Chapter 17 – Episode 17
Gahye attacked me while I was blankly looking at the back.
“Wait a minute, brother.”
“Uh, huh?”
“It’s nothing?”
Gahye glared at me with scary eyes.
“Well… Since when did we…”
I couldn’t continue speaking.
It was the first time I had seen Gahye look like this.
If I say it wrong, she might be killed by Ga-hye.
This is my first time seeing someone threaten someone like this with just their eyes.
“… So…”
I end up feeling miserable.
I can’t say it this way or that way.
If I say yes, I think my father will kill me.
My uncle will report the scene he just saw to my father.
If I don’t resolve this misunderstanding before reporting, I will definitely be killed by my father.
My father is a good person, but he is the kind of person who makes things clear when he does something wrong.
But he feels like he’s going to kill Gahye right now if he says no.
I don’t even want to say no in the first place.
‘… Huh?’
For no reason, my heart was surprised.
“…”
However, to look back in shock, I was afraid of the blessings in front of my eyes.
I focused on Gahye, who was glaring at me again.
It was only now that I realized that this child had entered my heart so easily.
Suddenly, even the glaring eyes seemed a little lovely.
It was funny, and I laughed because the thoughts I realized, the emotions that bloomed in this situation, and the situation I was in were just funny.
“Why are you smiling?”
I raised my hand to calm Gahye, who was still glaring at me.
“Wait a minute, Gahye.”
“Wait a minute, what?!”
“Would you like to have another cup of coffee?”
I proposed to Gahye quietly and calmly, and perhaps with a smile.
Gahye didn’t even seem to like my sudden change in attitude.
“That’s it!”
She turned her head and called out to Ga-hye, but Ga-hye just said that she had class again and went into the building.
Even in such a situation, it was cute to see him answer consistently, so I couldn’t help but burst into laughter again.
“Hmm…”
Next to me, Nayu let out a voice as if she was contemplating.
It was only then that I remembered Nayu’s existence again.
Suddenly, I felt cold sweat running down my back.
Why?
My mind, which I had just sorted out and realized, becomes disorganized again.
I quickly look back at Nayu.
Nayu stood still while looking at me.
“Why… Is that so?”
“No, just. “I was just thinking about it a little bit.”
Nayu crosses her arms and continues to watch me.
As if I were a lab rat, I could only remain silent and receive those stares.
I started to feel like my senses were expanding.
As I stand still, I can feel the wind blowing by, the noisy sounds of students talking, and a certain vitality spreading throughout the school.
I also felt the gaze of people.
People passing by glance at us as they pass by.
That’s right, it’s me.
Yes, if I were to stand alone like this with such a beautiful woman.
Even if you just stand there blankly, one or two people will be curious.
Perhaps I wanted to do my best to avoid the chaos that was now mixing in my mind, but my senses began to focus on things other than Nayu and myself, and my thoughts kept spinning around, piling up all kinds of miscellaneous things in my head.
“I heard you went to this school?”
Nayu asks if he is trying to change his mind.
I was glad to hear that question.
“Uh, uhh, I used to go here, but I only went down there and not this way.”
Added unnecessary explanation.
There is no need to say, ‘I graduated from this school, but I only took the necessary classes at school, like Assa, to the point where I didn’t know much about what was around this school,’ but that kind of explanation almost came out.
“How long has it been since you graduated?”
“Uh, no.”
“Can you show me around the school?”
“Guide?”
“I want to see it.”
“Okay, okay, let’s go, where, where do you want to go?”
With the thought of wanting to avoid this moment, I happily accepted the offer.
***
“I feel sorry for some reason.”
She spoke to Nayu as she set down the tray in a corner of the noisy student cafeteria, but Nayu looked like she didn’t understand at all.
“What?”
“Something like learning is just tasteless. “You’re going to buy me something like that…”
“Really?”
Student cafeteria.
Nayu said, ‘I wonder what kids eat,’ and suggested that she eat here.
Even though I said it wasn’t tasty and not that good, I came in because I was curious.
‘Hmm, it would be nice to eat something more delicious.’
As if not knowing what I was thinking, Nayu briefly observed the hamburger in front of her.
And then Nayu takes a bite of the hamburger.
“It has a unique taste.”
“Right? It doesn’t taste good.”
“No, it’s delicious.”
Saying that, Nayu takes another bite.
You seem satisfied.
Feeling somewhat embarrassed, I also started moving my chopsticks.
“By the way, they all look very young.”
“Kids?”
“Yeah, they say they’re college students, but they all look like kids.”
“Really?”
“They’re making faces that say they didn’t go through any hardships.”
Nayu has already eaten more than half of the hamburger.
“No, is that normal?”
Nayu mumbled another word and put the rest of the hamburger in her mouth.
Nayu’s words bothered me a little, but I brushed it off.
Come to think of it, Nayu’s eating speed is quite fast.
I’m used to always eating alone, so I eat quickly, but even faster than I do.
Eat a lot and eat fast.
I eat so quickly that I wonder if there is some reason.
She sped up a little more to keep up with the pace.
“It’s so bad.”
I did that for no reason.
Her throat was clogged, so she hurried to drink water.
If you try to eat too quickly, you end up looking ugly.
“Are you okay?”
Nayu is worried.
“Uh, well, sorry.”
“Uhm…”
Only then did Nayu speak as if she realized something.
“Am I eating too fast?”
“Oh, you eat a little fast.”
“…”
Nayu remained silent for a moment, then turned her head and looked around her.
Did she answer wrong?
Umm, what should I do?
First of all, I have to eat my meal quickly.
Just as she was about to speed up her eating again, Nayu turned her head and threw her words at me.
Words that were not directed at me were mixed with the surrounding sounds and were noisy and difficult to understand, but the voice reached me nonetheless.
“Did you enjoy school life?”
“Huh?”
It was clearly something that reached me, but I was a little puzzled by its contents, so I asked it again.
Nayu turned her head towards me and spoke directly to me.
“University life is fun, right? “Is it fun and good?”
Her own doubts, or her doubts, hit me.
Nayu’s face, that expression.
I felt strongly that I had to answer that properly.
“Uhm…”
At those words, I looked around.
It deserves to look like that.
The student cafeteria was a place filled with laughter despite the noise.
This guy and that guy, all I could see was laughing, talking, and giggling together.
“No, at least I didn’t.”
“Did you?”
Nayu gave a puzzled look.
I felt my doubts getting stronger.
“Yeah, I didn’t do that.”
But if you look around again, there are places where laughter cannot reach.
It is clear.
There are definitely people who eat alone, people who eat without saying a word, and people who cannot blend in with a group and awkwardly blend in alone.
It’s hard to see because it’s covered by a bright smile.
“I didn’t enjoy college life. “I didn’t like it.”
I was biting at the hamburger with my chopsticks.
“It wasn’t fun, I wasn’t good at getting along with people, I couldn’t do anything else because I was studying, and the subject I worked so hard on wasn’t rewarding.”
It wasn’t the people who were smiling, it was the people who were alone, those people were me.
“Usually everyone enjoys it, but I guess I was a little weird.”
He says it as if he is making excuses due to laughter.
“For me, college life was far from movies or dramas. I came in with high expectations, but those expectations weren’t repaid, I didn’t get what I wanted, and I think I got almost all of my failures and hurts here.”
Nayu’s expression changed a little.
The thought that I had given a long answer for no reason disappeared as I was rewarded by that expression.
“Well, I did anyway. Oh, I’m just saying that’s what I did, it’s not like it was really hard or bad or anything like that.”
An excuse was added.
You are adding another flaw to me.
“Why… Was it difficult?”
“Hmm…”
Why?
“It’s just… I was clumsy at the time, I was young, what I wanted was different from what I did, I didn’t have any money, and I guess I had some luck. “Maybe the problem was just studying.”
There were all kinds of reasons.
“Anyway, yes.”
“You worked hard.”
“Hmm, is that so?”
I also ate the rest of the hamburger.
“I asked for a useless favor.”
“Huh?”
“School information. I asked you for no reason. “It’s probably a place I don’t like very much.”
“Uh, no, what about the place? “I don’t really care now.”
“Okay…”
“Let’s go first. “It’s good manners to leave your seat immediately.”
“Oh, uh-uh.”
Before there was even silence, I stood up with Nayu.
As if I was running away, abandoning the silence and the words I had just poured out.
***
On the way back, Nayu looked back at the school from the school entrance.
In the midst of a stream full of students entering and leaving, I stood alone.
“I thought college students were always happy.”
Hmm, maybe I said something too dark.
“It wasn’t.”
Nayu says that and turns around again.
“Well, other people’s rice cakes tend to look bigger, so I guess I thought that too.”
Saying that, Nayu walked.
Those words sounded strangely refreshing.
“Hey, do you have anything else to do today?”
“Nothing.”
“Okay… Do you want to go home?”
“Oh, of course.”
I walked along that path.
“Okay… Let’s go home, shall we?”
Nayu throws those words and her steps slow down.
I stopped because something felt strange.
“Did you really mean it when you said you didn’t have anything to do with Gahye yet?”
Nayu reminded me again of what happened during the day.
Oh, that’s right, she forgot because she was running away from it as much as possible.
Nayu said to herself as she looked at me hesitating and unable to answer.
“Still to me…”
“Nayu?”
Nayu hurriedly walked away from me.
Nayu seemed to hesitate, but smiled happily.
She just smiled at me.
Then she reached out to me.
She held out her palm to me, as if asking me to hold it.
Then she took my hand.
