Chapter 158: Chapter 158
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When the bell rang to announce the break after the 4th class, Lee Mina ca toward us and perched on the chair. Before I was about to say sothing, Kim Hye Hill opened her mouth.
“Hey, when she passed the senior stairway, so sunbaes cursed at her in the morning.”
“Gosh, what did they say?” asked Lee Mina, frowning her eyes.
Kim Hye Woo, sitting behind us, also tilted his head toward this side as if he was about to listen to our conversation.
Kim Hye Hill asked, “Yeah, why did they say?”
“Um, they asked why I don’t kill myself.”
Lee Mina then replied imdiately with a grimace.
“Oh, shiitake mushrooms! What a son of a buffalo chip!”
“Hold on, what did you say?”
It was Yoon Jung In who reacted to her words while walking past by us. Refusing his steps, he flung that question to Lee Mina with a blank face. Lee Mina then replied to him with a shrug.
“So seniors said to Donnie why isn’t she committing suicide!”
“Oh, really? What the... but you said sothing afterward.”
“You an, shiitake mushrooms! What a son of a buffalo chip?!”
“Geez, so clever. Are you a genius?”
After his remark, Yoon Jung In suddenly collapsed into a fit of giggles. Lee Mina’s voice was so loud that other kids around us also burst into laughter while looking at us. Burying their faces onto their desks, so were at a loss of words.
A mont after, Yoon Jung In, who barely suppressed his laughter, twitched his lips and tapped my shoulder. ‘What the heck is this,’ I thought. Frowning my eyes, I looked up at him.
Yoon Jung was stilling smiling against the backdrop of the bright classroom in the sumr sun. He continued while holding my shoulder.
“Hey, don’t mind that rumor.”
His unusually serious voice made put a sad face. How hard did I try to not think about it?
People usually believed what they heard, and among them, there would be people who would deliver Choi Yuri’s words carelessly.
Being aware of those facts, I tried to ignore and move on; however, I couldn’t help myself from feeling stuffy and awful. Like swallowing pills without water, these emotions were stuck on my throat and never went down. You would never know how much I tried to get over it...
My face turned dark helplessly. As if he read my feelings from my look, Yoon Jung In held my shoulder in perplexity.
He said, “Hey, no. I wasn’t try to say that those things were nothing. I’m not telling you to resist it too. Co on, what did you do wrong? The rumors don’t have any proof. They are all just false and subjective. Choi Yuri is the one who must be blad for talking about untruthful things. I wasn’t trying to say just ignore them and move on.”
“...”
When I just looked up at Yoon Jung In speechlessly with my eyes round opened, his hold on my shoulder tightened. He then released while frowning his dark brows and tilted his face a bit toward with his usual smile.
While the kids in our class all focused on us, he kept on his words.
“You went to school today with Ban Yeo Ryung, huh? That ans you both spoke well anyway. What did she say?”
I replied with a shrug, “She doesn’t believe it at all.”
“What about others? Such as the kids from your middle school who know about this or so?”
Yoon Jung In seed to talk less obviously about the Four Heavenly Kings. Most of the kids in our class didn’t know that the Four Heavenly Kings and I were close. Rolling my eyes, I answered back to his question.
“They just asked if I were ok. They also told not to worry about the rumors.”
‘Although Eun Jiho and Woo Jooin didn’t reach out yet,’ I thought. I had no idea why they kept their silence for this long.
Yoon Jung In put a full smile as if my response was enough. He then said to while lifting his body.
“Look.”
“What do you an?”
“Did any of the guys you knew well trust that rumor and tell you sothing?”
“No, but...”
‘Strangers said to ...’ instead of adding those words, I just bit my lips.
Yoon Jung In’s remark relieved myself, at last, from those that distressed until now, the negative feelings that I had from others’ redefining who I was.
When I closed my mouth in the middle of my words, Yoon Jung In put a confident smile on his face then spoke to .
“Do you think I never went through any rumors about myself? Most of the people have a similar experience like this.”
“...”
“And from these happenings, I learned sothing, you know. Those who trust the rumors and curse you have no idea who you are. Think about it. There is no proof and even so wouldn’t have listened to it whatsoever. Most of the people who curse you are just following others.”
“Then, what should I do? Should I explain that I’m innocent? What else I can do?”
I wanted to ask him what I could do to stop others from talking about . Yoon Jung In, however, shook his head with a shrug.
“No matter how many tis you explain, it’s useless. Believers will believe anyway. Did you explain everything to each of your friends, Ban Yeo Ryung and the other boys? Did they say, now that they could trust you?”
I shook my head.
No. As soon as Ban Yeo Ryung saw , she hung drops of tears in her jet-black eyes. Before I was about to explain sothing, she said to that she trusts . Her voice sounded so desperate as if she spoke with a feeling rising from her toe to the head. It showed how sincere she was to . Thus, I didn’t have to take those words out to explain, which I picked out many tis inside my head but lost their shapes at the end.
Yeah, I didn’t have a conversation with Ban Yeo Ryung to ask her for trust or sothing like that. We didn’t need to say such things regardless. What about Kwon Eun Young or Yoo Chun Young?
I shook my head.
Yoon Jung In then said, “Yeah, that’s how it goes. The reason why they trust you no matter what is that they know you aren’t a person to do such things. You proved yourself from your actions over the ti you spent with them. Don’t mind what the strangers say. Those aren’t your people. If you care every single thing, only you’ll feel pain in your heart.”
“...”
“There’s one thing good when this kind of thing happens. You get to know who your real people are. That’s it.”
The wind blow through the opened window waved my hair. In the middle, there stood Yoon Jung In crossing his arms while looking faded and vivid at the sa ti. Feeling a little far away, I narrowed my eyes.
Yoon Jung In usually joked around or talked funnily in a light tone. His voice and words, however, cooled down the heated air and the fuss around our classroom. Like a cold water drop, his last words lingered around us then perated into the air.
Soone then said, “Yoon Jung In... dude, so cool.”
And at the sa ti, another boy spoke in a husky voice.
“Holy cow, my heart was about to pound. It’s dangerous, right?”
He then grabbed his chest, which made Yoon Jung In jump up with fear in his usual, exaggerated look on his face.
“Huh, what did you say? Oh, shoot, don’t co close to .”
“Yoon Jung In, hold on! Once I hug you, I can see what this feeling is.”
“What the hell!”
Yoon Jung In spoke while laughing to death, he then soon jumped over two chairs and ran out of the backdoor. Following him, the boy who grabbed his pounding chest and a few kids who gathered up to make their love co true dashed out of the classroom. Only a frosted silence left inside the space.
The wind blow through the opened window shook the gray rollup blinds again then scattered around us. It flipped the pages of my textbook on the desk. Kim Hye Hill, then burst out laughing.
“Yoon Jung In, how can he never act cool till the end?”
Lee Mina, beside us, was laughing out loud. Most of the boys went out after Yoon Jung In, so there were only girls inside the classroom.
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