NOVEL ONLINE FREE Lie Again!
Chapter 12
<Chapter 12. Freaky Friday (1)> The week leading up to the game against Cottonwood, Jin’s days had been simple and straightforward.
Going to school, attending classes, cleaning, and heading home. From an outsider’s perspective, the daily routine of a seventeen-year-old might seem endlessly simple. However, for Jin, who was the one actually going through it, her days were far from simple. “Haam.” Jin covered her mouth with her palm and let out a small yawn. Her eyes kept fluttering shut. The drowsiness persisted, a consequence of not getting enough sleep the night before, just like the day before that, and even the one before that. With the homecoming party and the start of the football season, posters announcing the festivities were plastered all over the school. The students were abuzz with chatter about what they would wear to the homecoming party and what the dress code for the week would be. However, despite attending the same Crawford High, the teachers seemed indifferent to the festive atmosphere and piled on assignments. As a result, in the midst of all the commotion, Jin had to put in exactly three times the time and effort as everyone else. Back in Korea, Jin had never been required to write logically structured essays, but at Crawford, it was as routine as eating. That alone was unfamiliar, but on top of that, she had to do it in English. Before she even had the chance to proudly praise herself for gradually getting used to American conversations and slang, a massive mountain loomed before Jin. Because of this, Jin had to give up her Saturday ritual of “lying down and doing nothing but watching dramas” and instead wrestle with a dictionary. Each time, in her drowsy state, she found herself debating which was more detrimental to her grades—failing to submit an assignment or dozing off in class. “Hi.” And the moment Jin heard the voice she had been sick and tired of hearing for the past few days—one that had been drilled into her ears—she regretted not having taken a proper nap. She considered pretending to be asleep even now, but the owner of the voice had already made eye contact with her. “Hi, Pablo…” Jin lifted the corners of her lips in a faint smile and greeted Pablo. She looked undeniably exhausted, but Pablo didn’t seem to care about that at all. “So, to continue what I was saying earlier, the first calculator was invented by Pascal, but the one who had a major influence on the invention of the computer was…” As soon as Pablo sat down, he started talking nonstop. Thanks to that, Jin had to listen to Pablo’s “lectures on things that may or may not be useful to know,” which she usually heard during science class, even during math class. Jin let Pablo’s words go in one ear and out the other as she kept her eyes fixed on the door, desperately hoping that Mr. Jones would walk in soon. “Haam.” Even after class ended, Jin barely managed to escape from Pablo, who was still trying to start a conversation. She trudged down the hallway, forcing her hazy mind to stay alert. With each step she took, the bandage wrapped around her left ankle loosened bit by bit. Over the past few days, Jin’s ankle had steadily recovered. As long as she didn’t make any sudden movements or start running, she could walk well. However, Jin had never properly learned how to wrap her ankle, so she had been loosely bandaging it. It wasn’t until the bandages had come undone and started dragging on the ground, leaving marks on the fabric, that she repeated the process of wrapping it again. The classroom, filled with the afternoon sunlight, was quietly drifting with dust particles, as if Butterfield hadn’t arrived yet. Still half-asleep, Jin swung the window wide open and immediately slumped over the nearest seat, resting her head on the desk. ‘Until Butterfield comes…’ After three sleepless nights, her exhausted mind was screaming that this was her limit. The sunlight, warm enough to be slightly stifling, met the breeze drifting in through the open window, creating the perfect conditions for a restful sleep. Jin’s eyes closed heavily. As her darkened vision spun around, sleep swiftly took over. * * * It was a day after summer break had ended. Although autumn seemed to be approaching, the lingering warmth of summer remained in the air. Students, dressed in a mix of summer and mid-season uniforms, struggled to fight off their drowsiness, gazing sleepily at the blackboard. It felt as though the scent of sleep had been sprayed in the classroom, with only the slow, sluggish voice of the elderly teacher echoing throughout. Jin stifled a small yawn when the math teacher turned away. Shaking her head to stay alert while sitting up straight, Jin was almost the only survivor in the classroom. The others were physically present, but their minds had already wandered elsewhere. In other words, the math teacher had no one else to ask questions to but Jin. “Lee Jin. Come out and solve this.” The teacher, who had spent decades in the classroom, had a talent for drawing beautiful geometric shapes with chalk. Standing at the front of the class, Jin faced a perfectly round circle and straight lines as she slowly worked through the problem. Her hand, holding the chalk, moved smoothly as she wrote down the solution without hesitation. The sound of the chalk hitting the blackboard echoed through the quiet classroom. The hand that had written the last answer put the chalk down. The white-haired math teacher nodded in satisfaction at the neatly written solution. At the sound of the teacher’s applause, the few students who were still somewhat awake weakly clapped along. At the gesture signaling she could return to her seat, Jin turned around. And the moment she did, she met a pair of eyes staring intently at her. It was Minchae. Minchae looked at Jin with an unreadable gaze as if analyzing her. Jin didn’t look away, even though she felt anxiety starting to creep up on her from the edge. At some point, Jin had stopped being able to read anything from those pale brown eyes. They had once been as clear as gazing into a pristine lake. But now, it felt like wandering through a foggy mist where she couldn’t see an inch ahead. The fleeting eye contact ended blandly as Minchae turned to her seatmate. She smiled brightly while scribbling something on the corner of their textbook. However, even as Jin walked back to her seat, she couldn’t take her eyes off her. It seemed like Minchae’s notes with her partner would always have her name written somewhere. Jin’s heart pounded anxiously. * * * The murmuring sounds reached her ears, as if coming from far away yet also from very close by. The sound of water pouring, the sound of glass clinking, the sound of footsteps… Jin’s eyelids twitched slightly. The sunlight that had been warming her back had shifted angles and was now pouring down onto her face as she lay sprawled over the desk. As the clouds passed through the sunlight, the darkness behind her closed eyelids alternated between bright and dim. Jin’s brows narrowed at the feeling of being blinded. “You frown when you sleep.” A low voice accompanied the touch of a cool hand against her furrowed brow. The hand, as if it had been submerged in cold water, carried a lingering warmth beneath its chilled surface. A large hand tapped her brow lightly. Each time it made contact, the space between Jin’s eyebrows twitched and narrowed repeatedly. A quiet chuckle floated through the air. Who was it? The boundary between dream and reality felt blurred. Even as she tried to steady her spinning mind, her body remained limp, like a wet cotton ball. “You’re a mess.” A tsking sound followed as the voice moved away. With the shadow that had been blocking the sunlight gone, the warmth once again poured onto Jin’s face. ‘Clumsy, bad at sports, and seems to have no dexterity either.’ The voice moved from in front to the side, then from the side to below. A large hand grabbed her ankle and took off her sneaker. The soft rustling of fabric against her skin made her left ankle tingle. Without thinking, Jin instinctively pulled her foot back. The large hand that had hesitated for a moment effortlessly grabbed her ankle and calf, pulling them toward him with a firm grasp. The ankle that was grabbed felt warm. Struggling with a hazy mind, Jin gave up resisting the sleepiness and fell into a deep dream. Jin’s eyes snapped open. Though her mind felt refreshed, an unsettling sense of unease rang alarm bells in her head. Her back pocket kept vibrating nonstop. Jin quickly pulled out her phone while checking the clock on the chemistry lab wall. There were at least ten missed calls from Riley. “Ah, Riley? I, I must’ve dozed off. I’ll head out right away.” Jin quickly spilled out her words. Her tongue hadn’t fully woken up from sleep yet, causing her to stutter. As she hastily gathered her belongings, she glanced around the chemistry lab. Everything was neatly organized. And there was nothing else to do. Jin groaned, covering her eyes with her palms. Thanks to that, she slept well, but…for some reason, she felt indebted to Butterfield. As Jin hurried out of the chemistry lab and walked down the hallway, she suddenly looked down at her ankle. The bandage, which had been cumbersome with every step, was neatly arranged. It wasn’t wrapped in Riley’s way, nor Jin’s way, but exactly the way Miss MacMillan from the infirmary had done it.
Tip: You can use left, right, A and D keyboard keys to browse between chapters.