“Found her.”
Taeheon, who had walked the length of the long hallway, stopped in front of a classroom.
Seol Ugyeong, who had delayed answering the question of whether she was an outcast by merely fidgeting, was alone as expected. It was the time when everyone else would rush out to the cafeteria or the school store, but she had white wired earphones plugged into both ears and was cutting a piece of bread with meticulous hands, bringing it to her mouth.
Her hand movements were neat, even elegant, as if she were slicing a high-quality steak at a fancy restaurant.
“Just like Woo Haerim.”
Woo Haerim, who had loved snacks like candy, chocolate, bread, and cookies ever since she was little, had passed away on a day when the sky was as blue as today and many times colder. It had been only a week since she left Korea to study.
She had been assaulted without reason in the middle of the street and left alone to die. The time of death had been bright daylight, and many people had come and gone along that street, yet no one had stepped forward to help Woo Haerim. They had tolerated the death of a young girl simply because she was a stranger.
The cause was so unfathomable to them that Taeheon could not believe it even when he faced her body. So he had denied reality throughout the funeral. While his family members returned to their daily lives one by one, he alone had remained steeped in a prolonged sense of loss. Repeating a year had been inevitable.
He had been prescribed medication and took it every day, relying on the pills to sleep. But the hallucinations and auditory delusions had not improved. Woo Haerim had called out “Oppa” and sobbed, begging to be saved. That was why he had been unable to turn away from Seol Ugyeong, trembling while surrounded by a group.
“Huh?”
She turned just as he pulled out the chair beside her and sat down.
Perhaps she had forgotten the promise from yesterday, or perhaps she had grown complacent, thinking he wouldn’t actually come find her. Either way, she swallowed hard, her expression deeply flustered.
“Hey.”
Taeheon greeted her.
Unable to understand what he was saying right away, she drew her brows together and stared at his lips with focused eyes. Then she raised her gaze.
She had to take out her earphones to hear. Taeheon tapped his ear with his index finger. Since he had taken the time to find her, she should have shown at least a minimal courtesy, but she seemed too immersed in the music to have the composure for that.
Curiosity beginning to stir, Taeheon reached out and pulled out one of her earphones, bringing it to his own ear.
The moment the frenzied music flowing out struck his eardrum, his eyes flew wide open. He turned back with a straight face, as if he had heard something he shouldn’t have.
“So this is your taste?”
“….”
“Heavy metal? Rock?”
“….”
Sulking at his accusatory tone, she touched her phone screen and closed the music app. The playlist Taeheon had briefly glimpsed seemed to have over a hundred songs of the same genre.
A look of genuine surprise was directed at her. But with a calm expression, she retrieved the earphone from his ear and neatly coiled the lengthy cord.
“There are things I don’t want to hear.”
Having finished, she spoke in a small voice.
When she glanced at him as if asking whether he needed a further explanation, Taeheon readily shook his head. It was because he could read her inner feelings—having blocked out the world with music loud enough to burst her eardrums—in her lonely eyes.
“Let’s go eat.”
“…Me?”
“Yes, you.”
Taeheon replied in a playful voice.
“Are you serious?”
“Yeah, I’m an outcast too. I hate eating alone.”
“Liar. You have plenty of friends.”
“I don’t. I’m older too, so who would want to be friends with me?”
“Ah. I guess so.”
After her brief answer, her movements noticeably slowed. She knew all too well what it felt like to be a different age from the peers around her.
Even so, the claim that he was an outcast was hardly believable. He was stronger than that group of boys. Or rather, perhaps someone in an even higher position than them. Lost in thought, she suddenly threw out a question.
“Are you close with the teachers?”
“Not really.”
“Then are you rich? Is your family wealthy enough to donate to the school?”
It was a series of questions whose intentions were impossible to gauge. Taeheon narrowed his brows slightly and sat perched on the desk beside hers, since she showed no sign of getting up.
“Why are you curious about that?”
Ugyeong lowered her eyes for a moment, then raised them.
“I wore the clothes you gave me yesterday and today. But the teachers didn’t say anything. The kids looked surprised when they saw my clothes too, like, ‘Huh?’ I wondered if it was because they knew they were your clothes.”
Wearing street clothes was a violation of school rules. Yet neither the teachers nor the students pointed it out. Even when she returned to the classroom after taking a nap in the infirmary, not a single person said a word.
The boys had looked at her as if she were wearing stolen clothes, if only briefly, and her desk mate had told her that she had told the subject teacher Ugyeong had gone to the infirmary because she was sick. It was an attitude starkly different from before.
So the conclusion she had reached was that either his family circumstances were tremendous, or someone in his family was a powerful figure influential enough to affect the school.
At her suspicious gaze, Taeheon shrugged his shoulders lightly.
“Isn’t that a good thing? No one bothered you.”
“Right. The kid who hit me yesterday didn’t come find me either. I thought he would come straight away, but it’s really amazing.”
Ugyeong stroked her hoodie with an awkward hand. It really felt like she was wrapped in a magic cloak. Thanks to it, she was safe and not cold.
“Thank you.”
“For what.”
Ugyeong glanced at the school uniform shirt of the man who gave such a simple reply. Thinking she should at least know the name of her benefactor, she peered at his name tag, which read “Woo Taeheon.”
Woo Taeheon. Ugyeong muttered in a voice barely audible and stole a glance at his face.
Having never liked anyone before, she had no one to compare him to, but he was quite handsome. No, he was more handsome than any face she had ever glimpsed while moving from school to school. The moment she glanced at him sideways, thinking he must be quite popular at school, their eyes met.
“I was just, just looking.”
Ugyeong hurriedly lowered her gaze.
She had really meant nothing by it, but she was anxious that he might get the wrong idea. Just as she raised her head to tell him once more that she absolutely didn’t mean anything else, their eyes met again.
“If you’re bored, come find me. Even if you’re not bored, come find me.”
“What?”
“Because you’re safe with me.”
“….”
A tender smile hung at the corners of his softly curving lips.
She felt her body grow hot in an instant. It was a strange, unfamiliar feeling. Even though it was nothing more than an empty pleasantry from someone she barely knew, it was strangely joyful and sweet. After all, the feeling of stability and safety, the certainty of comfort and peace, was something she had always longed for.
* * *
The cafeteria, which had been noisy and bustling, grew quite empty after the peak hour passed. Only a few students who had been holding their seats for a long time due to their slow eating pace remained.
Clatter. That was when the commotion started.
Taeheon, who had been getting his tray and utensils, turned with narrowed eyes to find her there. She wandered about from the entrance as if it were her first time in the cafeteria, her clumsy movements as evident as ever.
“I-I dropped my tray.”
Her face red with embarrassment, she explained in a small voice.
Taeheon suppressed a laugh and handed over what he had in his hands. Then he served her food first too. “Thank you,” the same greeting came back repeatedly like a recording. It was cute.
“Over here.”
Leaving her flustered and unable to pick a seat, Taeheon walked ahead. Ugyeong trotted after him and went to move across from him.
“Sit next to me.”
“…Next to you?”
“Yes, next to me.”
Ugyeong, who had naturally tried to sit across from him, blinked in slight confusion, then unable to win against his gaze, changed the direction of her feet.
The spot he indicated was by the window where sunlight poured in. And with a wall in front, it was a place where she wouldn’t have to make eye contact with the few other students either. Though their arms brushed occasionally since he had broad shoulders.
“Eat. It’s good.”
“Ah, yes.”
Ugyeong glanced around pointlessly, then lowered her head and looked at her tray. She had applied for school lunch but had always substituted it with bread and milk to avoid running into other students coming and going, yet today she had a well-prepared meal before her.
It was amazing and pleasant. With even a meat dish that she usually couldn’t enjoy, it was an incomparably happy meal.
“Don’t mind me and eat it all slowly. Don’t leave anything.”
“Yes.”
When she answered with her cheeks full, he broke into a grin. Then he used his phone beside her.
Articles about society and economy were displayed on the screen she had glanced at. He wasn’t busy contacting anyone on social media. He was simply silently surveying today’s issues.
To her, who had only ever seen guys spouting rumors and gossip, it was an unfamiliar sight. He seemed so mature.
“Ah, he is already an adult after all….”
“What are you thinking so hard about?”
Ugyeong, who had been chewing and swallowing her food at a significantly slowed pace, jumped in surprise and leaned her upper body back. At some point, he had rested his arms on the table, propping his chin, and was staring at her.
“Why.”
Taeheon quirked his brow at her reddened face.
Ugyeong shook her head as if it were nothing. Then she stole glances at him, again and again.
With thick eyebrows, a high nose bridge, and vividly colored lips, he had felt excessively handsome, but his face draped in sunlight was much softer. When his dark brown pupils disappeared and reappeared, his long eyelashes seemed to dance. His roughly swept-back hair gleamed. His skin was smooth and glowing too.
He had a vivid, gleaming, three-dimensional appearance. Just as she was coming to the conclusion that this was why her eyes kept drifting to him.
“Let me touch it for a second.”
“What? Uh, why….”
She reflexively pulled her head back, but a large hand wrapped around the back of her neck, holding her in place. In that moment, another hand approached her face.
While experiencing the strange sensation of her fine hairs standing on end, one of her cheeks was pressed firmly. When she raised her lowered eyes to look at him, his expression was extremely focused. He scraped her cheek a few times with his fingernail, then soon formed a hollow smile.
“I thought something was stuck on it, but it’s not.”
“I-it’s a mole.”
Ugyeong spoke in a tiny voice, embarrassed.
He let out an “Ah,” with the expression of someone who had truly gained enlightenment. For the first time, Ugyeong thought he was a fool. It seemed God had not given him every gift after all.