Just hearing about it made him yawn from boredom. Jae-min lightly covered his face with his arm and opened his mouth.
“We’ll form pairs. If there’s a friend you want to work with, message the TA in advance, and if not, we’ll pair you up ourselves, so just stay put.”
Jae-min clicked his tongue inwardly. In this lecture, there were no close friends or people he particularly wanted to get close to. He only thought it would be good to be paired with someone like himself who had enough motivation to complete assignments, rather than someone excessively greedy for grades.
‘No, anyone’s fine as long as it’s not Kang Hyun-woong.’
Jae-min, who clicked his tongue, glanced sideways. Hyun-woong was looking straight ahead with his back perfectly straight. His face without a trace of laughter seemed to consist only of straight lines. His eyebrows were thick and straight, his nose prominent. There wasn’t a single soft corner.
“Then I’ll proceed with today’s class.”
Jae-min, who had been scanning Hyun-woong’s profile, turned his gaze back to the front. And so, as usual, he was letting about half the lecture flow past when.
“Oh, there was someone who sent a question by email last time.”
As the professor opened, someone raised their arm. Naturally, Jae-min’s gaze moved following that arm. She was a woman sitting in the second row from the back, at the very end completely opposite from Jae-min.
Because of that, Hyun-woong in the very back row caught Jae-min’s view again.
This time Hyun-woong was lying face down. Earlier he’d been sitting well with his upper body straight up. The curled-up figure was unfamiliar, so Jae-min gave him a brief glance.
‘Why is he suddenly like that?’
Moreover, his tightly clenched fist was trembling. He wondered if he was sick somewhere, but it wasn’t Jae-min’s business. But just as he was about to turn his head, a highlighter bumped by Hyun-woong’s elbow fell to the floor with a thud.
The perfectly cylindrical pen began rolling. Jae-min’s eyes widened as he looked once at the pen approaching him, once at Hyun-woong. Hyun-woong didn’t seem to even notice he’d dropped something. The pen rolled and rolled, eventually stopping near Jae-min. It was a place he could reach by stretching his arm a bit.
Jae-min, who had been glaring at the pen with a frown, finally reached out and grabbed it.
Picking up someone’s item was something anyone could do even without being very sociable. But he didn’t want to show even a bit of goodwill to Hyun-woong. But since it bothered his eyes, he couldn’t help but pick it up.
Planning to return it to Hyun-woong while leaving when the lecture ended, Jae-min placed the pen on his desk for now.
“Then, that’s it for today’s lecture.”
Students moved busily. People in seats close to the front door had already packed their things apparently, rushing out as soon as the professor left. Though Hyun-woong was right by the back door, he tended to move quite slowly.
Jae-min picked up the pen he’d been rolling around on his desk throughout class and got up from his seat. He intended to hand it to its owner right away.
But he saw Hyun-woong urgently packing his bag. It was completely different from the leisurely appearance last time when he’d waited until everyone else left the lecture hall before leaving. Feeling puzzled, Jae-min walked quickly with big strides.
“Hey, this.”
Since he didn’t even notice someone approaching from the side and was roughly stuffing his pencil case into his bag, meaning for him to take this too, he lightly poked his arm with the highlighter.
“Huk…!”
Hyun-woong startled greatly and pulled his arm back sharply. At the rough movement, Jae-min was more surprised and his eyes widened.
“What’s wrong? I’m telling you to take this.”
Flustered, Jae-min held out the pen once more. But the pen tip lightly touched Hyun-woong’s chest.
“Ugh!”
It was a very light touch. But Hyun-woong suddenly scrunched up his face deeply, then without saying anything grabbed his bag as if snatching it and rushed out of the lecture hall.
Because he’d opened the door and left with strong force, there was a loud bang. Students still remaining in the lecture hall startled and looked back. Everyone’s gaze focused on Jae-min.
Jae-min, dumbfounded, scanned the people looking at him once and stared at the spot where Hyun-woong had disappeared.
“…What did I even do?”
Belatedly, his face burned. It was already someone he disliked. He’d only tried to bestow the kindness of picking up a pen.
‘Last time too, isn’t that bastard showing too obviously that he hates me?’
Feeling wronged, anger welled up. Jae-min gripped the pen so hard he could crumple it, then returned to his seat and picked up his bag.
‘I’ll hate you even more.’
Just as he was about to storm out of the lecture hall, Jae-min glared once at Hyun-woong’s seat. He thought to himself that if he could shoot lasers from his eyes, he would have burned a ‘ㅗ’ into that seat.
⁕⁕⁕
After all classes ended, Jae-min immediately moved for his part-time job.
The address Yong-seok had given was Apgujeong. Jae-min, who had been walking along the main road where famous plastic surgery clinics lined up, turned into an alley between gleaming new buildings. As he moved his steps while scanning the shadowy alley with suspicious eyes, it was suddenly the address Uncle had told him.
As he’d suspected, no matter how much he looked at the building, there was no sign. It was the same as what he’d seen in the street view photo. There were no people passing by around, and he’d definitely said 3rd floor. But all the windows on the 3rd floor had blinds down.
‘It’s not a holiday today, is it?’
Though the premonition was still bad, Jae-min moved his steps thinking to just go in. The small building with only up to 4 floors didn’t even have an elevator. He was hesitating whether to go up or not standing in front of the stairs when he heard a heavy voice.
“Please move aside.”
Jae-min was about to move to the side when he opened his mouth wide in surprise. A well-built man slipped past Jae-min. Though the man’s body was very large like a judo or wrestling athlete, the reason Jae-min was surprised was different. It was the man’s outfit.
Though it was spring even if the nights were still a bit chilly, he was wearing a puffy padding jacket. Moreover, he’d pulled the zipper all the way up to his neck.
He didn’t seem like someone who felt cold easily. Despite his face being flushed red and dripping with sweat, the man walked up the stairs briskly with his hands in his padding pockets.
‘…Is it like a diet sweat suit?’
Jae-min, who’d thought of the most sensible reason, soon shook his head and began climbing the stairs.
Since there were still more than 15 minutes until the time Uncle had mentioned, Jae-min deliberately climbed the stairs slowly. Jae-min, who was slowly moving his feet from the 2nd floor toward the 3rd floor, discovered something.
At the point with exactly two stairs left before reaching the 3rd floor, a small standing sign was placed.
‘MLS Clinic Shop (Men Only)’
“…Men-only clinic shop?”
Jae-min slowly raised his eyebrows. The capital English letters in front felt strangely familiar, like he’d seen them a lot somewhere, but he couldn’t remember what. It vaguely seemed like an academy name, or else he thought it must be an abbreviation of a sentence with some cool meaning the director had come up with.
The name didn’t matter anyway. Only the word ‘clinic’ caught his eye. He was inwardly relieved thinking it really was medical-related work.
Shrugging his shoulders, Jae-min climbed the remaining two stairs at once and opened the clinic door.
When he opened the glass door with opaque sticker film, someone was sitting at the desk like at an ordinary hospital. Looking around, Uncle Yong-seok’s figure wasn’t visible.
Jae-min walked hesitantly toward the man with the impression of a tired office worker sitting at the reception desk.
“Excuse me…”
“Yes, is this your first time here? Did you come for a massage?”
“Huh? Massage? No, I’m here because of a part-time job.”
The skinny man was asking dryly without even looking at Jae-min, but raised his head at the mention of part-time job. The man, who looked at Jae-min’s face closely, got up from his seat and knocked on the door of a room behind the desk.
“Director, your nephew is here.”
The door opened wide and Yong-seok, wearing a white gown, came out. He grinned when he saw Jae-min.
“Oh, you’re here? Come in here.”
A doctor’s gown outfit—in Jae-min’s memory, Yong-seok had never once been a doctor. Though flustered, he followed him inside for now. The door closed with a thud.
Though narrow, Jae-min, who had looked around once at the room decorated like a proper director’s office in its own way, strode toward Yong-seok.
“…Massage? What is this place, Uncle?”
“I was just about to explain. Have a seat.”
Yong-seok pointed to the sofa with a relaxed smile. As Jae-min hesitantly backed up and plopped down on the sofa, Yong-seok slowly walked over and stood behind him.
“Did you see the sign?”
“The standing sign? I saw it.”
“As it says there, this is a men-only MLS clinic.”
“MLS?”
