🎶 Personperson - dance with me 🎶
* this The text is WORTH IT COMPANYof Kumi Glo, The cover is Mirungji You, The text is Dalwol; Part 1 | Saturn Your In the middle mudfish my To the second half Continued In this way It was produced. It's a fairly long piece of writing, but I guarantee that after you finish reading it, you'll feel like it was worth the time you invested in reading it. *
—
The irony of timingAbove (upper) - Dalwol;
"I'm going to school," I said, but my father mumbled, "Come on in." I knew I'd been late with work yesterday, so I didn't bother waking him up like usual. Instead, I simply covered him with another blanket and closed the curtains, letting in the light. After closing them, I finished getting ready 30 minutes early, packed my bag, grabbed a water bottle, and left. I waited for Kim Taehyung at his apartment for 15 minutes.
A few minutes later, Kim Taehyung came rushing downstairs. Seeing him in his shabby bird's nest, with his eye boogers clinging to his eyes, I sighed deeply. "I told you to take care of yourself," he said. Well, in comparison, his expression was incredibly bright and innocent.
"Jimin! Did you wait for me again today?"
"No. We just happened to run into each other."

"How many years has this coincidence been repeating itself?"
“Shut up, Kim Taehyung.”
Of course, today wasn't smooth sailing either.
***
We passed through the school gate. Kim Taehyung and I were having a clear conversation as usual, and today, there were a lot of eyes looking at Kim Taehyung and me.
How many eyes are there in total? Two, four, six, eight…
The number of eyeballs must have been at least 30. I gave up counting them and just thought, "What day is it today?" I ignored them and passed by.

"I'm going~ I'll be there soon, Park Jimin!"
"Be quiet. You're annoying."
"Woof~"
Because we were in different classes, I had some time alone. It wasn't a particularly awkward way to describe it, but perhaps it was because the time he was there and the time he wasn't there were distinctly different. Right now, all I could do was wait for Kim Taehyung to arrive later.
"Hey, Park Jimin's dad...is like this."
"real?"
"Oh! Really."
"Wow, this is fucking crazy-."
But no matter how much I thought about it and listened, the school was noisy from the morning. My name was unconditionally engraved in my ears. I was already tired from going to bed at 4 a.m. last night, so I shook my head at the nagging, which only made me feel worse. "They'll just believe some wild rumor and gossip again. It's all the same," I muttered, opening my workbook to pour out my time while waiting for Kim Taehyung.
But what felt strangely unsettling was that the gossiping kids would always glance at me, always keeping an eye on me. They'd glance at me, then when our eyes met, they'd quickly roll their eyes and avoid my gaze. It made me wonder, "How could this be about me?" But well... I'm not the type to care about such things. Even if it were about me, how fatal would it be? The most important thing is that only Kim Taehyung would know, so that's okay.
"Whatever you hear is just a rumor."
It was a word spoken with such conviction that the room fell silent.
***
"Jimin, today's lunch is seasoned ribs!"
"huh."
"I'm going to go in line today. Should I go first and call the secretary?"
"I see."
Kim Taehyung came to my desk again. Watching me copy and paste the problem and do the math, he said, "He's from a different class, and he keeps coming and going. He gets caught by our homeroom teacher and gets scolded. He smiles and apologizes." It was a familiar repertoire, and seeing him repeat it every day, I could clearly see it repeating itself again today.
"What's for lunch today? What rumors are going around? What happened yesterday?" he mutters, completely alone. He tirelessly talks, knowing that a warm, lingering answer won't come.
Thanks to that, I've been listening to him rambling for the past ten minutes. "This math unit is the hardest I've ever learned. How did you solve it?" "I can't do it, but you're a genius for solving it." He kept praising me, but I looked at him as if I was getting tired of this too.
And just as Kim Taehyung was about to open his mouth again, the bell rang at just the right time. Kim Taehyung screamed, "Ah!" and ran out of the classroom, only to be caught by the homeroom teacher. He was hanging precariously, his neck still held. Having been forcibly dragged into our class, Kim Taehyung became everyone's laughing stock, and I, too, covered my face and chuckled softly.
Kim Taehyung was the only one who was dying because his homeroom teacher had to come in early every day. He clearly had been lenient with him in his first year of high school, so why was he acting like this? It occurred to me that his nickname, "Alarm Clock Bastard," wasn't for nothing.
"Okay, today... there's no assembly. Kim Taehyung, follow me."
Actually, today isn't 'eun', today is 'do'. Thanks to Kim Taehyung, our class never has assemblies. Scolding and assemblies wouldn't be enough for one period, so it was the alarm clock's bold choice to eliminate assemblies.
Drumroll-
Kim Taehyung was dragged away with the door closed. The classmates gathered around and giggled, saying, "Thank you, Kim Taehyung!" I, too, went to my locker to get my textbook to prepare for my first period Korean language class.
I walked down the hallway to my locker, entered the password, and opened the door. Korean Language 2-2. I had just grabbed my notebook and books and locked the door. I ran into Min Yoongi, a student in my class who I didn't know very well.
He kept looking at the ground, so I tried to ignore him and walk away, but he kept kicking me. I ruffled his hair and asked him in a higher-pitched tone than usual, "What's the matter?"
"What's going on?"
"…"
"What's going on?"
"…"
"Are you dumb? You have to answer me."
"Your father."
"…"
"You're a gangster?"
"…what?"
The Irony of Timing(Medium) - Ryu Sae-turn
It felt like the world had stopped. At the same time, the thought crossed my mind: if that's the case, then everyone's been talking about me today, and it was all about my dad and me. My dad's job was just a gangster, but he'd never treated me badly. He'd always bring me chicken after work, and he'd buy me lots of toys. He'd always been a good person, ever since I was little. To me, the word "gangster" was just "dad's job."
"Who did you hear that from?"
But I've known since I was young that not everyone thinks like me, and perhaps that's why I never brought up my father's job outside of class. Whenever I did, all I got in return were stares and terrified looks.
"Who told you?"
"It's already a rumor that's spread throughout the school, but who knows where it started? You're just talking without knowing everything, right?"
I should have realized that society is one where people talk nonsense even when they don't know the exact facts. Min Yoongi glanced at me with pity for a moment before continuing on his way. Only one person knew my father was a gangster. That "Kim Taehyung" who had just been scolded by his homeroom teacher. And I wished this whole situation was a dream.
***
"Park Jimin! What are you doing?"
After calming my confused mind and barely finishing first period, Kim Taehyung quickly ran to my seat as soon as the bell rang for recess. Seeing him speak to me in a bright voice as soon as he arrived, I sometimes feel like I'm being utterly dirty. Kim Taehyung is so pure, I feel like I shouldn't be around him. Today was no different. I was the dirty one who thought I was the one who started that rumor about Kim Taehyung.
"I'm sleepy, so I'm going to sleep. Why?"
"Actually, I have something to say! You know..."
I was anxious. What on earth would come out of that ceaselessly moving mouth? I hoped it wasn't what I thought it was. I hoped, please, that it wasn't you who spread that rumor. But that wasn't what came out of that mouth. At the very least, it was a very innocent, Kim Taehyung-like remark that seemed to confirm that I was truly a bad person.
"Our class gets lunch earlier today, so I'll stand at the back of our class. You stand at the front of your class. Then we can eat together!"
"Is that all?"
" huh? "
"Did you come all the way here just to say that?"
"Yeah, that's all. I just want to have lunch together!"
Kim Taehyung's heart-shaped mouth, smiling bashfully, increasingly confused me. Surely he's not the only one unaware of this rumor, even the person involved knows about it. Why doesn't he bring it up? Why do we only talk about the school lunches, and why is your expression so innocent? Everyone looks at me and spits out bad words, but why, why do you always make me feel so down? Why? Why do you always make me feel so down?
"I can't eat with you today."
"Why? Do you have a friend you're planning to eat with? It's okay! I'm friendly!"
"That's not it."
"Then why? Why don't you eat with me? Do you not like it when I talk a lot while eating?"
I wanted to trust you. I thought I could trust you, but what can I do when everyone but you is talking about you and me? No one knows that my dad is a gangster by trade, but a very kind person, and that you didn't say anything. Everyone is whispering about us, not knowing if it's true or not. So, if you weren't the one who started the rumors, the best thing I could do was get you out of my sight.
"Let's not eat together anymore, Bob."
And that, contrary to my plan, ended up driving Kim Taehyung into a corner.
***
"I guess Kim Taehyung really started the rumor... They used to eat together every day, but today they're not eating together."
"Hey, Park Jimin's dad killed Kang Seung Hoon too."
"What? Kang Seung-hoon?"
Who is Kang Seung-hoon again? Can you please stop arguing among yourselves about things you don't even know and just keep quiet? Even though everyone keeps saying it's Kim Tae-hyung, I thought it couldn't be him. So I wondered who else besides Kim Tae-hyung would know my family history. Of course not. No one besides Kim Tae-hyung would know. Even when I considered the variable of having seen my dad kill someone in a fit of rage when I was being beaten by thugs, Kim Tae-hyung was by my side that day too. And he was crying so hard.
"Hey... you're bleeding..."
"I know. Of course I'm bleeding since I got hit."
"You're bleeding..."
"I know, so why do you keep... Hey, are you crying?"
"It's bleeding... blood... It's bleeding..."
Yeah, really. The kid cried so much, how could he have spread a rumor? Kim Taehyung and I haven't only known each other for 1 or 2 years, we've been friends for 11 years, since we were 8. Would he suddenly say something he never said in 11 years? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Even if you can't trust other people, you have to trust Kim Taehyung. It's Kim Taehyung, Kim Taehyung. Kim Taehyung. Kim Taehyung, so pure and clean. How could a kid like that do that? Kim Taehyung is absolutely not. It shouldn't be.
***
"Let's eat together, Taehyung."
In the end, I went to Kim Taehyung's class and asked him to eat. I thought that if I continued like this, it would seem like it was Kim Taehyung even though he wasn't the one who started it, so I went during the third period break. Kim Taehyung was sitting by the window, his head against the wall, his eyes unfocused, as if he was hurt by what I said earlier. When I entered the class and approached Kim Taehyung, all the kids in his class whispered.
"No, if it makes you uncomfortable, you don't have to eat it together."
"It's okay, let's eat together. Put that sad expression away."
"Okay, let's do that."
Kim Taehyung turned his head, which was leaning against the wall, toward me and smiled. Of course, it wasn't the heart-shaped smile from before, but a truly basic emoticon-like grin. It felt like he was forcing the corners of his lips to twitch. Of course, I didn't notice it right away, and at the time, all I could think was, "I'll ask you discreetly while we're eating." I want to trust you, but my trust is based solely on circumstantial evidence, so I'll try to get some evidence. After all, Kim Taehyung isn't unconditionally right.
When the lunch bell rang, I stood at the front of the cafeteria line, just as Kim Taehyung had instructed. I peeked through the front door and saw that, as expected, Kim Taehyung was standing at the very end. The class filed into the cafeteria, and I stood behind Kim Taehyung, contemplating how to speak without misunderstanding, yet still get the truth out of him. Even as I was getting my lunch, and even as the marinated ribs Kim Taehyung had emphasized arrived, that was all I could think about. Finally, when I was seated, I spoke to Kim Taehyung.
"But you know what? It's been rumored that my dad is a gangster."
"Yeah, I heard it from the kids in class earlier."
"Did you see anyone else that day besides yourself?"
"That day? The day you got hit by Kang Seung-hoon? No, no one was there."
Ah, that was Kang Seung-hoon. After gaining this new information, I thought about what to say next. Of course I could. I was just asking innocently, and Kim Tae-hyung would just answer innocently. However, if Kim Tae-hyung misunderstood or I lost control of my expression, it was easy to mess up the question. I ran countless mental simulations before I finally spoke.
"Then who the hell are you? There was no one else besides you, wasn't that what you were talking about?"
Maybe I shouldn't have said that last word. I turned my gaze slightly to check Kim Taehyung's reaction, and the first thing I saw was Kim Taehyung glaring at me fiercely. His eyes weren't teary, but they were still wet, and his expression was filled with anger, disappointment, and resentment. Something was wrong.
"You're like that now..."
" taehyoung kim. "
“Do you think I’ve been talking about you too? About your father, too?”
"Taehyung, I didn't ask with that intention, I just wanted to trust you."
“Jimin, at least you, at least you…”
You can't do this to me.
The Irony of Timing Part 2 (Part 2) - Gyeom
Taehyung looked at me with resentment, eyes filled with betrayal. He picked up his plate and left without even touching the marinated ribs he'd been craving. I sat there dumbfounded, perhaps shocked by Taehyung's gaze and tone, something I'd never seen before. I quickly came to my senses and set out to find Kim Taehyung.
—
I searched until lunchtime was over, and I finally found Taehyung in a place where few people gathered, a dusty gym storage room that had been neglected by the school. Taehyung had returned to his usual self, crouched in a corner of the gym storage room, sobbing and mumbling. Seeing him, my heart ached, and I apologized to him.
“Taehyung, I was wrong.. I’m sorry.”
I'd never properly apologized before, so it was hard to utter the words. But I clasped my hands, closed my eyes tightly, bowed my head, and offered my apology. Then, I glanced at Taehyung. But the response I received was utterly cold. The Taehyung I'd known just moments before had vanished, leaving only the ferocious Kim Taehyung I'd seen in the cafeteria earlier.
"Okay. It was my fault. It's all my fault. It was my fault for wanting to be close to you, and it was my fault for seeing you getting beaten up by Kang Seung-hoon."
“Hey.. Why are you saying that.. I’m sorry. Okay? I definitely didn’t ask that because I doubted you.”
Even though I apologized over and over again, Taehyung must have been very hurt. He glared at me several times from where he was crouching, then jumped up and kicked open the door to the gym warehouse and ran out.
—
Taehyung, who always waited for me from the early morning, was now hanging out with his classmates, and I also hung out with other kids in my own way, but something heavy remained in my heart, and I always worried about Kim Taehyung. If I had followed and caught Kim Taehyung when he kicked open the warehouse door. No, if I hadn't tried Taehyung in the first place, wouldn't Taehyung be chattering next to me right now? The thought that I had hurt that innocent kid too much kept tormenting me.
As if unaware of my true nature, when Taehyung and I stopped hanging out together at school, rumors began to circulate that he'd been talking about my father. But it didn't take long for the rumors to die down, as if the public lost interest, and the rumors about my father died down, and the mention of Taehyung gradually faded away, and it seemed like our relationship was growing increasingly distant.
A few weeks had passed, and ever since Taehyung and I had fallen out, whenever I wanted to gather my thoughts or be alone, I'd developed a habit of going into that gym storage room, closing my eyes and lying down in the dusty pit. Today, wanting a moment of solitude, I was lying down in that gym storage room like usual, when I heard someone open the door.
Because it was such a quiet place, I jumped up in surprise, and because of me, dust flew up and my vision became blurry in an instant. As I got up, I took a deep breath and barely managed to hold back a cough as I asked who it was. However, the other person either didn't expect anyone to be there or was holding back a cough, so there was no answer. Moreover, since the lights in the gym warehouse were off, my already poor visibility was further complicated by the dust, making it difficult to see ahead properly, so I approached the door where the other person was standing.
The person standing at the door was Taehyung, and our eyes met, and we both froze in place, both flustered. The atmosphere quickly became awkward, and I tried to break the ice, laughing awkwardly and speaking to Taehyung as naturally as I could. Of course, it wasn't natural at all.
“Oh, did you eat well..? I got the marinated ribs you wanted to eat last time for lunch today.”
“Yeah.. I ate it. As expected, it was really delicious.”
But after that conversation, silence flowed again. Perhaps it was because, except for a week when Taehyung's family went on a trip in kindergarten, we'd been together every single day, so this was the first time we'd been apart for this long. Fortunately, though, it seemed like we weren't on bad terms yet. Judging by Taehyung's expression, he had something he wanted to say but couldn't.
I couldn't help but laugh out loud at the sight of Taehyung, whom I hadn't seen in a long time. Taehyung looked startled and embarrassed when he saw me laughing, but soon he laughed with me. After looking at each other for a while like that, I stopped laughing and said a word to Taehyung.
"By the way, should we go to the PC bang today? You like PC bangs, don't you?"
Taehyung heard me say that and smiled bashfully, saying it was okay. We left the gym storage room, shaking off all the dust from our uniforms.
—
So Taehyung returned to his usual routine of staying in my class until morning assembly and getting taken away by the teacher, and now we ignore how other kids see us or what rumors are going around, and we have broken down the barriers between A and B and have become a little closer, so much so that it seems like we can spend the remaining time together happily.
—
Hold me closely and stay with me
(Hold me tight and stay by my side)
And never leave again
(Please don't leave me again)
‘Cause you are my best friend
(Because you are my best friend)
* I will inform you again.this The text is WORTH IT COMPANYof Kumi Glo, The cover is Mirungji You, The text is Dalwol; Part 1 | Saturn Your In the middle mudfish my To the second half Continued In this way It was produced. *