Chapter 63: Incense Burner(3).

Since last year, an epidemic that started in China had been rampant. Although it had been relatively quiet recently, social distancing was still being enforced, and to make matters worse, the school cafeteria was under construction. That was why students were gathering in classrooms in groups of three or five with lunches they had packed from home.

Chayeon, Arena, and Byeol also turned their desks around, put them together, and sat around them.

There were only two lunch boxes on the desk.

“Chayeon-ah, what about your lunch box?”

“I left it behind…”

“Oh my, really.”

Unni had definitely prepared it, but she had just come because she was in a hurry. She had only thought that the shouting from behind was telling her not to ride the scooter, but was she calling her to pack her lunch? She wished that her Unni would suddenly appear with her lunch box, but unfortunately, lunchtime was a particularly busy time, so she would be working hard at her job.

Her stomach rumbled, “Grumble.”

“You probably forgot again because you rushed out, right? That’s why I told you to come early.”

Arena scolded as she opened her lunch box. It was too big to think that it was a lunch box she had packed for herself.

“Hehe, Arena-ya. How come there’s so much?”

“T, this! It’s just that it happened by accident…”

“Yeah, I see~”

A luxurious table was set. Arena’s cooking skills were the best among the three. It was impossible to tell just by looking at the way she spoke, but Arena was surprisingly good at studying, good at sports, good at dancing, good at singing, good at cooking, tall, pretty, and her chest was… Unlike her, it was big… Anyway, she was an all-around beauty.

“There’s no choice! Since I packed so much, eat mine!”

“There are no spoons and chopsticks.”

“Huh? Ah, what should I do!?”

“Feed me.”

Chayeon opened her mouth, “Ah-.” As Arena’s neat teeth and petite tongue came into view through her open mouth, Arena’s face turned red.

“Wh, what do you mean feed you!?”

“There are no spoons.”

“Th, that’s true but!”

Chayeon leaned closer to Arena, whose eyes were spinning around.

“Ah-“

“Ah, I know! It can’t be helped!”

First, a spoonful of rice. As soon as she put it in her mouth, Chayeon’s cheeks bulged out, and she started chewing.

“What should I give you?”

“Meat.”

At Chayeon’s choice, Arena picked up bulgogi with chopsticks this time and brought it to Chayeon’s mouth. Chayeon, who took the meat with a lick, moved her cheeks again.

“Aren’t you eating, Arena?”

“U, un! I have to eat.”

Arena, whose face was completely red, put rice and side dishes into her mouth using chopsticks and chewed them likewise. Chayeon was smiling while watching her eat, using chopsticks that had gone into her mouth and come out.

“You guys, am I really not visible…”

In contrast, Byeol had a subtle expression.

Regardless, Chayeon sat even closer and kept eating rice and side dishes like a baby bird receiving food.

“Come to think of it, who is the new sub homeroom teacher who came today? I’ve never seen him before.”

“He’s probably a counseling teacher? I’ve seen him in a frame hanging on the first floor.”

Byeol blurted out that question, and Arena answered.

“I see. A counseling teacher, I’ve really never seen him before. Is he a career counseling teacher?”

“I’ve never seen him before either. His name is amazing. Arena, give me kimchi.”

“Don’t make fun of people’s names!”

Mumble mumble.

Arena, who was a Japanese mixed-race, had bad memories of Korean names. It was understandable.

“I’m not trying to make fun of it. I came riding a Heukgu today too.”

“Huh?”

At Chayeon’s incomprehensible words, the two girls simultaneously looked at Chayeon with puzzled eyes. Chayeon opened her mouth to the eyes that seemed to be asking for an explanation.

“There’s a character called Heukgumiho in Jindal. It’s a really good SSR character, and I succeeded in pulling it with exactly 300,000 last night, and it’s a black and red fox character! But my Unni’s scooter has similar colors, so I named it Heukgu…”

“So you overslept?”

Arena cut off Chayeon’s words, who was getting more and more excited as she talked. Arena was usually like a fool, but she was quick-witted only at times like this.

“You keep not sleeping like that, that’s why you’re not growing taller.”

“That’s not true. My growth spurt hasn’t come yet.”

“Tsk.”

“Ah! Don’t mess up my hair.”

“Don’t you want to dance with me instead of playing games?”

Arena belonged to a dance club. It wasn’t a club that was done at the school level, but a hobby group of ordinary people that included adults. Arena headed there every day after school.

“Ugh, no.”

She immediately refused. Chayeon hated doing anything that used her body. For her, sleeping late and waking up late, and lounging around in bed was the best.

Unlike Arena, Chayeon couldn’t study or exercise. It was stylish when Arena, who had coolly long arms and legs and a pretty line, danced, but if she did it, well.

“If you’re not going to dance, then why do you follow me every day?”

Arena asked in a bewildered tone. Chayeon showed her face at the dance club with Arena most weekdays.

“Arena.”

“Yeah?”

“Are you really asking because you don’t know?”

Chayeon suddenly brought her face closer.

“U, uh!? Th, that’s…”

“You don’t really not know, do you?”

“Th, so that’s it… Yeah, I, I know but…”

Flustered, Arena’s voice went into a crawl. Her reaction was cute. As a reward, she buried her nose in her neck and rubbed her face like crazy.

This felt so good. This feeling was the best.

“You guys… Can’t you please not do that in the classroom?”

Byeol now had a look like she was eating poop.

It was time to go home, and Chayeon and Arena left the school gates. Byeol had to do after-school self-study, so she was left at school.

Chayeon rode on Heukgu (scooter) first, and Arena put her arms around her from right behind her, held the handlebars together, and moved forward at a slow speed. This morning, it had been a clear spring day with cherry blossoms blooming brightly, but dark clouds had been gathering little by little since the afternoon, and the wind had started to blow.

When they entered the 2nd floor practice room that the club had rented, the people who had come first and were practicing welcomed the two.

“Arena’s here? Hello, Chayeon too!”

“Hello!”

The club president Unni, who had a towel around her neck and was gulping down mineral water, approached. Her hands slowly went up.

“Ah, I can’t stand it! Look at those soft cheeks!”

“Ua eua uau.”

“Why do you always play with Chayeon’s cheeks as soon as you see her!?”

Arena hugged Chayeon, whose cheeks were being harassed, from behind and pulled her away with a whoosh.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to take her away.”

“I’m not worried about that!”

“Arena, are you jealous?”

“Je, jealous!? That’s not it!”

“Oh my, look at her face. It’s going to catch fire, ya.”

“That’s not it!”

Arena couldn’t come to her senses with the two people’s joint offensive. But as Chayeon leaned her face against her neck and rubbed it, her face soon relaxed.

“Okay, okay, stop joking around and quickly change your clothes and come.”

As the vice president Oppa ordered, Arena came to her senses and headed to the changing room. Chayeon, as usual, sat on the iron chair that had been prepared on one side and sipped on the Americano she had bought on the way here.

A little later, Arena, who had changed her clothes, joined, and practice began. Watching Arena, who had a good body and danced well, moving with power never got old. Her wavy hair fluttered and her snow-white neck was revealed. She wanted to bite it.

In contrast to the heated atmosphere inside, a cold wind was blowing in through the open window.

Just when she was feeling a little cold,

Flash-

The outside flickered white. And a few seconds later,

-Boom!

“Kyaak!”

Chayeon let out a shrill scream at the ear-splitting thunder and jumped up. The other people were also startled, but at Chayeon’s intense reaction, laughter erupted.

“It’s not raining, but the weather is gloomy. Chayeon-ah, can you close the window?”

Chayeon nodded up and down silently at the vice president Oppa’s request and approached the window. After closing the door, something unique came into Chayeon’s sight.

“…A fox?”

It was such a strange sight that she doubted her eyes for a moment. That’s because there was a black fox in the middle of the street. The black fox, whose eyes and the tip of its tail were reddish, was looking up at her. She hadn’t seen it wrong. It was really looking at Chayeon.

Their eyes met.

The fox turned its head and started to go into the alley.

It was a strange movement. It was like gesturing to follow it.

…For some reason, she felt like she had to follow it.

“Chayeon-ah?”

Arena, who had glanced at Chayeon leaving the door, called her, but it didn’t reach Chayeon’s ears. Arena, thinking that she was going to the bathroom, focused on practice again.

The fox was standing still in front of the alley, as if it had been waiting for Chayeon to come out. As soon as Chayeon left the building, the fox started running again.

“Ah, wait a minute!”

Chayeon, who didn’t even understand why she was doing that, also hurriedly started running after the fox. The fox ran well through the narrow alleyways that twisted and turned here and there. Not only that, but as if it was considerate of Chayeon, who was lacking in stamina, the fox sometimes stopped and waited for Chayeon.

“Huk, huk.”

Even though she was out of breath, she kept chasing the fox. Was she bewitched by the fox, is that what they said at times like this? Chayeon went deeper into the alley.

At the fork in the road at the end of the alley, the fox turned left and ran. Just as Chayeon was about to follow the fox, something caught the end of her vision.

A black dog was staring at her from the opposite side.

‘…What is it?’

Was she dreaming? The black dog was somehow familiar. The black dog also seemed to be waiting for Chayeon to come. On the left, the fox was standing still again, waiting for Chayeon to follow.

After hesitating for a moment, Chayeon turned her body to the left. The black dog disappeared from her vision, and the fox began to run again.

“Wait a minute! Wait!”

It was strange that a fox had appeared in the middle of the road, but she was talking to the fox and following it. She couldn’t stop, even though this surreal situation was ridiculous.

“Where did it go?”

She finally got out of the alley and looked around, but the fox had disappeared as if it had evaporated.

There were only commercial buildings that seemed to have failed a long time ago, and she couldn’t feel any signs of people.

-Yeonkyung, are you far!?

“Huh?”

She turned her head because it sounded like someone was shouting, but still, there was no one around. Had she heard it wrong?

More than that,

“……Where, is this?”

Only then did her mind come to her senses. After wandering around the alley for a while, she had come to a place she didn’t know at all. But it wasn’t a big problem. She could look at the map on her smartphone.

“Huh? Why is this like this too…”

But, her phone wouldn’t turn on. Whoosh- A cold wind blew. It was strangely chilly, and goosebumps rose on her arms.

Drip, drip.

To make matters worse, raindrops began to fall one or two drops at a time, and soon,

Swaaaaa-

“Kyaak! I’m going crazy!”

Heavy rain began to pour down. Chayeon hurriedly covered her head with both hands and started running, but there was nowhere to take shelter around her. All the buildings had iron shutters down, so there was no place to enter, and she couldn’t even see anything that could be called a roof.

“Ah! Really!”

Chayeon was running, turning her head from side to side while spitting out a tone she had picked up from Arena, when she suddenly felt a light shock to her head.

Just before she staggered and fell, a large hand popped out and grabbed Chayeon’s arm.

“Ugh…”

“Chayeon.”

“…Uh, Teacher?”

The Heukgu she had seen this morning, not the scooter Heukgu but the Teacher Heukgu, was holding Chayeon with an umbrella.

The first thought that came to mind was that.

-How does this person know my name?

“It’s rare to see you in a place like this. Where are you going?”

“Ah, that’s, I got lost…”

Heavy raindrops were constantly pattering on the umbrella. Coming to her senses, Chayeon looked down at her body and was startled and covered her upper body with her arms. Her blouse was completely wet from the rain, and her underwear was clearly visible.

“You’ll catch a cold if you stay like this. My house is nearby, so follow me.”

“Yes?”

“I’ll give you clothes to wash up and change into. You said you were lost. I’ll take you home after you dry off.”

Heokgu, who had only said what he had to say in a blunt way, turned his body around and started walking. Chayeon instinctively followed Heukgu to avoid the rain.

Even though he was a school teacher, it was a situation where a man she had met for the first time this morning was taking a high school girl to his house. Normally, Chayeon would never have received and followed such a suggestion.

It wasn’t a teacher she knew originally, and frankly, if she followed him and they were alone, it would be really difficult. Even if nothing happened, there would be problems if she let a high school girl into his house. No matter how much Chayeon was told by Seohee and Arena that she was obsessed with faces, she wasn’t so thoughtless.

But,

‘…What is it?’

A strangely cozy and familiar feeling. As she talked with Heukgu, Chayeon felt her heart sinking.

‘It’s like that fox.’

As she recalled that she had been bewitched by the fox, Chayeon stood side by side with Heukgu.

“…You’re more normal than I thought.”

Heukgu muttered quietly, but it didn’t reach Chayeon’s ears.