.
There was Ban Yeo Ryung crouching down in front of the apartment door. She looked like the little Yeo Ryung who lost the key and waited for him in front of the house when they were young.
However, this time she seemed to have lost something more than that. It would be way more significant than just a key.
“Oppa, I have something to tell you,” she uttered.
Ban Yeo Dan just nodded.
“… Although we gathered all the information we know, nothing seemed to really change.”
It was Jooin who spoke that way. I didn’t know what to respond to, so I just nodded carefully. Sitting in the room, I felt indescribably strange to listen to the world where I didn’t exist.
While I just rolled my eyes here and there not knowing what to do, Yeo Ryung slightly grabbed my hand from beside me. That was when I could look in that direction and faintly smile.
Switching my gaze to Jooin, I asked him in a low voice, “So, what happened next…?”
“Anyway, we could still guess that the place where we had been all wandering around for no reason was related to you, mama, so…” said Jooin. Resting his chin on his palm, he continued, “What mattered the most was that we weren’t able to connect the bus station immediately with the cram school.”
Tilting my head, I wondered, ‘What’s with the cram school out of the blue?’
“Eh?” I asked.
Jooin replied, “Yeo Dan hyeong told us that he usually sat down at the bus stop. We thought that he was stopping by at the hospital with Yeo Ryung to go see Eunmi.”
“Oh…” I exclaimed shortly with a nod. Both the hospital and cram school were approachable by bus from the bus station in front of our apartment.
Jooin flung a question somehow petulantly for some reason.
“Have you been to the hospital?”
I replied, “Ah… maybe just once on the first or the second day…?” I shrugged and concluded, “But not afterward.”
Since I was so shocked to confront the kids’ houses in ruins or vacant in the past, I never even thought about going to their places. However, I was able to pluck up my courage and stop by at the hospital. Still, the name was different. Thus, I wasn’t able to visit their houses due to the frustrating result I faced regardless of myself taking courage.
Sighing again at my remark, Jooin disheveled his hair.
“Ah, I should have, at least, grasped the cram school! If I did, I could have anticipated that you were stuck in that place all day,” he said regretfully.
“Haha…” I just laughed. Well, it wasn’t your fault since the main characters in web novels were too excellent in everything to know that there were people going to cram school to increase their academic performances.
Now I had come to think of it… suddenly, something flashed in my mind. The look on my face turned enigmatic. I was so excited to return to this world that I forgot something, which I got to learn before coming back to this universe. Something that was critical…
I pouted my lips involuntarily, “It really is…”
It really was a novel! Murmuring that way, I quickly raised my head. Every eye in this room was bent on me. Not only Ban Yeo Ryung and the Four Heavenly Kings but even Yeo Dan oppa was looking at me.
Blinking swiftly, I soon frowned and questioned, “Uh, did I say something loud just now?”
“What do you mean, it really is?” asked Eun Jiho.
I was able to heave a sigh of relief, at last, toward his question. ‘Oh, I only murmured up to the beginning of the sentence. Thank goodness!’ I thought to myself.
Everyone became sensitive since I had returned just now, so I should not give them leeway. If I spoke the whole sentence loudly, that would really cause big trouble, right? I trembled. They were able to infer a conclusion just by some pieces of information from the notes and their empty memories. Thus, if I leave clues such as a novel or world inside a book, what would happen?
I lifted my eyes stealthily. I was concerned about how the Four Heavenly Kings would react to my story, but the person I became the most worried about was Yeo Dan oppa.
It was only a few days later that I told him about the happenings on March 2nd. However, if he got to know that I was having a relationship with him even if I knew that he was a character in a novel, how surprised would he become?
I slightly grimaced while looking at Yeo Dan oppa. At that moment, Eun Hyung uttered something as if he finally grasped the look on my face.
“Ah, you’re tired, aren’t you?”
“Huh?” I asked.
He said, “Sorry that we weren’t considerate to you. School starts tomorrow and you’ll have a lot to prepare then, so have some rest.” Speaking that way, Eun Hyung stood up from his seat.
I blinked in surprise while watching that sight. Last year on March 2nd, Eun Hyung insisted that he wanted to stop by at my house and stay with me even though it was late at night. That was when I realized that the kids were trying to make me have some time alone with Yeo Dan oppa in the room.
For some reason, I felt disappointed and even a sense of distance at the same time. Following them, I got up from my seat and uttered, “I mean I’m okay…”
“We’re fine to see your face. Anyway, are you okay with cram school today?”
GOSH! I took my phone from my pocket. Looking at the missed phone calls, I stiffened my face. ‘Geez, I screwed up…’ I thought.
Aside from my cram school making calls to me, there were even my parents’ numbers on my phone. I was sure that they had reached out to my parents. In that case, they would have definitely told them that I skipped after school self-studying sessions lately and wandered around in the street.
Looking at me putting my phone on my forehead and heaving a sigh, Eun Hyung laughed as if he had expected that reaction. Except Yeo Ryung and Yeo Dan oppa, the rest of the boys began to get ready to leave the house.
Before stepping outside, Eun Jiho went to the kitchen while asking me if he could have a cup of water. I didn’t have anything special to say to him but just walked after Eun Jiho with short and quick steps.
Pouring out some water from the water purifier, Eun Jiho turned around and asked me, “You here too?”
“Why are you leaving already?” I tossed a question to ask if he was busy right now, but Eun Jiho’s response was utterly different.
Holding the cup, Eun Jiho replied apathetically, “Then you should have not sent that thirsty gaze to him.”
‘Ah, that’s so false!’ With that thought in mind, I asked back with a frown, “When did I?”
“You were only looking at that hyeong when we were all there,” he replied.
I insisted, “Dude, I was just lost in thought. Besides, it wasn’t a thirsty gaze!”
“Why are you making an excuse?”
Putting the cup down in the sink, Eun Jiho diverted his gaze back onto me and asked that way as if he felt dumbfounded. He continued, “Who would blame you when you’re dating him?”
“I mean… still…”
Being a newbie in love, I would flinch upon those words as if I was getting teased, especially when it was Eun Jiho or other kids who spoke that way. However, it was also a little weird, at the same time, to react seriously while asking them not to talk like that. In the end, they were just behaving very considerably for me to spend some time with my boyfriend.
However, at that moment, I looked up at Eun Jiho, who was walking past me indifferently, and found out that he was in a very bad mood right now.
I, again, walked after him in short and quick steps toward the front door. There was a slight distance between the kitchen and front door, so we had a little time to talk to each other.
I carefully asked, “Hey, you aren’t feeling well right now, are you?”
“No,” he blurted out immediately.
I touched my forehead while thinking, ‘Yeah, I knew it.’ However, the thing was that I didn’t know why. Well, if I had to guess anyway, there were many things I could think about though since Eun Jiho kind of behaved this way when he got mad at himself, not because of others.
That was why Jooin often got annoyed at Eun Jiho while telling him that perfectionism was Eun Jiho’s problem. It made it so difficult to grasp why Eun Jiho became angry.
However, this time, for some reason, he looked mad because of me. I just had that hunch. There wasn’t much time left now, so I threw a remark hurriedly.
“Why are you feeling bad? Because I look too okay?”
“Do you think I’m a psychopath who’s praying for you to become not okay?” replied Eun Jiho as if he felt speechless. Still, he didn’t even glance at me at all.
I asked him urgently again, “Because you aren’t supposed to stay at my house that long? If that’s the reason, you can be here as much as you want.”
“Nah…”
“Then why?” I asked back.
The moment I tried to utter that he didn’t have to leave, and I would feel uncomfortable sending him home this way, Eun Jiho suddenly turned around. It was just a step before entering the living room where the front door was visible. And for that reason, other kids would have not seen us.
