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He had thought this several times when they encountered each other, but they were particularly deep and clear pupils that quite often made it difficult to get a grasp on them. So Bunhong imagined that even during his school days, he probably got scolded often by teachers who said they couldn’t figure out what he was thinking about.
Those pupils slid upward and glared at something.
It was Oh Hangeul’s fierce face that Kim Bunhong was seeing for the first time. Unlike his usual appearance of being serious every moment or smiling brightly, he was stiffly hardened without a trace of laughter. Bunhong realized that sharp gaze was directed behind him and turned his head. Jeong Ido was standing there, having arrived at some point.
Soon Hangeul spoke.
“Obviously that bastard made him cry.”
Jeong Ido, who had been looking at Oh Hangeul with a displeased expression, snorted at those words, lifted one corner of his mouth cynically and retorted.
“Bastard? Sunbae-nim? Your words are too harsh.”
“……”
“If- you- keep- doing- that- I- too- am- human- so- I- might- get- hurt- you- know?”
Jeong Ido sneered at him with polite speech, mocking him. Soon a tense standoff formed between the two.
Kim Bunhong, who hadn’t predicted things would flow this far, couldn’t even stop them and watched them both with a flustered expression, thinking.
‘Even Ido hyung is acting like this.’
He guessed they probably had a lot of grudges against each other usually.
However, Oh Hangeul was indeed a formidable opponent, as he grinned as if he’d been waiting for the fight Jeong Ido had picked, then
“Hmph.”
He responded purely innocently. He seemed more skilled than anyone at hiding his emotions.
Shrugging his shoulders as if he knew nothing, he didn’t lose the smile on his lips until the end while lifting his long fingers to pretend to pick his ear, and honestly even a passing dog would probably show a better reaction than that.
Jeong Ido, who sighed deeply, spoke to such Hangeul in a teaching tone as if a teacher was admonishing a student.
“That doll-like face is honestly such a waste, you keep doing unsuitable ugly behavior.”
It was a tone as if he knew that was Hangeul’s sore spot, so the moment he heard it, Oh Hangeul’s mood became foul at rapid speed.
Though he had never really hidden it much, he had always felt foul in front of Jeong Ido, but this was incomparably worse than anything before. Hangeul quickly became serious and retorted.
“A doll? Coming from a thief.”
A thief?
The words going back and forth were savage enough to make one’s mouth fall open. Watching them, model student Kim Bunhong momentarily recalled the expression ‘enemies meeting on a narrow bridge’ before it disappeared.
‘But they’re from the same company.’
To be honest, Bunhong seemed somewhat worried about AT Entertainment’s future.
Jeong Ido urged Bunhong, who had been standing quietly between them, as if telling him to quickly come to his side.
“Let’s go. Kim Bunhong.”
And that’s when it happened. Someone grabbed Kim Bunhong’s hand first. As soon as he felt the warm temperature lingering in his hand, Bunhong knew it was him.
To Bunhong who was about to step forward toward Ido, Hangeul pleaded almost whispering like a puppy wet in the rain.
“……Don’t go.”
Is it because the whites of his eyes are large? Whenever he looked at his eyes, he always thought they seemed to swallow particularly much light. It was also the part that first caught Bunhong’s gaze whenever he looked at Hangeul’s pretty face.
They were large eyes that shone with pure passion alone, as if containing sparkling stars. So even Bunhong, who thought he was trapped in endless darkness, would become surprisingly peaceful in his turbulent heart when he met gazes with Hangeul.
This time, Bunhong couldn’t look into those eyes to the end and turned his head first.
The warm words Hangeul had said to him kept echoing in his ears, making it impossible to take a step.
Recalling the words that his eyes sparkled no less than Hangeul’s, Bunhong closed his eyes and thought.
‘I probably won’t be able to forget those words in the future either. Sunbae-nim was the first to say such things to me.’
But paradoxically, those words of Hangeul’s drew out the desire that had been latent in Bunhong. So it made Bunhong want to run chasing a new goal. That dream was to shine on stage like senior singer Oh Hangeul.
And a fact he had learned at some point. Around this time, there existed debt that Bunhong didn’t know about in the house where he lived alone with his grandmother.
Poverty was truly tiresome. It had been several days since he started the part-time job Youngwoo had introduced, but he hadn’t even received payment for that yet, so all he had on hand was the 100,000 won advance payment.
Achieving dreams, overcoming family circumstances. To accomplish these two goals at once, he needed money first as Jeong Ido said. At least that’s what Bunhong thought.
Bunhong, who decided to be resolute, raised his voice toward Hangeul who would be looking at his back.
“You said to find my own reason for wanting to do this if I was going to take this path.”
“……”
“Money.”
Then Hangeul hurriedly asked back.
“What circumstances do you have? If it’s money, I can help you as much as……”
At those words, Bunhong took a deep breath and slowly opened his eyes that had been closed. Then he turned his head and looked straight at Hangeul.
All kindness stemming from good intentions – thinking how warm it was, Bunhong actually wanted to stay by Hangeul’s side.
However, but, rather the more he thought that way, the more his miserable feelings grew to the point where he felt pathetic for not being able to stand properly on his own two feet while depending on others, so he absolutely couldn’t do that.
To truly accept Hangeul’s goodwill seemed like admitting that his stained past days had been nothing but misfortune. There were things that existed for Kim Bunhong that needed to be corrected, even if late.
At the same time, just as he had crossed paths with Ido once on the way to Hangeul’s studio, now knowing that his and Hangeul’s paths were different from each other, Bunhong thought he should let him go like this.
The memory came back of falling asleep leaning on each other’s shoulders with earphones plugged into each ear. Actually, Bunhong envied him.
‘Put your hand on your chest and ask yourself. If it pounds, then that’s something you really want to do.’
He wondered how he could convey such words to others without any hesitation. That honest attitude of boldly chasing dreams without caring about anyone else’s gaze felt like sunlight. It was the kind of light that was so intense it would hurt your eyes if you got close, so you had to see it from afar to see it sparkle.
Soon Bunhong opened his heavy mouth that wouldn’t easily part.
“This is my choice.”
And the weight of choice was much heavier than Bunhong had expected. It couldn’t be helped. To leap, you had to hang at least as much weight as you had on the other side – that was the principle of leverage.
Cowardly, with those words that were like a unilateral notice, Kim Bunhong didn’t want to know what Oh Hangeul’s expression would be like, so he lowered his head and let go of his hand. Then he twisted his body away from Hangeul who was holding onto his sleeve. At the same time, feeling the touch slipping away, he gritted his teeth.
Bunhong, who had been walking toward Ido, changed direction and was quickly moving to leave the place, leaving the two there. It was during this when Hangeul’s voice suddenly rang out through the quiet silence, making Bunhong turn his head back in puzzlement.
“Next time!!”
“……”
“If we meet again!! If the opportunity comes!!”
His voice was so loud it began to echo thunderously as if it would pierce the ceiling. It was fortunate the 6th floor was empty, but it was a loud cry as if he didn’t care who was there. Even Jeong Ido, who was famous among BLACK fans before regression for having no expression changes, opened his mouth wide.
Hangeul shouted the rest in a loud voice.
“Then do it with me too, music!!”
Contact me, I’ll wait quietly without changing my number!
From afar, Hangeul waving both arms widely was clearly visible to the naked eye. Then he started jumping up and down in place.
Jeong Ido, who was still watching that scene with his mouth open, gritted his teeth with a truly disgusted expression and showed contempt.
“That crazy bastard!”
* * *
Today was the day of the graduation ceremony at the high school Kim Bunhong had been attending.
‘What an event. To have a graduation ceremony twice.’
Early in the morning, all students had gathered on the playground and were listening to what was called morning assembly – the principal’s final speech packaged under the nice-sounding expression of “moral instruction.”
Unable to bear listening anymore, yawns began bursting out here and there, and only after enduring quite a while longer did the students finally become free.
In the quiet hallway where most of the graduates had left, the student supervisor was scolding Youngwoo.
“This kid! How dare a brave student appear who bleaches his hair at this school where I’ve held teaching authority for 14 years, and on graduation day no less! How could this be!”
As they say, too much of anything is poison – the student supervisor’s voice began trembling as if he had been too deeply moved.
A few students passing through the hallway to retrieve belongings left in classrooms glanced at them sideways.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
