EAR Ch 13

“Ah, is that so? Then I should have just popped it immediately without saying anything. Do you agree?”

“Whatever it is, do as you like. I just hope you clear up the misunderstanding and cool down your anger.”

His brazenness was deserving of an acting award. Oh Seungpyo, who had heard a hundred times why he didn’t try to become a celebrity when he couldn’t even sing or act—why is this bastard, while having a decent face, number one in the whole school and even good at acting? On second thought, Ryu Jaemin was all the more repulsive.

“Then be prepared. It’s no use regretting it later, okay? I was going to pretend not to notice if you explained to me first. You took someone else’s thing first, and after doing that, you ignored me first.”

“I told you you’re confusing me with someone else. Why do you keep getting angry even though I tell you to do as you like….”

“Hey, Ryu Jaemin.”

“No matter how much I think about it, I haven’t done anything wrong to you, so I don’t know why you’re being like this to me.”

The question from Ryu Jaemin, who was complaining with a slightly tearful face, was valid. Just as he said, Ryu Jaemin had done nothing wrong to Seungpyo. Whether he took perverted pictures and posted them on his SNS or denied that fact, there was no reason for Oh Seungpyo, who had nothing to do with it, to get angry.

At first, Seungpyo simply found this situation funny. Just thinking about Ryu Jaemin, who had given him a sense of defeat like chronic inflammation all year round, coming to find him first and being flustered, at a loss, and dazed was thrilling in itself.

So, if Jaemin had only moved as expected, a situation where he got angry at Ryu Jaemin or acted threateningly like now wouldn’t even have been staged. After teasing him appropriately just as he did to the perverts leaving comments on Jaemin’s SNS, and venting a bit of the anger from every time he had only lost, he was more than willing to lock their mouths after exchanging phones with each other and bury a shameful perverted hobby activity.

That the number one student in the whole school was secretly operating a spank-bank account using his own pictures without others knowing was too big of an incident in a peaceful school. Taking the lead and revealing a secret like this at a time when they had to advance to the 2nd year would leave nothing for Oh Seungpyo anyway.

“So fuck, because you piss people off.”

“What did I even do to you? Today is the first time talking like this with you, too….”

Ryu Jaemin muttered in a truly troubled tone, and then widened his eyes as if surprised after looking at his watch.

“Break time is coming to an end. We have to go out now.”

“You’re so easygoing, totally.”

“Oh Seungpyo.”

A sharp, taut tension was freshly embedded in Ryu Jaemin’s tone as he called his name.

Was it because the remaining time became tight? His gaze, too, changed from a moment ago when he was playing innocent without knowing anything, and his voice lowered like someone proposing an illegal trade.

“What do you want?”

“…What?”

“You’re getting angry because there’s something you want. Don’t just keep getting angry, and tell me what you want.”

What he wants?

Seungpyo knitted his brows. Wanting something from Ryu Jaemin—there was no way such a thing existed. Oh Seungpyo was simply amused by the surprising situation brought by chance. He just wanted to see the impressive Ryu Jaemin groveling a bit in front of him.

Although it wasn’t a crime for Ryu Jaemin to be more impressive than Oh Seungpyo, he also didn’t think the desire to get the better of that impressive bastard just once while having an excuse was wrong.

“I know you feel bad because your ranking keeps falling behind mine. Should I lend you my notebook? Or tutoring materials.”

“What is this bastard saying.”

At Jaemin’s ahead-of-itself offer, Seungpyo’s expression became even fiercer. Far from groveling, Ryu Jaemin was acting troubled, acting in a bind, and behaving the most annoying out of everything so far.

“Who said they were curious about a notebook from the likes of you?”

“Then should I share performance evaluations with you? Performance evaluations are more annoying than studying for tests, but they go into school reports.”

Always a few points short of Ryu Jaemin, Oh Seungpyo was also the number two student in the whole school. He wasn’t curious at all about Ryu Jaemin’s notebook or performance evaluations. Seungpyo was really angry this time at the tone that seemed to treat him like a far underachieving student with learning difficulties.

“Are you crazy? Won’t you shut your mouth?”

“Otherwise, I’ll lose to you once in the mock exam.”

Oh Seungpyo, whose voice had heightened for a moment, slowly closed his open mouth. The resource room, which was almost on the verge of getting noisy, became eerily quiet.

Seungpyo let out a small sigh and reached his arm out with a swish. His large hand roughly rolled up and grabbed Jaemin’s stiff shirt collar.

When Seungpyo opened his mouth again, the sign of excitement had left his voice, sinking cold instead.

“Say one more word. If you want to die.”

When Jaemin, who had his collar grabbed, didn’t answer right away and only stared straight into his eyes, someone knocked on the door from the outside with a thud, thud, thud.

“Is anyone inside? Class has started, come out quickly!”

It was the voice of the math teacher. Seungpyo clicked his tongue while glancing annoyedly at the door, and released his hand that was holding the collar. Jaemin smoothed his wrinkled shirt collar with a gloomy face, and patted his clothes with a tap-tap as if dusting off dirt. Seungpyo clicked his tongue and called the model student.

“Hey.”

“Huh?”

“We’re not done talking. Don’t run off anywhere after this class ends.”

They still had a lot to talk about, but both were helpless high school students. The signboards of the school who were taking charge of the number 1 and 2 spots in the whole school side by side intended to diligently attend the vacation supplementary classes and fill the class hours.

With his face stiffened as his anger still hadn’t cooled down, Oh Seungpyo opened the door. The teacher, who was standing without hiding his suspicion about whether students locked the door and hid inside the resource room to play bad pranks, broke into a smile and relaxed his expression as soon as he saw Seungpyo’s and Jaemin’s faces.

“What, it was you guys? What brings you two together in the resource room?”

“Because of the English teacher’s errand.”

“Right, go in quickly. The teachers are coming up.”

“Yes.”

The honor students recognized by themselves and others were released right away without receiving any particular suspicion. Even after returning to his respective classroom, Oh Seungpyo gnashed his teeth in disbelief at Ryu Jaemin’s brazenness. He couldn’t vent his anger no matter what. He felt as if lava had pooled in his pit of the stomach and the area near his chest was seething.

Notebook? Tutoring? Losing on purpose in a mock exam? Ryu Jaemin threw those crazy offers as if pitying Seungpyo, in a tone of helping the underprivileged.

If Seungpyo only wanted to, he could receive as much of that kind of tutoring as he liked. Since doing it alone was enough, he just hadn’t told his dad because spending that much money on entrance exam studying felt like a waste.

…Besides, even though grades came out fine while he took it easy alone until now, trying to mobilize academies and tutoring like other kids belatedly felt like it would ruin his dignity too.

Anyway, if he was in the middle of thinking that Oh Seungpyo was poor and couldn’t attend academies or receive tutoring, it was Ryu Jaemin’s firm misunderstanding.

“It’s so fucking absurd, son of a bitch….”

“What is?”

At the monologue that popped out of his mouth before he knew it, the guy sitting in the next seat reacted quickly. He had a gaze curious if there was something fun going on.

“I fought with my hyung.”

All of Seungpyo’s friends knew that Seungpyo argued with his hyung at the drop of a hat. The guy in the next seat soon looked toward the chalkboard with a face that lost interest.

📚

Even before the class bell finished ringing, Seungpyo stood up from his seat first.

Exiting the classroom through the back door faster than the teacher and almost running in the hallway with his long legs drew everyone’s gaze. Without caring whether others looked or not, Seungpyo, who threw open the door to Class 2, strode toward Jaemin, who was sitting around the middle row. Although “Students from other classes prohibited from entering” was written on the back door, Seungpyo didn’t even give that phrase a glance.

“Ryu Jaemin, come out.”