Chapter 201
Chapter 201
6am . Bangjoo opened his eyes and turned off the beeping alarm right next to his head . It was early dawn, well before sunrise . Bangjoo folded his blankets and put on his running clothes to exercise .
“Good morning . ”
“Running again?”
“Of course . ”
It’s become a routine task for him at this point to greet the neighboring lady that went out to pray every morning . Bangjoo began running after some brief stretches with the sharp, cold air grazing past his cheeks dispelling his sleepiness . He turned at the park right behind his home and did a lap around a nearby hill before coming back home . It took him exactly 40 minutes . Compared to the 80 minutes he used to spend to complete this run, it was a significant improvement . It was a bit annoying how he wasn’t able to get any faster, but he wasn’t about to exhaust even more energy just to tire himself out for the rest of the day .
After taking a shower, he put the soup he made last night on boil . After scooping some rice from the rice cooker, adding some side dishes his sister made, and the soup, he got himself a very nice breakfast . By the time he finished eating, it was 7:30am . He quickly finished was.h.i.+ng the dishes and stepped outside . It took him about 40 minutes to get to the school, Bangjoo put earphones in his ear and set it to the local radio to start his commute . It was 8am, and the radio show had just started .
- They say morning people are the symbol of success . That’s why whether you’re a student or a businessman, you are to wake up early each day . Maybe in this day and age, those that are really happy are the night owls? I for one am in support of the night owls . Good morning . I’m…
“What a liar . ”
Bangjoo raised his speed as he shook his head .
* * *
“Um… Grandma, let me help . ”
Jiyoon shook her head looking at her wrist.w.a.tch, then approached an old lady next to her . She had to walk to school since she missed the bus . At the same time, she discovered an old lady struggling to carry her luggage across a pedestrian bridge .
“Shouldn’t you be heading to school?”
“I-I’m fine . ”
She felt a little agitated looking at the clock, but she didn’t want to leave an old lady by herself . She grabbed the lady’s luggage before heading up the bridge . She was slowly getting further away from the school . Even so, she was happy that she could help someone out .
She made her way down the other side and gave the luggage back to the old lady, the old lady expressed her thanks multiple times before moving forward . The lady looked so perilous walking by herself that Jiyoon decided to help the lady all the way to the bus station . Unexpectedly, the weight of the luggage made it pretty hard for her to walk .
‘What do I do?’
Right then, someone called out to her from the back .
“Lee Jiyoon?”
It was Bangjoo . She wasn’t very close with the boy, but it was only a matter of time due to their shared club . Jiyoon was incredibly glad to see the boy .
“C-can you help me with this?”
“This?”
Bangjoo stepped closer and picked up all of the luggage like it was nothing, the boy was incredibly strong despite his height . Was it because he was a guy? Jiyoon and the old lady followed right behind Bangjoo .
“Grandma! Is this good enough?”
He had a loud voice for sure . The old lady complimented Bangjoo, saying he had the voice of a general .
“Here, have some of this . ”
The old lady gave both of them candy big enough to completely fill their mouth, Jiyoon accepted the candy with a bow .
“Thank you very much . ”
When she accepted the candy, she immediately noticed the clock at the bus station . 8:10am . She was reminded that she needed to get to school by 8:30am, the scary looking disciplinary teacher flashed by in her head .
“We might be late . What do we do?”
“Just run . ”
“I can’t run . ”
“Want me to carry you?”
Jiyoon shook her head quickly, if her friends saw her being carried by a boy in the morning… She didn’t even want to think about it, she’d get teased for a month straight .
“We’ll just have to run like h.e.l.l, then . ”
Bangjoo looked oddly excited, Jiyoon sighed before chasing after Bangjoo .
* * *
Aram, who was riding her bike with a yawn, suddenly came to a stop to take out her MP3 player . It had a radio function, so she dialed into her favorite station and checked the time . 8:16am . Sixteen minutes since the show started .
“Ugh, I’m late . ”
She put the earphones in and started listening .
- Alright, and now we’re back with our usual affair . We got a lot of messages to work through, so let’s just take a look at a few .
<
This was a radio show hosted by her favorite actress, so Aram always listened to every episode . She sent out a lot of messages as well, although none of her messages got chosen so far . Aram quickly sent a message through her phone as she stood .
- I’m an office worker working in Seoul . The street’s so clogged on my way to work . Ugh, going to work is a great pain . But having a job in itself is something to be happy about . At least, compared to the unemployed .
Ah, that cynical response . Aram lived for this stuff, she loved how direct this actress was . There were several people online who criticised the actress for being rather rude, but Aram thought that was what made her so charming .
- I’m a student . I have to study earlier in the morning because of math . That’s why I’m at school an hour before everyone else . Ugh . Math . Why do we even learn it? If you don’t like it, you should just give up on it . But if you don’t have the courage to? Then just study . If you don’t see a way to start earning money for yourself right now, then you should just shut it and study . Life isn’t nearly as easy as you might think it is .
“Ugh, so cool . . . ”
Aram got ready to hear the next message as she pedaled on .
- This is from a student as well . You know this isn’t a very good show for students, right? Well, whatever . I’m going to school on a bike right now . I listen to your show every day . Love you, sis! Is what it says . Hm, I’d have preferred to get a message like this from a boy, but oh well . I’m happy that a nice junior in life respects me so much though, so I’ll be giving this listener a gift . I’ll be calling you a little later, miss, so get ready for a call!
Aram shouted in excitement while biking . This was the first time she was chosen! A gift as well, on top of that? Today was going to be a great day . Right then, she saw a familiar girl in the distance walk with tired puffs .
“Eh? Isn’t that Jiyoon?”
Aram turned towards the girl immediately, she noticed Bangjoo was next to Jiyoon as well .
“What are you two doing?”
“Hah… Hah… Aram . . . ”
Jiyoon was sweating bullets and Bangjoo was looking at the girl with troubled eyes .
“Leave… Go… You’ll be late . . . ”
The poor girl looked pitiful . Aram looked at her phone, 8:23am . If she pedalled like h.e.l.l, they could just barely make it in time .
“Get on!”
“Eh?”
“Get on . ”
She tapped the back of her bike with her hand . Jiyoon shook her head with a pale face, she knew the girl would refuse .
“You’ll get hit by that wild dog if you’re late though . ”
She called the disciplinary teacher that because of how persistent the man was . She was originally going to call the man a rabid dog, but changed her mind after being told that was a bit too rude from a friend .
“I-I can’t . ”
“Trust me . ”
“I’d r-rather be late . ”
“Hey!”
Aram gave Bangjoo a glance, hoping that the boy would catch on and put the girl on the bike . But the boy just stood there blinking his eyes . Ugh, he just didn’t have any sense, did he?
“Just get on!”
Only then did Jiyoon get on with a scared face, Aram immediately started pedalling when she felt the girl’s arms around her hips .
“You just run!”
It’d be fine if Bangjoo gets punished for being late, but Jiyoon would probably collapse if she got punished . Aram pedalled wildly while thinking that . Right then, she felt something pa.s.s right next to her . It was Bangjoo . the boy clearly wasn’t lying about wanting to be a martial arts actor .
“I’m not gonna lose . ”
She started feeling compet.i.tive . This was something she couldn’t lose at . Even in Judo, she’d lose sleep every time she lost . She always had to get payback if she wanted to sleep well . She could hear Jiyoon scream right behind her, but she couldn’t stop here . Not until she caught up to Bangjoo!
* * *
Dowook, who was pedalling slowly all this time, sped up right when he saw a boy and a bike zoomed past him . He was never one to stand a bike pa.s.sing him .
“Aram!”
He realized that the girl that was screaming on the bike was a club member, Dowook didn’t care . He sped up looking at the one who was pedaling the bike . She was good, but couldn’t speed up much with that extra luggage . Dowook caught up with ease and pa.s.sed right by . Right then, he heard someone shout right behind him .
“Jiyoon! You better hold on tight!”
* * *
Maru had to wipe his eyes for a second before taking a look again . What in the world did he just see? He could see Dowook pedaling ferociously, right behind him was Bangjoo running with a grin, and behind that was Aram biking with a ma.s.sive frown . Poor Jiyoon was pale as a ghost on the back of Aram’s bike . The four of them charged right into school in that order . At the same time, he heard someone roar at them in anger .
“Which b.a.s.t.a.r.d decided to charge in with a bike! And you! I told you not to run when you come to school!”
It was the disciplinary teacher, Maru had to organize his thoughts for a bit before walking towards the gate himself . He could see the four students all lined up kneeling in front of a bike . Maru’s eyes met with theirs as he pa.s.sed by, he grinned at them before promptly ignoring them . He could hear them call out, “hey” and “senior” right as he walked by, but he knew they weren’t talking to him . Of course they weren’t, Maru changed his shoes as he thought about how difficult practice was going to be from now on .
* * *
Suyeon slept very deeply for the first time in a long while . It was 4pm . The stress she acc.u.mulated at the villa must’ve vented in the form of sleep .
“My head hurts . ”
It felt like a ma.s.sive hangover, she put a hand over her throbbing head and gulped down some cold water . She thought about spending the rest of the day doing nothing like a jobless person before remembering what Junmin had told her .
- It starts today .
“Hah . . . ”
Suyeon took out workout clothes from the closet and put on sungla.s.ses, she didn’t want anyone noticing her . She thought about checking herself in the mirror before deciding against it, she’d just be going to meet students anyways . She drove straight to school in that outfit, it was a little past five when she arrived at Suwon . She didn’t even have makeup on, but she was pretty confident that she looked stunning without it . It’d be nice if she parked right inside the school, but she didn’t want to make things annoying so she just parked nearby .
On her walk towards the building, she came across a few students . Suyeon sighed, surely they’d ask for her signature .
“Want to bet on who pays for the PC bang?”
“Let’s go . ”
A group of boys pa.s.sed by her saying that . Suyeon took off her sungla.s.ses with a small smile, surely they’d recognize her now .
“Let’s go play pool . I know the owner, so he might order food for us . ”
“Oh, h.e.l.l yeah . ”
Another group of boys pa.s.sed by without even looking at her . Suyeon didn’t lose her smile as she walked straight into the school, not a single student recognized her .
‘This is kind of annoying . ’
At the same time, she realized just how far away she was from becoming famous . She really should take up more jobs . She can’t afford to be lax, she should take care of this teaching business as fast as she can before her next audition .
She stepped up to the fifth floor calmly, they were supposed to meet at a cla.s.sroom on the fifth floor . Just as she turned to the hallway on the fifth floor, she ran into Maru .
“Surprise . ”
He probably didn’t know who was coming, a great chance to tease this troublesome kid . Maru stared at her dumbly out of surprise before smiling .
“It really is a bit of a surprise . ”
He pointed at her forehead as she spoke, Suyeon put a hand on it out of confusion . Something fell from her head right then, it was a pink hair roller that had turned completely flat .