#001
Part 1
March was already half over.
Third year of high school. That title that covers most kinds of rebellion, yet makes it not so easy to actually rebel.
As soon as lunch break started, the noise of male students who quickly wolfed down their school meals and were hanging around was chaotic. The sun was beating down on the rooftop that repeatedly became rowdy then quiet again.
Lee Jiwoon stretched while taking in the bright blue sky with his eyes. His round eyes with thin double eyelids were briefly revealed. His face, with slightly upturned eye corners standing out, was squinting slightly in the dazzling sunlight.
“You bastards, still can’t get girlfriends?”
Park Kyungjun, who had been crouching across from them looking at his phone, shouted at the group.
“Look at this, our Minkyung. This is how good dating is.”
Yoon Jukyung responded to Kyungjun, who was waving his phone with his girlfriend’s photo displayed.
“Uh. Minkyung is fucking precious.”
Jiwoon, who had been listening to that, squinted one eye while pursing his lips and slightly lifting his chin. Both cheeks hollowed and his prominent jawbone was revealed. His face, which soon returned to expressionless, looked languid.
“Right. Lee Jiwoon. I saw your ex-girlfriend yesterday. She said she misses you.”
Jiwoon didn’t answer. Kyungjun’s eyes sparkled as he chattered.
“She said it was disappointing that you could only get to kissing.”
Kyungjun giggled while spreading his palm wide at chest level and moving it up and down. Jiwoon raised his hand and smacked Kyungjun on the head.
“Yeah, because she’s precious.”
“For something so precious, she was complaining that you were fucking hard to contact.”
*I’m* precious, you idiot. Even after getting hit on the head, Kyungjun grinned.
“Anyway, you don’t stop girls who come and don’t chase girls who leave.”
Jiwoon grabbed and pushed away Kyungjun’s wrist as he tried to put his arm around his shoulder, then headed toward the rooftop railing. Yoon Jukyung spoke from behind.
“If you looked like Jiwoon, Kyungjun, wouldn’t it naturally turn out that way?”
“I’m fucking envious of his looks.”
Kyungjun replied.
Yeah, I know. This is fucking boring. Jiwoon cracked his neck left and right. On the playground, soccer was in full swing during lunch break.
Jiwoon rummaged through his pocket. Then he picked up a randomly grabbed candy, unwrapped it, and bit into it. His mouth, which had been dry, was soon filled with sweetness.
While sucking on the candy and watching soccer, someone must have scored a goal because the playground suddenly became noisy.
Waaaah! Soccer every day, what’s so good about it that they scream like that.
“Jiwoon, you’re hanging out today, right?”
“Yeah yeah.”
Jiwoon gave an appropriate response to someone’s words while continuing to look down at the kids playing soccer. The ball that had been spinning around stopped at the feet of a boy standing in front of the goal.
He’s tall. Good build too. The posture of the boy who dribbled the ball, passed it, and walked was upright.
“Did you clean your house?”
“Isn’t that obvious?”
While letting the useless chatter go in one ear and out the other, Jiwoon watched the playground.
Why is he so white? The pale kid grabbed the hem of his white t-shirt and lifted it up.
As he lowered his head to wipe the sweat from his forehead, his white waist was briefly revealed under his skin. Jiwoon sucked hard on his candy.
The boy’s light brown hair scattered in the wind. Jiwoon sucked even harder on the candy in his mouth.
“I’m leaving first.”
Soon Jiwoon put both hands in his pants pockets and went down the stairs with sharp taps. With each step he took, the hem of his school uniform jacket with the name tag “Lee Jiwoon” fluttered.
As soon as he exited the building entrance, March sunlight immediately hit him. His eyes dazzled and he squinted one eye for a moment, then soon headed toward the assembly platform. Female students watching soccer were huddled together.
Jiwoon climbed onto the empty assembly platform and put both arms on the railing. His exceptionally black hair fluttered in the wind, tickling his white skin.
“Oh, it’s that oppa.”
“Who?”
“Ah… Wow, it’s my first time seeing him.”
A few girls whispered in the corner.
Jiwoon pretended not to hear and continued watching soccer. More precisely, he was watching that white kid.
Before he knew it, his mouth was empty. Jiwoon unwrapped another candy and put it in his mouth. Then he sucked on the candy again.
* * *
A goal burst from the opposite goal.
Two to two. It’s a tie. It would be nice to score one more goal. Seo Yechan checked his wristwatch. There were fifteen minutes left in lunch break.
“Ah, I’m tired. Ooh! There are a lot of kids watching soccer today.”
Oh Taehyun, who was standing next to Yechan, said while putting his hands on his knees. Yechan turned his head toward the assembly platform. The area around the assembly platform was full of people.
As Yechan was turning his head to focus on the ball again, a white figure suddenly caught his eye.
Yechan blinked. A man with jet-black hair wearing an unusually neat school uniform was standing on the assembly platform.
Of course, it was still just a school uniform. But the tight necktie and navy jacket suited him strangely well.
Is it because his head is small? While thinking quietly, Yechan shifted his gaze to the man’s face. The man was looking this way with his arms on the railing and his chin resting on them.
His slightly upturned eyes were cold. A cat? No, something a bit more…
“Whoa, it’s Lee Jiwoon hyung. There was a reason for so many people.”
Taehyun, who had turned his eyes following Yechan’s gaze, said while catching his breath.
“Who?”
“Over there, that fucking handsome hyung. Don’t you see all the girls?”
Bang. Yechan, who passed the ball that flew toward him, looked at the assembly platform again. His eyes met again with the man who had been looking this way with his chin propped up.
He could see some girl approaching the man.
“He’s looking this way. Wow, he really seems fucking handsome. Whoa, Jung Seoeun is talking to him.”
But the man kept looking this way, precisely at Yechan. Whether the girl was talking to him or not, his eyes staring only this way filled his head with puzzlement.
He could see the girl, who was completely ignored, hesitating and then hurriedly leaving. Ah, what was that person’s name again?
“Looks like she got dissed. Wow, Jung Seoeun is pretty popular but that must be embarrassing.”
“…What did you say that hyung’s name was?”
“Lee Jiwoon. You really don’t know? He’s a famous hyung. Popular because he’s handsome.”
I don’t know. As Yechan muttered that to himself, Jiwoon swept back his bangs that were blowing in the wind. His eyebrows, which hadn’t been visible because they were covered by his bangs, drew an arch over his white face.
Yechan, who was staring at the features packed into his small face and his cold expression, finally remembered a scene from a video he had seen recently. Ah, I got it. He looks like a tiger cub.
“He exercises a lot so he’s good at fighting too… but his personality is a bit like that.”
Kim Minho, who had tapped Yechan’s shoulder and stood beside him, said.
“They say he’s at the blue belt level in taekwondo.”
At Oh Taehyun’s words, Yechan observed Jiwoon more closely.
But that’s when it happened. Jiwoon on the assembly platform suddenly turned around and started walking.
Looking at his tall height, broad shoulders, and long legs, Yechan unconsciously imagined Jiwoon wearing a taekwondo uniform. It seemed like a body that would suit a black belt well under the collar of a white uniform.
And the moment Jiwoon, who was walking away, raised his arms and stretched, Yechan once again thought of a tiger gracefully stretching its body.
“Hey, ten minutes left! Stop playing!”
Someone shouted loudly. Lunch break was ending. Yechan, who suddenly came to his senses, left the playground as part of the rushing crowd.
The assembly platform was now empty. The short lunch soccer game ended in a 2-2 tie.
* * *
Jiwoon had been observing the white kid for several days.
That kid came into view on his own without having to look for him. That kid sitting across the cafeteria used his chopsticks properly and ate his meal neatly.
Whatever story he was listening to, his clearly stretched eyes were serious. It was a well-behaved meal.
Jiwoon blinked for a moment, feeling as if he had made some new discovery.
During cleaning time, the white kid he discovered while hanging around with Yoon Jukyung at the incinerator was holding a trash can. That kid, who approached with his long legs moving loosely, shook out the trash and went back.
The body hidden under the school uniform was more solid than expected. Jiwoon, who caught a glimpse of his broad shoulders and thick forearms under his uniform shirt, soon lowered his gaze and scanned the firm line from his pelvis to his thighs.
He must have exercised quite a bit. Jiwoon thought that while shaking his head a couple of times.
And during sleepy geography class, Jiwoon, who was spinning his pen and fighting off drowsiness, suddenly turned his head to the window at the sound of cheering. He could see kids playing soccer.
The moment the white kid lifted the hem of his t-shirt to wipe off sweat flashed through his mind. Jiwoon’s eyes, which had been scanning the playground, caught that kid running around with a painted smile.
Ha. Jiwoon put a candy that had been rolling around on his desk into his mouth. The refreshing menthol scent that spread in his mouth completely woke him up.
As Jiwoon walked to the music room with both hands in his pockets, his eyes lingered on a face that appeared at the end of the hallway.
He smiles well. The deep-set eyes under the white kid’s straight, thick eyebrows curved. The dimples on his cheeks were clear.
Only then did Jiwoon think that kid was handsome. He had the impression of a properly raised young master.
Since they were moving toward each other, the distance between them gradually narrowed. Jiwoon tried to look at his name tag, but the name tag was hidden by the textbook in the kid’s hand.
Several underclassmen whose faces he only knew bowed in greeting from behind the white kid. Although he glanced at the underclassmen, all of Jiwoon’s attention was focused on the white kid.
A refreshing scent wafted from that kid as he passed nearby. Jiwoon bit the tender flesh inside his cheek and squinted one eye. It was an expression that came out when he had something to think about carefully.
Time passed without incident except for Jukyung screaming loudly in karaoke on Saturday night, saying he got rejected.
Jiwoon, who had been lying down and sleeping throughout first period on Monday, only woke up when break time came. His sleepy eyes in his white face, leaning against his arms folded on the desk, became crooked.
Why is it so noisy? The classroom was chaotic.
“Did you wake up?”
Choi Min, who was sitting in the seat next to him, spoke to him. Jiwoon blinked his sleepy eyes several times and said.
“Yeah.”
“Lee Jiwoon, you’re awake? Ah, doesn’t this bastard look fucking pretty when you see him like this?”
Kyungjun’s face popped out from behind Choi Min. Jiwoon took the grape-shaped jelly that Kyungjun offered and put it in his mouth.
“Like this, like this. Just lying down and looking up from below. Wow, I wish I looked like that.”
“You wouldn’t even if you were reborn, Kyungjun.”
At Jukyung’s blunt words, Kyungjun had a fit.
“What! Why not! After the Suneung, I’m going to get hardcore plastic surgery. Just wait and see.”
That’s when it happened. The front door slid open and the class president burst out.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
