To make sure Hwan doesn’t get tormented, what should he do?
Since Huiseo happened to have some time on his hands, he decided to think a bit more about that matter.
That bastard Choi Yuwon was the root cause, but lately it felt like it wasn’t just him alone.
‘Would it help if I could somehow resolve things between him and the kids in class?’
However, they had originally been like oil and water, unable to mix easily, so he couldn’t come up with a suitable method for how they could get along in this situation. Not just Hwan, but Huiseo himself hadn’t had particularly smooth relationships with friends his own age either.
On the surface, it might have seemed fine.
But when he was younger, he was ostracized for being strange because he didn’t act like a child, and after he started hanging around with Hwan, they created their own little world together and didn’t have time to hang out with others. Other people might not know, but this was another area where Huiseo was clumsy.
So he first thought of the field he was most confident in.
What else could there be?
Studying, and exams.
There was nothing more important to students than that.
With that thought, he even considered whether it might work to create something like a “predicted questions list” for the upcoming second semester midterm exams and distribute it. It’s not that difficult for me anyway. Even if they didn’t line up for it, he thought it would be quite an appealing gift.
But soon Huiseo shook his head.
‘No. Even so, they’d just be grateful to me.’
That method would only improve his own relationship with them.
The question was whether that gratitude would actually transfer to Hwan. It would be ridiculous to insist, ‘I went through all this trouble to create predicted questions for you, so those of you whose grades improved should get along with Hwan!’
He needed a different approach.
He’d seen somewhere that the best way for kids to become close is to do something together while bumping into each other.
‘…Should I ask the homeroom teacher for a little favor?’
That said, it would be troublesome if something like a “group project” was assigned. Given Hwan’s temperament, it was hard to expect him to participate diligently. Of course, he’d do it if told to, but if he made even a single mistake, their already precarious relationship could easily fall apart instead.
‘So it should preferably be something physical.’
Something he could do well, something that would get him excited to do it.
Though he was mulling over this and that by himself, Hwan’s will was ultimately the most important thing. But the problem was that this guy, despite his mountain-sized build, only knew how to chirp along weakly and follow him around. Not that he was saying he suddenly disliked that… but it made him wonder if this was really okay.
Just like how he had managed events without him just fine, perhaps Hwan could have managed school life without him too. Playing around with other friends without hesitation. Even if Huiseo didn’t know it, Hwan could have done it. Huiseo wondered if things had turned out this way because Hwan stuck too close to him.
Then a touch of regret crept in.
If that had been the case, wouldn’t the other kids not have been so easily swept up in Yuwon’s intentions?
A shadow fell over Huiseo’s eyes as he let out a deep sigh.
Then, as he was dozing off for a bit, Huiseo’s eyes snapped open at the presence approaching from afar.
Actually, it was almost funny and embarrassing to call it a “presence.”
How could he not notice? The overwhelming presence of that huge guy noisily clattering across Chwihyang Bridge to get to the pavilion located in the center of the pond.
When he sat up after noticing, a voice rang out, huffing and puffing even more at seeing him do so.
“You, Jeong Huiseo! Do you know how long I’ve been looking for you!”
Watching him rush over, a smile spread across Huiseo’s lips that said he was hopeless.
Just moments ago, he had definitely been thinking that behavior like that was troublesome. Yet that appearance, unchanged since childhood, still looked adorable to him, and he thought he himself was really in big trouble.
***
Hwan, who had climbed up and sat next to Huiseo, whined endlessly.
“Why didn’t you say anything and came here alone? Is this hide-and-seek? Are you running away? Did I do something wrong? Tell me, what’s the problem!”
“…This behavior right now?”
Unable to withstand the endless barrage of questions, Huiseo eventually answered in a daze, and for a moment Hwan seemed embarrassed and promptly shut his mouth. Still, he must have had some conscience, as even he seemed to think he’d been quite excessive.
“…Was I annoying? A lot?”
Hwan’s lips jutted out as he watched Huiseo’s mood uncertainly. Huiseo wondered if that could even be called a question, but then he let out a chuckle and slipped a dried sweet potato stick that he’d kept beside him right into Hwan’s tightly closed mouth.
“Mmph…!”
He whined as if he was in no mood to eat something like this, but how could he spit out what Huiseo had personally fed him? Even with a sulky expression, he soon obediently chewed, and the long dried sweet potato was slurped into Hwan’s mouth.
“It’s good, right?”
When Huiseo asked with a grin, a sweet aroma finally spread through Hwan’s mouth.
With just one of Huiseo’s bright smiles, he found himself unable to grumble any further. He tried to keep up the pretense of sulking, but Hwan’s lips, which were light and easy when it came to Huiseo alone, wouldn’t obey, and he could only jut out his lips pointlessly when—
“I’m not going.”
“Hm?”
“I said I’m not going. I told you before, and the time before that too. What’s your problem?”
“……”
“Are you anxious? That I’m just saying this and will backstab you?”
“That’s not it, I’m….”
Taking advantage of the slightly relaxed atmosphere, Huiseo brought up the topic again to calm Hwan’s anxiety. It was also a rebuke asking what he was so anxious about that he acted so sensitive and tormented him like this.
There was absolutely no need for that.
Huiseo was looking straight at Hwan with such eyes. So Hwan also gradually, carefully brought out the words he’d kept tightly locked inside.
“But it is a good opportunity for you. No matter how much I think about it, going is the right thing….”
Though he was pathetic, he envied Yuwon for giving such a good opportunity instead of him. At the same time, he hated him for using it as bait to steal Huiseo away from him. Even knowing it was a much better path, he was ashamed of himself for trying to keep Huiseo sitting around doing nothing.
To Huiseo, who couldn’t leave because of him, he was wholeheartedly sorry.
Because of such complicated feelings, Hwan couldn’t even lift his head, so Huiseo lowered his own head to follow him and asked.
“If I don’t go, do you think I won’t be able to do it?”
“…Huh?”
“Do you think I’ll fall behind? Me?”
At Huiseo’s confident question, Hwan didn’t know what to do.
If he asked it that way, of course not, but….
“Even if I decided I needed to go and made up my mind, do you think I’d go while being indebted to that bastard? Together with that bastard? No way? Why would I?”
Huiseo even frowned his fair brow as he spoke passionately. Then, ridiculously, Hwan finally felt the knot that had been stuck in his heart come undone with a snap. Though it was embarrassing, when all was said and done, that seemed to have been what weighed on his mind the most.
Because Choi Yuwon would be with him.
Even making a hundred concessions, if Huiseo left alone, he could wait up all night in tears, but if he went with that bastard, it seemed like he wouldn’t be able to sit and wait even a single night. Grateful and sorry to Huiseo for noticing first and telling him about it, Hwan reached out and preciously grasped both of Huiseo’s hands.
‘I can do well even without going.’
‘I don’t need something like that.’
He didn’t commit the shameless act of mistaking it for Huiseo truly thinking that way. Though he said such things, in reality, he knew that the biggest reason he couldn’t leave was because of him.
Kind Jeong Huiseo.
Huiseo.
Hwan placed his forehead on top of their clasped hands as if in prayer and asked tenderly.
“…Is there anything I can do to help you?”
He was sincere.
He knew the weight of what Huiseo had given up.
These were things that he himself might not be able to readily give even ten years from now, or even twenty years after that. So Hwan—though it was hard to call it a substitute—wanted to grant whatever Huiseo wanted right now, whatever that might be.
Huiseo responded to that sentiment.
“Then shall we study together?”
“……”
“Hm?”
“…I heard somewhere that red ginseng is good for people who study.”
Despite such earnest feelings, Hwan muttered seriously, letting Huiseo’s words slide by. He looked ready to bolt from the palace and become a wild ginseng digger if it came to it. As if that would be better—did he really hate studying that much? He was hopeless.
“What’s that supposed to be?”
Huiseo’s giggling laughter continued.
Because that laughing face was so pretty, and just watching it made his chest ache dully, Hwan pulled Huiseo tightly into his embrace.
Of course, he immediately got his side pinched with a “what do you think you’re doing,” but ridiculously,
It didn’t hurt at all.
***
Having made that decision, all that remained for them was to create an opportunity to clearly convey their refusal to Choi Yuwon. While explaining this, Huiseo made one request to Hwan. Of course, if Hwan said he wanted to be there together at that meeting, they would be together.
“I want you to leave it to me just this once.”
At Huiseo’s resolute gaze, Hwan hesitated for a moment before asking carefully.
“Why? Would you dislike it if I came with you?”
“That’s not it….”
Huiseo hesitated just the same.
The reason he couldn’t speak easily was the same as before.
However, the circumstances were different from back then when he had immediately shut his mouth, so Huiseo also looked at Hwan with a firmer gaze than at that time. Just as Hwan had honestly revealed his feelings, he too wanted to tell him so that Hwan wouldn’t misunderstand anymore.
“I’m worried that bastard will use it as an excuse to torment you again.”
So the pupils of Hwan’s eyes, which had been looking at Huiseo, visibly shook from side to side.
“…You knew?”
“How could I not know? It’s about you.”
