HWAMB — Chapter 17

An apron still didn’t suit him.

Thinking I was just lazing about without getting up, he yanked open the curtains, flooding the room with blinding light, then strode over and ripped the blanket off me.

I had no choice but to rub my eyes and sit up.

“I’m sleepy…”

“I knew it when you came home late yesterday. Making me worry…”

Still half-asleep, I washed my face roughly, scraped the sleep from my eyes, and sat down at the table.

Steaming bowls of rice were neatly set out. Now that I thought about it, my brother had said this weekend was one of his days off.

I looked at the familiar mountain of rice piled high in the bowl and scooped up a big spoonful.

“So, was the amusement park fun?”

“Huh?”

I froze mid-bite, staring blankly at him.

The heap of rice teetering on my spoon toppled back into the bowl. My idiotic reaction made my brother chuckle like I must’ve been dreaming.

“You went with Hyun-woo yesterday, right? To that new place.”

Without thinking, I blurted, “Ah, yeah… forgot about that,” and stiffly stuffed rice back into my mouth like a robot.

I couldn’t even tell if the rice was going down my nose or my throat.

Wait… so that wasn’t a dream?

“Going to the amusement park with Hyun-woo, seeing fireworks on the Ferris wheel… him suddenly confessing again, and me getting caught up in the moment, blurting out we should kiss and… bumping lips?”

My head spun.

My face felt like it would explode, like the fireworks last night.

Noticing my suspicious demeanor, my brother narrowed his eyes at me. After a long silence at the table, he lowered his voice and asked,

“…Why. Did something happen?”

“N-nothing happened…”

“Don’t tell me someone laid hands on you…”

The way he trailed off, I didn’t need to ask who that “someone” meant. It was Hyun-woo.

I shook my head with an awkward smile.

But really, it hadn’t been Hyun-woo who made a move—it had been me.

I was the one who had suddenly leaned in. Just like that other time in bed, too. Contrary to my brother’s worries, it was always me first, not Hyun-woo.

And yet Hyun-woo had never once looked annoyed by it.

“You don’t have to hide things from me, you kn—”

“Ah, seriously… it’s not like that.”

I said it half to scold, half to hide my guilt, but his expression was still disapproving.

Once I emptied my bowl, he filled it up to the brim again.

Just then, a text from Hyun-woo came in.

When I opened it, there were a bunch of messages.

Pictures from yesterday.

Among them was a night view, clearly taken from the Ferris wheel.

[They said it stops once at the top. Must be beautiful. …Too bad, maybe because it’s night, the photo didn’t turn out well.]

Was that when he took it? While I’d been talking.

The photos I had taken were all blown-out lights and pitch-black shadows. But Hyun-woo’s shot was surprisingly decent.

Those fireworks were really beautiful.

And the night view too…

“Ah.”

Then I remembered what I’d done right after that, and I pressed my lips shut, keeping my head down as I silently ate my rice.

My brother eyed me suspiciously, his expression twitching, then sighed and said,

“I don’t care if you go out, but come back earlier. Things have been dangerous lately…”

“Dangerous? Why?”

“Apparently, some weirdo’s been hanging around our complex with a weapon. It’s not exactly a safe neighborhood…”

This was the first I’d heard of it.

Well, I supposed the residents must’ve kept it quiet so property values wouldn’t drop, so it wasn’t strange I hadn’t known.

“Did they catch him?”

“No. Though the ‘weapon’ was just a box cutter… Anyway, nothing happened and no one was hurt, so it ended with just a report. But the problem is, he could show up again and cause trouble. You know how many lunatics are out there.”

“……”

“Anyway, I’m saying this because I worry. Come home early, alright?”

He tapped me lightly on the head with his big hand and stepped out to the balcony.

I quietly chewed my rice, retracing my memories.

[Something up?]

[Nope]

[That guy kept staring at you… was he a creep?]

[No, just a drunk]

That night, after my fight with Jae-ho, on the way home, Hyun-woo had walked me back. A strange man in a hat had been loitering out front.

Hyun-woo had said he was just a drunk and kept watching him.

Could it have been Hyun-woo who filed the report?

It wasn’t impossible.

Then that time he told me to shut the curtains—maybe it wasn’t just, “That guy looks like he’s about to make pancakes or something,” but…

A chill ran down my spine. Lately, hadn’t there been unprovoked attacks in the news?

No way… it couldn’t be the same man.

It must’ve really just been a drunk, like Hyun-woo said.

Dwelling on bad possibilities wouldn’t solve anything. I decided to stop there.

I thought, “I should tell Hyun-woo to be careful too,” as I carried my empty bowl to the sink.

* * *

“Ah, I’m screwed…”

“Thinking of ditching cram school?”

“Shut up, you bastards.”

Young-ho, holding his report card, looked ready to cry.

As Hyun-woo had predicted earlier, I’d gotten one question wrong on the math written section.

The answer itself was correct, but I’d made a careless mistake in the solution and used the wrong symbol. Luckily, I still got partial credit.

One point off out of three—it stung a little.

“Damn… Kang Eun-jae, you freak of nature… What the hell do you eat to study this well? Got some secret method? Or did you find some miracle tutor…”

“What miracle tutor. For grades, it’s just…”

“Whoa, stop right there. I feel like I’m about to hear the most annoying cliché ever, right in front of my face.”

I grinned mischievously at Young-ho, who was waving his hands as if to block me.

“Just stick to the textbooks for Korean, English, and math—”

“Argh! No! That’s it, I’m not listening anymore!”

In the end, Young-ho clapped his hands over his ears, trembling as he bolted from the classroom.

The others who saw laughed and teased him for running away.

At that moment, a friend peeking at my report card from behind asked curiously,

“Hey, all your other subjects show you ranked first, but math says second?”

“Huh? Oh, you’re right. You lost one point, so you got a 99. That means someone got a perfect 100?”

“Wow… and the math was brutal this time. That’s insane. Must’ve been the class rep, right?”

“Nope. Even the class rep said he missed one problem.”

“You guys never cared about grades before, so why make a fuss now?”

I spoke with disbelief, and they brushed it off with laughs and mutters of, “Nah, we’re just curious.”

While they speculated about who had taken first place, my eyes lingered on the number “2” next to math.

It was probably… Hyun-woo.

It wasn’t surprising. I’d always known he was good at math.

Out of all my subjects, math had always been my weakest. Even recently, I’d been going to Hyun-woo for help with difficult problems.

Despite his prickly nature, he had a knack for teaching others.

The friends, having given up guessing, kept marveling over the nameless person who’d gotten first place.

Even though I wasn’t the one who’d scored 100, for some reason my chest felt warm and proud.

“Take your seats.”

At the teacher’s words as he stepped into the classroom, everyone sat down. From the front row to the back, the handouts were passed along.

Now that I thought about it, the sports festival was just two weeks away.

Some groaned about the hassle, while others were thrilled at the thought of skipping class.

I was somewhere in the middle. When I was younger, I’d loved running around and poking into everything, but that side of me had faded over time.

It wasn’t that I disliked hanging out and wandering places, but I’d never been especially athletic. So I usually just joined in enough not to hold the team back.

The handout listed the events to be held: obstacle course, tug-of-war, relay race, three-legged race, long rope jump, soccer, dodgeball…

Thankfully, there wasn’t any choreographed cheering dance forced under the name of “support.”

I’d assumed that nonsense ended in elementary school, but I’d been wrong—my previous middle school had made us do it, too. It was bad enough that only Hyun-woo knew how clumsy I really was.

“This time, odd-numbered classes are Blue Team. Even-numbered classes are White Team.”

So Hyun-woo and I wouldn’t be on the same team.

Strangely, not once before had we ever ended up on opposite teams during the sports festival.

Well, it was about time.

It was intimidating to have Hyun-woo as an opponent since he was so athletic, but most events were team-based, not one-on-one, so it didn’t matter much.

During fifth and sixth period, the class rep and vice rep explained the schedule and distributed people into each event.

When homeroom ended and I packed my bag, Hyun-woo was waiting out in the hallway.

Suddenly, memories of last weekend came rushing back, and my face grew hot.

I quickly said goodbye to my friends and hurried toward him, trying to act casual.

Repeating to myself not to overthink it, I chatted with him about trivial things, as I always did.

Hyun-woo nodded without much expression, like always.

“Oh, right. You got a perfect score in math, didn’t you?”

“Yeah. Why?”

“Nothing. Just, good job. Your uncle must be happy.”

“Feels like being first in the entire school is more impressive than just first in math.”