“Ah, Yeol.”
Even if my brain knew him, my body was creaky, moving like a robot. I lifted one corner of my mouth and walked over to Yeol’s side.
“You’re walking?”
“Ah, yeah.”
Looking at his closely cropped buzz cut, I felt a sudden urge to reach out and pet it, but I held back. Choi Jingi and Go Yeol were quite close, but they didn’t talk often and weren’t physically affectionate. As I glanced at Yeol walking silently beside me, he twitched one of his seagull-shaped eyebrows.
“What?”
“Oh, uh? Nothing. Just because.”
“…”
Go Yeol was calm, quiet, and indecisive. He moved slowly too, making me genuinely curious how a guy like that ended up in the basketball club.
The author, Kim Hyeyeon, said she based his setting and appearance on a turtle. His smooth head and silently set mouth were strangely similar.
‘Her imagination really is something else. She wrote this while thinking of that?’
Maybe Kim Hyeyeon’s next work would do well. With that thought, I turned my gaze away from Go Yeol.
The two of us passed through a large residential area. Huge houses and gates were lined up, much like the residential streets in Hannam-dong.
And next to the houses, there were naturally private parking spots. As we headed down toward the road, I quickened my pace; even though it was morning, the weather was humid and hot.
The back of my neck was burning with heat, but I wasn’t sweating.
Was it because I was a character?
I entertained the silly thought as I grabbed the front of my shirt and fanned it.
“Hot?”
“Yeah.”
Go Yeol stared at me for a moment, then reached out and grabbed the back of my neck. In that instant, I froze and my body shivered.
Contrary to his name (Yeol means “heat”), Go Yeol’s hand was as hard and cold as ice from a freezer.
“Ugh… Hey, you, hiee…”
“Cold, right?”
At his blunt question, I tried to straighten my cowering body.
Resuming my walk, I squeezed my brain to remember the novel’s plot and gave an awkward laugh.
“I feel it every time, but you’re really cold. Are you going to a doctor?”
“Ah… an oriental clinic. They said I need acupuncture.”
“Acupuncture?”
He nodded, his expressionless face twisting slightly. When I tilted my head, wondering what the problem with acupuncture was, Go Yeol took his hand off my neck and twitched his eyebrows.
“I hate needles.”
…He doesn’t look the type.
A short scene from the novel flashed by. Go Yeol could easily endure hours of exercise under the scorching sun, but he couldn’t stand the brief moment a needle went in.
I remembered him pretending to be asleep and lying down when the blood drive bus came to school.
Watching that, Joo Unyoung and Choi Jingi had looked at each other and laughed sweetly…
“Still, go later. They say it’s bad if cold hands and feet last too long.”
“Okay.”
Only then did I remember that this guy was one of the three sub-Tops.
Back then, Go Yeol couldn’t even confess his feelings because he noticed the strange atmosphere between Choi Jingi and Joo Unyoung.
It wasn’t even handled properly in the novel and just passed by, but his heart must have been in tatters from the scars.
I looked at Go Yeol with pity, thinking, ‘In this life, you should be the one to confess first.’
High school.
For Jingi, it was a place that was both nostalgic and awkward.
He didn’t have many clear memories of it.
In his previous life, school had been merely a place to catch up on the sleep he lacked due to his late-night part-time jobs.
There were even times when he had considered dropping out altogether.
Jingi stepped inside the school, which looked different from the entrance of the high school in his memories.
Fitting for a school in an expensive neighborhood where only the wealthy attended, the buildings were clean and sharp.
It was a world apart from the school Jingi had attended in his past life.
Jingi and Go Yeol sat in the very back of the first row.
Jingi sat in the seat that felt both familiar and foreign, simply taking a single pencil case out of his bag.
Just then, Go Yeol slowly stood up, gave Jingi’s head a couple of light pats, and walked out the back door.
Jingi knew what that meant.
The memories belonging to Choi Jingi’s body triggered the realization one by one. It meant, “I’ll be back.”
Go Yeol, a member of the basketball team, left the classroom every morning for practice right after dropping off his bag.
It was the same in the novel.
Among the sub-Tops, Go Yeol had the least screen time, and Kim Hyeyeon had given him the basketball setting specifically to keep his role limited.
Back then, Jingi had felt a bit sorry for Go Yeol.
He had fallen for his best friend’s lover, and he was so busy he didn’t even have time to date, let alone seduce anyone.
After fiddling with his hands for a while, Jingi rested his cheek on the unfamiliar desk.
‘So, do I have to study now? Can I actually go to college? …Wait, does that mean I have to prepare for job hunting all over again?’
Whether it was a relief or not, he wouldn’t have to go to the military twice.
In his previous life, he had delayed it as much as possible because he was busy working, and this world was a “setting without a military.”
The world the author created was remarkably convenient if one considered the characters’ circumstances.
Jingi glanced at the timetable and took out his textbook for the first period in advance. He felt several thin notebooks in the desk drawer.
Pulling out one that matched the subject, he felt a wave of emotion.
These textbooks—which he rarely had the chance to open in the past because of his day and night shifts—didn’t feel like his own.
Just then, a cool breeze brushed through the curtains. Turning his head, he saw the window was halfway open.
The yellow sunlight hit the translucent curtains, making them sparkle. Jingi reached out and opened the window wider.
A refreshing breeze blew in.
It was the scent of summer—a summer breeze.
“Jingi.”
“Huh?”
The hand of someone else woke Jingi from his stargazing.
Startled, he turned around to see the blonde Joo Unyoung—now familiar after their second encounter—standing there with a frown.
“Why didn’t you answer when I called you?”
Looking disappointed, Joo Unyoung lowered his brows and grabbed Jingi’s sleeve.
The gentle tug was full of affection.
“Oh, no, I was just thinking about something else…”
“Want to step out for a bit? Shall we go to the canteen?”
Crouched down with both arms resting on one side of the desk, Joo Unyoung’s eyes were round.
His eyes were beautifully slanted upward, making him look exactly like a fennec fox.
His hair was yellow and pretty, and he was just so damn gorgeous…
“Hm?”
Jingi reflexively covered his ears with both hands.
Joo Unyoung, looking up from below, tilted his head slightly, grabbed Jingi’s hands, and pulled them toward himself.
At the same time, he stood up.
“Let’s go to the canteen. The canteen.”
“Sure, let’s do that.”
Jingi rubbed his burning cheeks with one hand.
For a moment, Joo Unyoung, shining in the reflected sunlight, was so incredibly beautiful he almost felt enchanted.
If Joo Unyoung had asked “Should we date?” right then, Jingi might have just nodded his head.
His fingertips trembled as if his body were reacting on its own.
Jingi took a deep breath and turned his gaze away from Joo Unyoung. He had to avoid him on purpose.
