Mint Is Pure Love - Chapter 44

First period. Barely fifteen minutes in. And in that short time, the second-year classroom on the third floor had turned into absolute chaos.

I don’t remember what happened right after that. Later, Hojung told me that even the teachers couldn’t handle Cha Seokyung—his strength, his size—and were completely helpless. She said that right when he was about to throw a desk at Lee Yoonhee, I collapsed, and only then did Seokyung finally calm down. That’s all I knew.

When I opened my eyes, I was in the hospital.

“Yeonseo, you’re awake?”

“…How did I even get here? What time is it?”

I tried to sit up, but the IV tube dangling from my arm got in the way. My stepmom slipped a pillow behind my back and carefully helped me sit.

“It’s almost dinner. Want me to bring you some food?”

“…No, Mom, more than that… what happened at school?”

The moment I mentioned school, she hesitated and looked at me carefully.

“…Since when?”

“…Since when what?”

“Since when… have the kids been… to you—”

She couldn’t finish the sentence. Her face crumpled with deep despair and pain. I could see the guilt written all over her expression.

“…It’s not your fault, Mom.”

“Then whose fault is it? If not mine, then whose? God, what kind of mom worries that her child’s being spoiled like a princess when she doesn’t even know what’s happening to her outside?”

She clutched her chest and cried. I tried to comfort her, but then tears I thought had all dried up started falling again.

She hugged me tightly and whispered, “It’s not your fault. You didn’t do anything wrong.”
It was the one thing I had wanted to hear for so long.

Mom wanted me to stay in the hospital for a day, but I didn’t want to. More than anything, I just wanted to go home. I wanted to plug my dead phone into a charger.

In the hospital’s underground parking lot, a small compact car was waiting for us.

“What’s this?”

“I bought it for work. It’s used, but it’s decent. Come on, get in.”

Had she driven this all the way from Chungju? She was always so nervous about driving. I didn’t say a word and got into the passenger seat.

“Yeonseo, let’s go to Chungju,” Mom said as we headed out.

“I came to take you with me. I just… I can’t leave you here anymore.”

I stayed silent.

“You might think I abandoned you, but I never once did. If you’re not my child, then whose are you? Ji Seongbeom said that since we’re not bl00d-related, I had no right to take you. But I raised you. If I don’t have the right, then who does? Still… I thought maybe if you stayed with him, he’d at least pay for your college. If you stayed with me, you’d just end up taking care of your younger siblings and suffering, so I left you there.”

I already knew. I knew she had postponed leaving me until the very last moment before my brother’s transfer date. I knew she had hesitated to divorce, afraid that if she left, Dad and Choi would tell her to abandon me.

“Come with me. Graduate there. I can’t stand seeing you hurt and broken here anymore.”

I didn’t answer. I just stared out the window.

The car stopped in front of an old wall. The sun had already set, and in the dark alley, a streetlamp flickered. Someone was standing beneath it. Dressed in black, like the night itself.

He must’ve sensed me, because he turned around.

“Mom… let me talk to him for a minute.”

She looked between me and Seokyung, then gave a small nod and went inside. The gate shut behind her, but I stood there for a while before finally walking toward him.

We locked eyes. There was a lonely, cold wind in his gaze, like a tree in late autumn, clinging to a single leaf.

I grabbed his hand and glanced down. Scraped skin. The faint smell of bl00d.

The same hands that had once held a badminton racket for me, laced fingers with mine, and handed me strawberry milk—now covered in wounds. Why? What had shattered his calm, quiet world that he had so fiercely guarded?

His eyes never left me.

Seokyung, what happened? Why didn’t you call me? Were you going through something? Tell me. I’ll be there for you too.

Those were the words I would have said before. But instead, I swallowed them. I wanted this moment to be as normal as any other moment for two eighteen-year-olds.

“Seokyung, I’m transferring to Chungju.”

His eyes shook like a ship caught in a storm. I tried not to let my heart hurt and forced out the next words, as casually as I could.

“Thanks for everything. Take care.”

We were only eighteen. The age when meeting someone yesterday and breaking up tomorrow was nothing unusual. People dated and broke up all the time. So let’s break up like that too. Like people our age are supposed to.

“Stay well.”

“…Why?”

His voice was heavy. He took a breath before speaking again.

“Why? Is it because of those guys?”

“…”

“You don’t have to worry anymore. I’ll be here. I won’t leave your side—”

“…Where were you this past week, then?”

Don’t make that face, Seokyung.

“Where were you when I looked like this? You said you’d be there when I turned around… but you weren’t.”

I didn’t want to erase his guilt or his regret. He didn’t deserve to feel either. But if this was the best way for us to part.

Desperation flashed across his face.

“My mom’s taking me. I want to be with her.”

“…Then what about me?”

“…”

“Yeonseo… I’m alone here.”

He sounded like he wanted to cry.

“Yeonseo. I have no one now.”

So let’s be each other’s only person, he seemed to say.

“Something came up… I’m sorry, Yeonseo. But please… don’t leave me.”

“What happened?”

He didn’t answer. As always, he couldn’t fully open up to me. I was someone he could rely on—but he wasn’t someone who could rely on me.

And maybe I never could be.

“If you go to Chungju… I’ll transfer too.”

“Seokyung.”

“If you leave, I’ll erase everything. Every season we spent together—I’ll wipe it out like it never happened. Even if we pass each other on the street, I’ll treat you like a stranger. You won’t exist in my present. Are you okay with that?”

I knew he meant it. That was exactly the kind of person he was. Clean cuts, no loose ends. And I’d be the only one left replaying it in my head.

“You said you’d stay until I healed. That you’d be by my side…”

The desperation in his voice made my guilt swell. And right then, I knew. I couldn’t be anything for him.

I was completely drained. Too spent to hold his hand and drift along with him. The part of me that had been festering for so long finally burst.

“…Seokyung, I’m just… tired of everything.”

It was the truth. I’d been tired for a very long time.

I had been walking around with a heart worn to rags, pretending I was fine. Like the emperor in that fairy tale, naked but pretending otherwise.

“I thought I was okay, but I wasn’t. Not at all. Everything inside me was leaking out, leaving me empty.”

I had been standing tall while knowing I was bleeding out, pretending not to notice. And now, there was nothing left in me.

I finally understood what he meant when he once said he felt empty.

“So… I just want to stop everything.”

“…”

“I want to forget it all. Even you.”

The last words broke out with tears.

“S-Seokyung… I want to forget. It’s too much… too heavy. You’re too heavy… I can’t handle it anymore.”

We had to part as if we’d never been anything to each other.

“So… let’s stop.”

Because looking at him hurt. Because I didn’t have the strength anymore. I turned and walked away. He didn’t stop me a second time.