Chapter 344

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I held my breath for a second. Raising my head to look at Yeo Dan oppa, I saw his black hair swaying through the breeze. It seemed like his voice was still in the air surrounding me.

Dropping that remark, he remained wordless for quite a while and quietly bent his steps as if he was born to carry me on his back. I stared at the end of his head before finally opening my mouth again.

"Yeo... Yeo Dan oppa!"

As I nerved myself to grasp his shirttails, he turned his head to look at me, asking, "Huh?"

"Getting rid of the stalker... I'll just help you with that."

Slightly stiffening his face, he replied, "I don't want to cause you any trouble."

I knew he would say that. I quickly responded, "But oppa, if something similar happens to me, you're also gonna help me, aren't you?"

He couldn't say anything. 'Yeah, that's true,' I smiled triumphantly in my thoughts.

Staring down at me with mixed feelings for a while, Yeo Dan oppa detached his lips at last.

"Would you really be okay?"

"Uh-huh."

"What if you're exposed to danger?" With that said, Yeo Dan oppa frowned. It looked like he didn't even want to think about it. I replied nonchalantly, "Shouldn't I just stick around with you as much as I can?"

"But there are things I can't handle since we go to different schools."

"Oppa, if someone puts something in your backpack without anyone noticing, isn't that dangerous?"

"That is..."

He then walked for a while, wordlessly. Riding on his back in silence, I just waited for his answer. I giggled at his response thereafter.

"If it looked like you're in danger, I'm gonna end it immediately."

"Cool!"

"Geez, I'm serious."

Grumbling that way, Yeo Dan oppa heaved a sigh and quickened his pace. I laughed without hesitation while hanging on his back.

* * *

Once Yeo Dan oppa put me down in front of my house, I asked him, "Oppa, do I look red?"

"Ye... ah..."

I gasped right away after his hesitant response. 'Gosh, I'm blushing...!' Looking down at me in bewilderment, Yeo Dan oppa suddenly took his phone out and speed-dialed Number 1. In less than a few seconds, the sweetest voice I had ever known came over from the phone.

"Why?"

"Are you at home?"

"Of course, I am. It's already ten in the evening."

"I'll send Donnie to your room then."

I could hear Yeo Ryung's perplexed voice, asking, "What? Why would you do that?"

"Cuz she's here beside me."

Once Yeo Dan oppa replied that way, Yeo Ryung burst the door open and jumped out of the house. The Bans weren't just excellent in scholastic performances or athletic abilities, after all. As if they had an elevated level of five senses, Ban Yeo Ryung, who took just a few steps toward me, suddenly halted and shouted, "What the hell? I smell alcohol! Donnie, who made you drink? Is it oppa?"

Yeo Dan oppa immediately replied, "It was a mistake."

"Mistake? Making two mistakes can kill someone!"

Watching Yeo Ryung striking a retort with fiery eyes, I started sweating bullets. 'Yeo Ryung, I heard people said that one moment of patience may ward off great disaster. However, I never heard what you just said before.'

"Not two mis... nah, my bad. It's my fault."

"Hmm..."

"Anyway, even you know she's a little drunk, so I thought it's better to make her sleepover at your room."

Yeo Ryung loosened up her strained expression with a nod. I also thought that returning home this way would make my parents slap me on the back of my head and impose a curfew on me for a while.

Stretching her hand to bring me into her house, Yeo Ryung asked, "Now that I had come to think of it, why are you and Donnie arriving home together? Both of you went outside separately. Donnie, didn't you tell me that you're joining a group hangout?"

Her questions made me nod. 'Ah, that's right. That was why I borrowed Ban Yeo Ryung's clothes early in the morning and made all that fuss... but once I met Yeo Dan oppa at some point, I totally forgot about it.'

I vaguely recalled the memories of the afternoon in my drunken, blurry head. Lee Mina's mature outfit at the café, her friends, Moon Sarah, and Ahn Ji Young, who were less close to me but still greeted me in such a friendly way, and the boys sitting on the opposite side...

Then when an unpleasant memory flashed through my head, I slightly grimaced. As if she had made a rough guess, Yeo Ryung, who stiffened her face, determinedly pulled me into her house. I politely bowed at her parents, who were in the living room before going straight to Yeo Ryung's room with Yeo Dan oppa.

He told me beforehand that he didn't want his sister to know about the stalker thing, so our conversation moved naturally to what Chun Dong Ho had done to me.

Having heard the overall story about why Yeo Dan oppa took me out of the group hangout, Yeo Ryung pounded her desk with a loud thud and yelled, "WHAT?!" She then glanced around and picked up a sharp pencil.

"Yeo Ryung, what are you trying to do with that?" I asked while trying hard to stay as calm as possible.

"I guess his eyes don't function properly. He needs a new sight, so I'm gonna pierce a new hole at the back of his head..."

"Hey, you shouldn't talk like that while holding a pencil. Put it down now."

'That looks very dangerous,' adding those words, I snatched the pencil out of Yeo Ryung's hand and hung my head down to smile without showing it to her.

'Geez, how would I have lived if the Bans didn't live next-door?' Whenever things like this happened, these people would always be there, standing by me. If they weren't around, I would have been a very gloomy person.

These people were the ones who made my life abnormal; however, they also helped me become an average person in this world.

That was when Yeo Dan oppa suddenly opened his mouth.

"Oh, and we..."

Speaking that way, he read my face, which brought me up with something that I had forgotten. 'Ah, right. That must be told, right?' Having that thought, I intervened between his words.

"No, oppa, I'll tell her."

"No, I will."

"Come on, let me do it."

While Yeo Ryung's eyes opened wide, Yeo Dan oppa and I quarreled for a while. Inevitably, I was the one who seized the chance to victory. Clearing my throat, I uttered severely, "Um, Yeo Ryung... we..."

Before I could conclude my words, Yeo Ryung cut in all of a sudden.

"Did you guys fight?"

"What? Ah, no!"

Didn't she just see us stepping into the house in peace? How could she reach that conclusion? Since we had known each other for a long time, we could have had a fight and still come home together like how family members could wage war on one another but could naturally have breakfast together the next day.

Barely handling my flush of bewilderment, I carefully continued, "No, that's not it. Um, uh... Yeo Dan oppa and I..."

"Nice!"

"Eh?"

Whether I became perplexed or not, Yeo Ryung grabbed my hands with hers and uttered with a twinkling gaze, "I'm glad you're trying to keep oppa at a distance, Donnie."

"No, hold on. What does that mean?"

"Oppa doesn't wear clothes properly at home and always surprise you."

Nah, that seemed to be Yeo Dan oppa's biggest strength... I couldn't speak the truth in front of him, so I just held my mouth shut. Anyway, Yeo Ryung utterly misunderstood us since earlier! I fl.u.s.tered and said, "That isn't what I'm trying to say—"

At that moment, Yeo Dan oppa, who was observing the situation beside me, opened his mouth and dropped a simple remark.

"We are dating."

It was just those three words; however, we soon found out that a three-word sentence could change the look on someone's face so dramatically. Yeo Ryung's glowing complexion turned almost dark blue as if someone spilled a bucket of black water over her face.

She was about to cry while looking back and forth between oppa and me for quite a while. She seemed to realize that we weren't joking at all once she saw how determined we looked. Holding my hand, Yeo Ryung blurted out like a shriek, which disconcerted me.

"Why... why...? For what reason?!"

"Uh, that's..."

Now that I had come to think of it, we didn't set up any suitable reason to explain how things went on to this point. Hmm, what should I say to sound natural? Wondering what to respond, I quickly raised my head when I heard a response returning from beside me.

"We had a crush on each other for a long time now."