.
Once we finished warming up, we sat down on the ground in numerical order. Yoon Jung In and Lee Mina brought a cage with soccer balls inside. The PE teacher then appeared swinging his arms and asked, “Finished warming up, captain, right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Should we quickly go through the performance assessment then? We do it and have a break ASAP,” said the teacher.
Rolling his eyes, Yoon Jung In took a step forward then carefully uttered, “Um, teacher… actually…”
That was when some suspicious human shadows appeared behind him who was standing against the gym door. In the pouring rain, the two shadows stood as if they were blocking the door, which looked like murderers or zombies in horror movies. Besides, one of them had a particularly huge physique, so it was frightening even more.
But that didn’t last long. Once I found who they were, I showed a smile and waved my hand in the air.
That was a mistake. Due to my reaction, the PE teacher noticed that someone was standing behind him; he quickly looked back.
Yikes! Putting down my hand in bewilderment, I heard the teacher throwing a question to those folks.
“Why are you running late?”
“… Someone… his shoes…”
As soon as Kim Hye Woo replied with a pause, the teacher looked down at Ban Hwee Hyul’s feet. He tossed another question.
“What the… Why are you wearing slippers outside?”
His sharp question made Ban Hwee Hyul flinch his shoulders. Meanwhile, the kids began to burst into small laughter.
As the laughter turned louder in the rain, my brows met in the middle. ‘How can they react like that to this extent? The bastard who hid Ban Hwee Hyul’s shoes will definitely be one of them…’ I thought.
At that moment, the teacher swung his hand toward us and said, “Stop laughing; it’s too noisy. Anyway, did you wear slippers to school?”
Ban Hwee Hyul lowered his head in silence. Watching that sight, the teacher’s voice gradually increased.
“Are you out of your mind? Don’t you know that we have a performance assessment today?” he yelled.
“…”
“What are you gonna do now? All your efforts will go right down the drain if you behave this way. Geez, are you gonna run with those slippers on or what?”
“I will run, sir,” quickly replied Ban Hwee Hyul as if he had been waiting for that question.
I grabbed my nape, thinking, ‘Hwee Hyul, no, you shouldn’t respond that way! The teacher isn’t expecting you to run with those slippers on; he just wants you to say sorry. If you, instead, respond that way in this timing, you’d look too overconfident…’
Having that thought in mind, I looked at the teacher. Just as I expected, he perked the corners of his brows upward while weirdly distorting his lips. The teacher then opened his mouth with a dumbfounded look.
“Fine, I won’t speak further since you say, you’ll just run with the slippers on, but if you aren’t doing well, I’ll just take off points without any consideration. You dropped those words, so no complaints, right?”
“Yes, sir,” replied Ban Hwee Hyul still in a composed tone.
It seemed to make the teacher angry. Biting his lips, he uttered, “Cool. Go back to your seat.”
As soon as the teacher responded that way, Kim Hye Woo and Ban Hwee Hyul bent forward then squeezed in between the seats where Kim Hye Hill and I were sitting down.
According to Kim Hye Woo’s perplexed look, he seemed to be having the same thought as mine. Exchanging eye contact, I suddenly turned my head toward a sarcastic remark that came from somewhere.
“He’d be too humiliated if he fails in the performance, right?” giggled Hwang Siwoo.
I grimaced. Why did his last name start with ‘H,’ the same as mine? Since we sat down in numerical orders, our seats were close enough to hear everything he was saying.
Beside him, none other than Ruda was agreeing nonchalantly to Hwang Siwoo’s words. Nodding, he spoke as if it was none of his business.
“Yeah, yeah,” said Ruda.
I squinted my eyes after those words. Aside from that, why on earth was Ruda here? As far as I knew, Hwang Siwoo was assigned the last number in our class according to the alphabetical order of our last names.
Then there was only one reason why Ruda was here. He would be definitely hanging around with Hwang Siwoo while waiting for his turn. Did the two become that close before I was even aware of it? I slightly bit my lips.
That was when Ruda happened to find me and waved his hand with a grin. Hwang Siwoo also directed his eyes toward this side. Pausing myself to wave back, I quickly turned my head away from them in fear of having eye contact with Hwang Siwoo.
Putting my knees in my arms, I shook my head. ‘Well, let’s just say sorry later. I don’t even want to have eye contact with Hwang Siwoo…’ I said to myself.
While I sat that way with those thoughts in my head, Hwang Siwoo’s retort reached all the way to my seat.
“What the heck was that? Did she just ignore your wave? What an attitude, biatch!”
As he stressed the word, ‘biatch,’ I assumed that he was definitely aware of his voice reaching my ears. At that moment, I clenched my fist to suppress my anger, and at the same time, Ruda’s laughter pierced through my ears. It sounded somewhat empty, but still, it was a piece of laughter.
“Haha…”
“Dude, do you remember that we fought at the beginning of the semester because of her? Geez, that’s still so ridiculous when I think of that time,” said Hwang Siwoo.
“Yeah, why did we do that?” agreed Ruda.
How could he befriend someone like that bastard Hwang Siwoo when Ruda and I had gone through so many challenging moments?
Being unable to listen to their conversations anymore, I finally covered my ears. ‘Ah, I can’t hear anything… I hear nothing…!’ After a moment, I checked my turn left for the performance assessment. How many kids were left before my turn?
Perching on the stage, the Kim twins were swinging their legs. I didn’t even know when they had finished the assessment. The two then waved at me. Other kids, who also seemed to have passed the test, were gathered on the stage; those who looked failed were kicking the balls in the corner to practice for another round of assessment.
‘Geez, that looks like the view of my future,’ I thought. Turning my head away from them, I suddenly faced someone huge standing in front of me. I raised my head in surprise.
Watching Ban Hwee Hyul walking out from his seat at a slow pace, the teacher showed a cold look out of the blue. Unlike his attitude toward other kids, the teacher didn’t check if Ban Hwee Hyul finished preparing for the test but just blew the whistle immediately.
FWEEET!
Along with the sharp whistling noise, Ban Hwee Hyul quickly stormed out to the front. Watching him passing the first corner smoothly and seamlessly, I heaved a sigh of relief.
“Phew…”
Since his current speed was quite the same as that of him running with sneakers on, his score wouldn’t be that different too.
Indeed, as soon as Ban Hwee Hyul finished all the courses satisfactorily and came to a halt with one foot on the ball, the PE teacher declared, “Ban Hwee Hyul, A+.”
There was a cold silence in the gym alongside the teacher’s words. When I glanced around, Hwang Siwoo and his boys were all frowning. The only person who stared at Ban Hwee Hyul nonchalantly and interestingly was Ruda.
Amid the situation, a bright smile returned on the teacher’s face. Tapping Ban Hwee Hyul’s shoulders, he said, “Hey, I did think that there’s something about you since you were overconfident to say that you’ll take the test with those slippers on, but you did way better than I’d expected. Wear sneakers though next time, huh?”
“Ah…”
Ban Hwee Hyul pouted his lips as if he had something to say; however, he just closed his mouth shut and lowered his head in the end. Once he turned around without hesitance, Ban Hwee Hyul headed to the back of the stage where those who finished taking the assessment were gathered around.
Looking at him receding away, I shook my head and murmured, “They say the most useless thing is to worry about celebrities… Should I include Ban Hwee Hyul in that category too…?”
‘Yeah, so it’s me who matters, not Ban Hwee Hyul,’ I thought. Heaving a sigh, I tied my sneaker strings tightly.
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