I Liked It First

Chapter 2

The boy sitting in Doyeon’s seat rushed to his feet.

“Is this your seat? Sorry.”

“No, it’s all right. You can stay there.”

“It’s fine. The bell’s going to ring anyways.” He immediately shifted to the left pair of desks.

“Hi,” Doyeon greeted, sitting next to Hyunoh.

The moment he sat down, Kangbin Baek poked his back with his pencil. “Hey, why did you ignore my text yesterday?”

“I went to bed early.”

“You slept at ten? Are you my grandpa?”

“I had to sleep with Aeyoung, all right?”

“Oh, that explains it.” Kangbin conceded to the fact he fell asleep while putting his nine-year-old sister to sleep.

Kangbin, who had been his friend since middle school, was a good friend. Their middle school and this high school were located in the center of a well-established neighborhood, with a mix of run-down houses and country houses.

Doyeon’s house was one of those run-down houses, but instead of acting like a prejudiced brat, Kangbin had approached him first and offered to be his friend.

It was pure luck that Doyeon, a kid from a poor street, had become class president every year. The fortunate combination of being Kangbin’s friend, being a very smart student, and having an above-average appearance helped him avoid any trouble in school.

While chatting with Kangbin, the homeroom teacher walked in. Doyeon bumped Hyunoh with his elbow while pulling out his pencil case and textbook.

“Sorry,” he immediately apologized.

In response, Hyunoh slid his eyes to Doyeon and stared while resting his chin on his hands. His gaze was cold for some reason, which made Doyeon confused.

But Hyunoh’s mouth was smiling, so he thought nothing of it.

Doyeon leaned forward. He thought it wouldn’t be bad to be friends with his desk partner. “By the way, how tall are you? You seem taller than Kangbin.”

“187.”

Hyunoh’s nonchalant tone made Doyeon smile.

“Really? You actually are taller than him. That must be nice. How did you both manage to reach that perfect height in middle school?”

Hyunoh sat silently.

“I’m 177 centimeters, but my dream is to hit 180 before I graduate. I still have three years left, so there’s hope.”

Hyunoh didn’t receive Doyeon’s praise and continued to stare instead.

Doyeon avoided his gaze, finding it difficult to look long and hard at Hyunoh’s pretty brown eyes.

He didn’t know why. He was always able to win staring contests against Kangbin.

Ahem.

“Congratulations on becoming class president. Don’t people with good grades avoid being president, since GPA’s more important and all...? I knew you were going to be class president though.”

“You knew...?” Hyunoh said after a while. His smile was mocking. “I would’ve been class president even if you tried, but thanks. It’s nice to know you made it easy for me.”

…Huh?

Doyeon blinked slowly. The unexpected response rendered his mind blank.

While he struggled to process Hyunoh’s words, he turned his head around. Doyeon stared at Hyunoh’s emotionless side profile.

What the hell? What’s wrong with him? What did I do?

Doyeon stared in stumped silence for a while, then mumbled, “Sorry for trying to take what’s yours, then.”

“Then don’t do it again, Doyeon.”

He was offended by Hyunoh’s easy answer. Doyeon debated glaring at him, but he decided not to care and faced the front.

* * *

That day, Doyeon crouched on the living room floor after going over Aeyoung’s homework with her. Then he poured out the puzzle he received as his birthday gift and began piecing it together one by one.

It was his only hobby whenever he had something on his mind. There was only one puzzle in the household, so he could already tell which edges went together by habit alone. Still, he pieced them together with care.

But it didn’t clear his mind.

What did I do?

It wasn’t fair. He’d had a good opinion of Hyunoh Gong when he first saw him as the freshman representative, and he had been looking forward to becoming friends since they became desk partners.

Wait. I was looking forward to it? Me? Why…?

He looked down at the half-finished puzzle and sighed.

“Why am I doing this?”

It was a small event he would’ve gotten over quickly if it happened with any other classmate. Doyeon would’ve ignored the person entirely, but something was different this time. Hyunoh’s every word and glance kept lingering in his mind.

Doyeon finished the puzzle with practiced hands and clicked his tongue at the final picture. He felt annoyed.

* * *

From then on, Doyeon and Hyunoh’s relationship was estranged. They were desk partners, but they weren’t close. However, they hung out all the time because of Kangbin. Kangbin had dragged Hyunoh into their friend group by using his already established friendship with him.

It was all because they sat in front of him in class, or because their families knew each other, or something like that.

It was natural for the rich to know each other, but knowing that Hyunoh was Kangbin’s family friend made Doyeon uncomfortable.

“...but thanks. It’s nice to know you made it easy for me.”

After that rude exchange, Doyeon never talked to Hyunoh. Hyunoh wasn’t interested in him either.

It was a very strange relationship. It was something that couldn’t be called good or bad. They didn’t talk, but it wasn’t as though they fought, either. So it couldn’t be helped that the dull, oblivious Kangbin frequently tried to drag Hyunoh into their friendship.

Doyeon gave up. It wasn’t as though Hyunoh cared. He didn’t want to appear like some spineless weakling by avoiding Hyunoh.

After lunch, the four moved to a convenience store. There were drinks and vending machines in every corner, and in between were sausages they could heat up, cup noodles, and cup tteokbokkis.

“I’m going to destroy this place today!” Kangbin shouted, stomping toward the food.

Doyeon sat by the window table first and watched Kangbin “destroy” the food like he promised.

He got two drinks from the vending machine, chik chok cookies, homerun balls, and a cup of tteokbokki on top. Behind him, Sunwoo Hong was heating up a sausage.

Hyunoh was at the table already with a piece of chestnut bread in hand, so he had to bear the awkward silence until Kangbin and Sunwoo arrived.

Doyeon clicked his tongue the moment Kangbin sat down. “Kangbin, don’t you think you need more to stuff yourself to death? You just had lunch.”

“School lunch is school lunch! It’s not the same as snacks.”

“Ah, yes. Of course.”

His appetite was great as always. Maybe that was how he reached 180. Hyunoh Gong was holding a whole loaf of chestnut bread himself, which was the size of his face. He only looked normal because Kangbin Baek had way too much food.

Doyeon was sure he saw Hyunoh take four scoops of rice at the cafeteria earlier. These guys were amazing.

Kangbin pulled out his phone and angled it above his snacks.

“Now, it’s snack time, and I’ve got bread and tteokbokki on the menu, with...”

He was filming a vlog for his YouTube channel. When he uploaded his first video recently, he had the dream of gaining 10k followers, but because of his lack of advertising, he only had twenty views and eight likes.

Of course, one view and one like were from Doyeon.

“Why isn’t this opening?”

“Because you’re doing it with one hand, idiot. Use both hands.”

“Damn it! I dropped it!”

Kangbin was all over the place. He had to eat his cookies, drink his drink, open the tteokbokki cup, and record on his phone all at the same time.

“Kangbin, can you stop acting like a... dude. Please.”

Sighing, Doyeon opened the cup for Kangbin. He felt bad for his friend who refused to let go of his phone.

Doyeon poured the tteokbokki sauce for him and wiped the table too. Then he opened the homerun balls and dragged Kangbin’s hand closer to wipe it. There was sauce on his thumb.

Once everything was clean and tidy, Doyeon sat back, satisfied.

He had gotten used to taking care of people since he made a habit of taking care of his nine-year-old sister. Seeing someone in a messy situation made him frustrated.

Hyunoh watched his whole ritual while munching on his bread, then mumbled in a monotone voice.

“Lackey?”