Chapter 337 (2/2)

“Yeah, I won’t.”

When I pointed at the corners of my lips, which I still perked upwards to hint a smile, Yeo Dan oppa nodded his head and patted my head. Bending his steps, he drove a wedge into me as if he still felt concerned.

“I’m serious. Don’t think about anything stupid.”

“I won’t. I told you.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes! Gosh, oppa, why are you like that ever since we’re in front of the bathroom?” Tapping my chest, I continued, “Oppa, I may seem like a clear glass bead, but I won’t break that easily.”

He then tilted his head, saying, “No, you don’t look that way…”

“… This is a song lyric, oppa.”

“Oh…”

We moved our steps in silence.

I began to blame myself, who forgot that Yeo Dan oppa didn’t know well about trending songs. Who would call herself a clear glass bead in a sober mind? How would I have looked in his eyes? I wanted to smash my head on the wall.

Meanwhile, the street we moved forward started to look familiar as the surroundings turned from commercial sites to residential areas.

‘Are we already here?’ Glancing around, I nodded my head. Since we usually walked together while heading back home, we were naturally returning to our place although none of us announced it to do so.

That was when we were walking pass by the convenience store near our apartment. Yeo Dan oppa, who remained silent until now that he made me feel uneasy, suddenly uttered, “Hold on for a second here.”

“Huh?”

Since I had encountered bullies in the alley so many times before––half of them were because of Yeo Ryung though––Yeo Dan oppa didn’t try to leave me alone outside. However, he was about to do the opposite right now.

Watching him quickly disappear into the convenience store, I wondered why he was suddenly behaving that way, then I slowly leaned on the wall in the alley.

It seemed like an eternity while standing in the street alone. If the weather was cold or hot, I wouldn’t feel this much bored and slow. Touching my phone for quite a while, I checked the time out of the blue.

“What time is it now?”

‘Oh, thank goodness,’ I uttered like a sigh. I only wasted less than two hours in the group hangout. ‘Well, since I only had some short conversations and something to drink,’ I murmured.

Once I returned home, I would change my clothes immediately. Next, I would take the blouse for dry-cleaning in the laundromat then finish studying, which I had left behind until now. If I study until ten o’clock in the night, I would be able to complete a few pages although it’s a little below my goal for today.

Putting the phone into my pocket again, I rubbed my forehead and murmured, “Yeo Dan oppa told me not to think about something stupid…” However, once I became alone, I couldn’t help recalling the words I had heard earlier waving into me.

Dithering for a moment, I soon sat down and crossed my legs while leaning on the dirty wall.

“I really was so fortunate.”

It seemed that I was living quite a spectacular life than others while spending my youth with the characters in web novels; however, maybe it was not. Instead, I might have been grown in a very sheltered environment since most of the characters in web novels clearly knew what they liked and disliked.

Once again, I came to realize the sincerity and interest the Four Heavenly Kings and Ban Yeo Ryung showed and had in me were so precious and rare. It was such great luck that I was permitted to stay beside them.

I always had the fear of those kids suddenly vanishing away or forgetting me; however, I never thought something like ‘What if they actually hate me but aren’t telling me about it?’ That was because I didn’t have to be suspicious about it.

Their existence was like an umbrella for me. It was like a cocoon that was protecting me from getting hurt from things in the world.

And today, it was my first time to try widening my world while escaping from Ban Yeo Ryung and the Four Heavenly Kings. ‘How was the outcome?’ Asking myself, I could only smile bitterly.