ST 08

Chapter 08

It was Han Songi.

The girl who, on the first day of school, had told me where the teachers’ office was in front of the main building.

Songi was standing across the pool, talking with Dohun.

I couldn’t hear what they were talking about.

But when Han Songi said something and laughed, Bae Dohun also slightly bowed his head and answered. Even when that girl playfully tapped his arm, he didn’t pull away.

That was strange.

The guy who would harden his face and keep his distance even if I came just a little closer. The guy who would subtly dodge his body first if I so much as tried to touch his shoulder—he didn’t do that with Han Songi.

“The two of them have been close for a long time.”

Someone’s voice came from inside.

“Have they known each other since middle school?”

“Probably? They’re always stuck together.”

My ears rang.

I looked across the pool again.

Whatever Songi said, this time Dohun laughed briefly.

I felt strange.

I hadn’t even properly seen Bae Dohun’s smiling face yet, but she had. And plenty of times at that.

The center of my chest stung as if pricked with a needle.

Only then did the question I’d asked a few days ago come to mind.

‘……So, do you maybe have someone you like too?’

‘No.’

Liar.

What do you mean you don’t have someone you like when you have a girlfriend?

Or else……

A more unpleasant possibility suddenly occurred to me.

Did he just answer carelessly because I was annoying?

Because he thought there was no need to explain in detail to me anyway?

That was possible.

We’d only known each other a few days.

I was the one dying from liking him alone, not Bae Dohun.

At that thought, my chest, which had been tingling just moments ago, went cold.

In the end, I didn’t go into the pool.

And before Bae Dohun could look this way, I quietly turned around.

That day, for the first time, I ran away so I wouldn’t have to see him.

The next morning.

I arrived at school earlier than usual.

I set down my bag and immediately looked to the side.

An empty seat.

Thank goodness.

……Though I wasn’t sure what was so fortunate.

I hurriedly took out my workbook.

Usually I would turn my head every time the back door opened, curious about when Bae Dohun would arrive, but today I decided not to.

I shouldn’t do that anymore. Clinging to someone who had a person he liked was ridiculous too.

It would feel worse from the girlfriend’s perspective.

And above all, from Bae Dohun’s perspective, I must have looked pathetic.

At that thought, my face burned.

I pressed my forehead against the desk.

“I’m crazy, Yulseul.”

Just then the back door opened.

I knew it was Bae Dohun, but I didn’t lift my head.

A few seconds later, I heard the chair next to me being pulled back.

A bag hung beside the desk, and a familiar scent faintly brushed past.

My heart began to race like crazy.

……No. Why is it racing? I decided not to like him.

More precisely, even if I couldn’t stop liking him, I decided not to show it!

I buried my gaze in the workbook. But not a single problem registered.

A moment later.

“Hey.”

A low voice came.

Strength entered the pen in my hand on its own.

Normally I would have called him ten times first.

But today Bae Dohun called me first. Just that one fact made my heart pound again.

Still, I didn’t lift my head.

“……What.”

I managed to answer without looking, but no reply came. In the end, unable to hold back, I sneakily glanced to the side.

He was looking at me.

More precisely, with a slightly strange face.

“What, you called me and then.”

“No, nothing.”

Dohun turned his head away just like that.

I was dumbfounded. He calls me first and then that.

I pouted my lips and lowered my gaze to the workbook again.

That was the end of it.

But I felt a little better.

Just because he’d called me once first.

I really was simple.

Still, I kept my resolve. If he had a girlfriend, I had to be careful.

When lunchtime came, I left the classroom before Bae Dohun could even get up from his seat.

After class ended, I didn’t wait to walk home together either. I didn’t go to the pool either.

So one day passed, then two.

On the third day.

Removing myself from Bae Dohun’s day was simpler than I thought. I just had to not go to him.

Bae Dohun had never come looking for me in the first place.

The problem was removing him from my day. That was terribly difficult.

Even walking down the corridor, if I saw a familiar back of the head far away, my eyes went there first.

At the time I usually went to the store, I wondered what he was eating right now; around the end of the last class, I thought he’d be going to the pool now.

When it came time for swim club practice to end, I even checked the clock. Not following Dohun around only made his day clearer to me.

“……Is this maybe a disease? Lovesickness?”

I rested my chin on my hand and looked out the window.

Far away, I could see Bae Dohun crossing the field.

When someone spoke to him from the side, he slightly bowed his head to listen. I stared blankly at that one sight, then hurriedly looked away.

Still, I didn’t go close.

Because Han Songi was there.

Even if I couldn’t control my feelings, I didn’t want to wedge myself between people just because I liked him.

So I held back.

But I thought it was only me doing that.

I thought Dohun would feel relieved now that I’d distanced myself.

I thought he’d think it was good that the annoying transfer student had given up on her own.

The first time I felt something was off was on the fourth day.

Lunchtime.

I organized my pencil case and got up from my seat.

In that moment, I felt a gaze from the side.

When I turned my head, Bae Dohun was staring at me.

My heart dropped with a thud.

“What?”

“What do you mean, what.”

“You looked at me.”

“I didn’t.”

“……I saw you?”

“Must be your imagination.”

Having denied it calmly, Dohun got up from his seat.

I stared at his back in bewilderment.

The next day was even worse.

As soon as class ended, I grabbed my bag and slipped out of the classroom, but a voice came from behind.

“Why haven’t you been coming to the pool these days?”

My steps stopped dead.

Bae Dohun was still sitting at his seat.

His face as he asked while flipping through the workbook with an indifferent expression was so calm that I almost thought I’d misheard.

“……Why are you asking that?”

“Just because.”

“Do you want me to go to the pool?”

The hand flipping the workbook stopped.

“No.”

The answer was fast.

“Then why ask?”

“Because someone who came every day stopped coming. I just asked.”

Then he lowered his gaze to the workbook again. I stared blankly at his profile.

For a very brief moment, my heart lifted.

But I soon came to my senses.

No. Don’t read meaning into it.

I’d already made a fool of myself once a few days ago, imagining things alone.

“I’m not going anymore.”

I turned and left the classroom just like that.

But even as I went down the stairs, my heart kept tingling.

Why did he ask.

Bae Dohun.

Why I wasn’t coming to the pool……

I chewed over that one fact several times in my head.

I shouldn’t do this. If I do, I’ll start hoping alone again. Even knowing that.

That day, I went to the gymnasium to hand in a performance assessment sheet I’d collected for the PE teacher.

It was late afternoon, after all regular classes had ended.

On my way back after handing over the documents, I ended up passing in front of the pool. Through the open gap in the door, the sound of water being cut came regularly.

My steps slowed on their own.

There happened to be no one in the corridor.

I stood beside the door and adjusted the empty file I was holding in my arms.

Should I just go? Should I look just once?

After hesitating, I finally poked my head in slightly.

There were hardly any people left in the pool.

And in the innermost lane, there he was.

Bae Dohun in the water was still beautiful enough that I couldn’t take my eyes off him.

His long extended arms smoothly cut the water’s surface, and his body, submerged in the water, rose again.

Without realizing it, I took a step inside.

I quietly placed my hand over the left side of my chest.

My heart was thrashing madly right there.

I do like him after all.

No matter how much I try not to look. Even if I try to fold away my feelings because he has a girlfriend.

When I see him, I like him helplessly.

It was enough to feel unfair.

Just then, Dohun touched the wall. Practice seemed to be over.

I quickly came to my senses. I should leave before I’m caught—just as I was about to turn around.

“Yulseul.”

My steps halted.

A low voice echoed through the pool.

Dohun, having climbed out of the water, was looking at me as he pushed back his wet hair.

This time I couldn’t pretend not to know.

Bae Dohun picked up a towel, roughly dried his wet hair, and walked toward me. The closer he got, the more my heart raced.

Dohun, having come right up to me, looked down at me for a while, then asked lightly.

“Why are you avoiding me?”

“When did I.”

“You are avoiding me.”

“……”

“For days now.”

I shut my mouth.

For days now.

That word caught in my ear.

Had he been counting the days I’d avoided him?

No. Don’t read meaning into it again.

“Are you asking because you don’t know?”

I looked at Dohun for a moment. Then in the end, unable to hold back, I blurted it out.

“You have a girlfriend.”

Dohun’s brow furrowed.

“Han Songi. Your girlfriend.”

A brief silence.

Dohun looked at me with a face that truly seemed to be hearing this for the first time.

Then, as if dumbfounded, he tilted his head.

“Who told you that?”