Chapter 11

Upon arriving at school, the aftermath was now clearly dying down.

Though I couldn’t know what they were really thinking inside, at least the ones openly snickering right in front of me had mostly disappeared.

Maybe it was because they’d already pulled that stunt in front of me once, so there was nothing left to draw attention to.

Either way, I’m relieved things have settled down.

And just like Choi Ahyeon said… even her friends from her group don’t react much when they see me anymore.

She must have really given them a proper earful.

There’s still a hint of discomfort on their faces, but they don’t whisper about me like they used to.

Probably the uncomfortable looks are because I wouldn’t accept their apology.

Anyway…

“Hey, but hasn’t Ha Yena been staring at us since a while ago…?”

“Yeah… I kept thinking it was just my imagination, but if you noticed it too, then it must be real.”

Right, while I was talking with Junyong like usual.

That sharp gaze kept piercing into my cheek, didn’t it?

“Did I do something wrong?”

“No… that can’t be it.”

I haven’t done anything wrong.

But that doesn’t mean I have no idea what that gaze means.

It’s probably because of that.

That secret.

Because of that, she’s keeping an eye on me, feeling uneasy.

After all, I ended up finding out Yena’s secret by accident.

Well…

But saying I found out her secret is a bit iffy too.

If you dig into it, I don’t actually know anything. Yeah, I don’t know anything either.

In other words, I’m keeping the secret that Yena has a secret.

It’s already double-layered security… and now surveillance on top of that.

Isn’t that a bit too tight?

I don’t know anything, yet I’m being silenced anyway.

“How’s your performance evaluation going? Got anything yet?”

“Ah! We found an opening.”

“Nice. Decided what to do?”

“Probably going to do a remake of an old idol song.”

“Hmm… that works. There’s a lot of that these days. Whose idea was it?”

“Yena… she seems to like that kind of stuff?”

“Seriously?! Her? That’s surprising!”

Junyong’s voice was pretty loud for a conversation between the two of us.

And he just had to say it while acting so surprised.

Because of that…

-Buzzzz.

A vibration rings out. Like an alarm going off.

And I think I know what this vibration is.

Even knowing, I still sneak a peek at my phone.

**[Hey]**

**[Hey hey]**

**[WTF WTF]**

**[I told you, right?]**

**[I knew this would happen WTF]**

**[What the hell are you doing?]**

Wait, what do you mean you knew this would happen?

She’s already completely misunderstanding things on her own.

I don’t know what your secret is, but I’ve never said a word about it.

“By the way, why did your phone suddenly become crap?”

“Ah… I dropped it yesterday.”

Junyong asked while looking at my shattered phone screen.

Then, his gaze slowly shifted to behind me.

Following that gaze, I flinched and turned around to check.

At the end of that gaze stood Ha Yena, of course.

Yeah, in context, the only person who would come up to me right now was Ha Yena.

That Yena… strode up to me, then stretched out her arm and wordlessly patted my shoulder a few times.

Her face was cast in shadow, as if covered by shade.

Then she casually turned around and headed out of the classroom.

For some reason, my body naturally followed after her.

She hadn’t said a word, but… it felt like I’d been told to follow her out.

“Hey…”

Once we got out into the hallway… Yena spoke to me as if she’d been waiting.

“No, first let me explain…”

And I, who had already predicted this whole sequence in my head, started with those words.

“Why… did you tell?!”

But before my words could even finish.

A punch that cuts off my sentence.

Yeah, not just words that cut off speech, but physical force was added too.

“Kugh… koff…”

Because of that, a sound of air being forced out of my body escaped my mouth.

Clutching my stomach, my back naturally bent over.

In other words, I got punched in the gut.

“I told you it’s either you die or I die, didn’t I? Does anything I say even matter to you?”

“N… no.”

I need to explain that it’s not true, but words don’t come out easily.

The gut punch I took with no preparation was that powerful.

Even if it was a girl’s fist, cold sweat was already trickling down.

“I said it was a secret! I said I’d keep it!”

“I… I did keep it. Haah…”

“What?”

“I didn’t say anything!!”

I squeezed out the last of my breath to say that.

Then I lowered my head again and let out ragged breaths.

Feels like I got hit with a liver shot. Did she aim for that?

Is she… someone who’s trained in martial arts?

“…Th-then what was it?”

“Phew. So… haah… it was about the… performance evaluation.”

“Oh… really?”

“Yeah… haah.”

“Th-then!! You should have said it wasn’t that first.”

“You… hit me before I could even say anything.”

Yeah, I was clearly trying to say it wasn’t that.

I just wasn’t even given the chance.

At that, Yena made an awkward face…

“S-sorry. I was… startled too.”

She gave a belated apology, then fidgeted around me restlessly.

But she just kept pacing around.

It was so distracting it was driving me crazy. Like she was trying to cast a hallucination on top of the physical violence.

Well, I know it’s not like she can help it, but… then just stay still.

“Are you okay? What do I do? Are you really okay? Should we go to the nurse’s office? Want me to come with you?”

“No… I’m fine, so please just stay still.”

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“Anyway… I don’t care what you do. Just… finish the performance evaluation well.”

“Yeah… I didn’t intend to hit you like that. As long as you don’t say anything…”

“I told you I won’t say anything. I don’t even care. And I never said anything.”

Well, I am curious, honestly.

Anyway… as I walked back to the classroom, I kept rubbing my stomach, still feeling the lingering pain.

Seeing that, Yena…

“Haah, yeah… I’ll do my best on the performance evaluation.”

She must have felt guilty about hitting me, since she said that.

I wasn’t expecting it… but anyway. Works for me.

Still, from Yena’s expression, I could tell it was a difficult decision for her.

If it wasn’t that she was just annoyed or uninterested, but that she was genuinely too busy to find time to participate… that would be a problem.

I don’t know the details… but seeing her hurry off somewhere during that time, it didn’t seem like a lie.

“Well… I get that you’re busy. We’ll try to work around it as much as we can.”

“Thanks… I-I’ll try my best too.”

***

“How… could you do this to me? You said you’d be by my side forever. You said I was the only one. You said you’d love me for life. But… but how…”

“I’m sorry, I’m tired of this too.”

“You piece of trash!!!”

At Ahyeon’s house, we were reading the script like that.

We were preparing for this web drama audition.

But for some reason, today Ahyeon’s immersion was no joke.

To the point where it felt like the best acting I’d ever seen from her.

Even someone like me who doesn’t know much couldn’t help but gasp in admiration internally.

“You’re good. You’ve improved a lot.”

I left a brief compliment and signaled that we should take a short break.

Ahyeon seemed pretty overwhelmed with emotion too.

“Phew- yeah? Thanks. That’s a relief.”

“Yeah, you’re definitely getting better and better.”

“This time, the girls introduced me to a friend. She’s also an aspiring actor, and she’s auditioning for a lead role in something else. We talked a bit… shared tips… it helped.”

“That’s great. Having… yeah. A friend who can directly help like that would be really useful. You’d communicate well too.”

Yeah, she’d probably be way more helpful than me.

She’d communicate better than me, and she’d gain more from it than doing this with me.

Getting that kind of direct help is much better than me taking time to watch her.

Yeah, that’s good.

“And… the girls also introduced me to a tutor and an academy. They said they know the place… they can get it cheap, and the level of the students there is really high too.”

“Yeah, think about it. But… wouldn’t it be a bit hard right now?”

I naturally expressed concern about Ahyeon’s financial situation.

After all, just attending this school was probably already tight for her parents.

I worried whether she could afford an academy or tutoring on top of that.

It wasn’t really my place, but our relationship, my position, naturally made me worry about things like that.

“That’s true… so I was thinking about getting a part-time job. But they said they’d give me a discount.”

“Yeah. Don’t overdo it.”

I answered briefly and looked at my phone.

The performance evaluation group chat was blowing up.

**[If we go with number 3, can Yena and I do vocals together?]**

**[Yeah seems like it]**

**[But what about the rap part?]**

**[LOL Gu Jinho can do it]**

Yeonju and Yena’s lively conversation.

But why are they arbitrarily dumping that part on me?

**[What are you guys suddenly talking about?]**

Because if I just watched, they’d end up confirming it among themselves.

I quickly sent that message.

“Jino, should we go again?!”

When I was looking at my phone like that, Ahyeon urged me to start practicing again earlier than usual.

“Ah, hold on. Let me just handle this first.”

“What is it?”

“Performance evaluation.”

“Oh yeah? What are you talking about? I wanna see too!”

Ahyeon naturally tried to peek at my phone.

But I put it straight into my pocket, as if I’d been planning to put it away anyway.

Yeah, I didn’t really want to show her.

“Let’s start the script again. After one more run, I think I need to head home too.”

“Oh… okay.”

Ahyeon gave a lukewarm response.

And the practice that followed… had a noticeably different atmosphere than before.

It was like Ahyeon couldn’t focus.

This was the same girl who was digesting it so well I was impressed just moments ago.

“Ah, let me try again. Sorry… it’s just not working all of a sudden.”

Ahyeon said, sounding frustrated with herself.

But I couldn’t keep stalling time like that.

The vibration in my pocket kept going off.

It seemed to be that group chat… I was dying of curiosity about what direction those two were taking the conversation.

“Let’s stop here for today. Seems like your focus is dropping.”

“Ah! No, it’s fine. Just one more time.”

“We’ve already been at it for a while. Take a break and do it next time.”

“But still…”

“I need to get home too. It’s getting late.”

When I said that, Ahyeon dropped her gaze to the floor pitifully.

One hand gently grabbing her opposite arm.

“We used to… stay up even later than this.”

She said in a deflated voice.

Well, that was true.

When things were really urgent… we’d stay up all night in the same house.

But now I have my own things to do.

I always had my own things to do before too, but the priorities were different.

Now… I can’t always put this side first like I used to.

“Ah, or since tomorrow’s the weekend… how about we grab some late-night snacks, rest a bit, and head out in the morning?!”

Ahyeon added another suggestion.

She seemed to be recalling that I’d stayed the night at her place before.

“By the way… why did Jino’s phone suddenly end up like that?! Did you drop it?!”

She suddenly tried to hold onto the time with that too.

But my answer and actions were different from back then.

“Sorry, I can’t help it because of the performance evaluation. Let’s do it again next time.”

And so, I take another step away, preparing for goodbye.

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