EAR Ch 5

Because the two of them weren’t in the same class. Although they were sometimes in the same classroom due to moving between classes, even then they had never had a long conversation. Everyone at school probably knew that the two were conscious of each other, but even so, the two didn’t pretend to know each other.

Oh Seungpyo. Hearing his name called so clearly in Ryu Jaemin’s voice felt strange. Only after a short moment passed did Seungpyo shake off the awkwardness and gather his umbrella and cell phone a beat late.

Why do I bump into that punk every once in a while, and every time, why do I keep dropping stuff like this? The hair and shoulders of Seungpyo, who was complaining inside, grew wet and soggy in the meantime.

“Hmm?”

Seungpyo, who was about to wipe his cell phone screen, blinked his eyes. The screen of the cell phone, which had turned off from a dead battery, turned back on.

Tapping with his hand to swipe through the screen a few times, Seungpyo muttered to himself without realizing it.

“Huh? This isn’t mine?”

Feeling flustered once again, he quickly turned around. He ran a few steps further, but Ryu Jaemin, who had said he was in a rush for academy time, was nowhere to be seen long ago.

‘Was Ryu Jaemin’s phone originally this one? I don’t think it was before vacation.’

In Seungpyo’s hand was a cell phone of the exact same model and exact same color as Seungpyo’s. Since having only a clear case with no decorations put on it was also identical, even if he had momentarily mistaken it and swapped them, it wouldn’t be strange.

Tilting his head while continuing to tap the screen wanderlustingly here and there so that it wouldn’t turn off, if it turned off once, it would ask to enter a password or do face recognition, after all. Even while moving his hands busily, he felt like he didn’t know what to do. Plugging the portable battery he had intended to plug into his own phone into Ryu Jaemin’s phone, Seungpyo pondered for a moment.

…The 1st-place student’s cell phone. Honestly, I’m curious.

It’s not like looking into the phone a bit would reveal the secret to maintaining 1st place in the whole school, but even so, being curious about the contents was human nature at a instinctual level.

‘I heard he gets private tutoring from super famous instructors, so he probably has all the instructors’ personal numbers, too. Since expensive tutoring provides one-on-one management, there’ll be conversations left, too.’

What kind of things does the top student in the school talk about with those kinds of instructors? I heard famous people are really good at picking out expected questions that’ll appear on tests, too. Does this guy exchange messages with close friends and stuff, too? Even if he doesn’t have any at school right now, he might have had a best friend during elementary school or middle school days, couldn’t he? Seungpyo walked along while having all kinds of thoughts.

Even though it was content that would be completely useless even if he found out, he was still curious. Since he was the one and only rival Oh Seungpyo had met in his life, he couldn’t help but be curious.

‘Even so, looking through someone else’s phone freely is a bit…’

Even if it belongs to the obnoxious Ryu Jaemin. Just as he was rummaging and tapping through the home screen where apps were installed without being able to settle his wavering mind, an notification banner suddenly popped up.

***’s reply has been posted.

“Hmm?”

The app’s design drawn on the notification window was peculiar. It was not the notification window of the chat app used by most of the entire nation, including Seungpyo. Seungpyo soon found an icon of the same design on the home screen.

‘Is it this? Ryu Jaemin does social media, too?’

It was unexpected. For a punk who allegedly does nothing but study without talking at the academy, and who seems to spend time at school only lightly without any particularly close friends, to do social media.

They say there are people who feel more comfortable talking to people online than in reality due to their personality—was he that type, too? Come to think of it, even during middle school, there were kids who were quiet at school, but seemed to get along closely with people they met on social media or online communities. Though he had never talked to them much.

Forgetting his hesitation about whether to look or not, Seungpyo surrendered to his curiosity. Seungpyo, who touched the social media app where the notification had arrived, looked silently into the cell phone. The steps of Seungpyo, who was swiping down the screen a few times, came to a stop before he knew it. His eyes grew wide.

“Fuck, what is this?”

Seungpyo muttered to himself unconsciously. The end of his voice trembled slightly. Forgetting that he was on his way to pick up his older brother, standing blankly as if he had been hit on the back of his head, he quickly put the phone into his pocket. Looking around his surroundings like a petty thief as if terrified someone might have seen, he quickened his pace.

Ryu Jaemin

Having packed his belongings in a fluster because he was in a rush for academy time, Ryu Jaemin let out a sigh of relief upon realizing his cell phone battery was dead. If Oh Seungpyo had looked at the screen while bumping into him, it would have been a disaster, but thanks to the phone being turned off, he wouldn’t have been able to see it.

When going to the academy, everyone had to submit their cell phones, and they could only get them back when class ended. Although the phone Jaemin would submit to the instructor wasn’t this one, but an ‘external-use’ phone. At any rate, he wouldn’t have any reason to take the phone out of his bag until returning home.

Ryu Jaemin had two cell phones. A regular cell phone used when making phone calls and exchanging messages, and a spare phone used only when accessing the internet.

His parents, who had high zeal for education, tried to buy Jaemin a phone for test-takers that had no smartphone features and could only be used for phone calls and text messages. However, these days were an era where people communicated via smartphone messengers not only for academies or private tutoring, but even with school teachers. Since there were many group activities and performance evaluations that had to be done together with multiple people, school life would become difficult without a smartphone.

Thanks to that, he was able to have a smartphone like other kids, but his parents earnestly begged him never to use the cell phone for strange purposes. Strange purposes meant things like internet, games, and useless chit-chat with friends. Even so, as if not trusting their son, they occasionally conducted surprise checks on his phone usage history, but they couldn’t possibly imagine that Jaemin would have a spare phone.

The internet-use phone was an item that lost its owner when his older sister bought a new cell phone. When he asked his sister if he could have it, his sister told him to do as he pleased. She also nodded readily at his tip-off not to tell their father and mother. Since his sister was someone whose face frowned at the mere mention of their parents, she was always on Jaemin’s side whenever things like this happened.

When his sister was at home, it was nice to occasionally complain together, but his sister became independent and started living alone in the year she became a college sophomore, and after getting a job, she hardly dropped by the house, making it harder and harder to see her face. His mother told them to contact each other often and meet even if outside, but she had no interest in actually giving time for that, just like his father.

“Hello.”

“Did you get good instruction in class?”

“Yes.”

When he came out of the academy, a car was waiting. It was the pickup manager hyung who moved him from school to the academy, and gave him a ride home when the academy ended.

Calling him a manager made the title sound grandiose, but he wasn’t a professional who stayed attached 24 hours a day to take care of college entrance exam studying, but a part-timer who made time appointments in advance to help with movement. A student on leave of absence, he planned to prepare for the civil service exam once he graduated, but thinking he wouldn’t get much help from home, he said he was gathering money first, and was doing various jobs besides dropping Jaemin off.

When class ended, there were kids who went alone and kids whose parents came to pick them up, but Jaemin’s parents chose the method of using a hired person to pick up their son. If it were up to their hearts, they would want to use a private driver, but both were people who valued dignity. They didn’t want to look like excessively fanatical parents.

“You’re working hard. Isn’t studying tough?”

“It’s what other kids do, too, you know. You also studied and went to college, hyung. How did that blind date you had before turn out?”

“Ah, you’re asking about that. I got dumped. I think I went a bit overboard trying to seem fun. Don’t do that in front of girls later. Natural is best.”

“I don’t go overboard in front of girls.”

“Sure, sure~. Handsome punks can afford to do that.”