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“Hey, you….”
“What.”
Bang Eun-ji’s friend, Kyung Se-in’s friend 1, didn’t even flinch at her string of curses.
Instead, she held her head high, seemingly even more furious.
“Bang Eun-ji, aren’t you guys taking this way too far?”
Se-in chimed in from the side.
“How long do you think the other kids are going to put up with you acting out?”
Her voice trembled, but that made it sound all the more sincere. Starting with that, complaints erupted from all over.
“Ugh, seriously, how long are you going to play at being bullies? Aren’t we high school students?”
“Did you think we avoided you because we were scared? We were trying to avoid trouble, but you don’t seem to know any limits.”
“Doesn’t it say ‘No Entry’ on our classroom door? Why do you come into someone else’s classroom whenever you please? Especially when no one is here.”
“Is she going to take responsibility if something goes missing?”
Bang Eun-ji flinched at the dozens of hostile glares directed at her all at once.
The glares she was receiving now were different from the ones she usually got for bullying and being loud.
Her ears turning red, Bang Eun-ji turned back to Kyung Se-in’s friend 1, who had spoken up first.
“Hey, are you so confident? Can you handle the aftermath of this?”
“That’s enough. Bang Eun-ji, what do you think you’re doing right now.”
The homeroom teacher, with a stiff expression, intervened.
“Are you threatening your friend in front of a teacher?”
After scolding her sternly, the teacher turned to the friend.
“Sua, was what you just said true?”
“Yes. Hee-min and I saw it too.”
“Hee-min?”
“From Class 7.”
“So you’re saying this happened during club activities?”
“Yes.”
“Bang Eun-ji said she was sick during club activities, left, and didn’t come back.”
A boy from another class chimed in from outside the classroom. Bang Eun-ji glared at him, but he just whistled and pretended not to notice.
Once one person broke the silence, the boys who had just been watching started to add their own comments.
“That’s brutal…”
“She crossed the line.”
“Ah, Kang Da-hye’s notes better not be gone. I need to copy them.”
“You think Kang Da-hye is going to let you?”
“Crap, I left a game console I bought online in my bag. Is that gone too?”
“Who would take that, you idiot.”
“Oh, wait. I think it’s really gone?”
“What?”
“Hey, Bang Eun-ji! Did you go through my bag?!”
“I didn’t!”
Sensing the situation turning against her, Bang Eun-ji screamed.
“You don’t have any proof! Isn’t it unfair to corner one person based on what a few kids are saying?!”
You’ve been doing that very “unfair” thing to Do-yeon all this time…
“It really wasn’t me!”
Just a moment ago, her attitude was ‘what are you going to do about it if I did,’ but now she was denying it. The one to drive the final nail into the coffin for the shamelessly lying Bang Eun-ji was, unexpectedly, Jung Eun-sung.
“Teacher.”
In the same tone he used to tattle, ‘Teacher, Kang Da-hye is doing so-and-so,’ Jung Eun-sung called the teacher and gestured towards Bang Eun-ji with his eyes. He was holding a damp mop under his arm.
“I saw her buy two strawberry milks at the school store earlier.”
“You did?”
“Yes. The lady at the store said she forgot to order strawberry milk, so there were only two left today, and she bought them all, so I couldn’t get any.”
“…Is that so?”
“Yes. And they only sell that milk at our school store. You can’t get it at convenience stores.”
“Case closed.”
“Sir! Ah, hurry! Check Bang Eun-ji’s bag! My game console is worth 400,000 won!”
“Teacher, can’t we really check Bang Eun-ji’s bag? I think some money is missing from my wallet.”
It was complete chaos…
I scratched my cheek as I looked back at the pale-faced Bang Eun-ji.
What a mess.
Even if she didn’t do it, she’s going to have to pay for it now.
“I really said it wasn’t me!”
“Let’s go downstairs for now.”
“Bang Eun-ji! You’re not getting away with this! You’re in for a world of trouble!”
Bang Eun-ji was instantly branded a thief.
As she caused a commotion, Bang Eun-ji’s homeroom teacher and our homeroom teacher took her downstairs together.
The male student who claimed to have lost his game console and Kyung Se-in’s friend 1 (whose name was Ye Sua) also went with them.
“Ugh, seriously… damn… why won’t they believe me…”
“Because you’re lying. You didn’t know there’s a CCTV in the hallway, did you? It can see the back door of Class 2.”
“You’re not getting away with this. You’re going to have to bring your parents in. And if the things the other kids lost are really gone, you’ll obviously have to pay for them too.”
There was even CCTV footage. Justice prevails.
The end-of-day meeting fizzled out, and the students, coming to their senses, started packing their things to go home.
“Kang Daaaa…”
An anxious Ji-soo was also caught by her homeroom teacher and taken back to her classroom.
“Everyone, you know we have literature homework… Make sure to write your book reports by next Monday…”
I had finished mine a long time ago, but now I’ll have to rewrite it since it got soaked in milk…
After shouting weakly to the students leaving the classroom, I grabbed some more tissues and crouched down in front of my locker again.
Even after a rough cleanup, the smell of milk was overwhelming.
I flipped through the soaked books. The traces of my past self, who had diligently transcribed the teacher’s every word, were all smudged because of one carton of milk.
“Ah, there’s nothing salvageable.”
It’s okay.
I wrote it down 11 years ago anyway, so I wouldn’t remember it even if I looked at it.
“Let’s do it together.”
Do-yeon, who had somehow gotten disinfectant spray from the cafeteria, crouched down next to me. She practically pushed me aside with her shoulder and started scrubbing my locker.
“You’re going to climb into the locker at this rate.”
I tried to make a joke, but she didn’t answer. Do-yeon’s hands, wiping away the remaining moisture, were trembling.
“…I’m sorry.”
“Why are you?”
“It’s because of me, isn’t it?”
“Why is it your fault? It’s because of Bang Eun-ji’s rotten personality.”
Poverty, parents, casual clothes. How could she pick out and poke at every single one of a teenager’s sore spots?
I let out a dry laugh as I recalled the words Bang Eun-ji had thrown at me.
That stupid bag!
“Now that I think about it, I’m getting pissed. What’s wrong with using the same backpack since elementary school? Is she dissing elementary schoolers?”
To think she’d diss elementary schoolers when we get to rest on Children’s Day every year thanks to them.
Bang Eun-ji, you don’t get to rest on Children’s Day. Ever. Even when you get a job!
“Just you watch. I’m going to use this bag until it’s begging for mercy.”
They say using one item for a long time is also a way to protect the environment. I’m on the front lines of environmental protection right now. Wiping the inside of my bag, I winked at Do-yeon.
Do-yeon, who had been on the verge of tears, finally cracked a smile.
Just then, a voice came from behind me.
“Hey, Da-hye.”
“Hm?”
I turned around.
Se-in and Sua were standing behind us. The two of them came closer and peered into my locker.
“Are you okay? Ugh, smells like strawberries.”
“What are we going to do…”
“It’s fine. I cleaned it all up. What about you, Sua? What did the teachers say?”
“The evidence was all on the CCTV, so I just came back. Bang Eun-ji’s mom is coming to the school. Bang Eun-ji was crying.”
“She was crying?”
“Yeah. We could hear her mom cussing her out over the phone loud and clear in the teachers’ office…”
“Whoa.”
She reaped what she sowed.
I greeted Se-in and Sua, whose cheeks were still flushed from the earlier excitement.
“Thank you for standing up for me earlier. I would have been in a tough spot if it weren’t for you guys.”
“It was nothing. It would have all come out anyway because of the CCTV, even without me.”
“Still.”
Should I do a deep bow right here? Sua laughed at my joke.
A few days ago, when she refused to let Do-yeon ask her a question she didn’t know, she seemed a bit prickly, but she wasn’t like that at all now.
“You know,”
Sua said, hesitating.
“…Bang Eun-ji wasn’t as big of a deal as I thought. When I confronted her directly, she got flustered and couldn’t say anything…”
“That’s right. I don’t know why we were so scared of her all this time!”
Se-in chimed in from the side, her eyes wide. As if a dam had burst, Se-in and Sua started pouring out insults about Bang Eun-ji.
“Honestly, she crossed the line…”
“So satisfying…”
“I used to wear an ‘Adious’ t-shirt when I was little too…”
“You can wear it if you don’t know…”
‘Cute.’
Watching the chattering high school girls with a motherly heart, I asked.
“Want to go get some tteokbokki? My treat.”
To be precise, my mom would be paying, not me.
-Things High School Girls Need to Become Friends-
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MyChew
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A handsome guy
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Tteokbokki
“Yes!”
“Yes!”
Sua, who answered readily, looked back at Do-yeon, who was standing awkwardly.
Ahem, after a small cough, Sua said hesitantly.
“Do-yeon, you come too. …If you’re okay with eating with us.”
“…Of course, it’s okay.”
“…I think I was a bit harsh back then. I’m sorry.”
“No…”
“Gasp! Why are you crying!”
For the record, it wasn’t Do-yeon who cried.
I was the one crying.
“Waaaah…”
These kids are so nice… The future of our country is bright…
“Huhu…”
“Kyung Se-in, why are you crying too…”
“I don’t know… Seeing Da-hye cry makes me cry too…”
“Don’t cry, really… You’re going to make me cry too…”
“I’m sorry…”
“Thank you…”
“Huhu…”
“But what about Kang-da’s books, for real…”
“Ah, right. That’s true… Let’s just say I’m crying because my books got wet…”
As the four of us were hugging each other and crying like penguins.
A shadow suddenly fell over me as I lifted my head, wiping my running nose.
It was Jung Eun-sung.
“You didn’t leave?”
I asked, bewildered.
Ignoring me, Jung Eun-sung stared at my tear-streaked face and then pushed the mop he was holding forward.
After meticulously wiping up the strawberry milk on the floor that I hadn’t managed to clean, Jung Eun-sung called out to me.
“Hey.”
“Huh?”
“I don’t feel like studying. Want my books?”
