At a Friend's Night Self-Study
Our middle school’s night self-study was freer than most people would expect.
Talking was forbidden, of course, but the seating arrangement was left entirely up to the students. If you selected a fixed seat during the preliminary survey, it was first come, first served. And if you managed to claim one of those spots, you could even end up sharing a room with students from other grades.
I never thought I’d actually do night self-study.
Kim Hoyeon. A guy who had never once in his life studied hard. He kept average grades thanks to his natural smarts, but like most kids, he didn’t enjoy studying. Setting aside extra time to study—doing night self-study? Something he had never even imagined.
Yet here he was, sitting in the study hall. For night self-study. Three times a week, no less.
The reason was simple.
From the seat beside him, his second-year junior Jin Haryeong glanced over and sent the message. Neat black hair, dark eyes, a calm and refined beauty.
He was doing night self-study just to be with her.
Honestly, it had been so sudden that calling it impulsive wouldn’t even begin to cover it. Because that was exactly what it was. Even he thought the decision to sign up had been pretty impulsive. During the recent application period, Haryeong had signed up for night self-study, and if she hadn’t asked him to join her, he never would have given it a second glance.
He was sleepy. So sleepy he could have face-planted onto the desk right then and there without a word of complaint. Maybe it was because he’d gone to bed a little late last night; the fatigue just wouldn’t lift today of all days. But with Haryeong sitting right beside him, falling asleep simply wasn’t an option. He’d just told her he wouldn’t sleep—if he flopped over immediately after, how ridiculous would that look?
He offered a faint smile back at Haryeong, who was watching him with a soft smile of her own, then forced his gaze onto the workbook.
And of course, the problems refused to stick in his head.
You’d have to have actually studied before for this to work.
Honestly, this workbook? He’d bought it on impulse the moment he decided to start night self-study. He was grinding through it somehow, but without any real study method, getting stuck every few questions was only natural. He’d never studied outside of class hours before.
He stared at the problems for a while, then turned his head to look at Haryeong, who was fully absorbed in her own workbook.
...She’s really working hard.
Haryeong studied diligently. Enough that a second-year middle schooler was already tackling high school material in advance. He knew her dream was art; he knew her intended major too. So when he’d asked her about it once, her answer had been simple.
“It’s good to do it, isn’t it? I have the time, so there’s no reason not to.”
Everyone knew that logic. But how many people actually lived it out in reality?
Come to think of it, it had been the same the first time they met. That had been during the second semester of second year, right in the middle of midterms. He’d been forced by his parents to pretend to study at the library. That was when he first met Haryeong.
“Shall I help you?”
She had been sitting in the seat next to his, studying. Back then they hadn’t spoken a word, didn’t even know each other’s names—just two strangers sharing a table. She had been the one to speak first. While he sat blankly staring at a problem he couldn’t solve, Haryeong, who had been quietly watching him, finally spoke up.
What had he even said back then?
“...Huh? Uh... yeah... I’d appreciate the help...”
Something that dumb, he was pretty sure. Had he ever looked that clueless in front of anyone before? Nothing came to mind. She was the first person who’d ever seen him like that.
“Pfft...”
And when she laughed at his reaction, Hoyeon’s face had burned red and his heart had pounded hard. He hadn’t understood it at the time, but now he knew perfectly well.
It had been love at first sight.
He wasn’t dense about love, and he was the type who could look his own feelings straight in the eye. Clumsy as he might be, Hoyeon had never been unaware of what he felt. He liked Haryeong—that feeling and that thought had continued from that day until now.
...Don’t fall asleep.
And the reason he was trying even a little to study right now was probably because of that. The person he liked was working this hard; if he just goofed off alone, wouldn’t that be a little uncool?
Just as he was thinking that and trying to refocus, Haryeong suddenly stood up and walked out.
“...?”
He was about to get up and follow her out of sheer confusion when a text arrived.
No reply came, but he could roughly guess what it was. Something with a wake-up effect—coffee or an energy drink, most likely.
If it’s something like that, shouldn’t I go with her?
It felt a little weird for her to buy something for him while he just sat there. He thought about it for a moment, but she’d specifically told him not to follow, so chasing after her anyway would also feel wrong.
I should give her something at least.
Even so, just sitting still and doing nothing felt off. He had to give her something. But what could he possibly give her right here, right now?
...Should I fold her a crane?
Folding a paper crane—just thinking about it made him laugh, but the more he considered it, the less bad the idea seemed. There wasn’t much else he could give her from this seat, and he was pretty good at origami.
Might as well fold one after all this time. With that thought, he tore a page from his notebook and immediately began folding a crane. Hoyeon was quite skilled at origami. No—with just a little effort, he was genuinely good. Back in second year of middle school he’d once spent an entire week glued to a desk folding a full dragon. A crane was nothing to him.
Maybe later I’ll fold her something bigger.
Something like a phoenix the size of two human faces put together. Thinking that, he folded the crane without hesitation and finished it in no time.
About fifteen minutes later, Haryeong returned to the study hall.
Tap-tap—
She tapped his shoulder. When he turned at her touch, she was smiling faintly and set two of the three canned coffees she was holding down on his desk. Two cans that still looked cold.
He looked at them for a moment, then picked up his phone and texted her.
One black, one vanilla. She claimed she didn’t know his preference, but she’d probably just bought two on purpose. He looked at the cans for a moment, then took out the crane he’d set aside in the corner and held it out to her. Because he’d used a full notebook page, it was a fairly large paper crane, about the size of his palm.
Haryeong looked at the crane with a puzzled expression, so he texted her again.
Hoyeon watched with a faint smile as Haryeong lifted the crane and examined it. She was beautiful. A different kind of beauty from Riya’s. If Riya was a cool beauty with a touch of airheaded charm, Haryeong possessed a restrained elegance. She looked like an ordinary girl her age, yet in certain places there was a firm, unyielding line. That was why the smile she showed was so breathtakingly beautiful.
...I’m going crazy.
His face flushed at the sight of her, and he turned away so she wouldn’t see.
“Pfft...”
His face was red, and his mind wasn’t working properly. Studying? Of course nothing was registering. With someone sitting right beside him who claimed every last bit of his attention, how could studying possibly enter his field of vision? His heart was pounding so hard it felt like it was advertising its own existence. Loud enough that he almost worried Haryeong might hear it.
He cracked open a can of coffee with a pssht and drank, but honestly he couldn’t even tell whether the coffee was going into his mouth or his nose. No matter what he did, every nerve in his body was pointed sideways.
Studying’s a lost cause...
Just as he’d expected, by the time night self-study ended he had only managed to solve four more problems after that. But he didn’t fall asleep. Haryeong had even bought him coffee and told him not to sleep; there was simply no way he could doze off after that. With that firm resolve, he may have gotten drowsy, but he never fully fell asleep.
“You worked hard.”
When night self-study finally ended, Hoyeon and Haryeong left the study hall together and stepped out of the school. That was what she said to him.
“It was nothing.”
“I know you don’t like studying, sunbae.”
“...Can’t really deny that.”
Haryeong smiled brightly at his words and then pressed something into his hand. A paper crane—smaller than the one he’d given her earlier.
“It’s been so long since I folded one, I’m not sure if it came out right.”
Just as she said, compared to his it was a little clumsy in places. But none of that registered with him right now. The simple fact that she had given it to him made his heart race. He carefully slipped the paper crane into his pocket, smiled, and spoke to her.
“Next time, I’ll fold you a really big one for real.”
“A big one?”
“Yeah. Big enough to fit four human heads inside.”
“I’m not sure if there’d even be space for that at home.”
And so the two of them walked together. And during that time spent walking side by side, they were happier than either of them had expected.