.  As if that wasn’t enough, Yoo Chun Young shut the door with a bang.

  Looking at the door closed right in front of my face, I murmured while being stupefied, “Eh??”


  At that moment, someone blurted out behind the closed door while becoming short-tempered, ‘Why are you blocking my way?’ The person then stepped out of the classroom while opening the door. He was none other than Eun Jiho.

  Showing a delightful expression, I approached him and said, “Hey, Eun Jiho! Nice timing. I mean, listen. Do you know what Yoo Chun Young just did to me…?” Adding words in excitement, I was soon in a daze when the door closed with a loud slam again.

  Looking back and forth between the locked doors, I exclaimed, “Eh????” What were you guys doing right now?

  Frankly speaking, I wasn’t trying to hide the fact from others that Yeo Dan oppa and I were actually pretending to date as to disguise his stalker… except for Ban Yeo Ryung. Why was I trying to avoid telling the truth only to Ban Yeo Ryung? That was because as long as it was about me, she had such a light mouth. To put it in a nutshell, she became out of control.

  If someone asked her, ‘I heard your brother and Donnie are seeing each other. Is it true?’ she would shout out, ‘Bullsh*t! They are just faking!’ without a second thought. Both Yeo Dan oppa and I agreed to her taking that reaction. Thus, we decided to hide the truth, at least, from Yeo Ryung.

  However, except for Yeo Ryung, we planned to reveal the truth to a few people who knew both of us at the same time. Wouldn’t we feel less burdened if there were, at least, one person who would be sharing our secret?

  I had put the Four Heavenly Kings in the first place to reveal this secret. The four boys were all a man of few words, so I didn’t have to worry about our secret leaking out.

  However, there was one thing that mattered; the Four Heavenly Kings were always staying beside Ban Yeo Ryung. If I confessed to them through a few text messages or by phone calls, saying, ‘The truth is this and that,’ Ban Yeo Ryung could be reading the message or listening to our phone call. It would be big trouble if that happened.

  For that reason, I planned to meet the Four Heavenly Kings in person and tell them the truth face to face. But…


  The last class had ended, at last. Waiting for our homeroom teacher to return and wrap up the day, I was looking down at my desk.

  “What the heck is wrong with these guys?” I murmured in a daze.

  Eun Jiho and Yoo Chun Young didn’t just avoid me before the music class. Today I had to take quite a lot of classes while moving to different classrooms, so I had many chances to bump into them during Biology class, PE class, and even lunchtime.

  However, whenever I was in their sight, they were busy running away from me. Oh, come on, I wasn’t a patient with a deadly virus!

  I even wondered if I looked bad today that they didn’t want to say hi to me, so I asked the kids around me several times about my appearance. Once Lee Mina replied, ‘No, you look fine as usual,’ I slammed my head onto the desk, shouting to myself, ‘Why? Why are you guys behaving that way to me?’


  The moment when I was close to tears inwardly, Yoon Jung In, who flung the front door open, shook a big bag at us.

  “Come get your phones back!” he shouted.

  “Ah, yeah.”


  “I was dying to get it back.”


  It hasn’t been long since the second semester began and the teachers started to collect our phones, so many kids didn’t get used to this new rule yet. Resting my chin on my palm, I blankly watched the kids getting back their phones. Kim Hye Woo then dropped a phone in front of me.

  “Here, I saw yours too.”


  “Aw, that’s sweet of you,” replying with light heart, I quickly picked it up and opened my flip phone. Once I entered my inbox, I found it empty and turned on the light in my eyes.

  If they left any kind of excuse, I was about to forgive them, but no one even said a thing. Gnashing my teeth, I called Eun Jiho right away. There was still some time left until the teacher to return to our classroom.

  As if Eun Jiho also got his phone back just now, he picked up the phone within a single beep.

  ‘Geez, you’re gonna answer my call immediately like this!’ Thinking that way, I was about to feel better.

  “Hello?”


  “Hey.”


  “Dude! Why were you acting like…?”


  Eun Jiho, however, intervened in my words, which seldom happened, and began to only say what he wanted to. His following words dumbfounded me.

  “Um, hearing your voice is really…”


  “Really?” I repeated his word.

  “Is really making me feel much better but…”


  Eun Jiho’s voice sounded weaker than when he was having a severe cold in the past. Besides, did he just say that he was feeling much better?

  “So?” I tossed a question in bewilderment.

  “It’s intolerable.”


  “WHAT?”


  And that was the end of our conversation. The call ended all of a sudden. Putting the phone beside my ear, I was sitting on my seat absent-mindedly for quite a while. Taking it off from me, I heaved a deep sigh.

  I muttered while dropping my gaze at the phone screen, ‘What was he doing just now? How can it become a conversation when he only says what he wants and just hangs up? Eun Jiho, where did you throw out all the lessons you’ve learned from the business administration training?’


  Pressing my temples firmly, I called someone else. It was Yoo Chun Young. Humming quietly to the familiar music of the ringing tone, a voice soon came over the phone.

  “Uh-huh.”


  ‘He’s also responding, at least, to my call.’ With that thought in mind, I spoke in an angry voice on purpose.

  “Hey, Yoo Chun Young…”


  However, before I tried to drop the next words, he cut me off, saying, “Ah, hold on.”


  Excuse me? I didn’t say anything yet, did I? Did their teacher returned to their classroom? Being flustered at his response, I asked, “What?”


  “Try not to call my name.”


  “Huh?”


  “Ha…”


  The call then ended again out of the blue just like it did when I had a phone call earlier with Eun Jiho. Without any signs or warnings, I was left alone with a disconnecting beep. Sitting blankly with my phone next to my ear, I burst out yelling, at last.

  “Argh, are you kidding me?! What the hell is wrong with you guys?!” I raised my hand and disheveled my hair.

  Was avoiding me all day not enough? How could you guys answer the phone this way? While I roared in anger, the kids sitting around me tapped my desk and asked, ‘What’s going on?’ Shaking my head toward them, I immediately entered Jooin’s number. He quickly picked up the phone too.

  “Hello?” As soon as I answered sulkily for no reason at all, his response returned.

  “Mama! I’m so glad to hear your voice.”


  “Jooin…”


  Suddenly, I was moved to tears. If someone asked me why I was reacting so emotionally since we weren’t living apart in different cities and were even going to the same school, I didn’t have much to say. However, it had been a while to receive such a friendly response from someone.

  After three phone calls, I was able to bring up the reason I had called them, at last. Lowering my voice, I flung a question.

  “Jooin, when would you have time? I have something to talk to you about. It won’t take long.”


  However, his reaction was somewhat strange. His returning voice sounded as if he was in an awkward situation.

  “Ah, mama… that is…”


  “Huh?”


  “Theses bastards… if they weren’t able to see your face, they could just do it by themselves.”


  “What are you talking about…?”


  For some reason, even this phone call was showing a sign that it was about to go off the track. Wondering for a moment, I carefully asked him, “What you’re trying to say… does that involve Yoo Chun Young and Eun Jiho?”


  “Uh… yeah…”


  “Ah, come on, if they’re beside you, please ask them, why… for what reason are they behaving like that to me?”


  “That’s… um… before entering high school, you also asked us to ignore you without telling us the reason. The boys are telling me that now we’re even.”


  His response made my mouth shut.