“…I see. You knew everything.”
Hwan, who muttered that, showed an embarrassed smile afterward.
He thought he didn’t know.
The fact that he’d actually noticed everything all along, and Huiseo’s earlier words of ‘how could you not know when it’s about you’ were all so affectionate that he was moved. However, since his hated self wasn’t exactly something to be proud of, Hwan’s expression clouded. He felt newly embarrassed.
‘Though it’s not miserable enough to cry about.’
Not knowing what expression to make, Hwan just roughly smiled once more.
However, it seemed he still couldn’t fool Huiseo’s eyes.
“…It hurts, doesn’t it?”
Huiseo asked while caressing the hand he was holding. When he asked like that, it felt like even trivial matters would become sorrowful. Hwan, who had been looking at Huiseo for a moment as if he couldn’t stop him, gathered his composure and shook his head, saying.
“No, I just need you, don’t I? What reason would I have to be hurt?”
Though he said it playfully, this too was sincere.
While saying that, Hwan even intertwined their fingers to hold Huiseo’s hand even more tightly. Then Huiseo grumbled “What nonsense,” but he knew that was only with his mouth—in reality, he was embarrassed, not knowing where to look.
Each time their flustered fingers intertwined with each other, both Hwan and Huiseo felt ticklish around the nape of their necks for no reason.
After doing that for a while, Hwan then opened his mouth.
“Do that. For now.”
“For now?”
“For now, yes. Would that guy give up so easily?”
That statement… was hard to refute.
As if meaning that, Huiseo made a troubled expression for a moment and let out a deep sigh.
That persistent gaze directed at him, that arrogant and overbearing attitude as if everything he said was right and it was natural for you to follow it. Recalling various things about Yuwon like that, Huiseo obediently nodded and answered, “Right, he wouldn’t.”
Hwan, who couldn’t be pleased with that, stuck out his lips sullenly and continued talking.
“You’ll do that for now, but if anything happens, you have to tell me right away. Then….”
“…Then?”
As Hwan suddenly stopped breathing and even paused, Huiseo thought perhaps a reliable statement like ‘let’s solve it together’ might come next. Though he said ‘perhaps,’ in reality he already believed it, so even before hearing the words, he was already looking at Hwan admiringly.
But after a moment, when completely different words from his expectation popped out, Huiseo couldn’t hide his bewildered expression.
“I won’t let that bastard off. I’ll kill him, really.”
“What kind of disastrous talk is that!”
As if even saying such words was impious and dangerous, Huiseo slapped down Hwan’s arm with a smack. Then Hwan suddenly shouted “Why, why!” as if this situation where he was being scolded was unfair.
It’s just the two of them, so what, can’t he even say this much? Who’s really going to kill someone?
“I’m just saying, just saying!”
However, Huiseo, who wasn’t buying it at all, glared and warned Hwan.
“Don’t you know the saying that even the palace walls have ears? Be careful with your words whether you’re awake or asleep. And I’m telling you in advance, fighting is really not allowed.”
It seemed precarious lately, so he thought he should properly address this once. It wasn’t a joke—fighting, especially physical fighting, was something that must never happen.
‘A prince used violence?’
Even if the other party hit him twice, because of the fact that he hit once, Hwan could be unilaterally lynched by public opinion. That was a line that even the lucky Hwan, who people viewed generously, couldn’t cross.
Unfortunately, being a prince was such a position.
Of course, who among those standing before others wouldn’t be like that, but a hand raised by a prince toward his own citizens would become an even more unforgivable flaw. So Huiseo couldn’t help but caution Hwan two or three times and extract a promise from him.
“No matter what happens, absolutely no punching. You know that, right?”
Though it was such an obvious precaution that pointing it out seemed ridiculous, Hwan seemed quite frustrated and aggrieved anew.
“Even if the other party picks a fight first? Even if they hit first?”
“Who would dare hit a prince? What are the guards doing? On the off chance that happens, you should report it immediately.”
“…So I just have to keep taking it like an idiot until someone comes running after reporting?”
“Who said that? That’s not what I’m saying….”
“It is what you’re saying.”
Hwan’s shoulders drooped as he grumbled like that.
He knew Huiseo’s words were a hundred percent right. Hitting someone, that’s absurd. He wasn’t a hooligan and had no desire to go around punching here and there. However, Hwan just didn’t feel pleased about being bound so that he couldn’t do anything even in such extreme situations.
“…Whether I’m a prince or what, because of this little thing, there’s absolutely nothing I can do.”
“This little thing…!”
Then when Hwan’s complaints finally went in that direction, Huiseo, shocked, let out a gasp and hurriedly looked around. It was from concern that someone might have heard those tremendous words. Though it had just been a moment ago that he’d said to be careful with words.
It would be right to scold Hwan once more, but since his frustrated feelings weren’t completely incomprehensible, Huiseo’s heart weakened for no reason and after seeming to contemplate for a moment, he soothed Hwan.
Of course, that consolation was quite absurd.
“Fine, then just a little….”
How do you fight just a little?
He almost burst out laughing.
However, Hwan, who forcibly held it in, deliberately grumbled even more conspicuously. It could be seen as struggling to be scolded less in a possible upcoming clash with that guy Choi Yuwon. It wasn’t saying he’d rashly use his fists on the guy, but perhaps he might need to defend himself too.
“Tying up my hands and feet and telling me to fight. How do I fight?”
“Why can’t you fight? There’s a place that’s not tied up.”
“……?”
Where?
When Hwan tilted his head, not readily understanding, after a moment Huiseo proudly pointed to his own lips and smiled.
“Mouth.”
***
Near the end of lunch break, he sent a message to Yuwon.
[I have something to say, let’s meet briefly after class today]
No matter how he thought about it, meeting separately outside like before was still burdensome. So the method that Huiseo, who had been agonizing, chose was to finish talking at school where they had to meet anyway. Actually, there was no reason at all to call him out separately in a grand manner.
After all, the answer was already decided as ‘rejection.’
However, Yuwon seemed excited, not knowing that. From the time he confirmed that message received from Huiseo, he was noticeably pleased to the point where it showed transparently in his expression.
He seemed to think that Huiseo would ‘naturally’ accept his proposal.
‘…But no.’
Thinking about disappointing that inflated expectation, well. Rather than feeling sorry, he first ended up thinking it would somehow be tiring. Because of that, as class neared its end, Huiseo was unconsciously constantly kneading his own nape.
As discussed earlier with Huiseo, Hwan agreed to step back for a while while they talked, so after class ended, he was sent down first to the car waiting below. Of course, the looks the two exchanged before that—anyone watching would have thought he was being dragged to a battlefield.
‘I’ll be waiting. You trust me, right?’
‘I’ll wait. You have to finish quickly and come. If anything happens, definitely, definitely call.’
It was quite a fuss.
Anyway, Hwan glared fiercely at Yuwon with the momentum to send all the guards below up if necessary, and finally left the classroom. Then at last, in the empty classroom after everyone had left, Yuwon and Huiseo, the two of them, remained.
‘Hwan will be desperately waiting every minute and second too.’
Given Yuwon’s temperament that he’d observed, if he spoke indirectly out of consideration, he might not properly accept his meaning, so Huiseo got straight to the point.
“My answer is rejection. Sorry, but I’m not going to study abroad with you.”
Then Yuwon’s face, which had been smiling pleasantly all along, froze coldly.
“…Is it because of that Lee Hwan guy?”
And as expected, that question flew at him right away.
Huiseo’s prediction that if he rejected, the arrow of innocent resentment would fly at Hwan couldn’t have been more accurate. Seeing his eyes turn fierce in an instant, Huiseo was greatly relieved that he’d sent Hwan down in advance. If Hwan had been in this place, something big might have happened.
“Did that guy tell you not to go? So shamelessly?”
“…Shameless?”
But at those astounding words that an agitated Yuwon spat out next, even Huiseo’s expression, who had been trying to continue the conversation as calmly as possible, cooled coldly. It showed from that single word that suddenly popped out of his mouth. How he usually thought of Hwan.
‘How dare you…’
Treating Hwan as shameless on his own authority—Huiseo absolutely couldn’t forgive it.
Of course, if Hwan weren’t in the background of Huiseo’s decision not to go study abroad, that would be a lie. However, that wasn’t the only reason he decided that way. If someone asked why he was kicking away a delicious meal table that would even be spoon-fed to him, Huiseo could tell them any number of times.
“No, Choi Yuwon. It’s because of you.”
Huiseo looked up at Yuwon with firm eyes and said that.
Of course, Yuwon naturally didn’t understand Huiseo’s words.
Not surprisingly, he stood looking at Huiseo with an expression asking what kind of nonsensical talk that was. However, Huiseo was truly sincere, and it was the truth.
‘When you don’t do that to other people.’
Because Yuwon’s attitude of being particularly severely obsessed only with him was somehow strange, Huiseo had also looked into him in his own way. Sorry, but it wasn’t in a positive sense like curiosity. If he had to specify, it was closer to the meaning of ‘know your enemy and know yourself, and you will win a hundred battles.’
Though he tried in his own way, finding him in childhood memories wasn’t easy.
No matter how much Huiseo, his childhood memories were rather hazy, and since there were also no particularly memorable incidents between the two, it wasn’t strange. Instead, by searching through childhood photos and newspaper articles from that time, he could somewhat guess about the gifted class and what happened after.
Looking at those results, Huiseo pondered alone for a long time.
‘So was he resentful of me?’
For blocking his path at every turn?
‘No, but….’
His recent actions also seemed exactly the opposite.
Suddenly asking to go study abroad together, telling him to join their company. He constantly thrust forward things that others would definitely be tempted by. Looking at that, he thought the possibility of having some kind of ‘goodwill’ beyond the emotion of ‘not disliking’ was higher.
‘Why?’
Huiseo, who had been pondering, soon shook his head from side to side.
Whatever circumstances he had, and whatever emotions he currently had toward him, those couldn’t be the reason for all of Yuwon’s unilateral actions toward him.
