PCL Ch 45

The homeroom teacher, who showed his back in front of the blackboard, was silent. Tak, tak, tak- The chalk hit the blackboard with a certain beat and then stopped. The green chalkboard was filled with traces as white as snow. Every time the teacher raised his hand high, neat letters were engraved like calligraphy.

I tucked my upper lip under my bottom lip and wrote down what the teacher was writing in my notebook as quickly as I could. Less than ten students would be taking notes. More than half of the students in the room had already fallen asleep. The teacher would have attempted to encourage them in his own way, but they were already relieved by the thought that if he finished this topic, he would be able to finish the class earlier than normal.

Tak-

“That’s it.”

The teacher placed the shortened chalk on the table. With an uneasy expression on his hands, he rubbed his palms to see whether there was any chalk powder on them. He glanced at the blackboard with a satisfied expression on his face. I also followed the trace of the teacher who somehow finished writing by dividing the space on the blackboard, finished taking notes, and put down the ballpoint pen.

“Done.”

My deskmate, who was taking notes, put up his glasses that had fallen down to the bridge of his nose and looked back at me as I murmured to myself.

“Ki Young-hyun.”

“Yes.”

“I can’t read the handwriting very well, so please lend me your notebook.”

“Sure.”

My deskmate bent down and continued taking notes as if he was going to stick his nose in his own notebooks when I handed him the notebook. I repeatedly opened and clenched my fist, which was aching due to the aftermath of intense handwriting. Having nothing to do, I glanced around the classroom and eventually settled on the homeroom teacher. The teachers, like the students, were exhausted.

The last class before supplementation was actually stretched out unless it was physical education. The teacher sat cross-legged on a chair randomly placed next to the school table. He yawned, looked at his phone, then scolded the person in front of me for no apparent reason, asking what the writing was.

The teacher looked over each of the students. I stretched out quietly. I crossed my belly and stretched my arms out in front of me.  The thought of sneaking into Lim Dae-han’s house tomorrow morning made my heart flutter. It was a surprise event for the first time.

I had already made up my mind about what food I would give to Lim Dae-han. I planned to cook a basic boiled egg roll with seaweed, as well as some side dishes from my fridge and a fish cake soup. Originally, I planned to make egg soup, but there were egg rolls, and making soup with eggs was a bit difficult.

The teacher looked into the classroom with bored eyes for a moment, then fixed his gaze on me. He tilted his head and looked at me. Our gazes briefly met. What? Did I just smile alone? I swiftly lowered my head after raising my hand to caress the corner of my mouth. But it wasn’t me that the teacher called.

“Lim Dae-han.”

“Yes.”

I slowly raised my head at the heavy voice I heard from behind. The teacher called for Lim Dae-han and looked at the clock. I followed his eyes as well. The lesson was about to end in less than five minutes. The teacher picked up the textbook from the school table.

“Lim Dae-han, follow me.”

“Yes.”

“Class leader, keep your classmates quiet.”

“Yes.”

Creak, the chair was pulled. The sound of slippers dragging could be heard. All my nerves were focused on Lim Dae-han behind me. Lim Dae-han stepped forward from the back of the quiet classroom. As soon as the teacher left, the classroom quickly became noisy. The class leader said, “Hey, be quiet.” He spoke as if he meant what he said, yet he couldn’t stop anyone.

I turned my body to the side while looking at the back door where Lim Dae-han disappeared. I looked at my deskmate, who was still busy taking notes and turned my head toward Dae-han’s desk. Textbooks and notebooks were spread out on his desk. He tried and stopped writing a small bit in worm-like handwriting that was worse than my deskmate’s. Unlike the teacher, who used a variety of colors in his writing, he exclusively used a black ballpoint pen. I wasn’t sure if I could even read the writing.

Lim Dae-han returned to class shortly after the bell rang at the end of the break. He had the same expression on his face as when he went out. I glanced at Lim Dae-han and moistened my lips. I wanted to ask why the teacher called him, but seeing Dae-han’s face, it seemed like nothing, and in fact, there was something I wanted Dae-han to tell me first.

“…”

“…”

However, Lim Dae-han patted the nape of his neck as if something was bothering him without saying anything, and then sat down. I sat crookedly and touched my phone. Unlike me, who wore a knitted vest, Lim Dae-han was only wearing a shirt. He unbuttoned one of the top buttons of his shirt, which was about to burst because his arms didn’t fit properly, unlike me, who buttoned the buttons all the way to the neck. Lim Dae-han was fumbling with his phone when he turned around to face me, who was facing him.

“Ki Young-hyun.”

“Yes.”

“Give me a heart.”

“…”

All he was saying was that he wanted me to send a heart for his game life. I pulled my mobile phone from the desk drawer, biting my lips tightly and twitching my nose so it didn’t show. And then I send him a heart.

“… You didn’t write it all.”

“Ah.”

Lim Dae-han responded half-heartedly. His attention was still drawn to the phone. He seemed to be playing a game, as his finger continuously touched the phone’s screen and then moved away from it. He doesn’t play often, but every now and then he saves money and spends it on various items. I discovered he wasn’t a decent gamer after checking at his phone a few times while he was playing. It was fine though. Because there was an item.

I was quite concerned with the fact that Lim Dae-han had been taken by the teacher and just playing the game without saying a word after coming back. That’s why it was so dissatisfying that he only touched his cell phone with his arrogant face. But I couldn’t nag at him, so I had no choice but to change the subject. I repeated what I had said like a parrot.

“You didn’t write everything… ”

“You didn’t take all the notes…”

Lim Dae-han, who had been concentrating on his phone screen, raised his eyes to me. In fact, when it comes to the position of the eyes, I was below Lim Dae-han, but because Lim Dae-han’s gaze was below, he had no choice but to look up. Lim Dae-han said, “Oh.” Then he turned off the phone and placed it on the table.

“I have to take notes.”

He picked up the black ballpoint pen he had thrown away again.

An earthworm passed over Lim Dae-han’s notebook.

I sat quietly as I watched him taking notes. Lim Dae-han’s gaze, which had been alternately fixed on the chalkboard and the notebook, had now shifted to me.

“What.”

Lim Dae-han pulled the notebook closer to him. Lim Dae-han didn’t like showing his workbooks, notebooks, and textbooks. He liked to see mine though.

I gently spoke up while facing Lim Dae-han, who was holding an unusually thin notebook for his size. In the end, I was the one who asked.

“What did you talk to the teacher?”

“What.”

“You went out with the teacher earlier.”

Lim Dae-han folded the notebook’s corners. He lowered his gaze for a brief period before returning to meet my gaze.

“I didn’t talk much.”

“…Really?”

“Yeah. I’ll tell you later.”

Lim Dae-han spoke the words half heartedly, then put down the notebook aloud. The middle edge of the notebook hit the desk, making a fairly loud noise. Lim Dae-han’s deskmate, who had been sleeping on his stomach, flinched. I didn’t say anything to Lim Dae-han when he must have awoken him from his honey-like sleep. It was also a pity for him. I just thought to myself.

The tongue peeked between Dae-han’s lips. He brushed his lips slightly. Even though I knew it wasn’t because he wanted to look sexy, I looked down at Lim Dae-han’s lips. Lim Dae-han looked at me and wrinkled one eye.

“Ah, seriously.”

He suddenly became annoyed with me and grabbed my shoulder.

“Look ahead. I’m going to write.”

Lim Dae-han pressed my shoulder hard as if giving a massage, attempting to turn my body. At the surging pain, I had no choice but to turn around. However, Lim Dae-han was not able to do what he wanted. I barely turned my head to see Lim Dae-han. He pulled the notebook back towards himself again.

“Are you shy because you have bad handwriting?”

“…”

“I know you’re not good at writing anyway.”

Lim Dae-han hardened his expression. I turned my head to the front as I saw his expression stiffen. It could be a matter of self-esteem. I wasn’t even close to being trashy enough to touch that.

I was staring forward and observing the presence behind me discreetly, but I was relieved since I didn’t think Lim Dae-han would say anything else. In truth, Lim Dae-han was never got annoyed with me… I wouldn’t say there weren’t any, but there weren’t many. With the exception of waking him up, he was quite generous. No, even if I awakened him up and irritated him, I was too distracted to notice it.

I only looked through the desk drawer after that to be ready for the supplementary class. Some guys walked around and swept the broom recklessly during a quick cleaning session before the supplementary class. The surroundings were somewhat noisy.

I was curious as to when Lim Dae-han would tell me about his conversation with the teacher. Maybe he waited till we were outside the classroom before saying anything so the other guys wouldn’t hear? I considered it for a bit before deciding not to think about it further. After all, Lim Dae-han no longer has anything to hide from me. And if he said he’d tell me later, he’d tell me later, and it wasn’t a big thing, so perhaps he didn’t say it right away.

That’s what I thought. It was because I didn’t want to create disharmony in my peaceful and uncomplicated daily life. Instead, I thought about breakfast that we could eat together tomorrow.