19 – Like the First Snow #3
“Ooh….”
It was when Sarah was unable to continue her words due to a sudden pounding.
Jinwoo asked Sarah with a puzzled expression.
“Sera, your face is red. Do you have a fever?”
I had a fever. However, Sarah could not bear to speak to Jinwoo because of what made her face turn red. He didn’t know if Jinwoo would look at him with strange eyes if he stayed still and didn’t say anything. Sarah managed to open her mouth and come up with a plausible excuse.
“Oh, I slept with the window open last night. But the weather got so cold that I think I caught a cold overnight.”
“You should have closed the window.”
Suddenly, Jinwoo reached out to Sarah. Jin-Woo’s hand suddenly approached her face, and Sarah was startled and took a step back.
“Well, what are you trying to do?”
“Take my temperature by putting my hand on your forehead. Come closer.”
“No need! Do you think I’m the type of person who will get a cold or something? I don’t need to measure your temperature.”
“Are you fighting a cold right now? Are you stupid?”
“You don’t even have to measure your fever!”
Actually, the reason my fever rose was not because I had a cold, but because I was feeling something for the first time in my life. Sarah wasn’t particularly sick, so she was really fine. But she had already made up her mind, so Sarah had no choice but to keep making excuses for her.
“It’s really nothing. Let’s go inside and watch a movie.”
“I guess so. Let’s just rest at home today.”
Sera took Jinwoo into the house. Even as I was entering, I was very concerned about Jinwoo following me from behind and pretending to be popular. He was extremely nervous that his childhood friend might notice the emotions surging in his chest. She had no idea that her childhood friend, with whom she had been easy-going for seven years, would suddenly appear as a man.
When she reached the living room.
Jinwoo, who was behind him, spoke to Sarah.
“You look a little strange today. Unlike usual, you seem quite nervous. You even walk half a beat faster. Are you hiding something?”
“…!”
When Sarah looked behind her, Jinwoo was looking at her with sharp eyes. When I made eye contact with Jinwoo, I instantly felt my heart sink. Jinwoo seemed to have noticed that Sarah was hiding something.
‘Is he also the son of a detective?’
There were times when Jinwoo showed surprisingly keen intuition. Unlike his magic, it was an intuition based solely on reasoning ability. Did you say that your late father was a detective? I noticed that he walked half a beat faster. He was indeed the son of a detective.
“You mean you hid it?”
“Your behavior today is mysterious. Just looking at it, it looks like you’re hiding something. What is it?”
Sera was worried for a moment. She couldn’t honestly say that she suddenly saw you as a man because she was embarrassed. However, once a boy named Jinwoo caught something suspicious, he had a habit of never ignoring it.
He had no choice.
He has no choice but to show off his acting skills here.
“Huh.”
Sera turned her head for a moment and took a deep breath so that Jinwoo could not be seen. When I took a deep breath and exhaled, I was able to calm my pounding emotions to some extent. He has been good at handling his own emotions since ancient times. When she turned her head towards Jinwoo again, her face had returned to its usual calm expression.
“I got caught. As expected of a detective’s son, you’re quick-witted.”
“What? Was there really something you were hiding?”
“Yes.”
Sera naturally opened her mouth.
“Actually, there are donuts in the refrigerator at home. I was originally going to eat them alone, but since I got caught, I have no choice. Let’s eat them together.”
“Ah…! You were hiding donuts.”
“That’s right. These are the donuts you like.”
It wasn’t a complete lie. There was a box of donuts in the refrigerator at Sarah’s house right now. Originally, I was going to share it with Jinwoo, but it turned out well. Jin-Woo’s curiosity was clearly satisfied because he didn’t make up something that didn’t exist.
“Now.”
Sarah went to the refrigerator and took out her donuts. She put a donut in Jinwoo’s mouth and Sarah took her own donut. To change her topic, Sarah quickly turned on the TV.
“Would you like to see a movie?”
“Let’s watch American dramas instead of movies today. It would be perfect to just drive around all day.”
“Mead is okay too.”
Jinwoo and Sarah sat on the sofa in the living room and watched a drama. A house with no one except two people. The curtains were drawn so the atmosphere in the living room was a bit dark. It always felt cozy like this when we watched TV together, but for some reason Sarah felt different than usual. Unlike yesterday, everything felt new.
‘If you think about it, you’ve had a good time with a boy at home for 7 years.’
Because of Sarah’s natural spirit, she has always suppressed her emotions. This was because she had to avoid interacting with others whenever possible. That’s why she had a habit of suppressing her emotions to some extent even when dealing with Jinwoo.
‘It’s a bit embarrassing.’
However, after she felt her heart pounding, the emotions in her heart rose to the surface.
Although she felt out of control, she surprisingly didn’t feel bad.
“How long will you stay at my house today?”
“I’ll be home for lunch.”
“I’m bored, so stay at my house until dinner. I’ll prepare dinner.”
“What’s there at home?”
“Cheese pork cutlet.”
“Oh.”
The day I saw my childhood friend as a man.
Sarah skillfully spent time with Jinwoo without his hidden feelings being discovered.
After that day, Jinwoo continued to visit Sarah’s house.
“Eat and go.”
From noble mtl dot com
During winter vacation, Sarah’s cooking skills improved like crazy.
*
Winter ended and spring came.
March of the following year.
Jinwoo and Sarah went to high school. The schools they attended were surprisingly the same. It was Seungcheon High School in Seoul. It has long been known as a prestigious high school in Seoul.
1St grade, 1st class.
On the first day of high school, Jinwoo and Sarah ran into the same class. Because they were both assigned to the same class. It was surprising that childhood friends ended up in the same class, but Jinwoo and Sarah were not surprised at all.
“Are we in the same class again? Does it make sense that we’ve been in the same class since elementary school?”
“I’m not surprised anymore.”
Jinwoo and Sarah have always been in the same class since they first met in the third grade of elementary school. Even when I was in middle school, the classes were never separated. Against miraculous odds, we ended up in the same class eight times.
“Is this some kind of probability manipulation?”
“Jinwoo, is there any probability manipulation in class assignment?”
In the past, I thought it was a mystery, but now I think it’s true for both of us and have accepted it. It was even more surprising when the classes split up as the grades went up.
“Oh! Jinwoo, it’s Sarah. I’m in the same class as you.”
At that time, a girl in the same class spoke to the two.
Someone told me it was someone I knew.
“Ayeong-ah!”
“It’s you.”
It was Ayoung. Ayoung, now a high school student, spoke to Jinwoo and Sarah. The class had been separated since the third grade of elementary school, but met again this time. She was even more surprised by this.
“How have you both been? I missed seeing your faces at school.”
“We always get along well. Is anything going on at your house? You didn’t bring any strange jars into the house, right?”
“Nothing’s wrong! My parents are healthy now.”
Ayoung’s family, who had been haunted by the severed head ghost, is now fine. Ayoung’s parents, who had been in a car accident, also seemed to have recovered completely. At that time, Ayoung’s parents gave a fairly large stipend to Jinwoo and Sarah, who were her elementary school students. It was about 5 million won.
━━Drur!
After a while, a teacher came into the classroom where the students were gathered.
She was a young female teacher dressed in a casual suit.
“Hello everyone?”
“Hello.”
Her mistress wrote her name on her blackboard and then chatted with her students.
“The teacher’s name is Jin Yu-ra. She’s your homeroom teacher. Looking at our class, there are a lot of unusual kids. There’s a girl in the back there who looks very white.”
A girl who looks pure white.
It was clear that it was referring to Sarah. At her teacher’s words, the students’ attention focused on Sarah.
“You look really pretty, teacher. Is she a model in some magazine?”
“No, sir.”
Sarah became a high school student and her body was more mature than before. Even when she was in elementary school, she was no joke, and now, at age 17, she looks so good you’d think she was a magazine model. She still had a youthful look on her face, but even that caught people’s attention. The students in her class were staring at her as if they were fascinated.
“Wow… Why is there a Western girl in our class?”
“She’s not a Western woman, she looks like a mixed race foreigner.”
Whispering voices were heard from all over. Teacher Yura had various conversations with her students, starting with Sarah talking to her. Then at some point she said something important to the students.
“Now, let’s decide on your seats.”
“Hey…! Seat? Can’t we just sit like this?”
“When allocating seats on the first day, I decide randomly. I also prepared a lottery box, so everyone comes out and draws in turn.”
Teacher Yura placed one of her boxes on her desk.
Inside the box was a piece of paper with her seat number written on it.
“The first person to be chosen is… Kim Jin-woo!”
“Yes.”
Jinwoo was the first to pull out the paper.
Jinwoo went forward and pulled out a piece of paper with a number written on it.
“I’m number 30.”
“Then it’s the back seat by the window. When you’re done drawing, go sit down.”
Jinwoo’s seat was in the back.
When Sarah realized that, her head instantly turned quickly.
‘Then I’ll have to pick number 29.’
Sera thought to herself. There was a window nearby, so there was only one seat next to Jinwoo. She could have sat in the front, but that would have made it difficult to have a conversation. She had to pick number 29.
“Next! Be strong!”
Right next, Sarah’s name was called. She happened to be second. I hoped the other kids would pull out the paper first. But even if she were chosen second, the odds would not change.
There are a total of thirty students in the class.
They said that in order to sit next to Jinwoo, you had to beat the odds of 1/29. It was a very low probability, but Sarah calmly walked forward.
“I’ll pick it.”
Sarah put her hand into her box and stirred her insides without restraint.
As she closed her eyes and concentrated, there was a piece of paper in her hand.
‘Found it.’
I got a feeling. People with a sense of spirit naturally tend to have good instincts. Even in situations where the field of view was not visible, people were able to detect the object they were looking for with a high probability.
Sarah pulled out the paper in her hand like a fisherman who had caught her big catch.
━━Swish!
“How many times?”
“I’ll see.”
Sarah unfolded the paper in her hand.
Surprisingly, she saw the desired number in her eyes.
“It’s number 29, sir.”
“I’m sitting next to Jinwoo. You can sit down after the drawing is over.”
Sera miraculously picked number 29.
But for Sarah, it was a natural victory.
After a while, the drawing ended. Students changed their seats according to the numbers written on the paper. For the time being, I would be taking classes in this seating arrangement. Unlike the students who were discouraged because they had to sit in a seat they didn’t want, Sarah was satisfied.
“Oh, are you sitting next to me?”
“That’s it.”
“I won’t be bored in class. I hope you do well this semester as well.”
Jinwoo spoke to Sarah in a friendly manner. Sarah, who was sitting next to him, could not make eye contact with Jinwoo at that moment. Sarah deliberately lay down on the desk so as not to show her face to Jinwoo.
“Are you sleepy? Why are you lying down in the morning?”
“I slept late last night.”
“Okay, sleep.”
Actually, I wasn’t sleepy.
Sarah’s face, lying face down on her desk, was slightly red.
Her face flushed with joy at the fact that she was sitting next to her childhood friend.
She tried to act calm until the end, but she sometimes showed her emotions like this.
She couldn’t let her childhood friend see such an embarrassing face.
“…Please take care of me in the future as well.”
And so her new school life began.