COAC 10

That afternoon, during Korean language class, Do Hyeonjun was about to doze off when Seo Jeong poked him in the side, just barely bringing him back to his senses. As soon as the class ended, Seo Jeong rustled through his bag and took out some snacks. He bragged that they were a hot new item that had just been released and that he had managed to get them after visiting three convenience stores.

“Let’s eat.”

While eating the snacks, Seo Jeong talked about his favorite variety show, and Do Hyeonjun responded appropriately.

“Is Kim Chayeon here? You have some of this too.”

Seo Jeong, as if he was used to it, held out the snacks to Kim Chayeon with a slightly bored air.

“Anyway, when Kim Jeongseok was sobbing while reading his father’s letter! The tears were just streaming down my face too. Is it okay for a variety show to be that sad?”

Seo Jeong picked up the variety show topic that had been briefly interrupted.

“It’s a parody. Of that movie we saw last time.”

“Huh, what did you say?”

Kim Chayeon, who had accepted Seo Jeong’s snacks as if it were a matter of course, added briefly. Seo Jeong asked again, but he just shook his head as if it were nothing.

His hand, which was bringing a snack to his mouth, paused in mid-air. It was the first time Kim Chayeon had brought up a memory with him, not Seo Jeong, as a topic of conversation. It felt strange. Kim Chayeon must have said it without any meaning, so why was he paying attention? He could not figure out why.

Kim Chayeon returned to his classroom, and the subsequent classes ended. When break time came, the classroom quickly emptied out. Do Hyeonjun and Seo Jeong headed to the school store to procure their daily provisions. More than half a year had passed since he quit baseball, but the habit of eating a lot still remained.

For some reason, Kim Chayeon was nowhere to be seen, so the two went alone. The moment they were about to return to the classroom with a bunch of bread to eat before lunch, someone called out to Seo Jeong from a corner near the emergency staircase.

“Hey, Seo Jeong. Class president, come here for a second.”

However, he thought it was just his imagination that the way the guy called Seo Jeong felt somehow sarcastic.

“Let me ask you a few questions about some problems I don’t know. The class president is good at math, right. I got a lot of help from the class president last year too.”

Seo Jeong was indeed good at math. Do Hyeonjun, who had been greatly indebted to him during the last midterms, took a sip from the straw stuck in his milk.

“Hyeonjun. You go to the classroom first. I’ll be there soon too.”

“Okay. If you’re late, I’m going to eat all the bread, so hurry up and come.”

“Okay.”

Leaving behind a briefly smiling Seo Jeong, Do Hyeonjun was heading to the classroom when he came to a dead stop in the middle of the hallway. The unpleasant gaze of the guy who had called Seo Jeong, whom he had just passed by, came to mind.

Damn it. Swallowing a curse, he immediately turned around and headed back toward the emergency staircase. His steps became urgent.

“Hey, what are you? Huh? After hanging out with Chayeon, do you think you’ve become an alpha too? Don’t be mistaken. You can’t even be compared to Chayeon, so don’t act up.”

Seo Jeong was pushed back, stumbling, by a hand that kept shoving his shoulder.

“Did you cling to Chayeon this time too? If not, how can a beta brat get first place in the class. Wow, Chayeon must be scared too. Seeing a beta brat following him around so tenaciously. Ugh, if it were me, I’d get the fucking creeps.”

“That’s what I’m saying. He probably mistakes it for being friends because he’s being nice out of pity. Just because they happened to meet when they were young, he’s being so clingy. Fucking loser.”

In addition to the guy who had asked for help with math a moment ago, two others had joined, making a total of three surrounding Seo Jeong. Voices mixed with ridicule and contempt poured down on Seo Jeong. Are those bastards crazy? Do Hyeonjun shouted loudly.

“Seo Jeong!”

The moment he saw Seo Jeong, who turned around in surprise, his uneasy feeling turned into certainty. Do Hyeonjun strode forward, put a hand on Seo Jeong’s shoulder, and hid him behind his back.

“Hey. What are you guys doing?”

The three of them lifted their heads at the same time at the low, firm voice. A brief look of embarrassment flashed across their faces, but they immediately let out an awkward laugh.

“You probably don’t know because you just transferred this time, but we’re close. We were just joking around.”

Because Do Hyeonjun was taller and had a better build than them, they could not treat him carelessly and made an awkward excuse. It was even more pathetic because he had seen how they had treated Seo Jeong just a moment ago.

Do Hyeonjun looked down at the red bean bread in his hand. He accurately threw the bread, which was half out of its plastic wrapper and had been pressed in his hand, toward the chest of the guy who had been spouting nonsense at the front.

Thwack. A small, but heavy, impact sound was heard. Everyone here looked at Do Hyeonjun with surprised faces. He felt Seo Jeong’s gaze too, but he pretended not to notice and opened his mouth.

“Then how about this? If what you guys did was a joke, then this must be a joke for me too. This is fucking hilarious. Right?”

No one laughed. The three who had been bothering Seo Jeong looked at each other without a word, and Do Hyeonjun did not avoid their gaze. The guy who had been hit by the red bean bread let out a fake cough for no reason.

“Hey… it was really a joke, why are you being like this?”

“Whether it’s a joke or not.”

Do Hyeonjun cut him off.

“Is decided by the person on the receiving end, not the one doing it.”

The silence near the emergency staircase, which was neither the classroom nor the hallway, settled with a strange heaviness.

At Do Hyeonjun’s firm attitude, the three could not argue back any longer and hurriedly left the scene.

Back in the classroom, Seo Jeong scratched the back of his neck and smiled awkwardly. His cheeks were slightly flushed.

“How did you know?”

“Your smile was different from usual. You should just ignore kids who spout bullshit, why are you just standing there listening to them?”

Seeing Seo Jeong with his eyebrows lowered and a troubled expression, it seemed this kind of situation was not just a one or two time thing.

“Kids like that like it more when someone reacts. If I talk back, it’ll just get worse. I thought they’d get bored quickly if I just ignored them, but it was a bit much today. It was the first time kids who only said things verbally pushed me, so I was sweating. You saved me. But you were really cool. How did you think of throwing the bread there?”

As if to change the mood, Seo Jeong changed the subject. He wanted to ask more, but he did not want to make Seo Jeong uncomfortable.

“I had just eaten the dry bread part and was about to start on the red bean paste. It was a bit of a waste to throw it at guys like that.”

Hahaha. The hearty laugh that Seo Jeong burst out with quickly spread across his entire face. It was not even that funny, but he wiped the tears that had formed at the corners of his eyes and caught his breath. It was a relief that his gloomy mood seemed to have improved.

Do Hyeonjun watched Seo Jeong’s side profile as he prepared for class for a moment, then thought back to what had happened earlier. Those three had said that Seo Jeong was clinging to Kim Chayeon, but from what he had seen from the side, it was the opposite. It was Kim Chayeon who was following Seo Jeong around.

Kim Chayeon was partly responsible for Seo Jeong being isolated in class. Instead of bothering the perfect alpha Kim Chayeon, they picked a fight with the easy target, the beta Seo Jeong. Or there were probably many who bullied Seo Jeong out of jealousy because he was close to the Kim Chayeon they admired. Just seeing the empty seat next to Seo Jeong when he transferred gave the answer. But then and now, Do Hyeonjun had no intention of stopping being friends with Seo Jeong.

It was during cleaning time after school that day. A strange smell coming from the trash can at the end of the hallway tickled his nose. Do Hyeonjun picked up a trash bag from the corner of the classroom and quietly walked out. It was a job he was doing alone, but he did not feel particularly wronged.

When he reached the corner where the recycling area was, below the stairs, someone’s shadow caught his eye first. It was Kim Chayeon.

“Seo Jeong is cleaning the classroom.”

There was no question mark in his tone. Even without adding it, the meaning of ‘why are you here’ was sufficiently conveyed.

“I know.”

I guess he’s going to talk about Seo Jeong. Well, in the first place, if it was not something related to Seo Jeong, there was no reason for him to come looking for him. As Do Hyeonjun stared at him, Kim Chayeon, uncharacteristically, lowered his gaze.

“Something like that happened to Jeong, and I wasn’t there.”

A rare gloominess was present in his voice.

“Hey. It’s not like you’re one person, how can you stick together all the time?”

Do Hyeonjun opened the trash bag and took out the cans and plastic bottles. While moving his hands as if he were calm, his attention was directed toward Kim Chayeon.

Kim Chayeon closed his mouth as if chewing on Do Hyeonjun’s words. He slowly lowered and then lifted his eyes, and this time he spoke clearly.

“Thanks.”

He had not expected the word ‘thanks’ to come out of Kim Chayeon’s mouth. It was purely surprising.

So because Seo Jeong is involved, that Kim Chayeon can say something like this. The fact that this was so, once again, poked him in the solar plexus.

“Jeong always acts like nothing happened, so if someone doesn’t pay attention, he struggles alone.”

The gaze he added as he looked straight at Do Hyeonjun was as persistent as an interviewer’s.

“What are you going to do?”

Do Hyeonjun, holding the almost empty bag, thought about Kim Chayeon’s question for a moment.

“I don’t know. I probably won’t leave him alone. Since we’re friends.”

At the extremely obvious answer, Kim Chayeon’s eyes wavered very slightly. He stared at Do Hyeonjun for a moment. As if observing someone he was seeing for the first time, or as if gauging something.

“Then I guess it’s not so bad that you’re involved.”

From his retreating back, as if he had said all he needed to say, Do Hyeonjun could no longer feel a sharp sense of vigilance. A tacit allowance. Only then did Do Hyeonjun let out the small breath he had been holding. It felt like a stone that had been pressing down on his solar plexus had disappeared.