By Zephyria 
The brief silence made me anxious. Stand up straight, why did you flip the desk, did the teacher send you out, what is the teacher’s name? I held my breath, imagining the next questions that should have been asked in such a situation.
I bet they don’t even know the name of the teacher who came into class!
“……Alright, I understand. Listen well in the next class. Ho ho.”
But perhaps the principal realized they were the type of troublemakers he couldn’t handle, so he quickly gave up asking further questions and turned to leave. Whether the principal left or not, Jeon Jae-hyung still had his eyes closed, and Lee Beom yawned again. There wasn’t even a common courtesy like “Goodbye.”
‘Are they really crazy?’
I was speechless at their actions, which made me forget that the principal was inspecting the school. If the gym teacher had seen them like this, he would have thoroughly thrashed them…
But with that much nerve, the principal might want to pretend he didn’t see. If I were the principal, I would have backed down too. My body trembled as if I had the shivers.
I looked down at the document envelope in my arms.
It was good that I decided to take a long detour before they saw me. Feeling a bit tired physically was better than feeling mentally exhausted.
“Oh, it’s Hae-jun…”
But somehow, Jeon Jae-hyung, who had opened his eyes in the meantime, called out to me. I flinched. What? How did he know?
‘Let’s run!’
He was sleeping just a moment ago, when did he see me! He must have been pretending to sleep to avoid answering the principal!
A chill ran down my spine. I tried to bolt before my thoughts could go any further…
“What? Where.”
“Over there…”
“Seong Hae-jun!”
Lee Beom, who had lost his mind, called my name at the top of his lungs in the hallway where all the other classes were in session.
‘Has that guy gone crazy!’
Swallowing a curse, I quickly took a step.
“Hey. Where are you going during class?”
“Gasp!”
But it was too late. Lee Beom, who had sprinted down the hallway, suddenly popped out from behind me. I almost bit my tongue in surprise. Thanks to the ingrained habit of needing to be quiet in the hallway during class, it ended with a small yelp, but I dropped the papers I was holding.
“What’s all this? Carrying so much.”
“Don’t wrinkle them!”
I shouted softly, looking down at Lee Beom, who had already crouched down and was gathering the scattered papers. I also quickly knelt and helped collect them.
Lee Beom chuckled and, with surprisingly delicate hands, quickly gathered the papers. Jeon Jae-hyung, who had followed, also joined in picking up the document bundle.
Only after confirming there were no papers left scattered on the floor did I stand up. Lee Beom handed me the neatly gathered bundle. I combined the papers the three of us had collected. I carefully brushed off any dust to prevent them from wrinkling and put them into a document envelope.
“So. What is this?”
“It’s for the teacher… Hey, I’ll do it. But how did you know I was here?”
As I shifted my knees back slightly, Lee Beom, who had been dusting my school uniform pants’ knees, pulled his hands away and looked up at me. His usually stoic face broke into a small smile as he gestured somewhere with his eyes. Following his gaze, I turned my head towards a window. Outside the window, there were dense trees.
I met my own dazed reflection.
In other words… my figure, peeking around the corner of the hallway, was being perfectly reflected in the window.
I was dumbfounded. To miss something so basic! Instead of risking danger by peeking around the corner, I should have just checked my reflection in the window from the start.
Shaking my head, I just brushed the dust off the document envelope. Lee Beom stood up abruptly.
“So, where are you going?”
“To the counseling room.”
Now that I’d run into them, there was no reason to take a long detour. I continued on my original path, and Lee Beom and Jeon Jae-hyung followed. The feeling of two large pillars rising behind me was bothersome, but I figured they’d be going to their own classrooms soon, so I headed for the stairs.
However, these guys didn’t go back to their punishment; they followed me past their classrooms. I dismissed it as my imagination, but by the time we reached the entrance area with the stairs, I realized it wasn’t a mistake.
“…Why are you following me? Weren’t you supposed to be serving punishment?”
“Can’t I follow…?”
Jeon Jae-hyung looked at me with a pathetic gaze, like a wet puppy. My body flinched reflexively. I was flustered that his imposing size, coupled with his dark brown eyes, didn’t look creepy when he acted so coy. It suited him, which was absurd.
Then again, Jeon Jae-hyung was the one who was scared of haunted houses. I thought he just slept all the time, but he had more than a few surprising sides to him.
“Of course, you can’t! Go back quickly.”
“If you drop the papers again, I’ll have to pick them up.”
“I dropped them because you startled me. Go back and finish your punishment.”
“No.”
Lee Beom was shamelessly defiant. I didn’t know why he was so confident when he was in the wrong. They were complete lunatics. My head throbbed, and I touched my forehead.
“It’s not a matter of ‘no.’ What’s the point of studying hard if your attitude isn’t right? Go to class. Don’t bother the teachers.”
“Hae-jun… you sound like a teacher…”
Jeon Jae-hyung mumbled slowly. These guys, I can’t communicate with them! Just as I was grabbing the back of my neck, Lee Beom, though his brows were furrowed as if he wasn’t entirely satisfied with the situation, nodded.
“Okay.”
Still, seeing him agree so readily given his personality, I figured he might actually be thinking about studying. I was about to say more, but I decided to be magnanimous.
Right, these guys who had been skipping class arbitrarily, ditching on the rooftop, fighting, riding motorcycles to bars, and smoking, living life as they pleased. It was already commendable that they were sitting quietly in class now. My benchmark was completely different from theirs.
“But Seong Hae-jun.”
“Why? I have to go. I’m late.”
“You…”
Lee Beom paused after calling my name, his eyebrows twitching. ‘He speaks with his eyebrows,’ I thought. I stared intently at Lee Beom.
“Do you like the teacher?”
What kind of nonsense is this?
“I won’t answer absurdities.”
Leaving the strange guys behind, I hurried towards the counseling room, wondering what I would say if the teacher asked why I was so late.
Fortunately, they didn’t follow me any further.
❖ ❖ ❖
“What? You got a boyfriend?”
“Shh, shh! Speak quietly!”
“When? And before that, who is it?”
“Well, yesterday Gi-cheol told me…”
School life continued as usual. During break, I ignored the cacophony from countless classrooms echoing in the hallway and headed for the restroom. It was to find some peace from the Four Heavenly Kings who wouldn’t stop bothering me.
“What? You confessed to Hee-seon? So, did you get rejected?”
“Would I have been rejected?”
“Hmph.”
“Likewise.”
Even though summer was approaching, it was still like spring for high school students, with couples popping up everywhere. Stories related to romance were heard constantly, regardless of the time or season. Since we spent 24 hours a day with our same-aged friends, it was inevitable that people would find partners.
“I got a name tag from Min-woo?”
“Whoa, so are you dating?”
“Yep! Said yes right away!”
As I washed my hands at the sink, I clearly heard the girls gathered around the water dispenser near the restroom chattering excitedly. It seemed like confessing with a name tag was a trend among students lately; it had been happening for a few days, but today I saw many kids talking about name tags.
I listened with one ear and let it out the other, not thinking much of it. Hearing such stories, all I could think was, ‘Giving away a name tag that should be worn on your chest? Are they trying to get detention?’
The next day, when I arrived at school and changed into my indoor shoes, something fell out of my shoe locker. I picked it up, wondering what it was so early in the morning, and found a small white note.
Seeing the secretly delivered note, one person immediately came to mind.
Ban Seo-yi!
The last time I saw her was at the amusement park. I hadn’t been able to contact her since. She had confidently offered to change the world if I cooperated in saving Seong Hae-min, yet even I was still trying to figure out how to get Seong Hae-min to quit being a delinquent. There had been no progress in my conversations with Seong Hae-min.
I unfolded the neatly creased note. It said, in a cute handwriting, to come to the back gate during cleaning time.
‘Is Ban Seo-yi coming to school?’
It seemed unlike her cautious personality, but since Ban Seo-yi was the only one who would leave me such a message, I figured she had her reasons and brushed aside my unease.
Cleaning time. I intended to go to the back gate as mentioned in the note, but I couldn’t skip my assigned chore. I was on blackboard duty this week.
I stuck my arm out the window and vigorously dusted the blackboard eraser. I held my breath while dusting it, trying to prevent the chalk dust from getting into my nose. Coming from a background of water-based boards and whiteboards, this was truly old-fashioned.
Still, being on blackboard duty meant I finished cleaning relatively easily. If I had been in charge of mopping the floor, moving desks, or cleaning the teacher’s lounge or hallway, I would have been working the entire cleaning period. After neatly organizing the erasers and chalk, I headed for the back gate.
A girl wearing our school uniform, with her hair neatly tied in a braid, greeted me at the back gate.