Lie Again! Chapter 84

<Chapter 84. The Waves Head to an Unexpected Place Once Again (4)>

 

“What are you doing? That’s way more than five drops.”

 

Jin suddenly snapped out of her daze at the voice coming from beside her.

 

Turning her head, she saw Pablo, wearing his safety goggles, frowning as he looked back and forth between Jin and the phosphoric acid dropper in her hand.

 

Remembering that it was already the last period of the day, chemistry class, and that she had just been conducting an aspirin synthesis experiment with Pablo, Jin hastily set the dropper down on the marble lab bench.

 

“You’ve been completely spacing out for a while now.”

 

“Sorry. I’m sorry, Pablo. I don’t know why I… I’ll quickly do it over again right now.”

 

After a flustered apology, Jin quickly cleared away the ruined flask and brought over a new Erlenmeyer flask. Her hands moved busily as her eyes scanned the progress of the other groups’ experiments.

 

Only after focusing intensely and barely finishing the water bath setup did Jin finally breathe a sigh of relief. With this, they shouldn’t be too far behind the other groups.

 

However, as if her briefly sharpened focus had been for nothing, Jin’s face darkened again during the ten-minute window while waiting for the flask to heat. 

 

Staring at the small bubbles occasionally rising to the surface of the water inside the clear beaker, Jin seemed lost in deep thought, completely oblivious to her surroundings. Pablo stared at her intently.

 

“Hey.”

 

Pablo, who had been watching her without a care, was startled by Jin’s sudden voice and quickly turned his head away.

 

His slender shoulders shot up to his ears before quickly dropping down as he tried to act nonchalant.

 

“It would be stupid to redo an experiment when you already know the result, right? Especially if the conditions have become even more unstable…”

 

It was less of a question and more of a monologue. A fragment of a worry that had filled her head to the point of overflowing.

 

But Pablo, who had somehow managed to catch her quiet murmuring, immediately gave her a look of utter disbelief.

 

“Are you an idiot?”

 

“….”

 

“I thought you were somewhat smart. What exactly have you been learning in Chemistry class?”

 

As he said that, Pablo tried to push his glasses up with the back of his hand. When his hand bumped into the safety goggles worn over them, he cleared his throat with a quiet ‘ahem’ and crossed his arms.

 

“You have to test it precisely because it’s unstable. The more unstable it is, the greater the change will be.”

 

“A change toward reaching a stable state….”

 

Jin blankly chewed over Pablo’s words. She already knew what he meant.

 

The more unstable atoms are—the very building blocks of humans and everything else in the universe—the more they trigger chemical reactions in their desire for a stable state.

 

The more unstable they are, the more deficient they are. And when such elements meet, the chemical reaction becomes even greater.

 

They meet each other and can change at any moment.

 

“…Does that apply to us, too?”

 

“Of course not. If that were the case, it’d be an absolute disaster just from accidentally touching someone’s hand.”

 

A flat denial came back instantly to her scientifically unsound, futile question. Instead of arguing, Jin quietly nodded.

 

Pablo was right. Atoms make up humans, but humans are not atoms. It was time to break out of these idle thoughts. And from foolish expectations, too.

 

Beep. Beep.

 

Right on cue, the timer they had set went off. Jin thought the timing was quite a coincidence. The sharp mechanical sound felt exactly like an alarm waking her up from a daydream.

 

“…I guess so.”

 

Jin muttered, looking down at the gray digital display that had reached 00:00. A fleeting look of disappointment crossed her pale face.

 

However, she quickly wiped that expression away, replacing it with an awkward smile that glossed over the subdued atmosphere.

 

“We just need to add the distilled water now, right?”

 

She was just reaching out for the flask in the water bath with an intentionally cheerful attitude.

 

“However…… while it might not be a chemical reaction, change would apply to humans as well. Humans are complex beings—biologically, neurologically, and psychologically.”

 

Jin, who was turning off the hot plate, turned her head to look at Pablo. 

 

“So it does apply to us. Just in a different sense.”

 

Pablo’s eyes, double-shielded behind his glasses and safety goggles, shone with absolute seriousness. But only for a moment; unable to hold Jin’s blank stare, Pablo began darting his eyes around and playing dumb.

 

For the sake of the embarrassed Pablo, Jin silently averted her eyes to the ice-filled basin.

 

The paused experiment resumed.

 

The two moved their hands like people who knew exactly what to do next. When Jin set up the filtration apparatus, Pablo poured the contents of the Erlenmeyer flask over it. They worked in perfect sync without saying a single word.

 

On the filter paper, snow-like crystals gradually dried into a white crust. Watching this quietly, Jin spoke. 

 

“…Thank you.”

 

Ahem. Pablo gave a small, fake cough. The two successfully synthesized salicylic acid and acetic acid into aspirin and were the first to leave the chemistry lab.

 

* * *

“…Jin? Jin!”

 

Jin, who had been repeatedly glancing down the hallway while pulling books from her locker, turned her head in surprise as Joey called her name right in her ear. 

 

Her friends, who had been leaning against the lockers and talking, were all looking at her.

 

“Huh? Ah, sorry. What did you say?”

 

“I asked what you decided to do about clubs. Was the sports club tour a success?” 

 

“No. I’ve half-given up on sports. There isn’t really anything I feel like I can do.”

 

Shaking her head at Joey, Jin shrugged helplessly.

 

“I might just learn a unique instrument and…”

 

“Give up on what?”

 

As Jin was talking about her alternative plan, she abruptly stopped at the deep voice right next to her face. James, who had approached without her noticing, was bent over with his chin resting on her shoulder. Seeing him, the others welcomed him with a word each.

 

“James!”

 

“We were just talking about what club Jin should join.”

 

Because they were entirely too close, Jin firmly pushed James’s face away with her palm. James, who smirked and allowed himself to be pushed away, spoke in a cheerful voice at Ruth’s explanation. 

 

“Come to the tennis club. I’ll teach you.”

 

“I already tried learning from Amanda, and I don’t think there’s much hope.”

 

When Jin declined indirectly, recalling the tennis lesson with Amanda that hadn’t been very positive, James crinkled his eyes into a smile as if it were no big deal. 

 

“You haven’t tried learning from me yet.”

 

“You’d probably throw in the towel once you see my lack of coordination, too.”

 

At his truly confident attitude, Jin chuckled and shook her head. However, despite her continuous refusals, James shrugged, looking completely undeterred.

 

“Since we’re on the subject, how about today? We can play tennis and then I’ll take you home.”

 

“I don’t know, I…”

 

As Jin trailed off ambiguously, James suddenly lowered his voice and whispered in her ear, gesturing somewhere with his eyes.

 

“Are you going to break this mood?”

 

Following James’s gaze, she saw the others chattering excitedly among themselves.

 

“Hey, let’s make a bet. I bet on Jin’s clumsiness winning out.”

 

“Then I’m betting on James. An actual athlete teaching her has got to be different from us trying to teach her.”

 

Joey was glancing over at them with eyes full of anticipation, whispering something to Amanda, while Dustin and Ruth were literally making bets on her—or rather, on her motor skills—versus James.

 

After confirming that the crumpled bills they quickly pulled from their pockets were handed over to Amanda, who would act as the judge, Jin rolled her eyes and sighed.

 

“Alright, alright. Then today after school…”

 

Jin, who had been setting the appointment while lightly grumbling with her hands up, suddenly stopped speaking and stared blankly over James’s shoulder. 

 

A face she hadn’t seen in four days was there. The boy, who still looked a little tired as if he hadn’t fully shaken off his illness, was walking down the hallway, massaging his shoulder.

 

Soon after, a pair of green eyes lifted, and their gazes met.