.

I opened my eyes wide upon hearing Yi Jenny’s following words. She lifted her hand and pointed at Ruda.

“It isn’t the kids; he’s the one who needs that school. Considering how he talks, he still has a long way to go. Please understand my dishonest son.”

“Excuse me…?”

“I’m asking you to please look after him.”

Although she dropped that remark, I couldn’t understand what was going on for quite a while. Thus, I sat still in a daze. Once I turned my head aside and found Ruda showing a vibrant smile, I emitted a whoop while embracing his shoulders.

Being startled at my reaction, Yeo Ryung and Jooin pulled my nape.

‘Yikes, Ruda wasn’t a girl!’ Recalling the fact that I forgot for a moment, I quickly got off from Ruda. I thought, ‘Anyway, I should soon break this habit of hugging someone in delight as if I’m doing it to my girlfriends.’ Meanwhile, I suddenly heard Yi Jenny murmuring something.

“… Now I can also get back together with Ian again.”

“Eh?”

Opening my eyes wide in surprise, I said to myself, ‘Yeah, that’s right! Ian and Yi Jenny were living separately!’

Glancing at the look on my face, Yi Jenny uttered, “Why do you look so surprised? Ian and I aren’t really on bad terms. We just have different educational views…”

“… Ian just ran off with me at my request.”

“Wow…”

Recalling Ian’s warm and kind face that I saw at my house sometimes, I murmured, ‘He does have guts than he looks since he faced up to his fierce wife and ran away from their house. I mean… so they were married, right?’

Yi Jenny uttered, “I’ll visit your house shortly. I must see how you were living without me. Leave your address here.”

Ruda’s face quickly reddened at her remark. He almost shouted, “I… I was doing well!”

“I think so.”

Listening to Yi Jenny’s sarcastic response, I came up with Ruda’s room that I had seen a while ago. Was that frowzy space an outcome of Ruda attempting a lot of escape plans? Or…

Anyway, the conversation between Yi Jenny and Yi Ruda sounded like a normal mother-and-son dialog; Yi Jenny worried about her son’s school life and his tidiness, which made me burst into small laughter.

* * *

What I heard afterward was that Lucas, who had no place to go from traveling overseas, decided to stay with Yi Jenny for a while. Ruda returned to Ian for a moment then would have a meeting with Yi Jenny again shortly.

Sunday evening, the next day, I received a bunch of texts from Yi Ruda.

Sent by: Yi Ruda

Help me, Donnie

Sent by: Yi Ruda

No, I would just die

Sent by: Yi Ruda

If I die, I’ll go to hell, but that place is worse than hell

Sent by: Yi Ruda

I really don’t want to go

Reading his nonstop messages, I laughed aimlessly.

The almighty Ruda, who went through so many challenging things since his childhood, was almost shouting in tears for some reason. That was because today in the evening, Ruda was having a family dinner at a hotel after a long time.

Yi Jenny, Ian, and Yi Ruda were about to get together and unburden themselves from years of remorse. According to Ruda, no matter how long they had not seen each other, the two would definitely have a good relationship; only Ruda himself would be blamed for pieces.

Smiling awkwardly, I entered a response.

To: Yi Ruda

But isn’t Lucas there too? Lol…

That was true. Since it was Yi Ruda’s family dinner, Lucas, the new family member, would also attend the event. Lucas and Ian would be meeting tonight for the first time.

Lucas took care of Ruda so much since they were young, so wouldn’t he stand by Ruda? Besides, it would be his first time to meet Ian, so Ian and Yi Jenny might not become too naughty to Ruda…

Ruda’s response returned.

Sent by: Yi Ruda

Do you remember what Lucas hyeong and mom promised before?

Wow, did he just say ‘mom?’ Although it was such an everyday term, I never even imagined it would come out from Ruda’s mouth, so I looked at the word for a while.

Then I moved my fingers again.

To: Yi Ruda

I dimly recall… what was it again?

Sent by: Yi Ruda

No more lies!

I blurted, “Oh…” and swallowed a smile involuntarily. This was a big deal.

In this regard, Lucas had to confess everything; Ruda was grumpy sometimes or pretended innocence in front of me.

At that moment, my phone vibrated again. I lowered my head to check his message. A gentle grin hovered around my lips.

Sent by: Yi Ruda

Honestly, I don’t want to be scolded by my mom about my personality…

because I inherited that from…

Suddenly, the message stopped. Why did it discontinue at this point? Was Ruda okay now? That was when I gazed at my phone while having those concerns.

“Donnie.”

As the tranquil voice reached my ears like falling leaves, I raised my head.

When I met those warmhearted eyes looking down at me, I replied with the most polite smile I could ever show.

“Yes…”

“We aren’t here to just smile, are we?”

Eun Hyung spoke that way while flaunting a gentle grin on his face. I saw an illusion of a gorgeous dish breaking into pieces behind his back.

In other words, that beautiful plate is like Eun Hyung’s patience. I mean, Eun Hyung dropping such a remark in the first place proved how serious this situation was.

Unlike his soft voice, Eun Hyung stared at me with a severe look. When he turned his head away from me, at last, I could let go of my breath.

I murmured to myself, ‘Ruda, you said that your family dinner would become a supper in hell, but so is this place. Another hell exists here.’

As we always did when we gather at a place, Yeo Ryung and Jooin were sitting on both sides of me; Yoo Chun Young and Eun Jiho took their seats on my opposite side.

We had gathered for the first time at a café after the semester began; however, instead of talking noisily, we were sitting there with our mouths shut. The reason was simple.

Eun Hyung continued, “Students should not go to a club.”

‘How did Eun Hyung know that we went to the club?!’ I yelled at myself inwardly.

Honestly, I could get why Yeo Ryung was caught. She was too pretty to remain unnoticeable that it was her even when she wore a wig. I was, however, such a run-of-the-mill person. Jooin even dressed as a woman. How could the two of us get caught, therefore?

What soothed me at this point was that Yoo Chun Young and Eun Jiho also got caught being in the same club that night. Therefore, everyone had to be blamed instead of just the three of us.

However, that was why the situation became worse. Eun Hyung didn’t trust our words at all.

Inflating her cheek, Yeo Ryung slightly whined, “Come on, Eun Hyung. We keep talking that we were there to rescue the bastard… I mean, Yi Ruda. We weren’t there to hang out.”

Eun Hyung replied with a smile, “Then why were Chun Young and Jiho also there? Was it necessary?”

Eun Jiho, sitting across from me, also intervened, “No, you’re totally getting me wrong. If I were about to hang out there, why would I go there with them? I would rather go alone.”

Eun Hyung continued, “Keep going on.”

“So, it ain’t what you’re thinking… oh, I see!”

Eun Jiho’s following remark made my eyes open wide in astonishment.

“We were also there to help Yi Ruda! Ham Donnie, who disappeared from the abduction site, called me with Yi Ruda’s phone out of the blue and said that she was rescued, so that tells us everything.”

Speaking that way, Eun Jiho dusted off his hair as if he felt annoyed. Watching his reaction, Eun Hyung slightly nodded, saying, “Oh…”

“We owe him something, so we can’t just sit down and watch the situation. Thus, we tried to check out what was going on and decided to take some actions.”

Scowling at us, Eun Jiho added bluntly, “Well, we never thought that they were also taking actions separately.”