I miscounted the tiles

Daeshim's pov:

At Donghae Middle School, there are two groups of people.

First, you've got the popular kids.

The group consists of five boys. There's Beom-Seok, the so-called leader of the group, who has won several boxing competitions. He's dating the most beautiful girl in school. The girls went crazy when they found out our most popular boy was taken. Rumor has it some of them are still crying about it—even though they’ve been together for over two years! If only his grades were as good as his looks, he’d be tutoring the whole class instead of retaking the course.

Then there’s Min-Jae

Beom-Seok’s best friend, or more like his loyal puppy. He follows him around everywhere. Besides being Beom-Seok’s shadow, Min-Jae is also quite popular with the girls and a bit of a playboy. He seems to have a new girlfriend every week.

And lastly, we have Yoon-Seo—the troublemaker of the group. Teachers dread seeing him walk into class. He never listens and has already been caught smoking behind the basketball court twice!

The basketball court is their territory. They're all on the same team—that’s how they met.

Then there’s the group of "losers."

That includes me, Daeshim. But that’s alright—I don’t mind being called a loser. It keeps people away, and honestly, I’m not great with social interaction anyway. At least I have good grades to keep me distracted from all the drama at school.

The hallway is too loud. Too bright.

I keep my eyes down, counting the tiles between each step, my fingers pressed tightly to the straps of my backpack. I always take this route between third and fourth period. Always. normally it's not so busy.

A shoulder brushed mine — not hard, just enough that I flinched.

“Ah — sorry,” a voice said.

I looked up. It was him. Beom-Seok. Captain of the basketball team.

here you have it. that's why the hallway is so busy today.

“You okay?”

I didn’t dare answer, so I nodded once — maybe too quickly — avoiding his eyes.

Beom-Seok gave a short smile. “Cool.”

He ran to catch up with his friends.

I stared at the space he left behind. My heart beat a little off-rhythm.

I miscounted the tiles. I froze, even though I know how many there are.

There are 192 tiles in total.

I stood in that hallway for three extra minutes. I was already running late, but I needed to process what just happened.

Beom-Seok’s POV:

“Seok, hurry!” Min-Jae yelled.

I turned to follow but glanced back — just once.

The kid I bumped into still hadn’t moved an inch.

Min-Jae slapped my shoulder. “Bro, seriously, what are you staring at?”

“Nothing.”

I shook my head and looked one last time. His hand was twitching against his backpack strap. It seemed like he was either counting something or calming himself down.

Weird — not in a bad way, just...

Different.

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