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“Ah, what a bother. What kind of ceramic are we making?”
“Pottery and dyeing… Sounds like no fun.”
“Sungil Middle School’s going to City Land, but what are we doing?”
“We’ve already gone to Icheon five times just for a school triiip!”
The kids grumbled as they boarded the 40-person group bus. Despite the content of their words, their voices were secretly excited. It seemed like, whatever the reason, they were just excited to get out of school and go somewhere with their friends.
But not me.
“Who wants some ottang?”
“You have the taste of an uncle.”
“Me, me.”
Bags of snacks and drinks were passed overhead. I put my empty bag on the seat beside me and closed my eyes, as I always did. I felt sick to my stomach with my eyes closed as the bus filled with the sound of the film the driver was playing, the boisterous chatter of the children, and the mixed smell of all kinds of snacks.
After a while, the bus slowed down and rounded a long curve. The bus hadn’t even come to a complete stop, yet I could hear the clicking sound of seatbelts being undone here and there.
There were a couple of makeshift buildings made of container walls in a clearing at the low foot of the mountain. Getting down from the vehicle, the children stretched and shuffled into the single-storey building. The inside of the building was a large, auditorium-like space. There were six round, backless chairs around large desks that looked like something out of a science room.
I stood in the back for a while as the teacher told us to sit in groups of five or six. While waiting for the others to sit down in groups of three and four, I sat down on the edge of a remaining chair. I could feel the displeased stares of the kids at the same desk. I just looked at the table.
When the atmosphere had settled down to some extent, a middle-aged man dressed in a modern hanbok stood in front with a microphone.
“Welcome, everyone from Semyung Middle School! Hello!”
“Hello~.”
More than two hundred students were seated, but few answered, and their voices were small.
“Aigoo, why are male students so lacking in energy? Hello!”
“Hello!!!” The children yelled as if saying, “Here!” The roof shook with the harsh sounds, almost like screams, and the satisfied middle-aged man smiled with delight and continued, “Everyone, what did you come here for?”
“To make ceramics!”
The middle-aged man nodded and switched on the large television hung on the ceiling. “Do you know what ceramics are?” he asked, and then proceeded to explain ceramics in full.
“Ceramics is a compound word from earthenware and porcelain, and anything fired between eight hundred and one thousand degrees is called earthenware, and anything fired at a higher temperature is called porcelain. So what we’re making today can’t strictly be called ceramics, but rather earthenware…”
The children were already yawning with their mouths open as the middle-aged man’s words lengthened. When the homeroom teachers in the back went outside and they had gotten to the part where he explained the origin of earthenware and the different types of porcelain, no one was listening.
Under the middle-aged man’s voice coming through the microphone, the children chatted among themselves, giggled, and did other stuff. I took advantage of the distracted atmosphere and slipped outside under the guise of going to the bathroom. I planned to stay outside in silence until it was over.
The weather was nice, but there was a big difference in temperature. It was definitely chilly enough for spring and autumn clothes in the morning, but now it was hot enough to make me wish I had come wearing summer clothes. It was autumn, like two seasons in one day.
The small building next to the lab seemed to be used as a rest area for the guiding teachers. The building was shabby, but it was located at the foot of the mountain and had a nice view.
On the low wall surrounding the one-storey building, trumpet creepers bloomed like waterfalls, and the beautiful maple trees were dyed red. Cosmos bloomed in abundance on the ground, and weeds were disorderly planted here and there.
I went around the back of the building. Shady and not often traversed by people, I flopped down on the moss-covered ground.
The kids of the group made in the heat of the moment were clearly unhappy, so I went out first, but I didn’t know what I was currently doing. I could have said I was sick or made any other excuse so I wouldn’t have to go on the field trip in the first place, but I felt pathetic for not even being able to say that and remaining inert.
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.
I sat there for a while, gazing up at the high blue sky, before suddenly turning my gaze. I heard footsteps in the distance.
P vlvc’a rff jcs tewjcr, yea P kjr rfcrlalnf ab atflg rlucr. P kjr ubbv ja rlifcmlcu ws rlucr, jcv P kjr ubbv ja gfmbuclhlcu atfw.
Pa kjr bcf bo ws vgfjgs rqfmljialfr ab vfvemf atf lvfcalas bo j qfgrbc ogbw atf reyaif mtjcufr lc atf jlgoibk jcv atflg obbarafqr. Ktfs kfgf jybea 170mw ajii klat j ifjc ogjwf, jcv pevulcu ys atflg ujla, atfs tjv j ijlv-yjmx lwjuf.
The person who appeared a while later was similar to my guesses. As soon as he turned the corner of the building, he took a cigarette out of his pocket, popped it in his mouth, and made eye contact with me.
Besides the thin yellow A4 paper with “No-smoking area” written on it stuck on the fake wall, he wore the same school uniform as me. But when he saw me, he didn’t even pause before taking out his lighter and lighting his cigarette. His long, thin fingers covered the corners of his mouth. Soon he was blowing white smoke into the blue sky.
I wondered if I should get up and leave. But the other party didn’t seem to mind much. He leaned back against the wall and smoked leisurely. So I decided to just keep sitting. Anyway, there wasn’t anywhere for me to go even if I got up.
As I looked back up at the sky again, I saw a pack of cigarettes held out to me. I shook my head, and he spoke as if in wonder, “Then, what are you doing here alone?”
I knew who he was, even if it was the first time I’d seen him in person. It was the transfer student brought in by the homeroom teacher on the opening day of the second semester. As soon as the transfer student arrived, he was the talk of the school.
When the teacher introduced the new student, I was slumped over my desk, and I usually walked with my eyes on the floor, so I never really got a proper look at his face. But now I realized that even in an all-boys school, he had an appearance that people couldn’t bear not to talk about.
His face was pale like a white violet, and his hair, receiving the autumn sunlight, was also of a light colour. He looked like he was delicately drawn with a fine pen and lightly painted with watercolours, but he didn’t feel soft.
He had a cold impression, perhaps due to the sharp ends of his raised eyes and his thin neckline and nose bridge. Still in his growth period, his frame had not yet matured, and only his arms and legs were much longer, making his thin body feel even more sensitive. The transfer student questioned again, “I asked what you were doing.”
Uselessly nervous due to his slightly sharp-tempered words, I spat out, “L-looking at the stars…”
“…Looking at the stars in the daytime?”
It wasn’t until I heard the questioning voice that I came to my senses. I was distracted by looking at his face and answered too honestly.
It was said that most people can’t see the stars even at night. So when I told people I could see the stars during the day, they’d say things like, “You’re crazy,” or “Are you writing a poem?” “Look at this loser,” and so on.
“Wow, your eyesight must be damn good.”
“……”
“Isn’t that almost at the level of a Mongolian?”
The transfer student looked up at the sky with me.
Soon, he murmured, “My eyes already feel dim…” and blinked. Even his eyelashes were light-coloured and long. It seemed like those eyelashes would look nice with dandelion puffs gently fluttering down upon them.
“Smoking’s better when you do it while watching the stars.”
He took a cigarette halfway out of the pack and extended it again.
I’ve had plenty of people offer me cigarettes. Because there were plenty of people around me who lived on cigarettes. Still, I never once felt the urge to smoke, but it was different this time.
I stood up awkwardly and reached for the transfer student’s cigarette. It seemed like he was trying to turn me into an accomplice in case I would tell the teacher, so I wanted to reassure him.
When I almost grabbed it, he snatched the cigarette pack back and put it in his pocket. What? I looked at the transfer student. Even when I stood up, I still had to look up because I was much shorter than him.
“No, sigh… Babies shouldn’t smoke these kinds of things,” he said in a playful tone, grinning. His face was cold when he didn’t have an expression, but when he smiled, it changed everything.
His fierce eyes curled like crescent moons, his aegyo sal rose, and dimples dug into his cheeks. In an instant, it felt like the ice had melted and the flowers had bloomed.
A lukewarm breeze blew, making his uniform shirt and pants flutter. The breeze mixed with the smell of grass and flowers and ruffled his hair.
Riiiiiing, riiiiiing–.
The sound of a vibration rang out. He didn’t care much whether I reacted to his weird jokes or not. Sweeping back his windblown hair from his forehead, he picked up the ringing phone.
“Yeah, I’m going now.”
He hung up the phone with one word and dropped his cigarette on the floor. He stepped on the remaining embers with his foot and said, “So, we’re finally making ceramics? No, did they call it earthenware?”
I could hear the noisy chatter of the children beyond the non-soundproof walls of the building. It seemed like the explanation had only now ended.
The transfer student gestured with his chin as if hinting at going in. Still, I stood there, unmoved, and he asked me again, “Aren’t you going?”
“Y-you go first…”
The transfer student tilted his head a little but didn’t ask any more questions and turned away.
It seemed like he guessed we were from the same school based on our uniforms, but he didn’t know who I was or how we were even in the same class yet. That must be why he could act so freely. I didn’t want to show up in front of everyone and show him the definition of my existence.
When the transfer student turned around the building and I could no longer see his back, I picked up the cigarette butt he had left on the ground and put it in my pocket.
That evening, I smoked my first cigarette.
I knew it was a gloomy thing to do. But I was curious. I hated the smell of cigarettes. But the smell of cigarettes coming from the transfer student smelled strangely good.
So, I just wanted to know. Was there something special about the cigarettes he smoked?
But the smell of cigarettes coming from me was disgusting.
“Hunter? Huuunter?”
The exaggerated tone was full of mockery.
The small room reeked of alcohol and cigarettes. Kang Woojung had come in drunk again, this time late at night, and summoned the children of the facility.
“How can a tiny thing like you become a hunter?”
Kang Woojung raised his hand like a pot lid. I flinched out of habit, but instead of hitting me loudly on the back of the head like he usually did, Kang Woojung just lightly pushed my forehead.
“Being a thief is your calling, punk.” Kang Woojung folded his fingers one by one and continued, “Good eyes, fast hands, quick feet, but no presence! Punk, you were born to steal.”
Tilting the blue bottle, he poured the clear liquid into a paper cup and held it out to me. “You can drink what an adult gives you, kid!” He said when I hesitated, tapping me on the shoulder. “Drink up, think of it as a tonic.”
I squeezed my eyes shut and gulped down the soju. No matter how much I drank, I didn’t get drunk, and it didn’t taste good, so I couldn’t understand why people drink it.
“Exactly! Just graduate middle school and come work under me, don’t you know how I’ve been making a name for myself in Ilyang?”
Kang Woojung boasted, and “Oooh,” the children cheered insincerely. But there was a hint of fatigue on his face that he couldn’t hide.
If he were actually doing well, he wouldn’t be gathering little kids together at night and preaching to them about his trivial exploits. Today, as if he were a teacher, he asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up and found fault with every answer. I kept my mouth shut as usual, but he was so persistent that I couldn’t lie, so I had just said two syllables.
“Uhaha, Chinese restaurant owner? Not even a bike delivery boy, but a cooook?”
Kang Woojung now turned his attention to the others. Laughing out loud, he spoke mockingly, “Hey, hey, punks who’ve eaten meat before eat well, but how’s a punk who grew up starving gonna open a Chinese restaurant?”
I didn’t know what kind of damn dream we were supposed to have then, why he even asked in the first place, or if there was even a dream we could have.
I was tired after being pestered by that drunk man all night. And then there was physical education at school.
I didn’t like gym class. It wasn’t that I hated sports, but that I had no intention of participating in sports as a team. Of course, people didn’t intend to let me participate either, but…
Above all, what Kang Woojung always told me was stuck in my head. If you don’t want to showcase your talent as a thief in front of others, you should try to be as inconspicuous as possible. It just seemed like if I was a little faster than everyone else, they’d think I was a good thief and point fingers behind my back.
“You all know that today is the performance assessment, right?”
At the words of the gym teacher standing in the auditorium, the complaints grew louder.
“Booo–!”
Even though they had been notified about it last week, they seemed to hate it just because it was called a test.
The activity of expression was a folk dance to upbeat country music. The kids complained without tiring, asking why they were doing a folk dance with other men, but the gym teacher leaned on one leg and picked their ear with their pinkie finger. They acted as if some dog was barking.
It wasn’t hard because we were supposed to stand in a long line, with the odd numbers playing the man and the even numbers playing the woman, and dance facing each other. There would be no one in front of me, and even if I danced with thin air, the teacher would give me a decent score. It was the teacher’s choice to forcefully pair us up, but the gym teacher wasn’t like that. I felt comfortable with that.
However, a shadow fell on the wooden auditorium floor. I saw a pair of Nike sneakers in front of me, where no one else should be.
What? I looked up a little.
The transfer student was standing there.
“Hi.” Our eyes met, and the transfer student greeted me casually. Now that the number of people in our class had become even, I suddenly had a partner in gym class.
I wanted to say hello, too, but the teacher turned on the music.
Tan, tan, tan–.
First, we needed to take four steps forward to greet each other. The new student roughly looked to the side and copied their movements. We were close enough for our knees to touch.
He giggled as he tilted his head to the side, pretending to lift his skirt slightly. Even so, he seemed to find his own appearance funny, acting like he was wearing a skirt when he wore the gym uniform pants.
He wasn’t familiar with the dance, but since the movements weren’t all that difficult, he could follow along quite well. The problem came next. We were supposed to cross our arms together and turn in a circle, but… Unlike me, who just stood there and hesitated, the transfer student linked our arms.
I thought it would be a ridiculous sight. First of all, there was a big difference in height. The transfer student’s right shoulder was quite slumped. My heart was strangely pounding, even though I usually wouldn’t even be out of breath after running at full speed for a thousand meters.
After our arms were released, I let out the breath I had been holding. But that wasn’t the end. Sixteen beats seemed like an eternity as my right shoulder was grazed, our backs touching before turning, and my left shoulder was grazed before taking a step back.
Cheerful music, similar to the rhythm of a heartbeat, continued to echo in the auditorium. We stood facing each other again, arms outstretched, hands clasped together. Luckily, our hands were about the same size.
As the children stepped through the two rows of formations, the children in the formations lined up clapped their hands to the beat. The kids would’ve clearly been giggling and laughing in mockery, but… I didn’t hear any laughter, clapping, or music. All I could hear was my pulse pounding in my ears.
Throughout the entire dance, all I could look at was the white neck of the transfer student. Not turning my gaze to the floor was too much for me.
Finally, the music ended. As if the spell had been broken, my grabbed hand was let go. Only the warmth remained.
We only had one practice. When the kids asked if it was possible to be judged just based on one group dance, the gym teacher flatly said, “It’s said that teachers have eyes on their backs, too.”
The kids, who were sensitive to performance evaluations, seemed a little unhappy, but I was relieved. If we did it one more time, my heart may break down.
Excited to hear that the rest of the class was a free period, the kids scrambled to their respective goals or to the upper area of the auditorium.
“Your dancing’s pretty good?” The transfer student continued, lightly tapping my shoulder, “Don’t you think we’ll get an A thanks to you?”
The transfer student hummed the folk dance song and bent his knees slightly in a playful greeting. Before I could even say anything, he ran to the basketball goal. I stared at his back for a long moment.
orcinus comments:
there it is!! the legendary kang inheon pov!!!
not to worry guys, the present day plot continues in the side stories… but for once, we’ll have a look inside inheon’s head 
its a bit sweet, the first chapter was named ‘lee juwon’ and chapter 7, technically the last chapter to the main story, is called ‘kang inheon’ 🥲
So Juwon was a laid back kid who casually interacted with everyone. Such a pity that he didn’t take real notice of Kang Inheon. But it’s so cute how Inheon already started to like him, despite him doing nothing special. But I guess interacting normally with him without being some a*** who mocks him is already special. 🥹 Poor Inheon didn’t have it easy as a kid. It’s so good that he still grew up well.
It’s bittersweet because his life is pretty poopy uwu thanks for the chapter !
Ooof Kang Inheon really didn’t have a good life growing up huh… 🙁 He’s clearly also a face con, liking the smell of smoke because Juwon was so pretty? Tsk tsk 😂 So lovely to see their interactions and Juwon’s impact on Inheon from his POV 🥹 Can’t wait for present day fluff too!
Thanks for the chapter!! Ilu ❤️
These facts are breaking my heart every time I tell you 😭
Aww we’re back to middle school era~
Can’t wait for the present day, though. Are they going to eat jjamppong together? Hmmm