Shin Eunah
"......"
Shin Eunah was quietly doing the work that had been pawned off on her — the kind of work teachers should have been handling — as she stayed behind in the student council room once again.
But today, she just couldn't focus.
No — to be more precise, she couldn't.
After all, there was someone else in the student council room besides herself, even though she should have been the only one there.
Lee Jihoon.
She tried to ignore him and focus on her work, but finally reached her limit and set down her pen.
"Aren't you going home? What about Nayeong?"
"Nayeong went out with her friends, so I'm on my own."
"Then what about your place?"
"My parents come home late, so I can stay out late too."
In other words, she had no intention of leaving the student council room anytime soon.
Shin Eunah let out a deep sigh.
"Ah. If you want to send me home quickly, then share some of that work with me."
"......"
He shamelessly tried to take some of the workload she was handling.
She wanted to handle it all herself.
Besides, this was work she'd been given because the teachers trusted her after seeing how hard she worked at her school life.
Some might even say she brought this on herself...? Maybe.
That's why she wanted to handle it properly on her own, without passing it off to anyone else.
"No......"
If she gave it to Jihoon and something went wrong, all the responsibility would fall on her.
After all, she'd be the one who delegated it.
Though really, the teachers who assigned student work like this in the first place were far more at fault.
"Then I'll just stay here too."
"......"
It seemed the option of simply leaving wasn't on the table.
She had to finish all of this today, but since Jihoon showed no signs of going home, she wondered if she'd actually be able to get it done. The question nagged at her.
That was how distracting it was — how much Jihoon got under her skin even just sitting there silently, doing nothing at all.
And oblivious to her feelings, Lee Jihoon just sat there with a faint, pleasant smile on his face.
She had no idea why he kept doing this.
Why he showed this kind of attention to someone like her — someone who didn't even look human — when he already had a girlfriend as gorgeous as Nayeong.
Shin Eunah shook her head, trying to clear the thought.
She forced herself to ignore Lee Jihoon and started working again, but it didn't last long.
"Haah......"
She let out the sigh without holding it back.
She lifted her head and spoke to Lee Jihoon, who was staring at his phone screen.
"Is there something you want to say to me?"
"Huh?"
"If you have something you want to say, tell me now."
She'd decided that there must be a reason he was acting this way. She resolved herself to try talking with him.
"What... do you mean by that?"
Lee Jihoon asked back with a genuinely confused expression.
Could it be that he was purely trying to help her out of sheer goodwill?
She couldn't believe it.
Because there had been almost no one been almost no one like that in her life.
The few exceptions were people who'd already grown close to Shin Eunah long before she'd ever doubted them — but someone like this, someone she wasn't particularly close with, offering such uncalculated kindness? This was the first time. She couldn't help but be suspicious.
"No reason at all?"
"Do you need a reason to help someone?"
He had a point.
When you feel like helping, you just help. There doesn't have to be a reason.
But Shin Eunah had only ever received help that came with strings attached, so she couldn't bring herself to trust it completely.
Which was only natural — she'd lived her whole life in a harsh world. An orphan with no parents, working jobs that paid less than minimum wage for twice the work.
"......"
Unable to think of a good rebuttal, Shin Eunah furrowed her brows and turned her gaze away.
She decided to get back to what she'd been doing and picked up her pen.
He'd give up eventually. Convinced that he'd drift away sooner or later, she tried desperately to finish her work.
But despite all her efforts, she couldn't finish the day's tasks and had to leave school to go work at the restaurant.
*
"......"
The next day. All classes were over. Most students had left the school except for those staying for evening study sessions.
And once again, Shin Eunah sat in the student council room with Lee Jihoon standing in front of her, as reliable as clockwork.
She was starting to... feel a little angry.
Still, Shin Eunah forced herself to treat him like he didn't exist and kept doing her work.
And so three days passed. A week. Even the next week came, and he still showed up in the student council room every single day without fail.
Wait — didn't this kid have a girlfriend? Shouldn't they be going out on dates or doing couple stuff?
How could he come here for two straight weeks?
Shin Eunah was at a complete loss for words. She stared blankly at Lee Jihoon.
He caught her gaze and smiled back faintly.
"Fine... I give up. Do whatever you want."
In a spirit of total resignation, she handed over some of the workload.
"Thank you."
He thanked her for giving him work and picked up a pen.
Shin Eunah thought to herself.
She'd just made more work for herself.
Her plan was to send him home once he finished the tasks she gave him and then redo everything herself. The thought made her sigh.
But it couldn't be helped.
She'd brought this on herself.
Getting leeched onto by this parasite named Lee Jihoon — it all felt like her own fault.
But then.
"Ah.....?"
The work got done fast with the two of them working together.
Shin Eunah sent Jihoon home first and then checked what he'd done — and she couldn't help but be stunned.
Because what he'd produced was...
"This is... good? Even better than mine?"
Far better than what she herself had done.
The fact was that someone who only studies tends to be weak when it comes to practical application.
That was only natural — they'd never done it before.
But Lee Jihoon had apparently mastered practical skills too. His work was so perfect that it made Shin Eunah's own efforts look pitiful by comparison.
She almost wanted to keep getting his help.
"No... this is my job."
She shook her head and dismissed the thought.
He'd only kept coming for two weeks because he was too stubborn to quit. If she kept him on a leash and never let him go, he'd eventually come to hate her. Of that she was certain.
So she decided: if he came tomorrow, she'd give him work. If he didn't, she'd do it all herself.
A hint of loneliness settled on her face.
*
The sun rose over the dark sky, and then began to hide itself, as if readying to darken once more.
"Here you go."
"......"
She was working alone, as had become routine, when —
The door swung open. Lee Jihoon walked in and handed her a banana milk, already with a straw in it.
"Thanks......"
She accepted it out of habit, stuck in the straw, and took a sip — then her eyes drifted toward Lee Jihoon.
He naturally sat down right next to her, picked up the work she'd been doing, and started working on it himself.
"Hmm......"
He grabbed a nearby pen, twirled it, and pondered for a moment. Then he started tapping at the keyboard of the brightly glowing laptop.
"Is there something you don't understand.....?"
"No. Nothing I don't understand, exactly. I just wondered if doing it this way might be a bit much."
Jihoon's ability to handle work was so far beyond what normal kids could do that Shin Eunah nodded in agreement.
"Here. Let me see."
Curious about what he'd done that made him say that, she took a look.
And then.
"Mmm... yeah, you're right."
It was too difficult to use as teaching material.
Maybe for kids who studied hard it would be fine, but for those who didn't study at all or were in the middle of the pack, it would definitely feel too hard.
Despite that, Shin Eunah couldn't help but admire it.
Because the content was simply outstanding — even if it was a little too advanced.
Was his dream maybe to become a teacher?
"Here... and here... and here — I think you should take these parts out."
"Here?"
"Yeah. Those parts don't seem necessary."
"Why not? They're important."
"They're important, but they're not needed."
Sure, they were important parts in reality, but going into that much depth was something they'd cover in university.
It wasn't the right level for what they were doing now, so it was enough to just gloss over it lightly.
"Hmm... okay. I understand."
She wasn't thrilled about it, but since he said to take it out, she reluctantly started deleting it.
"This part is a bit hard."
He pointed out a section that even Shin Eunah had taken time to understand. She nodded and deleted it.
Because of the small laptop screen, the distance between them gradually grew closer.
As she was pointing to spots that needed revision, Shin Eunah realized this fact — but only belatedly.
She could hear her heart pounding loudly, almost indecently.
But apparently, the sound was audible only to her — Lee Jihoon's eyes stayed fixed on the brightly glowing laptop screen.
"......"
Shin Eunah stared blankly at his profile.
Even Han Sangwoo, whom she'd thought she was pretty close with, had kept his distance from her because she made him uncomfortable.
Even he — widely known as such a nice guy — had done that. But Lee Jihoon was completely defenseless around her, as if nothing about her bothered him.
Did he not realize?
Or did he realize, and just not care?
Either way, her heart felt strangely at ease.
Lee Jihoon was fascinating to her — seeing her face, grotesque and hideous enough to be repulsive, yet never acting burdened or bothered, just doing his own work like it was nothing.
And also... whenever she saw him, whenever she thought of him, she felt a strange feeling.
It was a phenomenon she, who had never experienced anything like it before, simply could not understand.
"Sunbae... Sunbae... Noona...! Eunah noona.....!"
"Huh, hah?!"
The words "Eunah noona" snapped her back to reality.
"What is it? Are you sick?"
".....!"
When she spaced out for a moment, he brought his hand to her forehead without hesitation, a worried expression on his face — and Shin Eunah was thrown into utter confusion.
She was made of the same skin as everyone else, but because hers was so different from other people's, the number of people who had ever touched her face could be counted on one hand.
Even Choi Soeun, the person she considered her closest friend, had once brought a hand to her face as a joke, and she'd felt a subtle wave of repulsion that faintly surfaced on her expression — even though she hadn't meant it.
But from Lee Jihoon, she felt none of that.
Only pure goodwill, nothing else.
"You don't have a fever... huh? Your face suddenly got hot."
Her face flushed and her body grew warm.
She couldn't understand why herself.
"How about we call it here for today?"
"Y-yeah... let's do that."
Her voice trembled, just like it had in the old days.
She hurriedly packed her things and fled the student council room, as if running away.
She heard Lee Jihoon's voice from behind her, but she paid it no mind.