# Chapter 90
Perhaps because of what happened during lunch time, I ran hard in today’s PE class to soothe my troubled mind. Fearing that useless thoughts might rear their heads if I stayed still, I decided to keep my whole body moving without resting even for a moment.
I was sweating profusely, but my mind felt refreshed because of it. My body was tired, but that wasn’t so bad either.
“Yoon Taeho. Why are you working so hard today?”
“Thanks to you, we blocked one goal. Why didn’t you do this last time?!”
“You must be in top condition!”
My stomach was full thanks to Moon Seoheon who kept giving me side dishes during lunch. It was the kind of time when I could have gotten indigestion, but maybe because I had eaten well, I seemed to run better than expected. When I accidentally blocked Moon Seoheon’s kicked ball, not only my teammates but also players from the other team were greatly surprised.
I laughed it off with my teammates and wiped away my streaming sweat while glancing to the side. Moon Seoheon, flapping his clothes as if hot, was surrounded by his teammates chatting.
Unlike me who was receiving praise, Moon Seoheon was getting worried reprimands, with his teammates saying he wasn’t running well today. Still, he had run far better than the other guys, so it wasn’t bad enough to be scolded. In the end, Moon Seoheon’s team won 2-0. Of course, both goals were scored by him.
While catching my rough breath, I briefly recalled the moment when I coincidentally defended against Moon Seoheon’s ball. Honestly, I had rushed to block the ball without thinking, but when our eyes met as Moon Seoheon got closer and closer, I felt like my breath stopped.
The calm warmth in his eyes disappeared, and I was startled by eyes that seemed to flash with hot flames. In a situation where we would collide if I didn’t stop, I quickly twisted my body and fortunately managed to avoid a full-body crash almost miraculously.
But as I backed away to the side, Moon Seoheon kicked the ball toward me, and it hit my stomach and bounced off. I had fled to avoid getting injured, but somehow I ended up blocking the ball that Moon Seoheon had kicked.
Although I received surprised gasps followed by cheers from my classmates, I felt uncomfortable. There was no way Moon Seoheon would make a mistake, and the soccer ball that came flying wasn’t that strong.
The game continued as our team received the bounced ball and ran forward. Taking a moment’s break, Moon Seoheon approached me and grabbed me as I stood unsteadily.
There was no injury, but Moon Seoheon lifted my top and examined my stomach, asking if I was okay. Frozen in surprise at the sudden event, I had no choice but to let him do what he was doing.
The area hit by the soccer ball was red and raised. Considering the soccer balls Moon Seoheon had kicked before, my stomach, which had taken a direct hit, should have been bruised dark blue by now. Since I hadn’t been tensing my muscles, it only hurt briefly and could hardly be considered an injury.
But Moon Seoheon had an inexplicably apologetic expression. He ran his finger across my stomach, which was still as I couldn’t even breathe. The eerie sensation made my heart drop, and I had to step back.
When I brushed away Moon Seoheon’s hand saying I was fine and adjusted my clothes, he had already turned around and was running back to his team. Only then did I realize that Moon Seoheon had been playing a prank.
Perhaps feeling my stare, Moon Seoheon turned his head to look at me. I looked away out of surprise, which made it a bit awkward. When I glanced back, Moon Seoheon was chatting with the other students as if he hadn’t been looking this way.
After superficially agreeing with teammates who patted my back saying “good job,” I unconsciously stared at Moon Seoheon who was coming straight toward me as if the conversation had ended.
“You did well today.”
“…It’s nothing compared to you.”
My mood became strange at Moon Seoheon’s compliment. Asking if he was joking would only make the atmosphere more awkward. With the thought of just keeping my wits about me, I decided to just get over my agitated feelings.
Moon Seoheon grabbed my arm, saying let’s go. It was just holding my arm, nothing more or less, but the point of contact felt unnecessarily hot. I just rubbed my stomach, telling myself not to mind it.
As we were walking side by side, someone hit my shoulder and quickly passed by. Moon Seoheon, who caught my body as it momentarily tilted to the side, gave me a look asking if I was okay.
“Yeah. Thanks.”
As I quickly straightened up, I looked at the back of the head of the guy who had bumped me. For someone who had bumped into me so boldly, he was running away like he was fleeing, which looked utterly cowardly. I glared briefly at Jo Youngmin, who was heading to the classroom in a hurry without looking back, and let out a small sigh.
That bastard was interfering even during soccer, and he keeps getting on my nerves. I’d laughed it off once or twice thinking how childish he was, but now I was starting to get annoyed.
Clicking my tongue, I turned to Moon Seoheon who was holding me while standing still.
“…What are you doing? Let’s go.”
“Okay.”
At my words, he who had been looking in the same direction as me came closer to my side. Despite being reprimanded by others for not performing as well as usual today, his curved eyes had changed to an expressionless state as if he was in a good mood. His lips turned up slightly as he briefly glanced at me, but that made my body tremble with a shudder.
When we arrived at the classroom, we sat down obediently without changing out of our gym clothes. We could have gone like this without changing into our uniforms since classes were over, but we still had something to do.
Soon the homeroom period approached, and the homeroom teacher came in earlier than usual.
“You all heard what was relayed to the class president, right? We need to decide on the class T-shirts to wear for the sports festival.”
Since the class president had told everyone during the break after fifth period to stay behind, no one was surprised. Rather, the atmosphere began to heighten as the class became noisy with students who seemed excited.
After tapping the podium several times to calm them down, the homeroom teacher pointed to the class president and PE representative and told them to come forward. I focused on the meeting while sitting comfortably with my back against the chair.
Various samples appeared on the monitor screen connected to the laptop. As if there were candidates already selected, it was decided to determine which clothes to wear through voting. I thought it was quite late to be deciding on class T-shirts with the sports festival next week, but it seemed it didn’t matter since they could just place an order.
But as soon as I saw the samples, I felt quite despondent. I had thought this before, but the students here seemed to have a unique aesthetic sense. Each of the displayed clothes was extremely tacky.
To put it nicely, they were clothes that models might wear in a fashion show, all incomprehensible. Of course, class T-shirts for the sports festival tended to be unusual clothes that you wouldn’t normally wear, but isn’t this too much?
The torn T-shirt was so tattered that I doubted whether it was actually made to be worn, and its hot pink color hurt my eyes. Others were T-shirts full of patterns and floral designs that gangsters might wear, which were difficult to look at.
If they were cute clothes, it would have been fine, but I wouldn’t want to buy and wear those even if they were paid for. Unlike my thoughts, the other students were seriously contemplating which one to choose, saying they didn’t know which to pick.
I was dumbfounded by the reactions that all of them were more or less okay, as none of them appealed to me.
“Then let’s take turns raising hands to choose the one you like. Any other opinions?”
“Class president. What are those pictures at the bottom?”
Jo Youngmin, pointing to photos slightly covered and not visible below the crude short-sleeved T-shirts on the screen, asked. Maybe because he was sitting in a place where the screen was clearly visible, he seemed quite curious. The class president, who turned his gaze to the monitor, let out a short sigh and then spoke casually.
“Ah, these are the ones excluded from the candidates. One lacks uniqueness, and the other is similar, so we decided to exclude them.”
The class president moved the mouse to show the two photos below. As said, one was a plain black outfit, and the other was a shirt with a design similar to the floral-patterned clothes. They looked somewhat better than the clothes shown as candidates.
“Those look good too.”
“Yeah. The shirt is pretty.”
Pointing to a shirt that looked like something you’d wear at a resort, Jo Youngmin responded positively, and other students also shared their appreciative comments about the shirt. Honestly, they all looked the same to me, so I made a bored expression, but when someone suggested adding the rest as candidates, I decided to hold a shallow hope. I really wish they would decide on that black outfit.
“Which one appeals to you?”
“Hmm… that black T-shirt over there.”
Suddenly, Moon Seoheon leaned his upper body toward me and asked quietly. When I answered honestly, he made a surprised expression. It was really a plain outfit compared to the others, but you could wear something like that frequently in daily life. Did Yoon Taeho like flashy things?
“What do you like?”
“Me too… the black T-shirt.”
“Really?”
This time, when I made a surprised expression, Moon Seoheon smiled broadly and said:
“Since you said you liked it, it looks good to me too.”
Seriously, stop talking. I turned my head abruptly, holding back my crumpling expression. Now that I was somewhat aware, I couldn’t laugh off any of the words he kept saying. The words I couldn’t ask directly circled in my mouth again, but I held back.
While I was confused, the class decided to put the excluded clothes back as candidates and vote. They really all wanted to wear eye-catching clothes, leaving out only the black outfit I wanted. Since it probably wouldn’t be chosen anyway, I just gave up on the outfit that didn’t even make it to the candidate list.
Voting continued in order, and unexpectedly, they were all neck and neck. Just as the floral shirt was about to be decided by a difference of only two votes, Moon Seoheon raised his hand.
“Sorry, but can we vote again? Including that black T-shirt.”
“Huh? The black T-shirt?”
The startled class president and PE representative briefly looked at the plain black T-shirt. Toward the students who were looking bewildered, perhaps not upset about the suggestion to vote again at this point, Moon Seoheon expressed his opinion.
“We have a treasure hunt too. Wouldn’t a plain outfit be better than a flashy one that stands out?”
Just as I was about to be dumbfounded by Moon Seoheon’s unexpectedly proactive attitude, I let out an exclamation at his valid point. The other students seemed to feel the same, as the classroom soon became noisy with chatter.
