.

I felt bitter. Since I didn’t add any weight while tapping him firmly, I wasn’t trying to take offensive actions. However, because of his abdominal muscles, I didn’t feel like slapping him either.

At that moment, I turned my head as Yoo Chun Young began to utter, “I can tell my coach at the gym so that you can get some flexibility training…”

“No, thanks,” I replied.

If the gym was where Yoo Chun Young was working out, many models or celebrities would go there too. I wouldn’t deserve that much. Speaking sulkily, I soon just giggled. It had been quite a while to see Yoo Chun Young speaking half in jest, half in earnest.

Now I had come to think of it, it was also after a long time to joke around with him, so I lifted my head. My eyes opened wide as I got to find Yoo Chun Young’s hand being about five centimeters high above my head.

“Eh?”

“Ah, is this…” Hesitating for a second, he soon continued speaking with his hand still above my head. “Is this much… still fine?”

The moment I tried to ask him something, I suddenly realized that it was our first time to stand this close ever since I had been dating Yeo Dan oppa. Both Yoo Chun Young and I didn’t know what to do as we perceived this new physical distance between us. We even had no idea how much distance was appropriate for us.

The times we joked around and hung out together felt like a long time story; I mean, even farther than that, which seemed like those times never had existed or might have taken place in my dreams.

While I rambled those thoughts in my head, Yoo Chun Young’s eyes were still fastened on me. Blinking swiftly for a few seconds, I was able to gather my senses and respond to him. However, someone approached me from behind my back and grabbed my shoulders abruptly.

“Mama!”

Jooin turned me around with a bright voice and began to spin me while holding my hands as if we were dancing the traditional Korean circle dance play.

Feeling quickly dizzy, I realized that Jooin in the past would have just hugged me in his arms first; however, he didn’t this time.

Jooin spun me quite a while then let me go back to Class 2-8. I felt dizzy even until I returned to my class and was standing in a line. The Kim twins helped me to stand straight from stumbling around. Holding my arms from both sides, they said, “That was a loud greeting.”

“Are they always like that?”

When I nodded, they patted my back to cheer me up.

While I was reeling here and there under their touch, which wasn’t sure whether they were comforting or teasing me, our PE teacher showed up. Blowing the whistle, he made us gather in front of him then announced, “We’re gonna have a soccer dribble assessment this week. Do you all see that traffic cone there?”

He then pointed at some five or six orange cones aligned about a meter apart from each other in the schoolyard close from this spot.

“Go back and forth between those cones in a zig-zag while dribbling the soccer ball. Just for one round. Class presidents in both classes, come here and show them the direction,” added the teacher.

Getting up from the ground, Yoon Jung In dusted off his pants and looked at Class 2-7. In the neighboring class, Eun Hyung slowly stood up and stared at the PE teacher. Both boys stood side by side at the starting point.

Fffwwhheee! As soon as the teacher’s whistle sound pierced through the air, the two boys jumped out of the ground. The teacher might have asked for a simple demonstration; however, for some reason, the two classes heated up as if they were watching a match.

“Kwon Eun Hyung! Kwon Eun Hyung!”

Class 2-7 was even cheering their class president.

Although the new semester had begun not even a week ago, Eun Hyung seemed to have captivated his classmates already. We also began to cheer Yoon Jung In, but the number of people doing that was a little less than Class 2-7.

The two boys turned around the corner almost similarly while kicking up a cloud of dust. As if it was the power of his classmates cheering him enthusiastically, Eun Hyung was ahead of Yoon Jung In by a hair’s breadth. The distance then gradually widened.

The moment when Eun Hyung passed the last cone and was about to return to the starting point, Yoon Jung In was turning around the last cone.

Eun Hyung waited for him while placing his foot on the ball; when Yoon Jung In returned, Eun Hyung stretched out his hand to him.

“Good job,” he said.

Yoon Jung In replied, “What good job?” Though he spoke that way, Yoon Jung In stuck out his hand and did a high five with Eun Hyung.

Watching the sight, the PE teacher tilted his head and murmured in a low voice, “Weird, it won’t work that easily, but these guys are good.” Switching his gaze to us, the teacher added, “If you think that you’ll also do that so smoothly like them and don’t practice hard, you’ll gonna pay for that. It ain’t that easy.”

Looking enigmatic, the teacher kept tilting his head and murmured to himself, ‘That can’t be done that easily. Strange…’ He even grabbed a student sitting close to him and asked, “Were they soccer players or something like that in middle school?”

“No. Not that I’ve heard of…” said the boy.

“Hmm, so weird.”

Anyway, the teacher told us to practice dribbling for the performance assessment and left the spot while scratching his nape.

I giggled in my thoughts, saying, ‘Teacher, I bet you’re often gonna see more surprising sights than that while taking care of the sophomore PE class.’

When I turned my head, I found Yoon Jung In and Eun Hyung still having a conversation. Yoon Jung In pointed at Eun Hyung and uttered, “Urgh, aren’t you cold? I even have something over my top but still freezing to death.”

Just as what Yoon Jung In said, the air was very cold even though it was early March. The weather was shortly warm only during the opening ceremony day; there was even a news that the snow would fall soon.

Now I had come to think of it, Eun Hyung was wearing short sleeves. His white arms under his black t-shirt dazzled under the sunlight.

Lightly shrugging, Eun Hyung replied, “There’s a lot of heat on me. I put my jacket on the podium. Do you want me to go get it?”

“Ah, Kwon Eun Hyung, you’re making my heart flutter again! Don’t do that.”

“What the…” Eun Hyung replied while curving his eyes to a smile. He looked more casual than before. As if he then tried to bring his jersey jacket back, Eun Hyung and Yoon Jung In headed toward the podium and talked to each other, which faintly reached my ears.

“If the kids are practicing well, should we go ask the teacher a quarter before the end of PE class to have a soccer match?”

“Oh, sounds cool. Hey, Kwon Eun Hyung, you have no idea how I am when I play seriously, right? I let you win earlier.”

“Ah, really? I didn’t know that.”

Watching the two boys receding into the distance, I was able to hear nothing, at last. That was when I turned my head away. Looking aside, I found the Kim twins also staring in the same direction with a look of astonishment.

“Yoon Jung In, he’s such a man anyway…”

“Never thought I would hear, ‘What the…’ slipping out from Kwon Eun Hyung’s mouth. Does he also treat you that way?” asked Kim Hye Hill.

Wondering about her question for a second, I soon shook my head. ‘No, Eun Hyung treats me more warmly than that as if he’s a brother with a big age gap.’

I replied, “He kind of treats Eun Jiho similarly to that way. It’s like, ‘I’d reveal all my hidden sarcasm to you…’ something like that.”

“Whoa, that means those two got really close. Yoon Jung In should have got so excited!” said Kim Hye Woo. He then turned around to go get the ball as we heard the teacher would give us soccer balls.

Ah, right. I should practice for the assessment. With that thought in mind, I turned around and suddenly encountered the look on Hwang Siwoo’s face, which made me tremble.

His eyes directed on Yoon Jung In and Kwon Eun Hyung, who were getting out of his sight, were surprisingly distorted.

“ARGH!” I shrieked while looking at the ball getting bounced off me and rolling quite a while over the white line. Running hurriedly after the ball, thankfully, I was able to pick it up as the kids sitting under the shade grabbed and kicked the ball to me.

“Here!”

“Thanks!”

It was good that I replied confidently toward them; however, the ball passed me abruptly then rolled to somewhere else. Jesus! Grasping my head, I ran huffing and puffing toward the direction. In the end, the PE teacher couldn’t help but pull me aside.