WWBU - 3

Young-ae furrowed her brows slightly as she faced Guk, who stood there with an inscrutable, indifferent gaze. His rigid posture irritated her like a thorn in her throat.  

Noticing this, Ah-san quickly pressed down on Guk’s back to make him bow. Guk didn’t budge at first, but seeing his mother’s discomfort, he reluctantly lowered his head in a slight bow.  

‘I have a daughter around your age,’ Young-ae said. ‘Her mother mentioned you could tutor her for free. Would that be possible?’  

Though Guk was already busy juggling part-time jobs and studies, he understood why his mother had resorted to such measures. Offering more incentives would increase their chances of securing even a modest position in this household.  

‘Yes.’  

Guk’s reply was curt.  

‘Mom! Look what this crazy girl did!’  

At that moment, the door burst open, and a girl stormed out, fuming. Her long, soft hair swayed with every shout, and it was clear she was strikingly beautiful.  

‘What now? What’s going on?’  

Young-ae, who had been satisfied with Guk’s response, turned around at the commotion.  

‘Look at my neck! There are scratches all over it! I have a competition coming up—how am I supposed to go out like this?!’  

‘Let me see, let me see.’  

Young-ae, who had been sitting coldly until now, sprang to her feet and rushed over to inspect the girl’s neck. Her anxious demeanor made it obvious that this was a precious daughter she doted on immensely.  

‘Oh my, oh my! There’s even blood!’  

‘It was Kim Hyun-soo who did this!’  

‘This wretched girl! Hey, Kim Hyun-soo! Get out here right now!’  

Young-ae’s sharp command echoed through the living room. Moments later, another girl shuffled out of the room the first girl had emerged from. This was likely the culprit, Kim Hyun-soo. She was shorter and thinner than her sister, with short bobbed hair.  

‘Kim Hyun-soo, what is this? Are you insane? Insane?!’  

‘...’  

‘Do you know your sister has a competition coming up? Or do you not care? How dare you!’  

‘But she started it!’  

‘What?’  

‘She took all the money I’d saved in my piggy bank and spent it secretly! And she tore up the dress Uncle gave me!’  

For a brief moment, Young-ae turned to look at the older girl. But that was all. After a forced cough, she returned her attention to scolding Hyun-soo.  

‘So what if she did? Does that mean you can scratch her like this? You can save more money, and we can buy new clothes!’  

‘Easier said than done...’  

‘What was that? What did you say?’  

‘Why do you always take her side, Mom? Don’t you see my hair? I got hurt too! She pulled my hair and ripped it out!’  

Hyun-soo cried out indignantly, brushing her hand through her hair. Sure enough, clumps of hair fell limply into her palm, clearly visible even from a distance.  

‘Are you still going to take her side, Mom?’  

Tears welled up in Hyun-soo’s eyes as she asked in a trembling voice. In response, Young-ae ignored her completely, focusing only on inspecting her older daughter’s neck.  

Silently watching the scene, Hyun-soo wiped her eyes with her sleeve and walked across the living room. In doing so, she passed by the three family members standing in the center of the room—especially the tall boy, Yoon Guk.  

As she hurried past, Hyun-soo accidentally brushed against Guk’s arm. She paused for a moment.  

‘Sorry...’  

Her voice was barely audible, but the boy standing close by must have heard it. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been looking down at her like that.  

‘...’

Hyun-soo’s heart sank as she gazed at the boy, who was by far the most strikingly handsome person she had ever seen. For a moment, she even forgot how to breathe. Though his indifferent eyes quickly shifted away, the impact lingered.  

‘Kim Hyun-soo! Are you coming or not?’  

The all-too-familiar sharp voice of Young-ae yanked Hyun-soo back from her fleeting escape into another world. Feeling tears she hadn’t wiped away trickle down her cheeks, Hyun-soo hurriedly hid her face. Then, she rushed to the shoe rack, slipping on a pair of slippers over her bare feet.  

‘If you leave now, don’t expect dinner!’  

With an aggrieved look, Hyun-soo glanced one last time at Young-ae and her sister before taking in the sight of the three family members standing side by side. Then, without a second thought, she opened the door and bolted out of the house. As she turned the corner of the alley, the boy’s tall, slender silhouette flickered hazily in her mind.  

---

She met the boy again just the very next day—a twist of fate, whether cruel or kind. Guk had transferred to Hyun-soo’s school and become her new seatmate. Since Hyun-soo’s usual partner, a member of the basketball team, rarely attended class, the homeroom teacher instructed her to help Guk adjust to the school for the time being. She had vaguely heard that the three of them would be living in the annex, but she never imagined they’d end up in the same school, let alone the same class.  

‘Yoon Guk? The new transfer student. Stand up for a moment.’  

Overwhelmed by an inexplicable sense of embarrassment, Hyun-soo kept her head bowed as the notoriously picky math teacher called on him even before class began. Guk had already drawn everyone’s attention when he first entered the classroom, so this special mention only heightened the curiosity. Even students who had been dozing off perked up to see what was happening.  

Guk, who had been idly spinning a pen with a bored expression, rose smoothly at the teacher’s call.  

‘I heard you were the top student at your previous school.’  

‘...’  

‘Is that true?’  

‘Yes.’  

At his reply, murmurs of admiration erupted around the room. Hyun-soo, sitting beside him, couldn’t help but stare wide-eyed like a rabbit. But Guk himself remained expressionless, staring straight ahead without a hint of arrogance or pride.  

‘But how did you end up with her as your seatmate?’  

The sudden shift in topic caught everyone off guard. The math teacher, known for their ‘loving stick,’ scratched the back of their neck and gestured toward the two of them with a nod. Instantly, the entire class’s attention turned to Guk and Hyun-soo. For Hyun-soo, whose presence was as unremarkable as a locker, this level of scrutiny was unbearable.  

‘Your seatmate is one of the rowdiest kids in the back of the class.’  

Teacher! Hyun-soo swallowed her silent cry and buried her face in her textbook, mortified. Beside her, Guk glanced down at her briefly.  

‘If you have time, take good care of your seatmate. It’d look strange if the top student’s partner is at the bottom of the class, wouldn’t it?’  

‘Yes.’  

Guk’s deep, mature voice—uncharacteristic for his age—answered succinctly, meeting the teacher’s gaze.  

‘It’s been five minutes since class started. Who’s showing the whites of their eyes already? Huh? Open your textbooks properly!’  

The teacher’s booming voice echoed through the now-silent classroom. Hyun-soo hastily flipped open her textbook, knowing full well the humiliation that awaited anyone who lagged behind.  

‘...’  

‘...’  

Not a word passed between them across their tightly pressed desks. Yet the warmth radiating from his body, the subtle scent of soap mingling with his presence, made her acutely aware of the new seatmate beside her.  

Honestly, when Seung-hyun from the basketball team sat there, the stench of sweat used to make her dizzy. But now, the faint, pleasant aroma reminded her of a neatly folded white towel. Unconsciously, Hyun-soo found herself smiling softly—only to abruptly bite her lip in alarm.  

‘Can we share the textbook?’  

‘Huh?’  

‘I haven’t prepared mine yet.’

‘Uh, uh.’  

She nearly bit her tongue as well. Yoon Guk had suddenly leaned close to whisper in her ear. His low, ticklish voice sent her heart racing uncontrollably.  

Reprimanding herself for her awkward reaction, Hyun-soo pushed the textbook toward Guk. At least it was clean since she hadn’t done any previewing or review—surely that would make it easier for him to read. This small thought served as a meager consolation.  

No further words were exchanged after that. Guk took out his notebook and began copying problems to solve, while Hyun-soo occasionally sighed deeply, calculating when the class would finally end. Then, as she turned the page of the textbook—  

Kim Hyun-seo, you witch. Just because you’re pretty doesn’t mean everything. If I looked like you, I wouldn’t act like that!  

There it was—a sentence scrawled in the corner of the page, written with such force that anyone could tell it was filled with pent-up resentment.  

‘Good grief.’  

It was an old doodle, something she didn’t even remember writing. Embarrassed, Hyun-soo quickly folded the corner of the page to hide it, but Guk was already staring at the folded section.  

‘Haha...’  

‘...’  

‘It’s just... a doodle...’  

‘...’  

Hyun-soo felt her face flush red, as though her own inferiority complex had been exposed. Her mind went blank, and she found herself stammering nonsense without knowing what she was saying.  

‘Focus.’  

Guk tapped the textbook lightly with his long fingers. Miraculously, the chaos in her mind seemed to vanish in an instant. Was this some kind of magic?  

Glancing sideways, she saw that Guk had already returned his focus to solving problems. His profile, his busy hands moving across the page—it all looked like a delicate painting.  

What kind of kid is this? The other kids her age, like Seung-hyun, weren’t like this. Awkwardly gripping her pen, Hyun-soo began copying the problems. Honestly, none of the numbers or symbols registered in her eyes.  

---

After returning from the school store with her close friends Young-mi and Joo-yeon, Hyun-soo froze upon entering through the back door. A crowd of students had gathered around her and Guk’s seats like a swarm of bees.  

‘It’s like a bustling market here.’  

‘Feels like a celebrity autograph session.’  

‘He is handsome, isn’t he?’  

‘Yeah, totally.’  

Holding a banana milk in one hand and a peanut cream bread in the other, Hyun-soo couldn’t muster the energy to chime in. Yoon Guk—how had he become so famous in less than a day after transferring schools?  

Having grown up constantly compared to her older sister Hyun-seo, Hyun-soo was terrible at handling situations where all eyes were on her. Not only was she overwhelmed by the commotion, but she also had no idea how to react when the spotlight wasn’t on her. Smiling felt fake, crying made her feel pathetic, and staying silent made her feel like a petty, narrow-minded person.  

In short, Hyun-soo didn’t want to return to her seat right now.