c3 (2/2)

“Settle down well.”

Sangah-noona once again began to scold me with an agitated voice at my cold response. The current drift of world affairs this, kids these days that. To summarise again, she was complaining how could you do this to me, your older sister.

Sick of listening to Sangah-noona whine, I changed the subject with another question.

“Noona, didn’t you say that you have a concert planned for next month?”

「So that old man…… Yeah! There’s a month left.」

She was easy to deal with. Though, perhaps it was because I was her younger brother.

「It’s like celebrating New Year’s Eve, though it will be held on the 30th, which is three days earlier! You could call it a New Year’s Eve’s Eve’s Eve celebration.」

You mean New Year’s Eve’s Eve.

“But, what are you doing in Finland?”

「Playing. No, watching performances. No, I’m studying! Musical studies!」

There was no use for fixing her answer three times.

Being consistent with my silence for a while, I s.h.i.+fted my gaze to the printout. Around the time I had finished solving question 2 in my head and provided an answer, she returned an apology in a depressed voice,

「Sorry.」

“So when are you coming back?”

「Next month?」

“I’m hanging up.”

「No! No! Don’t hang up! I’m returning on the flight on the 1st! It’s okay!」

I sighed deeply at Sangah-noona’s desperate answer and continued.

“Noona. It’s true that I don’t know anything about concerts, but can you do that?”

「I came because it’s all manageable. This noona ain’t an amateur, after all. My younger brother doesn’t have to worry about a thing! Plus, there isn’t much difference since the last concert. The new song is also still in development.」

If my memory was correct, her last concert was held almost a year ago. The awkward laugh that followed concerned me.

「No, no. I didn’t call you to be interrogated by you like this!」

Sangah-noona ceased her laughter and lowered her voice.

「I’ve got something to ask you.」

“What is it?”

「Angel0.」

“Oh, that.”

「What do you mean that?! Apologise to my love!」

Sangah-noona is Angel0’s fan. She nicknamed her ‘my love’.

She was always showing her pa.s.sionate love by doing things like concentrating on propagation by always giving Angel0-related products to people around her, and singing Angel0’s songs during her concerts, with personal remixes of various styles.

In fact, it was strange that she had only called now, when a few days had already pa.s.sed, since even if she was in Finland, news of Angel0, which was worth top news material would have been around.

「I was just roaming around the hotel drunk, and guess what I find – my love on the newspaper that was written in unreadable letters! We actually came to Finland because of the shock of Angel0’s hiatus. My gang wanted to wake me up. I guess nothing caught my eyes, since I’ve been drinking non-stop after coming here. So I just grabbed onto a random pa.s.ser-by and asked in body language. Angel0 in Korea? Yes, Angel0 in Korea!」

(TL: Italicized part was in English.)

Don’t roam around drunk in a foreign hotel! No, don’t drink for so long in the first place! You obviously couldn’t see, because your eyes would’ve been filled with alcohol, and not tears! Also, English is the world’s common language, not a body language! Are you a primary school kid?! Is that the best you could do?!

Which was shortened into,

“Great job.”

「Don’t talk like my mom!」

A headache started up when I realised that this situation would be the trial version of my aunt. On the contrary, since she was a woman who hardly stayed in her house, I might have been the one who was suffering the most. Dammit.

“She’s in my cla.s.s.”

「I love you!」

“Why?”

「So you can do me a simple favour, right, oppa?」

“Why am I your oppa?”

「Bring her to our concert! Please!」

“If we were that close, I would’ve already received a signed CD and bragged to you.”

To be honest, I was just rubbing my chest in relief. Although it wasn’t a CD, I had a poster that I had signed, to give Sangah-noona.

「Then become close to her by the end of this month.」

“Easier said than done.”

Without even knowing my good intention of secretly preparing a gift for her, Sangah-noona said something absurd without changing her tone. What would happen if noona met Kim Ahyoung in real life? I chuckled as I imagined noona running straight to her.

「Ah, I gotta hang up.」

Sangah-noona, who was saying things like I had no courage or that I was unmanly, suddenly changed her words. I could faintly hear someone calling noona over the phone. It seemed like other people were looking for noona.

「I think the other people woke up. I better wake Jinhee up, too. Whoa, I feel like the phone charges are gonna be high. Also, you gotta bring her to the concert, okay? I’ll call you as soon as I arrive in Korea.」

She hung up without even waiting for my answer. After gazing at the screen, which showed quite a long call time, I folded my phone loudly and put it down.

I always felt exhausted after a chat with Sangah-noona. However, that feeling included a pleasant tiredness. Noona was the most free-looking person I had ever known, and whenever I listened to her playful voice, I felt as if I was being a.s.similated to it.

Though, I couldn’t stop my sigh from escaping at the reality that I had not even touched question three, much less the rest of the questions.

Although it was a settled conviction, I was sure that the b.a.s.t.a.r.d called time was apathetic to human affairs. One could learn that from the fact that exam period had arrived, regardless of the various big and little things. Just because our cla.s.s kids were together with a superstar did not mean that we would be freed from that pressure. After all, the superstar herself could not avoid it.

The fourth day of exams.

When I finished the sundry job that the homeroom teacher had asked me to do and returned to the cla.s.sroom, only my backpack remained on my desk.

Our school did not enforce cleaning duties during exam period. Instead, the cla.s.s rep and the vice cla.s.s rep did a quick sweep, in turns, and today just turned out to be my turn. I recalled Kyungho leaving after the exam while smiling.

Although, normally, my irritation would have boiled a little when I saw this empty cla.s.sroom, my mood today was not bad at all. More than anything, it was because I had done well on the tests today. On top of that, the fact that the remainder of the tests I had were only on the subjects that I was confident in made me even more positive.

I wiped the board and got rid of the pieces of paper that had fallen on the floor and stood out. As I looked around the cla.s.sroom, something caught my eyes.

It was a pair of earphones that was sticking out of a desk.

These sorts of things happened sometimes. Cases when people accidentally just left their belongings there out of habit, in a seat that did not belong to them. Since we changed the seating plan every day during exam period, it took a little while for me to remember who had sat there today.

It was Kim Ahyoung.

+ Author’s comment: Uyaeengg I can’t wrwiiiiitteeesmddke

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