10: Revelations

“L, I think I found your notebook.”

I felt excited, relieved, and nervous all at the same time when Sungyeol told me that. I quickly followed him to the cafeteria where he saw the person who has my journal. I was wondering why he made this girl come along with us but, whatever. All I cared about was that I can finally claim my journal back.

“Gaeun?”

The quiet girl with a dark aura looked up as soon as Sungyeol’s classmate called out her name. Do they know each other?

But…wait…as soon as she looked up, I was able to recognize her face. She’s…the Death Note Girl!

“What is it, eonni?” she asked, with the chilliest-sounding voice that I’ve ever heard.

“You…” Sungyeol pointed at her. “I saw you carrying L’s black notebook.”

His classmate (I seriously don’t know her name) got shocked as she looked from the Death Note Girl to Sungyeol. “M-My sister has it?”

Oh. So they’re siblings. Death Note Girl and Sungyeol’s classmate are siblings.

“Are you talking about this?” Death Note Girl suddenly took out a black notebook from her bag. What the—it does look like my journal!

“T-This is my notebook!” I took my journal from her hands and examined it. However, she quickly grabbed the notebook back from me and unlocked it. “You even know the password?!”

“I know the password because this is mine.” She suddenly handed the notebook back to me and allowed me to check what’s inside. She’s right. It’s not mine. And the contents gave me the chills ‘cause it’s all about horror and torture movies, supernatural articles, statements of people who’ve had alien encounters, etc.

I’m gonna choke Sungyeol for getting the wrong person. Moreover, he suspected the Death Note Girl!

“L-sunbae.”

I froze when the Death Note Girl suddenly spoke using that low and spooky voice. I wasn’t startled because of her eerie voice, but because she actually called me by my name. And she added ‘sunbae’ to it.

After taking a bite of her sandwich, she suddenly looked at me. Our eyes even met! “It seems that you also buy notebooks at the Death Note Shop. You have good taste.”

Even though she had a poker face on and she never said anything after that, I still couldn’t help but smile on the inside.

She mentioned the Death Note Shop. I only went there once but eversince that day, I ended up going there every Saturday.

Because the Death Note Shop is the place where I met her. The Death Note Girl. The one who made me believe in love-at-first-sight.

And now I finally know her name.

I slowly opened my eyes and looked around.

I’m in my room right now and my head hurts like hell. I also think I have a fever. Oh, and it’s daytime already. How long was I asleep?

“Why did I memory suddenly appear in my dream?”

I stared blankly at the ceiling and tried to think of that moment again. I ended up smiling to myself as I recalled how Gaeun called me ‘L-sunbae’ and how she mentioned the Death Note Shop, which is the place where I first met her.

Hmm…if I sleep again, maybe I’ll have another good dream. Okay! Time to go back to sleep!

So Sungyeol’s classmate is actually Death Note Girl’s sister. If I try to ask her casually and coolly, perhaps I’ll be able to know more. Like, what is she like aside from being a dark person who loves horror stories and aliens.

I went to their classroom and saw her staring blankly at the board. She was alone so I figured it would be the right time to ask her. I quietly went inside and sat at the chair behind her.

I gave her a light tap on the back but she didn’t budge. It seems she’s too immersed in her thoughts to even notice me.

I tapped her again, and this time, she finally turned to look at me, but the unexpected happened.

It was already too late when I realized that I was leaning too close to her. I didn’t have the time to back away. It happened way too fast.

My first kiss…got stolen.

“AAAAAAH!”

I sat up on my bed and tried to catch my breath. I asked for another good dream but I got a nightmare instead!

Why did that unfortunate memory suddenly appear during my sleep? WHY?!

“Yah, Kim Myungsoo!”

I looked towards the door and saw Sunggyu making his way inside my room with the rest of the gang behind him.

“You guys…what are you doing here?”

“What do you think? We came to visit you, of course!” Woohyun replied as he sat comfortably on the couch. “You were absent the whole day and we tried to call you but you wouldn’t answer. So we called the housekeeper ajuhmma instead and asked about you. She said you have a fever so we came here as soon as classes ended.”

“I think this is the first time I’ve heard about you catching a fever in our six years of friendship,” Sunggyu said with a snicker. “The Almighty Kim Myungsoo isn’t so tough after all.”

I threw a pillow at Sunggyu’s face. “Even heroes get sick too, you know.”

“You’re not a hero, though.” Howon said while flipping through the pages of one of my magazines. “And I never knew you read Idol Weekly.”

Oh . No. “Y-Yah! Don’t go through my stuff so blatantly like that!”

But I was too late. The guys have already gathered around Howon like hungry hyenas. Ugh, these guys are gonna make fun of me now. I need to find a good excuse! And quick!

“Pfft. Haha! Of course, it is Idol Weekly!” Sungyeol looked at the shelf where Howon got the magazine. “He has tons of them! He’s been collecting them since grade school.”

Sometimes, I wish Sungyeol would just shut that damn mouth of his.

“Come to think of it, this is the first time we’ve ever been inside your room.” Dongwoo said as he observed every corner of my room, as if fascinated by it. “We’ve been friends for a long time but you’ve never invited us here.”

“Y-You guys got it all wrong!” I got up from bed and snatched the magazine from Howon. “This is not the reason why I never invited you here. I was just…you know…anyway! These aren’t mine! They’re…umm…”

The six of them just looked at me with their eyebrows raised. They don’t believe me, that’s for sure, especially with the idiot Sungyeol exposing me like that.

“Dude,” Woohyun walked towards me and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t worry. We won’t judge you. Although it is quite funny and unbelievable, ‘cause the fact that you actually…pfft…HAHAHA!” He immediately stopped laughing and cleared his throat as soon as I gave him the death glare. “Ahem, not judging you, man. I respect your preferences.”

“Hyungnim!” Sungjong looked at me with twinkling eyes as he clasped our hands together. “There’s nothing wrong with liking idol groups! Anyway, which groups do you like?”

I eyed the other guys and noticed that they were trying to hold in their laughs, except for Howon who was busy reading a manga and looked as if he didn’t give a about what’s happening.

I thre