Chapter 20.
“School store.”
Jihan, who was going to buy bread and milk for Jeongwoo who left without finishing his meal, answered. At his words, Seowon raised his hand.
“We’ll come too!”
“You guys finish eating and come.”
Though he was smiling, the refusal was firm.
While friends who were rejected without a moment’s hesitation stood bewildered, Jihan headed to the school store.
Jihan leaving the cafeteria had a brilliant smile on his face, whatever he was thinking. His bouncing steps looked light. Perhaps in a good mood, he even hummed a tune.
When Jihan was heading to the school store.
Jeongwoo was in the classroom. In Hyewoon’s seat that now felt like his own seat.
Jeongwoo, who opened his problem book as if by habit, couldn’t see the densely packed letters.
Deciding to rest just for today, he took out his earphones. A calm song flowed out. When he raised the volume, the noisy sounds were blocked and it felt like he was alone in the classroom.
Jeongwoo, who felt his bad mood caused by Jihan calming down, seemed to have fatigue rushing in, whether because he didn’t sleep properly.
‘Should I sleep a little?’
Jeongwoo laid his head down on the desk.
Soon after, the worry ‘what if I can’t hear the bell with earphones plugged in?’ was brief. Trusting that Sejong would wake him when he came, he closed his eyes.
He also hoped that if he fell asleep like this and opened his eyes, he’d be home.
How much time had passed?
At the hand patting his back, Jeongwoo opened his eyes. Thinking class had already started, he sat up in surprise. But the classroom was quiet. It meant it was still lunch time.
He rubbed his stiff eyelids. When he forcibly opened his drowsy eyes, he saw a figure sitting beside him.
“You’re here already?”
Jeongwoo said while taking out his earphones.
“Hey, Woo Sejong. Wake me up when class starts.”
Jeongwoo, who couldn’t even open his eyes, was about to plug in his earphones again and lay down.
He said it thinking it was naturally Sejong since someone was beside him. But the returning voice wasn’t Sejong’s.
“Jeongwoo, are you sick somewhere?”
“……!”
“I was worried you left without eating, but was it because you’re sick? Let’s go to the nurse’s office.”
The question full of worry was unfamiliar, so he missed the timing to answer. Whether what was unfamiliar was the voice or Jihan himself. The one beside him was the Jihan he knew, but he couldn’t understand why he felt so unfamiliar.
‘Is it because of the serious face without a smile?’
Or was it because it had been a long time since he looked at him properly like this? They were eyes he saw every day, but was that person’s eyes originally like that? Was his nose shaped like that, and was his mouth like that?
It seemed like he’d always been smiling, but today he looked especially gloomy, like he was on the verge of tears. Strangely, the drooping corners of his mouth bothered him.
It was a face he’d seen to the point of being sick of it, so normally he would have just passed over it. Jeongwoo, who was annoyed by the fact itself that he was concerned about him, rubbed his eyes thinking he hadn’t woken up properly.
It was Jihan who caught Jeongwoo’s irritable wrist.
“Cute. No. If you rub like that, your eyes will hurt.”
He grinned then shook his head vigorously and made a stern expression. The end of his thick eyebrows that suited his pale skin rose.
At the attitude that seemed like scolding a child or coaxing him, Jeongwoo forgot that he wasn’t going to deal with Jihan.
Without realizing it, he kept getting caught by Jihan.
“What’s it to you?”
“You are sick, right?”
“I’m not.”
“You seem sick? You don’t look well.”
Jihan, who got serious alone, returned to normal and made a fuss.
“Do you have a fever? Does your head hurt? Does your stomach hurt?”
The barrage of questions was dizzying.
That wasn’t all.
Whether trying to check for a fever, he lifted his bangs and touched his forehead. Even with the momentum to rub his stomach, Jeongwoo hit the back of his hand.
“Ow.”
“Where are you touching?”
As expected. Jihan’s seriousness didn’t last long.
“I’ll get pricked by your prickliness. Looking at you glaring, you don’t seem sick.”
Mind your own business, prickly or not. Why was it so annoying that he was relieved at the fact he was prickly?
When he silently glared, Jihan tried to touch his forehead again. Jeongwoo swatted it away once more.
“Ow.”
“……”
“Ow ow ow.”
Who was the one who touched without saying anything, yet making a fuss.
When he rolled his eyes, only his voice got smaller as he whined while holding the rejected hand.
He didn’t want to deal with Jihan who was noisy, bothersome, and annoying. Jeongwoo adjusted his posture to lay down again, blocking out Jihan and sleeping a bit more.
Just as he was about to lay down while plugging in his earphones, Jihan blocked with his palm the forehead trying to come down on the desk.
Jeongwoo, who irritably lowered the arm holding the earphones, glared at him.
“What.”
“Eat this.”
Thinking he was picking a fight, he glared, but what Jihan held out in front of Jeongwoo was chocolate bread and strawberry milk.
“Why are you giving me this?”
“It’s yours. I thought you’d be hungry since you didn’t finish lunch.”
“Why are you taking care of that?”
“Mmm……”
Jihan, who swallowed his breath as if there was nothing specific to define, sparkled his eyes.
“Because we’re desk partners.”
Though half-partners because of someone. He glanced at Jeongwoo and subtly added.
“You eat it.”
“I bought it to give to you. I have mine too. Anyway, I gave it, so definitely eat it, definitely.”
When he didn’t accept what he tried to put in his hand, Jihan pushed it all the way toward Jeongwoo’s body on the desk and escaped the classroom as if running away.
He ran away to block it in advance in case he said he wouldn’t eat it. Jeongwoo alternately looked at the closed door and the bread and milk placed in front of him.
‘Kwon Jeongwoo, have you seen that hyung do that to other people?’
Why of all times did Sejong’s words come to mind at this timing? The head that was about to nod at the hallucination stopped as it was.
“Did I see it? I’ve seen him go to the school store together, but I haven’t seen him buy something first.”
‘Though he buys food well, he doesn’t really buy it unless you ask first. But Kwon Jeongwoo, you. Have you ever asked him to buy?’
As if refuting Jeongwoo’s words, Sejong’s words continued again. Though the seat beside him was clearly empty.
“I feel like Woo Sejong who only says right things is right next to me. I feel bad.”
Jeongwoo frowned.
“But so what? So what about it? What of it? He could buy and give in places I can’t see. He’s originally that kind of person, so why keep paying attention?”
Whether refuting Sejong or saying it to himself who kept thinking of Jihan. Jeongwoo, who didn’t want to be involved with Jihan, desperately tried to cut off interest in him.
But this was just the beginning of constantly hovering beside Jeongwoo, bothering and making him concerned.
***
As Hyewoon, whose competition ended, participated in class, Jeongwoo had to return to his seat.
At first, he tried to send Hyewoon or Sejong. But changing seats could only happen once or twice. Watching the teacher’s reaction, he sat beside Jihan with a dejected face.
Though it was a seat he sat in after a long time, the feeling that he seemed to have sat there yesterday was unwelcome.
He tried to suggest changing seats at this opportunity, but couldn’t even bring it up because the homeroom teacher’s mood was really bad.
Starting last week, they were doing consultations related to college admission, and students were called to the teacher one by one in order starting from number 1. As the consultations progressed, the teacher’s face seen during homeroom became increasingly shadowed.
In the end, Jeongwoo couldn’t try anything.
Though he ignored Jihan more thoroughly than before, why did trying not to get involved make him more involved? Jeongwoo couldn’t avoid Jihan, who was anxious not to get involved.
Today was the same.
“Thanks for helping earlier.”
Jihan, who returned from the school store, suddenly held out chocolate milk.
When he returned from the school store, he gave small snacks, and the milk he was giving now all had a reason. Because Jeongwoo helped at a timing when Jihan was in a bind.
The previous period was the time students hated most.
What student would like a teacher who called students to the front of the blackboard to solve problems?
They weren’t 1st years who just became high schoolers, and since they were 3rd years, several protested not to do such things, but it didn’t work at all.
Plus, today coincidentally happened to be the 16th. Including Jeongwoo and Jihan whose last digit was 6, two more were called out.
Jeongwoo, standing in line with other friends, solved the problem without hesitation.
Jeongwoo, who finished quickly, glanced at the side. The two people who hung out with Jihan were just fiddling with the pen the teacher handed over. Not studying, so not knowing how to solve it, they hesitated.
And looking at Jihan standing right next to him, whether he tried to solve it, various formulas were written under the problem. Whether it was a difficult problem, he was stuck in the middle.
Having finished, he was about to go in, but seeing Jihan struggling, Jeongwoo glanced at the solution he wrote.
‘Since he solved it with the wrong method from the start, how could it be solved? He just needs to fix that. Should I tell him or not?’
Jeongwoo, who hesitated for a moment, gave Jihan a hint. It was just the level of correcting the wrong formula.
But Jihan solved it without hesitation.
Jihan, who solved the problem second, was able to return to his seat. The remaining students had to hear nagging about whether they were really 3rd years.
So this milk was received for helping Jihan.
“I didn’t help because I adore you.”
Jeongwoo, who had been fiddling with the milk he was holding, blurted out.
“I know. If you adored me, that day would be a commemorative day.”
Even though he grumbled without a word of thanks, Jihan smiled.
When he muttered that he helped because he hated the class being delayed, Jihan just nodded indifferently as if that wasn’t important.
“And I don’t like this.”
“Then what do you like? Should I change it?”
“It’s fine.”
He avoided Jihan’s hand reaching for the milk as if he’d change it if told to. Where would he go when class was starting soon?
“You said you don’t like it.”
“It’s fine. Class is starting, so just sit down.”
Jeongwoo, who was bothered by him still standing, pulled Jihan’s arm to sit him down. Muttering unsolicited words that it was already a cramped corner seat and stuffy, but even more stuffy with him blocking the front.
Jihan, who had no answer while listening to Jeongwoo’s grumbling, this time thrust his face forward.
“Banana milk? Strawberry milk? Ah, there was melon flavor too.”
Jeongwoo, whose eyes widened in surprise, pushed his face away.
Somehow he didn’t budge at all. With narrowed eyes now, he got annoyed telling him not to come close without saying anything.
Far from being intimidated, Jihan sparkled his eyes asking if he could stick close if he talked.
Jeongwoo, who shook his head, changed the subject. It was obvious he’d get swept up in Jihan’s pace if he dealt with him one by one, so he was running away in advance.
“I like strawberry though.”
“Mmm~”
Jihan’s smile deepened. The more his smile deepened, Jeongwoo, who felt displeasure, asked why he was smiling like that.
Since he asked with a face full of all kinds of irritation, it wasn’t a nice question.
“Because you like something just like you.”
‘What’s ‘just like me’?’
Though curious, he didn’t ask again. Because he felt he’d already conversed enough. Even if he answered just a little, he was tired because of Jihan who brought out two or three more words if he said one.
“Next time, I’ll buy strawberry milk.”
“I said it’s fine.”
Jihan, who was grinning, poked the label that said chocolate milk. As if not wanting to associate with him who kept smiling while looking at him, he turned his head sharply.
These days were repeated.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
