# Chapter 17
“Anyway, after that, he keeps picking fights with me secretly when no one else knows.”
“I see.”
“So don’t blame me. People can like someone and then dislike them for no reason. But I’ve never had a good time being involved with that bastard. Is there any reason to get along well like this?”
Saying that, Yumyeong let out a heavy sigh.
He also looked frustrated, so Hanju barely nodded, saying ‘That’s right.’ However, there was a sour light in his eyes. Catching this, Yumyeong pressed further.
“Why? What are you looking at like that?”
“It’s nothing else… I’m on your side.”
“But?”
“It’s just… you seem to be at a disadvantage.”
At Hanju’s words, Yumyeong was caught off guard.
“Hakyoung has a good reputation and seems like a model student, and his personality is quiet too. He doesn’t even show any signs in front of others that such a thing happened between you two. If you one-sidedly attack him, people will think you’re the strange one.”
***
Then he just needed to get along in front of others and take revenge when they weren’t watching.
Yumyeong thought simply.
Yumyeong, who reconsidered Hanju’s advice, extended a gesture of reconciliation to Hakyoung. He also stopped picking staring contests during roll call time. However, Hakyoung still wasn’t fooled and became even more on guard with a suspicious face.
During class, whenever their eyes met when Hakyoung happened to look back, he would smile like a spring breeze and wave his hand to greet him with a ‘Hello.’ Then Hakyoung would stiffen his face and immediately turn his head. Even during meal time, he deliberately went with Hanju to find the seat in front of Hakyoung and ate while facing him. Then Hakyoung would hurriedly eat with a face that looked like he’d get indigestion, then abruptly get up and leave without saying goodbye.
“You saw, right? He only acts like that toward me.”
“Really, he seems quite upset.”
Hanju tilted his head with a face that found it strange, watching Hakyoung leave, then buried his nose in his food tray.
Among them, the incident that flustered even Yumyeong happened in the gym.
It was after finishing PE class, when they stayed behind to play three-on-three basketball. Yumyeong’s foot slipped while attempting a confident shot and he fell outside the line. As he fell like that, he violently crushed someone at the same time.
“Ugh… Sorry.”
The bones of the person he collided with were too hard and solid, making the impact feel doubled. The moment he offered an apology, Yumyeong’s skin, soaked with sweat, rubbed against the other person’s heated flesh. At that moment, Yumyeong was violently pushed back to the floor again.
“Whoa, what?”
The one who had caught him and then pushed him was none other than Hakyoung.
“Give me a hand.”
Yumyeong, who sat back down on the floor, reached out his hand asking to be helped up, but Hakyoung pretended not to see even that and was already moving away.
“Hey, are you okay? You really crushed him hard.”
“If he hadn’t caught you, you would’ve broken your tailbone.”
The friends who had been playing basketball together approached belatedly. Yumyeong grimaced and shot back.
“What are you talking about? You guys try colliding with him. It hurts like hell, seriously…”
Unlike his appearance, whether he had strong bones or not, the part that collided with Hakyoung still stung. Yumyeong limped pointlessly as he approached Hanju who was in the corner.
“Hanju, did you see? That bastard really holds a grudge.”
“A grudge? Hakyoung caught you when you were about to get hurt.”
“And then threw me down again!”
“Maybe you were heavier than he thought.”
“Tsk.”
Yumyeong clicked his tongue and lifted the top of his gym clothes to wipe the sweat on his face. The straight abs carved on his slim stomach were briefly revealed then disappeared.
“Hey! He’s looking this way.”
As Hanju said, Hakyoung was glaring this way. Yumyeong was about to glare back, but remembering ‘be kind in front of others,’ he smiled broadly again and gently waved his hand. At that moment, Hakyoung blushed all the way to his ears as if extremely displeased and just left the gym altogether.
A little while later, Yumyeong discovered his prey alone.
Hakyoung was sitting alone in the art room. The art room was quite messy with chairs not arranged, as if after-school activities had just ended.
‘Did he choose Western painting?’
Yumyeong thought while peeking inside.
At school, arts and physical education was conducted twice a week under the name ‘2 Skills per Person.’ Not only various ball sports but also unusual PE subjects like boxing, swimming, and Pilates were newly established and were quite popular with students. Also, among artistic activities, they could choose from numerous classical instruments to Korean traditional instruments like gayageum and taepyeongso, and things like theater and film production were also popular.
On the other hand, Western painting was relatively less popular. Since there were many other activities that drew interest, positions usually filled up first with things that seemed unique and fun. He wondered if Hakyoung, as a transfer student, didn’t have the right to choose.
Yumyeong, who had been looking inside through the window like that, noticed he was completely alone and entered through the door.
“Ahem.”
When he cleared his throat, Hakyoung looked this way. The face that had just let down its guard sharpened as soon as it recognized his presence, as if a light had been turned on in his eyes. Yumyeong chuckled at the clear hostility.
“Hi, what are you doing alone?”
“…”
Without answering, Hakyoung just looked Yumyeong up and down. He seemed to suspect that there must be an ulterior motive to Yumyeong who had recently become kind, at least outwardly. Since that was true, Yumyeong inwardly realized that Hakyoung was no pushover.
Approaching closer, Yumyeong confirmed that a club establishment application form was placed on the desk that came up to his waist. It was about half filled out in neat handwriting.
“Ah, trying to make a club? If you do that well, it’s worthwhile. You get club funding. If you make it, let me join too.”
“Fuck off.”
Look at that temper.
Yumyeong, who chuckled, picked up the club application in his hand. Then, in front of Hakyoung, he tore it horizontally in a long rip.
Slowly, with a ripping sound, Yumyeong’s smiling face was revealed between the paper cleanly split in half.
Yumyeong crumpled the paper torn in half in his hand and threw it in the trash can. Hakyoung, who saw the paper he’d been working on until now cleanly enter the trash can, had a slightly dazed face only at first, then soon sneered.
“Right, this is your true self.”
“That goes for you too. Every time you open your mouth, it’s ‘fuck off,’ ‘shut up.’ Not long ago, you called me a dog, didn’t you?”
“To be precise, I said you were talking bullshit.”
Hakyoung calmly insulted Yumyeong without backing down at all. Yumyeong narrowed his eyes and leaned toward Hakyoung.
“Are you happy sharing a room with Sunmin?”
“Since when did you call him Sunmin?”
“That’s none of your business. Anyway, I think you’re quite capable. Not long after transferring, you immediately found a guy you liked, and as soon as you were hooked, you got him into your room right away… Huh? Congratulations on your roommate.”
“…”
“Seems like you have pretty fast hands, were you like that before coming to this school too?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“Why? I’m very interested in you. You didn’t transfer here because of a guy problem, did you?”
At those words, Hakyoung’s eyes became frightening. Yumyeong felt good at the fact that his guess might be the truth. When he straightened his back and smiled, rolling up both corners of his mouth, his eyes also gently rippled and narrowed.
“Hey, do you have some money?”
At Yumyeong’s words, Hakyoung clicked his tongue as if in disbelief.
“You do all kinds of things.”
“If you want your secret kept, hand some over.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“Yeah.”
“Didn’t you say sexual minorities have human rights too?”
“I decided not to apply that to you.”
At Yumyeong’s shameless words, Hakyoung’s eyes didn’t hide his disgust.
But his next action was unexpected. Hakyoung reached into his chest and took out a luxurious-looking leather wallet. The slimly folded wallet looked very soft, with the surface worn from handling.
What was more surprising was the inside. Inside was full of crisp yellow bills. Hakyoung took them out as he grabbed them and threw them on the desk.
“Oh.”
Yumyeong’s eyes widened.
“I didn’t think you’d actually give it.”
“I didn’t know you’d be this low-class either.”
Those words touched Yumyeong’s pride.
Honestly, he hadn’t really intended to extort money. He thought things were gradually falling into the gutter as they exchanged words, but every time Hakyoung showed disappointment in him, he wanted to truly live up to that expectation. It was a twisted feeling he couldn’t understand himself.
Moreover, Hakyoung presented those yellow bills in front of Yumyeong without any hesitation, as if they were nothing to him. Even while having his money taken, his attitude was rather like looking down from above.
Then his mood cooled as if cold water had been poured on it.
“Never mind. Take it back. I was just saying it.”
Yumyeong turned around with a face that had completely lost interest. When he was about to leave the art room like that,
“Did you use up all your allowance?”
Hakyoung’s voice stopped his steps.
Yumyeong, who had paused briefly, tried to ignore it and just leave.
“Earlier you also talked about club funding. There must be a reason you keep bringing up money.”
“What do you know?”
Yumyeong sharpened his tone toward Hakyoung who kept persistently asking. It was just for a moment, but he felt on edge as if Hakyoung might find out about his parents refusing contact and his circumstances that prevented him from buying a uniform jacket.
Yumyeong glared at Hakyoung, gritting his teeth inside his lips.
The two’s eyes collided in the air.
“It’s not good to spend too freely. No matter how much allowance you receive, we also need to properly learn moderation.”
Irritation surged at the words coming from the young master’s mouth. Yumyeong forcibly relaxed the tension in his jaw and let out a deep sigh toward the ceiling.
Then he left without any retort.
