Mesani, who had fallen asleep exhausted from crying, searched for Jaegyeom as soon as he opened his eyes.
Unfortunately, the room was empty. Mesani was terrified, could it be that he had left for somewhere? However, when he looked around the room closely, the school uniform and bag hanging on one side of the wall were gone. After turning the house upside down last night, his lord went to school as usual.
Mesani opened the door and came out into the yard, putting his butt on the floor. Then, the mountain birds waiting for him scrambled to greet him. Normally, he would have smiled at him, but he wasn’t in the mood for that today. Mesani’s face was swollen from the tears shed last night, resembling steamed buns. He looked up at the quiet foot of the mountain with a pensive face.
‘Did you sleep well? Did you sleep well? Did you sleep well?’
“Noo… I didn’t sleep well…”
Mesani pulled his knees up and wrapped his arms around his legs.
Jeongju had left for Seoul last night since he paused filming abruptly and was away for a long time. Although promising to come back soon, Jeongju didn’t show up all night long, so the call came pouring in at the rate of once every three minutes. He couldn’t wait any longer.
‘Mesan-ah. We’ve spent so much time with Jaegyeom. It must have been something he just said out of anger.’
‘R- Right? He didn’t mean it, did he?’
‘Yeah. Don’t worry, there’s still time, so let’s comfort him in the meantime.’
Jeongju handed over the extra phone he usually carried to Mesani. And he asked him to check Jaegyeom’s status and let him know once a day. He initially thought of calling him on the home phone secretly, as there was a risk of it getting into Jaegyeom’s ears.
Mesani put his hand down and touched the heavy phone in his pocket.
“My lord cannot be without me.”
Mesani muttered in a melancholic voice and buried his head in his lap.
***
It was always a bustling hallway in the morning, but today it was particularly so.
In front of Class 3 of Year 2, there were crowds of onlookers like a school of ricefish. They snooped around the classroom with their faces glued to the front door, the back door, and even the window frame. Thanks to that, the middle of the hallway was completely blocked. The children who had to pass in front of Class 3 had to push away the crowd of onlookers with all kinds of irritation.
“I don’t think he’s not here? I don’t see him?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“P uefrr tf tjrc’a mbwf sfa.”
“Crrtbifr, ufa bea bo atf kjs.”
“Lfs, vbc’a qert.”
Ktf mtlivgfc lc Jijrr 3 kfgf jirb yfklivfgfv. Cii bo atlr kjr ab rff klat atflg bkc fsfr atf ojmf bo j wsrafglber mijrrwjaf ktb tjv j mfifyglas jr tlr ecmif. Ajfusfbw yfmjwf j rmtbbi mfifyglas lc pera bcf vjs. Blw Ajfusfbw’r olgra cjwf kjr klvfis rqgfjv, mbwqjgjyif ab atf gfqeajalbc bo yflcu atf abq raevfca lc atf fcalgf rmtbbi.
“Hey, Class 3 kids. When is Kim Jaegyeom coming?”
“Right. Tell me to come quickly.”
“Does anyone know Kim Jaegyeom’s phone number?”
Just when two or three students who were tired of waiting asked,
“I don’t have a phone.”
In the middle of the noise like a market, an indifferent voice came out from behind. The words he muttered were almost buried, but several people nearby turned their heads when they heard the voice. As soon as they saw the name written on the name tag, the children’s eyes widened. ‘Hey hey! Behind…’
“He’s here!”
At the same time, the gathered students split into two sides. Like the miracle of Moses, a path was created in an instant. The children in Class 3, who were unable to enter the classroom because of the crowd, managed to take advantage of that opportunity to finally go in. The students who stepped aside were busy gawking at Jaegyeom openly while gossiping. Regardless, Jaegyeom walked past the onlookers with a sullen look on his face.
“What are these kids doing now! Aren’t you going back to class?!”
At that time, Ms Seo, who was coming down the stairs, shouted loudly. At the scolding that came from the end of the hallway, the students turned away with regretful eyes. In the process, they poked their head inside the classroom,
“Hey, can’t you have a video call with Jeongju just once later?”
“Just get me one autograph, my older sister asked for it.”
There were also some students who left with a sad and sloppy request.
After Ms Seo finished the morning assembly, she called Lee Juyeol and Jaegyeom into the hallway. The two who were called out obediently stood far away from each other. Fortunately or unfortunately, the two treated each other as people who didn’t exist after yesterday. Ms Seo sentenced the two to do service for five days after school.
In fact, it was only a verbal punishment, not a formal school disciplinary action. Since they suffered similar damage, they decided not to raise the matter any further and let the homeroom teacher handle it. It was a conclusion that was reached after consulting with the dean. As it turned out, Jeongju’s efforts to rush to the hospital with Mesani were not in vain.
Jaegyeom was assigned to clean the main building, the annex, and the library, among other places. As soon as he heard instructions from Ms Seo to go to the library, he couldn’t manage his expression. Meanwhile, Lee Juyeol was assigned to the equipment room of the auditorium, where heavy equipment was piled up. He thought about asking him to switch, but he was averse to talking to Lee Juyeol anymore.
***
After school, standing in front of the library door, Jaegyeom fiddled with the strap of his bag. He stared fiercely at the door with his shoulders drooping. After hesitating for a while, Jaegyeom grabbed the doorknob and turned it.
“Uh…”
His eyes met with that of the young man who was bowing in front of the bookshelf.
He thought he would never come again. He wasn’t originally close to him, but after the day he returned the tie, a strange sense of distance developed between Jaegyeom and the young man.
“Hi.”
It wasn’t nice to meet him at all, even though he hadn’t seen him in a long time. Whenever he pretended not to know him, the young man greeted me with a smile. Jaegyeom, whose heart was twisted for no reason, stiffly bowed his head slightly. The young man who was staring at Jaegyeom implied,
“It is mottled.”
The young man who read Jaegyeom’s sad eyes tapped his cheek with his finger.
“I mean your face.”
“Ah, well…”
Jaegyeom murmured and rubbed his cheek. He had no words to answer with. Judging from how he didn’t ask why, the young man seemed to already know why Jaegyeom came here. He didn’t ask more questions than he usually did, that was good.
The young man who was standing in front of the bookshelf walked slowly. Jaegyeom knew he was coming towards me, and his body stiffened unconsciously. However, the young man just passed Jaegyeom and headed for the desk. A familiar fragrance wafted from nearby. It was the scent of that sensual perfume he had smelled many times before.
Jaegyeom, who stared into the distance for a moment, put down his bag in a corner. He glanced lightly around the inside of the library. Next to the desk was a table and several chairs that he hadn’t seen before. At the long table, two or three students were sitting and reading intently.
“What am I doing?”
Jaegyeom, who was looking around, asked.
“You pick out any book you like and read it.”
“I came to clean because I was asked to do school service.”
“What shall we do, I finished all the cleaning earlier.”
The young man replied casually, sitting cross-legged as he looked at Jaegyeom with a mischievous smile. At that, Jaegyeom made a puzzled face.
“Then what am I doing?”
“Read a book.”
“…”
The conversation went back to square one. Jaegyeom was speechless for a moment and shut his mouth. There was a hint of bewilderment in his eyes. The young man tapped the top of the desk. He thought for a moment, then he pulled back his chair and stood up.
“Do you need something to do?”
He slowly opened the drawer and took out something. In his hands were a thin spring notebook and a Monami ballpoint pen. He placed the notebook and ballpoint pen on an empty seat on the table.
“Then read the book and write your impressions on it.”
What? Jaegyeom frowned at once.
“I did all the cleaning already, and I just finished organizing the books, so you have nothing to do, friend, but since you need something to do, so read the book and write a reflection.”
“No. What does writing a reflection have to do with school service?”
“You came to the library as a punishment for fighting, so it’s up to the librarian to decide what to make you do.”
Yoon Taehee, leaning crookedly on the table, smiled slyly.
“Feel free to use any format and write any length. Don’t forget to write your class, number, and name.”
Thank you!
I wonder what he’s planning to do with that…is it the handwriting? The fingerprints? Or his thoughts?
Ah, what a sly fox Taehee is. I see what you are doing there 👀
Number huh? 😙
Thanks for the translation ❤️