The Misunderstanding and Laughs at the Coin Karaoke
I panted heavily, my chest burning from the sudden stop, and I reached out to grab the kids who were racing ahead and vanishing out of sight.
It had been worth it, running for a few weeks like this.
With Seon Woo-hyun himself added in, chasing after the whole group of them wasn’t a problem.
And right behind me, Han Si-a came huffing and puffing, trying to keep up.
She must have had better stamina than I did, since following a guy like me without missing a beat was tough.
“Wait a second. Hah… hah…”
“Jeong-a. Everyone. Wait! Misunderstanding! That’s all it is. I don’t know what you’re thinking, but it’s just a misunderstanding!”
The name of the girl who had opened the karaoke room door first.
It was Min Jeong-a.
Her long hair hung loose, round glasses perched on her nose.
She wasn’t the class president, but she had all the typical signs of one, so we started explaining right away.
“Misunderstanding? What misunderstanding?”
“So basically, what happened was…”
I explained it together with Han Si-a.
How we had run into each other, how it was hard to just leave after meeting, so we had gone to the coin karaoke room.
And that the situation had come about just by accident, and that we weren’t like that.
“Huueng… Okay?”
But she flashed a cheeky smile.
The surrounding kids were all grinning the same way, not looking like they believed us at all.
“For something like that, you two were singing a duet so sweetly? Even then, you’re not dating?”
“Y-you saw that too?”
Han Si-a answered, flustered.
Wait a second.
I hadn’t expected her to have seen that much.
Of course, there were ways to explain it, but explaining the full situation would have been much harder.
I asked out of curiosity.
“So how did you all see us?”
“So…”
What happened.
Min Jeong-a explained it clearly and chronologically to us.
In short, we had gone into the room next to the class where the kids were singing.
After my shaky attempt, Han Si-a had started singing.
Some of the kids who thought the next room’s singing was getting too loud had peeked out and come over to our room.
This was what we saw.
Through the glass door, we saw me and Han Si-a.
…Apparently we had been so absorbed that we hadn’t noticed anything.
At that moment, we had been too focused on each other anyway.
And we had been a bit excited, so we hadn’t even realized someone was watching from outside.
“So we were thinking about pretending to know each other, and then you started the duet song?”
“Yeah.”
“Uh-huh.”
The kids chimed in from the side.
I felt a wave of despair at the look in their eyes, as if they had witnessed the most entertaining scene of their lives.
“Ah…”
“I thought it would be a bother to interrupt, so I watched happily. We were going to go back and sing something appropriate when the song ended, and then greet you properly.”
Why did she have to be so thoughtful and kind?
If she hadn’t been, we wouldn’t have shown a scene that was easy to misunderstand.
“When we were singing the duet, just seeing the honey dripping from our eyes was enough for me to think maybe they were like that.”
“…”
“Suddenly, right as we opened the door, you guys showed a scene like that… Kyaa! I didn’t know!”
She said that, her cheeks turning red with embarrassment.
The boy next to her was getting whacked by Min Jeong-a’s hand.
Poor guy.
“So I thought you had already done it. Wrong, huh? Too bad.”
“Wh-what are you doing? What is there to be sorry for! Min Jeong-a!”
Han Si-a shouted, embarrassed by Min Jeong-a’s blunt words.
But since Han Si-a’s reaction was so funny, Min Jeong-a continued teasing her.
“Honestly, you two have been in a good mood lately. Even at badminton.”
…Again with that.
Anyway, that stupid badminton thing was the problem.
I should have just let her fall. Instead of grabbing her.
“So that’s not it—”
“I don’t know. Whether it’s true or not, the whole class thought you two’s vibe was suspicious.”
“…Ugh.”
“Showing up and going on a date would make anyone suspicious.”
“So it wasn’t a date—”
In the end, Han Si-a explained why we had sung the duet like that.
She had tried desperately to deny any relationship with me, but—
“I get it. I’ll believe you.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I won’t spread any rumors in the class. Don’t worry. Just trust us. Right, everyone?”
Then the few kids standing beside us nodded confidently.
…Not one of them was trustworthy. For real.
The class kids had absolutely no intention of believing anything we said.
“Really, we’ll keep it our secret. Have fun with the rest of the dates~ Si-a, Woo-hyun~”
“So it wasn’t really anything—”
Watching them walk away, Han Si-a and I could only sigh.
…We had completely wasted our time.
#
“Running after them so hard was for nothing.”
“…I guess. It only made the misunderstanding bigger.”
In any case, the fun time with her ended.
Han Si-a and I, having accepted everything, started walking home.
It had gotten this late already.
When we had met her, it had been afternoon, but now the sun was setting.
The time we had spent with her must have been pretty enjoyable for me too.
It was because I hadn’t realized how much time had passed.
She was quiet for a moment, then asked me carefully.
“Will there be a rumor…? Definitely, right?”
“Maybe. You’ve been through this a lot yourself, so you know. These kinds of things never stay secret.”
Han Si-a, with her high visibility, had many rumors about every little action she took.
Where she had played, what kind of accidents had happened.
The entire class would know down to the last detail.
“Yeah, I guess so… ugh… I’ll have to face the kids’ faces tomorrow…”
She hugged her face, struggled a bit, and finally sighed as if she had resigned herself.
And, accepting the situation, she drooped her shoulders.
“What can I do about it, I guess.”
“Yeah. Think positively.”
“Yeah. It doesn’t seem that bad. If a rumor spreads about me being in a relationship with you, at least the other guys won’t bother me.”
“Wait. Then I become the target of hatred, don’t I?”
The entire target of the male students in the class.
I become the thief of the school idol. In a way.
“You figure it out. You have a lot of friends. Handle it well.”
“Seriously, too harsh. This.”
She completely cut off the conversation about me, as if it were none of her business.
And, as always in situations like this, all the male friends became enemies.
Han Si-a was probably trying to weave a positive angle and added more advantages.
“The girls won’t get jealous over useless things either. That’s good too.”
“You really are positive.”
“You told me to think positively. I can’t get through it otherwise.”
I was being used extremely conveniently here, wasn’t I?
I hadn’t even dated, yet I had become Han Si-a’s dating shield.
Anyway, the important thing wasn’t that.
I thought about the positive points too.
“If I have to think of a positive, it’s not bad.”
“What is it?”
“When I’m with you, I won’t have to explain anything extra.”
“Eh?”
At my words, she turned her head and looked at me.
Her gaze fixed on me had something strange about it.
“We’ll meet and play from now on. We probably won’t play far from home anyway.”
“…Yeah. Right?”
“Explaining to the kids every time what our relationship is would be annoying. And even if I say we’re just friends, they probably won’t believe it.”
“…”
“It’s also pretty convenient that it just became like this.”
“Huh.”
“Yeah. And you know these rumors too. They flare up and die quickly.”
“Yeah. That’s true.”
Rumors were like that.
As long as we didn’t give them more fuel.
If the reaction faded, it would disappear somewhere and shift to another rumor.
Like how a million news articles became hot for a day and then vanished.
“…”
And the conversation cut off abruptly and awkwardly.
I didn’t know what to say anymore, so I walked in silence beside her.
After walking a little, we reached a fork in the big road.
I didn’t know which way her house was, because the novel’s description hadn’t clearly marked its location.
I didn’t know which direction she would go either.
And matching the novel’s description with real geography had been difficult.
She stopped at a bend and looked at me.
I instinctively felt that the moment we had to part had come.
“Which way?”
“Yeah. I have to go this way from here. Be careful. Let’s see each other at the sandpit at school.”
“Yeah. Okay, go ahead.”
I greeted her and turned to walk away.
After walking a few steps.
Maybe three steps.
Suddenly, someone called out to me from behind.
“Seon Woo-hyun.”
Of course, the voice was Han Si-a’s.
I turned my head and glanced at her.
“Eh? Why? Is there something you want to say?”
A faint anxiety and anticipation.
Han Si-a stared at me with an unreadable gaze.
…Why was she drawing it out like that if she wasn’t going to say anything?
I waited for her answer, thinking someone might mistake it for a confession.
She asked me in a slightly trembling voice, her cheeks flushed.
“…Was playing with me fun for you too?”
I was dazed, as if my head had been hammered by a sudden question.
What kind of question was this.
“What kind of talk is this.”
“N-no… Just. I had fun today. I was wondering how you were.”
This was Han Si-a. Han Si-a?
A gap appeared between the image I knew from school and her current one.
She had always been the one who ticked and acted confident.
I felt a cuteness that went beyond adorable at her slightly flustered look, the first I had seen.
…Crap. She’s ridiculously cute.
She was probably checking if I felt the same.
How could such a cute feeling not be adorable.
That’s why Yoon Tae-jun couldn’t get over it.
“Hah.”
When I laughed, she pouted and said, “Why are you laughing?”
“Just. Something funny came to mind.”
I stopped laughing, following the excuse she always used, and answered her.
“If it’s not fun, then let’s play again next time, idiot.”
At those words, a circle appeared on the corner of Han Si-a’s lips.
That smile was the most beautiful one I had ever seen.
I could definitely be proud of that.