.  It had been about two weeks since Yeo Dan oppa and I began to have this sham relationship. He didn’t receive any letters from his stalker since that time. Thus, if the situation continued to make good progress this way, we would soon end our relationship without any problems.

  Dropping my gaze at the floor meaninglessly, I murmured, ‘But why do I keep having strange thoughts these days?’


  “.…… The thought that it’s getting unsure whether this relationship is fake or not……”


  Mumbling those words in a small voice, I looked down at the floor for quite a while then flopped down on my bed. Taking my socks off, I lied down and fell into thought.

  It had been less than a month since I dwelled on what Choi Yuri said to me after I returned from the kidnapping incident. Her remark was, of course, still stuck firmly on my eardrums. If someone told me to bring that out from my memories, I could do that as many times as I could along with her infuriated expression and even that resentful look in her eyes.

  ‘I wish you would fall in love with someone while feeling like you’re about to burst, just like me.’


  Her cursing words that rather sounded like those in fairy tales……

  ‘Get lovesick, your heartbroken, and in the end, feel that your entire world has collapsed.’


  Instead of execrating me aloud to never love someone, she put a curse on me to fall into somebody. Perhaps, it could be the most frightening punishment for me, who had been repeatedly saying from middle school that I wouldn’t like anyone.

  ‘She chose the right person,’ murmuring that way, I shoved my face onto my bed. I really didn’t want to do such things, falling in love with someone and then get heartbroken and lovesick…… but……

  ‘Not sure…… more than ever……’


  Recalling Yeo Dan oppa’s remark, I nodded my head since I also wasn’t sure more than ever.

  ‘Even when it comes to you…… I thought I was getting to know you more……’


  I also thought that I was only getting to know him more, from his unexpectedly tiny habits such as touching my hair, furrowing his forehead, or sometimes biting his nails…… to his sincerely unknown side like loving my apple hair……

  But……

  ‘The more I get to know something, the more unsure I become…… about you and me, who’s with you.’


  So did I. The more I got to spend time with him, the more things I become to learn but, at the same time, not know about him. No, maybe that’s not it……

  I held my loose hands together. Before I even knew, my hands turned strangely cold. Rubbing my hands, I murmured, “The reason why I become to not know about him, even more, was that maybe because I actually wanted to learn about him further.”


  It had been quite a while since we exchanged questions competitively. Why did the time we spent learning about each other turn into a period to know about each other’s daily life? Why was I still desiring to know him further when I already heard his trivial stories?

  Looking at Yeo Dan oppa’s eyes in the middle of our conversation, I found his emotions, which were readable for some reason, in them. Those feelings were so clear like a neatly printed document.

  I closed my eyes. If we all had a box in our minds, we could open, check, or just close our own box, but we can’t do those things to someone else’s compartment. We only got to know that other people also just had their own boxes.

  No one would know what was inside. And that was why people were deceiving, betraying, and misunderstanding others sometimes; even we would trample on others’ sincerity or get stamped on ours.

  The only boxes I could see through clearly were those of the Four Heavenly Kings and Ban Yeo Ryung.

  I never doubted the fact that they liked me. Not just because of my longtime experience with them but also from our similar positions as freshmen in high school, I did have in mind that they ‘couldn’t hate’ me. It was a strong proposition to me.

  However, Yeo Dan oppa wasn’t. Instead, I had been learning over the past few years that he had no interest in me; from that time, I thought I had grasped about how to give up something. It was him, who first taught me in this world that I should give up those that I couldn’t have. That was what I thought, but……

  I wrapped my head with my hands again.

  “.…… I really don’t get it.”


  Why was I receiving those feelings from the look in his eyes when they were on me, which I found that he was delighted and excited. Perhaps, was he then……?

  Having a crush on me?

  The glance he gave me was different from the way he sent to his friends or a next-door neighbor. I kept feeling that Yeo Dan oppa was liking someone with a way he had never attempted before, and it was me whom he was gazing at with that look.

  When those feelings turned into certainty inside me, I became puzzled and confused. It made me feel like I was suddenly setting foot on a firm land while escaping from a swampy terrain; sometimes, I was like walking on the clouds.

  I had never got those feelings from someone; however, I seemed to know how they felt. Right now, Yeo Dan oppa’s compartment in his mind seemed to be on my palm. It felt like I could always open it anytime. Having those thoughts in my head, I shoved my face onto my hands.

  “Argh……”


  Actually, I also didn’t want to bid farewell. Thus, it seemed that I could quite understand clearly how he was feeling earlier, which was incomparable to the weather forecast service.

  Article 29. It Pours When I’m Without My Umbrella

  The day before Sports Day, the weather center forecasted that there was eighty percent chance of rain, which frightened the kids, who eagerly prepared for the event, and at the same time, delighted those who hated to run in the games.

  However, once I woke up in the morning of Sports Day and looked up at the sky, it was ridiculously sunny. Looking at the clear sky, I squinted my eyes shortly and murmured, “.…… Yeah, that’s how it goes.”


  Me in the past, who blurted out the honorary weather service…… what a good job! The weather forecast was, indeed, never correct even on Sports Day, a critical event in high school.

  What would have happened if I trusted the forecast and canceled the schedules? Thinking that way, I quickly packed my bag. The school provided meals as usual, so I didn’t have to carry any lunch box.

  I changed into the t-shirt I had received in advance, and after a moment of hesitance, I put the hairband in my bag. Um, my conscience wouldn’t allow me to wear a Minnie Mouse hairband on my way to school.

  Our class uniform for Sports Day was a black t-shirt with a red bow and short red pants on the bottom. Thankfully, our t-shirt was relatively run-of-the-mill to those of other classes, so I didn’t have to prepare any extra clothes.

  Now I had come to think of it, what was Yeo Ryung’s class wearing? Wondering about it for a moment, I stepped outside of the house since it was time to go to school. ‘I’ll just see it on-site,’ I thought.

  As soon as I opened the door, the fresh autumn air welcomed me. Since it was early October, the weather was a little chilly to wear short pants; however, I was carrying a blanket, so things would be fine. Besides, I usually wore my uniform skirt to school, so what was the problem? Thinking that way, I looked aside.

  “Donnie!”


  Ban Yeo Ryung was waving at me with a bright smile. Yeo Dan oppa was also standing beside her nonchalantly, which even looked so natural now.

  Checking Ban Yeo Ryung’s outfit, my jaw dropped onto the floor. I stood still for a moment then asked carefully, “.…… Are you sure you’re wearing that to school?”


  Ban Yeo Ryung tilted her head naively, “Yeah. Why? What’s wrong about this?”


  I touched my forehead. Sending a cautious gaze at his sibling, Yeo Dan oppa also had an expression as if he was asking, ‘Would that be okay?’


  Holding my forehead, I murmured in a small voice, “But that’s a hospital gown……”


  I did seem to hear in advance, but there were so many class uniforms arranged for Sports Day. Thus, I never knew that Class 1-1 had decided to wear a patient’s gown for today.

  As soon as I entered the streets with Ban Yeo Ryung, we encountered overwhelming attention from people. Not all the schools in our neighborhood were holding Sports Day, so except for our school, most of the students were just wearing their school uniforms.

  Being hesitant for a second, I soon took out the Minnie Mouse hairband and put it on my head. That seemed to be the only way to emit Halloween or Sports Day vibe and distract people from paying too much attention to Ban Yeo Ryung, who was wearing a hospital uniform.