.
While looking at her awakening, I clenched my fist from being a little nervous. She could have moved to another seat as soon as she woke up; however, she didn’t do so and continued staring at me.
It was the first time since that day when she first looked at me squarely in the eyes. As if the Kim twins also read the serious chemistry between us, they started snooping what was happening on this side of the classroom from a distance.
Yi Ruda, who was rolling her eyes as a sign of anxiety, swept her blonde hair back again. Then she said to me with her eyes on me.
“I have something to tell you.”
“…?”
“There’s still time left until the morning assembly, so can we move into somewhere quiet?”
Yi Ruda then stood from her seat and dropped her gaze at me for a while. Her hand stretched to me, and it seemed like she would grab my wrist to drag me out if I allowed her to do it.
What was going on with this situation? As I looked up at her blankly from her unexpected reaction, I heard Kim Hye Woo’s apathetic voice from behind.
“Wow, he is about to confess his love.”
His words were so ridiculous that I breathed in deeply. Come on, we are both girls. Why would we confess our love to each other? However, as I looked around while gathering my senses, I noticed how Yi Ruda, who was standing in front of me while wearing a boy’s uniform on, had a great silhouette. If I cast away my prejudice of her being a female crossdresser, I’d find Kim Hye Woo’s misunderstanding as something reasonable.
Still, it made no sense! Even we were both members of the opposite sex, for her to confess her love to me now was too much!
While I saw Kim Hye Woo in a state of confusion as I started losing my nerves, Yi Ruda snatched my wrist without another word. I then stood from my seat in an unguarded moment. My ankle was caught in the chair, but instead of me falling on the ground, it was the chair who did so instead. I left the classroom while uttering some indistinguishable noises and walked across the quiet hallway with Yi Ruda.
It was already time for school, so I saw many students around us. Nevertheless, Yi Ruda went up the stairs with big strides while she was grabbing my wrist.
The freshmen classes were on the 2nd floor, and on the 3rd floor, there was the school library and the computer room. These two facilities normally opened at noon, so there was no one on the floor. Besides, they turned the lights off, so the stairway to the 5th floor was quite dark.
Yi Ruda released my hand at last as she turned at the corner of the stairway.
I reeled from losing my balance, which made Yi Ruda hold my arms again.
She then asked me in a whisper, “Are you okay?”
Her blue eyes glowed within the dark. It looked quite sinister if I do say so myself, which made me give a nod in silence. She then slowly let my arm go with a bow.
Yi Ruda and I got to confront each other for the first time after a week.
I scratched the back of my head, feeling puzzled. When she first dragged me out forcibly, I was quite frightened of her, but as I got to see her on the stairs, I realized that Yi Ruda was not that scary after all.
At least the synopsis written at the back of this book didn’t have any advertisement with words like these, ‘A mysterious homicide in school… The Four Heavenly Kings and their flower girl together unraveled what happened in that fateful day to catch the murderer!’ I would not die here. I put down my hand and raised my head.
However, when I saw Yi Ruda’s face in the pitch darkness of our surroundings, which looked like a distorted expressionless doll face, I thought it would not be strange for her to kill me here. Her mouth was still frigid and hardened.
She then asked, “Donnie?”
“Y… eah?”
I replied while taking a step back in fear of her. Yi Ruda, who was staring at me, still kept a straight face. Then she asked me back.
“Why are you not asking me about that day?”
“That day? When the men in suits chased after us outside of the restaurant?”
I responded immediately, but she said nothing with a frown on her face. Perhaps it was because I answered back with a question instead.
However, why was she asking me about that right now? I questioned myself. If she felt bad about my attitude that day, she could have complained about it right after. Yi Ruda’s behavior right now was the same as her usual self. Besides, this was not a question that needed her careful consideration either.
Hmm, what should I answer back? It’s because I didn’t want to involve myself with her, right? As I had those words in mind, I then knitted my brows. Yi Ruda threw a question back at me.
“Why don’t you ask me if I’m doing okay, or at least have some interest in me?”
It was her who looked more dazed and confused, which even made me puzzled. I rolled my eyeballs, confronting her.
So she called me out here at this time of the day because it made her upset when I saw how disinterested I was with her shenanigans? That was seriously the secret behind her seriousness?
However, there was still something doubtful about Yi Ruda’s face. It looked as though something was cluttering her mind with bizarre things. Rather than being heartbroken, she looked like a math genius who was disconcerted by praying without her beads.
It was then when I continued those thoughts in mind.
“You… are different.”
As if what I said had lost her in realization, Yi Ruda, who was having a fierce gaze at me, said that surprisingly.
Different? In what sense? Yi Ruda then continued her words.
“You aren’t inquisitive to satisfy your silly curiosity. You don’t ask if I’m okay to show off your sympathy. That’s you…”
What? What are all these about silly curiosities? Why was she suddenly talking about sympathy? The words that came out of Yi Ruda’s mouth made my eyes wide opened.
Was that how she felt about those who were interested in her? For real? How could her mind be so twisted with that beautiful and sweet grin on her face?
As I stared at her flaming blue eyes seriously gazing at me, it seemed that she was telling me exactly what she had in mind. OMG, I whispered to myself.
I mean, there could have been some people who would show genuine concern for her… however, wasn’t she being too edgy about it? Maybe this could be the agony of Yi Ruda that only female protagonist had…
This would have provoked the core of Yi Ruda’s twisted charm, but hold on, something else came across my mind.
In Yi Ruda’s perspective, there were two types of people: those who wanted to satisfy their curiosity and those who liked to show off their sympathy.
Then, where did I belong? I said to Ruda that I had no interest in her life, and even though I said so, there was really nothing I could do to resolve her situation. When I refused to listen to her sob story, I really did not do anything about it to appease her.
“Who are you?”
Oh, hold on. It was then when I stepped back in a pale face.
Yi Ruda asked those words as she stepped closer to me intimidatingly. Her long shadow hung over me. I could do nothing but to drop my jaw out of confusion.
It was me who wanted to ask her back, what did he want me to do? As I had that thought in mind, she stretched out her hands and grabbed mine out of the blue.
Now I almost gave up on understanding this situation and looked up at Yi Ruda who was standing still. She then dropped her words to me from above.
“I’ve never seen anyone like you before.”
“…”
“Donnie, please be my friend. You are the only one I truly want to be friends with.”
Haha, I laughed to myself and then murmured to myself, ‘I screwed up!’
While she was talking, Yi Ruda’s face got so close to mine that I could almost feel her breathing. She had the delicate face of a pretty boy with long blonde lashes; however, as I knew that she was a girl, my heart never fluttered.
I murmured to myself, ‘No, this is not it. I don’t want to go to nightclubs with you, hang out in bars, ride a motorcycle with my arms around you, and get chased by men in black. I… I just want to…’
For some reason, the things I did after my thorough calculation turned out to bring out opposite outcomes. Was this also my fu*king fate or part of the plot of this novel?
Oh, whatever! Yi Ruda, who was grabbing my hands tightly in a close distance, began to make me feel strange.
My lips trembled as I tried to take my hands off hers, but Yi Ruda clutched my hands even tighter when I tried to fight her off. While I was getting more dumbfounded, I heard a phone ringing suddenly.
