The Best of Tomorrow

chapter 9 – part 1

I looked around.

Check the right corridor, check the left corridor, and check that Ryu Seon-jae is not present.

After confirming, I quietly entered the 7th class. I crouched down and headed to Seon-jae’s desk. I put a neatly folded piece of paper in the desk drawer and walked out the front door.

I delivered a note again today.

That phrase seemed to float above my head.

As I walked down the hall, feeling the ease of a person who just finished his work, I saw Seon-jae walking from the opposite side.

I looked around in a hurry. There were only two ways to avoid Seon-jae: enter the next classroom or turn around and go down the opposite corridor. But when I turned around, Baek In-hyuk was walking.

Oh my god.

The two of you stay together every day, but why are you both not together today?

Wearing a hood over my head, I walked towards the direction where Baek In-hyuk was walking.

“Who is this?” Baek In-hyuk looked at me with his eyes wide open.

I even smiled as if I was glad to see him, but I closed my lips, saying “Shhhhh” in case he called for Seon-jae who is walking from behind.

“In-hyuk.”

Sure enough, I heard Sun-jae’s voice from behind.

Even today, at the phrase floating above my head, a red alert came in.

The smile on my face fell and my shoulders dropped. I hadn’t even faced Seon-jae yet, but the future was drawn. As I was wondering what excuses I should make, a long arm came up on my shoulder.

Baek In-hyuk pulled down my hood even more and covered my face, blocking my vision.

“Did you tell your homeroom teacher?”

“Yes, you may go.”

What the hell is going on?!

I wanted to run away, but I couldn’t do anything about it because I was grabbed by the shoulder. I bowed my head as much as possible to take care of myself, but the conversation between the two stopped for a while.

I didn’t know if they’re talking with just their eyes or lip movements.

“This is my classmate. Bring your bag out, I will come out right away.”

The conversation ended again.

Did Seon-jae go?

When I didn’t move, the hood that covered my face came off. Suddenly, Baek In-hyuk entered my field of vision.

“How many layers did you fold your pants into?”

Seon-jae has long legs. What do you want me to do?

“You just confess that you like him, right? Why are you sneaking in and giving him a letter? That’s really weird.”

“Letter? Did Seon-jae read it?”

“He didn’t tell me what it was about.” Baek In-hyuk patted me on the shoulder. I blinked at him who was comforting me pitifully. “I don’t think it’s a good idea. I didn’t like it. I’m telling you because I think of you.”

Right. There’s no way you would like it. That’s not a confession letter. It’s a letter from the future. When I sighed, Baek In-hyuk turned around and said, “Seon-jae is coming out.”

That’s right.

It’s not the time to do this.

I quickly ran ahead of Baek In-hyuk.

As I stepped down the stairs, I remembered a note I put in today.

It was already heartbreaking to think of that fierce look.

***

If there was anything difficult about coming back to the past, I couldn’t listen to the songs of Potato Pancake.

Whenever a new song was released, it was fun to find Seon-jae’s voice by streaming the entire album in time for release. Seon-jae had many parts for the newly joined member.

Because of that, he was criticized a lot. The reason was that the other members’ parts decreased. Especially, Baek In-hyuk had fewer parts. So, if the fans were Ryu Seon-jae’s, it might have become a “potato war”, a potato war that will lit their eyes and sharpened their sword.

“I want to hear the memories of the wind Seon-jae sang.”

I rested my chin on my hand and saw the wall with only a calendar hung on it. The room without a picture of Seon-jae felt empty. Even though I saw the living Seon-jae now, I didn’t think I was looking for the Seon-jae of potato pancake because I came into the twisted time.

I got up with a pencil and stood in front of the calendar. I drew a diagonal line on today’s date.

From the day I started my trip, the lines I drew, filled the calendar like rain. I went to my desk and took out my watch from the drawer.

The clock is ticking, but it went strangely.

In the past, I had never had or seen such a watch.

I couldn’t bring anything, but it was strange that it came with me.

Is this why I suddenly started time travel?

I held the watch close to my face, examined it, and put it in the drawer again. I didn’t try to close the drawer but took out the MP3 player. It was the MP3 that everyone used to use for the iPod.

Since it was sold for 10,000 won in the secondhand country, I bought it to save my cell phone battery.

“Awesome!”

I pressed the power, but the light didn’t come on. I went out to the living room and removed the battery from the remote control and replaced it on the MP3 player.

When the power was pressed, the iRiver logo flashed and disappeared.

There were more than 100 songs that I listened to at that time.

“Are you not going to school tomorrow? Get in quickly.”

“Huh? Yeah.”

Mom, who came out from the bathroom, glanced at her room asking if she could turn off the living room light.

I nodded and got up from the sofa and entered my room. I lay on my back on the bed, plugging earphones into the MP3 and plugging them into my ears.