Gye Sajun sent Minwook, who had class at the art college building, ahead first. When they naturally ended up alone, it felt like his heart would burst. Woojae rubbed his sweaty palms vigorously on his jeans to wipe them.
“Why did you hang up first yesterday?”
Gye Sajun, who had barely opened his mouth in front of Minwook, threw out a question as if he’d been waiting for them to be alone. Woojae deliberately avoided the intense gaze following him and answered briefly.
“Bang Minwook suddenly came in.”
“Really?”
“He was yelling and everything yesterday, guess you didn’t hear.”
“The dorm must have good soundproofing. That’s lucky.”
Gye Sajun seemed calm. He even seemed softer than before. But to Woojae, that felt awkward. Even though Woojae was being openly awkward, Gye Sajun asked as if it was nothing.
“Did you sleep well?”
“Why are you asking things like that, it’s embarrassing.”
When it reached a level he absolutely couldn’t stand, Woojae spat out sharp, pointed words. If he’d known it would be like this, he wouldn’t have whined while being held. And then Gye Sajun spoke in a different tone than before.
“…What do I have to do to get close to you?”
At the extremely serious question, Woojae’s footsteps, which had been trying to walk calmly, stopped. He had no idea what he was talking about. Wasn’t this close enough already? The fingers that brushed against each other felt hot.
“What are you talking about out of nowhere?”
“I even borrowed and read this book from the library to get close to you.”
What Gye Sajun pulled out while rummaging through his bag was none other than ‘A Guide to Friendship for Timid People’. Even while reading the letters, they didn’t register in his head, so he had to read it repeatedly. While the corners of his eyes kept blinking over and over, Gye Sajun stood his ground as if observing Woojae’s expression. And when Woojae grasped the meaning of the book title, he raised his hand to quickly cover his face.
‘With that aloof face, he borrowed and read a book like this…’
It was shocking. No, it was comedy. The tension from just before became pointless. Laughter burst out.
“Are you crazy?”
“If I do what I want, you don’t like it. This is me trying in my own way.”
At Gye Sajun’s blunt answer, Woojae burst into laughter almost tearfully.
“Even so, really! You’re not a kid, kheuk, ah, my stomach hurts…”
“It’s nice that you’re laughing but not exactly pleasant.”
“Hey, seriously…”
Hearing his voice that sounded almost sulky made it even harder to stop laughing. When he raised his head while laughing heartily, he saw a handsome face full of worries. And the amusement spread across Woojae’s face was instantly withdrawn. As soon as their eyes met, from his ears to his cheeks began heating up all at once.
‘I’m screwed.’
The cause was clear. The fact that a guy who was perfect without lacking anything was reading such a ridiculous book to get close to him was beginning to tear down the wall Woojae had worked hard to build.
‘What the hell is this.’
In the midst of emotions and situations he couldn’t understand at all, Woojae let out sighs repeatedly. The past week had really been strange. Gye Sajun stayed by his side like he’d become his guardian. But what was stranger than that fact was his own emotions. The face he’d always thought was annoying kept coming to mind, and the fingertips that occasionally touched drove him crazy with awareness.
“Sleep well.”
“…Yeah.”
What was this feeling where only he seemed to be going crazy while the other person was completely fine? Woojae returned to his room today, once again being seen off by Gye Sajun in front of the dorm room door. Were friends normally in such a close relationship?
When he opened his eyes in the morning and opened the door, Gye Sajun was there. As if it was natural, the three of them including Minwook went to eat breakfast, and when they attended the same lectures, he secured the seat next to him, and when they didn’t, he repeatedly dropped him off and picked him up at the lecture hall. They even ended up eating lunch together.
It was the same when Woojae was working part-time. When he went to the department office, Gye Sajun sat in the next seat and took half of the work Teaching Assistant Im gave him, or studied together with him. It was the same at the library. He pounded away on his laptop at the lobby table where Woojae sitting at the desk was most visible. And they ate dinner together and he walked him to the dorm room door…
“What the hell is written in that book?”
At this point, he was curious about the contents of that crazy book. Gye Sajun was really strange. Even though he stuck right to his side for several days like that, he didn’t mention at all the conversation they’d had that day. He’d thought he would pressure him to learn exercise from him, but it was just ordinary questions.
– Why aren’t you eating this and leaving it?
When he discovered that he was a picky eater,
– You must like Korean food.
When he saw him always standing in the Korean food line at the dorm cafeteria,
– Can’t handle bitter things well?
When he saw him drinking things like cocoa instead of coffee.
Gye Sajun observed all of his actions with a very serious attitude. Just like an elementary school student writing an observation diary. Each time, Woojae couldn’t erase his awkward expression and gave honest answers. Whenever that happened, his ears got hot for no reason. Because he thought it was an embarrassing thing to do.
And so the weekend finally arrived. Woojae had been inwardly waiting for this day. Because he thought Gye Sajun wouldn’t be around. No matter how much the guy had gone crazy with playing friends, he wouldn’t stick around even on weekends. He absolutely had to hope so. He wanted to be alone. Whether fortunately or unfortunately, it was a weekend when Minwook was also away.
Minwook only found out last night that Juhee had rejected him.
– Woojae, I… I got rejected?
That was the first thing a pale Minwook said when he came into the room holding his phone, right when Woojae had just finished showering. Since Woojae hadn’t been able to pay attention to Minwook’s love life due to his own problems, he froze right there. The main gist of the incident that day was that, not knowing he’d been rejected, he kept talking to So Juhee flirtatiously, and a few days ago he heard from Juhee that he’d been rejected.
– You, you knew?!
– Well…
– Hey, you traitor!! What must noona have thought of me! She must have seen me as a crazy lunatic who kept pushing even after being rejected! Aaaaah!! I want to die!! I’ll die!!
Minwook, who was crying and making a fuss, showed stamina different from before. Woojae had to feel the power of an alpha once again while comforting the sobbing Minwook. Since Woojae also had sins he’d committed, he just accepted Minwook’s rampage.
After venting his emotions for about two hours, Minwook rushed out with a swollen face saying he should apologize to So Juhee, and disappeared leaving only a short text message saying ‘I’m not coming to the dorm this weekend’.
He should have told him earlier, but honestly it was difficult to suddenly bring up ‘you got rejected yesterday, didn’t you?’ Moreover, it was a mistake he’d made because he himself was out of it due to Gye Sajun. Anyway, postponing the sincere apology for later, Woojae had to go to the convenience store in the dorm for his weekend part-time job.
He was certain there wouldn’t be a speck of dust in front of the door today, but still had to feel a strange sensation while picking up soap. It had been days of being scared that Gye Sajun might suddenly pull some crazy stunt, even while using what he’d been using because he couldn’t throw away the mountain of cucumber soap and buy new soap. Since it would surely be a day without him, it wouldn’t matter what soap he used, but with a strange anxiety, he decided to steal Minwook’s shampoo.
“What does this say? Why does he have so many bottles?”
The problem was that there were so many bottles he couldn’t even tell what kind they were, but Woojae just roughly grabbed the one at the very front. It seemed better to use what had been used recently. There were letters engraved that seemed to be French, but Woojae didn’t care because he was of the opinion that as long as it lathered well, anything was fine.
It strangely seemed to have no scent at all, but anyway, there was no problem washing with it, so he figured it must be something like unscented mosquito coil and accepted it.
“Did you sleep well?”
“…Are you my stalker?”
And when he lightly opened the door, a familiar bulk greeted him as if waiting. Woojae couldn’t stop the words that came out crookedly. At this point, it was getting creepy. Conversely, he also wanted to blame the fact that his heart sank for no reason.
“I asked Bang Minwook last time. When you go to work.”
On the other hand, Gye Sajun only furrowed his eyebrows once and seemed unfazed. Woojae felt irritated by that for no reason and started grumbling while walking past him.
“Don’t you even go home?”
“It doesn’t really matter. Don’t you have to go?”
“I don’t know. They don’t tell me.”
“That’s a unique way of speaking.”
“Did you contribute anything?”
“What do I have to contribute to be able to butt in?”
You’re the one with the unique way of speaking! Who’s calling who unique? Woojae swallowed the provocative words that kept trying to pop out and responded calmly. His forearm tickled from the warmth of the guy walking alongside him before he knew it.
“If you raised me, you could butt in.”
“Are you asking me to raise you? Should I hold you?”
“I don’t need it!”
“You seem to like being held though.”
“I don’t…”
It was a stupid conversation. In fact, Woojae was in a situation where he should be expressing gratitude to Gye Sajun. Because over the past week, with Gye Sajun guarding him like iron, the energy of the guys who’d been openly showing they disliked him had died down. Thanks to that, Jang Yeonju and Yeon Sojeong also approached casually. Jeong Minho, who had been warning him quite menacingly, disappeared again. How anticlimactic.
