The Loose Days After Exams
With finals completely behind them, the school was the same everywhere—students drifting through the days waiting for winter break to arrive.
All that remained was checking grades and, depending on the results, remedial classes...
“Hey everyone, I posted the remedial class list on the bulletin board.”
At Yeoncheong's announcement, fresh from a trip to the teachers' office, a few students filed out toward the front of the room. She herself had already checked the list on her way back, and quietly returned to her seat without so much as a flicker of joy or disappointment.
Watching her friend squint at the list from all the way across the room, Suyeon finally couldn't hold back.
“So? How'd it go?”
Suyeon, sitting right beside her, was the one who asked, but Hasol in front and Seoha behind both perked up their ears and leaned in.
Yeoncheong silently raised her thumb. Mindful of the other classmates who were only listening in, she hesitated before letting her lips part.
“Passed everything.”
“Kyaaaa! Yeoncheong, you did it!”
“Congratulations.”
“You worked hard.”
Her friends celebrated Yeoncheong's escape from remedial classes as if it were their own triumph. Suyeon clung to her more tightly than usual while Seoha casually patted her head from behind—but it was a happy day, so Yeoncheong could generously let it slide.
Just as everyone was celebrating her great escape, Nayun returned from checking the list with a smile on her face.
“So none of us have remedial classes this time?”
Nayun had worried she might be the only one stuck in them again, especially with how hard Yeoncheong had been studying.
But there's a reason people say environment matters.
Seoha was the untouchable number one of the second year, with Suyeon and Hasol both solidly in the top ranks. Nayun had been studying alongside them for roughly a year now.
The swings in her scores were gradually shrinking, and for the second time in a row—only the second time in all of high school—she'd clawed her way out of the hell of supplementary classes.
Hasol murmured softly to herself, a hand covering her mouth.
“So the day has come when neither of them has to take remedials...”
There hadn't even been a bet this time, and privately, Nayun had been thinking it might be risky.
Meanwhile, with Yeoncheong freed up and Nayun right there too—
Back at the start of the year, Suyeon had shed tears of emotion watching her two friends' wretched grades. Honestly speaking, their scores weren't *good* even now, but escaping remedial classes was remarkable growth in its own right.
“Aww, magnificent~”
Releasing Yeoncheong, Suyeon switched her target to Nayun and approached with both arms spread wide. Nayun glanced at the friend who'd just been manhandled a moment ago.
Hair in disarray (that part was Seoha's handiwork), blazer half-shrugged off one bare shoulder, and—what on earth had she been doing?—her necktie hanging loose.
She'd let it go because she was in a good mood, but honestly, even Yeoncheong hadn't expected to end up like that in such a short span of time.
Taking in her friend's wrecked state, Nayun went pale and bolted.
“No way, you do that stuff with *Yeoncheong* only!”
“What does that matter! Our friend just escaped remedial class. She deserves congratulations same as anyone!”
Nayun was fast, but she'd made the mistake of fleeing deeper into the classroom, where her classmates were milling about.
“Gotcha!”
“Just go grope Yeoncheong for my share too!”
“Aww~ I know it's just that you're embarrassed.”
“No... I'm not... Aaaargh!”
Leaving her friend being enthusiastically congratulated(?) in the corner of the classroom, Yeoncheong straightened out her clothes and looked over the friends hemming her in front and behind. A faint tension crept into her shoulders, her chin lifted with pride, and her lips curled up.
“So? You still planning to call me Daengcheongi after this?”
She'd proven herself with her grades—it was a demand to stop the slander.
However...
“Daengcheongi is cute though... let's just keep it.”
“Yeah. It's not like we call you that *every* time.”
Hasol and Seoha, the two who should have been easiest to win over, shot her down. With the campaign floundering from the very start, Suyeon sidled up to her.
“Yeoncheongie, Daengcheongie. In my opinion, there's no nickname cuter or more fitting than this one.”
Suyeon undid her rumpled yellow ponytail and kept going.
“Besides, you've only escaped once so far. You've sat through remedial classes three times now... if you want to have that conversation, you'd better escape at least two more times first.”
The other friends nodded along in agreement, and even Nayun—struggling to pry herself free—signified her assent. Unanimous.
Yeoncheong knew full well that nicknames weren't chosen by the will of the person wearing them.
And it was painfully clear that hers would be stuck as Daengcheongi for the foreseeable future.
Grades were checked, remedial classes were off the table, and so the second semester might as well have been over. All that remained were a handful of club meetings.
With the students' attention scraped down to the very bottom, hardly any teachers bothered to actually teach.
Yeoncheong had assumed she'd coast through this peaceful routine straight into winter break—but right now, two problems gnawed at her.
The first was the unfamiliar, scratchy texture of her stockings. With that offhand comment Nayun had made lingering in her mind, she worried she really might be a pervert for finding it strange—but no, it was simply her first time wearing them, and unfamiliarity was only natural.
She trusted time would sort that out on its own.
The *real* problem was...
“Yeoncheong, where are you going?”
The moment Yeoncheong rose from her seat during break, Suyeon's head popped up. She'd thought the girl was asleep face-down on her desk. Cornered by the question, Yeoncheong answered reluctantly.
“...The bathroom.”
“Perfect timing. Let's go together.”
Suyeon sprang up and naturally looped her arm through hers, locking her in place. Yeoncheong tried to pull free, but the grip was already ironclad. Quickly conceding defeat, she narrowed her eyes.
“You went to the bathroom last break.”
“Oh my. Have you been watching me this whole time? How embarrassing...”
Suyeon pressed a hand to her cheek. As Yeoncheong sighed at having said something so unnecessary, Hasol came over from the seat in front.
“You two are heading to the bathroom? Count me in.”
“Yes!”
Suyeon beamed and offered her other arm. And on Yeoncheong's left, Seoha had at some point glued herself firmly to her side.
A quick trip to the bathroom had somehow spawned a four-person party in the blink of an eye.
Yeoncheong could accept that she'd adapted to everything else, but this one thing she simply could not understand.
“I still don't get it...”
“It's fine. The day will come when you're the one asking *us* to come along.”
“Nope. Never going to happen.”
At Hasol's prophecy, Yeoncheong shook her head with violent intensity.
Rummaging through her pocket, Suyeon turned to her.
“Say it one more time. I'm recording it so I can play it back later when you ask me to come to the bathroom with you.”
“Forget it.”
With a single thought—go quickly, then rest—Yeoncheong hauled all three friends along in one motion and headed for the bathroom.
“Yeoncheong. If you go ahead without us, there'll be consequences.”
“Fine, fine—now let go so I can actually do my business.”
Suyeon had one prior offense on record, so it was only after exacting that promise that she released her. Yeoncheong had never dreamed the bathroom—that lone sanctuary of solitude—could become such a comfort.
The teacher had put on a Japanese comedy drama, and every gaze in the classroom was fixed on the screen.
Yeoncheong sat quietly, replaying the past few days in her head.
She couldn't so much as go to the bathroom alone in peace anymore, and during the slack class periods they'd poke her in the back or jab her in the side to strike up conversation. Sometimes they'd just stare at her without a word, and she'd been flustered more than once or twice by now.
Whether it was because their affectionate gazes carried something extra, she flinched a little every time her eyes met theirs.
At some point they'd grown bolder, more overt—and she figured the day one of them truly confessed couldn't be far off.
Utterly lost as to what answer she was supposed to give when that day came, Yeoncheong's sighs grew deeper and deeper.
“...cheongie. Yeoncheong?”
“Daengcheong?”
“Who said that. Come out.”
At the voice calling her—or more precisely, the voice calling her *nickname*—Yeoncheong surfaced from her reverie.
Nayun smirked and puffed out her shoulders at the other friends.
“See? Call her Daengcheongi and she responds instantly.”
“Oh, it is *on*.”
Yeoncheong snatched her friend's gym uniform and seized her in a headlock. Raising her fist, she rapped it briskly against Nayun's head, completing her revenge, then let her lips curl.
“Whew... Anyway. What did you want?”
“P.E. is next. You're the only one who hasn't changed.”
Somewhere along the way class had ended, and every one of her friends was already in their gym uniform.
Suyeon grinned and thrust her face right up close to Yeoncheong's.
“What were you thinking about, that you didn't even notice class end?”
“Definitely not about you.”
Mischief glinting, Yeoncheong pressed her index finger against her friend's forehead, then shoved Suyeon clean away and began peeling off her blazer and uniform shirt.
Rubbing her forehead as she watched, Suyeon murmured wistfully.
“I miss the old Yeoncheongie who used to blush just taking off her uniform...”
“I'm not in my underwear, you know. Changing this much is perfectly normal now.”
Yeoncheong swapped her top while seated, and just as she moved to pull her gym uniform on under her skirt, she froze and looked up at her friends.
“Wait—am I supposed to take my stockings off before putting these on? Or can I just wear them like this?”
To Yeoncheong, facing her first P.E. class in stockings, it was a perfectly serious question. But to her friends, every little moment of her unfamiliarity radiated an altogether different kind of charm.
They offered no explanation, only laughter—and a flustered Yeoncheong raised her voice.
“Hey, I'm asking seriously here.”
“Whatever's comfortable. Doesn't matter at all.”
Hasol's answer carried little chance of being a joke. After a moment's deliberation, Yeoncheong stood up from her seat.
Catching on to why she was standing, Suyeon asked anyway, feigning ignorance.
“Taking them off?”
“They'd get in the way when Nayun and I play basketball later.”
“Fair enough—you two play rough, so off is probably better.”
Yeoncheong moved her hand toward the inside of her skirt—and froze. She'd nearly hitched her skirt up and rolled her stockings down, right there, just like she did at home. She shot a look at the friends staring back at her with utter boldness.
“...What are you looking at.”
“Aw, *this* is what embarrasses you? Cute.”
“Not cute.”
As Suyeon giggled behind her hand, Yeoncheong furrowed her brow and bent forward at the waist. Upper body bowed, hand slipped beneath her skirt, she gripped the top of the stocking and eased it down with painstaking care.
Hands that didn't know the fabric's limits moved painfully slowly—and that slowness drew every eye in the room, conjuring an air of something faintly sensual.
Hasol, glancing warily around at their classmates, subtly shifted her body to shield her.
“Yeoncheong, do you always take them off like that?”
“Yeah. They feel like they'll rip.”
“Hey, they don't rip that easily. You can yank them off fast, it's fine. Taking them that slow just makes it weird for no reason.”
At Nayun's words, Yeoncheong—stockings already halfway down her legs—lifted her head. Here was the perfect setup for payback.
“Funny. Last time *you* called me a pervert. What exactly is weird about this?”
“It's kinda like a strip show.”
“What?”
Blindsided by the out-of-nowhere remark, Yeoncheong jerked her head up and wobbled.
“Wah—whoa—!”
She landed flat on her rear and rubbed her backside with both hands.
“So even you guys... make jokes like that?”
“You've been in this classroom long enough to have seen it by now. You *still* thought we wouldn't?”
Nayun shook her head slowly, arms crossed like a wall.
Yeoncheong's flower-garden delusion—that girls, unlike boys, would never stoop to such jokes—had been dead wrong. They'd simply refrained out of consideration because she was her. Now that they were this close, there was no reason left to hold back.
“Hurry up and get off the floor, then. We'll cover you.”
“Cover me how, exactly?”
Nayun beckoned with her chin, as if to say *look all you want*. Head hanging, Yeoncheong hastily smoothed down her skirt. Her rapidly reddening face turned toward Suyeon standing before her.
“It's okay, Yeoncheong. We didn't see anything. Right, Seoha?”
Suyeon said, and Seoha, planted directly in front, nodded her head up and down with great vigor.
“Uuu... uuuh...”
With Nayun's earlier jab about being a pervert still stashed away, and her embarrassment crumpling her into a wince, Yeoncheong wilted. Suyeon and Seoha had enough sense to know it too—piling on the teasing now would be a blunder on top of a blunder.
That day, having somehow wrestled off her stockings and survived P.E., Yeoncheong went bare-legged until the final bell.
