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Chapter 6 …
“JJ?”
Aymus turned his head in the direction she was looking.
It was not the real, living Jesse, but one of the new photos from the photoshoot he had recently done.
For a brief instant, Aymus’s expression sharpened warily before relaxing again as he looked at Harry.
Harry was taking a picture of Jesse’s advertisement with her phone.
The photoshoot showed Jesse shirtless, wearing only jeans low enough to reveal the branded waistband of his underwear.
“I should show Jesse that his ad got put up.”
The girl who had been exhausted after trying on only a few dresses earlier now had flushed cheeks again.
Aymus quietly watched her, so lively in a way that reminded him of how she acted whenever she was with Jesse.
Feeling strangely self-conscious under his gaze, Harry hurriedly began making excuses.
“They said Jesse is the first rookie model the brand has used exclusively since Marcus Delgado. Isn’t that amazing?”
It was a brand so famous that it would not be an exaggeration to say it was responsible for the underwear of American men everywhere.
And the fact that Jesse had received a love call from such a huge brand made Harry genuinely happy.
Though Aymus did not seem to share her excitement very much.
“Marcus Delgado?”
He tilted his head.
He looked like he genuinely had no idea who that was.
Not knowing Marcus Delgado of all people?
Harry’s mouth fell open.
“He graduated from our school!”
“Really?”
“Really! The school bragged about him being a Riverside School graduate all the time.”
Harry searched Marcus Delgado on her phone and showed him the screen.
Aymus silently scanned through the photos with an expressionless face before suddenly asking,
“JJ too, and now this guy… do you just like any blond guy you see?”
Harry, who had been spooning up half-melted ice cream while holding out her phone, immediately choked and coughed violently.
Like blond guys?
Of course Jesse was blond, but that was not why she liked him. More importantly—
‘No way he figured out that I like Jesse, right?’
Please let that not be the case.
There was nothing more humiliating than having a long-time crush exposed.
Harry’s face and neck turned bright red as she rushed to explain herself.
“W-What are you talking about? This guy has black hair too, just like you. He dyed it.”
“Ah.”
The moment Aymus heard that the famous model originally had black hair like him, he suddenly became interested and began studying the photos more carefully.
At any rate, it seemed he had finally let go of the misunderstanding that Harry only liked handsome blond men.
Having barely regained peace, she secretly let out a sigh of relief.
‘Well, he’s a hockey player. He probably knows Devon Knox better than Marcus Delgado.’
Thinking of another famous person who had graduated from Riverside School, Harry quietly drifted into thought.
Maybe because they had been talking about hair, she kept noticing Aymus’s black hair.
Unlike Jesse’s calm, straight hair, Aymus’s curled beautifully.
“Was your hair always curly?”
Or had he styled it that way?
The question suddenly crossed her mind, so she asked.
Aymus lowered the phone from his hand and stared at her silently.
He simply stared without answering one way or another.
Growing awkward under the silence, Harry shrugged.
“I feel like your hair was like this even when you were little. Wasn’t it?”
Like most Riverside High students, the two of them had also graduated from Riverside Elementary and Middle School under the same foundation.
Which meant they had known each other’s names and faces for years. Even if they had never been close.
“Guess my memory was wrong.”
“It was.”
Harry frowned at Aymus’s answer.
His timing was too ambiguous.
“Do you mean my memory was wrong, or that you really do have curly hair?”
She asked seriously, but Aymus suddenly burst out laughing.
His completely unexpected reaction somehow irritated her, and Harry asked sulkily,
“Why are you laughing? It’s not like I asked something weird….”
“I just didn’t think you’d remember me.”
“Huh?”
“You were always only close with JJ.”
“Well… that’s true.”
It was not exactly wrong.
Seeing her left speechless, Aymus smirked.
“Anyway, I should send the pictures to Jesse now.”
All she had meant to do was send Jesse a message, yet somehow she had ended up talking about all sorts of things with Aymus.
‘Maybe it’s because I’ve never gone shopping and chatted with anyone except Jesse before.’
Without realizing it, she must have gotten a little carried away.
Harry scolded herself internally and sent the photos.
‘Maybe Jesse’s busy right now.’
While waiting for his reply, she opened social media and checked her feed.
As she read through the latest posts, her expression slowly stiffened.
A post updated only minutes earlier had tagged Jesse.
In the picture, he was posing closely with a pretty girl, looking very affectionate together.
“Julia……?”
The name sounded familiar.
When Harry clicked on the account, she learned that Julia was a beauty influencer with over two hundred thousand followers.
So this was the kind of girl Jesse dated.
Someone so pretty that Harry could never even dream of competing with her… and influential too.
“Who’s Julia?”
Harry’s mind had gone blank before Aymus’s voice suddenly pulled her back to reality.
“Oh, an influencer. I guess she’s close with Jesse. She showed up on social media.”
Praying that she sounded casual, Harry quickly turned off her phone screen.
Right. Her reality was here, not somewhere beyond social media.
“Should we get going?”
“Yeah.”
If she stayed here any longer, she felt like Aymus would definitely realize she had a crush on Jesse.
Besides, there was nothing more for them to talk about anyway.
After cleaning up their table and standing, Harry asked politely,
“By the way, don’t you need to buy clothes too? If you want, I can help you pick something.”
Even after she kindly offered, Aymus shook his head and said he did not need to.
Instead, he made another request.
“Forget the clothes. Drive me home.”
Both of them had driven to school, and they had come to the mall together in Harry’s car.
Since going back to school just to retrieve his car would mess up his route, asking her for a ride home was not particularly strange.
“Okay.”
“And I want you to pick me up tomorrow morning too. I left my car at school.”
But asking her to pick him up tomorrow too felt a little strange.
“Tomorrow morning too?”
“Yeah.”
The words Just take the school bus or Ask your parents for a ride rose all the way to the tip of her tongue, but she swallowed them in the end.
‘What if his situation is similar to Jesse’s?’
Not much was known about Aymus’s family circumstances, but it never hurt to be careful with her words.
After everything with Jesse, Harry had learned that not every student attending a private school was wealthy.
“Well… fine. Then this pays back the ice cream.”
Aymus would no longer have to worry about getting to school, and Harry would no longer owe him.
It was a satisfying deal for both sides.
[I’m home.]
After personally escorting Aymus all the way to his house, Harry returned home and called out in Korean.
As she removed her shoes at the entrance and changed into slippers, her mother greeted her.
[You’re back? You’re a little late today.]
[I went shopping.]
Harry lifted up the shopping bag in her hand.
[A dress? You already bought something for homecoming?]
[I know…….]
Harry truly had not expected that she would still keep attending parties even after Jesse graduated.
‘Should I thank Jesse or not?’
Of course, she was grateful that he agreed to be her homecoming partner.
But he really did not need to do that while dating someone else.
Holding back the urge to cry, Harry looked around for her younger brother.
[Where’s Robin?]
[Same as always.]
Her mother let out a deep sigh and pointed toward a tightly shut bedroom door.
It was the room of Robin, Harry’s much younger little brother.
Unlike Harry, who had been born in Korea and attended elementary school there for three years before immigrating to America with their parents, Robin had been born entirely in the United States.
Yet contrary to expectations that he would adapt to America more easily than Harry had, Robin had instead locked his heart away just as tightly as he kept his bedroom door shut.
[He’s supposed to start elementary school next year. I’m worried.]
[I’ll talk to him.]
Leaving behind her mother’s worried expression, Harry knocked on Robin’s door.
[Robin, it’s your sister.]
[It’s unlocked.]
A weak voice came from inside the room.
When she entered, she saw Robin curled up on the bed.
[What are you doing?]
[Just lying here.]
Harry nodded at his answer and shook the shopping bag in her hand.
[Guess what this is.]
[What?]
[A dress for the homecoming party.]
[Who are you going with? Jesse hyung already graduated.]
Robin immediately showed interest, even throwing off his blanket.
[I’m going with Jesse.]
[What? I thought hyung was busy. When did you decide that?]
Robin lit up hearing news about Jesse for the first time in a while, but his expression soon turned sullen again.
Because their parents were always busy running the restaurant, Harry and Jesse had practically helped raise Robin together.
As a result, Robin regarded Jesse more like a father than his actual father.
But Jesse’s situation had suddenly become difficult starting last year, and he had stopped visiting almost completely. For someone as young as Robin, it was only natural to feel hurt.
[I saw him briefly yesterday. He told me to say hi to you too.]
[Liar.]
Oh no. Robin really was upset.
Harry was trying to think of how to cheer him up when the phone in her uniform pocket suddenly vibrated.
Perfect timing. It was a call from Jesse.
‘Looks like he finally checked my message after spending all this time with Julia.’
The moment she saw his name on the screen, the picture she had seen on social media flashed through her mind again, but she forcibly pushed it away.
[Robin, answer it.]
[Who is it?]
The moment Robin saw Jesse’s name on the phone Harry handed him, he broke into a huge smile.
[But you have to speak English.]
[Of course!]
Unlike them, Jesse could not speak Korean.
Giggling at the thought of surprising Jesse, Robin answered the phone.
