had. So... I was going to have to make it work with this.
...His face. Not good...
I had nothing to say to that.
...Still. I have to.
...!
I stole a glance at her just in case, and sure enough—class in full swing, and she was looking straight at me. For all I knew, she'd been looking since the moment the period started.
The lunch bell chimed, bright and tinny.
"All right, everyone, enjoy your lunch~"
"Yes, ma'am~!"
"Hey, hey, it's pork cutlet—we gotta move!"
"Huh? Uh, y-yeah..."
"Hyunwoo. There's occult lore about pork cutlets, you know..."
"..."
The second class ended, Daeho and Minseok came over the way they always did. The three of us heading off for school lunch was just ordinary life.
Until she tapped my shoulder from behind.
"...Huh?"
"...Yeah?"
"..."
"..."
Daeho and Minseok both looked thrown. I wasn't any better.
"W-why...?"
"..."
"Is... is something wrong...?"
"..."
I didn't open my mouth first. Just in case. She might not have come for me at all—she might have come for Daeho and Minseok. If that was it, then...
Tap. Tap. Tap.
She didn't speak. She didn't write anything down. She only tapped my shoulder three more times, tugged her hood low over her face, and that was all. Then she turned her back and slipped out of the classroom.
Even so, I heard it. Clear as anything.
...Couldn't. Say it...
Just those few words.
"...The heck was that?"
"Hey, Hyunwoo. You screw something up?"
"Uh... huh?"
"She pissed about yesterday?"
"W-wanna join the club with me...?! ...Was it that?"
"I-it is not that!!"
Lunch could wait. At this rate I wasn't even going to taste the pork cutlet. Following her, though, was a little terrifying. Ignoring her didn't sit right either.
...Sh-she wouldn't bite me, right...
This wasn't morning. It was lunch. The school was full of kids and teachers, so the kind of disaster I was picturing... wasn't going to happen. And if it did, I could just scream and run. Yeah. That would work. If anything, pretending she wasn't there might be the more dangerous move. She probably wasn't going to sink her teeth in while going Oh? I'm mad, but anyway. I at least needed to hear what she wanted to say.
...And apologize first, just in case.
"Y-you guys go eat first!"
"Huh? It's pork cutlet and you're skipping it?"
"I... my stomach just... started hurting a little..."
"Your stomach? Shouldn't you hit the infirmary? You already went to the bathroom in third period."
"N-no... it's not... that bad... Just! The bathroom should be enough..."
"Hmm... okay."
I left Minseok and Daeho behind and ran. Not for the bathroom. For yesterday's place—the spot where she'd been secretly drinking from a blood pack. That nameless little pocket of space beside the east staircase, walled in by cabinets.
Sure enough, she was waiting for me there.
...Not. A coincidence...
I couldn't answer.
...You came in. Again...
It was lunch, the sun as high as it ever got, and still this place was strangely dark. A fluorescent tube hung dead center among the cabinets and was technically giving off light, but it kept flickering so badly it could barely do its job. She didn't seem to care. Both hands tucked in the pocket of her hoodie, her torso tipped back to lean on a cabinet, her feet hovering a breath off the floor and never quite leaving it. She looked almost at ease, and a little... unsteady.
...No. Mistakes...
A long, thin creak. The moment she pushed off the cabinet, the thing shrieked—whether from a lack of oil or from whatever occult nonsense Minseok never shut up about, I couldn't say. Either way, it was plenty enough to scare me. My heart started hammering like it meant to break out of my ribs.
...If he doesn't. Like it...
...I still. Have to...
She came toward me, slow. I couldn't run. My lips had gone dry, my eyes kept wandering off into empty air, my breath came short, and my legs were shaking, and still all I could do was wait for her to close the distance.
Even so, I had to take one step of my own.
...Because I didn't want to lose.
"Th-this!!! It's... it's my entire fortune...!"
"..."
"I-I won't get allowance until... next month at the earliest..."
"...?"
I pulled out my wallet and bowed my head, and she stopped. I didn't look up. It was a little pathetic. A little sad. But right now, I was the one who needed to fold first. Mom had told me over and over: swallow the crisis in front of you, and only then does the next chance come—only then can you build any momentum. My entire fortune came to three dollars and fifty cents, but throw in the wallet and it wasn't nothing. Mom was going to tan my hide asking where I'd ditched it, but first... first I had to survive. This was just how it had to be.
"...What?"
"..."
"...Why?"
"H-huh...?"
I carefully lifted my head. The first thing I saw was a pair of white indoor shoes, hesitating. At the same time her unsteady voice came down on the top of my head.
"...What. Are you doing...?"
"..."
"...I asked. What. You're doing..."
"N-no, I... you called me over to... to ask for money... didn't you?"
A tucked-away corner. A hierarchy you couldn't miss. And a reason for her to come looking for me. As far as I knew, that was the most ordinary way a delinquent shook somebody down, so I'd taken the money out and offered it up.
...Because I didn't want to offer blood.
"M-me...?"
"Y-yeah... so... that's not why you called me...?"
"..."
What? This wasn't what I'd thought? Then what was it? Something only the two of us needed to talk about... Oh. Don't tell me. Yesterday—because I'd seen her drinking blood? I hadn't meant to, but seeing was seeing. You watch the news and people get slapped with massive fines just for peeking, get sued, get thrown in jail. ...So that was why she'd found my address. She was going to threaten my parents!
"Y-you think I'll go down that easy...?!"
"..."
"I-I may not look like much, but... I-I'm a yellow belt! In taekwondo...!"
"..."
I put distance between us in a hurry. Her hands were still buried in that hoodie pocket, but she had fangs. Give her the range and I was finished, so I needed to back away, slowly—
"...This..."
"...?"
"...I wanted. To give it..."
"..."
Ten steps, give or take. Far enough that no matter how she reached, she couldn't touch me. But she drew her right hand out of the pocket and held it out toward me anyway.
"...A keychain..."
"...Huh?"
"...A thank-you."
On her pale palm sat one small Cheese-Cat. It was a little smudged, and it looked like it might cry, but it wasn't old, and it wasn't trash. If anything, it belonged on the cute side of things. Very much so.
"A... a thank-you...?"
"...Yeah."
"..."
This wasn't it. The picture in my head and the one in front of me were completely different. Was that really, truly why she'd called me over...?
"I-I... uh... didn't really... do anything for you..."
Had I? I'd only chipped in a little bus fare. The cookies had been Mom's doing from the start, and the fifty bucks—mine, technically, though I'd told her it was allowance from Mom. So I shouldn't take this, should I? It looked expensive...
"...You don't. Like it...?"
"N-no... that's... it's not..."
"...Okay..."
"..."
Her right hand fell, strengthless, toward the floor, and the Cheese-Cat swayed in the air, one breath from dropping. The way her heart seemed to.
...I'm not. A delinquent...
...I don't. Bite people...
Overhead, the fluorescent light kept buzzing and blinking, and again and again she sank into the dark.
...This time. I thought...
...I could make. A friend...
I couldn't see her face. She was drowned in shadow. Even so, her real feelings reached me, perfectly clear. And they made me feel... a little sorry.
Did I have it wrong...?
Thinking about it, she'd been drinking from a blood pack. Not from somebody's neck. So was that... basically the same as having a snack? If it was—
...I'm complete garbage.
She was a vampire. That much was true. But the part about biting people was a lie. Which meant I'd misunderstood all on my own, and looked down on her all on my own. Just from the way she looked.
Ah, I was seriously about to lose it.
"I-I actually like Cheese-Cats! A-a lot...!!!"
"..."
"A-and... I'm sorry... lately I've been... p-practicing my acting..."
"...Acting?"
The fluorescent light snapped back to normal, and I saw her blank face, the rims of her eyes faintly red. Sorry as I was, it was still a little frightening.
"Y-yeah... acting..."
"..."
"Are you... giving it to me? Th... that...?"
"..."
She stood still for a moment. Then she lifted that limp right hand up over her head and drew the hood down low. After that she held the hand out to me again and gave one small nod, the bright yellow Cheese-Cat resting on her pale palm.
So I walked toward her. Slowly. One step. Another. Those ten steps that had felt like they'd never close, I narrowed little by little, barely at all.
"..."
"..."
"..."
"..."
Our fingers met the keychain with the lightest touch—I pinched the Cheese-Cat between index finger and thumb so our hands wouldn't meet, then decided that felt wrong and picked it up properly, with all five. And I immediately took about two steps back.
"So... the thing you wanted to talk about... that's all of it...?"
"...Yeah."
"R-right... I see..."
Yeah. I was going to spend tonight kicking the blankets off in pure mortification. For a good long while.
"If there isn't... anything else, then I'll go eat lunch..."
"...The acting..."
"H-huh...?"
"...The acting. Is it true...?"
"..."
Through the shadow pooled under her hood, those sharp eyes fixed on me. I took another step back. Not because I wanted to. Just because my body did it on its own.
"Y-yeah, acting... it's acting..."
"...Don't."
"...Huh?"
"Don't. Act."
"..."
Her voice came down on me, flat and final, like a lightning strike. I nodded. Fast. And I kept nodding.
...That was. Too much...
Her faint voice seeped in through my shaking vision. Even so, I couldn't answer while looking her in the eye. Whatever else was true, I was the one who'd done wrong.
"I'm sorry..."
"...If you're sorry..."
"...Huh?"
"Put it. On."
"...Huh?"
Her gaze had settled on the cute little Cheese-Cat in my right hand. Exactly there.
"Y-you want me to put... this on...?"
"...Yeah."
"Uh... where...?"
"...Your bag."
"..."
I'm a guy. Not a little kid, either—a second-year in middle school, right at the age when you're supposed to be into skulls and death and all of that. And she wanted this on my bag?
"...You don't want to?"
"Uh... huh?"
"...I asked. If you don't."
"..."
What she said out loud was bone-dry. No feeling in it, no rise or fall, like a heavy shadow settled on the floor. But—
...It's not. Acting...
...I don't want. To come to school...
...!?
A bomb, dropped out of nowhere. Somewhere in my head, an emergency button slammed down. She was a vampire, which meant her parents were vampires too, obviously. And the Association? The experiments? It was at least half true that those weren't ordinary people. If she suddenly announced she wasn't coming to school anymore, they would absolutely go looking for the reason, and once they started digging...
...Maybe. What if—
"...Eliminated?"
"...?"
"Ah..."
...I was dead.
"N-no!! Elim—mine! It's mine, I said mine!! I was about to go put it on right this second...!"
"..."
"I should—I should go put it on right now!"
I fled for the classroom, and even while I ran I kept glancing back to see if she was following. Of course she was. Slowly. Hood yanked down as far as it would go.
"I-is this how you clip it on...?"
"..."
"Ugh... why... why won't it..."
"...I'll do it."
I kept fumbling, and she came over, unhurried, and fastened the keychain to my bag in a single motion. On the outside. Where it would show the most.
...Cute...
I knew she wasn't saying it about me. Even so, the pounding in my chest refused to quit. I knew it wasn't that, but I couldn't be sure. I knew it was a misunderstanding, but that didn't mean I wasn't scared.
Just—just this far... yeah... just this far...
No more, no less. Exactly ten steps. A distance where neither of us could reach the other. That was... about where we stood.
"M-my friends are waiting!! I-I'll head out first...!"
"..."
"Enjoy...! Your lunch..."
"..."
She stayed where she was and waved. In that wide classroom, noisy with kids, the wave was very small. Lonely. Just her. Only a wave.
And then—
...Enjoy your lunch...
Words that weren't supposed to reach me. Even so, I couldn't make my feet stop. Maybe that was why something bumped against my shoe. Something soft, and squishy, and dangling.
"...A Cheese-Cat?"
The feel of it was familiar, so I let my eyes drift down, and there was a familiar keychain. Right where she had been standing.
"Don't tell me... it's the same as mine...?"