Paper Friendship Chapter 2

Afterward, I was assigned to an all-boys middle school. Back then, I hated the school I was assigned to so much that I cried every day until the day before enrollment. It was a school rumored to have many scary hyung, and I even heard that Choi Juoon was in my assigned class. I wanted to avoid being in the same class as Choi Juoon at all costs. Choi Juoon and Lee Juun. It was because our names were the same.

On the first day of school, the teacher called my name.

“Juoon-ah.”

I raised my hand and answered.

“Yes.”

Then the teacher looked flustered and said:

“Are you Juoon, too?”

At those words, all the kids in class laughed loudly, as if they had planned it. I hurriedly lowered my hand. My face felt so hot it felt like it was about to burst. The teacher calmed the class down and spoke once more.

“Juoon-ah?”

Then, a low voice was heard from the back.

“Yes.”

That bastard, he really put on a deep voice. I thought, fidgeting with my hands.

That was how the names were settled. He was Juoon, and I was Lee Juun.

Class continued, but I couldn’t focus at all. I was so embarrassed. My heart kept pounding. I thought this distinction of address perfectly explained the presence of Choi Juoon and me. Choi Juoon, whom everyone recognized by name alone. Me, who was only called for the purpose of distinguishing me from him.

Even after class ended, I remained in my seat. My face was still hot.

Park Yoon-chul came to my seat and led me to the back of the classroom where the lockers were. Park Yoon-chul. Park Yoon-chul and I were in the same class in elementary school, so we were somewhat close.

Choi Juoon and his group were there. Honestly, it was a group that didn’t fit in with me. It was at this moment that I first made eye contact with Choi Juoon. I instinctively looked down. He wasn’t an opponent I could win against.

This was when I first had a conversation with Choi Juoon. No, actually, rather than a conversation, it was more of a one-man show on my part. Choi Juoon sat on top of the lockers, looking down at me, and said:

“Hey.”

“…Yes?”

“Try telling me something funny.”

So, in front of him, I used every bit of the social skills I had built up over 14 years. I really mobilized every kind of joke. Honestly, the me at that time was at the level of having the god of entertainment briefly possess me. Park Yoon-chul and the kids around him laughed loudly, but only Choi Juoon didn’t laugh. Park Yoon-chul said to Choi Juoon:

“Hey, Juoon-ah. This is hilarious, right?”

Even though he sought his agreement like that, Choi Juoon only stared at his own fingernails. Watching that, I thought: He’s really putting on such an act.

Anyway, that’s how I ended up joining Choi Juoon’s group.

To briefly explain Choi Juoon during his middle school days: he was a bully.

To be more specific, Choi Juoon has three brothers, including an older brother and a younger brother.

His younger brother is on the baseball team and is two years younger than Choi Juoon. I first saw Choi Juoon’s younger brother when I was a first-year in middle school, and I honestly thought he could make it into the top five middle schoolers in the world.

Choi Juoon’s older brother is two years older than us, but if you look just at his appearance, he is on the level of a main villain in a crime noir film. It wouldn’t be strange if he got cast and was doing stage greetings soon. He is that big, and really menacing. He doesn’t look like Choi Juoon at all. If they have anything in common… well, strength?

Born as the second child among these monster-like brothers, Choi Juoon is incredibly strong. I can be sure of this because I’ve been hit by him a lot while playing pranks on him. Thanks to that, I realized that if it hurts too much, you can’t even make a sound.

The good thing is that Choi Juoon doesn’t exercise. In middle school, he followed his brother and learned jiu-jitsu, but he only got hit by his brother every day and soon quit. I was so grateful to Choi Juoon’s brother. I truly hope he never exercises in his life. Sincerely.

As for his looks… he just looks refreshing. He’s tall, too. Well, he’s decent-looking. Maybe girls like that style, just to that extent? I’m absolutely not saying he’s handsome just because I’m jealous. Standards of beauty differ from person to person.

The funny thing is that once he became a high schooler, the Choi Juoon who used to be like a bully changed in an unbelievable way. To borrow the teachers’ words, the kid has come to his senses (of course, he still does bad things here and there, but he is diligently walking the path of a model student).

How did he come to his senses… I wanted to know the reason. Because I wanted to come to my senses too. Choi Juoon’s grades were clearly much lower than mine, but now they are beyond comparison. Surprisingly, his current grades are at the top of the entire school. There were many exams where he hit first place in the school.

And, his personality. His personality changed the most. Middle school Choi Juoon was really, really sensitive. He hated things that were annoying, and he didn’t even laugh much. It’s not that I was scared, but sometimes… no, often… no, almost always, there were times when he was scary. For one, Choi Juoon’s brother looked like the main villain of an action movie, and Choi Juoon himself was also very tall and strong… so all the kids walked on eggshells around him.

Honestly, it was scarier to get on Choi Juoon’s bad side than to get on a teacher’s bad side. So the boys didn’t listen to the teachers; they listened to Choi Juoon.

The teachers, too, couldn’t treat Choi Juoon carelessly. If I put it this way, it sounds like Choi Juoon isn’t human, but Choi Juoon communicated well with the teachers. So they turned a blind eye to Choi Juoon’s delinquency… actions, and actually treated him well. It was then that I learned about the dark side of the world. My heart felt heavy… but when I woke up the next day, I felt better.

Whenever Choi Juoon went to the faculty office:

“Hey, hey… manage the kids below you… do I really need to hear about it?”

“Huh? Oh, sorry. You’re talking about Gu Seong-min, right. Yeah, I got it.”

Kim Min-jae bowed and scraped even while getting hit on the head by Choi Juoon. And on days when Choi Juoon looked this angry, everyone had no choice but to walk on eggshells around him.

One day, Choi Juoon singled me out and said:

“Hey… you should change your hair color. It’s really annoying.”

I originally had a very light brown hair color. But since Choi Juoon said it was annoying… so I dyed it. I even went way earlier than the opening time and sat crouched on the stairs waiting for a long time. No, even so, the teachers had been giving me hints, too. Yeah, let’s just think of it that way. Anyway, from then on, I kept my black hair.

And although I don’t know the exact reason, as Choi Juoon’s personality gradually became milder, he started playing around with the kids a lot more.

That’s how we became third-year students. I was in the same class as Park Yoon-chul, and Choi Juoon was in the class right next door. I don’t have any particular career path in mind. I don’t have any thoughts of wanting to become anything big, so I was just planning to go to a university that matched my grades. Honestly, I don’t study that much and go around playing here and there. On the other hand, Choi Juoon chose an unexpected path. It was a flight attendant.

Choi Juoon’s mother is a flight attendant. Perhaps influenced by that, during the winter break of our second year, he declared (essentially a unilateral notification) that he would become a flight attendant. This is a behind-the-scenes story, but Choi Juoon’s mother was truly, literally furious. She said she asked why he wanted to go down such a difficult path, if he knew how hard it was to be a flight attendant, and told him to just inherit his father’s business. This matter seemed quite serious, as Choi Juoon’s father, who was said to be in the United States, came to visit Choi Juoon in person.

In conclusion, they say there is no parent who can beat their child, so it seemed they had given their permission for now. That’s how Choi Juoon had been attending a flight attendant academy since the winter break of his second year. Because the academy was in another region, Choi Juoon took a train to the academy every other weekend. The academy is near the beach, and since I like watching the ocean, I often went along when Choi Juoon went to the academy.

∞ ∞ ∞

And, I am currently in a very anxious state. Even after getting on the train, Choi Juoon didn’t tell me which girl it was. He kept in contact with someone beside me, and in my mind, I thought it was probably that girl. I tried to see who it was naturally, but Choi Juoon didn’t even look this way and muttered quietly:

“If you do that, I won’t tell you.”

“….”

Since he threatened me like that, I had no choice but to go along quietly while watching YouTube.

A while later, I heard an announcement that we had arrived at the station. While I was packing up the luggage I had laid out diligently, Choi Juoon only kept using his phone. Like that, in front of the train station, I finally couldn’t hold it in any longer and spoke up.