Jeonghan ran his fingers through his hair in disbelief. His gaze remained fixed on Wooyeon. Even with his eyes turning cold, Wooyeon didn’t shrink back and met Jeonghan’s stare head-on. As if such things didn’t apply to him, Wooyeon gave no answer. Jeonghan placed his hand on his waist and let out a sigh.
“Fine. Then how are you going to pay it back?”
Jeonghan’s voice dropped low. Though his pheromones were agitated, his voice was calm.
“I’ll take on more tutoring jobs.”
“Aren’t you receiving a scholarship? So are you going to get that scholarship or not?”
Jeonghan never missed Wooyeon’s most sensitive spot. In truth, even now he was going around to part-time jobs so much that he barely had time to sleep. Though he’d spoken boldly, Wooyeon also knew it was an unrealistic statement.
“Should I tell you an easy way to make money?”
Jeonghan’s lowered eyes were directed at Wooyeon. Wooyeon watched as Jeonghan’s smile spread across his manly, prominent jawline again. Whenever Jeonghan made that face, nothing he said was normal.
“Try doing something pretty for me. Then I’ll want to give you my whole wallet.”
“What…?”
“Honestly, if sunbae offered to sleep with me, any man would want to write you a blank check.”
A sharp crack rang out. The moment Jeonghan finished speaking, Wooyeon’s hand fiercely struck his cheek. Jeonghan straightened his head that had turned to the side and ran his fingers over his stinging cheek.
“You scumbag.”
Wooyeon’s hand, now bright red, trembled as he spoke. His long eyelashes shook as if they might get wet any moment. His shoulders heaving as he gasped for breath, Wooyeon had already lost his composure.
“Sunbae, you really have a habit of hitting people.”
In contrast, Jeonghan laughed with a rather relieved face, as if he’d expected it. He really wasn’t in his right mind. Wooyeon bit his lip and glared at Jeonghan.
“Are you done hitting me?”
Jeonghan tilted his head slightly and pressed his thumb firmly against his cheek and cheekbone area. The exposed left cheek seemed a bit swollen. He wasn’t the type of person you could win against by confronting him in the first place.
Wooyeon turned around to leave the study room, but the door suddenly opened from outside.
“Oh, sunbae. You’re already here?”
It was Jang Hyeonjun and Yoon Wiseung, fellow group members. Jang Hyeonjun raised his wrist to check the time. It was seven minutes before 4 o’clock.
“Wow, we thought we’d be the first ones here. Why is everyone so diligent?”
Yoon Wiseung said as he entered the study room. When Wooyeon turned his head to look at Jeonghan, Jeonghan smiled with the corners of his mouth raised. The group meeting time that Jang Hyeonjun and Yoon Wiseung knew was apparently different from the time Wooyeon had known.
“I’m going to wash my face.”
Wooyeon left the study room.
* * *
“Haa.”
After splashing cold water on his face several times, Wooyeon raised his head and looked at the mirror. Then he met eyes with himself in the reflection. His wet face still hadn’t cooled down yet, and his cheeks were flushed above his pale face. His eyes, which also seemed wet with moisture, slowly scanned the face in the mirror before stopping at his moistly wet lips.
Wooyeon bit his lips that were tinged red for no reason. Wooyeon peeled away the hair that stuck to his face from the water and turned around. The corridor back to the study room felt long.
“Did you even research this properly?”
As soon as he opened the study room door, he heard Yoon Wiseung’s voice scolding Jang Hyeonjun. Of all places, only the seat in front of Jeonghan was empty. Wooyeon sighed slightly and unavoidably pulled out the chair to sit. It seemed like Jeonghan’s gaze was directed at Wooyeon, but Wooyeon only looked at the materials spread on the table and didn’t even glance at Jeonghan.
“Hey, I worked my ass off researching yesterday.”
“It fucking reeks of copy-paste, where are you trying to pull this shit?”
“If you don’t research by copy-pasting, then what do you do it with?”
“What was I expecting from you? Sunbae, did you do yours?”
Yoon Wiseung tapped the table and spoke to Wooyeon. Wooyeon opened his bag and took out the materials he’d organized.
“Oh, right. Seonyoung asked to join our group meeting. But I flat-out rejected her.”
“What? Hey, you crazy bastard!”
At Jang Hyeonjun’s words, Yoon Wiseung let out a scream. His face showed dozens of times more anger than when the research wasn’t done properly.
“Ah, why? We can’t add a group member at this point anyway.”
“Chu Seonyoung wants to come and you dared to stop her?”
Chu Seonyoung. It was a name Wooyeon had also heard in passing. He remembered she was probably the most eye-catching female student in the economics department. Wooyeon stood up the materials he’d taken out on the table to organize them.
“Hey… A person should know their limits, their limits.”
“A goddess is good just to look at, you know?”
“I can already picture you drooling all over her, I can see it… You crazy bastard. It’s pathetic, pathetic.”
“But why does Chu Seonyoung want to join our group meeting?”
“Isn’t it obvious?”
Jang Hyeonjun answered offhandedly while looking at his fingernails.
“She’s coming because of Kwon Jeonghan, isn’t she?”
Wooyeon’s gaze, which had been organizing materials, reflexively turned toward Jeonghan. As if he’d been waiting, Jeonghan and Wooyeon’s eyes met. Wooyeon immediately withdrew his gaze from him.
“But Kwon Jeonghan, you’re not interested in Chu Seonyoung, right?”
Jeonghan gave no answer. Though he was curious what expression he was making, Wooyeon didn’t raise his head.
“Oh my… you sinful soul.”
“That bastard must be so annoyed. That’s why I deliberately pretend not to be handsome.”
“Did you take drugs?”
“Ah, even Goddess Chu is falling for Kwon Jeonghan, I’ve lost my will to live.”
Yoon Wiseung leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling. The sigh he let out—haaah—already felt like the group meeting was an afterthought.
“I need to heal this wounded heart somewhere else. Hey, should we go to a club today or tomorrow?”
“Oh, I’m obviously in. Sunbae, do you want to go too?”
Jang Hyeonjun poked Wooyeon’s arm from the side and asked.
“Sunbae doesn’t like those kinds of places.”
The one who answered wasn’t Wooyeon but Jeonghan. Wooyeon raised his eyes again to look at Jeonghan. Jeonghan was also gazing at Wooyeon. Jeonghan’s hand lightly touched Wooyeon’s index finger on the table.
“Hey now. I didn’t ask you, you bad guy. You’re not invited.”
“Don’t ask sunbae things that’ll make him uncomfortable.”
Wooyeon looked down for a moment at Jeonghan’s fingertip touching his index finger, then looked back up at Jeonghan’s eyes. Jeonghan’s eyes were still directed at Wooyeon. Wooyeon moved his hand that was touching Jeonghan’s under the table and turned his head to look at Jang Hyeonjun in the seat next to him.
“No, I want to go too. I have a part-time job today. Is tomorrow okay?”
“Ooh.”
When Jang Hyeonjun curled his thumb and index finger into a circle, Yoon Wiseung in the front seat nodded. Wooyeon could feel Jeonghan’s gaze, but he pretended not to notice and distributed the materials he’d printed out.
Throughout the entire group meeting, Jeonghan kept looking at Wooyeon or poking him with his foot under the table, but Wooyeon thoroughly ignored Jeonghan consistently.
“Then everyone prepare and let’s meet next week. Ah! No wait, we’re meeting tomorrow.”
Yoon Wiseung and Jang Hyeonjun giggled and left the study room first. Looking at the clock, fortunately there was time before his tutoring job.
Wooyeon hastily gathered the scattered materials on the table with his hands. Jeonghan’s hand overlapped on top of Wooyeon’s hand. What should I do? After hesitating, Wooyeon eventually looked at Jeonghan.
“Are you really planning to go?”
The subject was omitted, but it was clearly about the club. Without answering, Wooyeon pulled his hand away from Jeonghan’s.
“I’m asking if you’re really going.”
“What’s it to you?”
After stuffing the materials into a file, Wooyeon put it in his bag and zipped it closed. When Wooyeon stood up from his seat, Jeonghan also stood up.
“Which way are you going? I’ll give you a ride.”
“I have no reason to get in your car.”
Wooyeon picked up the bag that was on the table and immediately left the study room.
* * *
「Are you really going?」
「Stay home.」
After checking the message from Jeonghan, Wooyeon didn’t even reply and turned off his phone screen again. He didn’t know what kind of stubbornness this was. Whatever it was, he felt like he didn’t want to move in the direction Jeonghan wanted.
Wooyeon raised his body that had been sitting on the floor and began rummaging through the narrow closet. He’d never been to a club and didn’t really know what kind of clothes to wear. More than anything, he didn’t have many decent-looking clothes.
Ah. Wooyeon’s hand stopped as he recalled the clothes he’d put in a box under the closet. Come to think of it, it’s not like he didn’t have any good-looking clothes. The clothes he’d brought from the last ‘Night of Sponsorship’ would probably be more than enough for his standards. He’d been keeping them to sell online later, but he thought maybe it would be okay for him to wear them for just today.
Wooyeon decided to wear the outfit he’d worn once among the three sets of clothes. Dressed in a white shirt and black slacks, Wooyeon looked at himself in the mirror. It seemed pretty decent.
The appointment time was approaching. When he picked up the phone he’d placed on the small table, Yoon Wiseung and Jang Hyeonjun had invited Wooyeon to a chat room and were chatting among themselves. And in the midst of that, there was a noticeable message from someone else.
「I’m coming to your place, so wait.」
It was Jeonghan. Wooyeon let out a sigh and straightened his bent knees to stand up. If he didn’t want to run into Jeonghan, he had to leave quickly before he arrived.
Past midnight, the calendar on his phone was already pointing to the next day.
