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Chapter 4 ….
Contrary to what people misunderstood, Jesse Jackson had never dated Harry.
Every morning they walked to school hand in hand, and whenever there was a dance, his partner was always Harry—but that was all.
He had never once called Harry his girlfriend.
Everyone had simply assumed it in silence.
Still, there had been one moment when the atmosphere between them felt strange.
A moment when she thought he might kiss her.
‘Jesse, there’s something important I need to tell you right now.’
Caroline opened Jesse’s bedroom door, her eyes red as she delivered words that crashed down like a bolt from the blue.
‘Your father is very sick.’
Just like that, the chance for her first love and first kiss disappeared forever, but Harry could not bring herself to resent it.
Jesse’s father was ill—she could hardly throw a tantrum over something so trivial.
Besides, Jesse’s situation only kept getting worse, so she never dared to make the first move.
‘Maybe I was just imagining things on my own.’
Now that she thought back on it, she could not even be certain Jesse had really intended to kiss her.
Perhaps it had simply been wishful thinking born from her own desperation.
Watching Jesse’s back as he talked on the phone with a woman named Julia, Harry swallowed down her bitterness.
After properly starting work as a model, Jesse must have met all kinds of women.
Among them, there were surely women more financially comfortable and more attractive than Harry, a mere high school student living off allowance money from her parents.
Someone as plain as her probably no longer caught Jesse’s eye.
A low voice pulled Harry out of the quiet spiral of self-loathing she was drowning in.
“Lily, did you wait long?”
The same smiling face as Jesse’s. It was Caroline.
Without even trying to force it, a bright smile naturally spread across Harry’s face at the sight of her.
“Not long at all.”
“What do you mean not long? I always feel so bad making you do this every time.”
Whenever Caroline had rehabilitation therapy, Harry was the one who handled picking her up in place of Jesse, whose filming schedule was unpredictable.
Actually, today Jesse happened to have no schedule for once, so Harry did not really need to come herself.
But if she did not do things like this, it was hard to even see Jesse’s face these days.
“I like going on dates with you, ma’am.”
Caroline handed Harry her crutches and laughed as though she found her impossible.
“You should be going on dates with handsome boys instead of me. Where’s Jesse?”
“He’s on the phone for a moment.”
“Really?”
As if on cue, Jesse spotted Caroline, hung up his call, and walked over.
“How was therapy today?”
“I think I might be running around by tomorrow.”
Caroline joked with a smile.
All three of them knew that was impossible, but they needed silly jokes like that to endure things.
“That’s great. Should we have a race to see who gets home first?”
Jesse escalated the joke even further, making Harry burst out laughing too.
“I’m riding in the car with your mother. You can run all the way home by yourself.”
“That’s harsh, Lily.”
Pretending to cry, Jesse took the crutches from Caroline and supported her himself instead.
Naturally, her son was far more dependable than crutches.
When they reached the car parked in the hospital lot, Jesse helped his mother into the back seat before heading toward the driver’s side.
Harry, who had already buckled herself into the passenger seat first, jumped in surprise when the car door suddenly opened.
She had naturally assumed he would sit beside her.
“Lily, I’ll drive.”
“No, I’ll do it.”
“Come on, get out.”
As Harry bickered with Jesse, she glanced toward Caroline in the back seat.
Even if she did not show it, rehabilitation therapy had to be exhausting.
‘She must be tired. We should get her home quickly.’
Letting out a small sigh, Harry unbuckled her seatbelt and stood up.
Taking her place behind the wheel, Jesse drove the car with the ease of someone handling his own vehicle.
Seeing things like this made Harry feel maybe he had not changed all that much after all.
She was secretly stealing glances at Jesse’s profile while he drove when—
“It’s already autumn.”
Caroline, staring out the window, sighed at the sight of the leaves dyed red.
“Homecoming must be coming up soon. Who are you going with this year, Lily?”
At the sudden question, Harry awkwardly wrinkled the bridge of her nose.
Her partner had always been Jesse.
But he had already graduated, and now he was busy working.
There was no way he had time to spare for some mere school event.
“I don’t think I’m going this year.”
“What? Why?”
Caroline looked utterly shocked, as though Harry had just tossed away a winning lottery ticket onto the street.
“Just because. I’m kind of tired of it……”
She could not exactly admit she did not want to go because Jesse would not be there, so she made up an excuse instead.
That only made Caroline look even more unable to understand.
“Lily, this is your last homecoming in high school. You can’t let a chance like this slip away so meaninglessly. Absolutely not!”
Before long, Caroline turned her head toward Jesse.
“Jesse.”
“Yes?”
“You should go to homecoming with Lily.”
“Should I?”
Jesse, who had been quietly listening to their conversation, smiled faintly.
“What do you think, Lily?”
“……”
“Will you go to homecoming with me?”
After casually making Harry’s heart rise and fall all over the place, Jesse scratched the back of his neck awkwardly and laughed.
“Asking like this without even bringing flowers. That’s pretty shameless of me.”
“Okay.”
“Hm?”
“Let’s go together. To homecoming.”
Harry answered while absentmindedly fiddling with the car door handle.
She was afraid to check what expression Caroline was making—or what Jesse was thinking.
‘That was way too easy.’
Even Harry herself found it absurd, so Jesse probably did too.
“I’m looking forward to it.”
Thankfully, that was all Jesse said.
Or rather… was that really fortunate?
She did not know.
Every question involving Jesse felt that way.
Still, unable to hide the anticipation and excitement inevitably swelling inside her, Harry simply stared silently out the window.
The next day at lunch, Aymus once again shamelessly occupied the seat in front of her.
Harry changed locations every single day, yet somehow he always managed to find her. It was honestly impressive.
“……”
Harry glanced at him—acting as though they had arranged from the beginning to eat lunch together—then simply continued her meal.
“Why aren’t you telling me to get lost today?”
“What?”
Startled, Harry looked back at him.
“When did I ever say that?”
“You told me to stop following you around. Same thing.”
“That’s completely different! Well, the meaning is similar, but…….”
“See?”
Aymus scoffed.
Harry looked at him for a moment before shrugging.
Since Jesse had told her to keep Aymus around, she intended to follow that advice for now.
Perhaps suspicious of her sudden change in attitude, Aymus tilted his head slightly and stared at her.
“What exactly made you change your mind?”
“That’s none of your business.”
Harry firmly drew the line and silently resumed eating her sandwich.
For some reason, Aymus was unusually quiet today too.
Around the time they were nearly finished eating in silence, voices rose nearby.
“Ellie. I know it’s probably a little early to say this, but will you go to homecoming with me?”
The conversation sounded strangely familiar, making Harry instinctively turn her head.
Two freshmen who still looked adorably inexperienced were shyly smiling at each other.
“Already choosing partners. They’re pretty impatient.”
Aymus clicked his tongue.
Apparently, he had been watching the same thing.
“So what? If they’ve already made up their minds, there’s no reason to drag things out.”
Harry suddenly snapped in defense of the freshmen she did not even know.
After all, she herself had also “hurriedly” chosen a homecoming partner.
“Really?”
Aymus seemed to think about something for a moment before tilting his chin slightly.
“What about you?”
“Me?”
“Have you decided who you want to go to homecoming with?”
Since when were they close enough to ask each other things like that?
Harry tilted her head.
Personally, she was not even a little curious about who Aymus might want as his partner.
Still, summoning the bare minimum of social grace, she answered his question anyway.
“I already decided too. Jesse is my partner.”
Maybe she simply wanted to brag about it a little.
Realizing too late how embarrassing that sounded, Harry fanned her face with her hand.
“Jesse? You mean JJ?”
“Yeah.”
“But JJ already graduated.”
Aymus looked completely dumbfounded.
It was the first time Harry had ever seen that expression on him.
“Graduating doesn’t mean he can’t come here anymore.”
“……That’s true.”
Aymus suddenly burst into laughter. But it did not sound happy.
Laughing somewhat irritably, he muttered to himself,
“JJ really hasn’t changed even after graduating.”
Harry only moved her lips awkwardly, unsure how to respond.
“Is JJ doing well?”
“Yeah. Well……”
Jesse’s father still had not improved, but at least his condition was not getting worse either.
His mother was steadily continuing rehabilitation therapy.
And Jesse seemed to be getting work consistently these days too, so overall, he was doing fairly well.
Well enough to have time to meet women.
The name “Julia” she had seen on Jesse’s phone flashed through Harry’s mind again, making her chest sting painfully.
Still, without showing any sign of it, she nodded.
“Jesse is doing well.”
“That’s good.”
Aymus wore an indifferent expression, as though he had never even asked about Jesse in the first place.
Watching him, Harry suddenly grew curious.
‘Does someone like him ever fall for anyone?’
Now that Jesse had graduated and was gone, without question the most handsome guy in school was Aymus Huntington.
Yet instead of enjoying all the attention he received, he was wasting his time hanging around some boring girl simply because of Jesse’s request.
‘Seriously, I can’t figure him out.’
Feeling sorry for how he wasted his time on pointless things, Harry kindly offered him advice for once.
“Aymus, if there’s someone you like too, don’t put it off. Hurry up and tell them.”
“Yeah. I should.”
Aymus nodded while looking directly into her eyes.
Seeing him take her advice seriously made Harry oddly satisfied.
