Chapter 310 (2/2)

She knew how foolish it was to judge a person based on first impressions, but the feeling she had when she first saw Suyeon was so vicious that she still didn’t have a good impression of her. It even felt somewhat wrong to look at her cheerfully smiling on TV.

No, perhaps she was jealous. It wasn’t that surprising since she was pretty. She sighed slightly. Thinking back, all the people that came to visit Maru back then had some impressive atmosphere about them. They were all unique and beautiful.

“What are you thinking about?”

Suddenly seeing a face up close, she flinched and let go of her straw. It was Chaerim. Her eyes then looked at the straws with a lot of creases. It felt like it was representative of her mind.

“Just this and that.”

She wondered if all this was because they hadn’t met in a long time. She felt pathetic. She decided not to compare herself to other people. There would be no good in doing so. Also, Maru had said that he would make her only look at him and make her be unable to live without him. That probably implied that he wouldn’t look at anyone else either. Her thoughts started shifting towards Maru again. Her eyes had a glint in them and she chewed on the straw with all her strength.

‘Hm.’

It felt like she had lost for some reason. If Maru knew about this, it was obvious that he would have a big grin on his face and tease her all day for it.

“A lover’s quarrel?”

Hearing Chaerim’s question, she coughed awkwardly. The two gathered the attention of the juniors. She continued coughing to avoid her question.

“It’s starting.”

Hearing the president’s words, everyone looked at the TV. The screen darkened for a moment before it showed the whole school in one shot. This was a youth drama with four idols as the main characters. When it first started airing, there were a lot of bad words about it. However, in the third week, people started cheering and encouraging the actors more rather than criticizing them. This could easily be confirmed by looking it up on the internet.

“Oh, there she is.”

“It’s embarrassing, don’t keep saying it,” Chaerim said as she bit her lower lip.

In the drama, Chaerim was portrayed as the bad girl that was the daughter of a chaebol. She blatantly disdained people she didn’t like, and used money to get everyone on her side. She was the stereotypical ‘villainess’ character in Korean dramas.

“Isn’t it awkward?” Chaerim carefully asked.

She shook her head vigorously.

“You don’t look awkward at all.”

“Really? That’s good. The director wanted me to act more evil, but I didn’t really get it. I tried my best, but it looks really strange when I look at it myself.”

“It’s not like that at all. You totally look like an evil girl. You’re really good at acting, seonbae.”

“Hm, really? It doesn’t look that bad after all, right? I-I mean, I’m kind at heart so… huh?” Chaerim asked back with a vague smile.

She tilted her head. When she did, Chaerim said ‘no it’s nothing’ before turning around to the TV again. Did she make a mistake?

She put her knees together and started watching the drama. The full shot of the super large school was on full display.

“I wondered about this the last I saw it, but where the heck is that place? It’s a college, isn’t it?”

“No. It’s a high school in Seoul, named Sangam High.”

“That’s a high school? Looks super fancy.”

“Our school is not that bad either.”

“It’s a drop in the bucket compared to that place.”

The club president and Chaerim exchanged words. Like what the president said, the school in the drama had facilities that were too good to be true for a high school. It actually looked like a school for super rich kids that only appeared in fiction.

The scene changed and a gym appeared. After a short scene of boys doing sports, the main characters appeared. They were playing basketball. The tall actors played basketball and it looked very cool. Their body figure was very good on camera, so just that looked pleasing to the eyes.

Eventually, two of the main characters started fighting. They were fighting over the same girl who was like Cinderella. Chaerim appeared and attempted to stop the fight to no avail. Then, the two main characters got closer to each other. They glared at each other as though they were about to start punching each other at any moment. At that moment, the scene switched and the fist that was being raised into the air was shot close up.

At that moment, she was startled as though a block of ice suddenly touched the back of her neck. The boy that fell over from the protagonist’s fist was too familiar to her. She thought that she was mistaken for a second, but his face was captured in the next scene, albeit for a brief moment. He was clearly Maru.

“So this is that drama.”

She uttered that out loud subconsciously, but it seemed that she was quite loud. The president, Chaerim, as well as the members of the club all looked at her.

“What do you mean, this is that drama?”

“Eh? Oh, a friend of mine told me that he would be appearing in this drama as an extra.”

“A friend of yours? Who?”

“The one that fell over just now.”

“Ah, really?”

The president looked at the screen and spoke.

“Huh? Isn’t that the guy from Woosung High? He is! During the acting festival, Hyena-unni pointed him out, saying that he’s the most eye-catching.”

The club president spoke as she watched Maru being helped by another to go to the infirmary. Hearing that, the 2nd years also input their own opinions.

“Isn’t he the guy that grabbed you and shouted at you? It was back in Ansan, right? His name was… Han Maru, wasn’t it? That’s right, it was Han Maru.”

“Ah, I remember. There was a band performance nearby. That’s right, there was that strange kid. The one that said to ‘remember him’.”

Her friends started giggling as they talked about the story from a year ago. The club president looked at her with a suspicious smile. She lowered her head in order to avoid all the gazes. She was reminded of Maru from back then, when he suddenly came up to her and told her to remember him.

The president and her friends approached her and poked at her and asked if he was her boyfriend. She ended up nodding due to the barrage of attacks. With this, her friends at the club found out as well on top of her classmates.

“Now I know the origin of the ring that you were wearing from time to time.”

The club president pried deeper into the matter. She bit her lips and did not reply at all, but the president’s stubbornness had no end to it.

Just as she was avoiding the eyes of the president and the rest of the members, she felt a strong gaze hitting the left of her face. That frosty gaze made her turn her head that way. There, she saw Chaerim, who was looking at her with gloomy eyes. However, that gaze soon disappeared. Only the smiling Chaerim was left.

“Aah, I’m on the drama too.”

She was mindful about Chaerim, so she could hear those words. However, it seemed that no one else had heard it. She became absent-minded for a moment. The giggles from the president and her friends felt like they had disappeared.

“Uhm, I’ll get going now. I shouldn’t disturb you for too long.”

Chaerim stood up.

“You’re going?”

“Yeah. Good luck with practice. I’ll visit again next time.”

“Alright. We’ll have fun watching the drama too.”

“Ah, well. Alright, have fun.”

Chaerim left as she waved her hand.

She raised her hand and stroked her left cheeks. It felt numb as though she was slapped.