Chapter 351
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That was when Ruda's following words struck my heart like a hammer.
"Donnie's my friend!"
"Son, what are you talking about? It's not helping."
"Do you feel better shaming your son? How can you do that to a person who has a partner?"
"Love is a power game."
"Ma'am, you're going too far!"
Listening to their ongoing conversations absent-mindedly, I stretched out my hand quietly. When his arm suddenly fell in my hand, Ruda flinched in surprise and turned to look at me. He tried to ask me why, but once he saw the look on my face, he said in astonishment, "W... hy... what's wrong...?"
"Ruda," I tried to speak as calmly as possible, "We're friends, right?"
"Huh? Yeah, we are..."
Replying with composure, Ruda stood still in a daze for a second then returned me a question in a fl.u.s.tered voice, "H... old on... why are you crying?"
"Because I'm so happy..."
Standing beside me, Yi Jenny was looking at the two of us in bewilderment.
* * *
The very first person, whom I revealed my secret—the fake relationship—to, turned out to be Ruda.
Having heard my story, Ruda looked startled. He clasped his hands and began to murmur some prayer. Watching him with a suspicious glance, I asked, "Ruda?"
"Uh, nothing. Nothing at all..."
Detaching his folded hands, Ruda uttered, "So, what are you gonna do now?"
Turning my head back to the front, I tapped the ground sulkily with my heels for no reason. I replied, "I don't know."
"Really?"
"Uh-huh. They all know Yeo Ryung and Yeo Dan oppa, so I wanted them to be the first person to know. I didn't expect those kids to behave like that..."
'I don't know what to do.' That was when I tried to add those words.
"Donnie," Ruda called my name in a sweet voice.
"Huh?"
His hand was now on mine before I had even noticed. With a dazzling, bright smile, he continued, "Don't talk to them for a while."
"Why?"
"They are acting like bastards. I don't like how harshly they're treating you."
I was still standing vacantly. Ruda kept on speaking very fluently in front of me, "Come on, their best friend now has a boyfriend. That's something they should be proud of and feel happy for, but instead, they avoid seeing and keeping in touch with you, didn't they? They suddenly end your call and even stop others from reaching out to you. That's a no-no. It must never happen."
Listening to his remark, I nodded and uttered carefully, "That's true. I felt a little left out."
'Nah, honestly, a lot... very much,' I added. Ruda laughed as if he looked forward to my reaction.
"Yeah, so don't talk to them. If you want to speak about what's going on, try to find someone else instead, or we can keep it our little secret."
"Should I?"
"Anyway, I'm here for you," replied Ruda. Patting my shoulder, he added, "You must have felt so lonely. You had no one else to confess it to, right?"
His words were very moving that I almost broke into tears again.
"Ruda..." Halting to speak further while feeling touched, I suddenly felt something rustling in my pocket. Ruda, who was holding my hand, glanced at my pocket and asked, "Is there something inside?"
"Huh? No, I'm not sure."
As summer turned into autumn, I began to wear a coat over my school uniform. The pockets on my jacket were quite large.
Once I took out a white envelope from my coat, I showed a look of surprise.
"Why is this in here!?" Even Ruda was roused to anger with a reddened face.
"Maybe your mother put it inside here before she left."
"Ah, does she think she's a Santa Claus or what!"
'Which Santa puts an envelope of money in a coat pocket, not socks?' While Ruda kept grumbling, I switched my gaze to the envelope and opened it carefully.
Actually, I had been wondering how much money the parents of a super-wealthy family would put in an envelope. With that expectation, I looked inside the flat paper container then became speechless.
What was inside the envelope was, adorably, two free amus.e.m.e.nt park tickets.
Watching the sight beside me in silence, Ruda got up and lost his temper.
"This woman is making fun of me, huh!?"
"No, Ruda, calm down," I spoke to him composedly. Carefully putting the two tickets back into the envelope, I smiled awkwardly and thought, 'Anyway, Ruda' and his mother are having a battle all year round.'
The apple doesn't fall far from the tree—The Yis were a well-matched family to that saying.
* * *
Thankfully, the stalker didn't show up around Yeo Dan oppa after we started our fake relationship. He didn't receive any love letters, and nothing disappeared from him anymore. However, we couldn't just stop an official relationship all of a sudden, so we had to keep an eye out, at least, for a month.
Having those thoughts in my head, I walked along the hallway but soon halted my steps with a deep sigh. I murmured, 'Okay, so about a month. For a month, right?' However, I still didn't know anyone I could call to reveal my secret.
My initial thirst was gone since I confessed my story to Ruda, but for some reason, I couldn't give up the thought about looking for more people to tell my secret.
First, I wanted to match Yeo Dan oppa's numbers. Aside from that, I felt doubtful about my personal relationship. Thus, the source of trouble I had, which was about the people I had to share my secret to, moved on naturally to a decision about making more friends.
However, although I was determined to make new friends, those people didn't suddenly appear. I was already close to my classmates, but the chance to encounter kids from other classes were quite limited. Rubbing my chin for a moment, I bent my steps again.
As the Sports Day approached, the school gradually became bustling. The number of students running around the hallway during the class time had increased, so the teachers were warning them not to do such a thing; the cheering noise from the schoolyard even interrupted class sometimes. When it happened, we craned our necks over the window to watch the games or cheer for the people we knew.
Once I threw the classroom door open, I blinked swiftly at it, which had all the desks pushed closer to the wall. In the middle of the vacant space, I saw some students doing something with a ball and traffic cones.
'A-ha, they must be developing a new game,' I thought. Nodding my head, I walked toward the window to take a seat and watch them. However, one of them called me, who was just bending my steps.
"Donnie, are you busy?"
"Huh? No..."
"Cool, would you return these to the storage since we brought a few more by mistake?" The girl, who was in the committee of arrangements for the Sports Day, flung a question while lifting a red traffic cone.
"I'm afraid other classes will have difficulties if they find these insufficient."
I nodded without hesitation, "Um, sure. No problem."
While everyone was busy preparing for Sports Day, people like me, who weren't athletic or active, had plenty of time. I didn't want to behave ignorantly, so it was an excellent opportunity to participate and assist other people. Receiving the traffic cone, I quickly came out of the classroom again.
I had never taken the head of PE in class, so it took a while for me to find the PE storage room. Arriving in front of the storage space, at last, I blinked at the sight.
It was bigger than I imagined, but there wasn't any lighting in it, which made me a little nervous about stepping inside. Only through the dim light coming out of the narrow window, I was able to see all kinds of things that had been used during the PE class. Glancing around the apparatus like racquets, balls, hula hoops, and vaulting horse, I finally found where the traffic corns were, so I moved to that spot. However, I never anticipated that I would trip over something and fall to the ground.
"Ouch!"
Tumbling on the floor with a bump, I quickly raised myself and looked at my palm. 'Geez, why didn't they cover the floor with any carpet or some mats?' Gently touching the scr.a.p.e, I soon turned around to check what I had stumbled on.
What I had in mind was just the vaulting horse or racquet grip; however, it wasn't. When the glitter of someone's eyes, which was very clear in the darkness, came into view, I suddenly held my breath.