END OF THE MONTH BONUS CHAPTERS!
“Are you really not going to the after-party?”
Woo Jongwan coaxed him repeatedly in a disappointed voice.
“No. I’m not good with alcohol either…”
“Do you think we go just to drink?”
“Ah… I’d like to go, but I have other things to attend to.”
Seo Juhan firmly refused with a social smile.
“I’ll head out first. I’ll see you again next time.”
Seo Juhan bowed his head and opened the gymnasium door. Behind him, the voices discussing the after-party location gradually faded away.
Though he had ended up participating in the school’s friendly volleyball game, drawn in by Woo Jongwan’s enthusiastic invitation, he had no intention of staying through the after-party.
Seo Juhan was originally someone who didn’t easily let people get closer than a certain distance. He actually did tend to avoid alcohol. And this level of interaction with people he met at work was comfortable for him.
Seo Juhan walked down the hallway connected to the main building while looking out the window.
The days were getting longer and it was just sunset, but it was dark outside. Heavy clouds had gathered, making it gloomy and dreary. Only the greenish twilight indicated that full night had not yet arrived.
Before climbing the stairs, he stopped by the duty room. He knocked on the door and waited briefly.
Click.
Through the slightly opened door gap, the face of duty officer Bae Mansik appeared.
“What is it?”
His voice was hoarse like his face, as if he’d just woken up.
“You’re always working hard. It’s nothing much.”
Seo Juhan held out a shopping bag he’d prepared in advance. Inside was a gift pound cake he’d bought from a franchise bakery.
“Oh my, you didn’t have to do this.”
Bae Mansik glanced inside the shopping bag and spoke. Though his voice was gruff, he couldn’t hide his joyful smile. Unlike his crotchety appearance, he was the type who knew how to be grateful for small things.
“It seems like you patrol several times because of me every time. From now on, I’ll turn off all the lights in the hallway and bathroom on the 5th floor and clean up before I leave, so you don’t need to worry about it.”
Seo Juhan smiled good-naturedly, comforting Bae Mansik for his hard work.
In truth, it had been quite bothersome when he kept barging into the teachers’ office in the middle of his studying.
“Well… if that’s the case… Alright. I won’t go up to that floor then.”
Bae Mansik, having at least that much sense, easily told him what he’d been hoping for.
“Then take care.”
Seo Juhan smiled brightly while bowing his head and left.
After stopping by the bathroom to wash his hands, he went up to the Second Teachers’ Office. The lights were off, as if they thought he’d already left work. The place was completely locked up.
Seo Juhan unlocked the padlock and went inside. He clicked the button on the wall to create reasonably comfortable lighting. Though it was still harsh fluorescent lighting anyway.
He opened his personal cabinet and took out his teacher certification exam books from his bag. He also filled his tumbler with water and sat down.
Time flew by even though he was just studying alone. It was his specialty.
Before he knew it, it had become completely dark outside the window. Suddenly feeling hungry and needing a break, Seo Juhan picked up the phone he’d turned over.
Perhaps because of the humid weather, he somehow craved something spicy, tangy, and hearty. But he deliberately ordered from the place he always ordered from. It was the place where his student worked a delivery part-time job.
Today too, perhaps because there were many backed-up orders, the delivery time showed an estimated 50 minutes.
Seo Juhan had been harboring a vague attachment to Go Un for some time now. And he roughly knew where it originated from.
Unlike that sturdy body from which a certain sharpness flowed, Go Un always followed his words obediently with a docile attitude, like the school uniform he always wore. That was an attitude and atmosphere that only Go Un possessed.
Of course, he’d come to realize at some point that Go Un wasn’t inherently upright and proper by nature. The very fact that he’d enrolled in Yangseong School was proof of that. But that made him all the more deserving of higher marks.
Though it was called the worst delinquent school in history, he was still first place in the entire school, wasn’t he?
Despite an environment where nothing helped his growth, Go Un had liquidated his past of indulging in delinquency and deviance and was growing into a talent who could make healthy contributions to society.
Seo Juhan had quit his tutoring job without even properly finishing one case. But this kid—studying during the day and working part-time at night.
There was no one around Seo Juhan who lived as diligently as that. No, even if there were, they were just other people’s business. Just thorough strangers outside his interest. Even living that way, Seo Juhan could have followed a peaceful and uneventful trajectory as much as he wanted.
In any case, Vice Representative Go Un was the only person who had personally become a model for him, and was worthy of being an example. The title of “a crane among chickens” was not undeserved.
Though only slightly, he also had a sense of him as a “student.”
He even harbored the fantasy that later, after Go Un took the college entrance exam and had his graduation ceremony, it might be nice to call him aside and buy him a drink.
Of course, Go Un was a legal adult, so it would be fine to have a drink together even now.
However, he just wanted to play the role of an affectionate teacher, and had no intention of prying into what specific circumstances Go Un actually had.
Even if he knew, he had neither the intention nor the means to help, and empty escapist consolation was even less suited to his disposition.
Most importantly, once he returned to his hometown, they wouldn’t be people who saw each other anymore. He would just be mentioned at drinking parties as a student he had during his first year of teaching. By that time, even the memories of this dreadful, disgusting, nauseating Yangseong School would be romanticized.
Seo Juhan turned his phone over again and immersed himself in calculation problems.
Flash.
A bright light penetrated the yellowed, grimy blinds. However, Seo Juhan didn’t move except for his hand.
He was in the midst of concentrating on the final stages of a differential geometry problem. He didn’t bat an eye and just solved the problem. It was an eerie level of concentration.
Rumble crash!
Not long after the lightning struck, a roar shook the earth.
Flinch.
At nature’s outcry that created anxiety, Seo Juhan reflexively trembled his shoulders. But then he continued solving the problem.
The scratching sound of writing finally stopped.
Swoooosh!
At the same time he derived the correct answer, a fierce downpour began.
Seo Juhan put down the mechanical pencil he was holding on the book. Only then did he turn his head toward the window.
The window was half-covered by the blinds. Water droplets pattered against it, drawing long lines. Beyond that, he could see the night sky devoured by pitch-black darkness.
Seo Juhan pushed his chair back with a rumble. When he went to the window and opened the inner window, the smell of rain water wafted up sharply and the sound of rain grew louder.
Unable to find affection from humans, he immersed himself in a strange peace within nature’s noise. The feeling of quietly floating alone in a vacuum wasn’t bad. No, it was rather good.
Since it was still before the rainy season, it would be a shower that would pass quickly. By the time he went home it would already have stopped, so he could enjoy it to his heart’s content without worry.
While he was absorbed in this rare appreciation, he heard a knock on the door. As soon as he turned around, the teachers’ office door slid open.
At the doorway stood the black helmet he’d been waiting for.
The difference from usual was that the completely soaked rider jacket was dripping water. The matte black helmet also gleamed with moisture.
Go Un was completely drenched like a wet mouse. Of course, judging by his build alone, he suited a bear more than a mouse.
“Wow… the rain came so suddenly… What are you going to do, you’re completely soaked.”
Seo Juhan’s voice came out flustered.
“…”
Go Un silently moved toward the round communal table in the corner of the teachers’ office. With each step of his sneakers, wet footprints remained on the floor.
Seo Juhan approached while following those traces with his eyes. He hadn’t realized it, intoxicated by the sweet spring rain in the comfortable indoors. For the first time, he felt sympathy for outdoor labor.
Go Un put the bag down on the table.
“I ordered yours too, so eat before you go.”
Up close, he looked completely pathetic, drenched to the bone. Somehow he felt sorry.
“…It’s okay.”
Go Un answered in a gruff voice. Then he slightly bowed his head forward as if to say he was leaving.
“Why. Are you busy?”
The kid didn’t answer. Because he was wearing a helmet where the inside couldn’t be seen, his expression was unknown.
Go Un, who had been standing silently for a moment, turned around.
“Hey, if you’re not busy, eat before you go.”
Seo Juhan grabbed Go Un’s arm. It was unexpected of him, who would normally make one suggestion and leave it at that.
Seo Juhan had lived a life unrelated to earning a living as a means of survival. He’d never once felt the need to make desperate efforts to survive, to not starve. But he knew well what it was like to be exposed defenseless to a fierce downpour, that loneliness.
The footsteps that were about to leave stopped. The wind shield of the black helmet turned toward Seo Juhan’s face.
“Isn’t it dangerous to ride a motorcycle right now with the rain coming down so hard?”
A shadow fell over Seo Juhan’s head. However, the sense of intimidation he’d felt when they first met had completely disappeared. To Seo Juhan, Go Un was a legal adult, but just a young adult woefully inadequate to truly stand on his own in society.
“Eat before you go. Or at least wait until the rain stops.”
“…”
“Do you get a lot of delivery orders even in this weather?”
Seo Juhan tilted his head.
Go Un was looking down at his captured arm. His gaze slowly rose along the gripping hand and wrist, and the slender arm. Finally, he stared intently at the clear face he’d reached.
Actually, from Seo Juhan’s perspective, he couldn’t see that gaze hidden by the helmet. Yet somehow he felt it that way.
“Come on. I’m starving to death.”
As time dragged on, no longer waiting, Seo Juhan grabbed Go Un’s arm and pulled him.
“Did you eat dinner? No, do you even have separate meal times?”
“…I did eat.”
Go Un surprisingly followed obediently. If he’d really resisted, he absolutely wouldn’t have been dragged along, so it was as good as walking of his own accord.
