Chapter 13

Neither one of them brought up the subject of the night they ate together and talked at the playground, as if it was all a secret. There wasn’t much change between them the next day when they met at school.

What changed a little was that they spoke with each other a little more than before. So, for example, let’s say during break time, one of them would say, [It’s lunch time, enjoy your meal.]That was about it. After saying that, Tae-wan would disappear into the dining room to hang out with his friends. Besides that, missing items increasingly became part of their subjects of discussion.

“My Korean history textbooks are gone.”

“Yesterday, my Korean textbooks disappeared.”

“Huh. Yes they are gone.”

“Who took them?”

“Well.” Tae-wan straightened the corner of his textbook at the same time as he uttered the vague comment.

His gaze scanned casually over the class as if it was his domain. While doing that, the distance between them narrowed, so Ha-yeon couldn’t breathe comfortably. Then, when she felt his gaze on the side of her face, as she turned her head, Tae-wan was staring at her. When they made eye contact, he laughed, pulling up the ends of his mouth, and quickly lowered his gaze.

It wasn’t just textbooks that disappeared. Ballpoint pens, sharpeners, erasers, disappeared all the time. In every instance, Tae-wan would ask Ha-yeon to lend him something as if he had forgotten them, and then when returning things, he also gave banana milk along with the borrowed items.

Nothing seemed to have changed, and it was just over two weeks later that their relationship took another turn. That day was when the pink cherry blossoms were in full bloom under the blue sky. It was an exceptionally bright and sunny day, so just looking out the window made her feel happy. After lunch, Ha-yeon stopped by the bathroom to brush her teeth and when she returned, and she was startled by the screams she heard in the classroom.

“Bastard! Crazy!”

“Someone try to get him!”

“Ouch!”

Ha-yeon, who managed to enter the class through the crowd of students who were outraged, stopped suddenly.

A classmate, Neung-woon, was lying between the desk and the chair. His trapped body was so strangely contorted that he couldn’t even get up properly.

“F*ck, what did I do to you? Why are you going all out and f*king with me?” Neung-woon screamed, looking at the back of the classroom with a victimized expression.

Ha-Yeon’s gaze turned to the tall boy standing behind the classroom. It was Kang Tae-wan. She hurriedly walked to see if she could help him out as he threw aside chairs and desks that were in his way. Then, he quickly arrived in front of Neung-woon.

“Go away, go away!” a terrified Neung-woon shouted at him.

Without saying a word, Kang Tae-wan kicked Neung-woon’s phone that was lying on the floor. Ha-yeon closed her ears without knowing what the eerie sound was. Then she looked at Tae-wan. Kang Tae-wan had a completely different expression from what she knew. It was so angry that it would not seem strange if he killed anyone at that moment.

“Take it!” Neung-woon grabbed the phone and threw it over.

“Hey, you crazy bastard! Kang Tae-wan!” (NW)

“You are insane! What has he done to kill him for?” Kang Tae-wan’s friends who didn’t know the situation belatedly rushed to tear them apart. However, Kang Tae-wan was in such an irrational state that three men could not hold him back and were inadvertently caught in the crossfire.

“What is all this fuss about!” The teacher who appeared after students reported the incident struck the door and yelled.

In the middle of the messy classroom, the teacher who found Neung-woon and Taewan frowned. “Both of you come here!”

Kang Tae-wan, who turned first at the teacher’s words, made eye contact with Ha-yeon. He seemed stupefied for a moment, but soon passed by her with a dumbfounded look, as if in resignation. In the midst of passing by, the hem of their school uniforms briefly touched as the wind breezed through. The wind convinced her heart. By the time Ha-yeon turned around, Kang Tae-wan had already disappeared.