At the end of school, Bada is still apprehensive about Taehyeon's news.
"Stop looking at me like that," Taehyeon grumbles. "It's going to be fine."
"But if he really is messing with you, getting you alone will be the perfect time for him to try to humiliate you."
Bada is right, of course, but Taehyeon needs to be optimistic about this. If he admits that he could be the victim of a cruel prank he will lose hope that he could ever be loved in his entire life. Perhaps that is an extreme reaction but this is his life.
"I don't think Minjun would do that to me," Taehyeon lies. Bada looks like he is about to cry. Taehyeon is touched that a friend could be this concerned for him. Taehyeon would totally lay down his life for Bada too, but Bada has a more nervous personality so wouldn't risk having to rely on Taehyeon.
Seeing this great display of friendship, Taehyeon should do something to reward him. He pays for Bada's cup ramyeon and even buys him some sausages and cheese sticks.
"Could you at least look happy about the fact that I've spent all my money on you?" Taehyeon grumbles as they eat together. Bada shakes his head. "I'm just really worried about you. I know you've said, over and over, that nothing bad happened at the party but you still need to be careful. He's a popular guy. Why would he pay any attention to you when he can hardly take two steps without tripping over a girl? It's not like that with Eoleunjeol boys, you know. When you find the ones who are like us, you'll see how genuine they are."
"Stop fussing," Taehyeon says. "At least wait until my social credibility has been massacred before you feel sorry for me."
Bada doesn't say anymore about it but Taehyeon can still see that he's thinking very hard about it.
After leaving Bada, Taehyeon heads to the academy for his Korean Language class. He absolutely needs the help and even with this extra study time his scores in Language are fair to middling. Which is to say, his test scores are absolutely not good enough but it can't be helped.
As always, Taehyeon gets a seat next to a girl from a private girls' school. Her name is Ha Eunji and she isn't half as stuck-up as Taehyeon had feared when they were both late on the first day and had no choice but to sit together at the back of the cramped study room.
Eunji being kind of cool might be the problem. Taehyeon would much rather talk to her than understand what the teacher means when he talks about 'reflexive cases' or whatever else.
Today is no different.
"Hey, Eunji, you go to an all girls' school, don't you?"
"Yep. I've slipped down to rank 27th in my year since the last test. My mom didn't even care when I told her about you being 34th. She said that you're a boy and you're meant to be stupid. And then she said that the 33 people cleverer than you could all be cleverer than me too and I'm lucky that I'm at Eunhacho and not your school."
Taehyeon tries not to be offended. He'd be upset too if he ranked lower and lower with every test. He'd be doing better if anything from the lessons at school or the academy stuck in his head but he's learnt to stop expecting miracles. It could be worse. He could be getting minus numbers as test scores and rank dead last like Minjun. Luckily, this is sort of what he wants to talk about.
"You'll do better next time. So, anyway. If a girl at your school — and it's a girl that you didn't know well — asked you to spend some time together at the weekend, what would you think about that?"
"Which girl?" Eunji asks, swinging back so that her seat is balancing only on the back legs. She looks almost too interested and Taehyeon isn't sure he'll be getting any good advice from her after all.
"She's a third year. She's really popular and you've seen her about for a while but she only just found out that you exist."
"There's nobody like that at my school," Eunji says as the front legs of her chair clatter down to the floor. It mostly goes ignored. They're far back enough that the academy teacher doesn't care what they're doing anyway. Taehyeon is glad for the pseudo-privacy but he'd appreciate a few more people to glare at Eunji right now.
"What do you mean that there's nobody like that at your school?"
"It means what I said. Everyone knows who I am. If it's a girl from my school, they've probably been waiting for the chance to hang out with me for ages. Do you know how much stuff I got for Valentine's Day this year? The amount of girls hoping for a kiss at the coin karaoke by our school would shock you."
Taehyeon scowls down at his stupid academy workbook. "In this situation you didn't get any Valentine's chocolates. The girl who asked you to go somewhere probably got some from just about everyone in school though."
Eunji leans forwards over her desk, her hair swinging as a curtain over her own blank workbook. She whispers, "Did you send chocolates?"
"Maybe."
"Does this person know?"
"I hope not."
Eunji sits up straight and curls her hands together lightly. "It's one of two scenarios. Either this 'girl' knows that you like 'her' and 'she's' going to make fun of you, or this 'girl' might actually be interested in you."
This was a bad idea. Taehyeon doesn't need this much false hope. This is worse than Bada's fretting. Taehyeon needs a reality check, not Eunji looking at him like he's just lifted a car without breaking a sweat.
"Hold on. This girl — I really didn't appreciate all those quotation marks you did just then, by the way — knows that I like her. And she asked me to meet because she lent me her school trousers."
Now the expression seems more like a car appeared out of nowhere and dropped on Taehyeon's head.
"Where are you meeting? I can try to make time to be nearby so that if anything happens you can text me and I'll come to rescue you."
Taehyeon shakes his head. "Thanks. I think I'll be alright though. What's the worst that will happen? If I get beaten up really badly I'll at least get a few weeks off school."
"You're an idiot."
Bada didn't like that joke either.
"I really like this person. They're really cool and when I finally got the chance to talk to them I really felt like I was being listened to. Fancying someone is one thing but I never thought that they would be interested in hearing what I had to say."
Eunji is quiet for a long moment. Taehyeon wonders whether she has turned her attention back to the teacher, distant and small at the front of the classroom. No. She's looking at Taehyeon with reproach in her face.
"If you need to change schools, make sure you keep coming to this academy."