# Chapter 101
Clutching my pounding heart, I somehow managed to go to school, somehow got through the exams, and then it was time to go home. Thanks to our attendance numbers, Kwon Dojin moving to the third-year classroom turned out to be a blessing in disguise. Otherwise, I might have spent the entire exam period sneaking glances at him.
The good news was that I didn’t mess up the exams. Before Dojin moved to a different classroom, all my attention was on him and I thought I’d failed, but once the exam actually started, maybe because we weren’t in the same room, I was able to focus on the problems.
“You’re going to take a picture of the answer sheet before you leave, right?”
I heard all kinds of comments—”it was easier than expected,” “I messed up,” “I’ll put everything into tomorrow’s exam”—but Dojin’s voice cut through clearly. The feeling of all other noise fading away was something I couldn’t get used to no matter how many times I experienced it.
“Of course. I want to check the answers and study.”
“What about lunch?”
“At home. Dad said he made samgyetang and told me to eat it.”
By coincidence, Yumin’s exam period overlapped with mine, so Dad made samgyetang to boost our health. I didn’t particularly like the taste of the herbal medicines he used, but it’s not like I could refuse to eat it.
“I was hoping we could at least have lunch together, but I guess not.”
“Then come eat with me. We can have samgyetang together at my place.”
“Huh?”
There was such deep disappointment in his voice that I impulsively blurted that out, and then thought, oops. If it had been anyone else, I wouldn’t have cared whether they were disappointed or not, but I guess it was because it was Dojin that I instinctively reacted that way.
Dojin flinched for a moment, unable to hide his surprise, but then smiled nonchalantly.
“Should I? In that case, can I study at your place afterward too?”
“That’s—”
“Hmm?”
“…Do whatever you want.”
Even though I’d refused his invitation to hang out this morning, now I was changing my tune, which was ridiculous. I don’t know what I’m doing. I touched my forehead, scolding myself. There’s no bigger idiot than me, seriously.
Anyway, as we gathered our things and left the classroom, there was a crowd of students gathered in front of the bulletin board. It seemed the answer sheets had been posted, and as Dojin and I approached the board, the crowd parted like the Red Sea.
“This is too convenient.”
At times like this, I really appreciated it. Without Dojin, I would’ve had to wait for all those people to leave or push my way through just to take a picture.
“Got everything?”
“Yeah. Want me to send them to you?”
“I can just check with your phone together, so it’s fine.”
“Alright then.”
I put my phone back in my pocket and followed the path that people had cleared for us. With Dojin watching, no one dared to do anything stupid.
After easily getting photos of the answer sheets, Dojin and I left school side by side. We were still near the school so there were lots of students around, but not enough to impede our walking.
“By the way, don’t you think there have been fewer people on our way to and from school since that day?”
“Has there?”
I gave Dojin a sidelong glance as he tilted his head, saying he hadn’t noticed. The decrease was noticeable enough to catch my eye, and I found it hard to believe that the usually perceptive Dojin hadn’t noticed. Above all, even Yumin had noticed it.
“I genuinely haven’t noticed.”
Dojin insisted with a serious attitude when he saw my look. Even so, I remained doubtful. Yumin knew about it, but Dojin didn’t?
“Hmm. Let’s go with that.”
I decided to just nod along, figuring I’d let it go if that’s what he wanted.
“Anyway, rather than that, don’t you think we can stop walking to school together soon? Not right away, of course.”
“You need to stay vigilant, Habin. They might be waiting for another chance after failing once.”
“That’s— I suppose you could be right.”
I was momentarily speechless at his unexpected response. I briefly thought, ‘Would they really go that far?’ but quickly dismissed it. You never know when assuming the best might get you in trouble. Besides, Dojin would know better about these things than me, so I couldn’t really argue with him.
“Then I guess I’ll be in your debt until the end of term.”
“It’s not a debt. I’m doing this because I want to.”
“Hmm. Oh, right. My sister might be at home when we get there.”
Since no amount of talking would change Dojin’s mind or my opinion, I changed the subject.
“That’s fine. I’m the one coming over suddenly.”
“Should I say something to my sister?”
I wasn’t sure how Yumin would react. She may have said she liked Baek Han more, but that didn’t necessarily mean she disliked Dojin.
“Maybe leave a text message?”
“Yeah, I should.”
No sooner had I taken out my phone from my pocket than a message arrived from Yumin.
[I won’t be home until Dojin-nim leaves. My heart’s pounding too much to be in the same space.]
…How on earth did she know Dojin was coming to our house?
Anyone would think we went to the same school. My eyes trembled in shock at my sister’s information network, which was beyond what I could imagine. Dojin, who had also stopped when I suddenly halted, seemed to have seen the message and paused as well.
“Um, tell your sister not to worry. I’ll just walk you home today too.”
“Huh? No— I didn’t tell her not to come, she’s the one who said she won’t be there, so it should be fine, right?”
If I’d known this would happen, I would have turned off the screen quickly, but I was too surprised and forgot. As Dojin frowned with discomfort, I hastily continued.
“If you’re worried, just stay for lunch. It’ll only take an hour at most to eat.”
“But still—”
“Judging by her text, she probably made lunch plans with a friend anyway. Don’t worry about it.”
After trying hard to persuade Dojin, who was saying he’d just go home, I suddenly realized this wasn’t right. I’d been swept up by him and unknowingly invited him over, but now I was holding onto him, telling him to come to my house even when he was saying it was okay not to.
“Then I’ll just stay for lunch and go.”
“Okay.”
Still, seeing Dojin nod with a faint smile made me feel better. And I was glad I could do something for him, considering he’d been waking up at the crack of dawn to walk me to school.
I sent a reply to my sister with a sigh of relief. I felt Dojin’s arm around me during that time, but since it wasn’t the first or second time, I just glanced at the hand on my shoulder and left it at that.
[Kwon Dojin says he’s just staying for lunch. Go play if you want but come back to study.]
[Even Mom and Dad don’t tell me to study, and now you? I’ll figure it out myself. No need for your concern.]
I clicked my tongue at the reply that came back in less than a minute. At this rate, I wondered if she was just using Dojin as an excuse because she didn’t want to study. Anyway, this kid, whoever she takes after, would cringe at just the mention of studying.
Still, there was nothing more to discuss, so I just put my phone away. I was curious how she knew Dojin was coming to our house, but that was something I could ask later separately.
After that, we arrived at my house without any issues. I heard through the grapevine that most high schools in the area had overlapping exam periods, which might have been why.
“Put your bag in my room— No! Wait! Dojin, can you wait here for a second, okay?”
Since I hadn’t known Dojin would be coming today, my room was a mess. Actually, I had overslept due to staying up late last night. So while getting ready for school this morning, I’d made a mess of my room and hadn’t had time to clean up, which I just realized as I was saying it.
Leaving Dojin, who had paused while taking off his shoes, I ran into my room. My pajamas were still out, and papers that had fallen while I was getting my notes were still on the floor.
As I started picking up clothes to tidy them first, I heard footsteps. When I looked up, I saw Dojin scanning my room with unfamiliar eyes.
“Ah—”
As our eyes naturally met, Dojin smiled awkwardly. Momentarily frozen by the betrayal of someone I expected to wait as I’d asked, I soon came to my senses.
“Habin—”
SLAM! I closed the door hard enough to make a noise. I hadn’t intended to close it so roughly, but moving in haste made it unavoidable. Using the lock I’d never used before, I locked the door and clutched my chest.
Knock knock. At the neat knocking sound, I peeled myself away from the door.
“Habin?”
“You, you. I told you to wait—”
I couldn’t lift my head at the thought of having shown such an embarrassing sight. As I buried my face in my hands and mumbled, he must have heard it because he burst into a refreshing laugh.
“I’m sorry. I was just curious.”
“You— Fine, just wait there.”
“You’re not going to open the door?”
“I’ll open it after I clean everything up!”
Even though he’d already seen my room in its raw state, I couldn’t just put it on full display. And out of indignation, I was planning to make him wait outside for a while. I clearly told him to wait!
Grumbling, I roughly folded the clothes in my hands and put them in the closet. I gathered the papers scattered here and there and tucked them into the bookshelf, and threw empty snack bags into the trash.
After neatly folding my distinctive blanket and checking around the room, I sighed. Since I hadn’t cleaned thoroughly, there were still corners that needed tidying if you looked closely, but as long as it looked okay on the surface, that was enough. I couldn’t make Dojin wait indefinitely.
With the situation somewhat under control, I sighed deeply and opened the door. I opened it carefully to avoid hitting Dojin, but he wasn’t in front of the door. Wondering where he went, I turned my head to look around and saw him squatting to the side.
“All done?”
I burst out laughing at the sight of him just lifting his head to look at me.
“You waited like that?”
“I didn’t know how long it would take.”
He got up with an awkward expression. I moved away from the door to enter the room, and Dojin followed.
“You cleaned a lot in such a short time. Impressive.”
“…Be quiet, you.”
I hit him in the side at his playful words. I pouted my lips as he rubbed his side, pretending to be hurt when it couldn’t have actually hurt.
This guy really, sometimes, just occasionally, was mischievous only to me.
