.  I shook my head to say that I was fine. Yeo Dan oppa nodded at my response and averted his eyes from me.

  We soon began to talk about our private lives. Lee Mina, whose excellence in livening up the mood was second to none in our class, bossed the conversation. Our conversation topics changed swiftly from our hobbies to favorite musicians and celebrities.

  As the conversation continued, I gradually began to relax. Though it was said to be a group hangout, the dialogues we shared mostly sounded like those going on among our classmates maybe because everyone went to the same cram school.

  Leaning on the couch while being completely relaxed, I soon straightened up myself as the subject of the conversation changed into something quite interesting.

  “Rap?” I asked.

  Chun Dong Ho smiled bashfully and replied, “Uh-huh, so I remixed my favorite songs, hung out in my friend’s studio, and sometimes rented a space to record my own songs… yeah, I’m doing something like that.”


  “Wow, that’s cool.”


  My sincere response came out involuntarily. Chun Dong Ho lowered his head and rubbed his student ID that he wore around his neck as if he felt slightly embarrassed. Watching his reactions, I scratched the back of my head.

  Did I overreact? However, I always became astonished to those who worked in unfamiliar fields and wondered about their lives. Besides, this boy wasn’t just planning and thinking about what he wanted to do; he already did some legworks and was diving into the field of hip hop music.

  Suddenly, Chun Dong Ho turned around to look at the speaker in the café and said, “I have a remixed version of that song on my phone.”


  “Wow, really? Do you mind if I can hear that?”


  Chun Dong Ho nodded without any sign of embarrassment. He might be used to letting others listen to his recorded songs. Taking out his earphone from his pocket, Chun Dong Ho tried to give one side of it across the table but halted to do so. The table was too wide to share the same earphone.

  I got up in the end and moved to the seat right beside him. Once I sat down next to him, the tension I head earlier suddenly returned.

  For some reason, I felt that we were being too close. Well, of course, I couldn’t help since this couch was too small for five people to sit together.

  I glanced aside. Chun Dong Ho kept having difficulties with untying his tangled earphone. He murmured in a small voice, “Oh, gosh…”


  Watching him do that, I stretched out my hand for assistance, but it wasn’t helping at all. Trying to untie the untangled earphone made us touch each other’s hands. Thus, the air between us turned more awkward.

  ‘I was just trying to hear some songs, but geez… what am I doing right now?’ Having that thought in mind, I took my hands off from his earphone and began to hand fan my neck then glanced around out of the blue.

  After the girls in my class sent him such enthusiastic supports, Yeo Dan oppa was now sitting on a seat to the far end. Moon Sarah and Anh Ji Young showered him questions such as ‘Where do you live, oppa? Do you have any younger siblings? Why did you go to the boy’s high school?’ Lee Mina, beside them, was talking to one of the boys. His name seemed to be Kim Jimin, a boy with decent appearance and glasses on like the class president character in romance comics. Mina’s fast and cheerful voice went along with Kim Jimin’s slow and heavy voice like an orchestra.

  Suddenly, Yeo Dan oppa turned his head to look in my direction as if he felt my glance. I flinched when I read the SOS sign in his eyes.

  Well, since he hated something tiresome, Yeo Dan oppa wouldn’t enjoy this kind of situation. ‘For what reason did he come here?’ Wondering why, I smiled awkwardly.

  It looked as though he wanted me to take him out of here while making any kind of excuses for him, but sorry, I was quite having fun here than I expected. I didn’t have any chance to meet someone new outside the school, so I never thought this kind of hangout would be this much interesting and refreshing. Haha!

  I quickly turned my head while ignoring Yeo Dan oppa. Someone’s glance was making me blush. Scratching my cheek, I heard Chun Dong Ho’s voice reaching my ears.

  “Okay, so here you are.”


  “Ah, thanks.”


  I took one side of his earphone and put it on my ear then looked at him. Looking at his hand pressing the play button, I suddenly came up with Yoo Chun Young for some reason.

  I murmured to myself, ‘Now I come to think of it, I never imagined last year that I would be listening to music with someone, who wasn’t Yoo Chun Young, like this.’


  If I didn’t think that this place was a world inside a novel, many different ways of life were possible just like this. I could welcome and have relationships with not just the Four Heavenly Kings and Ban Yeo Ryung but also other people to my life such as Chun Dong Ho or the kids from Mina’s cram school. A lot of other people…


  I, at last, came to think that I had been confining myself in my prejudice, which was having such a closed mind.

  This was the first time to spend the weekend without the Four Heavenly Kings or Ban Yeo Ryung, but I thought this was quite good than I imagined.

  I rolled my eyes and looked aside. Chun Dong Ho’s eyes, which were busily moving under his bleached hair, were on me. Now I noticed that his eyes were a lighter brown than other people.

  How long did it pass since we had eye contact? Feeling the awkward silence, I uttered with a clumsy smile, “This song is so cool. It’s very new to hear a remixed version.”


  “Ah, it’s nothing.”


  Though he spoke that way, Chun Dong Ho’s face brightened. Taking his earphone out from my ear, I handed it back to him and continued to speak.

  “No, it isn’t. You really record your songs like professional musicians out there. I never heard anything like this. This is truly cool.”


  “Oh, this is really nothing,” replying that way, Chun Dong Ho’s face was still blushing.

  That was when I heard someone clapping out of the blue. I, Chun Dong Ho, Yeo Dan oppa––who was facing a fusillade of questions from the excited Moon Sarah and Ahn Ji Young––Sohn Se Young, and Kim Jimin, who was sitting quite quietly, all raised their heads.

  The person, who clapped hands, was none other than Lee Mina. When every eye was bent on her, she asked cheerfully, “So, should we now change our seats and sit in a pair?”


  That was when I realized that this was a group hangout. Earlier, I was in tension while sitting close to a boy, but just now I was hyper to make new friends or something like that. Geez, what was wrong with me? I felt hilarious about myself.

  Disheveling my hair, I showed a look of mixed feelings. ‘Geez, what should I do?’ I felt comfortable just now since everyone was sitting together on a couch. If we were splitting into pairs, I would get so nervous.

  At that moment, Sohn Se Young and Chun Dong Ho, who was sitting across the table, quietly raised their hands.

  “Do you mind if we can go to the bathroom quickly before that?”


  Kim Jimin, who looked like a model student, tossed a question, unexpectedly, in a mischievous voice.

  “Why are you two going together?”


  “Ah, get off, Kim Jimin,”


  Pretending to slightly punch Kim Jimin, Chun Dong Ho soon put his arm around Sohn Se Young’s shoulders then disappeared to the other side of the café. Watching the view of their backs, I turned my head and suddenly encountered Yeo Dan oppa’s eyes. I realized that he was making an eye gesture to sign me outside the café. ‘Hmm, what should I do?’ I frowned.

  If I kept neglecting him, I would feel sorry since I knew how struggling this kind of event was to him. Since we were now having a short break, wouldn’t it be okay to breathe some fresh air with him?

  After deep thinking, I stood up from my seat and spoke in a loud voice on purpose.

  “Let me go make a call. There’s some music here, so I’ll have a quick call outside the café.”


  “Sure,” replied Mina brightly while looking down at her phone. I took mine and quickly got out of the café.

  Wandering around for a moment, I found a telephone pole and hid behind it. Yeo Dan oppa soon came outside and looked around with a look of wonder. I waved at him.

  “Yeo Dan oppa, here!”


  As soon as he came over to me, I pushed him between the pole and the wall; however, it didn’t work that well since I was a head shorter than him.

  Feeling urgent, I slapped the wall beside him fiercely and asked, “Oppa, why are you here?”


  He then sent a mixed glance to my hand, which was on the wall, and replied, “Before that question, what kind of action is this?”


  “It’s hitting-the-wall.”