* * *
Sometimes there are moments when I realize that I’m not me. Like when I was signing a contract, and the day Director said he would get the guardian signature from Jerim’s guardian, whose face he didn’t even know, on my behalf.
“You went through the transfer procedures last time.”
“Ah, ye, yes.”
It’s the same now.
I didn’t even know where the school was, but hearing that I had gone through transfer procedures left me completely bewildered.
“Anyway, we’ve already been on all the major music shows. Go to school tomorrow. Since the new semester has started, go show your face and submit your schedule to the school.”
Having been handed the official schedule unexpectedly, I muttered with a dazed face.
“I’m going to school?”
.
.
>Behind
< [Uribanggajae | Transferred in]
Student A’s excited fingers rapidly tapped the keypad. In the group chat where several girls had gathered, when various reactions came to that news, a friend who attended the arts high school in the next neighborhood replied.
[Abyss? Ka Jerim? Hey, he was originally at our school] >
[His personality is fucking terrible] >
She looked at the purple-haired head sitting down after finishing greetings. Today, Jerim was wearing somewhat flashy white fleece clothing and carrying a large backpack as big as his upper body while looking around. His personality didn’t seem bad at all—rather, he seemed kind and gentle.
< [Huh? He seems nice though… In what way?]
So she sent a reply with a puzzled face, and from that point on, she began to get confused.
[He fucking doesn’t answer.] >
“Wow! Is it okay for you to come to school today? By the way, I saw the article…… Are you okay physically?”
“Yeah. I came today because I don’t have a schedule, and I’m not hurt much.”
[Doesn’t know how to say thanks even when you’re nice to him and gets annoyed;] >
“Thank you. For worrying about me.”
[And he fucking hated people touching his body, super sensitive ㅇㅇ] >
“Um, sorry, but ca, can I touch your hair?”
“Hm? You can touch it. But it’ll feel a bit weird because it’s bleached.”
Student A, who was alternating between looking at the KakaoTalk window and Jerim, thought.
Friend, who are you talking about right now?
Chapter 9
It was a day no different from usual.
That day too, the kids enrolled in Class 4 of the Music Department at L Arts High School came into the classroom one by one as usual. However, it only took an instant for that boringly peaceful classroom to be turned upside down.
‘No way, is that Ka Jerim?’
The cause was precisely Jerim’s sudden appearance.
The kids who had already arrived at school were hesitantly hovering around Jerim, and the students who arrived late were bewildered at first, but then noticed that the seat for ‘Ka Jerim,’ which had been vacant all along, was filled, and everyone’s eyes widened.
‘Crazy. It’s Ka Jerim.’
Abyss was a group that created quite a lot of buzz for rookies—not quite a major rookie group, but a growth-type idol steadily gathering popularity.
Among them, Crayfish was the member who became the most talked-about among the Abyss members due to his fighting spirit despite injury last time, and besides that, articles with photos of him together with Go Yoon came out occasionally, and each time he ranked on real-time search rankings.
So even if people didn’t know Abyss well, there were unexpectedly many people who knew Crayfish, and the kids at the school Crayfish transferred to were secretly curious about Crayfish who didn’t come to school.
‘What. Did you try talking to him?’
‘No. Somehow it’s a bit hard to talk to him……’
However, they didn’t expect it would be today.
They had known early on that Crayfish was the same grade level, but as if no one had imagined he would come to school today, while everyone had clearly panicked expressions, a few tried to talk to Jerim out of curiosity but ultimately couldn’t speak to him.
Even though this school was an arts high school where many celebrities and trainees attended, they were put off by the bad rumors heard from the arts high school in the next neighborhood where Jerim had previously attended, and his cold atmosphere.
Jerim had faint double eyelids and somewhat slanted eyes, so his face looked cold, making it difficult to talk to him, and after entering the class, even though he should have shown interest in the class students, he showed no interest at all.
Even when kids who were too embarrassed to talk to him first and hoped he would talk to them first passed by in front of him, and even when they whispered while looking at him, he just sat blankly at his desk tightly clenching his hands, like someone who couldn’t hear anything.
Eventually, they gave up trying to talk to him and began to slowly observe Crayfish rather than talk to him first. His clothes were fluffy white fleece, and his shoes were…….
“Oh.”
At that moment, a student who was looking at the shoes blinked. Then, like someone trying to confirm whether what they saw was correct, they quickly closed and opened their eyes.
“……What.”
“What’s wrong?”
He felt his friend tapping him, but he just closed his mouth and examined the outfit.
‘Those shoes—they look like the limited edition luxury brand shoes I failed to buy last time.’
He had wanted them so much, but the price was so outrageously evil that he had given up, so he couldn’t forget them even if he tried.
But furthermore, he realized that not only Jerim’s shoes but also the bag hanging next to the desk were incredibly expensive luxury items and hit his friend standing next to him.
“Hey, that bag—”
“What?”
“It’s a luxury brand.”
“Huh? That one?”
Since he liked luxury brands so much, it was no exaggeration to say he knew most luxury brands well enough to recognize it at a glance. But his friend next to him just tilted his head as if he didn’t know such things.
“Hey, how is that a luxury brand?”
“No. It is.”
It looked ordinary on the outside, but the design engraved on the strap…… no doubt about it. There must definitely be a logo stamped inside the bag.
‘Is he extremely extravagant?’
It wasn’t his place to say as someone who liked shopping, but still, he didn’t come to school wearing luxury brands. Because it seemed too showy.
But Jerim didn’t seem to care about such things. Or maybe he wanted to show off and rather chose only such things.
Thinking such thoughts and clicking his tongue with a tsk, Jerim lowered his hand that he had stretched forward to take something out of his pocket. And simultaneously, the cynical expression of the student broke.
“Wow, crazy…… How much is all that.”
He had seen the number embroidery on the elbow of that fluffy white fleece clothing.
The clothing with that elbow number was a limited edition piece made by a famous designer this time.
On the outside, it looked like nothing but an ordinary piece of clothing without a single distinctive feature, but because it had made SNS buzz about how expensive it was, he could recognize it even better.
Looking around, he saw that besides himself, there were kids who recognized the clothes, shoes, and bag, each tightly closing their mouths and staring intently at Jerim’s shoes, bag, and clothes.
‘Abyss isn’t at that level. Does he just have a lot of money at home?’
Of course, among the students at L Arts High School, which is famous for its evil tuition fees, kids from poor families are rare. Naturally, he had seen many kids who went around with luxury brands, but he had never seen a crazy person who wore limited edition clothing beyond luxury brands—wearing them to school like that—not even once since enrollment.
How on earth did he get it?
No, and even if he has money, those kinds of limited editions aren’t easy to obtain. The more he thought about it, the less he feared any rumors or anything.
‘I can’t stand being curious.’
He approached Jerim with large strides, determined to ask right away how he had all the clothes, bag, and shoes that sold out as soon as the homepage opened, so he couldn’t even think about buying them.
“Hi.”
“……Oh, hi.”
Seeing the student talking to him, Jerim shook his shoulders once and carefully turned over his phone while returning the greeting.
Jerim’s eyes were cold like a gaze saying ‘I’m looking at my phone, why are you bothering me?’, so the student flinched once and twitched his eyebrows.
‘Wow, his personality is no joke. As expected, they said it was no joke at his previous school…… Nothing changes just because he debuted.’
However, the student stopped thinking such thoughts and fixed his gaze back on the clothes. He wasn’t approaching Jerim to become friends with him—he was just curious about Jerim’s clothes.
From his current standing position, he couldn’t see the embroidery he had briefly seen earlier, but he was certain. Eventually, he hesitated and opened his mouth.
“You, those clothes……”
At that moment, the buzzing classroom instantly became quiet.
“Hoo.”
Because Jerim, hearing the student’s words, twitched his eyebrows, looked at his own clothes, and let out a deep sigh. At Jerim’s appearance, which looked like he had been handed some bothersome task, the student who had been speaking also couldn’t continue his words.
After looking at his clothes for a moment, Jerim raised his head again and said,
“Does it show a lot?”
“Tha…… Wow, totally.”
‘Anyone can see it’s limited edition and luxury brand!’
He thought Jerim was asking with pride about his clothes. So while thinking that, he stammered an answer, but an unexpected situation unfolded.
“Ah, what should I do. Will it come off if I wash this?”
Jerim suddenly pointed to a very faint mark on his chest.
Jerim, who had looked cold until just now, made a tearful face and poked his chest with his finger, and the students had bewildered expressions wondering what this situation was, but as Jerim’s words continued, everyone gradually made subtle expressions.
“I spilled it while eating salad. What should I do……”
“……”
“Ah, I thought I’d wiped it off perfectly.”
Jerim smiled bashfully with an embarrassed face. His ears heated up as if this situation was truly embarrassing as he smiled while fiddling with the hem of his clothes saying it was regrettable, and a blush gradually began to rise on his face. Jerim fidgeted alone, touching the sauce stain on his clothes, then opened his mouth.
“I, I’m really sorry.”
“……”
“Do you happen to have wet wipes or something?”
There was no answer from the other party.
