For the Seat I Want

They say momentum matters in everything.

Walking into her finals brimming with confidence, Yeoncheong somehow found the problems coming to her easily.

On top of that, when she and her friends compared answers after school, the results weren't bad either — and her confidence soared higher than the sky.

One day, two days, three. Thanks to having adjusted her circadian rhythm in advance, she didn't hit the same physical wall she had during midterms. The grades weren't even out yet, but she was certain that this time, at last, she'd escaped remedial classes.

Yeoncheong was humming a light tune as she finished double-checking her answer sheet and the marks on her answer card when the welcome sound of the bell rang out, and the students erupted in cheers.

Maybe because it was the last exam of the year. Amid the students celebrating louder than anyone, the proctoring teacher quietly finished collecting the answer sheets and slipped out of the classroom.

A short while later, Teacher Jisu, who had been proctoring a different class, came in.

"Alright, kids, I know you're excited, but can you all take your seats for a moment? Everyone's here, right?"

The classmates, knowing that the faster they complied, the faster it would all be over, sat down. As the ruckus died down and she confirmed everyone was present, Teacher Jisu spoke up.

"You all worked hard right up to the end of finals. It's starting to snow a little, so get home safe. See you tomorrow."

A thoughtful teacher, wrapping up the end-of-day announcements quickly for the students' sake. Just as her classmates were crowding to the windows at the mention of snow, Suyeon shot her hand up.

"Teacher! So we're switching seats tomorrow, right?"

"...Ah. That."

The long-postponed seat change issue reared its head.

After a moment's thought, the teacher shook her head.

"Let's not make a hassle of it. First come, first served — sit wherever you like. How's that?"

"Sounds great!"

The students, who had all crowded toward the windows, answered in unison.

With the day officially over, the teacher headed home, and the classmates gathered in their little clusters to discuss where to go and hang out. Yeoncheong and her friends were one of those clusters.

Nayun, shouldering her bag, spoke up first.

"Lunch first, obviously. Where should we go?"

Where would be good? Each of the friends threw out a place they wanted to go — every single one of them, that is, except Yeoncheong.

Ugh... I'm so tired...

Face-down on her desk, Yeoncheong let out a weak whine. Suyeon was the first to notice her state.

"Yeoncheong, are you tired?"

"Yeah, a little."

"Hey, fair enough. You poured every ounce of energy you had into one exam."

Nayun's interjection was the truth.

She'd gone so far as to fine-tune her sleep schedule that if someone teased her for studying like she was prepping for the actual college entrance exam, she'd have had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠no comeback.

So it was only natural that her body sent the signal to rest the moment her goal — the finals — came to an end.

Whether she sensed the words I don't want to go climbing up to the tip of Yeoncheong's tongue, Suyeon swiftly grabbed both her hands, eyes sparkling.

"We're going out together today, right?"

Those mismatched eyes of hers chased relentlessly after Yeoncheong's darting gaze.

Close to her in height, yet leaning down slightly to look up at her — a move that made it crystal clear just how well Suyeon knew what Yeoncheong was weak to.

She'd been on the receiving end since the beginning of the year, and yet... it was her friend's signature move that never quite got any easier to endure.

"Exams are over, you know? And it's the first snow today? You're really not going to come hang out?"

"Ugh... as long as it's not too late."

"Of course not!"

And so, once again, Yeoncheong couldn't win against Suyeon's wheedling.

"Yeoncheong's coming too, right? Let's hurry up and get out of here. I'm starving."

With the friends who'd already settled on a lunch spot, Yeoncheong headed out of school as well.

"It's cold..."

She was still unaccustomed to the feel of stockings, so she'd gone bare-legged throughout finals.

"That's what I said, didn't I? Wear stockings."

"I'll wear them from now on. Give the nagging a rest."

With Yeoncheong and Nayun bickering as usual up front, Suyeon and Seoha were deep in a conspiracy of their ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠own.

"How should we play it?"

"We shouldn't keep her out too late. She really did look tired."

"Then we should send her home around dinnertime, I guess."

The two of them were rivals for Yeoncheong's attention, but today, for once, they were of one mind.

Let's tire Yeoncheong out so she comes in really late tomorrow.

That way, Suyeon and Seoha figured, they could slot Yeoncheong's seat right in between theirs.

It was a plan hatched the instant Teacher Jisu announced first come, first served on seats. They'd been robbed of the spots around Yeoncheong for nearly three whole months, so they meant every bit of it.

Yeoncheong... you poor thing.

And Hasol, watching the entire scheme unfold from the middle of it all, cast a look of profound pity at her friend, who knew nothing.

After lunch — and since it was the first snow, they decided dessert simply had to be bingsu.

Off Yeoncheong and her friends went to a bingsu franchise café.

"Bingsu? In winter?"

"Why not? You eat ice cream in winter too."

Hasol's perfectly accurate point left Yeoncheong with nothing to say.

Just then, Nayun, who'd come back carrying bingsu with Seoha, said:

"Then you can just sit there and watch. We'll eat it all."

"No way."

One bingsu was piled high with cubes of mango; the other was dusted with a generous heap of injeolmi powder.

Being told to merely look at this, right in front of her? Absolutely not.

After mixing the overflowing bingsu thoroughly, Yeoncheong and Nayun plunged their spoons into the injeolmi one, and the rest into the mango — everyone digging into whichever struck their fancy.

Yeoncheong, scooping up an enormous mouthful, suddenly doubled over coughing.

"Khh— cough! Cough...! Ugh..."

"I knew this would happen when you got greedy and piled it that high."

Suyeon, sitting beside her, patted Yeoncheong on the back. Nayun snickered as she scooped a bit off Yeoncheong's heaping bowl for herself, raised it to her mouth, and then—

"C-cough!"

"Hahaha!"

Thanks to the two of them choking on breaths taken carelessly, the table dissolved into waves of laughter.

This time it was Hasol who thumped Nayun on the back and gave her a scolding.

"That's why you mix it properly before you eat. You and Yeoncheong are exactly the same."

"Oh, no we're not."

"Oh, no we're not."

Apparently neither of them took kindly to that. The two of them repeating the words down to the very syllable made even Seoha, who'd been maintaining her poker face, clap a hand over her mouth.

"Pfft..."

"Stop laughing!"

"Stop laughing!"

When even that landed in perfect sync, as if rehearsed in advance, no one at the table could hold out any longer.

With her friends cackling like lunatics, Nayun and Yeoncheong tore into the three of them while glancing around self-consciously. It was sheer dumb luck that there were no other customers.

The moment the bingsu bowls were emptied, the two dragged their friends outside. The arcade was conveniently on the floor below, so they didn't even have to go far.

The instant Yeoncheong and Nayun spotted the basketball machines lined up side by side, their eyes met naturally.

"Go get 'em, Yeoncheong!"

"Show us those basketball club skills!"

Both of them loved basketball, so naturally the two launched into a match with deadly seriousness.

Meanwhile—

Thud.

"No, this thing's rigged!"

"That's just how they are."

"Since when is 'just how they are' an excuse? They made it broken on purpose, didn't they?"

Seoha, playing a claw machine for the very first time, pointed furiously at the wildly flailing claw.

Given her image, they'd guessed she wouldn't be familiar with this sort of thing — but it turned out this was genuinely her first time in an arcade, and everyone couldn't hold back their laughter at the sight of her so flustered and out of her element.

"Yeoncheong!"

"Yeah?"

"Nayun! Seoha! Yeoncheeeong!"

"Hey! Don't yell people's names while you're whacking moles!"

Suyeon and Hasol hammered away mercilessly at the moles popping out of their holes while screaming their friends' names.

Perhaps because they'd worked up a good sweat going wild in the arcade, the weather outside — where the first snow was falling — felt less cold than before.

Yeoncheong chased a snowflake drifting down like it was floating on air with her hand. The instant it touched her skin, it melted away into a tiny droplet.

Watching her, Suyeon's lips quivered.

"Ahh~ it'd be so much nicer if it piled up."

It seemed to gather bit by bit on the trees and car roofs, but on the road and the pavement it melted the moment it touched down, leaving everything in an awkward in-between state.

For once, Yeoncheong nodded in agreement with Suyeon's sentiment.

"Yeah, snowball fights..."

"Snowmen..."

"Hm?"

"Huh?"

Yeoncheong was thinking of snowball fights; Suyeon, of snowmen.

The two, who'd assumed they were thinking the same thing, had veered subtly apart.

Glancing around, Suyeon gathered the thin layer of snow on a car roof with her bare hands. She pressed it firmly into a small ball and hurled it straight at Yeoncheong.

With a soft thump, the snowball burst against her coat, and Suyeon, anticipating retaliation, swiftly ducked away.

But the excitement carried over from the arcade hadn't yet worn off and her attention was dulled; she also failed to account for the ground, which — like the barely-there snow — had melted into a slushy, treacherous mess.

"Kyaaa!"

And so Suyeon went down, quite literally with a resounding crash.

"Suyeon!"

"Hey, you okay?"

The startled friends rushed over to her.

She put on a composed front and got to her feet in front of everyone, but the way her eyes welled up said it had hurt quite a bit.

While Hasol, Nayun, and Seoha brushed the snow off her clothes and asked if she was all right, Yeoncheong ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠— her face scrunched up tight — did something entirely different.

"You really..."

"Sorry. I was just messing around..."

Suyeon apologized, lips jutting out in a pout, but Yeoncheong's expression didn't soften.

"Not for that."

"Ehh? ...Ow ow ow."

Yeoncheong pinched her friend's cheek, lips still trembling.

"If you'd fallen wrong, something really bad could've happened. Don't give me a heart attack like that."

Regardless of age, hitting your head first in a fall can lead to serious injury.

Her raised voice sounded, on the surface, like anger — but worry was thick within it.

Her round blue eyes looked ready to pop out of her head, and even in this very moment her gaze kept sweeping over every inch of Suyeon's body — all of it showing just badly she'd been startled.

Faced with the tenderness of her friend — no, of the girl she liked — Suyeon averted her eyes and gave a small nod.

But apparently that didn't sit well with her either, because Yeoncheong went on tugging at her friend's cheek for a good long while, rattling off a lecture about being careful.

Whether the pinching and pulling was embarrassing, Suyeon shook her head and swatted her hand away.

"Ow! Enough! Your hands are freezing!"

She puffed her cheeks out as round as they'd go, shooting Yeoncheong a very clear warning to knock it off.

Honestly... as warnings went, it wasn't the least bit scary.

The next day.

Buried face-first in her bed, Yeoncheong was still off in dreamland.

After that, they'd gone to a karaoke box too, and she hadn't made it home until dinner was done. When she was out having fun, the tiredness never made itself known, so she'd gone absolutely wild — and now that she was home, she was completely drained.

Even in her sleep, her fingers were miraculously adept at killing alarms. What actually woke her was the ringtone.

She'd been swiping at her phone on pure instinct when she realized this was no alarm and bolted upright in bed.

"H-hello?"

Freshly awakened, Yeoncheong had no idea what she was hearing.

She naturally lifted her head to check the clock. She had no memory of turning off her alarm, and yet the clock declared that the time to leave for school had already passed.

Could the clock be broken? Clutching at a sliver of hope, she checked the time in the corner of her smartphone — but reality remained unchanged.

At the sound of her swallowing, followed by a clatter and crash, Teacher Jisu, waiting on the other end of the line, called for her again.

Yeoncheong, half rolling off the bed, hurriedly pressed the phone to her ear.

"Yes, Teacher! Um... I just left the house! I'm so sorry. I'll be there super fast."

And with that final instruction, Teacher Jisu hung up on the world's most frantic student.

Yeoncheong tossed her shed dolphin pants carelessly onto the bed and changed into her uniform, crammed the pantyhose Nayun had bought her into her bag, and headed for ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the bathroom. No time for hair. She wiped her face down, skipped breakfast entirely, and bolted out of the house.

"AAAAARGH!"

A scream containing many, many things.

For a moment she resented the friends who'd insisted on dragging her out to play, but since she'd had plenty of fun herself, she didn't really have grounds to complain.

Small mercies: thanks to living close by, she'd make it before first period.

The seating arrangement was different from usual. Only then did it dawn on her that today was seat-change day. As she looked around for an open seat, her gaze drifted toward the voice calling out to her.

"Yeoncheong, over here. This one's still free."

A somehow familiar seat, boxed in on one side by the hallway wall.

The difference: her neighbor wasn't Hasol but Suyeon. And Seoha sat behind her, while Hasol and Nayun occupied the two seats in front.

"This is your seat."

If jumping into a fire of your own accord ever had a feeling, this would be it.

As she walked toward the seat — surrounded on every side, without a single gap to escape through — Yeoncheong thought to herself:

Ha... how many days left until winter break?