2 – Episode 2
The next morning, I woke up from my sleep and went to school.
It was only a day, but it was very awkward, but I still had to go to school.
“Ah…it’s hard.”
But apart from that, I don’t want to go to school. I felt the same way as when I was working as I walked to school.
Wow…
I don’t know if I should call it lucky or if it’s just fueling my lonely feelings, but in front of me, Seo-a was entering the school.
She had long hair that fell down her shoulders, and although it was black, she radiated beauty.
“Huh?”
But then Seo-a glanced at me once and our eyes met.
And then she stared at me and disappeared.
“What..what was that?”
I looked behind me, but it seemed like no one else saw it.
I entered the class and was lost in thought. I honestly wondered if I was thinking too much, but still, maybe.. maybe she had a little interest in me and that was something.
“Did you come?”
When I entered the class, Seok-ho was already there.
“Yeah”
“You look happy again today. What’s up?”
“I saw Seo-a”
“The queen? Oh, that’s a good thing”
He chuckled and showed me his phone.
“Look at this”
“Huh? What is it?”
When I looked at his phone, a group chat popped up.
[Ji-min: Hey, let’s vote]
[Pporong: ?? What for]
From Noble mtl dot com
[Dong-hyun: Any anime recommendations]
[Ji-min: Shut up and let’s do a popularity poll for the girls in school]
[Mi-su: You three bastards, do you want to go to jail? What era is this!!]
[Seok-ho: What’s going on]
[Hyun-sik(ie) left the room]
[Ji-man: Aish, invite him back, we got permission from the girls for this]
[Ji-man: Picture]
[Pporong: What is this, for real]
[Su-hyun: Oh, I asked my girlfriend and she said it’s true]
[Seok-ho: Aish, ban that jerk]
From the content, it looked like they were doing a popularity poll that they had agreed on among themselves.
“Look at this! The queen is the undisputed first place, but look at the second place..”
Honestly, I didn’t care or mind about the rest, I just listened casually and I didn’t know there were so many people who liked Seo-a.
“You vote too”
“Uh.. me too? Well, sure”
Since they said they got permission from the girls, I naturally voted for Seo-a.
“Kid, you liked the queen too?”
“What.. of course”
I still see her as a mirage, how can I not like her
“hahahahaha yeah yeah but what about that?”
“What”
I tense up at my friend’s suggestive remark
“This is what the girls will see later..”
“You bastard!!!”
The race of death between me and my friend began.
“Huff.. hey let’s cancel the vote”
“There’s no such thing.”
I really don’t think I would care if it was Seo-a.. but still, if she sees it, she might look at me with contempt
“sh*t…”
The bell rang and we went back to our class.
That’s how the boring time passed. I decided to study hard.. but hmm, it doesn’t seem to work.
“Alright then, go home carefully and don’t get into an accident. Ah, I want to go home too”
I don’t know why I hated the teacher so much in the past, but now I understand the teacher’s feelings a bit and I went straight to Seo-a’s class.
“Ugh, you’re here again. Don’t you ever leave?”
Seo-a’s friend who is always there
“..Is Seo-a gone?”
“Are you finally showing your true colors?”
“…No, I just thought I might see her”
The woman glared at me and sighed.
“Seo-ah left first. She’s been leaving early since yesterday.”
“Oh.. really?”
I didn’t pay much attention to Seo-ah in high school, so I had no idea where she was.
The only thing I had was the old stories she sometimes told me.
Come to think of it, she also talked about this friend of hers. Surely..
“Was it Park Seo-hyun?”
“Wow.. you even know my name? Creepy. Go away.”
Hey.. knowing your name is not a crime.
“No.. I heard it from Seo-ah.”
“From Seo-ah? Don’t lie. If Seo-ah had a close guy friend, there would have been a rumor in this school.”
That was true. She was called the queen and got all the attention from the girls around her. Any gossip would have spread like wildfire.
“I got it.”
And so, I headed home today without any harvest.
Everyone was going back with a gloomy mood, but I could see happiness in them. The joy of going home and meeting their families after finishing their work. I walked with Seo-ah on my mind, watching their emotions.
“This can’t go on.”
If I keep going like this, my relationship with Seo-ah will be the same as the old days. The same as the past I experienced.
But I couldn’t just find Seo-ah now and say I’ll help her.
“Sigh..”
In the end, I couldn’t think of anything different from yesterday and entered my house after opening the door.
Looking at the calendar, I felt like I had somehow gone back to May of my second year in high school.
The virus that had hit the world hadn’t arrived yet, and there was no war that had erupted far away.
But it wasn’t like a novel where I could do stocks, since I wasn’t born too long ago and there were no stocks that I heard had risen a lot. I just wasn’t interested in anything either.
In the end, I was just so-so about everything.
My wife was more amazing than me. She always looked up to higher places, and she had become a director before I died.
At that time, I didn’t feel any jealousy or other emotions towards her. I was just happy and loved her.
“…Was Seo-ah happy?”
She only knew the love that I taught her, so maybe she loved me. Then maybe I should have helped Seo-ah grow bigger dreams.
“If it was Seo-ah…”
Even though we were a couple of two years, it wasn’t easy to know her heart completely.
“Thank you for the meal.”
Before I knew it, the evening time had passed and I went out for a walk.
I usually walked with my wife after work on the way home, so I had that habit and went out for a walk at the end of work.
As I walked endlessly, I arrived at the school.
I had a lot of memories from high school. I went on a school trip and a graduation trip. Somehow, it seemed more fun than college.
“What did Seo-ah do back then..”
She wasn’t in a good situation, so maybe.. she didn’t go on the school trip.
That’s how I ended up wandering around the school at night.
I shouldn’t have been able to get in, but I went in with the thought that I was a student here and what could happen.
As I was looking at the scenery that I couldn’t see during the day…
“Hmm..?”
It was a person, a woman sitting on the bench
With long hair.. her body looked familiar..
“Seo-ah?”
I blurted out her name in disbelief. Luckily, she was too far away to hear me.
But why here.. oh right
She probably didn’t want to go home and stayed outside
I wanted to get closer, but we were the only ones left in the school at night. I thought she might misunderstand, so I just watched her from afar.
She moved her body as if thinking about something, looking at the school and the playground. She gave up on something and got up and left the school.
“…What is it?”
If I had been more interested in Seo-ah, I would have heard about her situation. But unfortunately, I couldn’t.
“I should have listened to everything she said in high school”
I only listened when she talked to me, so I didn’t know how she felt now.
I left the school much later, in case Seo-ah was still outside.
It had been a week since I regressed, and I still thought of Seo-ah only.
I had no courage to tell her, nor a way to save her from this situation. I just lived my high school life.
“Hey!”
“What”
My friend Seok-ho hit my back and called me.
“What’s up with you today? You look gloomy. Who’s the girl?”
“What are you saying, you crazy bastard”
“That’s right, that’s my friend Ji-hoon”
He said that and carefully sat down next to me.
“If we look forward to a week later, we have to prepare, sir”
“What are you talking about all of a sudden”
“…Yeah”
Will you stop looking at me with that expression as if you’re not human?
“Did you really go to this school?”
“No, what’s going on a week later”
Is there a festival? No, all of our school schedules are crammed into the second semester
“Ha, you’re hopeless, you know. Our school has Spring Day a week later”
“What the hell are you talking about, spring is already..ah”
“You finally remembered”
There is a bit of a legend in our school. If you confess at the end of May and last for a year, you will achieve your lifelong dream. Of course, the real seniors did that and the teachers always joked about it, so we all knew that story.
“So what’s the preparation”
“What do you mean, what? You have to charm the girls”
What is this, it’s not a dating sim or a charm game
“Don’t look at me with that face and besides, this is an event where the girls also light up and run, right?”
Now that I think about it, there were a lot of male and female students who confessed like this every year. Of course, I..there’s nothing but scars left for me beyond this point.
“Ha..you do it”
“Hey, don’t you have any fun in you?”
Seok-ho asked me who I liked, but..
“…Seo-a”
“You’re the craziest one, huh? Fine, if you have the guts to fight with the whole school, go ahead and do it.”
He said that, but I had half given up too. Confessing to her was really that hard.
“Didn’t at least 50 people confess to her last year, from seniors to the same grade? Are you really going to do it?”
As I was quietly thinking, Seok-ho asked me that.
“No.. forget it, I’ll just watch her from afar.”
“What are you acting like a dumped boyfriend for? Just go after some other girl, I’ll help you!”
This bastard, what is he, a golden sun? Why does he keep trying to hook me up? And you don’t have a girlfriend either, you’re a virgin.
“Forget it, I’ll just study quietly.”
“Ugh, fine.”
He left, bored. Maybe he went to find his future girlfriend.
“…Should I write a letter?”
I thought that and started to wonder what kind of stationery I should buy.