“Ah, how predictable.”
Hong Seungpyo drawled back and leaned against the lockers like he was about to lie down on them. The blazer he wore pulled taut across his shoulders, the silhouette of his broad back pressing through the fabric.
“Want me to tell you a secret?”
Seungpyo murmured and looked up at Dooyoung.
Dooyoung hesitated a little. He didn’t particularly want to know other people’s secrets — keeping his own was already more than enough. But Seungpyo’s secret was a different matter. He acted carelessly and yet never looked easy to figure out, and Dooyoung had genuinely wanted to know what kind of secret someone like him carried.
Dooyoung worked his lips and finally gave a small nod, unable to hold back the curiosity. At that, Seungpyo let a quiet smile rest on his mouth.
“I’m not nineteen. I was held back at my last school. For something truly spectacular.”
Dooyoung blinked. One of the rumors he knew about Seungpyo had just turned out to be true. Then another rumor came flooding in right after — the one about him having killed someone. Seungpyo suddenly looked different to him. He’d already been difficult to get close to, but now the fear stacked on top of itself.
At that exact moment, those dark irises disappeared behind thin eyelids, then slowly surfaced again. The eyes that looked like they’d only ever see the truth bore straight through him, and the inside of his mouth went stiff and dry.
“I, I should be heading out.”
Dooyoung turned quickly to leave, but before he could take even one step, Seungpyo caught him by the wrist and spun him back around. Seungpyo pinned him between both arms and braced a hand against the lockers.
“Why do you keep running?”
Seungpyo looked down at him at a slant and continued:
“It makes me want to chase you.”
Dooyoung’s lashes trembled like a dragonfly’s wings caught in a spider’s web. Seungpyo watched that for a moment, then ran his tongue slowly over his lips.
“The thing you were worried about is gone now, so you can hang out with me. If you want, you can even call me hyung.”
“I, I’m also——!”
“Hm?”
Dooyoung bristled at the word hyung before he could catch himself, and immediately regretted it. His head was telling him to stop, but his mouth moved on its own.
“I, I’m actually twenty too… they just filed my birth registration late……. So, so you’re not my hyung.”
“Ah.”
Seungpyo gave a flat response and nodded. Dooyoung felt like he could die of embarrassment. He was curious what Seungpyo was thinking about his ridiculous little outburst, and also desperately didn’t want to know.
He couldn’t bring himself to make eye contact and was staring at the floor when a warm breath drifted against his forehead. Without thinking, Dooyoung looked up — and stopped. Seungpyo was laughing like he was genuinely having the time of his life.
Seungpyo’s mood swung between heaven and hell without warning, endlessly. If I start getting properly pulled around by someone like that, I have a feeling I’ll end up too broken to put back together.
And he didn’t want to get tangled up with Seungpyo in that kind of way. It was embarrassing, and there was something inside him that recoiled from it on a gut level. On top of that, he just wasn’t particularly interested in that kind of thing. Maybe Seungpyo had been right — maybe he really was deficient in that department. He barely even touched himself, after all.
Then, out of nowhere, a stinging smoke drifted in from somewhere deep in his memory. The moment he thought he wanted to run from that filthy, ugly recollection — knock! A sound rang out above him like a wooden percussion block. He startled and looked up, and Seungpyo made the same sound again. It was the sound of a tongue clicking against the roof of his mouth.
“What are you thinking about?”
Dooyoung pressed his lips shut and gave a short shake of his head.
Seungpyo dragged his tongue along the roof of his mouth and combed over Dooyoung’s face with focused, relentless attention. The Mutt had a sweetish look to him from his round forehead all the way down to his small chin. When those full lips parted, something fragrant seemed to drift out from between them. The kind of thing you’d want to save for last and eat slowly, savoring every bit.
Just then, the Mutt moved his lips like he had something to say.
“You… didn’t tell him?”
“Tell who what?”
“Lee Juhak……”
Seungpyo pulled up one corner of his mouth.
“Didn’t trust me?”
He said it with a touch of sulkiness, and the Mutt’s eyes went wide.
“N, no! I trusted you, I really did!”
“Don’t know what to do with yourself, do you.”
Seungpyo answered with a small laugh. Heo Dooyoung — who was normally slow to speak, and stuttered even more when nervous — being this animated and articulate was something fresh. His gaze kept getting pulled to the Mutt’s slightly parted lips. Instinct fired before reason even had time to move. His body was already tilting toward those lips on its own.
And then — the front door of the classroom exploded open with a sound like thunder. Lee Juhak walked in behind it, scrolling on his phone. His gaze, pried away from the screen, landed on Seungpyo. Juhak paused for a moment, then spotted Dooyoung and furrowed his brow.
“What are you two doing?”
No one gave him an answer. Juhak pocketed his phone and tossed a sideways look at Seungpyo.
“What’s a guy who bought his way into this school doing here at this hour? Staying for self-study now that third year’s almost over?”
Seungpyo watched Juhak with a flat expression, then suddenly sensed a shift in Dooyoung’s presence. The Mutt had a fist balled in the hem of his trousers, head bowed so low it looked like he was trying to drill through the floor with it. He’d barely managed to ease the kid’s guard down, and now Juhak had it back at square one.
“I said what are you two doing.”
Juhak shuffled over and wedged himself between them on purpose.
“Hey. Mutt. Say something.”
“We were talking. That’s all.”
Seungpyo answered in his place. Juhak shot him a look of undisguised irritation.
“With him? You can actually hold a conversation with this idiot?”
“Surprisingly well.”
“Insane.”
Juhak sneered and smacked Dooyoung on the head with his thick palm. Thwack. Thwack. Thwack. The regular rhythm of it filled the silent classroom. Dooyoung’s thin neck swayed precariously.
“What kind of conversation could you have with a mutt who can’t even talk straight. Right, ugh——!”
Juhak suddenly dropped to his knees like he was prostrating himself. Seungpyo had kicked the back of his knees out from under him. Dooyoung reflexively crammed himself into a corner of the classroom.
“What the fuck… you piece of shit, what do you think you’re——ugh!”
Juhak, barely back on two feet, went down again under Seungpyo’s kick. Seungpyo ground him down like he was a cigarette butt. Then he sent that massive body rolling across the floor like a soccer ball. Juhak’s head collided with the trash can, and the lid dropped down on top of him.
“FUCK!!”
Juhak scrambled up screaming and launched himself at Seungpyo like something had snapped inside him. But Seungpyo sidestepped him easily, and Juhak barreled straight past him and sent a row of desks toppling like bowling pins.
“AAAAUGH, WHAT THE——!!”
Dooyoung clapped both hands over his ears. Juhak’s howl sounded like it had torn straight through a megaphone. Juhak staggered upright from the wreckage of collapsed desks.
“Hong Seungpyo you absolute piece of shit.”
“You’re loud.”
“Fuck you, you shut up! I treat you nicely and you think I’m your lackey? You’ve got some nerve. I never liked you from the start. You think everyone’s beneath you, don’t you? Everyone’s been crawling around you so you think you can do whatever you want? Well too bad. Not me. And by the way, there’s not a single person talking behind your back who has anything good to say. They all think you’re creepy and impossible to read.”
“So what.”
Seungpyo let out a long, drawn-out sigh and continued:
“Am I your vending machine? You put a coin in, I give you a reaction? Then at least try hard enough to make the reaction worth something. If all you’ve got is garbage to run your mouth about, just keep it shut. The sound of a pig getting its throat cut is giving me a headache.”
Seungpyo had days when chronic sleep deprivation made his memory cut out entirely. His instincts were telling him this was one of those moments. When he came back from those blackouts, there was always someone lying in front of him, painted in blood.
There was a time when that was just everyday life and didn’t particularly faze him — but Heo Dooyoung was also in this room right now. He didn’t particularly want to see the kid covered in blood.
At that moment, Juhak charged at him like a wild boar. Seungpyo reached behind himself and found the spray bottle in his hand. He dropped the bottle on the ground and, just as Juhak closed in on him, sprayed the water straight into his face.
