Seventeen Short Stories & Q&A

2. Seokmin

It was lunch time and all my friends gathered in front of the blackboard.

“Hey! Give it to me!”

“What do you not know? Don’t you know that the first one to catch it is the owner?”

“Wow... bad guy”

Friends who couldn't get seats in front of the blackboard sat on the floor and waited for their turn.
As I was staring at the blackboard, something warm touched my hand.
I felt something warm for quite some time, not just for a moment, but when I looked towards my hand, I saw someone holding it. I followed the hand up, and found Lee Seok-min holding my hand.

"Hey, Eunda"

"uh?"

"you"

The moment I thought, "Oh, I'm screwed"

“You come and draw too.”

"Oh, yeah"

Fortunately, I wasn't caught.
Every time Lee Seok-min held hands at school, it went like this. Without anyone noticing. Let me show you another situation.
The day our class president, Seokmin Lee, and the vice president, I, went to a class meeting
He grabbed my hand as I was nervously fiddling under my desk. Just then, the student council president dropped his mechanical pencil and looked down. I quickly pulled my hand away and focused on the meeting, ignoring anyone who caught me. That was how it was on a school day.

“Hey, Eundabin, you were on cleaning duty yesterday, so you took it.”

“I don’t like it and I never stole it.”

“My friends saw it”

“How can you believe that?”

“Raise your hand if you saw the kid stealing what’s mine?”

“Look, all my friends are listening.”

“You planned it to make me a sinner by offering me something.”

"I said no, this is real"

The child who had been accusing me of being the culprit raised his hand, and I squeezed my eyes shut. But feeling nothing, I opened my eyes and saw Seokmin holding the child's hand.

“Huh? Class president.”

photo
“What’s going on? Why are you trying to use a hand-held sword?”

"That kid stole mine. It was there until yesterday, right? The first class hasn't even started yet, so it must have been there yesterday. The last person to go was Eun Da-bin, so it must have been there until then."

“Has anyone seen it?”

“Hey my friends”

"Really? But I didn't steal the kid."

“Huh? How do you prove that?”

“Because I was with the child until the end”

"what?"

Seokmin's remark instantly silenced our class. But then the murmuring began again.

“Hey, why are you with a kid?”

“Because I walk home from school with my child.”

“Why? Because the academies are the same?”

"no"

“Then why are you waiting for me with this piece of trash?”

As soon as Yeo-eun finished speaking, Seok-min's expression turned rotten.

“Hey Lee Seok-min”

He didn't listen to me, perhaps because he was excited. I patted his back, but he didn't even look at me.
“What? You call me a piece of trash?”

“Haha, this is ridiculous.”

“Isn’t that right?”

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“You’re being too harsh with other people’s lovers.”

“What? A, a lover?”

"Seokmin... ha.."

"No, Anne. I saw you putting it in your locker earlier. You came quite early."

Yeo-eun's face instantly turned red. Fortunately, the first period was self-study time, so the teacher didn't come. As Yeo-eun left, a group of children followed her. They stood in a circle, frozen in place.
Only after confirming that Yeo-eun had left did Seok-min look back.
“Eundabin, are you okay?”

He grabbed my shoulder and said this. I nodded cautiously. Seokmin took me into his arms and held me close.

“Thank goodness... You didn’t get hit before I came, did you?”

“Oh, it didn’t work out, but… I was so scared.”

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“Anyway, I’m good at acting tough, but I’m also really nervous.”

“Woo-ee-chun, you’re bad.”

The faces of our friends standing in a circle around us, as if watching street busking, were filled with surprise, wonder, and excitement. One of the kids in our class who was watching left a message on an anonymous bulletin board. To be precise, he filmed it. At first, he started filming to leave a message titled "The Reality of Yeo Woo-eun," but as our images were captured, it changed to "Our School's Official Couple ㄱㄱ."
The children who read the article began to gather in front of our class one by one.
“So now I can give you a lot of skinship? You know everything, right?”

"Why are you so anxious, Lee Seok-min?"

Seokmin smiled brightly at my words. I was standing with my back to the hallway, and he was facing it. The girls screamed at the sight of Seokmin laughing. I watched their reactions and spoke.

“Now I have perfect proof that you are mine, and I am glad that everyone knows you are mine. No one can touch you.”

As soon as I finished speaking, Seokmin said, “What should I do with this cutie!” and held me in his arms again.