“Ye-rin sunbae.”
Ye-rin was flustered at the words that she was Tae-san’s sunbae.
A few days ago, the name Jang Tae-san had suddenly come out of her own mouth.
Today, the exam results came out.
As expected, she was first place in the whole school.
She had gotten only one question wrong on the Korean exam.
Dragged along by her chattering friends, she entered the pizza place that was famous on the street.
The moment she opened the door, she saw the noisy male students.
As usual, exclamations toward her burst out from all directions.
It was something Ye-rin was now used to, but still, it felt embarrassing.
She was still a girl in puberty.
That was when she saw him.
The second-year male student who had, for a moment on the bus, taken her number while she had been momentarily careless.
Jang Tae-san.
Sometimes texts had come.
He had sent short jokes along with greetings for safety.
Things like, strawberries get fired from their job at the strawberry farm for being too strawberry-like. Things that made her let out a faint, helpless laugh because they made no sense.
But they had never exchanged long texts.
All the messages had been nothing more than well-off ones telling her to stay warm and take care.
But today, at this sudden encounter, Tae-san’s name had come out of her mouth without her knowing.
“You know him?”
“Oooh! Ye-rin saw him again?”
When Tae-san waved his hand while calling her sunbae, her friends reacted with surprise toward Ye-rin.
She was a former student council president and was a sunbae in the school.
Ye-rin, who was always courteous and a model student.
That same Ye-rin had a male high school underclassman she knew.
And one from the harsh Jangju High School, a second-year at that.
“He’s handsome though?”
“His body is really good. He’s tall, too.”
Ye-rin’s friends covered their mouths and whispered.
Ye-rin’s cheeks turned rosy.
She hadn’t expected a situation like this either.
“Jang Tae-san, that bastard……”
“That bad bastard. He must have sucked down beef-bone soup before coming during vacation.”
“My older sister knows him. She’s top of the school in third year at Jangju Girls’ High School. My sister showed me a picture.”
“What? Top? As expected, people who live well are built differently. Our Tae-san is also top student in second year, and that’s with a perfect score!”
‘Top? Then is he really first place?’
Ye-rin was startled by the words entering her ears.
She had thought the perfect score thing was a joke.
Jangju High School was a prestigious school known for sending about ten students to Hanguk University every year.
If he was top of the grade, then he had enough score to enter Hanguk University without difficulty.
“Sunbae, did you come to eat pizza?”
Tae-san approached with a bright smile.
His eyes were clear.
Ye-rin knew that he was genuinely happy to see her.
And Ye-rin saw it.
Among the students of Jangju High School, the dazzling glow that shone especially brightly from Tae-san.
“Um…… my friends said to treat them at Treat Us.”
“Treat Us?”
“Hi. I’m Eun-gyeong, Ye-rin’s friend.”
“I’m Se-ra, the prettiest among us.”
“Ah. Hello.”
“Tae-san. Ye-rin is the overall top scorer on the midterm this time. So we said she should treat us with pizza as punishment.”
Ye-rin was taken aback by her friends’ aggressive actions.
Eun-gyeong and Se-ra were the kids who rivaled her for top scores.
Those same Eun-gyeong and Se-ra were aggressively appealing themselves.
“I didn’t know Ye-rin had such a handsome male junior.”
“Is he really just a junior?”
Questions overflowing with implication spilled out.
Even Tae-san’s friends, who had been eating pizza and making noise, looked at Tae-san.
The moment everyone’s eyes focused on Tae-san—
“Ye-rin sunbae was the girl oppa had a crush on?”
“……!”
* * *
‘Auuuuuuuuu!’
Tae-san’s insides erupted in flames at the sudden question that Seon-ryeon burst out with.
Yeah, that’s right. A crush, and also first love! Damn it!
He had been in the middle of operating the perfect plan, and an unexpected explosion had gone off.
If Seon-ryeon hadn’t been here today, what would have happened?
If she had come on another day, how great would that have been!
If it were Seon-ryeon, would she have clicked with him today?
How nice it would have been if she had run into him on another day!
Would they have talked about the crush?
If she had pretended not to know him, where would things have gone?
Would Ye-rin have come here today?
There are so many chicken places too!
Ha, people would call this inevitable fate.
Everyone’s gaze now turned toward Ye-rin.
It was the strong glare telling her to hurry and say she and Jang Tae-san had no special relationship.
“Seon-ryeon.”
“Yes, sunbae.”
Right. They clearly knew each other well. Even calling each other’s name sounded familiar.
“Do you know Tae-san well?”
“No. I met him for the first time today.”
“First time?”
“Yes. He’s exactly my style. He seems like he studies well, and he’s handsome.”
Woooow…… Seon-ryeon had that kind of style?
The Seon-ryeon she had seen on TV was calm.
Her expressiveness wasn’t particularly good, and she didn’t appear often on variety shows.
But she had confidently pointed at him after one glance and declared that he was exactly her style. It was shocking.
This was something I had to sort in my heart right now.
It was the lingering regret toward the first love that I had never been able to say a single word to in the past.
Even if Ye-rin didn’t like me back, it didn’t matter.
A crush is therefore something even more intensely regretful.
“Seo……”
“Me too.”
“……!”
Just as I was about to call Seon-ryeon, Ye-rin’s unexpected words burst out.
Me too?
What, what do you mean by that!
“Ooooooooooooh!”
“Damn! Jang Tae-san, you bastard! This is a three-way movie!”
“Not even one, but two of them……”
“Uwaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
His friends reacted as if they had contracted a rabid disease.
Leftover pizza and spaghetti noodles mixed with crumbs shot out of their mouths.
“Ye, Ye-rin……”
“Really???”
Ye-rin’s friends were also shocked.
They might have been calmer than me, but even their expression turned to astonishment.
This was not what I had wanted.
I wanted to confess in a more romantic setting.
This weird triangle relationship situation was an impossible setup.
It wasn’t even a proper makjang……
But strangely, my heart was pounding.
There was a reason why makjang dramas were addictive!
That line kept repeating.
Me too…… me too……
“Why can’t I say that?”
No! You can! You can!
“Hmmm……”
It seemed Seon-ryeon was thinking hard.
No need for such hesitation.
Even if you are future superstar Seon-ryeon, I still want to date my first love for sure.
After dying, I realized that idols and everything else are unnecessary.
The person beside me now is the best.
“Sunbae. You’re amazing.”
Seon-ryeon made a face that looked like she acknowledged me.
Yes, let’s quickly say bye-bye here.
Seon-ryeon, at the end of first year you’ll be scouted and live as a star who dominates all of Korea.
Forget oppa.
It’s all just a dream from one night.
Even though she was extraordinary, I felt no regret.
Even Ye-rin sunbae was not actually inferior to Seon-ryeon.
Her boldness and elegance surpassed Seon-ryeon.
If Seon-ryeon was golden, Ye-rin sunbae was pure white.
The first love buff was that powerful.
“You’ll still play fair with me, right?”
What? What? Fair play?
Another weird explosion.
Why did she treat someone like me as if I were something amazing?
We met for the first time today.
She couldn’t possibly know how much I would earn in a single day in the future, yet Seon-ryeon hung her pride on this.
“Hmmm.”
Ye-rin sunbae swallowed a breath.
Everyone looked at Ye-rin sunbae.
What kind of real-life divine farce was this?
“Tae-san sunbae. You know Ye-rin sunbae’s number too, right? Then give me her phone number.”
Me? Why?
My phone number wasn’t some neighborhood convenience store number you give out by handfuls.
“Tae-san.”
Ye-rin sunbae softly called me.
“Yes?”
“Give.”
“Give what?”
“Your number.”
Hul…… this was the birth of a new Chinese character meaning ‘Hul of hul.’
It seemed I couldn’t refuse.
What should I call this?
It felt like I was standing in the middle of a fierce battlefield.
A pride war between girls, something I had only heard about!
But does this even make sense?
Seon-ryeon saw me for the first time today! Why would she choose me?
What, is Seon-ryeon possessed by some ghost that smells money on people???
“Give me your phone.”
I received the phone from Seon-ryeon.
It was a phone with tiny pink accessories dangling from it.
Beep beep beep.
I typed in the number.
And then I made the call.
Brrrr brrrr brrrr.
The low beat of the ringtone echoed inside Treat Us.
“Uwowowowowow! That cocky bastard!”
“Jang Tae-saaaaaaaaan!!!”
Fire exploded from my friends’ mouths.
Lasers shot out from their eyes.
Heh, go on, be jealous of me as much as you want.
This wasn’t a bad thing.
First love in one hand.
Future star Seon-ryeon in the other!
Woo Ye-rin on the left, and Seon-ryeon on the right.
At this moment, nothing in the world—
—felt enviable.
A makjang twist was originally meant to develop exactly like this……
This was the pure honey flavor.