Chapter 34.1

Noah quietly counted the mints in his palm. One, two, three, four, five mints.

He had to eat them slowly. No, in fact, he should just keep them, so he could treasure them.

He smiled softly as he clenched the hand that held the candies.

“What are you doing in the girls’ dorm? Are you some kind of pervert?”

Gloria who had been going down the corridor yawned as she said. When she saw the candy in Noah’s hand, she wriggled her eyebrows.

“You should quickly eat the candy. Why are you holding them instead? How nasty.”

“Someone gave them to me.”

“Whatever.”

Gloria retorted at Noah’s curt response, her forehead wrinkled. But the sight of him holding the candies so tightly in his hand, like they were treasures, was foreign to her.

“Hold on, who gave it to you?”

Gloria turned her head and asked, her mind filled with doubts.

“Kate did.”

“What?!”

Gloria frowned at the unexpected answer. She held out a hand as she said.

“…… give me one.”

“No.”

“Oh, come on. Don’t be stingy.”

Being completely ignored, Gloria rolled her eyes and said sarcastically.

“Fine, stuff your face with them. If I ask her later, she will give them to me anyway.”

“Are you close?”, Noah asked furtively with a dry expression.

“Of course we are. Definitely much closer than you are to her. We’ve even shared secrets with each other.”

Gloria answered confidently, as there was not false about what she had said.

His beautiful forehead creased for a moment at her answer. But not a moment later, he calmly placed one of the candies in his mouth.

“Bruh, you are so annoying.”

As Noah get farther away from her without any care for her at all, Gloria raised her middle finger at his departing back.

* * *

The pocket of my school skirt was full of caramels, making every step I took heavy. I had so many of them, so I’d packed some to share with the other kids, but I still had so many left.

The bucket Senior Noah gave me was really too big.

Because the sunlight felt so good, I sat on an outdoor bench to rest until the next class. As my hair became hot from the warm sun rays, I heard the sound of metal clashing.

Oh, the drill hall is close to here.

Since the sound was not too loud, and since I was so tired that I had no intention of moving even my pinkie finger, I decided to stay put on the bench.

“Huh,” I muttered, having discovered a familiar silhouette among the students.

The platinum blonde ponytail stood out instantly in the drill hall full of dark-haired people. Over the past few days, Senior Gloria and I had grown quite close. Actually, rather than saying we grew close, it would be better to say that she frequently came to talk to me and make me laugh.

You have no idea how confused I was when she winked at me while I was with my friends.

But since she is such a good-natured and big-hearted person, I quickly relaxed my guard. Once in a while she would say something weird, but since we both knew the contents of the book, I felt some closeness towards her. Like a close relationship between a senior and a junior?

“Hey, it’s Kate!”

Senior Gloria, who had found me at some point, came walking towards me. Probably because she had been in training for a while, she was wearing a large shirt and some comfortable trousers. She sat on the bench and grinned, sweeping her sweaty hair away from her face. She honestly looked very cool doing that.

“Hello, sunbae.”

As I greeted her, she tapped on my glasses.

“You are wearing glasses today?”

“Yes, I was just in class.”

“How could you look so cute in glasses?”

Senior Gloria smiled pleasantly as she said.

“They are so round!”

Excuse me, glasses were originally round. Yeah, there are some square-shaped glasses, but mine is round as you can see.

I’d broken out in a cold sweat, but I tried hard to smile. Even though a moment ago, I had just thought of her as cool

“You still have some time before your next class, right? Do you wanna hang out with me?”

“Shall we do that?”

In any case, I didn’t exactly have anything to do, so I nodded. But for some reason, the topic of our conversation kept turning to Senior Noah. In the end, I gave up and came clean.

Senior Gloria was a pretty good conversation partner, and she was the only one I could tell everything to, so somehow it didn’t feel bad talking to her, as it felt like my thoughts finally gained some order.

“No way! You confessed?”

“Yes……”

“And he rejected you?”

“Something like that.”

You…… idiot, Senior Gloria murmured and shook her head after listening to me.

“Are you referring to me?”

When I asked aggressively, she hastily shook her head.

“No, no way. I was just talking to myself.”

“Hmmm.”

I nodded grimly. Senior Gloria looked at me quietly before speaking.

“Ah, that aside, you should give me some candy too.”

“Candy? Here you go. Please enjoy.”

I took a handful of caramels out of my pocket and readily offered them to her. Because the amount I handed her was much more than she had expected, she was stunned.

“What the… this for me… why are there so many?”

“Someone gave me a bucketful.”

“Hmmm.”

Her eyes narrowed, looking deep in thought. After a while, she laughed.

“For real. How childish.”

“Pardon?”

“No, nothing. Thanks for the candy.”

Perhaps because she was tired from the long training, Senior Gloria removed the wrapper from a few and put them in her mouth at the same time. After she chewed the caramels for a long time, she began speaking again.

“Kate, what exactly is going on between you and Noah?”

“Hu- huh?”

As I stammered with a stunned look on my face, Senior Gloria smiled slyly and said.

“No matter how I look at it, it’s not just a regular senior-junior relationship.”

“There…… there is nothing between us.”

“Huh?”

Even though I denied it, as the questions that felt like an interrogation continued, I lowered my head and murmured.

“……how can I steal him from Senior Flora?”

How can I do that to someone so kind? What excuse would I have?