“Ryu Hakyoung, that transfer student? Isn’t he in your class? You can just give it to him yourself.”
“Actually, I got it from someone else too. She says she doesn’t want anyone to know who sent it. Passing it along, and along, and along. You know?”
When Yumyeong flashed his eyes and grinned, she blushed to her ears and muttered, “Alright, fine…”
“Oh, right. This too.”
Additionally, Yumyeong handed over the package of chocolates he had almost forgotten.
Speaking of this chocolate, it was something someone had left in Yumyeong’s drawer during Valentine’s Day. He had received so many that this was one of the ones rotting away in the refrigerator. He felt sorry for the sender’s thoughtfulness, but he couldn’t eat all the chocolates he received. If he did, all his teeth would rot.
Just as he straightened up lightly after handing over the chocolates, Hakyoung arrived. Since a line had already formed behind Yumyeong, there was quite a distance between the two. It was the moment when Yumyeong glanced at Hakyoung.
“But hey, Shin Yumyeong.”
The girl in front suddenly turned around and asked again.
“Hm?”
“Is the person who asked you to give this to him in your class?”
It was actually an unimportant question. She just wanted to exchange a few more words with the popular Yumyeong, whom she happened to be talking with. However, not catching her intent, Yumyeong kindly tilted his head again and whispered.
“I told you I can’t say, didn’t I? Why are you so curious?”
“Did a girl give it to you directly?”
“Yeah, something like that. She’s someone I don’t really know either.”
“If you don’t know her well, then she’s probably not in your class, right?”
And Hakyoung was quietly watching Yumyeong from afar, flirting with the female students. Every time he saw Yumyeong hunching his tall frame to focus on conversations with female students, his heart seemed to grow cold.
Hakyoung turned away from Yumyeong’s appearance.
***
The letter, faithfully fulfilling the mission to ‘make it impossible to know who sent it,’ circulated through the second-year classrooms all afternoon and finally reached its owner during the closing homeroom period.
“Who’s Ryu Hakyoung?”
As soon as class ended, the back door swung wide open and someone burst in. In their hand was a small letter envelope.
What was coming had come. Yumyeong happily turned around in his seat to face the back door.
“Some girl asked me to deliver this!”
“Ooooh~”
Simultaneously, envious jeers erupted from here and there. The male students sitting around Hakyoung mischievously snickered and kept tapping his shoulders and back. Going even further, someone stood Hakyoung up and pushed him from behind. In the awkward atmosphere, Hakyoung furrowed his brow and reluctantly got up and approached the back door.
“What is this?”
“I don’t know either. It was passed along and along.”
The small letter envelope was pink, and there was even a small heart-shaped sticker on the front. Anyone could see it was a confession letter.
Hakyoung said with a hardened expression.
“I’m sorry, but this kind of thing…”
“Boooo~”
When it looked like Hakyoung would reject it on the spot, criticism poured from the noisy classroom. Among the voices criticizing most fiercely at the forefront, Yumyeong’s was included.
He had buried his head on his desk and dozed through classes all day, but now that class was over, his energetic face looked somehow very excited. The moment Hakyoung fixed his gaze on Yumyeong, the student from the other class practically shoved the letter and chocolate package against Hakyoung’s chest.
“Gah, our homeroom teacher is coming. I have to go!”
Hakyoung had no choice but to catch the items before they fell to the floor.
Hakyoung returning to his seat holding the letter with a sour expression and the homeroom teacher entering for closing announcements happened almost simultaneously.
“Everyone quiet! Why is it so noisy? Hurry and sit down! As you all know, midterms start next week…”
Several female students turned to look at Hakyoung multiple times with meaningful expressions. Unable to bear their gazes, Hakyoung just kept his head down and gripped the chocolates tightly in his hand.
“Hey, let’s see. Who sent it?”
Someone who had never received a confession in his life whispered while poking Hakyoung’s back with the tip of his pen. Unwillingly receiving attention, Hakyoung just kept re-lacing his fingers out of discomfort.
Yumyeong’s plan was, as always, somewhat impulsive.
‘You say confessions must be rejected decisively? Then let’s see if you can really do that.’
Thinking this, Yumyeong carefully wrote the confession letter. He made his handwriting neat and concentrated on writing each character so that sincerity dripped from every single one.
Handwriting was important, but what mattered most was the content. To make it look like a heartfelt confession, he couldn’t just write things that sounded like they were picked up somewhere.
Yumyeong dredged up the faint emotions that had been lingering inside him and transferred them into words. Strangely, the more he wrote, the more immersed he became, until he was impressed by the content himself.
“If he can ignore even something like this, I’ll acknowledge it.”
Thinking this, Yumyeong smirked.
In his view, this guy Hakyoung seemed to have his own philosophy about love. He planned to acknowledge him as a true iron wall if he remained unresponsive even after reading such a letter.
But it wasn’t that he himself lacked principles and was kind to just anyone. It was just difficult for him to pretend not to see the emotions of others that were so clearly visible as if he could reach out and touch them, and the loneliness that others would feel from rejection.
Yumyeong was certain that Hakyoung was someone who only had philosophy but no experience. No matter how much his face looked like a spring breeze, with such a cold and blunt personality, there was no way he had ever received a confession. His image as a silver-spoon young master probably contributed too.
Moreover, Yumyeong deliberately handed over the letter in front of everyone. It might be different if it were a confession received secretly alone, but when others’ gazes are added, it becomes even harder to be cold.
Just as expected, Hakyoung, far from rejecting it on the spot, ended up taking the letter after being pushed from behind.
Greatly satisfied that things were going as expected to some extent, Yumyeong returned to the dormitory after school.
He was already so curious about Hakyoung’s reaction that he couldn’t stand it.
‘He must be secretly reading the letter right about now…’
Thinking this, he even hummed during his shower.
After finishing his shower, Yumyeong left the room with a towel draped over his damp hair. Then he immediately opened the door to the room across the hall as he pleased.
“Hey there, Mr. Popular.”
Hakyoung, who was studying at his seat, glanced up at Yumyeong and didn’t respond. Whether he did or not, Yumyeong sat down across from him with a silly grin and asked.
“Feels good to receive a confession?”
At those words, Hakyoung’s expression became complicated and subtle.
He had definitely read it!
Yumyeong asked with a bright smile.
“How is it? Do you like it?”
“…”
“Did you read it?”
“I tore it up.”
“What?”
It was an answer he couldn’t have imagined. Yumyeong asked again in disbelief.
“You didn’t even read it?”
“That’s right.”
“Do you have no sense of affection at all?”
Yumyeong leaned back in his chair in exasperation.
He never thought he wouldn’t even read it. He had thought that if Hakyoung read someone’s heartfelt writing, he would at least hesitate out of guilt, but he was even more decisive than expected.
“Haa, how deflating.”
Yumyeong sighed, snapping the towel that was on top of his head.
“Why are you deflated?”
“Just… isn’t it boring?”
Just then, the door opened and Sunmin came in. Perhaps happy to unexpectedly run into Yumyeong, his face brightened.
“Yumyeong, you’re here too? Want to eat this?”
In Sunmin’s hand was a plastic bag from the mart. It seemed he had stopped by after finishing class. When Sunmin handed over a banana milk, Yumyeong happily accepted it immediately.
“Oh, but this is lukewarm. I want to drink it cold.”
Saying this, he flung open the refrigerator in the room. The moment he was about to put the banana milk inside, something caught Yumyeong’s sharp eye.
This is!
His eyes gleamed with interest. When he quickly turned his head back, his eyes met with Hakyoung’s, who happened to be looking this way.
“…!”
Realizing something a beat late, Hakyoung involuntarily jumped up from his seat. Yumyeong pulled out ‘that thing’ that had caught his eye.
“You said you tore it up? Was the chocolate too precious to throw away?”
“That’s…”
Yumyeong waved the package for him to see. Then he easily unwrapped one and popped it into his mouth.
He didn’t need to hear any excuses. Just seeing Hakyoung’s urgent reaction from his seat the moment the chocolate was discovered, he could tell that saying he had torn up the letter was a lie.
“What’s this about?”
Only Sunmin, who was in a different class and hadn’t grasped the situation of what had happened today, was looking back and forth between the two. Yumyeong kindly gave Sunmin one chocolate too, then waved the rest toward Hakyoung.
“Should I throw these away too?”
After a moment, Hakyoung muttered as if surrendering.
“…Don’t do that.”
Pleased with that dejected voice, Yumyeong laughed cheerfully and tossed the chocolate package to Hakyoung. The look on Hakyoung’s face as he reflexively caught what flew at him was priceless.
“Didn’t you say confessions must be rejected properly? That it’s courtesy to the other person. See, it’s not easy. That’s why theory and practice are different.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Ask him directly.”
Then Yumyeong turned around with light steps.
Left behind blankly, Sunmin said Yumyeong had forgotten to take the banana milk and chased after him with it. Thanks to that, Hakyoung was left alone in the room again.
The scent of shampoo that Yumyeong had left behind still lingered faintly at his nose. The skin with moisture and the black hair wetly clinging kept flickering before his eyes.
“Ha.”
His head was dizzy with the feeling of being bewitched once again.
‘Not easy, my foot. Why wouldn’t it be easy.’
Hakyoung clenched his fist without realizing it.
If it had been sent by someone else, he would have naturally torn it cleanly in half and thrown it in the trash the moment he confirmed it. However, just earlier, Hakyoung was engulfed in doubt as he read the letter after returning to his room. Because even though it was clearly sent anonymously, for some reason, the sender seemed transparently visible to his eyes.
