# 7.
The conversation wasn’t much different from usual. Jihan gave him a nasty look, but Jeongwoo deliberately showed a bright smile that he normally didn’t display.
At that smile, Jihan’s ears turned even redder.
“…Even your smile is handsome, it’s ridiculous.”
Jeongwoo heard Jihan’s small mutter as he bowed his head deeply, but couldn’t catch what he said. Jeongwoo took the notebook again even though it was Jihan’s turn to write.
Passing notes during class while avoiding the teacher’s eyes was simply fun. He hadn’t done it since elementary school. In middle school, they all had phones, so texting friends was faster.
‘Ah, this isn’t what I should be doing.’
Jeongwoo, who had been absorbed in note-passing after such a long time, wrote down the main point he had momentarily forgotten.
He had intended to ask right after hearing that Jihan wasn’t upset, but kept getting sidetracked because of the embarrassed Jihan.
[Why do you keep giving me things?]
[What things?]
[Even just today. You keep giving me food during lunch, and chocolate too. You keep giving me things even when I tell you not to.]
It wasn’t just today, but always.
He gave candies, chocolates, and milk.
Jeongwoo had never stared or asked for anything when Jihan was eating something beside him. He wasn’t interested in him to begin with, and he needed to focus on studying, so he didn’t care what Jihan ate.
But Jihan kept giving him food as if he couldn’t stand not giving.
His friends had sometimes tried to snatch what was in Jeongwoo’s hands out of jealousy, but each time Jihan would threaten them, saying anyone who steals food from a child is a bad person.
Then he would stuff more into Jeongwoo’s pockets.
What Jihan didn’t know was that Jeongwoo had never eaten anything he gave him, not even once. Everything he received went to Hyewoon, Sejong, or back to Jihan himself.
Though Jeongwoo didn’t eat what Jihan gave him, he always wondered. Why did he keep giving?
Once, out of curiosity, he had asked Hyewoon and Sejong if they felt like giving him food when they saw him.
The two had different reactions to the question.
Hyewoon said if he had food, he’d eat it himself faster than anyone else, while Sejong said he’d want to take food from them.
What other reasons could there be? As Jeongwoo pondered, his friends threw out reasons one by one.
‘Is it because you’re on the disciplinary committee and he wants to get on your good side?’
‘Do you look like you enjoy eating?’
‘You don’t look like you eat heartily… Maybe he just wants to feed you.’
As the answers became increasingly playful, Jeongwoo shook his head, regretting that he’d asked his friends. No matter who he asked, they weren’t Jihan, so it was hard to get an accurate answer.
So he decided to ask him this time.
While waiting for Jihan’s reply and inferring various reasons, the answer Jeongwoo received wasn’t what he had expected.
[Because I want to be friends with you]
As Jeongwoo blankly stared at the notebook, he found the answer somewhat comprehensible considering Jihan’s usual behavior, yet questions remained.
‘He wants to be friends? That’s not a completely incomprehensible reason. Just looking at how he persistently talks to me despite being ignored every day, it would be hard to do that without wanting to be friends. But that’s not what I’m curious about. I mean, why me…? When I’m so annoyed and dislike you? Why persist despite being ignored every time?’
His face turned serious, seeming to understand yet not understand.
Thoughts followed one after another, but that didn’t lead to a conclusion.
At that moment, Jihan added one more line below where he had written about wanting to be friends.
[If I want to be friends, do I need a reason?]
After Jeongwoo read it, Jihan took the notebook back, played with the pen for a while, and then handed it back to Jeongwoo.
[So, do you feel like breaking down that wall a bit?]
[I even gave you chocolate]
[Even though you gave it to someone else in front of me, I’m fine with it]
[What do you think? Am I nice? Do you want to be friends?]
Until just a moment ago, Jeongwoo had thought he was upset, but now he seemed like the usual Moon Jihan.
Jeongwoo smiled at the nuance that if they just became friends, it would be okay for Jeongwoo to give the chocolate he received to others.
“Oh?! Interrogator, you just smiled, didn’t you? Right!”
Though it was a smile that came out of absurdity, Jihan clapped his hands in delight just because Jeongwoo had smiled.
“Right! Right, ri…ght.”
In the quiet classroom, Jihan’s voice echoed through the teacher’s microphone.
“You there, go stand at the back!!”
Jihan, who had been excitedly shouting and forgetting they were in class, eventually had to stand at the back of the classroom.
“You’re a third-year student and you don’t bring your book?! Are you not going to attend the lesson?!”
Despite the teacher’s scolding, Jihan got up with a grin and took the textbook on his desk with him.
Even as students giggled and glanced from various corners, Jihan’s face remained relaxed.
Watching Jihan who smiled just because Jeongwoo laughed out of absurdity, and who kept grinning even while being scolded, Jeongwoo shook his head. He couldn’t believe such a person existed in this world.
After class, Jihan was called by the teacher and had to listen to a lecture throughout the break: whether he had any awareness of being a third-year student, whether he wanted to study or not, that at this rate he wouldn’t even set foot in a university, and so on.
***
Being in the third year doesn’t mean they get to self-study during PE class.
Saying that good physical strength was necessary for studying hard, the teacher called the students to the field or gymnasium whenever there was a PE class.
Still, since the teacher wasn’t completely rigid, very occasionally he would show a movie, saying they needed to refresh their minds, but that time was essentially no different from sleeping time.
But he wouldn’t scold them for sleeping or self-studying then.
Jeongwoo had hoped for that today too, but unfortunately, they were assembled on the field.
When the student who was PE representative in name only wrote “field” in big letters on the blackboard, everyone grumbled as they changed into their PE uniforms.
Among them were students who hid English vocabulary books in their PE uniform pockets. But they would never be able to take them out in front of the PE teacher who watched with eagle eyes.
Changing into PE uniform applied to Jeongwoo as well.
“Jeongwoo, come here for a moment.”
Jeongwoo, who had come to the field with Sejong, was called by the teacher while tying his sneaker laces.
As soon as Jeongwoo’s name was called, Sejong’s eyes sparkled as if envious.
“Distribute these to all the first-year classes.”
This was a frequent occurrence.
Jeongwoo, who was relatively close to the PE teacher because of being on the disciplinary committee, often ran errands.
Most of these errands involved going from class to class, which was bothersome, but for Jeongwoo, who disliked running on the field even more, it was fortunate.
The teacher patted Jeongwoo’s shoulder, telling him to take his time, and then gathered the students.
As if teasing Sejong, who was looking at him with envious eyes and being dragged like an animal to slaughter, Jeongwoo waved the file folder in his hand.
Sejong widened his eyes, but Jeongwoo’s steps back into the school building were light.
“Jeongwoo!”
What stopped Jeongwoo’s steps as he was heading to first-year class 1 was the sound of running footsteps and a voice calling his name.
It was a voice that somehow felt familiar, yet one he felt he shouldn’t turn around to face, so he tried to ignore it and continue walking, but his shoulder was grabbed.
The one who stopped Jeongwoo was, as expected, Jihan.
“Why are you here?”
Despite Jeongwoo’s annoyed voice, Jihan was smiling as he poked at the file folder Jeongwoo was holding.
“I’ll go with you.”
“I asked why you’re here.”
Jihan’s group, who disliked studying, usually loved PE time and would be busy playing ball games.
Moreover, Jihan was in his regular uniform.
As Jeongwoo looked him up and down in his uniform, Jihan twisted his body as if embarrassed.
When Jeongwoo gave him an unpleasant look, Jihan added an explanation in a languid voice.
“I heard it was field time late, so I just came out.”
“And?”
“I didn’t have time to change into PE uniform, so I just came out, but you weren’t there.”
“So what?”
“When I asked Woo Sejong, he said you went on an errand, so I faked being sick in front of the teacher to come with you.”
Jeongwoo clicked his tongue at the explanation that fit too perfectly to not have been planned from the beginning.
The teacher who let him in despite his fake illness was one thing, but Moon Jihan was just too lucky.
“Initially, I was going to go to the infirmary and sleep.”
“……”
“But then I saw you.”
Anticipating what would come next, Jeongwoo spoke up.
“Just go to the infirmary and sleep.”
“Let me go on the errand with you!”
Jihan spoke simultaneously.
While pulling the file folder in Jeongwoo’s hand toward himself, Jihan said with wide eyes:
“That’s good, right? Good?”
“No. I’d like to do the errand quietly by myself.”
Jeongwoo coldly pushed his hand away.
“I’ll be like I’m not even here. You’ll let me come along, right?”
But Jihan wasn’t one to give up at those words. Sticking closely to Jeongwoo as he walked past, he lowered his voice and said:
“Going to the infirmary to sleep…”
“I told you I want to be friends with you.”
Since they had exchanged notes, Jeongwoo had been dealing with him moderately, but Jihan was becoming more aggressive with each passing day.
Every time Jeongwoo drew a line, Jihan would mention his reason of wanting to be friends and stubbornly stick to him.
Thinking it might be better to deal with him moderately rather than having him stick to him like glue, Jeongwoo went his own way, telling him to do as he pleased.
Seeing that Jeongwoo, though cold, wasn’t pushing him away, Jihan smiled widely and stuck close to him.
Only Jeongwoo didn’t know that Jihan’s smile deepened specifically for Jeongwoo who engaged with him despite finding him annoying. Had he known, he would never have engaged with him at all. He would have ignored him from the beginning.
“Wow. Must be seniors.”
“So handsome. Amazing.”
“I saw them passing by the gym the other day…”
The reactions were similar every time they went to the first-year classrooms.
First-year students, who rarely had opportunities to see third-years, whispered about how handsome Jeongwoo and Jihan were, while teachers gave warm words, saying how hard it must be for them as third-years.
There wasn’t a teacher who didn’t know about Jeongwoo, the active disciplinary committee member, and Jihan, who was in third year at age 21. The two were so famous in school that it would be stranger not to know them.
In response to the kind consolations from the first-year teachers, Jeongwoo just bowed his head in greeting and left, but Jihan always chatted with the teachers.
Displaying his characteristically vivacious and playful personality, Jihan joked around and gradually stole away the first-years’ class time. But more often than not, he would end up being dragged out by Jeongwoo.
After visiting all the classrooms from class 1 to class 10, the two stood in the hallway. If Jeongwoo had been alone, it would have taken less than 10 minutes, but because of Jihan, it had taken an additional 20 minutes.
Jeongwoo was tired. It was draining even to be quiet, but Jihan kept chattering away.
He even thought it fortunate that Jihan’s conversation partner was the teacher and not himself. But now, with no teacher present, it was Jeongwoo who had to engage with him.
As Jeongwoo was thinking about quickly returning to the field, Jihan grabbed him. He tried to shake off Jihan’s hand, but dealing with the aftermath seemed more bothersome, so he just sighed.
“Are you going to the field?”
“Yes.”
He answered without hesitation.
“Even though running is tiresome and it’s so hot?”
Since it was a valid point, Jeongwoo hesitated for a moment. If he went to the field now, he’d have to join some random team that was already formed and run.
With still 30 minutes of class left, he’d have to chase after a small ball for those 30 minutes. Though he wasn’t bad at sports, Jeongwoo, who didn’t particularly enjoy physical activity, wavered knowing what Jihan was getting at.
If Jihan hadn’t been there, he would have spent time leisurely before going back. After all, when running errands, he sometimes took his time, strolling around pretending it took longer, and returned just as the class was ending.
Whether Jihan was there or not, Jeongwoo, who occasionally skipped class anyway, was in a dilemma.
“It would be cool in the classroom. And we could change back into our uniforms before the crowd comes.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
