18 Chapter 18 - Yun Woo is in Our School 1 (1/2)
Translated by: ShawnSuh
Edited by: SootyOwl
Juho wrapped up the cleaning and went out to the hallway to throw out the trash. There used to be a trash can in each classroom, but being that it was hard to maintain, they were removed by the school. Instead, the students were to use a community trash can at the end of the hallway.
Standing at the front of the trash can, Juho began separating the recyclables from his trash: a pen missing its lid, an eraser about to break in half, the crumpled up school newsletter, small pieces of paper, etc. They were all found on the classroom's floor.
”What's this?”
After he had finished separating the recyclables, there was another piece of paper lying on the hallway floor that caught his eyes. It must have fallen out of Juho's trash. Judging from the torn pages and crumpled up surface, it looked like it was treated roughly. When he saw the neat writing on the paper, he picked it up.
”This...”
Juho was shocked. He was familiar with what was written on the crumpled up paper.
”Is this… a transcription?”
It was part of a transcription of the book Juho had written. The neat penmanship abruptly came to an end.
'Who wrote this?' thought Juho. Transcriptions were something Juho had been working on himself. It was part of the daily routine of the Literature Club. The purpose of it was to become a better writer.
'Could this belong to someone who aspires to be a writer? Then there must have been better books. Why did this person choose 'The Trace of a Bird' of all books?' Juho was having trouble understanding the motive of the transcriber. Besides, did it mean something that Juho had found it next to a trash can?
Seeing the homeroom teacher from a distance, Juho shoved in the crumpled up paper into his pocket and finished cleaning.
'How boring.'
It was the math class. The teacher, with his lower belly bulging out, had a simple teaching method. He wrote out the equations and the process on how to solve them. Then, as a final touch, he added a short and quick explanation to what was written on the chalkboard.
The math teacher was surprisingly popular among the students. It wasn't because of his friendliness or his appearance, but because of his writing and equations.
With his pinky finger sticking up while using the white chalk, his handwriting was neat and consistent. His craft reached its climax when he started drawing figures on the board. His drawings were comparable to those of an art teacher. They were steady and three-dimensional.
What was funny was that even the teacher himself found satisfaction in his craft on the chalkboard. After class, on his way out, he looked at what he had written and drawn and smiled in a way that he never would to his students. For some reason, Juho thought of Mr. Moon. It felt like he had figured out why the math teacher was able to come to school so consistently.
While Juho was spending time looking at the chalkboard, he noticed a disturbance in the class. When he looked around, he saw a small piece of paper being passed around. They were exchanging notes. Usually, he would have ignored it, but that time was different.
There was a much bigger number of people exchanging notes with one another. It wasn't just a note between two individuals. Rather, it was a note being passed around to the entire class. It seemed more like a telegram than a note at that point, and Juho became curious. 'What's written on that paper that has to be passed around in the middle of class?'
Eventually, the note reached Seo Kwang. He seemed confused about getting the note since he was reading his book on the down low, but soon, he opened it to read it. Juho stared intently at his back.
His shoulders started moving up and down. Seo Kwang was quite shaken. He took his eyes off the note and looked around at his surroundings. It seemed like he was trying to find some sort of confirmation. Whenever his face passed by Juho, he could see the shock in Seo Kwang's face.
'What was going on?' Juho tried to remember if anything had happened around that time of his life, but nothing came to him.
After Seo Kwang had his moment, he quietly turned around to Juho and handed him the note. After anticipating reading it, Juho took the note without delay. For some reason, the paper was getting floppy. It must have been passed around the entire class. The moment Juho opened the floppy piece of paper, he had to stop himself from gasping out loud.
The paper was filled with small letters. It read, ”Yun Woo is in our school.”
'Is my cover blown? It doesn't really seem like it,' thought Juho.
There wasn't much he could do in that difficult-to-understand situation. For that reason, Juho stared out the window absentmindedly until the math teacher left the classroom with a satisfied smile.
”Hey,” Seo Kwang called, quickly turning to Juho as soon the class ended.
With a slight determination, Juho answered, ”What?”
Seo Kwang responded with a serious face, ”Let's go.”
'Go? Where?'
”Where?”
”To meet Yun Woo.”
”What?”
Juho was still confused. 'Where can anyone go to find Yun Woo? He's sitting right in front of you. What's happening?'
”Let's hurry. The others went ahead.”
”Where are we going?”
”What were you doing during class when the note was being passed around? Come on, I've heard she's in Classroom 7.”
”I was paying attention to the lesson, of course,” Juho said, although he was actually spacing out then.
As he caught up to Seo Kwang hurrying his steps, Juho was slowly came to grasp things. 'That must mean there's another Yun Woo in this school aside from myself. In Classroom 7 at that.'
”Could it be a case of identity theft?”
”What did you say?”
”Nothing.”
Seo Kwang exclaimed with excitement, ”It's just as I thought, a girl!”
”Who?”