Is This Really Okay? (3)
Looking back on it now, the first time someone invited me to lunch after I became the health teacher, I should have shut that invitation down as rudely as humanly possible.
"I'm tellin' ya, the sundubu here is the real deal."
"Right? Didn't you say this place was good the last time you came, Teacher Woojin?"
"Seriously. Taste the soft-tofu stew here once, and everywhere else goes bland on you. Can't even eat it."
"...Ah. Yes."
If I'd earned myself a reputation among these uncles as one of those kids these days, this MZ generation... types, I wouldn't be here now—an arm slung around my shoulders whether I wanted it or not, being hauled off to a sundubu joint.
I wouldn't be wedged between men who reeked of nicotine, stretching a smile I didn't feel.
"Teacher Woojin doesn't smoke, yeah?"
"...No."
"Aigoo, lighting one up before we've even eaten. You'll ruin your lungs."
"I'm not on active duty anymore, so what's the harm. And if something goes wrong, we've got Teacher Woojin."
I didn't care for the way they lorded over me like we were close, when we'd barely traded more than a few words. Still—I'd already done the first button up wrong. I put on a smile I didn't mean.
A good impression might pay off later, anyway. Not that I had the faintest idea what kind of scrap might actually fall into my lap.
That seemed to please them. A few of the teachers—hearty as uncles, hearty as heroes—laughed wide and open while we talked, and I went on swallowing sigh after sigh. I was laying out the spoons with half an eye on the timing when a thought brushed through my head.
"......"
Lee Jiyoon.
What was she even doing at lunch? Eating with a friend, maybe. Not that anything like that was likely.
"Mm..."
...Maybe I should fire off a quick text before we actually talked face to face.
"You went to the infirmary?"
"Y-yeah."
"That bruise on your arm looked like it hurt sooo bad earlier. I'm glad..."
"I-it didn't hurt that much... It was a mistake, too..."
"Anyway. Anyway, I mean."
"...Haa."
"Hehe. Sua-chan's gym clothes smell so nice..."
"......"
Half of it was the clumsy pronunciation from back when I'd first started learning Korean. The other half was the fluency I'd rolled around in long enough to pick up after crossing over—fluent as the locals. No, no, as a native. I blended the two just so, murmuring it out, then stuck myself to Sua-chan's back and rubbed my cheek against her for all I was worth.
Well, I hadn't exactly mixed them on purpose. Teasing adorable little Sua-chan—who couldn't hide the air of we had sex for even a second—just kept turning my tongue this way.
You know how it is sometimes. When you're messing with your friends, your tongue gets short. That kind of thing.
Haaah... Why was Sua this cute?
Right now we were only friends because I was lying about who I was, but strictly speaking she was two years younger than me. Was that why?
...When I was twenty, I wasn't this cute. When I was twenty, I think I was a little depressed about failing to get legally trained in school-uniform rape.
Maybe this one was just born cute.
"...I was sparring earlier, so I probably smell like sweat. Why would it smell good... And I still haven't showered, because I went to the infirmary..."
"No, no. It really does smell good. Oh—should I call over that boy who's secretly staring at us and make him take a sniff?"
"D-don't..."
"Pff-heehee. Kidding, kidding~ We are not giving our Sua-chan to any boy. Mm-mm. Absolutely not."
I could hand her over to someone who only thought of women as fleshlights. I would never hand her to a boy throwing that limp, deflating look—I wanna touch her chest...—in our direction.
Other things could be a little lacking, maybe, if his dick were insanely, insanely big... but nope. He wasn't even built like that. And he didn't have a bunch of sexy muscle on him either.
...To put it a little more bluntly, should I call them sex muscles?
Pfft. Lololol.
"Hey, Yojora... Your chest keeps touching my back..."
"My chest? Why? Am I not allowed to touch you? We're both girls."
"It's just... people are looking."
"Hmm...? Let them look. It's not even weird. ...Ah, of course, even between girls, if you start groping and squishing, that would be a little weird."
"No, I... haa..."
"Okay, that's enough of that. Off we go to eat~ My stomach's going peko-peko."
I flashed a bright little smile at the boy who hurriedly looked away from across the way, then hugged Sua-chan—still in her gym clothes—from behind, and the two of us stepped lightly out of the classroom.
It was lunchtime, sure, but you never knew. We might run into Seo Woojin somewhere, a corner of the hallway, if he happened to be passing by.
And if I had to pick an outfit that was perfect for getting your mouth covered and pounded raw right then and there—this lewd gym uniform, thighs slipped out just so, would do it. The zipper that only went up to the underside of the chest because fastening it all the way felt stuffy... actually, a gym uniform left open on purpose to turn a man on. And not one person's gym clothes, but two. That would get him the hardest, wouldn't it?
Too bad, though.
Running into Seo Woojin on the way to the Student Cafeteria: failure.
All I got on the walk over was a bellyful of horny stares from men I didn't know, and it put me in a bad mood. You lot only know how to look at people with those gross eyes. You don't have the guts to grab a wrist, drag someone into a quiet corner, and rape them.
Haaah...
If they'd at least paid an admission fee, maybe. All I'd done was put on a show for someone else's benefit.
"I'll have the sprout bibimbap, then."
"Um... um... th-then I'll get the same..."
Come to think of it, I had no memory of ever seeing Seo Woojin at lunch. Did he have something else he did then? Or did those burly teachers grab him and drag him off to some homestyle rice joint that smelled like middle-aged men?
I spun through one wild guess after another, finished ordering, and started scouting for the quietest, emptiest spot I could find, Sua-chan in tow.
"......"
I'd nearly finished sweeping every corner of the wide Student Cafeteria when I saw it. A corner gloomy enough that the air itself felt dim. A familiar head of pure white hair came into view.
Her name was Lee Jiyoon, wasn't it?
The girl who sat behind me—someone I'd never had a reason to trade even a single word with. Every time I looked, she had earphones in and was facedown asleep, so my entire impression of her was something like, She's really the top of the class? The girl who, during sparring a little while ago, had left a small bruise on my cute Sua-chan's wrist—a mistake, she said. And... I wasn't even sure I'd seen it right, but today of all days she seemed to be smiling, just barely, on and off.
She was tucked in that corner, fiddling with her phone and nibbling ramen.
"Hmm..."
The little breath that slipped out—hmm—lasted only a moment. I took the fresh, steaming sprout bibimbap and walked straight over to the table Lee Jiyoon had all to herself.
To get revenge for the bruise on Sua-chan's arm? It wasn't for any ridiculous reason like that.
Just... curiosity?
No. A competitive streak?
Yes. Competitive streak was a tiny bit more accurate than curiosity.
That Jiyoon girl was always alone. I'd never once seen her with anyone, let alone talking to them. Aloof, or prickly—that kind of face suited her pretty well, but still.
Anyway. So if I just coaxed her right, egged her on right, she could end up like Sua-chan too...
Mm-hm.
"Hi!"
"......?"
Once I'd finished my little strategy meeting in my head and greeted her as brightly as I could, Jiyoon-chan killed her phone screen in a hurry and looked up at me. I met her eyes and took the seat across from her, and Sua-chan, arriving a beat late, hesitated before sitting down beside me.
Less awkward because of that small accident earlier, and more like they simply found each other difficult, never having talked before. Not that I'd approached this girl hoping Sua-chan would assist me from the side in the first place.
Before Jiyoon-chan—who was obviously flustered—could rush through her meal and flee, I smiled brightly and spoke.
"I saw earlier. You're really strong!"
"...Yeah."
"Honestly, I thought you were just the kid who sleeps in the back row every day."
"......"
Oh dear.
Had I been too honest?
I'd smiled as wide as I could while talking to her, but Jiyoon-chan, who'd been glancing at me, was already just stirring her ramen with her chopsticks. Barely ten seconds after I'd spoken, she was already radiating, plain as day, an aura of I am not interested in you.
Hmm. When I got close to Sua-chan, I hadn't done anything special—just talked to her a normal amount—and we'd gotten close right away. Did this one not want friends?
I went out of my way to talk to her first, so why was the reaction like this?
...It stung my pride a little.
Hmph.
"So, um, what I wanted to say was, next time we have practical class, maybe..."
"Sorry, I'm gonna head out."
I'd even swallowed more of my pride and kindly offered another line, and Lee Jiyoon still stood up with a bowl of ramen she hadn't eaten half of. I watched her back and let out a quiet sigh she wouldn't hear.
Put nicely, she was like a stray cat wary of strangers, and that was kind of cute. Put badly, she just seemed to have no manners.
...Still, pretty face, no manners—Seo Woojin might like that well enough, in his own way.
Getting close to her would probably take half a year at minimum, but... anyway.
Some girl I wasn't even close to had suddenly come up and acted like we knew each other, and it threw me hard—but I figured I'd handled it well enough for now.
Dumping most of the ramen I'd been eating was a bit of a waste of money, but... whatever. It wasn't like the food was going to go down easy in front of those two. And if they caught so much as a glimpse of my phone screen, I'd be the only one losing out.
"Hoo..."
I rinsed my mouth at the water fountain, and that was as long as the pause lasted. I glanced around to see how many people were nearby, then leaned against the hallway wall and turned my phone screen on.
"Pfft..."
No subject, no nothing—just a plain, blunt Are you insane? sent over text. Even so, I looked at that stubby little line and giggled like an idiot.
I mean, it was funny. A guy who only ever got a little sharp with CZ, who usually used nothing but nice words, suddenly cursing at me over text. And the suggestion I'd made—he must have talked to my sister about it ages ago, and yet it had taken him forever just to send that one line.
It felt like I was dirtying the once-innocent Seo Woojin with my own hands, little by little.
...And that was kind of fun.
Shame. If those nuisances hadn't shown up, I would've replied ages ago.
Still leaning on the hallway wall, I tapped the screen, sent a reply like I had no idea what he meant, and hummed a soft little tune.
...And in the middle of that, I guess you could call it lucky. Not even a few seconds after I sent the text, the phone buzzed.
Less of the usual ease. Packed full of frustration, and of sheer disbelief.
To a Seo Woojin like that, I didn't send the blunt texts I usually did. I tapped out a sentence stuffed with mischief.
Because I felt like messing with him. The way elementary-school boys pick on the girl they like.
Even after the answer I'd expected, I hummed lightly and kept tapping the screen.
I hadn't expected, from the start, that I'd actually get to have sex right beside my sister out in the open.
...Just keeping him aware of me, the way I always did. For now, that was enough.
Of course... for now.