Chapter 49
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 49
Chapter Title: One-man Hide-and-seek
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One-man Hide-and-seek
First period break.
Grabbing the math homework I’d stayed up all night to finish, I sidled up to Ju-hee.
“Hey-”
“Oh, my goodness! I forgot I had to go to the teachers’ office! I’d better get going!”
Ju-hee rattled off an excuse I hadn’t even asked for and hastily fled.
What’s with her?
Unable to hand over the homework I’d worked so hard on all night, I returned to my seat.
“She ran off.”
“Well, I can just give it to her next break.”
I just had to give it to her sometime today, anyway. With that simple thought, I looked forward to the next break. But Ju-hee’s strange behavior didn’t end there.
The break after second period, the break after third period, and even during lunch.
The moment class ended, Ju-hee would vanish somewhere.
“Where on earth is she going?”
“Beats me.”
The more she did it, the more anxious we got. If this was going to happen, why did she even tell us to do the homework?
Surely she wasn't planning to submit the homework without ours, right?
A flicker of anxiety crept up on me.
I was getting impatient, worried that all of yesterday’s effort would go to waste.
This whole mess started because I happened to run into Ju-hee in front of my house.
At this point, clearing up her terrible misunderstanding had to come first.
But I couldn’t do it alone. Before approaching Ju-hee, I glanced to my side.
Dayeon was busy pretending to be occupied. She didn’t look the least bit busy.
I would’ve done this even if she were. I immediately asked for her help.
“You’re coming with me.”
“Me too?”
“Just come quietly.”
Dayeon’s body went limp, her face a mask of annoyance. It was obvious she didn’t want to go.
But I didn’t care one bit.
I grabbed her by the scruff of her neck, like handling a cat, and dragged her out from behind her desk.
Having secured a reliable assistant, I immediately headed for Ju-hee.
I used Dayeon as a shield, just in case Ju-hee tried to bolt the moment she saw me.
“Here we go.”
“Just get it over with…”
I gently tapped her on the shoulder. Ju-hee jumped in surprise and turned to face us.
“Huh?! Oh, it’s you, Dayeon… What’s up?!”
Ju-hee stammered, wary of me hiding behind her. It seemed she was still under some serious delusion.
“We finished the homework.”
Dayeon casually handed over a stiff bundle of papers. It was the math homework we’d busted our asses on until dawn yesterday.
“Homework…?”
Ju-hee fumbled for a moment, then her eyes widened at the papers Dayeon held out.
She took the homework without a word and quickly flipped through it.
“No way… You did all of this in just one day?”
She looked up at me, her expression one of utter disbelief.
I gave a little shrug, then pointed to the sullenly standing Dayeon and replied.
“We stayed up all night and finished it together.”
“…Huh?”
Ju-hee blinked blankly. She turned to Dayeon with a bewildered and hesitant look.
“W-Was the thing you mentioned this morning… about the homework?”
“Yeah.”
Dayeon answered without hesitation. A look of shock washed over Ju-hee’s face again.
She had finally realized her mistake. Soon, her face flushed bright red as she rambled on.
“Oh, I see! It was the homework… A-Actually, I knew that…! I really did! We talked about it this morning, didn’t we? Right!?”
“Did we?”
“Of course, we did!”
Dayeon, not grasping the meaning behind Ju-hee’s excuses, just looked puzzled.
Still, she seemed pleased to have made a new friend, a faint smile gracing her lips.
“Let’s do homework together next time, if you have a chance.”
“Y-Yeah… Of course…!”
Ju-hee agreed, breaking out in a cold sweat.
The guilt of having had impure thoughts about such an untainted, pure soul was written all over her face.
That should do it.
Now that the homework was safely submitted, I had no more business with Ju-hee.
I was about to turn away to enjoy the last few minutes of break when it happened.
“Wait a minute!”
Ju-hee suddenly grabbed my shoulder. Her earlier beet-red appearance was gone without a trace, and she was back to her usual self.
“What is it?”
“I need to talk to you two. Follow me.”
Ju-hee spoke commandingly before striding out of the classroom.
If I had my way, I’d have just collapsed on my desk and slept. But I couldn’t imagine what kind of storm would follow if I did.
Reluctantly, I listlessly trudged out of the classroom after her.
The hallway was quiet.
We passed a few students here and there, but they soon returned to their own classrooms.
The corridor was practically empty. What on earth did Ju-hee want to talk about?
As I stood there blankly, a rather sharp voice snapped me back to reality.
“Tell me the truth. What happened between you and Dayeon yesterday?”
“Nothing happened. We just did homework.”
Ju-hee shot me a suspicious glare. But I was being wronged. All we did yesterday, all day long, was homework.
I had to resist the urge to play, to rest, and forced myself to power through it.
But the fruit of all that labor was nothing more than a piercing stare.
Ju-hee crossed her arms, her expression deeply displeased. I could see her fierce eyes through her glasses.
“So you’re telling me a boy and a girl were in the same house together all day?”
“…I guess you could put it that way.”
Even as I said it, it sounded a little off.
This makes me sound like some shady pervert who invites a female classmate over to do weird things.
Before this unjust misunderstanding could spiral out of control, I spoke up.
I explained Dayeon’s current situation and why she had spent the night at my house.
With a few white lies mixed in, of course.
“…Is that really the truth?”
“What do I have to do to make you believe me?”
Ju-hee listened to me in silence, but she never let go of her suspicious gaze.
Still, it seemed she thought my story had some merit. She wore a complicated expression, debating whether to believe me or not.
“If you really don't believe me, go ask her yourself.”
“I was going to.”
Ju-hee whipped her head around and went back into the classroom. Even as she did, she kept glancing back at me.
“If you’re lying, just you wait. I’m going straight to the teacher.”
With that, Ju-hee went into the classroom ahead of me. Just how much of a delinquent did she think I was to give me a warning like that?
As for me, I just felt wronged.
As I was about to go back into the classroom, I saw Ju-hee sitting at my desk.
She was chatting with Dayeon about something. It felt awkward to interrupt.
So, I turned on my heel and headed for the restroom instead.
Might as well wash my face to wake myself up.
Our school’s facilities weren’t the best. In other words, only cold water came out of the bathroom sinks.
Washing my face with the bone-chillingly cold water jolted me awake.
The drowsiness vanished completely. My eyes wide open, I returned to the classroom.
Ju-hee was back at her own desk, working on a problem book. It looked like her conversation with Dayeon had been resolved peacefully.
Finally, with a sense of relief, I quickly sat down.
Dayeon was, as always, idling by herself. But unlike before, she was holding a doll.
“A doll?”
It was a black cat doll with spiky fur. It was the same one Ju-hee had been holding this morning.
“Where’d you get that?”
“This? It was in the bag.”
“Whose bag?”
Dayeon silently pointed at me. She meant she’d found the doll in my bag.
“What? Don’t lie to me.”
“It’s true.”
That didn’t make sense. I’d never bought a doll like this, nor did I carry one around. But Dayeon’s expression was innocent and truthful.
And she wasn’t the type to lie. That made it all the more confusing.
Where on earth did this doll come from?
It seemed Ju-hee must have accidentally dropped it when she came to my desk.
“I should give it back.”
But Ju-hee was in the middle of studying. For that reason, I hesitated to approach her.
I was worried she might snap at me for interrupting her concentration.
With anyone else, maybe not, but with me, it was a definite possibility.
So, how could I get this doll to her?
After a moment of thought, an idea flashed in my mind.
I balled up the doll like a basketball. The doll’s head crunched as I squeezed it.
It looked like it was in a bit of pain, but that was just my imagination. Dolls don’t have feelings.
Taking careful aim, I launched the doll towards Ju-hee’s bag.
Shoot.
Swish.
Success.
The doll sailed in a perfect arc and landed flawlessly in Ju-hee’s bag.
It was a textbook three-pointer.
“Whoa.”
Dayeon’s eyes lit up, as if she’d seen something amazing.
This way, I had returned the doll without disturbing the busy Ju-hee.
The cat doll was now peeking its head out of the bag, just like before.
Maybe it was the peculiar angle. For some reason, I got the feeling it was glaring at me.
Well, that couldn’t be right.
It’s a doll.
And so, we simply waited, endlessly, for school to be over.
**
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
Whirr-click!
Ju-hee dragged her exhausted body home. Today had been much more tiring than usual.
It was all because of Dayeon and Hyeon.
Seeing the two of them leave his house together this morning, she had completely misunderstood.
She thought Hyeon and Dayeon were in *that* kind of relationship.
“Ugh…”
Ju-hee flopped onto her bed and kicked her feet. She felt like such a pervert for having made that assumption.
Worse, she had mistaken Dayeon, who had just transferred yesterday, for a promiscuous girl.
Although she’d cleared up the misunderstanding now, she felt overwhelmingly sorry for thinking such things about such a pure girl.
“To think they were related…”
Ju-hee buried her face in her pillow.
According to Hyeon, Dayeon was a close relative of his.
She had transferred to their school for certain reasons and was staying at his place.
And she, not knowing any of that, had spouted such terrible, baseless accusations.
Ju-hee didn’t know where to put herself from the shame. What a promiscuous person they must think she was.
Her face flushed at the thought that Hyeon might see her as ‘someone whose mind is constantly occupied with those kinds of things between a guy and a girl.’
After rolling around on her bed for a good while, Ju-hee finally collected herself.
At times like this, it was best to distract herself.
Ju-hee sat up like a zombie. She rummaged through her bag and pulled out a workbook.
What she needed more than anything right now was to study.
Her strategy was to focus solely on her studies and ignore everything else.
Just as she opened the workbook to study, something on the corner of her desk caught her eye. It was none other than the cat doll.
The same cat doll she had picked up in front of Hyeon’s house this morning.
“That’s strange.”
She was sure she had put it in her bag.
Ju-hee tilted her head.
“Did I put it on my desk and foolishly forget?”
That was highly likely.
The alternative was that the doll had gotten up and climbed onto the desk by itself.
This wasn’t a movie; something like that couldn’t possibly happen. To focus on her studies, Dayeon moved the doll to a corner of her bed.
This time, I’m really going to study.
Ju-hee shook off her distracting thoughts and picked up her pen. Just as she was about to start on the problems,
-Bzzzt, bzzzt!
Her phone vibrated.
It was getting to the point where she suspected the world was conspiring to stop her from studying.
Ju-hee reluctantly checked her phone. A message had come in.
It was from Do-yeon, her best friend since middle school.
“It’s Do-yeon?”
Ju-hee checked Do-yeon’s message.
She’d sent a message saying something was trending on Instagram and that it was amazing, and had even tagged her.
-Ju-hee Ju-hee! This thing is trending right now and it’s insane!! So creepyㄷㄷㄷ You have to check it out!
What on earth was she making such a fuss about?
Do-yeon had always been a loud and dramatic person, so Ju-hee didn’t have high expectations.
Still, a flicker of curiosity sparked within her.
“What’s all this fuss about?”
Ju-hee chuckled.
She went through the message and the post Do-yeon had tagged her in.
The title was as follows:
-One-man Hide-and-seek.