Wooseok, who had been quietly rolling his eyes in the suffocatingly quiet classroom, barely able to hear the sound of pencil lead rubbing against paper, closed the workbook he was working on. The teacher was right in front of him, watching him, and the silence was so quiet that it was difficult to concentrate. A notebook, its cover now faded, was placed on top of the still-vivid workbook cover. When Wooseok struggles to concentrate, he writes in this notebook. It could be a diary entry, a novel, or just random scribbles. No matter what, writing a few words relaxes him and helps him focus again. At least for Wooseok, that's how it is.
Today, I wrote down phrases I remembered from a work I learned in literature class.
You spread to me and before I knew it, you became me
I spread to you again
Love has to spread, it has to spread
I just wrote it because it sounded good, but when I actually copied it into my notebook and wrote it down, it was so awkward that I looked around. It was a poem I first encountered in second-grade Korean language class, and it was the one that struck Woo-seok the most: Jang Seok-nam's "Blur."
“Oh, isn’t that you guys?”
The silence during this study period wasn't due to the students' diligent study, but rather their instincts. The number of students, including Woo-seok, who were still working on something, eyes still wide open, could be counted on one hand. It was a natural study period after the final exams in the second year, but perhaps the music teacher, perhaps uncomfortable with so many students sleeping, opened his mouth and began telling a different story.
“There’s a student in our school who is a member of an idol group, among the first-year students.”
Woo-seok, who had been staring at his notebook because the order of the lines in the poem he'd written earlier seemed out of place, raised his head slightly and stared at the teacher. "An idol in the same school?" It was strange to think he and an idol were going to the same school, and it was also strange to think the idol was attending a humanities high school.
"Ever since he entered school, he'd always be late for practice, and he'd be leaving school early, but he eventually debuted. Don't you know this? The first-year students even put Post-it notes on the hallway window of his class, saying, "Congratulations on your debut."
“What group is it?”
This story seemed to have caught the attention of a few. They'd been dozing off or sleeping until just a moment ago, but now they were completely absorbed in what the teacher was saying. For most kids, that interest didn't last long, but not Woo-seok. He seemed to be engrossed in his notebook, ignoring the teacher's words, but he was actually writing about that idol. He could only write down the group's name and age. He didn't hear the name of the idol from the teacher.
The teacher, feeling the kids were no longer interested in his story, went back to his own work. Wooseok had many questions about the idol, but he didn't feel like asking, so he opened his workbook again and studied. Even as he worked on the problems, the thought "Who is this idol who attends our school?" kept lingering in his mind.
As soon as he got home, Wooseok searched for the group name. Several members were a year younger than him. So he searched for the name of Wooseok's high school along with the group name, but nothing came up.
"He's a rookie from a small agency. He's an idol without any senior entertainers from the same agency to promote the group."
It was the same in the past, but these days, it's even harder for idols to become popular. It would be a different story if they were a truly exceptional group. Wooseok, who has a certain interest in idols, felt sorry for the idol members who went to the same school as him, whose names and faces he still didn't know. Of course, they could become ShooS, but the road to that point would probably be tearfully difficult. While thinking these pointless thoughts, he searched more about the group and found a member who graduated from the middle school right next door. This member is the only one who graduated from a middle school outside of Seoul, and he's also a year younger than Wooseok.
“These guys. Our school idols.”
It couldn't be helped. Wooseok, convinced of that, took a closer look at the member. His name was Lee Han-gyeol. He seemed relatively tall by Wooseok's standards. His physique and visuals were both fine. They say there are visuals and centers within the group, though. Curious, he turned on the debut music video. He wondered if the member would catch his eye in the video.
“The song... doesn’t seem like it’s going to be a hit.”
Since I had memorized the members' faces, it wasn't too difficult to find Han-gyeol in the music video. The same goes for the stage footage. While his parts weren't extensive, he seemed to have taken on a catchy one. The problem was that Woo-seok, who had listened to a lot of idols and liked almost all of them, didn't like the debut song. It was just a pretty decent debut song.
“But it’s a good start... so I guess I can look forward to it?”
Looking back now, that assessment seems overly subjective. Kim Wooseok, despite being complete strangers, had already begun rooting for Lee Han-gyeol simply because they were schoolmates. That doesn't mean Wooseok diligently researched the members or the group after that day. He simply assumed there was an idol like this at his school.
-
“But what are you going to do about school? Are you going to transfer to a preparatory school?”
When his friend brought up the topic of school, Han-gyeol paused for a moment and then spoke.
“...I haven't thought about that yet. For now, I just need to keep coming here.”
It was definitely tough for Han-gyeol, commuting from his dorm to school was usually an hour by car. He'd often doze off in class and get scolded for it. Despite all this, Han-gyeol never seriously considered transferring to an arts high school. He simply felt too attached to the kids in this neighborhood. Now that he'd debuted, he wouldn't be able to attend school as often, but he felt like transferring would completely cut him off from the kids here. He wasn't close with everyone at the school, but he felt like leaving would mean losing all his friends, so he didn't consider transferring.
“It must be really hard to commute.”
"I can do a two-hour round trip in no time, so take care of yourself. Don't get nosebleeds so easily."
“Mr. Lee. Thank you for your concern.”
Han-gyeol, who had been chuckling at his friend's tantrum after a little teasing, sighed inwardly as he reflected on his friend's words. It's not that he didn't feel worried. More than school, he worried about whether he could do well in his idol career. He'd thought debuting would make him feel ahead of everyone else, but he was also worried that one small move could lead to falling behind.
“You put up so many Post-it notes. Oh, when will you ever take them all off?”
Just as he was about to feel a little gloomy, the kid on cleaning duty grumbled, causing Han-gyeol to chuckle. Han-gyeol is a rookie idol, having debuted only a week ago. He hasn't even fully taken a step yet to worry about the future. It won't be too late to worry about the future until he's taken a few more steps. For now, he's just enjoying the joy of debuting a little more.
-
Hearing the constant call "I'm a prospective high school senior" made me feel like time was passing quickly. The end-of-year school festival was fast approaching. Woo-seok didn't particularly enjoy school festivals. While each club's experience time allowed them to do whatever they wanted (in fact, Woo-seok had to guard their club experience booths), they were required to gather in the auditorium during talent show time. They didn't even let them use the restroom. I wanted to leave early right after lunch, but I couldn't bring myself to do that because leaving early would be recorded in my student record.
“School festivals are so annoying.”
“If you say that, Captain, our motivation to prepare the club experience booth will drop.”
Woo-seok, who had been grumbling late into the night while preparing the experience booth, threw a Christmas tree ornament at the nagging first officer. It was already dented and useless. The blow must have hit him square in the forehead, causing the first officer to grumble loudly. Woo-seok ignored the grumbling first officer and asked the next first-year student to finish the job before heading to the principal's office. He'd just received a call from his club teacher informing him that the school newspaper had arrived for the year.
“We’ll distribute the school newspaper to all students next week, so for now, just take a few copies for the school festival.”
Woo-seok, who was carefully setting up the school paper because it was brand new, picked up one out of curiosity. It was a paperback he'd spent months painstakingly crafting, so naturally he wanted to get it and read it. Woo-seok, who'd been reading mostly the articles he'd written and the materials he'd collected, hesitated on the class introduction page. To be precise, it was the first-year class introduction page.
“I wonder if he has a name.”
Since it was a page decorated by students in each class, there were a lot of classes that had all the names of the children in the class written on them. Woo-seok carefully looked at the class introduction pages of all the first-year classes, wondering if Lee Han-gyeol was among them. In the last class, they randomly wrote a three-line poem with a friend's name, and the most striking one was
This story
Han Han-gyeol
Well, that's how it ended up being.
It was. This three-line poem was clearly written by someone before Han-gyeol debuted, and it seems they were certain that he would debut. This three-line poem, which might seem like a diss to someone who doesn't know him, was more interesting than Woo-seok's class introduction page.
"I wonder if he'll take this. They say they're giving it out to the entire school..."
Maybe Han-gyeol didn't show up to school on the day the newsletter was distributed, so he might not get one. Thinking about that, Woo-seok felt a pang of disappointment and muttered as he put the newsletter down.
"If you're not going to accept the school newsletter, I wish you'd perform at the school festival. It'd be less boring."
I tilted my head at my own words. Why was I so interested in him?