Kim Hajun

“Pens down!” the teacher said as the bell rang. “Last person in each row, collect everyone’s answer sheets and bring them forward.”

“Ah, finally! Exams are over!” Hyunwoo rejoiced, stretching his arms out in front of him and consequently poking me in the back.

Turning around, I asked, “Wasn’t the test easier than expected?”

“Eh? Are you sure we took the same one? Math was hard as fuck this time!”

“It was?”

Hyunwoo narrowed his eyes at me in disbelief.

Even I surprised myself with what was coming out of my mouth right now. Math was the last subject of our four-day-long midterms. I thought my mental energy would have run out by now, but fortunately, I was able to stay focused the entire way through. Sure, I was a bit short on time with the final question, but as for the rest, I was feeling pretty confident in myself.

I had this win in the bag. Jisu Seonbae was going to regret making that deal with me. Actually, that wouldn’t be fair. I’d make sure he’d get just as much satisfaction out of it as I would. I was already thinking about what I’d do with my prize.

Fuck, I wanted to see him so badly.

Our teacher thankfully kept homeroom short, and Jiyoung came back from the first-year teacher’s office with the answer keys to today’s exams. Normally, I wouldn’t have cared to stay the extra few minutes to check my estimated test scores. But with something on the line for once, I quickly dug out a red pen from my backpack.

“Oh, look at you. I guess math was easy this time,” Hyunwoo said, seeing the number of circled answers I had.

“Now, I just have to calculate the total.”

“Alright, you nerd.” Hyunwoo began texting our friends about plans for today since we were being let out early. Just as I was adding up the final number, he said, “We’re going to head for the arcade. You’re coming, right?”

I wrote down my score and smiled. “Sorry, I can’t today. I already have plans.”

“What? With who?”

“A middle school friend,” I lied.

Hyunwoo sighed. “Fine. But you can’t back out tomorrow, dude. I hope you didn’t forget about our double date.”

“Double date?”

“Jiwoo Noonim said she’s bringing only one friend, and because I’m only bringing you, that makes it a double date.”

“Doesn’t a double date imply that you’re something more to Jiwoo Seonbae than her lackey?”

“Oh, shut up! I’m getting there! That’s why it’s crucial you come tomorrow.” Hyunwoo stood up from his seat and started to head out of the classroom. “I’ll text you the time and place! See you!”

“Yeah, bye.”

I got up shortly after. The double date issue was something I’d worry about later. For now, I had to call Jisu Seonbae and tell him I was coming over soon. He had a deal to uphold.

“Hello?” he answered after just the second ring.

Coming out of the school building, I had to bite my lower lip to keep myself from smiling too widely. My math score was one thing, but simply hearing his voice for the first time in so long made me too happy for my own good.

“Hello?” he said again at my lack of response.

“Uh, yeah. Hello, seonbae.”

“So, how did you do?” He was impatient today, but I would have been too, considering what was on the line.

Smirking, I replied, “I’ll tell you when we meet.”

“From your voice, I’m guessing you did well.”

“Hm, you’ll have to see my test paper for yourself.”

“Alright,” he gave in with a soft chuckle. He sounded happy to hear my voice, too.

“What about you, seonbae? How were your exams?”

“They were fine. I think I did the same as usual.”

“Top ten?”

Quietly, he admitted, “Maybe more like top three. Or I could come in first…”

I put my lips to the phone speaker and whispered, “My boyfriend’s so smart.”

I didn’t have to see him to know Jisu Seonbae was blushing right about now. Still, I wished I could see it.

“A-Anyway,” he stuttered. It was so cute. “I have something to take care of for the student council, so I’ll be a little late.”

So that was why his surroundings were so quiet. He was probably alone in the student council room. I wanted to go up there to see him right away, but I resisted. As they said, the longer the wait, the sweeter the prize.

“I’ll wait for you at the park,” I said, referring to the one we always made out at.

“Okay…” He was definitely thinking of the same memories. “I’ll see you soon.”

“See you soon, seonbae.”

After hanging up, I quickened my pace to the subway station. This only got my heart racing faster in anticipation. Oh, the things I was going to do to Jisu Seonbae very soon.

. . .

“How long are you going to keep me in the dark about this?” Jisu Seonbae asked, following me into his room.

His parents were, of course, not home at the moment.

As soon as he was fully inside, I closed the door behind him. He was sandwiched between me and the door, surrounded on each side by my arms. It’d been a while since I got to see him from this close up. I was a centimeter taller than him now. It felt nice to have the height advantage.  

I whispered into his ear, “You’re so impatient today, seonbae.”

He shivered, leaning back onto the door and farther from my face. “S-Stop fooling around and show me your math test already.”

Smirking, I took a step back and started digging through my backpack. “Alright, but you’re going to be blown away.”

“I’ll be the judge of that.”

“Here.” I handed him my folded test sheets.

He opened them up, and I smirked harder at his surprise. “A… seventy-four?”

Crossing my arms contently, I said, “Yeah, a deal’s a deal.”

In disbelief, he flipped through the rest of the papers to recalculate the total score himself. In the end, he could only smile in amazement. “You really did it.”

“I told you, seonbae. Once I set my mind to something, I won’t stop until I make it happen. You owe me eight minutes now.”

“Eight?” Jisu Seonbae shook his head, looking a bit relieved. “You worked that hard on math and still make such an elementary mistake. Seventy-four rounded to the nearest tens is seventy. That’s seven minutes.”

I gritted my teeth. As I said, once I set my mind to something, I wouldn’t stop until it happened. At the moment, my mind was set on gaining the extra time I rightfully deserved. There was so much I could do with one more minute.

I grabbed Jisu Seonbae’s hand and pulled him to his bed, where he naturally got my signal to sit down. Kneeling in front of him, I looked up with wide eyes. He mentioned once that he had a bit of a soft spot for cute things. And maybe I’d been secretly wanting to do this, too. I brought to mind the image of an adorable bunny, which I used to channel my inner cuteness.

“Ah, hyung,” I strung out in a slightly higher voice. I tilted my head to one side and pouted.

(*Hyung: older brother; used by a male to call an older male he is close to)

Jisu Seonbae gulped. “H-Huh?”

I had to push the cuteness just a little further. “Hmph, if hyung makes it seven minutes, Hajun is going to cry for the abandoned four points. Hajun worked really hard for the seventy-four, but hyung only gives me seven minutes…” I placed my clenched hands to my eyes and pretended to cry.

“H-Hey, don’t cry—” Jisu Seonbae was panicking right now. He couldn’t resist it any longer, putting his hands over my own to move them away from my face. Once he checked that I wasn’t actually crying, he turned his head, no longer able to make eye contact at his defeat. “Okay, fine, you win… Eight minutes.”

“Thanks, seonbae!” I held his face and gave him a short kiss on his lips.

“You’re back to seonbae…?”

“Yeah, isn’t that what you told me to call you?”

“Well, yes… But that was before we started dating. We’ve been together for a while now. You can call me hyung, you know.”

I stood there profound by this new permission. I was becoming closer and closer to him, and he was opening up his hidden side to me more and more. As far as I knew, no one else at school could call him hyung, not even Hyunwoo.

While I stood there smiling, Jisu Hyung got his phone and opened up the timer app. He showed me exactly eight minutes on the clock. I had to prepare myself for the things I planned to do.

Starting the countdown, he said, “You pulled through with your end of the deal, so as promised, you can do…” He nervously bit his lower lip, blushing. “You can do whatever you want with me.”

“If your face is that red already, you’re in trouble.” I pushed him back on the bed, a little harder than he expected. My expression darkened as I said, “Don’t worry. You’re going to enjoy this just as much as I will, hyung.”