7MoH 1.6

Endless corridors that seemed the same yet different stretched before him, and as he walked without knowing where to go, he finally spotted a terrace door leading outside.

Turning the handle and stepping out, the cool night air filled Jeong-in’s lungs. His mind felt clearer.

The wide, long terrace connected by several doors was empty. Looking beyond the railing, he could see the side and back of the mansion.

In the backyard sat an enormous swimming pool with a separate building on each side. Beyond that stretched a garden the size of a soccer field, and in the distance, the sea glistened faintly with gentle waves. It truly was an immense property.

Walking to the end of the long terrace, Jeong-in sat on the railing. Looking out at the distant sea, he whispered as if talking to himself, “Jerk.”

He felt bitter and empty, as if he’d been harshly rejected. Thinking about it, he couldn’t understand why such a trivial matter was bringing him down so much.

Jeong-in shook his head, trying to shake off the tangled emotions in his heart. Right, he was someone he’d never be involved with anyway. What was the point of wasting time and emotions on such a person?

Instead of this, he should just solve some math problems.

That was the best solution when his feelings were complicated. When solving math problems, all distractions disappeared, and he could focus entirely on numbers.

As he opened his bag to take out the problem sheet from the club, Jeong-in discovered a red notebook deep inside.

After a moment’s hesitation, he took out the notebook and gripped his pen. Then, breathing heavily, he roughly scrawled on a blank page.

“I don’t need a special reason to hate Chase Prescott. I just hate him to death. I despise Chase Prescott. I loathe him.”

The remnants of emotion that poured from the pen tip remained as rough handwriting, directly reflecting Jeong-in’s troubled heart. But instead of relief, only a bitter emptiness swept over him.

Suddenly, he felt incredibly shabby and pathetic, hiding alone and writing nasty things about him. Jeong-in threw the notebook into his backpack and stared blankly at the night sky.

Then, the balcony door burst open.

“There’s no one here. Quickly, come on.”

An excited voice was heard, and then two figures appeared in the doorway. Coming from the bright interior, they didn’t notice Jeong-in in the darkness. But Jeong-in’s eyes, already adjusted to the dark, could see: Vivian with her red hair, leading a tall blonde man outside.

Were they planning to do something here? Jeong-in instinctively leaned back to hide his presence, but he lost his balance and tumbled into the shrubbery below the terrace.

“Wait. Didn’t you hear something?”

“What sound? Hurry, kiss me.”

Soon explicit sounds began to be heard.

Fortunately, being on the first floor, he wasn’t injured. Gathering himself, Jeong-in crawled away from the scene in a humiliating manner.

By the time he had gotten far enough from the scene of affection to stand up, he was a mess. Leaves stuck to his hair, and grass stains covered his suit.

Jeong-in went straight to the parking lot and waited for Steven near his car. Shortly after, Steven appeared. His eyes widened immediately upon seeing Jeong-in.

“Jeong-in! What happened to you…?”

“Let’s go, quickly. I don’t want to stay here a minute longer.”

Steven looked at Jeong-in as if he had many questions, but seeing his hardened face, he didn’t ask further.

As soon as they arrived home, Suzy asked with sparkling eyes how it went. Jeong-in passed by her without a word, his face looking like he wanted to cry, and went upstairs.

Standing under the shower, the spray that had been in his hair dissolved, and slick water ran down his face and shoulders. Jeong-in closed his eyes and surrendered to the water stream, trying to wash away today’s memories. But it had little effect.

After showering, he lay in bed and sighed involuntarily from exhaustion. Jeong-in, who had almost closed his eyes, suddenly sat up. The mattress undulated with his abrupt movement.

“No!”

At his cry, like a scream, Suzy flung open the door and rushed in. She still had her toothbrush in her mouth.

“Jeong-in, what’s wrong? What happened?”

“My bag…”

Jeong-in curled up in distress, covering his face with both hands.

He had left his bag on the balcony of that house. And inside was his shame book. Full of hatred for Chase Prescott.

* * *

Suzy, sitting in the driver’s seat, glanced at Jeong-in. He was nervously biting his nails repeatedly, his gaze fixed outside the window.

Having had to hurriedly throw on clothes and leave the house with a bare face, Suzy asked in a somewhat displeased voice,

“Couldn’t we get it tomorrow?”

Suzy’s red Camry carrying the two of them drove down Bellevue Boulevard. Jeong-in, who had been sitting on the bed with a lost expression, had suddenly started getting dressed and insisted they needed to return to where the party had been held, pressuring Suzy. Seeing his desperate expression, unlike his usual self, Suzy had no choice but to grab her car keys.

“No. That’s…”

Jeong-in couldn’t even answer properly. Suzy, guessing it might contain some important assignment, quietly drove following the navigation’s guidance. Soon her car turned onto Crestview Drive.

“My goodness, look at these houses. Isn’t this like a movie set?”

The street was filled with mansions, a variety of magnificent houses in succession. Suzy marveled as she looked around. They hadn’t even seen the edge of the Prescott mansion’s wall, which was the largest and most splendid in the area.

Finally, the car stopped in front of a gate with the number “1” clearly visible. The gate was still open, perhaps because the party hadn’t ended.

“Wow… Is this a house or a castle?”

Suzy parked the car next to the majestic fountain in the middle of the driveway, her eyes wide. As soon as the car stopped, Jeong-in sprang out of the passenger seat as if ejected, and Suzy followed her son.

Jeong-in ran up the stairs in one breath and knocked on the front door. Soon the door opened, and a security guard in a black suit appeared. Behind him, people were busy moving carts. They seemed to be in the midst of cleaning up after the party.

The man in the black suit looked at the two with cold eyes and said firmly:

“I’m sorry, but the party is over.”

To Jeong-in, those words carried a devastatingly apocalyptic tone, like a declaration of cruel fate. It sounded as if it wasn’t the party that was over, but his life.

“I was at the party earlier. I left something important behind. Could I just go in briefly to find it?”

Even Jeong-in himself knew they wouldn’t easily let him in. Sure enough, the man in the black suit maintained his expressionless face without the slightest change.

“If you could tell us what it is and leave your contact information, we’ll get in touch as soon as it’s found.”

His tone left absolutely no room for negotiation. Suzy, standing beside him, shook her head as if to say there was no hope.

“There’s nothing we can do, Jeong-in.”

No reasonable solution came to mind. In the end, he had no choice but to accept the situation.

“What I left behind is a book bag. I left it on the first-floor terrace.”

“Are there any valuables inside?”

“Well… no.”

He answered no to the man, but since the book inside was a matter of life and death to him, it wouldn’t have been entirely wrong to call it valuable.

Just then, a woman appeared silently behind the large man. Appearing with a wine glass in one hand, she was wearing a satin nightgown printed with elaborate patterns.

“What’s going on?”

Jeong-in’s eyes widened. She was the same woman he had encountered in the party corridor and escorted to the library. The man in the black suit bowed his head slightly and addressed her:

“Madam.”

Jeong-in’s eyes grew even wider. As she carelessly gazed outside the entrance, she spotted Jeong-in.

“Oh? It’s the chivalrous young man. Hello.”

Jeong-in was still mentally trying to figure out who this woman was and why she was still at the mansion at this hour. Saving him the trouble, she said:

“I should introduce myself. I’m Lillian Prescott.”

“Then… you’re Chase Prescott’s…”

“Mother.”

Jeong-in couldn’t hide his surprise for a moment. No matter how generously he estimated her age, she didn’t look like someone with a grown son.

But gradually, he noticed familiar things about her. From external features like her aristocratic facial contours and slightly upturned lips, to the elegance emanating from her relaxed and composed behavior. These were traits he had seen in Chase Prescott as well.

“But what brings you here at this hour?”

“They say they left a bag behind, ma’am.”

The security guard answered for them. Lillian snapped her fingers toward the back, and everyone promptly stopped what they were doing and turned their attention to her.

“Has anyone found a bag anywhere?”

At her question, a small murmur spread among the staff as they seemed to share information. After a moment, a female servant wearing an apron stepped forward.

“If it’s a bag, perhaps a black backpack with brown reinforcement at the bottom?”

“Yes! That’s it!”

“If that’s the one, I saw Young Master Chase taking it with him.”

Jeong-in’s heart sank. His hope of retrieving the bag, which had been inflated just moments ago, deflated as miserably as a burst balloon. Jeong-in’s world collapsed.

“Ch… Ch… Chase Prescott? Are you sure?”

“Yes. But the young master went out and isn’t home. He said he was going to Cabo with his friends for the weekend…”

Suzy came to the straightforward conclusion that at least they now knew who had it, so Jeong-in could get it back later at school.

Walking down the stairs with a dazed expression, Jeong-in was gripped by deep frustration. Even if just to check whose belongings they were, Chase Prescott would have opened the bag. And he might have flipped through the conspicuous red notebook.

“Haah…”

A deep sigh that seemed to make the ground crumble escaped from Jeong-in. Getting into the passenger seat and closing his eyes tightly, he thought,

I’m done for. Like a polynomial function differentiated and differentiated again.

***

Deep, dark shadows were heavily cast under Jeong-in’s eyes. It was because he hadn’t gotten proper sleep all weekend.

It was only two days, but the wait felt long and painful like an endless hell. Eventually, he even began to resent Chase. What kind of high school student goes to Cabo during the semester anyway?

Cabo—Los Cabos was a resort area at the southernmost tip of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula, famous for its beautiful beaches and resorts. Being just over two hours away by plane, it was a popular weekend destination for California residents.

He had occasionally overheard while passing through the corridors. Chase and his group frequently visited Cabo throughout the year, and in winter, they went skiing at their vacation home in Aspen. The extent of concerns for these privileged individuals seemed to be nothing more than slow internet speeds at their vacation homes.

Honestly, he wanted to barge into Chase’s room like police with a search warrant, but there was nothing Jeong-in could do. He could only desperately hope that Chase hadn’t looked inside the bag, and that the secret inside was still safe.

“Jeong-in, you need to get up.”

Suzy gently knocked on the door, and Jeong-in, who had already finished preparing for school, came out of his room sluggishly. Instead of the backpack he usually carried, he had a crossbody bag slung over his shoulder.

“Oh, you were already up? I thought you were sleeping in because it was so quiet.”

After greeting his mother and leaving the house, Jeong-in headed to school like a prisoner being led to execution. The weather was clear, and the morning scenery beneath the blue sky was beautiful, but Jeong-in’s feet barely had strength to push the bicycle pedals.

Last night, Jeong-in had dozed off and had an ominous dream near dawn.

In the dream, he was walking down the school corridor, and all the students were standing in the hallway, glaring at him. Someone had taken photos of what he’d written in his shame book and posted them to the Tumblr account “Wincrest Wire,” where all the school gossip was uploaded.

Justin stood at one side of the corridor, his face a mess as if someone had beaten him, crying as he looked at Jeong-in with eyes mixed with disappointment and resentment.

The problem was that all of this had a very high possibility of becoming reality, not just remaining a dream.

Why had he created such a book? Regret weighed heavily on his chest. The book was a trace of timid rebellion, wrongly expressed by an outsider who couldn’t bear loneliness.

At the time, it had felt like an escape route, but only now did he realize how reckless and foolish it had been. But regret always came too late.

As he got closer to school, his heart pounded. Cold sweat ran down his forehead, and his throat became parched. Jeong-in parked his bicycle in the designated area and slowly walked toward the entrance. Each step felt like an endless path of thorns.

Chase Prescott would probably come to school. Even he wouldn’t skip school just to have fun. He was a Harvard aspirant, after all.

The fact that Chase was applying to Harvard and had grades good enough to be accepted had become yet another reason for Jeong-in to dislike him.

The school scene was no different than usual. Parents were dropping off their children in the drop-off zone, and kids were gathered in groups, laughing and chatting everywhere.

Jeong-in entered the campus with his shoulders hunched even more than usual, trying to minimize his presence as much as possible. Fortunately, no one approached or looked at him.

As he carefully raised his head, letting out a small sigh of relief, he saw the football team players. They were talking in front of the stairs leading to the school building entrance. Chase was sitting on the stair railing, laughing at something Max Schneider had said.

Seeing Chase’s face, which looked no different than usual, a small hope sprouted in Jeong-in’s heart. If he had seen the contents of the bag, he probably wouldn’t be laughing with such a bright face.

After hesitating, Jeong-in cautiously approached and called out to him.

“Um… Excuse me, Mr. Prescott.”

Chase turned his head at Jeong-in’s careful voice. Simultaneously, the gazes of his friends beside him all focused on Jeong-in. With the feeling of numerous eyes piercing through him, Jeong-in felt like he might faint at any moment.

“C-can I… talk to you for a moment? Just the two of us?”

Chase’s group stared at Jeong-in with curious eyes, as if finding it strange that some nerd was approaching and speaking to him.

“Me?”