Chapter 36: Skein of thread(3).

Drrr- “Of…!”

The hospital room door opened and as Chayeon entered, Arena, who had been lying on the bed, got up with a happy expression.

But just for a moment,

“Hmph, whatever! What’s with you coming to see me every day like that?”

She returned to her usual prim mode and crossed her arms and turned her head away.

It was a reaction that was no different from usual.

“Just, I don’t have anything to do.”

“You don’t have anything to do? So visiting me is just to kill time!?”

“It’s not like that.”

Ignoring Arena, who was nagging, Chayeon stepped inside.

It was embarrassing to say it like that, but in fact, Chayeon was spending busy days after skipping a grade.

After cast (you will be missing your d*ck in the near future) on Jujiho, she had a lot to do as she adapted to the new life.

“Hmph! I’m not happy at all that you’re coming, you know?”

“Yeah, yeah. Where did the chair go?”

Casually dismissing Arena’s words, Chayeon looked around.

The four-legged chair next to the bed, which was always there, was not visible.

“Huh? You’re right?”

Arena tilted her head with a blank face.

She had been in this room all day, but she didn’t seem to know.

“I can’t help it. Arena, move a little to the side.”

“H, huh!?”

Arena was embarrassed as Chayeon plopped down on the bed as it was.

“Wh, wait? Why, why are you getting on here!?”

“Why do you ask. Are you telling me to keep standing with my legs hurting? It’s narrow, so move a little more.”

As Chayeon wiggled her butt and moved further inside, Arena stumbled and moved her seat as well.

In that way, the two people ended up sitting side by side on the hospital bed.

Arena’s face was like an erupting volcano.

‘Her reaction is strange.’

Until recently, didn’t she come at me with a snort and try to fight?

Could it be that she fell for my constant visits?

‘There’s no way.’

Chayeon chuckled at his own absurd thought and began to set up a portable table on the bed.

“Huh? What are you doing?”

Arena asked with a puzzled face, but he didn’t answer since she would find out soon anyway.

Silently setting up the table, Chayeon took the bowl and basket with apples on the side table, and a knife, and began to peel the apples.

It was a kind of apology.

If Chayeon was asked if she had done anything wrong, she could answer that she hadn’t done anything wrong at all, but anyway, Arena had followed him and ended up in the hospital.

For that reason, Chayeon was visiting Arena every day.

…Actually, it wasn’t just that.

After being almost harmed by Jujiho and being injured, Chayeon unknowingly began to rely on the people around her little by little.

The biggest part of it was Seohee and Arena, and Chayeon would regain an unknown peace of mind when she entered Arena’s hospital room.

“Ah, I’ll do it!”

Besides, she was also a strangely likable child.

At first, she just thought she was a unique and slightly crazy girl, but she was more simple and kind than she thought.

“What are you going to do when your hand isn’t even healed.”

“I’m okay now!”

“Say that after you take off the bandages.”

“Even if I have bandages on, can you peel apples better than me?”

Arena, who was about to get angry, stopped talking when she saw the apple in Chayeon’s hand.

Chayeon was skillfully peeling the apple.

The round and pretty apple revealed its flesh, and Chayeon skillfully divided it into eight equal parts.

“You’re good at peeling apples?”

“I’ve done it a lot.”

Even at Arena’s surprised voice, Chayeon answered indifferently and took another apple from the basket.

“You’ve done it a lot?”

“My parents passed away when I was fourteen. Since then, I’ve been doing this and that by myself.”

Chayeon, who answered casually, glanced to the side and saw Arena looking at Chayeon with an expression of not knowing what to do.

She’s so flustered just at the words that her parents passed away, she’s still young.

She’s only three years younger than Chayeon, though.

“I don’t care anymore. Don’t worry about it.”

“U, uh. Sorry…….”

“What about.”

Seeing Arena stammering out an apology while embarrassed, she realized anew the age of Seohee, who gently comforted her and naturally switched to another topic.

It would be rude to Seohee-sensei to compare her to a kid who isn’t even an adult yet.

“I somehow graduated well from high school, though.”

“Huh?”

Arena tilted her head at Chayeon’s words.

“02.”

“You graduated? From middle school?”

“03.”

“Wh, what. Jeon Chayeon, weren’t you younger than me!?”

Arena was seventeen this year.

She was still seeing Chayeon as a middle school student.

“Then are you the same age? Are you seventeen?”

“I’m twenty.”

“Tweeeeenty!?”

Arena screamed in surprise at Chayeon’s nonchalant words.

My ears were ringing because I heard it right next to me.

“No way! That’s a lie!”

“Why would I lie?”

“T, twenty. You’re an adult? You were older!? Oppa!?”

Arena’s voice grew in gradation.

Besides, from the last words, it seemed that she was still mistaking Chayeon for a cross-dressing man.

This is troubling.

Biologically, Chayeon was currently a woman, so the word Oppa was strictly speaking wrong, but somehow it was a bit strange to deny those words and say Unni.

Unable to affirm or deny it, Chayeon chose to change the subject.

“I came after going to university.”

“U, university!? A university student!?”

I wondered if being a university student was that surprising, but when I thought about Chayeon herself, I could understand the reaction.

…Wait, then was Arena thinking that a middle school student was dating Seohee-sensei, who was twenty-eight years old?

She was a child with a great imagination in many ways.

“Oh, but then… … …”

Arena, who was about to ask something, suddenly trailed off and hesitated.

“What is it.”

“…No, it’s nothing.”

“Why are you being unlike yourself? What is it.”

When Chayeon urged, Arena carefully opened her mouth.

“Tuition, should I say? Ah, registration fee. I was wondering how you did such things……………”

I thought Seohee’s story would come up without fail, but it was an unexpected question.

“I have an aunt. She seems to be quite well-off, so she also subsidizes my living expenses and pays for my tuition.”

“I see.”

Arena nodded as if she understood.

What was it like in high school?

It was a little vague and I don’t remember well, but well, my aunt helped me in many ways, so I must have graduated safely.

Scrape, scrape.

While such conversations were exchanged, apples were piling up.

“…Wait, wait a minute! Jeon Chayeon! You peeled too many!”

“Huh? Ah, you looked like you would eat a lot.”

Arena’s complexion turned snow-white at Chayeon’s words, which she threw out without thinking.

“D, do I look like I eat a lot?”

“Huh?”

“Do I look fat? Am I, am I getting fat? Is it because I’m just sitting!?”

Arena flustered almost in a panic.

Arena, grabbing Chayeon’s shoulders, shook her wildly.

I wish she wouldn’t do things like this when her hand wasn’t even healed.

“No, I didn’t mean it that way.”

It was just that that was the feeling she got from her personality.

Arena’s body was not a body that anyone could say was fat.

Depending on the person, they might even say she was thin, but in Chayeon’s eyes, she had good-looking arms and legs, a thin waist, and long, straight legs with a developing body that was still expected to grow.

Unlike Chayeon, who had the body of a little girl, she had a body that exuded femininity.

If she grows up like this, she won’t she be able to threaten Seohee wonderfully?

Of course, she didn’t say out loud something like Arena’s body has everything in the right places and is the best.

I don’t want to be seen as a girl who envies Arena’s body, and I don’t want to be seen as a cross-dressing man who rattles off evaluations that your body is awesome.

That’s why I kept silent, but that attitude of Chayeon’s fueled Arena even more.

“…Diet!”

“Huh?”

“I’m going to go on a diet!”

After that, for a full hour, Chayeon had to struggle to calm Arena, who was about to jump out of bed saying that she would start exercising right away.

“So, about this part.”

After barely calming Arena down, Chayeon rummaged through his bag and took out a book.

This book, titled 「Algebraic Topology」 on a yellow cover published by Springer, was a subject that Chayeon was newly learning as she moved up to the 3rd grade.

It was a mathematics major subject called algebraic topology.

Many liberal arts courses are opened in the 1st grade and tend to disappear around the 3rd grade, but this terrible math did not leave even when the grade went up.

Rather, it came back even more advanced.

Since mathematics was at the theoretical foundation of many abilities, Ineungnyeokja and mathematics were inseparable.

It was a story that had nothing to do with Chayeon, who covered everything with her senses, but this class was still a common subject.

Besides, if she didn’t pass the quiz that was coming up to a reasonable standard, she wouldn’t receive a payment.

Cutting off support by cutting off grades.

It’s a really stingy method that deserves to be cursed.

As Chayeon, who didn’t want to be indebted to Seohee any more for living expenses, she had to study math, which she had never been involved with in her life, while crying and eating mustard.

“Let’s see, Singular Cohomology?”

“Singyulleong… …what?”

And surprisingly, Arena was good at math.

Not only mathematics but she was also proficient in most liberal arts courses.

If you think about it, Arena was the runner-up in the entire 1st grade, following Jujiho.

Being the runner-up in the 1st grade was not something that could be achieved just because you were good at practical skills.

It was a position that could only be obtained if you also had solid theoretical grades.

Leaving aside how Jujiho was the valedictorian.

Judging from her usual foolish appearance, it was hard to believe that Arena had this level of liberal arts.

Should I call it liberal arts, it seems like she is at the level of a major in reality.

Besides, Arena herself said that she liked mathematics.

When Chayeon heard those words for the first time, she unknowingly followed Arena’s way of speaking.

No way.

Besides, Arena, who is Japanese, broke Chayeon’s prejudice that Japanese people have awkward English pronunciation – although she is mixed-race.

She was also fluent in English.

According to her, she is also confident in cooking, good at solving puzzles, good at playing games, good at singing, and good at dancing, anyway, she can do everything, so if you only listen to Arena, she is a perfect superhuman herself.

Of course, Chayeon listened to her words with a grain of salt.

“Sin.gyul.reo.co.ho.mol.lo.ji. Isn’t it the part you learned?”

“…Um.”

It was because I learned it but didn’t understand it that I’m asking, but.

First of all, the name is too difficult.

“Then let’s talk about de Rham Cohomology first. You know that, right?”

“…Drum?”

“Deh.Ram.Co.ho.mol.lo.ji!”

I feel like I’ve heard this somewhere too (probably in class), but I didn’t know it at all.

“You can construct a differential form in a manifold, right? If you take the differential operator here to create a cochain complex and then take the kernel……………”

What, what is she saying.

Unknowable words began to come out of Arena’s mouth.

More than that, who is this with Arena’s face in front of me now?

“…Are you listening?”

“Y, yeah.”

“If you give topology here… I mean…”

“What’s topology?”

At Chayeon’s question, Arena widened her eyes and made a shocked expression.

“You don’t know topology!? What did you listen to in class?”

“…Um.”

Even Chayeon felt small because she was being ignored this much.

Besides, she was even more miserable because Arena was not malicious but purely surprised.

Seeing Chayeon’s expression, Arena suddenly realized something and began to fidget.

“A, no! That’s! Well, yeah! You might not know! Well, it’s a concept you’re seeing for the first time. Uh, it’s a major, I mean… ….”

Arena, seeing Chayeon’s expression, also began to feel depressed.

“…So, sorry…….”

Arena, who was very depressed, began to read Chayeon’s mood.

That appearance was like seeing a dog with its ears drooping, so Chayeon felt sorry instead.

She’s not that good at consideration or caution, but the child is kind.

<<That goes for you too.>>

“It’s okay. Keep explaining. Just a little easier.”

“U, uh!”

Ignoring Heukgu’s unnecessary words, Chayeon urged Arena again.

Arena grabbed a pen, thinking that she should explain in earnest.

With fingers wrapped in bandages.

“Wait, don’t use your hand yet.”

Chayeon quickly snatched the pen from Arena’s hand.

“It’s okay! I can use it.”

“No. What are you going to write with that finger.”

“I can use it!”

Squabble.

Arena stretched out her arm to take back the pen in Chayeon’s hand again.

Since Arena’s arms were so long, Chayeon had to pull her body back as much as possible to avoid having the pen taken away.

Because of that, Arena’s body leaned towards Chayeon’s side.

“Huh?”

“Kyaat!”

Chayeon’s body collapsed on the fluffy bed as it was, and Arena’s soft body overlapped on top of her.

When the two people, who were screaming and stacked on top of each other, opened their eyes, each other’s faces were right in front of them.

Silence flowed.

Arena’s face was right in front of her nose.

Despite the shadows cast by the backlight, Arena’s eyes were sparkling.

Below those golden eyes was a soft and smooth nose bridge, and below that, soft pink lips were forming a gentle shape.

The skin was clear without any blemishes.

Pretty.

Chayeon, who unknowingly thought that, stopped even breathing and stared intently at Arena.

And Arena was also having similar thoughts to Chayeon and was staring into Chayeon’s eyes.

Without even moving, they just looked into each other’s eyes.

And,

Drrr-

“Arena, is your body a little…”

The door opened, and a girl with purple hair entered.

What was reflected in her eyes was Chayeon lying below and Arena covering her.

The two girls, who were staring intently at each other’s eyes from a close distance as if they were about to kiss,

“Oh my.”

The woman said calmly, covering her mouth with her hand.

“I interrupted. Sorry. Have a good time~”

Drrr-

The door closed, and silence returned.

“…Wa, wait a minute! Byul! It’s not like that! It’s not!”

After that, Chayeon had to try very hard to stop Arena, who was trying to jump out of bed again.