44 Chapter 44 - Something I Saw (1/2)

Translated by: ShawnSuh

Edited by: SootyOwl

Bom and Baron soon joined in on getting a whiff of the bottle. Lastly, it was Juho's turn. He looked at the bottle in his hand. Unlike the bottle he had been used to, it was clear.

It smelled familiar.

”It smells like alcohol.”

It was the same smell he had reeked with at one point. He revisited how he felt then. He couldn't stop once he had started drinking. Whatever he needed to do would be ruined by his alcoholism. When he woke up the next day, he had been overcome with guilt. His memory slowly faded away, and he began to find broken things around him.

”Ugh… I hate this,” Sun Hwa said as she shook her head.

She was right. Juho hated it too. He felt that same helplessness from the past at the end of his fingertips. He tried clenching his fist, and it seemed to work fine. His body was functioning well even without alcohol. It was a young body.

'I should take good care of it,' he thought.

”It smells like something an upperclassmen would force you to drink,” Bom said.

”Ah… that's not something I'm looking forward to in college,” Sun Hwa answered vividly. Whenever she thought about her college life, it always ended up in worry. It was a time when people often died from alcohol poisoning.

”I've heard some people are allergic to alcohol. I figure they'd hate to even be around it, let alone smell them,” Seo Kwang said.

Everyone spoke with excitement. A bottle of alcohol brought about an odd sense of excitement to people underage. While watching, Mr. Moon snickered as he saw the excitement on everyone's faces. It was apparent that they were excited to have something foreign in their hands. They wouldn't be able to experience it anywhere else.

”When would it become fragrant?” Juho asked as he thought, 'What could possibly be changed by this stench of alcohol? Hm…' He couldn't reach an answer.

”I think it might not smell as bad after you drink with somebody you enjoy being around,” Bom said.

”We should all drink together when we grow up!” Sun Hwa added.

”Yeah! Let's eat fried chicken too!” Seo Kwang told them the location of the fried chicken shop.

”Aren't you all too young for this?” Baron scolded, but he wasn't saying that he wouldn't be there either.

'Does the fragrance become better as the company gets better?' Juho reminisced. He had never drunk out of joy. Perhaps that's why he had reeked.

”Although, I'm sure all alcohol smells pretty much the same,” he said.

The students jeered at Juho's murmur. It was a sign that he was being a killjoy.

”Aren't you going to come? You don't want to drink with us when you're older?”

He took a deep breath. He smelled happiness. Drinking with those friends as adults didn't sound half bad.

”I'll be there,” Juho answered with a smile.

---

”There's dust here too. Where's the person on duty?”

”Do you not see me down here?”

”Oh, I thought you were stretching.”

”Who stretches with a broomstick in his hand?”

Cleaning duty was appointed by rotation. Juho poked fun at Seo Kwang. He was bored. There wasn't much else to do aside from poking fun at Seo Kwang. After staring out the window for a while, he packed his bag and said, ”I'll be in the science room.”

”OK.”

Nothing was going to change even if he was in the science room, but he figured it'd be better than inhaling dust in the class.

While he was heading toward the stairway, he saw Mr. Moon coming down. Since he couldn't see Juho in the distance, he went straight into the staffroom. Juho didn't really feel the need to call out his name, so he too headed straight to the science room.

When he went inside, the window was open. Mr. Moon must have kept it open for ventilation. He walked past the desk and stood in front of the window. He had just come from a dusty place, so even the slightest breeze felt all the more refreshing.

There was the sound of kids playing in the schoolyard. They were shouting something. Most of them sounded playful and mischievous.

As he leaned against the window, his eyes naturally went to the top of the desk. He saw his paper and notebook. 'Did Seo Kwang really read my notebook at a time like this?' he thought. Mr. Moon wasn't very careful when it came to where he kept his notebooks. It could've even been taken by other students. Well, the only ones who would intentionally walk into the science room would have been the Literature Club members.

He looked out the door. Nobody had arrived yet, and there was no sound of footstep.

If there was something written where he was, then there was only one thing left to do.

He sat down and picked up the very top page. Their papers were kept in a translucent file, and the page on the top was written by Sun Hwa.

'She's impatient.' That was Juho's impression after reading her composition. The steps toward the climax were mostly left out. Tension had been at its peak since the beginning of the development. It was more like a field day than the anticipation for it. No push. Just pulling. One would describe her progression to be ”wild.” At once, he understood what Mr. Moon had pointed out in her writing.

”It is pretty entertaining.”

Her best work was the paper she wrote at the subway station. It started with this sentence: 'A bomb exploded in the subway station.'

There was no mention of how it was installed or any suspicious activities. No mention of people peacefully going about their days either. Just like that, she had made the bomb go off. As long as the progression was under control, the story still had the potential to be exciting even with an abrupt intro like that.

Unfortunately, such a control was beyond what Sun Hwa was capable of. A bomb had exploded, but the culprit got caught immediately, and then he let out his pent up anger. It sounded more like she was wrapping up the story than she was setting up a beginning. Juho appreciated its experimental nature, but it wasn't appropriate considering the lesson was about ”writing up to the beginning.” It did get better as it went on, but if the story stayed at a climax throughout, it would be the same as a story without tension or resolution, only moving forward.

It seemed like Sun Hwa was in desperate need of patience. If she learned how to write in steps, she'd be a much better writer. If the fourth floor was the floor above the first, one would be ripped in half trying to get there. At least he'd be able to enjoy the view if he could make it up to the top.

”This one's written by Bom.”