[I can brag that I have a son attending a prestigious university on a scholarship, right?]
‘Scholarship? Mom, don’t make things up. All your friends remember I was a delinquent, who would believe it.’
[I believe it.]
I believe it. At those words, Kwon Yunsu wanted to become Prince Seodong and make the rumor into truth. Mom, I got a scholarship. Imagining the scene of saying that, he opened his book again.
“…What scholarship. There’s no such thing.”
He tried practicing a substitution for the line in his imagination. The feeling was not good. He wanted to just pass out like this and sleep for exactly ten hours, but on the other hand, he wanted to drink, see flowers, and have fun. What’s Euishin doing? Ah, he has his last exam next period. Kwon Yunsu rummaged through his pockets and got his phone in hand.
「Exam’s over. Someone please hang out with me.」
Even throwing it into the group chat, there was no immediate response. Waiting idly for a reaction, his eyes kept closing.
「Sangdae Hall 1, in front of room 305.」
Let’s consider there was a response. Having answered ahead of time, he closed his eyes.
There’s no such thing. If he said this, what would Mom say?
There will be next time. Probably.
Next time I really have to do well, really…
“…Hey.”
“…”
“…Yunsu-ya, Kwon Yunsu.”
When he snapped his eyes open, he immediately met eyes with a grinning, smiling face. It was Shin Jaewoo. A handsome kid smiling looks really nice. When he grabbed the hand held out before his eyes, his body was slowly raised up.
“If you sleep in a place like this, someone will snatch you away.”
At the joke Shin Jaewoo offered, Kwon Yunsu shook his head. And he quickly checked his pockets.
“Didn’t get snatched.”
“What?”
“My wallet and phone.”
“If it were me, I’d leave the wallet and phone and just snatch you.”
“You’d take three steps and throw me away because I’m heavy.”
“Say that after looking at your wrist, you look super light.”
Kwon Yunsu shook his head.
“It’s not that, I look gaunt from devoting myself too much to academics. I couldn’t sleep well this week…”
Shin Jaewoo smiled faintly and reached out his hand. The touch carefully smoothing down his messy hair was quite attentive.
When he pointed to the central staircase and walked ahead, Shin Jaewoo quickly matched his pace.
“If you’re sleepy, why not go home and sleep instead of begging to hang out? Song Taesu went to the zoo with classmates and club manager hyung went home. I don’t know about the rest. Seeing they’re not reading messages, they must be doing something.”
“I want to sleep but wanting to play is bigger. Lee Euishin went to take his last exam.”
“…If Lee Euishin wasn’t taking an exam, you’d play with him?”
“Well, everyone else went somewhere.”
“Is it fun playing just the two of you?”
Grabbing his arm in front of the landing vending machine, Shin Jaewoo asked as if curious.
“Yeah.”
He gestured for him to put in money and choose, so Kwon Yunsu pressed barley tea. Shin Jaewoo also pressed a button right away. He was about to bend down but the guy was one step faster.
“Why?”
In an instant, he took out the drink and even opened the cap before holding it out. …This isn’t ordinary manners. It was more surprising that there was such a rare species who showed these kinds of manners to the same sex than the fact that he himself had fun hanging out with Lee Euishin.
“Why, you ask… it’s comfortable, isn’t it?”
At those words, Shin Jaewoo, who was drinking an ion drink, snorted and then laughed with violent coughing. Patting the guy’s back, Kwon Yunsu drank his barley tea. The wind was blowing gently and the sunlight was pretty good. Ah, my eyes are closing.
“What exactly is the funny point of my words?”
“Comfortable? Lee Euishin?”
“Why wouldn’t he be comfortable, I’ve known him for years. …Ah.”
Then Kwon Yunsu found the reason on his own. Lee Euishin, right. Ice Queen. Nordic god. Ill-mannered. Total bastard. Zero social skills. The landlord who nags him every day to come home early.
“Euishin isn’t the type who doesn’t work on anything. Well, he doesn’t talk much. If I say three things, he says one? We don’t communicate well either. That one thing is usually a refutation or sarcasm, nitpicking, stuff like that…. Even if I died right now, I couldn’t say he’s an incredibly great guy, but sometimes when I think about it, he’s kind of okay. Anyway, I’ve never once thought he was boring. Euishin is cute.”
Shin Jaewoo, who had been laughing excitedly for a while, stretched out his long arm and wrapped it around Kwon Yunsu’s shoulder. Since it seemed like his arm wouldn’t reach, he didn’t make the same attempt.
“You’re close enough to feel comfortable with each other. That guy has it rough too.”
“I’m the one having it rough. Do you know how much he scolds me? When I wake up at the crack of dawn and serve him food, has he ever once said it’s delicious? When I wake him up, he curses at me for waking him. When I hang laundry, he says it’s wrinkled and hangs it again himself. Despite that, only when I ask him to go grocery shopping together does he obediently follow along? If I’m in second grade of elementary school, he’s in first grade.”
“Wow….”
“You know what happens when we actually go grocery shopping? He won’t let me choose even one carrot as I want. This one is bad for this reason, ones with roots like this wilt quickly, this one is expensive, geez. I’m the one paying, you know? Instead of paying rent, I cover all the shared food expenses, and my father sometimes sends meat separately for Euishin to eat and stuff. But even so, he’s picky as hell. Every time we check out, he can’t look more displeased. I’m serving Her Majesty, I swear.”
“It’s fun, listening to you two’s story.”
“Enjoy it a lot, because I’m only going to say this much. Who knows when he’ll make a fuss saying I sold his private life.”
“It’s fine if I don’t tell anyone.”
“Who knows, if you become close with Lee Euishin.”
“Well, that’s unlikely to happen….”
Suddenly Shin Jaewoo brought his face close and grinned.
“I think becoming close with you would be faster than that.”
…Wow. He was a guy who knew exactly how to appeal his good looks. If Lee Euishin had done something like this, I would have been shocked once, the world would have been shocked once, and that flower bed would have been turned upside down—it would have been chaos.
“Don’t forget I’m the only one who came when you said let’s hang out.”
It seemed like something he absolutely shouldn’t forget. Kwon Yunsu quickly nodded.
“Yeah, thanks. If only I wasn’t sleepy, the weather would be perfect and everything. But where are we going?”
“To watch a movie.”
“What? Hey, I right now….”
Gently pulling Kwon Yunsu who was trying to stop walking, Shin Jaewoo said,
“I know, if you go into a movie theater right now you’ll sleep like a baby. I’m booking with a free ticket so don’t feel burdened and sleep soundly. I’ll watch a movie, you get some sleep, and in the evening let’s call whoever we can and drink. It’d be perfect to have a drink each in the dongbang with the windows open.”
“The night breeze blowing.”
“Music playing.”
“…Yeah. That’s perfect.”
Shin Jaewoo looked at his watch.
“And let’s eat something before watching the movie. You sleep better when your stomach is full.”
That’s right. Kwon Yunsu nodded.
“I’ll buy the meal.”
And looking at the barley tea in his hand, he added,
“I’ll buy you coffee too.”
Since you have to watch the movie alone.
“Let’s go for now.”
They came out to the university area and ate. Kwon Yunsu had udon to rise up nice and fluffy, Shin Jaewoo had a rice bowl. Shin Jaewoo paid. When Kwon Yunsu grabbed his hand, he instead grabbed that hand back and said,
“It’s fine, so just mooch off me today. Ah, it’s not free though.”
When he said it like that, it was awkward to argue. Shin Jaewoo also bought coffee with his own money. And while getting movie tickets,
“Do as I say today, and next time when I tell you to come out, you absolutely have to.”
He said while smiling.
“Okay.”
With him being indebted like this, there was no reason to refuse.
The movie Shin Jaewoo chose was a quiet foreign film. He fell asleep less than 5 minutes after entering the theater, so he didn’t know more detailed information.
“…Yunsu-ya.”
