After exchanging trivial talk for a while longer, they left the practice room around the time darkness was gradually settling inside. Leaving the corridor, passing between several buildings, a noisy group approached from the other side. They looked like they were all returning together after finishing dinner.
Eunha, who was passing by their side without much thought as they quickly drew near, suddenly came to an abrupt stop at the harsh words that clearly pierced his ears. They were too distinct to let pass, and malicious insults at that. As if deliberately meant to be heard. Since they were people he’d never met, it couldn’t be aimed at him.
He turned around somewhat unpleasantly. Perhaps hearing the sound of him stopping, one person from the group had already turned around ahead of the others, and their eyes immediately met. When he stared directly without avoiding, the other person’s face contorted into a form not very pleasant to look at. At least Eunha felt it was extremely hideous. In that even from a brief fragment, the twisted inner thoughts contained within that other person were clearly conveyed.
He was staring even more uncomfortably when Yeonjun carefully supported his forearm from the side. As if saying not to mind it. That meant those vivid malicious feelings were truly directed at him.
“It’s okay. Let’s just go.”
“Why are they acting like that?”
“……Mm. Bad rumors spread at school.”
“What rumors?”
“That I’m a slut.”
Eunha, who had paused, raised his head. When he asked with his eyes what that meant, Yeonjun lightly lifted and dropped his shoulders.
“I became that without even knowing it.”
“……It’s a misunderstanding, right?”
“Yes. They’re all misunderstandings but…… since I’ve received similar misunderstandings several times, I wonder if there’s something wrong with me.”
“……”
It was a calm contemplation. What words could he bring up? When he expressed his position with disgruntled silence, Yeonjun held a brazen smile as if to counter. Then he clasped his hands behind his back and tilted his head over. In an instant, a soft body scent faintly permeated.
“Is my impression that bad?”
“Well.”
“……”
“You, rather than bad……”
Eunha seriously furrowed his brow. He examined the face placed before his eyes intently. Under that gaze that scrutinized every detail, Yeonjun was clenching and unclenching his hands behind his back. Eunha narrowed his eyes.
“So, you’re……”
Eye shape that evoked a strange feeling and long, vivid eyelashes. The mole near the left eye. White skin and crimson lips. Several piercings piercing through the right ear.
How should he explain it? In fact, what came to mind was clear, but his tongue twisted at revealing it as is.
So, actually, you really look like a sl…… The words that you do look like that got stuck in his throat and wouldn’t come up. That if you went somewhere like a club, someone who looks like you would probably be sitting in the middle of a sofa surrounded by countless people. That you do have a face that naturally evokes such imagination. That anyone who becomes aware of your existence would have had unwholesome thoughts at least once…….
What am I thinking again? Eunha, who reproached himself with a feeling like slapping his own cheek, subtly turned his eyes away from the gaze that continued to rest on him as if waiting for an answer.
“Sorry.”
“……Wow. Really, what kind of answer is that?”
“Honestly, you look like you’d get a lot of misunderstandings.”
“I do hear that sometimes but……”
“But anyway, the people who misunderstand as they please are in the wrong.”
“……”
“They’re mean.”
“Well…… I think it can be like that. I wouldn’t say wrong.”
“……”
“Are they mean?”
He quickly realized it wasn’t about the group from just before. He was dumbfounded by the calm view. You really have a generous heart.
Eunha, who had been glancing at Yeonjun while letting his lips fall, soon looked back again. The gaze that cooled in an instant lingered for a while on the empty space where the group had disappeared. He didn’t like the sight of full-grown adults childishly displaying their emotions openly through their attitude. What era are they establishing hierarchy from?
“Anyway, don’t worry about it too much. Their quality is really bad. Why would they talk like that when people are passing by?”
“I don’t really care.”
“Then that’s fortunate…… It’s also good to take it as a compliment. That kind of thing ultimately all comes from being good-looking anyway.”
“Am I good-looking?”
“……Then do you think you’re not?”
“I don’t really pay attention to such things either.”
Yeonjun smiled unconsciously. Then he suddenly met clear and distinct eyes with Eunha. Eunha, who met them dryly, received the impression that somehow an energy resembling excitement seemed to ripple inside those eyes.
“But, hyung.”
“Yeah.”
“I think being misunderstood is sometimes really not that bad.”
“……”
“No, I think it’s rather good.”
“……”
At the flushed voice, Eunha stepped forward while looking ahead without saying much. Because if he showed anything, he might take that too and make it into a point to flutter about alone.
Right. I fully understand that you like me…… Thinking hollowly, he maintained an expressionless face and no response until the end.
The time with Yeonjun was, contrary to expectations, not very uncomfortable. The age difference, and the difference in emotional positions. For Eunha, it was a gap he could hardly accept, so he thought the meeting would be awkward and somewhat uncomfortable, but it was surprisingly quite comfortable.
The Yeonjun he’d vaguely grasped while spending some time with him had a rather sensible personality. He was generally gentle and docile, and surprisingly had no frustrating or hesitant corners when speaking. Rather, leisure oozed from his trivial attitudes. Rather than feeling arrogant, how should he say…… It was a feeling of being unhurried and calm. The type who chews things over once more inside before spitting them out. And also the type who was a bit insensitive in certain parts.
Then occasionally he showed naive aspects, such as suddenly sending blank looks for no reason, or blushing his earlobes alone at words said without much meaning, or fiddling with his nape while vaguely turning his gaze away. So there was also some fun while being together. Should he say those emotions that transparently revealed themselves without hiding anything were novel, or should he say it had been a while?
He also had a bit of playfulness but didn’t cross the line. If he let his guard down a bit, he wouldn’t miss the opportunity and subtly showed signs of liking him, yet he was never rude. From that aspect that came out unconsciously of trying to maintain distance, he could read what kind of person he was. After all, if you see one thing you can know ten.
A person who exuded an aura of being raised properly and upright without any creases.
Probably, a really kind and good kid. So Eunha was consistently in an uncomfortable mood.
“Do you come here often?”
“Yeah. The butter french fries here are delicious.”
Yeonjun asked while watching the back of the owner who had come to take their order, briefly asked Eunha how he was doing, and left. When he explained that he dropped by once in a while when he thought of it and became acquainted, he looked around briefly. It was a pub-style shop with a nice atmosphere, but it was also a place that sold meals separately for lunch.
The menu they ordered came out, and a leisurely conversation continued for a while longer. They ate while simply accompanying the alcohol they’d ordered to match the shop’s atmosphere. In the middle, a commotion occurred with a customer making a drunken scene at another table, and after that, a topic continued about various bizarre unreasonable customers Eunha had encountered at the cafe. Then they briefly talked about Yeonjun’s school out of the blue.
“Hyung.”
“Yeah.”
“Why are you being so nice to me today?”
It was when they were sipping alcohol along with the remaining side dishes after roughly finishing their meal that Yeonjun asked that.
A tone that weakly mixed something that could be either whining or reproach. Eunha answered plainly.
“You told me to be nice.”
“……What?”
“You said I should be nice to you as much as I did wrong, as much as I’m sorry. You said that.”
Eunha had unilaterally done wrong. That he would again unilaterally cut Yeonjun off was another wrong, Yeonjun had said. He thought it was a pointed remark that couldn’t find contradiction. Right. He seemed to have been trying to act somewhat self-righteous.
But Eunha didn’t know what other choice he could make besides rejecting Yeonjun. In the end, they were feelings he couldn’t accept.
