.

All the kids went to the window near the hallway to watch the clubs promoting themselves to Yeo Ryung during each break. I also participated in watching the relay of those events since it was a chance to learn what club activities we had. Plus, it was quite interesting… honestly, exciting to see the kids looking frustrated, walking out from Yeo Ryung’s class.

Then when it became the end of all classes today, the relay of clubs asking Yeo Ryung to join them was almost over too. Only a few were left now. Other kids also counted the number of clubs left with their fingers.

“Which club is missing?”

“Soccer club, volleyball club, and archery club… but they don’t choose regular students. Oh, the writing club!”

As soon as they spoke that way, a group of kids showed up in the hallway. In every aspect, they didn’t look like student-athletes, so perhaps they were the writing club.

I got convinced that it was true while looking at the kid following the group at the end with her head sinking on her chest. ‘Yeah, they are,’ I thought.

The girl looked fragile, pulling her hoodie over her head in this sunny weather in May. Besides, her petite figure looked like a middle school student… What? Thinking to that extent, I got off my butts from the chair.

There was a fuss beside me. ‘Donnie, what’s wrong?’ they asked.

Meanwhile, I stood still while grabbing my desk so tightly that my veins on my arm almost stuck out. My eyes were fastened at the girl walking past by the hallway window. When her profile face slightly appeared through her hoodie, I was assured that she was the girl I was looking for.

The girl who dashed out from Yoo Chun Young’s hospital and bumped into me, and the one who escaped from the bathroom in Sung Woon Science High School gym during the Ranking Battle… She always appeared and disappeared in weird moments.

Although she had a small physique, the look in her eyes didn’t seem like that of a middle school student. But I never expected that she would be attending our school.

While I was shocked, the kid didn’t seem to notice my glance. With her writing club friends, the girl disappeared to Ban Yeo Ryung’s class. ‘Maybe that’s better,’ I thought. Clenching my fist, I walked toward the backdoor. It seemed better to wait in front of Ban Yeo Ryung’s classroom door and catch her all of a sudden before she got to know the situation.

Strangely, I was able to walk through the crowds very easily maybe because the club inside the next door class wasn’t popular like the movie club, or maybe because I looked very determined to other kids. Crouching down, I peeped through the window to look inside the classroom.

Since the girl was following her club members all the way in the back, she seemed to be a freshman, standing behind her fellows like a folding screen in the background. And it was a tall girl, probably in her senior year, talking most of the time to Ban Yeo Ryung.

Yeo Ryung listened to her words carefully, but in the end, she shook her head as a refusal. As if the tall girl didn’t expect that Yeo Ryung would actually join their club, she nodded with a nonchalant expression and turned around.

When the writing club kids made their way out of the classroom one after another, something unexpected happened. The little girl, who just stood in the corner and seemed to feel uncomfortable receiving attention, suddenly came forward. As if a person suddenly changed, her action looked brave.

Yeo Ryung looked at her in wonder as the girl walked toward her all of a sudden.

The girl said, “Um, do you mind if we can have a handshake…”

“Handshake?”

“I’ve been admiring you because ever since you entered this school, you never lost the first place… even in the nationwide mock exam…”

Ban Yeo Ryung asked in a nonchalant voice, “I don’t have those in mind.”

“Still… even though you don’t have them in your memories, it’s still true that you made those achievements.”

Surprisingly, Ban Yeo Ryung seemed to repeat her words in her mind. I never saw her reacting that way after she lost her memories.

Even though people around her told her important things and information, Yeo Ryung didn’t repeat them by saying things to herself but just fed them in her mind apathetically as if that was all she had to do.

While I watched the sight with my eyes wide open, Yeo Ryung nodded then stuck out her hand to the girl with a swiveling grin.

“Alright, here.”

My eyes were directed to the girl with a hoodie then to Jooin. He was just looking at Ban Yeo Ryung and the girl with a calm expression.

For some reason, the look on his face seemed unusual. However, I couldn’t tell the actual difference.

Was I getting too sensitive? Perhaps the thought I had–have found another strange person like me in this world–made all my cells go so crazy that I was overinterpreting even the trivial things and facts coming into my sight. Yeah, maybe that’s true. That was when I shook my head and tried to pay attention to the view in front of me.

Eun Jiho’s cold voice pierced through the fuss out of the blue.

“Hey, what is that in your hand?”

At that very moment, the girl put back her hand to have a handshake with Yeo Ryung then dashed toward the door at her full speed. Of all things, she was heading toward the backdoor, not the front door where I was hiding at.

There was a noise from behind me.

“Hey, stop!!”

“What was she holding in her hand?”

“Yeo Ryung, did you get hurt? Give it to me.”

While those words showered to Yeo Ryung, I turned around and wondered whether I should take a look at Ban Yeo Ryung to see if she was okay or go chase the girl.

As if she just found me at the moment, my name slipped out from Ban Yeo Ryung’s mouth.

“Donnie?”

Suddenly, a half-transparent choose-your-path box seemed to appear in front of my sight.

Go comfort Ban Yeo Ryung.

Go chase the mysterious girl.

Stamping my feet repeatedly for a moment, I turned around, at last. Right now, running after the girl seemed to come first.

It’s been a while since I bumped into her during the Ranking Battle. Until right now, I had no clues about her school and her appearance. Thus, I should, at least, check her name as well as the thing she had in her hand.

Anyway, there was a whole bunch of people around here! Apologizing to a pair of kids carrying a plastic box full of milk bottles, I looked in front of me in awe.

The girl with the hoodie ran through the crowds of people quite easily maybe because she had a very petite figure. However, I had to keep walking through them with words of apologies.

Disheveling my hair, I lost my temper.

“Gosh, are they having class outside in the hallway?!”

Or else these many people couldn’t come out to the hallway at the same time. And because of that, the girl was receding away from me gradually at a far distance.

‘Am I losing her this way again? No… I didn’t get to see her face clearly yet…’ I said to myself, biting my lips. Then a familiar voice came from behind me, and at the same time, someone’s hand pressed my shoulder gently for a second.

“Mama, go back to your classroom and stay there.”

“Jooin,” I replied, looking behind me.

Narrowing his gold-brown eyes, Jooin uttered, “Let me go catch her instead.”

There was something that he had in mind when he was talking that way.

I was assured that Jooin would go catch her in the end. He was clever and brilliant; besides, the chase I had with him before in this school convinced me that too.

However, I shook my head, instead of agreeing with him. Jooin slightly squinted his eyes.

“Why?” he blurted out, looking nervous.

“Not only because of this, but I also have other things I want to ask her.”

“I’ll ask her on behalf of you.”

“That’s… um…”

When I paused for a second, Jooin observed the look on my face.

He quickly uttered, “You can’t tell me what it is?”

I had no idea that he would attack my weak point with one effort, so I showed my suffocated feelings on my face at the moment.