Chapter 145 - Friends (1)

1

“You’ll help me?”

“Yeah. Well, I shouldn’t make it sound like I’m doing you some huge favor...”

The class president smiled wryly.

‘Has she always been this expressive?’

It felt a little unfamiliar. Come to think of it, we’d been in the same class since first year, but I’d hardly ever talked to her.

“I’m running for student council president, remember? I’m doing it for a university recommendation... but a president is still a president. I ought to try resolving a problem in our own class. I don’t know how we can fix it, but I’ll ask Kim Yul. Do you have his phone number?”

“Uh... hang on.”

While searching through my contacts, I realized something. The class president didn’t know Kim Yul’s number. All the classmates who’d passed the videos around with me knew it. Which meant:

‘The class president isn’t the culprit.’

It was possible this was all an act, too.

‘No way. She’s just an ordinary goody-two-shoes. She has no way of getting that recording, either.’

The class president was a safe bet. I was sure of it.

As I nodded, the class president said, “Oh.”

“Actually, no. This probably isn’t something to discuss over the phone. I’ll just ask Kim Yul privately after I get to school tomorrow. That works, right?”

“Yeah, yeah. You’re right. A phone call wouldn’t be appropriate. Um, thanks for trying to help.”

“If you’re grateful, give me your honest vote instead of voting for your girlfriend.”

“... Sure.”

My girlfriend and I were finished as of today anyway. The class president didn’t seem to know we’d broken up, which was another point in favor of crossing her off the suspect list.

‘Right.’

Hope stirred inside me.

‘It’s not over yet. Nothing’s over! As long as there’s even one person supporting me, I can use them to work out a plan. This atmosphere won’t last. Give it a little time, and my friends will go back to normal.’

From that day on, the class president really did start taking action. I couldn’t tell exactly what she was doing, but she seemed to be making full use of the [model student] image she’d built up.

“Okay. I talked to Kim Yul.”

The class president said this at lunch the next day. Once again, I hadn’t gone down to the cafeteria. My classmates were still quietly shutting me out, and I didn’t want to get caught up in it. The two of us held a secret meeting in the empty classroom.

“Really? What did he say?”

“He wants you to formally apologize in front of your friends. He absolutely refuses to accept a one-on-one apology. He says he’ll forgive you if you sincerely apologize in a way that lets everyone know what you did wrong and how badly you wronged him.”

That crazy bastard.

‘How is that an apology or forgiveness?’

He just wanted to humiliate me. Kim Yul was no different from my classmates. He was pulling this shit because he wanted a taste of power, even a grain-sized scrap of it.

“He said three times that there’d be no forgiveness if the apology didn’t feel ‘sincere.’ Hmm. He didn’t have a single expression on his face. He seemed really angry with you.”

‘This is driving me nuts.’

Couldn’t I just give him a million won and be done with it?

The broke bastard would take it.

“What does sincerity even mean? What do I have to do to make it feel sincere?”

“Well, I don’t really know, either... Anyway, he says the important thing is apologizing in front of the others. Why don’t you try writing an apology beforehand?”

She sounded slightly annoyed. Had she finally realized the situation was more complicated than she’d expected?

Damn it. My school life wasn’t the only thing at stake here. My future was, too. My whole life was on the line. If you’ve decided to pretend to be nice, take responsibility all the way to the end!

“Right. I should write an apology. Hah...”

I made myself look as pitiful as possible.

Hwang Eunseo. Time for the performance of your life.

“Seriously, why was I stupid enough to bully Kim Yul? Everyone was doing it, so I joined in without really thinking. Damn it. I shouldn’t have done that.”

Come on, feel sorry for me already. Pity me. I’m only human. I can regret things. I can repent for what I’ve done. But I haven’t done anything deserving of death! Hurry up and pity me!

“Of course Kim Yul’s angry with me. I could’ve stopped the others any time, but... hah. Now I feel sorry. If I could, I’d apologize in front of the whole school. Seriously.”

“...”

The class president gazed steadily at me. Her eyes were as deep as wells. It was a face that gave little away. But there was no doubt she was listening to me.

“I’ve got an idea.”

She sprang to her feet.

“Huh?”

“I thought of a way for you to get Kim Yul’s forgiveness. Wait here. I’m going to the faculty office.”

She hurried out of the classroom. I was dumbfounded. What the hell was she doing? Alone in the empty classroom, I absently peeled the wrapper off a Go●seu snack cake and ate it. She returned when I was halfway through nibbling it.

“Great! I checked with a teacher.”

“About what?”

“The student council presidential speeches. I asked if someone who isn’t a candidate can go up on the podium. They said there isn’t any rule against it.”

The class president smiled confidently.

There was moisture around her mouth, as though she’d managed to stop by the restroom, too.

“You said it yourself. You’d apologize in front of the whole school if you could. I was already wondering how to write a speech that could beat your girlfriend, so this works out perfectly.”

“Uh...”

“Listen.”

She sat down and took out a notebook. Her pen swept across the page, old-fashioned cursive dancing over the paper.

“You, Hwang Eunseo, give an apology about how sorry you are to Kim Yul. Then I take the microphone and continue the speech along the lines of, [The school I want to build as student council president is one where we admit our mistakes and forgive one another]. Get it?”

Not really.

“We’re giving it a story. It won’t just be a speech listing campaign promises!”

“...”

“I don’t know what your girlfriend’s speech will be like, but she’s super rich. It’s obvious. She’ll probably lure them in with things like, ‘I’ll put air fresheners in every school restroom, even if I have to pay for them myself,’ or ‘I’ll make sure we never run out of toilet paper.’ If it comes down to promises, I have zero chance of winning... Right. Let’s take her on with a story.”

She wrote several slogans in her notebook.

+

A Student Council That Solves Problems!

A Student Council That Keeps Dialogue Going!

We Will Be Your Emergency Channel of Communication!

+

“Uhhh...”

Her eyes sparkled.

“Well?”

That was incredibly cheesy.

“This is the age of storytelling! I’m sick of air fresheners and toilet paper. We’ve heard those same promises since elementary school. This will work. Let’s go with a story!”

“Hmm.”

Then again, student council elections were always full of cheesy lines. Communication, whatever—people slapped on anything that sounded good. The idea she’d come up with didn’t seem bad.

‘More importantly, this bastard...’

I looked at her with fresh eyes.

‘She doesn’t care about anything except her own election, does she?’

Even if she was class president, I’d wondered why she was helping me this much. Selfish bastard. All she’d been thinking about from start to finish was using me for her election.

She didn’t care about what was happening in our class. What had been done to Kim Yul, why everyone was ignoring me—none of it interested her. She was only getting involved because she’d decided she could use it in her campaign. Even her reason for running was to get into a good university!

‘Right.’

But looking at her now, I let go of my suspicions entirely.

‘A bastard like this is actually someone I can talk to.’

The class president and I were the same kind of person. She was looking ahead. Thinking about her future. She had the determination to get into a good university and live a good life. How many people seriously aimed to become student council president just to get a recommendation to Seoul National University?

‘She’s like me.’

She was far more trustworthy than people who acted nice for no particular reason. She was definitely going to succeed out in the world, too.

“But there are only a few days left until the election, right? Are you really okay changing your speech because of me?”

“It’s fine. Winning is what matters.”

She smiled.

“Counting the posters and everything, I’ve spent twenty hours on this election. I gave up twenty hours of studying to do this. I can’t lose.”

‘This bastard really does think like me, huh?’

I trusted her more and more.

Thinking of her as one of my own kind even made me feel close to her.

“All right, Class President. I’ll make sure to help wherever I can. But you’ve got to help me, too, okay? Tell our classmates I want to make peace. That I’m sorry for everything, and I’d like us to be friends again if we can.”

“Yeah. Sounds good. It should be a win-win.”

The two of us shook hands.

“I’m counting on you.”

“Likewise!”

I helped with her campaign. Even if I couldn’t openly help out in public, I revised her speech and worked on campaign slogans with her.

My classmates were still shutting me out.

But just [having something to do at school] gave me a great deal of peace of mind.

“Wow. You’re a good writer, huh?”

She was pleased after reading my apology and the speech. It was after school. Only the two of us remained in the Second-Year Class 5 classroom, suffused with sunset light.

“Now, as long as you act well, we’re guaranteed to win.”

“Act?”

I tilted my head.

“What acting?”

“Huh? Hwang Eunseo, you’re not actually sorry to Kim Yul at all, are you?”

“...”

“Oh, it’s fine. I’m not blaming you. I think what matters isn’t feeling sorry, but how you go about apologizing. I don’t even know what ‘feeling sorry’ means in the first place.”

She flipped through the pages of my apology.

“You’re going to apologize in front of the whole school despite how embarrassing it is. What could be more sincere than that? What good does it do to keep saying you’re sorry, or even to feel sorry? You have to follow it up with real action. In that respect, Hwang Eunseo, you’re a hundred, a thousand times better than the others.”

Hmm.

Hmmm...

“I quietly asked Kim Yul yesterday, too. Whether even one person had properly apologized to him so far. And apparently, nobody has? He even said you’re the only one who’s asked what it would take for him to forgive you. Honestly, our classmates have no shame.”

“Class President... you...”

You really are someone I can talk to.

I was a little touched.

“Oh, of course, it works out well for me. If you’d gone around saying, [Vote for my girlfriend! You have to vote for my girlfriend!], I would’ve lost dozens of votes. I do feel bad that you’re being quietly ostracized, Eunseo, but honestly, I’m happy about it.”

“Wow, you piece of trash...”

“Yep. Thanks. Aren’t all people trash anyway?”

I burst out laughing. She was right. For the first time in a while since my girlfriend dumped me, I could laugh.

‘She really gets it.’

Humans were trash. Beasts. If a human seemed docile, that was simply because they’d fallen from beast to livestock. Only those who realized this as quickly as possible survived.

[Your current immersion rate is 100%.]

Then you could become a hyena instead of a little goat. With luck, you could even become a lion.

You could succeed.

People who complained that relationships were difficult had that problem because they kept trying to see people as people. See them as animals, and there was no problem at all.

Have no friends? That’s because there’s nothing to gain from being around you. At the very least, hanging out with you should relieve some stress. Have lots of friends? That’s because there’s plenty to gain from being with you.

That was all.

True friendship came only from true benefit.

‘At least I won’t lose out by sticking with her.’

I grinned.

“Class President, want to be friends?”

She snorted.

“After I get elected student council president. The speech is fine as it is, but polish it some more. I’m working hard right now with our classmates to get you to apologize, you know? If I don’t get elected, it’ll all be wasted effort.”

“Got it. Got it! Okay. I’ll write you one hell of a speech! Seriously, I’ll bawl my eyes out, snot and all, while I read my apology! I, Hwang Eunseo, will burn myself out making our class president the student council president of Sinseo High!”

“Yes. Your remarks have been duly noted. I’m counting on you, Mr. Eunseo.”

We chuckled together.