Chapter 9

“…Ah.” I hesitated for a moment at the unexpected eye contact. “Move.” A shadow fell over my head from behind. “Why are you blocking the way?” That unpleasant, low voice was definitely… Without turning around, I reached out to close the classroom door, but Jung Eunsung, who had appeared behind me, casually blocked it. Eunsung looked back and forth between Seo Jaegyeom, who had already turned his attention back to Jisoo, and me standing there blankly, then asked: “Is it him?” “What? No, more importantly, Jung Eunsung, why are you here? This is Class A.” “I’m in this class too.” “Think about it again.” “Wow. Look at Kang Dahye blatantly ignoring him.” Doyeon smirked and went to find her seat first. I flinched under Eunsung’s steady gaze and added an excuse. “Well… I know you’re good at English.” These days, entertainment companies teach foreign languages too. I remember his pronunciation was really good. “But were you good at math too…?” “No. I don’t even know what 1 plus 1 is.” “Then why are you here?” “There are too many math-phobes, so there’s no room in Class C. I at least have an A in English.” “What, are all the other Class C kids C in English too…?” “Yep.” “……” The math-phobes of the world have united, I see… “So, is it him? The protagonist of your playlist?” “No, it’s not.” “What do you mean, no? It’s him.” Your standards are low. Eunsung looked Jaegyeom up and down as he playfully covered the workbook Jisoo had her nose buried in with his large hand, then snorted. “So who is he and what class is he in?” “…He’s in our class… Class 2.” No matter how recently you transferred, how can you not know Seo Jaegyeom? Didn’t he catch your eye as soon as you entered the classroom? “What’s his name?” “Seo Jaegyeom.” “…That’s Seo Jaegyeom?” “You know him?” “He’s not better looking than me.” I’m better. Eunsung declared. I looked up at Eunsung, at a loss for words. Eunsung met my gaze confidently, as if asking what the problem was. Right, you’re so great. “The one sitting down must be Jisoo, who you said is close to you.” “You don’t know Seo Jaegyeom in our class, but you know Han Jisoo from another class. Did you fall for her?” “It’s not like that… Sigh. Never mind.” “What?” “You don’t need to know. Then what about that one over there? Is she in our class too?” “Doyeon? Yeah, Doyeon is in our class.” “Are you close? She was being noisy earlier.” “Ah…” Right. She would have been in the cafeteria at lunchtime, too. She must have seen everything that went down between me and Song Yeoreum. Just in case, I asked: “Jung Eunsung, do you believe those rumors, too? About… Doyeon.” “Do I look stupid to you?” Eunsung cut me off sharply. “I may not know what 1 plus 1 is, but I do have a brain, you know?” I must have smiled at that response. Eunsung looked at me like I was strange. “Are you that happy that I don’t believe those baseless rumors?” “Isn’t that normal?” “Even though they’re not about you?” “Even so.” “You’re… weird.” Look who’s talking. I may have built up an internal sense of familiarity with Eunsung after seeing him for over 11 years, but Eunsung has known me for less than a week and has been taking shots at me all day today. I frowned and pressed Eunsung. “Hey. What are you going to do about the music performance?” “What do you mean what? Just sing a song you’re good at.” “I’m not good at singing any songs.” “Then do one with difficult lyrics. Just mess up everything and be the only one who sings it accurately.” “Oh.” That’s not a bad idea. I nodded at the plausible suggestion, but Eunsung kept staring at me intently. He was scrutinizing every inch of my face as if something was on it, so I snapped at him. “What, am I pretty?” “Ha!” “Don’t confess. I won’t accept.” “Oh, please. Hey, I have high standards.” Eunsung held his hand horizontally and raised his arm above his head. “My eyes are up here.” Annoyed, I smacked that arm. “My eyes are even higher than that!” “I don’t think so.” Eunsung nodded towards Jaegyeom again. “They’re rolling on the floor over there.” “What is!” “Your eyes.” “Ugh…!” “Hehehe…” Eunsung, who had been laughing, suddenly turned serious. “Anyway. There’s, absolutely, absolutely no way I’d ever like a weirdo like you.” “I didn’t even confess, and you’re rejecting me…” “Not even if the sky falls. So you can rest easy.” “I shouldn’t rest easy!” Just then, the math teacher - Mr. Na Moongwa, who teaches Math Class A - entered the classroom and picked up on Eunsung’s words. “The moment you let your guard down is when you’ll drop to Class B! Dahye, what are you doing? Hurry up and sit down.” “Teacher…” To Mr. Na Moongwa, whom I was seeing for the first time since my regression, came the historic first question from regressor Kang Dahye. “Where’s my seat…?” “……” “It’s here…” Seo Jaegyeom raised his hand from behind with a disgruntled expression. “You asked to sit together, Kang Dahye. Don’t you remember…?” “……” “Pfft.” I ignored the sound of Eunsung snickering. ‘Who are you calling weird? You don’t even know what 1 plus 1 is.’ Why don’t you know 1 plus 1? 1 plus 1 is… Cute! “For quadratic equations with rational coefficients, x squared…” “You’re pretty fearless.” Jaegyeom’s whisper overlapped with Mr. Na Moongwa’s explanation, which I couldn’t understand at all. I was staring at the blackboard with my mouth open and brows furrowed when I turned just my eyes towards Jaegyeom. Jaegyeom raised the corner of his mouth as our eyes met. “Earlier in the cafeteria. With Song Yeoreum.” “No way. I was terrified.” Honestly, I’m still scared they might come after me and beat me up. I’m planning to leave through the back gate when I go home. “If they try to hurt me, make sure you stop them. Be a witness when I report it to the police, too. Got it?” “Haha.” I’m 100% serious. Why are you laughing? “Seo Jaegyeom, why didn’t you help Doyeon all this time? If someone like you had just said something, the situation would be very different from how it is now.” “Well… Because if I stepped in, it would only make things worse?” “You know that’s just an excuse, right?” “I guess so.” “……” I couldn’t say anything when he admitted it so readily. As I was about to turn my gaze back to the blackboard, Jaegyeom spoke. “I’m sorry.” “For what?” “What I said to you earlier. I didn’t need to go that far.” “Ah. Well.” Of all the ways to convey the truth, you chose the cruelest one. “I like someone too. But when you got in the way, I got annoyed for a moment. It felt like you were interfering.” He’s being honest. I don’t think he told me things like this before my regression. “So we’ll exclude number 4 for now…” I can’t recognize more than half of the symbols the teacher is writing on the board. I just wrote down all the explanations while responding halfheartedly. “I know. You like Jisoo.” Right. Seo Jaegyeom likes my friend Jisoo. Even in classes like this, where the three of us are together, Jaegyeom’s gaze often turned to Jisoo even when sitting next to me. During breaks, he would go to Jisoo as if freed from shackles. And every time that happened, I couldn’t join them until Jisoo called me over, so I just tidied up my desk for no reason. In the past, I was hurt a lot by this. There were times when I felt self-loathing, wondering why I couldn’t be as great as Jisoo. Now? Whatever. It’s been 11 years since I liked Seo Jaegyeom, at least from my perspective. No, that’s not right. I kept liking him until senior year, so it’s been 10 years. Jaegyeom’s eyes widened slightly at my nonchalant words. “You knew?” “How could I not know?” “Well. Han Jisoo is pretty.” So I’m not pretty, is that what you’re saying? “This isn’t going to make things awkward between you and Han Jisoo, right?” “Why would it? I’m not going to like you anymore either.” That seemed to surprise him, as Jaegyeom turned his whole body to look at me. I just nodded while furiously taking notes, almost jumping forward in my seat. “Really?” “Really.” “I mean, I appreciate it if you can do that… but can feelings be controlled so easily?” I already don’t like you anymore. To me, you’re already a person of the past. “Well, it won’t be easy. But once we turn twenty and go to college, it’ll all be over. Out of sight, out of mind, right?” That’s how it was. When I bombed the CSAT and my problems were staring me in the face, I didn’t even think about Seo Jaegyeom. Even if feelings for Jaegyeom still exist, the expiration date on those feelings is at most 2 years from now. “Even if it’s uncomfortable, just bear with it until the CSAT, Seo Jaegyeom. We’ll be in different classes in senior year anyway, and once we go to college, we won’t see each other anymore.” “We won’t see each other?” “Yeah.” “Wow.” “What?” “Kang Dahye, you’re cold. You won’t even say hi if we run into each other in the neighborhood?” “We didn’t run into each other.” “You’re talking like you’ve experienced it.” Jaegyeom’s muttered words seemed to carry more weight than usual. The teacher’s voice overlapped with it. Much more important than the grumbling of Seo Jaegyeom, a relationship with only a 2-year expiration date. “Okay, I’ll explain again. For quadratic equations with rational coefficients…” What are coefficients, teacher… I know about the blue stream at Cheongsan-ri… but that won’t work here, will it…? “Now, who wants to solve this problem?” Math is hopeless. As I was biting my lip, my eyes met with Eunsung’s. Eunsung grinned and slowly opened his mouth. “Teacher, Kang…” Ahhh! I grabbed Seo Jaegyeom’s hand, who was saying something. I grabbed it and raised it. “Teacher! Seo Jaegyeom says he’ll solve it!” 1 minute later. Jaegyeom returned with a furious expression, smiling, and asked: “So, are you planning to switch from me to him now?”