# Chapter 37
I guess people don’t change easily after all.
I looked at the two people fighting in front of me with bleary eyes, then lowered my head to solve problems. Repeating to myself that it was just white noise, I found it more bearable than expected.
The argument continued even as I flipped two pages of my workbook, and I had completely adapted to it. It was a bit sad that I got used to it before those two could change, but I supposed that adapting was something.
“By the way, Baek Han, are you sure you don’t need to study?”
“Oh right.”
“There’s less than a week until the private mock exam. Are you confident you can get a grade 2?”
“At this rate, it’s going to be close…”
Baek Han, who suddenly came to his senses at the mention of the mock exam, tapped the desk with his mechanical pencil. His nervous gesture revealed his anxiety, and I rested my chin on my hand. In a way, he seemed more serious about the ranking than Kwon Dojin, so his reaction wasn’t incomprehensible.
“It might be faster to give up one of the two.”
I tapped the forearm of Kwon Dojin, who was sulking again today because Baek Han was with us. He clicked his tongue once and gripped his mechanical pencil tightly, but he didn’t say anything more. Baek Han, who had been about to flare up, also held back after shaking his head.
“If I work hard on the weekend, I’ll manage somehow.”
“Will studying on the weekend be enough?”
“It’s just going to be close, right? When you take the mock exam, you still get a grade 2, don’t you? Then solve problems instead of worrying.”
When I tapped the workbook, Baek Han frowned deeply and buried his nose in the workbook. Unlike Baek Han, Kwon Dojin put down his mechanical pencil and turned his body halfway toward me, resting his chin on his hand.
“Speaking of which, do you want to go out with me this weekend?”
“The mock exam is coming up soon, though?”
“Habin, you’re good at studying, so you don’t need to worry about it.”
It wasn’t that I didn’t care at all, but going out for one day wouldn’t really matter. When I showed signs of contemplating, Kwon Dojin cupped his face in his hands and deliberately blinked his eyelids slowly, as if to show off.
After groaning and continuing to think about it under his subtle urging, I finally nodded. He then showed a bright smile and immediately started thinking about where to go.
“It’s my fault for thinking I could study here.”
Baek Han sighed and shook his head as he gathered the workbooks he had brought one by one.
“There’s still time left before lunch break ends.”
“I’ll ask everything at once later.”
I waved my hand back at Baek Han, who was leaving with a casual wave of his arm. Though he said he would ask everything at once later, given his personality, I didn’t think he would come back. Even if he had questions, wouldn’t he just look at the answer key and solve them?
Meanwhile, Kwon Dojin, who didn’t care whether Baek Han stayed or left, was busy contemplating what to do on the weekend.
“Shall we go see a movie?”
“What movie?”
“I haven’t decided that yet… Shall we decide when we get there? Or should I decide?”
“You decide. I don’t know what movies are showing these days.”
It had been a long time since I had watched a movie in a theater. I wasn’t one to watch movies frequently in the first place, and I had deliberately stayed away from them during my exam preparation.
I tend to delve endlessly into something once I get into it, so media was my number one thing to avoid. But now that I had relatively more free time, one movie should be fine, right?
“Then I’ll book the tickets too.”
Since I wasn’t one to stop him when he volunteered to do it himself, I nodded. Kwon Dojin, full of anticipation, immediately took out his phone and started looking for movies to book, so I stuck out my tongue.
He was being too brazen, just not putting his phone away when strictly speaking, he shouldn’t be using it.
“How about a romance?”
“Is the rating good?”
“Yes. It’s currently number one in ticket sales.”
“Alright, let’s watch that then.”
I wasn’t the type to care about the genre, and if it was number one in ticket sales, I thought there must be a reason, so I nodded willingly.
Since there was still time left before the lunch break ended, I decided to focus on my workbook to study during that time. Just as I was about to concentrate, Kwon Dojin finished making the reservation and gently placed his hand on my forearm.
Since his touch landed on the arm I was using to solve problems, my gaze naturally went to him. I don’t know when he had laid his head on the desk, but Kwon Dojin, who was looking up at me from that position, broke into a radiant smile as soon as our eyes met, as if he had been waiting for it.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, I’m just happy.”
It wasn’t the first or second time we had hung out together, so this newfound reaction made me laugh between my lips.
“You find joy in the strangest things.”
“Well, it’s because I’m hanging out with Habin.”
I somewhat roughly tousled the hair of Kwon Dojin, who casually said things that couples would typically say, as naturally as breathing. Instead of expressing displeasure at his disheveled hair, he slightly lowered his eyes.
“I hope we don’t get caught up in any strange incidents.”
Having been involved in strange incidents every time, the words flowed out before I knew it. Then, realizing that this was a flag, I hit my forehead with the palm of my hand.
I really planted a flag naturally.
* * *
Waking up later than usual because it was the weekend, I checked my phone to find a message from Kwon Dojin.
[You didn’t forget our promise, right?]
I’m not stupid enough to forget a promise made just two days ago, but it seems Kwon Dojin doesn’t trust me much. After rubbing my eyes, which were reluctant to open, I slowly typed on the keyboard to send him a reply.
[I didn’t forget. I’ll be there on time, so don’t worry.]
As soon as I pressed the send button, the read receipt appeared. My heavy eyelids flew open at the unusual speed. What was he doing to see it so quickly?
[Okay, got it.]
Seeing the plain sentence that arrived in less than a minute, for some reason, I felt as if I could hear Kwon Dojin’s voice in my ear. It was a very strange feeling, so I shook my ears vigorously, then realized I hadn’t sent a reply yet and moved my thumb.
[See you later.]
What came back to my brief message was a cute emoticon. I laughed quietly as the cute moving bird emoticon seemed both fitting and unfitting for Kwon Dojin.
Even after exchanging messages with him, I stayed in bed because my body felt languid, but eventually got up unsteadily as the time to leave approached. Honestly, going out on the weekend was bothersome, but I couldn’t do anything about a promise I had already made.
So, after briefly washing up in the bathroom and coming out, my sister, who was lying on the sofa watching TV, looked at me with round eyes.
“Where are you going?”
“What’s with the informal speech to your oppa?”
“It’s not like it’s the first time.”
A sigh involuntarily escaped me at her casual wave of the arm, suggesting I should let small things go.
“You usually stay holed up at home on weekends, why are you washing up in the morning?”
“I have plans.”
“You?”
The shock Yumin received was fully evident in just those two syllables. Her pointing finger and the pitch change in her voice made me incredulous.
“I can have plans too, why are you so surprised?”
“A guy who usually says he wants to rest on weekends and doesn’t go out unless it’s important is saying he has plans, how can I not be surprised?”
When she puts it that way, I have nothing to say. It’s true that on weekends, I tried to minimize going out to maintain mental stability.
Still, feeling like I’d lost, I pouted my lips and twisted my body to go to my room while drying my hair with a towel. Then Yumin quickly blocked my way.
“What?”
“I still have something I’m curious about.”
“What is it?”
Despite my gruff tone, Yumin, unfazed, ate the almonds she was holding. I sighed at the sight of her eating when she had claimed to have a question, but I let it slide since it wasn’t the first time.
It’s too exhausting to point out every little thing like that.
“Since when did you have someone you’re close enough with to meet on weekends?”
“…What do you mean by that?”
“You know what I mean. Lately, aren’t most people staying away from you because you’re close with Dojin-nim and Baek Han-nim? So of course I’m curious when someone like you says you’re going out because you have plans.”
Yumin, lying down and drinking water through a straw, picked up and ate another almond.
“Are you sure this person is trustworthy? Are they really your friend, or are they just talking behind your back?”
My lips quivered at the unexpected question. So that’s what she was worried about. Looking anew at my sister, who’s still only in middle school, I approached the sofa.
Following my movement with her eyes, Yumin watched as I stood in front of her and roughly ruffled her hair.
“Ah, shit! You’re tangling my hair!”
“You’re thinking about such things at your young age. Don’t worry. The person I’m meeting today isn’t like that.”
Finding her concern touching, I ruffled her hair once more, and she swatted my arm away in annoyance. Seeing her already so shrewd, my worry that ‘she might get scammed somewhere’ flew away.
“And I was, shit, worried about you.”
“Yes, yes. There’s no need to worry, so just watch TV and relax.”
“Why are you so sure? You’ll only come to your senses after getting backstabbed.”
“I’m telling you, they’re not that kind of person.”
Yumin snorted before I could finish speaking, then picked up another almond and immediately crunched it roughly.
“Why are you so naive? That’s bullshit, unless it’s Dojin-nim or Baek Han-nim, there’s no way they’re really—”
Yumin stopped mid-sentence. The way she froze and looked at me made me feel like I could hear the sound of a rusty door opening in my ear.
“Don’t tell me—”
“Hmm, that ‘don’t tell me’ is correct.”
I personally closed her stupidly dropped jaw. At that, Yumin came to her senses and sat up abruptly on the sofa.
“Are you going out with Dojin-nim?!”
“It just ended up that way somehow.”
“Crazy.”
As I nodded, Yumin’s eyes shook violently. Her bewilderment was clearly visible even at a glance. I waved my hand in front of Yumin’s face as she was lost in disbelief at the unbelievable fact.
