“Take it. Sugar is the best for short-term memorization.”
“…….”
I held out my hand.
In my hand was a chocolate that started with Ferrero, the kind I hadn’t managed to taste even a few times in the past.
Ye-rin glanced between my hand and me.
Her conflicted heart.
“Oh my, does he like our Ye-rin unni?”
“Psh……, girls always notice when something’s pretty.”
The girls around us murmured.
Bus No. 32 perfectly matched the commute times of exactly three schools.
Especially the first bus I was riding right now was used by students whose commute had fixed schedules.
Lately, there were many girls who sent signals toward me.
They would take their bags and hand me little notes.
I did accept the notes they gave me, but I didn’t reply.
That wasn’t proper etiquette toward my first love.
“……thank you.”
For the first time, Ye-rin’s face was tinted with a faint blush.
It seemed she liked chocolates.
No—at that age, there were almost no girls who disliked chocolate.
“You’re my senior, so please speak comfortably.”
“…….”
My first love in front of me was one year above me.
She was a third-year this year.
One day after the CSAT ended, she stopped sitting in the bus seats.
And so my heart changed.
Ye-rin’s big eyes became like a rabbit’s.
She had probably never met a boy who approached her like this.
My personality was completely restructured.
As I practiced the Heart Method every day, the world looked different.
I realized that only someone who actively moved their qi could control their qi.
My body, mind, and even my temperament all became firmer, and my confidence rose.
At the same time, I began to look at the world with dignity.
The old man in my dream had said that.
Life is short, so live it magnificently.
“Oh my…….”
“He’s cool.”
“Ugh……, I like chocolate too.”
The area around us was noisier than Ye-rin herself.
The girls looked at Ye-rin with jealous expressions.
To be honest, I also didn’t know I’d ever get to eat something like this.
If this were the past, it would have all ended in imagination.
“Okay. I’ll enjoy it.”
‘Huh? What kind of reversal is this?’
Her earlier fluster disappeared, and Ye-rin received it politely.
People said men could never understand the fickleness of women, and it seemed to be true.
Her expression changed so quickly I was shocked.
“Did your test go well?”
I spoke first.
I remembered something my professor once said during a women’s psychology lecture.
A man who stays silent for more than ten seconds while talking to a woman clearly isn’t thinking about dating.
“Pretty well. What about you?”
From what I heard, Ye-rin was ranked first in the entire school.
She had never missed first place since entering the school.
“I also did well.”
Damn, even I was surprised at how naturally I carried a conversation with Ye-rin.
“What. It seems your expression could get a perfect score too, you know?”
“Maybe.”
“R-really?”
For a student, there was no better way to show off than academic grades.
Ye-rin tried to hide her surprised expression at my words.
At Jangju High School, the counterpart to Jangju Girls’ High School, both of us knew exactly what ‘a perfect score’ meant.
“The teachers must have made this test easy.”
No—it wasn’t that it was easy. It was that I had gotten smarter.
Through the synergy of the Dual-Intent Heart Method, the impurities in my body had been expelled one by one.
The grease stuck in my mind was removed, and my efficiency improved to the point of being incomparable to before.
“I see……”
The studious Ye-rin ended it with that one sentence.
It suited her that she wrapped it up neatly.
Her thought process was exactly what you’d expect from someone always in first place.
“Do you have a phone?”
“Huh?”
“I’ll send you a support message sometimes. The CSAT is coming soon.”
Ye-rin needed a justification that sounded reasonable.
“It’s been over a year and a half since we started sitting together on the bus, hasn’t it?”
I… have been waiting over 10 years to meet you again.
I looked at Ye-rin with eyes full of expectation.
Ye-rin hesitated for a moment.
“010-3277-XXXXX.”
Ye-rin brushed her hair behind her ear with her hand as she spoke quickly.
She spoke quietly enough that people around us wouldn’t hear, but I caught it with ears like a ghost.
“Are we exchanging phone numbers now?”
“So sudden?”
The murmuring of the girls gathered around us grew even louder.
They didn’t even try to hide it.
They were basically saying with their eyes: We saw! We heard! We knew it!
Causing a commotion like that on the bus, Ye-rin and I acknowledged each other.
Screeeech—
The bus stopped.
The girls from Jangju Girls’ High School got off first.
Ye-rin left after saying thank you.
Ha, even her disappearing figure—how could she be that elegant?
Maybe it’s because of the school uniform? Heh.
The bus started moving again.
“Hey!”
At that moment, I felt a powerful wave of someone calling me.
My head turned back.
‘What are these punks?’
The delinquents from the Industrial High School—who should’ve gotten off already—were glaring at me from the back seats.
Their eyes were filled with clear hostility.
It was like looking at a second Hong Seong-hyun.
“Come here.”
One bulky guy sitting toward the middle of the back rows snapped his fingers at me.
Of course, I recognized him.
A thug from Industrial High.
His name was Choi Hyeok-chan.
A guy who’d appeared in the local newspaper several times—that guy was calling me.
I got up from my seat.
A few students from various schools watched the situation with eyes wide like rabbits.
I walked toward the punks with steady steps.
The one with the worst posture glared at me and spat out a greeting.
“You came.”
Nothing to be scared of.
“You came? This little bastard must’ve rotted out his spine, huh?!”
“Heh. Hyeok-chan. What should we do? Should we beat him up and throw him off?”
The Industrial High punks clicked their tongues and leaned against the bus floor, trying to corner me.
Like the filthy thugs they were.
Every time they exhaled, the thick smell of cheap cigarettes burst out.
They were the type of punks who knew the taste of convenience-store cigarettes.
“Ye-rin is someone I’ve claimed. Give me the phone number.”
Not a crush—straight-up treating people like property.
And what, give it?
“No.”
“You little bastard! Ye-rin is mine!”
As the bus departed, Choi Hyeok-chan shouted at the top of his lungs.
These gorilla-brained idiots always get obsessed with a girl for the dumbest reasons.
Ye-rin’s feelings had absolutely nothing to do with his one-sided fantasy crush.
Well, to be fair, most of the boys riding this bus had that same delusion.
“Did you find a tiger in pig-man Siberia? Why are you so hyped up?”
Swearing needs impact to taste right.
After dealing with punks so often lately, my cursing had improved like my martial skills.
“You crazy bastard!”
Whoosh!
The guy next to me threw a punch.
A punch thrown without a hint of warning.
Anyone who tries a frontal confrontation with thugs like these is actually insane.
Smack!
I caught the incoming punch with my open right palm.
“……!”
Surprised?
Did you think this only happens in movies?
Even inside the shaking bus, I could move freely without losing balance.
And I moved lightly.
“Aaaaargh!”
The scream of the piglet whose wrist I grabbed filled the bus.
I pushed him lightly toward his friend, the bigger pig.
The guy toppled over awkwardly.
Sorry. These days hyung’s strength is overflowing.
The rest of the thugs stood up from their seats.
“Whoa whoa. Relax. Calm down. Today is the last day of midterms. Can’t you let it slide? You idiots, tests don’t matter to you, but they do to me~ Let’s beat each other up quietly some other day. Hyeok-chan, okay?”
Lately, I had gotten too kind.
I smiled at pig-man Hyeok-chan.
Kindness overflowing beyond measure.
The gentle cruelty of someone who reaches out as if to help but then tries to drag you down.
I hadn’t learned it from anywhere, yet my blood boiled hot.
Are you really going to try to touch the first love I met after surviving death?
He wants the warm, precious number of a girl he’s never even texted before today?
A punk who probably ironed out all the wrinkles in his brain with a flat iron!
“Hey! Students, what do you think you’re doing right now?!”
The bus driver ahjussi glanced at the rearview mirror and yelled.
At times like this, adults always have a point.
“I’m sorry for the disturbance.”
I bowed slightly and apologized politely.
These pig bastards had no idea about the preciousness of public space, but I was a student dreaming of becoming a model citizen.
With reasonable financial means, owning several buildings in Gangnam, a vacation house in Jeju or a few overseas villas where I could stay for summer breaks, and if possible, a private jet or at least a personal helicopter to take around quietly—
I wanted to live calmly like that.
And the one trying to steal away my peaceful dream—
The lord of pig-brained idiots himself had arrived!