# Chapter 96
I turned my head as if escaping reality after looking down at the pages filled with densely packed text. Then I spoke to Baek Han, who had boldly claimed Kwon Dojin’s seat.
“I vaguely knew before that I had fanboy tendencies.”
“Suddenly?”
“This time I realized it clearly. I’m a fanboy.”
“Yeah. Sure. Strangely out of nowhere, but congratulations.”
I pouted my lips at Baek Han’s lukewarm reaction. This was a conclusion I’d reached after serious contemplation, but Baek Han wasn’t taking it seriously at all.
“More importantly, where did Kwon Dojin go?”
“The homeroom teacher called him.”
“The homeroom teacher? For what?”
“If I knew that, I’d be the homeroom teacher.”
“Good point.”
Baek Han laughed emptily, finding something funny about my words, and rolled his pen between his fingers. He seemed to be stuck on a problem, so I discreetly read it. Just looking at the text, the problem appeared complex, which explained why Baek Han was racking his brain.
“Don’t tell me the answer.”
“I wasn’t planning to, so hurry up and solve it.”
Due to Baek Han’s sidelong glance, I fixed my gaze on my textbook. That’s too much—I was just looking. It wasn’t even a problem I could solve mentally. I pouted my lips and started re-reading the paragraph I’d stopped at from the beginning.
If it weren’t for the final exams, I wouldn’t have even looked at the social studies textbook. I kept repeating words that bounced off rather than settling in my mind, cursing the innocent social studies textbook.
The font was too rigid, the chart colors too bright—I knew it wasn’t much different from other textbooks, but maybe because I didn’t like the subject, I found fault with everything.
“Why that expression?”
I raised my head at the voice full of amusement after tapping the book with the end of my pen, and there was Kwon Dojin standing across from my desk—I didn’t know when he’d arrived.
“That took longer than expected.”
“Did it? I didn’t notice.”
As our eyes met, Kwon Dojin naturally squatted in front of my desk and rested his chin on it. I pulled my chair forward slightly and followed his lead, propping my chin up.
“Why aren’t you sitting in your chair?”
“Baek Han took my seat.”
“Who told you to leave your seat empty?”
Despite his indifferent retort, Baek Han’s hands moved quickly. Seemingly in the final stage, he scribbled down numbers and then boldly selected an answer.
“Oh.”
“What? Is it correct?”
“No. You made a calculation error at the end.”
“Damn it.”
Where? I reached out and pointed to the spot where his calculation was wrong as his eyes quickly scanned each line. Baek Han, who rewrote the formula in the margin and recalculated, made a pained sound. It was indeed wrong.
“You got that wrong?”
“You told me to move.”
Kwon Dojin responded with a snort to Baek Han’s claim that he wouldn’t have made the mistake if I hadn’t hinted.
“Anyway, Kwon Dojin. Why did the homeroom teacher call you?”
“They called from home, and I went to receive the message.”
I was curious about what was so important that they called the school, but knowing he didn’t like talking about his family home, I didn’t ask.
“Are you curious?”
As if reading my thoughts, Kwon Dojin tilted his head and smiled. He acted as if he’d tell me anytime I wanted, but there was a hint of mischief in his expression, making it hard to trust him.
“Will you really tell me?”
I looked at him with narrowed eyes, full of suspicion.
“Yes. I’ll really tell you.”
Kwon Dojin still had a faint smile at the corners of his eyes as he made his eyes wide, as if asking me to believe him, and then blinked slowly. Only after recalling that he had probably never lied to me did I nod.
“Why do I have to listen to this from the side…?”
Baek Han sighed and leaned back abruptly. The chair tilted with his movement. Concerned his posture might make him fall backward, I carefully grabbed the backrest of the chair and pulled it forward. He sighed again but soon corrected his posture.
“I’m leaving.”
Just when I thought he was finally sitting properly to join the conversation, Baek Han got up from the chair. He handed me his writing utensils and picked up his workbook. Somehow, I had a feeling he’d been rummaging through my pencil case—those must have been my writing tools.
Anyway, there was no reason to stop someone who wanted to leave, so I waved goodbye.
“Pay attention to the remaining classes.”
“Yeah. You too.”
With that brief farewell, Baek Han left through the back door. Kwon Dojin only stood up from his squatting position and took his seat after Baek Han had left the classroom.
“Now tell me.”
After patiently waiting for Kwon Dojin to settle in, I asked the moment he turned to face me. Finding my eager questioning somewhat amusing, Kwon Dojin let out a quiet laugh.
“It’s nothing major. There’s a birthday party, so they want me to come before school ends.”
“A birthday party? Is it your parents’ birthday?”
“No, it’s my grandmother’s birthday.”
It made sense now why they’d tell Kwon Dojin to leave school early for his grandmother’s birthday. Honestly, attendance is a significant factor in college admissions, so I’d been puzzled, but for a grandmother’s birthday, he could miss an hour or two.
Besides, there’s the option of getting attendance recognition through an experiential learning application form. Even without that, being the second-ranked seemed fine. I remembered that the last time Kwon Dojin was absent, all the teachers conspicuously ignored the attendance book.
“Since you’ll probably leave early today, should I take a taxi home?”
Day by day, the number of students visible on the way to and from school was increasing, so I was being especially cautious. Because of this, Kwon Dojin had been taking me all the way home every day recently, but today that seemed unlikely, which was concerning.
“Don’t do that. I’ll take you home.”
“Huh? But it’s your grandmother’s birthday. You should go early.”
“It’s called a birthday party, but it’s actually a social gathering for adults, so there’s no need to go early. I can greet my grandmother separately in the evening.”
Kwon Dojin, saying he despised parties and had no intention of going, suddenly felt like a stranger to me. His rented place being quite spacious, and his mention of having a vacation home had already made me think he was truly rich, but—
If he’s attending social gatherings, just how wealthy is he?
Recalling that the Four Heavenly Kings of Inseo were often from conglomerate families, it didn’t seem that strange. However, removing the titles of Four Heavenly Kings or second-ranked, the fact that the person I liked was from a chaebol family made me feel incredibly burdened.
But my feeling burdened wouldn’t change the fact that Kwon Dojin’s family was a chaebol. And it certainly wouldn’t cool the feelings that had already developed. So I decided to accept things as they were: Kwon Dojin’s family is an incredible chaebol.
“Habin?”
Strangely enough, I imagined Kwon Dojin sitting on bundles of 50,000 won bills, grabbing handfuls of money and throwing it around. Just as I was adding more details to the image, he called out to me, perhaps because the silence had gone on too long.
“Ah, sorry. Is it really okay not to go? The call wouldn’t have come for no reason.”
I concluded my fantasy with the thought that a money gun would suit Kwon Dojin better.
“It’s fine. Anyway, if I go, I’ll just end up meeting Ji Haecheon and getting stressed.”
He noticeably grimaced as if he didn’t even want to say Ji Haecheon’s name. From that response, I realized that Ji Haecheon was probably as wealthy as Kwon Dojin, and I swallowed.
Right. Even though his personality is twisted and creepy, making him someone I wouldn’t want to get involved with, he is still ranked first.
Ji Haecheon’s status might be too low in my eyes, but to others, he probably appears to be an excellent student. Probably.
“Are you close with Ji Haecheon’s family? When we met last time, Ji Haecheon spoke as if you’d known each other since childhood.”
“Our families are close, so we’ve had frequent interactions since we were young. We’re also the same age.”
“I see. That’s kind of interesting.”
And you must have had quite a hard time since childhood. There’s no guarantee that Ji Haecheon was as ill-mannered in his childhood as he is now, but somehow I feel he was exactly the same. The saying about the apple not falling far from the tree isn’t for nothing.
“By the way, Habin.”
“Yeah, what?”
“Are you just going to talk about that bastard in front of me?”
“Huh?”
I don’t think I was only talking about Ji Haecheon… Replaying the recent conversation in my head, we only exchanged about three or four sentences about him, right?
I was flustered seeing Kwon Dojin drooping his eyebrows, not hiding his disappointment. I wanted to tell him to stop joking, but the words wouldn’t come out easily because of his damn good looks.
As I stuttered, opening and closing my mouth, he reached out and grasped my hand. Kwon Dojin, who had naturally taken my hand, deliberately kissed my palm.
I instinctively tried to curl my fingertips at the soft sensation felt on my delicate skin but barely managed to stop myself. I might accidentally scratch his face with my nails. Given how much I admired Kwon Dojin’s handsome features, I couldn’t be the one to mar them.
“You, you—”
Of course, despite such restraint, I was indeed startled and unintentionally stuttered. Did I look stupid? No, more importantly, did my face turn red? I had so many concerns.
Did he not know how I felt? Or was he pretending not to know?
With his lips half-buried against my hand, Kwon Dojin gently curved his mouth into a smile. His blue hair flowed down along his slightly tilted head, swaying softly.
“You’re with me. So focus on me, okay?”
I bit my lip at his honeyed voice, almost like a whisper. Indeed, Kwon Dojin was a bewitching creature beyond my ability to handle.
ok HOW can you NOT know he’s into you