"Uh... could you please let go of my hand?"
I looked down to see that I was still holding his hand. Immediately, I jerked my hand away from his and cleared my throat. His face was still as red as ever and the blushing seemed to have spread to his ears too, coloring them a deep shade of red.
[Idiot... why's he blushing so much? He's making me blush too!]
"So... what're you doing here?", I asked him, shifting from one foot to the other.
"Oh... I'm taking these documents to the faculty room. Mr. Jung asked me to"
"Is that why you rushed out of the classroom earlier?", I said. [And also why you declined my invitation to lunch]
"No... I was going to register for the photography club but Mr. Jung stuck me with these while I was on my way there", he said, holding up his camera.
"You do photography? Wow, what do you take pictures of? Can you show me?", I asked him.
"I don't have any photos with me right now, maybe next time.", he said, picking up the last of the papers.
"You have to take these to the faculty room, right? Here, let me help you", I said, taking half of the stack from him before he could protest.
"You don't have to, I've got it covered", he said, gesturing for me to return the papers to his stack. "I have to get back soon"
"Let's just go, Jin-Moon, you want to go back to the photography club, right? It'll be faster this way", I said, already walking towards the faculty room. Jun-Seo and Chin-Hwa had already left me behind to go to the cafeteria.
Jin-Moon walked alongside me in silence. It was only the two of us in the hallways as the first ten minutes of the fifty minute lunch break had already elapsed. The tapping of our shoes on the polished marble floors resounded throughout the corridor. We continued along like that until Jin-Moon suddenly stopped.
"What is it? Is something wrong?", I asked him.
"It's just that... Do you know where the faculty room is?", he asked me.
"What? I don't know, I thought you did!"
"But you're the one that began walking so I just assumed you knew and followed...", he said, his eyes looking overcast. His hair seemed to flop down from its usual energetic state, as if it were affected by his mood. He reminded me of a puppy and I was a huge fan of dogs so seeing him like this made me want to pet him, dog or not. [Calm down, you idiot!], I chastised myself.
[He's a human and a rude one at that]
"You know what? You can leave it to me, you have to go to the club", I said, noticing him glance at his watch and purse his lips. [Ugh... why do I have to be such a pushover?]
"But I can't-", he began. "No buts! I am the vice-president, after all. Let's just say that you owe me one now", I interrupted him, nodding towards his stack of papers.
He hesitated for a moment and the conflict was clear in his eyes but he relented and placed the rest of the papers in my hands. I let out a little yelp at the unexpected load of the papers and shifted to adjust myself to them. Jin-Moon stood there for a few beats, staring at me strangely. He held my gaze for half a minute in silence.
"Wh-what? Why're you looking at me like that?", I asked him.
"Nothing... It's just that you're really short. The stack comes up to your chin.", he replied, leaving me dumbstruck.
[What the hell?!], I thought to myself, my mouth hanging open. [Here I was helping him out of my own goodwill and he said I was short?]
"I'm not short! I'm a healthy 172 cm tall! You're not even that much taller than me - what're you 179? 180?", I fumed. I was a tad touchy about my height because I had been pretty short in middle school, hitting puberty a little later than everyone else.
"I'm actually 176 cm - I look taller though, don't I?", he replied. "Oh I've got to go now! Thank you for this, I owe you one!", he said, turning around and running back the way he came.
"Wait!", I called out behind him.
"I changed my mind! Come back!"
***