Lie Again! Chapter 25

<Chapter 25. Homecoming (3)> 

 

It was a night when the heat that had warmed the ground during the day quietly subsided, and the early morning dew began to settle. 

 

In the distance, the thumping music from the mansion faintly reached her ears, while the sound of crickets crying somewhere in the grass quietly dug into her ears. 

 

And Jin, now pressed against someone’s chest in the darkness, was trying to make sense of the situation.

 

Like a rusty, broken machine, her mind struggled to function. Even while Jin’s thoughts froze, her senses diligently fed the collected information to her brain. 

 

The faint sound of a heartbeat beside her ear, the cool body temperature from the early morning breeze, the feel of a suit against her cheek. 

 

And the faint scent of soap, mingling with the earthy smell of the forest.

 

“This is a pretty inappropriate place to be like this.”

 

Just then, the silent man quietly spoke. As if his words were some kind of spell, Jin, who had been frozen, quickly sprang up from his body.

 

The smooth fabric of her dress brushed against his body as she pulled away.

 

“Ah— Ahem. I didn’t know you were there. Sorry. I’ll go.” 

 

Jin cleared her throat, making an awkward sound, and quickly spat out her words. Her face couldn’t hide the expression of embarrassment.  

 

Butterfield stared at the woman, who was retreating with a look of utter tension, as if she had encountered a murderer in the darkness. A faint chuckle escaped from his lips.

 

It was a hollow laugh that reflected his unspoken thought, “I’m the one who got caught off guard, so why is it you who’s acting like this?” 

 

That’s true, Jin thought inwardly, feeling a pang of guilt, just as she was about to completely pull away. 

 

“Wherever you go right now, it’ll be full of people. Just sit down.” 

 

The man, hidden in the darkness, suddenly spoke. His tone suggested he knew the reason she had left the lively mansion and made her way to the secluded garden. 

 

At the sudden suggestion, Jin hesitated, stopping in her tracks to think. She weighed the options—forcing her way through the crowd or quietly sitting beside Evan Butterfield. After some consideration, she decided and slowly approached him, finally sitting down beside him. 

 

She kept exactly one foot of distance from Butterfield, as if that single foot represented her stubbornness. Seeing this, Butterfield shook his head with a slight sigh. 

 

However, he didn’t bother adding anything more. Jin also stayed silent, bringing her knees together and resting her face against them. 

 

The two silently watched the faint stars in the night sky. The thick darkness, the chirping of insects, the sound of pool water flowing through the filter, and the distant laughter carried by the wind from the mansion filled the space between them. 

 

It was strange. Not once had she ever thought that sitting next to this handsome man was comfortable, yet just being wrapped in darkness made her feel at ease. As if their last fight had been nothing more than a dream, sitting beside him felt oddly natural. 

 

A night where neither his playfully glimmering eyes nor the deep dimples were visible. The summer night, revealing only the faint outlines of his features, eased the tension that always accompanied being around him. 

 

Jin, who had been quietly gazing at the sky, turned her eyes toward Butterfield and opened her mouth, feeling a sense of unfamiliarity even as she asked the question. 

 

“…Why are you here?”

 

“Why? Do you think someone like me should be over there, playing around like that?”

 

Even at Jin’s sudden question that broke the silence, Butterfield remained unfazed as he answered, gesturing with his chin toward somewhere. 

 

Butterfield answered calmly and pointed somewhere with his chin to Jin’s sudden question that broke the silence.

 

In the far distance, at the very right end of the mansion, beyond a brightly lit window, kids could be seen playing pool. 

 

Inside the playroom, a few men and women were playing a game, holding cue sticks in one hand and drinks in the other. They were smiling, high-fiving each other, hugging each other, and exchanging intimate physical contact.

 

From that scene, Jin thought of Butterfield, playfully shaking a girl’s wrist, casually putting his arm around someone’s shoulder, and behaving like a butterfly—something everyone could have but no one could truly have. A butterfly that seemed to belong more under the bright lights than in the dark garden.

 

“Hmm.…A little?”

 

Jin, who had been pondering for a moment, answered honestly. Butterfield laughed softly at her straightforward answer. 

 

The vibration of his vocal cords vibrated through the air. Jin imagined the wells that must have been buried deep in his invisible cheeks. 

 

“I hate crowds. Believe it or not.”

 

Butterfield shrugged his shoulders and said lightly. He said it as a joke, but it somehow seemed to have some substance to it.

 

Jin thought of the people who never left Evan Butterfield’s side. The athletes, the student council, the cheerleaders, and the many others from a wide range of groups.

 

Jin even knew that he sometimes talked to the weirdos who acted like they were the only ones in the world. The groups surrounding Butterfield had changed, big or small, except for Jonathan Hanson, but he was always surrounded by people. 

 

“…It must not be easy for you either.”

 

Jin, imagining herself in Butterfield’s position, whispered with sincerity. Living in America as an American wasn’t an easy thing. If it were her, she probably wouldn’t be able to last even a day. 

 

Butterfield silently stared at Jin in response to her words. Once again, silence descended between them.

 

As Jin pondered if she had said something wrong, Butterfield broke the silence, speaking in a light tone. 

 

“Why did you come out?”

 

“Me too… uh… they eat my energy.”

 

Jin, contemplating what ‘drain your energy’ meant in English, combined some common words.

 

“Eat your energy?”

 

Jin must have been the only one who thought it was safe, because Evan followed Jin’s words and laughed heartily.

 

“….”

 

“Drain you, right?”

 

When Jin looked at Evan with a pout, he gave her the answer. His voice, asking “Right?” was full of playfulness. 

 

“Yeah, that.” Jin nodded silently. 

 

“Is school okay?”

 

“Hmm. It’s tough sometimes, and sometimes it’s frustrating, but overall, it’s good.”

 

Jin let out a deep breath through her nose and answered Evan’s sudden question.

 

“What makes you so sad?”

 

Jin briefly hesitated before finishing the sentence. The thought, ‘Why am I having this 

conversation with him?’ suddenly crossed her mind.  

 

Usually, Jin wasn’t the type to talk about her inner thoughts. She was more the type to suppress them, quietly suffering and swallowing them down.

 

There were various reasons. She worried that the other person might not be interested, that her intentions might be misinterpreted, or that they might think she talked too much. 

 

It had always been that way. Opening up had always been a difficult thing to do. But now, she opened her mouth impulsively as if possessed by something. 

 

It was clear that either the summer night or the man sitting next to her was enchanting her. Or maybe it was that she was…  

 

‘No. It’s just because it’s dark.’

 

Jin quickly concluded that it was because the thick darkness settled in the garden, making it hard to see Butterfield’s expression, and she hurriedly pushed the thought aside. 

 

Jin hesitated for a moment and continued. 

 

“Mr. Wayne doesn’t seem to like me much. He always makes a face like he’s tired of reading my essays. It looks like, ‘The Asians…’ It could be my misunderstanding, though…” 

 

Mr. Wayne, who taught World History, was well-regarded at Crawford. He was the epitome of a strict yet kind teacher. Many students followed him, and a significant number of graduates came back during homecoming week just to greet him. 

 

However, when Jin thought of him, she felt like she had swallowed rough sand. 

 

‘I don’t think I can express this like that. Rather than saying it’s the influence of the Middle Ages…’

 

As his well-known reputation suggested, Mr. Wayne never hesitated to give sharp critiques on assignments. However, at the same time, he would always point out the parts that deserved praise with affectionate eyes. 

 

Jin waited for her turn, half nervous and half excited, as she listened intently with her ears perked, overhearing the conversations of Mr. Wayne as he reviewed the students’ assignments.

 

‘Yeah, good job. But next time, make sure to stick to the required length, Lee.’

 

Mr. Wayne, standing in front of Jin, skimmed through her essay indifferently. Jin waited for his next words. 

 

However, Mr. Wayne simply passed Jin by and picked up the next student’s assignment. That was all he had to say to her—just to stick to the required length.

 

It was a completely different reaction compared to when he graded other students’ essays. Most of them hadn’t met the word count, yet even though mine was exactly one page over the required five, and some students had submitted essays exceeding ten pages, he still gave those students more feedback. 

 

Jin stared down at the stack of papers she had spent two sleepless nights writing, her eyes filled with emptiness. 

 

“Is that so?” 

 

“….”

 

After a long speech, the answer she received was nothing more than that. The response was so brief and lacking in sincerity that Jin pressed her lips tightly shut. If she could, she would have wanted to slap herself for rambling on just 10 seconds ago, lost in the atmosphere. 

 

See? There’s nothing good about letting out the stories inside. For all she knew, even Evan Butterfield might respect Mr. Wayne. If that were the case, then she had just badmouthed him right in front of someone who admired him. 

 

It was when Jin was feeling self-deprecating.

 

“Just push through.”

 

Butterfield opened his mouth nonchalantly.

 

“Huh?”

 

“You’re good at something, you know.”

 

He made a motion as if pushing something away. Jin, realizing he was referring to the time she broke a piece of lab equipment in the chemistry room, let out a small chuckle. 

 

“Who cares if he gets tired of it? Just do it so well that he has no choice but to give you a high score. Imagine Wayne grudgingly giving your essay top marks with that sour look on his face. Feels good, right?” 

 

Right?

 

…Right.

 

Jin followed Butterfield’s question as he answered.

 

With quiet chuckles, the two laughed as if they had already forgotten the fight from two days ago. 

 

Before silence could settle in again, Butterfield was the first to rise from the grass. 

 

The garden light, which hadn’t reached him before, scattered its glow over his silhouette as he stood up. 

 

Butterfield, dressed in a black suit with the button and tie loosened around his neck, lazily opened his green eyes and looked down at Jin. The dimples on his cheeks were exactly where Jin had imagined them earlier. 

 

Bathed in the light, he finally looked like the Butterfield Jin knew. 

 

It was time to wake up from the dream.

 

“Are you going?”

 

“Mhm. Are you going to be picked up by Evan today?”

 

Jin followed Butterfield’s gaze and turned her head. Near the pool, Ruth was looking around for someone. A small voice called out for her. 

 

‘Ah…’

 

It was the home she had wanted to return to so badly, yet instead of thinking ‘finally’, the thought that crossed her mind was ‘already’? Perhaps it was because this was the quietest and most peaceful moment of the entire homecoming party. 

 

“The dress suits you well.”

 

By the time Jin turned her head again, following the sound scattered like the wind, Butterfield had already walked far away.  

 

Jin, who had been staring blankly at him, got up and turned around.

 

The midsummer night was over, and it was time to go back to where she was. She didn’t hesitate as she walked toward Ruth. 

 

In the spot where they had been sitting, the grass remained pressed down, leaving marks exactly one foot apart. 

 

A faint trace of lingering regret, belonging to neither of them or perhaps both, pooled softly over it.