[Contest] Friends are not enough

Calm before the storm

배주현

What, who's there?

Joohyun, who was quick-witted, immediately noticed that there was someone in the hallway.

Joohyun went straight out into the hallway, but Jeon Jungkook was one step faster, leading me into the classroom next door.

배주현

...there isn't any.

친구

What the heck, Bae Joo-hyun? Why are you suddenly going out into the hallway?

배주현

I think someone's there. I guess I was being overly sensitive. Anyway, I have to go down quickly. Kim Yeo-ju is waiting for me.

친구 2

Kim Yeo-ju is also really pitiful. Take care and send me a KakaoTalk message, Joo-hyun.

Thanks to Jeon Jungkook who quickly took me to the next class, I didn't get caught, but the betrayal I felt from Joohyun, whom I believed to be my best friend, was so great that tears flowed nonstop from my eyes.

Jeon Jungkook simply wiped my tears away with his own hands, without saying a word. He offered no words of comfort.

...That might have been better. If I'd heard comforting words like, "Are you okay?", I might have collapsed on the spot.

전정국

I think I need to go down quickly.

나

Oh, right...

After hearing Jeon Jungkook's words, it occurred to me that Joohyun only knew that I was in the infirmary.

Jeon Jungkook walked me to the infirmary. As soon as I arrived, I lay down on the bed I'd been lying on earlier.

Jeon Jungkook, whom I thought was gone, had settled into another bed next to mine. There was a partition between them, so he couldn't be seen from where I was lying.

배주현

Heroine~ I'm out!

After waiting for a while, the door to the infirmary opened and Joohyun ran towards the bed where I was lying with a bright expression on her face.

배주현

You've been waiting a long time, haven't you? Stop by and meet the kids on your way here.

나

No, it's okay.

No matter how hard I tried to act calm, it didn't work. Joohyun's fearful demeanor from earlier seemed to overlap with her current innocent demeanor.

배주현

...What, heroine, did you cry?

As expected, Joohyun was quick-witted. Even though she'd erased it, it seemed like there were still tear stains on her cheek.

나

Huh? Uh... My arm hurts a little.

I thought he wouldn't believe me because I'd suddenly made up a nickname, but Joohyun seemed to agree, as if it were a decent excuse for something made up out of the blue. I was secretly relieved.

배주현

Ugh. Jeon Jungkook, that guy is really too much. If you don't like him, just say so...

나

huh?

배주현

Rumor has it, you're saying that you unilaterally pushed yourself at Jungkook? That's why he made you like this.

나

What are you talking about...

Hearing it for the first time gave me goosebumps.

I thought this was what Joohyun had been talking about with the kids in his class earlier. So naturally, the rumor's origin was Joohyun.

I could hear Jeon Jungkook, who was in the bed next to me, rustling his teeth, probably because he was very angry after hearing Joohyun's words.

Like the calm sea before a storm, I felt like this space was the calm before the storm.