Lie Again! Chapter 28

<Chapter 28. Evan Butterfly (4)> 

 

The video ended with a shaky screen caused by the excited McCoy moving the camera, followed by the words “The cutest homecoming proposal in the world,” accompanied by a crazy heart and exclamation marks. 

 

Just as the reel was about to replay, Gwen, her face cold and stiff, turned off the screen.

 

Evan stared at the pitch-black screen for a moment before lifting his head and turning his gaze toward a corner of the cafeteria.

 

The idiots next to the girl were once again drawing attention with their foolish behavior. Rodriguez, wearing a frantic shirt, and those throwing bits of bread at him while mocking, with Gwen laughing at the scene. 

 

Even though her friends were drawing the attention of passing people, the girl still smiled. It was a completely different expression from when she was with him. 

 

Evan remembered the expression Jin had worn every time he drew attention at the beginning of the semester. 

 

The tightly pressed lips and lowered eyes, as if she absolutely hated it. Sometimes, when he felt like teasing her, he’d deliberately draw attention just to watch that expression. 

 

The image of her smiling with her eyes as Evan Ruth proposed came back to him. The corners of her lips had lifted softly, and her cheeks had been tinted with a lively flush.

 

What is her relationship with Evan Ruth? 

 

Even to him, the question that suddenly popped into his head made no sense. As ridiculous as it was, the curiosity tagged along anyway—why did she smile for him? Why did she seem so at ease around him?

 

At that point, Evan couldn’t deny it anymore. He was bothered by the girl. But so what? What did it mean? 

 

Wasn’t this kind of feeling no different from how one might feel about a cat? Evan tried to recall the last time he had felt something like this. 

 

Pixie, the white cat that Evan’s mother’s second husband had brought with him. Evan couldn’t even remember the man’s name anymore, but the memory of that cat remained relatively vivid. 

 

The cat with blue eyes, leisurely walking around, sweeping its neatly groomed fur across the floor. This mischievous cat, who pretended to ignore Evan the moment they met, would climb up into the room pretending not to care, only to make sure Evan knew it was there whenever he couldn’t see it. 

 

While it would lazily swat at him, it would purr and show affection to Jonathan Hanson, who only visited occasionally. When it blinked its eyes at him in a way that seemed to say “look at me,” he couldn’t help but feel dumbfounded.  

 

When his mother’s second marriage inevitably ended in divorce, the white cat left with the man. Even to the very end, the cat never once wrapped its tail around his wrist. It simply stared at him from inside its carrier, quiet and distant.

 

However, Evan knew that the cat, more than anyone, actually liked him and was just pretending otherwise. A clever cat that understood the difference between the affection Evan gave and the affection he received in return. 

 

She was just like Jin. In those dark eyes, he could clearly see what she felt inside, but on the outside, she only pretended otherwise. 

 

Seeing her face light up with a small smile at her friends’ jokes, Evan turned his head away. 

 

A girl as stubborn as a mountain. 

 

But if what bothered him was her stubbornness, then all he had to do was make it so she couldn’t ignore him. And Evan was confident he could. 

 

* * *

 

Rumble.

 

The argument had long since ended, but a late downpour swallowed the ground. The raindrops falling on the glass window didn’t even have time to slide off before new ones came and devoured the old. 

 

Evan lay on his bed in a shitty mood, staring up at the ceiling. His phone, placed beside him, kept flashing with countless alarms, making his mind even more restless. 

 

‘…Can’t you stop doing this?’

 

The girl’s tired face, turning away from him, kept coming to his mind. Each time, Evan felt a surge of emotion and stared blankly at the ceiling. 

 

His plan had been simple. Ask Jin to the homecoming, and watch how she reacted. It wasn’t supposed to be anything difficult.

 

‘But that idiot ruined everything.’

 

The guy with the glasses had already done enough by interrupting cleaning time and stealing Jin’s attention—yet he even tried to bring up homecoming before Evan could. 

 

It wasn’t even funny when he suddenly appeared with a nervous look on his face, pursing his lips. 

 

Not just Evan Ruth and thugs from other schools—now even nerds, too. Jin had a strange knack for attracting the attention of the most useless kinds of people. 

 

No, that’s not it. The strange part was his own state of mind. Whether Jin accepted the homecoming proposal or whether some other guy was making a move, it had nothing to do with him, yet his mood was hitting rock bottom because of it. 

 

And the feeling of being swayed by someone else still felt like shit. So much so that it made him sick. 

 

“….”

 

Evan, who had been staring at the ceiling, suddenly sat up. Grabbing his phone, he deleted all the flashing alarms that were disrupting his mind and switched it to airplane mode.

 

Evan, who had thrown his phone somewhere in the room, dropped it again.

 

That was enough. Whether it was Jin or anything else that turned his insides upside down, he was going to crumple it all up and toss it into the trash. And maybe, just maybe, it would be as simple as lifting a finger to clear his phone’s alarms and switch it to airplane mode. 

 

That was the end.

 

Evan closed his eyes nervously.

 

Whoosh. The rain poured down endlessly outside the window.

 

* * *

 

The outdoor basketball court at Crawford had a long history. 

 

Once, it was a sacred place only the basketball team of Crawford, the school’s second pride—after the football team, of course—could tread. However, after the influence of the previous principal, who had dedicated his life to basketball, led to the creation of a new indoor court, the outdoor court was freed from the basketball team’s monopoly and returned to the hands of the public. 

 

With the basketball team no longer managing it and students who had not yet learned the concept of taking care of school property, the court quickly lost its original condition through the combined efforts of neglect and misuse. 

 

The blue paint covering the concrete floor had peeled off in places, revealing the gray underneath, and the yellow paint that clearly marked the paint zone had shrunk from the edges as if eaten by rats. As a result, even during games, players would frequently argue over the boundaries of the paint zones. 

 

The crocodile emblem drawn in the center of the court had been stepped on so many times that only its long snout remained, leaving it impossible to tell whether it was a crocodile or a duck. 

 

On an afternoon when the long sunlight harshly illuminated the court, two people were moving breathlessly on the old court surrounded by rusty barbed wire, a place where the glory of the past had vanished. 

 

“Hey, take it easy!”

 

“I’d love to let you win, but you’re just too bad.”

 

Evan smirked and reached out, swatting the basketball away. Jonathan gritted his teeth as he grabbed the ball that bounced off the floor. 

 

His friend, who was in great condition today, didn’t give him a chance to break through at all.  

 

Jonathan threw the ball into Evan’s hands and lowered his stance with his back to the hoop. The score was 2 to 0. It was Evan’s turn to attack again. 

 

For a moment, he thought it felt like he had been on defense all day and hadn’t had a chance to attack, but he quickly refocused on the ball. Sweat droplets dripped from the boys’ chins. 

 

“Whoo…”

 

Evan exhaled and lightly jumped a couple of times to loosen up. His feet felt light as they hit the floor. 

 

It felt as if his body was moving exactly as he wanted. Enjoying that sensation, he pressed the ball with his palm and flicked it. 

 

He could feel his focus sharpening. The direction of Jonathan’s toes, the shift of his body weight, and the movement of his arms were all clearly apparent to him. 

 

It was a sensation he was familiar with. The feeling of having everything in his hands, rolling it effortlessly. 

 

Easy, simple, and boring.

 

It was a feeling that had returned after a long time. A sensation that moved like an extension of his own body, but it had eluded him for the past few days. 

 

Evan scanned Jonathan’s weaknesses with his eyes while recalling his recent actions. 

 

Normally, he would have ignored the bothersome matters, but instead, his eyes followed the dark hair whenever it appeared, disregarding his own intentions. A sense of inexplicable anxiety made him irritable for no reason. It was all so unlike him. 

 

Whoosh.

 

As Jonathan reacted to the fake move stepping to the right, Evan seized the opportunity and sent the ball over Jonathan’s head.

 

Jonathan reached out late, but the basketball grazed his fingertips and flew smoothly through the air, swishing cleanly through the rim. Evan let out a small whistle.

 

“Two points left.”

 

“Shit.”

 

Jonathan, sitting on the floor, panted heavily and muttered a curse under his breath. 

 

It was already the third game. His energy was completely drained, yet that monster of a guy was standing there effortlessly, drinking water. 

 

The one who practices basketball tirelessly every morning and evening is him, yet this guy, not even part of a sports team, was outplaying me with his natural physical abilities. As expected, life is unfair. 

 

‘This is right.’

 

Now, Evan looked at Jonathan, who seemed about to collapse on the floor, and stretched lazily. The feeling of having everything under his control. It has been strange these past few days. Evan was steadily recovering to his usual form. 

 

“Ev, why did you interfere back then?”

 

Lying with one arm under his head, Jonathan looked at Evan and casually spoke up. 

 

“What?”

 

“At the nursing home. To Lee.”

 

Hearing the familiar name, Evan felt the lightheartedness from earlier twist back into frustration as he glared at Jonathan irritably.

 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

 

Evan pretended not to know, but as soon as he heard the word nursing home, he immediately remembered what Jonathan had mentioned.

 

Evan, who had tried hard not to think about it, found his thoughts inevitably drifting toward Jin, and he irritatedly ran his hand through his hair. 

 

1) Paint Zone: In basketball, the area where the 3-second rule applies for both the offensive and defensive players.