Smash.

The sound of the phone smas.h.i.+ng was duller than I had expected. I didn’t know if it was because we were in a park where there weren’t many people, or if it was just because it had hit a stone railing.

Either way, it was certainly different from what I had imagined.

In my imagination, the cause for the end of the phone would only be as extreme as me dropping it on the ground or in water, either as a result of my own mistake or a collision with another person. Of course, it wasn’t like I had never thought about things like breaking it on purpose. However, I did not have the guts to do that. I couldn’t just do it in the hopes that it would be reluctantly replaced for a new one if this one was gone. As a matter of fact, it was not difficult to find others who had lost or broken it and had to continue living just as is.

All I could manage was to be subtly harsh – merely placing it down on my desk with a tad more force, or habitually and repeatedly opening and closing it.

To complete my misfortune, the old-fas.h.i.+oned folder phone boasted a fantastic durability, fitting of its appearance. Sometimes I even wondered if mine was exceptionally strong.

Although smartphones were widely spread amongst the students, students who did not fall into that category, like me, also still existed.

‘I’ll replace it with a new model for you if you enter a good university.’

This sentence that seemed to be the parents’ slogan against high school students caused no problem in understanding, even when the part about entering a university was changed into things like receiving a certain grade or achieving a certain something. Also, if one lost in this war that wasn’t really a war, they would have to uncomplainingly use an old-fas.h.i.+oned phone like me.

This push and pull, love-hate relations.h.i.+p was mercilessly crushed by the hand of a girl whom I had just run into.

“Hey.”

It took me a while to realise that that was my voice. Shock and rage tangled together to turn the inside of my head completely white. However, Kim Ahyoung cautiously looked around, without paying a single attention to my remark. After confirming that there were no signs of other human beings, she threw the remaining shards of the phone into the bush.

“I’ll buy you another one.”

The beautiful voice that was said to be incomparable to any musical instrument in this world grimly brought me back to reality. The brown eyes that s.h.i.+ned amongst the tree shadows were looking down on me as if to ask: what’s the big deal about a phone?

It was me who felt almost daunted by her piercing confidence.

Kim Ahyoung walked past me while I scavenged for words, then spoke as if this whole situation was troublesome.

“Follow me.”

At first the bathroom, and then the desolate park. I couldn’t even guess where we would go and what we would do this time. I desperately opened my mouth.

“Now where?”

The oversized jumper spun its body around. As if a scarf fixed up high enough to cover her nose and a beanie pulled far down weren’t enough, Kim Ahyoung also had a mask on, and she stared at me as she pulled giant-lensed sungla.s.ses out of her pocket. After glancing around once again, she spoke in a slightly angrier tone of voice.

“I didn’t think you couldn’t understand your situation. You’re smart, so I won’t be warning you again. So, since you are being threatened, how about following me without any complaints, like any other person would when they are threatened?”

After quickly finis.h.i.+ng her sentence, Kim Ahyoung turned around while putting on her sungla.s.ses. I had never thought that the word “threat”, a word that made people move regardless of their social status, would ever be a.s.sociated with me.

The figure of Kim Ahyoung confidently descending the staircase, which was so steep that even the streetlights did not light it properly, with her sungla.s.ses on was enough to drain the energy out of my shoulders.

People sometimes become impetuous and unbearably childish when facing their anxieties.

I thought I felt something smooth underneath my feet as I followed her back.

+ Author’s comment : I have to resubmit this ;-;