NOVEL ONLINE FREE Lie Again!
Chapter 13
<Chapter 13. Freaky Friday (2)> Right at this moment, Jin desperately wanted to see Joey and Amanda.
Ruth’s gray jeep blared music so loudly that it seemed like it was about to explode. Jin, lost in a pointless thought about whether her eardrums or the speakers would burst first, let out a loud scream. “Please! Turn the volume down!” Jin’s scream, as loud as she could manage, was drowned out by the heavy metal screams of Ruth and Dustin, turning into a silent cry. Jin gave up on everything and rolled down the window, hoping to let out at least some of the noise—only to startle and hurriedly roll it back up. The ear-splitting guitar and drum sounds poured out through the open window onto the empty residential road. Shadows approaching through the windows were visible in various parts of the lit-up living room. Residents, disturbed by the evening noise, pulled back their curtains and looked outside to see the source of the sound pollution. Jin quickly flopped down in the back seat. Fortunately, this large-wheeled off-road vehicle was able to drive well even on paved roads. The residential area quickly moved away. Unaware of Jin’s distress, the speakers blared a wailing voice, screeching at an ear-splitting pitch. “He-is-the!-Painkiller.” “This!-is!-the!-Painkiller!” The noise culprits sitting in the front row shook their heads back and forth madly, following the lyrics. Maybe it was just her imagination, but it almost felt as if the wheels of the jeep swayed with every movement of their heads. Jin held on to the handlebar with a pale face. It was a long way to Cottonwood High School. * * * Jin stepped into the Cottonwood parking lot with a dejected face even before the game started. Ruth and Dustin, still full of energy, hummed the song and bobbed their heads. The two of them never stopped singing from the moment they left until they arrived, exhausting their voices the whole way through. Jin, rubbing her muffled ears, shot a glare at the two who were still grinning with delight. Following behind Ruth and Dustin, Jin soon looked around Cottonwood with curious eyes. It was the first American high school she had seen besides Crawford since coming to the U.S. The rumor that Cottonwood’s foundation had plenty of money didn’t seem entirely unfounded—its lavish spending was evident from the parking lot alone. As Jin gazed at the freshly painted parking lines on the clean, gray surface without a single skid mark and the flawless exterior of the building, she couldn’t help but recall the broken, neglected concrete floors scattered around Crawford. “It’s nice.” “Where on earth does our school spend its money? It’s not like the tuition is cheap.” Ruth and Dustin, who were looking around Cottonwood with disapproving eyes, criticized Crawford’s financial situation. Inside the school, the halls were bustling with students and outsiders who had come to watch the game. The opening match at Crawford hadn’t seemed this crowded. A big match was a big match, after all, Jin thought, nodding to herself. After standing in a long line and paying the $5 entrance fee — Do we really have to pay to watch our own school’s game? Dustin grumbled — Jin passed through the metal detector and finally stepped onto Cottonwood’s field. Cottonwood’s grass field was a little different from Crawford’s. It seemed smaller overall, but it felt well-maintained. The stands, free of shoe prints and gum marks, sparkled like new. Jin and the others made their way down, looking for seats closer to the field. “Hey—!” A clear voice rang out from somewhere. Jin turned her gaze toward the source of the familiar voice. Beyond the fence, Joey was bouncing excitedly while holding blue and yellow pom-poms in both hands. Her cheer uniform, with a blue base and yellow accents, was incredibly cute. Jin waved both hands high above her head in greeting before taking a seat. There were still about ten minutes left until the game started, but the stands were already mostly full. The away section, where Jin was seated, was a sea of blue, contrasting sharply with the green waves of the home team’s supporters on the opposite side. Voices talking about the game filled the stadium here and there. Jin, who wasn’t particularly interested in football games, couldn’t help but feel excited by this heated atmosphere. “I’m hungry.” Dustin, who had been quietly waiting for the game, suddenly spoke. Ruth pretended not to hear and continued to flip through the SNS feeds he had been reading. “I’m hungry.” Dustin’s voice grew a little louder. “I’m—hungry.” “Phew, fine. Let’s go, let’s go.” Unable to resist the complaint whispered directly into his ear about being hungry, Ruth finally turned off his phone and stood up. “Jin, do you want to go too?” Jin silently shook her head. Thanks to having a light dinner with Ivy and Riley, she wasn’t particularly hungry. The two of them pushed their way through the crowd and climbed up the steps to the stands. Left alone, Jin took pictures of various places in the stadium with his phone camera, and found Joey under the fence. Joey immediately smiled mischievously and struck various poses upon seeing Jin. The blonde, blue-eyed girl was too cute not to be captured in a photo, so Jin also took pictures of Joey diligently. As about thirty photos of Joey piled up in the gallery, Jin felt someone sit down next to her. Thinking it was perhaps Ruth and Dustin returning, she turned her head—only to lock eyes with a man she had never seen before. “Hi.” “Uh…Hello?” The man, with brown hair and green eyes—a color combination that oddly reminded her of someone—smiled at Jin. Jin instinctively returned the greeting, but her eyes wandered aimlessly, unsure where to focus. Then, Jin’s gaze met Joey’s, who was standing behind the fence below. Joy immediately stretched her eyes, nose, and mouth wide, raising her lips high as she snapped a picture of herself and the man together. Joey gave a thumbs-up. Not wanting to know what she meant, Jin pretended not to see and turned her head away. The man followed Jin’s gaze and spotted Joey, grinning. With an easygoing charm, he struck a pose for the camera. Joey burst into giggles, rapidly pressing the shutter button. The man, dressed in Cottonwood’s signature green team uniform, had a fairly handsome appearance. It wasn’t entirely unreasonable that Joey was overreacting like that. However, the fact that his color combination was eerily similar to someone else inevitably made Jin think of Butterfield. The same brown hair and green eyes—but the vibe was… different. If she had to compare, he was about a 0.3 lower-tier version of him. “Uhm… What’s up?” “Nothing much. You just caught my eye, so I thought I’d come over and chat.” There aren’t many Asians around here. As if that were some grand reason, 0.3 Butterfield said with a wink. “I see…” Well, that’s nice of you. Jin swallowed the rest of the words she wanted to say. “Do you go to Crawford? I don’t think I saw you last year.” The man casually draped his arm over the back of Jin’s seat. Jin subtly leaned forward, creating distance between herself and his arm. “You go to Cottonwood, right? Are you even allowed to be here?” Jin spoke while looking at the man’s outfit. The green uniform certainly stood out in this sea of blue. She could feel a few spectators glancing at her and the man. “There’s always the same faces over there, so why bother going over there?” 0.3 Butterfield shrugged. “I see…” With nothing more to say, Jin closed her mouth. Whether he noticed that she was only responding with a simple “I see” or not, the guy began talking about himself. Something about being a starting player on the Cottonwood football team, something about getting injured, something about how the girls at Cottonwood were somehow better than those at Crawford—blah, blah, blah. I see… Jin nodded with a soulless expression. 0.3 Butterfield’s behavior seemed closer to Pablo’s rather than Butterfield’s. If Pablo wasn’t a nerd, would it have felt like this? Am I meeting Pablo from a parallel universe right now… “…So, can you give me your WhatsApp ID?” The man, who had been rambling on with a long introduction, finally got to the point. Jin, who had been lost in thought, flustered. The man, watching leisurely, swirled the beer in his cup. “Want a drink?” Jin looked at the cup with a reluctant expression. Was the legal drinking age in the U.S. set for high schoolers? The man’s casual demeanor almost made her wonder. Just as she was about to decline the hand that had suddenly reached out in front of her— “Oh. She doesn’t drink this kind of thing.” A large hand appeared from somewhere and took the cup from above. Jin raised her head to see who the familiar hand belonged to. Butterfield, dressed casually, stood tall with a blank expression. And the moment Jin saw Butterfield and the man side by side, she revised her assessment of the man to 0.2 Butterfield. Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and
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