Childhood Friends: Turning the Tables - Chapter 8.1
When she thought about it carefully, the excuse that she could no longer walk to school with them because of the math academy made no sense.
After school, she could claim she was hanging out with friends from the same academy before heading there, but the academy had nothing to do with the walk to school.
On Monday morning, as soon as Eun-sae opened the front door, she saw Yoon Tae-seung waiting outside. For some reason, she felt embarrassed, realizing only then how flimsy her excuse had been.
What did Tae-seung think when he heard that? Maybe he wanted to ask why she was avoiding him rather than why she suddenly decided to go to a math academy.
If he actually asked her that, what should she say? The thought gave her a headache.
“Here. My mom told me to give this to you.”
Eun-sae handed him a hotdog. Her mother always packed her a simple snack since Eun-sae often skipped breakfast, and naturally, she always prepared one for Tae-seung too.
Eun-sae’s hotdog was coated with sugar and drizzled with both ketchup and mustard, while Tae-seung’s had only ketchup neatly swirled on top. Eun-sae liked variety in flavor, but Tae-seung preferred the original taste of food.
“Let’s eat before we meet Si-hyun and throw away the sticks. If she finds out we ate without her, she’ll be upset.”
Eun-sae said quickly after taking a big bite. Finishing their snacks before reaching the intersection where they met Kim Si-hyun had become an unspoken rule between them. But Tae-seung responded casually.
“She’s not coming with us today.”
“Huh?”
Just as she was about to take another bite, he added,
“She overslept, so her dad’s driving her.”
“Oh… really?”
A question popped up in her mind—how did he know that? But she just chewed and swallowed her hotdog instead of asking.
So, Tae-seung and Kim Si-hyun were in touch early in the morning now. Normally, he hardly ever checked his phone or replied to messages.
Maybe the Tae-seung she knew was different from the Tae-seung that Kim Si-hyun knew.
When they arrived at the intersection, there was no sign of Si-hyun waving with her usual bright smile. It was like the old days, just the two of them walking to school again. But somehow, Eun-sae’s heart didn’t feel the same.
While eating the hotdog, she had been debating whether or not to ask him something. Finally, she brought it up softly.
“Do you text Si-hyun often?”
She tried to sound casual and uninterested, but it probably showed how much she actually cared.
At first, she had wanted them to just handle things on their own without dragging her in. Being stuck in the middle hadn’t been pleasant anyway.
But now that she knew they were directly messaging each other, it started to bother her. No matter how much she tried to act indifferent, it stuck in her mind like a splinter.
Eun-sae mentally prepared herself. She told herself not to feel hurt, even if he said they texted a lot.
Yet even after three seconds, he said nothing.
Eun-sae snapped her head toward him. Tae-seung was frowning slightly, tilting his head as if still deciding what to say.
“What’s so hard about it that you need to think that long? Either you text often or you don’t. You can just answer honestly.”
“Well, I do get a lot of messages…”
“…”
“But I don’t know if I’d call it ‘texting often.’”
Even the Sphinx wouldn’t have asked a riddle this confusing. Eun-sae frowned and tilted her head too.
“So… you mean Si-hyun texts you first all the time, and you just ignore her?”
“I don’t ignore her. When I finish training and check my phone, it’s already full of messages.”
“Then you could at least reply later. Say something like, ‘Sorry, I just saw this. I was training.’”
“No need.”
He answered indifferently.
His careless attitude made her feel annoyed on Si-hyun’s behalf. He didn’t even realize how hurt she might feel, continuing to text him even when he didn’t reply.
“What do you mean ‘no need’? Do you know how bad it feels when someone ignores your messages? You could really hurt someone’s feelings.”
“Did I hurt yours? By ignoring your messages.”
“Huh?”
The sudden turn in the conversation left Eun-sae momentarily blank. It wasn’t that she hadn’t understood what he said. Tae-seung wasn’t the type to repeat himself. He simply looked at her quietly, waiting for an answer.
“I wouldn’t say it hurt… more like it was frustrating. I needed to talk to you, but you wouldn’t answer your phone.”
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
