Chew It Well
Before the murmur could even register its meaning, Jo Bitna flinched, her shoulders jerking. The eyes of the 'Seol Jihyo' standing before her had suddenly turned cold.
Smack!
Jo Bitna slapped away Jiwoo's hand, the one still gripping her shoulder. She'd expected it not to budge at all — but to her surprise, Jiwoo's hand released her without resistance.
Cradling her stinging shoulder with one hand, Jo Bitna looked around at the others.
"...Hey, guys."
Her voice was soft and hushed, like the recitation of a secret incantation. That was all it took. But from that single short phrase, the air around them changed.
As a breeze laced with thick rose perfume drifted past, Jiwoo's eyes narrowed.
'...A Core?'
The instant Jiwoo's movement faltered, the clique standing at Jo Bitna's side all lunged at her at once.
"Get away from Bitna!"
A faint red glow flickered in every one of their eyes. She didn't know the details, but it was clear enough that Jo Bitna's Core was some kind of manipulation ability.
The fists raining down recklessly were thrown as if the attackers were entranced by something — pure selflessness, oblivious to everything else. Which meant dodging them was no trouble at all.
Whoosh!
Jiwoo caught the fist of a boy flying toward her the way one might snag a baseball, then twisted it on the spot.
"Aaargh!"
Crunch!
With the sound of bone crushing, the boy was sent tumbling backward. But that wasn't the end of it.
"You—!"
One of them snatched up a piece of junk lying abandoned nearby and heaved it into the air. It was a broken desk. A desk that size was no light load, yet he lifted it with such ease that he had to be one of those with a physical-enhancement type Core.
But what did that matter?
"...?!"
Fwiiiing─
The boy who'd been about to hurl the desk at Jiwoo froze solid. He didn't move, as if nailed in place. Not his body — the desk he was holding.
It was the same for the others. The kids who'd charged at Jiwoo like dogs defending their master went stiff, as if frozen solid.
The cause was Jiwoo's telekinesis. Using her telekinetic Core, she had fixed the lifted desk in midair — and beyond that, the shoes on the other students' feet, the stones clenched in their hands, even the necklaces around their throats. Every object each of them was touching at that very moment had been pinned in place by telekinesis, as though nailed down.
Of course, the students already bewitched by Jo Bitna's Core had no way of noticing. To them, it could only feel as if their own bodies had locked up.
"U-Ugh..."
"Guys, what are you doing? Why is everyone like this all of a sudden?"
Jo Bitna, who had long since hidden herself away at the back, looked thoroughly flustered. Perhaps because of how shaken she was, the thick rose scent that had been swirling around her thinned out in an instant. The power of the Core manipulating the children had weakened.
Meanwhile, even in that moment, Jiwoo was weaving past the stone-stiff students one by one, closing in on Jo Bitna.
"D-Don't come near me!"
Sensing something bad, Jo Bitna shouted. Her desperate, darting red eyes found a girl standing all alone in the corner over there.
"Kim Yeonhee, what are you doing just standing there? Come help me!"
"...!"
Kim Yeonhee flinched. Now that Jo Bitna had lost her composure, the Core that had been suppressing Kim Yeonhee had weakened as well. Proof of that was the fact that Kim Yeonhee didn't move as she was ordered to. She merely trembled faintly, her gaze shifting from Jo Bitna to Jiwoo.
She bit down hard on her lower lip as if deliberating — then fled the scene as if running for her life.
"Kim Yeonhee! Where do you think you're going!"
Tap-tap-tap.
Jo Bitna shrieked as she watched her bolt. By the time she turned back to face forward, Jiwoo was already right in front of her.
Thud. Thud. Thud...
The sound of footsteps on the dirt stopped dead. Halting her steps just in front of Jo Bitna, Jiwoo looked down at her with blue eyes utterly devoid of warmth.
Jo Bitna scrambled backward in fitful little steps, then realized there was a stone wall behind her and stopped.
"One last question."
Smack.
Jiwoo placed her hand on Jo Bitna's shoulder once more.
"Why do you hate Seol Jihyo?"
It might have seemed strange for her to call the girl 'Seol Jihyo,' but that wasn't what mattered right now.
Jo Bitna glanced at the hand on her shoulder, then slowly lifted her gaze and stared straight into those blue eyes.
"Why do you even want to know?"
"Because I want to."
"Really? Too bad."
Jo Bitna smiled, wide as a blooming flower.
"There isn't one."
...Ah.
Jiwoo's lips parted slightly. But rather than freezing as expected, her mouth soon curved into a faint smile.
"I see."
Saaah─
A faint light, subtle enough that only she herself could have perceived it, seeped out from Jiwoo's hand.
'...What is this?'
It felt as if warm liquid was spreading out from her shoulder blades and flowing through her entire body. The moment a startled Jo Bitna turned her head toward her own shoulder—
"Hngh!"
She clapped a hand desperately over her mouth. Then her guts twisted, and an unbearable agony followed.
"Kehk! Kuh...!"
Unable to endure it any longer, Jo Bitna collapsed to the ground. Vomit slid in a thin stream over her lips, which glistened with lip gloss.
──Give and Take.
It was Jiwoo's third Core. The excruciating pain Somi had felt — the pain she had absorbed when she'd touched the puppy just moments ago.
Jo Bitna writhed all over like a squid on a hot stone — and as if that weren't enough, she began clawing wildly at her own chest with her long nails. Uniform buttons ripped away, and the tips of her pale pink nails snapped off one after another.
Before her, Jiwoo crouched down neatly and properly.
"You should cover your mouth, you know."
"Mmgh... Mmph!"
She gently but firmly took hold of Jo Bitna's shoulders as the girl tried to retch, then murmured beside her ear like a gentle admonition.
"Chew it well, and swallow. Don't want you to get an upset stomach."
Spurt. Drip-drip.
The vomit forced its way past her pried-open lips. It was only natural that Jo Bitna couldn't keep her wits about her, wracked by pain that contorted her whole body.
And in the meantime, Jo Bitna's Core — Charm — unraveled as well.
"What the hell is..."
"What were we all doing here? Oh god — what's wrong with Jo Bitna?"
The students sucked in their breath at the sight of her. It was the same for Yong Myeongju, who had fawned after her, trailing at her heels.
Tangled hair. Bloodshot eyes. Makeup smeared black with snot and tears. That wrecked figure was no longer the Jo Bitna the students of Gaon knew.
The ones who'd been watching furtively soon sensed something deeply wrong, and one after another they scurried off without exception.
Jo Bitna didn't look at them. That she had shown them something they couldn't unsee. That they were abandoning her and running. None of it mattered now.
No — there was no room left to think at all.
"Ugh, uck...!"
She could only thrash in the grip of the pain. Then, from around the corner where the students had vanished, someone's footsteps approached.
"Is someone over there?"
──A voice as clear and gentle as a passing breeze. It was Hankyul's.
As if in response, Jo Bitna's violently shuddering shoulders froze upright.
"Jihyo? Is that you, Jihyo? Are you there?"
"...!"
The footsteps quickened. Jo Bitna began rifling through her pockets in a panic. She searched her jacket's inner pocket, outer pockets, the left pocket of her skirt, then the right — and the only thing she managed to dig out was a hand mirror that had somehow gotten shattered at some point.
"Hah, hah..."
Peering into the mirror, Jo Bitna frantically tidied herself up. She raked her fingers quickly through her tangled hair, scrubbed the snot and vomit from her face with the back of her hand. She scraped away the black mascara smudges under her eyes with her half-torn nails, then fumbled anxiously at the front pocket of her jacket.
My lip balm. Where's my lip balm...?
"Jihyo?"
Hankyul's voice came again. Jiwoo watched Jo Bitna smearing the broken lip balm across her lips like coloring with a crayon, and her own lips moved.
"Oh — Bae Hankyul. I'm over here."
"What are you doing? Are you okay? I'll come over there right now."
"No, don't."
...Jo Bitna went utterly still. Still clutching the broken lip balm, she slowly raised only her eyes and looked at Jiwoo.
Jiwoo kept her expressionless gaze fixed on Jo Bitna and spoke again to Hankyul, who hadn't yet appeared.
"There's no need to come — just bring the dorm matron for me instead. Somi seems to be feeling a little unwell."
"...! O-Okay! I'll get her right away!"
Tap-tap-tap — the footsteps receded.
Jo Bitna's head dropped, and for a long while she said nothing.
"...So that's what I hate."
The broken lip balm rolled from her hand and clattered to the ground.
"Must be nice, having life so easy."
"...What?"
"You're a chaebol family's granddaughter, aren't you? When would you ever have to force a smile in front of people? You've never had to put on airs, never once had to fake being nice to some creepy senior just because she was doing better than you."
Jo Bitna slowly lifted her head.
"You asked why I hate you? Fine, I'll tell you. I hate that fake-innocent act of yours. I hate that composed little face you make no matter who's watching."
"..."
"Born lucky into a rich family and living in silk and honey. Getting every scrap of attention without lifting a finger, just for that. Carrying the most expensive hand cream in the whole class around like a princess while acting like you don't care a bit about your looks."
"..."
"I hate all of it. Every last thing about you. The very fact that you exist — I hate it so much...!"
Having gotten that far, Jo Bitna twisted her lips upward.
"Satisfied now?"
she asked. Jiwoo, who had been listening in silence, let out a small sigh. At that, Jo Bitna bit down hard on her lower lip.
"What? Do you pity me? Do I look pathetic to you?"
"No."
"Then why did you sigh? Why did you do something I never asked you to do? Did you want me to thank you or something? You hate me too, don't you?"
"I do."
"Then why?!"
Jo Bitna shrieked. Crimson eyes met their opposite — eyes so cold they seemed to freeze the air between them.
Jiwoo gazed quietly at Jo Bitna's wretched state for a moment, then opened her mouth, matter-of-fact.
"Because 'Seol Jihyo' would never do something like this to someone she hates."
"..."
"..."
Whooo.
A wind blew. The broken lip balm rolled across the dirt path — and then dropped with a thud into the mud.
Jo Bitna burst out laughing.
"...Damn it."
And once again, she couldn't help but think it.
I really do hate you.