“…Ah.”
I froze for a moment as my eyes suddenly met someone else’s.
“Move.”
A shadow loomed over me from behind.
“Why are you blocking the way?”
That irritatingly low voice—it could only be one person.
Just as I was about to close the classroom door without turning around, Jung Eunseong appeared behind me and casually blocked it.
He looked between Seo Jaegyeom, who had turned his attention back to Jisoo, and me, who stood there awkwardly, and asked:
“Is it him?”
“What is? Wait, Jung Eunseong, why are you even here? This is Class A.”
“I’m in this class too.”
“Think again.”
“Wow. Kang Dahye’s straight-up ignoring me.”
Doyeon chuckled and went off to find her seat first.
Feeling a little guilty under Jung Eunseong’s gaze, I added an excuse.
“I mean… I know you’re good at English.”
Didn’t your agency start teaching foreign languages? I remember your pronunciation being amazing.
“But were you ever good at math…?”
“Nope. I don’t even know what 1 plus 1 is.”
“Then why are you in this class?”
“C class was full of math hopeless cases. I only made it into A because I’m decent at English.”
“And all the other C-class kids got C in English too…?”
“Yup.”
“……”
So the math failures have united across the globe…
“So, is it him? The guy from your playlist?”
“No, he’s not!”
“Come on. It’s obvious.”
Your standards are seriously low. Jung Eunseong looked Seo Jaegyeom up and down, who was playfully covering Jisoo’s workbook with his large hand, then snorted.
“So which class is he in?”
“…He’s in our class… Class 2.”
How can he not know Seo Jaegyeom even if he transferred just recently?
Didn’t he notice him right when he walked into class?
“What’s his name?”
“Seo Jaegyeom.”
“…That’s Seo Jaegyeom?”
“You know him?”
“He’s not better-looking than me.”
I’m clearly better. Jung Eunseong declared confidently.
With nothing to say to that, I looked up at him.
He stared back proudly, like he didn’t see anything wrong with what he just said.
Fine. You’re amazing.
“The one sitting next to him must be that Jisoo girl you’re close with.”
“You know Han Jisoo from another class but not Seo Jaegyeom from our own? Did you fall for her?”
“It’s not like that… Ugh, whatever.”
“What?”
“Never mind. So what about her? Is she in our class too?”
“Doyeon? Yeah, she’s with us.”
“Are you two close? She was pretty loud earlier.”
“Ah…”
Right. She must’ve been in the cafeteria during lunch too.
She probably saw the whole scene between me and Song Yeoreum.
Just in case, I asked,
“Jung Eunseong, do you believe what she said? You know… what Doyeon said.”
“Do I look stupid to you?”
He cut me off sharply.
“I may not know 1 plus 1, but I’ve got a brain, okay?”
I must’ve smiled at that response.
Jung Eunseong stared at me with a strange look.
“You’re really that happy I don’t believe the rumors?”
“Isn’t that obvious?”
“It’s not even a rumor about you.”
“Even so.”
“You really are… weird.”
Look who’s talking.
Sure, I’ve known Jung Eunseong for over 11 years and have some inner familiarity with him, but he’s known me for less than a week and he’s been targeting me all day long.
I frowned and confronted him.
“Hey. What are we going to do about the music assignment?”
“What do you mean, just sing something you’re good at.”
“I’m not good at anything.”
“Then pick a song with difficult lyrics. Let everyone else mess it up and you be the only one who gets it right.”
“Oh.”
That’s actually… a pretty decent idea.
I nodded at the seemingly good suggestion, but Jung Eunseong kept staring at me. His gaze roamed my face like he was examining something stuck on it. Annoyed, I snapped.
“What? Am I pretty or something?”
“Ha!”
“Don’t confess to me. I won’t accept it.”
“Please. I have high standards.”
He raised his hand above his head.
“My standards are way up here.”
Annoyed, I smacked his arm.
“Well, mine are even higher!”
“I don’t think so.”
He nodded in Seo Jaegyeom’s direction again.
“They’re rolling on the floor over there.”
“What is?!”
“Your standards.”
“Ugh…!”
“Hehehe…”
Then, suddenly, Jung Eunseong grew serious.
“Anyway. There’s absolutely, positively, definitely no way I’d ever like someone as weird as you.”
“I never confessed, why are you rejecting me…”
“Even if the sky falls, not happening. So relax.”
“I can’t relax!”
Right at that moment, the math teacher walked into class—our A-class teacher, Mr. Namoon.
He picked up right where Jung Eunseong left off.
“The moment you let your guard down, you’ll drop to Class B! Kang Dahye, what are you doing? Sit down already.”
“Sir…”
My first time seeing Mr. Namoon since I came back. Time for the reincarnator Kang Dahye’s first historic question.
“Where’s my seat…?”
“……”
“It’s here…”
Seo Jaegyeom raised his hand with a reluctant expression.
“You asked to sit with me, remember? Don’t you…?”
“……”
Pfft.
I ignored Jung Eunseong’s mocking laugh.
‘Who’s calling who weird now? The guy who doesn’t even know 1 plus 1?’
Why wouldn’t you know 1 plus 1?
1 plus 1 is…
Cutie!
“Now, a quadratic equation with rational coefficients, x squared…”
“You’re braver than I thought.”
I didn’t understand a single word Mr. Namoon said, but layered over it was Seo Jaegyeom’s soft whisper.
I squinted at the board, my mouth open in confusion, and shifted my eyes toward him.
Meeting my gaze, Seo Jaegyeom smirked.
“Back at the cafeteria. With Song Yeoreum.”
“I was scared stiff, though.”
Honestly, I’m still terrified her gang might follow me and beat me up. I plan to use the back gate when I go home.
“If they try anything, promise you’ll stop them. Be a witness if I have to report them to the police. Got it?”
“Ha ha.”
Why are you laughing? I’m 100% serious.
“Seo Jaegyeom, why didn’t you help Doyeon before? Someone like you saying one thing could’ve made a huge difference.”
“Well… I figured it’d just make things worse if I stepped in.”
“You know that’s just an excuse, right?”
“Yeah, I know.”
“……”
Since he admitted it so easily, I couldn’t really argue. As I turned back toward the board, Seo Jaegyeom said,
“Sorry.”
“For what?”
“For what I said earlier. I didn’t have to go that far.”
“Oh. Well.”
Out of all the ways to tell the truth, you really chose the cruelest one.
“The thing is, there’s someone I’m actually interested in. So when you got involved, I got annoyed. Felt like you were getting in the way.”
At least he’s honest.
Pretty sure he never told me this in the previous timeline.
“So I’m excluding number 4 for now…”
I couldn’t recognize more than half the symbols the teacher was writing. I kept taking notes absentmindedly and replied,
“I know. You like Jisoo.”
Yeah.
Seo Jaegyeom likes my friend, Jisoo.
Even when we sat together in these joint class sessions, his gaze often wandered toward Jisoo. During breaks, he’d rush over to her like he’d just been released from shackles.
Every time that happened, I couldn’t insert myself between them until Jisoo called me over. I just busied myself arranging my desk.
It used to really hurt.
I often questioned why I couldn’t be as good as Jisoo.
But now?
Whatever.
I liked Seo Jaegyeom too—by my standards, over 11 years ago.
No. I liked him until senior year, so… 10 years ago.
Hearing my calm response, Seo Jaegyeom’s eyes widened slightly.
“You knew?”
“How could I not?”
“Well, Han Jisoo is pretty, after all.”
So I’m not, huh.
“This isn’t going to make things awkward between you and Jisoo, right?”
“Why would it? I don’t like you anymore.”
That seemed to surprise him a bit—he even turned toward me.
Still jotting down notes like I was possessed, I simply nodded.
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Well, if that’s true, I’m thankful, but… can you really control your feelings?”
I already don’t like you anymore.
To me, you’re someone from the past.
“It won’t be easy, sure. But once we’re in college at 20, everything will be over. They say ‘out of sight, out of mind.’”
And it was true.
Once I bombed the college entrance exam and real problems came crashing down, I didn’t even think about Seo Jaegyeom.
Even if some feelings linger, their expiration date is, at most, two years from now.
“So just put up with me until the exam’s over. Once we’re seniors, we’ll be in different classes anyway. And once we’re in college, we won’t see each other again.”
“You won’t?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow.”
“What?”
“You’re cold, Kang Dahye. What if we bump into each other around the neighborhood? Won’t you even say hi?”
“When would that even happen?”
“You say it like you’ve lived it already.”
His muttered words sounded oddly heavier than usual. But over them came the teacher’s voice—
Much more important than anything Seo Jaegyeom, the boy with a 2-year shelf life, was grumbling about.
“Now, let’s go over it again. A quadratic equation with rational coefficients…”
Sir, what even is a coefficient…?
I know Cheongsan-ri Byeokgyesu, but that’s not helping me here…
“Who wants to solve this next problem?”
Math is seriously hopeless.
As I bit my lip—
I made eye contact with Jung Eunseong.
Grinning, he slowly opened his mouth.
“Teacher, Kang—”
AAAHHH!
I grabbed Seo Jaegyeom’s hand mid-sentence and raised it high.
“Teacher! Seo Jaegyeom says he’ll solve it!”
One minute later.
Returning with a forced smile and an extremely pissed-off expression, Seo Jaegyeom asked,
“So… are you switching over to him now instead of me?”
