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Bunhong was just like them. Wondering what was happening due to the rather loud noise, he turned his gaze away from the floor where he had been keeping his eyes fixed with his head down, and looked up to see a combination that would be missed if not seen now.
Honestly, Kim Bunhong didn’t have particularly good memories from his school days, but just like before his regression, after graduating high school, he couldn’t help but feel bittersweet.
After all, school was a place he had spent a long time in together with others.
Not just those two, but if he were to graduate from school in the future, he really would never see them again… With this thought, Bunhong began to slowly take in the objects within the school with his eyes, thinking this would truly be the last time.
The class nameplates dividing the boundaries of the long corridor were the first things to catch his eye. Next, there were the green blackboard and eraser glimpsed through the gaps of open windows.
Looking into the classroom like that, his gaze captured the old wooden desks and chairs arranged in crooked lines, and even the lockers covered with various stickers.
That’s right. They were all objects from the past.
A faint smile played around Bunhong’s lips as it felt like a dream that he had sat there studying and attending classes.
While it was common practice for trainees to graduate middle school and then proceed to arts high schools designated by their companies upon the company’s recommendation, Kim Bunhong’s path, having become a trainee belatedly after already graduating from a general high school, was bound to be different from theirs.
‘Before my regression, the classroom looked so big.’
Returning to school like this due to an unintended opportunity, he felt like he could understand how small a world he had been trapped in all this time, making him smile bitterly.
‘The diploma……’
Bunhong was still clutching the diploma he had received by going forward one by one at the playground where everyone had gathered. To receive a perfect attendance award twice, more than other certificates… it seemed somewhat proud, and his mood was quite good.
While Kim Bunhong put the documents he had gathered from the classroom into his backpack and stood in the corridor for a while, lost in memories, in the middle of that corridor, Park Youngwoo was being thoroughly scolded by the student supervisor as usual today. Was it one of the daily routines he had to go through when coming to school?
Just as one must go to the bathroom after eating and digesting food completely, whenever Youngwoo encountered the supervisor at school that day, he would unconditionally get scolded. He got scolded even when there was no particular reason. Once, when he protested saying they didn’t like even the way he breathed, he got beaten up even more.
“Hey, stop pulling my ear! It hurts!”
“Look at this kid, my goodness. He even got piercings?! What are you trying to become when you grow up!”
Unable to bear the constant nagging that made it feel like his ears would actually bleed, Youngwoo began to rebel again, knowing it was the wrong choice.
“Hey, today’s graduation day!! And I’m almost an adult now, I’ve grown up!”
“What did you say? Think of today as your life graduation!”
Just then, Youngwoo, who had been caught by the student supervisor like a mouse until the very end, spotted Kim Bunhong with his backpack who was about to leave the place after finishing his reminiscing, and came running toward him frantically.
“Don’t they know that even cockroaches squirm if you keep stepping on them? That supervisor bastard is really annoying.”
‘That’s earthworms though……’
Listening to Youngwoo’s grumbling directed at him, Bunhong thought to himself, but didn’t bother to correct him.
Youngwoo, who had been staring intently at Bunhong’s face, said:
“You’re becoming an idol? Lucky you, damn. Well, you’re handsome after all. If someone asks who our school’s poster boy is, that’s Kim Bunhong!”
He didn’t know where everyone had heard the news, but it seemed like he’d been hearing only that story all day long.
Bunhong, who had always thought he lived without much presence in his class, found the attention directed at him fascinating, but Youngwoo’s excessive praise made him feel embarrassed and a bit uncomfortable, so he scratched the back of his neck and answered:
“……I’m still just a trainee though.”
From Bunhong’s guess, unlike before his regression, the rumor seemed to have spread from when he clearly stated his intention in the faculty office that he wouldn’t pursue university and would debut as an idol instead.
As soon as he made that declaration, his homeroom teacher seemed to have received too much of a shock and collapsed foaming at the mouth, but it couldn’t be helped. He didn’t want to repeat senior year now, and it was a conclusion he reached because he had a clear sense of purpose.
At the dry response, Youngwoo raised his hand to lightly tap Bunhong’s shoulder and shouted:
“Still, that’s something! My dream is also to debut in the entertainment industry. You’ve already achieved that, haven’t you?”
To say he achieved his dream when he’s still just a trainee…… He was about to object, but seeing Youngwoo being overly envious, Bunhong decided not to this time either. Instead, he decided to give words of encouragement.
Nineteen was an age easily influenced by others’ stories, and these were words he had thought would have been nice for someone to say to him around this time.
Although it was a nineteen-year-old body inhabited by a twenty-two-year-old mind, he could still feel the warm comfort of the kind words Hangeul had given him, so he wanted to pass that on to someone else too.
Bunhong struggled to shake off Youngwoo’s hand from his shoulder and said:
“Cheer up. You’ll definitely be able to do it too.”
He was sincere. It was something he could dare to say because he knew the future. If Bunhong’s memory was correct, Park Youngwoo would debut as a model immediately after graduating high school without going to university, achieve great success, and then luckily catch the eye of a director who noticed him and successfully debut as an actor too.
At Bunhong’s words filled with conviction, a smile spread across Youngwoo’s lips.
“Right? I don’t believe what adults say about needing to study well to succeed. My uncle actually succeeded with an online shopping mall without going to university……”
Whispering as if sharing a secret story, worried that the student supervisor might come and eavesdrop, Youngwoo smiled brightly.
“Hey, I always thought you were just a boring kid since you only read books, but you weren’t?”
“……”
It was a typical nineteen-year-old friendship remark. After a moment of silence between the two, Youngwoo finally gave Bunhong his last farewell greeting.
“Take care. I’ll contact you sometimes.”
Bunhong nodded silently. Even if they were to meet again, this would probably be the last time they’d see each other wearing school uniforms, so they took a photo in front of the school gate and parted ways coolly.
It would be later that this photo would circulate on the internet, causing confusion among fans asking, “Were these guys connected? Does Bunhong have celebrity friend connections?”
None of them could have imagined that this fleeting moment, which they thought would just remain as a simple high school classmate relationship, would be exaggerated and preserved forever.
After Youngwoo left and Bunhong was alone, he stopped for a moment to press his throbbing forehead before straightening his head up.
“Haah.”
The sky remained unchangingly blue. Bunhong stared at that scenery until his eyes hurt, then slowly took a deep breath. Then, befitting the winter season, cold air immediately rushed into his lungs.
Repeating deep breaths several times like that, he felt as if he were alive, and Bunhong was able to regain the sense of reality he had lost a bit since his regression and pull himself together again.
When he lowered his head again, Inyeong, who was waiting with a bouquet of flowers at a little distance, filled his field of vision. Spotting her presence from afar, Bunhong shouted:
“Grandma!”
Despite being mixed in with people who were frantically busy due to the graduation ceremony, as if slow motion was unfolding, only the place where she stood appeared uniquely slow and clear in Bunhong’s eyes.
Slowly retracing in his mind the past memories of facing fierce opposition as soon as he said he would debut as an idol, Bunhong thought:
‘Now I just have to persuade Grandma.’
Gulp. Bunhong, who was nervous for no reason, swallowed.
‘I failed once before my regression too, and can I do what even Dad couldn’t accomplish to the end……?’
While having a meal together at a restaurant near the school, Bunhong carefully changed the subject and began to speak.
Throughout Bunhong’s story, she seemed to be concentrating only on the news flowing from the television, but after a while, she finally opened her heavy mouth.
“So you’re saying it makes money?”
Unlike what Bunhong had expected, persuading Grandma was surprisingly easy. It was so simple that it was honestly surprising.
He couldn’t bring up the debt at home. It would be complicated to explain how he knew about the family’s internal circumstances.
The tentatively scored CSAT results, future plans, and earnestness should have been enough…… honestly, that was bullshit, and among them, what contributed most to moving her heart was surprisingly the signing bonus that Jeong Ido had given him in advance.
Seeing her eyes gradually widen as she flipped through the bankbook, seemingly surprised by the larger amount than expected, Bunhong thought:
‘Annoying as it is, Ido hyung was right again this time.’
He had said there was nothing like this for persuading adults, so he had his doubts. Though he didn’t want to admit it, Ido’s advice was always right.
Anyway, having successfully persuaded her for now, Bunhong arrived home, washed up, and flopped down on his bed.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
