IBDEML 10

Chapter 10

I wrung the water from my drenched hair and moved my frozen legs, only for Klein to urgently grab my hand.

“Hey, hey! Where are you going?”

“If you did something wrong, you should be scolded. Just like I was.”

“That’s not it…”

Klein hesitated.

It seemed that saving me from the dog had slightly eased his resentment toward me.

He would never admit it, of course.

“I’m fine.”

Klein reacted instantly.

“I wasn’t asking about that!”

“Then… the outdoor slippers I borrowed from you earlier are in your shoe rack.”

“That’s not it either!”

“Then what is it?”

I had no idea. I tried to subtly pull my arm free from his grasp, but it wouldn’t budge.

“Um, I need to go tattle.”

Klein moved his lips, then coldly pushed my hand away with a smirk.

“You’ve done enough, and now you want to get them? Wow, pathetic.”

“This isn’t pathetic. If I did something wrong to those kids, I’d apologize, but this is different. If you bully people like this, can you really grow up to be a good person? And what if this bullying isn’t limited to me?”

I needed to teach them early that bullying is wrong.

Klein was at a loss, stammering at my smooth rebuttal.

Nearby, Medina, who had been watching everything, pulled out a handkerchief and wiped my face.

“Lopez, are you okay?”

“Thanks. You don’t have to, though—just from the water.”

I gradually stepped away from her.

“It’s just water…”

“Still. Well, if you have nothing else to say, I’ll go.”

“Lo, Lopez, Klein…”

Medina was always the spokesperson for the main male characters in the novel.

‘That’s why she saved him and never regretted it.’

Feeling sympathy, I glanced at Klein and Chester.

I smiled faintly, reassuringly.

“I know. You were worried about your friend, right?”

“Mm…”

“Still, this is wrong.”

“I agree with Lopez. You should catch them.”

Even my favorite character, Medina, was cheering me on. Just seeing her made me happy.

Klein stared blankly at Lopez’s water-dripping back as she disappeared.

“I didn’t know you could talk so well…”

He muttered his growing frustration.

Medina sighed deeply, looking at Klein.

“Klein, stop bothering Lopez already!”

Her sharp tone made him flinch.

Medina continued, frowning.

“Even though you lost your memory, you didn’t ignore it and apologized to me. I accepted it, like I said before! The victim said it was okay. That means others have no right to complain!”

“….”

Klein finally nodded obediently.

Medina softened when she saw his defeated expression and held his hand, soothingly.

“I really like you, Klein. So please don’t be mean to Lopez anymore.”

She was incredibly gentle—even to someone other than Klein.

The warmth of her hand seeped through him, making him feel good.

“Okay, I’ll listen to you, Medina!”

He nodded with a big smile, but still, Lopez irritated him.

Her head lowered from the water splash, her shoulders hunched.

‘Pretending to be pitiful for no reason.’

Klein slightly furrowed his brow.

“Lisa.”

“Lopez!”

My fellow discipline-room classmate, Lisa, quickly approached me.

Sally’s eyes met mine too, and when I waved, she huffed a “hmph!” but still followed Lisa.

“What are you doing here?”

Sally asked grumpily.

Even though Lisa signaled her not to, Sally didn’t listen.

“I got soaked.”

At those words, Sally finally looked at me properly, her mouth wide in shock.

Having been locked up together for three more days, pulling each other’s hair, they seemed to consider me quite a close friend.

“Idiot! Did you play in the lake?”

Sally and Lisa hurriedly took out handkerchiefs to dry me.

Sally looked prickly outside but was soft inside.

I realized during our time together that Sally and Lisa were inseparable best friends.

They fought and quarreled daily, yet were always stuck together.

“How did this happen? You’ll catch a cold. Why didn’t you change clothes?”

“Someone splashed water on me.”

Sally’s sharp intuition immediately recognized why I came to Class 2.

“The culprits are in Class 2!”

“Uh, wait… Shyle and Mana’s slippers are wet too.”

Shyle and Mana flinched as Sally’s gaze fell on them.

“I remember the voice clearly.”

“Say it.”

Sally growled at Shyle and Mana like a gangster.

Shyle smirked mockingly at me.

“Got proof? Accuse us without evidence, and you’ll end up in the counseling room?”

“It’s them!”

The voices were exactly the same!

I pointed at them, and Lisa grabbed my hand and led me into Class 2.

“There’s proof. Only your slippers are wet!”

“That alone isn’t enough. Mine got wet just from going to the bathroom.”

Shyle brazenly argued, giggling with Mana.

Sally’s face was about to explode, red and purple.

Just as I was about to calm her and speak…

“I saw it. You two poured it.”

Klein had leaned against the doorway, speaking.

Shyle and Mana finally looked flustered.

Klein shouted toward the hallway.

“Teacher Megan! Over here!”

Shyle and Mana jumped from their seats.

Seeing them flustered, Sally scoffed.

“See! You’re the ones!”

“Why would Lopez pour water just because of you?”

“Did you get some useless friendship from the discipline room? Why protect a Class 1 kid who isn’t even in your class?”

I blocked Shyle, who tried to push Lisa.

My shoulder got bumped.

Lisa, normally gentle, had a quick temper.

Especially when someone insulted her or her friends—she’d immediately react.

Just like now.

Lisa’s hands, the hair-villain, were about to touch Shyle’s hair.

“Lisa, I’m fine!”

I held her back, shouting.

Thankfully, before anyone’s hair got pulled, Megan hurried into the class.

“Can’t you stop already?!”

With Megan’s arrival, everyone except me fell silent.

I distanced Lisa and Sally, then looked at Megan as if to say the others weren’t involved.

Megan, normally cheerful, looked terrifying when an incident occurred.

Laughing while scolding wouldn’t be effective.

“Lopez, Shyle, Mana. Follow me immediately.”

“T-Teacher, it’s really not me…!”

Mana protested, but Megan firmly cut her off.

“You’ll find out in the counseling room. Bullying friends is absolutely unacceptable. Now, come along.”

Looking back, Lisa and Sally worriedly watched us.

I made a big heart with my hands to reassure them.

“That idiot, why is he grinning like that?”

Sally pouted, but made a heart with Lisa above their heads in response.

Klein watched the three of them, utterly dumbfounded.

‘When did they even become friends?’

Megan called me, Mana, and Shyle individually, listening carefully to each story.

After finishing each consultation, she called Mana and Shyle together.

While the stories were being told, I waited in a chair outside the counseling room.

“It’s the troublemaker Lopez sister!”

Persistent green hair…

He sat next to me, smiling.

Bill could smile like this but also suddenly cry, so I was nervous.

He cried at the slightest thing here in front of the counseling room.

He wouldn’t particularly take my side either.

He seemed to like me, yet dislike me at the same time…

‘Come to think of it, the original Bill really liked Medina.’

That’s why he hated Lopez.

After growing up, he rarely appeared, so I wouldn’t know.

Of course, after the heroine returned to her original place, the orphanage kids besides the main male lead weren’t mentioned.

Lisa and Sally’s situations weren’t in the original story either.

“Sister, you’re going to the discipline room again?”

“I didn’t do anything wrong.”

And the discipline room was removed once Megan became the counseling teacher.

“Really?”

She seemed almost disappointed.