Just A Friend

#4

As the gaze lingered, the man also stared intently at him. …It was uncomfortable. Thinking it would be better not to acknowledge him, Nam Seonwoo casually spoke up.

“Is that for us?”

Only then did Kang Jihan hand over the bag. Nam Seonwoo could sense that Kang Jihan was suspicious, wondering if he had been recognized. Well, it made sense for him to think that way, given how openly Nam Seonwoo had been staring.

Nam Seonwoo hesitated for a moment. If he just pretended not to recognize Kang Jihan, it would leave him feeling uneasy. He’d feel like someone had some kind of leverage over him. Looking directly at the darkly tinted goggles, Nam Seonwoo lowered his voice.

“Hey. You’re a second-year, right?”

“…”

“I’m right, aren’t I? Student Affairs. I’ll pretend I didn’t see you, so get out of here quickly.”

Speaking with a confident tone, Kang Jihan nodded slightly after a moment. Nam Seonwoo glanced towards the back gate. The rattling engine sound was unmistakable.

“And you shouldn’t park it over there.”

Gesturing with his chin in that direction, Nam Seonwoo asked,

“You know you’ll get penalty points if you’re caught with the motorcycle, right?”

It was just before the summer break, wasn’t it? Kang Jihan’s motorcycle had been caught by the head of Student Affairs once. At that time, rumors spread that he was hanging out with biker gangs.

He was already a guy surrounded by all sorts of rumors. Having the motorcycle known wouldn’t do him any good, so Nam Seonwoo decided to give him a heads up while he was at it.

“I’ve seen the delivery guys park by the shoulder near the north gate instead of the back gate. Seems like they don’t get caught there.”

“…”

“Well, the head of Student Affairs isn’t on duty today, so you should be fine.”

Nam Seonwoo took the chicken and went into the annex building without waiting for a reply. He could feel the gaze lingering on his back, but he didn’t look back. This was more comfortable for both of them.

‘…That brat. Why did he have to come deliver to the school?’

It was unnecessarily distracting. The image of Kang Jihan hesitating, so unlike him, kept coming to mind, so Nam Seonwoo buried his nose in the box containing the chicken.

“Hey! Nam Seonwoo is going to eat all of that by himself!”

Thanks to the heavenly smell and the golden appearance, the lingering image of Kang Jihan soon faded away.

* * *

It was P.E. time.

A cool breeze blew through the wide-open windows. It couldn’t compare to air conditioning, but looking at the clear blue sky without a speck of fine dust made it feel even more refreshing. Carried by the gentle wind, boisterous cheers entered the classroom.

Alone in the classroom, Nam Seonwoo looked down at the playground. Watching the boys kicking the ball while sweating profusely under the scorching sun, he couldn’t help but exclaim.

“Wow. So young, so young.”

This was the epitome of youth. The occasional swearing that could be heard didn’t sound unpleasant, but rather cute and fitting for their age. Nam Seonwoo’s gaze scanned through the numerous “chestnuts” like searching for a pearl in the sand.

…Why isn’t he there? Nam Seonwoo tilted his head. He wasn’t by the goal posts or in the stands. He was the kind of guy who stood out even from afar, so there was no way he could have missed him. Nam Seonwoo, who had been unconsciously searching for Kang Jihan all over the playground, soon stopped. Thinking about it, it wasn’t his business where Kang Jihan was.

He thought about taking a good nap since he had the classroom to himself for a while, but after seeing the calendar prominently displayed in the classroom, he couldn’t. June. It was the period for performance evaluations and nationwide mock exams. Nam Seonwoo bitterly opened his textbook.

Memorizing the intentions of poetic speakers at the age of thirty-four made him sigh involuntarily. To think that the first thing he did after traveling back in time was studying for college entrance exams instead of enjoying his youth. Even though he wanted to throw it all away, the D-day written on the blackboard was approaching fast.

“Oh, my fate.”

Unable to focus, he closed the Korean textbook. The language section was one of his better-scoring areas. With his experience as a math teacher, he figured he could manage the math section to some extent, but the foreign language section was urgent. Nam Seonwoo hummed to himself, putting a tune to his muttering as he often did.

“Where did my vocabulary book go~”

He’d heard that older men living alone often did this, and he chuckled at the thought that he might have become one of those middle-aged guys now. The sound of rummaging through drawers and his humming echoed in the quiet classroom.

But the vocabulary book was nowhere to be found. Thinking he might have put it in his locker, he stood up without much thought, and at that moment, his eyes met with Kang Jihan standing at the back door of the classroom.

“…”

“…”

Remembering his earlier muttering, Nam Seonwoo felt his face heat up. He wished Kang Jihan would at least mock him, but Kang Jihan’s face was expressionless. So he couldn’t tell how long Kang Jihan had been there. The silence stretched on. Finally, Nam Seonwoo waved his hand slightly and said,

“Oh, you’re here?”

He regretted it as soon as he said it. It was a habitual greeting he used to give to Kang Jihan when he came home when they lived together. What do you mean ‘you’re here’? Is this your house, Nam Seonwoo…? He wanted to smack his forehead repeatedly, but he tried to act nonchalant as he walked to his locker.

“Yesterday.”

It was Kang Jihan who spoke first. Wondering if he had heard wrong, Nam Seonwoo turned his head abruptly, and Kang Jihan closed his mouth. Seeing him seemingly choosing his words, Nam Seonwoo also remembered yesterday’s events. …The chicken. He had completely forgotten about it.

“What about yesterday?”

Asking casually as if he knew nothing, Kang Jihan soon shook his head. The poker face Nam Seonwoo had cultivated through his years of social life came in very handy at this moment. While taking out the vocabulary book from his locker, Nam Seonwoo asked,

“Are you self-studying too?”

He swore he had no intention of continuing the conversation. Nam Seonwoo was the class president, and he had a duty to keep track of his classmates’ whereabouts during class hours. Kang Jihan nodded.

For third-year high school students, P.E. time was almost like free time. So they were given the option to self-study during that time. Of course, in an all-boys school, it was a meaningless option.

As he passed by Kang Jihan, Nam Seonwoo glanced at his desk. The Korean textbook was spotlessly clean. Well, it would be strange to have notes when all he did was sleep. The words “You should study during P.E. instead of sleeping during class” rose to the tip of his tongue, but he swallowed them and sat down.

Only the sound of Nam Seonwoo’s writing could be heard in the quiet classroom. The hand copying vocabulary words slowed down because the classroom was too quiet. There was no sound of turning pages or writing anything.

Glancing back, he saw Kang Jihan sitting like a statue. The scene of him glaring at the textbook while holding a mechanical pencil was quite funny. Nam Seonwoo knew that this was the expression Kang Jihan made when he couldn’t solve a problem.

‘He was hopeless when it came to language.’

But what did that matter now? It was no longer his concern. Nam Seonwoo turned his head abruptly and started memorizing vocabulary again. Until he memorized all the English words on the next page, and the page after that, and the one after that, the guy sitting diagonally behind him remained quiet. Finally, Nam Seonwoo put down his pencil with a sigh.

“What are you stuck on? Non-fiction?”

Kang Jihan answered with his eyes. The guarded look that seemed to say ‘What’s it to you?’ made him look like an untamed puppy.

‘No, puppy is too cute… maybe a wild dog?’

He’s only nineteen, so puppy fits better than dog. With such silly thoughts, Nam Seonwoo sat on the chair in front of Kang Jihan’s desk, and the guy frowned. Completely ignoring that, Nam Seonwoo asked,

“It is non-fiction, right? This problem?”

“Mind your own business.”

“Why? You’re not good at studying, are you?”

There was no answer when he asked out of pure curiosity. Kang Jihan was expressionless as usual, but he looked a bit, how should I put it, dumbfounded. His slightly parted lips even made him look stupid.

“This is a problem you need to solve and move on from within a minute. Why are you stuck on it for so long? Are you going to do this during the actual exam too?”

Nam Seonwoo snatched Kang Jihan’s mechanical pencil and underlined parts of the passage. He kindly explained that the answer was right there in the text so he should move straight to the answer choices, and also how to approach similar problems. When he looked up, feeling the burning gaze, Kang Jihan was staring at him incredulously.

“Listen carefully. This is information you can’t get anywhere else.”

“I don’t need it, so just go away.”

“Huh? This is ridiculous.”

Kang Jihan’s mouth closed again at the earthy expression he had never heard before.

“When someone helps you, you say ‘thank you’ and accept it. Don’t be stubborn for no reason. Do you know how expensive it would be to get private lessons from me?”

The private tutoring that started as a way to earn pocket money during his undergraduate years became so popular through word of mouth in the neighborhood that there was even a waiting list. While reminiscing about his fresh college days, he heard:

“How much?”

The chilling voice instantly froze the air. Only then did Nam Seonwoo realize his mistake. He remembered that there were people who approached Kang Jihan after hearing rumors about his family being well-off, and how much Kang Jihan despised them. It was obvious how this prickly guy would have interpreted what he just said.

“Stop wasting time and just tell me. It’s annoying.”

Even so, suddenly acting all high and mighty, what the hell. He felt annoyed that his good intentions were met with this kind of response. Nam Seonwoo was about to snap back but decided to hold back. His opponent was just a high school kid whose brain wasn’t fully developed yet, a high schooler. After reminding himself of this fact about three times, he spoke.

“If I tell you, will you actually listen?”

Kang Jihan smirked as if he had expected this. As if saying ‘Go ahead and try,’ he tilted his head slightly. Looking straight at that face, Nam Seonwoo smiled.

“Then call me hyung.”

“…What?”

He couldn’t possibly say ‘I’m fifteen years older than you,’ so he just added that his birthday was earlier. Then he pointed out another problem Kang Jihan had gotten wrong. Your problem is that you’re too straightforward in solving problems, literature is a kind of wordplay, he continued explaining with such comments. Unlike before, Kang Jihan remained quiet during this explanation.

Just then, the bell rang. Along with the bell signaling break time, the corridor quickly became noisy. Nam Seonwoo stood up without hesitation.

“Solve the rest on your own.”

He had no intention of teaching him seriously like before. It was just this once that he helped out of generosity because Kang Jihan was being so frustratingly dense.