EAR Ch 16

It was simple logic that growing boys, having kept their nerves taut since the very first period, would be hungry even before lunchtime arrived.

Arriving at the cafeteria, Seungpyo and his friends quickly received their school lunches and looked for empty seats. Seungpyo’s friend pointed to a spot as if welcoming it.

“There are Class 2 kids. Let’s go over there and eat.”

“While eating, let’s also set a solid time for playing basketball. We’ve only matched the dates.”

Oh Seungpyo’s gaze, looking nonchalantly in the direction the kids were pointing at, hit a very familiar rounded back of a head. If one were to bump into a crazy bastard in the cafeteria with whom they had just been arguing until a moment ago, the psychology of an ordinary person would be to avoid him, saying it ruins their appetite.

However, since Oh Seungpyo still had business left with Ryu Jaemin, he had no choice but to head that way. Straightening his shoulders more than usual, puffing up his momentum like a male going to fight an enemy.

“Oh, it’s Oh Seungpyo.”

Before they even sat down, the Class 2 kids welcomed them by waving their hands first. Jaemin, who was sitting with them, merely raised his eyelids slightly to steal a glance at Seungpyo, and then soon gave a greeting while wearing a smile.

“Hi.”

“Uh, hi….”

The Class 4 kids widened their eyes as if surprised. Intermingled among the Class 2 kids whom they often hung out with to play basketball together, a new member was squeezed in.

“Do you eat together with Ryu Jaemin these days?”

The interest of the kids who settled into their seats shifted to Jaemin, the new face of lunchtime. One kid among them cautiously asked as if he had been curious about something usually.

“Do you like basketball, too?”

“I’m not very good at sports.”

At that, a Class 2 kid shook his head as if telling him not to play modest.

“Probably not. Ryu Jaemin got full marks on all his physical education practicals last year.”

“Physical education practicals and a basketball match are different, though. But it’s a waste. You’re tall, so I feel like you’d be good at basketball, too. How tall are you?”

“When I measured last spring, I was 180, but I feel like I might be a little taller now….”

At those words, the kids stole glances at Jaemin with a look of seeing him in a new light.

Was he? Was he that tall? Because the image of a model student who only studies quietly, the sight of him sitting at a desk was engraved, it was a look that the fact that Ryu Jaemin’s height reached 180 centimeters was a fresh realization. Since there were many times they stood together, they were aware that he was taller than average, but when hearing it in numbers, faces looking as if feeling a bigger difference than expected turned toward Jaemin, and soon led to whispering.

“If it’s 180, isn’t that the same as Hyeongseo? No, now I feel like Ryu Jaemin might be taller.”

“Ryu Jaemin, can’t you join us just this once? If we practice for just 3 days, no, 2 days, you can run with us. It’s not like we’re professional basketball players or anything.”

Jaemin smiled awkwardly. Facing a smile that looked like a good personality, only Oh Seungpyo’s expression was turning quietly crooked as if dumbfounded.

“I’d like to, but I have to go right after supplementary classes end, so I don’t have time. My house atmosphere is really strict….”

“Really? Not even two days?”

The fact that both of Ryu Jaemin’s parents were professors at prestigious universities was known to many kids. Rumors that his home education was strict had also been widespread since elementary school. So they knew the talk about his parents wasn’t an excuse, but rather for that reason, it was all the more disappointing.

“Sorry. I don’t think I can.”

Seungpyo, who was eating silently, drank a glass of water and suddenly added an out-of-nowhere sentiment.

“Your parents are strict? That’s surprising.”

Jaemin, who was smiling while apologizing to the kids, looked at Seungpyo with that exact expression. Seungpyo narrowed his eyes. Look at that. Only his mouth is smiling, that thing.

The kids, who didn’t know the inner circumstances, tilted their heads.

“Why? Just looking at him, they seem like they’d be strict. I feel like he’d live in a place like the houses in dramas. Like having marble stairs, and mom and dad both wearing suits even at home. It’s not really like that, right?”

“Mmm… it’s not to the extent of suits, but they don’t get disheveled much even at home. But there are no marble stairs. Our home isn’t a duplex.”

When Jaemin finished his answer mixed with laughter like a joke, Seungpyo continued his words.

“You looked like a free spirit, so I thought your household atmosphere would be like that, too.”

“Him?”

The kids blinked their eyes as if Seungpyo’s words were rather unexpected, and starting with one or two people, gradually everyone slowly nodded their heads and started agreeing.

“There is a bit of that feeling, too. Should I say he seems a bit transcendent?”

“Is it because he’s good at studying? As expected, a person needs to have capability.”

Without even knowing what Seungpyo was mocking in comparison to, the kids were interpreting the words in their own way and agreeing.

Because Jaemin was a kid who didn’t have a friend who could be called a best friend yet. He was good at studying, tall and handsome, and rumors circulated that his family was rich, and his personality was good too. Naturally, many kids wanted to include Jaemin in their group, but Jaemin himself hung out with these kids and then with those kids, lightly with everyone, but living school life more smoothly than anyone.

Kids who failed to form a group and drifted around were easy to get alienated at school, but Ryu Jaemin was different. Rather than drifting around, he felt like a voluntary outsider, so even now, when the semester was almost over, Class 2 kids still wanted to get close to Jaemin.

Without trying hard to make close friends, without being anxious to form a group, not being ashamed of being alone among kids, and no one looking down on him. Those aspects of Jaemin certainly had a side that suited the expression ‘free spirit’.

“A free spirit is way better than a person who acts suffocatingly while imposing their own standards. Thanks for the compliment.”

Jaemin replied with a smile. Listening to the non-conversation conversation of the two, a Class 2 kid asked as if curious.

“Come to think of it, Oh Seungpyo, you took Ryu Jaemin out super urgently earlier. Did something happen?”

“Ah… to ask something. I heard an adult relative is in the legal field, so I thought he’d know about this kind of problem well. You know I lost my phone. I asked if it’s okay to report this kind of thing.”

“Ayy, just because someone among his relatives is like that, how would Ryu Jaemin know that.”

“I know.”

Jaemin answered calmly.

“There’s a legal clause called the crime of embezzlement of lost property, stating that you shouldn’t keep a found item as you please. So if you report it and catch the person who picked up the phone, you’ll be able to punish them with that. You can settle, too.”

The kids, who had become quiet for a moment, blinked their eyes and admired.

“Whoa… I heard your father is a law school professor. Do you talk about stuff like that with your father at home, too?”

“No, I saw it while reading some book in the past.”

As expected, the number 1 student in the whole school knows a lot. Even if he goes out on a quiz show or something, I feel like he’d win 1st place. The kids formed an implicit sympathy and continued their meal. The topic moved on to setting the detailed schedule for the basketball match a few days later, and Ryu Jaemin and Oh Seungpyo, while glaring at each other intermittently, devoured the food on their trays without leaving any behind.

“Then the match is right after all Friday classes end, right?”

“If you’re absent on the day of, it’s a fine.”

While walking down the hallway together after leaving the cafeteria, Jaemin stopped his steps and said.

“I’ll drop by the library for a bit and then go. The teacher asked to see me briefly after lunch.”

“Yeah, see you later.”

Jaemin turned his direction and headed toward the library. Because not that many kids went to the library during precious lunchtime, the nearby hallway was deserted.

While walking ploddingly with a slightly tired look unlike when he was with the kids, urgent footstep sounds were heard from behind.

“Hey, hold on a second.”

Jaemin, who at first didn’t know the steps were coming toward him, turned his head at the sound that seemed to call him. Seungpyo was approaching quickly as if chasing late.

“What again?”

“The phone talk isn’t over. You crime of embezzlement of lost property offender.”

“Didn’t you say you don’t need it because the contract ended? I heard everything you said about how buying a new one is fine. And I told you it was because I forgot. When I think of it, I’ll bring it to you.”