“Hey, can you tell I’m Lee Han-gyeol?”
“Hey. Even if you wear sunglasses and a mask, you can tell it’s Lee Han-gyeol.”
“No. Do you think I look like an idol to a complete stranger, let alone you?”
"Well... don't you think of me as just an ordinary student with dyed hair? You haven't been running around school much since your debut."
“I see...”
While eating a mediocre meal, Han-gyeol looked around and spoke to his friend. He asked if he was standing out too much. At first, his friend dismissed Han-gyeol's words, but then sensed something was off and asked him.
"Why are you so self-conscious about what other people think? You weren't like that even a few months ago."
"...uh?"
"You were just someone who recognized you, and if not, you wouldn't. Well, I guess it's okay if you want someone to recognize you, but right now, you seem worried that someone might recognize you."
“Oh, that’s...”
Before Han-gyeol could finish speaking, the bell rang, and his friend next to him hurriedly left, carrying his tray. The students who had remained in the cafeteria late were busy finishing their meals and heading back to their classrooms. Han-gyeol stared silently at his still-empty tray, slowly eating what was left. He was scheduled to leave early for afternoon classes anyway, so he only had to make it to the teacher's office by fifth period and show up. While the other students might have envied this situation, it wasn't particularly favorable for Han-gyeol. It was just the way it was.
“I told you to go up quickly.”
“... Uh uh.”
Hadn't everyone gone up to their classrooms except me? Hangyul thought he was the only one left in the cafeteria, so he turned his attention to the other students still there. Judging by their name tags, he was a third-year student, first in line for lunch. It was surprising that a third-year student was still in the cafeteria at this hour. Actually, what was even more surprising was that he felt one of them staring intently at him.
“Usually, it’s the second-year students who recognize me… but do any of the upperclassmen recognize me?”
-
“Seungyeon ate late because she was the captain of the broadcasting club. What about you, Kim Wooseok?”
“I was going to skip lunch because I wasn’t feeling well, but I felt a little better so I ate it, even if it was late...”
“Yeah, good job.”
I was a few minutes late for class, but I was praised for eating. I laughed, wondering what was going on.
By the second semester of my third year, all the teachers had finished their work and started giving us self-study time. Was this school or a study room? If it weren't for attendance, it would have been more efficient to just go to the study room when I was supposed to be at school. This time, the teacher's study time was completely free, so he didn't stop me from playing around on my laptop or tablet. Woo-seok was memorizing model answers to past essay questions saved on his laptop. Studying by copying the model answers into a notebook was incredibly tedious. As he continued to study in this tedious manner, his mind wandered. Finally, noticing the teacher dozing off at the podium, Woo-seok temporarily replaced the model essay answers with something else on the screen.
The official fan cafe for the group Han-gyeol is a part of. It's not a very active fan cafe, so aside from fan letters, most of the posts were from a few days ago. Just in case, I checked the letters written by the group members, and the last one from Han-gyeol was a few months ago. His last visit was also a month ago.
‘This kid doesn’t really get into public school.’
I initially thought she wasn't receiving much incoming mail, but looking at her previous letters, it doesn't seem like that's the case. She must be busy these days. Thinking this, Woo-seok brought up the model answer sheet on the screen again.
-
Wooseok went to the computer lab to submit his applications. The school's Wi-Fi wasn't active, making it extremely inconvenient to use his personal laptop for university applications. Just as he was about to turn on his computer, Seungyeon, who had arrived at some point, tapped him. He turned around to see Seungyeon pointing at Wooseok and speaking to a junior sitting next to him.
“He’s that nerd.”
"huh?"
“Oh, hyung, when you say that, that senior gets flustered.”
Wooseok was dumbfounded by Seungyeon's sudden introduction of him as a fanboy. He was certainly a fanboy, but he didn't understand why he'd introduce himself that way to a junior he'd just met, and he didn't even know what kind of fanboy he was. When Seungyeon quickly added that he was a Lee Han-gyeol fanboy, Wooseok quickly accepted the introduction.
“And Woo-seok, this is Kim Yo-han, and he’s Lee Han-gyeol’s friend.”
"When you say it like that, it makes me sound like we're best friends. We just say hello when we see each other."
After hearing the story, Yohan transferred from his original club to Seungyeon's broadcasting club, and since he seemed to know Han-gyeol a little, he brought him to Woo-seok right away. Woo-seok had decided to stay out of Han-gyeol's school life as much as possible, but when he met Han-gyeol's close junior, he found himself asking him questions he'd been curious about.
“It seems like Han-gyeol has been coming to school a lot lately.”
"That's right. I ran into him on my way to school today and said hello to him. Now that I think about it, it seems like we've been going out almost every day these days."
“Kim Woo-seok, don’t you meet Lee Han-gyeol sometimes too?”
“To be exact, I saw Han-gyeol at school. We didn’t meet.”
It certainly seemed like Yohan had some kind of connection with Han-gyeol. He told them about going to the same school since elementary school, and he shared anecdotes. One was about how they attended the same taekwondo academy. Another was how Han-gyeol joined the dance club and performed at every school festival. Another was how he saw Han-gyeol riding in a van home from school after joining the debut team. Most of these stories weren't easily found online, so Woo-seok forgot about his application for a moment, completely absorbed in what Yohan had to say.
After Seungyeon and Yohan left, Wooseok, who had to go to the broadcasting studio, finished submitting his application. Before turning off his computer, he logged on to the official fan cafe. There were a lot of new posts today, but something felt off. As if it were a personal fan cafe, all the new posts were related to Hankyul. Wondering what was going on, he checked the bulletin board and found a notice that had been up for a few hours. "This is **Entertainment." Wooseok felt a sense of ominousness at the notice, which he couldn't understand without reading the main text. Usually, notices with titles like this on idol fan cafes are usually about negative topics.