TSESHR 09

Chapter : 09

“…Ah.”

I froze for a moment when our eyes met without warning.

“Move.”

A shadow fell over my head from behind.

“Why are you blocking the way?”

This obnoxious low voice was definitely—

Without even looking back, I reached out to close the classroom door, but Jung Eunsung, who had appeared behind me, casually stopped my hand.

He glanced back and forth between Seo Jaegyeom—who had already turned his attention back to Jisoo—and me, who just stood there awkwardly.

“That him?”

“What do you mean ‘him.’ And more importantly—why are you here, Eunsung? This is Class A.”

“I’m in this class too.”

“Try again.”

“Wow. Look at Kang Dahye blatantly ignoring me.”

Doyeon snorted and went straight to her seat.

I flinched under Eunsung’s stare and hurried to explain.

“No… I mean, I know you’re good at English.”

Your agency teaches foreign languages these days, right? I remember your pronunciation being super good.

“But were you also good at math…?”

“Nope. I don’t even know one plus one.”

“Then why are you here?”

“Too many math dropouts. No seats left in Class C. At least I get an A in English.”

“What, the Class C kids all have a C in English too…?”

“Yep.”

“…….”

So the math dropouts of the world have united…

“Anyway, that guy? The one your playlist was about?”

“No!”

“What do you mean no? Looks exactly right.”

Your standards are seriously low. Eunsung scanned Jaegyeom, who was teasing Jisoo by covering her workbook with his big hand.

“So what class is he from?”

“…He’s our class… Class 2.”

How can he not know Seo Jaegyeom? Even if he just transferred, still—

He didn’t notice him the moment he walked in?

“What’s his name?”

“Seo Jaegyeom.”

“…That’s Seo Jaegyeom?”

“You know him?”

“He’s not more handsome than me.”

I’m better looking. Eunsung declared confidently.

I looked up at him, speechless.

He met my eyes like he had nothing to be embarrassed about.

Yeah, yeah. You’re amazing.

“The seated girl must be Jisoo, the one you’re supposedly close to.”

“You don’t know Seo Jaegyeom from our class, but you know Han Jisoo from another class? Did you fall for her?”

“That’s not it… ugh. Forget it.”

“What.”

“Never mind. Then what about her? She also our class?”

“Doyeon? Yeah, she is.”

“You close? You were being loud earlier.”

“Oh…”

Right. She must’ve been in the cafeteria too.

So she saw everything with Song Yeoreum.

I asked carefully.

“Eunsung, you didn’t believe what she said earlier, right? What… Doyeon said.”

“Do I look stupid?”

He cut in, sharp as ever.

“I don’t know one plus one, but I do have a brain.”

I must’ve smiled without realizing.

Eunsung stared at me like I was weird.

“You’re that happy I don’t believe a dumb rumor?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

“Even when the rumor’s not about you?”

“Even if it isn’t.”

“God, you’re weird.”

Look who’s talking.

Sure, I’ve known him for more than eleven years—and feel a weird sense of familiarity—but he’s barely known me for a week and he’s been sniping at me all day.

I scowled and snapped.

“Hey. What are we gonna do about the music assignment?”

“What do you mean. Just pick a song you sing well.”

“I don’t have one!”

“Then pick something with hard lyrics. Everyone else will mess up and only you will sing it right.”

“Oh.”

That actually sounded reasonable.

I nodded slowly—but he kept staring at me. Like inspecting my face for flaws.

I snapped.

“What, am I pretty or something?”

“Hah!”

“Don’t confess. I’ll reject you.”

“Please. My standards are high.”

Eunsung lifted his hand and raised it above his head.

“My eyes are here.”

I smacked his arm.

“Well my standards are even higher!”

“Doubt that.”

He flicked his eyes toward Jaegyeom again.

“They’re rolling around on the floor over there.”

“What is?!”

“Your standards.”

“You little—!”

“Pfftt—”

Suddenly his laughter stopped.

“Anyway. I would never ever ever fall for a weirdo like you.”

“I didn’t confess—why are you already rejecting me…”

“Even if the sky falls, I won’t. So relax.”

“I shouldn’t relax!”

Perfect timing—the math teacher, our A-class teacher, Nam Mungwa, responded as he walked in.

“The moment you let your guard down, you’ll fall to Class B! Dahye, why are you still standing? Sit.”

“Teacher…”

Kang Dahye’s first historic question after returning to the past.

“Where do I sit…?”

“…….”

“…Here…”

Seo Jaegyeom reluctantly raised his hand.

“You said we’d sit together, Dahye. Don’t you remember…?”

“……”

“Pfft.”

I ignored Eunsung’s snicker.

Who’s calling who weird? Can’t even do one plus one.

Why wouldn’t he know one plus one?

One plus one equals…

Cutie!

“The quadratic equation with rational coefficients…”

“You’re not scared at all.”

His whisper overlapped the teacher’s explanation—which I understood none of.

I glared at the board, mouth hanging open, then rolled my eyes toward Jaegyeom.

He smiled when our eyes met.

“In the cafeteria earlier. With Song Yeoreum.”

“No, I was totally terrified.”

Honestly I’m still scared her group might jump me after school. I’m going out the back gate today.

“If they mess with me, you have to stop them, okay? Be my witness if I call the cops. Got it?”

“Haha.”

I’m being 100% serious. Why laugh?

“Why didn’t you ever help Doyeon before? If someone like you spoke up, things would’ve been way different.”

“Well… if I jumped in it would’ve only made it worse.”

“You know that’s an excuse, right?”

“Yeah.”

“……”

Hard to scold him when he admits it so easily.

I turned back toward the board—but he said,

“Sorry.”

“For what?”

“What I said earlier. I didn’t have to go that far.”

“Oh. That.”

Out of all the ways to tell the truth, he picked the most brutal.

“Honestly, I like someone. But you kept cutting in, so I got annoyed. Felt like you were in my way.”

Straightforward, huh.

Pretty sure he never said that before I returned.

“So cross out option four…”

I scribbled the symbols I didn’t understand.

“I know. You like Jisoo.”

Yeah.

Seo Jaegyeom likes my friend.

During joint lessons like this, even when he sat with me, his eyes drifted to her. And during breaks, he’d bolt to her like he’d been let loose from a leash.

Back then, that hurt a lot.

Sometimes I wondered why I couldn’t shine like Jisoo.

But now?

Whatever.

I stopped liking him—by my timeline—eleven years ago.

No.

Till senior year, so… ten years ago.

He blinked wide at my calm voice.

“You knew?”

“How could I not?”

“Well. Han Jisoo is pretty.”

Wow. Thanks.

“So this isn’t gonna make things awkward between you two, right?”

“Why would it? It’s not like I like you anymore.”

He looked genuinely surprised—actually turned his body toward me.

I nodded, halfway bent over taking notes like I might launch out of my seat.

“Really?”

“Really.”

“If that’s true, I’m grateful, but… can you just turn feelings off that easily?”

I already have.

You’re a past-tense person to me.

“It won’t be easy, sure. But after we turn twenty and go to college, it’ll all be over. They say distance makes the heart forget.”

And they’re right.

When I tanked my CSAT and my own life problems hit, I didn’t think about him at all.

Even if I still liked him a little now, the expiration date is maybe two years.

“Just deal with it till the CSAT, okay? We’ll be in different classes senior year, and once we go to uni, we won’t see each other again anyway.”

“We won’t?”

“Nope.”

“Wow.”

“What?”

“You’re cold. Won’t even say hi if we bump into each other in the neighborhood?”

“Doubt we will.”

“You’re talking like you’ve lived it.”

He muttered that louder than usual—right over the teacher’s voice.

Much less important than the lesson of a soon-to-expire two-year crush:

“Now, again—the quadratic equation with rational coefficients…”

What even is a coefficient, sir…

I know Geumsanli Byeokgyesu*—that won’t help though…

(*Korean poem wordplay—famous spring, shares syllables with “coefficient”)

“So who wants to solve this?”

Math is hopeless.

I bit my lip.

My eyes met Eunsung’s.

He smirked.

“Teacher, Kang—”

NOOOOO!

I grabbed the hand of whoever was talking next to me—Jaegyeom—and shot it up.

“Teacher! Seo Jaegyeom wants to solve it!”

One minute later—

Jaegyeom returned, smiling murderously.

“So. Dumping me for him now?”

Done!