Chapter 545: Chapter 545
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They say everything is made up of light and shadow. In Ban Yeo Ryung’s mories, there would exist so monts of her being saved by quite gloriously, but most of those would have stories behind them-too dark and painful for soone to even look at.
Being at a loss for words, I pounded my chest with my fist. That was when Ban Yeo Ryung opened her mouth again.
“It was about a month or two after that day that we fought. Probably in early February, when the admission letters of the middle school we had applied were delivered to us at the sa ti...”
Now we were getting to the point.
Maybe because it happened just a month before the ti when ‘I’ in this world and the ‘actual ’ from the original world changed, I felt sohow close to that Donnie who originally belonged to this world. That’s why I beca more nervous and tense.
“I guess there would have existed a sign of it,” uttered Ban Yeo Ryung in a subdued voice.
Tilting my head, I asked, “A sign?”
“Actually, I’ve thought about it since then... for years... but I still don’t get it. Since when did things begin to get distorted...? In fact, I’m not even sure what’s going wrong...”
Ban Yeo Ryung closed her eyes tightly. Her lashes trembled as if she was feeling pain.
“I get the end but not the beginning.”
“It’s fine. Just tell anything that cos to your mind. Still, I have no idea about them, you know.” I added composedly, “And... you’re the only one who can tell about those things. I’m gonna trust whatever you say.”
After I responded that way, Ban Yeo Ryung flickered her eyes, looking better, then slowly breathed in.
She carefully continued, “Well... I started to feel strange on the day before our graduation.”
“The day before graduation?”
“Uh-huh. There was a sign before that... like you showed this look to in the classroom that you didn’t seem to get along with anymore. Sotis, you frowned when I ca up to you. Perhaps, it wasn’t your intention to giving the eye. Instead, you seed to care how others were behaving...”
I quietly listened to her story, almost holding my breath.
“... Around that ti, we’re willing to go to the sa middle school together, and you’re nervous about your GPAs. That’s why I just tried to ignore you acting kind of strange to , thinking that you’re just being sensitive. Above all, you ca next to after school, as usual, even though you behaved like soone else during the class. And that’s why I didn’t think too deeply about the situation.”
“...”
“Then one day... geez, but I still don’t get it. Though it was the day before our graduation, nothing was special, you know. All we did was just writing so yearbook ssages...”
Giving a pause, Ban Yeo Ryung suddenly furrowed her brows. That was where I found a clue.
‘Writing so yearbook ssages.’
To her, it wouldn’t be anything particular. However, as a person having a conflict with a kid in our class, it was a different story to .
I asked her urgently, “Did you see my yearbook ssages?”
She shook her head, replying, “No. You didn’t let see it while pulling it tightly into your arms. Then you told to hand mine over to you, so I did it right away, and...”
“Uh-huh,” I nodded.
Touching her chin with her finger, Ban Yeo Ryung was then lost in thought. After a mont, she opened her mouth again.
“And shortly after, the kids suggested to take a class picture, so we gathered around the teacher’s table, but one kid tried to pull my arm and bring to the middle. She told that I should be at the center because I’m pretty. Ah, it was her, the girl who had so issues with cheating on the test...”
“Oh...” I blurted out, almost like a sigh.
“I grabbed your arm since I didn’t want to stand in the middle...”
It seed to be calm for a while, but the mories that didn’t belong to flooded into my sight.
A few balloons that seed to have been used during the graduation ceremony were hung on the blackboard, and so rolling around the floor. Empty coke bottles and pizza boxes were piled up in the corner of the classroom.
The mont when Ban Yeo Ryung with a bewildered look grabbed my arm tightly as if she was holding a rescue line, I almost shrieked in which I couldn’t even control.
‘If you have sothing to say, just do it yourself!’
‘... D... Donnie...’
‘I... I... am not your spokesperson, Ban Yeo Ryung...!’
“... That’s what you exactly said to .”
What Ban Yeo Ryung just uttered and the words I blurted out to her in the past overlapped at the sa ti.
Even though the Donnie in that mory and myself right now were completely different people, plus I was also quite younger than now, the words I said to her at the ti were sincerely unbelievable.
Those words left so weird lingering emotions, which soon prevailed in the entire living room. The space was then enveloped by a deafening silence.
Ban Yeo Ryung finally broke the ice, hesitatingly.
“That day, we returned ho without saying anything. Honestly, I pulled an all-nighter, worrying if you don’t talk to anymore, but you...”
Speaking to that extent, Ban Yeo Ryung paused, then suddenly stared at with her eyes trying to suppress tears.
“... You... treated so nicely, instead. And that’s why I forgot to ask you why, or perhaps, I was afraid to bring up the topic. Yeah, I might have feared screwing up the mont. Anyway, we took the admission exam for our middle school and stayed well until we received the results.”
Heaving a short sigh, she continued, “Not long after we took the admission exam, both our families had dinner at my house. We t quite often during the breaks, and around that ti, we hung out more frequently than now. We had dinner together almost every day.”
“Yeah, I know what you’re saying,” I nodded.
Since our families also gathered on the day before our high school entrance ceremony and enjoyed grilling, things would have been the sa at the ti too. The scene seed to appear in my mind.
Yeo Ryung’s voice turned deep as if she was tracing back the mories.
“During the dinner, our conversations covered much ground, as usual; neighborhood news, parents’ and their jobs, and our middle school admission. Of course, that was a topic since both of us took the exam and were waiting for the results.”
Ban Yeo Ryung’s face turned dark again.
“You looked grim all of a sudden probably when your parents began to guess whether you’d get into the school or not. They were saying sothing like, ‘Donnie can be rejected, but we understand that.’ Whenever they talked that way, you got annoyed, retorting, ‘Why are you so offensive?’ or ‘I don’t even look forward to getting in.’ That’s how it went that evening.”
I sighed deeply. Our parents still had so problems talking that way to from ti to ti. Thus, those words could be sincerely unbearable to in the past.
At the ti when we weren’t assured of ourselves–our strengths, abilities, and achievents–those comnts from the closest people could break our hearts.
Besides, I was too young back then, so even such trivial failures like singing out of tune during a class performance or stumbling down from a vaulting horse could beco the gravest blunder in my life.
After a mont, Ban Yeo Ryung kept on speaking, “I guess I was very concerned at that ti if we don’t get to go to the sa school. As I ntioned earlier, I was a pathetic kid who couldn’t say anything without you. I an, I did think about fixing my personality because of what happened on the day before our graduation, but I was doubtful whether I could actually do it or not. Amid the situation, it scared to think about you and splitting in middle school...”
I was then able to connect the dots on how the situation unfolded when Ban Yeo Ryung talked about the next part.
“I grabbed your sleeves and asked, ‘If you don’t go to the sa school, should I not go there too?’ The look on your face then changed.”
Probably, I scread at her. That’s what I thought. If the state of my mind was that much unstable to strike such a retort to Ban Yeo Ryung just because she pulled my arm, I would have definitely shouted at her in front of our parents during the dinner too.
However, it was quite different from what I’d had in my mind.
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