Habin set down the cleanly emptied bottle and whispered softly.
“It’s sweet.”
“You ate three of them. It’d be strange if your mouth wasn’t sweet, wouldn’t it?”
“Technically it’s two and a half.”
At first, they’d bought three flavors Habin was most curious about, placing two in front of Habin and one in front of Dojin. But at some point, all three puddings ended up in front of Habin, and with that last spoonful just now, all the bottles were completely empty.
Dojin handed water to Habin, who kept swallowing. Quickly taking it and emptying the glass in one go, Habin was finally able to wash away some of the sweetness lingering in his mouth.
No matter how delicious it was, eating two and a half puddings on the spot was tough. Resolving not to do this again next time, he took a sip of his strawberry smoothie.
“How many should we buy to take home?”
“Mm…, no. Let’s buy bread after we see the movie. I want to eat baguette for the first time in a while.”
“Baguette, so… stew?”
“Yeah.”
Habin nodded toward Dojin, who came up with matching food on his own without needing to be told. He’d never eaten stew at his family home, but when he’d tried it last time thanks to Dojin, it was quite delicious. Perhaps because it was a unique taste, it came to mind occasionally.
“Alright, I’ll let them know. It should be ready when we get home.”
Dojin tapped the screen with his thumb to leave a message. When he pressed hold, Habin glanced at the time that briefly appeared and scanned the table. Noticing that gaze, Habin checked the clock too.
“Do we need to leave now?”
“If we want to buy butter squid, we should leave now.”
Since they’d come to a place somewhat far from the movie theater to eat pudding, they had no choice but to leave early. Habin glanced at the half-remaining drink and nodded. Since he’d be drinking more beverages while watching the movie anyway, he didn’t need to finish this.
After tidying up and leaving the cafe, Habin shivered as the cold wind swept past. Dojin wrapped his arm around Habin’s shoulders and quickened his pace.
“Oh right, Dojin.”
“Mm?”
“I heard at the general meeting that it’s okay not to follow the timetable the school made for us. They said they only made it as an exception for the first semester. So let’s drop one and take an elective together.”
At Habin’s chattering about how they should take a required general education course together, one of the graduation requirements, Dojin nodded without a moment’s hesitation.
It would be difficult to find a required general education course with two open spots during the course adjustment period, but since Habin wanted it, there was no reason not to. More importantly, he also wanted to take at least one class together.
“But what if we can’t get in?”
“Then we can take an elective that’s not required. We need to fill elective credits anyway.”
“Okay, then.”
Once his slight worry was resolved, Habin immediately pulled out his phone and started looking up what electives were worth taking. Dojin guided the busy Habin, who was looking at the university community forum and course syllabi, to the inside of the sidewalk.
“Aren’t your hands cold?”
“A little? But it’s bearable.”
Dojin clicked his tongue looking at Habin’s fingertips that had turned red.
“Let’s look it up after we get in the car.”
Since it wasn’t urgent, he firmly grasped Habin’s hand, telling him to take his time, so Habin silently put away his phone. As he said, there were about three days left in the course adjustment period.
Actually, by this time it would be difficult to get into well-reviewed electives, but the two freshmen, unaware of such things, were simply excited at the thought of being able to take even one class together.
* * *
On Tuesday, the last day of the first week, Habin entered the lecture hall for his last class and reflexively frowned at the familiar yet unwelcome figure he immediately spotted.
“Ah, Lee Habin!”
Turning his head at the voice calling him, Habin confirmed it was someone he’d frequently encountered from the orientation camp to the general meeting and smoothed out his expression. When he approached the person gesturing for him to come over, they quickly made room for him.
“I didn’t see you in Accounting. Are you already allowed to skip on your own?”
“Ah—, I’m taking that with a different professor. There’s someone I agreed to take it with.”
Common general education subjects like Accounting had multiple sections opened each semester. Realizing that decent electives had no open spots, the two decided to take an Accounting lecture together since it had plenty of volume and quite a few remaining seats, so they dropped their existing lectures and registered again.
“Really? Well, the professor assigned to our department has pretty bad reviews.”
Ugh. I ended up taking a class with a professor with even worse reviews than that one…
He smiled awkwardly watching his classmate sigh deeply, saying they had no luck and wondering why they were assigned that professor. He could say “what’s the big deal about taking a class together,” but as a freshman, Habin had dreams that only freshmen could have.
And for the sake of those dreams, he could sufficiently endure a professor with poor reviews. Probably.
He pulled out his pad from his bag, thinking thoughts he could only have because he’d never actually taken the lecture. Since there was quite a bit of time left before the lecture started, they chatted about trivial things.
Then the conversation naturally broke off as Hyeonwon fiddled with his phone, seemingly handling an important message. Since it wasn’t particularly important talk anyway, Habin also turned his gaze to his phone.
“Hey, Habin.”
“Mm? What?”
“Are you free on the 12th?”
“The 12th?”
Habin, who had been answering half-heartedly while finishing up a text to Dojin, put down his phone after sending the message when asked about his schedule. Then he checked mentally whether he had any plans that day.
“Mm—, I don’t have anything scheduled. But why?”
“Let’s do a blind date between departments.”
“A blind date?”
“Yeah. A blind date.”
At Habin’s puzzled look, Hyeonwon drove the point home. Thanks to that, confirming he hadn’t heard wrong, he immediately shook his head.
“Why? Is it because it’s burdensome? Even though it’s called a blind date, it’s really just going to make friends, so you can just drink. You like drinking, right?”
“Well, that’s true.”
“So, let’s go together. If you go, we’re set. Set.”
Though he had no idea what would be “set,” Habin firmly shook his head.
“No thanks. I have a significant other.”
“A significant other? You have a significant other?”
As if Habin having a significant other was such a surprising thing, Hyeonwon’s voice grew louder. Thanks to that, attention from the surroundings gathered and Habin frowned slightly.
“What, Lee Habin already has a significant other?”
“I naturally thought he wouldn’t have one.”
“What? Why?”
What’s wrong with me!
Habin choked up at the words of those who naturally joined the conversation. He could have a significant other, so why would they naturally think he wouldn’t? He’d even been dating for four years.
“Just. You seem like you would’ve only studied.”
“Right, that’s exactly the vibe.”
“Like studying comes before dating?”
“That’s—”
Since it wasn’t exactly wrong, he had nothing to say in response. In fact, throughout their relationship, he had a track record of making Dojin sulk by showing a tendency to focus a bit more on studying.
Of course, since they were preparing for entrance exams together, it was less that he was truly sulking and more like a kind of signal asking for attention. But the fact itself that he’d prioritized studying more was correct.
“Looks like studying really did come before dating?”
“How did you even date? You started after the college entrance exam, right?”
Looking around at the surroundings that had turned into a marketplace in an instant, Habin forcibly swallowed a sigh. He was receiving more attention than expected. Over the mere matter of whether he had a significant other.
Actually, though he didn’t know the reason, Habin knew his classmates were relatively interested in him. So wanting to avoid pointless questions, he’d been avoiding bringing up personal stories.
Therefore, the current situation with countless questions pouring in couldn’t be welcome.
The reason so much interest was focused on Habin was, needless to say, primarily due to his appearance. Habin’s looks—delicate features, a gentle impression even at a glance, with a touch of poignant beauty added—were striking enough to be rarely seen. So naturally, he couldn’t help but receive attention.
And another reason was that the clothes Habin casually wore, picked up because they were comfortable, saying they were Dojin’s, were so-called luxury brands. Only Habin, who had no interest in such things, didn’t know, but those with sharp eyes easily noticed the wealth evident in Habin’s attire.
Thanks to possessing two elements that drove people crazy, rumors surrounding Habin spread bit by bit until his name eventually spread among the freshmen. And that name spread beyond freshmen to among the upperclassmen as well.
“Maybe he’s doing compensated dating or something.”
“What kind of bullsh—”
How should I get through this situation? Habin, who had been worrying about that, reflexively retorted to the rude remark that suddenly interjected, but first closed his mouth at the atmosphere that had turned cold.
At the behavior of trailing off cautiously unlike the words that had popped out without a moment’s hesitation, several people burst into laughter. As the atmosphere naturally eased, Habin finally turned his gaze to examine who had spewed that nonsense.
Through the surrounding students’ sidelong glances, he realized that the person who’d made the atmosphere strange was the one who’d made him frown when entering the lecture hall.
Habin’s face crumpled as he realized that the bastard who’d even seen Dojin had shamelessly brought up compensated dating. When his reaction was quite poor, Hyeonwon, who had been cautiously reading the room, exaggeratedly laughed and patted Habin’s shoulder.
“Come on, what would Lee Habin lack to do compensated dating? Someone like him would have lots of people asking to date, right?”
As Hyeonwon looked around and gave them a look to hurry up and respond, everyone chimed in noisily as if they’d been waiting. Since the atmosphere was moving past it, though annoying, there was nothing he could say.
See this is why it’s nice to have your protagonist be popular at school