“Ugh… fine.”
Contrary to his weak voice, his steel-like legs didn’t budge.
Go Un tried to lift his feet that wouldn’t move, then stopped in place.
“Ah, right.”
Then he took one step closer to Seo Juhan.
At the face suddenly getting close, Seo Juhan flinched without realizing it.
“What now…”
The guy’s chin landed firmly on his shoulder. It was before he could even raise his arm to do something about it.
Hot breath tickled his ear. At the sensation of his fine hairs standing on end, Seo Juhan hunched his shoulders.
“…Move away.”
Seo Juhan even held his breath while grabbing Go Un’s forearm. The firm and elastic muscles filling his palm were hot. They overflowed with strong vitality.
“Don’t forget you’re granting me a wish.”
A heavy resonance whispered teasingly.
Seo Juhan stiffened like an old dead tree all over his body.
Go Un giggled while pulling his body away. Then he turned his back as if he had no lingering attachment.
“I’m your lifesaver again after all.”
He waved his hand over his shoulder while going outside the building.
Seo Juhan stood there dumbfounded, then belatedly rubbed his reddened ears hard.
“Ah fuck, so annoying…”
Seo Juhan glared intently at the arm fluttering as if waving goodbye.
Crazy perverted bastard.
Insane lowlife bastard he couldn’t associate with.
Seo Juhan listed all kinds of curses inwardly as if sending telepathy. Not satisfied with that, he also rubbed away the goosebumps on his forearm.
Only after cooling the rising heat did he open the glass door leading outside.
* * *
The classroom was quiet for once.
Only the old fan attached to the ceiling was rattling as it turned.
Seo Juhan sat quietly behind the teacher’s desk with his legs crossed. He had to minimize movement to reduce heat energy generation.
It was hot. It was already hot like midsummer, but air conditioning operation was only possible from next week. It was fortunate at least that it wasn’t that humid and stuffy yet.
Most of the punks sitting with one row between them were asleep.
Large test papers spread on both sides covered their desks. OMR cards and computer sign pens were scattered carelessly on top.
This was even though not even half the test time had passed.
It was like sleeping time.
There were also occasionally some with their eyes open. But when he looked at what they were doing earlier, they were doing other things as expected. Things like exercising craftsmanship to fill in all the empty spaces of consonants like ‘ㅇ’ or ‘ㅁ’, or creatively reinterpreting the pictures appearing in the test questions.
Especially there were many of the latter, and even Seo Juhan almost let out an exclamation at their bizarre originality.
It was now the June mock exam day.
It was the beginning of early summer.
It also meant there were only about 5 months left until the college entrance exam.
In other words, that’s about how much time was left for the decisive day Seo Juhan was preparing for. The secondary teacher employment exam was usually around the week after the college entrance exam.
As soon as he passed, he would leave Jeonghan City without looking back. Then the memory of falling into this cesspool would also become faint. As time passed, he might even count it as if it never happened.
Seo Juhan turned his head and looked out the window.
The sky was blue without a single cloud. It was just a sunny day with no wind to cool the sweat.
“Snorrre.”
Then, suddenly an absurd and nose-clogging sound caught his attention.
“Pfuhuhuhu.”
The sound of lips vibrating followed.
“Snorrre. Pfuhuhuhu.”
The noise that suddenly started didn’t stop at once but continued.
Small waves rose among the students. It was ridicule.
It was truly loud snoring. It was strange how such a sound could come from bodily organs alone. He was almost performing a solo. The mystery of the human body could be felt.
It was too much to dismiss as white noise. However, the brown pupils that had rippled soon became calm.
Perhaps because the weekend was right in front of them, his heart became much more generous. Seo Juhan accepted it as such and looked for the performer with his eyes.
Soon Seo Juhan, who found the source of the noise, narrowed his eyes.
“…”
It was the gorilla.
That very guy who’d been acting as a gatekeeper in the annex. The culprit of the noise pollution snored well even while bending his chin in a strange position.
As time passed, the students’ reactions became lukewarm. The eye signals saying ‘look at that’ and suppressed laughter gradually subsided. They seemed to have gotten used to the noisy snoring too.
On the contrary, the inside of Seo Juhan, who sat motionless, stirred noisily.
The slipper hanging in the air dangled. It swung precariously as if it would fall at any moment.
It was because someone came to mind.
It was that bastard who was likely the boss of that gorilla.
He’d wrapped it up tightly in a bundle and thrown it to the far side of his memory, but now he thought of it. It was precisely when there was nothing to do but sit.
After the sex in the annex, the guy was unexpectedly quiet.
Of course, he didn’t behave very tamely.
The crazy bastard sometimes approached silently. Usually when supervising lunch during lunchtime or moving to the next class during break time.
The guy mainly suddenly bumped his knuckles in front of his eyes and grinned. Or he spouted nonsense like ‘stop going around reeking of perfume.’
As Seo Juhan, who almost showered in perfume for protection from the smell of cigarettes, it stung, but he had not the slightest intention of obediently listening.
However, he appeared so suddenly without any presence that he was startled every single moment.
Still, it wasn’t as confusing as the first time. True to being an animal of adaptation, Seo Juhan had also become accustomed to the tricks before he knew it. Now Go Un’s sudden appearances were becoming close to a hackneyed repertoire.
Anyway, that was about it.
The shameless scoundrel who seemed like he’d go into heat at any time maintained propriety. Even if he shoved his shameless face forward and arrogantly acted friendly, if Seo Juhan ignored him, he disappeared on his own.
Is he studying for the June mock exam or something?
Seo Juhan’s thoughts reached their final destination.
Smack.
The rapidly vibrating slipper finally fell to the floor. The rubber sole created quite a loud noise as it rubbed against the floor.
Reflexively, the students’ gazes gathered. They focused on the teacher sitting at the front of the classroom.
“…”
Seo Juhan carefully lowered his crossed right leg and put on his slipper again. He pretended otherwise, but he was very conscious of the looks that felt like ‘What, so noisy.’
The brief selective attention ability soon dispersed. Before long, the students sitting in their seats each fell into their own worlds. They spent time sleeping, meditating, or burning their artistic souls on the test paper.
Now the snoring sound was just background music.
Seo Juhan was the same. He pretended to look out the window indifferently.
The sky was still blue. He looked at it deeply while stroking his chin like a philosopher exploring the mysteries of the universe.
Then he finally couldn’t stand it and took out his phone. Still, he was careful not to let the students see.
He entered a portal site and pressed the search bar.
His thumb, which had typed <Club Carnival> rapidly, wandered over the QWERTY keyboard.
Seo Juhan moistened his dry lips with his tongue and additionally entered <minor>.
When he pressed enter, related articles came out in a line.
「’Carnival Minor Entry Cover-up’ Active Police Officer First Arrested for Bribery (Comprehensive)」
「Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Regional Investigation Unit…」
「Active Police Officer First Arrested for Club Collusion Suspicion」
「Court “Concerns of Evidence Destruction and Flight”」
Seo Juhan clicked on one of them.
