I Only Like You

Chapter 3: He who was my Desk mate

~ 6 ~

Kim Taehyung's voice was extremely baritone and melodious, and he was able to pronounce the words accurately despite being from Daegu. As such, the teacher would always ask him to help record the audio required for listening comprehension for term assessment. Due to his "special position", I started to think of some crooked ideas.

"Could you slow down your pace when you're reading the correct answer?"

"Can't."

"Nobody will ever find out, and you don't have to provide hints for every question! Just pick a few difficult ones."

"Can't."

"I promise to work harder and to revise promptly next time, so please just help me this time around!"

"Can't."

Angered, I sniped at him, "Are you a voice recorder?"

"No."

"Do you really bear to leave me in the lurch?"

"I'm not going to help you to cheat."

I felt extremely aggrieved, "But my mom threatened to ground me at home should I fail to perform for English in the upcoming exams."

We had previously promised each other to go barbequing during summer break.

He lowered his head and continued reading his books as if he hadn't heard a single word of what I was saying.

Who knew that on the day of the exams, this person would righteously recite aloud in an extremely serious tone –

"C. Show ——- her ——- the ——- way ——- to ——- the ——-hospital ——-"

At that time, the term "Slap One's Face" had yet to be invented.

...

Once, he was down with a cold which he couldn't seem to recover from despite a long period of time. I was extremely worried and wanted to bring him medicine, but I felt shy about it. As such, the pure me thought of an extremely roundabout manner to accomplish my objectives – upon reaching home, I took a long, cold shower, and succeeded in getting a cold.

On the second day, I wore a mask to class and passed him some cold medicine, while continuously stressing that I only bought the medicine for him out of "convenience".

He asked, "How come you caught a cold? Did you get infected by me?"

I shook my head, not daring to say the truth, as I was afraid that I would be mocked to death.

Who would ever guess that this person's cold would recover by the next day, on the other hand, I continued sneezing every single day and lived my life in a daze for a month.

Now that I think about it, I could cry at the stupidity of my thoughts at that time.

~ 7 ~

When the new school term started, Kim Taehyung and I no longer shared the same desk. I was terribly sad on the day we separated; I even cried in secret, feeling as though the sky was collapsing on me. I was very shy and modest then, not like how I am now, sociable and open. He was also not someone who would approach others on his own volition. As a result, we hardly spoke after we separated.

Our class would head to the experiment labs once every two weeks for our Chemistry Practical. The seating arrangement in the experiment labs was identical to our seating arrangement during the first school term – this meant that it was only during Chemistry Practical that I had the opportunity to sit next to him.