우린 서로에게 이렇게 미쳐.
( This is how we became crazy for each other. )

"...How did we end up in this situation?" Saemi awkwardly shuffles to the edge of the bed, falling down on the sheets, back-first, "I never expected this to happen."

Mark placed his bags down in the corner of the room and made his way beside her, "Our classmates can be quite... persistent, don't you think?"

After everyone had witnessed Mark and Saemi's intimacy earlier, many of the classmates had voted for Mark and Saemi to share a room together for the rest of the school vacation. While the teacher denied the request, the students were easily able to convince him because there was an odd number of females and males in the class, and every student was supposed to find their own same-gender roommate.

Saemi, of course, did not actually have any friends in the class. She never bothered to make any friends, and she always liked to keep to herself. The only person she actually associates herself with is Mark, but that was only due to the fact that he had asked for her to be his stand-in girlfriend. Mark, on the other hand, was extremely popular, but due to the fact that Saemi was practically a loner, they strongly believed that Mark would not let any other male pair up and share a room with his girlfriend.

Saemi covers her eyes with her forearm, "Isn't this taking our boyfriend-girlfriend role too seriously? What if even more rumors spread about us? Do you think we can handle something like that?"

"Why do you care about what they think?" Mark inquires without hesitation, his voice suddenly growing much more serious. It was unlike how he ever spoke with his classmates, so it catches Saemi off-guard. Though he notices Saemi's reaction to the serious tone he had, he chooses to disregard it, "You just need to be who you want to be. Don't let anyone change you, ever."

The girl's lips part as if she wants to say something but chooses not to. But even without speaking, Mark could tell that she wasn't expecting something so profound from him. Mark didn't think too much about the advice that Saemi thought he was giving her; he, himself, had believed that advice was more for himself then it was for her.

However, the taken-aback Saemi just smiles to herself, clueless but grateful for the words, "Thank you."

***

The female students and the teacher ended up going to the kitchen to help prepare dinner for the male students while they cleaned up the villa. Since the villa was more so for rent than it was for actual residents, it was a little bit more on the dusty side, but even then, with the help of every student in the class, all the tasks were carried out thoroughly and efficiently.

Once dinner was finished and the dishes were cleaned, all of the students had decided to go out together to star-gaze. In the town, there were a lot more buildings and the lights were often too bright, so it was more difficult to see the night sky. Now that they were on a mountain, the sky was much more vivid to the eyes.

As all the students headed out to an open field where they could lay down together, Mark realizes that Saemi was tagging unusually closely behind him. Confused, he suddenly stops to ask her what is going on with her, but before he could ask, she runs straight into him.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" she smiles sheepishly at him, "I must've dazed off for a second there."

Lie.

Mark frowns slightly, knowing that she was making up new excuses once again, "Are you alright? You're not the type of person to easily fall into a daze, especially when you were so excited to come on this trip. You know you can tell me anything, right? I'll listen to every word you have to say."

"That's really nice of you," Saemi walks by him, "but it's not necessary. I'm completely fine."

Lie.

As she passes him, Mark doesn't know what to think anymore. There were times that he thought that he had made a break-through to the girl standing in front of him, but there were also times like this where she completely shuts him out. He doesn't know if Saemi regards him as a friend, or if she regards him as a stranger.

The fact that there was something he didn't know even when he could detect truths and lies also puts him in a foreign spot. He was so familiar to being able to understand how everyone around him truly is, but now there was a mystery in his life that he could not solve. This, though he hates to admit it, drives him a little mad.

"Park Saemi," he calls out, wanting an honest answer, or at least a lie that would provide him with the truth, but she immediately redirects his attention to the night sky.

With a single hand raised, pointing to the stars, she turns around with that same sweet smile, "Mark, can you see the lights?"

He finds himself speechless at that expression she was making just for him. It's truly been awhile since he has met someone who would show him sincere emotions like this. He takes a step forward to her, and she comes running back to his side, pulling him towards the middle of the open field. Together, the two of them, holding hands, finds a spot together to lie down side by side.

"I've never seen so many stars before in my life," Saemi begins to say, "Actually, I've never actually experienced so many things like I have these few weeks that I've transferred to JG High. I mean, I've had some friends and such before, but I've never really had a friend quite like you. Without you, I probably would've continued to think that keeping to myself was easier and better. I suppose what I really want to say is thank you."

Lie. Lie. Lie.

Mark glances over to see what kind of expression Saemi would be making as she spoke these insincere words, but what he sees causes him to second-guess his own ability. In front of him, Saemi had turned around to face him with a beaming expression.

For the first time in his life, he wonders to himself if this girl was truly lying to him. Perhaps his ability was already faulty, and it could no longer be trusted.

"Saemi," he begins to say, his voice barely above a whisper, "...What are you doing to me?"

The girl gives him an extremely confused expression, but he does not say anything more. It wasn't because he didn't want to, but it was because he couldn't. There are so many things he wants to tell her.

He wants to tell her that he knows that she's been lying all this time. He wants to tell her that she has expanded his range of feelings when she should not have. He wants to tell her that he really wants to eliminate her from his life. He wants to tell her that he plans on killing her. He wants to ask her if she was scared of someone like himself. More than anything else, he wants to tell her to just get out of his life before she changes him any more than she already did.

He knows that he wants all of these things, so why was it that when she smiles, everything didn't seem to matter anymore?

This is how we became broken for each other.