At Hakyoung’s remark, Yumyeong felt embarrassed. He hadn’t mentioned it on purpose since it didn’t hurt that much, but apparently it had shown.
“Hmm, maybe it’s because I folded down the back of my sneakers when I put them on.”
“Wear them properly.”
“Ah, fuck off.”
The way down took a while. He wondered if they’d really climbed this much while running earlier. Yumyeong soon realized it was because he was exhausted.
When he tugged at the elbow he’d grabbed, Hakyoung responded with a “What?”
“Let’s go a bit slower.”
Of course, Hakyoung didn’t slow his pace even a little.
“Stubborn bastard…”
However, Yumyeong naturally knew a way to distract Hakyoung’s attention.
“Hey, is Sunmin your first love by any chance?”
“…”
“Or did you have a boyfriend in America too? Tell me about your first love.”
Hakyoung’s steps gradually slowed down. He falls for it so ridiculously easily. Yumyeong covered his mouth with one hand and giggled quietly. This taciturn guy is strangely sentimental and loses his composure whenever the topic of ‘love’ comes up. Just as expected.
“My first love and I knew each other from when we were young.”
Surprisingly, Hakyoung gave a faithful answer. While amazed, Yumyeong teased him.
“Leave out the childhood stuff. I had a girlfriend I dated when I went to kindergarten too.”
“You think everyone’s like you? Some people preserve their pure feelings for a long time.”
“Tsk… Fine, keep talking.”
But Hakyoung didn’t say anything. After a while, he only mumbled as if his throat was choked up. As if he still hadn’t escaped from the lingering feelings of his first love.
“I really liked them…”
It seemed like there was a deep story.
“Hmm. Didn’t work out?”
“Yeah. I was betrayed.”
“Why? Did they suddenly say they liked girls? That could happen. You were too young. Their feelings might have changed as they grew up. Don’t be heartbroken. First loves don’t usually work out anyway, ow…”
“…”
Hakyoung suddenly stopped again, causing Yumyeong to bump into his shoulder for the second time. The spot that got poked throbbed because of how prominent his sharply angled shoulder blades were.
“What are you looking at?”
Yumyeong asked irritably while clutching the area around his neck that got poked. Without answering, Hakyoung turned around and started walking again.
The two arrived at school just barely in time for roll call. By the time they were walking on the well-paved asphalt, Yumyeong was completely exhausted and just wanted to throw himself onto his bed. As the surroundings brightened, Hakyoung had let go of his elbow long ago, and there was about a 3-meter gap between them. Thanks to that, even though he was dragging his ankle as he walked, Hakyoung didn’t look back.
Yumyeong thought it was fortunate. He couldn’t stop his shoulders from intermittently trembling since the cold sweat he’d shed while hurting his ankle had cooled in the cold wind. He wanted to avoid being caught looking like this.
Taking the elevator, the two got off together on the 3rd floor. When they reached their room, they returned to their respective rooms as if they’d never walked together.
“Hey, where did you go? You weren’t in the room the whole time, so I was about to call you.”
Hanju said happily.
“Did you meet Hakyoung? Earlier, you know, when I told him you went somewhere with Sunmin, his expression just changed like this and he demanded I tell him where you went right away. And then he just ran off… Huh?”
“Hanju, I’m too tired so I’m going to lie down.”
And then Yumyeong lay down on his bed and fell fast asleep.
At roll call time, the dormitory supervisor scolded Yumyeong for sleeping from early evening without even bothering to attend the roll call that didn’t even take 5 minutes, but Yumyeong slept soundly without even hearing that voice. The other friends kept peeking at Yumyeong lying sprawled out through the open doorway.
Even Yumyeong himself only realized he’d caught a severe cold the next day.
“You catch a cold because you wander around without even wearing a jacket every day, ugh… Should I tell the dorm supervisor? That you can’t go to school today. Get a confirmation form now and I’ll submit it to the homeroom teacher.”
Yumyeong slowly opened his eyes at Hanju’s voice. He could feel the heat even around his sticky eyelids.
“No, I’m going to school.”
“What? Just lie down and rest… Though, if you need to take medicine, the school infirmary would be better. There’s no medicine in the dorm.”
During morning roll call earlier, Hanju had informed the dorm supervisor of Yumyeong’s condition. He’d taken a simple antipyretic, but the medications stocked in the dormitory were limited. Besides, Yumyeong hated being absent. In the end, staggering with his burning body, he was led by Hanju to school.
“Wouldn’t it be better to go to the hospital?”
At the school nurse’s words, Yumyeong shook his head.
“I’ll take medicine and rest, and if I still feel like I’m dying, I’ll go.”
“You need to deal with things properly early on.”
“It’s not that bad.”
Because Yumyeong insisted, the school nurse sighed deeply and said okay. Hanju, who had been watching over him, was shocked to learn that Yumyeong hadn’t just caught a cold but had also sprained his ankle.
“I’ll tell the homeroom teacher. Come out when you feel a bit better, don’t slack off.”
Hanju spoke solemnly and then left the infirmary. Yumyeong waved his hand as if telling him to hurry up and leave.
He’d thought he could manage without a jacket, but this is what ended up happening.
It was natural after running through the forest path on a spring night when the temperature difference was still large, wearing just a shirt, and overexerting himself to the point of sweating.
Now that his body hurt, he ended up blaming Hakyoung for no reason.
If only that bastard hadn’t run.
If only he hadn’t abandoned him and gone ahead alone on that pitch-black night path, it wouldn’t have come to this.
It really is a bad connection. Yumyeong cursed Hakyoung while thinking this. There’s such a thing as compatibility between people. Hakyoung and his compatibility was probably the worst of the worst.
And so Yumyeong burrowed into the bed, making groaning sounds.
The infirmary located right next to the teachers’ office was quite comfortable. Since this wasn’t a typical school, there were places throughout this building that had unique appearances that didn’t fit standard specifications, and the infirmary was one of them. Instead of patient beds commonly seen in hospitals, there was a single bed like those used in homes, with a long curtain covering the front.
Even though the electric blanket on the bed was boiling hot, strangely his body felt chilled. Trembling occasionally, Yumyeong drifted back to sleep with flickering eyes.
How much time had passed? Yumyeong woke up sensing a strange presence.
His eyelids were heavy so he didn’t open his eyes. However, the more he emerged from sleep, the more certain he became that there was someone other than him in this room.
This nameless someone sat motionless by Yumyeong’s side, then after a moment reached their hand toward Yumyeong’s feet. They slightly lifted the blanket and fumbled with their fingertips at the spot wrapped with a compression bandage.
Inside the bandage wrapping was a dark bruise from pooled blood. The ligament wasn’t damaged so the pain wasn’t that severe, but it looked terrifying.
Then came a long sigh.
Who could it be? They seem very worried about me.
Could it be the dormitory fairy who said they liked me?
Or could it be Heeun?
I hope they heard I was sick and came to see me out of pity.
That’s when it happened. With a rustling sound, the curtain was pulled back and the school nurse’s voice was heard.
“Are you going to stay here?”
Before the person sitting nearby could answer, the school nurse continued.
“I’m going to the administrative office for a moment, can you look after this place until then?”
Silence returned. Yumyeong dozed off. In his dream, someone very carefully touched his fingertips. When he twitched his hand because it tickled, the hand withdrew again.
After a moment, Yumyeong slowly pushed open his eyelids. Light poured into his dazzling field of vision.
At the edge of that vision, he caught sight of wavy hair. Soft, fine-textured, semi-curly hair was resting against the bed, face-down. Below it was a small face he recognized.
No way.
“Ugh…”
Yumyeong made a sound while furrowing his brow. Hakyoung, who had been lying face-down, raised his body at almost the same time.
“What, why did you come?”
When he spoke in a hoarse voice, Hakyoung deflected with a different topic.
“Why did you say you folded down your sneakers?”
“What? Ah…”
“You should have honestly said you were hurt.”
“Then you should honestly say you came because you were worried.”
Even with a half-dead voice, Yumyeong didn’t lose in the war of words. At the words delivered with a smirk, Hakyoung’s face hardened. He could see the stubbornness that he wouldn’t say it even if he died, but strangely, irritation didn’t surge up like before. Instead, the resentful feeling that he’d caught a severe cold because of that guy was washed away. After all, coming here meant he was aware of the aftermath of his actions last night.
“If you’ve come to your senses, eat this.”
What Hakyoung held out was porridge.
“I brought it from the cafeteria.”
“Wow, is lunchtime already past? I slept a ton.”
“Yeah.”
Yumyeong casually thought that today’s lunch happened to be porridge. However, the lightly seasoned porridge didn’t suit his taste. With his tasteless, rough tongue, he chewed it like grains of sand, then put it away after eating only a few bites. Then Hakyoung picked up the bowl and spoon again.
“You need to eat to take medicine.”
“I don’t want to… Put that away. What? Ugh. Are you trying to feed me yourself? Ew.”
“…”
When Yumyeong shuddered, Hakyoung silently put the bowl away again.
“But when did you get here?”
“Why do you ask?”
“Someone came earlier. But I don’t know who. I was wondering if you ran into them.”
“…”
“Was it Sunmin? Or maybe Heeun? Seeing how they left without saying anything, it seems like they came secretly… They probably just left because they didn’t want to show they were worried. Could you ask for me if Heeun came?”
However, Hakyoung abruptly stood up as if it wasn’t worth responding to. He just left without even saying goodbye, so there was no chance to stop him. Yumyeong let out a groan and collapsed back onto the bed with a thud.
