# Chapter 15
After evening roll call ended, Hakyoung left his door open a crack and waited for someone.
Even after the hallway lights went out, it was still too early to sleep, so occasional noise and laughter would burst out from each room. He could see kids who had secretly ordered late-night snacks walking on tiptoes with plastic bags tucked under their arms. He could also hear the sound of a soccer broadcast from the TV turned on in the lounge at the very end of the hallway.
A little while later, the person Hakyoung was waiting for appeared. It was Lee Sunmin.
Before he could enter Yumyeong’s room, Hakyoung quietly opened his door and blocked his path. Sunmin’s eyes, looking a little surprised, looked up at Hakyoung.
“I didn’t see you during meal time.”
“Ah… I eat separately.”
“Separately?”
“Yeah, I eat a bit late.”
Meal times were divided in 15-minute intervals starting from the third-year students. Whenever the second-year students crossed the hallway all at once at the designated time heading to the cafeteria located in the basement of the dormitory, Sunmin stayed in the classroom until the very end.
After rumors spread that he liked men and his closest friends turned their backs on him, Sunmin came to dread the time to go to the cafeteria. The moment of receiving his meal all alone and forlorn among people gathered in groups of three to five, then wandering while holding a tray of food wondering who to sit next to was terrible.
When he finally found an empty seat and sat down pretending to be fine, he felt like he would get indigestion every time the sharp stares of kids who thought it was strange he was eating alone stabbed him. It was most miserable when he ran into the group of friends he’d been closest with until recently.
When mealtime became agonizing, Sunmin started visiting the cafeteria around the time the much later first-year meal period was ending. He had become accustomed to eating that way by now.
“But why?”
“I have something to say. I’ve been looking for you.”
Hakyoung was looking down at Sunmin while speaking with an expression that made it impossible to tell whether he understood Sunmin’s circumstances or not. There wasn’t the contempt or aversion that classmates commonly showed toward Sunmin, but conversely, there was no sympathy or pity either. Sunmin felt slightly creeped out by the expression looking down indifferently.
“Ah, okay, ask me anything…”
“Come in.”
With that, Hakyoung opened his room door. Sunmin, who glanced once at Yumyeong’s room behind him, silently followed him inside.
After Hakyoung sat on the edge of the bed, he gave Sunmin the desk chair.
Hakyoung’s room, which he’d entered once before, was still very neat and refreshing. Part of it was because he used the four-person room alone, but he also seemed to genuinely like sweeping, wiping, and keeping things tidy. The air smelled of soft dried laundry, and a humidifier, a personal item, was running on the desk. A family photo was attached to the refrigerator using magnets. Surprisingly, he had quite a cozy taste.
While Sunmin was a bit distracted looking around the room of the school’s official prince, Hakyoung sat in place without moving. With both hands neatly placed on his thighs, he looked down somewhere at the floor with his head slightly lowered, remaining silent.
Only after a long while did Sunmin barely remember why he’d entered this room. Even after realizing this, seeing Hakyoung remain motionless, he waited a bit longer. However, when Hakyoung showed no sign of opening his mouth first no matter how long he waited, he hesitated before speaking up.
“Um…”
Hakyoung sat like a statue, silent the whole time, then let out a heavy sigh. The depth of his anguish was revealed in that breath, surprising even Sunmin who had asked defenseless.
“Wh-what… If you have something to say, hurry up and say it.”
“By any chance, you.”
“Yeah?”
“Do you have feelings for Shin Yumyeong?”
At the unexpected question, Sunmin’s breath suddenly stopped.
How did he know?
It was when Sunmin was frozen like that. Hakyoung slowly raised his head.
Strangely, those eyes seemed to be a little wet. The black pupils rippling with light seemed to be very rich in emotion, but conversely, he couldn’t get any sense of what he was thinking.
“Uh-uh… huh? Why are you asking that?”
“If Yumyeong says he likes you, what will you do?”
“There’s no way that would… No, before that, what are you suddenly talking about?”
Too many things had been exposed and he was bewildered. Sunmin asked back, almost panting. Hakyoung let out another long sigh and pressed firmly between his brows with his hand as if his head was throbbing.
“If it’s difficult, you don’t have to answer. I can tell just from seeing your reaction.”
***
The next morning.
Without fail, roll call time arrived. Along with the sweet but annoying morning wake-up music.
Yumyeong got up from bed, whining about sleep. Staggering from lack of sleep, he opened his dormitory room door and leaned against the door with nearly closed eyes. He heard the voice of the dorm supervisor who had arrived on the third floor before roll call making some kind of short announcement. He heard it in one ear and let it out the other. The supervisor seemed to have pushed Yumyeong’s forehead, who was dozing off leaning against the door while nagging, but even that faded from memory when he closed the door again and went back to bed.
“Yumyeong, are you crawling back into bed again? If you sleep again, when are you going to wash, when are you going to get dressed, when are you going to go to school! Hakju said he’s really not going to let tardiness slide anymore.”
Hanju’s nagging poured out. Yumyeong covered his ears and pulled the blanket over his head.
And after Hanju hurriedly left, someone quietly opened the door and came in.
Yumyeong, who had fallen into a light sleep, felt someone’s gaze. He was curious why they were staring at him like that, but reality felt dull because he was half-asleep.
“Thank you for everything.”
A small voice scattered above his head and something was placed next to the pillow.
Yumyeong woke up 15 minutes before school time in the silence of the empty dormitory. The sky bridge key was lying by his bedside like a lie. As soon as he saw it, Yumyeong let out a sigh of relief.
The dormitory fairy hadn’t come last night. That wasn’t the reason he went to bed late, but it was true that he became more concerned as the night deepened. The main problem was that the sky bridge key was with Sunmin. Because he needed that key to avoid being late.
‘So that was the dormitory fairy earlier.’
At the same time as realizing this, Yumyeong unconsciously furrowed his brow.
Thank you for everything?
What on earth did that mean?
After hurriedly finishing his preparations, Yumyeong put his ear to the door and confirmed there was no one passing by in the hallway. He gently pushed the door open and checked the hallway once more through the small gap.
Feeling relieved like that, the moment he came out into the empty hallway and looked straight ahead, something unbelievable entered Yumyeong’s eyes.
[Room 310
Ryu Hakyoung
Lee Sunmin]
One of the three empty slots had been filled with a familiar-looking name.
“Lee Sunmin… The dormitory fairy!”
Yumyeong was so surprised his eyes nearly popped out.
At the same time, he heard the sound of someone’s presence abruptly stopping somewhere. The dorm supervisor inspecting the upper or lower floor seemed to have noticed the presence. Yumyeong covered his mouth, muffled his footsteps, and ran down the hallway. After hiding himself on the stairs and waiting for the presence to pass, he approached the sky bridge when the supervisor had moved away.
Fortunately, he was able to pass through the sky bridge without getting caught by the supervisor.
When he safely arrived at the classroom with trembling legs, Hanju stared at Yumyeong with wide eyes, his face asking ‘Where did this bastard pop out from?’
“You didn’t get caught being late?”
“Hanju, hyung doesn’t get tardy, I told you?”
“Why are you hyung? My birthday comes earlier!”
Ignoring Hanju who was yapping like a Chihuahua, Yumyeong glanced at Hakyoung once. Whatever method he’d used, Hakyoung’s face, who had welcomed the dormitory fairy as his roommate overnight, was peaceful as if asking what had happened.
Yumyeong lowered his voice and asked Hanju.
“Hey, did you know about the room assignment change?”
“What did you hear this morning? The supervisor announced it during roll call. That there were room changes. Were you sleeping with your eyes open?”
Since it was true that he’d dozed with his eyes open, Yumyeong felt embarrassed and headed to his seat. Then he plopped down in his seat and stared intently at Hakyoung’s back.
‘Ha… What an obsessive bastard.’
Amid the classroom commotion that hadn’t subsided, Hakyoung’s back, alone in stillness, looked stubborn.
There was no doubt he had immediately changed dormitory rooms in response to the one thing Yumyeong had blurted out in anger: that he would ‘seduce the dormitory fairy.’ A hint of madness could be seen in that executive ability. He must have been quite serious.
Come to think of it, this seemed to be the reason Sunmin hadn’t come to the room last night either.
“Thank you for everything.”
Those words didn’t have any other meaning—they must have meant that there was no longer any need to impose on his room or borrow the sky bridge key. Realizing this, Yumyeong felt relieved but also deflated. At the same time, he also felt anxious.
With just a little threat, Hakyoung had responded in an unexpected way.
However, Yumyeong soon changed his mind. If there was a part where the other person was serious, that also meant that very point was truly a weakness. He planned to make good use of that point and definitely get one over on Hakyoung.
***
“Sunmin, hi?”
That night, when roll call time came, all the dormitory room doors opened. Yumyeong deliberately waved his hand gently at the dormitory fairy standing behind Hakyoung, bypassing Hakyoung who stood facing him through the open door.
“How’s the new room?”
As soon as Sunmin saw this and his cheeks flushed, his view was immediately blocked. It was Hakyoung.
“Kheuhk…”
Yumyeong couldn’t hold back his laughter seeing Hakyoung react exactly as expected. Only Hanju looked at Yumyeong with a face wondering what he’d eaten wrong.
