READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 272
“Ji-eun?”
Ha-yoon called me as I walked to school with a stiff expression.
It was natural for Ha-yoon not to want to worry about me. After all, this wasn’t her fault.
If I had to nitpick, it was my own greed. It was my personal desire to keep a secret from others.
I felt the other kids glancing at me while chatting among themselves, which was strange, but I couldn’t pinpoint the reason. There had always been kids who looked at me like that.
Maybe it was a gaze filled with admiration. After all, I was a magical girl.
But if that wasn’t the case…
Realizing my mood, Ha-yoon quietly fell silent.
I didn’t mean to make her uncomfortable—though, maybe I did.
In the end, it had been my fault for hiding the story I should have told a long time ago, regardless of my intentions.
Once we arrived at school, the atmosphere thickened as the kids whispered while glancing my way.
“Hey, Ji-eun…”
Ha-yoon finally couldn’t hold back and called out to me.
It was a vibe I hadn’t felt in a long time.
Since we became magical girls, Ha-yoon had always worn a bright smile, but now she trembled slightly, just like when she felt anxious hearing classmates gossip about her in middle school.
However, this time, the reason was me.
“It’s okay.”
I said to Ha-yoon.
“I’ll tell you everything, just a bit later.”
After all, it was still morning assembly time.
But I knew well enough that I wouldn’t find it easy to share that story.
Sure enough, after that, it would be class time, and the short break wouldn’t be enough to share everything—I knew I would keep putting it off like that.
After all, I was me.
Even the chance to become a magical girl came from Ha-yoon introducing me, not something I sought out myself.
If I really thought I had the talent, I would have gone straight to headquarters and knocked on the door.
In the end, true to my expectations, I couldn’t bring myself to say anything to Ha-yoon until lunch was almost upon us.
*
As time passed, I could sense Ha-yoon’s mood dampening, probably wondering if I was keeping something from her.
It seemed she had really never read anything like a newspaper.
Moreover, with the other kids whispering and glancing our way, I figured she must have thought it was about her too.
Scared to find out directly and suspecting I wouldn’t tell her if she asked—this all led to her gloomy demeanor.
“……”
Ultimately, it was I who couldn’t withstand that atmosphere.
I grabbed Ha-yoon’s wrist and led her somewhere secluded, just like back in middle school when there were no people around us.
During lunch, kids were scattered all over the school.
After becoming a magical girl, I didn’t see the need to hide with Ha-yoon in some corner during lunch, so I didn’t even know a good spot within the high school to have a private talk.
It took me a bit of time to find a place.
But with about fifteen minutes left in lunch, I finally succeeded.
The answer was the rooftop.
It should have been a locked door, but it was open as if the lock had rusted and broken.
I confidently took Ha-yoon up to the rooftop.
And I immediately started to speak.
“First off, the rumors going around aren’t about you.”
“Ah, okay.”
I said it so firmly that Ha-yoon seemed to forget her worries for a moment, her eyes wide and head nodding.
Did I say it too hastily?
No, judging by the effect, it seemed this was indeed the right approach.
“The rumors… they’re about me.”
“…Ji-eun, yours?”
“Yeah.”
I paused while fidgeting with my hands.
It seemed that now it didn’t really matter. Ha-yoon and I were almost at the same level, and even within the magical girl group, I held a fairly central position.
Even if people found out I lived in an orphanage, there wouldn’t be anyone close to me looking down on me.
Seo-hee, Yeon-woo, Jua, and Chae-yeon, all had conflicts in the original story, but they weren’t bad people at heart. They were magical girls after all.
Kids fighting with hope in their hearts, right?
So, it technically shouldn’t matter.
Yet, I felt like it was inappropriate to think like that.
“Ji-eun.”
Ha-yoon gently took my hand.
Her two warm hands tightly gripped mine.
As I raised my head, which had been subconsciously lowered, I found Ha-yoon smiling at me.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to say if you don’t want to.”
Seeing her smile as if she had washed away the anxiety moments ago, I was left a little stunned.
“If saying it hurts you, then I don’t have to hear it.”
Right.
Yeah. Ha-yoon was always like this.
She was sensitive about her own story. That was just inevitable. She’s a delicate teenager after all. Even as an adult, if someone talks about my personal matters, it’s only natural to get worried and hurt.
On the other hand, one’s curiosity about others’ stories is a given. Especially for a long-time friend.
But Ha-yoon was saying it was fine. Even if it was a story about me that others knew, if it was hard for me to say, I didn’t need to.
“……”
Facing someone like her, I felt like I didn’t want to hide my past anymore.
Right.
After all, didn’t everyone else know? But for Ha-yoon to not know… I rather disliked that thought.
I firmly squeezed Ha-yoon’s hand and raised my head.
“Ha-yoon.”
“Yeah?”
“Actually, I—”
I paused my words.
Swallowing, I finally opened my mouth.
“I don’t have parents.”
“Uh?”
Ha-yoon’s eyes widened.
Clearly, she hadn’t expected this kind of story. Looking flustered, her eyes darted around.
“And… I live in an orphanage, yeah. There was an article about that yesterday.”
“Ah, okay.”
Ha-yoon nodded, still looking a little flustered.
Was she shocked about me living in an orphanage? About not having parents?
But her surprise didn’t seem to stem from that.
Blink. Blink.
Ha-yoon’s eyes blinked.
A silence enveloped us.
I was still gripping Ha-yoon’s hand tightly, feeling a bit anxious.
I was scared. I was scared that Ha-yoon might look at me with pity. I always wanted to be by her side.
Neither of us wanted to be the one considered “less than.”
But just as if to mock my fear, Ha-yoon, still looking confused, began to speak.
“Uh…”
Ha-yoon pondered for a moment, then said, “So, what’s this bad rumor about you?”
She asked again.
“…Huh?”
“So, you’re talking about the whispers since morning, right?”
“Yeah.”
This time I asked back dumbfounded.
“And, there’s probably some rumor about you that’s hard for you to say?”
“Yeah.”
“So, what’s that rumor?”
Ha-yoon looked at me with a truly confused expression, as if she really didn’t understand.
It looked like she assumed the story about my parents or the orphanage didn’t really matter to her.
No, it wasn’t that she was indifferent—she seemed completely unaware that it was an issue.
…
Yeah, it was a story with no issue at all from the start.
But still.
I felt weak in the knees. Had Ha-yoon not been in front of me, I might have just crumpled down to the floor.
“So that’s the rumor.”
“Oh, so you mean what you just said?”
“Yeah.”
“That you live in an orphanage…?”
“Yeah.”
“Why is that?”
Ha-yoon tilted her head.
Something about it felt… futile.
Futile and strangely, it made my heart flutter.
“Maybe that’s the problem.”
“Which problem?”
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
Ha-yoon asked again like a parrot, still confused, tilting her head from side to side.
“Sometimes, people find the fact itself strange.”
“……”
Ha-yoon fell silent for a moment, deep in thought.
“I see. Okay, I understand.”
She nodded, saying so before letting go of my hand.
And then,
“…Ha-yoon.”
Ha-yoon stepped closer to me, embracing me tightly without a word.
And she patted my back.
“You don’t need to worry about what people say.”
“…Okay.”
I recalled my words from when I had comforted a downhearted Ha-yoon in the past.
Sometimes, even when she hadn’t done anything wrong, there were kids who envied her family, whispering nasty things behind her back.
“Must be spoiled because they’re rich.”
“They probably have something weird about them because they’re wealthy.”
Those kids never seemed to realize that they themselves were the ones being bad and strange.
So, the current situation was the opposite of that.
Ha-yoon wasn’t comforting me for living in an orphanage, but rather reaching out to comfort me because I was in a situation because of reasons like that.
“……”
I stayed like that for a while, hugging Ha-yoon, letting my hands droop.
It felt somewhat futile, but at the same time, I didn’t feel particularly bad.
It was like a thorn that had lodged in my heart finally got pulled out, leaving an empty space, but somehow, by Ha-yoon’s side, it felt like it would heal quickly.
I stood like that for a while, and after that, I stopped caring about what the kids were whispering.
I thought soon, the emptiness would no longer feel painful.
At least until that weekend when someone claiming to be my mom showed up in front of the orphanage.