.
Suh Hyun had narrow shoulders but was very light on his feet. His fit and lean body looked marvelous. The way he sat on his chair was particularly straight like that of the Joseon scholars.
While I had him locked in my eyes, some kids next to me talked in whispers.
“Isn’t he the one who ranked first place in last year’s youth international archery competition?”
“The school might accept him as a student-athlete. Don’t we have an archery team too?”
“Wow, I think I saw him on TV just a few days ago.”
Oh, yeah. I scratched the back of my head after what I had heard. What they said all agreed with what I knew about Shin Suh Hyun. It was from the TV that I saw and knew him when they began calling him as the rising star of archery. I heard that his good looks also contributed to his popularity, and I knew for sure that the praises he received for his attractiveness were something he deserved now that I could see him up close.
Did the Four Heavenly Kings of Suk Bong Middle School also attend our school like the ones from my school? I suddenly frowned at the thought that came to my mind, but I shook my head. Oh, please. I meant, let’s get real here.
Finally, when the introduction was all over, our teacher told us to share conversations freely. He then gestured Yi Ruda and me to go outside of the room by moving his chin towards the direction of the door.
Why? I stared at him in confusion. Yi Ruda got up from his seat and tapped me a few times.
She then said with a big smile, “He asked us to follow him. Let’s go!”
“Umm… huh?”
“Come on, let’s go, Donnie!”
From the way she dramatically pulled my arm, I imagined Ban Yeo Ryung in her stead for a moment.
Yi Ruda was surely the same as Ban Yeo Ryung who always looked so bright with an unhesitant habit of pulling my arms.
Oh gosh. Why were all the female protagonists in this novel had the same personality? Was it the author’s style? As I walked along the classroom arm in arm with Yi Ruda, I suddenly noticed that many eyes were on us.
I looked around and saw not only the apathetic twins but also Shin Suh Hyun, who seemed to have no interest in the world, gazing at us with excitement. No, to be more precise, they were showing their interest in the remarkably bright Yi Ruda, who was almost dragging me out of the classroom. What was even more ridiculous was, however, the way our female classmates gaze at us. I saw their eyes filled more with admiration than jealousy… This threw me into confusion.
Did these girls really think Yi Ruda was a boy? For real? Were the kids in this world all have gender recognition disorder? She just looked exactly a girl, but how could they all misunderstand that? Look, she had no Adam’s apple and what a pretty little face she had!
While I went into a frenzy myself, she kept on chattering with me. There was not an inch of darkness on her sun-shed profile face.
I muttered, “Yeah, you are the light of this world. You are the best.”
“Huh?”
As she turned to look at me, I shook my head with surprise.
“No… nothing.”
Oh? With that short response, Yi Ruda pulled the front door of our classroom confidently and dragged me out to the hallway. She then carefully shut the door and dragged me all the way out again.
Whether we are following him or not, our teacher moved his steps toward the teacher’s office without looking back. Oh, I looked at him and lifted my eyes.
As if we were not the only temporary class presidents the faculty had called in, there were a couple of other students walking down the hall from their classrooms. Among them, I saw two people walking from the end of the hall.
The jet-black hair waving along a girl’s waist was a bit disheveled than usual, but it was too easy to recognize who she was.
Wasn’t it obvious to know who owned the purplish hair glowing under the sunlight through the huge glass windows in the hallway?
Ban Yeo Ryung rubbed around her reddened eyes, saying something to Eun Hyung who was beside her, but her face seemed to burst into tears at any moment.
Eun Hyung, who responded to her, had a puzzled expression. His remarkably red hair stood out among the other students.
I had a thought while Yi Ruda dragged my arms. Oh, as it always had been, Eun Hyung was the class president and Ban Yeo Ryung was the vice president this time too.
Ban Yeo Ryung lifted her head out of the blue as if she sensed me from afar. Then, exactly, from the far end of the hall, she threw her gaze at me like an arrow.
This surprised so much that I sneaked behind Yi Ruda, who was dragging my arms along the hallway. She also wondered what was happening as she turned around at me. Then Ruda asked me in a cheerful voice.
“What’s up, Donnie?”
“N… othing.”
I felt glad that she did not mind. If she had looked in front of her instead of looking back at me, Yi Ruda would have freaked out to see Ban Yeo Ryung walking toward this way with a monstrous face.
Since all the windows in the hallway were closed, the hall was devoid of any breeze; however, Ban Yeo Ryung’s hair was fluttering like crazy. I peeped out my head behind Yi Ruda thinking Eun Hyung might stop Ban Yeo Ryung, but he didn’t.
He had that generous smile as usual but he was ambling along with Ban Yeo Ryung rather than blocking her way.
The teacher’s office was in the middle of the hallway which was exactly between Class 1-4 and 1-5; however, the distance between us was not even 5 meters apart.
As if my arms were her toy, Yi Ruda was grabbing them firmly with hers and later locked our arms together while laughing. At last, Ban Yeo Ryung had an encounter with us at a very close distance.
When the teacher pushed the door, we were all stepping into the office like a duck talking to water. Inside, instead of seeing the usual faculty office set-up, what we saw were many wide desks surrounded by cubicles to divide each of the individual working spaces. On top of the desks, there were a computer monitor, a keyboard, a cup of coffee, and textbooks all scattered around.
Our teacher went deep inside the room and called us in front of his seat.
“Hey, our temporary class leaders! Come over here.”
“Yes, sir!”
When Yi Ruda answered in a bright voice, four to five teachers around us all turned their heads to look at us. I nodded at them, feeling a bit embarrassed and tried to follow behind Yi Ruda, who still had my arms on hers. Then I felt the hair behind my back rising.
In a light-filled space within the office in front of a bookshelf near the door, there stood Ban Yeo Ryung and Kwon Eun Hyung between a few kids. Ban Yeo Ryung was looking directly at us with eyes filled with fire.
I was dumbfounded. Oh god, what’s wrong with her? Maybe Eun Hyung would know, so I turned back to see him standing next to Ban Yeo Ryung. When our eyes met, he shrugged his shoulders with a grin.
The smile was, however, not that usual fresh grin he had. In other words, he made a sour smile which only appeared when he’s feeling down.
Then Ban Yeo Ryung moved her lips to say something, which I barely understood. O-ah? Did she say O-ah? As I frowned my face from not grasping what she was saying, the teacher called us.
Ban Yeo Ryung made a sad face. I whispered to her by moving my lips saying, ‘See you later’ and headed to our teacher’s desk.
His desk was the farthest from the faculty entrance. He sat down on a comfortable-looking computer chair and pointed with his chin for us to sit on the chairs in front. There was, however, only one chair.
Come on, who would sit then? I was about to turn back to see Yi Ruda out of confusion. She then smiled like a naughty kid, pressing my shoulder to sit. As I sat down on the chair in the confusion of the moment, the teacher nodded, throwing out a smile at Yi Ruda.
“Wow, what a man!”
“Haha, thank you, sir!”
“Not only when you introduced yourself, but today as well; I like your energy! Men should be energetic!”
“Energetic is my middle name!”
Holy cow, you are not even a guy. With that thought in mind, I sneaked a glance over the window. Outside the large office window, I saw an empty schoolyard. Maybe this was the case because today was the first day of class. I locked my glance over the window and gave a hollow smile at their conversation.
I kind of get it. The hot-blooded teach and the bubbly female crossdresser. Maybe this was the set-up they’re trying to build in the story. What a lame author!
While I had those thoughts in my mind, our teacher, who just finished talking, pulled out a load of documents from the shelf and handed them out to me.
