Lie Again! Chapter 46

<Chapter 46. Off the fence> 

 

Chu.

 

The sound that echoed through the quiet garden was too strong to be called a light bump, yet carried a hint of anger despite its softness.

 

On a night when both people and cats were fast asleep, a boy—kissed for the first time while being grabbed by the collar by a girl—stared at her with a dazed expression.

 

“This is what I think we are. What do you think we are?”

 

After boldly making her move, Jin’s voice gradually grew quieter as if she had just realized what she’d done. Though she finished her sentence clearly and firmly, the strength in her grip on Evan’s collar slowly slipped away.

 

Seeing Jin’s face, now full of regret with none of the fiery boldness from just moments before, Evan burst into laughter.

 

Unable to hold back his laughter any longer, Evan laughed out loud, causing Jin to sharply turn her head the other way. Her stiffened ear was flushed red enough to be visible even in the darkness. 

 

The boy’s forehead gently dropped onto Jin’s shoulder. As he trembled with laughter, his light brown hair brushed against the pale nape of her neck, touching and falling away repeatedly.

 

Even when Jin clenched her teeth and shook her shoulder, Evan’s head showed no sign of lifting.

 

“Stop laughing alrea—!”

 

Just as Jin turned her head back toward Evan, irritated by how he showed no signs of stopping whatever was so funny—

 

“…!” 

 

A large hand cupped Jin’s cheek and gently pulled her in. A ticklish sound echoed in the quiet. Once on her left cheek, then again on the other.

 

And then their lips met again. This time, the kiss was softer, more persistent, and lingered a little longer than Jin’s clumsy attempt. Her toes curled slightly inside her sneakers.

 

A moment later, the boy pulled away and gently rubbed his nose against hers. Seeing her face now flushed all the way up to her forehead, Evan lifted the corners of his lips into a pretty smile.

 

“This is what I think we are.”

 

“….”

 

When Jin silently buried her face in her knees, the boy chuckled quietly. Twirling her silky hair around his fingers, Evan suddenly asked.

 

“Don’t you have anything to say?”

 

“Something I want to say? I’ve got plenty of those.” Still buried in her knees, Jin turned her face sideways and peeked out with one eye, staring straight at Evan.

 

A week ago—why did you really come to this house? Are you seriously saying it wasn’t because of my message? Why didn’t you send even a single text all that time? What exactly brought you here today? Was it really just Ivy’s invitation—is that all? You were jealous of Ruth the whole time, weren’t you? 

 

“…Why didn’t you call me?”

 

There were countless things Jin wanted to say, but what came out of her mouth was one compressed word, held back and restrained. The least childish and least embarrassing word.

 

“Aha.”

 

It’s not easy.

 

“What’s not easy?”

 

As if it wasn’t the answer he expected, Evan nodded lightly and muttered. When Jin tilted her head, not understanding the meaning of his added words, he smiled and gently tapped her forehead.

 

“You must’ve been thinking about me all week.”

 

It was a sharp remark.

 

“I didn’t do anything.”

 

Not wanting to admit it, Jin blurted out a denial and buried her face back into her knees.

 

“Really? I did. But you stubbornly didn’t contact me until the very end.”

 

Evan playfully tugged on the strand of Jin’s hair he was holding. Regardless, Jin stubbornly refused to show her face.

 

* * *

 

“I have a boyfriend.”

 

One day, after Thanksgiving break had ended and everyone had returned to their routines, a bombshell dropped onto the cafeteria table.

 

To be exact, it slammed into one person’s head.

 

“….”

 

“Ack, ah, dirty!”

 

Dustin’s mouth fell open, and the cola he was drinking spilled out. Ruth, who was sitting next to him, got up in shock and shook out his pants. 

 

“Really? Who is it?”

 

Amanda put down her salad and asked, taking her eyes off the two fools. Joey’s blue eyes sparkled, clearly pleased by her interest.

 

“He’s Peter’s friend from college! I met him over Thanksgiving. He’s handsome, and on top of that, he has great manners.”

 

She was so excited, as if she was about to burst into song, that she started chattering nonstop. He’s over six feet tall, with shoulders like an athlete’s, but his shy, admiring gaze made him utterly charming…

 

Ruth, who was listening to his friend’s bragging while feeling tired, muttered.

 

 “Your brother actually let that happen?”

 

“Of course Peter doesn’t know. You think he’d just let it slide if he did? That day too—he kicked out the friend who just came to return his stuff without even offering a glass of water.”

 

Cold-hearted Peter. At Joey’s words, Ruth and Amanda exchanged glances with each other.   

 

“He wasn’t even an invited guest for Thanksgiving? Then how did you meet him?”

 

Ruth asked. He was clearly pretending not to know, but Joey, who was in a good mood, didn’t seem to notice. 

 

“I chased him and asked for his number. Only the brave get the beautiful!”

 

Amanda sighed softly at Joey’s answer. Her sigh was clearly filled with exhaustion.

 

“Well. Tell Peter. You’re meeting that person.”

 

With those words, Amanda left the table, saying she had to clean up the tennis court. Joey, her lips jutting out in a pout, stuck her tongue out as she left.

 

Ruth shook his head with a sigh and gave Dustin, who was still dazed, a lazy pat on the back.

 

Didn’t you say you were going back to being just friends anyway? Or wait—did anything even happen between you two? To Jin, Ruth’s consolation seemed to hurt Dustin more.

 

“I don’t know exactly what’s going on, but things seem calm again for now. Joey’s happy, Dustin’s troubled, and Amanda seems to have lost interest altogether.”

 

“Yeah? Then how about Lady Jin stops scheming and starts fresh now?”

 

Evan, who was sitting on the edge of the pool platform, flicked his fingers to splash water at Jin’s face. Jin blinked the water from her eyes, scooped up a handful of pool water, and splashed it back at him—most of it falling harmlessly in midair, with only a few drops actually hitting Evan—as she grumbled.

 

“You said you’d teach me how to swim, but these days it seems like you only swim with your mouth.”

 

After classes ended for the day, the two of them did their extra studying at the outdoor pool instead of the music room. Jin had initially been horrified by Evan’s suggestion to practice swimming here, but embarrassingly, not even a single ant could be seen in the area during the afternoon.

 

The swim team used the indoor pool, and just like kids who had grown up in Florida, surrounded by lakes and the ocean, no one at Crawford really needed extra swimming practice—except for Jin.

 

Ever since Evan had sweet-talked Mr. Parker and easily gotten the key, the two of them had been using the pool every afternoon. Well—technically, it was only Jin who actually got in the water.

 

Jin was the only one struggling in the water, while Evan strolled along the edge of the pool, tossing in all sorts of commentary. Stretch your arms, point your toes, your alignment’s off.

 

Being nagged while already exhausted just drained her even more. Whenever Jin complained, Evan silently showed her the timer screen on his phone—just like now.

 

“If you want to see Mr. Parker again next year, I won’t stop you.”

 

On the screen Evan showed her, the timer stopped at a record of just over 3 minutes.

 

Jin let out a groan at the barely-passing time. She dipped her head under the water, thinking that if she stayed any longer, not just her fingers but her whole face might start to wrinkle. Just one more test to pass—after that, she swore she wouldn’t so much as glance at the pool again.

 

‘Still, my record improved a bit today.’

 

To commemorate that. 

 

Jin stole a quick glance at the boy faintly reflected on the water’s surface, then pushed off the wall and moved forward. Stretching her arms out, she began a flutter kick into a streamline glide.

 

Jin’s dive was not that long, so she usually didn’t even make it 5 meters and had to come up and swim freestyle.

 

But even after the time she usually resurfaced had passed, the surface of the water remained still. Seeing her body faintly through the water, seemingly sinking motionlessly to the bottom, Evan let out a dry laugh.

 

“Do you think I’d fall for such a childish prank?”

 

Evan checked his watch. Jin could hold her breath for at most 30 seconds. Given how exhausted she was from swimming nonstop, she’d probably come up on her own in about 20 seconds.

 

“This isn’t fun, so stop being strong and come up.”

 

And 20 seconds. As the expected time passed, Evan tapped his fingertips impatiently.

 

“Jin?”

 

Air bubbles rose from under the water. Then it became quiet again.

 

“Jin. Jin Lee!”

 

Evan threw off his jersey and jumped straight into Jin.