“School?”
“Yeah, am I not allowed to go to school?”
“No, no, it’s not that! Why wouldn’t you be!”
His parents jumped as if they’d heard something they shouldn’t have.
Chairman Joo and Director Yoo also had their own plans. They had no intention of keeping their youngest locked up in a castle like Rapunzel. They were planning to send him to study abroad in a place with good air and advanced medicine, and after hearing the family doctor’s recommendation, they were carefully looking for a school to attend domestically.
However, Joo Tae-hyun had never explicitly mentioned anything like science high school himself, so his family was slightly taken aback.
“Honey, when you say science high school, are you perhaps talking about the science high school that Seo Baek-han graduated from?”
“……Yeah.”
“See, that Seo Baek-han, that! Putting unnecessary ideas into our baby’s head.”
Stopping Joo Yoon-woo, who was huffing and puffing, Joo Tae-hyun carefully revealed what he had felt today.
“I want to be a cool person like Mom and Dad, like my Hyungs and sister. Like the guests who came to the concert today, I want to be someone whose name can be written in books. Um… but I don’t really know a good way yet. So I thought I’d go to school and think about it for now.”
Joo Tae-hyun didn’t yet know how to speak as eloquently as Seo Baek-han. He didn’t have any concrete dreams, so he couldn’t recite his thoughts as coolly as he did. But he wanted to become a reliable person, someone who could have his shoulders patted and be told that great expectations were placed on him, rather than just being coddled as the youngest, baby, darling. This much was clear.
“First, I’m going to study hard and go to a good school.”
So… someday, he would become a decent person that Seo Baek-han could confide in about his dreams without hesitation.
“Our baby…”
His parents’ eyes welled up, and they held Joo Tae-hyun’s hands tightly. His Hyungs were the same. Only his sister, Joo Yoon-woo, was tearing at her hair as if she was going crazy.
“No, wait a minute! Studying hard is good! But that science high school thing is Seo Baek-han putting ideas into our baby’s head! To make him his lackey, oh!”
“Can’t you watch your mouth in front of the youngest?”
The third Hyung gritted his teeth and whispered to his sister, but he had already heard everything.
He couldn’t bring himself to say this in front of his family, but he didn’t think it would be so bad if Seo Baek-han made him his lackey. If he was such a cool leader, he wanted to have him too.
In conclusion, Joo Tae-hyun decided to give up on going to science high school.
‘Your goal is to get into science high school? Admission isn’t difficult. The entrance exam is a battle of who can strategize more efficiently, so you don’t have to worry.’
The famous admissions consultant, who had been summoned to the main house half a day after declaring that he would go to a good school yesterday, guaranteed his admission.
‘Unless you have a specific goal, such as graduating early within a year, we can fully support you even after graduating from science high school to go to medical school. Which university are you aiming for? If you can speak English fluently and have foreign citizenship, and you want to go to a domestic university-.’
He didn’t want to become a doctor after going to science high school, and he didn’t want to solve problems well and pass exams.
Joo Tae-hyun wanted to study. He wanted to jump into the world where people lived beyond the fence and do real studying. For example, that there were many pediatric deaths of unknown cause before the concept of Emergence fever became widely known. Stories that the world tells, that you can’t know just by diligently memorizing textbooks.
‘Tae-hyun, what do you want to do? Do you really want to go to science high school?’
‘……I don’t know.’
‘Okay, there’s still time, so let’s think about it slowly. Mom and Dad are so proud of you for wanting to study hard, but we don’t think the path that everyone else walks is the right answer.’
‘Yes.’
In the end, Joo Tae-hyun decided to choose one of the top private schools and international schools in Korea, as his parents had initially planned. The fact that he was ‘Joo Tae-hyun of DH Group’ would not change until he died. In that case, Joo Tae-hyun should make a choice that was true to himself. As his sister had said, there was no need to imitate Seo Baek-han. And he didn’t think he would like that either.
He would take the GED and graduate from middle school and high school quickly. Joo Tae-hyun’s mind was not on the bean field, but far away at university. His parents seemed to be considering domestic universities, but Joo Tae-hyun wanted to study abroad.
“……This isn’t to follow that Hyung.”
I just want to become an adult quickly.
Joo Tae-hyun, feeling guilty for no reason even though no one was listening or saying anything, muttered excuses that no one would hear.
Joo Tae-hyun, who was casually flipping through the booklets left by the admissions consultant, stealthily reached for his phone. Even though no one would give him a hard time whether he took a nap or played games at home, he looked around nervously.
〈
Chat
☰
Hyung, hello
It’s me, Joo Tae
12:34 PM
It’s Joo Tae-hyun
Oh, hello
Joo Tae haha
Did you get home safe? Have a good lunch 🙂
12:38 PM
〉
Then, lying down on the sofa, he looked at the messages he had exchanged with Seo Baek-han a little while ago again. He was grateful that he had replied relatively quickly, but he had no idea what to reply after that. He told me to have a good lunch, so… is he trying to end the conversation appropriately? So Joo Tae-hyun timidly pressed the heart mark on the last sentence he sent.
“……Is the heart a bit much?”
Now that he looked at it, it seemed like a cheesy mark to use between guys, so Joo Tae-hyun changed it to a check mark. He hoped that Seo Baek-han wouldn’t check it later and be disappointed, worrying a little.
……But unlike before, his messenger profile picture had changed to a blue background with a person-shaped emoji floating on it, so wasn’t he still checking it? Joo Tae-hyun changed the check mark back to a heart mark, just in case. It was fleeting, but he just hoped that Seo Baek-han hadn’t seen it in the meantime.
“Hoo……”
After making a fuss by himself several times like that, Joo Tae-hyun carefully entered a search term to do something he had been putting off since last night.
Seo Baek-han
“Hooaaah……”
He was sweating even though it was nothing.
It had taken him more than twelve hours to enter his name, Seo Baek-han, into the portal site.
In fact, he had searched for Seo Baek-han’s name last night before going to bed. But what do you know, just typing Seo Baek-han into the search bar made his heart pound so hard that it ached. So in the end, he couldn’t do anything and had to put his phone far away.
He had been pretending not to know and putting it off until now, even though he had seen all sorts of articles and photos popping up below…… He couldn’t stand being curious anymore.