Yoon Jung In, who was standing between us, began to giggle because of the ‘facial muscles’ part. While Eun Hyung and I sighed while facing each other, he opened his mouth in wonder.
“Oh, you guys are really close. Both of you know so well about each other, huh?”
“Hmm, we already know each other for a long time. Anyway, this is not the right time to be talking about that. Both of you guys have a seat here; let’s talk about this class fight thing.”
“Oh…”
At last, they groaned and looked at each other. Both might have been sagacious enough to think that this was nearly the first time for them to meet each other.
Smiling a little awkwardly, Kwon Eun Hyung detached his lips first.
“Um, it’s been a while since the meeting at the retreat, huh?”
“Right.”
What’s with this awkward conversation? Furrowing my brows, I spoke while pointing at the downwards.
“Um, let’s first take a seat.”
I thought the air among us would relax a bit more once we sat and talked. As they plopped down after hearing my words, the two boys began to talk about the overall situation while facing each other.
Yoon Jung In asked, “How’s your class doing? Our class is, um… can I be honest?”
“Where else can you speak frankly other than here?” replied Eun Hyung while showing his usual, amicable smile on his face.
Yoon Jung In then paused before responding and looked at Eun Hyung hesitantly in surprise. When Eun Hyung nodded, Yoon Jung In spoke but avoided his gaze.
“Um, so our class is now…”
Listening to their conversation quietly, I rested my chin on my hand with a timid smile. ‘I know how you feel, Yoon Jung In. Eun Hyung sometimes talks like that as if he is chatting with a younger cousin. It doesn’t really offend me; rather, it makes me feel like a precious being…’
“Um… it’s that… our class is now looking for a fight with Class 1-1 sooner or later,” stammering his words, Yoon Jung In continued after a while.
“Hmm…”
Eun Hyung groaned shortly but said nothing more for quite some time. Staring at him like that, Yoon Jung In then directed his eyes on me. ‘Why are you looking at me?’ I asked through my eyes.
‘How can he be so fluttering?’ Yoon Jung In mouthed.
I showed a silly grin on my face while thinking, ‘Eun Hyung turns us on.’ I then moved my head to face the man before me. Eun Hyung opened his mouth with a smile.
“Can I be honest with you guys too?”
“Um… yeah, of course.”
“Our class was even looking for a field of honor. I barely stopped them on my way.”
“…”
Whoosh, a gust of cold breeze blew across the rooftop. I raised my hand quietly and touched my disheveled hair.
‘Hmm, I see,’ I nodded with that thought in mind. Based on the earlier ambiance, I knew that it wasn’t strange for a fight to occur. Beside me, I heard Yoon Jung In flinging a question.
“Oh my, what can I do for them? Should I really prepare a fighting stage?”
“We’ll get in trouble if that happens,” Eun Hyung answered back with a calm face while sweeping his tangled hair. Yoon Jung In, again, looked speechless. Of course, he was joking about preparing a place to fight, but how could Eun Hyung, who was famous for his disciplined life, throw out such words like ‘Then we’ll get in trouble’? It sounded as if making a fighting stage wasn’t a big deal for him unless we didn’t get into trouble. Yoon Jung In turned back to look at me again, so I grinned and detached my lips before he could say something.
“Eun Hyung has this surprising charm.”
“Huh?”
This time, Eun Hyung was the one who looked back and forth between Yoon Jung In and me. I smiled with a shrug.
Anyway, once he found out that Eun Hyung wasn’t such a straight and narrow student as he anticipated, Yoon Jung In finally grew more comfortable with handling Eun Hyung. He began to say as many words as he could.
“Hmm, what about having a match in the arcade? The game would be Street Fighter…”
However, what was more serious was that Eun Hyung started to respond earnestly to what Yoon Jung In said.
“Wouldn’t the kids explode in the arcade when they lose the game? What about doing a computer game? Each person can access through their computers at home…”
“Oh, that sounds nice, but what game should we play? What do you do these days? There isn’t much to enjoy lately. Oh, now that I’m thinking about it, what should we do during the break?”
“I don’t really play computer games.”
“Oh, really?”
“What are you guys planning to do?”
Since I couldn’t bear the sight of them talking crap anymore, I dropped a remark. It silenced them again. Yoon Jung In was usually full of crap; however, even Eun Hyung empathized with Yoon Jung In and shut his mouth off, which led them to stray from the topic.
Eun Hyung also looked like he couldn’t think of anything suitable for this situation. Hmm… furrowing my brows, I fell into thought again.
As I stared at Yoon Jung In and Eun Hyung, the two boys sat with a blank stare. Suddenly, I came across the scary stories that I heard in class. It would be difficult for the kids to break into a fight in a spooky dark place. A violent solution… As my mind reached that part, I raised my hand out of the blue.
“Um… what about doing a courage test?”
“A courage test?”
The two boys showed a confused look on their faces as if what I’ve just said had astounded them. ‘Hmm… Kim Hye Hill spoke about it before, so I just gave my opinion,’ rambling the thoughts in my mind, I continued speaking hesitantly.
“You know, a courage test is sort of a challenge too… such as who’s being more scared or not… If we have a class competition for that, then there won’t be any physical fights breaking out unless someone engages in a physical encounter with a ghost. Is it not a bad idea?”
Yoon Jung In and Kwon Eun Hyung stared at each other. The two then slowly looked rosy.
“That sounds nice,” said Yoon Jung In to me.
“Good.”
“…”
I came up with additional problems such as location hunting and ghost costumes as soon as I brought up the topic. The two, however, chatted about different things with relieved faces.
Looking at their conversation while sitting on the concrete floor with my legs crossed, I felt that they strangely had some kind of charisma together, although it wasn’t that long since they first met.
I gazed at Eun Hyung’s dazzling green eyes. As if he perceived my stare, Eun Hyung looked at me and cast a question.
“Why?”
“Nothing.”
Usually, he would have asked me a few more questions; however, he looked out of his mind and diverted his eyes back onto Yoon Jung In to talk further again. Watching them busily discussing something, I switched my gaze to Yoon Jung In.
He was always inexorable and almost winged it on everything. Eun Hyung, on the other hand, managed to restrain himself and behaved calmly, which reminded me of the life of a monk; however, I would see the unexpected side of Eun Hyung sometimes. Looking at him enjoying a conversation with Yoon Jung In like this, I wondered if Eun Hyung might be a completely different person compared to the version of him that I had learned to know.
The things that he usually suppressed… Eun Hyung’s true nature might actually be closer to that of Yoon Jung In. I suddenly came up with this thought.
I lifted my chin to look up at the sky. The masses of clouds flew quickly like a river.
It was nearly lunchtime when they wrapped up their hour-long discussion. Raising my body to go back to class, I called Eun Hyung, who was walking ahead of me.
“Eun Hyung.”
“Huh?”
“What Jooin said earlier in your class… what was it?”
“Oh, you mean that…?”
With an enigmatic smile, Eun Hyung twisted his body in my direction. He then gestured Yoon Jung In to go downstairs ahead of us.
Yoon Jung In, who was standing at the dark stairways, gazed at me. He then waved his hands at us, showing that there’s nothing more for him to do in this place anymore and walked down the stairs to leave.
Looking at his receding back, Eun Hyung smiled embarrassedly and swept his disheveled hair back. He then finally opened his mouth.
