# Chapter 76
Time flew by quickly with festival preparations. After handling all the urgent tasks, it was suddenly the day of the festival.
Yeomin had been at school since morning preparing the event booths and pub, and by early evening, he was completely exhausted.
He had sent Jiho on an errand to buy urgently needed ingredients. It seemed like he’d been gone for two hours already, but there was still no word from him.
Even in his dazed state, Yeomin took out his phone.
‘It’s time to open the pub, and he’s really…’
“Joo Yeomin. Did you go bankrupt before even opening?”
The person who appeared casually with his hands in his pockets was not Yeomin’s boyfriend Jiho, whom he had been waiting for desperately, but Manager Cha from the PC bang.
“Manager!”
Seeing Manager Cha appear on campus was quite a surprise. Yeomin felt happy to see him first.
“Did you come to see the festival?”
“Festival at my age? No way. Mingyu forgot his USB and begged me to bring it, so I came. Then I spotted someone who looked just like you.”
“It’s so nice to see you here!”
“Haha.”
“But why are you working even at school?”
That’s right. Yeomin also had a fundamental question.
‘Why am I working even during the festival…’
He must have died in his previous life with regrets about not working enough. Was it written in his destiny that he would labor his entire life?
“How did you manage the PC bang while coming here?”
“The new part-timer is good at the job.”
The PC bang had temporarily closed but reopened. The recently hired part-timer who replaced Yeomin seemed quite capable.
While he felt relieved that it was good news, there was also a part of him that felt a bit sad.
“We’re about to open the pub. Would you like something to eat before you go?”
“If you’re making it, I’ll pass.”
“The kids are making it.”
“Wow~ Is Joo Yeomin the boss here?”
Manager Cha teased, messing up Yeomin’s hair vigorously. So much for maintaining his authority in front of the kids.
But Yeomin didn’t have the energy to resist and just let it happen. He was planning to extract some money from him anyway. The first customer is always the most important, right?
But suddenly, Manager Cha took his hands off Yeomin. He spoke towards someone behind Yeomin’s shoulder.
“Oh my, Lord~ You’re here~”
Lord? Why would the Lord be here?
“Ah. The Landlord, who is even greater than the Lord~”
He said, giving an exaggerated 90-degree bow. When Yeomin turned around, Jiho was standing there with an annoyed face, holding bags.
Seeing that Jiho had carried everything himself without ordering someone else to do it, Yeomin couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
“The Lord is even carrying bags-“
Jiho counterattacked the sarcastic Manager Cha.
“Is someone this old allowed on campus, Yeomin hyung?”
“Lord, I’m still in my thirties.”
“Don’t care.”
I thought he had become much nicer… but his rudeness towards people he didn’t like hadn’t changed. Yeomin even found that aspect a bit cute.
This really is infatuation, isn’t it…?
“You’ve worked hard carrying heavy things. If you had called from the parking lot, I would’ve brought a cart. Here, let’s carry them together.”
“No. I’ll carry them. You don’t even have strength, hyung.”
Manager Cha, who had witnessed the conversation between Jiho and Yeomin, exclaimed in admiration.
“I was wondering what you’ve been up to since you didn’t contact me. You’ve been busy, Joo Yeomin? Even doing this.”
Did ‘this’ refer to the festival preparations? Or to his ‘relationship’?
Yeomin chose to believe it was the former.
“If you know I’m busy, why don’t you leave?”
“Yes, yes~ If the Lord tells me to go, I must go. I’ll get out of here now~”
Manager Cha left, teasing Jiho until the end. He must have come all the way here today just to mess with this kid.
Feeling sorry for making him go alone, Yeomin tried to take the bags from Jiho’s hands.
“Give them to me. I’ll carry them.”
But Jiho silently put the bags down on the floor. Then he pulled Yeomin’s head and trapped him in his arms.
“Hey, are you crazy…”
This was the campus pub, swarming with juniors from their department.
But as if Jiho couldn’t care less about that, he muttered in an upset voice.
“Why was he touching you? Where else did he touch you? No, wait. Don’t tell me.”
“…Are you mad?”
“Not at you.”
“Really? Then it’s fine.”
“Anyway, I don’t like that person. Why doesn’t he close down that PC bang?”
Previously, Jiho had caused a commotion by buying the entire building to make Yeomin quit his PC bang part-time job. Now, it didn’t matter to Yeomin whether Jiho hated Manager Cha or disliked him.
‘As long as you like me, that’s all that matters.’
Indeed, Joo Yeomin was a hopelessly in love ‘youth.’
* * *
It was the first time both Yeomin and Jiho were properly experiencing the festival.
Yeomin had been too busy with part-time jobs since his freshman year to participate in such events.
As for Jiho, he hardly ever came to school in the first place. No one thought ‘that Seol Jiho’ would be interested in a school festival.
And yet, despite not being freshmen, the two found themselves thrown into the festival scene belatedly…
Thanks to this, quite an embarrassing situation unfolded.
“Youngdu fought with his girlfriend and can’t come. He said if he comes here, they’ll break up, so what do we do?”
“I mean, no matter what, he should have told us in advance if he was going to bail…”
“Youngdu was in charge of attracting customers, so let’s find someone to replace him first!”
Hyungsik, the president, was arguing passionately with veins popping on his neck.
Yes, they needed a replacement for the suddenly vacant customer attraction position, that much was understandable.
“But why does it have to be one of us two?”
Yeomin strongly opposed this absurd development.
But Hyungsik was already holding out rabbit headbands for the two of them.
“Because you two are the best-looking!”
As if that was a perfectly valid reason.
“We put the tallest and most handsome guys in charge of attracting customers, and you two fit the bill. What can I do about that?”
Although he spoke as if he was sorry, Hyungsik’s eyes were smiling. It even made Yeomin suspect that he had planned this from the beginning.
Yeomin pondered. The neighboring International Trade Department’s pub was already crowded with customers. It was all thanks to their competitive customer attraction efforts.
They were even wearing hanbok costumes and doctor’s gowns, going all out.
“…”
Yeomin thought about the student council funds used for the pub preparations.
‘To make up for that, how many side dishes do we need to sell today…’
“Which one of you will do it? I guess Jiho would be better? Yeomin is too shy.”
Hyungsik tried to put the rabbit headband on Jiho but was rejected in just one second, making him embarrassed. Jiho said with an annoyed face.
“Customer attraction? Why would I have to do that?”
“Because we need to make money~”
“I’ll just pay that money. Yeomin hyung, let’s go home. It’s too noisy and annoying here.”
Jiho, who had worked hard all day, was whining. Yeomin acknowledged that this guy had endured for quite a while today without complaining.
Up until then, Yeomin, who had been silent with a serious face, stared at Jiho. More precisely, at that handsome face of his.
‘With this face, we could sell at least 50 side dishes.’
According to capitalist logic, they should have put something on Jiho (or even taken something off) and placed him in front of the pub, but…
Just imagining that scene made Yeomin’s skin crawl.
The image of people swarming around Jiho. Jiho responding to those people. Getting photographed everywhere, giving out his number… smiling like an excited puppy…
“…”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
Mistaking Yeomin’s contemptuous gaze for a signal of love, Jiho winked at him.
But Yeomin didn’t react to that. Instead, he took the rabbit headband from Hyungsik’s hand and declared.
“I’ll do it. The customer attraction.”
“Huh?”
“I just need to do it during peak hours, right?”
“Y-yeah! But can you really do it? Yeomin, you hate this kind of thing.”
“Can’t be helped, I guess.”
Yeomin coolly putting on the rabbit headband looked like a completely different person.
He really despised this kind of thing, but seeing Seol Jiho do it would be even more unbearable… So he decided to jump into that fire pit himself—Joo Yeomin, a man among men.
Watching this scene, Jiho was in denial.
“Hyung, you’re not seriously going to approach people looking that cute, are you?”
“You go home. I’ll just attract customers to the pub and come right back. Is that okay, sunbae?”
“Huh? Y-yeah! Of course~ Yeomin, you just focus on attracting customers! Jiho, you worked hard today, so go home!”
Hyungsik’s smile reached his ears. He had a look that said he’d be satisfied if he could get either Yeomin or Jiho.
Yeomin found this situation extremely awkward.
He would rather do physically demanding work than approach strangers on the street—something he had never done before.
Actually, that’s not true. He had done it.
‘Right… I should think of this like a flyer distribution part-time job…’
As Hyungsik tactfully left first, noticing Jiho’s burning gaze, Jiho and Yeomin were left alone in front of the pub.
Jiho cupped Yeomin’s cheeks with both hands. Very tightly, making his mouth protrude. It was a touch filled with emotion.
The gaze they exchanged was extremely defiant.
“Why does hyung have to do something like this?”
“Because I’m on the Festival Preparation Committee.”
Yeomin said coldly.
‘Actually, I don’t want to do this either… Just making side dishes and serving inside would be easier. But this seems like the best option right now.’
If he didn’t do it, Jiho would have to.
But Jiho seemed unwilling to accept this.
“I don’t like it. You smiling at other people and stuff.”
“I won’t smile.”
“Can’t you really not do it?”
Is that something you need to ask so desperately?
Yeomin looked up at Jiho. Should they just ignore everything and run away together? Should he use that ‘escape’ card he had been saving? But…
He decided to keep that for a more dramatic later moment. After all, this small hurdle of reality could be overcome by just closing his eyes and getting through it.
Yeomin calmly reasoned with Jiho.
“Jiho, go home and wait.”
“…Hyung.”
“If you wait well today, I’ll do whatever you want.”
It was an affectionate command. The reward that follows after the word ‘wait.’
It was a statement made knowing Jiho could never refuse it. The wavering Jiho tightly grabbed Yeomin’s wrist and asked in a low voice.
“What if I don’t want you to?”
“I hate it as much as you do. I hate dealing with strangers and find it annoying, but I’m doing it because I think it’s better than having you mixed up in all this.”
“…”
“So go home, Seol Jiho. Starting tomorrow, I’ll keep you locked up at home and won’t let you go anywhere.”
At Yeomin’s harsh words, Jiho’s eyes widened. Then, from his ears to his jaw, his face gradually turned red in a gradient.
Yeomin witnessed in real-time how a fierce dog baring its teeth could turn into a whimpering puppy lowering its tail and acting cute.
“…Okay. I’ll be waiting.”
Even to the point where the puppy obeyed him.
The ‘wait’ training seems to have succeeded?
