As soon as the class bell rang, Park Sichan, who had been standing behind me the whole time, rushed at me like he was charging. His appearance was like that of a bull, making me momentarily wonder if there was a red cape around me.
“Baek Sihyeon! What are you talking about? Is that not a joke but serious?”
“Yeah.”
“Wow, that’s crazy. To live to see the day Baek Sihyeon has someone he likes…….”
Park Sichan rubbed his face in admiration, but that wasn’t the problem right now. The problem was those two hyenas who seemed to have heard the story and smelled an opportunity.
Lee Rihyung and Kim Minsik swiftly arrived in front of me. Unable to leave my seat in time, I ended up trapped by the guys standing there like barricades.
“Baek Sihyeon has someone he likes?”
“Who is it?”
“I don’t know either. Who is it, Baek Sihyeon?”
I shouldn’t have said anything. The three of them, whispering in my ears and trying to make me talk, didn’t seem like they’d let me go. As I consistently ignored the three and took out my textbook for the next period, Park Sichan took the textbook away. Now they started taking my belongings from the desk one by one.
“I’ve never seen this before, did you buy it? R.S? What initials are these?”
In Kim Minsik’s hand was a navy blue fountain pen. Of all things to take, they took that. I snatched the fountain pen from Kim Minsik’s hand. Then I spoke calmly to the three of them.
“Put all my things back where they belong.”
I hadn’t even gotten angry, but the three of them were startled and neatly organized the items. It was absurd that they were even matching the angles, asking what degree the angle was earlier.
After finishing organizing, the three of them, as if in agreement, raided Park Sichan’s snack bag, shoved food into my hands, and headed toward Kim Minsik’s seat.
Those idiotic guys seemed to have some strange misunderstanding.
_oOo_
“Hey, Kim Minsik. Don’t you think Baek Sihyeon is angry?”
“Seems like it. He’s speaking quietly, but don’t you feel anger in it?”
“I know, right? It was scary as hell.”
Lee Rihyung trembled as if he got goosebumps.
Kim Minsik, who would normally tell him not to overreact, didn’t scold him. Because Kim Minsik also thought it was reasonable.
Park Sichan had a lollipop in his mouth and glanced at Baek Sihyeon, who was reviewing what he had written.
‘He really is strange.’
After turning his head back to its original position, he asked.
“Lee Rihyung. Isn’t Baek Sihyeon a bit strange today?”
“A bit? Normally he’d immediately swat me away if I clung to him, but his reaction was slow.”
“Fuck. Isn’t it also crazy that you noticed something was strange from that?”
Kim Minsik hit the desk and cackled.
“Hey, stop cracking up. What do you want me to do when it’s real?”
“Did I say it wasn’t? I just said it was funny.”
While Kim Minsik and Lee Rihyung bickered, Park Sichan made a serious face.
Baek Sihyeon’s human relationships were extremely narrow. In fact, his friends were Park Sichan’s friends. That’s why the statement about having someone he likes and the atmosphere different from usual couldn’t help but evoke a strange feeling.
“……Ah, whatever. I don’t know, it’ll probably be fine.”
Park Sichan, who had been observing Baek Sihyeon looking at the textbook for the next period as if nothing had happened, scratched his head roughly.
Park Sichan, who tried not to worry, kept a close watch on Baek Sihyeon until school ended as he continued to give off an atmosphere different from usual.
He thought he was watching secretly, but Baek Sihyeon, who couldn’t not notice that gaze, said nothing. Because he knew best that he himself had changed.
_oOo_
One week since returning to the original world. As if living as the Hero for three years had been a dream, it didn’t take long to blend into the original world.
Click, the sound of the door opening came. As the sound of footsteps grew closer and I raised my head, Park Sichan was putting his bag down in the seat next to me. He brightened up and opened his mouth.
“Baek Sihyeon, did you hear about that?”
The reason he was asking even though he knew I was oblivious to rumors was obvious.
“No.”
He wanted some attention.
At my denial, Park Sichan pulled out the chair next to me and sat down with a face that said he knew it. The seat next to me was Park Sichan’s seat, so he sat in his own seat.
“A transfer student is coming today. To our class.”
“Oh, okay.”
It would be someone who had nothing to do with me anyway. I took out my first period textbook and absorbed the content we’d be covering today. At least textbook content is beneficial; there’s nothing to gain from Park Sichan’s words.
“Isn’t your reaction a bit too indifferent?”
“Yeah.”
“Well……. I expected too much from Baek Sihyeon.”
I heard a fluttering sound from the side. Park Sichan, who had been lamenting, seemed to be fluttering the center of his clothes.
It was definitely hot since it was June. Only finals were left now. I took the midterms before becoming the Hero, so I just needed to do well on this one.
Thinking about it again made it even stranger. A transfer at a time when only finals were left. It was puzzling, but I soon dismissed the thought. My life came before a transfer student whose face I didn’t even know.
“Come to think of it, I think I heard they said he was American.”
“……American?”
“Oh, you pay attention when it’s global? I heard he has blond hair and blue eyes. I wish it had been a girl if someone was coming anyway.”
Park Sichan clicked his tongue as if it was a shame. If they were coming to our class, it was definitely a boy. Since classes were separated by gender.
Blond hair and blue eyes. For a moment, a person flashed through my mind before disappearing. Someone I could never see again, someone even less likely to be a transfer student, yet I didn’t know why they flickered across my mind.
……But that didn’t mean I wanted someone similar. The transfer student who introduced himself saying he came due to personal circumstances was insanely identical to Ruvlian.
Could there be two faces like that in the world? It wasn’t like the worlds were different and God sent one down to each for eye purification. It was a completely incomprehensible situation. My brain gave up thinking.
“You can just call me Hyun.”
The transfer student who said that, his gaze reached me. As if he was speaking to me specifically.
My lips dried up completely. The affection contained in that gaze was so vivid that I felt like I’d mistake the transfer student for Ruvlian even though there was no way he could exist here.
“Teacher.”
“What is it?”
“I’d like to sit in that seat, would that not be okay?”
The spot the transfer student pointed to was the seat next to me.
“Park Sichan. Move.”
“What? That’s my original seat!”
“It’s a transfer student’s privilege. Take this opportunity to sit in front and study instead of dozing off.”
The empty seat where the transfer student would originally sit was the front seat.
Park Sichan protested a few times, got beaten down by the harsh truth, and moved seats. It was quite a lonely-looking back, but I didn’t comfort him. It was all his own karma.
More concerning than that was Lee Hyun, who approached the seat next to me. His gait was familiar. It was a gesture that contained the unique characteristic of Ruvlian, where the contradictory words of rough yet elegant were permitted.
“Hello, Sihyeon-ah.”
It was just an ordinary greeting, but it was full of aegyo. Naturally, Ruvlian overlapped with Lee Hyun.
“Hello.”
I couldn’t not return the greeting, so when I answered, Lee Hyun curved the corners of his eyes roundly and sat down. Then he sneakily reached out his hand and grasped mine.
Why is he the same even in this aspect? My eyes narrowed thinly. I knew it didn’t make sense, but my suspicion that the transfer student was Ruvlian grew in size.
“I’m Lee Hyun.”
I tried to pull my hand away when suddenly a voice like a fresh breeze entered my ears. The cheesy voice was the same as one I’d heard a lot, so it was even familiar.
“I know.”
“You weren’t calling my name, so I thought you didn’t know. Can’t you call it now?”
As if acting cute, Lee Hyun smiled with his eyes and gently rubbed the palm he was holding with his thumb.
“……Do I have to?”
“Mm-hm. You have to.”
This conversation pattern is the same too. Now I wondered if I was confusing my memories.
However, Ruvlian shouldn’t exist in this world. In the first place, did it make sense to move between worlds without God’s help? Even for Ruvlian, the Master of the Magic Tower, that would be difficult.
“Lee Hyun.”
“Mmm. If possible, I’d like it if you called me Hyun-ah.”
Lee Hyun said that and, with a grinning face, threaded his fingers between mine. Perhaps because of his face and actions that were identical to Ruvlian’s, I helplessly had my gaze stolen and let out a sigh.
It seemed like he would keep our fingers interlocked until he achieved what he wanted. How was it that even his stubbornness was the same as Ruvlian’s?
……Is this guy really Ruvlian?
As I increasingly harbored suspicions, I tried to free my hand by myself, but failed. Because Lee Hyun ghostly applied strength to his hand every time I tried to pull away. In the end, I had no choice but to give him what he wanted, as if making a declaration of surrender.
“Hyun-ah. Let go of my hand.”
Having obtained what he wanted, Lee Hyun obediently let go. Even so, a regretful gaze lingered heavily. If he had ears and a tail, they would have drooped.
“You….”
I unintentionally opened my mouth and then closed it. Lee Hyun’s actions were so similar to Ruvlian’s that I almost inadvertently asked if he was Ruvlian.
There was no way. Really no way, but it was strange. Could a person this similar exist in the world?
Lee Hyun didn’t avoid my blatant gaze. Rather, as if confronting it, he stared piercingly, then pulled his chair close. It was a distance where fingertips could touch.
When I gave him a look as if to say what the hell are you doing, Lee Hyun tilted his head. That action was so natural, it seemed like this wasn’t the first or second time he’d played dumb.
“Move away.”
“I don’t have a textbook. Let’s look at it together.”
Lee Hyun tapped my hand on the desk with his index finger. Without realizing it, my fingertips curled.
Having clearly seen that, Lee Hyun pretended not to know and caressed the back of my hand even more intently. Then, curving his eyes into half-moons, he asked back.
“Hm?”
In a considerably familiar, cutesy tone.
“Go get it from the teacher in the staff room.”
However, I had no intention of falling for that. He was so insanely similar to Ruvlian that I had a strong feeling that if I let myself be swayed once, I’d end up being swayed continuously.
“But it’s my first day as a transfer student, so I don’t even know the way to the staff room…….”
It was a tone as if to say that if I wasn’t going to show him the textbook, I should guide him to the staff room. Lee Hyun lowered his head and only rolled his eyes upward. Even in the shade created by his abundant eyelashes, the eye color that held the shade I once loved was dazzling.
Having been dazed for a moment, I came to my senses. And I found the reason why my conversation with Lee Hyun felt familiar. It was because there was never any loss for himself in the options, just like Ruvlian’s method of mischief.
Whether guiding him to the staff room or looking at the textbook together, either way would be beneficial to Lee Hyun. For some unknown reason, it seemed like he was trying to be with me.
There was also the method of telling him to follow the teacher when they returned to the staff room, but looking at the front, the teacher was already gone, perhaps morning assembly had ended. That meant I only had two methods left. There was also the method of telling him to ask other kids to guide him, but… it didn’t seem like it would work.
“……Just look at it together.”
In the end, it went the way Lee Hyun wanted. I felt like giving him the whole textbook and cutting off conversation with Lee Hyun who reminded me of Ruvlian, but I was a senior in high school. I couldn’t just give away the textbook.
With my permission, Lee Hyun pulled his chair a little closer. To the point where the chairs were touching. There was no need to be this close, I was about to tell him to move a bit to the side. A warm temperature was transmitted to the back of my hand that I hadn’t managed to pull away.
