Since he was already possessed by an ox, Hongdan decided to show off his hard head once more. He charged forward, carrying the emotions he’d been holding back all along.
Bam!
“Ack! Ah, seriously Hongdan-ah, why are you… Ahhh—!”
Not stopping there, he gathered all his hair together and shook it vigorously, intending to pull it all out. Even though they used the same shampoo, only this bastard’s hair was unnecessarily glossy, which had been quite irritating for the past few days.
“Shut up, you bastard. From now on, if you blabber even one more word, I’ll either pull out your tongue or stitch your mouth shut.”
“No, what did I…”
“Oh? You dream of being mute, is that it? A bastard who got hit by a truck and came back alive just fine—you want to get hit by just me and end up in the hospital?”
At the brutal threat, Seonha shook his head vigorously. His eyes, which had been quite serious just moments ago, now had teardrops dangling from them. Whether it was simply from the pain of his grabbed hair and split lip, or from having his first proper confession rejected, was unknown.
No.
Hongdan just didn’t want to know, whatever it was.
He didn’t want to know anything more about Yeon Seonha.
More than Seonha, who had forgotten everything by himself yet shamelessly forced new memories on him, Hongdan was more furious at himself for almost being completely buried by that shameless behavior.
Stupidly letting his heart sink like that.
He thought he’d scraped it all away for sure. He thought he’d searched thoroughly and thrown away even the fragments of emotions hiding here and there.
Could it really be true that even hateful affection is still affection?
Hongdan now thought that proverb was a terrible curse.
He felt that he wasn’t even allowed to resent him. In his frustration, he wanted to immediately look up at the sky and spew curses.
After shaking Seonha’s head several more times to vent his anger, Hongdan stood up from his seat first. This flower bed in front of the library was a place where only good memories remained, so he didn’t want to dirty it any further.
It must have been because of this place that he became curious about unnecessary things, and ultimately ended up hearing that bastard’s confession that wasn’t quite a confession.
He heard the sound of footsteps hurriedly following him from behind.
Perhaps he didn’t really want to become mute, as Seonha only occasionally grabbed the hem of Hongdan’s coat but didn’t whine or cling to his arm like usual. Nevertheless, Hongdan’s expression couldn’t easily relax.
***
“Huk…”
Though the sun was still high in the sky, from somewhere in the perfectly intact private high school came intermittent sorrowful crying sounds.
The protagonist was all too obvious.
“Hu-uk…”
I told that bastard to keep his mouth shut and now he’s talking with tears.
It was Yeon Seonha.
He was stretching out both arms with his legs bent at 90 degrees in front of a dark red wall, and his thighs were trembling so much with each sniffle that it was clearly visible even from afar.
That’s right. Seonha had been holding the so-called ‘motorcycle position’ for well over 10 minutes already.
Hongdan’s expression as he watched that sight was so cold that not a drop of blood would come out even if you stabbed him.
In fact, there was a fairly reasonable reason for instructing this old-fashioned punishment drill.
‘No, can’t you even skip class by yourself…’
‘You hate Chemistry taking it out on you too.’
‘I really want to punch him in the nose.’
It was when the two were high school students, precisely not long after the start of their second year’s second semester.
Like all those called chaebol second-generation sons, Seonha, who had already completed advanced learning, felt absolutely no interest in school classes. He usually slept or read books, and after somewhat forcing his way to become Hongdan’s desk partner, he would relieve his boredom by playing small pranks on him.
However, these were all deviations only possible when classes were held in the classroom. When they moved to special classrooms, since the view was more open compared to regular classrooms, he had to at least pretend to be conscious of others’ gazes. Then finally, one day when Yeon Seonha’s trivial patience hit rock bottom.
‘But are you really sure it’s okay? If you leave a blemish on my school record, you’re dead.’
‘As if I can’t take responsibility for just you.’
Already bored out of his mind with the class, Seonha, who had absolutely no desire to listen to chain-smoking Chemistry’s phlegm bubbling away, seduced Hongdan into actually attempting an unauthorized outing. If it had been any other class, Hongdan would have chosen to be a model student diligently tattling on his friend’s truancy, but he too was sick to death of Chemistry.
Last semester’s final exam had been the trigger. At the time, Chemistry, who had been scolded by the principal for a week over a massive question error, had been desperate to not leave Hongdan alone after that. Hongdan was even more wronged because he hadn’t even planned to file an objection in the first place. It was just that some bastards who needed his name had asked him how many times he’d marked it, then ran their mouths on their own. Thanks to that, Hongdan had been receiving unfair harassment during Chemistry class for two whole months.
Given this situation, Seonha’s proposal sounded several times more tempting than usual. Hongdan pretended to hesitate a bit for courtesy’s sake, then immediately grabbed Seonha’s hand tightly.
However, in less than exactly 5 minutes, Hongdan had regretted trusting him.
‘Teacher Hwang! Is it right that there’s a chemical smell here? Ah, where is it leaking from!’
‘First of all, it’s not toxic, Principal. Still, I reported it just in case…’
‘What kind of smell did you say? Sweet?’
‘Yes, it’s a sweet smell similar to tropical fruits.’
There was something Hongdan, who had followed Seonha out, should never have overlooked.
That bastard, despite his age, was someone who hadn’t properly learned how to control his pheromones.
‘Sniff, sniff… It seems to be coming from here, Principal! Let me find out…’
And that Chemistry, who resembled a gorilla, happened to be an omega.
‘…First, Seonha, you wait here… Choi Hongdan, you follow me right now.’
Take responsibility my ass.
‘Stand here in motorcycle position. Until I tell you to stop.’
At the time, while Yeon Seonha became everyone’s laughingstock under the scorching autumn sun, he just hung around nearby snorting with laughter. Even when told to get lost, he stuck around, skipping even lunch. That day, in Hongdan’s eyes, Yeon Seonha’s prominent nose looked more hateful than Chemistry’s pig nose.
It was a day when Hongdan, who rarely even broke a sweat, had suffered while soaking even his shirt collar. While enduring his trembling legs, he had vowed and vowed again to definitely pay back this humiliation.
Unfortunately, Seonha was more diligent than Hongdan thought, and steadily accumulated bigger wrongs than the attempted unauthorized outing incident. Trivial mistakes from his immature days had at some point been pushed to the very back of Hongdan’s memory. If Hongdan hadn’t come to Yeonhwa High School today, it was probably a musty memory he would never have recalled in his lifetime.
Reaffirming his desire for revenge, Hongdan crossed his arms crookedly and pulled up the right corner of his mouth. The way he tilted his head at the same angle—he was the spitting image of a thug.
Hongdan spoke deliberately loudly.
“Wow—you still don’t remember? Just try staying like that for 5 more minutes first?”
“Uuung!”
Seonha shook his head violently. The teardrops he shed fluttered in the air. It was truly a beautiful bubble show. Hongdan responded with a picture-perfect eye smile.
“No, no. You said it yourself. Let’s retrace everything step by step from when we first met. Earlier we reminisced about our first meeting, so now it’s proper order to recall our first fight. Just 5 minutes. No, let’s just stay for exactly 10 more minutes. Hey man, I’m giving you exercise. I should have been really sorry for making you stay holed up in your room all the time. You know thighs are a man’s life, right?”
“Hu-uh! Uh!”
“Yeah. After this is over, I’ll let you open your mouth too. Let’s endure this like the proud sons of Korea we are!”
Hongdan didn’t forget to pump him up by cutely clenching his fists like Seonha used to do back in the day. Only then did his stuffy feelings seem to clear up a bit.
Right. These were the kinds of things he should be reminiscing about. He shouldn’t have recalled memories like when Seonha first helped him. He’d become uncharacteristically wistful for a moment, but if he bothered to count, there would be at least twice as many infuriating moments like this.
In the slightly warmer sunlight, Hongdan moved to the shade. It seemed like Seonha made some babbling-like sounds at his back a few more times, but he didn’t particularly pay attention. In fact, saying 10 minutes was just talk—he had no intention of actually timing it. Since he happened to have a suitable pretext, he just tried being petty and unreasonable like Seonha back then.
“Ugh… I’m tired.”
Hongdan, who had intended to just rest his butt briefly at the main building entrance, just thought ‘screw it’ and flopped down flat. Clothes could be washed, and his body could be washed too. Rather, he felt refreshed as he could feel the characteristically cool energy of marble through his back.
Having spent a longer week than ever and been dragged out by Seonha’s hand even through the weekend, his whole body felt heavy.
There were still more than ten weeks left to spend with that bastard, yet he was already this exhausted. Should he really start exercising?
However, it was also ridiculous to work on his body to spend 3 months fruitfully with Seonha. Hongdan quickly gave up on the healthy resolution he’d made for the first time in nearly 30 years.
“Haaam…”
The languidness of a holiday afternoon weighed down Hongdan’s consciousness.
His black pupils, which seemed to be half-covered, soon completely disappeared behind his eyelids. At this rate, it was obvious he would end up homeless at a place where budding sprouts devoted themselves to learning. Nevertheless, Hongdan couldn’t easily raise his body.
“Should I just sleep for exactly 5 minutes?”
Hongdan moved his extremely heavy body to set an alarm. But soon everything became bothersome and he just plopped his phone face-down on the ground.
Well, by that time anyway, it was obvious that Seonha would stop doing that and come running over annoyingly to his side. It might even be more effective at waking him than the familiar alarm sound.
In the end, Hongdan, who chose the latter between his dignity as an adult and immediate fatigue, pulled up the coat he’d taken off earlier to his shoulder line. As it became even cozier, sleepiness attacked his consciousness as if it had been waiting.
“Really, just 5 minutes… That guy should be able to endure at least that much.”
He said that, but it didn’t seem like that pampered young master would endure for 5 minutes. Well, if it gets hard, he’ll appropriately stop and come over making noise again.
Hongdan closed his eyes while once again acknowledging the existence of a biological alarm that was somewhat annoying but quite effective.
However, while the shadow cast on Hongdan’s ankles gradually lengthened, there was no commotion around him—only the sound of a quiet breeze could be heard. Hongdan woke up from sleep much more peacefully than expected.
“…What. What time…”
He brought the phone he’d placed face-down right in front of his eyes. And the moment he confirmed the time, Hongdan was able to raise his sprawled body as lightly as a feather.
“This crazy…!”
The number on the background screen had completely changed in the first digit.
