.  Like a shot-putter, I turned myself and threw the trash bag to the dump as vigorously as I could. We then washed our hands and headed back to the school building while shaking off the water.

  That was when I felt the stinging in my nape.

  I turned around hesitantly. Kim Hye Hill, who was standing beside me, asked, “What’s wrong?”


  “Uh, nothing… never mind.”


  The moment I replied that way and tried to turn my head toward Kim Hye Hill, I met a pair of sky-blue eyes directing on this side from the empty hallway in a distance.

  This time, Kim Hye Woo asked the same question.

  “What’s up, again?”


  “There…”


  I pointed my finger at the detached building that had a glass-fronted hallway. The Kim twins switched their gaze in the same direction where I was staring at.

  In the warm autumn light, the detached glass building emitted a cold atmosphere as if it was glasswork. Inside that building, a teenage boy was standing in the hallway.

  He looked quite young and na?ve for a teenager. It seemed like he was a boy who existed alone as if he shouldn’t be bound by any social custom or class. Maybe he wouldn’t be a human being at all.

  His sky-blue hair was so smooth that it didn’t look hair-dyed and was a little longer that it wrapped around his white face and fell under his ears. He looked like a foreigner but had mono-lid eyes and a small straight nose. Like a wax figure, his spiritless face looked too pale and transparent that even the sunlight seemed to penetrate his face.

  With that appearance, he was just standing there looking at me. We weren’t facing each other in a close distance, but I could feel his piercing glance.

  His face stole my attention for a while that I could barely gather back my senses when Kim Hye Woo said something to me.

  “Looking at him in this way, he does look like a ghost. Now I get why that rumor is spreading out.”


  “Uh-huh.”


  “But if he isn’t a student in our school, isn’t he an intruder?”


  With that said, Kim Hye Woo tried to head toward the security office. Kim Hye Hill then stopped him.

  “Oppa, you’ll get cursed.”


  “He isn’t a ghost, so why will I get cursed?”


  “You don’t need to turn him in.”


  Listening to the twins beginning to quarrel, as usual, I diverted my eyes back onto the hallway. He was still wearing our school uniform just like when I saw him at the main entrance a few days ago.

  That was why I thought he would be someone who could blow a fresh breeze into the school, but why was he not going through the transfer procedure yet? Besides, if he wasn’t planning to transfer to our school, why was he behaving like that while wearing our school uniform?

  Rambling those thoughts in mind, I lowered my head upon something suddenly vibrating in my pocket.

  “Eh?”


  I thought the vibration was, of course, coming from my phone; however, when looking around the phone without any lights on, I suddenly reached a different thought.

  Watching me taking out a different phone from my pocket, Kim Hye Woo flung a question.

  “Are you still carrying that phone?”


  “Yeah, I can’t help since I don’t know when this will ring.”


  Replying to Kim Hye Woo, I opened the flip phone.

  Sent by: !%^451

  Miss me?

  While I was checking the phone screen, the Kim twins put their faces close on both sides of me. When they finally saw the text message, the look on their faces changed enigmatically.

  They soon raised their heads and spoke one after another.

  “Isn’t this something like a new ghost story such as scary text message stories?”


  “Yeah, why don’t we browse it on the web?”


  “It’s too freaky.”


  Listening to Kim Hye Hill’s response, I rubbed my chin. I mean, it wasn’t that scary for me… because I received a scarier message than this one before. It was a message from none other than Jooin.

  ‘LOLOLOLOL,’ the text that he sent me without any additional information was the most horrifying thing that could ever happen in my life. Trembling upon the sudden memory, I heard Kim Hye Woo’s voice.

  “Oh, he’s gone.”


  I raised my head to look in the direction. It was what he just said. The boy with sky-blue hair disappeared without a trace from the detached building at some point. He vanished away so magically that I could really believe he was a ghost.

  We might have taken only a few seconds to check the message, but how could he disappear like that in such a short time?

  Recalling the fuss that took place yesterday, he wouldn’t be a ghost unless everyone was having a hallucination, so I could only think that he was agile. Thus, he would be just as athletic as Yi Ruda. Thinking to that extent, I shook my head.

  ‘Oh, who cares? What’s the big deal?’ Whether or not he was a ghost, if he wasn’t transferring to our school, it was none of my business. Besides, even if he would transfer to our school, it was nothing to do with me.

  I pulled the twins, who began to debate if he was a ghost or not, and headed back to the classroom.

  * * *

  When I opened the classroom door, the atmosphere felt strange in the meantime. The overall air was somewhat awkward and gloomy but, thankfully, there weren’t any signs of rage or hostility.

  The dropout of Yi Ruda, one of the pivotal figures in our class, had a big impact on our class, and if there had also been a fight after that incident, Yoon Jung In might have been in great trouble to fix it.

  However, looking at Yoon Jung In, I soon realized that the current atmosphere had something to do with him. That was because the invincible Yoon Jung In was cleaning out the drawer in silence.

  How could Yoon Jung In clean his drawer when we all knew that his drawer was like Doraemon’s 4D pocket?

  Rearranging his things in the drawer, Yoon Jung In looked stiff and dark for the whole time. It was sure that he was upset. Yoon Jung In had well-defined facial features like those of an action hero; his physique was also toned enough that I once thought that he would really turn scary if he got mad. Now that I had seen him looking severe, he seemed more fearful than my expectations. I was glad he was doing something peaceful right now like organizing his desk.

  The Kim twins and I, who were walking on eggshells while standing next to the backdoor, found Lee Mina. We then walked toward her.

  I glanced around while rolling my eyes then lowered my voice.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  Lee Mina looked unexpectedly apathetic, which seemed that it wasn’t something bad.

  “Oh, nothing special. We just came up with guessing why Yi Ruda has transferred.”


  “Oh…”


  “But since many of us think that it’s related to his family circumstances, Yoon Jung In told us not to talk about other’s private things thoughtlessly.”


  I nodded, thinking, ‘So, that’s what happened.’ Disheveling her hair as if she felt tiresome, Lee Mina then opened her lips again.

  “He’s right, but kids, who brought up those guesses, also felt upset about Yi Ruda’s sudden transfer. You know, it feels better to assume that something has happened to Yi Ruda for the reason of his dropout.”


  I nodded again. It was a difficult matter to tell which side was right and wrong. Yoon Jung In’s remark was a reasonable argument; however, kids, who brought up some things about Yi Ruda’s family, also did that because they felt upset upon her leave.

  I also became perplexed to hear others talking about how upset they were, and how Yi Ruda could treat them like nothing when they all had a good relationship. I was the only person who knew the truth, and that it wasn’t Yi Ruda’s real intention to just leave without bidding a farewell. However, if I confess recklessly, saying, ‘Actually, it was Yi Ruda’s mother who…’ wouldn’t that be also very disrespectful?

  ‘This is hard.’


  Heaving a sigh, I turned around to look at Yoon Jung In who was still cleaning out his drawer. Everyone in our class seemed like they were reading Yoon Jung In’s countenance instead of being mad at him.

  That was when Yoon Jung In suddenly changed the look on his face. Opening his eyes round, he put his hand deep inside his drawer then found a pack of candy that had dust and pencil debris all over.