Mint Is Pure Love - Chapter 24

B side ◀◀

 [We’re secret friends, how are we supposed to eat together?]

Only when that reply came, after what felt like forever, did I finally let out the breath I’d been holding.

That’s when I realized—I’d been anxiously waiting, sending messages one after another, checking my phone over and over like it mattered. And once I became aware of that, I suddenly felt kind of awkward. Opening and closing the phone folder a million times like some desperate middle schooler.

I’d already gotten rid of my old phone after canceling the number. The one in my hand now was something I’d kept just in case—a backup, really.

There was no landline in our new place, and I figured I might need to make an emergency call one day. But honestly, I never expected to actually use it. After activating it, I’d just kept it in its box, untouched.

No one knew I had a new phone. Not Mom, not even my brother.

“I mean… it’d be nice to have someone to text once in a while.”

And once again, it’s Ji Yeonseo. That girl keeps making me break my own rules.

Everything about her is hard to understand—including herself. She says she doesn’t need anyone, that she prefers being alone. But the moment someone says the word friend, she melts like an ice cream under spring sunlight.

She says she doesn’t care about eating, but eats everything I give her like it’s the best thing in the world. So well that I, who barely felt hunger before, found myself craving food again.

She doesn’t even realize why people stare at her. Because she’s pretty. Because she stands out.

She brushes off the hate from others like it’s nothing, yet still avoids going out because of those same looks. And watching her do that messes with me, even when I don’t want it to.

She makes me say things I normally wouldn’t, do things I didn’t plan to do. She keeps running away, and yet I can’t help but want to pull her in. Maybe it’s stubbornness, maybe it’s pride—I don’t know. I just find myself wanting to get her attention, to say something, anything.

It’s like this jar I thought was empty has slowly started to fill up with something damp and ticklish.

Sometimes, even I don’t understand myself. Whenever it has to do with Ji Yeonseo, I don’t feel like me anymore.

One thing about me, I don’t go back on things—whether it’s my feelings or anything else.

“……”

Still, I kind of want to understand her. Ji Yeonseo. I want to try. That thing I’d already given up on doing with Mom, with my brother—I want to try it with her.

My fingers started tapping across the keypad, like they had a mind of their own.
Even if all they typed was a couple of awkward syllables, the motion itself felt strangely excited.

[See you Monday.]

I ignored the weird thought that I kind of wish Monday would come faster.

***

A Side ▶▶

[Be at the unmarked classroom on the 4th floor by 12:10.]

The moment I saw the text, I gasped. He’s serious? Like… really?

First, he suddenly wants to be secret friends, and now we’re supposed to eat lunch together? This doesn’t feel right.

“I hope I bump into Cha Seokyung in the cafeteria today.”

I turned to the sound and saw Lee Hojung playing with her ponytail, standing in front of the mirror on the back wall.

“His lunch schedule is all over the place these days,” she added with a sigh, braiding her hair absentmindedly.

I found myself staring at Hojung for a moment. I still remember the look on her face when she cried with me, holding my hands and saying, I know you’re not like that, Yeonseo. I know you’re not that kind of girl.

That sixteen-year-old version of Hojung had felt genuine—at least in that moment. I’d never doubted her before.

And even now, I understood her. Those invisible needles that stabbed at me started brushing past her too, just because she was my friend. I could imagine how much that must’ve hurt. And just like me, she was still too young to handle all of it.

But understanding and accepting aren’t the same thing.

I remember our friendship diary, filled with cheesy declarations like, You’re the only one in the world for me, and If our souls had colors, they’d be the same. Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen—we were too young, too sincere, too dramatic.

Maybe the P.E. teacher was right—at our age, everything should be light. Friendships, feelings… all of it. Maybe that’s why I sank.

What should I do?

I was still staring at the few words on my screen, trying to decide, when the back door opened and someone called my name.

“Hey, student affairs wants to see everyone not going on the school trip.”

I checked the time. 12:03.

If it’s just for the non-participants, I might run into Seokyung too. Since it’s lunch break, it probably won’t take long. So I stood up from my seat.

The student affairs office was on the second floor, unlike the main faculty room. Most of the students were already stampeding toward the cafeteria, so the hallways were relatively quiet.

Like most student affairs teachers, ours had the kind of presence that made you shrink just from a glance. Even if you didn’t do anything wrong, your stomach still dropped.

I knocked and stepped inside. Next to our hawk-eyed teacher stood a girl I recognized—Lee Yunhee, second-year, class 2. The biggest troublemaker in school.

I’d heard her older sister was a well-known delinquent in the area. Yunhee had her own flair too, so she was constantly getting into fights and drama. She was also one of the students not going on the school trip. As far as I knew…

“Lee Yunhee, you’re finally back from suspension, and you’re already acting up again?!”

“I’m not, sir.”

“What the hell is that uniform? Fix your skirt!”

“It’s ‘cause I gained weight, sir.”

“And what’s all that crap on your eyelids?!”

“I cried, sir.”

Yunhee kept talking back, not backing down one bit. The teacher’s face turned redder by the second.

I just watched, unsure if I should interrupt, until he finally noticed me.

“Who are you?”

“Uh, you said to come if we weren’t going on the trip.”

“And you skipped lunch to do that? I meant before the day ends.”

“Oh… okay.”

So I wasn’t supposed to come right now…

“Well, since you’re here, fill this out before you go.”

He dropped a sheet of paper and a pen onto a table. Apparently, we had to write a log of what we did during school hours and after. Some kind of delinquency prevention measure, I guess. But what’s the point of preventing it after it already happened?

I glanced at the clock. 12:15.

“You too, Lee Yunhee. Sit down and write—in detail, got it?!”

“Tch,” she muttered as she slumped into the chair beside me.

I felt a little pressed for time. Should I at least text that I’d be late?

But if I pulled out my phone in front of this teacher, it’d be confiscated immediately. I’d only get it back after school.

I just had to write this fast. I clicked the pen and started scribbling quickly.

“Hey.”

Would sloppy handwriting get me scolded?

“Hey. Hey…!”

I turned my head. Yunhee was staring right at me.

With her long eyeliner, circle lenses, and stiff gelled bangs, she looked every bit the stereotypical “bad girl.” Almost like a trademark.

She called me, but then just stared at my face. Her lens-covered eyes scanned my whole face from this awkwardly close distance.Finally, her purple-stained lips opened, and she muttered.

“You’re that girl, right? The one who dated Kim Eunho.”

“…Not anymore.”

“Duh. I know that, damn. Who’s talking about now?”

She sounded confrontational. Like she was waiting for a reason to start something.

But it was already 12:18.

I didn’t have time for this. I turned my attention back to the paper.

“What, you scared? Can’t even look me in the eye?”

My hand froze.

School was a hierarchy. Not just for boys—anyone who thinks that is seriously mistaken.

Looks, grades, your parents’ income, your backpack, your shoes… all of it quietly divided us into tiers. Even how tight you tailored your uniform, how cheeky you acted with teachers, how many detentions or suspensions you had—those were all ranking factors.

Some of it was inherited, but some you earned.

It was stupid, but in this stormy age of ours, that’s how it worked.

And by those rules, Lee Yunhee was definitely near the top. While I was… well, not.

But Yunhee had forgotten something. Not every outcast bows their head. And being low-ranked doesn’t mean you’re a pushover.

I turned to face her and looked into her pitch-black, round eyes.

“Why do you think I’d be scared of you?”

I wasn’t being sarcastic. I honestly didn’t get it. Why would I be scared? I’ve endured worse.

“Why would I flinch in front of you? Who even are you?”

“…You crazy bit—”

“What are you two whispering about?! You better not be comparing notes!”

“Me? What’d I do,” Yunhee grumbled.

It was almost 12:25 now.

This was not the time for this crap.

I felt Yunhee’s glare, but who cared? That wasn’t important. I filled out the stupid form messily but completely and handed it in. I left the office and shut the door behind me.

Then I ran.

I sprinted up the stairs, from the second to the third floor.

The fourth floor was mainly used for science and music rooms—extra classrooms for moving classes. The unmarked one was at the very end of an L-shaped corridor.

I ran through the cool, silent hallway.

The thought I’d had earlier—Is this guy serious? I should really say no to this secret friend thing—was gone now.

I just wanted to see if he was there, waiting. Why did the school feel so big today? Why were the hallways so long?

I finally reached the unmarked classroom.

Out of breath, I approached the door—but it was locked. And right next to it, sitting on the stairs, was him.

Cha Seokyung.

In a hallway where no one else would come, he was there. Waiting. For me. Just me.

When he looked up, his gaze landed on me—completely.

“Wow. Right on Korea time.”

Then he smiled—like he could light up the whole hallway.