Chapter 4

When Eunsung woke up this morning, he felt like he was emerging from a long sleep. ‘I only slept for two hours.’ He had been trapped in the practice room until 3 AM, supposedly receiving feedback for the monthly evaluation. Despite sleeping so little, he felt strangely clear-headed and excited. Looking at the clock, there were still 17 minutes left until the alarm would go off. Normally, he would have pulled the blanket up and rolled over to get even a little more of his insufficient sleep. But oddly, today he wanted to get to school quickly. He wanted to go and check something. What? He didn’t know. “Oppa, you’re up early.” “Yeah.” “Breakfast?” “I’m good. Did you make some for yourself?” “I already ate.” Even as he washed up, dried his hair, and put on the uniform he had hung on a hanger the night before, his heart was strangely pounding. An inexplicable feeling of excitement. “Oppa, are you leaving already?” “Yeah.” In the end, Eunsung left the house 20 minutes earlier than usual. [This stop is in front of Gogo High School. The next stop is Jungjung Middle School…] The familiar route to school after just three days was nothing special. Familiar trees lining the street, familiar apartment complexes, familiar convenience stores and PC rooms, and math academies. Just as his excited mood was about to settle down to normal… “Ah.” He realized he hadn’t drunk his milk in his rush to leave. A 5-year veteran top idol sunbae, who would often gather the male trainees in the underground practice room during breaks to give unwanted advice, had said: ‘Don’t regret it later, take precautions early. Set a time and do stretches three times a day, chug 2 liters of milk every day, and go to bed early!’ …He was talking about height. It was the only advice worth listening to among all the sunbae’s advice. Eunsung, already 6 centimeters taller than that sunbae, couldn’t empathize with the sunbae’s desperate feelings, but he did agree that he still needed to grow a lot more from here. So he kept stacks of white milk at home and drank it frequently. Even if he skipped breakfast, drinking one 500ml pack of milk before leaving was part of his daily routine, but today he forgot in his rush to leave early. “…” Eunsung’s current height is 179.7 centimeters. Just 0.3 centimeters more, and the first digit would change, but that wasn’t easy. Eunsung was secretly very concerned about his ambiguous height, so he glanced at his watch and stopped by the school store. “Handsome student, what can I get you?” “Milk, please.” “Milk? Chocolate milk?” “No. White milk.” “We only have small ones for white milk…” “Give me five.” The store owner looked curiously at Eunsung as he lined up the milk cartons in a row like yogurt and gulped them down one by one. “Your hands are really big, student. The milk looks cute in your hands.” “Yeah.” Just as Eunsung was about to leave after folding up the five small, instantly emptied milk cartons and throwing them in the recycling bin… “Ah, but Seo Jaegyeom is handsome.” “Yeah. The best-looking in our school.” “What are you talking about? He’s the best-looking guy I know.” …There’s someone better-looking than me at this school? His steps naturally paused as he was about to leave. Looking back, he saw four girls sitting at the long table attached to the school store next to the cafeteria. One girl with long straight hair caught his eye among them. She looked familiar from somewhere. Eunsung narrowed his eyes. As Eunsung stared intently at the long-haired girl who was on the phone and not participating in the conversation, the rest of the girls who hadn’t noticed Eunsung’s presence continued their chat. “Kang Dahye likes Seo Jaegyeom.” “What?! Really?!” “You didn’t know? It’s so obvious.” Girl 1 scoffed at how the other could not know such an obvious thing. “Wow… But didn’t Seo Jaegyeom like Jisoo?” As Girl 2 gaped, Girl 3, next to him, exclaimed in exasperation. “Wait, who’s Kang Dahye? Am I the only one who doesn’t know?” “That pale, skinny girl in Class 2. The top student.” “She’s the top student?” “The homeroom teacher mentioned it before… She only got one question wrong across all subjects for the entire year last year.” “I didn’t hear that.” “This is what happens when you don’t study, see?” “You wanna die?” “But she likes Seo Jaegyeom?” “They don’t match at all.” “Well, I guess she can like whoever she wants~“ Despite her words, Girl 1’s face was full of mockery. As if she were dying to ridicule Kang Dahye for liking Seo Jaegyeom. Girl 2 asked again. “But Seo Jaegyeom likes Jisoo, right? Isn’t that Kang Dahye close with Jisoo?” “Yeah. That’s why Seo Jaegyeom doesn’t like her.” “Did Seo Jaegyeom say that himself? That he doesn’t like Kang Dahye?” “Well, he didn’t say it outright. But you can tell just by watching.” Girl 1 stated definitively that it was obvious to see. Girl 3 chimed in. “Wow, but I guess she has no pride. If the guy I liked was into my friend, I could never show it.” “It’s not about pride, she’s just clueless.” “Those types of kids who only study are usually a bit oblivious, you know.” “True. Just look at how she dresses, she doesn’t seem very sensible.” “Still, she’s kind of brave in her way. Showing that she likes him.” “I don’t think she’s showing it on purpose. It’s probably just obvious.” “What if she’s doing it intentionally?” “To keep Jisoo from getting Seo Jaegyeom?” “Oh, like playing the long game?” “Creepy.” They made a fuss among themselves before pausing the conversation to eat some bread. Girl 1 was the one who started the conversation again. The topic was once again Kang Dahye. “Did you see her bag? I thought she was an elementary school kid.” “It’s probably the one she used in elementary school, right? My friend went to the same elementary and middle school as her, and she said she’s had the same bag since 6th grade.” “Really? Hasn’t it gotten any holes? She should change it.” “Leave her be. She’s probably just poor.” “All of you, stop it.” At that moment, the long-haired girl who had finished her call interjected with a hardened expression. The rest of the girls flinched at the serious look on the long-haired girl’s face. She continued: “That’s going too far. What are you doing? You know Dahye is close to me, so why are you talking badly about her in front of me?” “No, it’s just that we…” “It seems like things are going well between you and Seo Jaegyeom, but she…” “Why are you judging that on your own? I’m not interested in Seo Jaegyeom.” Only then did Eunsung remember. That girl called Jisoo was the one who came to our class during lunch yesterday to wait for her friend. And Kang Dahye. ‘Our class.’ He remembered the homeroom teacher introducing Kang Dahye as the undisputed top student since enrollment, saying to ask her if there was anything unfamiliar due to differences in the curriculum from the previous school. ‘She seemed so smart back then.’ Why is she just listening to such talk behind her back? Eunsung sighed as he tossed the milk cartons in the trash. The girls finally noticed Eunsung’s presence and turned around in surprise, but he was already on his way out of the cafeteria. ‘No awareness. No pride. Carrying an elementary school-like bag.’ It’s so easy to verbally tear a person apart. Honestly, it wasn’t Eunsung’s business whether Kang Dahye was being torn apart or not, but maybe the expressions were too harsh. The words he heard kept echoing in his head. As he was mulling over those thoughts and entering the 4th-floor hallway where the second-year classrooms were located… “Aack!” A phone rolled towards Eunsung’s feet. An old model that seemed to be several years old. He picked up the scratched-up smartphone. ‘…Unrequited love playlist?’ There were 98 songs in it. Eunsung looked up to see Kang Dahye with a bright red face and tears welling up in her eyes. Suddenly, he felt annoyed. He didn’t know why. Why are you always crying every time I see you? ‘Every time I see you?’ Not knowing why he had such a thought, Eunsung opened his mouth. “Oh? Dahye knows a lot of good songs. That’s unexpected.” “No! I don’t! I don’t!” “No, I saw it. She was having a solo hit song party.” “Really? Dahye, don’t have parties by yourself, invite us too.” “What?!” “Then let’s have Dahye choose the song for the performance assessment by then.” Ignoring my protests and hand-waving, the teacher turned towards the piano. I whipped around to glare at Jung Eunsung. -Are you crazy? I scribbled on a torn piece of notebook paper and passed it to the friend sitting behind me. “Pass this to Jung Eunsung.” I watched with blazing eyes as the note made its way to Jung Eunsung. Eunsung received the roughly folded note, flipped it over once… And tossed it backwards into the trash can. “…” “…” “Teacher, Kang Dahye is glaring at me.” “Dahye, the teacher is right here. No matter how handsome Eunsung is, you need to look forward during class, okay?” “…” At that moment, I forgot about my despair over having forgotten everything I learned in high school, and my embarrassment over the teenage emotion playlist I had made. The only thing left in my mind was a burning desire for revenge against Jung Eunsung…! I didn’t even care that Seo Jaegyeom, who had rejected me just hours ago, was looking at me and Jung Eunsung with disapproving eyes from across the room. ‘Just you wait.’ This means war. Next period. “Who wants to come solve the practice problem?” “Teacher, Jung Eunsung says he wants to.” The period after that. “Got it? Who wants to read the next paragraph?” “Teacher, Kang Dahye says she wants to.” “Anyone want to give up their break time to help carry this to the teachers’ office?” “Teacher, Jung Eunsung raised his hand. I saw it.” “Teacher, I think Kang Dahye is using her phone.” “Teacher, Jung Eunsung isn’t studying, he’s drawing.” “Teacher, Kang Dahye…” “Teacher, Jung Eunsung…” “Kang Dahye, Jung Eunsung!” Finally, during lunch break, our red-faced homeroom teacher burst into the classroom and called for me and Jung Eunsung.