“…Ah.”

My eyes met his without warning, and for a moment, I froze.

“Move.”

A shadow fell over me from behind.

“Why are you blocking the way?”

That grating low voice definitely belonged to…

Without turning around, I reached out my hand to close the classroom door, but Jung Eun-seong, who had appeared from behind, easily blocked me.

He glanced back and forth between Seo Jae-gyeom, who had already turned his attention back to Jisoo, and me, who was just standing there, and asked, “Is it him?”

“What? No, more importantly, why are you here, Jung Eun-seong? This is the A class.”

“I’m in this class too.”

“Think again.”

“Wow. Look at Kang Da-hye, openly ignoring him.”

Do-yeon, with a smirk, went to find her own seat.

Feeling a little guilty under Jung Eun-seong’s steady gaze, I added an excuse.

“No… I know you’re good at English.”

I hear they teach foreign languages at the agency these days. I remember his pronunciation was really good.

“But were you good at math too…?”

“No. I don’t even know what one plus one is.”

“Then why are you here?”

“They said there’s no room in the C class because it’s overflowing with math-haters. I’m in A because at least I’m good at English.”

“So, all the other C class kids are also C in English…?”

“Yeah.”

“…”

The math-haters of the world have united…

“So, is it him? The star of your playlist?”

“No, it’s not.”

“What do you mean, no? It’s obviously him.”

You have really low standards. Jung Eun-seong scoffed, looking Seo Jae-gyeom up and down as he playfully covered the workbook Jisoo had her nose in with his large hand.

“So, which class is he in and who is he?”

“…He’s in our class… Class 2.”

Even though it’s only been a few days since he transferred, how could he not know Seo Jae-gyeom?

Doesn’t he stand out the moment you enter the classroom?

“What’s his name?”

“Seo Jae-gyeom.”

“…That’s Seo Jae-gyeom?”

“You know him?”

“He’s not more handsome than me.”

I’m better looking, Jung Eun-seong declared.

Having nothing to say, I looked up at him.

Jung Eun-seong met my gaze confidently, as if asking what the problem was.

Right, you’re the best.

“And the girl sitting there must be Jisoo, the one you’re friends with.”

“You don’t know Seo Jae-gyeom from our class, but you know Han Jisoo from another class. Did you fall for her?”

“It’s not like that… Ugh. Forget it.”

“What.”

“You don’t need to know. Then what about her over there. Is she in our class too?”

“Do-yeon? Yeah, Do-yeon is in our class.”

“Are you close? It was noisy earlier.”

“Ah…”

Right. He must have been in the cafeteria during lunch too.

He must have seen me go at it with Song Yeo-reum.

Just in case, I asked, “Jung Eun-seong, do you believe that rumor too? That… Do-yeon.”

“Do I look like a fool to you?”

Jung Eun-seong cut me off sharply.

“I may not know what one plus one is, but I still have a brain, you know?”

I must have smiled at that answer.

Jung Eun-seong looked at me with a strange expression.

“Are you that happy that I don’t believe that nonsense?”

“Isn’t that obvious?”

“It’s not even a rumor about you.”

“Even so.”

“Honestly, you’re… really weird.”

Look who’s talking.

I’ve known him for over 11 years, so I have a sense of inner familiarity, but he’s known me for less than a week and has been targeting me all day, hasn’t he?

I scowled and pressed him.

“Hey. What are we going to do about the music performance evaluation?”

“What do you mean? Just sing a song you’re good at.”

“I don’t have a song I’m good at.”

“Then pick one with difficult lyrics. Just let everyone else mess up and you can be the only one who sings it correctly.”

“Oh.”

That’s a pretty good idea.

As I nodded at the plausible suggestion, Jung Eun-seong kept staring at me. He was examining me from head to toe, even though there was nothing on my face, so I chided him.

“What, am I pretty?”

“Ha!”

“Don’t confess. I won’t accept.”

“Seriously. Hey, I have high standards.”

Jung Eun-seong held his hand horizontally and raised it above his head.

“My standards are up here.”

Annoyed, I smacked his arm.

“My standards are even higher than that!”

“I don’t think so.”

Jung Eun-seong gestured at Seo Jae-gyeom again.

“They’re rolling on the floor over there.”

“What is!”

“Your standards.”

“Ugh…!”

“Heh heh heh…”

Jung Eun-seong, who had been laughing, suddenly turned serious.

“Anyway. There’s absolutely, absolutely, absolutely no way I would ever like a weirdo like you.”

“I didn’t even confess, and you’re rejecting me…”

“Even if the sky falls. So rest assured.”

“You shouldn’t rest assured!”

Just then, the math teacher—Teacher Na Moon-gwa, who taught the math A class—who was entering the classroom, finished Jung Eun-seong’s sentence.

“The moment you feel relieved, you’ll drop to the B class! What are you doing, Dahye? Hurry up and sit down.”

“Teacher…”

To Teacher Na Moon-gwa, whom I was seeing for the first time after regressing, the regressor Kang Da-hye’s historic first question.

“Where is my seat…?”

“…”

“It’s here…”

From behind, Seo Jae-gyeom raised his hand with a sour expression.

“You were the one who asked to sit together, Kang Da-hye. Don’t you remember…?”

“…”

“Pfft.”

I ignored the sound of Jung Eun-seong’s snickering.

‘Who’s calling who weird? The one who doesn’t even know what one plus one is.’

Why wouldn’t he know what one plus one is?

One plus one is…

Gwiyomi!

“A quadratic equation with rational coefficients, x squared…”

“You’re fearless.”

Seo Jae-gyeom’s whispered words overlapped with Teacher Na Moon-gwa’s explanation, of which I understood nothing.

I stared at the blackboard with my mouth agape and my brow furrowed, then turned my eyes to Seo Jae-gyeom.

Our eyes met, and he raised the corners of his mouth.

“In the cafeteria earlier. To Song Yeo-reum.”

“No, I wasn’t. I was totally scared.”

Honestly, I’m still scared that her group will come after me and beat me up. I’m planning to leave through the back gate when I go home.

“If they ever try to hurt me, make sure you stop them. And be a witness when I report it to the police. Got it?”

“Haha.”

Why are you laughing? I’m 100% serious.

“Why didn’t you help Do-yeon before, Seo Jae-gyeom? If someone like you had just said one word, the situation would be very different right now.”

“Well… because if I stepped in, it would only make things worse?”

“You know that’s an excuse, right?”

“I guess so.”

“…”

I can’t even say anything when he admits it so readily. Just as I was about to turn my gaze back to the blackboard, Seo Jae-gyeom spoke.

“Sorry.”

“For what?”

“For what I said to you earlier. I didn’t need to say it like that.”

“Ah. Well.”

You did choose the cruelest way to deliver the truth.

“The truth is, I have someone I’m interested in. But when you got in the way, I got a little annoyed. It felt like you were interfering.”

He’s honest.

I don’t think he said this to me before the regression.

“So, let’s exclude number 4 for now…”

I can’t recognize more than half of the symbols the teacher is writing on the blackboard. I just jotted down all of his explanations and replied half-heartedly.

“I know. You like Jisoo.”

Right.

Seo Jae-gyeom likes my friend, Jisoo.

During these elective classes we take together, even when he was sitting with me, his gaze would often drift to Jisoo. During break time, he would go to her as if released from some kind of shackles.

At times like that, I would just tidy up my desk, unable to join them until Jisoo called me over.

I used to get very hurt by that.

There were also times I felt a sense of self-loathing, wondering why I couldn’t be as great as Jisoo.

And now?

Whatever.

My feelings for Seo Jae-gyeom are already 11 years in the past by my standards.

No.

I liked him until my senior year of high school, so 10 years ago.

At my calm words, Seo Jae-gyeom’s eyes widened slightly.

“You knew?”

“How could I not?”

“Well. Han Jisoo is pretty.”

Which means I’m not.

“This isn’t going to make things awkward between you and Han Jisoo, is it?”

“Why would I do that? I’m not going to like you anymore.”

That seemed to surprise him, as he turned his whole body to look at me.

I just nodded, almost lunging forward as I took notes.

“Really?”

“Really.”

“I’d be grateful if you did, but… can you control your feelings like that?”

I already don’t like him.

To me, you’re already a person from the past.

“Well, it won’t be easy. But it’ll all be over once I turn twenty and go to college. Out of sight, out of mind, you know.”

And it was true.

After I messed up the college entrance exam and had my own problems to deal with, I didn’t even think about Seo Jae-gyeom.

Even if my feelings for him still exist, their expiration date is at most two years from now.

“Even if it’s uncomfortable, just put up with it until the exam, Seo Jae-gyeom. We’ll be in different classes in our senior year anyway, and we won’t see each other after we go to college.”

“We won’t see each other?”

“Yeah.”

“Wow.”

“What.”

“You’re cold, Kang Da-hye. Are you not even going to say hi if we run into each other in the neighborhood?”

“I don’t think we will.”

“You say that like you’ve experienced it before.”

Seo Jae-gyeom’s mutter, which seemed to have more force than usual. Overlapping with it, the teacher’s voice.

Far more important than the grumblings of Seo Jae-gyeom, a relationship with a two-year expiration date.

“Alright, I’ll explain it again. A quadratic equation with rational coefficients…”

What’s a coefficient, teacher…

I know about the ‘Blue Stream in the Green Hills’… won’t that do…?

“Alright, who wants to solve this problem?”

Math is really hopeless.

As I was biting my lip.

My eyes met Jung Eun-seong’s.

He grinned and slowly opened his mouth.

“Teacher, Kang…”

Argh!

I grabbed the hand of Seo Jae-gyeom, who was saying something. I grabbed it and raised it up.

“Teacher! Seo Jae-gyeom wants to solve it!”

One minute later.

Seo Jae-gyeom, who had returned with a royally pissed-off expression and a smile, asked, “So, are you going to switch to him now instead of me?”