Chapter 162

Chapter 162

Maru’s ears itched for some reason . Was someone insulting him behind his back? He stood up from the bed with a stretch . The view outside the window was like a canvas, everything was so white the grey road that the shovelling truck swept was looking alien .

“Laziness is good . ”

Looking back, he’s tried hard enough already . He was way too busy for a normal high schooler, maybe this was G.o.d’s way of giving him a break . He might as well take full advantage of it . He reached out to pick up a banana, eating a tropical fruit in the middle of winter . . . What an odd situation . He picked up his book as he ate . Just about everyone who would come to visit him already left . He told his family to not worry about him, so he should be free all day . After turning a few pages, Maru looked up from his book .

‘I wonder if she’s doing well . ’

1pm . About the time where everyone was together, Miso might’ve already started talking . Right now, she had to play the bad cop . After all, people hated being the target of suspicion . Having to take on this role was no easy burden for her . It would’ve been better for Taesik to have taken this role, actually . He was the advisor of the club and Miso was technically an outsider .

Emotionally speaking, Miso was a lot closer to the club . In terms of asking such questions, Miso was definitely the person for the job . Plus, she cared about the club more than anyone else . She probably felt personally responsible for what happened, but that didn’t change the fact that Maru was sorry for making her do this .

“ . . . Ah, is she actually insulting me behind my back?”

That would explain the bad dreams he had last night, he could just see Miso gritting her teeth in his head . But so what? That was her job as an adult .

“ . . . Being a kid is the best . ”

Maru took a bite out of his apple .

* * *

Daemyung first wondered why the second years all came back with a frown . Just what did instructor Miso ask them? He only realized now why the second years all looked so annoyed and slightly offended a few minutes ago .

“I’m suspicious of Maru . ”

He legitimately couldn’t understand what Miso said . Did he hear her wrong? No, judging by her expression, he clearly didn’t .

“What do you . . . ”

“Maru was the one who was on the 5th floor when the fire started . You know what the implications are . ”

“Instructor . ”

“Be honest with me . Aren’t you suspicious?”

Daemyung liked instructor Miso, she was always very pa.s.sionate and he respected that . He always enjoyed her difficult and strict practice sessions because he could feel her pa.s.sion . He’s never seen her badly once in her life . But right now… he despised her for the words that came out of her mouth .

“Are you being serious?”

He’s never gone against an adult, he’s never refuted what an adult told him . He used to always think adults were always right . But what’s this? Did instructor Miso really suspect Maru? He was confused . Here he thought she would always support him .

“Yeah . It just makes sense . You guys were on the first floor and Maru was on the fifth floor . A fire started . What does that make you think?”

Miso crossed her arms . Did she really think that? She was truly worried about Maru just yesterday, she even said that it was a relief that Maru didn’t get really badly hurt . She was also truly mad at Maru, mad at him for being reckless .

Could a person like that change her behavior just like that? Was she really speaking the truth? She usually didn’t talk like this either . She wasn’t the type to call in people one by one to interrogate them, she was the type that spoke her thoughts and asked the same of others . If she was really suspicious, she would’ve asked Maru on the spot yesterday at the hospital . If he said no, she would’ve just dropped it .

A person like that… calling people one by one to talk in secret? That wasn’t the way she worked . Instructor Miso hated doing tasks that took a lot of work . This type of strategy, this roundabout way of reaching their goal rather than running straight for it… The one who usually worked like this was…

“Um, instructor . ”

“Yeah?”

“Can I make a call?”

“To who?”

“Maru . ”

“What?”

“I won’t tell him what you told me . I just want to ask him something . Is that fine?”

“S-sure . ”

Daemyung walked to the corner of the room before calling Maru, who picked up the call with a dazed voice .

“Hey Maru . ”

- Yeah?

“Can you be honest with me?”

- If you’re asking me that with no context at all, I’m going to have to tell you no .

“I hope you can still be honest . ”

- What’s this about?

“You asked instructor Miso to do something regarding the fire, didn’t you?”

He didn’t get a response back for a while . Did he get the wrong impression?

- Man, I keep noticing this, but… You’re really sharp .

“Does that mean . . . ”

- You got it . I think you know why as well .

“Y-yeah, a little . ”

Maru must’ve wanted to believe that it wasn’t a club member who started a fire as well, but he needed to prove that was the case first . Daemyung understood that feeling all too well . In fact, he completely agreed with finding evidence instead of just blind faith . a.s.sumptions made about him were how he was hurt by others until middle school, after all . He’s fat and slow, so it’s okay to bully him . It’s okay to bully him because he’s ugly . Daemyung grew to hate a.s.sumptions because of it .

“There can’t be anyone in the club who did it though, right? That doesn’t make sense at all . ”

He thought he’d get a response quickly, but Maru stayed silent for a surprisingly long time . That could only mean one thing .

“Wait, do you actually . . . ”

- Please play along with my game for now . I do have a proper plan in mind .

“Do you actually think one of us did it?”

- I’m just being open to all possibilities . I don’t want to be blindsided .

Maru sounded almost pained when he said that . Did he go through something in the past?

“Alright, fine . I’ll keep quiet for now . ”

- Thanks .

“But tell me next time . I don’t know if I can help but… I really don’t want to get tricked by a friend . ”

- Yup, got it .

Daemyung hung up and started thinking . Did Maru already have a suspect? Or was he really just being open to all possibilities? How was he planning on finding the perpetrator anyway? He only had questions . Then again, he was never able to figure out Maru’s plans until the boy was completely finished . That was the case with what happened before their summer vacation and that was the case with the school violence incidents as well .

‘I just hope he doesn’t use himself as a target . ’

Maybe Maru didn’t even care about becoming a target of hatred . Daemyung started thinking . Creating a situation where you become a target of suspicion and using that? He wouldn’t even think about doing such a thing, personally . But Maru did, he differentiated between what and what not to protect . Then, it seemed that Maru cla.s.sified himself as something he didn’t have to protect, he would protect those around him rather than himself . That behavior has lessened recently, but it definitely hasn’t disappeared . In fact, he still looked like he was working very hard for someone . Though Daemyung wouldn’t know who that someone was until Maru talked about it .

“Looks like you heard everything from him . ”

“ . . . Yes . ”

“Please play along for the time being . We might as well finish this now that we started . ”

“Do you think the perpetrator is in the club, like Maru?”

“No, I don’t . ”

Miso seemed confident .

“Now . Bring me the next person . Two left now?”

“Yes . ”

“That Maru’s definitely working me to the bone . I’m going to tease him a ton when I go visit him . ”

“He’s still a patient, so please be gentle . . . ”

Daemyung smiled awkwardly . Just before he walked out, he turned around to ask a question .

“No one’s been suspicious yet, right?”

“Of course . ”

“That’s good . ”

Daemyung gave a glance at Geunseok as he stepped back into the auditorium . Geunseok got up to go to speak with Miso next .

* * *

“Maru?”

“Yes . What do you think?”

Geunseok closed his mouth . Maru? A fire?

‘Well, it’d be good to hear, honestly . ’

He really didn’t like Maru, the boy was annoying from start to finish . It’d be great if someone like that was the perpetrator, but he had to shake his head in disagreement here .

“He’s a bit annoying, but I don’t think he did it . ”

“Really?”

“Yes . ”

“Alright . Anyone else you’d be suspicious of?”

“I don’t really know . But I hope you know that I didn’t do this . You should know that I’m working very hard for the club . ”

Miso nodded, gesturing for him to get up .

“Yurim’s the last one, right?”

“Yes . ”

“Bring her over . ”

Geunseok came back to the auditorium, none of the club members were talking . Then again, they were all pretty shocked by Miso . There was no reason for any casual conversation to be taking place . He called out to Yurim, the girl flinched like someone who just got woken up .

“Why are you so surprised? You’re next . Go . ”

“ . . . Okay . ”

Yurim barely managed to stand up, she shook off Soyeon when the girl tried to help her . Did they fight? Yurim walked out of the auditorium with a dark look .

* * *

Yurim felt even more nervous than the first time she got on stage . What was instructor Miso planning inside? No one told her what had happened . But, given their expressions, it couldn’t have been anything good . She opened the door, instructor Miso was sitting down with her arms crossed . There was a chair in front of the instructor, so Yurim took a seat before anything else .

“I’ll make this quick . Just listen to my opinion and tell me what you think . ”

“Yes . ”

“I’m suspicious of Maru . ”

The hair on her arms stood up . What did Miso mean by that? She looked at the instructor with trembling eyes . Why was the instructor suspicious of him?

This was a chance .

She was sick of feeling so nervous, she wanted to be done with this . It felt like she would go insane if this dragged on for any longer . Miso was suspicious of Maru, agreeing with that outright would make her look suspicious . Maybe she could imply her agreement a little bit instead?

There was no proof that she did it anyway . Right . If she says it might be Maru here… the nervousness inside her disappeared . This was a chance . A chance granted to her by the heavens .

“Yurim?”

“Y-yes?”

“What do you think?”

“Um… I . . . ”

She felt conflicted, but her feelings quickly got swept over by the desire to feel comfortable again .

“Maru’s suspicious for sure . I’m not saying he did it of course . It’s just… anyway, there wasn’t a fire until we came down, but the fire appeared when he went up . ”

“Right? I thought so too . ”

Miso immediately put a small smile on her face, the woman was clearly a bit happy to hear this . Maybe this would go over more easily than Yurim first thought?

“Do you think the same way as me, instructor?”

“Mm, yes . Pretty much . ”

“Maru hated acting at first . He just joined out of the blue . Plus, remember when he said those mean things to all of us? He might actually be a bully inside . ”

Yurim closed her mouth in surprise . Maybe she went a bit too far here? Thankfully, instructor Miso was still smiling kindly .

“I heard your opinion well . You can go now . Do keep this to yourself though . ”

“Of course . ”

That’s good, instructor Miso was suspicious of Maru . Yurim really might’ve let out a smile if she wasn’t still in front of the woman . Instructor Miso stepped back into the auditorium after a brief wait .

“Good work, guys . You can all go home now . See you in two days . ”

Everyone got up with dissatisfied expressions . They all left the auditorium one by one with their bags . Yurim approached Geunseok, but the boy left telling her that he was busy .

‘Can’t be helped . ’

If she pushed the boy further, he’d hate her . She ignored Soyeon calling out to her and walked to the bus station . She really wanted to sleep, it felt like she could finally get some good sleep for the first time in a while . Right then, she got a call .

“Instructor?”

- Yurim, where are you?

“I’m at the bus station . ”

- Can you wait? I want you to go somewhere with me .

“What?”

Instructor Miso’s car rolled right up to her .

“Get on . ”

Yurim got on and the car took off immediately .

“Instructor . ”

“What?”

“Where are we going?”

“Hospital . ”

“What?”

The hospital? Were they planning on punis.h.i.+ng Maru? Good . She was starting to look forward to getting there now .