The Gypsum Ceiling with Ocean Wave Patterns
The ceiling was painted with patterns of ocean waves.
As I crossed the Han River, I had to pay the toll, and every time I passed through the station, I heard the same accusations from those who wouldn't even let a dirty person like me sit on the seat, even though they had a ticket, saying it wasn't stolen or something.
Seeing Seojun's face, I turned back, and it repeated the same thing again. When I had come to find him, he looked a bit burdened and somewhat guilty, but when I returned, there was no one there, and only the cold air was drifting around the small room.
I scooped up a full pot of oyster flour with a ladle, turned the stiff faucet to mix it with the water, and ate it with a spoon, staring at the old photo of me taken with my family when I was young.
The kids around my age who took over the shack next door where the uncle who tried to pounce on me had his skull cracked by Seojun and then died from illness not long after.
After my parents' one week's food money was gone, the thugs came looking for me to repay the money that had become a clean house somewhere.
The village elders who said if I couldn't make money, after I grew a bit more, they'd employ me at the warehouse, or that even if I just spread my legs comfortably like you, maybe I could buy a house in the safe zone below the Han River someday.
And the girl who was left alone in that village, spending every day in loneliness, moved her feet.
To a place full of people who were kind and said, "You are always welcome, like you," while offering sweet candies in a white coat.
“…Ah.”
I see the ceiling with ocean wave patterns.
I slightly lifted my body to look around, and my shoulder wasn't twisted, and my wrist wasn't tied.
I was just trembling slightly.
Was it a dream I had too real?
It was too realistic for a dream.
A white bed, a blanket, and a subtle, unique pharmaceutical scent.
Probably this was a hospital.
It couldn't be a lab.
Looking out the window, I see students walking around in school uniforms, and nothing was tying me up.
The sun was setting.
People who look at the red sky feel warm, but it just looked like a fire.
Perhaps because I don't like red much.
My red eyes, the ones that flow when I'm in pain, including my ability.
While lost in thoughts for a long time, staring blankly at the wave-patterned ceiling, the sound of the door opening drr-r-rk.
Turning my head towards the direction the sound came from, Seojun appeared scratching the back of his head with an awkward expression.
“You finally woke up.”
“Hey, um.”
For some reason, words came out impulsively.
The kid in front of me probably didn't know who I was.
“Why did you leave me behind?”
At that, Seojun showed a slightly dumbfounded expression and answered with question after question.
“…What are you talking about?”
Of course, that would be the case.
The kid in front of me hadn't changed at all, but I had changed so much.
I roughly glossed it over.
“No. I just woke up and I'm a bit out of it now.”
“Ah, yeah. I think so. It's been three days.”
And then silence for a long time.
It wasn't that I was suffocating or sad because I met a friend I didn't recognize again, just a feeling of emptiness.
“Um, the class days will definitely be filled.
It was because of us that you got injured and were in the infirmary.”
I, Yu Harin, thought that the kid who was living in a place where dust had accumulated on the desk because she was too lazy to even clean, would think this.
I probably recalled things like the other party being burdened or perhaps happy to reunite, or something like that.
Maybe she thought I wouldn't recognize her at all.
By the way, three days.
Somehow I was hungry. My throat was dry too.
My whole body felt sticky and dry.
I repeated inhaling and exhaling, and there was a water bottle on the small drawer next to the bed, so I opened the lid and gulped down the contents.
I didn't feel the thirst going away at all.
Seojun brought a wheeled office chair that looked like it belonged to an infirmary teacher and sat next to me.
“…There was a misunderstanding.”
“What kind of misunderstanding?”
“Im Hyeyeon, that is, the girl who pounced on you… ”
“Yeah.”
“I guess you thought I was a villain.”
It didn't seem like it was particularly wrong.
I didn't say I was joining an organization, but I had lived with those humans for a short time anyway.
Under the condition of sending me to school, I was supposed to investigate the facilities inside and hang out with promising students.
“Really?”
“Really, not you…”
“You were looking at me as garbage, something that could be killed right away that night.”
I said quietly.
“…”
Seojun sat next to me, head bowed, but…
“Still, the real culprit was caught.
The missing kids from the group that Hyeyeon said you killed were found.
No, not found, but traces were found.”
That was probably just left somewhere after walking the night streets.
At that time, I was so intoxicated with drugs that I don't remember the exact location.
“The real culprit.”
“Yeah, the real culprit.”
“So why did you come looking for me?
You were there that night too, trying to pounce on me.”
“I have to say sorry.”
“Then the crazy girl should have come instead of you.”
“…No matter how much I say, you seem to firmly believe that I did it.”
Seojun said with a troubled smile.
As I was familiar with that look, my hand reached out unconsciously.
When I looked at my hand with a puzzled face, I quickly pulled it back, but…
I still couldn't stop the trembling.
“Still, you were disciplined for harassing a low-grade student without just cause.”
“You received the punishment from the school, but you don't want to come to apologize to me, huh.”
“…”
I think that's correct.
Since he saw it with his own eyes, he probably believes firmly what he saw, unless he's been drugged or locked in a lab like me.
Anyway, the real culprit.
I think something like this could happen.
Of course, to have heroes saving the world at school, there need to be many events.
Then, some evil humans who get caught badly.
“By the way, I don't think I heard the name. Is it okay to ask?”
At that, smiling, touching the wound on my cheek, the bandage wrapped around my shoulder, I answered.
“No, it's not okay. I don't want to mix words with kids like you.”
“…Still sorry.”
“Actually, there's no need to be sorry.
To kids like you, weak kids like us will look like bugs.”
You don't like me because my appearance changed a little, my voice changed a little, and you can't recognize me.
Why am I carrying my red eyes that look like flames.
“Maybe I'll be a villain too.”
At that, Seojun's eyes widened.
Since I might rush at me, I gave a playful smile and continued quickly.
“Frankly, I think the missing kids died well.
They were the ones who harassed me.
They threw stones in the classroom so I couldn't even study properly, threw sharp things, anyway.
Since they were bad kids, I was very grateful to that guy, the real culprit who killed them.”
I said something, but it was spitting out whatever came to mind, I don't know what words I was saying.
I guess it's because I caught a few, so I feel like spitting out words.
“Even if it's just a classroom full of F-class idiots, because it's a bit weak, they beat and harassed, and no one cared, how much worse would you be.
It's not even the same grade, and just looking at the clothes they're wearing, their appearance is completely different.”
I didn't think that the school was divided like that.
To me, all awakened were distant humans.
Kids living a normal life, eating delicious food, wearing cool clothes.
I probably should have remembered that there was only one awakened I knew, and that one at least wasn't average.
“Or even if a bit pretty, since she's F-class, maybe she would apologize a little and flirt with words to spread her legs?”
“Ah, no, it's not that, I'm really sorry..!”
“So you left me behind too.”
I glossed over the words quickly.
Since I wasn't giving time to properly answer the words he was spewing enthusiastically, and I was just continuing my words, it didn't matter.
“No, I was a bit angry and said something stupid.
Can you go? Sorry or whatever, honestly I think you're no different from the missing kids.
Rather, I hate you more for not coming at night.”
“…I'll find Hyeyeon somehow.”
Frankly, whether that girl comes or not doesn't matter to me, but hearing that you'll find me somehow this time, I feel oddly good.
I was trying to spit out sharp, emotionally hurt words, but I answered with a refreshing smile.
“That's, yeah. Good.”
It was like this before too.
If I say stupid things and get my feelings hurt, I end up fighting back and eventually answer like this alone.
“Hey, um.”
When Seojun was about to leave the room, I called out.
Then he turned his head and looked back.
“Peanut caramel, I want to eat it. Can you buy it for me?”
At that, he made a subtle expression, took one peanut caramel from his pocket and threw it, then went out to the infirmary.
Even now, he seems to carry about three in his pocket.
I stared at the caramel for a long time, then put it in my pocket.
Honestly, I don't like caramels.
More than oyster flour soaked in water.