Suspicion (8)
“This is insane…”
Yeon Minha kept muttering the same words over and over, her eyes hollow and unfocused. The alcohol had left her system, but the memories remained painfully vivid. “How could I have acted so disgracefully…”
Rubbing her thighs together, playing with her fingers in such a lewd way, even whining pathetically. Even by her own standards, yesterday’s version of herself looked far more like a courtesan than the noble young lady she was supposed to be. Just thinking about facing him tomorrow made her vision go dark.
“Haa… huh?”
While letting out a deep sigh, Yeon Minha suddenly noticed the warm heat enveloping her right hand. At the same time, she heard the steady breathing of another person close by. Startled, she turned her head, but quickly recognized the familiar male student sitting on a stool with his head bowed. Her heart settled at once.
His strong hand was gently covering hers as if it were some precious treasure. When Yeon Minha carefully slipped her hand free, his arm slid limply off the bed and dropped with a soft thud. She was a little curious why he was in her bedroom like this… but the memories from last night answered her once again.
‘Don’t go… I said don’t go…’
‘Stay with me…’
“…”
Yeon Minha felt her face flush hot in an instant. In her memory, she had been acting completely spoiled, using a twisted, clingy voice on him. Any trace of senior dignity had vanished without a trace.
After wearing a dazed, empty expression for a moment, Yeon Minha suddenly widened her eyes as if she had remembered something. She looked around frantically, checking her own appearance. Jacket, shirt, skirt, stockings.
“Even my underwear… is perfectly fine…”
Aside from a few wrinkles in her outer clothes, she looked almost exactly as she had when she entered the banquet hall earlier. There were no signs of anything being undone, disheveled, or torn anywhere. Even her pure white stockings, which subtly revealed the skin beneath, remained completely intact.
“…Are you really an idiot?”
After confirming everything, Yeon Minha muttered in a thoroughly annoyed voice. She had already forgotten how she had begged him while wearing nothing but a chemise back in the south. All that remained was a lingering sense of disappointment.
Still, she knew very well that he wasn’t the kind of person who would do something like that. Yeon Minha let out a long, complicated sigh. Then she glanced sideways, quietly slipped off the bed without making a sound, and stood in front of him.
“…”
On the small side table next to the stool lay the mask he always wore. He was the kind of person who used that mask as a wall to keep others at a distance, yet the more time he spent with her, the more relaxed he seemed to become. In a way, it felt like proof of the solid trust between them, and that wasn’t an entirely bad feeling.
Yeon Minha wanted to see his face while he slept with his head bowed. She crouched down and tilted her gaze upward. Only then did his entire appearance come fully into view.
She stared at his sleeping face for what felt like an eternity, completely forgetting the passage of time. His delicate, sharp features seemed completely at odds with his wild, hot-tempered personality. The memory of that firm chest pressed against her made Yeon Minha’s face flush slightly.
She used to think that even if he were the ugliest man in the world, it wouldn’t matter. Now that she had seen his real face several times, there was no need to say anything more. At the same time, she felt a bit sorry for him. No matter how hideous the scar was, it was nothing more than an accessory decorating him. Yet he was wasting his potential, trapped by something so trivial.
“…”
Suddenly, Yeon Minha felt the urge to make him more comfortable. But if she tried to lay him down, there was a high chance she would end up pinned beneath him again. If that happened, she would probably die of a heart attack. Even the faint scent of sweat on him felt far too stimulating.
In the end, she settled for carefully removing only the outer jacket wrapped around his body. Unlike hers, it was quite wrinkled in several places. Since there was a spare anyway, Yeon Minha decided to send it to the laundry. Taking care of her junior’s appearance was also a senior’s duty.
Just before tossing the jacket into the laundry basket, Yeon Minha shook out the pockets in case he had left any belongings behind. Aside from a few candies that irritated her, there was nothing else. Finally, she checked the inner pocket.
Contrary to her expectation that there would be nothing, the moment she turned the pocket inside out, a small object fell to the floor with a soft thud.
“…?”
It was a rather thick but low-quality, rough and stiff little paper card. Traces of its original white color remained here and there, but it had aged considerably, turning quite yellow from the passage of many years.
Yeon Minha bent down, picked up the fallen card, and flipped it over to check the front.
“What is this…?”
Drawn on the small, worn paper card was a portrait of someone. It was crudely done with nothing but pencil, lacking any technique, yet the affection in every stroke was unmistakable. The subject looked like a girl on the cusp of becoming a woman. She appeared a few years younger than they were now. The girl in the portrait was visibly thin, as if she were in pain. Yet that smile on her lips… It was so bright it seemed to declare that pain meant nothing, that she was the happiest person in the world.
For some reason, that strangely familiar feeling made Yeon Minha deeply uncomfortable.
“…”
Yeon Minha frowned slightly. She flipped the card back and forth several times, but there were no clues about its owner anywhere. The only hint was the girl’s smile, which felt oddly familiar yet unsettling.
Yeon Minha stared at it for a long time, as if engaged in a staring contest, not even blinking. And then, after some time had passed—
“…!”
Yeon Minha’s pupils suddenly dilated wide, as if she had realized something.
The deviation lasted only for that one night of revelry. The cradle returned to its usual routine as if nothing had happened. Especially since the second ranking match was scheduled for this week, the students were busy balancing their studies with preparations for the upcoming event.
And among them, I was particularly busy. Between studying, the ranking match, tracking down Seol Yujeong’s whereabouts, and the duel with Jin Yeseo over joining the student council, my schedule was packed.
“Senior. I’m done brushing it.”
“…”
“Senior?”
“…”
“Minha sunbae.”
“…”
“…Yeon Minha?”
“Hii…”
Only when I called her name did Yeon Minha finally react, her body trembling. Even in the midst of all this busyness, I was faithfully keeping the promise I had made to her. Even if the words had been spoken while drunk, a promise was still a promise.
“You. You’ve been secretly getting bolder lately… Do you think your senior is that easy?”
Yeon Minha looked up at me with a resentful expression and snapped. Even so, she didn’t forget to run her fingers through her neatly brushed hair.
“If you don’t like me getting bolder, shouldn’t you just answer faster? Or are you still half-asleep?”
It was a reasonable assumption, since Yeon Minha always enjoyed sleeping in.
“W-what kind of nonsense is that…”
Yeon Minha glared at me even more fiercely before whipping her head forward again. Just as she finished adjusting her clothes and was about to leave the dormitory, she suddenly stopped in her tracks. With a hesitant look, she glanced at me sideways and spoke.
“…Um, you know.”
“? Yes. Go ahead.”
“So… umm…”
“…”
Unlike her usual self, she stammered for a long time before eventually shaking her head on her own.
“…N-never mind. Just… prepare well for the duel…! See you later…!”
“Wait—”
Before I could even reply, Yeon Minha hurriedly fled the dormitory. I racked my brain all week trying to figure out the cause of her strange behavior, but no clear answer came to mind. I was sure she had said she didn’t remember anything from that night because she was drunk…
The loud cheers and noise heated the atmosphere. The sparring arena was already packed with people. Especially the top-ranked students on the scoreboard—all of them were present without exception. After all, for those who might face me or Jin Yeseo in the upcoming ranking matches, this was the perfect opportunity to analyze their opponents’ strength.
Before the duel began, I briefly looked around. The people seated in the center of the stands were the duel committee judges. To their left were the student council officers from the Patcheon faction who supported Jin Yeseo. Among them, I spotted a few familiar faces.
The braided female student staring at me with wary eyes—second-year Choi I-re. And beside her… for some reason, when our eyes met, a fresh-faced female student gave me a slightly kind, gentle smile. Kwon Yuri.
“…”
Her personality really was quite mild, yet I couldn’t bring myself to look at the person sitting right next to Kwon Yuri. Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the stands, Yeon Minha was glaring at someone with a clearly displeased expression. I didn’t even need to follow her gaze to know exactly where it landed.
But today, there seemed to be a slightly different emotion flickering in her eyes. It wasn’t the clean conflict that came from differences in position… but something thicker, more viscous. I was lost in thought trying to identify its source when a sharp, irritated woman’s voice snapped me out of it.
“…You look awfully relaxed.”
I turned my head toward the direction of the voice. Two green eyes that had approached at some point were burning with competitive spirit as they stared at me.