Someone Who Cheers Me On
“Aha, so you’re Doa’s friend!?”
“That’s right. We’ve gone to the same schools since elementary. Childhood friends, basically.”
“Wow, I’ve always really envied that kind of thing! You two must be total besties, huh?”
“Pretty much.”
What on earth had that look in her eyes been earlier?
Seong Mina, who had seemed a little wary of Bae Jiyu, turned into a gentle puppy the moment she heard Jiyu was Lee Doa’s friend.
“But Mina, why are you so pretty? Blonde hair and blue eyes make you look totally Western, but your features are pure East Asian—it’s insane.”
“Aw, no way, unnie’s way prettier. But unnie, do you work out or something? Even in those baggy clothes, your figure is just…”
“Heh, really? I’m actually on the track team.”
“Track and field? Whoa!”
Chatting was fine and all, but at this rate the whole evening would vanish before we even cracked a book.
Honestly, watching them praise each other like they were about to start licking each other’s faces was giving me heartburn.
Knowing what these two were really like only made the gap feel wider.
“Seong Mina, that’s enough. We’re studying, so keep it down.”
“What? Oppa, we weren’t even done talking.”
“Do it next time. She’s going to be showing up at our place for a while anyway.”
“Oh, for real? Hehe, then it’s fine.”
One word from me and Seong Mina was instantly convinced; she hopped up without a shred of lingering attachment.
Then she scurried off to the kitchen. I wondered what she was up to until she started bustling around, declaring she would prepare snacks.
What’s gotten into her?
“Bae Jiyu, follow me. She’s going to watch TV, so we’ll use my room.”
“Yes! Time to check out Seong Minjun’s room!”
Bae Jiyu grabbed her bag and trailed after me, giggling the whole way.
Seong Mina had already gathered snacks and fallen in behind her, so the three of us looked like we were playing train.
“Here you go, unnie. It’s not much, but please eat a lot!”
“Thanks. Whoa, these are my favorite chips.”
“Really? That’s a relief.”
I took the tray from Bae Jiyu and waved Seong Mina off like I was shooing away a peddler.
“Rations delivered. Now get out. We don’t have much time.”
“Ugh, I went to all that trouble and you don’t even say thank you!?”
“Thank you so much, dear little sister. Kindly leave now.”
“Gross. I’m leaving. Bleh!”
—Bang!
“Sheesh.”
It felt like a storm had just blown through.
I sighed and set the tray on the folding desk. The moment my eyes met Bae Jiyu’s, she burst out laughing.
“Ehehe…! You’re surprisingly like other older brothers, huh?”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know, I just got the vibe you’d be super sweet to your little sister.”
“You didn’t even know I had one until now.”
“It’s just a figure of speech!”
She was probably comparing me to her own brother.
Most guys with little sisters at home were probably like this anyway.
“Is your brother the same way?”
“No, he’s way meaner than you. He’s not even a brother—he’s my mortal enemy. Calling him ‘oppa’ right now is already giving me the creeps. Ugh!”
Hmm. Still better than that household, I guess.
Truth be told, Seong Mina used to call me by my name too, once upon a time.
“Anyway, wet your throat and let’s get started. What time do you have to be home?”
“Eleven is fine.”
“That late?”
“Yeah. You saw last time. Even if I stay out late, my parents don’t really say anything.”
Free-range parenting?
No—earlier she’d mentioned things weren’t great between them.
Well, other people’s family business.
No point in idle speculation.
“What about you? You okay with that?”
“I was planning to study straight through tonight anyway. Midterms aren’t far off.”
“Oooh, Seong Minjun. That line just now had a real model-student vibe.”
“Open your book instead of spouting nonsense.”
“Hehe, just one more chip.”
Bae Jiyu plucked a potato chip and popped it into her mouth.
Well, it was the first day.
Being in someone else’s house for the first time had to feel awkward; better this than going full Spartan from the jump.
“So which subjects are you weakest in?”
“Hm? All of them.”
“…….”
She said it so casually I was left speechless.
Or maybe “shameless” was the better word.
“What kind of scores did you get on the second-semester finals last year?”
“Around a fifty average?”
“Legendary.”
How the hell did this girl get into Seyeon High?
Seyeon wasn’t exactly a low-bar school.
“My grades weren’t that bad through middle school, but high school hit me like a truck.”
“Looking at you, I’m guessing you mostly crammed.”
“How did you know…!?”
“That’s usually how it goes for kids who tank once they hit high school.”
There were other cases, of course.
Honestly, through middle school you could coast above average just by hitting a few hagwons.
But then you get cocky, or you fall behind once, and the freefall never ends.
“Then we should focus on the memorization subjects first. We don’t really have time to drill math fundamentals from scratch.”
I roughly sketched a curriculum in my head.
I’d never taught anyone except Seong Mina, so I wasn’t completely sure, but it felt doable.
“I know I’m the one who asked, so I shouldn’t say this, but if it’s totally hopeless you can just give up. Even I can tell I’m not the brightest.”
“…….”
Bae Jiyu laughed it off with her usual “ehehe,” but the corners of her mouth sat just a fraction lower than normal.
So that self-deprecating joke had been genuine.
When she put it like that, my contrary streak had no choice but to kick in.
As if I’d let that slide.
“No thanks.”
“…Huh?”
“I said no. You can quit if you want, but I’m not the type to abandon something once I’ve taken it on.”
I looked her straight in the eye and spoke firmly. The one who’d thrown the line out first was the one who flinched.
“Th-that’s not what I meant…. I just meant tell me if it gets too frustrating.”
“Of course it’ll be frustrating. I can already see the future where I’m sighing every five minutes.”
“Shiiit…”
Fact-checked into silence, Bae Jiyu ground her teeth but, for once, had no comeback.
Clearly what she’d just said was her own little complex.
“But if you were going to quit the second it got hard, I never would’ve offered to teach you.”
“…….”
“There’s a reason you asked me instead of Lee Doa, who you always cling to. Maybe you wanted to try for real this time, or something changed inside you.”
I didn’t know the exact reason, but I could tell she wanted to take it seriously.
“How am I supposed to leave a kid like that alone? I’m cheering you on, so I might as well drag you all the way to the finish line.”
“…Tch. For a Seong Minjun, you sure know how to make a cool speech.”
“For a Bae Jiyu, you’ve got a long tongue.”
“Pfft, whatever!”
Bae Jiyu deployed her usual flustered repertoire and opened her book.
“…If you say you’re quitting halfway, I’m really going to yell at you.”
“And if you say you want to go home, I’ll tie you down and make you study.”
“T-tie me!? You… have that kind of hobby…?”
Aigoo, damn it.
Leave it to Bae Jiyu.
The serious mood couldn’t even last three minutes.
—Thud.
“Uwaaah, I can’t do any more…!”
“Good work. You lasted longer than I expected.”
We’d broken for dinner in the middle and kept going afterward.
The second the clock hit exactly ten, Bae Jiyu declared defeat.
This girl had zero hesitation about flopping onto a guy’s bed.
Not that I particularly cared.
“Heheh, right!? I worked pretty hard, didn’t I?”
“Yeah. Honestly I figured you’d want to quit after an hour or two.”
“When I get serious, this is what you get. Ahem!”
This was why you had to be careful praising Bae Jiyu.
She immediately puffed up until her nose nearly scraped the ceiling.
Still, she really had put in the effort.
Her focus had wandered a couple of times, but she’d followed my lessons decently enough.
If we kept this pace for two solid weeks, we might not hit stellar scores, but we could manage a meaningful climb.
My personal goal was at least a ten-point bump in her average.
That much felt like a reasonable ambition.
Raising a kid who already scores ninety to a ninety-five is way harder than taking a fifty and pushing it to sixty or seventy.
“By the way, what have you been scribbling this whole time? Taking notes?”
“Ah, this?”
Bae Jiyu stayed sprawled on the bed, only twisting her torso to look at me.
Well, I’d been glued to it for four or five hours straight.
It would’ve been weirder if she hadn’t noticed.
I’d just finished organizing everything, so I snapped the notebook shut with a crisp sound and held it out to her.
“Here.”
“Uh, yeah? What’s this?”
“Key points summary. We were short on time, so I only did literature and Korean history for now.”
“Huh…?”
Bae Jiyu blinked.
She stuttered like her brain had lagged, then finally reached out carefully when I wiggled the notebook at her.
“You made this… for me? On purpose?”
“Pretty much. I thought about just photocopying my own notes, but that would’ve just confused you about where to start. Memorize just this and you’ll scrape by okay.”
“…….”
Bae Jiyu hugged the notebook to her chest and stared at me endlessly.
The pure emotion and gratitude in her eyes were so intense I instinctively looked away.
“Thank you so much. Honestly, I used to just borrow Doa’s notes for a second, get even more confused, and hand them right back.”
“Yeah?”
I’d more or less expected that.
If your foundation was solid you could pick out the key points yourself, but for the current Bae Jiyu that was probably too much.
Good to know the extra work hadn’t been wasted.
“…Hey, Seong Minjun.”
“Hm?”
“Why are you going this far for me? Do you… like me or something?”
“…What?”
What kind of nonsense was this all of a sudden? I turned back from the gaze I’d been avoiding.
Bae Jiyu was looking at me with not a single speck of playfulness in her eyes.
“I mean, come on. Who does this much? You’re busy enough with your own studying.”
“…Sheesh, and here I thought you were saying something serious.”
Over a notebook, of all things.
Plus the question was so perfectly Bae Jiyu—so dumb—that a hollow laugh slipped out.
“Of course I like you.”
“Wh-what?”
Please listen to the whole sentence, people.
“Not as a romantic interest—as a friend. Would you spend this much time helping someone you hated?”
“Argh, I totally misunderstood!”
She was the one who brought it up, and now she was the one getting mad.
What kind of brand-new conversational technique was this?
“Besides, I already told you. I’m cheering you on. Think of it as a cheerleading gift.”
“…….”
Feeling a little embarrassed myself, I scratched my cheek as I said it.
Meanwhile the Bae Jiyu who had been fuming suddenly went quiet.
After rolling around on the bed by herself for a while, her gaze found me again.
That signature little-devil smile of hers was plastered all over her face.
I was already getting nervous about whatever prank or nonsense she was about to pull.
—Stroke, stroke.
“Hee—so that’s how it is? Our Minjun really likes his noona a whole lot, huh?”
Bae Jiyu reached out and ruffled my hair.
“Aigoo, what the hell are you—”
Getting treated like a little kid by anyone—especially Bae Jiyu—made my blood boil. I tried to swat her hand away.
“Hehe, what do I do? I’m so happy.”
But the playful smile had vanished without a trace, replaced by one filled with pure, heartfelt joy. The moment I saw it—
“…Well, that’s good then.”
I couldn’t even manage a grumble. I just sat there for a long while, unable to brush her hand off, reduced to her personal head-patting doll.
Honestly, what a cheap shot.