Chapter 119

Chapter 119: Chapter 119
.
When he spoke with a sluggish voice, everyone within the bus burst into a peal of laughter. While saying, ‘Yoo Chun Young, now you got up,’ kids poured out words of blessing to him. They knew now that his personality was looser than they had expected.
“But, it’s weird…” Woo Jooin, who furrowed out of confusion in front, spat his thought bluntly.
“What do you mean?” Eun Hyung asked. Woo Jooin responded, still knitting his forehead.
“Yeo Ryung didn’t give her phone number to anyone.”
“Yeah, I tried to give it at first, but… wasn’t sure if the school was co-ed or not, so I decided not to give mine.”
“What the… I thought you gave them yours. How did they send that text to you then? This is impossible, you know.”
At that moment, a few girls dashed into the bus. One of them was Choi Yuri’s dark brown, short hair. As she returned to her seat, she handed out her juice to Ban Yeo Ryung.
“Do you want to sip?”
“No, I’m fine.”
“Really? Oh, Chun Young, did you just woke up? Do you want to have some?”
Yoo Chun Young, who hated to receive things that others touched or ate, didn’t respond but just turned his head away. Besides, he found it particularly tricky to treat girls.
‘How can he get along so well with Donnie?’ Ban Yeo Ryung thought while remembering the text she saw earlier. Eun Jiho then said from aside.
“Hey, don’t delete that text for now. If something happens, we must know that number to figure out what we can do about it.”
“Got it.”
Listening to their conversations, Woo Jooin, who rested his chin on his palm in front of them, opened his mouth.
“If someone texted her that message, doesn’t it mean that someone else told Yeo Ryung’s number to the sender?”
After his remark, a cold air surrounded them. Ban Yeo Ryung quietly dropped her gaze at the floor with a sigh as she felt that his words were reconfirming the fact that she already knew. Eun Jiho remained silent with a grim face, and Kwon Eun Hyung looked at Ban Yeo Ryung with a spine-chilling gaze. Maybe he wasn’t directing his eyes at Ban Yeo Ryung. It looked as if he were staring at Choi Yuri. His green eyes were so deep and dark that Ban Yeo Ryung could barely figure out where he was looking at.
“Why? Something happened?” Choi Yuri asked. Her voice sounded bright and innocent.
Ban Yeo Ryung shook her head and smiled, “No, nothing special.”
“Come on, what’s up?”
“Oh, seriously, it’s nothing.”
“Hey, you’re making me curious,” Choi Yuri then laughed naughtily. Her face reminded Yeo Ryung of Donnie somehow; however, she still wasn’t Donnie.
While Ban Yeo Ryung dropped her gaze at the floor again, Eun Jiho, who sat beside her, took his phone out then called someone. What came out from his mouth was brief and straightforward.
“Hey, Ham Donnie. Ban Yeo Ryung says she needs you.”
“…”
“A lot.”
* * *
I thought this retreat might go smoother, but it didn’t. Feeling puzzled, I asked immediately.
“What’s wrong?”
“Um… I… I just…”
Ban Yeo Ryung was then at a loss of words. Those short utterances were enough for one to grasp that her voice was soaked in tears. ‘Shoot, what happened this time…’ When I grabbed the bus strap a bit tightly, Yi Ruda, who was beside me, showed a sign of wonder while looking at me.
I asked, “Did something happen? Again?”
“It’s just that… someone sent me a message full of curses. I think it’s one of the girls I met in the rest area. It was really nothing special, though.”
Girls in our age could hardly be generous to strangers who abuse them verbally. However, Ban Yeo Ryung spoke in a calm voice to say that it was nothing special. She had gone through these kinds of things a lot.
She didn’t say anything. I could clearly see an image of Ban Yeo Ryung rubbing her forehead with her fingers with an exhausted look. I asked her again while furrowing my brows.
“But how did they know your number? Did you give them yours?”
“No.”
“Then someone might have ratted your number.”
“Yeah… I just don’t want to care about it anymore. Eun Jiho dealt with it for me, so they won’t send me those messages again. Maybe someone gave my number without ill intention. They would probably feel bad once they learned that I received those messages.”
This was the usual way she would interpret things like this. She would never judge that people were harboring ill-intentions towards her rashly at any given circumstances. She believed that humans are naturally good beings. I knitted my brows again.
‘How should I perceive this? Should I think of her as a sweet person or an idiot?’
Ban Yeo Ryung was quick-witted about other’s situations but was, strangely, turning into an idiot when it came to her own issues. Hesitating for a moment, I opened my mouth.
“But if someone keeps giving your number to others, then you’d receive those texts again, won’t you?”
“Oh, yeah, so I’m wondering… Geez… I think I’m just being too sensitive about such a trivial thing.”
“Hey, you’re actually not thinking that, right?”
“…”
Ban Yeo Ryung remained quiet for a while. Her prolonged silence proved that it was true, which made me heave a deep sigh. She stayed concerned about something else.
Perhaps she was afraid that a person had pretended to be her friend but would actually slander her behind her back. She might be worried that this incident would reveal this person’s identity. This was not the first time she had gone through this kind of situation, for this is the fourth time something like this happened. Why would such a thing happen to Ban Yeo Ryung? My brows met in the middle.
The funniest part about this was that those kids were such great actresses that even I, who was with Ban Yeo Ryung, couldn’t feel their malicious intent at all. They should have been actresses instead if they had those talents instead of harassing Ban Yeo Ryung. I clicked my tongue then continued my words.
“Yeo Ryung.”
“Huh?”
“Hypocrites like them would keep talking behind you but pretends to be nice when you’re around. It’s worthless to understand what they think about you. These people would pay for what they had done to you someday.”
This was true. Why should we understand their thoughts about us? It was meaningless and worthless.
A moment of silence went on, then a fading voice responded over the phone.
“Yeah…”
“Just ignore all that and treat people with the goodness of your heart as you always do. Only think about the friends you truly care about. Those who are true to your sincerity will remain.”
“Donnie.”
“Huh?”
“Love you.”
“Eww, what the…”
I laughed out of embarrassment, followed by refreshing laughter over the phone. The sound of her smile was enough to give me joy.
As if she was feeling better, she hung up the phone, saying that the other kids wanted to play games. I followed her laugh then closed my flip phone. When I finished the call, a few kids gazed at me.
Yi Ruda did the same. She showed a mysterious excitement in her blue eyes. ‘Why…?’ Before I could say something out of perplexity, Yoon Jung In, who was in front, broke the ice.
“What was that? You looked kind of cool.”
“Yeah, it sure was.”
Surprisingly, Kim Hye Hill replied with a nod of agreement along with those words. ‘Oh, god,’ I laughed while blushing.
“Come on, stop it.”
“No, you were so lit! You’re making my heart flutter.”
“Stop it.”
As Kim Hye Hill did to her brother, I picked up a pack of snacks and smashed Yoon Jung In. He finally grew quiet. Inside our bus, we also began to play a game that heated the air with hullabaloo.
Resting my chin in my hand, I watched the buzz of excitement and fell into thought.
‘How many two-faced people are there in this world? How can we avoid the pain they give while dealing with them?’
No matter how many times I thought, the only way I could think of was to treat someone with all the goodness of my heart every minute. When I learned about the other side of someone, the only way to comfort myself was to think that I had done my best to show my heart to that person.
To be honest, there was no way I could avoid getting hurt when we confronted those things.
I thought about Ban Yeo Ryung and how much she deserved to be loved. She got heartbroken so many times but never stopped thinking about the good side of others. She was a person who held people in such high regard because she felt that her negative feelings would ruin someone. She never dropped her positive way of thinking.
Instead, she later fell to pieces and cried her eyes out. Once the tears had subsided, she would trust and love people again like such things never happened. She would love others like as if her heart never sank… as if she was a virgin to love. How incredible, pathetic, and delightful she was!
With my chin resting in my hand, I thought that people could never stop loving her, the real protagonist.