Of course, Ji-hye was also worried.
How should she find the missing Jieun? If she finds her, what should she do?
But there was nothing she could do on her own.
She wasn’t thinking of finding Jieun to send her to prison, so she couldn’t report it to the police.
The police would already be following Jieun with this previous record.
After all, she had already been labeled a “terrorist.”
And even if she asked someone else for help, that wasn’t an option either.
There was no one around who did that kind of thing.
Even if there were, they wouldn’t do it for free.
Ji-hye had friends, but they were all just kids her age.
What could school friends do to help find Jieun?
The room she used was still as it was.
Jieun was still officially marked as not having been discharged.
Even if the incidents Jieun was involved in were documented with photos and videos, until the court made a ruling, she wasn’t officially a “criminal.”
The teacher seemed to think so.
No matter what the truth was, people who knew Jieun didn’t think she would have… committed such a terrorist act.
It was clear that Jieun, dressed as a “magical girl,” was involved in the incident in Gangnam.
But at least no one had died that day, as far as Ji-hye knew.
More than that, breaking in and fighting was completely different from planting bombs that would kill people.
The latter was far more specialized.
Where did she get the bomb materials?
When did she have time to bring them in and set them up?
And how did Jieun manage to enter such an important space?
Even though she was a fighter, Ji-hye never thought things would unfold so easily.
Ji-hye stared at Jieun’s spot for a while before heading outside.
Fortunately, there were no reporters waiting around.
After the story about her breaking into the orphanage spread on the internet, reporters had been more cautious.
Maybe they had figured there was nothing more to ask here.
Despite the series of shocking incidents, the world hadn’t really changed.
The neighborhood was quiet, as usual, on the weekend.
After all, there wasn’t really anywhere to hang out, so there was no reason for noise.
Ji-hye got on a bus and headed to the bookstore where Jieun often went.
Unlike the quiet neighborhood, there were many people here.
Honestly, there were a bit too many.
It was overwhelming, even for Ji-hye, who liked noisy places.
Jieun had never been one to rebel much.
She didn’t have many friends and didn’t know how to do anything bad.
It seemed that Jieun and Hayoon came to this bookstore often.
Ji-hye hadn’t really spent time with the two of them, though.
Jieun never asked her to come along, and when they were with their own friends,
Ji-hye never thought to join them.
The last time she joined them was on an impulse.
So even though they had shared the same room for a long time,
Ji-hye didn’t really know Jieun well.
At least, that’s how Ji-hye saw it.
She knew the girl named “Jeong Jieun,” and she knew her habits and preferences, but she never thought to find out what kind of person she was at school or what kind of friends she had.
And she only knew about Hayoon because it was Hayoon.
Ji-hye still had Hayoon’s number saved on her phone.
But she didn’t have the heart to call. In this situation, calling would only make things more uncomfortable for both of them.
She spent about an hour, getting jostled by the crowd at the bookstore, but she didn’t see Jieun.
That was to be expected.
It wouldn’t make sense for someone who should be hiding to be in a place like this.
Her nose started to sting.
If she kept thinking about Jieun here, she might end up crying, and she didn’t want to look like a strange girl crying on the street, so she tried to hold it in.
Even now, at school, the kids often ask about Jieun.
Kids who had never even known her before were showing a great deal of interest in her ever since Jieun appeared in the news.
Perhaps because Ji-hye had so many friends, it felt even more intense.
And because she had so many friends, Ji-hye couldn’t bring herself to deny their speculations.
Both those who believed it and those who didn’t had no proof either way.
But there was one thing that Ji-hye definitely didn’t like
She didn’t like that Jieun was being chewed up in the kids’ gossip.
She hated hearing kids talk as if they knew more than Ji-hye, who had been by Jieun’s side the whole time.
She didn’t like how they took everything from the news as the absolute truth and talked about Jieun as if she were really a terrorist.
Ji-hye left the bookstore and sat on a bench.
It was early February, so the weather was a little chilly.
But that also meant that there was no one else sitting on the bench, so Ji-hye felt a bit of peace.
“Jieun…”
She muttered while looking up at the sky.
Jieun, who was once a soldier fighting against magical girls, but now had become one herself.
She didn’t really understand what was going on
The reason she awkwardly laughed and couldn’t speak when Jieun’s name came up might be because she didn’t know anything.
She didn’t know what was true, what was real.
This whole situation felt too strange.
She still missed Jieun, no matter what she had done.
To Ji-hye, Jieun was just Jieun.
“She can’t even listen to music…
Jieun didn’t like people touching her things, so Ji-hye hadn’t touched the items on her desk
Maybe Jieun didn’t care, but Ji-hye had always enjoyed listening to music.
Lying on the floor, tapping her toes, listening to music from the speakers together, that was something she liked.
Would there ever be a day when they could do that again?
“What am I hoping for?”
Was she hoping Jieun would confess and repent quickly, so she could just come back?
To lie down in the same room again, talking about nothing in particular and listening to music like before?
Was she hoping for things to return to normal?
She might not have realized it, but even though she knew things could never go back to the way they were, Ji-hye might still be thinking like that.
And realizing that this was all happening because she didn’t trust Jieun completely,
Ji-hye buried her face in her hands.
She wasn’t a person who was always thick-skinned either.
Once the physical pain subsided, the people who came to her mind were Hayoon and Jieun.
The reason they came to her mind so clearly was simple.
She didn’t have anyone else she was as close to as they were.
She knew the orphanage teacher and other kids at the orphanage, and had a decent relationship with them, but no one was as close as Ji-hye.
Hayoon, at least, I still see from time to time.
She doesn’t look like she’s doing very well, so every time I meet her,
I only feel more worried.
But at least I know she’s eating and still alive.
Moreover, even if I don’t see her, the news shows her.
From what I heard, Hayoon is ‘safe.’
It seems she didn’t get seriously hurt, so I’m relieved.
The problem is, I don’t know how Ji-hye is doing.
I know one of the reporters bothered Ji-hye.
At the school I went to, almost no one defended me, so they went all the way to the orphanage to harass Ji-hye.
Even though her face was blurred, seeing Ji-hye flustered made my stomach churn.
I felt like I wanted to rush in and knock everything down, but of course, if I did that,
I’d accomplish nothing and just get caught.
Yeah.
The truth is, I sometimes want to just give up.
If I keep stubbornly holding on, I’ll only hurt the people around me.
Maybe it would be better to just give up, confess, and come clean.
I’ve thought about it. In the end, though, I’ve been indecisive up until now.
“Here.”
As I was lying down feeling down, someone placed a can of drink on my forehead.
I jumped in surprise and grabbed it—it was a can of coffee.
It was Jiguppa.
I rarely go outside except for work, so Jiguppa was the one who usually did the shopping.
On days we went out to work together, I helped out, but on other days, I would just pretend to go out, and James would throw a fit.
Even if I disguised myself, going out often could be a problem, apparently.
I got up from my seat and held the can of coffee, which seemed like it had just been taken out of the fridge.
Jiguppa had already opened his can and was gulping it down.
It seemed like there was no work today.
“You look really depressed.”
“……”
I looked down at the can of coffee, then opened it.