“Ah, fuck. I missed class?”
I woke up Baek Sahyun who was sleeping to make him wash up, and while waiting to have chicken and beer with the bastard since I’d already ordered it, I accidentally fell asleep. I woke up at almost 10:30 in the morning and got a headache. I completely missed the first period, and the next class starts at 11:30.
If I go out right now and catch a taxi, wouldn’t I be able to arrive just barely in time? While hurriedly putting on clothes and grabbing my wallet and phone, I noticed Baek Sahyun’s absence.
“He should’ve woken me before leaving….”
It was a moment when I resented the bastard who went out without waking me even though he knew my class schedule. If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve set five or six more alarms.
Since shifting blame wouldn’t turn back time on the missed class, I hurriedly left the room. Fortunately, there were many taxis nearby so I could catch one right away, but damn it. I only realized I hadn’t brought my bag after entering an intersection where stopping seemed far off.
“Nothing’s going right since morning.”
I wondered whether to get off now and go back to get my major textbooks, then remembered Chae Eunwoo had once advised me that if I didn’t prepare books, I could go to the department room and borrow them.
Naturally, I was worried since the only face I knew was Seo Jeongmin, but I decided to do it because the bastard didn’t seem like someone who would come to the department room.
“Yeah. Let’s give it a try.”
There would probably be occasional mishaps like this in the future, so for those times too, it seemed good to at least establish some familiarity with the department people.
If it were the real Nam Heejae, he probably wouldn’t drop by the department room even if he was about to die…, but if I’m empty-handed when I can’t even follow the class well even with books, wouldn’t I just be wasting class time?
I caught my breath heavily in front of the department room I’d run to after getting off the taxi. There are exactly 10 minutes left until class starts. Borrow a book in 5 minutes, and sprint to the lecture hall during the remaining 5 minutes.
Screech, it was the moment I threw open the department room door.
“…Lee Yunjae?”
“Heejae-hyung?”
I felt somewhat surprised to encounter an unexpected face. Lee Yunjae, who had been the only one on my side from Seo Jeongmin’s group, was inhaling jajangmyeon. And with delicious-looking tangsuyuk too.
“Whoa, Nam Heejae?”
Besides Lee Yunjae, several more people were sitting around eating jajangmyeon and tangsuyuk. Except for Lee Yunjae, they all looked bewildered seeing me, so I cleared my throat and said,
“I didn’t bring my major textbook so I came to borrow one…, is there anyone who can lend me one?”
Then Lee Yunjae gestured with his eyes toward the bookshelf in the corner of the department room.
“Take one from there. I don’t know whose it is, but whoever grabs it first is the owner.”
Oh, there was this kind of culture. Just as I was about to quickly grab one, Lee Yunjae spoke again.
“Hyung, do you want to eat too?”
If he meant the leftover tangsuyuk, honestly I wanted to eat it, but I had to go to class.
“I’m fine. You guys eat.”
Still, having accumulated some experience living as Nam Heejae, when I answered in a gentlemanly tone, someone looked at the major textbook in my hand and said,
“Professor Seo Gwangil’s class? Are you trying to go to the 11 o’clock class?”
“Yeah, that’s right. I’ll be going now.”
It seemed like I was dragging time too much here, so I was about to roughly end the conversation and leave the department room.
“If it’s that class, it’s canceled today. Didn’t you see the cancellation notice that went up earlier?”
“Canceled?”
Resting from lectures, something like that, right?
“Professor Seo Gwangil is originally totally capricious. He suddenly cancels class all the time, and then makes us pissed by consistently scheduling make-up classes.”
I just learned that class cancellation notices go up. I felt awkwardly embarrassed and answered with an ambiguous smile.
“…Thanks for telling me. I almost would’ve been waiting alone in the lecture hall.”
I was about to put the now-unnecessary book back on the bookshelf and leave, when Lee Yunjae proposed again.
“Then have some tangsuyuk before you go. We collected all our coupons and ordered two large ones.”
But I couldn’t answer right away and hesitated. I was worried that if I joined them, I might pour out actions and words unlike Nam Heejae, spreading rumors that would be hard to recover from.
“He’s going to spill stories about blind dates too.”
But at Lee Yunjae’s words, I ended up walking over and sitting in the seat next to the bastard. Blind dates, which could be called a symbol of youth and romance…, with class canceled anyway, I really wanted to hear this story before leaving. It was a culture I’d never experienced once in my life, so I was even more curious.
Lee Yunjae, who looked at me sitting next to him with a chuckle, said while opening new chopsticks,
“Eat while listening.”
“Okay. Thanks.”
I was about to receive the chopsticks when the bastard didn’t just hand me chopsticks but picked up tangsuyuk and brought it to my mouth, which surprised me quite a bit.
“Aren’t you eating it?”
Lee Yunjae asked with an innocent face.
“…I’ll pick it up and eat it myself.”
Since it looked too affectionate between men, a warning sound naturally went through my head.
Beep, be careful. This is inside a gay novel where gays run rampant. It’s a world where guys with the same thing attached hook up with each other, so deal with it carefully.
When I hesitantly opened different chopsticks, Lee Yunjae turned the direction of his chopsticks and fed tangsuyuk to the guy sitting across from him. It was that guy who was supposed to spill blind date stories, and it was shocking how he casually ate it without any hesitation.
Wondering if they were all gay, I couldn’t help but be surprised once more when the blind date story that started was actually about meeting girls.
‘Then feeding tangsuyuk is something men can sufficiently do with each other?’
But if I fed tangsuyuk to the old men at the construction site, I would definitely receive suspicious looks. Not only that, during my part-time job at the pool, if I’d fed tangsuyuk to the guys I worked with, I would’ve gotten cursed out.
Thinking that since they’re kids in a gay novel, they do these actions without hesitation, I ended up asking back at the unbelievable stories that followed.
“…K-kissed? When it was your first time meeting?”
For me, hot happenings I’d never once imagined were pouring out all at once.
“Ah, of course. We all drank together until the second round, and when talk of a third round came up, I slipped out and did it. We were going to a convenience store to buy ice cream, and we saw a walking path, so we went there…, huh. We decided to date.”
Even that was equally shocking. What? Decided to date?
“How can you date when you barely know each other?”
When I asked because I really didn’t understand, a shameless answer came back.
“You get to know each other while dating. If you already know everything, there’s no tension, so why date?”
“That’s because either side could be weird people, so naturally….”
“Hey, I didn’t see you that way, but you’re really conservative? You’re totally a scholar, a scholar. This is why you shouldn’t judge people just by their faces.”
Lee Yunjae, who had been quietly listening, chimed in.
“Why not? Heejae-hyung’s face also looks like an extreme conservative. You’re almost Heungseon Daewongun.”
Nam Heejae’s face did look neat, but I wondered if it was to the extent of being called a scholar, conservative, and even Heungseon Daewongun. Isn’t it just a handsome face? Even in the novel, it was described as a warm and gentleman-like appearance with a polite type.
Then, from across the table, someone said,
“Hey, what conservative is he? He’s the ‘quiet cat’ in ‘the quiet cat climbs the stove first.’ Meow, try it. Meow.”
I felt dirty at the dog-like joke.
“You try it. It’ll suit you well.”
When I reflexively spat out, ooh, cheers followed.
“Coming out like that totally matches your image. Like, guys who look like Nam Heejae originally love picking up girls the most and enjoy it. Guys with pale faces, slick-looking, and tall.”
If it’s someone who looks like that, Baek Sahyun was the best, so I denied it.
“There are people who aren’t like that.”
Because that bastard Baek Sahyun was an antisocial, reclusive psycho who hated not just women but people themselves.
“What’re you saying? You’re saying you’re not, is that it? Jeez. You’d go out if we set up a blind date for you too, right? Since it came up, let’s ask. Do you have any thoughts about going on a blind date?”
Just as another rebuttal was about to come, Lee Yunjae stepped up.
“If it’s Heejae-hyung, there’s no reason to go on blind dates. Even if he doesn’t go to those things, girls will line up for him.”
It seemed like an intention to help me, but unfortunately, it wasn’t particularly helpful.
“…What if I do?”
“Wow, fuck, for real?”
“If I do, can you take me?”
Because ‘blind dates’ themselves felt very tempting to me. I was honestly curious what kind of occasion a blind date, which I’d only heard about, was. Worries about Baek Sahyun and such were gradually moving away.
“I can’t go out now that I have a girlfriend, but I’ll set one up for you instead. Going out with Yunjae would be perfect. Hey, if you guys say you’re coming out, really pretty girls will gather. Fuck…, I should’ve endured instead of dating. Then I could go out together. Should I just break up?”
While garbage-like comments continued in succession, Lee Yunjae whispered to me.
“…Hyung. Are you serious?”
