Secret Notes

“Should I get you some water?”

While I was still coughing with my hand over my mouth, Han Gangun went deeper into the room and opened the door of the small refrigerator prepared in the narrow space.

Squatting down and casually checking what was inside, Han Gangun took out a bottle of water and opened the cap smoothly.

He took a big gulp without putting his mouth on it and brought it to me.

“Thanks.”

I accepted it, put it to my lips, and gulped it down.

“Drink slowly.”

“You’ll choke again.”

“The water is too cold.”

“It was in the fridge.”

Are you feeling better? How is it? Han Gangun asked again.

At the same time, I felt it.

Han Gangun’s deep gaze looking at me.

Unlike his soft voice, his coolly raised eyes heavily stared below my nose.

Licking my coldly wet lips, I unknowingly thought.

I hoped the moisture on my lips would never dry.

“What are you looking at?”

However, words different from my heart popped out.

I grumbled and aimlessly fiddled with my wet collar.

Han Gangun chuckled.

His raised mouth corners looked refreshing.

Han Gangun passed me and went to the middle of the room.

He threw himself onto the large double bed and lay down.

I followed in hesitantly and stood there stupidly.

“How can you lie down like that?”

“The sheets will all get wet.”

Han Gangun, lying sprawled out, looked up at me while supporting his head with his hand.

“Motel sheets are meant to get wet anyway.”

His gaze scattered thinly.

It was a lewd face.

“Not water, something else.”

“…….”

“Do you want to know?”

“No.”

At my answer, Han Gangun got up.

It was a quick movement.

He snatched my wrist and pulled me.

My light body was drawn between Han Gangun’s legs.

And Han Gangun said nothing.

He just looked up at me quietly with a slanted smile on his lips.

“Hey.”

“Yeah.”

I called, and Han Gangun answered.

“How old are you?”

“Thirty.”

“You’re lying.”

“A hundred.”

“Are you an elementary school kid?”

I laughed at his sly answer.

The hand holding my wrist didn’t let go.

Hot heat passed between us.

My coldly cooling body grew warm.

“You’re a high schooler acting all grown up.”

“What?”

“What do you want to know?”

I pulled my captured hand away and raised my index finger.

I lightly tapped Han Gangun’s forehead.

“…Ah.”

My wrist was caught again.

“Ijae-ya.”

My heart couldn’t beat that fast.

I was nervous whether the loud thumping deep in my chest could be heard by the other person.

I felt like I had to say something, but once our eyes met, I couldn’t make any sound.

One second felt like a hundred thousand minutes.

Han Gangun looked at me with his mouth closed.

I looked at Han Gangun too.

After what felt like hundreds of millions of years in that instant, Han Gangun finally opened his mouth.

“Do you trust me?”

I blinked.

It was a question I had never thought about before.

Han Gangun pulled my hand.

My body was drawn as if sliding.

Han Gangun asked again.

“I asked if you trust me.”

My face reflected in Han Gangun’s pupils wavered.

“Why do you think I followed you here?”

It was a quietly asked answer.

Trust Han Gangun?

That question didn’t make sense.

Because assuming I couldn’t trust Han Gangun was impossible from the start.

At least to me, who was looking straight into Han Gangun’s eyes right now, his question of whether I trusted him was so natural that there was no need to even weigh the value of answering.

Han Gangun swept his hair back.

His heavily wet hair fell back refreshingly.

His face as he let out a chuckle was cool.

The thin veins on the back of Han Gangun’s hand holding mine looked fierce.

Strength entered the hand gripping mine.

Suddenly, I wanted to run away.

“Seo Ijae.”

The moment Han Gangun called my name, I wanted to lower my head.

It was because I had already predicted the words that would come out of Han Gangun’s mouth next.

“Want to kiss?”

Along with the question, his thinly opened eyes approached me.

In the quiet space with only one bed, there were just me and Han Gangun.

We stood at a distance where our lips would touch with the slightest movement.

Han Gangun whispered softly.

“Not a peck.”

“…….”

“Not on the cheek.”

“…….”

“On the lips.”

“Properly.”

Han Gangun’s pupils slowly moved toward my forehead and glabella.

The gaze sweeping over my eyes and nose bridge made the back of my neck tingle.

My body was drawn forward.

I didn’t resist and fell forward as if collapsing.

Not knowing whether I should close my eyes or not, I squinted and glanced at the approaching nose bridge.

The slantedly bumping nose bridge felt unfamiliarly smooth.

My body, hardened stiff from extreme tension, felt like it would shatter if tapped.

The hand of Han Gangun that had been holding mine fell away.

His arm came around my back.

He wrapped my waist and pulled me forward.

The moment I thought he was pulling his lips away, Han Gangun’s closed eyes approached again.

“Hey, wait…”

I wandered and circled for a long time.

It felt like I had become someone who had never kissed before.

Like a complete beginner, I moved as Han Gangun did, lost direction and swam like a boat swept by waves.

I gently grabbed Han Gangun’s hand on my waist.

Strength entered Han Gangun’s hand, and our clasped hands intertwined without any gap.

It felt like heat was rushing to my fingertips.

But I couldn’t just stay like an idiot.

I didn’t want to lose to Han Gangun, who seemed familiar with everything.

I didn’t want to look like an idiot who was only being swept around.

I pushed my lips forward with force.

I pressed fully onto Han Gangun’s lips as if stamping a seal.

It was far from the romantic kiss scenes commonly seen in dramas.

My chest trembled and my heart felt like it would explode in the current reality to a degree that couldn’t even be compared.

It was then that I first realized I could cause a physiological reaction just by rubbing lips.

And that Han Gangun, who was sharing breath with me, was no different.

In the room with flickering yellow light, we kissed for a long time.

Once I got the hang of it, I even laughed in between.

Every time I laughed, Han Gangun sucked on the corners of my smiling mouth.

Roughened breaths scattered into the air, impossible to tell whose they were.

The incident happened the next day.

I went to school as usual, hung my bag, and took out any textbook under the desk and opened it.

When I was in the classroom, there wasn’t really anywhere specific to look.

Unless Han Gangun talked to me, this was my original school life.

The moment Han Gangun, with his bag slung over his shoulder, entered through the front door of the classroom, I lifted my gaze that had been leaning on the black text.

It was a complete change in my school life, experienced solely because of Han Gangun.

I barely endured the boring morning classes and answered all the questions Han Gangun threw at me via notes, returning them.

They were usually trivial things like what I liked.

Even those obvious questions strangely felt fresh and new when they came back in Han Gangun’s neat handwriting.

My heart pounded wondering what note would come next.

There was nothing as thrilling as the secret note exchanges I enjoyed during class.

It was lunchtime.

I was returning to the classroom after eating lunch together with Han Gangun’s group.

For some reason, the hallway atmosphere felt chaotic that day.

Even though there was nothing different from usual, I instinctively sensed something else.

It might have been because of the group of third-year female students standing clustered in front of a classroom next to the hallway.

Even though it was co-ed, our school had separate classes for boys and girls, yet it was overflowing with couples.

Our school literally had an environment optimized for dating.

Boys and girls attended the same school, and with the special situation of gender-separated classes added, all teachers strictly prohibited dating within the school.

The reason they deliberately separated genders within a co-ed school was entirely for that.

However, everyone must have known that such control only further fueled rebellious psychology and the desire for passionate love.

During breaks or lunch, regardless of boys’ or girls’ classrooms, students swarmed through the front and back doors to see their lovers.

I thought they had gathered for that reason.

Han Gangun was walking beside me.

His face was calm.

He walked looking only forward, as if he had no interest at all in the students swarming in front of the classroom.

And suddenly, I witnessed his eyes change.

Han Gangun’s pupils, which had been facing straight ahead, jumped.

Han Gangun, with his lips slightly parted, muttered as if to himself.

“She’s coming.”

I looked up at Han Gangun, not understanding what he meant.

Following the end of his straight gaze, I spotted a female student walking from the other end of the hallway.

It was Shim Yuyeon.

Her steps were fast.

Her skirt fluttered, and her arms swinging back and forth were violent.

Shim Yuyeon’s face, walking quickly from the end of the hallway, came closer and closer.

Her coldly frozen face seemed like it would freeze anyone who touched it.

I tensed up for a moment.

Shim Yuyeon was coming this way, and Han Gangun was next to me.

The moment I tried to avoid her eyes, I realized Shim Yuyeon had no interest in us at all.

Shim Yuyeon, who had been walking toward our side, was not looking at us.

She was not looking at Han Gangun.

No, it seemed she didn’t even know we were standing on the opposite side.

Shim Yuyeon turned left as she was and entered a classroom.

The movement with which she pushed open the front door was so fierce that it caused a tremendous crashing sound.