Lie Again! Chapter 32

<Strange 32. Abnormal phenomenon (2)> 

 

First, the study sessions will only take place in the abandoned music room after all classes are over. 

 

Second, don’t tell anyone. 

 

Third, don’t act like you know me outside. Absolutely! 

 

* * *

 

The first thing the two of them did was dig out a sturdy desk and chair from the piles of junk in the abandoned music room and start scrubbing them clean. Dust had accumulated in layers, and no matter how much they wiped, black grime kept coming off. 

 

“…I don’t think we’ll be able to use this today, no matter what.” 

 

While Jin was still wondering what to do, Evan, as if to say “what’s the problem,” shrugged his shoulders and pointed somewhere. 

 

The place his finger pointed to was the piano that Jin had polished to a shine some time ago.

 

Jin grimaced as she looked at the piano bench, where the two of them could barely sit together without their shoulders touching. 

 

“I don’t want to.”

 

“Then you can work on the floor.” 

 

Evan walked over to the piano on his own, pulled out a chair, and sat down. His posture, with his legs lazily crossed, was incredibly casual. The sight of his irritating back caused the rebellious side of Jin to stir awake inside her. 

 

Do you think I can’t do it?

 

Jin plopped down onto the gray, dusty floor, and a cloud of pale dust rose up around her. 

 

Even as she held her breath against the dust rising into her nose and stubbornly lay down on the dusty floor, Evan shook his head from side to side. 

 

After who knows how many minutes of holding back coughs, Evan let out a loud sigh—clearly meant to be heard—and stepped down from the stool to sit beside Jin. 

 

Regardless, Jin glanced at the boy before turning her attention back to the book. However, her odd determination to ‘not care about him’ quickly disappeared at the casual words Evan tossed her way. 

 

“I have asthma.”

 

“What? Really?”

 

Jin quickly turned her head, her face serious as she cautiously surveyed the dust cloud surrounding them.

 

“Li…” 

 

Just as Evan was about to say something, Jin reached out first and covered Evan’s nose and mouth. The boy froze, startled by the cool touch of her fingers against his lips. 

 

“Don’t say anything. Get up.”

 

Evan, who had been staring at the worried girl, grabbed Jin’s wrist and pulled it away, smiling prettily.

 

“That’s a lie. So you believe that.” 

 

Evan smiled at Jin, who had a look of absurdity on her face, and pulled her hand to stand up.

 

“If we stay here any longer, I think something really might happen.”

 

Jin looked at the boy with a sulky face, debating whether to be a little more stubborn—but in the end, she got up from the dust pit without protest. 

 

Jin, who had been staring at the boy with a sulky face, pondered whether to persist a little longer but eventually stood up from the dust pit obediently. 

 

After that, the two had to sit side by side in front of the piano and study until the gray desk became usable.

 

Every time she stroked her pen, her arms would touch and fall back against the person next to her. The boy’s skin, which had been exposed to the hot summer sun all his life, was surprisingly hot, so whenever her arms touched, Jin would tightly clench her hand holding the pen.

 

So, how was this strange after-school meeting? Unsurprisingly, they fought often, but surprisingly, it was actually quite good. Evan Butterfield wasn’t just a highly intelligent student, but also a sharp teacher. 

 

Certainly, the essay revised according to his advice was much smoother than before. 

 

However, if there was one thing that threatened to throw their dynamic off balance, it was Evan’s tone. The tone in which he pointed out the shortcomings in Jin’s essay was quite sharp.

 

“This is such a stupid flow.”

 

“Remove words like this. It sounds like something a preschooler would say.” 

 

The feedback was so blunt it almost scraped away their pride. During this process, the two bickered quite a bit. 

 

After several attempts of clenching their mouths and glaring at each other, and a few moments of nearly storming out the door, the two finally reached a compromise.

 

“Do you have to use such childish words?”

 

“Haa, it’s boring.”

 

The words that seemed like they would make his study mate angry were silently filtered out by Evan himself, 

 

“This one’s fine. But here—it’s just…” 

 

“——Change the word.” 

 

The words that Evan hadn’t filtered out were automatically filtered through Jin’s ears. 

 

Thanks to that, the days when Jin would suddenly get up and leave gradually became fewer. Although there was still at least one day when she would grit her teeth and walk out, it was a huge improvement compared to the beginning. 

 

That day was one of those days. Although the harsh feedback had been filtered out, Jin was still strangely upset as she wrote down her paper. 

 

For about an hour, silence had stretched between them. Whether Evan got up to open the window or muttered a pointed “hmm” loud enough to be heard, Jin kept her eyes firmly fixed on her paper. 

 

Drrrk.

 

Evan was the one who lost the fight with Jin. He sighed softly and pulled his chair across from Jin and sat down.

 

Thud. Jin glared at the math solution that landed on her paper. She struggled fiercely over whether to throw it away, but eventually she raised her head.

 

Then she let out a small laugh. A clump of gray dust was dangling from Evan’s hair near his forehead like some kind of decoration. It must’ve been a souvenir from the curtain when he went to open the window.

 

Not knowing that there was a large piece of dust stuck to his head, Evan met Jin’s eyes and smiled prettily.

 

‘You think everything will work out if you smile.’ 

 

Jin narrowed her eyes at the boy who, without a single word of apology, was trying to lighten the mood with a smile.

 

Jin, who had just made a mischievous vow not to tell him until he left, soon changed her mind. She reached out toward the sunlit golden-brown strands of his hair. 

 

Thinking that this guy probably knew all too well just how weak she was to his smiling face. 

 

But then she paused — just before her hand could touch him, Jin pulled her arm back and lowered her gaze to Evan’s math work again.

 

She opened her mouth while holding the pen and scanning the formula.

 

“There’s dust on your hair. On your forehead.”

 

“Why don’t you take it off yourself?”

 

Evan, who had been watching everything Jin did, asked back in a sarcastic tone.

 

“…You don’t like it.” 

 

“I don’t know where. You do it for me.”

 

At Jin’s words, Evan raised the corners of his mouth as if amused. Leaning an elbow against the back of the chair, he leaned forward.

Jin hesitated and carefully brought her hand closer to his defenseless face, which had his eyes closed as if it were asking her to touch it. 

 

“It’s done now.”

 

If she hadn’t said anything, the touch was so light he might not have even realized he’d been touched. 

 

Evan stared at the girl who just dusted off a single strand of hair without touching it and turned her attention back to her math problem.

 

Anyway, thanks to this strange after-school meeting, Jin’s essay ended with a high score, receiving praise from Miss Anderson, and Evan also submitted a neat proof of the equation. 

 

However, their secret meetings continued even after they had completed the assigned tasks. Neither of them ever spoke a word about it, yet it still happened. 

 

They still went to the abandoned music room after the seventh period, and outside of that time, they continued to treat each other as if they didn’t exist.

 

* * *

 

In the afternoon, after all the classes had ended, Jin opened the music room door as usual, yawning widely with sleepy eyes. It seemed that Evan hadn’t arrived yet. 

 

She walked over to the window and pulled back the thick curtains, letting the warm autumn sunlight flood into the classroom. 

 

It was the sunlight that made one feel drowsy. Instead of sitting by the hot window, Jin sat in front of the cool piano, staring at her world history paper, her eyes slowly beginning to close. 

 

The white was the paper, and the black… the letters danced and swirled.

 

Her body, which had been struggling against sleep, lost its rigidity and slowly slumped down. The smooth, cool piano lid that touched her right cheek felt refreshing. 

 

‘If needed, he’ll probably wake me up on his own…’

 

With that carefree thought, Jin drifted into a sweet afternoon nap. 

 

———.

 

A faint, humming melody, as if something was blocked, reached Jin’s ears. The sound that stirred her dull mind made Jin’s eyelids flutter. 

 

Soon after, dark eyes slowly appeared. 

 

“….”

 

As her hazy vision cleared, she saw a boy too close. His face was delicate, with his eyes tightly shut. 

 

The outline was delicate, but the rough feeling typical of a growing boy was added to make him look less fragile.

 

The boy’s golden-brown eyelashes lay quietly as he slept. The sunlight falling across his face cast neat shadows. 

 

He had an earphone in his right ear, while the other piece was carelessly placed on the piano, between Jin and Evan. The humming melody came from that. 

 

The voice of a female singer whose lyrics were hard to understand flowed through the earphone. In that slow and sweet tempo, Jin looked at the face in front of him with a languid feeling. 

 

The sunlight filling the classroom illuminated the dust quietly floating in the air, and a breeze mixed with a coolness occasionally blew, scattering the sunlight only to retreat again. 

 

It felt as though she were still in a dream, even though her eyes were open.

 

That was when Evan opened his mouth. Jin, who had come to her senses, flinched and quickly closed her eyes in surprise. Soon, the boy’s quiet voice dug into Jin’s ears. 

 

“When I was young, there was a cherry tree in the garden.”

 

“….”

 

Jin gently opened her eyes at the sound of incomprehensible words. Evan was still lying with his eyelids firmly closed. 

 

While she hesitated to answer, a soft voice continued. 

 

“It was a wedding gift from my father to my mother, and he was the same age as me. It was a rushed marriage because of an unexpected child. A typical shotgun wedding.” 

 

Shotgun wedding. Jin quietly pronounced the unfamiliar word in her mouth, lightly hitting the roof of her tongue. 

 

“The grandfather really knocked on my father’s door with a shotgun. Isn’t it funny? Just imagine it. One day, someone rings the doorbell, and when you go out, the barrel of a gun is pointed at your forehead. He mutters threateningly that if you don’t marry my daughter, he’ll shoot you.” 

 

Evan chuckled quietly. A faint dimple appeared on his cheek, only to quickly disappear. 

 

Even as Evan continued to speak softly, the earphones on the piano continued to play a jazzy tune that seemed to be submerged in water.

 

“Anyway. The day we left that house was just like this weather. It was cut down when we moved. It wasn’t even the first fruit yet.” 

 

“….”

 

“Sometimes I wonder. What would the fruit from that tree taste like? It would have been obvious since it was a tree that grew without anyone paying attention.” 

 

Slowly, the eyelids lifted. In the air, their gazes quietly collided. After a while, Evan, who had been staring at the dark eyes, rose and stretched his stiff body. 

 

As the earphones pulled away with Evan’s body, the faint sound of the song was abruptly cut off. 

 

“You’ll need to revise the second half of your essay. I get what you’re trying to say, but it’s too long and boring.” 

 

Evan tapped the stack of papers on the desk with his fingers.

 

“…Other people might find it interesting, even if you don’t.” 

 

“If you don’t want a good grade, then suit yourself.” 

 

Evan shrugged his shoulders. His inner thoughts, “It’s your loss,” were clearly reflected in his expression. Although Jin gave him a look of annoyance, both she and Evan knew she would ultimately follow his advice. 

 

The two of them, who had escaped the silence of the day, went about their own business. As usual, Jin sat next to the window, and Evan sat a little further away. 

 

The sound of the pen touching the paper filled the music room.