Chapter 135 – Homophobia (3)

Homophobia (3)

“Go, why suddenly…”

Lee Hye-ji’s voice trembled mercilessly.

“That—you didn’t say anything like that—”

There was enough bewilderment over her to overcome her fear with ease.

Insufficient materials are deducted from Hyeji Lee’s supply.

No one will fail to understand this simple principle.

The same goes for the outcome of accepting this simple instruction.

You starve while others are full—

Be uncomfortable while others are comfortable.

Be unhappy for the happiness of others.

Few people were willing to nod their heads at this unfair and unreasonable request.

No, it is not an exaggeration to say that there is virtually no.

“That, those words—that kind of words…”

That’s why Lee Hye-ji rebelled.

Repeating the same words over and over again ― with a blank look on her head without pause ―

She continued to express to me the utmost defiance she could.

“It’s funny.”

However, things did not go the way she had hoped.

“What was the reason for re-investigating you in the first place?”

Instead of getting better, it got colder and colder.

“Why do you have to tighten her belt while the camp members go back to the rock to resupply, Hyeji Lee?”
“…”
“Because supplies are limited. Because we have to conserve that limited material. For the time being, we have to save the remaining supplies as frugally as possible.”

There is a shortage of materials. There is a shortage of materials. There is a shortage of materials.

“You emphasized it so much that even your stupid head couldn’t forget it, and I never said that?”
“…”
“Are you kidding me?”

A deeply wrinkled brow and a growling question.

As if Lee Hye-ji had been burned by her fire, she waved her hand around in amazement.

“Oh, no—! Don’t tell me there’s a shortage of supplies! Other than the lack of supplies… You say my supply is dwindling…”

The voice that jumped out in a hurry and took a picture of the top gradually loses power as it goes to the end.

“I-I don’t think you said that…”

In the end, only a muffled voice remains, and I can barely hear it in my ears.

After her words, Lee Hye-ji lowered her head.

However, after a while, the bowed head came up at an angle.

Her face was trembling, but I desperately looked at mine.

“… Ah~ that.”

He nodded as if he finally understood.

Her eyes twinkled at the gesture.

As if she had regained her feeble hope, she wrung her tightly shut lips and stared at my lips.

However, this time, her situation did not go the way she had hoped.

I didn’t want that.

“When did I?”

I asked her, shrugging her shoulders.

“I definitely remember telling you before the reinvestigation? Didn’t I say that?”
“…”
“Can you take responsibility?”

One situation, two memories.

One of these was false, as it is hard to forget a memory less than a day old.

One of Lee Hye-ji and I was telling lies.

That’s why Lee Hye-ji must have nodded her head, saying that she could take responsibility.

Just a few months ago, she would have said yes very confidently.

“Can you take responsibility for that?”
“…”

If a few months ago.

If it wasn’t for this era, this situation, it would have been.

Lee Hye-ji lifted her slanted head upward and stared at me.

As if the answer would pop out at any moment, her lips closed without pause.

“…”

However, no answer came out of her lips.

I waited for her answer without saying anything.

Tok-!

Urging her answer with a hand, not a mouth.

Left hand resting comfortably on the table.

Among them, the moderately bent index finger lightly tapped the table.

Tok-! Tok-! Tok-!

Tapping continued in a rhythm with a certain beat.

Lee Hye-ji’s body trembled at the tapping.

She stared at her left hand in amazement as if her own body, not her table, was being stabbed.

It was another imprint etched into her head.

An act she repeated over and over again whenever her interrogation was delayed or whenever she ignored her self-introduction and other details she had written down herself.

A harbinger she always did before getting up from her seat and giving her a ‘punishment’.

“…”

The pupils in Lee Hye-ji’s large eyes vibrated mercilessly.

With her blurred focus, as if recalling her days in her nursery, she quietly pursed her lips as they darted.

“…”

Then, with an action that was far from an answer, he answered my question.

Again – a single stream of tears that quietly flowed down.

As soon as Lee Hye-ji realized she was crying, she hurriedly rubbed her face.

This is because I know very well what the second corrected behavior was after correcting the ‘cool’ that had been popping out like a tic since the first day.

The days of not being able to drink a sip of water as punishment for her frequent crying made her desperate.

The tears were gone before they could even run down her cheeks.

Somehow, not wanting to show her tears, her head was lowered and her thin wrist desperately bit her face to wipe away her tears.

She was crying more sadly than anyone else, but she was crying because she was not crying.

Sitting in her chair, naked without any of her undergarments—

She was rubbing her face, shaking her body enough that anyone could tell she was crying.

I am so afraid of what will happen next.

I’m afraid I’ll get sick.

I’m afraid I’ll get hurt again.

“… Hehe—!”

It was the end of the bottom that humans could see.

I just jokingly knocked on the table, but the bottom of a human being was visible.

Because I’m much more afraid of being sick than the bottom…

As if pleading, he was showing me the bottom of himself more plainly.

“Look. I’m right, Hyeji.”
“…”

What purer obedience could there be?

“Anyway, if you lie, it will show through, so why lie? It’s just a waste of time.”
“…”

She answered my question with actions, not words.

It was a clear and pure answer, like a dog stomping on its owner.

So, I also had to do my duty.

Just as a puppy has the duties of a dog, the owner also has the duties of a master.

“But I never cross the last line. As a result, I didn’t lie.”

I smiled.

Like an owner holding the paws of a dog panting and pushing out its paw.

And-

“I’ll give you one last chance.”

As if offering a snack, he casually threw a word.

At that word, Hyeji Lee’s head was lifted like a ray of light.

I could clearly see the red bloodshot eyes from crying so hard.

“Still, it shows that I worked hard, but there is no need to be so harsh, right?”

Took-! Took-!

The index finger, which had been tapping the table, this time tapped the half-wrinkled paper.

“Where is the perfect person from the beginning? If you’re doing something for the first time in your life, you’ll make a mistake or two.”

A soft tone that did not suit the sharp-edged atmosphere at all.

“Is not it?”
“…”

Lee Hye-ji was still silent.

She was searching for my intentions, tearing her eyes even bigger than when she was terrified.

Hiccup-!

At that moment, a hiccup erupted from Lee Hye-ji.

She hurriedly covered her mouth, then rolled her eyes and looked at me.

Hiccup-!

I laughed lightly as I listened to the hiccups that continued to leak.

“Why—give me a tissue to make everyone cry?”
“…”
“Otherwise, wake up and prepare for reinvestigation.”

I took out a new piece of paper from the warehouse I told you about in the morning, and quickly put on the clothes scattered underneath.

“This time, don’t forget what I said and do well.”
“…”
“What are you doing? Wake up.”

Awesome!

Her chair dragged across her floor as soon as her paper pointed at the clothes strewn beneath her.

“… Hiccup-!”

However, the next action did not go smoothly.

Lee Hye-ji stands up stupidly like a robot and only hiccups.

I fluttered the paper again with a laugh.

“First, put on the clothes and get rid of that blatant chicken meat. I’m going to die of disgust when I keep looking at it.”

Lee Hye-ji hurriedly bowed her waist at the instructions that followed.

Hiccup-! Hiccup-!

The hiccup that continues to ring the nursery room is accompanied by a rustling sound like a background sound.

After not too long, Lee Hye-ji returned to the outfit she had first entered the children’s lounge.

“Ruler.”

A half-wrinkled piece of paper handed out to Lee Hye-ji.

The paper, filled with the cheeky demands of the female campers, headed for Lee Hye-ji again.

“Come to think of it, you can use this paper instead of new paper. The back side is still clean. Investigate there.”
“… Yes, rector. Hiccup-!”

Lee Hye-ji repeated the hiccups that never ended and handed over the paper.

Finally, Lee Hye-ji carefully embraces the lifeline that came down again.

“… Oh right.”

I looked at the lifeline and let out a short sigh as if I realized it belatedly.

“Bring it back.”

A finger waved toward the paper that was quietly held in Lee Hye-ji’s arms.

“… Hiccup-!”

Lee Hye-ji held out her paper again with anxious eyes.

I put the handed paper down on the table and held out my empty hand again.

“Pen.”

Lee Hye-ji hurried over to my instruction and handed over the ballpoint pen that was lying on the table.

The ballpoint pen that had been hanging on the candlestick came into her hand.

“Come to think of it, I’ve been working since the first day I came back to camp.”

Round and round-

Along with the ballpoint pen spinning in my hand, a low chant resonates.

“I have to say goodbye to the new campers and say hello to the campers I haven’t seen in a while—”

More than anything-

“You probably have a lot of things you want to say with the friends you met again.”
“…”

Lee Hye-ji’s eyes lightly twinkled at my question.

Her face, which had barely swallowed the hiccups, began to color with feeble anticipation.

“I’ll just take a break today and start the reinvestigation tomorrow morning.”

And-

Without ending my words, I straightened up the ballpoint pen that had been spinning.

I erased the requirements written in Lee Hye-ji’s meticulous handwriting in a single line, and left only one section.

Snacks that make up a large portion of the remaining food.

Among them, Lee Hye-ji circled some of the snacks written on the requirements and continued.

“Don’t write these circled items in tomorrow’s requirements, just get them from the supply depot.”
“…”
“With that, throw a little party with your friends at night. It’s the first day back, so there should be an event like that.”
“…”
“Of course, don’t forget to finish quietly without the other camp members knowing. Maybe we can meet at the end of the cultural center at dawn. No one will go there.”

Ah- don’t forget to bring candles and lighters from the warehouse.

Tuk-tuk-thrown instructions and requests.

Lee Hye-ji, who even stopped hiccuping before she knew it, was very quietly listening to the instructions and her requests.

His face was hidden thanks to his lowered head.

“Go up and call Kim Hyo-jin first. The reinvestigation has been delayed for a day, so the original supply should do it for another day.”
“… Yes.”

However, the trembling voice vibrated violently and responded to my instructions.

In an indirect manner, Hyeji Lee slowly turned around her body.

“Starting tomorrow, don’t be scared and take off your clothes first.”
“… Yes, President.”

She opened the door to the children’s lounge and lifted her head, which Lee Hye-ji slowly lowered.

Tears welled up in a different way than before, and she lightly bowed her back.

“… Let’s go, President.”

Click-!

The baby room door that closes slowly and gently.

“… Under.”

I burst into laughter as I listened to Lee Hye-ji’s footsteps moving further and further away.

What is Lee Hye-ji thinking right now?

What did she think was the reason for the sudden change in treatment that made her shed tears of emotion?

Because I recognized her sincerity?

Or because I completed a day’s worth of bullying today?

Or else-

Because I feel sorry for her?

… Nothing mattered

In the first place, her state of mind and feelings have no influence on this matter.

She just needed to exist.

I thought she was gone, but she came back to Camp One.

As an out-of-the-box camp member who is in charge of the supply I love and believe in.

If faith and obedience begin with misfortune.

Misfortune-

Because it starts with comparison.