# 8.
Jihan’s secret seduction had begun.
“……”
“The teacher probably won’t even know if you came or not since he’s busy playing with the other kids anyway, right?”
Recalling the PE teacher who enjoyed running during every class period, Jeongwoo unconsciously nodded.
In any case, it seemed better to go to the classroom, even if it meant being with Jihan, rather than going out now to run and sweat.
‘If he asks why I didn’t come out after the errand, I can just make an excuse that I did other errands too. Besides, he even told me to walk around slowly before coming back.’
Having meticulously thought through the aftermath, Jeongwoo nodded once more.
Upon arriving at the classroom, the two of them opened the windows wide as if they had planned it.
“Coming to the classroom was definitely the right choice.”
“I agree.”
“Thanks to me, right?”
“……”
Feeling the pleasant cool breeze coming in, Jeongwoo laid his head down on the desk, hoping to catch even a brief nap.
But Jihan wasn’t one to leave him be.
For a moment, just a brief moment, he was quiet, but then he kept talking as if he had an endless list of things to say.
“Are you going to sleep?”
“……”
“Jeongwooo, are you going to sleep?”
“……”
Jeongwoo was curious how Jihan had managed to restrain himself all this time. He slowly shook his head. With just a little thought, it was clear Jihan hadn’t been restraining himself at all.
He talked a lot every day.
During breaks, he would chatter next to Jeongwoo to the point where one might wonder if his mouth ever got sore.
When he was with his friends, they seemed desperate for him to talk to them, so why was he so desperate to talk to Jeongwoo when they were together?
‘Am I… the first person like me for him?’
Jeongwoo had seen it in romance novels that Hyewoon read. Lines like “You’re the first girl to hit me” or “You’re the first person to treat me roughly.”
He wondered if Jihan might be thinking something similar.
Everyone was eager to hang around Jihan just from seeing his face, but Jeongwoo had never done that. If anything, he ignored him when Jihan tried to approach.
‘Surely it’s not like “You’re the first to ignore me,” is it?’
Even as he thought it wasn’t the case, it kept bothering a corner of his mind.
And there was a decisive reason why he couldn’t completely shake off this thought.
From what Jeongwoo had observed of Jihan so far, he got along well with everyone without discrimination. How many people would ignore Jihan, who smiled at and quickly became friends with people he’d just met? Jeongwoo had been steadfastly ignoring him, though.
‘Surely he doesn’t want to be friends because he’s stubborn about being ignored?’
Deciding to engage with him moderately, as it would obviously become annoying if Jihan persisted until he stopped ignoring him, Jeongwoo answered with his eyes closed:
“I’m going to sleep. Don’t talk to me.”
So much for the iron wall going anywhere. Despite his resolve to engage moderately, a grumpy voice emerged. It was such a common occurrence that neither Jihan nor Jeongwoo paid much attention to it.
Rather, Jihan, who would find it strange if Jeongwoo wasn’t prickly, poked him in the side and asked another question.
“You’re an only child, right?”
“I said I’m sleeping.”
“You are an only child, right?”
“Don’t talk to me.”
When Jeongwoo didn’t answer, the intensity of the poking in his side increased. He irritably swatted Jihan’s hand away, but the more he did, the more Jihan kept poking him in different spots.
When an annoyed Jeongwoo suddenly sat up and glared at him, Jihan grinned disarmingly, preventing any anger, and said, “Right? Am I right?”
“What if I am?”
“So you are. I thought so. That’s why you were so unlikable.”
“What?”
Jeongwoo’s eyes narrowed at Jihan’s words, which he delivered without changing his expression.
His gaze toward Jihan was never kind, but today it was particularly sharp.
“Prickly, inflexible… It’s a compliment, a compliment!”
“You don’t think that’s going to work, do you? Don’t make excuses, I know those aren’t compliments.”
“I really didn’t mean it in a bad way…”
“Forget it.”
Jeongwoo pushed away Jihan’s hand, which was timidly poking him and asking if he was upset, and pressed his lips together. Jihan, looking unsettled as Jeongwoo lay down again with his eyes closed, tried to make excuses, but each time he did, the situation only got worse.
Jihan wasn’t that clueless. He thought it might be better to just keep his mouth shut, so he quietly watched for Jeongwoo’s reaction.
Feeling a hot gaze on his face, Jeongwoo briefly opened his eyes, then turned his head in the opposite direction.
Although the sun was a bit hot, the cool breeze coming in made it bearable. Even the noisy shouting from those running around the playground was fine as a lullaby.
As Jeongwoo was slowly drifting into sleep with a languid feeling, Jihan woke him up.
“How close are you with Woo Sejong? Very close?”
After souring his mood completely, it seemed Jihan had more questions left. Now wide awake, Jeongwoo answered with a sigh:
“We’ve been close since starting high school.”
“Since the beginning? Were you in the same class in first year too?”
“Yes.”
Was he good-natured or clueless? It seemed he had abandoned all the tact he had been showing earlier.
Seeing Jihan excitedly talking because Jeongwoo had resigned himself to answering, it was clear that Jihan lacked tact.
“I heard they divide classes based on grades, but that was all a lie, huh? But how come we never ended up in the same class for three years?”
“We’re in the same class now.”
“Oh, that’s right.”
“Out of 3 years, we were bound to be in the same class for one of them.”
“True. We’re decorating our final year like this, aren’t we?”
“What ‘decorating the final year’? You’re just a complete idiot.”
Jeongwoo clicked his tongue as he looked at the slick Jihan and muttered. Despite being called an idiot, Jihan laughed happily.
As Jeongwoo muttered again that Jihan really was an idiot, another question came. Though Jeongwoo didn’t know it, Jihan was only hearing what he wanted to hear.
“What about that guy who wears PE clothes all the time?”
Jeongwoo wondered if there was an end to these questions, which kept coming one after another with each answer. At this rate, Jihan seemed like he would go through all of Jeongwoo’s friends, asking how close they were.
Imagining this, Jeongwoo grimaced as he pictured Jihan listing everyone he had ever exchanged words with, asking how close they were.
When Jeongwoo, lost in thought, didn’t answer, Jihan prompted him:
“I’m asking how close you are with that kendo club guy.”
“Why do you want to know?”
“Because I want to be friends with you. I’m thinking about how to approach you.”
“This isn’t a game, what do you mean ‘approach’?”
Jeongwoo waved his hand dismissively, indicating his annoyance as an answer.
“Ah, so what’s the answer?”
Jihan wasn’t one to let things go, even though Jeongwoo thought he’d made his point. He was thoroughly fed up with Jihan repeating the same question like a ten-year-old.
“He’s a middle school classmate. Sometimes I go watch when he has competitions. Been going since middle school.”
“It’s been that long?”
Whether the question didn’t really need an answer or not, Jihan expressed his envy.
“How did you become friends? I’m jealous.”
Though he spoke as if talking to himself, he raised his voice as if wanting Jeongwoo to hear.
Not wanting to respond, Jeongwoo pretended not to know Jihan’s intention, or to have heard nothing, keeping his eyes closed.
He couldn’t understand why Jihan kept saying he was envious. Since he couldn’t see Jeongwoo’s face, Jihan continued to repeatedly say how jealous he was.
When the lying Jeongwoo showed no reaction, Jihan pouted and patted Jeongwoo’s back.
“What now?”
“Don’t you have anything you’re curious about? Ask me anything. This hyung will tell you everything.”
‘What hyung? You need to act like one to be called hyung. Being older doesn’t automatically make you one.’
Though grumbling internally, Jeongwoo was lost in thought.
Since Jihan was openly inviting questions, he considered it.
He had been curious about something for a while but was trying to gauge if it was an appropriate question to ask. If there was a sensitive reason, it would be rude to even ask.
Despite generally giving perfunctory answers and ignoring Jihan, Jeongwoo was careful now that it was his turn to ask questions.
“Hurry up. Ask quickly before hyung changes his mind.”
“Hyung, my ass.”
“Hey! This is your chance, identity inspector.”
Jeongwoo’s considerate mood disappeared when Jihan called him “identity inspector.”
He felt there was no point in being considerate to someone so unreasonable and thought himself stupid for even briefly trying to treat Jihan as an equal.
“Why are you a high school student? When you’re 21 years old.”
He expected an immediate answer, but there was silence.
It was strange for someone who wasn’t usually quiet, so Jeongwoo lifted his head to find Jihan lost in thought. Realizing that was why he’d been quiet, Jeongwoo silently observed him.
After a long silence, Jihan tilted his head and instead asked Jeongwoo:
“Do you want the honest reason or the reason everyone knows?”
“Both.”
Shrugging his shoulders, Jeongwoo didn’t hesitate to answer. For some reason, he was confident that Jihan would give both answers.
Even if Jihan dismissed it as unavoidable circumstances, Jeongwoo knew he wouldn’t whine about why Jeongwoo wouldn’t answer or persistently pester him like Jihan would.
Unlike the persistent Jihan, Jeongwoo considered himself a cultured person who knew what consideration was, and he let out a small laugh.
‘A cultured person…’
The comparison was wrong from the start. Comparing himself to Jihan was strange in itself.
“I didn’t think you were like this, but you’re quite greedy.”
Jihan teased with a mischievous, childlike smile.
Watching him, Jeongwoo let out a hollow laugh. How could he compare anything with someone who couldn’t stay serious for more than a minute?
Even a child can be serious when needed, but the Jihan in front of him seemed like someone who didn’t know the meaning of seriousness at all.
While Jeongwoo was giving Jihan a sideways glance,
Jihan slowly opened his mouth, still with a smile.
“The reason everyone knows is that I started school late, that’s all.”
He said as if it were nothing.
“The kids think I only started high school late. They probably think I flunked two years in middle school because of trouble.”
“What’s the honest reason?”
Jeongwoo, who remembered hearing such rumors, nodded.
When Jihan asked if he’d heard them too and Jeongwoo nodded a couple of times, Jihan said “I thought so” and stretched.
“Alright, now for the honest reason. Ready to hear it?”
“Just tell me without dragging it out.”
“You’re so prickly. I started school late because I was sick when I was young, and elementary school was more or less okay. But from middle school, rumors spread that I had flunked because I was a delinquent. My appearance is so outstanding that I can’t go unnoticed wherever I am.”
“Indeed.”
“You see it too, right? I wanted to live quietly since I was older than the other kids, but I reaped the full benefits of this amazing appearance. Without saying a word, I was already labeled a delinquent because of my TOO-brilliant looks.”
If Jihan had been even slightly serious, Jeongwoo might have regretted asking.
As Jihan continued his self-praise, resting his chin on his hands and bringing his face uncomfortably close, Jeongwoo pushed his forehead away and answered flatly:
“Sure, sure.”
Jihan grumbled that there was no soul in Jeongwoo’s response, then continued:
“I kept explaining, but it was annoying how the explanation got longer as I tried to make people believe what they didn’t believe, so I just told them to think whatever they wanted and really became a delinquent.”
“……”
At a loss for words, Jeongwoo’s mouth fell open.
Seeing such an intense reaction for the first time, Jihan scratched the bridge of his nose, seemingly embarrassed, and waved his hand in front of Jeongwoo’s wide-open eyes, telling him not to stare so intently.
“Was becoming a delinquent really the only option?”
“Mm-hmm. With my personality, I couldn’t think of any other way.”
“……”
Where did the idea of actually becoming a delinquent because it was bothersome come from?
From what Sejong had said, Jihan wasn’t bad at studying. Jeongwoo became curious about what went on in that head with its faint yellowish tint. Did he ever have normal thoughts?
Jeongwoo stared at Jihan’s faintly yellow-tinted hair as if looking at a strange creature.
Just as Jeongwoo’s gaze was unknowingly becoming intense, Jihan tousled his own hair and said:
“But what’s the standard for being a delinquent? Not studying and just having fun? Honestly, at this age, isn’t it natural to prefer having fun over studying? There are so many fun things to do.”
“……”
“Jeongwoo, do you like studying?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
