Seo Eunho was clearly understanding these days the meaning of the saying that one’s heart moves like a reed.
“…Move away a bit.”
“Why?”
“Isn’t it hot?”
“No. The weather’s gotten much colder.”
“…It’s still hot though.”
It was all because of Tae Shinwoo’s attitude. Sighs kept pouring out. Of course, rather than just sighing, it was the timing when he should push away Tae Shinwoo, who kept sticking close and leaning his head on his shoulder. But his hand wouldn’t quite move.
It’s fine to just leave it like this, isn’t it? It’s not like he started it, Tae Shinwoo pushed in. Wouldn’t it be strange to make a fuss saying he didn’t like this distance?
No. Is this normal? Were there guys who lent their shoulders and leaned their heads? No matter how much he thought about it, there didn’t seem to be any.
The house was quiet, but inside Seo Eunho’s head was nothing but noisy. In the end, Seo Eunho couldn’t push Tae Shinwoo away. He just quietly felt the weight on his shoulder and held his breath so the sound of his pounding heart wouldn’t leak out.
A little more. Just a little bit more. Tae Shinwoo had been narrowing the distance little by little like that. It was a distance that friends could maintain, but once he became conscious of it, it continued to the point where it seemed a bit too much.
Thanks to that, Seo Eunho was going crazy. Unable to push him away forcefully or accept him quietly. Even though he had thought he absolutely wouldn’t let his feelings be discovered, he ended up accepting Tae Shinwoo somehow.
It probably doesn’t have any particular meaning. He might just be the type who tries more minor physical contact the closer he feels. Even while thinking that, it was also true that he had expectations that perhaps Tae Shinwoo had feelings similar to his own, more than friends.
It was a ridiculous assumption, extremely for his own sake. Whenever such thoughts arose, Seo Eunho desperately denied them. That won’t happen. So let’s not have such nonsensical expectations.
“…I don’t want to go to school.”
Tae Shinwoo muttered. He also desperately wanted to stay like this, but he couldn’t convey it straightforwardly. After pondering, Seo Eunho pushed away Tae Shinwoo’s head and answered.
“We’re late.”
“Should I not go?”
“Stop talking nonsense.”
“Why? I can skip a day or so.”
“Where is there such a thing?”
“You did that.”
“Are you and I the same?”
“What’s different?”
It was a conversation without substance. Seo Eunho found it a bit funny. The daily squabble with Tae Shinwoo, who came to his house at a time a bit too early to go to school, felt strangely odd. Normally, the situation should have been reversed.
“Be quiet and get up quickly.”
“Hey. Did you switch your route from thug to model student?”
“Yeah, I switched.”
Holding a light bag with nothing in it to be called a model student’s, Seo Eunho urged him. It still felt like Tae Shinwoo’s head was resting on his shoulder. It felt like the hair that had tickled his nape remained, and he felt like immediately raising his hand to scratch it away.
“Let’s rest today.”
Not considering Seo Eunho’s situation at all, Tae Shinwoo lay down on the bed completely and whined. He wasn’t like this originally, but Tae Shinwoo threw all sorts of strange tantrums these days.
At first, he thought maybe he really didn’t want to go to school, and agreed. Seo Eunho thought he didn’t necessarily need to go to school, so he had even less to worry about.
However, Tae Shinwoo whined every day after that, saying “Let’s rest today.” It was exactly three days after not going to school that Seo Eunho started shaking his head at his words.
“I’m going first.”
“Ha, wait a sec…”
Let’s go. We’ve rested enough. He quickly realized there was no need to coax and placate Tae Shinwoo. If he moved first, Tae Shinwoo would follow immediately. Because that was cute, Seo Eunho had to hold back the laughter that kept trying to come out every time.
Just when he was about to conclude they had gotten quite close, the next day they became even closer. The distance was narrowing with each passing day. Tae Shinwoo probably wasn’t unaware of that. And he probably didn’t care.
Tae Shinwoo, who had already chased after Seo Eunho who had stepped out the front door first, put his arm over his shoulder. This was something friends could do plenty. Seo Eunho made standards for each minor physical contact. That way he could avoid having useless expectations.
Expectations were utterly useless. If there were no expectations, there would be no disappointment. Seo Eunho repeated that fact several times.
***
The attitude of people toward Seo Eunho changed again from last semester.
He was the same, but people were really busy. In the early part of last semester, they had looked at him distastefully, grouping him with Kim Junseong and Jang Hoyoung, but after he started hanging around with Tae Shinwoo, they acted friendly.
Students and teachers were all the same. There were people who approached with warm faces and those who didn’t, but most looked at him with favorable eyes. He wasn’t used to it.
And after taking a few days off due to Tae Shinwoo’s stubbornness, now they were looking at him with distasteful eyes again. He roughly knew the reason. It seemed the rumor had spread that they had beaten someone up and gone to the police station together. It didn’t take as long as expected for that rumor to reach the ears of the person in question.
The instigator who stuck to Tae Shinwoo like a parasite while having nothing, and thus had a bad influence on Tae Shinwoo, who had been staying exemplary.
Several more useless words were attached, but to summarize, that’s what the circulating story was.
He didn’t particularly want to deny it. He was just amazed at how they made up stories on their own and how their attitudes changed quickly accordingly.
Although Tae Shinwoo wasn’t really that exemplary of a person originally, and going to the police station was also greatly influenced by Tae Shinwoo, Seo Eunho himself knew better that there was no one who would believe him even if he said so.
Well, even if they believed him, he had no intention of saying it anyway.
Seo Eunho stretched fully and then laid his head on the desk. The gently blowing autumn breeze tickled his hair. Seo Eunho liked autumn. He particularly liked the clear air just before it got cool, passing through the sweltering summer. So it was regrettable that autumn was short. Why do the things he likes leave his side so quickly?
“……”
Disgusted by the uncharacteristically sentimental thought, Seo Eunho’s lips twitched. Meanwhile, a noisy conversation could be heard from the back of the classroom. It was the voices of Kim Junseong and Jang Hoyoung, who had pounced most eagerly on that rumor in question.
“And here I thought. Not yielding to adversity and honestly saving money. You’re different from us, going on like that, so I wondered how admirably conscientious he was.”
“How pathetic must we have looked to him, borrowing small change and walking around. When making a rich friend while sucking up solves everything.”
He thought that perhaps the rumor had started from them. He had said he wouldn’t steal other people’s money, but he had never spouted nonsense about not yielding to adversity or being different. Although he had acted differently from them, the story with ridiculous exaggerations brought out a hollow laugh.
Anyway, a rich friend. It’s a title that suits Tae Shinwoo quite well. Seo Eunho shook his head while having frivolous thoughts.
“Seo Eunho. The homeroom teacher is calling you.”
When he had completely closed both eyes with the intention of just sleeping during this class period, unwelcome news was heard. When Seo Eunho raised his head, the class president gestured for him to go to the teachers’ office. As if waiting for it, Seo Eunho’s face wrinkled slightly.
The teachers were equally affected by this rumor. When did they act friendly, looking at him like a thug who had reformed thanks to Tae Shinwoo, and now it was disapproving looks. Positive words like his grades went up or he seemed to have gotten his act together had long since disappeared.
Everyone worried about Tae Shinwoo and treated Seo Eunho as if he were some axis of evil. Since they weren’t people who were originally favorable to him, he thought it didn’t matter, but if they went as far as calling him like this, the story was different. He absolutely hated annoying things.
Seo Eunho let out a deep sigh and got up from his seat. His trudging steps were heavy. He didn’t really have anything to say. What are they calling me annoyingly for? To tell me not to hang around with Tae Shinwoo? That’s not quite right, is it? If they want to say that, they should call Tae Shinwoo and say it…
Thanks to his thoughts going on, Seo Eunho was already standing in front of the teachers’ office. He let out a deep sigh and then opened the door. As if waiting, his eyes met with his homeroom teacher’s.
“Eunho, aren’t you going home?”
Before Seo Eunho could even get close to the teacher, an angry voice was heard. At the out-of-the-blue words, when Seo Eunho’s face crumpled, the teacher, whose face was even more contorted than his, approached quickly.
“I got a call from your father. He said you keep not being home so he was going to file a missing person report, but he called the school first wondering if you might be coming to school.”
“…My father did?”
“You’re not going home? Then where are you staying? You with Shinwoo…, no. Never mind. That’s not important. Go home now. He said there’s something urgent, so come home quickly.”
The teacher poured out words rapidly to Seo Eunho, who had a blank face. Seo Eunho couldn’t understand the situation at all. The fact that his father was looking for him was strange. Because he was a person who had never once looked for him.
“What are you doing not going? He seemed very worried! You’re a kid running away from home and…!”
Seo Eunho’s ears were almost closed. Whatever was being said didn’t reach his ears. Soon Seo Eunho let out a deep sigh.
Whatever it was, it was a very unwelcome matter. In the midst of that, a laugh came out. It was amazing that he knew which school he attended.
