A Thoroughly Calculated Payback

Even with his own name brought up, Baek Yu-gyeong pretended not to have heard a thing. He simply tilted his head at Ji Hye-han, who still had him by the collar, the picture of shameless innocence.

"Who?"

"You."

"Me? Hye-han, come on. You can't just go around accusing people without evidence."

"You could've at least made an effort to hide your handwriting. Or written it in secret, for that matter."

"Ah, the handwriting. Never even crossed my mind."

Yu-gyeong murmured it with a sly, exaggerated surprise.

"Wasn't it left there on purpose so I'd find out?"

"Mm~ it was a mistake, actually. Hye-han, you've got such a nasty heart. How could you even think that?"

"……."

Yu-gyeong kept firing back without a pause, teasing him even though he was the one at fault. In the end Hye-han's face went cold and he started glaring in earnest. His dark grey eyes flashed with a predatory, murderous light.

They were roughly the same size; if it came to a real fight, things would turn ugly fast.

Cha-heon had been thinking that once they actually started swinging it would be hard to pull them apart. He was about to slip between them when a thought struck him and he fixed his gaze on Hye-han.

"…Huh? Can't you just erase it, though?"

It was written on paper for the participation list, so erasing it ought to fix everything. Was second year different somehow?

"It's already been submitted and approved. I only found out after the approval went through."

Hye-han's indifferent reply made Cha-heon wonder for a second whether they could still cancel it, but he understood almost at once and nodded.

Fair enough. With the list already handed in, someone with Hye-han's personality would never claim it had been a simple mistake.

The original Ji Hye-han.

He had something of an aristocratic air about him. Twenty-first-century Korea, and yet… the kind of person who would never take back a single word once it left his mouth.

…Mm. Sort of like the eldest son of a traditional main-family household?

Strong sense of responsibility, upright, straight as an arrow.

Cha-heon had felt the same thing the day Hye-han caught them while working with the guidance committee: a true stickler for the rules.

Judging by that, Yu-gyeong had known exactly what kind of person Hye-han was, filled in every event on another class's participation list right before submission, and then bolted.

…More than that, he wrote the name down for every single sports event and ran. Haa.

It was nothing major when you thought about it, yet the moment it happened to you it would be thoroughly infuriating and absurd.

…Maybe because he had been imagining far worse scenarios, the whole thing started to feel oddly trivial—and, being someone else's problem, just a little funny. Shin Cha-heon discreetly pressed down the corner of his mouth that had begun to lift and looked away.

But if they're joking around like this, does that mean they're close? Looking at them, they never seemed all that friendly…

…Joking…?

…Jokes were something you did with people you were close to. This, honestly, felt less like a joke and more like… a thoroughly calculated way of screwing someone over.

Cha-heon quietly watched the two of them.

Hye-han still looked ready to explode; he tightened his grip on the collar and gave a small shove.

"…Just what are you scheming?"

"But~ if you participate, Hye-han, our team can win~"

Yu-gyeong's words brought the upcoming sports festival team assignments to mind.

Right, five teams total. Two teams that drew the same flag each, six classes per grade making one team… So second year has Class 4 and Class 8 together.

…If those two were on the same team, wasn't that a little dirty?

If the athletic clubs are also participating… ah. We've got Kang I-hyeon.

While he was mulling over those random thoughts and watching them, Hye-han raised one eyebrow in pure disbelief and spoke.

"And yet you didn't sign up yourself."

"Hm? Unfortunately the participant list vanished while I stepped out for a second."

It was pure nonsense. He had carefully written only Hye-han's name on every line and then claimed he never got the chance to write his own. Not even a half-hearted excuse.

"……."

Hye-han glared with ice-cold eyes; Yu-gyeong refused to back down, smiling brightly as he met the stare head-on. Cha-heon was still turning his sluggish brain, trying to figure out how to break them up, when quite some time later Hye-han let out a short, dry laugh. An unfitting smile spread across that handsome face, and Yu-gyeong's expression stiffened in reverse, seized by a sudden, nameless unease.

"…What?"

"So I told the teacher your name seemed to have been left off by mistake."

"……?"

"For every single event I'm in."

"…You…"

"Let's do our best. Baek Yu-gyeong."

Hye-han grinned and finally released the collar he had been gripping so tightly.

For a moment it looked exactly like a scene from a youth drama. Cha-heon glanced at each of them in turn.

Wow. These brats… they really are the high-teen romance leads, aren't they?

Watching them was starting to get entertaining. So this was how the two of them fought over Seo Ha-ra?

Cha-heon suddenly found himself thoroughly intrigued.

Yu-gyeong could only stare at him in stunned silence. Hye-han, having finished his business, neatly composed his expression again.

In the end Cha-heon could not hold back the laughter that bubbled up; a soft snicker escaped him.

"…Wow, you two are going to have so much fun. At the sports festival you'll really… never get a single break, huh?"

"…Hyung, you saw what Ji Hye-han did, right? That's just how he is."

Yu-gyeong slumped against him like all the energy had drained out of him, whining. Cha-heon, already used to it, caught him and gave his shoulder a light thump.

"You started it."

"……."

For some reason the cheek resting on his shoulder seemed to puff up.

Why is this kid sulking so hard now?

Yu-gyeong kept his face turned away, eyes fixed on some distant point, looking thoroughly put out.

Hye-han, perhaps feeling a little guilty after all, had said that if the three of them went over the wall together they would get caught, so he would go alone—and then he had climbed over the wall and left.

When Hye-han had asked what they were doing here, Cha-heon had honestly answered that they were hopping the wall to buy something to eat. That had been the mistake. Hye-han had looked down at them and pointed out that it was a school-rule violation, so Cha-heon had asked him to look the other way just this once. Who could have predicted he would then announce he would go himself?

The sudden offer had left Cha-heon blinking. He had said he would just go with him instead, but Hye-han had only given him a sidelong glance, looked back and forth between Cha-heon and the wall, and then simply taken off on his own.

…Do I really look that scrawny?

That look had certainly seemed to say so… and since it was slightly true, there was nothing he could retort.

More importantly, the problem was Yu-gyeong.

"…Hye-han even went over the wall as our representative because he said you were hungry, so why are you acting like this?"

"How would he know I was hungry? He left because your stomach was growling, hyung."

Yu-gyeong answered listlessly and then turned his head away again.

That was because you got us both kicked out of the cafeteria.

Unfortunately the environment at the Shin household made breakfast difficult. No one else ate in the morning, and sitting alone at the table while everyone bustled around felt awkward. On top of that, the housekeeper never offered anything—perhaps the original Shin Cha-heon had never eaten breakfast either.

So he had at least wanted to enjoy lunch, only to get thrown out of the cafeteria as a set with Baek Yu-gyeong. He had managed all of one spoonful.

"…Anyway, you got what you wanted. What are you so unhappy about?"

The kid who normally bounded around outside like an excited puppy with its tail wagging was now sitting in silence with a sulky face; it was hard not to notice.

"…Hyung keeps calling Ji Hye-han ‘Hye-han-ah' while you just call me Baek Yu-gyeong… …And you always take Ji Hye-han's side."

Well, that was because you were the one who did something wrong.

Saying that out loud would only make him sulk harder. Cha-heon quietly closed his mouth.

"…Do you like Ji Hye-han better too, hyung?"

How did that even become the question?

Watching Yu-gyeong's attitude finally made a suspicion take shape. He had thought they were simply a little less close than average, but seeing what Yu-gyeong had done and the sulky face he was wearing now, Cha-heon felt certain.

"Yu-gyeong."

"……."

"Whether I like him or not isn't the issue. …Do you have some grudge against Hye-han?"

"No."

"Then why mess with him for no reason?"

Looking at the way Yu-gyeong acted, there was a certain awkwardness between them, and it did not seem entirely free of resentment either. They dropped formal speech with each other, yet that was definitely not because they were close.

"……."

Yu-gyeong gave no answer. He simply turned his head with a little shake and stood up from where he had been sitting.

"I'm leaving."

"What? Where do you think you're going? You said you were hungry."

"…I'm not hungry anymore."

As Yu-gyeong's footsteps began to grow distant, Cha-heon watched his retreating back and then turned his gaze back to the wall.

Yu-gyeong was already gone, and he could not exactly abandon Hye-han, who had climbed over the wall as their representative.

Cha-heon stood in front of the wall and let out a long, deep sigh.

I'm going crazy.

Yu-gyeong, who had left Cha-heon behind, walked for quite a while before, of course, glancing back. The usual Shin Cha-heon liked to play the strict one, but if Yu-gyeong acted like this he always ended up following…

…What? He's not following?

He should be… Yu-gyeong kept glancing behind him, then finally turned around completely and looked every which way several times. Shin Cha-heon was nowhere nearby.

Instead his eyes met those of some nearby girls. Yu-gyeong gave them an awkward smile and waved, all the while diligently scanning the surroundings with his eyes.

No matter how hard he looked, he could not find even the tip of Shin Cha-heon's head.

…Ji Hye-han.

…Ji Hye-han again.

Baek Yu-gyeong clenched his fist tightly, then spun on his heel and strode into the building.