9. Spider

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You tie me up like a spider
We're tangled up, we can't escape

You tie me up like a spiderWe're tangled up, we can't escape

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"No, no, no and no!"

I winced at the sharpness in Mr. Jung's voice.

"Your foot was over the line again! You have to cover the distance from that chalk mark to that one! No less!"

"I-I'm sorry, sir. . . ." I mumbled, eyes downcast with shame and embarrassment.

"I told you, he can't do it," Hyunggu groaned.

I know.

"You'll have to modify it," Lisa said. "Or I dunno, make him do hundred squats, fifty won't cut it."

I know.

"He won't be able to do hundred, he'll collapse."

I know.

"Look at those chicken legs, you shouldn't have given him that step in the first place!"

"I know," I murmured under my breath.

"Come again?"

"I know," I said, a bit louder.

Dead silence.

I went over to the corner, picked up my bag pack, and walked out the Practice Room and the studio, face feeling hot with the exertion of holding back tears.

"Fuck this shit, I'm tired," Jeongyeon moaned, snapping the textbook shut. She looked up at the sky before stretching, then turned to me. We were currently seated in the garden, facing the Administration Block of the school. "You up for coated peanuts? I've got some wons on me today."

"Salted," I answered. "Salted peanuts."

She rolled her eyes. "I don't get your obsession with salted peanuts. Anyone would pick coated over salted."

"Coated are too spicy!" I said, flapping my arms for emphasis. "I don't know how you stand them."

"Your spice tolerance is just too low," she told me.

"No, yours is too high."

"Well, true that," she said, getting up on her feet, "but yours is still lower than average."

"My tolerance isn't low!" I protested.

But Jeongyeon didn't answer.

You may not care why, but I did. Her jaw was hung open, so I followed her line of sight, looked back at her, then did a double-take. Because right across the garden, in front of the Administration Block, his hands pocketed and his very stance singing out arrogance, stood the boy from that fateful night, the one who was bashing up everyone around him in the bar, the one who was ogling Jeongyeon.

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