.

As soon as I flinched my lips, the girls, who were directing this side, also broke the magical silence. Switching their gazes to me, they voiced out at the same time, “We told her first that we have something to talk about!”

“Don’t go after them. Understood?” said Yoo Chun Young. His following action then dampened the girls’ aggressive spirits. While I stood still on the spot as if I were nailed to the ground, Yoo Chun Young bent his steps and came close to me. Stretching out his hand again, he dropped a remark, which was slightly different from his previous words.

“Don’t go.”

Without any response, I just stared at his hand.

The pouring autumn rain felt cold. I wasn’t sure whether his fingertips, which were stretched toward me, looked particularly pale because he was born that way or due to the cold rain. Carrying the container on one side of my arms, I finally stretched out the other one to grab his hand. Once I took that action, I felt the warmth arising from our holding hands.

Without saying anything, I just moved my arms to give an eye signal to the Kim twins. Yoo Chun Young gave us a good opportunity to escape from this place, after all. Besides, the senior girls would have switched their object of resentment to Yoo Chun Young.

I mean, what else could they do? Unlike the Kim twins, who were pretending to behave like run-of-the-mill students at school, Yoo Chun Young was widely known as the son of Balhae Group.

Once they received my eye signal, the Kim twins heaved a sigh then walked toward us, and at the same time, Yoo Chun Young took a step forward. No one interrupted the four of us who were going through the crowds.

We headed straight toward the gym that way. Yoo Chun Young, who was still holding my hand, took out his phone from the pocket with his other hand. Bringing the phone near to his ear, he said shortly, “Send another person to pick up the delivery at the back gate. Something happened.”

I looked up at him blankly. Folding his flip phone with a smack, Yoo Chun Young squinted his eyes at me. Hesitating for a second, I asked in a small voice, “… You were there to pick up the delivery just like us, huh?”

“Yeah…”

“Why weren’t you joining the match?”

When I was watching the dodgeball or basketball game, I didn’t have any memory of Yoo Chun Young’s hair color running around the court. Thus, I just thought that his blue-black hair was relatively less noticeable than other fancy hair colors.

Yoo Chun Young replied, “Because I’m a model. I shouldn’t get any scars.”

“Ah, that’s right… that makes sense.”

If he got wounded or accidentally have scraped knees, Yoo Chun Young would become troubled. If he ever got hurt on his face, that would be equivalent to a huge disaster.

No one then spoke anything for quite a while. Only the sound of rain echoed in the silence. Meanwhile, we arrived at the gym, at last. Before stepping into the space, Yoo Chun Young seemed to release my hand and turn around. However, I grabbed him first and said, “Um, hey…”

Not only Yoo Chun Young but also the Kim twins turned around to look at me. Hesitating for a second, I asked a favor to the twins.

“If you guys don’t mind, would you take this box into the gym? I’ll be right back.”

Exchanging eye contact, the twins shrugged their shoulders. Kim Hye Woo then came close to me and took the container. My hands were quickly empty.

“Thanks.”

“Nah, it ain’t even heavy. We’ll also save a burger for you.”

“Ah, yeah. Thanks again.”

‘Let’s go,’ said Kim Hye Woo while looking at Kim Hye Hill. The twins soon disappeared into the gym, but before turning around, Kim Hye Hill seemed to send a cold glance at Yoo Chun Young.

From the moment I pulled his hand, Yoo Chun Young was standing beside me without any movement just like a statue.

“Let’s talk for a second,” I uttered. Looking down at me wordlessly for quite a while, he then nodded heavily.

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There was a small parking lot for bikes or motorcycles behind the gym. The area had a slate roof, so it provided shelter from the rain. Once we arrived at the place, I folded my umbrella while being careful not to hit the parked bikes. Yoo Chun Young also folded his umbrella quietly beside me.

Lowering my head, I watched the raindrops falling from the umbrella tips and drawing some round traces on the ground in silence. After a while, I broke the ice.

“You know…”

Yoo Chun Young nodded, “Uh-huh.”

“Even if someone else said to me to come together, I would have followed that person.”

I didn’t check the look on his face. Dropping my gaze at the ground, I quickly continued, “I wasn’t trying to follow and go with you. It’s just that I would also feel difficult if the twins get in trouble because of me; you were there just in time, so that’s why I followed you.”

“…”

“Even if it wasn’t you, I would have left the place with someone else.”

As soon as I finished my words, I wiped my face with wet hands since I needed something to cool down my head. Looking down at the ground, I spoke to myself, ‘This wasn’t actually what I tried to say…’ I was about to ask him if he came to me after finding out that I was in an awkward situation, and if that was right, I wanted to thank him first, then throw other questions that I had in mind these days.

What the heck was happening? If he couldn’t let me know about it, I tried to ask him cautiously until when this weird thing among us would last, and lastly, what I had done wrong. However, as soon as I detached my lips, those whining words slipped from my mouth. It also sounded so ridiculous and absurd to me, who barely just got out of the tricky situation from Yoo Chun Young’s assistance.

However, I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. Instead, I quickly continued, “Of course, I shouldn’t follow the girls even if they told me to go with them.” Feeling his gaze piercing through my profile face, I concluded my words.

“But I must not always go with you when you ask me to.”

“…”

Only the sound of rain continued in the silence. I lifted my wet hand to rub my forehead. I uttered, “Why do you always talk like that? Come here…”

“…”

“How can you…?” Slurring the end of my sentence, I bit my lips. “How can you put that out first when you avoided seeing my face for two weeks?”

Watching Yoo Chun Young keeping silence, I shoved the question, which I couldn’t bear to ask, into my mouth. ‘Am I someone who must always follow you when you ask me to?’

The look of Yoo Chun Young in the past overlapped on him who had stretched his hand toward me.

‘Come here, Ham Donnie.’

I couldn’t remember when I first heard that word but was able to recall the latest time he spoke to me that way. The situations were utterly the opposite back then and now. Around that time, I tried to avoid the Four Heavenly Kings, but now, it was them, who were avoiding me.

Escaping from the Four Heavenly Kings, I ran into an empty music room and have some conversation with Ruda.

‘If you’re feeling that uncomfortable, why don’t you stop befriending them?’

I shook my head at his question.

No, it was my problem that I couldn’t accept them as my friends. Yoo Chun Young, who later came to me, waved his hand and said, ‘Come here.’ He spoke that way in an attitude that looked like he didn’t doubt that I would come to him.

Now I had come to think of it for the first time, perhaps, they were still trusting me as much as I did. As if I didn’t feel suspicious about their feelings upon me, I might have been a part of their everyday life. No wonder that they were my most significant people, so they could have perceived my feelings toward them and naturally occupied my house at the weekend without hesitation.

They knew that I would not become angry about it. Staying beside them was always the best choice for me. If I got to know this fact a few days earlier, I would have become a little more delighted.

It wasn’t that long ago since I had been glad to find out how tightly we have been connected to each other beyond question.

But what were we doing right now? What the heck was going on for God’s sake?!