EAR Ch 12

Until class started, Ryu Jaemin didn’t turn back toward the seat behind him where Seungpyo was sitting even once. He was a brazen bastard, fitting for an absolute pervert.

When the particularly suffocating and boring hour-long class ended, Oh Seungpyo stood up from his seat, pushing his chair with a clutter of dissatisfaction. The teacher, who had not yet left the front of the podium, saw Seungpyo, and with eyes that said this was perfect, hurriedly gestured as if not to miss him.

“Oh Seungpyo! Come here for a second.”

“Yes? Why?”

As he strolled over and stood in front of the podium, the teacher pointed to two boxes of materials that looked heavy at a glance and smiled.

“Move these to the resource room at the end of the hallway.”

“Ah, teacher. It’s break time.”

“I have to go straight to the faculty room today, so I’m asking for a favor. Ah, right. Jaemin-ah, Ryu Jaemin!”

“Yes?”

Jaemin, who was just about to leave the classroom door, widened his eyes and turned back.

“It looks too heavy to carry alone, so I’ll pair you up with a friend. Looking at it roughly, you two are the tallest. Just put these on an empty spot on the shelf and close the door without locking it.”

At the teacher’s generous-sounding words, Jaemin couldn’t hide his flustered expression for a moment and looked at Seungpyo. It was the first moment he made eye contact with Seungpyo, who had been in the same classroom the whole time.

Seungpyo stacked the two boxes together, lifted them up easily all at once, and approached right up to Ryu Jaemin’s nose. He even smiled quite pleasantly and gave a greeting to the teacher, who was hurrying to leave the room.

“Got it. We’ll drop them off properly.”

“Sorry, I’m asking just this once!”

They were adults who nagged the students not to run in the hallways, yet didn’t care about speed at all when they were in a rush themselves. As the teacher almost ran down the hallway and went down the stairs, Oh Seungpyo turned to look at Jaemin, who was still standing next to him, and gestured with his head.

“What are you doing? Come on quickly.”

“…I’ll just take them by myself. You go to your classroom.”

“You’re gonna carry both of these all by yourself?”

Oh Seungpyo let out a snicker and added as if it were a hassle.

“Don’t just show off your strength with words, and quickly pick up even one.”

As if he had no choice, Jaemin took and held the box placed on top. As if it was heavier than expected, the space between his brows furrowed slightly before smoothing out again. Oh Seungpyo tilted his head again and pointed toward the resource room with his hair.

“Just come quickly.”

It was a tone close to an order. Oh Seungpyo walked a few steps ahead, and when Jaemin didn’t follow, he stopped dead in his tracks and turned around.

In the end, Jaemin let out a barely visible sigh, and with a intimidated expression, hesitated before approaching Oh Seungpyo’s side. Even while walking, the uneasy emotion could be seen plain as day in his glancing, watchful eyes. Seungpyo felt the need to tweak his assumptions about Jaemin a bit.

‘Did he just chicken out and avoid me?’

Even after reconsidering, it was ridiculous all the same. Having the guts to take and upload perverted pictures to the internet where who knows how many people would see, yet chickening out so much in front of him that he couldn’t even talk to him?

…Then again, since he knew it was a guilty thing to do, he probably cropped his face out and posted anonymously. He heard that bastards doing shady things on the internet would beg for their lives if they were summoned to reality and about to be ruined, but to Seungpyo, they were a species he couldn’t understand at all.

If they knew it was a thing that would screw them over if caught, they shouldn’t do such a thing in the first place, but he thought the reason they went out of their way to put it into action anyway was because their heads weren’t working right. But seeing even the number one student in the whole school like Ryu Jaemin make a similar mistake, it seems humans are indeed not such simple creatures.

While thinking for a moment, they soon drew close to the resource room. Seungpyo opened the door and looked down at Jaemin. At the implicit glance telling him to go in first, Jaemin obediently stepped inside. Seungpyo switched the box to one arm and clicked the door locked. The sound of locking the door was clearly loud, but Jaemin didn’t ask why he locked the door.

“We can put them up here.”

As they pushed the boxes into the empty spots on the shelf one by one with a rustling sound, the errand ended in no time. If so, it was a matter of leaving the resource room and returning to their respective classrooms, but when Seungpyo didn’t move, Jaemin also became quiet as a mute who ate honey and couldn’t take a step first.

“Hey.”

Seungpyo’s low single word broke the silence. Ryu Jaemin, who had been lowering his gaze slightly and looking at his feet, raised his head. Their eyes met again, and Seungpyo looked at Jaemin with a faint sneer, just like he did in the classroom.

“Why haven’t you said anything for days?”

Seungpyo asked straight to the point without beating around the bush. If he intended to wait for Ryu Jaemin’s confession any longer, he would have quickly returned to the classroom, instead of locking the door for all to see like this.

“…What do you mean.”

However, in the sight of Jaemin meekly replying, he still felt a shamelessness trying to play innocent. At that sight, the strange conversation pattern he saw on SNS naturally came to mind.

Whether the people viewing the photos left curses or sexual harassment, Ryu Jaemin answered politely without getting excited. However, not every post had a reply attached. There were also many comments in between that didn’t have Ryu Jaemin’s answer, and ignoring without mixing words with someone he didn’t like seemed to be Ryu Jaemin’s way.

When his thoughts reached there, Seungpyo’s mood worsened even more.

“There’s plenty to say. First, my phone. If you picked up someone else’s item, you should think about returning it. How long are you going to keep it?”

“Sorry. I was going to give it to you. I just keep forgetting and leaving it behind.”

“And your phone.”

Seungpyo knitted his brows slightly and stepped a bit closer. Seungpyo, who was taller and bigger-built than kids his age, stepped closer with strength in his tone, and that alone became a sight as if he were making a threat.

Jaemin looked at such Seungpyo without backing down. Though he tried to remain expressionless, the unstable shifting of his eyes showed quite an anxious sign inside.

“Why aren’t you looking for your phone? You don’t need it?”

“My phone?”

Even amidst this, Jaemin opened his eyes roundly, rummaged through his pocket, and pulled out a cell phone. Making an innocent expression as if he really knew nothing.

“I didn’t lose my phone.”

“Mm? You didn’t lose it?”

“Yeah, this is my phone. I’ve used it for over a year already.”

“Ah—, so the one I picked up wasn’t Ryu Jaemin’s, but someone else’s phone. I must have been mistaken.”

“Looks like it. I didn’t lose anything.”

Pfft, Seungpyo snorted for the third time today alone. After wondering what he was thinking while avoiding him for days, if he had merely decided to stubbornly insist like this.

“If it’s not yours, then can I show the pictures and posts I saw on that phone to your homeroom teacher?”

“Pictures?”

“Ah, I shouldn’t show them to the homeroom teacher. You’re number one in the whole school, so the teachers will naturally take your side. It’d be better to just upload them to the kids’ group chat. After uploading, it’ll be fun to watch what they say after telling the kids they’re pictures of Ryu Jaemin. Right?”

Even though he sneered to his heart’s content, Ryu Jaemin didn’t seem particularly flustered. He merely blinked his eyes as if more puzzled than a moment ago.

“I don’t know what you’ve been talking about since earlier… What pictures?”

“An actor is born. Hey, does acting like you don’t know make the pictures go away? I captured all of them. Even if you cover your face, anyone who knows you will know it’s you.”

“I was curious why you seemed mad whenever you saw me since a few days ago, too. I think you’re confusing me with someone else.”

“I’m really out of words.”

A sincere chuckle came out. Jaemin lowered his head slightly as if surprised.

“You act fucking well. Why are you pretending to chicken out? Deep down, you aren’t scared at all, are you.”

“It’s because you’re angry right now….”

“I’m not angry. I’m just letting you know what I’m gonna do to you.”

“I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”