Episode 10.
“Gag.”
Lucas made a disgusted face and pretended to vomit.
So there was a reason he’d stayed quiet even after his religious essay was publicly posted on the bulletin board. Finally, everyone understood. It seemed something else had pushed the essay out of his one-dimensional thought process.
“I’ve always wanted to have a Samoyed, you know.”
“Get a dog, then.”
“If I could, I would’ve gotten one ages ago.”
Nathan couldn’t hide his look of contempt and turned his head away. To think one of the guys he hung out with had Yellow Fever.
He’d thought the guy had no interest in girls, but it was shocking that the first person he showed interest in was Sena Cruz.
“Her hair’s so black there’s nothing striking about her, but her eyes are so pale blue that once you see them, you keep noticing her.”
“Shut the fuck up. I don’t care.”
Only when Lucas raised a fist as if to punch his mouth did Ben finally stop talking.
Ben and Lucas’s interest shifted to the phone screen Daniel showed them, leaving Nathan alone, looking straight ahead.
Sena, sitting dejectedly on the green net, was holding both hands out to Leila standing in front of her. It was a puppy-like action.
Nathan’s blue eyes stared intently at Sena’s face.
When Sena sat on the bench, Ray (short for Leila) handed her a carton of milk from the snack bar next to the gym. Sena’s fish-like lips clamped onto the white straw.
“Why so down today~ hmm?”
Instead of answering, Sena slowly shook her head. Ray, arms crossed, tilted her head, squinting as if the sunlight was dazzling her.
Leila, born to a Middle Eastern father and a white mother, had become friends with Sena in second grade due to their shared mixed-race background. And now, she was Sena’s most precious best friend.
With her chocolate skin tone and exceptionally good personality, Leila was also a popular kid recognized by everyone at school.
“By the way, Sena, there’s something I want to tell you.”
Sena’s gaze slowly lifted. Her mouth was still clamped on the straw.
“About you hanging out with Sean Frost… How about you stop that?”
“…Why?”
“I don’t want you getting unnecessarily caught between Sean Frost and Nathan’s group.”
Sena blinked a few times in silence, as if thinking about something.
“…Actually, Sean Frost already told me to stop talking to him.”
“He did? So he already said something. That’s quite responsible of him.”
Responsible?
Him telling me to stop talking to him was out of responsibility?
These were thoughts Sena had never considered before.
“Whatever Sean Frost’s plans are, what if you end up getting targeted alongside him?”
After hesitating for a moment, Sena finally spoke.
“Ray, am I… clueless?”
“What? Who said that?”
“No… just… tell me honestly.”
Ray tapped her own lips with her index finger. An awkward smile played on her lips.
“Uh, hmm- Just a little bit?”
“…Like when, for example?”
“You know Henry liked you, right? You still didn’t know, did you?”
“Huh?”
Henry? Sena was genuinely surprised.
Henry. Likes. Me.
These three words formed a sentence combination that couldn’t possibly exist in Sena’s mind.
“That’s why there were those jokes about Henry back then. ‘Henry SPRING into action.'”
“No way.”
“To everyone else, you being completely clueless until the end was what made no sense. Hmm.”
Henry had returned to his home country about half a year ago; he had hoped Sena would notice his feelings first instead of him confessing, which was why it turned out that way. Although that never happened.
“You got a squirrel doll as a farewell gift, right? You’re the only one who got something like that. For reference, I got a lollipop.”
“Was I really that bad? No, Henry and I were really just friends.”
“Henry was timid. I don’t think you’re totally clueless. But how should I put it… our Sena is…”
Ray, smiling, chose her words carefully and made a small heart shape with both hands.
“No, just stay exactly the way you are~”
“What? Tell me properly!”
Sena even shot up from her seat, but Ray just laughed.
After bickering for a while, Ray ultimately never gave her a proper answer. Sena parted ways with Ray, who had art class next, and headed towards the hallway with the lockers to get the notebook she needed for history class.
“Sigh…….”
I’m clueless?
‘And to the extent that everyone knows?’
The last face she saw of Henry flickered in her mind. She had just thought he was really sad about leaving California…
Sena’s hand listlessly opened her locker. As she was getting her notebook, a voice came from behind.
“Hey.”
Turning her head, she found someone she never imagined standing behind her.
It was Ben Hurd.
“…Yes?”
His dirty blonde hair was swept to the side as if by the wind.
His hairstyle, swept back to show his forehead, his usual sportswear and track suit, the sports band on his wrist, and his moderately tanned skin naturally gave away that he was a football hopeful, even without a name tag.
“I’m regulating my sugar intake, you know?”
“…And?”
He pulled his hand out of his hoodie pocket. A small bag of marshmallows was clutched in his hand.
“You have these, or whatever.”
He threw the marshmallow bag into Sena’s locker as if taking a shot. Sena stared, dumbfounded, at the marshmallow bag now sitting inside her locker.
“My locker isn’t a trash can, you know?”
She immediately took the marshmallow bag out to return it, but Ben had already walked far away with strides about 1.5 times the length of hers.
Chasing him would make it tight to get to her next class on time. In the end, Sena packed the marshmallow bag along with her notebook.
Why is he like that, seriously.
With a deeply scrunched-up expression.
The classroom, before class had started, was noisy.
Entering through the front door, Sena looked for an empty seat and soon spotted Sean sitting at his desk.
Sean was talking with John, who was holding a basketball.
“You won awards in New York? Well, then I have nothing to say.”
“I prefer singles over team games.”
While there were plenty of girls who wanted to sit next to Sean, apparently the front row wasn’t one of them; the only empty seat in the classroom was the one right next to Sean, close enough to potentially make eye contact with the teacher.
Sena and Sean’s eyes met for a moment, but Sean averted his gaze so quickly it could hardly be called contact.
‘Seems he’s made friends now…’
After saying he didn’t need things like friends.
As she placed her things on the desk, Sena glanced sideways subtly. John, who was mixed White and Black, was taller than his peers and had short hair.
His main characteristic was that he was often described as ‘cool’ by his friends. They said he ‘never bothered anyone.’
“Who won awards?”
“Sean did swimming back in New York.”
“Oh, for real?”
Interest from several kids instantly poured over the lowered threshold of John’s conversation.
“I was going to ask him to join the basketball team!”
“Then why hasn’t he joined the swim team yet?”
The conversation, which seemed about to get fully underway, was quickly cut short as the teacher entered.
But that didn’t mean Sena’s attention, which had drifted to the right, returned to its proper place.
‘He’s not apologizing…’
Maybe he doesn’t plan to…?
She needed to focus in class, but her mind kept drifting to the seat beside her. Of course, he wouldn’t suddenly apologize in the middle of class, but…
Finally, after finishing her writing assignment, Sena started doodling circles on her notebook. What started as simple spirals began to resemble something once she drew a vertical line on top. A fruit, among other things.
It was an apple.
Sena, resting her chin on her left hand, went ahead and drew a small leaf on the stem. Even without color, it was unmistakably an apple to anyone who saw it now.
‘Apologize, Sean Frost.’
Apologize!
Since she’d drawn it with her right hand, it was positioned where Sean could see it. But Sena wasn’t really thinking about it. The connection ‘fruit apple = apology apple’ works in Korean, not English.
As students streamed out of the classroom after the lesson ended, Sena slowly packed her things.
“…Can we talk for a minute?”
Sena, her eyes wide with surprise, looked beside her. The owner of the voice was none other than Sean.
“…Where?”
“Right here. Once everyone’s gone.”
Is he going to apologize?!
Sena was glad the wait wasn’t longer. She planned to accept it if he apologized. Even if she didn’t know his exact reasons, it might have been something he said for her sake.
However, the words Sean spoke in the now empty classroom were not at all what Sena had expected.
“You, what did you get from Bentley Hurd?”
“…Huh?”
It’s not an apology?
“Why do you just accept anything from anyone? You can be careless, but there’s a limit.”
Despite his calm, monotone delivery, an undeniable sharpness seeped through.
“What… I didn’t accept it, he just threw it like trash and left.”
Sena’s gaze flickered towards the marshmallow bag on the desk.
Sean Frost was clearly the one in the wrong.
Why on earth she was being interrogated like a criminal was something Sena couldn’t understand at all.
“Anyway, if it’s in your hands, you’ve accepted it. It means you’re being lax and careless.”
Far from an apology, this unexpected second round of verbal assault quickly hardened Sena’s expression.
