So It Was You, Carrot
“…Lisa, did you just lie to me?”
Jo Bitna crouched down in front of Lisa, wearing a warm smile. “That's strange. You would never say something like that to me.”
“…….”
“Lisa, you know what my Core is, don't you?”
“…….”
Beside Lisa, who had clammed up like a shell, someone slammed a fist against the stone wall. Thud!
“You not gonna answer Bitna?”
At Yong Myeongju's menacing growl, Lisa hastily nodded. “I-I-I know. What your Core is……”
“Then say it. What is my Core?”
“Ch-Charm…….”
“Correct.”
Jo Bitna reached out and gently gathered a handful of Lisa's long hair. “Want me to tell you a secret, Lisa? Just for you? The thing is, my Core comes with a precondition.”
“A-a precondition……?”
“Mm-hm. The target has to think I'm pretty for it to work.”
“…….”
“Honestly, it's a precondition that might as well not exist. I mean, look at me. Unless someone's a beast, they're going to think I'm pretty, right?”
Jo Bitna's words were almost entirely true. In reality, she had lived her life making slaves of anyone she wanted.
The prey caught in her Charm, without exception, found themselves unable to refuse her smallest request.
It was true that Gaon prohibited the reckless use of Cores.
But in Jo Bitna's case, she had little fear of being caught.
Why? Because even without activating her Charm Core, everyone acted as though they were charmed anyway.
With very few exceptions.
And Jo Bitna hated those few exceptions.
Seol Jihyo, for instance.
“Come to think of it, though, my Core doesn't seem to work on you either, does it? Or am I imagining things?”
“Th-that's…….”
“Lisa, what do you think? Am I pretty or not?”
The perfume thickened around them. Her wavy hair gleamed with a lustrous shine. Beneath full lashes, her twin eyes burned a vivid red — and her soft skin, her plump lips that suited her gloss so perfectly.
Until recently, Lisa had admired that doll-like beauty.
What would it be like to live with a face like that?
Could I ever become something like that?
She had even caught herself thinking such things.
“Hm? I asked you a question. Aren't I pretty?”
Lisa knew exactly what answer Jo Bitna wanted. Normally, that was precisely what Lisa's answer would have been.
“…You're pretty.”
At those words, the corners of Jo Bitna's mouth curled upward.
But in that very moment—
“I think Jihyo is prettier, though.”
At Lisa's quiet addition, Jo Bitna's expression froze solid.
“Right. I must look ridiculous, wearing nothing but cheap knockoffs.”
“…What?”
Jo Bitna rose slowly to her feet. “Everything she wears is expensive, after all.”
She glanced down at the hand that had been stroking Lisa's hair moments ago, her eyes devoid of feeling.
“Handkerchief.”
She held her hand out to Kim Yeonhee, snatched the handkerchief she was swiftly given, wiped her hand spotless, and dropped it to the ground.
As if that had been some kind of trigger, Yong Myeongju strode forward.
Rip.
He tore open the chocolate.
And then—
“We all done talking? Then it's your turn to have a bite.”
Yong Myeongju seized Lisa's jaw in a rough grip. “Come on, open up. Can't feed you if you don't open your mouth.”
“Mmph……!”
Lisa thrashed her head desperately from side to side, but the calloused hand clamped down and would not let go. Between her lips she could taste the bitterness of the chocolate, bitter enough to make the hairs on her tongue stand on end.
Lisa squeezed her eyes shut.
…Even if.
Even if eating this made me sick.
'I won't regret it.'
It was the very instant the bitter chocolate touched Lisa's tongue.
“—Jo Bitna.”
An unfamiliar voice rode in on the wind.
Every gaze in the yard swung toward it.
On the parched dirt path stood a gaunt girl, black hair whipping around her in the breeze.
“I told you there wouldn't be a second time.”
Seol Jihyo… no, it was Seol Jiwoo.
“Whoa, you scared me. Thought you were a teacher for a second.”
Far from tensing up at the sight of her, most of the kids actually relaxed.
A few even laughed out loud, as if to say, get a load of this.
“Well, well, Seol Jihyo's grown a spine. When'd you get so ballsy?”
“Senpai, you didn't know? She cracked her head in that accident — she's not right in the head anymore. Right, Kim Yeonhee?”
“…….”
As the jeers thickened, one person alone could not bring herself to laugh — Kim Yeonhee.
- Why are you bringing that up NOW? What are you going to do, report me to the police?
- It doesn't end there.
That day, too — the exact same voice, the exact same eyes.
“Hey, Kim Yeonhee? What are you doing, freezing up like that.”
“…I'm not frozen.”
Kim Yeonhee irritably batted away the friend poking her in the ribs.
Meanwhile, as Jiwoo stood rooted in place, her blue eyes swept across the yard behind the dormitory — and stopped on Lisa.
And the moment she saw the small puppy cradled in Lisa's arms — Somi — Jiwoo's expression hardened.
She began walking straight through Jo Bitna's crowd.
“Hey. Where do you think you're going?”
A boy blocked her path. Someone Jiwoo had never seen before.
The third-year, Yong Myeongju.
“Move.”
“…What did you just say, you—”
“I said move.”
CRASH!
Jiwoo shoved him. That was all — and yet he flew backward and slammed into the stone wall.
His huge frame was embedded in the stone like a nail, and spiderweb cracks spread outward from around him.
Everyone's breath caught.
Through that dead silence, Jiwoo strode steadily until she reached Lim Lisa's side.
“Lim Lisa, are you okay?”
“Jihyo…….”
“The fireflies were yours, right? You sent them?”
At her question, Lisa nodded falteringly.
“Thank you. That's how I got here so fast.”
“B-but Somi……”
Lisa looked down at the puppy in her arms, tears brimming. “S-Somi ate chocolate. I'm not sure, but I don't think it was regular chocolate……”
Jiwoo's gaze flicked briefly to the chocolate wrapper lying on the ground.
“I-I'm sorry, Jihyo. I tried to stop it, but on my own I couldn't do anything……”
“It's okay. I know.”
Jiwoo bent slightly and laid her hand over Lisa's. With her other hand, she stroked Somi.
“Somi is going to be fine.”
Jiwoo's palm settled over the small body, which was panting shallow, rapid breaths.
Was it her imagination? For an instant, the hand stroking Somi seemed to shimmer with a faint light……
“Look after Somi for me.”
“Huh? Oh.”
Jiwoo rose slowly to her feet.
Right beside her were a pair of red eyes, staring at her unblinkingly.
“…Jo Bitna.”
She didn't need anyone to tell her. Every last bit of this was that girl's doing.
Jiwoo looked her dead in the eye and asked. “Just one question. Why do you hate me this much?”
Jo Bitna let out a soft, rippling laugh, as though she'd just heard something hilarious. “What's this all of a sudden, Jihyo? Why would I hate you? We're close, aren't we?”
Close, my ass.
Suppressing the laughter that kept trying to leak out, Jiwoo asked again. “If you don't hate me, why are you doing this?”
“Doing what, exactly?”
Jo Bitna tilted her head. “I genuinely don't know what you mean, Jihyo. What did I do?”
“You fed Somi chocolate.”
“I can share something tasty once in a while, can't I?”
Jo Bitna brushed her hair back and smiled sweetly. “Why are you so angry over a little chocolate, Jihyo? Or — is it because of this?”
Dangling from the tip of her pale-pink manicured nail, something sparkled as it swayed.
…A butterfly-shaped keyring.
“So you did steal it.”
“Got any proof? A friend of mine picked it up as she was passing by. It's not like there's only one keyring shaped like this in the whole world.”
“…….”
“Same with the chocolate. I had no idea you weren't supposed to feed chocolate to dogs. Not until Lisa told me.”
In the end, Jiwoo couldn't hold it in — she burst out laughing.
“Right. Of course you didn't know. You never knew anything. The way you didn't know I'm allergic to carrots.”
Hiding her laughter like smoke, Jiwoo lifted her chin, her face frozen into cold fury. “Isn't that right?”
…Carrots?
Jo Bitna flinched, a slight shudder running through her.
At some point, Jiwoo's hand had come to rest on Jo Bitna's shoulder.
“What is wrong with you all of a sudden? Carrot allergy? Come on, let go of me first. Then we can talk.”
But Jiwoo did not release her grip on that shoulder.
No — she only tightened it further.
The video she'd seen in her dream… no, on the memory card, resurfaced once more.
That girl forcing a sandwich packed full of carrot râpé into Jihyo's mouth, all the while smiling. “Chew it up nice and good. We wouldn't want an upset stomach.”
“Ugh…!”
The sound of Jihyo retching in agony came through the speakers, horribly vivid.
Her tear-streaked face, hair a tangled mess.
The jeers ringing around her.
And—
“Jihyo, why are you being so scary? I told you to let go of my hand. What did I even do wrong?”
The Jo Bitna standing before her—
“Jihyo, why are you looking at me like that? You're scaring me. As if we did something so terrible.”
—and the girl in the video were one and the same.
“…It really is you.”
Jiwoo studied those meticulously manicured pale-pink nails, drinking in every detail, and the corner of her mouth curled upward.
“It was you. Carrot.”