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Chapter 11: Let Me

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My three classes that day went pretty much as expected. School was school, after all, despite my strange circumstances in getting there.

I got through Basic Design I and Art and Design History without recognizing any of my fellow classmates, and, honestly, it was a bit of a relief. Initially, I had moved from California to New York to get as far away from familiarity as possible, but, since reuniting with JB and meeting the others, I hadn’t had as much time to myself to reflect as I’d hoped for.

My third class of the day was a Gen Ed, however, and as I entered the much larger classroom I noticed a familiar face staring daggers at me from the farthest left side of the room.

I guess there’s no point in ignoring her. She already noticed me, and if I don’t say anything to her now this will be a very uncomfortable semester.

Passing down the aisle to get to an empty seat I paused momentarily by her side, “It’s Moonbyul, right?”

She didn’t respond but instead stopped glaring and looked away as if she wanted nothing to do with me.

“Well, uhm, I just thought I’d say hi,” I awkwardly finished before moving far away to one of the empty seats more toward the right side of the room.

The entire rest of the period was consumed by having to pretend not to notice her glances, and as soon as the bell rang I bolted toward the door.

Once I was outside of the classroom, I felt it was safe to slow down, but at that very moment I felt someone tap my shoulder from behind.

“Moonbyul?”

“We need to talk.” She wouldn’t make direct eye contact, but I could tell it was important.

“Uhm, okay, yeah, sure, what about?”

“Not here,” she headed over to a more secluded area, a staircase, and I followed her hesitantly.

If she wants to beat me up, might as well get it over with sooner than later.

“What is it you wanted to talk about?” I inquired after her initial silence.

She looked around as if making sure no one was in earshot, “I heard through the grapevine that you joined Mamamoo. Is that true?”

“You know about Mamamoo?”

She sighed, obviously still not pleased to be conversing with me, but she answered all the same, “I joined my Freshman year. I’m a Sophomore now, but I got promoted to the senior editorial staff because of the good work I did last year.”

“Ahhh, that’s really cool.”

“So you did join?”

“Well, yes. To be honest, I didn’t really have any interest in joining, but I want to prove that BamBam is innocent for his sake and for Lisa’s, and Hwasa seemed to think joining would be the best way for me to do that.”

She rolled her eyes at BamBam’s name, but she also genuinely seemed to think over my purpose before responding.

“Ugh, this is annoying, but I trust Hwasa. She gave me a place in Mamamoo during a really rough time in my life, and she was like family to me when I didn’t feel like I had one… Look, just so we’re clear, your friend broke my friend’s heart, and I believe in unbiased journalism, which means you’re going to need someone with her perspective helping you to uncover the truth about this thing, and so help me God if it is true that he cheated on her...”

“But you don’t want it to be true either, right?”

“Of course not! The less Lisa has to suffer the better.”

“So you’re offering to help me, then?”

She paused again before answering, “If I can get Jang Da-hye and Krystal to help too I will, but don’t hold your breath. Hwasa is the only reason why I’m trusting you this much, but they might not be so willing.”

I nodded.

“So do you have a plan?” she continued.

“I haven’t seen the photo yet, myself, so Hwasa was trying to find it to send it to me. From there I’ll decide what to do next. If I can prove they’re Photoshopped that would be a good start, then I just have to figure out who would do that and why.”

She nodded, “You make it sound so easy, but, listen, I know for a fact Lisa still has that picture. I’ll get it to Hwasa, and she can send it to you.” Looking down at her watch, she added, “Gotta get to my next class. See you around.”

She started to head off, so I yelled out before she got too far, “Moonbyul!”

She her heels, hesitantly looking back.

“Thanks… for trusting me.”

“Don’t thank me yet. I could still prove you wrong,” she said, popping in a pair of earphones and continuing off down the hallway.

Outside of the building I was met by another familiar face, and he smiled as I exited the building.

“Aren’t you hot?” I laughed, motioning at his turtleneck and leather jacket.

BamBam shrugged, “Fall is a bipolar season, plus fashion beats comfort.”

“What’re you doing here?”

“I came to walk you home. You don’t have anymore classes, right?”

“Yeah, but how did you know my class would end at this time?”

“I, uhh, didn’t. I’ve kind of been waiting for a while.”

“Why-”

“I have a bit of a proposition for you. I’ve been thinking a lot about it. I’ll explain when we get home.”

Throughout the walk home I wondered if I should open up to BamBam about the secret mission I had decided to embark on to clear his name.

What good will it do if he knows now? I’ll probably just get his hopes up then at actually being able to find any real evidence.

In the end, I decided to keep it to myself.

When we arrived, BamBam offered me a much overdue house tour.

“It’s kind of the best time for one right now, because there’s no one else at home to bother,” he laughed, “Now that classes have started, you can pretty much expect everyone’s schedules to be weird and different, though,”