# Chapter 11
After roll call ends and it’s time for everyone to sleep, the dormitory fairy comes to Yumyeong’s room.
Sunmin had been steadily coming to this room from the very first night Yumyeong offered him the bed until now. He would come in quietly so that Hanju, who was already asleep, wouldn’t even notice his presence, then just exchange a nod and climb up to the upper bunk—that was all. Still, it seemed like he could at least sleep comfortably when he came to this room. It was clear he couldn’t even sleep in his original room because of anxiety.
What must it feel like to hate being in that room so much that you can’t even sleep peacefully? Probably even moving, breathing, and making any sound in that room would be agonizing.
When his thoughts reached that point, Yumyeong started to worry about what Sunmin was doing from after roll call until before coming to his room. Before roll call, he could be outside the school, but after roll call when the headcount was finished, all the dormitory doors would be closed for safety reasons. It meant the places to hide were limited to inside the dormitory.
Where that kid would be at such times was obvious.
The laundry room supply closet.
“Hey, come out.”
When he flung the door open, the dormitory fairy who had been sitting there quietly stood up, dusting off his knees.
“Where are we going?”
Sunmin asked. Yumyeong walked without a word, showing only his back.
The place Yumyeong arrived at was the door leading to the sky bridge on the rooftop.
“Ah, this place… They lock it after roll call.”
Pretending not to hear Sunmin’s words, Yumyeong took out a key from his uniform pocket. The padlock clutched in his hand turned silently and the door opened.
“Wow…”
The cool night air poured out all at once through the open doorway. The two people quickly stepped outside, afraid of being caught by someone, and closed the door. The early evening commotion that had been leaking from each dormitory room was completely blocked off.
Sunmin said in an excited, raised tone:
“Yumyeong! Where did you get this key?”
“If you tell anyone else, you’re dead.”
“I absolutely won’t tell.”
“I’ll lend you the key, so stay here at night. Don’t be stuck in that place.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. But when you leave in the morning, you have to put it right next to me. Absolutely, definitely, for sure. If you don’t, you…”
Yumyeong ground his teeth, making a great sacrifice. Just imagining losing the key and forever losing his morning sleep made him dizzy. Sunmin hurriedly nodded.
“Got it. Absolutely, absolutely…”
A little while later, Sunmin found a good spot on the sky bridge and sat down. It was a blind spot that couldn’t be seen from the dormitory side. Yumyeong, who thought he would just open the door and go back, also plopped down heavily next to him. Though Sunmin thought it was unexpected, he figured two was better than one.
“What do you think of me?”
At the words Yumyeong suddenly threw out, Sunmin was quite startled.
“You mean you? You, you’re…”
Sunmin suddenly felt heat rising to his cheeks and his palms became sweaty. His heart also began to beat with an abnormal rhythm.
And for good reason—Yumyeong, who had entered as the top student, had been a celebrity from the moment he first set foot in the school. Whether students or teachers, whether men or women, everyone felt friendly interest toward Yumyeong. And this was the same for Sunmin. In Sunmin’s eyes, Yumyeong was like glitter powder that couldn’t stay still for a moment and sparkled noisily. Even when settled down calmly, he would soar up brilliantly at the slightest breeze.
“You, you’re really kind, warm, and handsome.”
“I’m handsome?”
“Yeah. And you’re nice and have a sense of justice… I’ll never forget how you saved me.”
“You’re saying I look handsome to you?”
“Huh? Mm-hmm…”
Yumyeong wanted confirmation several times.
“How am I handsome exactly?”
“W-well, first of all, your skin is good, and your jawline is sharp…”
“Right? Objectively, I’m pretty good-looking, aren’t I?”
“Mm-hmm…”
And then when Sunmin spoke with sincerity, he was extremely happy and laughed loudly.
“Hahaha!”
Seeing that reaction, Sunmin was dazed. He fidgeted with his ears that had flushed red halfway and thought, ‘Why is he acting like this?’
“Could you say that in front of another guy?”
“What?”
“No, ha, I mean… There’s this one bastard who bad-mouths me saying I got rejected because I’m ugly. That fucker clearly has a big problem with his vision. I need to make sure he knows that beauty is subjective.”
“…”
“Let’s go now!”
Yumyeong seemed determined and grabbed Sunmin’s wrist to lead him. Before Sunmin could say ‘Huh?’, he was pulled up awkwardly by Yumyeong.
Bang bang bang! Yumyeong pounded violently on a dormitory room door.
The dormitory, with students out for their various activities, was quite quiet until roll call. It was perfect for resting or having some alone time during school life that was already hectic just from communal living. Only Sunmin was at a loss at the violent sound that broke the silence settled in the dormitory hallway.
Bang bang bang! But Yumyeong stood firm and knocked on the unmoving door. Mixed in was a sharpness that grated on the listener, making it easy to tell this wasn’t knocking out of goodwill. However, the rhythm of the knocking was regular and Yumyeong’s profile didn’t look particularly angry. Rather, one corner of his mouth was raised at an angle with an oddly smirking quality.
“Yumyeong… I don’t think anyone’s there, let’s stop now…”
Sunmin, whose wrist was grabbed by Yumyeong, wanted to escape from the commotion echoing through the hallway. But Yumyeong’s long fingers had quite a grip strength, so even when his wrist turned red, he couldn’t easily shake free. The feeling of wanting to run away peaked when the door to the adjacent room opened slightly and someone poked their head out.
However, the student who stuck their head out of the room first looked at Sunmin with an expression that said this was annoying, then saw Yumyeong, grumbled quietly, and closed the door again. His face was clearly marked with an expression that said, ‘There’s nothing you can do about Shin Yumyeong.’
Bang bang bang!
“Yumyeong… Stop.”
“This bastard is definitely in the room. He’s ignoring me on purpose even though he knows.”
It was when Yumyeong had turned his head halfway toward Sunmin. The door flung open from inside and almost hit Yumyeong’s cheekbone and ear. Yumyeong quickly pulled his body back while not hiding his reproachful gaze toward the open door.
“See, he’s here?”
“…”
The transfer student was holding the doorknob, standing as if to block the open doorway. His hair was wet as if he’d been washing up, and his damp nape was moist. When drenched with water, his natural vitality seemed to bloom fully like a flower holding dew and light.
Sunmin blushed for no reason at the hot humidity emanating from him. Yumyeong fumed that this bastard had deliberately tried to attack him with the door without even making a sound of grabbing and turning the doorknob. Meanwhile, the transfer student cast his gaze once at Sunmin’s wrist that Yumyeong was gripping tightly. The skin where he’d squeezed with force was stuck together and had turned red.
“Come in.”
At the unexpected words the transfer student spat out, it was Yumyeong who was most flustered. Sunmin was also quite surprised.
The transfer student turned his body sharply inside, leaving the door open. While wondering what was going on, Yumyeong immediately went inside and took off his sneakers. Only when he put his hand into the heel of his shoe did he let go of the wrist he’d been holding. Sunmin himself had already forgotten that his wrist had turned red, but only the transfer student glanced at it once with displeased eyes.
“Hey, you have a lot of nice stuff. Did you bring it from the study room? No? This is different.”
Yumyeong quickly lost sight of his purpose and became absorbed in the transfer student’s belongings. Basically, students each possessed one laptop or PC. And most left them in the study room to use, only bringing them to the dormitory when absolutely necessary. But the transfer student seemed to have several of the latest model laptops and tablets. Yumyeong was genuinely impressed.
“Wow, as expected, rich people are different.”
“Just state your business and leave.”
The transfer student muttered quietly as if his head hurt, rubbing his eyes. Yumyeong, who had momentarily forgotten why he came to this room, went “Ah!” and led Sunmin forward.
“Dormitory fairy. Could you say what you said earlier again? It would be good if you said it in more detail.”
“What did I say?”
Sunmin had long forgotten the context, flustered by the rapidly changing situation. Yumyeong furrowed his brow as if frustrated.
“Earlier on the rooftop! On the sky bridge. When you said to me… you know! About what my face is like.”
His protruding lips pouted as if to ask why he had to say this out loud, showing irritation, but strangely there was also a touch of aegyo. At Yumyeong’s attitude that seemed to be pestering, yet whining, Sunmin just blinked.
“Will you leave?”
The transfer student said, biting down hard on his teeth.
In the end, Yumyeong let out a heavy sigh and spoke as if lecturing the transfer student.
“Look at this guy’s temper. In the end, he’s making me say it with my own mouth! Transfer student friend. You look at this face in the mirror every day, so I understand that you’ve long lost your standards of beauty, but in the world there’s also something called objective standards of beauty, you know? No matter how much you drill it into me that I’m ugly, that’s not the truth. It’s a fact distorted in your eyes. No, it’s not even a fact! What’s a fact, you ask—it’s what we call facts, and facts are…”
While listening to Yumyeong’s lengthy speech, Sunmin finally understood Yumyeong’s point.
At the same time, a faint disappointment bloomed in his heart.
Earlier on the sky bridge, Sunmin had told Yumyeong he was handsome.
But that wasn’t all he said. He’d also told him he was kind and warm. That was the most refined expression Lee Sunmin could manage.
