NOVEL ONLINE FREE Lie Again!
Chapter 11
<Chapter 11. 10 Reasons Why I Can’t Love You (5)> Jin opened her numb fist and looked at her palm. Without realizing it, she had been clenching her fist so tightly that faint nail marks were left behind. As for who she had been cheering for, well, she wasn’t sure.
“Oh, I feel like I’m going to collapse.” Ruth came to Jin, trudging across the pool platform. He held a swimming cap in one hand and walked with his shoulders hunched, and soon, as if he had exhausted his strength, he lay down next to Jin. Jin scooped up some water and splashed it onto Ruth’s face, but he was too exhausted to fight back. He simply waved his hand weakly in protest. However, his rest was about to be cut short. Joey, spotting Ruth heading toward the beginner lane, came running over with an excited expression. As soon as Joey arrived, she cheered while patting Ruth all over his body with her hands. “It hurts, Joey, it hurts!” “Now, the real Evan is you, Rucy.” “I’ve told you over and over, Joey. I was always the real Evan.” Ruth, now covered in red handprints on his upper body, replied with a resigned expression to Joey, who was giving him a thumbs-up. “Evan Ruth.” Dustin, who had followed Joey, called out Ruth’s full name and stared down at him with a serious expression. Meeting Dustin’s gaze, Ruth pushed himself up from the floor and faced him directly. Jin looked back at Joey with bewildered eyes at the sudden situation, but Joey just shook her head with a bored expression. With serious expressions, the two stared at each other before clenching their fists and bumping them together. From the point of impact, their fingers gracefully waved, the movement flowing up their arms and eventually spreading through their bodies, turning into a strange dance. The two men, who looked perfectly normal, twisted their bodies here and there with serious expressions. Jin unconsciously narrowed her eyes and looked at the sight. “Don’t look at that. Your eyes will rot, Jin.” Joey kindly turned Jin’s head for her. The curious celebratory dance was about to go further, but it was cut short by someone’s intervention. “Why is the loser making a fuss when the winner is staying quiet?” Amanda, who had completed the five laps Mr. Parker commanded, kicked Dustin in the butt. “Mandy, still, our Rucy competed with that Butterfield. How impressive is that?” “And our Rucy is on the swimming team.” Amanda, as she squeezed the water out of her hair, responded indifferently to Joey’s defense of Ruth. “Butterfield was also on the swim team, you know.” “Oh! For one semester of seventh grade.” Ruth grumbled in rebuttal, but had to close his mouth without even getting back what he had lost. Ruth rolled his eyes in displeasure, but nearly got his eyeball poked by Amanda and quickly calmed down again. * * * Evan sliced through the water with a languid feeling. The cool water gently wrapped around his body, still radiating with the heat that was intensely emanating from him. He laid with his back to the water and leisurely turned his arms while looking up at the sky. The noise of the pool vividly rushed in and out of his half-submerged ears. He felt light enough to have his own leisure time, unusual for a place with so many people. Evan, briefly enjoying the scorching sunlight slanting across the sky, turned his body and continued swimming freestyle. Not long after, he touched the wall and stood up, shaking his head. ‘Should I go around one more time?’ While counting the remaining class time while looking at the opposite wall, he heard someone’s voice. “Is that their thing?” Emily Gwen looked toward the beginner rail and said. It was more like muttering to herself than expecting an answer. Evan followed Emily’s gaze. Among the foolish faces, Jin was laughing. They were splashing water at each other with flippers and kickboards they had somehow brought along. Despite Mr. Parker excusing her from class, Jin was half-drenched, having been splashed with water. Jin’s skin, soaked in water, reflected the sunlight and sparkled. Evan Ruth’s face reddened as he tried to stop her by grabbing her wrist, preventing her from pouring water over his head. Evan immediately felt his good mood plummet when he saw that. He felt an unreasonable annoyance again. In the midst of their struggle, Jin was finally drenched by a water bombardment from behind by Joey McCoy. She frowned at first but soon burst into laughter. The sound of her refreshing laugh faintly echoed. ‘With a relaxed face.’ Evan, who took his eyes off them, went into the water, recalling the stiff expression that Jin always made when she was with him. However, Evan couldn’t stay submerged for long and soon surfaced again. The water, which had felt refreshing earlier, now felt suffocating. Evan, who had cursed softly at the feeling of jumping on a board, pulled himself up with strength in his arms. His large body, which had quickly escaped the pool, took off his swimming cap, shook his head, and walked toward the locker room. Each time he moved, eyes would glance at his body. Evan endured the gazes that were particularly unpleasant today and left the pool. He had clearly won the match against Evan Ruth, but an inexplicable sense of defeat lingered in his mouth. * * * Jin carefully stepped forward, mindful of the compression bandage on her ankle that was about to come off. Because she ended up taking a shower, the bandage she had re-tied was a bit sloppy. She tried to follow Riley’s example of tying it in the morning, but the result was completely different from hers. As a result, Jin had to put her hands down and pull on the loose bandage even after attending class all day. “….” “….” Jin, who arrived at the chemistry lab with slow steps, made eye contact with Butterfield as soon as she opened the door. It was the first time since she started cleaning the lab that Butterfield had arrived at the lab before Jin. Jin tensed up just from making brief eye contact, but it was pointless—Butterfield simply turned away and continued organizing the chemical supplies on the shelf. Jin had to climb up the storage cabinet to organize it, but Butterfield easily organized it by simply stretching his arms. ‘Someone ended up with a broken ankle because of that.’ Knowing it was simply due to their height difference didn’t stop Jin from feeling a little annoyed. She secretly glared at Butterfield before shifting her gaze to scan the chemistry lab. Most of it had already been organized, no matter when she came. Jin didn’t seem to have much to do. ‘…I thought he wouldn’t come.’ Jin had honestly thought she wouldn’t see Butterfield here again after yesterday. She had broken the beakers just to get back at him, not because she actually expected him to show up. After all, that Butterfield doing cleanup? It wasn’t something she had even considered. However, contrary to Jin’s expectations, Butterfield not only showed up in the chemistry lab, but he had also finished cleaning it up neatly. Could it be… Jin glanced down at her ankle. The loosely wrapped bandage was slipping down. She suddenly recalled Butterfield carrying her to the infirmary yesterday but quickly shook her head, pushing the memory away. That couldn’t be true. It was a long and pointless thought. ‘Let’s finish cleaning up quickly and go home.’ Jin, who had pulled the bandage tight around her ankle, walked toward the glassware that was being dried. Jin grabbed as many equipment as possible to move quickly and precariously turn around. And the moment she turned, she was met with a massive wall. Jin hesitated for a moment and tilted her head back to check the top of the wall. Butterfield was looking down with a monotonous expression. Jin took a deep breath at the sudden situation. “….” “….” It felt like either the blink of an eye or an eternity had passed. Butterfield was the first to look away, his gaze shifting to the lab tools Jin was holding. Only then did Jin relax, releasing the tension in her back that she hadn’t even realized she was holding. He stretched out his arms and snatched the tools Jin was holding precariously. Jin clenched and unclenched his hands because her fingertips felt hot as they brushed past him. Jin felt a sense of déjà vu. On the first day she arrived at Crawford, this beautiful man had also snatched the schedule from her hand. Back then, he had smiled brightly, but now his expression was unreadable, which was the only difference. That made Jin a little, really a little, irritated. It was not difficult for Butterfield to lift the glass equipment from Jin’s hand and turn toward the storage. The things that had been precariously attached to Jin’s hands were now securely attached to Butterfield’s large hands. The cleaning of the day was finished when they put the beakers and flasks with dried residue into the storage. Jin and Butterfield didn’t exchange a single word as they closed the chemistry room door and walked out. As Jin was riding in Riley’s faded red truck on the way home, she suddenly realized that she hadn’t contributed at all to the cleaning. She hadn’t done any cleaning, hadn’t been in the middle of the group, nor had she spoken much, yet strangely, she felt all the strength drain from her body. For a moment, Jin looked out the window, then leaned her head against the car door. Her cheek, touching the cool glass, felt warm. * * * The end of September marked the beginning of football season. While Crawford was considered relatively calm in the South, where football fever ran high, it was still obvious that the school buzzed with excitement during weeks of big games. The Crawford football team, leaving behind their sleepy eyes, participated eagerly in early morning practices with shining determination, and the Crawford students, whenever they saw the team, would throw out a few words like “I can’t wait for the game” or “If you lose, you’re not getting off easy.” And Jin’s friends were no exception to this atmosphere. “It’s against Cottonwood this Friday. Are you going?” Ruth asked as he put down a tray with a flimsy hamburger and greasy fries. Cottonwood High School was the undisputed rival of Crawford. Both schools had an alligator as their emblem, and there were frequent arguments over who the real owner of the alligator was. From tennis to swimming, basketball, and cheerleading, the two schools competed for supremacy in every genre, but football was the most important game that determined the outcome of the year. The big match, much like the strawberry on a shortcake, the star atop a Christmas tree, or the fireworks at the end of a parade. The outcome of this game determined whether or not one could claim ownership of the alligator emblem for the entire year. “I’m going to cheer anyway.” With the opening of the football and basketball seasons, Joey, who had become busier and harder to spot, muttered. She said she needed to finish eating quickly so she could make the cheerleading posters, all while swallowing her hamburger without even chewing it properly. “I’ll pass. I have a game soon, too.” Ruth nodded with an expression that seemed displeased but helpless at Amanda’s announcement that she wouldn’t participate. Amanda moved up from the junior varsity team, which had been a candidate team last year, and made it to the varsity team this year. She was the only 10th grader in the tennis club to make varsity. Since she made the varsity team, Amanda underwent more intense training, and she herself was burning with determination to not get dropped from the team. Her goal was not only to secure a spot on the varsity team as an 11th and 12th grader, but also to become the varsity captain when she became a senior. The kids, who knew Amanda’s ambitions well, were generous in allowing her to miss out. Ruth then turned his gaze toward Jin. Instead of answering immediately, Jin started to look around. In fact, Jin was one of the few people at Crawford who had no interest in football. Even Pablo, who was usually indifferent, talked about football, so it would be fair to say that Jin was the only one who couldn’t get on board with the hype. Whenever Jin mentioned that she wasn’t interested in football, the people around her would stare in disbelief, their eyes wide open. But what could she do? Even after watching the home game for the season opener, she still didn’t understand the rules of football at all. Instead, her attention was drawn to the flashy cheerleaders and marching band. Jin wasn’t very interested in the large men wearing bulky protective gear running around with a strangely shaped ball. Even while watching the home game, she could only guess, when the people sitting next to her cheered, that it must have been a good play, and when they booed, that it must have been a bad one. However, Jin couldn’t withstand the multiple gazes staring at her intently—and Joey, who had been hastily eating her hamburger, now paused to look at Jin—so she eventually nodded. “Okay, then let’s go to my car. It’s Friday at 7. Don’t forget.” “Why don’t you ask me?” Dustin, who had been quietly eating his hamburger, frowned and stared at Ruth. “You’re going anyway.” “Right.” Dustin nodded briskly and took a bite of the hamburger he was eating.
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