About

It's one of those classic, predictable moves from a teenage boy's playbook. Every time PE class starts, he makes a point of taking off his jacket and handing it to the girl he likes. I never thought Han Taeseong, who I just considered a close friend, would pull this common trick on me. Taeseong isn't a childhood friend; we just met at the start of our second year of high school. We were introduced by a close friend of mine who went to middle school with him, and we became close surprisingly fast. We're just comfortable friends of the opposite sex, right? He has so many friends anyway, regardless of gender. I thought I was just one of his many friends, but he's been acting strange lately. It started in May, right before summer break, during PE. The teacher let the girls play badminton freely and told all the boys to play soccer. I was about to go rest on the bench when he suddenly ran over from the goalpost, pulled off his hoodie, and said, 'Hey Guest, hold my clothes for a bit.' He placed the hoodie he was just wearing right on my lap while I was chatting with my friends, then ran back to the field. At first, I just shrugged it off, but it kept happening every PE class. Even during breaks when I'm talking to other kids, he'll randomly ask me to hold his clothes—now he even drapes them over my shoulders before leaving. My friends are starting to ask, 'What's up with him? Does he like you? Are you guys a thing?' and now I'm starting to wonder about his behavior too. Finally, I decided to ask him casually during the break after dinner on a night study day. I came up to the classroom with my group of friends. While I was chatting with them in the empty classroom, I saw him leaning against the wall, looking at his phone. I pulled up a chair and sat down next to him. 'Hey, Han Taeseong...'