How to Use an A-Class Key (7)
The moment I saw her face, it felt like waking from a hazy dream. We were so close. Completely pressed together, we could feel each other’s warmth.
I parted my lips to say her name. “Ju……”
She quickly covered my mouth with her small hand and shook her head. Her gaze shifted toward the faint light leaking into the space. Slivers of illumination slipped through the slatted vents, gently lighting the enclosure. It wasn’t a strong beam, but in the sealed darkness it was more than enough to make sense of our surroundings.
I could tell the things brushing against us were clothes. A skirt hung neatly on a hanger, underwear displayed openly, and the number 77 key dangling from the bracelet on the wrist of the hand still covering my mouth.
This was locker number 77 in the girls’ changing room.
Voices drifted in from outside—rustling fabric, humming, and the light chatter of friends. I roughly understood the situation and gave a small nod.
Ju Si-eun slowly withdrew her hand. She breathed carefully, terrified of being discovered. Each exhale brushed warm against my skin.
Gulp. Even the sound of swallowing seemed amplified in the tight space.
I began piecing my memories back together. After emerging from the rift inside the 77 locker, everything had gone blank. I vaguely recalled feeling as if every ounce of strength had drained from my body. She must have found me like that and dragged me in here.
My eyes dropped to her face, pressed tight against my chest. She was blushing, letting out a soft sound that was far more adorable than suggestive. As a healthy teenage guy, I couldn’t help but stare.
Ju Si-eun wore a simple navy school swimsuit. Her wet hair clung to her skin near her collarbone. Contrary to what those Scavenger idiots had assumed, the girls clearly didn’t swim in bikinis. It was just an ordinary school swimsuit, yet my heart hammered wildly.
Maybe it was the proximity. The way she looked at me felt unbearably charming. Her deep hazel eyes darted away, lost and uncertain. When our gazes finally locked, I suspected we were feeling the exact same thing.
Two hot-blooded high schoolers, soaked and trapped in a closed space—what else would we think about? The subtle emotions between us seemed to swell with every passing second.
Still, I pushed down those adolescent urges. We weren’t anything to each other. Our connection wasn’t that deep.
Yet the day I first met her remained the most important moment of my life. It might have been the day I caught the attention of every god out there.
I didn’t know how she felt about me, but she had undeniably left her mark on my life. If I hadn’t stepped in that day, if I hadn’t rushed to save her, our connection would have ended right there. The constellations would never have noticed me.
I focused on her again.
Gulp. The tiny sound of her lips moving reached my ears. I could even hear her heartbeat.
Her small mouth trembled as a delicate voice slipped out.
“Y-Yeonjun. I think it’s safe to leave now.”
“Huh? Yeah.”
The people who had been changing outside had long since left. We eased the locker door open and stepped out carefully. The moisture on our clothes evaporated into the cool air.
I glanced back at her. Embarrassed to face me in just her swimsuit, she hurriedly pulled on the outer layer—the school uniform that had been hanging inside the locker with us.
I deliberately turned my back. Only then did it hit me how easily this could be misunderstood, and my face burned with belated shame.
Her cautious voice came from behind.
“Um… Yeonjun?”
“Y-yeah?”
A short silence. After a moment’s hesitation, she asked,
“If you have time tomorrow, do you want to see a movie with me?”
“Huh?”
Her sudden suggestion made me turn without thinking. She had already pulled her uniform top over the swimsuit. Her face was beet red, and she couldn’t quite meet my eyes.
Even if I had zero experience with romance, I wasn’t dense enough to miss what her invitation really meant.
She carefully offered me her phone. I took it with equal care.
From the most popular first-year girl in the entire academy, I had just received a date request. It was a first in my life.
*
By now the library held only the library committee members, each quietly finishing their remaining tasks. Sorting documents was never quick work, so everyone moved with focused silence.
Yet even in the middle of the busy atmosphere, Ju Si-eun couldn’t concentrate at all. Her face burned so fiercely she could barely think straight.
She had never been the bold type to begin with.
“Haa…”
She let out a long, heated breath. Every time she remembered what she had done earlier that day, embarrassment flooded her so strongly she wanted to disappear.
Still, hearing his positive reply had been an enormous relief. She hadn’t expected to exchange numbers with him so easily.
Under the desk, Ju Si-eun tapped her feet excitedly, secretly expressing her joy.
The moment she first met Ha Yeonjun had probably been the moment she fell for him. A woman falling for a man at first sight always arrived without warning.
The courage he showed running straight into danger to save her from those delinquents had been a simple event, but to her it became the most precious piece of fate imaginable.
She clasped her small hands over her chest, trying to calm her pounding heart.
It wasn’t that she had been drawn to his appearance alone, but lately his image had begun to feel different. When their eyes met inside the locker—those pupils that seemed to pull her in like a black hole—she genuinely thought her heart might stop.
When she saw his lips flushed with heat, an instinctive urge to lean in and kiss him had surged through her. It was probably just a normal teenage girl’s impulse, but Ju Si-eun clung to her reason and held it back.
In short, he was handsome.
He had grown taller, his face was more attractive, and he even carried a pleasant scent. These days, simply meeting his eyes was enough to turn her face bright red.
That was why the growing interest from other girls lately had filled her with urgency.
So Ju Si-eun had gathered every ounce of courage she possessed and made the direct suggestion. The fear of failure was real, but the fear of watching another girl claim him was stronger.
Besides, she had been wearing only a swimsuit. Embarrassing as it was, perhaps that very fact had given her the push she needed.
And it wasn’t just her cheeks that had been burning. A woman’s intuition truly was a sixth sense. She had noticed the flush on Ha Yeonjun’s face and caught the slight tremble in his voice.
The courage had come from the simple guess that no matter how stoic a guy was, being pressed against a girl in a swimsuit would shake him too.
It had been a completely impulsive proposal that bypassed her brain entirely, but the result was good, so she couldn’t complain.
Ju Si-eun sat with both hands pressed to her warm cheeks, lost in thought.
“Whew.”
Even so, she still couldn’t believe she had said those words. The more she replayed the memory, the more her face burned. Yet unstoppable giggles kept escaping.
“Si-eun!”
Her friend Oh Ha-yul, noticing her condition, called out. Ju Si-eun flinched and turned around.
“Yes?”
Seeing her flushed face, Oh Ha-yul’s eyes narrowed slightly. Having been best friends since childhood, she could pick up on even the smallest changes. She also knew exactly what it meant when Ju Si-eun acted like this.
“What’s with that smile? Don’t tell me…”
Ju Si-eun smiled shyly. Oh Ha-yul’s eyes widened behind her red glasses until they looked ready to burst.
“For real?”
“We only exchanged numbers so far, but… yes, for real!”
“Anything else?”
“We’re going to watch a movie together this weekend!”
It was an ordinary movie date, but the fact that their relationship had clearly taken a step forward was significant. Ju Si-eun was satisfied with that alone. Oh Ha-yul gave her a playful smack on the back, a sly grin spreading across her face.
“Then let’s go buy clothes first thing tomorrow!”
“Okay!”
Ju Si-eun answered with a bright smile. And in her heart she thought how much she was already looking forward to that weekend date with Ha Yeonjun.