Omen (3)
The school cafeteria buzzed with chatter.
Right in the middle of it all, Seo-hui sat quietly in a corner, watching the girl across from her.
Han Nakyeong.
By pure coincidence she shared the same surname as Han Dohyeon, and she was eating her rice with such adorable little bites that anyone watching would have found themselves smiling.
Seo-hui stared at her for a while, then a question rose unbidden.
What is this?
With plenty of empty seats available, the girl had asked to sit together—and before Seo-hui could even answer, she had claimed the seat opposite her.
Then she had started eating in silence, without a single word of conversation. Now and then she would fiddle with her phone for a moment, then go back to eating with quiet diligence. She never so much as glanced at Seo-hui sitting right in front of her.
It was as if she had simply come looking for an empty seat and nothing more.
…Just ignore her.
Seo-hui forced herself to stop paying attention, finished her meal at a reasonable pace, and quietly rose from her seat.
Only then did Nakyeong look up and speak in a friendly tone.
"Wow. You're already done?"
She looked genuinely surprised, then offered a simple farewell without anything further.
"You're fast…. Have a good afternoon class."
"……."
Seo-hui ignored her in silence and headed for the tray return.
And the next day.
"……."
Seo-hui had just sat down and picked up her spoon when she found herself staring blankly at the girl approaching her table.
"Mind if I sit?"
Han Nakyeong had come again.
"……."
Seo-hui furrowed her brow slightly, then dropped her gaze and quietly began to eat.
"Thanks for the meal."
As if they were both aware of each other and yet not, they ate at their own separate paces.
The day after that.
"Mind if I sit?"
And the day after that.
"This seat's free, right?"
By this point, even Seo-hui could no longer simply ignore her outright. There was clearly some ulterior motive behind these visits—and with the girl constantly hovering in her field of vision, it was impossible not to notice.
So.
The next day, a Friday, with the weekend just ahead.
"Hello."
This time the girl didn't even ask permission. She simply greeted her and slipped into the seat. Seo-hui finally spoke.
"What do you want."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
Nakyeong's large eyes went round with apparent confusion.
Whether she was shameless or simply dense—Seo-hui, who despised people whose insides didn't match their outsides, scowled and snapped at her.
"Why do you keep hanging around in front of me."
"Ah."
At last Nakyeong reacted as if she understood, a lovely smile blooming at the corners of her mouth.
"I wanted to be friends."
"……?"
"I'm a magic major, so I don't have any friends in other departments."
Seo-hui found herself involuntarily creasing her brow.
Because in Nakyeong's gently smiling eyes, she could sense something faint and unreadable.
I should stay away from her.
Having more or less resolved her questions one way or another, Seo-hui reached for her tray, intending to leave.
But.
"Oh. If you get up now, there won't be any seats left."
Nakyeong was a step ahead, catching her by the ankle of the moment.
"You're right. Everything's full."
She glanced around the cafeteria, then looked back at Seo-hui with a tone that asked whether she was really going to leave.
"You're not going to finish eating?"
"……."
Seo-hui stared at her for a long moment, then let out a short sigh, sat back down, and picked up her spoon.
"Heehee."
Nakyeong, looking thoroughly satisfied, plucked up a side dish and popped it into her mouth….
And for just a brief instant—while Seo-hui's head was slightly bowed—
"……."
A coldness flickered across the face of the girl watching her.
It was the kind of frigid gaze one might turn on a mortal enemy.
As always, time slipped by quickly.
I went to work early in the morning and taught my classes.
"Your arm is bent too far—you're losing too much power. Again."
"Ah, yes, sir!!"
On afternoons without private lessons, I spent time with Nakyeong.
"Nakyeong. I think I need to start buying some fall clothes."
"Oh! Then should we go shopping this evening?"
"If you've got the time."
"Even if I don't, I'll make it! It's a date with Dad!"
"Alright then—hurry up and change, and let's go."
"Heehee. Okay~!"
On days with private lessons, I ran sessions with Cheon Seo-hui.
"That's it. Keep defending. Just like that…. There's an opening here."
"Ugh…!"
And so I lived diligently for a while—until, before I knew it, the business trip to Japan with Choi Yeonjeong was right around the corner.
"Japan…?"
"Yeah. I've got some business over there, so I need to make a quick trip."
I was supposed to head straight to the airport the moment I got off work Friday night, so I asked Cheon Seo-hui for understanding and moved her lesson up to Thursday.
As it happened, her house was running low on side dishes again, so I wrapped up earlier than usual and we headed to the supermarket together.
"This is my first time going overseas, so I'm a little nervous."
"……."
Naturally, Cheon Seo-hui seemed to have no particular thoughts about me going to Japan. You would think she might at least ask who I was going with, or when I was leaving and coming back.
She doesn't seem interested at all.
Hoping she would get jealous over me traveling with a woman was probably asking for far too much.
Well—even if the other person was Choi Yeonjeong.
"Excuse us."
After picking up a reasonable amount of groceries, we went straight to Cheon Seo-hui's place.
I'd been stopping by at least once a week lately to cook side dishes for her, so the routine had started to feel fairly familiar.
How should I put it….
Like I'd somehow ended up running two households?
"Just put what we're cooking today on the counter. Put the rest away."
"…Got it."
At some point, even Cheon Seo-hui had come to treat my visits as a natural part of her life.
I couldn't even remember the last time she'd looked at me with wariness.
On the other hand, the fact that she'd opened up so easily left me a little worried.
What if some weird guy takes advantage of her?
I figured I was going to have to drill some proper caution into her going forward.
"Seo-hui. Want to taste this?"
Cheon Seo-hui, who had been sitting in the living room fiddling with her phone, sprang up at the offer and drifted over.
"Here. Ah—not with your hands."
She was about to grab it with her fingers again, so I whisked the chopsticks out of reach and held the side dish up toward her face instead.
"Try it."
She stared at me for a moment….
"…Ah…."
Then she parted her plump lips slightly and leaned her face forward without a word.
"How is it?"
She chewed, swallowed, then glanced up to meet my eyes and answered quietly.
"…It's too sweet."
"You said you liked sweet things. Just eat it."
She was a more finicky eater than I'd expected when it came to matching her tastes.
"Ah…. Look at the time already."
And so, once again, I packed her refrigerator full.
I was about to leave—I had no choice, with someone waiting anxiously for me at home—when we exchanged a brief goodbye. She had come out to the parking lot to see me off, as usual.
"Listen well in class tomorrow."
"…Okay."
I was just about to pull out of the lot when—
"Well then, I'll be—"
"Um."
"…Yeah?"
Cheon Seo-hui spoke up of her own accord.
"Something you want to say?"
"……."
She rolled her eyes this way and that, as if searching for the right words, then spoke with the force of someone who had made up her mind.
"Be careful…. Come back safe. From Japan."
So that was it—just a wish for me to have a safe trip.
"……."
Even after saying it herself, she seemed embarrassed and quickly averted her gaze.
Ah. This is genuine flirting, isn't it.
That lethal cuteness made it impossible to keep the corners of my mouth from lifting. I nodded and accepted the farewell with a bright smile.
"Yeah. I'll be back safe."
The only thing that felt endlessly regrettable was that I couldn't stay with her any longer.
The day of the Japan trip.
I had just finished class and was getting ready to leave when someone knocked, then flung the door open and barged in.
"You all packed?"
It was Choi Yeonjeong.
"Oh, you're here?"
It wasn't even a day she was supposed to come to work, but she had insisted on going to the airport with me and had come all the way to the Academy herself.
For some reason, something familiar was dangling from one of her hands.
A vlog camera.
"What, are you filming again?"
"Yep. Gonna shoot on the way."
Choi Yeonjeong offered a breezy smile and lifted the camera slightly.
Lately she had been working hard to gather footage for her channel. Not long ago she had even gone to film at Yongsajeong, the place Jeong Cheol and Im Semi ran.
Honestly, I wasn't sure she really needed to start a YouTube channel—but when a friend had made up her mind to do something, I wasn't about to rain on her parade.
"How long do you think it'll take from here?"
"We've got plenty of time. We can take it slow."
We climbed into the car side by side, set up the camera, and connected it to Choi Yeonjeong's phone over Bluetooth.
"Ah. Want a blanket?"
I was about to pull one from the back seat for her.
"A blanket? I'm fine."
She declined and gave her sturdy thighs a couple of pats.
"I'm wearing pants today."
It had been so natural I hadn't even registered it, but looking closer, she was wearing pants—something she almost never did.
"You wear skirts even in the dead of winter. What's the occasion?"
"Just felt like it. It's been a while."
I didn't think much of it and turned my attention back to driving.
It was rush hour, so traffic was a bit heavy, but our musical tastes had always lined up well. We sang along together and made the drive fairly enjoyable.
"Did you know these guys reunited?"
"Huh? Didn't they break up after the vocalist died?"
"They brought in a female vocalist and are putting out a new album."
"No way. A female vocalist? Well—Chester's voice was pretty unique."
"Want me to put it on?"
"Okay. Strict, serious, solemn evaluation mode: engaged."
Before long we arrived at the airport.
Choi Yeonjeong got out of the car wearing nothing but a large pair of sunglasses she had prepared in advance.
"Shouldn't you at least put on a hat?"
Frankly, her looks were rare enough that anyone who knew her would probably recognize her at a glance….
"It'll be fine."
If the person in question said it was fine, I had no choice but to go along with it.
"Whoa. First class has its own counter."
"Money's nice, isn't it?"
"You're telling me."
We finished check-in quickly without any waiting, dropped off our luggage, and decided to rest for a bit in the lounge inside.
We were about to pass through the dedicated first-class corridor into the duty-free zone when—
"…Huh?"
For a split second, an openly staring gaze jabbed me right in the face from somewhere.
"What's wrong?"
"No…. I feel like someone's watching us."
"…Really?"
Choi Yeonjeong glanced around after me, then lowered her voice to a quiet whisper.
"(Could be paparazzi.)"
"(Why would they be here?)"
"(There are people who camp out at airports.)"
"(What.)"
A little rattled, I asked worriedly whether this might turn into a real problem.
Wasn't Choi Yeonjeong famous for managing her private life more carefully than anyone? Getting photographed wandering around with some random man could easily drag her into unnecessary gossip.
…But.
"It's fine."
For some reason, Choi Yeonjeong only told me not to worry about it.
"The vlog you were in goes up tomorrow afternoon anyway."
In other words, since the video featuring me was about to drop, there was no need for any separate explanation.
"If a news article or two comes out and boosts the views, that's a win for me."
She pulled one corner of her mouth into a grin and brushed the whole thing off with a boldness that was almost startling.
It was a way of thinking I couldn't even begin to imagine for myself.
It'll be fine… right?
I glanced once more toward the direction where I'd felt those eyes, then looked away and hurried after her as she walked ahead.
And then….
The next afternoon.
In the middle of a hectic day, a single message arrived from Nakyeong.