LMI 7

I can’t take it anymore.

Koi’s eyes flashed red as he gnashed his teeth. He was in terrible condition because he had stayed up all night working on other assignments, and he couldn’t think rationally. More than anything, Ashley Miller had been turning his stomach upside down for days.

To scam me with such a cheerful face.

In his mind, Ashley Miller was already a heinous criminal. If he didn’t show up right away and hand in the assignment, he wouldn’t be able to calm down no matter what he said.

But in reality, he couldn’t even see his face, let alone confront him. When his emails and even the messages he had sent were ignored, Koi was furious, but that was all he could do. As a last resort, he stood in front of the lockers before class, waiting for the group that always hung around him. Those guys would know what happened to Ashley.

And when the opportunity came, what he heard from the group was completely unexpected.

“Ashley’s sick?”

Surprised, his voice involuntarily rose, and one of the group said, “Yeah.”

“I think it’s a cold. He’ll get better if he rests. What’s up?”

“Oh… nothing, never mind. …Thanks.”

Koi, stammering, left the scene as if running away, feeling guilty for having been angry all by himself.

Could it be because I gave him my jacket…?

That was the only thing he could think of. Ashley hadn’t come to school since the very next day. And a cold, that was too obvious of an evidence.

“Is he very sick?”

He asked worriedly, but the answer he got was just a shrug.

“He’ll come when he gets better. Why? Do you need something?”

“Uh…”

Koi stammered at the unexpected question. He couldn’t bring himself to say that Ashley had caught a cold because he had been overly kind to him. What would happen if he spread the fact that he had fallen ill after being too nice to him? One thing was certain, no one would praise Ashley.

The guys who bully me might increase.

Koi quickly shook his head at the terrifying thought that followed.

“No, it’s nothing. Never mind. Bye, thanks, see you.”

He spat out the words quickly and ran away from the spot. He ran hard and glanced back, and the guys were talking to each other as they walked away. None of them seemed to suspect Koi’s suspicious behavior.

“Whew.”

He barely turned around behind the wall and leaned against it, gasping for breath and closing his eyes. See, this is why a life with no presence like dust is the best. Those guys have probably already forgotten my face. Koi was sure of it and calmed his breathing.

Anyway, that’s good. It was too bad that Ashley had caught a cold, but the assignment was the first priority for him right now. How should he solve this problem? He walked to his next class, deep in thought.

I knew it.

He thought things were going too smoothly. The assignment, which he had been complacent about, went completely against his expectations. This was very familiar to him. It hadn’t been a long life, but things had never gone smoothly.

But it’s just an assignment.

He felt a surge of anger at the thought that even this didn’t need to be so twisted. He wanted to unleash a torrent of harsh curses on someone, but he was even more angry that he didn’t know any good curses. Why can’t I even curse?

After a brief moment of self-pity, he finally regained his composure. Now is not the time to be depressed like this. He had to find a solution quickly. So, what’s the method?

He came to a conclusion without taking much time. It was too bad he was sick, but he had to ask him to do as much as he could. No matter how he thought about it, it was impossible for him to finish the assignment alone in the remaining time. Koi had a mountain of assignments from other subjects as well.

Once he made the decision, he acted quickly. He immediately picked up his cell phone and looked for Ashley Miller’s number. He didn’t have even ten numbers saved, including the number of the store where he worked part-time, so it wasn’t difficult to find. And thanks to the letter A, Ashley’s number was at the very top.

Koi took a deep breath and pressed the button before his heart weakened. While he was listening to the ringing tone, he had to take several deep breaths to calm his pounding heart.

And finally, the long wait was over and he heard a person’s voice from the other side.

• …Hello.

It was Ashley Miller.

The moment he heard the deeply sunken voice, his heart, which had been pounding like crazy, seemed to stop all at once. But it soon began to beat twice as fast, and Koi felt a fear that his heart would jump out of his mouth, and he covered his mouth with one hand. After a moment of silence, Ashley spoke again.

• …Hello? Who is this?

His voice, full of fatigue, was clearly ill. Koi felt a complicated mix of guilt and concern about the assignment and began to speak.

“Oh, hi, this is Corner Niles, who’s taking the Spanish class with you, we’re on the same team for this assignment. We even had a meeting together at Green Bell, do you remember?”

He stammered and explained at length, but Ashley didn’t answer for a while.

• Ah…

Koi took the phone away from his ear and put it back again at the sound of a sigh, whether it was a sigh of understanding or something else, and began to speak.

“Um, I sent you an email and a message, but I didn’t get a reply. I heard you were sick, are you okay?”

• …Shouldn’t you ask if I’m okay first?

Ashley retorted in a hoarse voice. Of course, Koi wasn’t upset that he wasn’t worried about him. It was just the irritability of a sick person. In the first place, the two of them weren’t close enough to worry about each other. Besides, he must have received plenty of comfort from his pretty girlfriend, who was the most popular star in the school, so Koi just had to say what he had to say. He cleared his throat and continued.

“Um, I’m sorry I asked you too many personal questions last time. I promise I won’t do that again, so can we finish the assignment together?”

He waited for an answer and prepared to blurt out the next words, but Ashley frowned and asked back with a reluctant look, “Oh?”

• Assignment?

It was a much more lackluster response than he had expected. Koi didn’t think Ashley would be as enthusiastic about the assignment as he was, but he also didn’t think he would be this indifferent, so Koi was momentarily flustered.

“Oh, um, we talked about it last time, right? We were going to research Argentine food culture. I’m doing coffee, you’re doing sandwiches. Um, you did the research, right…?”

Even to his own ears, his tone didn’t sound confident at all. He felt ashamed of his clearly intimidated voice, but he wasn’t Ashley Miller. He knew better than anyone that this was who he was, so he couldn’t change.

He waited for an answer, watching him, and Ashley, who had sighed annoyingly, said,

• Well, I don’t know.

“What?”

Koi was flustered, but Ashley already seemed to have lost interest. He said in a listless voice, as if mumbling.

• It’s not like it’s a mandatory assignment. Why don’t we just do it roughly?

“No, no. Wait a minute, Ash!”

Koi hurriedly grabbed Ashley, who was about to hang up. Koi was momentarily intimidated by the deep sigh he heard from the other side of the receiver, but he had to hold on. He gathered all the courage he had and continued in a trembling voice.

“Then I’ll do the research. Just take care of a few of the next chapters. Um, I’ll organize the outline and the topic and everything, okay?”

Before Ashley could say anything else, Koi blurted out,

“I really need to get a good grade on this.”A few seconds of silence passed. Please! With the feeling of wanting to pray, he squeezed his eyes shut when Ashley said,

• It has nothing to do with me.

“Ash…”

He called him urgently, but the call had already been disconnected. Koi blankly stared at the empty screen of his phone. He’s ending it like this unilaterally? Really?

It was unbelievable, but it was true. The call had already been disconnected, and when he called again, he didn’t even answer. It was despairing, but he had to admit it. Ashley had no intention of doing the assignment at all.