ABM CH 17

Chapter 17: If That’s the Case, I Could’ve Been the Class President Too

Being desk partners with Woo Yeonho wasn’t entirely something to celebrate.

The only time I could freely watch him during the day was during class, but now I couldn’t even sneak a glance without him noticing.

‘…Would he feel annoyed if I stared at him openly? Maybe I could pretend I was looking at someone else if we made eye contact?’

If that’s the plan, I should memorize the names of the students sitting around him. Hopefully, not Kim Jungwoo. I don’t even want to use him as an excuse since I don’t want to talk to him at all.

The more I thought about it, the more unfair it felt. So what if I looked at him a little? It’s not like it would wear him out. It’s not like I’d touch him without permission the way Woo Yeonho does.

…Wait. What if I accidentally brush against him, or our shoulders touch? What if he starts teasing me in the middle of class? Could I even hold in my reaction if he starts tickling me?

Lately, even when I tell him to stop, he doesn’t feel sorry at all. He only stops when he’s had his fill of teasing me.

…If he tries to mess with me again, I’ll just step on his foot. The teachers all adore him, so they wouldn’t scold him or even give him a hard look if he made a little noise during class.

Once everyone was done swapping numbers, the classroom got even noisier as people moved their desks to their new spots. Woo Yeonho went to grab his desk, while I lazily started gathering my things.

Since we were moving desks in their entirety, I didn’t need to organize much. I just grabbed my bag off the back of my chair, but then a few ideas popped into my head about how to sneak glances at Woo Yeonho during class.

‘I could borrow something, like an eraser or pencil lead, and take a quick look then. Or I could ask him about something I don’t understand. Or maybe I could just watch him while he’s focusing on class.’

Unless Woo Yeonho has eyes on the sides and back of his head, he wouldn’t always catch me looking at him.

It would be odd to borrow something like pencil lead from someone sitting in front, behind, or across the room when I have someone sitting right next to me. Asking my seatmate would seem much more natural.

‘If we’re sitting next to each other, we’ll probably talk a lot more, right?’

One great thing about being seatmates is that I can start conversations without it being weird. Once I get used to talking to him, I might even drop his surname and start calling him Yeonho casually. 

Plus, instead of being just one of the 34 classmates, I’d have a higher chance of being remembered as “the person who was his seatmate.”

Feeling a bit happier at the thought, I sped up my slow movements. While carrying my desk and navigating through the chaos, I bumped into Woo Yeonho in the middle of the classroom. When I set my desk down a little distance away, he pushed it close to his with a laugh.

He said something then, but with all the noisy chatter nearby, I couldn’t make it out. It probably wasn’t anything important—just some teasing comment about whether carrying it was hard for me or something like that. I decided not to ask him to repeat himself.

‘But why is he staring at me like that? And why is he smiling so beautifully?’

It was like his eyes had been dusted with crushed gemstones. Woo Yeonho bathed in sunlight looked like a painting, and it was a bit disappointing that he didn’t have a seat by the window.

“Aren’t your legs tired, Seungwoo?”

Woo Yeonho spoke as he pulled out the chair attached to my desk for me.

‘Ah, I must have been standing there like an idiot.’

I sat down, feeling slightly embarrassed, and quietly mumbled, “Please take care of me,” just loud enough for myself to hear.

“Finally sitting down now?”

It seemed like he couldn’t have heard me, but Woo Yeonho responded anyway. His hearing was incredibly sharp.

‘Seriously, what could he possibly lack?’

With his chin resting on his hand, he smiled softly, and at that moment, I realized something all over again.

‘Ah, I’m doomed.’

***

Unlike my morning worries, Woo Yeonho didn’t touch me during class. During the third period of math, I struggled with a question I couldn’t figure out and wanted to ask him for help, but Woo Yeonho was so engrossed in solving his own problems that I couldn’t bring myself to interrupt.

In fifth period, I nodded off from post-lunch drowsiness and missed my chance again. Sixth period was a stroke of luck, as it was a music class held in another room. The teacher, for some reason, asked Woo Yeonho to play the piano accompaniment. Because of that, I could barely hear the voices of the students singing next to him—his piano playing was that captivating.

Woo Yeonho was an excellent pianist, too.

So focused on watching him, I hadn’t even noticed that the student who used to sit in front of me had ended up in the same spot again. Judging by how he’d been frantically trying to trade places earlier, it seemed the best he managed was that one trade. I almost felt sorry for him. The center seat wasn’t great for anything except being near Woo Yeonho.

May was filled with school events that made you question whether they were necessary. Since the school had to cram everything in before the final exams, there was something happening nearly every week. 

Today, for instance, we had to stay in the classroom after school to decide participants for the upcoming sports day at the end of May, as well as finalize the cheer song and practice schedule.

The surprise seating reshuffle in the morning had only been a precursor—something bigger awaited in the afternoon. During homeroom, our teacher casually said, “Oh, I almost forgot,” before dumping the responsibility on the class president and leaving the room.

With full authority handed over to him by our indifferent teacher, the class president first wrote down the list of events on the board and asked for volunteers to put their names down.

Popular ball games filled up quickly with skilled players being recommended, but for the less appealing events like scavenger hunts, there were no volunteers, even as a joke. 

So, the class president arbitrarily added the names of students who hadn’t signed up for anything.

My name ended up as the last on the list of 11 participants for tug-of-war. While I was relieved it wasn’t something like last year’s obstacle course, many students who were forced into unwanted events were loudly voicing their complaints.

‘Maybe it’s because he stays composed despite all that noise that he can handle being the class president.’

But then the president wrote his own name under the participants for the three-legged race, followed by Woo Yeonho’s name next to his. It was a blatant abuse of power.

Woo Yeonho was already signed up for the 100m sprint and soccer. Since each person couldn’t participate in more than three events, this addition filled up his quota completely.

‘Does he really need to max out his participation?’ 

I wondered. Most students were only doing one or two events. On top of that, the soccer tournament was a knockout format, so if they won, they’d keep advancing. In other words, managing stamina would be critical.

I was already unhappy about him running in the sprint, but it seemed the class president cared more about his personal agenda than anything else.

Though irritated, I couldn’t say anything since Woo Yeonho himself didn’t seem to mind. Instead, I just glared at the president’s name written next to Woo Yeonho’s on the board.

That’s when Woo Yeonho spoke up.

“Are you planning to fight with the chalkboard this time?”

With his usual easygoing manner, he teased me as he gently rubbed his thumb across the furrow between my brows.

‘Was I frowning that much? I mean, I was glaring, but I wasn’t that angry.’

It seemed like he always said something whenever I looked at anything too intently. Last time it was a bottle of apple juice and a phone, and today it was the chalkboard.

Woo Yeonho spoke to me as if I were a stubborn little kid. He’d probably be a great kindergarten teacher.

‘If Woo Yeonho were a teacher, all the kids in his class would be adorable and sweet, wouldn’t they?’

I briefly imagined him playing kindly with a group of small children but quickly stopped myself. Just the thought of those kids growing up and clinging to him, declaring they’d marry Teacher Yeonho someday, was irritating enough to make my stomach churn.

Still staring at me, Woo Yeonho smiled as I scowled at him and muttered, “Th-that’s not it….”

“It’s not?”

He simply echoed my words with a smile, unaffected by my glare. His smugness rivaled my older sister’s. In fact, if you lined the two of them up and had them compete to see who was more infuriating, it’d be hard to pick a winner.

That stray thought somehow made me feel even worse. Woo Yeonho and my sister had nothing in common. Not even a shred of similarity. From now on, no matter how late I might be, I was never asking my sister for a ride to school again. I didn’t want to risk them meeting, even by accident.

Meanwhile, my classmates were in a frenzy, deciding on team uniforms and a cheer song. The girls proposed doing something “cute,” suggesting animal ears or onesies, which made most of the boys recoil in horror.

‘Yeah, I don’t think that’s a good idea either….’

“Why not? It’s cute,” said one of the girls.

I noticed that almost all of them were looking at Woo Yeonho as they said it.

‘Well, if Woo Yeonho did it, it really would be cute.’

On my phone, there was still a picture of the adorable “puppy Woo Yeonho” saved. Woo Yeonho didn’t know that I’d set his photo as my wallpaper, and I intended to keep it that way. To ensure he never found out, I avoided taking my phone out whenever he was around.

Still, the thought of seeing the Woo Yeonho from that photo come to life made my once staunch opposition to the whole costume idea slowly waver.

“A puppy would probably look cute too.”

“…?”

As if on cue, the girls—who had been fiercely debating whether or not to go with animal costumes—raised their voices in excitement.

‘If Woo Yeonho likes the idea, who’s going to object?’

The moment Woo Yeonho uttered something remotely positive, the girls started enthusiastically calling his name, acting chummy. 

I caught a glimpse of Kim Jungwoo’s horrified expression in the front row and couldn’t help but quietly laugh to myself. Now I was kind of looking forward to seeing Kim Jungwoo wearing puppy or cat ears.

“Yeonho, so what do you prefer? Cats, dogs? Oh, how about a fox or even a bear?”

One of the girls sitting behind Woo Yeonho leaned forward to show him her phone screen. It was an accessory shop website filled with various animal-themed headbands. 

Woo Yeonho stared at the screen for a moment and then asked, “Is there a rabbit?”

“A rabbit?”

‘A rabbit?’

In my imagination, I swapped out the dog ears on Woo Yeonho’s head for rabbit ears. They fit him almost too perfectly. Whether the ears stood upright or flopped to one side, both looked incredible on him.

The girl must have been thinking the same thing because her fingers began frantically scrolling through the site, searching for rabbit ears. I silently rooted for her and her screen.

‘I hope she finds a pair that matches Woo Yeonho’s hair color.’

As I was lost in thought, envisioning the perfect pair of rabbit ears, I suddenly felt Woo Yeonho start to fiddle with my hair.

Lately, thanks to the treatment my eldest sister bought for me, my once frizzy hair had become noticeably softer. I wondered if Woo Yeonho had noticed the change.

“Oh… there aren’t any rabbit ears…”

The girl who had been scrolling through the accessory site let out a short sigh of disappointment. It seemed that others were searching too, as similar groans of frustration echoed around the room. I found myself sharing in their disappointment.

Then, out of nowhere, Woo Yeonho looked at me and said, “That’s a shame. It’d suit you well.”

‘Wait, what?’

For a moment, I froze, unable to process his words. Did he mean me? Or was he still thinking about himself wearing rabbit ears?

The way his eyes lingered on me, paired with his slightly teasing smile, left me flustered. My thoughts spun wildly.

‘Was he talking about me wearing rabbit ears? Or did he mean I’d look good next to him while he wears them?’

Whichever it was, my face heated up, and I quickly avoided his gaze, pretending to straighten the books on my desk.

“…Don’t joke around.”

I muttered under my breath, too embarrassed to say anything louder.

But even as I tried to brush it off, my mind wouldn’t let go of the image of Woo Yeonho with rabbit ears—standing beside me, grinning mischievously.