ICYM Ch 29

Episode 29

Why is he suddenly showing up here?

This kind of mistake needs to be fixed quickly. Alarms were blaring in my head.

I really hoped this would just fizzle out quietly, but I had a strong feeling it wouldn’t end that easily.

“No, uh… Wait a second.”

Clatter.

I stood up so suddenly that my desk scraped loudly across the floor, but I didn’t care. I rushed straight toward the door.

As I stood in front of Kendrick, the image of him punching a man in the street flashed through my mind, and my body flinched instinctively. But unlike me, Kendrick looked down at me with a calm expression.

“Yeah.”

That laid-back attitude, as if he had all the time in the world to wait, left me speechless.

If this were a novel, it would be like skipping over the whole buildup and suddenly jumping to the climax, so how could he be so composed?

Surely he’d know I wasn’t confessing to him, right? Maybe this was Kendrick’s idea of sophisticated humor.

“Haha… Seriously… That was… funny, right?”

So I laughed along, trying to naturally play into the joke.

I didn’t forget to glance past Kendrick toward the door, just in case Sunbae had come by in the meantime.

“What was?”

But Kendrick’s voice dropped low as he asked, and that sudden change in tone was honestly terrifying.

“That… My confession.”

“No, it wasn’t funny.”

“…Huh?”

“Wasn’t that a serious confession?”

“……”

“You’re not saying that was a joke, right?”

The heavy mood washing over me triggered an involuntary hiccup.

I should say it wasn’t…

The image of the man lying crumpled on the ground came to mind. If that fist hit me, I wouldn’t just end up on the floor; I had a bad feeling it’d be worse than that.

“Well…”

He didn’t seem like he’d let me go until I answered.

How was I supposed to explain this in a way that wouldn’t sound bad? I licked my dry lips and racked my brain.

“……”

But I didn’t agonize over it for long. When he looked at me like that with a serious face, it was pretty much like my answer was already decided.

“Uh? Of course it wasn’t a joke… Who would joke about something like this?”

It was obviously a very serious confession. The only problem was that the person I had confessed to was the wrong one.

At my answer, Kendrick’s expression relaxed.

“Well, that’s a relief.”

Sensing that the conversation might end like this, I hurriedly spoke up.

“Wait…!”

“What?”

“…No, I just wanted to say that you don’t have to accept it.”

“……”

“It’s not like we were, you know… about to start dating or anything. I figured it must’ve caught you off guard.”

I twisted my body nervously, speaking with all the earnestness I could muster.

Please, just say you don’t think we’re at the point of dating.

But of course, my gut feeling, always ominously accurate, didn’t fail me. Kendrick looked like he was thinking it over for a moment, but then he spoke with ease.

“I don’t mind.”

We hadn’t even had any real conversations, let alone mutual interest, and he’s saying he’s fine with it?

Was he just one of those people who looked serious about relationships but was actually fine with dating anyone?

“You don’t mind?”

Hoping for a different answer, I asked again. But he gave the same reply.

“Yeah.”

“……”

“Why do you keep asking?”

“…I just didn’t think you’d agree so easily.”

“So you confessed even though you didn’t think we’d end up dating?”

Is that little squirt trying to tease me right now?

I could almost hear the words he didn’t say.

“No! I mean, yes, yes!”

The Kendrick I knew didn’t seem like someone who talked this much.

If only I’d taken the time to think more carefully here, maybe I wouldn’t have regretted it later. But at the time, just dealing with the situation right in front of me was overwhelming, so I completely failed to notice.

His tone turned intimidating, and I found myself instinctively stepping back, only to hit a wall behind me. Kendrick took one step forward. Just a single step, but his stride was long, and it shrank the distance between us significantly.

“What exactly are you saying yes to?”

The pressure on me to say it clearly with my own mouth was suffocating. I squeezed my eyes shut and blurted it out.

“That, that I want to date you!”

Human beings always prioritize their survival instincts above all else.

“Then, we’re dating starting today, right?”

Kendrick asked in a shy voice, and with all the fight drained out of me, I could only nod.

It felt like I’d just gone through a high-pressure job interview—my whole body was drained of energy.

Today was supposed to be a good day…

It wasn’t even time for breakfast yet, but I already felt exhausted and just wanted to collapse onto my bed.

And still, Sunbae hadn’t shown up at the library. That meant Kendrick and I were the only ones inside.

Clack.

Feeling overheated, I pushed the window open wider. Even with the cold wind brushing against me, the heat surging through my body didn’t go away easily.

How am I supposed to fix this?

Maybe I should end things on a good note here and write him a letter overnight to give him later?

Should I say it was all a huge misunderstanding? That I was really sorry? That I hadn’t meant to tease him at all, and the timing was just unfortunate?

Meanwhile, Kendrick had already sat down in the seat I’d saved earlier and was calmly taking out a book to study.

My head was in absolute chaos, and yet he looked so composed. It was almost annoying.

“Sigh.”

For now, I bowed my head and pretended to focus on my notebook.

Whooosh—

Right on cue, a gust of wind blew in through the open window. Because I had left it wide open from the heat, the exam papers on Kendrick’s desk were caught by the wind and fluttered up into the air.

I just stared blankly as one of the pages floated down and landed right in front of me.

“Ah, sorry.”

As I hurried to apologize and pick up the papers, I couldn’t help but see the bold scores written at the top.

97 points.

100 points.

98 points.

“Huh…?”

They were unbelievable scores. I rubbed my eyes without thinking and looked again. These weren’t just practice tests he’d taken on his own. They were the same exams I had also taken.

The score for that test was also visible. It was the one that was supposedly easy, so everyone had been curious about how they did.

100 points?

Sunbae was a top student too, but even he usually averaged around 80. The school had high academic standards, and anything above 80 was already a B or higher.

“…These scores… Are they yours?”

“…? Yeah.”

So when he said he was thinking about Oxford and King’s College, it hadn’t been some clueless bluff. Was it for real?

Gulp.

I swallowed hard without meaning to. Now that I think about it, didn’t we have three classes together?

Lately, I’ve been struggling with studying. I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was doing it all wrong, and those frustrating days of uncertainty flashed through my mind in an instant.

But before I could even say anything, Kendrick made an offer that was way too tempting.

“Want me to teach you?”

“…Uh… What?!”

“Studying. We have a lot of the same classes.”

Forget being scared of Kendrick. This was just too sweet a temptation. Instead of refusing, I asked in a dazed voice, “…Wouldn’t I be taking up too much of your time?”

“I don’t mind studying instead of going on dates.”

In that moment, I was blinded by those test scores.

“Is that really okay?”

I mean, I didn’t have the courage to reject him face-to-face right now anyway. So wouldn’t it be fine to get a bit of help for now, and then later explain everything properly, maybe through a letter or something?

* * *

To put it simply, Kendrick was a top-tier private tutor. His explanations were so clear, everything just clicked right away.

Strictly speaking, when it came to teaching, the difference between him and Sunbae was like night and day.

He fully understood the material and could explain it in a way that made it all so much easier to grasp.

“Then, see you later.”

“Yeah…”

I returned to my room after the tutoring session, without even managing to tell him that the confession had been a mistake. I flopped down onto my bed, face-first.

[Senior: Sorry. I overslept and came late, but you weren’t there :’( ] 11:21 AM

[Me: Ah…ㅜㅜ You went to bed late last night, so it’s totally understandable you overslept. I figured you weren’t coming, so I went down early too.] 12:02 PM

Honestly, it was probably a relief he hadn’t shown up.

Later on, I even forgot I’d confessed and just focused on the tutoring.

“Ha… What do I do?”

I found myself checking Sunbae’s message again for no reason. If everything had gone the way I’d hoped, I wouldn’t be lying here with this look of despair on my face.

What on earth is Kendrick Bardi thinking?

Does he like me?

I tried to recall Kendrick’s face right after I’d confessed.

He didn’t look like someone hearing a confession they wanted to accept…

Rather than happy, his expression had looked stiff, serious.

At the time, I’d been too scared to notice, but thinking back now, that’s how it really was.

Is he dating me even though he doesn’t like me?

But then again, all we’ve done since we started dating is study.

If anything, if Kendrick had shown some impure intentions, I might’ve been able to understand why he accepted my confession.

I’d only been panicking about the accidental confession, and now trying to figure out Kendrick’s motives was making my brain feel like it was going to explode. I grabbed handfuls of my hair and writhed in frustration.

What is he thinking?

If he doesn’t like me, why did he accept my confession?