In the past, that menacing air would have sent Ryun scrambling to bow his head and beg forgiveness — but Ryun had Woomin now.
On top of that, Chae Yieon was the type who ran with the troublemaker crowd at school — a delinquent, in so many words — but he surprisingly didn’t go around beating people up. He just caused trouble. That was something Ryun felt he could count on.
And besides, whenever Yieon acted up, one word from Woomin as homeroom teacher would shut him up completely. Ryun figured there was no way Woomin — who liked him — would just sit back and watch him get knocked around by Yieon. So Ryun pushed forward with confidence.
Having that kind of backing gave him nerve — and like a young pup with no fear of tigers, Ryun beamed brightly at Yieon, who was radiating that menacing energy.
“Ha? What the… you?”
At first Yieon had come over thinking Ryun was picking a fight — but apparently the kid was either genuinely crazy or had no sense of fear whatsoever.
That in itself was interesting. Yieon glanced at the nameplate on his chest. Jin Ryun.
He felt like he’d seen the face a few times before, but they’d never spoken, and it hadn’t stuck in his memory.
The face was on the pretty side — pale skin, overall not bad — but not really his type.
A face like this, delicate and innocent-looking…
Wait, isn’t this Yang Woomin’s type?
Yieon tilted his head.
Every person he’d seen Woomin keeping close at the gay bars he occasionally frequented had looked something like this…
Well, lately Woomin seemed to be laying low — either getting old and cautious, or something — because he’d barely been showing up at the bar and didn’t seem to be seeing anyone. But wait—
Don’t tell me it’s because of this guy?
Come to think of it, the timing of when Woomin had started showing up less… he was pretty sure it was around when the new semester began.
For real? The thought sparked something, and a deep, intrigued curiosity spread across Yieon’s face.
If this really was someone Woomin had his eye on, it might be fun to get there first.
If I get to him first, Woomin is going to absolutely lose it.
Just imagining the furious, thoroughly twisted expression on his face was enough to put Yieon in a fantastic mood.
As it happened, Woomin and Yieon had known each other before either of them enrolled — before they even crossed paths at the gay bar.
Unless someone was close to both of them, or their families knew each other well, no one would ever guess they were cousins — maternal and paternal side — because the two looked absolutely nothing alike.
Not even the slightest resemblance.
Anyway, before Yieon enrolled at the school, the two of them had been distant at best. It was only after Yieon started attending that they turned into something more like bitter rivals. Whenever Yieon got into trouble at school, Woomin would go straight to their grandfather and report him. Things that might have slipped through without consequence were all dragged out into the open, and Yieon got thoroughly scolded more times than he could count because of it.
The old man doesn’t believe a word from his own biological grandson but swallows everything the other one says.
And it was the biological grandson who was going to be performing the ancestral rites every year and every month without fail!
Well — not him personally, since he was the second son. That would fall to his older brother, the eldest. But still.
The incident at the gay bar was effectively mutually assured destruction — leverage neither of them could actually use without exposing themselves — which was frustrating. But if it was really true that Woomin had stopped going to the bar lately because of Ryun…
Yieon smirked and reached out to grab Ryun’s face.
He wanted to touch those full lips. He wanted to get his hands on that pale face that looked like it might leave powder on his fingers.
His hand was slowly closing in on Ryun’s face — when someone suddenly snatched his wrist and stopped him cold.
Both Yieon and Ryun turned to look at who it was.
“Hwahyeon.”
Even with Ryun calling his name, Hwahyeon didn’t turn around. He just kept staring at Chae Yieon with a blank, unreadable expression.
Then Hwahyeon nudged Yieon lightly with his shoulder and leaned in, murmuring at a volume too low for Ryun to catch:
“Don’t take an interest in Ryun.”
Those eyes staring him down were sharp enough to sting. There was even a flicker of something lethal in them. Yieon looked into those eyes — and broke into a wide grin.
In all his time at this school, he had never had an experience this interesting. Yieon glanced back at Ryun, eyes lighting up.
Woomin, and now Hwahyeon — both of them with their attention fixed on Jin Ryun. Naturally, Yieon’s interest followed.
A moment ago this kid had acted like he had no nerves at all — and now, strangely, he was looking between Yieon and Hwahyeon with a worried expression. Yieon clocked that and turned his gaze back to Hwahyeon.
“And if I don’t want to?”
Yieon answered with a bright, easy smile. Hwahyeon’s brow twitched.
Yieon shook his arm and freed himself from Hwahyeon’s grip, flashed a quick wink at Ryun — who was sitting there watching the standoff with an anxious look — and headed back to his seat.
Even from his seat, Yieon kept his eyes on Ryun, deliberately goading Hwahyeon. Hwahyeon shot Yieon a sharp glare and physically moved to block Ryun from his line of sight with his own body — and Yieon broke into another wide grin at the sight of it.
Ha. This is fun. How do I get my hands on him?
The moment Yieon got Ryun, at least two guys were going to lose their minds over it — so he absolutely had to make it happen.
What would work as bait? Money? Looks? Going by the way Ryun had been staring at him earlier, looks might have done something for him…
Yieon’s eyes gleamed as he tracked the glimpses of Ryun peeking out from behind Hwahyeon’s body.
Yieon pulled away, and Hwahyeon sat down next to Ryun with a dark expression and spoke.
“Ryun.”
“Yeah.”
Hwahyeon bit down on his lip, hesitated, then asked:
“That guy — I mean, are you interested in Chae Yieon?”
“Hm? Yeah.”
A little.
Not romantically, of course. More like — how could he make use of Yieon to mess with the homeroom teacher more?
Unaware of any of that, Hwahyeon went white as a sheet listening to Ryun’s answer. He grabbed Ryun’s arm and gripped it tightly, trembling.
That hurts.
But before Ryun could say as much, Hwahyeon caught the wince on his face and loosened his grip — and whispered to Ryun:
“You can’t, Ryun. Not him.”
Hwahyeon told him that getting close to someone like that — a complete trash human being — was only going to end in getting hurt. Ryun laughed out loud at that.
What’s wrong with that? He seems like the perfect type to mess around with, no strings attached.
Hwahyeon had absolutely no idea what was going on inside Ryun’s head. He grabbed that perfectly blank-looking face with both hands and locked eyes with him, his voice firm.
“I mean it. He’s genuinely dangerous. Stay away from Chae Yieon as much as possible.”
Got it? — Hwahyeon pressed. Ryun could tell he wasn’t going to let go unless he got an answer, so he gave an unenthusiastic nod — and only then did Hwahyeon release his face.
Even so, clearly not fully at ease, Hwahyeon added a final plea: please, at least don’t go near Yieon when Hwahyeon wasn’t around.
“Fine. I just won’t go near him, that’s all.”
Getting tangled up with Yieon probably meant more hassle from Hwahyeon than it was worth the entertainment — so Ryun decided to let Yieon go.
Count yourself lucky.
If you’d caught me at the wrong moment I would have strung you along like Gyeom. Thank Ki Hwahyeon for your life — Ryun said to Yieon in his head. And then he turned to Hwahyeon, who was still going on about it despite already having said his piece, and stuck his lip out.
“I said I get it.”
Hwahyeon finally looked a fraction less wound-up at seeing Ryun’s petulant expression.
After that, time passed without any particular incident.
From that day on — partly because Ryun simply didn’t give him an opening — Woomin didn’t reach out to Ryun again. Yieon, for his part, was no different either, aside from giving Ryun a smile whenever their eyes met.
Even so, Hwahyeon stuck close to Ryun and kept a vigilant eye on Yieon. Every time he did, Ryun smiled and thought that Hwahyeon was worrying about nothing.
And just like that, the same ordinary days continued repeating themselves, one after another.
