LIGHTNOVELONLINE chapter 37
36. About How My Kiss With My Childhood Friend Was Broadcast Nationwide (1)
Two days later, Monday.
A normal day for going to school.
Since living alone, I haven’t been eating proper breakfasts, so I just grabbed some bread and milk and left home late.
The trip from my place to school takes about 20 minutes by bus.
It’s roughly six stops away. The distance isn’t that long, but with the morning rush hour, the bus keeps stopping and starting, so I guess that’s why it takes that long. I know this because coming home only takes like 15 minutes.
…Anyway.
Like any other day, it took me about 20 minutes to get to school.
The building where Class 2 of the first grade is, is the main building, and the class is on the first floor.
I walked my usual route, now familiar, and got to the front of my classroom and opened the back door without giving it a second thought.
—*Sliding noise!*
“Oh? It’s Ju-uju.”
“Hey, hey, Ju-uju’s here!”
“Wow, Ju-uju, that’s crazy…”
Then, everyone in Class 2 of the first grade simultaneously turned to look at me.
‘…What’s going on?’
This unusual atmosphere.
Usually, when I walk in, the kids glance my way, but for some reason, today is more intense than usual.
If the level of attention I get when nothing’s going on is about 5, and the level when everyone’s staring is 10, I’d say it’s about a 10 right now?
Even the kids who are close to me, the ones I’m not so close to, even the ones who are usually asleep are staring at me like I’m some exotic animal. Me, having just gotten to school, I have no idea what’s going on.
Did something happen while I wasn’t here…?
‘Seriously, what is it?’
Everyone’s staring at me, it feels really weird, and these strange doubts keep popping into my head.
It’s unlikely, it’s absolutely impossible, but could they somehow know about those *ahem* videos I looked up this past weekend?
“……This time I saw something normal.”
“……”
I shook my head, pushing away the useless thoughts.
First things first, I need to put my bag down.
Ignoring the stares that followed me, I went to my spot.
Like always, I loosened the bag strap, hung it next to the desk, pulled out the chair, and sat down.
And then.
“Hey, Ju-Uju!”
Jaehyun quickly approached, talking to me.
I don’t know why, but the corners of my mouth kept trying to curl upwards. A smile that I couldn’t hide, plastered on my face.
“Did you, uh, see this?”
Nam Jaehyun abruptly held out his phone.
I looked closer and it was a YouTube Short. You know, one of those short videos, edited down to less than a minute.
The video was paused before starting, and the title was [2024 Jamsil Stadium Kiss Cam Legend].
“What is this? What’s it about?”
“Just watch, you’ll see.”
Jaehyun tapped the play button.
A familiar foreign pop song played as the background music.
A very recognizable melody, starting with the lyrics, “Love, Love, Love.” Wasn’t this the soundtrack to Love Actually?
Anyway, the setting of the video was the premium seats at Jamsil Stadium, the same place I had been to just two days ago.
The place was spacious, with tables and seats spread out comfortably, and there, a man and a woman were sitting close, awfully cozy with each other.
-……!
-Uh, uh…!
The two of them jumped apart, startled to see their own faces on the screen.
Then, they started glancing at each other, clearly self-conscious about the other person sitting next to them.
“……?!”
At that moment, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
The man and the woman in the video were so incredibly familiar.
No, actually, they weren’t just familiar. The woman was Aki, my childhood friend I see almost every day, and the man was just me.
“Hey, this…”
That’s me and Aki.
No matter how I looked at it, those two were definitely me and Aki.
Why the hell are me and Aki on a YouTube short…?!
Too shocked to even speak properly, I stared at Jaehyun, who had paused the video and was now smirking at me.
“What? You’re already freaking out? The highlight’s still coming.”
“What? No, what…”
He said there was a highlight left?
Before I could even ask, the video started playing again.
The man in the video, which was me, looked at Aki with an indifferent expression, and then just subtly reached out and gently stroked her hair.
And then, he touched the back of her neck to make her look this way, pretending to carefully grab her wrist which was hiding her mouth, and then he just casually ended up holding her hand.
-……over there.
-……!
Then, after whispering something, a kiss on Aki’s lips.
It felt incredibly short, but seeing it from someone else’s perspective, the lips touched and parted in even less time.
For all the build-up, it was such a lame kiss.
‘……She has a right to be pissed.’
Aki probably gave her permission after working up the courage, and he acted like he was going to do something intense, but then he gave her a kiss like six-year-olds do.
……That thought lingered for a moment.
-…….
-…….
Right after our lips touched, Aki and I just stared at each other.
Aki, after staring intently at my slightly awkward expression,
-……Haaum.
-……?!
She wrapped her arms around my neck, pulled me in, and kissed me, her lips slightly parted.
This time it was deeper and longer than before.
Long enough to see both Aki’s and my hands and feet twitching.
-Heuh…….
-…….
And then, Aki leaned her shoulder against mine.
Our little lovey-dovey act ended there, and then a huge caption reading “[Have a Happy Love~♡]” popped up before the video cut off.
“……”
When we were actually doing it, I didn’t really notice, but watching it on video like this, it looks incredibly suggestive.
“Whoa, I thought I was watching some kind of movie.”
I was just spacing out, and then I snapped out of it when Jaehyun teased me.
“Wh-who uploaded this?”
“I dunno, not me. But you know what? This has crazy views. It was uploaded yesterday afternoon and it already hit a million in just one day.”
“……What? A million?”
How does something get a million views in one day? Are you lying to me?
Suspicion immediately set in, and I checked the video’s view count in the description.
[2024 Jamsil Stadium Kiss Cam Legend]
#shorts #kisstime #sweet #healing #youthful #highschoolcouple
[Likes – 22k / Views – 1,036,220 / Upload Date – March 15, 2024]
The view count in the description read 1.03 million.
Not just hovering around a million, it had already easily surpassed the million views Jaehyun had mentioned.
“See, told you?”
“It’s real…”
It wasn’t a lie.
My mind went blank for a moment.
Because, a million views in one day meant that this video had hit the YouTube algorithm. And that meant that pretty much everyone had already seen Aki and me kissing, and the number was still rising in real-time.
‘……No, it’s just, like.’
The kids in my class were all whispering, staring at me.
A video of one of our classmates kissing a girl ended up on YouTube Shorts, how could they *not* react…?
If it were me, I’d gossip about it too.
“Hey, Wooju.”
“Huh, yeah?”
“The girl in this video, isn’t she the one from Class 1? Are you dating her?”
“……Huh?”
“Whoa, Joo Wooju, you little shit. No wonder you said you were gonna come late then didn’t. We told you to play casual ranked with us, and you were here doing *this* with your girlfriend?”
“Was the kiss sweet? You traitor b*stard, fuck.”
“Joo Wooju, you’re dead in PE class.”
“Fuck, fuck, you piece of shit, dog b*stard….”
Starting with a cautious question from some girl, a barrage of resentful words started pouring onto me from my friends.
“Yo, what happened that day?”
“……Huh? What do you mean, what happened?”
“Like *that*, you fuck. After the kiss, like, what happened?”
“……”
What happened after the kiss?
‘……What the hell could’ve happened.’
She must’ve felt a delayed wave of embarrassment after the kiss, because she said she wanted to go home today. I swallowed my disappointment and let her go. I was looking forward to today because I couldn’t see her all of Sunday because of some family event at Akhi’s place.
But, trying to explain all this to my already pissed-off friends? They just wouldn’t believe it.
So, I’m racking my brain for what to say, but my silence seemed to have a different meaning to them.
“…Shit, you lying b*stard!”
“You little shit, grab his limbs!”
Suddenly, they exploded, grabbing my arms and legs all at once.
I was caught completely off-guard, completely helpless.
“Talk.”
“W-what do I say?”
“…Where you were, what you did, every single detail, spill it.”
“……”
“Not talking? …Fine. We’ll make sure you can’t stay quiet.”
Dongho, the one exploding with the most rage, grabbed the edge of my dress shirt.
“Hey, Joo Woo-joo, strip this little shit!”
“Whoa…?! Hey, where do you think you’re touching…!”
“Touching what! Like you’re some Lee Jung-hee, huh?!”
*Swoosh.*
Dongho’s finger unbuttoned one of my dress shirt buttons.
This, this b*stard. He’s not joking, he’s really gonna strip me…!
I might have brushed it off if it was just the guys, but with the girls around, I freaked out, squirming to get free, but the ones holding my limbs tightened their grips, seeing me try to resist.
“Still not gonna talk? Even now, even now?”
“No, ah, hey! The kids are all here! You guys, seriously….”
“So what if they’re here, you fraud b*stard!”
“Yeah, hurry up and tell us! Where did you go and what did you do with your girlfriend, tell us everything, you fuck!”
“……Ah, okay! I’ll tell you. I said I’ll tell you, just…!”
* * *
Gym class.
Monday’s gym class is a combined class for Class 1 and Class 2.
Which means, once a week, Ju-uju and Aki can legally see each other’s faces during class, and for the last two weeks, they have been doing just that.
But today, the two avoided looking each other in the face.
The reason, a YouTube Short uploaded by someone.
Just as Ju-uju from Class 2 had been subjected to all sorts of interrogation, torture, and beatings by his classmates because of a YouTube Short, Aki from Class 1 also received a barrage of questions from his friends, and thanks to that, his embarrassment had reached its limit.
In this situation, where it was safe to say that everyone in the school had seen Ju-uju and Aki kissing, if the two were even close enough to have a conversation, they would definitely get teased with things like, ‘What, are you gonna kiss again?’
“Hey, you crazy b*stard! Stop dunking! Are you showing off because you’re tall? Huh?”
“Okay. Sorry. Sorry.”
“Don’t just say sorry, just don’t do it, you fucker!”
“…….”
However.
Even in that situation.
Aki was sitting hunched over, with both knees pulled up to his chest, a little ways away from the basketball court.
It was embarrassing to face him directly, but he couldn’t miss watching Ju-uju play basketball.
Because.
“Hey, hey, is this punk trying to dunk again?”
“……Yo, catch!”
──Thud!
“Agh, goddamn it!”
“You said you weren’t gonna dunk, you son of a b*tch!”
‘……Because he’s cool.’
Tall, with long legs, all stretched out, and those dark, handsome eyebrows, my childhood friend.
The way Joo-woo-joo looks, dripping with sweat while playing basketball, is really, re~ally cool.
Even if I don’t really know the rules, seeing Joo-woo-joo shouting ‘Pass, pass!’ and running passionately all over the court is……
It was, like, so cool it made my heart race.
“Wow, this Joo-woo-joo b*stard is a damn liar the second he opens his mouth.”
“Yeah, so what~”
“What do you mean ‘so what,’ are you a little kid?”
“……Pff.”
Yeah, call it rose-tinted glasses, I wouldn’t even deny it…
“Ah, this guy’s so goddamn tall I can’t block his dunks. Yo, how tall are you?”
“Last year I measured, I was like, 183 or 4, something around that, I think?”
“180 in middle school? Wow, damn, the genetics are different.”
“You better grow to be two meters tall.”
‘Wow, 184…’
I didn’t realize it when I just saw it, but hearing it as a number, his height is seriously huge.
Mine is 165, so 184 is almost a 20cm difference.
……They said the ideal height difference for kissing is between 12 and 15cm.
I can’t exactly shrink his height, so I guess I need to grow about 5cm more to be right in that range.
Is there… any way to make that happen…?
“……Aki!”
That moment when Aki was lost in a slightly strange daydream. Ju-WooJoo quietly opened his mouth.
Aki instinctively looked his way, and Ju-WooJoo met her gaze.
‘I just did good, right?’
He said with only his eyes, smiling faintly like a child.
“Hey, Ju-WooJoo! Get over here, let’s switch teams and play another game!”
“Yeah, I’m going!”
“……”
Thump-thump.
Aki’s heart was beating fast.
It was really nothing, just seeing Ju-WooJoo’s smile. But Aki’s cheeks were slightly flushed as her heart started pounding.
The way he looks when he smiles while sweating… why is it so s*xy?
‘……Hmm.’
I don’t know if he’s really handsome though.
Yeah, a guy’s hottest when he’s sweating.
“……”
No, seriously, that’s when they’re the coolest…
“Aki, do you like him that much?”
“……W-what, what do you mean?”
Aki, feeling suddenly guilty, answered in a fluster.
Watching Aki’s reaction, her classmate, Lee Haram, asked the question with a knowing smile and a snort.
“Aki-ya.”
“Uh, u-uh…?”
“There’s no one else around, so be honest with just me. …You two are dating, right?”
“……N-no, we’re not?”
Aki was already dying of embarrassment, and Haram’s blunt questioning only made her cheeks burn even hotter.
Haram, seeing Aki’s reaction, became even more sure of herself, pressing her further with a subtle tone.
“Lies, those are lies! How can you kiss that passionately if you’re not dating?”
“U-Uju-chan and I are, just childhood friends….”
“What are you saying! What country has childhood friends that go around kissing each other on the lips?! Lies, you two are definitely dating!”
“N-no… really, we’re not….”
“Don’t lie, you’re dating, aren’t you…! Hurry up and confess, tell your sister here! How far have you gone…?!”
“……I don’t know.”
“Huh? Look at this girl. You’re not going to tell me? Tell me already. This, milk cow, making out with her boyfriend in front of everyone…so lewd…!”
“Mmm, milk, krr…?!”
For some reason, Lee Haram, even more worked up, his face flushed red, grabbed onto Aki’s gym uniform sleeve, shaking it like mad—at that very moment.
“……Uh, hey!”
Someone’s urgent voice cut through the air.
And, following right after.
“Hey, watch out…!”
Thud!
Before anyone could even finish their sentence, a heavy thud echoed from the basketball court.
Aki and Lee Haram turned their heads.
“……Ugh.”
Someone staggered, collapsing onto the spot.
“Hey, Ju Woo-joo! You okay?!”
“What, what is it, what happened?”
“What do you mean what happened! Ju Woo-joo just got hit in the head with the ball…!”
“Hey, hey! What’s wrong with him, he didn’t collapse did he?”
“Let’s get him up! …Hey, Ju Woo-joo! Say something if you’re okay, quick!”
That someone, Ju Woo-joo, had been struck in the head by a badly passed ball.
Aki, blankly staring at Ju Woo-joo who couldn’t support himself,
“……W, Woo-joo!”
Without even realizing it, he jumped up from his spot.