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Join the Server5. Twelfth Grade, Summer
Seo Gi-hyeon
I believe in destiny.
And my fated partner is Im Jeong-woo.
‘Alright. Come over if you’re bored.’
From the very first day we met, I already knew we were destined to grow close.
Out of eight billion people, he was the one, my perfect friend without whom I couldn’t live. Finding such a connection so early was an immense stroke of luck.
‘No one thinks that. Who would think that about you?’
It didn’t matter who, as long as it wasn’t Im Jeong-woo. Even if everyone in the world found me annoying, I believed everything would be fine as long as that one person didn’t. If this wasn’t true friendship, then what was it?
“Hey, Seo Gi-hyeon.”
“What?”
“Stop staring. Jeong-woo’s face is going to wear out.”
Park Jun-sung, who had barged into someone else’s dorm room without an invitation, was, as usual, looking for a fight today.
“Don’t you dare stare at him either. I’m trying to savor the view myself.”
Upon hearing my words, Park Jun-sung let out a scoff.
“Is it Jeong-woo you like, or is it that face you like?”
“Both, of course. His very existence is incredibly precious.”
“What’s so precious about a roommate you see every day?”
“If you want to know why, you’d have to live with him like I do, but you’re too despicable for me to switch with you even for a day.”
In truth, it was a spot I wouldn’t yield to anyone, not just Park Jun-sung. A day? No, not even half a day.
“Then what if someone treated you as well as Im Jeong-woo?”
“What are you talking about?”
“For instance, if I took care of you as well as Jeong-woo does, and catered to you, what would you do?”
“…What nonsense.”
I wondered what he was going on about, only to realize it was utter rubbish.
“First of all, you’re out. Your face alone makes it impossible.”
“Damn it, I was just giving an example! What if someone else suited you as well as Jeong-woo, or even better? Would you switch roommates then?”
“No.”
“Why?”
His expression showed complete incomprehension. I, on the other hand, found Park Jun-sung even more baffling.
“I just told you. Beyond all that, his very existence is incredibly precious. Don’t you get it?”
“No. I really don’t.”
“Really? I don’t understand why your comprehension is always so limited. We just can’t communicate.”
I wasn’t joking; I was entirely serious.
“Wow. Seriously, Seo Gi-hyeon, you and Im Jeong-woo are both… No, never mind.”
“Hey. Why ‘never mind’? What about Jeong-woo and me?”
When I threatened to kick him out if he didn’t answer, Park Jun-sung shook his head vigorously.
“Why, are you suddenly curious about what I have to say? You just said we couldn’t communicate.”
“Regardless of communication, your rambling is your freedom, so go on and finish it. What about us?”
“You two are truly an inseparable pair. You both have such great personalities. Look, you’re exactly alike.”
It was the first plausible thing I’d heard in over an hour, but I still had to correct him.
“It’s true we have good personalities, but we’re not exactly alike. Jeong-woo is a hundred times kinder than I am.”
Park Jun-sung’s face contorted into an unreadable expression.
As I continued speaking, unfazed, my precious roommate finished tidying up and approached. The faint scent of his cologne tickled my nose.
“Is this all you’ve done so far?”
As his low voice reached my ears, a sudden sense of peace seemed to settle in my heart.
“This guy has been slacking off. He’s been messing around the whole time you were cleaning.”
“Why slack off? You should have worked harder.”
“Yeah, Seo Gi-hyeon. You should’ve worked harder.”
It was the same nagging, yet why did it feel so different? I frowned at Park Jun-sung.
“As if you did much. You were slacking off just as much.”
“Anyway, I don’t have that many chapters, do I?”
“Still, I bet I’ll finish faster.”
“No way. There’s almost a two-fold difference.”
The exams were fast approaching. As we bickered, our study materials piled up, and Im Jeong-woo, who had been watching us silently, gathered his thick textbooks. His binder, pencil case, and calculator, too.
“Where are you going?”
I asked urgently.
“The study room.”
“Why the study room all of a sudden?”
“We can’t study like this. It’s too noisy.”
Park Jun-sung and I exchanged glances simultaneously. We blamed each other, harboring unnecessary resentment. Amidst this, a large hand then picked up my bag.
“Let’s go.”
“Huh? Me too?”
I asked, flustered, without realizing it. Im Jeong-woo replied calmly.
“They say we’re an inseparable pair, so we should go together.”
Then, he gently told Park Jun-sung not to even think about following.
Indeed, we were fated.
There was no one else but Im Jeong-woo who could be my fated partner.
****
Summer vacation began. The reason I was more excited than usual was that I had registered for summer classes. It wasn’t just any ordinary summer session; it was a summer session with Im Jeong-woo. That alone made it exceptionally special.
The class was held in a surprisingly large classroom. Come to think of it, they had said there was an unusually high number of students enrolled this year. Thus, it was natural to encounter familiar faces.
“Oh! Over here!”
As soon as I entered the classroom, someone waved. It was a friend from the same club.
Two empty desks were available at the back, so we headed there. The person immediately turned around, politely ignoring me, and spoke to Im Jeong-woo.
“Jeong-woo, did you grow taller again?”
My welcoming mood instantly deflated.
“I don’t know, actually.”
“Oh, how could you not know? Didn’t you measure? You seem to have grown a lot since I last saw you.”
“Do you think so?”
“Yes, really. Even from afar, only you are visible.”
That’s why they ignored me, I thought. Because they couldn’t see me, whether from afar or up close.
“Even if I grew a bit, it wouldn’t be that much.”
Im Jeong-woo, who was beside me, chuckled as he replied.
“No, it’s true… Right, Gi-hyeon?”
Finally, the person turned their attention to me and asked. It was a sudden question, but as always, I rattled off a prepared response.
“Of course. If you can’t see Im Jeong-woo from afar, then there’s something wrong with your eyes. He’s tall, handsome, it’s only natural that only Jeong-woo is visible from a distance.”
I smiled and told them their eyesight was normal, which left the person dumbfounded. Im Jeong-woo, accustomed to such occurrences, laughed along with me. In the past, he would have been embarrassed and said something to me, but after years of this, he seemed to have just accepted it.
What was there to be embarrassed about? It was the truth.
Honestly, if just one more person recognized Im Jeong-woo’s charm, I could boast about him even more passionately.
“Jeong-woo, didn’t you go to Korea this time?”
“No, because of summer classes.”
“But you don’t necessarily have to take this class now, do you? Are you short on credits?”
“No. Gi-hyeon wanted to take it.”
“Gi-hyeon?”
A suspicious gaze turned to me. Since when were you interested in something like this? Their face clearly showed disbelief. Which was, of course, understandable, as it was a subject I truly detested.
But there was no helping it. There were few summer courses available, so choices were limited, and among them, only a handful could be taken with Im Jeong-woo. After carefully selecting courses without prerequisites, we barely managed to align half of our schedules. It was with an unwavering determination to spend as much time as possible with Im Jeong-woo this summer that I decided to take this uninteresting class.
“They said it would all be necessary once we go to college anyway.”
“Who said that?”
“Just people.”
–♪♫
Just then, the bell rang at a perfect moment. As the stern-faced teacher entered, the person finally turned to the front and sat up straight.
As expected, the class was terribly boring. I forcibly fought against my eyelids trying to close. Having to listen to this for three hours! Regret washed over me just thirty minutes into the lesson.
Was Im Jeong-woo alright? I subtly glanced sideways and our eyes met. To my surprise, his handsome face had been quietly watching me for some time.
“Why?”
When I asked, the answer was simply, “No reason.”
“What’s that? If you wanted to see this face so badly, you should’ve just said so. Why were you secretly watching?”
When I made a fuss, claiming I was someone he wanted to see even when he was already looking, Im Jeong-woo laughed. How could a person laugh like that? Thanks to Im Jeong-woo’s face, I got to see a wonderful smile every day that was rare in reality.
Im Jeong-woo was growing into an adult day by day. Though I was older by birth year, my partner, who had never seemed like a peer since we first met, was growing at an extraordinary pace, both externally and internally. Sometimes, I feared he would become an adult and leave me behind.
As soon as the teacher left, I hurriedly packed my bag. Tears threatened to fall at the thought that summer classes still had several weeks left.
“Ah, I thought I was going to die from sleepiness.”
“Really? I found it quite listenable.”
Im Jeong-woo slung his bag over his shoulder, following my lead.
“It was pretty interesting, actually. Not too difficult either.”
“That can’t be true. How could something like this be interesting?”
Though I said that, I had expected it. Unlike me, who was strictly science-oriented, Im Jeong-woo was completely humanities-focused; nine times out of ten, a class I found boring was one he enjoyed. Conversely, I also knew how challenging my favorite classes were for Im Jeong-woo. I was acutely aware of how much effort Im Jeong-woo put in to take classes with me.
But I simply pretended not to know. Knowing such a desire was selfish, I still wanted to be with him for as long as possible.
The adventure continues! If you loved this chapter, I Just Wanted An Ordinary Life This Time is a must-read. Click here to start!
Read : I Just Wanted An Ordinary Life This Time
