The Pen in Her Fist
"Bitna, what on earth is going through your head?"
After school.
A few students trailed close behind Jo Bitna as she strode across the corridor.
"You're not actually planning to keep hanging out with her, are you? Seol Jihyo, of all people."
"Did you see her earlier? Holding court over a single pen. God, I would've just lent it to her."
Kim Yeonhee chimed in as if she'd been waiting for her cue.
"What did I tell you, damn it? You all saw her face when we poured the cola on her, didn't you? The girl's gotten so full of herself lately, I'm telling you."
"How were we supposed to know it'd go this far?"
"No, seriously, is it true she hit her head in an accident? How does a person change like that? She could never even hold eye contact before."
Kim Yeonhee glanced sideways at Jo Bitna over the heads of the kids nodding along with her.
"You're the one who's been too nice to her, Bitna. That's why she's got no idea of her place and keeps pushing her luck."
"You think so?"
Jo Bitna answered as if murmuring to herself, then turned her head with an easy smile.
"But you all fawned over me at first too, didn't you?"
"...What?"
Kim Yeonhee stopped dead in her tracks.
"Just kidding."
"......"
"Anyway, I'll handle my own business. Thanks for worrying about me, girls."
Jo Bitna turned back with a bright smile, her thick waves of hair swaying.
"I'm heading straight to the dorm. My head's been hurting a bit today. See you all tomorrow."
The moment Jo Bitna slipped out of the school building alone, not a trace of that smile remained on her lips.
Then it struck her.
Ever since leaving the classroom, she'd been gripping something tightly in her hand.
The pen Moon Yoojin had tossed her, like a declaration of war.
"......"
Jo Bitna hurled it into a nearby shrub.
An empty corridor. She stood there for a while, staring blankly at the bush where the pen had landed, her face betraying nothing.
"Jihyo! Over here!"
At the sudden voice, Jo Bitna's head snapped up.
Someone was calling for Seol Jihyo.
And the owner of that voice was—
...Hankyul?
At the sound of that long-awaited voice, Jo Bitna's face lit up as if a switch had been flipped.
But wait... hadn't he just called out to Seol Jihyo?
Jo Bitna silenced her footsteps and followed the sound.
It was behind the dormitories. The place should have been empty—nothing there but a wide stretch of open ground and a recycling heap.
What would Hankyul be doing in a place like that?
Hiding herself around the corner, she poked her head out just enough to see.
Two people sat crouched low, their backs to her. A white backpack with a butterfly keychain dangling from it. Seol Jihyo.
But what on earth were they doing?
"Where'd this dog chew come from?"
"The Dormitory Supervisor got it for us. He said to ask him anytime if we need anything else."
...A dog chew?
Only then did Jo Bitna spot a second, smaller shadow between Hankyul and Jiwoo.
A scruffy little puppy.
It had been a few days ago, on her way back to her room after class.
"Jihyo?"
The Dormitory Supervisor, who'd been raking fallen leaves off the stairs, called out to stop Jiwoo.
"Ah, I heard you'd made a full recovery, but so it's true. You came back while I was on leave, didn't you?"
"Ah, yes."
"Good, good. Any lingering trouble from the injury? Without you around, who's going to keep this old man company with a bit of chat?"
From what she could gather, Jihyo had apparently been on close terms with the Dormitory Supervisor.
It wasn't surprising. Jihyo had always been such a polite, tender-hearted child.
"Oh, right—have you been by to see Somi?"
...Somi?
"While you were gone, the facilities team found her, you see. Someone must have reported a stray being kept behind the dormitories."
A puppy behind the dormitories... Oh.
Isn't she cute? She's the puppy in the backyard behind the dorms. I go give her treats secretly every break time.
Once before, during a break from school, Jihyo had visited and shown her a picture of the puppy.
So the little thing was still around.
The fact that she'd even named her, Somi, meant Jihyo must have grown quite attached.
"We managed to smooth things over for now by keeping her well hidden. I'll give you a heads-up before the team's next inspection, so make sure Somi stays tucked away."
"I will. Thank you so much."
"Oh, don't mention it. That Somi, she's been so listless since you went away, Jihyo. She must be over the moon now."
The Dormitory Supervisor chuckled and headed back to his office.
Left alone, Jiwoo slipped out of the dormitory and made for the backyard. She wanted to meet Somi herself.
If Jihyo had been raising her all on her own in secret... has she even been eating, this whole time Jihyo's been gone?
It seemed the Supervisor had been keeping an eye on things to some degree, but still, she couldn't help worrying.
Stepping into the backyard, she saw mounds of scrap piled up like small mountains.
From between the shrubs beside them came the sound of a puppy barking.
"Woof!"
The snow-white puppy, spotting Jiwoo, wagged her tail in a frenzy.
There was no mistaking her—the puppy from the photograph.
But she was cleaner than expected. She'd clearly been eating well, too, having filled out nicely. No—if anything, she looked even plumper than in the picture.
"Pant, pant!"
Seeing Jiwoo, Somi came bounding straight toward her. And from somewhere behind her came a voice, urgent and flustered.
"Hey! Hey, where are you going!"
Crashing through the brush appeared a boy with light-brown hair, dressed in a tracksuit.
Bae Hankyul.
The moment he saw Jiwoo, his eyes went wide. Jiwoo's went wide too.
"Oh? Jihyo?"
"What are you doing here?"
"That's my line..."
Then his bright yellow eyes, fixed on her, seemed to catch on to something and lit up.
"Oh! Was it you? The owner the Dormitory Supervisor was talking about—it's you, Jihyo?"
"That's me."
"No way...!"
Hankyul scratched the bridge of his nose, looking pleased and a little embarrassed all at once.
"Actually, a few months ago my soccer ball burst, and I came back here to throw it away—that's when I found her. I got permission from the Supervisor and started dropping by now and then. He mentioned there'd been a student looking after her before, but I had no idea that was you..."
By then, Somi had padded right up to Jiwoo's feet, sniffing at her shoes.
Then, as if sensing something was off, the wagging of her tail gradually slowed to a stop.
"......"
Somi tilted her head up, her eyes like little black beans, and stared straight at Jiwoo.
You can tell I'm not the Jihyo you knew, can't you? That's right. I'm someone else entirely.
...She couldn't very well say that, so Jiwoo crouched down where she stood, bringing herself to eye level with Somi.
"Paw."
"......"
Somi looked slightly wary, but she cautiously extended a front paw anyway.
"Good girl."
At Jiwoo's bright, smiling praise, the white tail that had gone still began to sway once more, tentatively at first, then picking up speed.
Perhaps she'd simply always loved people, because she showed no further hesitation.
"Woof!"
Now she was wagging her tail so hard her whole hindquarters wiggled—such a guileless little thing.
Jiwoo felt a small laugh escape her before she knew it.
"Thank you for taking care of Somi."
"Somi? Oh! So that's her name."
Hankyul crouched down beside Jiwoo and gazed at the puppy.
After that, the two of them ran into each other in the backyard fairly often after school.
"Jihyo! Over here!"
Like Moon Yoojin, Bae Hankyul was something of a celebrity at school.
In other words, not exactly someone she wanted to get close to.
Still, this was a spot where few people wandered, so it could have been worse.
Besides, he was the one who'd looked after Somi while Jihyo was gone...
And more than anything—if he's Jihyo's first love, being too cold to him would just be cruel.
Should Jihyo's treatment end and she return to school partway through, Jiwoo had no wish to see things turn awkward between the two of them.
She couldn't, as the older sister, go sabotaging her little sister's love life, after all.
So the plan was this: keep things smooth and amicable with Bae Hankyul wherever possible.
"Where'd this dog chew come from?"
"The Dormitory Supervisor got it for us. He said to ask him anytime if we need anything else."
Over the shoulder of Hankyul, grinning ear to ear, came the sound of rustling.
"...?"
By the corner nearest the dormitory, someone's shadow shifted faintly.
Whoever it was sensed Jiwoo's gaze at once—their presence vanished in a whisper of movement, gone as quickly as it had appeared.
But Jiwoo's five senses were far sharper than those of even a standard Awakened, so she knew.
Riding in on the wind, thick and unmistakable—that heavy rose perfume.
...Jo Bitna?