Caramel Popcorn

52

Caramel popcorn [Caramel popcorn]

52.

...

The meeting ended not long after Youngseo and Seoyun left.

Jiu and Yewon went back to the classroom first, saying they had to prepare for the next class.

It didn’t seem like anyone was waiting for Youngseo and Seoyun.

One by one, people stood up from their seats...

I was about to head back to the classroom too, but suddenly I felt like going to the bathroom and changed direction.

As I approached the bathroom and reached for the door handle...

"So how long are you going to keep doing this?"

My hand stopped at the familiar voice.

It was Seoyun’s voice.

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이영서

"What..."

Then came a small voice.

It was Youngseo’s voice.

'Should I go in...?'

After hesitating for a moment, Seoyun’s voice was heard again.

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문서윤

"And Yeoju."

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이영서

"..."

Before I knew it, I tightened my grip on the door handle.

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문서윤

"You’ve just been hesitating and watching from the sidelines."

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이영서

"I was just..."

A brief silence fell.

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이영서

"I was going to apologize."

My eyes widened a little at that moment.

Really...

Were they going to apologize?

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문서윤

"Then just do it."

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이영서

"I’m scared..."

Youngseo’s voice sank weakly.

"I said things like that to her..."

The words I’d heard at the restaurant a few days ago flashed through my mind.

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이영서

'Aren’t you just wavering between Jaehyun and Yeonjun?'

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이영서

'You’re the one acting all flirty behind my back and pretending to be my friend...'

Just thinking about it made my stomach ache again.

It made me even angrier because I’d thought of them as a friend, and above all, it felt awful that Youngseo had been looking at me like that all this time.

But...

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이영서

"And because of me, Yeonjun and Jaehyun drifted apart too."

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문서윤

"How is that because of you? That was just because some situation suddenly came up that could easily be misunderstood..."

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이영서

"I did things that could be misunderstood too..."

I felt sorry, like I was overhearing Youngseo’s inner thoughts, but I also felt unsettled.

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이영서

"I just want things to go back to how they were..."

The voice that had paused for a moment started up again.

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이영서

"With Yeoju too... and the others."

The hand holding the door handle slowly dropped.

It was strange.

I should have been angry, but somewhere in my heart, something hurt uncomfortably.

The one who spoke to me first on the first day I transferred was Youngseo, and the one who stayed by my side in a classroom where no one talked to me was also Youngseo.

It had been a short time, but I had definitely thought of Youngseo as a friend.

Maybe that was why I hated it even more.

'Are they really regretting it...?'

Even so, eavesdropping on just a few words didn’t make everything that happened before okay.

Even if Youngseo hadn’t done it directly, while I was being tormented by rumors, Youngseo had done nothing.

I stared at the closed door for a long time before quietly stepping back.

Let’s think about it a little longer.

Neither hating them right now.

Nor trusting them again.

Let’s do neither.

Thinking that, I headed back to the classroom.

...

After school...

In the clubroom, where everyone had gathered again, a more serious discussion than in the morning was underway.

Centered on the idea Yeonjun had suggested, they settled on a broad plan: one student would go around the school introducing the festival.

The broadcasting drama team would decide on the script and cast, and on our side, we decided to first check the filming locations and angles.

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김지우

"Then let’s take a look around today."

Jiu spread out the school map.

The field, the auditorium, the classrooms, the clubroom.

I circled the candidate locations one by one and pictured the shots in my head.

It was more fun than I expected.

When I first chose the club, I’d picked it just because I liked taking photos, but thinking that the scenes I shot would connect into a single video made me strangely ambitious too.

"This place looks like it might be good too."

From across the table, Jaehyun turned the map and pushed it toward me.

The tip of Jaehyun’s finger on the map pointed to the back of the school.

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명재현

"There’s a staircase here. Not many people go by, and there are lots of trees, so the footage should come out pretty."

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오여주

"There’s a staircase behind the school too?"

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명재현

"Right, you haven’t been at this school that long, Yeoju, have you? We could go together..."

Jaehyun smiled, then paused for a moment.

If it had been before, he would have casually said let’s go check it out together, but he soon took his hand off the map and said,

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명재현

"No, we’ll be going there when we film anyway..."

At that moment, the unfamiliar distance I’d felt in the hallway yesterday flashed through my mind again.

But this time, I didn’t bother to keep thinking about it.

It was the distance I’d created.

Jaehyun was only respecting that, so I felt there was no reason for me to keep pushing Jaehyun away too.

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오여주

"Let’s go together."

As I circled the map and said it, Jaehyun looked at me for a moment.

Then he gave a small smile and nodded.

"Yeah."

"If it’s the back stairs, I know them too."

Yeonjun, who had been looking over the proposal beside us, lifted his head.

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최연준

"They’re on the way to the auditorium, so we can check them together."

With that, we picked a few more places to look at in advance and stood up from our seats.

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김지우

"Let’s go."

At Jiu’s words, I picked up my camera.

Then I heard the sound of a chair being pulled back from behind me.

It was Youngseo.

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이영서

"I’ll go too."

Before I knew it, I had stopped moving.

Youngseo looked at me for a moment, as if checking my reaction, then lowered their gaze.

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이영서

"If we’re going to write the script... I thought it’d be better to look around together."

If it were the usual Youngseo, they wouldn’t have bothered explaining the reason.

The voice I’d heard in the bathroom earlier echoed in my ears again.

'I just want things to go back to how they were.'

One side of my heart grew complicated again.

The resentment was still there.

But that didn’t mean I wanted to think that all the moments when we laughed like before had been lies.

I looked at Youngseo for a moment, then turned my body toward the door first.

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오여주

"Let’s go."

I heard the faint sound of a chair being pushed back from behind me.

And a little later...

Youngseo’s footsteps began following behind me.

We’re speeding up!! Please enjoy reading, everyone!! haha

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