Rendezvous (14)
After the meal we secured a private room at a nearby café and settled in for a modest tea time.
Throughout it, Yoon Seo-a and Su-ryeon kept needling and sniping at each other, yet nothing ever boiled over into a real quarrel.
Perhaps her talk of building camaraderie hadn’t been pure falsehood after all. Because Yoon Seo-a carefully stayed within bounds, Su-ryeon couldn’t launch the same bold attacks she had that morning.
She could have if she’d wanted to, of course, but with me sitting between them and reading every glance, she limited herself to the occasional light jab.
The real surprise was how well Chae-rin meshed with Yoon Seo-a. Their musical tastes and casual hobbies overlapped enough that Yoon Seo-a smiled and asked whether they might enjoy them together sometime.
The moment Chae-rin realized their preferences matched, her face soured—but she didn’t seem wholly opposed. After a long, thoughtful pause she gave a small nod.
And me? I simply sipped my tea and tried to make myself as small as possible.
Every time the two of them argued I watched for the right moment to step in, only to jump and stammer whenever someone addressed me. Or, as if she’d developed a taste for it, Yoon Seo-a would slip a pastry between my lips; Su-ryeon, refusing to lose, would immediately offer something else, and I had no choice but to accept again and again.
Chae-rin didn’t join in—distance kept her from it—but the look in her eyes said she wanted to feed me at least once herself.
I wasn’t some zoo animal taking treats from tourists. Why were they so determined to stuff me full?
Thanks to them, my stomach—never large to begin with—was so packed that even another sip of tea felt impossible.
I swallowed a vulgar little sound that nearly escaped and leaned back against the chair while the other three chatted among themselves.
Su-ryeon still spoke to Yoon Seo-a in a faintly sharp tone, yet the edge had softened a great deal from earlier.
If Yoon Seo-a and Chae-rin shared private interests, Su-ryeon and Yoon Seo-a had plenty of common ground in the public sphere. Both their fathers moved in political circles, so the topics they could bounce off each other were endless.
Unlike me or Chae-rin, who only skimmed the surface of such things. Once the two of them dove into politics in earnest, Chae-rin and I had no choice but to fall silent.
Honestly, the situation was pure discomfort.
When the three of us normally took tea, we never went deep. Our hobbies differed, and while our likes overlapped a little, conversation usually stayed at the level of idle gossip or whatever light subject someone tossed out first.
We did touch on politics now and then, but only the big headline issues, and even those never lasted long.
Cup in hand, I stole a glance around the table.
Yoon Seo-a and Su-ryeon were already trading words like a proper debate, while Chae-rin sat quietly with her eyes closed, savoring the scent of her fresh cup. She had already talked enough, and politics held little interest for her.
I, on the other hand, had barely spoken since tea time began.
At best it was “Oh… is that so?” or “Th-thank you, I’ll enjoy it,” or “One more chamomile, please…” Otherwise I simply nodded along or fretted while watching the two of them spar.
Had I always been this timid? Even on ordinary days, when Chae-rin and Su-ryeon led the talk I only added a few comments of my own—but I used to be far livelier than this.
Right now I was little more than a borrowed barley sack taking up space. I took a sip of tea that wouldn’t even go down my dry throat.
I knew exactly why things had turned out this way. I glanced sideways at Yoon Seo-a. She wore a comfortable smile rather than her usual leisurely one.
That familiar oppressive aura was nowhere to be felt. If anything, she almost seemed approachable.
Su-ryeon and Chae-rin must have sensed the change just as I had. That was why Su-ryeon’s sniping kept softening, and why Chae-rin’s sour looks grew less frequent.
It left me uneasy. The two of them still clearly harbored hostility toward her, yet it was visibly dwindling.
More precisely, Yoon Seo-a was deliberately guiding it that way.
The way she empathized with their likes and drew out shared interests to cultivate goodwill was practiced and smooth.
Her voice, too, was no longer high-handed; it was gentle, the kind that put people at ease.
If the two of them hadn’t started out hostile, they might have become her friends in a single sitting.
They still addressed her carefully as “Miss Yoon Seo-a,” full name and all, but if she kept this up for only a few more days, first-name familiarity would not be far off.
At first I had fretted that the two of them might explode into a full fight, or that Su-ryeon might suffer real harm at Yoon Seo-a’s hands. Now my anxiety had taken on an entirely different shape.
What if she steals them from me? What if they grow closer to her than to me?
Of course I understood, intellectually, that two people who knew what she had done to me would never grow that close.
But a corner of my heart thought otherwise.
Yoon Seo-a came from a better background than I did, and her beauty made winning favor easy.
Normally she carried herself with a haughty, looking-down-on-people air, yet in private settings like this she showed none of it and instead led conversation so comfortably that her social skill was undeniable.
Enough that even people who disliked her could, after a short talk, begin to feel a faint goodwill.
So of course I was anxious.
If these meetings continued, wouldn’t there come a moment when the three of them grew closer to one another than to me? And then I would be isolated all over again?
It wasn’t baseless fear. Yoon Seo-a was visibly, rapidly converting the hostility aimed at her into goodwill, little by little.
To go through something like that again, after coming this far? The thought made my eyes squeeze shut of their own accord.
“Miss Ha-eun, are you all right?”
“Ah…! Yes, I’m fi—ah!”
I didn’t know who had spoken, but the words snapped me awake. Sitting there mid-tea with my eyes tightly shut and a cup in my hand must have looked bizarre to anyone watching.
I hurriedly tried to straighten my posture, but I was too abrupt and lost my grip on the teacup.
Splash—! The remaining liquid sprayed across my white clothes. I had nearly finished it, so the amount wasn’t large, yet it was more than enough to leave a stain.
“Miss Ha-eun! Are you okay?!”
While I sat frozen, unable to react, Su-ryeon shot to her feet and came over.
In an instant she had a handkerchief in hand and was dabbing at the tea on my clothes as she asked,
“You didn’t get burned or anything, did you?”
“Ah, ah… I-I’m fine. I’d almost finished it, so…”
“Thank goodness. If it had still been hot you could have been scalded.”
The genuine relief in Su-ryeon’s smile made the corners of my mouth twitch somehow.
But before I could name the feeling, Yoon Seo-a’s voice reached me.
“Are you feeling unwell? Just now you were squeezing your eyes shut… Perhaps you should visit the infirmary?”
“Maybe she simply overate and her stomach’s upset? She’s usually a light eater, and Miss Yoon Seo-a and Miss Su-ryeon kept feeding her.”
“Ah… I-is that so, Miss Ha-eun?”
At Chae-rin’s words Su-ryeon asked with a clearly flustered face. But Yoon Seo-a spoke before I could.
“That’s why you should have fed her in moderation, Miss Hong Su-ryeon.”
“And you’re the one saying that, Miss Yoon Seo-a?! I-I can’t claim I was completely blameless, but you started it!”
“Did anyone say otherwise? I was merely speaking in general terms.”
“Ugh…!”
Su-ryeon looked thoroughly irritated at Yoon Seo-a’s leisurely retort.
Chae-rin glanced between the two of them and shook her head.
She was probably thinking they were both the same.
“Ha…”
“Miss Ha-eun?”
Watching the scene, a laugh slipped out of me unbidden. Su-ryeon, still growling at Yoon Seo-a while wiping my clothes, looked up at me with a puzzled expression.
“No, it’s just…”
Because these are the versions of them I know, and it puts me at ease. Instead of saying that aloud, I simply smiled.
Even after thorough wiping the stain refused to come out, so we had no choice but to return to the dormitory so I could change.
There was still time before afternoon classes, but Yoon Seo-a left, saying she had business to attend to.
Chae-rin said that since she was already at Lily Hall she would stop by her room as well, and vanished, leaving Su-ryeon and me alone.
Of course, being alone together didn’t mean anything special was about to happen. I simply pulled out a spare uniform and began to change at a leisurely pace.
“Miss Ha-eun.”
“Yes?”
As I was fastening the buttons of my blouse, a voice called from behind me.
I turned to find Su-ryeon sitting on the bed, swinging her legs, looking at me as she spoke.
“Don’t worry. There’s no chance of me and Yoon Seo-a becoming friends.”
“…W-what are you talking about all of a sudden?”
I stammered a reply to the unexpectedly piercing remark, but she continued as if she already knew.
“During tea time you were unusually quiet, weren’t you? Normally you would have said at least a few more words.”
“That was just… because I was worried the two of you might fight…”
“Do I look so foolish that I’d ruin the atmosphere by fighting in a place like that? If so, even I would be a little disappointed in you, Miss Ha-eun.”
“Ah, no! It’s not that—I was worried about Yoon Seo-a’s side…!”
“I’m joking.”
She switched expressions so quickly it was as if the disappointed look had never existed, and I let out a long breath of relief. Finding my reaction amusing, Su-ryeon chuckled.
“She’s changed her attitude now, but once Yoon Seo-a starts acting like that there’s nothing I can do about it either. Nothing beyond the occasional verbal jab. And even that only works because she backs off to a certain extent.”
“I-is that so.”
“Even if it looks like we’re getting closer on the surface, the reality is different. Miss Ha-eun.”
As if she knew the exact reason for my anxiety, Su-ryeon spoke casually.
I didn’t answer and averted my gaze. I wasn’t a child, yet having my fretting over losing my friends exposed left me feeling embarrassed and ashamed.
Of course she hadn’t said it to make me feel that way. As I flailed inwardly against the rising embarrassment, Su-ryeon had already approached and whispered close.
“So don’t worry over nothing, Miss Ha-eun. I’m always on your side.”
And Chae-rin will be too, she added a beat later.
It was almost funny how those few words alone settled the emotions that had been bouncing all over the place only moments before.
“Thank you, Miss Su-ryeon.”
I thought how ridiculously simple I was, yet a smile formed on my lips of its own accord.