# Chapter 17. If That’s the Case, I Should Have Been the Class President
Becoming Yeonho’s seatmate wasn’t entirely a good thing.
The only time during the day when I could look at Yeonho as much as I wanted was during class, but now I couldn’t secretly look at him anymore.
‘…I wonder if he’d be upset if I looked at him openly? If our eyes happen to meet, couldn’t I just say I was looking at someone else?’
For that, I should at least memorize the names of the students sitting around Yeonho. I just hope it’s not Kim Jungwoo. I don’t want to exchange words with him even as an excuse.
Thinking about it now, I felt somewhat indignant. What’s wrong with looking a bit? It’s not like he’ll wear out from being looked at. It’s not like I’m touching him without permission like Yeonho does.
…Gasp, what if I accidentally touch his hand or our shoulders brush? What if Yeonho touches me as a prank during class? Will I be able to withstand the ticklishness?
Lately, even when I tell him to stop, far from apologizing, he only stops after tormenting me to his satisfaction.
…If he keeps going because it’s fun, I’ll have to step on his foot. Since the teachers adore Yeonho, they won’t scold him or give him dirty looks just for making a little noise during class.
After the number exchange was finished, the classroom became even busier as everyone moved their desks to their new seats. Yeonho also went to get his desk, and I slowly gathered my things. Since we were moving the entire desk, there wasn’t much to organize separately, so I just picked up my bag hanging on the chair. Suddenly, a few ways to look at Yeonho during class came to mind.
‘I can look at him once when asking to borrow an eraser or pencil lead, look again when asking about parts I don’t understand, and sneak a glance when Yeonho is focused on the class, right?’
Unless Yeonho has eyes on the side and back of his head, it would be difficult for him to always notice me looking at him.
Asking to borrow pencil lead would seem very natural, since it would be stranger to ask someone sitting across or in front or behind, bypassing the person sitting right next to you.
‘If I sit next to him, I can talk to him more than now, right?’
Being seatmates seems good because it doesn’t look weird to start a conversation. Once I get used to talking to him, I can casually call him Yeonho without his surname, and the probability of being remembered as his seatmate rather than just one of the 34 students in class is also higher.
Maybe because my mood improved again, my slow hands gradually became faster. Yeonho, whom I met in the center of the classroom while carrying my desk and being pushed around, smiled as he placed his desk right next to mine, which I had set down with a slight gap.
He said something while doing so, but I couldn’t hear well because noisy kids had gathered nearby. It didn’t seem important, probably just teasing me, asking if carrying the desk was tiring. So I didn’t ask him to repeat it.
‘More importantly, why is he staring at me like that? Why does he smile so prettily?’
It’s like he has transparent jewels ground up and sprinkled in his eyes. Yeonho exposed to sunlight looked just like a painting, and it was a bit disappointing that we didn’t have window seats.
“Aren’t your legs tired, Seungwoo?”
Saying that, Yeonho pulled my chair back from my desk.
‘Ah, I must have been standing there like an idiot.’
As I sat down in the chair, feeling awkward, I muttered “Please take care of me” in a barely audible voice.
“Just now?”
I thought he surely wouldn’t have heard, but Yeonho responded. Yeonho had really sharp ears.
‘What is there that he’s not good at?’
Yeonho smiled brightly with his chin resting on his hand. Seeing that, I realized once more.
‘Ah, I’m in big trouble now.’
***
Unlike what I worried about in the morning, Yeonho didn’t touch me during class. During the third period math class, there was a problem I really didn’t understand, and I thought about asking Yeonho, but he was solving problems so diligently that I couldn’t even open my mouth.
During fifth period, I dozed off due to food coma and missed my chance, and the sixth period was, fortunately or unfortunately, a class that required moving to another room. It was music class, and the teacher happened to make Yeonho play the piano accompaniment, so I could barely hear the voices of the students singing beside me. Yeonho was really good at playing the piano too.
And while I was focused on Yeonho, I hadn’t noticed that the student who originally sat in front of me ended up sitting in front of me again. He seemed to have been busy exchanging seats, but it was sad that all he managed to change was just that seat. Because the center seat had no advantages except that Yeonho was there.
In May, there were many school events that made me wonder if they really had to be done. Since everything had to be cleared before the final exams, there was something almost every week, and today we had to stay in the classroom instead of going home to coordinate the participants for the sports day at the end of May, along with the cheering songs and practice schedules.
In the morning, they suddenly arranged seats, and in the afternoon, something even bigger was waiting. The homeroom teacher, who casually said “Oh, I forgot” during the closing meeting, dumped his responsibilities on the class president and left the classroom.
The class president, who had been entrusted with the authority to handle things by the homeroom teacher, first wrote down the events everyone had to participate in on the blackboard and then filled in the names of volunteers who would participate.
Among these, popular ball games naturally had fierce competition, and the quota was quickly filled with recommended skilled students, but for troublesome events like the scavenger hunt, there weren’t even joking recommendations, so the class president arbitrarily wrote down the names of students who weren’t participating in anything.
My name was also written as the last of the eleven people for the tug-of-war. Unlike me, who was relieved it wasn’t an obstacle race like last year, there was an enormous amount of booing from students who were forced to participate in events they didn’t want.
‘It’s probably because he handles the center well even with so many students talking that he can handle difficult tasks like being class president, right?’
As I was thinking that, the class president wrote his own name in the three-legged race, which had no participants, and next to it, he wrote Yeonho’s name. It was an abuse of authority.
Yeonho is already participating in the 100m dash and soccer. Since a person can’t participate in more than three events, he had just filled Yeonho’s remaining one slot.
‘Is there really a need to max out participation like that?’
Other students had at most two events. Moreover, soccer was tournament-style, so if they won, they had to keep playing.
In other words, managing one’s stamina is important. I was already unhappy about Yeonho participating in the race besides soccer, but the class president seemed to only care about fulfilling his own desires.
I was annoyed, but since Yeonho, the actual person involved, didn’t say anything, I couldn’t say anything either. Having no choice, I just glared at the class president’s name written next to Yeonho’s, and Yeonho said:
“Are you going to fight with the blackboard this time?”
Good-natured Yeonho said that and gently rubbed between my eyebrows with his thumb.
‘Was I frowning too much? I was glaring, but I wasn’t trying to fight.’
It seems like he says that whenever I look at something. Last time it was apple juice and a phone, today it was the blackboard.
Yeonho spoke as if he was dealing with a disobedient child. He would be well-suited to be a kindergarten teacher or something like that.
‘The kids in a class with Yeonho as the teacher would all be cute and pretty, right?’
I was about to imagine Yeonho playing kindly with adorable little kids but stopped. Even imagining little kids growing up and clinging to Teacher Yeonho, saying they would marry him, made me annoyed and disgusted. So I glared at Yeonho, who was still looking at me, and said:
“Th-that’s not it…”
“It’s not?”
Whether I glared at him or not, Yeonho just laughed, echoing my words. He was even more annoying than my younger older sister. If you put the two side by side and had them compete for who’s more annoying, it would be hard to determine the winner because they’re so alike.
I thought that for a moment, but somehow it made me feel worse. Yeonho and my sister don’t resemble each other at all. Not even a fingernail’s worth of similarity. From now on, I shouldn’t ask my sister for a ride to school, regardless of whether I’m late or not. I don’t want to create an opportunity for them to meet by any chance.
The class was now in an uproar about deciding on team uniforms and cheering songs. The girls were seriously suggesting doing something cute, proposing animal ears or pajama-like outfits, but the boys who heard this were horrified.
‘Even I think that’s really not a good idea…’
“Why? It’s cute.”
Seeing that almost all the girls who said this had their eyes directed toward Yeonho, I understood.
‘Yeonho would really look cute doing that.’
My phone still had that adorable puppy Yeonho saved on it. Yeonho still didn’t know that I had set his picture as my background. I hoped he’d never find out, so I didn’t even take out my phone in front of Yeonho.
Anyway, it was at the moment when my thoughts, which had been absolutely against it, were gradually leaning toward agreement at the thought that I might actually see the Yeonho from that photo that no one else had seen.
“I think a puppy would be cute too.”
“…?”
Someone must have heard Yeonho’s muttering amid the fierce tug-of-war among classmates over whether to do animal costumes or not, because the girls’ voices grew louder.
‘Who would oppose if Yeonho says it’s good?’
As soon as Yeonho uttered those positive words, girls from all around called his name, pretending to be close to him. I could see Kim Jungwoo’s shocked face in the front row. That was a bit funny, so I laughed happily inside. I kind of wanted to see Kim Jungwoo wearing either dog or cat ears.
“Yeonho, do you prefer cats or dogs? Oh, we also have foxes and bears.”
A girl sitting behind Yeonho showed him her phone screen and said. The accessory site had so many animal ears lined up, I wondered what else they had. Yeonho stared at the screen quietly and then said:
“Aren’t there rabbits?”
“Rabbits?”
‘Rabbits?’
In my imagination, I replaced the dog ears on Yeonho’s head with rabbit ears. They suited him frighteningly well. Whether standing up straight or with one ear folded, they all suited him too well.
The girl seemed to be thinking similarly to me, as her hand movements to find rabbit ears became increasingly frantic. I silently cheered for the girl’s eyes and hands.
‘I hope there are rabbit ears similar to Yeonho’s hair color.’
As I was thinking this, Yeonho fiddled with my hair.
The treatment I’d been using lately, which I’d asked my older sister to buy for me, was working well—my once rough hair had become quite soft. I wondered if Yeonho noticed that too?
“Ah… there are no rabbit ears…”
The girl who had been searching the site continuously let out a brief sigh. It seemed other students were also looking for them, as similar sounds were heard occasionally from around. While I was agreeing with the sigh and feeling disappointed, Yeonho looked at me and said:
“That’s too bad. They would have suited you well.”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
