Chapter 161 (1/2)

“Woow.”

Soyeon exclaimed in surprise behind her, Yurim would’ve done the same under any other circumstances. The wall was colored in sky blue paint, the traces of fire completely disappeared in just a day.

“Clean, right?”

Instructor Miso appeared behind them, the woman was looking at the wall with pride.

“What happened?” Soyeon asked.

“Humans are amazing creatures. We managed to clean it all up in a flash. I did get a lot of help, though.”

Right then, several people entered the auditorium with a yawn. Joonghyuk, Minsung. Taejoon, Daemyung, Dojin and Geunseok were there as well. All of the male club members were there except for Maru.

“You’re here?”

“Yawnn. You came.”

They all looked tired, their clothes were a dead giveaway of how their days went yesterday. They were spattered with drops of paint. Blue, white, blue. The fact that the auditorium returned to normal in a day wasn’t magic, it was hard work.

“You stayed up all night?”

“We didn’t go that far.”

Joonghyuk responded with a smile to Soyeon’s worried question.

“We just didn’t sleep until it was pretty late.”

“3am, was it?”

“Think so.”

Minsung and Dojin exchanged words casually. 3am. while Yurim struggled with insomnia, the two of them were working hard.

“Are you okay? You have paint on you here.”

Yurim stepped towards Geunseok. The boy looked just as tired as everyone else.

“You think? I almost stayed up all night.”

Geunseok stepped away to the windows with an annoyed look, Yurim’s heart dropped inside her. She quickly smiled and followed the boy.

“Y-you were tired, weren’t you?”

“Are you trying to make fun of me? Can’t you tell just looking at me? I was stuck here cleaning and painting all day. Fuck. It wasn’t even my fault, and I ended up wasting a day. I don’t know which bastard did it, but if I catch him…”

It was easy to guess where the sentence was going. Her stomach hurt. What if he learns that she was the one that did this? A cold shiver that started from her feet climbed all the way up to her head. He couldn’t know of this. If he did, he would absolutely hate her.

‘No. I can’t. No. No.’

Her heart was thumping. They needed to talk about something else. She thought desperate for a while before coming up with a topic he would like.

“Is… that instructor a good person?”

Yurim felt her body stiffen. Inside, she’s already come to accept that Geunseok no longer liked talking about ‘Yurim’, but enjoyed talking about ‘Suyeon’ instead. She’s been trying to avoid that topic because she knew how Geunseok would react to that word.

‘No.’

“She’s great. She tells me everything I need so kindly. And…”

His voice was ringing around in her ears. Yurim felt a little sick, so she grabbed the windowsill to try and support herself. At some point, the boy’s started settling into her very own being. At that point, she realized. The moment she’s away from Geunseok, she would suffocate. It felt like such an amazing shackle when he actually paid attention to her. Without it, it just made her feel lonely and desperate for attention. Worst of all…

“I… see. Your instructor’s a really good person.”

She needed to speak things that made her stomach twist with a smile. If she frowned here, Geunseok would glare at her. She looked down with a smile, it was hard to control her expression.

“Now then, girls! Help us finish up. Let’s throw out the trash and clean up.”

“Yes!”

Iseul was the first to start cleaning energetically. Yurim ran over, she couldn’t bear staying with Geunseok right now. The others arrived as she worked. By 11am, everyone with the exception of Maru was here. They cleaned up all the way till 12. Thanks to the boys completing the brunt of the work last night, they finished up quickly.

“You slept at school last night?”

“Yeah. Ugh, I feel so stiff.”

“You should’ve called us. We would’ve helped you.”

“How could we? We had to sleep in the classroom.”

“What the, you’re looking out for me now cuz I’m a girl?”

“Because I’m a gentleman!”

Iseul laughed at Dojin’s response. Yurim felt her stomach twist. Here she was struggling with worries and these two had the gall to play around?

“Yurim, are you okay?”

It was Soyeon, this girl looked so fake with her worried expression. A thought that the girl truly cared for her and that this expression wasn’t fake at all floated up in her mind, but it was quick to dissipate. She was a traitor, after all.

“So what if I’m not okay?”

“…Did something actually happen? Why are you so cold?”

“Think about it. Do I really have to explain everything to you? You’re too much. Are you even a friend?”

She felt a little good inside to let that out. Soyeon looked down sadly, the girl looked like she was about to cry. Yeah. Go on, do it. You deserve it, traitor.

Yurim regretted her words almost immediately though. She grit her teeth, Soyeon didn’t deserve any of this. Soyeon never even did anything wrong. She was only being so mean to Soyeon right now because of the suffocating feeling she’d feel if she didn’t.

‘Don’t talk to me. Don’t worry about me. Please don’t… act nice to me.’

She wanted to cry. How did this happen? How did she become so twisted? Why couldn’t she fix herself even when she’s aware of all her flaws? Yurim wasn’t able to keep going without blaming other people. She balled up her fists and looked forward. Thankfully, Soyeon stopped talking to her. Though she couldn’t tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

“Good work. I tried to get this done by myself yesterday. It was way too hard, which is why I called all of you here. Thanks for coming.”

“It’s our club room. It only makes sense we’d look after it.”

The boys nodded in agreement. Miso told them she originally tried to do this with Daemyung alone. They realized they needed more people, which was why they called out the other boys.

“Let’s eat first. We can talk after that.”

Instructor Miso was frowning when she put the word ‘talk’ in her mouth. Everyone became a little bit quiet. What did she want to talk about? They all tried talking about it as they ate. When they finished eating, the instructor gestured for them to get close to her.