The Young Lady's Predicament (6)
A neatly folded slip of paper dropped onto my desk with a soft tap. I lifted my head to look at the young lady in the seat ahead who had passed it to me, but she was staring straight forward as if she had done no such thing.
I gazed at the back of her head for a long while before carefully picking up the paper and unfolding it.
Please come out quietly during lunch.
There was no name on it, but only one person in this class would ever send me something like that.
I glanced toward where Yoon Seo-a sat. She briefly turned her head to show me her profile, then returned her attention to the lesson.
Well, the way she had been doing things until now had been far too conspicuous. With a dozen or so people surrounding a single person wherever she went, it would have been hard to hide even if she had tried.
Maybe someone had already given her an earful about it. Thinking that, I crumpled the paper, stuffed it into my pocket, and faced forward again.
Some time had passed since I enrolled at Private Acacia Academy. The once-unfamiliar perspective of lessons on becoming a proper young lady had grown familiar, and the afternoon classes had switched from calligraphy to swimming.
The one thing that had not changed was that I was still being tormented by Yoon Seo-a.
Most of it involved being force-fed all sorts of bizarre dishes—every one of them famous, of course—or occasionally being locked in narrow, dark places, but it was still within the realm of what I could endure.
At least for now, they were still things that could be called pranks.
Seo-a knew that, too. Causing me actual harm or injury would bring the Conduct Management Department or student affairs down on her, which would be a hassle.
Of course, “a hassle” was all it was—if Seo-a really put her mind to it, she could do whatever she wanted. Even now, the intensity of the bullying was quietly ramping up.
It had gone beyond simply feeding me weird food to locking me in tight spaces right up until the last possible second, or having her followers secretly dunk me during swimming class.
Thanks to that, I was on the verge of developing a water trauma I had never had before.
“Y-Yu Ha-eun…?”
At the mosquito-quiet voice calling my name, I turned to find Shin So-hye, constantly glancing at the Senior Officer who was still conducting the lesson, speaking as if she had made up her mind.
“H-here, take this…!”
And then—whoosh—it came flying at me. I tried to catch it as silently as possible, but a rustling sound inevitably escaped. The Senior Officer’s hand, which had been writing about a young lady’s accomplishments on the blackboard, stopped.
Shin So-hye and I both held our breath, staring at her back. Fortunately, the Senior Officer’s hand began to move slowly again. She must have decided she had misheard.
We both let out tiny sighs of relief, neither of us first. Anyway, what on earth was this thing that made so much noise? Slowly unclenching the fist I had been holding tight with tension, I checked what Shin So-hye had given me.
“…Chocolate?”
It was a bite-sized square of chocolate. The noise had come from the plastic wrapper.
I looked at it, then turned toward Shin So-hye. Even under my questioning gaze, she fidgeted for a moment before ducking her head the way she always did.
Of course, figuring out why she had given me this was not hard.
She was probably feeling sorry and grateful that I was taking the bullying from Yoon Seo-a in her place.
But if she was going to give me some, couldn’t she have just handed over the whole box? I really love chocolate, you know.
Instead of saying that, I smiled and whispered back just as quietly.
“Thank you. I’ll enjoy it.”
“Y-yes…!”
Carefully, so as not to make a sound, I peeled off the plastic wrapper, then picked up the now-freed chocolate with my fingers and popped it into my mouth. The moment it touched my tongue, a sweet richness filled my mouth, and I closed my eyes to savor it.
Even ordinary chocolate sold on the street tasted good, but the chocolate Shin So-hye had given me was definitely high-end. Well, she had probably bought it in the commercial district, so calling it anything less than luxurious would have been funny.
Had she gotten it from the confectionery in District 3? Thinking that to myself as I let the chocolate melt in my mouth, the bell soon rang to signal the end of morning classes.
As the Senior Officer announced the end of class and left through the front door, the young ladies one by one rose to go to lunch.
It was different from before. Until recently, the usual pattern had been for them to immediately form a wall around me so I could not just bolt out on my own—but maybe they had realized I was not going to run anymore?
Of course, considering the note that had come during class, there might have been other reasons, but at least realizing there was no human wall surrounding me left me feeling strangely relieved.
As I sat still, Yoon Seo-a glanced my way, then left the classroom first. I was about to get up and follow her when someone grabbed my hand.
“Yu Ha-eun…!”
“…Shin So-hye?”
I looked at her in mild surprise, not having expected her to suddenly take my hand.
But Shin So-hye paid no mind to my startlement and spoke as if squeezing the words out of her throat.
“If Yoon Seo-a says anything to you… just say yes, no matter what…!”
“Say yes? What do you mean by that…?”
“Please, promise me you will.”
Just say yes to Yoon Seo-a no matter what. Did she mean that no matter what bullying I faced, I should just agree to it?
Of course, I knew that was not really what Shin So-hye meant. Right now, she looked like she had made some kind of resolution, different from before.
She was still timid, though. I gently pried her hand free and said,
“I’m not entirely sure what you mean, but I’ll try my best to do as you say, Shin So-hye.”
“No. You have to promise. You absolutely must.”
“Yes. I absolutely will.”
I smiled, turned my back on Shin So-hye, and headed for the door. The pitiful gaze fixed on my back was bothersome, but I did not let any irritation show. After all, she was worried about me.
Once outside, I suddenly looked down the hallway opposite the direction Yoon Seo-a had gone.
More precisely, toward Class 1-B, where Su-ryeon and Chae-rin would be.
The two of them had noticed I was being bullied by Yoon Seo-a. More precisely, Chae-rin had.
Honestly, it would have been strange not to notice. Every lunch period I disappeared with her, and I always arrived for afternoon classes at the last possible second looking completely exhausted.
Chae-rin had been furious and wanted to report it to the Student Council or the Conduct Management Department, but after I insisted over and over that I was fine, she had given up with a sigh.
Of course, she had told me to say something anytime if I needed help, but my problems were mine to solve.
And Su-ryeon… she would occasionally look at me with an unreadable expression. Ever since that conversation that night, she had been sending me those looks from time to time, and I could not even begin to guess what they meant.
One thing was certain, though: Su-ryeon was still my friend. When I came back to the dorm at night, finished bathing, and emerged completely drained, she would dry my hair for me.
I had not asked her to; it had just happened naturally. If I started drying it myself, Su-ryeon would quietly approach, take the towel from my hands, and dry my hair for me, and before I knew it, it had become our routine.
Even so, at lunch times like this, neither of them was around. Out of respect for my wishes.
Feeling grateful and lonely at the same time—was that too much of a childish demand? Thinking that, I moved my feet at the sight of Yoon Seo-a’s gaze watching me from afar.
She was headed for the fifth floor. Considering that Class 1-D, where we had just been, was on the fourth floor, it was only one floor up—but even that was enough to change the atmosphere from below.
Private Acacia Academy was an L-shaped building, and oddly enough, only this section where the classrooms were clustered had a fifth floor. The wing where afternoon classes were held only went up to four.
Perhaps because of that, the fifth floor had many empty classrooms sitting vacant. Whether it was a design flaw from the start or there was some other reason, I could not tell.
Yoon Seo-a picked one of those empty classrooms, pulled a key from her bosom, unlocked it, and opened the door. How natural of her. I watched, then followed her inside.
The classroom we entered was bleak beyond words. Only a blackboard hung forlornly on the wall; there were no desks or chairs, just emptiness. And from the looks of how long it had gone uncleaned, dust lay thick on the floor.
Stay here too long and I would catch something.
“This isn’t a place to linger, so let’s just have a quick talk and leave.”
As if thinking the same thing, Yoon Seo-a said that and turned around. I lowered the hand that had been covering my nose and mouth and stood straight, looking at her. At that, Seo-a let out a soft laugh.
“What should I say? Seeing you still look at me so straight-backed makes me think you’re no ordinary person either. Most people find it hard even to meet my eyes.”
Well, I used to be a man before the possession, so I am not ordinary. Instead of answering that, I just smiled at her, and Seo-a snorted.
“Well, whatever. The reason I called you here today is to give you a choice.”
“A choice, you say.”
“Yes. A certain soft-hearted young lady bowed her head and begged me to stop bullying you.”
“Who on earth would say something like that…?”
“That’s something you don’t need to know.”
Having said that, Yoon Seo-a took a step closer to me.
“What you need to choose is this. Do you want me to stop the bullying as that young lady asked, or do you want it to continue?”
What kind of choice is that? I blinked in disbelief. Seo-a continued regardless.
“If you say you want it to stop, I won’t bully Ha-eun anymore. We could treat the previous relationship as if it never happened and build a new one. Oh, and for the record, I don’t particularly dislike you. If anything, I’d say I like you.”
“…You’ve been bullying me this whole time and now you say you like me? Are you still in elementary school?”
“Heh. Well, Ha-eun was the one who challenged me, so from my position, thoroughly crushing you was only natural, wasn’t it?”
When did I ever challenge her? As I looked at her with dissatisfaction, Seo-a opened her fan, covered her mouth, and said,
“I liked Ha-eun from the very beginning. A commoner-born girl with the spirit of a proper young lady, that lovely face, and the conviction to say what she thinks without flattering me.”
That is just because I did not want to lose to this kind of bullying.
“If we’re talking about qualifications alone, you suit the seat beside me far better than that pack of followers who fawn over my background.”
With that, Yoon Seo-a snapped her fan shut and smiled.
“Take it as an honor. It means that I—not just anyone—want to be your friend, or something even closer.”
“…Yes. What an honor.”
When I deliberately bit off each word, Seo-a let out a soft laugh.
“Back to the main point. There’s only one thing for you to choose. Whether you want me to keep bullying you, or whether you’d like me to stop.”
“Well, of course…”
It was the latter without a second thought. I wanted lunch periods to stop being miserable; I wanted to enjoy them leisurely with Su-ryeon and Chae-rin.
But somehow, the words Shin So-hye had spoken while clutching my hand and practically begging me before I left the classroom came back to me. I pressed my lips shut, then slowly spoke again.
“If I ask you to stop the bullying… what happens then?”
“The demonstration goes back to the direction it was originally meant to go.”
In other words, if I ask her to stop bullying me, it goes back to Shin So-hye, who was supposed to be the original target?
“Ha.”
Realizing what that meant, I let out a hollow laugh.
Then what Yu Ha-eun has to say is already decided.
“If that’s how it is, then no. I don’t need it.”
Even if this was not something I had asked for, selling out someone else just to save myself—whether I was Yu Ha-eun or not—was something I could not accept.