Chapter 313

“What’s wrong with you?” In-Ah asked.

Sun-Woo didn’t respond to In-Ah’s question. He just smiled faintly. It felt extremely unnatural.

Sometimes, when Sun-Woo smiled, In-Ah felt that his smile was awkward. There were times when it looked like he was forcing himself to smile. But that was just a speculation of hers. Why would Sun-Woo force himself to smile? That couldn’t be true. She internally denied her speculations and quickly forgot about them.

However, Sun-Woo’s current smile was definitely different. It was so awkward that not only In-Ah but also her friends felt that something was off.

In-Ah's friends glanced at her briefly, and then they left. They wanted to avoid the heavy atmosphere.

"You’re In-Ah, right?" Sun-Woo said to In-Ah after her friends left.

At first, In-Ah couldn't understand the intention behind his question. Was he joking? Was he trying to start a conversation with a silly joke as usual?

But Sun-Woo's expression was too serious for that to be the case.

"Nope. Actually, I’m Yoon-Ah."

"Really?"

In-Ah approached Sun-Woo and playfully said, "Just kidding, you fool. Wake up."

In-Ah didn't know what state Sun-Woo was in. She didn’t know whether he had temporarily lost focus because he was not feeling well, or if he had experienced something significant during the few days he hadn't been to school.

Sun-Woo didn’t tell her anything, so she naturally did not know what was going on and couldn't act rashly. Sun-Woo and In-Ah had one class together in the afternoon. Neither of them said anything to each other as they walked together to the classroom.

On the way to the classroom, instead of speaking to In-Ah, Sun-Woo walked silently with his lips sealed as he stared blankly somewhere with unfocused eyes.

There was a brief period of silence, which made In-Ah feel uncomfortable. The silence that used to come and go when she was with Sun-Woo didn't make her uncomfortable. However, the silence today was incredibly uncomfortable and awkward.

"I'm not sure if I should ask, but what have you been doing instead of coming to school? You must not have been at the Central Paladin Order all this time, right?"

"..."

Despite In-Ah's question, Sun-Woo did not respond.

In-Ah was undeterred by his lack of response as she continued, "You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

In-Ah's words were meant to be considerate to Sun-Woo, but it was also to prevent herself from feeling disappointed if Sun-Woo did not answer her question. In-Ah knew Sun-Woo's personality well. At the very least, she believed that she knew him better than others.

She knew that if Sun-Woo didn’t want to tell her something, he wouldn’t tell her about it no matter how much she prodded. She waited silently. She hoped Sun-Woo would say something. At the very least, she hoped that he would clearly but politely refuse to answer her question.

At that moment, Sun-Woo responded, "Ah, what did you say?"

In-Ah's face stiffened for a moment. Sun-Woo didn’t respond to her question—rather, he wasn’t even listening to her words.

In-Ah was exhausted from talking to him, so she simply shook her head and said, "No, never mind."

After walking into the classroom with Sun-Woo, and after class started, In-Ah watched Sun-Woo rather than focusing in class.

Sun-Woo seemed unable to concentrate on the class. The teacher occasionally asked Sun-Woo questions, and Sun-Woo either did not respond at all or gave strange answers unrelated to the questions.

"So, what might this holy artifact's development bring us? Sun-Woo, can you tell us?"

"I am now able to inflict the maximum amount of pain with the minimum amount of effort.”

"What?"

The discourse between the teacher and Sun-Woo usually unfolded like this. The students chuckled, and the teacher's face became red.

Sun-Woo always gave strange responses, even if the question was something that anyone could easily answer.

The students whispered among themselves that it seemed like Sun-Woo had belatedly reached his rebellious phase.

When the afternoon classes were all over, Sun-Woo stopped In-Ah who was about to go home and said, "Shall we have dinner together?"

Sun-Woo was holding In-Ah's wrist. In-Ah frowned. Sun-Woo was holding her wrist so tightly that she felt like it was going to break. Sun-Woo was not adjusting his strength and was just rudely holding onto her wrist.

“Alright. But can you let go first?”

“Huh?”

In-Ah forcefully shook off Sun-Woo's hand and shouted, "I said, let go first!"

Sun-Woo stared at In-Ah with a dazed expression for a while. His pupils were unfocused, and his face was completely expressionless. It felt eerie because she couldn’t feel any vitality or energy coming from his body. It was as if he was a corpse that was standing up.

"Why are you acting like this today? I’m used to you suddenly showing up out of the blue with no explanation, but why are you so out of it? It’s like you’re some kind of... crazy person!”

In-Ah was about to call Sun-Woo a 'crazy bastard,' but softened it to 'crazy person.'

Sun-Woo heard In-Ah's shout and blinked his eyes as if he had momentarily regained his senses. His unfocused pupils seemed to regain some clarity for a moment.

Sun-Woo glanced at In-Ah's face, then at the red mark left on In-Ah's wrist, and his expression turned deeply sorrowful.

"I'm sorry."

"..."

"I'm really sorry," Sun-Woo said as he stretched out his hand.

His trembling hand seemed to be wildly grasping at something in the air. In-Ah couldn't bring herself to be any angrier at Sun-Woo.

Sun-Woo's expression as he apologized to her truly looked pitiful and fragile, as if he would crumble apart at the slightest touch.

"No, I'm sorry. I got angry again.”

"..."

"Where are we going to eat?" In-Ah asked in an attempt to change the subject.

Sun-Woo took In-Ah around to different places. Eventually, they chose a restaurant and went in. The interior and overall atmosphere of the restaurant were nothing special, just an ordinary place, but the prices were not ordinary. The price of one menu item was almost equivalent to In-Ah's monthly allowance.

"Isn't it a bit expensive?" In-Ah whispered to Sun-Woo.

Sun-Woo ignored her and called the waiter to order the menu as he pleased. Since it was just Sun-Woo and In-Ah at the restaurant, ordering two portions would have been enough, but he ordered almost enough for five people.

"Wh-what are you doing? We won't be able to finish it anyway! And I don't have money!"

"I'll pay," Sun-Woo said nonchalantly.

"..."

In-Ah closed her mouth. She was getting free food, but she did not feel good about it at all. Instead, she felt burdened by getting such expensive food.

Soon, the food came out. The waiter kindly explained the ingredients, cooking method, and method of eating each time he brought out a dish. Sun-Woo listened half-heartedly and nodded dryly.

Eventually, the table was filled with food. Each dish was overly luxurious and extravagant. In-Ah found the dining experience uncomfortable and somewhat unpleasant, but she still picked a few dishes because she was hungry.

"How does it taste?"

Sun-Woo hardly touched the food. Instead, whenever In-Ah ate, he asked her how it tasted.

He didn’t ask whether the dishes suited her taste but rather what they tasted like. It was as if he was genuinely curious about the flavor.

In-Ah swallowed the food she was chewing and muttered, "I'm not sure what it tastes like. The waiter said something about truffle flavor or something. I’ve never really eaten anything like this so...”

She continued to diligently eat the food in front of her. Sun-Woo stared blankly at her. In-Ah felt uncomfortable under his gaze. More accurately, she felt embarrassed.

"What is it?" she asked.

Sun-Woo didn't respond to In-Ah's question. Instead, he muttered something unrelated to her question.

"It's almost vacation time, right?" he said.

In-Ah felt a bit strange but still responded, "Huh? Oh, right...? Since the written exams are over, once the practical exams are done, it'll be a holiday."

"When are we leaving?"

"Leaving where?"

"We agreed to go on a vacation."

In-Ah tilted her head. "What? When did we agree?"

"Oh... No, we didn't. Nevermind."

Sun-Woo hastily shook his head.

In-Ah wanted to ask him what he had been doing and where he had been all this time. She also wanted to ask what had happened and why he couldn’t pull himself together.

“...”

Just when she was about to ask, In-Ah saw various scars on Sun-Woo’s wrist. Sun-Woo noticed In-Ah's gaze and straightened his sleeves to cover his wrists. Perhaps he was anxious even after covering the scars, but he lowered his hands under the table to hide them completely.

In-Ah looked at his trembling eyes.

"What?" Sun-Woo asked.

In-Ah felt her breath catch. Her heart suddenly sank. Sun-Woo had never asked her to go on a vacation with her before, nor did he even promise to hang out or anything like that.

They could not have made any sort of promise since In-Ah hadn't seen or contacted Sun-Woo at all recently.

In-Ah stared at Sun-Woo in silence. She felt that the person in front of her was not Sun-Woo. It seemed like someone else was sitting in front of her instead of Sun-Woo. In-Ah found his appearance eerie and frightening.

In-Ah didn't know about Sun-Woo's situation. She couldn't even guess. Therefore, she had no method of helping him. She couldn't even offer superficial words of comfort.

Instead of offering meaningless worries and comfort, In-Ah asked, "Never mind. Do you want to go on vacation? Shall we go?"

There was nothing else she could do besides ask him that. A faint smile appeared on Sun-Woo's face. His smile was still weak and awkward, but at least he was smiling. In-Ah decided to just think about it like that.

"Yeah, where should we go?"

"Anywhere. Overseas is fine, or domestic... We can go to the mountains. Or the sea. Where do you want to go?"

"When?"

"Whenever you feel comfortable," Sun-Woo said.

After that, In-Ah finished her meal and got up from her seat. Sun-Woo also got up. He paid for the meal in full.

Even on the way back home from the restaurant, In-Ah kept looking at Sun-Woo. The shadow on his face did not show any sign of disappearing. His face was dark and gloomy, as if it would never brighten up again.

In-Ah mustered up her courage and asked, "Is everything okay?"

Sun-Woo bowed his head and remained silent, as if pondering the meaning behind the question.

After a brief silence, Sun-Woo nodded and said, "Yeah. I'm much better now."

"I see."

In-Ah couldn't tell what had gotten better, but she nodded her head and decided not to ask further. She knew Sun-Woo's personality. He was the kind of person who would suddenly disappear and then come back again out of the blue, and she believed he would do the same this time.

In-Ah firmly believed that he would suddenly come back in a moment she wouldn’t anticipate and that he would act as if nothing had happened.