MTLNOVEL Lie Again!
Chapter 17
<Chapter 17. Far From Homecoming (1)> The Friday when food had been flying around passed, and starting from the upcoming Monday, the official Homecoming Week began.
Crawford students were buzzing with talk about the dress code announced on the school’s social media on Sunday. “This year’s theme is really terrible. The student council is doing such a bad job.” “Let’s see. Clothes in different colors by grade, animal pajamas, Jock vs Nerd, ugly t-shirts, Crawford Day… Crawford Day never misses a year.” Joey, who had a green mini bag slung over her shoulder, grumbled as she fluttered the homecoming flyer. Ruth, who had snatched the flyer from Joey’s hand, recited the theme. Ruth was also wearing a green polo t-shirt. Jin looked down at her outfit. A white sleeveless top, a thin shirt over it, jeans, and sneakers. There wasn’t a hint of green. She only found out there was a dress code after coming to school, since she didn’t follow the school’s SNS. ‘Why are you only telling me this on SNS a day before?’ Jin grumbled inwardly for no reason as she looked around. Most of the people, whether they were packing books or organizing their lockers, had at least one item with green in it. T-shirts, hats, pants, shoes, or even socks were green. “Green is lame. I’d rather we were wearing pink like the freshmen.” “Ugh. I’ll pass on that.” “Rucy, are you from 10 years ago or something?” Joey teased Ruth, who absolutely hated pink. After ranting for a while about Pantone colors and men’s pink clothing, Joey glanced at the time and hurriedly packed her books. Barely escaping from Joey, Ruth turned to Jin, scanned her outfit, and asked. “Where did the green go, Jin?” “Uhm, I just found out that there is such a thing.” Joey, who had been packing her books, stopped and stared at Jin. “Don’t tell me you haven’t prepared a homecoming dress either.” “Hmm.” “No way!” “…Is a simple dress enough?” At Jin’s hesitant remark, Joey smiled brightly and slammed the cabinet door shut. “Jin, you don’t have any plans today, right?” “I have an art assignment to do today…” “You don’t, right?” “Mhm.” At Joey’s sharp words, Jin quickly nodded in agreement. Joey also nodded along with Jin. “Great. Let’s go on a girls’ date today. After cleaning, come to the parking lot. Mandy and I will be waiting!” Joey’s voice grew louder as she spoke, reaching almost a shout by the end. She backed away quickly, almost running, and made sure to remind Jin, since the next classroom was far away. Jin nodded fiercely as she watched Joey walking away. Jin, with her wrist held by Ruth, hurriedly passed through the door of the Spanish classroom. Mrs. Haide gave them a raised eyebrow, as if to say she was letting the two of them off the hook for barely avoiding being late. Today’s Mrs. Haide was wearing a bright yellow chiffon dress, staying true to the teachers’ dress code of yellow. As Jin looked at Mrs. Haide, she was reminded of the hornet from the documentary she had watched with Ivy the night before. “Mrs. Haide! You look beautiful today.” As Ruth passed by Mrs. Haide, she whistled. Jin shot her a disapproving glance, seeing Ruth act like a thug throwing flirtatious remarks at the teacher. However, contrary to Jin’s judgment of her behavior as disrespectful, Mrs. Haide calmly smiled and accepted the compliment. ‘This was America.’ Jin, who was Korean to the core, watched the scene in amazement and couldn’t help but think once again that they were in America. Jin scanned the classroom, looking for an empty seat. Amid the sea of green, the occasional pink from the 9th graders and purple from the 11th graders stood out. Everyone was serious about homecoming. Jin recalled Dustin and Amanda, whom she had greeted in the morning. Dustin was a green human from head to toe, and even Amanda was wearing green socks. Jin felt a little down, realizing that it seemed like she was the only one who hadn’t followed the dress code. * * * Jin opened the door to the chemistry lab, determined to finish cleaning as quickly as possible and get out. She still hadn’t forgotten how last Friday had ended. That afternoon, the moment Jin recognized the word “smell” from Butterfield’s mouth, she laughed awkwardly, turned around, and ran off as fast as she could. Her face looked like it was about to explode, moving like a robot with creaking motions. It was one of the dumbest reactions in her seventeen years of life. “Hi, Jin.” Jin, who deliberately avoided looking at Butterfield and went straight to the sink, was startled by the unexpected greeting. Pretending not to be surprised, Jin turned her head, only to find a beautiful face grinning mischievously, with dimples deeply etched into his cheeks. There was a playful glint in his eyes, and Jin had a feeling it wasn’t going to be anything good. Instead of responding to Butterfield’s greeting, Jin turned her head back to its original position. Then, making it clear that she had no interest in talking, she turned on the sink water. Whoosh—cool water poured over Jin’s heated hands. Whether Jin wanted to talk or not, Butterfield leisurely said what he wanted to say. “Looks like you don’t participate in school events, huh? Just like the kid who sits next to you in chemistry.” Jin, who was washing the beaker and wondering who she was taking chemistry class with, soon thought of Pablo Miche. Pablo wasn’t wearing a single hint of green today. When Jin asked why he hadn’t followed the dress code, he pushed up his glasses with the back of his hand and replied, “I don’t have time to care about something so trivial.” Realizing that he was treating her like a nerd, Jin turned her head with a sullen look and scanned Butterfield from head to toe. The irony was that Butterfield himself, who had just called someone else nerdy, wasn’t wearing a single trace of green either. “I guess you find school events childish.” Jin glared at Butterfield and repeated what he had said. “I brought green.” Jin tilted his head at the innocent answer and scanned him again. There was no green, let alone anything similar. The only place she hadn’t checked… Jin’s gaze lingered on Butterfield’s lower half for a moment before she shook her head, brushing away any inappropriate thoughts. Fortunately, Butterfield didn’t seem to notice where her eyes had wandered. There’s no green anywhere, though? Jin didn’t hide her skeptical gaze as she looked up at Butterfield. Butterfield, who had been watching her playfully with a smile, raised his long hand and tapped the area under his eye. Jin’s gaze slowly followed Butterfield’s leisurely moving hand from bottom to top. His fingertip was pointing at his own eyes. The eyes, which were located in the sunken eye holes under the thick eyebrows, gave off a cold impression at first glance. The reason this impression seemed playful was probably because of the deep dimples on both sides of the smoothly rising mouth corners. And his irises… The vibrant green nestled between his sharp eyes shifted with the light—sometimes resembling the deep shade of a dense forest, other times gleaming like a shimmering river. The dark ring encircling his green irises and the black pupil at the center were like a secretive universe, pulling her gaze in. A fleeting thought crossed Jin’s mind—that she could stare into these eyes for an hour, maybe even two. ‘I’m annoyed.’ Jin realized that she had been staring at them as if she was possessed and turned her head away again. Jin heard a laughter behind her. Butterfield was fully, completely aware of the impact his appearance had. That was what made it so annoying. Determined to ignore everything Butterfield said from now on, Jin focused on washing the beaker. Unfortunately, Butterfield didn’t give her the chance to do so. There was no more conversation between them. Only Butterfield’s faint humming could be heard occasionally. It was annoying. * * * It was a bright, sunny day. Amanda, wearing sunglasses to shield herself from the sunlight streaming through the lightly tinted car windows, had her hands on the steering wheel. Inside the car, a medley of songs by female pop singers played. “Casey said she’s going with Nate Jones, and Lydia is determined to get Elliot to ask her. Oh, right! Mason asked Tracy to be his homecoming partner today! I kind of saw that coming—they’ve been hanging out since the beginning of the semester.” Joey sat beside Amanda, rattling off all the latest gossip about Homecoming Week. She was busy switching between singing along to the music playing in the car and spilling whatever rumors came to mind. Amanda quietly turned down the volume for Joey, who was raising her voice to compete with the music. “Homecoming royalty voting started today! Not that it matters—Butterfield and Gwen are going to take it for our grade anyway.” “Alex Fines has been going around saying he’s running for Homecoming Duke this time.” “He’s already out of the running, Mandy. No one’s gonna vote for a guy who goes around asking people to pick him.” At Amanda’s words, Joey let out a gasp and immediately denied another homecoming candidate. Jin, who had been quietly listening to the conversation from the backseat, recalled the blonde-haired person who had approached her during swim class, shouting for her to vote for him in the beginner lane. His name was Alex Fines. “Anyway, who should I go to Homecoming with this time? I’m so excited!” “I thought we were going as a group again, like last year.” Amanda poured cold water on Joey, who grabbed her cheek and screamed. “No way! This year, we *have* to go as couples. We can’t just show up as a group of four again.” Amanda glanced back in the rearview mirror and corrected her. “This year, it’s five.” “Oh, right!” Joey spun around abruptly and threw a question at Jin, who was awkwardly smiling, unsure how to react. “Jin! Is there any guy you want to go to homecoming with?” Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and
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