Hakyoung asked in a blunt voice, without taking his eyes off the textbook.
“Is Shin Yumyeong always like that?”
“Like what?”
“Not studying even though it’s exam period.”
Sunmin shook his head as if he didn’t know.
“Well. He’s originally good at studying…”
“How good?”
“When Yumyeong entered, he was the top student of the entire first year.”
“…”
At the unexpected fact, Hakyoung raised his eyes. He didn’t know he’d been top of the class.
“Yumyeong was first place until the first semester of first year, but his grades dropped a bit after that. There was an incident last year. His grades suddenly dropped a lot after that, so everyone whispered while saying there was a lot of talk about whether it was because of that incident.”
“What incident?”
“I also just heard about it, so I don’t know the details.”
“Tell me.”
When Hakyoung was curious again, Sunmin started the story within the scope of what he knew.
“Since first year, we were always subjected to something called ‘assembly’ by the upperclassmen. What assembly means is, the year above us would summon all the underclassmen to the gym and discipline them. For reasons like not greeting when we passed each other, or greeting but looking straight in the eyes without bowing our heads. Just doing push-ups for an hour… and then making us do push-ups with fists clenched. Then kicking the kids who collapsed to make them get up again. They did that every month for the reason that it was tradition. The teachers probably didn’t know how severe it was at the time either. Since it was something that happened in the dorms after class. Then one day…”
Yumyeong proposed to the first years that they collectively refuse to respond to the assembly.
Saying he could no longer accept the unreasonable behavior.
“Let’s not be subjected to this, let’s not do this kind of thing to the underclassmen coming in next year, let’s get rid of this shitty tradition.”
He said that if a minority rebelled, retaliation would come, but if everyone acted together, they wouldn’t be able to retaliate easily. The first years were afraid but eventually put it into action. Because they hated doing push-ups until their knuckles were scraped and walking in duck-walks until they vomited more than dying.
“Naturally the upperclassmen flipped out. Since no one showed up at assembly time, about 20 minutes passed? They all came down fuming and bang bang bang! knocked on every first-year room door. That sound was so terrifying. But we absolutely didn’t open up and held our breath and endured. After staying up all night like that, attending class, then quickly coming back to the dorm and locking the door, after a few days like that it did quiet down, but the upperclassmen started looking for the ringleader. Kids who were scared of being marked eventually spilled that Yumyeong was the ringleader.”
“And then?”
Sunmin continued with a bitter expression.
“Unfortunately, the hazing didn’t stop. Group hazing disappeared, but they started calling only the kids who fell out of favor and giving hazing to a select few. They would call only the especially marked kids to the dorm lounge and torment them. Naturally Yumyeong was called without fail… and then he got into a fight with some upperclassman…”
“Is that the incident where Shin Yumyeong almost got suspended?”
“Yeah.”
Actually, it was clearly something where Yumyeong was wronged. He had endured a year of one-sided, unreasonable hazing and rebelled just once. However, because he won the fight too thoroughly, Yumyeong became the perpetrator of a violent incident.
The parents of the beaten upperclassman rose up saying they couldn’t stand by, but fortunately it ended quietly after the teachers who learned the full story urged a settlement.
“Even after that, the upperclassmen who led the hazing are going crazy wanting to eat Yumyeong alive. But everyone in our grade is probably grateful to Yumyeong.”
For Sunmin too, it was from then that he started having feelings of affection after his attention was drawn to Yumyeong, whom he’d only known as ‘the popular kid because he’s handsome.’ Thanks to his good looks, Yumyeong easily won people’s favor. However, if he only had his appearance, he probably wouldn’t have come to like him this much.
“After that, he got so many confessions from girls.”
At Sunmin’s joking remark with a smile, Hakyoung couldn’t hide his quite uncomfortable expression.
“It wasn’t long until Pepero Day, and there were rampant rumors that Yumyeong’s self-study room seat was bursting with Pepero. The bigger jackpot was during winter break—after information spread that Yumyeong applied to stay in the dorms during winter break, the number of people who applied to stay that year was the highest since the school’s founding.”
“Why?”
“It’s spending winter together in a quiet dorm with few people. You could run into each other by chance in the cafeteria or self-study room. That’s why.”
The face of Hakyoung listening to the story hardened even more. This was due to jealousy he himself wasn’t aware of, but on the surface, it looked like a face that couldn’t accept Yumyeong’s popularity. Thanks to that, Sunmin was unconsciously speaking in a persuasive tone to prove the popularity of Yumyeong, the hero in his heart.
“Especially there were so many kids trying to confess before Christmas that there were jokes going around about whether they should take numbers. Oh, and what surprised me was this. Yumyeong always writes back to the kids who confessed by letter.”
“What?”
At those words, Hakyoung’s face was colored with shock and horror.
“Y-yeah. Actually, confessing face-to-face doesn’t happen often. That’s really nerve-wracking. And it’s embarrassing if you get rejected. So there are a lot of kids who confess by letter instead, and Yumyeong always writes back.”
“That’s deception!”
Hakyoung said urgently. Sunmin was bewildered by the sudden outburst.
“Why… isn’t it kind?”
“It’s not kind, and it’s definitely not nice. He’s just pitying the people who like him.”
“Is that so… Still, even if I got rejected, I’d want to receive one letter.”
“…”
“As a memento of having liked him.”
Hakyoung didn’t respond. No, he couldn’t respond.
At the same time, his chest grew hot every time he thought about what on earth Yumyeong was thinking doing such things. The impulse to rip out the hair of Yumyeong, who was lying on his bed sleeping soundly without knowing anything, welled up.
Moreover, writing letters to just anyone.
Until now, he thought that kind of thing was only done for friends you liked and cared about. At the fact that he was scattering letters to just anyone, he only hated the current Yumyeong even more.
As the early morning deepened, the dorm lights also started going out one by one. Sunmin had already come out from washing and lay on the bed. Hakyoung had finished the amount he planned to study tonight, but still couldn’t rashly go to bed and was still sitting in front of the desk.
“Are you really going to sleep together?”
Sunmin, who had pulled up the covers, asked Hakyoung.
“Does that make sense? I’m going to drag him out and throw him into the hallway.”
At those words, Sunmin laughed silently and buried his head in the pillow.
“If you really don’t have a place to sleep, it might be a method for you to go sleep in Yumyeong’s room. I’m going to sleep first.”
And the room became pitch dark. All that remained was the small desk lamp light Hakyoung had left on.
A long while later, even after Sunmin’s breathing had subsided and the room was steeped in deep silence, he sat there motionless.
After a moment, Hakyoung slowly leaned his body. When he silently pulled back the curtain blocking the bed with his hand, he saw Yumyeong still with the blanket covering his face.
The hand that had been hesitating a bit pulled back the blanket.
As he slowly lifted the cloth, a round forehead and handsome eyebrows were revealed beneath disheveled black hair. A three-dimensional nose bridge extending in exquisite lines from the forehead to the bridge of the nose to the nose, and plump, soft-looking lips were also revealed. White cheeks like beeswax reflecting the moonlight outside the window were visible. The white neck was fully exposed with the head tilted to the side, revealing the straight sternocleidomastoid muscle.
The reckless boy was, at least when sleeping, as serene and elegant as if discovered in a frame of a sacred painting. Hakyoung quietly examined Yumyeong’s sleeping face. It seemed like the appearance from childhood remained in that round forehead and lip shape.
At the same time, he strongly denied it. What good would it do now to recall that face he liked in childhood?
Objectively it was a very pretty and handsome face, but Hakyoung didn’t want to acknowledge even that. Because his pride was hurt to have his heart moved by a face anyone would come to like. His heart wasn’t that easy.
Like that, Hakyoung looked for a while at the hateful face that had so conveniently forgotten the childhood promise alone.
***
About two months ago.
“Everything’s good, but do you really have to live in the dorms?”
Right after returning to Korea, Hakyoung rushed the transfer to the high school he had scheduled. His family, especially his mother, seemed very disappointed that he was leaving for a boarding school without time to spend with family after returning home after so long. However, it had been a decision to come to Korea because he absolutely wanted to spend his remaining school days in his homeland. There was no reason to delay.
Like that, Hakyoung returned to Yumyeong’s side.
“I’m worried because it’s so far from home. The environment is poor too.”
On the first day of transfer, looking around the room Hakyoung would be staying in from now on, sure enough, his mother expressed concern. She seemed even more shocked that normally not just one but four people slept in this narrow room.
“Maybe we should find a place nearby for you to stay…”
However, in Hakyoung’s eyes as he looked around the room he would use, there was excitement he couldn’t hide.
“I wanted to try dorm life.”
“It’s too far from your main house…”
“I told you. I’ll try living here for one semester and then decide.”
“I’m worried I won’t be able to see you often when you’ve finally come to live in Korea. Did it have to be this school…”
Saying that, his mother affectionately grasped Hakyoung’s hand.
Of course, there was a reason he had insisted on coming to this school specifically. Instead of honestly saying that, Hakyoung just smiled.
