Warmth

“Han Gangun walked with large strides slowly toward the back door of the classroom that Shim Yuyeon had entered.”

I had no choice but to follow behind him.

Inside the classroom, there were about a dozen male students.

Some were gathered talking among themselves, while others were sitting and solving something or lying down asleep.

The moment Shim Yuyeon entered the class, the atmosphere changed.

All the male students’ gazes turned to Shim Yuyeon.

Everyone’s pupils followed exactly as Shim Yuyeon moved.

Shim Yuyeon headed to one side of a desk without hesitation.

There was a student hunched over.

I followed Han Gangun through the back door and watched the scene.

Shim Yuyeon lightly tapped the shoulder of the hunched student.

Her expressionless face didn’t change in the slightest.

“…….”

The one who lifted his head was Shin Jooho.

The surprise that the kid Shim Yuyeon tapped was Shin Jooho lasted only a moment before I swallowed a small scream inside.

Shim Yuyeon slapped Shin Jooho’s cheek.

The attention of all students in the surrounding area, including the classroom and hallway, focused on them.

“You’re the one, right?”

“The bastard who wrote that shit.”

Shin Jooho, with his head turned and frozen, said nothing.

I had forgotten.

The fact that Han Gangun wasn’t the only one who suffered damage from the ridiculous rumor posted on the bamboo forest.

I immediately checked Han Gangun next to me.

Leaning diagonally against the door and watching them, his face looked bored.

He was calm without any sign of surprise, as if he had known this would happen.

“You really have nothing better to do.”

Inside the classroom, only Shim Yuyeon’s agitated voice rang out.

Everyone held their breath and watched them.

“Because of you, my Instagram DMs are completely fucked.”

“…….”

“How are you going to take responsibility?”

One guy standing next to me looking inside through the window muttered.

“Did he write that?”

“It must hurt so much.”

The boy who looked around shook his head.

“It’s not that it hurts, it’s probably embarrassing.”

I looked at Han Gangun next to me.

This moment right now in this space felt too strange.

Shim Yuyeon who slapped Shin Jooho’s cheek and Shin Jooho who couldn’t make a sound after being hit.

Han Gangun standing at the classroom boundary watching as if it were someone else’s business while everyone else watched them.

Shim Yuyeon’s expression looked quite refreshing.

I didn’t know Shim Yuyeon’s personality at all.

Even though she had dated Han Gangun, that was all I knew about her.

I had never seen Han Gangun hit anyone, but somehow watching Shim Yuyeon felt like watching Han Gangun.

The act of slapping Shin Jooho’s cheek without hesitation felt closer to refreshing than shocking to me.

“Say that you wrote it.”

Shim Yuyeon spoke again.

Shin Jooho said nothing.

“Say that you wrote that nonsense.”

“How would sunbae know that?”

It was a belated counterattack.

Shin Jooho grabbed the desk and shouted at Shim Yuyeon.

I watched them without even swallowing.

Next to me was Han Gangun, watching them as attentively as I was.

“How do I know?”

Shim Yuyeon swept her hair back and laughed sharply.

“Then why didn’t you say anything when I slapped your cheek?”

“…….”

“Because you deserved it.”

Shin Jooho couldn’t say anything.

The kids scattered around the classroom were starting to lose interest and go their own ways.

Shim Yuyeon lifted her head.

And she stared exactly this way.

Our eyes met, and her gaze rose upward.

Shim Yuyeon grabbed Shin Jooho’s arm and pulled him up.

“Apologize to him too.”

The “him” Shim Yuyeon referred to was Han Gangun.

While all eyes were on Han Gangun, Shim Yuyeon mercilessly pushed Shin Jooho’s back.

The slippers dragged along and soon came right in front of me.

Han Gangun next to me still had an expressionless face.

With that indifferent look, he quietly stared at Shin Jooho.

And I saw it.

The faintly raised corners of Han Gangun’s mouth.

“…Sorry.”

“Do it properly.”

Shim Yuyeon added firmly to the mumbling Shin Jooho.

“I’m sorry for writing that post.”

“What post.”

Han Gangun spoke for the first time.

“Jooho-ya.”

“What post.”

His low voice resonated.

“The one about you and Shim Yuyeon sunbae… doing that.”

“It was all made up by you.”

“…Yeah.”

“Don’t do that next time.”

The moment Han Gangun placed his hand on Shin Jooho’s shoulder, I clearly saw Shin Jooho flinch greatly.

Shin Jooho’s gaze that glanced up briefly brushed past me.

“You didn’t apologize to sunbae.”

“…I’m sorry.”

Shin Jooho bowed his head toward Shim Yuyeon.

The preliminary bell rang at the same time.

The numerous eyes that had been fixed on us quickly scattered.

Shin Jooho, who had finished apologizing to Shim Yuyeon and Han Gangun, ran off somewhere quickly and disappeared.

Shin Jooho’s feet moving away in the distance were so fast that I couldn’t guess where he was going.

Han Gangun had punished him without touching a single hair on Shin Jooho’s head.

Shin Jooho had his cheek slapped by Shim Yuyeon while feeling everyone’s gazes on his skin and apologized to Han Gangun.

He had publicly revealed that he was the one who spread that ridiculous rumor.

“f*cking idiot.”

Han Gangun stood quietly and muttered that.

Even without a subject, it was immediately clear who it referred to.

The next class started in a daze.

The kids returned to their seats and prepared for class as if they hadn’t been paying attention at all.

The chaotic kids quickly quieted down under the scolding of the teachers who had just entered.

I sat in my seat and rubbed the back of my itchy head.

I was curious about Han Gangun’s expression, who would be sitting behind me.

What did Shin Jooho believe in to go this far?

I had maintained a relationship called friendship with Shin Jooho for several years while eating together, but I had never imagined such a pathetic bare face.

Shin Jooho had continued to show me that pathetic bare face ever since I started hanging out with Han Gangun.

I couldn’t understand it.

But when I thought about it, Shin Jooho’s behavior was very similar to a boy I met in middle school whose name I couldn’t even remember.

A boy who desperately stuck to the tall group that was good at soccer to join them.

I remember that kid wasn’t particularly short either.

He wasn’t lacking in height nor bad at sports, but the kids in that cool group wouldn’t include him.

The kid who would sweat while talking in front of their group would lower his head and mutter “f*ck” quietly when the kids turned away.

The emotion called jealousy existed in people’s hearts in various forms.

I had once been jealous of Shim Yuyeon who was dating Han Gangun, and jealous of someone I thought would become Han Gangun’s new girlfriend after breaking up with Shim Yuyeon.

Shin Jooho was no different.

Shin Jooho didn’t like Han Gangun, but he clearly wanted Han Gangun in a different way.

It was an emotion of a different shape from my feeling of “liking.”

It was admiration and envy.

Shin Jooho, who envied Han Gangun who received attention, Han Gangun who had everything, and Han Gangun who never lost anywhere, ultimately revealed the bare face of that envy.

The reason Shin Jooho acted spitefully toward me must have also been an inferiority complex toward Han Gangun, not me.

I thought.

There must have been quite a few other kids who did this kind of thing to Han Gangun.

And that Han Gangun must already be quite used to such kids.

I lifted the hand holding the pen and brought it back to the back of my head.

I pretended to touch my hair to buy time.

Soon, warm skin bumped into the back of my hand.

It was Han Gangun’s hand.

Han Gangun took my hand and stroked it.

His firm palm pressed down hard on the back of my hand.

Han Gangun was behind me.

Whenever I raised my hand, he quickly grabbed it.

Even though I hadn’t given a signal to hold hands, he noticed on his own and touched the back of my hand.

With that touch, I realized anew.

I couldn’t help but like Han Gangun.

All those reasons were in the warmth of your body temperature holding the back of my hand.

It was lunchtime.

Including Kang Hyunsoo and Kim Yunho, the four of us had left the cafeteria and were strolling toward the playground.

Kids kicking a ball far away called out Kang Hyunsoo, Kim Yunho, and Han Gangun’s names in turn.

They said to come over and play together.

Kang Hyunsoo was busy on his phone, and Kim Yunho looked like he wanted to go.

Han Gangun, of course, didn’t leave my side.

“Wanna go?”

“No.”

“Han Gangun, you wanna go?”

“No.”

“Everyone’s not going?”

“Only me?”

Kim Yunho, who had taken his hand out of his pocket, now looked at me.

“Seo Ijae, do you play soccer at all?”

“No.”

“Not really….”

“Yeah.”

“I thought so.”

Kim Yunho glanced at Han Gangun’s face once.

Then he immediately grabbed the wrist of Kang Hyunsoo, who was immersed in his phone.

“Hey, let’s go play one game.”

“Ah f*ck.”

“No.”

“I’m not doing it.”

“What are you doing, you crazy bastard.”

“I said I’m not doing it!”

“Cheap bastards.”

Kim Yunho spat to the side.

A round spit mark landed on the asphalt.

Han Gangun jumped up onto the inspection platform and leaned against the railing.

I slowly approached Han Gangun, who turned back and looked at me as if urging me to come quickly.

Kim Yunho, as if fed up with us who had no intention of going, soon ran toward the kids on the playground.