Chapter 15.
Report cards are report cards, and classes are classes.
The school that had been noisy due to report cards became quiet as classes proceeded.
And fire fell on the feet of students who had been playing comfortably because of teachers collecting the homework that had piled up.
It didn’t apply to Jeongwoo, who had never delayed or not done homework even once. Since the homework was writing wrong-answer notes, Jeongwoo, who didn’t miss a single question, had nothing to do.
The time spent solving problems the teacher prepared for the college entrance exam was like self-study time.
Jeongwoo, who was walking around the class collecting homework, approached the group with Jihan at the center.
He’d told them during the previous break time, so almost all the students had submitted it, but not a single person from that group had. He hated dealing with them even if he died, but he had no choice because of the errand.
“Submit your homework quickly.”
The gazes of Jihan and his friends focused on Jeongwoo.
The faces of Yumin and Seowon, who had been playing well with Jihan, stiffened. Among Jihan’s group, especially the two who liked Jihan particularly disliked Jeongwoo openly.
Though Jihan was friendly with everyone to the point where it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he knew all the students, Yumin and Seowon had been full of pride that they were closest with him.
They didn’t like that Jihan, who had been theirs in 2nd year, got close with Jeongwoo as soon as he became a 3rd year. Childishly, they disliked Jeongwoo even more, feeling like Jihan was being taken away.
At the center of those cursing Jeongwoo as annoying were Yumin and Seowon, the two of them.
There was no way Jeongwoo didn’t know they were going around cursing him.
Jeongwoo also knew that the two went around cursing him, so it was awkward to face them.
But thinking facing them was just for a moment, Jeongwoo, who endured the awkwardness, urged them again. Despite announcing it since the day exams ended, Jihan’s friends tilted their heads with bewildered faces.
“What homework?”
“Wrong-answer notes for what you got wrong on the exam.”
Exclamations burst out here and there.
Jeongwoo, who knew that reaction well, clicked his tongue thinking there was no way he’d collect homework here.
“He said to submit it before lunch, and if you don’t, points will be deducted.”
“What points?”
“Your GPA.”
They ask well even though they won’t do it anyway. Jeongwoo, who answered stiffly, tried to turn and leave.
That would have been the case if it weren’t for Jihan holding out a notebook.
“Whoa. Hyung did all the homework?”
“Jeongwoo kept telling me to do it, to do it since last time, so how could I not do it.”
“Wow, traitor. Since when did hyung do homework so well!”
“If you guys also meet a Disciplinary Committee desk partner, you’ll all end up doing it.”
Jihan’s voice full of playfulness teased his friends. The hand holding the notebook was thrust forward to Jeongwoo’s chest, telling him to take it quickly.
Jeongwoo, who thought ‘there are several people in that group, so surely at least one wouldn’t do it,’ received it with a dazed face.
He thought maybe one person would do it, but he’d never thought that would be Jihan.
And if you just listened to what Jihan was saying, didn’t it sound like he did it because of Jeongwoo?
‘I’ve never urged him or brought up anything about homework.’
When Jeongwoo inserted the notebook according to Jihan’s number, Yumin and Seowon’s gazes became even more fierce.
The two exchanged glances as if they’d been waiting.
“Hey, Kwon Jeongwoo.”
Seowon called Jeongwoo with a face that had some scheme.
“We didn’t know it was until today, so please talk to the teacher nicely for us.”
It was a tone that didn’t know whether it was a request or a command.
Even if they begged saying it was a request, it wouldn’t be enough, yet Jeongwoo was dumbfounded at Seowon’s confident behavior. It was also absurd that friends chimed in one by one saying ‘that’s right’ at Seowon’s words.
They were the ones who didn’t do the homework, so why should he be the one begging the teacher to overlook it just once?
He didn’t like the gaze that seemed to look down on him, but that attitude also bothered him.
“Why should I?”
“Obviously because you’re collecting the homework.”
“Right. Can’t you even do that for a classmate?”
“You just go and tell them to postpone it to next week. How is that hard?”
Jihan, who had been nonchalant after submitting his homework, tried to stop his friends who were cornering Jeongwoo.
“So why should I.”
“What?”
“Collecting homework is my job, but asking them to overlook it for you guys isn’t my job.”
However, Jeongwoo, who had to say everything that needed to be said and didn’t hold back, was faster.
“Then since I didn’t do it, show me yours.”
Yumin, who had been glaring at Jeongwoo, said confidently. Jeongwoo, who had been trying to ignore Yumin who had been muttering small curses from earlier, turned his head. ‘So what if you look at it like that.’ Rather, Yumin lifted his chin even more confidently.
“Haa.”
A sigh came out naturally at the childish behavior.
“Where’s your notebook? I’ll find it and copy it myself……”
Jeongwoo caught Yumin’s hand, which was rummaging through the desk as if to take his notebook.
Around the time the caught hand turned pale, Yumin flailed his arm trying to shake off Jeongwoo’s hand. But it only tightened harder.
He’d taken the quiet Jeongwoo lightly, but his grip strength was strong.
“Even if you look, you can’t copy it anyway.”
“Are you looking down on me right now? You’re looking down on me saying I can’t even copy while looking.”
“You’d have to hear something to know.”
Jeongwoo, who had been holding back and suppressing the anger that was about to burst out several times, didn’t hold back anymore.
Jeongwoo, who frowned in displeasure, threw Yumin’s hand away irritably.
“The homework is writing wrong-answer notes for the exam we took this time.”
Yumin, who had been glaring at Jeongwoo who was messing up his hair as if annoyed by this situation, steadied himself as his body swayed like a sheet of paper.
“Even if you look at mine, there’s nothing. Why? Because I didn’t get any wrong.”
“……”
“I didn’t get any wrong, but what about you?”
Jeongwoo’s gaze was fierce, but his voice was the same as usual. Rather, Sejong, who had been watching the situation from afar, burst into laughter at the gentle tone as if he wasn’t angry at all.
Starting with Sejong, people here and there, even Yumin’s friends, started laughing.
Yumin’s face, who had tried to provoke him just because he disliked Kwon Jeongwoo, slowly turned red with embarrassment.
“You’re not even a kid. If you’re 19 years old, take care of your own work.”
Jeongwoo, who pushed away Yumin standing at his seat, picked up the notebooks he’d collected so far and headed toward Sejong.
“Y-you!! Hey, you, won’t you stop there?!”
Since Hyewoon, Sejong’s desk partner, was away for training, he was going to put the notebooks on that desk temporarily.
“Who does he think he is, acting all superior, acting all superior.”
“When he’s not even that great!”
It was Seowon and Yumin shouting as if for Jeongwoo to hear while glaring at his back.
Because they forced an answer saying “Right?”, the friends who had been laughing also erased their laughter one by one and agreed.
“Annoying bastard. Is he showing off just because he studies a bit well, or what? Since the homeroom teacher praises him, does he have no one in his eyes?”
“That’s why you can’t entrust anything to bastards who study well.”
“They act all high and mighty as if they’re something.”
When friends agreed with their words, excited Seowon and Yumin were busy putting down Jeongwoo, thinking this was the time.
They giggled watching Jeongwoo’s shoulders flinch the moment he heard their curses.
“Even a guy as annoying as him seems to dislike being cursed in front of him.”
The group who saw this laughed even more, saying that.
“What are you talking about.”
Then, Jihan, who had been silent, interrupted.
At the low voice like putting on a serious face, the laughter died down. The gazes of students who had been studying in the classroom and watching for signs at the fierce atmosphere also turned to Jihan.
Jihan, who never got angry even when friends occasionally went too far while joking around, put on a serious face for the first time.
Jihan, who would just laugh ‘hehe hihi’ even when friends jumped up and down asking why hyung doesn’t get angry.
“What are you talking about, I said.”
Friends swallowed their saliva at Jihan’s dry gaze looking around at his friends including Yumin with his head tilted crookedly.
To be honest, it was scary that his pretty eyes that curved softly whenever he smiled had stiffened.
It felt even scarier since it was the first time seeing him put on such a serious face like this.
Friends who desperately realized the saying that it’s scarier when someone who originally didn’t know how to get angry gets mad, closed their mouths. Still, Jihan’s cold eyes showed no signs of softening.
“H-hyung. That’s… that bastard keeps being annoying so……”
“R-right. Hyung, why are you putting on a serious face? Scary.”
Whether they were clueless or trying hard to lighten the mood, Yumin and Seowon laughed awkwardly and playfully hit Jihan’s arm.
Jihan’s eyes that had been scanning his friends turned to the two.
“Being annoying, what.”
“N-no. He just keeps talking annoyingly when he could say it nicely, so without realizing……”
They blamed everything on Jeongwoo.
Then Jihan’s eyes cooled even colder than before. The sharply slit eyes were scary even to look at directly.
Yumin and Seowon, who had kept sticking with Jihan, were already scared by the unfamiliar appearance they were seeing for the first time and only let out awkward laughter.
It seemed they now knew it was better to keep their mouths shut.
“You guys are wrong. Jeongwoo isn’t acting superior, he’s originally superior.”
Jihan, who spoke in a voice suppressing anger, forcibly raised the corners of his mouth. His mouth was smiling but his eyes weren’t. Perhaps that was scarier, as friends flinched in surprise.
“Mmm.”
“And don’t say ‘that bastard’ or whatever in front of him.”
“Mmm. Sorry.”
“Why are you apologizing to me? If you’re going to do it, apologize to Jeongwoo.”
“……”
Yumin apologized with a dazed expression. When Jihan pointed at Jeongwoo, Yumin glanced at Jeongwoo following his hand and closed his mouth.
While other friends besides Yumin were flustered and just opening and closing their mouths.
“Classmates shouldn’t fight and should get along well.”
Jihan, who had been among them, smiled brightly as if asking when he’d put on a serious face.
Everyone was relieved it wasn’t the scary smile they’d seen just before.
While the relieved friends and Jihan were hanging out together.
Jeongwoo’s face, who had heard the whole story next to Sejong, was stiff.
“Are you okay?”
Sejong carefully asked after confirming Jeongwoo’s expression wasn’t good. So carefully that Sejong, who shrank his neck, narrowed his eyes into triangles every time he looked at Jihan’s friends.
“Well, I hear curses every day.”
“Still……”
“That’s the same for you too, Woo Sejong.”
Jeongwoo’s expression relaxed as he teased Sejong saying “the annoying 1st place in the whole school.”
At the face that seemed fine, Sejong just responded to the joke as a joke.
Jeongwoo, who entrusted the notebooks until this class time, returned to his seat.
Jeongwoo, who was preparing for the next class, kept being bothered by the words he’d heard earlier.
He pretended to be fine because of the worried Sejong, but there was no way he wouldn’t care.
Because there wasn’t much change in his expression, everyone thought it was okay to curse Jeongwoo in front of him. Among them, there were cases where they deliberately cursed to provoke Jeongwoo, and there were many times when they got angrier and cursed more saying there was no reaction.
People watching from the side would gossip saying ‘he must originally have an indifferent personality’ or, judging just by appearance at his distinct features, ‘his personality is exactly like how he looks.’
However, Sejong and Hyewoon, who are long-time friends with Jeongwoo, know. That even though it doesn’t show on the outside, Jeongwoo’s inside is tender.
Knowing that every time he heard bad words, he drew more lines with people while caring inside, Sejong took even more care of Jeongwoo, and Hyewoon had even fought with a classmate in middle school who cursed Jeongwoo in front of him.
‘Is my personality the problem? I just left because they didn’t do it, so why do I have to be cursed? They’re solving problems they got wrong themselves, so what do I have to show them?’
Like Sejong’s worry, Jeongwoo, who said he was fine, was constantly fiddling with his book and lost in thought.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
