Free Web Novel“Ugh. So right now, the poetic speaker is, uh... expressing his loyal devotion to the king, um... in song.”
Mr. Moon, who was famous for how slowly he spoke, pushed up his glasses. His surname was actually Kim, not Moon, and yet the kids all called him Mr. Moon. He believed the nickname came from “literature teacher” being shortened. Which, to be fair, was not entirely wrong. He did teach literature, and also... the crown of his head was slickly, completely bald. Octopus Teacher. That was the unfortunate truth.
Every student in the class looked half-dead. It was third period, that dragging, hungry stretch of the morning. Mr. Moon was still absorbed in the lesson, idly waving his pointer around. Since he spoke so slowly, he packed the entire period wall to wall with lecture, and thanks to his passion, the students twisted in their seats and kept glancing at the speaker. Just as their patience finally hit bottom, the bell at last rang.
“Pizza bread!”
Lee Juyeol, who had been nodding off like a sick chicken, shot to his feet.
“Hey, hey. Hey. Huh? Brat, I haven’t even closed the book yet.”
Mr. Moon scolded him with an annoyed look, but Lee Juyeol and his gang had already bolted out of the classroom. The quiet hallway instantly turned chaotic. Sprinting ahead toward the school store, Lee Juyeol snickered at the boys racing after him.
“You losers! First place goes to your big bro—ugh!”
Running while looking behind him, Lee Juyeol suddenly clutched one shoulder where he had slammed into someone.
“Fuck, hey! Are you blind or what?”
He hurled the curse at the obstacle he had collided with. The obstacle had fallen backward and landed hard on his backside. Even though it had been entirely Lee Juyeol’s own fault for not watching where he was going, he shot the person sprawled in front of him an irritated glare, then just ran on.
“You little punks! Didn’t I tell you not to run in the halls?”
At that moment, Mr. Seo, who had been coming up the stairs, bellowed in a stern voice. Lee Juyeol and the other boys charging along all faltered and glanced around nervously. But only for a second. Pretending to slow down, they hurried off down the corridor.
Mr. Seo was just shaking his head, wondering whether he should stop them, when—
“Those hopeless little brats... Oh my, Jaegyeom!”
He spotted Jaegyeom sitting on the floor in the hallway and quickly came over.
“Are you all right?”
At the worried question, Jaegyeom, who had just suffered the mishap, gave a vague nod. Mr. Seo glared furiously in the direction the boys had run off. This would not do. He would give them a proper dressing-down during homeroom. Lee Juyeol was already the biggest headache in the class.
As Jaegyeom awkwardly got to his feet, a mutter slipped out of him without his noticing.
“Ah, that son of a—”
“Hm? What was that?”
“Ah. Nothing.”
Mr. Seo leaned in and asked again, and Jaegyeom hastily swallowed the rest. Tilting his head, Mr. Seo lightly took hold of Jaegyeom’s arm. Then he pointed toward Class 3 and nodded. Jaegyeom trailed after him into the classroom.
“All right, eyes up for a moment! Everyone, sit down.”
Mr. Seo smacked the blackboard a few times to pull the students’ attention together. Their homeroom teacher appearing out of nowhere made the kids, who had been wandering around the classroom enjoying the break, drift back to their seats with puzzled faces. Naturally, all eyes gathered on Jaegyeom, standing there with his bag slung over his shoulder beside Mr. Seo.
“I told you we’d have a transfer student today, right? This is Jaegyeom. Kim Jaegyeom.”
The room had only just started to quiet down, but it immediately grew noisy again. Mr. Seo smiled and tugged Jaegyeom forward by the arm. Caught off guard, Jaegyeom ended up standing right in the center in front of the teacher’s desk, staring blankly. Mr. Seo flicked him a look. Was that supposed to mean introduce yourself? Jaegyeom looked straight ahead. Every single person was staring at him.
After a brief moment of gauging the mood, he reluctantly opened his mouth.
“Uh... hello.”
They were still staring at him.
“Uh, nice to... meet you.”
The students listened to every word with curious eyes. Did he have to say more? Jaegyeom rubbed the bandage on his finger. His face looked indifferent at a glance, but in reality he was furiously wringing his brain dry. He had never been in a situation like this before. It felt unfamiliar.
He chose his words.
“Uh... listen to your mother and father, stay away from deep water, don’t pick up random things lying by the roadside, and ‘do all you can and then await heaven’s will’ isn’t just an empty saying... so live calmly and build virtue.”
“......”
“......”
“......”
“......”
A chill silence dropped over the room, cold enough to rival the noisy hallway outside. The expressions on the students’ faces were strange. What? Why? It was all good advice that would serve them in life. Jaegyeom slowly rolled his eyes sideways and glanced at Mr. Seo. Mr. Seo was looking at him with a similar expression. Wasn’t that enough? Standing there blankly under all those stares, Jaegyeom rubbed the bandage again and spoke once more.
“Well then, I wish you all a happy rest of your lives.”
With that flat blessing, he stepped down from the front of the room. Just then, the back door of the classroom burst open and Lee Juyeol’s gang came barging in with bread hanging from their mouths. Lee Juyeol, chewing pizza bread, widened his eyes when he saw Jaegyeom standing up front—then quickly frowned.
“What’s with this funeral atmosphere...?”
At the same time as his mutter, Mr. Seo, belatedly coming to his senses, awkwardly called out,
“All right... th-then... applause!”
Clap clap clap... clap... clap....
The limp applause dragged on until the cheerful bell rang for the next class.
*****
By lunchtime, the students all poured out of the classroom in a rush. Sitting in a corner seat by the window, Jaegyeom was glaring at a brand-new textbook that still reeked of fresh ink. So what exactly was cosine supposed to have done? He had listened in class, but he had not understood a single thing.
“Hey, you’re Jaegyeom, right?”
Jaegyeom lifted his head and looked at the face standing in front of him.
“My name’s Jo Youngwoo. Nice to meet you.”
Jo Youngwoo greeted him with a bright smile. He sat in the seat directly in front of Jaegyeom. Judging by how diligently he had been writing something down the entire class, he seemed like the earnest type.
“Yeah. Sure.” freeωebnovēl.c૦m
Jaegyeom dropped his gaze back to the textbook.
“It’s lunchtime. Aren’t you going to eat?”
Ah. So it was mealtime. The other students had done nothing but sneak glances at Jaegyeom without actually saying anything to him. He had no idea where everyone had gone, but they all looked busy, so he had just been flipping through the textbook.
“You don’t know where the cafeteria is, do you? I’ll show you. Want to eat together?”
Jo Youngwoo smiled brightly. Everyone else seemed to move around in pairs or little groups, but Youngwoo, like Jaegyeom, was alone. Jaegyeom stared at him for a moment, then nodded and stood up. He was not exactly eager to share a meal with a stranger, but Youngwoo had an unusually clear, pure energy about him. Jaegyeom found himself thinking it might not be so bad to keep him company for a little while. He followed Youngwoo out of the classroom. An awkward silence drifted between them as they walked down the hall side by side.
“So, Jaegyeom, where do you live?”
After glancing at him for cues, Youngwoo finally worked up the courage to ask first.
“My house is far. Near the mountain over there.”
“I see. Then you must take the bus?”
“Huh? Yeah... Bus 17.”
“Really? I take the 17 too!”
Youngwoo looked visibly delighted.
“That’s awesome. Want to go home together after school?”
“Well... sure, I guess...”
Jaegyeom nodded before he really knew what he was doing. Youngwoo seemed absurdly pleased to have found someone to ride home with. If he had been a puppy, he would have been wagging his tail.
“Before we catch the bus later, let’s stop by the waffle shop. It’s kind of famous at our school...”
The two of them chatted about one thing and another as they left the main school building. On the way to the cafeteria, Youngwoo pointed here and there, explaining eagerly: that’s the auditorium, that’s the gym. Jaegyeom nodded along and made a show of listening.
That was when a butterfly, appearing out of nowhere, drifted into his line of sight.
Jaegyeom, who had been listening to Youngwoo, slowly shifted his eyes and glanced at it from the corner of his eye. It was a transparent butterfly, colorless from wing to wing. A faint fragrance rose from the strange thing. Fluttering softly, it passed by Jaegyeom and began circling around Youngwoo instead. Youngwoo showed no reaction even when it came close. It seemed he could not see it. Jaegyeom looked at Youngwoo once, then casually lifted a hand and shooed the butterfly away. It was irritating, hovering nearby like that.
“Hm? What’s wrong?”
Seeing Jaegyeom wave at empty air, Youngwoo tilted his head.
“There was something flying around.”
Jaegyeom answered as if it were nothing. Youngwoo did not press further and just continued what he had been saying. Then, just as they were about to enter the auditorium where the cafeteria was located, the butterfly that had disappeared for a while suddenly came fluttering around Youngwoo again. Jaegyeom lifted his hand once more and gently batted it aside.
“Jaegyeom. What did you just do?”
This time, though, Youngwoo stopped walking.
“Because of a gnat...”
Jaegyeom offered the flimsy excuse offhandedly.
Youngwoo’s face stiffened, and he fell silent. What was that? Was he upset because Jaegyeom had not been paying attention to what he was saying? Without realizing it, Jaegyeom started reading Youngwoo’s expression. Youngwoo looked around for a moment, then turned a clear, steady gaze back on him.
“Hey, Jaegyeom. Did you happen to see a butterfly?”
Youngwoo took a careful step toward him as he asked.
“......”
Jaegyeom flinched and stepped back by the same distance Youngwoo had advanced.
