“You…”
“…?”
Being handsome is truly frightening. When that cool face with shadows cast upon it quietly looked down at him, his heart sank with a thud. And somehow he could predict what would come next.
Kwon Yunsu hurriedly opened his mouth.
“I’ll buy you ramen.”
“What? Really?”
Unexpectedly, the one who accepted that statement was Baek Seunghyun, who had just draped his arm over Kwon Yunsu’s shoulder, and Kwon Yunsu ended up paying exactly eight times what Lee Euishin had treated him to the day before. Lee Euishin, who had seemed like he had something to say, simply gave up on him and went home.
But Kwon Yunsu knew. Lee Euishin’s eyes, without malice or spite, were saying this:
‘─I thought you said you were good?’
“…Can’t even bluff?”
When he muttered quietly, Baek Seunghyun, who had been burying his head in ramen across from him, looked up.
“Why are you talking to ramen?”
He jabbed the tip of his chopsticks right into annoying Baek Seunghyun’s forehead.
“Bad guy!”
He’d always wanted to be a bit better at soccer.
Because he knew better than anyone that no matter how you looked at it, his skills were mediocre.
“Kwon Yunsu, your real problem is that your heart runs ahead of you.”
His life’s superhero Kim Wonwoo was quite realistic when it came to nagging. True to being a guy who was good at math, widely knowledgeable, and had not a speck of interest in sports, he stuck in objective and cruel words about Kwon Yunsu’s skills without mercy.
“My body runs ahead too.”
And he didn’t even pretend to listen to what was said on this end.
“You need to build stamina. Eat a lot before grabbing the ball, start with running, and stop showing off. What’s with all those useless movements when you don’t even have the stamina? That’s why you keep getting the ball stolen.”
How annoying. Kwon Yunsu was speechless.
“Hey, what 2nd year middle schooler doesn’t show off? What 2nd year middle schooler in the world plays soccer after building up their stamina…!”
“Baek Seunghyun.”
“……”
“You, the guy with a whole ‘oven homemade tteokgalbi’ in your mouth.”
“Baby, ah─.”
Receiving the tteokgalbi that had already been halved, Kwon Yunsu glared. Eating with Baek Seunghyun was like war. And for Lee Euishin, eating with him would be just like that.
“Class President, are you going to eat all of that?”
“The vice president is right.”
Placing his portion of tteokgalbi on top of Kwon Yunsu’s rice, this time Lee Euishin took up the knife.
“You’re quick but you lose the ball easily. Don’t hold onto it for long, pass it to someone with a better chance.”
And the way he pointed at Baek Seunghyun with his chin was really just completely annoying.
“It’s not good to be greedy.”
Even that comment, meant to be comforting, sounded very arrogant. Kwon Yunsu protested.
“I’m not being greedy.”
It was half right and half wrong. He tried hard not to be greedy somehow, but soccer was the most coveted throne in fifteen-year-old Kwon Yunsu’s life. He wanted to be in the spotlight for a long time.
“But don’t let go of it too much either.”
“Then what am I supposed to do?!”
This time he was genuinely angry. But there was no one to receive that anger. Baek Seunghyun, accustomed to him getting sensitive whenever sports talk came up, played dumb, and Kwon Yunsu couldn’t properly face Lee Euishin, who was looking at him with calm, passionless eyes. Striker my ass, at best he’d be a midfielder or defender. Anyway, once they got into the actual game, positions became meaningless at the level of 2nd year class matches since everyone would just swarm around together, but being pinned down like this felt unfair. However,
“You said you wanted to win.”
…Right. He wanted to win. To do that, they had to concentrate opportunities on Baek Seunghyun. ‘Kwon Yunsu, striker representing South Korea, began to nurture his dream as a soccer player through his remarkable performance at the middle school 2nd year school sports festival’?
“Fuck, my ass…”
At the words he muttered while mixing rice into seaweed soup, Baek Seunghyun’s face turned blue.
“Why are you cursing at the class president?”
Can’t this guy say anything else?
Team jump rope practice was exciting. Simultaneous participation from the entire grade, full class participation, a simple game where the class that recorded the most jumps in 1 minute while turning a large jump rope won. Because it was simple, unity was important, and individuals needed quick reflexes.
Kwon Yunsu liked jump rope. He liked the lightness of throwing his body and jumping over the rope, and the sound of counting that got louder as the countdown approached was thrilling.
“One hundred! One hundred one, one hundred two, one hundred three!!!”
The kids looked at Kwon Yunsu, who was hopping around in dark green gym clothes top and bottom, like he was the neighborhood idiot. He looked cheerfully normal but acted like an elementary 2nd grader—that was Kwon Yunsu’s public image. Lee Euishin, who had been swinging his long arms to turn the rope, was newly surprised that the serious atmosphere couldn’t last even an hour, and there was no way Kwon Yunsu would know that.
Thursday was Kwon Yunsu’s favorite day. Because PE was 5th period, he could jump right out after eating lunch. The sports festival practice that had been paused for two days due to rain would also resume today, and since it was a day when his father came home late, he could practice until dinner. It would be perfect if Baek Seunghyun would skip academy and go one-on-one with him. He didn’t know why that guy diligently attended academy when his brain didn’t even work anyway.
“The kids are doing well on their own now, do I have to stay today too?”
When Lee Euishin, who had appeared beside him at some point, threw out those words, Kwon Yunsu’s ears perked up for once. Oh ho, is this guy now asking for my permission?
“No way!”
So he said firmly and grabbed Lee Euishin’s arm.
“You’re the spiritual pillar of our class, so you have to stay until the end.”
Then irritation crossed Lee Euishin’s face. And then he looked down at Kwon Yunsu arrogantly. You little shit, I’ll be as tall as you after winter break, you know? Lee Euishin, who had been silent, spoke in a low voice.
“Stop being so excessive.”
“……”
“What makes you so confident to cling like this? It’s annoying.”
His gaze was utterly cold but his voice was so gentle that Kwon Yunsu opened his mouth in surprise. And he seriously replied.
“I can’t cling to you? Why?”
The class president’s mouth fell open too.
“Do I have no charm?”
Why would being with me be annoying? Habitually stealing side dishes was bad, but the class president really seemed to have no appetite, and ultimately it wasn’t even robbery. He’d made efforts to make the class president laugh, tried to buy him ramen, and also……
“…Are you disappointed because I’m bad at soccer?”
If so, there was only one reason that came to mind. His insignificant skills, not even as good as Baek Seunghyun’s, had diminished his charm.
“Kwon Yunsu.”
“Class President.”
“You really…”
“Class President……”
Kwon Yunsu’s voice grew smaller and Lee Euishin was so surprised by Kwon Yunsu’s ridiculous leap of logic that he lost his words. This guy interpreted everything thoroughly in his own favor. He says it’s annoying, what more reason do you need? Now that he’s shown his true colors, you should realize he’s rude, has a dual personality, and get away on your own—what the hell is with this leech bastard? Even in the midst of all this, Kwon Yunsu was rolling his pitch-black eyes and clinging to Lee Euishin’s arm.
“I’ll work hard at soccer.”
“……”
“Tomorrow when we get ‘mozzarella cheese pizza,’ I’ll give you mine.”
Despite being a country bumpkin, he has an eye for things. As if that means you can have me?
“I hate pizza.”
“How can anyone hate pizza…”
Is that even human… It was a tone of utter dismay.
Just when he was thinking he’d like to give his cheek a good pinch, the bell rang annoyingly. Lee Euishin irritably dragged Kwon Yunsu back to the classroom. He was a guy who required a lot of attention.
At that day’s practice, Kwon Yunsu rolled around the playground like crazy.
It was literally a “look at me” practice (Kwon Yunsu turned to look at Lee Euishin sitting in the stands with sparkling eyes once every 10 seconds, and even from very far away, you could see the aura of ‘I’m doing well, right?’ bursting out), so Lee Euishin’s return home was unfairly delayed (every time Lee Euishin shouldered his bag and stood up, Kwon Yunsu screamed at the top of his lungs, ‘CLASS! PRES! PRESIDEEENT!!!’).
