The Boy Who Fell From the Tree
Bright brown hair, an oversized hoodie. Even from a distance, he was a noticeably tall boy.
Something about him looks familiar….
Ah, she knew. He was the boy from the neighboring class. She didn't know his name, but she'd caught glimpses of him a few times, walking around with Moon Yoojin.
But what was he doing up in a tree?
“It's okay. Come here.”
He was speaking carefully to someone. Jiwoo narrowed her eyes and peered closer — at the tip of a branch sat a tiny kitten, crying.
So he'd climbed up to rescue it? A tree that tall?
…Was that really necessary?
He stretched his arm out unsteadily toward the kitten, and that was the moment—
“Huh? Whoa—?!”
Without warning, his body lurched violently, and he failed to catch his balance.
Thud!
He fell out of the tree. Jiwoo had no time to do anything at all.
“Owowow….”
He lay on the ground cradling the little kitten against his chest. Somehow, he'd managed to hold on to it all the way down. He shot upright the instant he checked that the kitten was unharmed.
“Thank goodness. You're not hurt.”
He gently set the kitten down and turned his head naturally — and their eyes met.
“Oh….”
He looked more than a little flustered. Well, it wasn't as if she'd been spying on him. Jiwoo hesitated for a moment, then walked over to him.
“Um… are you okay?”
“Ahaha, this is kind of embarrassing.”
He scratched his faintly reddened cheek. A shallow scratch marked the skin below his left eye — probably from a branch on the way down.
“Jihyo, why are you at school so early? I didn't think anyone would be around at this hour.”
…Huh. He knows Jihyo's name. Was this guy acquainted with her?
Just as Jiwoo's eyes went wide—
“Hold on, what happened to your face?”
The boy darted close. Only then did Jiwoo register the state of her own face. She touched the corner of her mouth lightly, in case any bloodstains remained, and answered.
“I was just, you know, taking out the trash.”
“Trash? What kind of trash…?”
“Some really filthy trash. My clothes got wrecked because of it.”
“How'd you get hurt, then? Did you fall?”
“Yeah, just a little.”
Even as she answered, Jiwoo studied Hankyul intently.
He's talking to me like it's nothing.
From the way he treated her, one thing was certain — he'd known Jihyo.
…How strange. She'd only been at Gaon a few days, but this was the first time she'd seen anyone treat "Seol Jihyo" this casually, like it was the most ordinary thing in the world.
A friend? But if they were in the same year, there was no way he wouldn't have known Jihyo was being bullied. Especially at Gaon, where students rode the escalator up from the elementary division together.
“Well, as long as it's nothing serious. Oh! Want this?”
He fished something out of the huge pocket of his hoodie.
…Banana milk.
“You love this stuff, Jihyo.”
At his softly smiling face, Jiwoo stiffened for an instant. The moment she saw the banana milk held out to her, a memory struck like lightning.
“Bae Hankyul?”
“Yeah. We've never been in the same class, but we just happened to get close.”
“Why do you ask?”
“Whenever I look a little down, he brings me things like banana milk.”
Ah, right. Jihyo had said that once before.
“Hey, unni. Do you think… maybe he likes me?”
“You said it before, right? The kid who helps you — it's been bothering you?”
“It's weird. People don't usually do that.”
“How does he help you, exactly?”
“…He keeps asking if anything's been hard for me.”
“What else?”
“If I look a little down, he'll buy me banana milk and stuff like that.”
Yes — banana milk. Jihyo's face, both cheeks dyed peach-pink, rose vividly before her eyes. This had been back when Jihyo was in her second year of middle school, probably. She couldn't be sure, but around then.
Vacation had just started, and as always, Jihyo had come over to her place.
If someone keeps helping you for no reason at all, doesn't that mean they like you?
Jiwoo had been so taken aback when she'd suddenly brought that up. Romance was one thing — Jiwoo had never even liked anyone, so the topic was entirely foreign to her….
“Not drinking it?”
“Huh? Oh….”
“I bought it for you.”
She'd been staring at the banana milk Hankyul held out without taking it. Flustered, he practically pressed it into her hands, then went right back to rummaging through his pockets.
“Oh, right — wait a sec. I think I had some bandages on me somewhere.”
…Bandages? Ah, right — he saw she was hurt, so he's looking for bandages. He definitely knows Jihyo's Core is a Regeneration type, though.
“Weird. Where'd it go? One sec.”
Having exhausted his pockets, Hankyul shrugged off the backpack slung over his shoulders and set about his bandage hunt in earnest.
Before she knew it, Jiwoo let out a small laugh.
“…? Why are you laughing?”
“Nothing.”
What a relief. That even one person had been kind to Jihyo. She didn't know exactly what the two of them had been to each other… but she found herself thinking that the person Jihyo had once liked didn't seem like a bad guy.
Jiwoo crouched down in front of Hankyul, who was digging through his bag on the dirt ground. With their eyes now level, she tilted her head at an angle to look at him.
“I'm fine, but you're the one who's hurt.”
“Huh? Oh, I guess I scraped myself falling out of the tree. A scratch like this heals right up.”
Hankyul dusted off his clothes. Jiwoo gazed at him for a moment, then slowly reached out her hand.
“Yeah. It'll heal fast.”
Tap.
Jiwoo's fingers touched his left cheek. In that instant, the skin beneath her fingertips seemed to grow gently hot.
“……!!”
Hankyul's shoulders jolted hard. His acorn-round eyes blew wide, glowing like lanterns.
Well, of course — she was far too close.
Deeply flustered, Hankyul stumbled back a step.
“J-Jihyo? What was that all of a sudden…?”
What? Why is he so shocked? Her fingers had barely brushed his face.
…I guess this much distance isn't normal, huh.
Jiwoo had no way of knowing what counted as "normal." The only peer she'd ever had was her twin sister, Jihyo.
I'll have to be more careful from now on.
Having logged this newly learned information in her head, Jiwoo calmly withdrew her hand.
“Sorry. There was something on your cheek.”
“Ahh….”
Hankyul clutched his hammering heart. Who does that — initiating skinship out of nowhere like this?
…Was Jihyo always like this?
He stole a glance at her, but her face was so utterly calm compared to his own that it only deepened his bewilderment.
“Well, I'll get going.”
“Huh? O-oh, yeah.”
As if nothing had happened at all, she turned and walked away. Hankyul stared blankly at her back for a long while.
My cheek still feels like it's burning….
There was, of course, no way Hankyul could have known — that what Jiwoo had just used was her Core.