Chapter 23: The leader apologizes to the extras.

‘How?’

I clearly saw her get on the escalator with me.

But, how did this person come behind me?

“Haa…….”

Kim Hayeon was breathing a little heavily, as if she had run.

That breath was transmitted to me intact.

“……What about that person?”

Perhaps stimulated by Kim Hayeon’s actions, the woman who grabbed my wrist tightened her grip.

At the same time, I could see the area around my grabbed wrist turning red.

‘It’ll leave a mark.’

My skin is already weak, and if I’m grabbed so roughly like this, it might even bruise.

She’s a rude person.

It was rude to suddenly ask a stranger a question, but there was no one more unsightly than a person who wields their emotions and forces others.

At first, I wanted to resolve it with words, but now it was different.

This person, was the type I hated the most.

“I told you? She’s with me.”

So, it was when I was about to use force to pull out my grabbed hand.

Kim Hayeon’s hand, which came from behind, grabbed the wrist of the hunting woman who was holding my wrist.

And, she put in enough force to make the veins visible.

“Ugh…….”

Then, at the same time, the hunting woman released her strength and let go of my hand.

Kim Hayeon also released her hand when the hunting woman’s hand was released from my wrist.

“Does it hut?” (Does it hurt?)

At that one word, the hunting woman glared fiercely at Kim Hayeon.

“You, what are you doing now.”

“It’s funny that someone who grabs other people’s wrists so tightly gets angry when they’re grabbed. That’s why you’re doing something as silly as hunting.”

“……What did you say?”

Kim Hayeon’s tone was full of sarcasm.

The atmosphere was also tense, as if they were about to fight at any moment.

This, didn’t seem very good.

“Stop provoking her. Are you planning to fight?”

I couldn’t take it lightly because, even if it was someone else, Kim Hayeon had a history.

The academy strictly prohibits violence itself.

Even if it was violence that occurred outside, if a student of the academy was involved, it would not be taken lightly.

Kim Hayeon had been disciplined several times in middle school, so if she got involved this time, it was obvious that a much more severe disciplinary action would be taken than then.

Moreover, the cause was trying to save me from a person who was hunting me?

It’s not even funny.

When I spoke, Kim Hayeon glanced at me and then turned her gaze back to the hunting woman.

“Hey, makeup caked-on woman. Do you see over there?”

The place Kim Hayeon was pointing to showed a security guard who had come at some point and was carefully watching this side.

He seemed to be the person assigned to this floor.

“He’s a security guard I’ve been seeing since I came down? If you don’t want to get tired, just disappear nicely. Huh?”

“……Tch.”

The hunting woman looked at the security guard, clicked her tongue once, glared at me for a moment, and then walked away without saying a word.

Even so, it seemed that she wasn’t the type of person to cause more trouble while the security guard was watching.

Should I say it’s a relief?

The gazes that had gathered on us were gradually fading as the hunting woman left.

But I still felt some gazes.

I could guess the reason.

“……Can’t you let go now?”

Kim Hayeon was still holding my shoulder.

There’s no way there wouldn’t be gazes if we’re in this position.

“The first thing you say is that after I saved you?”

“No, I’m grateful that you came, but still, this and that are separate, and in the first place, where are the other kids…….”

“More than that, wait a minute.”

“……Huh?”

Saying that, Kim Hayeon pulled my shoulder closer to her.

The force in the hand holding my shoulder wasn’t that strong.

It was just enough force that I could resist if I wanted to.

Even so, my body was pressed against Kim Hayeon without strength.

“It was definitely your right hand, right?”

Kim Hayeon rolled up my sleeve.

The wrist that was revealed showed the mark where the hunting woman had just grabbed.

“It’ll be there until tomorrow. I don’t think it’ll bruise, though……you have weak skin, so it might bruise if you’re unlucky.”

“……Do you remember? That?”

It wasn’t a story about remembering the grabbed wrist.

It was the words that came after that, ‘weak skin’.

Those words, were what I said in middle school.

“Remember and forget, it’s only been a year?”

The reddish-brown eyes that had been looking down came down, and my pupils and hers met exactly.

Perhaps because I hadn’t closed my eyes once since Kim Hayeon grabbed my shoulder.

Every scene of her expression changing is captured in my eyes.

From an expressionless face that gives a feeling of pressure to the person looking at it, as soon as our eyes met, her eyes curved slightly and changed to a softened face.

“Why, did you perhaps see me in a new light?”

“…….”

It was definitely a short time.

No, it was a moment that passed so quickly that it was embarrassing to even call it short.

However, for me, that moment stretched out like a rubber band.

The surrounding sounds scatter like sand and disappear.

The only thing I hear is the loud heartbeat pounding in both ears.

It was the same as before.

It was the same when she touched my hair at the bus stop, when she gave me cookies, and when we were close in the elevator.

And now, it was the same.

She was looking at me with a smiling face.

Maybe it’s just my misunderstanding.

From her point of view, it might just be an expression that happens to be made as she passes by.

But, from my point of view, that expression of hers was a face I hadn’t been able to see at all since she was suspended in middle school.

Because I hadn’t met her since then.

Because I was just watching her play with other kids from afar.

Even when I met her at the entrance in the morning for disciplinary committee activities, I just said it stiffly and passed by.

I regretted it after breaking up like that in middle school.

I regretted myself for spitting out abusive language just because she had used violence to the point of seriously injuring someone, just because she broke her promise.

I wanted to say I was sorry so many times.

However, it was difficult to be honest.

It was even more so after I realized that she was deliberately avoiding me.

My attitude became more and more distant from my true feelings, and I think I said harsher words than I thought when I met her at the bus stop.

But, if it comes to this, I couldn’t not know.

Then and now, she wasn’t bad.

The bad one, was me.

It was the same now.

In front of her, who remembers the words I said a year ago, I wasn’t saying the most important words I should have said.

Therefore, this time, I opened my mouth.

“……I’m sorry. For saying that, back then.”

When I opened my mouth, time, which felt like it wasn’t flowing at all, began to flow quickly.

And, silence flowed.

Because of that, I was caught up in the feeling that I was wondering whether I had opened my mouth to speak or not.

However, I knew when I saw Kim Hayeon’s complicated expression.

Ah, I spoke.

I said I was sorry.

‘Why?’

The first thing I thought was why I said that.

Until a little while ago, we were bickering.

But, what would be conveyed by saying this now?

Why did I say I was sorry in this situation?

It would have been fine to say it later, not in a hurry.

Saying it in such a noisy, crowded place.

I didn’t even clearly say what I was apologizing for.

Like this, there was no way my words would reach her.

It was the worst.

I, why.

“……Back then.”

However, it seems that she immediately realized what I was apologizing for.

It would have been easier if she hadn’t noticed.

I didn’t want to make her, make that expression.

“No, no. It’s not that, I mean I’m sorry for getting you involved in such a bothersome thing now…….”

As I was flustered and speaking, she gently stroked my hair.

At that moment, strangely, my mouth, which had been squeezing out words, no longer opened.

I need to say more.

My mouth, which was open well during the disciplinary committee meeting, stopped.

“It was also my fault for not telling you.”

No. That’s not it.

“Still, until now, an apology…….”

“You apologized now? That’s enough.”

Why, so easily.

“And, in the first place, you’re the one who scolds me, right? It was the same when we first met, and when we last met in the disciplinary committee in middle school.”

“…….”

“So, you don’t have to keep it in your heart.”

It was always like that.

I thought I was guiding her, but when I looked at the big picture, I was just being considerate of her.

From the moment I first met her in the back alley of the building under the pretext of monitoring truancy.

Even when we shared trivial stories and shared each other’s stories.

Even the moment I spoke to her first in the morning under the pretext of guiding her.

I, was being considerate.

‘……I see.’

The reason I felt strange seeing Sejeong and Kim Hayeon’s relationship.

It was covered with the words that it was for Sejeong, but now I could clearly know.

I, like Sejeong, wanted to talk comfortably with Kim Hayeon as before.

Just, that.

“Baek Ahra is most cool when she’s being Baek Ahra. Don’t be so discouraged.”

At that one word, I felt something in my heart melt.

“……I’m sorry, I’m sorry…….”

“Yeah, yeah. Our disciplinary committee president is a spoiled child, huh? I just found out.”

Even with the teasing words, I had to calm my emotions in Kim Hayeon’s arms for a while.

‘……Hmm, it’s really troublesome.’

It wasn’t that Baek Ahra apologized to me that was troublesome.

Rather, it was that other people were now watching with interest the situation where I was hugging a crying girl.

In particular, it was quite a headache what to say to the three who were watching Baek Ahra hug me from upstairs.

‘I don’t know.’

I’ll make an excuse somehow.

The me in 10 seconds will definitely be more advanced than the me now.

……Really, what should I do.