TDAV 09

Chapter 09

Betty’s eyes, which had been clouded with fatigue, suddenly became clear. Rachel’s fingertip was pointing toward a certain spot.

Daniel was standing there.

“You’re right. Daniel!”

When Linda called out to him, Daniel’s hunched shoulders flinched. Slowly, Daniel turned his body toward us.

“Daniel, come here.”

Linda beckoned him over.

Betty narrowed her eyes when she saw the meaningful smile on Linda’s face.

She had a very bad feeling about this.

But before she knew it, Daniel had already arrived in front of them.

“Lin, Linda……Be, Betty……”

Daniel had his neck stretched forward like a turtle and his face lowered halfway. It was probably because all the attention directed toward him was making him uncomfortable.

“Daniel, ah.”

Betty tried to stop Linda in case she was planning to do something to Daniel, but it was useless. Linda and Rachel tightened their linked arms around hers with tremendous force, as if they intended to break her arms.

Just as Betty groaned from the pain, Linda quickly opened her mouth.

“Daniel, we’re going to have lunch with our Betty. Do you want to join us?”

Just as she had feared, Linda had dragged Daniel into this.

Betty had agreed to eat lunch with Linda because she felt uncomfortable eating alone with James, but she didn’t want to drag Daniel into it as well. Daniel was even more afraid of people’s attention than she was, and there was no way Linda had invited him out of genuine kindness.

Ignoring the pain in her arms, which felt as though they might snap, Betty hurriedly spoke.

“No. Daniel, you should eat lunch comfortably……”

“……Let’s, eat…… together……”

Daniel answered before Betty could even finish.

“What? You’re saying you want to eat with us right now?”

Roze asked in surprise, while Royla giggled.

“Wow, Daniel can actually say things like that? Amazing. I guess you really are Betty’s best friend after all.”

Honestly, Betty was surprised too.

She had expected him to panic and not know what to do. But unexpectedly, Daniel didn’t show much of a reaction. Of course, his shoulders were still hunched and his head remained lowered.

Rachel paused for a moment before letting out a low chuckle.

“Guys, don’t be rude. Daniel, come with us.”

Linda smiled at Daniel, pretending to be the nicest person in the world.

Betty’s brow furrowed at the disgusting hypocrisy, but at that moment, James took a step toward Daniel.

“I’m James McMillan. Nice to meet you.”

James greeted him in a friendly manner.

And at that moment, Betty noticed something unexpected.

She had thought Daniel would be hidden behind James, but instead, Daniel’s head was slightly visible above James’s.

More precisely, his platinum-blond hair.

Had Daniel always been that tall?

Because he always walked around with his shoulders hunched and his head lowered, Betty had never really noticed how tall he was.

And apparently, Betty wasn’t the only one who realized it.

“Oh, Daniel. You’re taller than I thought. I never realized you were that tall because you’re always hunching your shoulders. But James, Daniel doesn’t like physical contact with people. So you’d better forget about giving him a normal greeting.”

Linda spoke to James in a gentle voice, apparently because he had held out his hand.

“Oh, I didn’t know. Sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”

James politely apologized and stepped back.

“But I guess you really are close friends with Betty.”

James added it quietly.

It didn’t seem like he meant anything by it, but for some reason, Betty thought James’s previously gentle expression had hardened slightly for a moment.

Before she could dwell on the strange feeling, Linda urged them along.

“Betty and Daniel are always together. James. More importantly, let’s hurry to the cafeteria. Lunch is going to be over at this rate.”

James, who had been looking at Daniel with an odd expression, nodded.

“……Yeah. Let’s go.”

The noisy cafeteria was packed with students.

Betty, who had always eaten lunch alone, was now sitting in the most conspicuous spot in the entire cafeteria.

She was surrounded by flashy, popular people, as if she were the protagonist of some high-teen movie.

But Betty wasn’t happy at all.

If anything, she wanted to get out of there immediately.

Because despite how it looked from the outside, the genre Betty felt she was currently living in wasn’t a high-teen movie.

It was much closer to a documentary about school bullying.

Then, seemingly unaware of Betty’s feelings, a voice filled with genuine concern reached her.

“Do you always bring bread instead of eating lunch here?”

Betty looked into James’s kind brown eyes and answered with an awkward expression.

“……Yeah.”

James opened his mouth again as though he wanted to continue the conversation, but unfortunately, Linda was faster.

As if telling James not to worry about Betty, Linda casually placed a hand on his arm and spoke with her red lips.

“Betty is a really picky eater. I wish she would eat a proper variety of food, but she insists on eating those pathetic little sandwiches. You have no idea how worried Mom and I are about her. Betty, you should eat some salad too.”

Linda threw Betty a fleeting glance.

Worried?

Who was worried about whom?

Betty suppressed the urge to laugh at Linda, who was casually lying through her teeth.

Instead, she took a large bite of the meager sandwich James had been eyeing with concern.

James naturally avoided Linda’s hand and gave her a faint smile.

“……You said you two were really close, right?”

“We’re more than just close. We grew up together in the same house. We’re family.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. We’re practically one family, James.”

Linda looked at James and gave him a pretty smile with her eyes.

The kind of smile that made boys go crazy.

Linda was the most popular queen in school. One smile from her was enough to leave the boys dazed as they followed her around like lost puppies.

Unfortunately, however, it seemed that charm didn’t work on James.

His expression didn’t waver in the slightest.

“One family……”

James gave Linda a polite smile for just a moment before turning his gaze away from her.

Back to Betty.

Betty could see a crack forming in Linda’s beautiful expression.

“But for people who call themselves one family, you two don’t seem very close. Am I mistaken? If anything, you seem closer to Daniel.”

James’s gaze smoothly shifted toward Daniel.

He stared at Daniel for a moment.

“But……I’ve been thinking this since earlier. Daniel, your platinum-blond hair looks very similar to someone I know.”

Betty, who had been diligently chewing her sandwich, suddenly stopped at the noticeable drop in James’s voice.

When Betty raised her head in confusion, Daniel slowly answered.

“Hm……? A, a person……you kn, know……?”

“Yeah. A very dangerous person I know. Come to think of it, I think that person was about as tall as you, too.”

The gaze of James, who had been staring intently at Daniel, suddenly became sharp.

It was hard to believe he was the same person who had been wearing such a gentle smile only moments ago.

Betty stared at James in confusion as his entire demeanor suddenly changed, but James moved even faster.

He suddenly stood up and leaned toward Daniel.

“Let me check something for a moment.”

Just before his hand could touch Daniel, Daniel recoiled in terror and raised both arms.

He crossed his arms into an X, refusing James’s hand.

“Ah! Ha, hands……I-I don’t li, like……”

Daniel’s intense reaction made James freeze as well.

Then James stared down at Daniel’s wrist, which had been exposed when his sleeve rode up.

More precisely, he was looking at the vivid burn scar on Daniel’s wrist.

The moment James saw the injury, he froze, his face filled with confusion.

It was the expression of someone whose expectations had just been proven wrong.

“Ah……the injury……”

James trailed off and stopped his approach toward Daniel.

But Daniel was already terrified.

“O, other pe, people’s ha, hands are da, dangerous! I-I’m scared!”

Daniel cried out as though he were having a fit, and Betty’s mind snapped back to reality.

“Daniel, it’s okay. It’s okay, Daniel.”

Without touching Daniel, Betty tried to calm him down, but it wasn’t easy.

James seemed startled by Daniel’s sudden episode and remained completely still.

His lips moved as though he didn’t know what to say.

“James! I told you Daniel doesn’t like physical contact! What were you thinking, suddenly doing that!?”

When Betty angrily confronted him, James quickly apologized with a subdued expression.

“Sorry. For a moment, I thought you were someone I knew……I’m really sorry.”

“I don’t think you should be apologizing to me.”

At Betty’s cold response, James paused before turning his head toward Daniel.

“Daniel, I made a stupid mistake. I’m sincerely sorry.”

James’s gaze was serious.

Daniel seemed to sense that he genuinely meant it, because he slowly lowered the arms that had been covering his face.

“……It’s, it’s okay. My, my mo, mother said……if so, someone ap, apologizes, you sh, should ac, accept it……”

“……Thank you for accepting my apology.”

James slowly nodded as he watched Daniel.

Then he sat back down and awkwardly watched Daniel stir his pea soup, looking as though he truly regretted what he had done.

“Ah, that got really awkward. Daniel always ruins the mood like this at least once, you know?”

Linda glanced at Daniel as though trying to lighten the heavy atmosphere, but the mood at the table had already become unbearably awkward.

“Betty, aren’t you going to eat any more of your sandwich?”

Linda gave Betty a look that seemed to tell her to do something about the situation, but Betty was no longer in the mood to eat.

If she ate anything now, she felt like she would get sick.

“……I’m full.”

At Betty’s curt answer, Linda’s philtrum twitched.

Pretending not to notice, Betty turned her attention back to Daniel.

Daniel had his head bowed deeply, compulsively stirring his pea soup.

She should have forced Daniel to leave earlier, even if it meant making things awkward.

Betty felt terribly sorry that he had gone through all this because of her.

And she thought:

I wish this damn lunch period would end already.

A brief silence descended over the table.

Linda also seemed to have decided there was no way to salvage the atmosphere, because she sat there with a stiff expression and said nothing.

Since the mood was already ruined, Betty decided she might as well get up and leave.

But then James’s phone rang.

“Yes, this is me……Now? ……Understood. I’ll be there right away.”

As soon as James ended the brief call, he stood up.

“Sorry, but something came up. I think I have to leave first.”

“Sure. You should go.”

Betty answered James with a face that suddenly brightened.

And understandably so.

If James left, the group would naturally fall apart.

James stared at Betty with an unreadable expression before casually curling up the corners of his lips.

“Daniel, I’m really sorry about what happened today. I’ll see you all next time.”

Then James completely left the cafeteria.

Linda swept her ginger-colored hair back with an irritated expression.

“Ah, so annoying. I didn’t even get his number in the end.”

“You can get it next time. James just said we’d see each other again.”

Rachel said it with a bright smile, taking James’s polite words completely at face value.

Rachel’s obliviousness made Linda’s expression crumple even further.

“Tsk.”

After clicking her tongue, Linda turned toward Betty.

“Betty, I’m warning you. If I see you hanging around James one more time, you’d better be prepared for your already miserable life to become even harder.”

Anyone hearing her would have thought Betty had stolen her boyfriend.

Betty was dumbfounded, but Linda seemed completely serious.

Betty sighed and opened her mouth while Linda glared at her impatiently, clearly waiting for an answer.

“……I’ve never hung around James. And I won’t in the future, either.”

“Good. I hope you keep that promise.”

Linda drove the point home before leaving without another word.

Betty watched Linda’s retreating back as she left the cafeteria, shook her head, and then turned toward Daniel.