Behind us, a few classmates kept sneaking glances our way, not even trying to be subtle.
"Damn… I'm jealous."
"I want someone to hug me when I'm doing absolutely nothing too."
"Fuck, let's just go to the snack store. I don't wanna watch this shit…"
Seolhyo shifted slightly beside me, then tilted her head."What's up with you? You're acting weird."
I kept my eyes on the horizon outside the window."…Am I?"
"Yeah."
A quiet chuckle left me."I just don't feel like doing anything today. Just standing still, staring at nothing, thinking by myself."
I paused for a moment before glancing at her."What, you don't ever do that?"
She shrugged casually."I prefer to just sleep."
I turned my head fully toward her, the afternoon light catching her profile. For a second, I just looked.
Then I reached out and gently brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear.
"Your hair's gotten longer."
She instinctively touched it.
"Is it?"
My voice softened without me realizing.
"Yeah. You look even prettier."
She blinked, then let out a quiet laugh, soft and breathy.
That only made me stare at her more, my gaze refusing to leave her face.
After a moment, she reached out and lightly tugged down on my uniform.
I leaned down closer to her.
Her fingers slipped into my hair, gently combing through it.
"Yours too," she mumbled, a small smile forming.
For a while, we just looked at each other.
The noise in the classroom faded into the background until it felt like everything else blurred out, leaving only the quiet space between us.
Then she slowly pulled her hand back and turned her gaze toward the window.
I followed, looking outside again, but from the corner of my eye, I caught the faint tremble at the edge of her lips like she was trying not to smile too wide.
Neither of us said anything after that.
We stood side by side, quietly content, as though simply sharing each other's presence was more than enough.
Saturday came, and we walked out of the school building together, heading toward the study room.
Irina was in front, clutching both straps of her bag, her grin wide and energetic.
"What a beautiful day!! Alright then," she beamed. "Let's go study hard!!"
Park Dong dragged his feet behind her, groaning."Please just let me go to the PC bang…"
Seolhyo raised her hand to her face blocking the wind, her hair swaying slightly."Isn't it kind of cold now?"
I slipped my hand into my pocket out of habit, only to feel nothing."…I'm out of lollipops."
Soon, we arrived at the study room near Sangji High.
The place was quiet, filled only with the soft rustle of papers and the scratching of pens.
Daegyu sat inside his study carrel, already focused.
Last-minute cramming, but it'll go well this time too.
Beside him, Suwon stared at his notes, writing and erasing over and over like he had no idea what he was doing.
Jinkyung, on the other hand, couldn't focus at all, her stomach growling as she write mindlessly.
I'm hungry…
Seolhyo bit the end of her pen, staring intently at her book, brows slightly furrowed.
This is hard…
Meanwhile, I calmly flipped through the pages of my book, expression relaxed.
…Yeah, the exam will be pretty easy. I practically know all of this like the back of my hand.
I leaned back in my chair with a faint smirk.
…How unfair, making me this perfect.
Beside me, Park Dong had already given up on pretending.
He drew a keyboard on a piece of paper and started tapping it with his fingers, imagining a game in progress.
"Aaaah, I'm going insane… This is actual hell. Why am I even here?" he muttered in his head, leaning back in his chair.
He tilted his head and glanced at Seojin, who was smirking to himself with his arms crossed.
What the hell is this guy thinking…
His gaze shifted again and landed on Irina, who was visibly drowsy, fighting to keep her eyes open.
He stifled a laugh and whispered under his breath, "HAHAHA."
Turning back to his desk, he grabbed a sheet of paper, quickly scribbled something, and folded it into a paper airplane.
He aimed carefully and launched it toward her.
Thud.
It lightly crashed against Irina's head.
She blinked, grabbed the paper plane, and unfolded it.
"You said you were gonna study hard, idiot -- lol."
Her eye twitched.
Without a word, she scribbled something underneath, folded it again, and threw it back.
"Hi-yah!"
The paper airplane smacked Park Dong right in the face.
"Ugh!" He clutched his face, glaring at her.
Irina only winked, flashing a peace sign and sticking her tongue out playfully.
He unfolded the paper and read:
"Even if I'm pretty, stop staring at my face and study instead ^^"
A smirk slowly spread across his lips as a quiet chuckle escaped him.
"HAHAHA… is she crazy or what," he whispered.
But as his smirk faded, his thought wandered at the folded letter still tucked with in his bag.
…This won't do.
After all, I'm still holding onto the letter that grasshopper gave me.
His expression stiffened slightly as he stared at the desk.
It's not like I'm some giving tree.
How long am I supposed to keep doing things for others?
His gaze harden making up his mind.
…I've decided.
I'll just throw it away.
While I opened my math book and worked through the last unsolved question, I ended up staring blankly at the page.
There's nothing left to do here… I'm bored.
I leaned back in my chair again, letting out a quiet breath.
My eyes drifted to the side and landed on Seolhyo, who was still biting her pen, staring intensely at the chaotic mess of numbers in her notebook like it had personally offended her.
I scooted my chair a little closer and leaned in, lowering my voice.
"Need help?"
She nodded without even looking at me and pointed at the tangled equations on her page.
"Why does this problem have two x's and a y? I don't get how you're supposed to find both."
I leaned closer to take a better look, our shoulders brushing lightly.
"It's simultaneous equations,"
I said, gently taking the pen from her hand.
"And stop biting this. You'll ruin your teeth."
She puffed her cheeks slightly but didn't protest.
"Look," I continued, rewriting the problem neatly under her messy scrawl.
"You've got:2x + y = 7x – y = 1You just line them up and add or subtract to cancel one variable."
She blinked, finally turning her head toward me.
"Cancel? How?"
"Watch."
I wrote quickly, my handwriting steady.
"(2x + y) + (x – y) = 7 + 1."
I tapped the page lightly.
"The y's cancel out, so you're left with 3x = 8."
"Oh…" she murmured, her eyes lighting up a little.
"Then you divide both sides by 3. So x = 8/3. Easy."
"And the y?" she asked, leaning even closer now.
"Plug it back in," I said, pointing at the second equation.
"x – y = 1. Substitute x."
I wrote it down.
"(8/3) – y = 1."
I paused and glanced at her.
"Well?"
She bit her lip, thinking hard.
"So… y = 8/3 – 1… that's… 5/3?"
"There you go."
Her face brightened instantly.
"Wait, I actually got it?"
I raised a brow at her.
"You know this part is one of the easiest, right?"
Her eyes narrowed and she smacked my arm lightly.
"I know. You don't need to remind me of my suffering. Since you brought it up, teach me the harder part."
I chuckled and lazily lowered my head onto her desk, my cheek resting against the wood as I looked up at her.
"But I'm bored. I need something to motivate me…"