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Although Bunhong brushed it off saying it was fine, Youngwoo was already quite shocked by the sharp reaction shown by the class valedictorian who he had thought was just always quiet. He was momentarily flustered but laughed it off good-naturedly.
Looking at that cheerfully smiling face, Bunhong wondered if he should take this seriously.
‘Why such a proposal to me?’
As far as he knew, Park Youngwoo was popular at school and he had vaguely heard that his uncle ran something like a shopping mall. It was a famous clothing brand that he had heard of even before regression.
To summarize Youngwoo’s boastful words in one sentence, it was a part-time job with high hourly pay that was quite decent, but he was puzzled why he had approached him in the first place when they weren’t particularly close.
From Bunhong’s memory, this hadn’t happened before regression. Sensing something strange and becoming quite wary, Bunhong was watching when Youngwoo said something out of the blue.
“Your atmosphere has changed a lot.”
“Huh?”
“Should I say you’ve become more mature than before?”
Bunhong pondered what it meant to have become mature. Though it was certainly a nineteen-year-old body, what was inside was ‘twenty-two-year-old Kim Bunhong’ who had experienced all sorts of things as an entertainer, so he concluded that others could certainly feel that way.
“Stand up for a moment.”
Since his attitude had changed so drastically, which was quite fascinating, Bunhong obediently stood up as Youngwoo instructed.
Youngwoo muttered that it was strange.
“Your height is the same though.”
Rather, it was Bunhong who found that comment puzzling.
Even before regression, Youngwoo’s height had already been complete since high school, and he was so tall that rumors circulated that he debuted as a model right after graduation.
Moreover, at nineteen, this was when Kim Bunhong’s growth plates hadn’t properly opened yet due to being a bit slower than others, so his height was about average in the class, making the height difference between them quite noticeable at a glance.
After deliberately pretending to measure above Bunhong’s head with his palm, Youngwoo, still shrugging his shoulders as if he couldn’t figure it out, changed the topic.
“You know OORA, right? One of them is an exclusive model here.”
At the mention that he might run into them if lucky, there was even more commotion nearby. True to a popular group, as soon as that topic was brought up, girls started gathering.
Kim Bunhong felt a wave of irritation at the noisy atmosphere.
‘Is this what Youngwoo meant by becoming mature?’
Nineteen-year-olds are excessively energetic. Watching Youngwoo raise his voice even higher, triumphant at their reaction, Bunhong decided to wrap up the situation before getting more unnecessarily tired.
“I’ll do it.”
After all that persuasion, now that he actually agreed, he made an embarrassingly surprised expression.
“Really? You’ll really do it?”
Youngwoo raised his hand and even grabbed Kim Bunhong’s hand, asking repeatedly as if trying to get confirmation.
Bunhong gently pulled his hand away from him and said:
“I’m grateful.”
From Kim Bunhong’s perspective, there was nothing bad about it, so he had agreed. He had time to spare anyway, and it would be nice to have money.
Youngwoo, who had been rummaging through his back pocket, pulled out a business card from his wallet and held it out, and Bunhong accepted it without hesitation.
“Um, I’ll have my uncle text you. That’s okay, right?”
At Youngwoo’s unusually timid attitude, wondering if he had been too stiff unlike usual, Bunhong smiled and lightly patted his back as if he was somehow struggling.
“Of course it’s okay. Why are you making it so difficult? We’re friends.”
Then Youngwoo stared at him and said this:
“You’re popular with college noonas, aren’t you?”
He lightly ignored the suggestion to get introduced to someone and used the bell signaling the next period as an excuse to send the guy back to his seat.
While watching a movie that was being shown instead of classes, as was typical for all high schools after college entrance exams, Bunhong realized that he felt no excitement even for the ceremonial daily life of a nineteen-year-old.
‘Twenty-two and nineteen are really different.’
After hesitating, he secretly took out his phone. Secretly using his phone at school—it was a bold transgression that the pre-regression nineteen-year-old Kim Bunhong could never have dreamed of.
A notification showed that a text had arrived on the screen. When he opened it, the content was as follows:
[010-XXXX-XXXX: You’re Bunhong-ssi, right?
Sorry for the sudden request—you must have been surprised.
I heard from Youngwoo.
Our van will be waiting in front of XX Station, so you can come there after school today.
Oh, can you send me your account number? I’ll send you 100,000 won as a down payment in advance. ^^]
Actually receiving the advance payment felt surreal. It was only one shoot, and it was certainly a pretty good part-time job for earning a large sum at this age. Enough to instantly understand Youngwoo’s confidence.
Thud. Startled by the sound of something dropping, Bunhong looked up. He wondered if he’d been caught by the homeroom teacher, but what was placed on his desk was a roughly folded paper airplane. And its source was Park Youngwoo’s seat, sitting diagonally in the next row.
Unable to make a sound, the guy’s lip movements as he mouthed words could roughly be interpreted as:
‘I was right, wasn’t I?’
Yeah, you were. As Bunhong nodded while fiddling with the airplane, he recalled memories from a few days ago.
Suddenly, the face of the sunbae who had been singing with his eyes closed appeared in his head, then gradually grew larger as if decorating a magazine cover.
‘Come to think of it, was it OORA?’
Then couldn’t he meet him again while doing the fitting model job? That hopeful expectation began to swell like a balloon in Bunhong’s chest.
When the promised time came, Bunhong was sitting in the car hugging his school bag in a dazed state.
He couldn’t adapt to the noisy atmosphere around him, and the constant stream of curious questions made it difficult for him to relax.
“A high school student?”
“He took the college entrance exam. Then he’ll be an adult in just a few weeks.”
“Oh my. Look at him in his school uniform. He’s so cute, just like my nephew.”
“Come to think of it, wasn’t Jiyoon-ssi’s nephew in middle school now? Time really flies.”
Of course, the most burdensome thing was
[Why is Oh Hangeul riding in the same car?]
The existence of Oh Hangeul sitting next to him.
His face showed no concern about a stranger invading his space, but Bunhong, who was reading the mood, broke into a sweat and quickly sent a text to Youngwoo.
‘I never thought I’d actually meet him.’
After pressing the send button, Bunhong hugged his school bag tighter as if it were a shield protecting him to calm his still racing heart, and organized the recent situation in his head.
So the situation was like this.
When he first went to the meeting place, he was bewildered. Because even though he came out exactly at the appointed time, the car that was supposed to be waiting wasn’t visible.
So after contacting Youngwoo’s uncle, it turned out the car had changed. Due to a sudden accident, they couldn’t operate the van that was originally supposed to pick up Bunhong, so a car with the same destination had hurriedly changed direction instead.
Though he waited a long time, the apology at the end of the call saying sorry for not explaining the situation in advance was sufficient.
‘But why a Mercedes?’
The car he ended up riding was unexpected, which was confusing. The car model was a Mercedes, but it didn’t look like a car that had simply come to pick up a day laborer.
He should have noticed at that moment. That sudden changes bring unexpected results.
A familiar face visible as soon as he got in the car with a bewildered heart. He had only seen him in magazines or constantly drawn him in his head, but suddenly appearing before his eyes—a reality that was incomparably more vivid than anything—Bunhong was so surprised that his legs gave out.
The man who unhesitatingly extended his hand to the fallen person kindly advised:
“Be careful. The step is higher than you think.”
Bunhong hesitated, then took that hand.
“Th-thank you.”
The warmth felt from the touching area was warm. As Bunhong, who had grabbed the extended hand and stood up, gave his thanks, Hangeul smiled brightly, and that smile naturally reminded him of the first day they met.
More precisely, the moving emotion Bunhong had felt while watching Hangeul’s street performance surged up again.
‘Beautiful.’
The face wet with sweat from singing, the heat emanating from Oh Hangeul despite the cold winter made the atmosphere heated,
and he felt the comforting, caressing voice was warm.
‘I want to sing there too.’
He had thought passion was gone and only burnt ashes remained. He had briefly resolved not to dream of being an idol or anything after regression.
However, that day, Hangeul’s unexpected appearance left an ember in Bunhong’s heart. The afterimage he left wouldn’t disappear no matter how hard he tried.
[Park Youngwoo: What? Oh Hangeul?]
Riding in a car with strangers in an awkward atmosphere was torture. At the timely arrival of Youngwoo’s text, he put down the school bag he was holding and quickly replied.
[That’s what I’m saying.]
[Park Youngwoo: I heard he’s close with my uncle, but it was really true!]
[?]
[Park Youngwoo: Don’t worry too much. ã…‹ã…‹ã…‹ã…‹ã…‹ You look pathetic.]
Bunhong pouted at the last text message that arrived.
“This guy…”
After concentrating on texting for a while, he put his phone back in his bag.
During that time, at a voice casually expressing doubt from beside him, Bunhong almost fainted.
“I’m sure we’ve met somewhere before. Hmm. Or not?”
The identity of the person looking at Bunhong while saying this was none other than Oh Hangeul. Bunhong thought:
‘Even if I was in the front row, how could he?’
Looking back, Kim Bunhong was the only male in school uniform there. Plus, he was standing in the front row, so he certainly would have been noticeable.
‘Still, I didn’t expect that he would have seen me.’
He thought the brief eye contact was just his own delusion.
“……”
“……”
Instead of answering Hangeul’s question, flustered Bunhong reflexively shook his head. Then he shrugged his shoulders and fixed his gaze on the book he was reading.
‘He must not get car sick.’
Since this was the first time he’d seen someone reading of all things in a car, Bunhong observed with sidelong glances.
‘Does he like reading books?’
He seemed quite absorbed, as if he had quickly become engrossed in the book’s content.
Rustle rustle. Only the pleasant sound of pages turning filled the space.
‘He reads quite fast.’
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
