Jeong Eun-seong cried mournfully.

When I heard the story.

“I… I was left in the drama club room yesterday to do club activities… Someone from outside… h-huh…”

Jeong Eun-seong’s voice trembled at the end of her story.

As Jeong Eun-seong blinked her wet eyelashes, tears rolled down her cheeks once more.

One of the teachers watching exclaimed ‘Oh my’ and covered her mouth with her hand.

“Our eyes met and she smiled… I had an evaluation at the company yesterday…!”

Jeong Eun-seong, hunched over her large frame, rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand.

She had clearly taken off her knit and given it to me yesterday, but somehow she was wearing a clean school uniform knit with no name tag and a stiff shirt.

All eyes in the faculty office were focused on the handsome boy, neatly dressed in his school uniform, crying pitifully.

Jeong Eun-seong whimpered.

“At this rate, I thought I’d be stuck here all night… I was in a hurry and jumped out the window…!”

“J-jumped out…?”

“I sprained my ankle… so I couldn’t even make it to the evaluation… H-huh…”

What should I do…? Jeong Eun-seong closed her eyes tightly and pretended to hug her homeroom teacher. It wasn’t an actual hug, but a gesture, but that was enough.

A second-year student who was there for an errand gasped.

The teachers too.

“Isn’t she the new transfer student?”

“That’s right, the one who was a trainee…”

As she received sympathetic glances from those around her, Jeong Eun-seong’s wailing grew louder.

“Hey, who did that? Did you see her face?”

Teacher Namun and another teacher asked from the back of the faculty office.

“Song Yeo-reum…!”

Even though she was crying, Jeong Eun-seong’s pronunciation was accurate and her vocalization was excellent.

“Song Yeo-reum? She’s in second year, sixth class…”

“Ah, that one?”

Amidst the commotion, Jeong Eun-seong sobbed, her ears turning red.

The flustered homeroom teacher patted Jeong Eun-seong.

“Eun-seong, I’ll call Song Yeo-reum when she comes to school and find out…”

“H-huh…! My evaluation…! My life…!”

‘She was doing club activities alone at school on the day of a company evaluation? That doesn’t make sense.’

But no one in the faculty office cared about such a minor logical flaw.

In an instant, Song Yeo-reum became someone with misguided affection who bullied the recently transferred aspiring celebrity trainee to get her attention and locked her in the school, and Jeong Eun-seong became a diligent trainee who was unfairly victimized.

“I knew Song Yeo-reum would cause trouble.”

“She did it last time too…”

Especially the teachers who usually held a grudge against Song Yeo-reum were in a fierce mood. Even the teachers who saw this as a funny happening shook their heads, saying, ‘She’s gone crazy.’

“Okay, Eun-seong. Stop crying for now… Dahye, why did you come?”

The homeroom teacher, who was comforting Jeong Eun-seong and looking around, stopped at me standing by the faculty office door.

“Ah. That is.”

I was also trapped with him. However, Jeong Eun-seong’s eyes prevented me from saying that. Jeong Eun-seong frowned and shook her head slightly so that the homeroom teacher couldn’t see it.

“…I came to get one more printout you gave out yesterday. I forgot to get one for Seo Jae-gyeom.”

“Ah, that’s right. Jae-gyeom didn’t come to school, did he?”

While the homeroom teacher was rummaging through her desk and handing me a printout, the teachers’ discussion continued in the faculty office.

“Maybe she didn’t know?”

“How could that be? She made eye contact and banged on the door, asking to be let out.”

“She’s not usually one to stay at school…”

“Dahye, can you take Eun-seong up to the classroom for now?”

“Ah, yes. …Let’s go.”

I ended up helping Jeong Eun-seong.

Unlike yesterday, when she desperately tried not to come into contact with me, Jeong Eun-seong unhesitatingly leaned her forehead on my shoulder and sniffled.

“This is also school violence…”

“What rule should be applied…”

“It’s so embarrassing I could die…”

Leaving the murmuring behind, we left the faculty office. Jeong Eun-seong, who had been clinging to my arm until then, straightened up as soon as the faculty office door closed. Her limping ankle was also fine now, and she stood firmly on the ground.

Jeong Eun-seong stretched out her body in a proper posture.

“Kang Dahye.”

“Huh?”

“Sutananidae isn’t a university. It’s a novel.”

“Huh…?”

“I knew something was off. Do you like making fun of your less intelligent friend?”

“You looked that up…?”

“Yes. I didn’t have my phone, so I went home, turned on my laptop, and looked it up. It’s not in Sinchon, and it’s not in Anam. Where in the world is Sutananidae University?”

Jeong Eun-seong narrowed her eyes and argued, saying she almost put ‘Sutananidae’ as her dream university.

Looking up at Jeong Eun-seong’s red, tear-stained eyes and nose as she blamed me, I asked.

“But why were you crying?”

“I wasn’t crying.”

“Then what was it?”

“Tear-jerking acting.”

“Tear-jerking acting…?”

“I had to cry first and get the first punch in. That way, it would sound more plausible that a perfectly fine-looking boy was trapped in school because he couldn’t stand a girl’s bullying, wouldn’t it?”

Jeong Eun-seong shrugged, saying she had to cry and mess with people’s minds.

“Han Gyeol is over now.”

“It’s not Han Gyeol, it’s Song…”

That’s enough, I’m tired of correcting him…

“Winter is over, since it’s March now…”

You’re a really good actor, our play will be fine…

I muttered and headed to the classroom.

As Jeong Eun-seong and I walked together, all the eyes of the passing students turned to us. Some turned their heads to look at Jeong Eun-seong, some blocked our way and tried to say hello, and some even openly took pictures.

Through all the commotion, Jeong Eun-seong walked calmly, looking straight ahead.

Looking at Jeong Eun-seong and our surroundings, I whispered.

“Why did you pretend you were trapped alone? Song Yeo-reum might get into more trouble if you said we were both trapped.”

“In a school where ridiculous rumors about students and teachers dating spread, would it be good for a story about you and me being trapped together to spread?”

“…”

“If we had said that, the focus wouldn’t have been on Han Gyeol, but on us. What time we were there alone, what we did while trapped.”

“…”

“You know too. How thoughtlessly people spread ridiculous rumors.”

The reason I couldn’t answer immediately was because I knew Jeong Eun-seong’s future.

Having seen the various rumors and false articles Jeong Eun-seong would suffer from after her debut, her words felt like a prophecy to me.

“And.”

Jeong Eun-seong said as we walked up the last flight of stairs to the classroom.

“This isn’t the first time you’ve been involved with them, is it? You had something going on with Bang Jeong-hwan last time too.”

“Bang Eun-ji. Bang Jeong-hwan is Children’s Day.”

“Whatever.”

“Whatever, you say…”

“It’s one thing for teachers to take your side because you’re a model student, but if you keep causing problems, adults get tired.”

“…”

“Adults don’t like to be bothered. They might take your side at first, but later they’ll say you have a problem too. That you couldn’t just let it go and had to report it, making a fuss. That’s how adults are.”

“…I know. That’s why as children grow older, they try to solve things on their own without telling their guardians. Because they’re afraid of hearing such things and getting frustrated even if they do tell.”

“Exactly. It’s better not to expect anything from adults.”

“…”

“There’s nothing unfair about it. We’ll become those adults someday too.”

After finishing her words, Jeong Eun-seong snatched the printout from my hand and walked ahead.

“I’ll put this in his seat.”

Looking at Jeong Eun-seong’s back as she walked ahead.

“Jeong Eun-seong!”

“Why?”

“If you have any questions while studying, feel free to ask. I’ll teach you everything.”

“…Suddenly?”

“Yes.”

Because I felt guilty, as if I, at 29, was also somewhat like those adults.

The story that Song Yeo-reum locked Jeong Eun-seong in the drama club room spread like wildfire.

“Crazy…”

“Isn’t she some kind of sasaeng?”

“Jeong Eun-seong must be freaked out.”

“Come to think of it, didn’t Song Yeo-reum proudly talk about chasing celebrities in a taxi in middle school?”

“Oh, oh, oh, that’s right! And staying up all night in the Apgujeong parking lot.”

“Creepy.”

“Hey, Song Yeo-reum! Did you really lock the transfer student in school?”

After the third period, the boys said a word to Song Yeo-reum as she came to school.

“What nonsense.”

At first, Song Yeo-reum was bewildered, but then when she was called by the very angry teachers and heard the whole story, she gasped and said, “No!” but since it wasn’t a ‘no’, there was nothing she could do.

Especially after the drama club room key was found in her bag.

‘She did lock someone in, though.’

It’s just that the target wasn’t Jeong Eun-seong, but me.

“I’m going crazy!”

Song Yeo-reum was hit on the head by teachers one after another, scolded, and ridiculed. Highly agitated, Song Yeo-reum was finally released from the faculty office at lunchtime.

“Yeo-reum! Are you okay?!”

“Get lost!”

Song Yeo-reum roughly pushed Bang Eun-ji’s shoulder, who was approaching her with a big ribbon in her hair and concern.

Bang Eun-ji staggered as her back hit the wall.

I was on my way down to eat and stood on the stair landing with Do-yeon, watching the scene.

“Oh my, what?”

“Are they fighting?”

“Awesome.”

Oh…

Ah, I should have brought popcorn.