The Great Storyteller

Translated by: ShawnSuh

Edited by: SootyOwl

To reiterate, this was a school. In a school, there are teachers and students, and then there are thieves. Unfortunately, there was no law enforcement at schools. No such thing existed in such an unique environment like a school. When a handful of students fell victim to a mysterious thief, the class president informed the teacher. Then, the teacher assessed the damage and comforted the victims in the class. Simultaneously, the teacher threatened the potential thief among his students, and then closed the case. Much like corporal punishment, seeking out or catching a thief was prohibited. It was a school after all.

In other words, without ‘Baron girl’ in the picture, the case came to a halt. Removing her from the classroom was not a difficult task.

“Who are you?” the girl wearing a red hairpin asked sharply, but Juho didn’t answer. He kept his eyes on ‘Baron girl,’ and rushed her.

“Hurry! Mr. Moon is looking for you.”

“Yeah, OK.”

She was dumbfounded by Juho’s sudden appearance, but soon, she was drawn to Juho’s calm words. As the two were just on their way out of the classroom, Juho felt somebody snatch him. It was the girl with the red hairpin, and she was staring at him with piercing eyes.

“Hold up!”

“What is it? Mr. Moon said it was an emergency.”

“You’re a first year, aren’t you? You came here with your friends not too long ago.”

“That’s right. I needed to speak to the same person.”

Her eyes were full of anger, and Juho sighed. It was going to be more complicated than he thought.

“It’s you guys, huh?”

Damn it.

“What is?” Juho asked as if he were confused.

Seeing his reaction, the girl accused Juho even angrier than before, “You guys took my cell phone!”

“Nope.”

Like she had done with ‘Baron girl,’ she was looking at Juho with the same, accusatory expression.

“Then what were the first years doing in our class? Weren’t you scouting for anything valuable? No wonder my phone’s gone as soon as I got a new one.”

“That’s not true.”

“Give me the class number and names of your classmates. All of them. I’m turning in every single one of you to the police!”

That was an obvious strategy. She brought up the police to intimidate a first year. In this case, Juho, who responded calmly, “Aren’t you supposed to turn your cell phones in as soon as you get to school? You’ve been talking about your cell phone this entire time. Did you get your bag stolen with your phone in it?”

The girl was getting aggravated. It was a rule for students to place their cell phones into a designated bag in their respective classes before the morning announcements ended. The teachers took those bags and stored them in the staffroom until the end of the school day. It was a rule created to prevent such accidents from the inception of the cell phone.

Obviously, she wasn’t the only one who didn’t follow the rule. However, nobody ever caused a scene like that girl.

“You can’t be stealing from other people. That’s bad.”

“I agree. Stealing is bad. It’s also bad to falsely accuse someone for it.”

Her eyes lit up with anger again. Juho looked at her face-to-face. There were tears in her eyes, and she appeared to be quite anxious.

“Sigh… You know, there’s a limit to making excuses. I’m sure you’re anxious after losing something that belonged to you, but I’m offended that I’m being treated like the culprit.”

“What’s so wrong about that? My phone disappeared after you guys showed up! I heard that the door was open this morning. It was you guys, huh?”

Morning. Door. Juho immediately thought of someone. Bom had come to school early to leave snacks for Baron. It couldn’t have been her. She didn’t have what it took. Juho took a brief moment to think.

As if seizing her chance, the girl raised her voice, “Hurry up and bring everyone else! Give me back my phone.”

“Sigh.”

Things were back to square one. At that rate, nothing would get through her head. Juho looked around in search of someone who could calm her down. ‘Baron girl’ was nowhere to be seen, and the other second years were watching from afar. Among them, Juho found someone who looked to be the girl’s friend and thought, ‘What’s this person doing standing there and watching?’

“So much noise!”

Juho heard a deep voice from behind. The bluntness in the tone sounded quite familiar. Without even having to turn around, Juho knew immediately who that voice belonged to. It was the reason why Juho was there in the first place. It was Baron.

“What’s this about?”

His voice resounded throughout the quiet classroom. He looked around once and then fixed his eyes on the girl with the red hairpin. She seemed to be intimidated by Baron’s presence looking down at her.

Juho smiled despite the atmosphere. ‘He has guts stepping up to something like this. It makes sense him being the only person drawing in an Literature Club,” thought Juho. Baron caught him smiling at a glance and quickly guessed the purpose of his visit.

“Is it your turn?”

“Yes. I’m only here to ask you to write something for me, but who would’ve known there would be such a commotion?”

Baron turned to to the girl, “You heard him. He’s here to see me. Same for the other first years. If you were a first year, would you dare come up to the second year’s floor to steal?”

“That’s always possible! They could have taken it while they were here!” the girl snapped back at Baron, determined to stand her ground.

“Oh, my lord,” Baron let out a sigh, having realized that she wasn’t going to listen.

Triggered by his reaction, the girl asked, “Are you one of them?”

“No.”

“Then, tell your first year to give me back my cell phone.”

“He said he didn’t take it. Why do you keep asking?”

At Baron’s response, the girl made a frustrated face as if she were the one supposed to be frustrated.

Before Baron could speak out in anger, Juho asked, “Did you look under the desk?”

“What do I look like, an idiot? Of course, I looked!”

“Did you look in between the textbooks?”

“I don’t keep textbooks under my desk.”

“Then all the more reason to look. Inattention brings about mistakes.”

She scoffed at Juho.

“You’re not thinking about running away from this while I’m looking under the desk, are you?”

Juho did consider that. If running away could solve the issue, Juho would have done it a hundred times over. Seeing the state she was in though, she’d have followed Juho to the ends of the Earth.

“No way. It’s just a possibility. There’s always a possibility.”

The girl frowned and snatched at Juho’s wrist and dragged him to her desk. Then she shoved his other hand into the desk. She seemed certain that her phone wasn’t going to be in there.

She waved her hands for everyone else to see. Her hand made a clicking noise under the desk, and Juho watched her.

Tap.

Her hand had knocked something out of the desk. It rolled for a little while until it stopped at someone’s feet. It was a cell phone. The newest-model cell phone that she had been desperately looking for.

She stared at the phone that fell on the ground and didn’t move a muscle. Then, her face turned bright red. Her face was even redder than at the moment when she was shouting angrily at people.

She moaned, “Why, is this…”

Juho picked up the cell phone and handed it to her. She took it without saying a word, and he realized that her hands were ice cold.

There was confusion among all the other kids who were watching.

“Is that the phone?”

“Hey, you should’ve looked more carefully,” somebody said in the midst of the awkwardness.

It was a girl, the girl who had been watching among the crowd, the same person who looked to be friends with the girl with the red hairpin.

Another person chimed in and said, “You should apologize and get this over with.”

Two people stood to the sides of the red hairpin girl. She let her head drop and didn’t say another word. One of her friends spoke up on her behalf. Both of them waved their hands at the crowd with a smile on their faces.

“Sorry, sorry. She’s a bit hot-headed. She gets blinded to her surroundings when she’s angry. She must be really embarrassed right now. I apologize on her behalf.”

“Seriously. We’re sorry. I knew this was going to happen, you dumbo.”

The atmosphere lightened up at their light-hearted remarks. There was laughter in the classroom and sounds of chattering. In the midst of the business, the red hairpin girl kept quiet. Even with her friends poking fun at her, her head stayed low.

“Why’s this class so loud?” Mr. Moon said as he peeked his head through the front door.

It wasn’t time for class yet. Juho looked at him wondering why he was there, and Mr. Moon returned the same look.

“What’s a first year doing here? Go downstairs.”

“Yes, sir.”

Juho saw ‘Baron girl’ standing next to Mr. Moon. At that, he realized that it was she who had brought him. At that moment, Baron eyed Juho to leave with him. On his way out, Juho approached the girl who was still red from embarrassment. Hearing Juho approach her, she raised her chin and looked at him.

“I saw your two friends putting their hand under the desk,” he whispered.

Her eyes opened up. Her motionless eyes were telling him that she understood what he said. Having confirmed that, Juho quietly went on his way.

“What did you say to her?”

“Nothing.”

Juho pondered things as he answered Baron. When he was looking at the girl’s friend, Baron appeared. All eyes were on him. At that moment, Juho saw two people acting suspiciously among the crowd. One of them took out a cell phone out of her pocket and slipped it into a desk. When he saw that, Juho felt his palm itching.

The girl must have been showing off her new cell phone. Bothered by that sight, her two friends plotted to screw her over. However, things were blown out of proportion by their hysterical friend. It was more than they could handle. They couldn’t have stepped up to fix the situation in midst of such a ruckus.

Since the two couldn’t step up, they had to hide their tracks. They agreed to hide the phone under the desk without anyone knowing. They weren’t just hiding the phone. It was also an effort to hide their guilt.

The time came for them to speak up on their friend’s behalf, and the two made their move.

Juho looked at the red hairpin girl as he was leaving the classroom. In the middle of her friends trying to encourage her, she remained still with her phone in her hand. Those were people who were trying desperately to shift their blame onto others. The three friends were quite similar in that aspect.

Coming out of the school building, Juho walked into the shade of a tree in the corner of the yard. The branches were spread out, and that meant more shade.

Next to the tree were the pull-up bars. Juho looked away from the bright reflection of the bars and told Baron, “Thanks for the help.”

“I didn’t help,” Baron answered tersely, and said that he was only telling the truth.

“Telling the truth is the hard part. Other second years weren’t just watching for no reason.”

“I’m different from everyone else. Even in color,” Baron said as he shook his hand in front of Juho. His large, dark-skinned hand swayed left and right.

“Of course. It suits the sole artist in a Literature Club.”

The sole artist in a literature club was an appropriate nickname for Baron. Without hesitating, Juho asked about the things that he wanted to know about Baron, “How did you end up joining the Literature Club?”

“By mistake.”

Juho tilted his head in confusion and asked, “Did you get it mixed up with the Art Club?”

<The Sole Artist in a Literature Club> The End