Chapter 41 : Open Mic (1)

Ha Su-yeon stretched his stiff neck and stepped outside the classroom.

He thought he had been awake, but somehow, he had ended up falling asleep with his head buried on the desk.

“If I keep sleeping like this, I’m going to get a neck disc problem… Should I buy a neck pillow?”

But then he thought about how ridiculous it would be to wear a neck pillow in front of the other teachers.

If someone asked, “Why are you wearing that?” and he answered, “I’m worried I might get a neck disc while sleeping,” it seemed unlikely anyone would tolerate it.

Then again, since ” Ha Su-yeon ” was from the MZ generation, maybe she’d accept it?

Ha Su-yeon began overanalyzing his assumptions about the MZ generation.

“More than that, why did we even bother starting the new semester like this? Was it like this back in my day too?”

It was such a long time ago that he couldn’t clearly remember, but he vaguely recalled actually having lessons after winter break.

With that in mind, Ha Su-yeon had pushed the students hard before the end of the winter break, aiming to raise their skill levels.

But now that school had started, nothing was being done, and apparently, spring break was just a few days away.

“Seriously, if this was the plan, why even start the semester?”

Feeling an odd craving for a cigarette, Ha Su-yeon instinctively reached into his pants pocket.

Of course, there were no cigarettes there.

Thinking that he should restock at some convenience store soon, he headed toward the terrace for some fresh air.

“Hey.”

“Ah, hi.”

“Your neck hurting?”

“A little, yeah.”

“Hey, Ha Su-yeon do you want this?”

“No, I’m good.”

On his way to the terrace, he waved at the students he was familiar with.

Some waved back.

Among them was a boy he had recently apologized to.

“You didn’t have to apologize like that…” the boy had said.

When another boy offered him snacks, Ha Su-yeon shook his head and opened the terrace door.

“Huh? Yeonsu?”

On the terrace, a group of girls had gathered.

Ha Su-yeon casually waved to them and leaned on the railing to gaze outside the school.

Just as he started to feel a little refreshed, one of the girls called his name.

“Yeonsu. I heard you’ve been going around apologizing to losers lately?”

The girl he glanced at was Kwon Ji-hye from Class 4.

She was a girl who often greeted him in passing, making ambiguous comments that could either be teasing or something else entirely.

When he tried recalling Ha Su yeon’s memories, he vaguely thought they might have been friends, but it wasn’t clear… Maybe they had been somewhat close?

“Why are they losers?”

“Ha-ha-ha… Yeonsu, you’ve really mellowed out, huh? Back in the day, you’d have slapped those losers without hesitation. Now, why are you pretending to be so nice?”

Ji-hye approached him with slow steps, stopping right in front of him.

She seemed to want to give off an intimidating aura, but to Ha Su-yeon , she was just a high school girl trying to act tough.

“I heard you’re in some band. Are you trying to clean up your past and debut on a broadcast? Is that why you’re sucking up to the losers, saying, ‘Oh, I used to be a bully, but please forgive me?’”

“Well, I can’t say there’s none of that. If it weren’t for those reasons, I probably wouldn’t have thought of apologizing in the first place.”

Hearing his response, Ji-hye exaggerated an “Oh~” expression and laughed.

The other girls around her giggled mockingly.

“You know that’s super lame, right? What if they don’t accept your apology? Are you just going to quit trying to go on TV?”

“That might happen too.”

After saying that, Ha Su-yeon waved goodbye and headed back to the classroom.

Life was long, but he thought the kids needed to learn not to waste time on such petty cliques.

“What’s with him these days?”

“Who knows? Maybe he ate something weird.”

After Ha Su-yeon disappeared, the girls continued chatting behind his back.

Ji-hye, however, stood silently, staring at the terrace door with a hardened expression.

“I really hate the way he’s acting lately. Should I tell Joo-hee senior about this?”

“Are you crazy?”

One of the girls suggested it, but before anyone could respond, Ji-hye snapped.

“What’s the big deal? She dropped out anyway. Stop calling her a senior or whatever. She’s just a dropout. Forget about her and leave him alone.”

“But Ji-hye, didn’t you seem like you weren’t happy about how he’s been acting?”

“Hey, even if he’s annoying, he’s trying to live a better life. What’s the point of messing with him?”

Ji-hye walked to the corner of the terrace, put a vape to her lips, and exhaled.

The vapor had color, but it didn’t smell much.

If it had been the old Seoha, she would have replied with something like, “Don’t waste your time making crap like that, just go do some manual labor instead.”