NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1.2
On the day before the exam, school ends before 12:00.
The purpose is to go to the entrance examination hall in advance and check things out.
I put on the padding that was on my chair and put my notes in my bag to get ready to go home.
Jihye was urging me silently to hurry up.
Min Hye-rin didn’t seem to want to let go of her snowball fight just yet, and the popular group is taking group selfies in the classroom or something.
But it isn’t my job to address either of them, so I went out through the front door with Jihye.
“This is really the end...”
“Yeah…”
Thinking that tomorrow is the final destination of my 12 years of study, I feel nostalgic.
Jihye also mutters with a look that was devoid of her usual playfulness.
“I hope we can all smile and see each other again.”
“···Yes.”
That was a lie.
She was not that kind of kid.
In terms of years, we’ve been together for 12 years.
We shared more than half of our lives with each other.
I know her as well as she knows me.
As her acting skills improve day by day, she becomes a better match for an actress than a doctor.
But, well, it’s the same for me too I guess.
***
Min Hye-rin’s gaze was following Jeong Ji-hoo as he left the classroom with Jeon Ji-hye, not giving particular face to the mock exam.
Tomorrow is the exam.
This was her last chance to beat him.
There are final exams for the second semester after the college entrance exam, but without worrying about bad luck, she would definitely do her best to beat him in this important exam.
‘I must definitely overcome him.’
‘I will confidently receive a perfect score on the CSAT and recapture the first rank in the entire school.’
In fact, since having entered high school, she had never once been in first place in the entire school, so the word ‘recapture’ was a little awkward to say, but she saw it that way.
She’s been smart since she was a child.
Without much effort, she only did her learning in class properly, which was enough for her to maintain first place in the entire middle school.
From elementary school to her middle school graduation, she had never missed the first place in the entire school.
Until she met Jeong Ji-hoo.
In middle school, she was the reigning queen of the school.
Excellent grades, looks that rivalled those of celebrities, and even a body that looks like a model.
People of both sexes gathered around her, and her teachers were hard pressed to punish her.
She didn’t even bother to deny the facts.
Min Hye-rin’s life had been on easy mode.
Until she met Ji-Hoo.
Even in high school, people naturally gathered around her.
But her pride wouldn’t allow it.
She devoted all her energy to her studies, and although she was studying like an assassin, she never defeated him.
She was indignant every time she heard the school grades read out.
Indignant, indignant, indignant.
She couldn’t feel anything else.
Her 3 years was 3 years with Jeong Ji-hoo always above her, and tomorrow was the culmination of these 3 years.
Min Hye-rin folded her test paper, put it in her bag, and draped her beige coat over her school uniform.
She waved off some of the guys who wanted to take a selfie with her and left the classroom through the front door.
‘Let’s go to the test center first, then go home.’
She walked down the hallway, responding appropriately to text messages from her middle school friends wishing her to do well in the CSAT.
‘Hmm?’
She felt something strange and flipped her hand holding her phone over.
Her immaculate skin is exceptionally whiter today.
No, this is not pure white-
‘Is it shining...?’
Immediately after, the brightness of the light exploded.
Barely covering her eyes from the overwhelming amount of light, she collapsed from extreme dizziness.
As the light gradually faded, she narrowed her eyes.
She was in an unknown alley in the middle of the night.
‘...?’
***
“Jihoo, what are you going to do after the exam?”
I was walking to the front door after changing my slippers on the first floor with Jihye.
I feel a strange pleasure when leaving the school before 12:00.
“What are you going to do?”
“Me? I’ve even made a list! Learn to bake, ride a bike, travel, work a part-time job—”
There are so many things to do.
“I just want to rest. Roll around in bed.”
“So a household bum.”
What’s with that conclusion?
If you’re going to make a nickname, make it sincere.
It’s true that I’m a homebody.
I don’t really have a hobby other than reading web s from time to time.
Honestly, high school students waste time playing.
But at our house...
“Are you okay? Aren’t your parents here?”
Also she knows me too well.
“That’s right...”
“Then... Do you want to rest at my house?”
I glanced at Jihye with a sidelong glance.
She was also glancing at me.
She rolled her hair to the side of her head, as if embarrassed in her heart at making the offer.
“My mom will return to Korea next year, so I’m the only one left... I’m also bored all alone... How about it?”
I told her my answer as she mumbled with a shallow blush on her cheeks.
“No.”
“?!”
After the exam, of course, I need to prepare for the interview.
So after the interview, I was going to say it was okay.
Her face was shining…?
At that moment, her eyes are blank with doubt, but then she asked while her eyes are opened wide in surprise.
“Jihoo, why are you shining...?”
As if not giving us time to react to those words, the torrent of light hit us like a tsunami.
It felt like I was the only one left in a pure white world.
I couldn’t feel anything except the sight and the tingling for a while, and when the light gradually subsided, I opened my eyes.
And the accident resulted in an incomprehensible situation.
First, Jihye that was stood next to me just earlier has disappeared.
Second, before I closed my eyes from the light, it was almost noon in the morning.
But it was now the middle of the night.
Third, I must have been walking in the city just before, but now I am standing in a dense forest.
“What the fuck...”
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