“I’m really not hurt, I tell you.”
“Your face is pale.”
It seemed that my collapsing last time had been quite a shock. Eorin looked a bit restless. I was about to say I was sorry, but I changed my words.
“Eorin, thank you.”
“……”
“Really.”
How did a kid like you become my friend?
“I need to apologize to you.”
“For what?”
“For making you worry, and for dragging you into things like this all the time…… And actually, earlier…… I shouldn’t fight, so what about my scholarship, I thought things like that too. Me coming to Haebam High on a scholarship, the conditions are that I have to have good grades and not cause accidents. Ah, I was of course worried you’d get hurt too! But in that moment I had those thoughts…… I’m sorry. I really seem like a materialist. I’m sorry.”
I closed my eyes and muttered.
“That’s nothing to apologize for.”
“Hm?”
Eorin shrugged his shoulders and then lay down next to me. Since he was lying down with his arm as a pillow without even a pillow, when I tried to push my pillow to him, Eorin kept pushing the pillow back under my head.
“It wasn’t just you. I thought that too.”
“Huh?”
“That’s why I held back. If it weren’t for that, I’d have already half-killed those bast…… mm.”
Eorin cleared his throat. Maybe Eorin wasn’t as gentle a kid as I thought, I suddenly had that thought.
“Really, how can trash like that exist? Do you know how angry I was?”
“Uh, uh……”
“Touching you like that. The more I think about it, the angrier I get.”
Eorin huffed and puffed as he rubbed my cheek. Remembering Eorin pouring out curses at Choi Gyuchan, I giggled.
“Why are you laughing?”
“It’s the first time I’ve seen you get angry like that.”
“……I’m a gentle person, you know? Earlier I was just a little very angry……”
“I know. Thank you.”
Whenever I said thank you, Eorin shut his mouth tight as if he’d eaten persimmons. Was he embarrassed?
“Really, thank you. Eorin.”
“……No.”
Eorin averted his gaze. A distance reachable if I stretched out my hand. Suddenly, a very strange feeling came over me. From far away, the sound of thumping music and kids cheering rang out. But the room with just the two of us was silent, and Eorin was at a distance close enough to feel warmth. The lingering scent of the pheromones he’d burst out earlier remained, with a subtle vanilla fragrance floating around.
I just lay still and blinked my eyes. The person who seemed unreachable even if I stretched out my hand was now looking at me right before my eyes. Because it really seemed like I could reach if I stretched out my hand, I couldn’t stretch it out instead. If I reached and then after that…….
Was this feeling really admiration?
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Eorin stretched out his hand and covered my eyes.
“Sleep a bit, Chiwon. I’ll wake you up later. You need to rest.”
“……Yeah.”
I stopped thinking. Because if I took even one more step forward, everything seemed like it would change.
I heard cautiously whispering voices. When I groggily opened my eyes, I saw the kids’ faces, having returned at some point.
“Ah, sorry, Chiwon. Did we wake you?”
“No. Is the recreation over?”
“Yeah. It’s rest time now.”
“How did it go?”
The kids grinned.
“Of course we got the roll call exemption ticket!”
“We didn’t get first place in the talent show, but we won all the games.”
“Hey, honestly, they were too OP. You know, that kid who came out first and danced alone. He’s probably in an agency now. He said he’s a trainee.”
“Ah, really? No wonder.”
“Still, we got first place, so it’s fine!”
The kids giggled and exchanged high-fives.
“Still, if we make a big noise, the instructors will storm in, so we need to be quiet. If we get caught, it’s over.”
“Chiwon, are you okay? They said you rested because you weren’t feeling well.”
“Yeah, I’m okay.”
Woojin rubbed my cheek.
“Your complexion still doesn’t look that good……”
“It’s probably because my face is swollen from just waking up. I’m okay.”
Did they hear the situation from Eorin while I was sleeping? Junsu and Woojin looked at me with pouty faces. I grinned at them.
“Do you want to drink some water?”
“Yeah. Thanks. But where did Eorin go? Wasn’t he next to you?”
“When we came, he left you with us and went out. He said he was going to see the homeroom teacher.”
Since there wasn’t time to explain the situation properly, it seemed to be because of that. As I got up and was folding the blanket, the door opened slightly and Yeongjin naturally came in. Yeongjin was the group leader of the room next to ours.
“I’ve delivered everything. They’ll start coming one or two at a time now.”
“Ooh.”
“Just in case, tell them to make a pile of blankets.”
“Already making them.”
Yeongjin stuck up his thumb. We all stuck up our thumbs in return.
Night came, and while we heard the sound of roll call in other rooms, we held our breath and watched carefully. Just in case, we had crammed the kids from other rooms into the small inner room. As time passed and silence flowed through the hallway, Junsu opened the door and gathered the kids. It wasn’t just Yeon Jaejeong who brought alcohol, so the amount was quite substantial. When we took out all the snacks we’d brought and laid them out, it really became a drinking party. Even Woojin took out several bags of his snacks and added to the side dishes.
“People who are drinking alcohol for the first time.”
I raised my hand. More than I thought…… there weren’t many people raising their hands.
“How brazen, so brazen.”
Yeon Jaejeong clicked his tongue. As the person who brought the most alcohol himself, he wasn’t one to talk.
“It’s not enough to get drunk, but drink well as you see fit, guys.”
“Yes, boss!”
“Who’s the boss?”
“You. Alcohol boss.”
“Let’s shorten it and call you Al-sseu.”
The kids chanted Al-sseu quietly and giggled. Yeon Jaejeong made a subtle face.
“First, pour all the alcohol.”
When we filled all the plastic cups in the room and even paper cups that someone must have brought, mobilizing everything, Yeon Jaejeong raised his cup, pushed by the kids’ nagging for Al-sseu.
“We’re going to have fun and have a good time, right?”
“Yes, Al-sseu!”
“For Class 5!”
“For!”
The kids toasted while whispering quietly. The kids drank the alcohol down and made “keuu” sounds, so I also raised my cup and poured the alcohol into my mouth.
“……! Ugh, ack, cough!”
It tasted worse than I thought. It felt like drinking the alcohol smell from the science lab with my mouth. It was a terrible taste. Why do people drink this? When I shuddered, Eorin handed me water. The kids looked at me and giggled.
“Doesn’t taste good?”
“……Yeah. It tastes so bad.”
“Our Chiwon still has a long way to go to grow up.”
Roh Jinho shrugged his shoulders and mixed soju and cider in my cup. When I took a sip, this was a bit sweet so it seemed okay.
“Chiwon, drink carefully. That hits you hard.”
Yeon Jaejeong advised. I nodded.
“Since we have alcohol, should we play a game?”
“With this many people?”
Perhaps many were tired, there were several people who said they wouldn’t drink and would sleep, so there were just over 20 kids gathered in the room. Even if not everyone came, it seemed difficult to do something all together. Moreover, if we played games, our voices would definitely get louder, so the risk of getting caught was high. In the end, it just became a drinking party, and even without drinking many glasses, there was a kid whose whole body turned red starting from the face. Checking in between whether there were footsteps in the hallway, the kids demolished the alcohol in an instant.
“Our Chiwon, sit here!”
Compared to the number of people, there wasn’t much alcohol. It definitely wasn’t…… but Junsu seemed to be very weak to alcohol. I also drank a few glasses, and though my mood was a bit elevated, I still couldn’t really know what being drunk was like. Junsu sat cross-legged and tapped in front of himself.
“Pretty our Chiwon. You know how much I adore you. Should I give you allowance?”
Junsu rummaged through his pockets. Roh Jinho, who never missed things like this, giggled while filming a video.
“No, it’s okay……”
“When hyung gives you, say thank you and take it!”
“Hyung!”
“Hyung!”
“Thank you, hyung!”
When Junsu took out his wallet, the kids sitting around repeatedly called out hyung and rushed at Junsu. Junsu shook his head.
“Who’s your hyung? Where did my kid go?”
“Went home.”
“Without me?”
Junsu, who had been muttering that’s too much, that’s too much, discovered me sitting next to him holding back laughter and embraced me tightly.
“You went home and came back? Why only now!”
Oh my, my kid…… With those as his last words, Junsu fell asleep.
Not long after Junsu fell asleep, all the alcohol ran out. Yeon Jaejeong smacked his lips with a regretful face. The risk of getting caught was too high to go back to their own rooms now, so we decided to have all the kids sleep in this room and send them back in the morning before the instructors came to the rooms to wake them. After cramming all these many kids into the two rooms, there was no place to comfortably stretch our legs and the blankets were insufficient, but even that was enjoyable.
Morning came quickly even though it didn’t seem like we’d slept for a few hours. When sunlight entered my eyes, I woke up. Perhaps because of the alcohol, I fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow, but fortunately there was nothing like a hangover. I started waking up all the kids from the other rooms. In case we’d get caught if they all went out at once, I first woke up only a few kids who had the most decent faces while sleeping and sent them out.
“I’ll wake the rest of the kids and send them. Go wash up.”
“Mmm.”
The kids who had been rubbing their eyes half-asleep seemed to wake up completely the moment they opened the door to go into the hallway, returning to their rooms while surveying their surroundings with clear eyes. It was fortunate that kids from the same class were assigned right next door.
As I woke the kids, some of the kids from our room also sleepily opened their eyes. I patted their stomachs and told them to sleep more. When I woke the last kid and sent them to their room, the time was seven-thirty. It seemed like we hadn’t slept even four hours. When I washed up early and came outside to rest as much as possible before eating breakfast, Eorin was getting up and rubbing his eyes.
“……Did you send all the kids? Already?”
“Yeah. Did you wake up to wake the kids?”
Because I came out without even being able to dry my hair with a dryer in case I woke the kids, water dripped from my hair. Seeing that, Eorin approached and wrapped my hair with a towel and pressed firmly.
“You should dry properly before coming out. What if you catch a cold?”
“It’s okay……”
“Did you sleep well? You didn’t sleep much.”
“No, I think I slept deeply. Maybe because I drank alcohol.”
Maybe because I drank alcohol—without realizing it, I said those words in a whisper. Eorin laughed quietly.
