“You did well though?”
“What, the one-man show?”
“You looked like someone who’s given punishment training dozens of times.”
“I said I didn’t want to do it.”
Deliberately borrowing the gym key and borrowing the dorm supervisor’s microphone to make an announcement was to spread rumors to the third-years. Who would know that instead of giving punishment training in the gym, they had a snack party? Anyway, the guys left inside would do well at coordinating stories with the first-years.
“Thanks.”
“For what.”
“For buying the snacks.”
Saying that, Yumyeong placed his hand on Hakyoung’s shoulder. It was none other than Hakyoung who had prepared the food. Since pocket money was always insufficient, no one easily opened their wallets, but only Hakyoung willingly helped.
“You extorted it from me.”
Yumyeong giggled as he leaned his head on Hakyoung’s shoulder.
“Yeah, I extorted you.”
Hakyoung silently looked down at Yumyeong clinging to his shoulder. Perhaps stressed from even pretending to do something he really didn’t want to do, Yumyeong looked a bit tired. Leaning heavily on his shoulder, the weight was felt. Because it was unfamiliar and he didn’t know what to do, Hakyoung maintained that position quietly.
The sound of rain drumming on tin plates filled the surroundings.
Suddenly Yumyeong raised his head. Hakyoung, who unexpectedly made eye contact, froze as he was.
“You’re looking at me like that again.”
“……What am I…….”
“You’re staring intently. I know everything. You’re waiting for a chance to beat me up. Biding your time.”
“What nonsense.”
Inwardly flustered at being caught staring, Hakyoung smoothly averted his gaze to the side.
“Well, there’s no reason for you to like me.”
“…….”
“But aren’t we pretty close now?”
When he lowered his gaze again, Yumyeong was looking up at him while leaning.
“You might not know, but honestly, I quite like you.”
I like you. Those words remained in Hakyoung’s ears like an echo.
“Understand me. Everyone says so. That I’m excessive sometimes. But it’s because your reactions are fun. It’s not that I really look down on you. So can you unclench your fists? It looks like you’re about to beat me up right now.”
At those words, Hakyoung looked at his hands. With his whole body stiffened from touching Yumyeong, he had unnecessarily tensed up and was clenching his fists tightly. Yumyeong had misunderstood this. Opening both hands and fiddling with his fingers, Hakyoung made a complicated face.
“Why do I…….”
Like you? Hakyoung asked a question he couldn’t finish.
Yumyeong, just as they had in childhood, very naturally read Hakyoung’s intention and answered.
“Um, well……. We have some similar points?”
“…….”
“The guts to talk back to seniors, family circumstances, having an impossible love…… Ah, I also like that you’re quirky. When Hanju said you were kind of crazy, I didn’t believe it, but it seems like it’s really true.”
Crazy……!
Hakyoung silently cried out.
“Anyway, if there’s anything I’ve said until now that offended you, don’t hold it in your heart. No, let’s resolve it here. Say everything.”
Yumyeong said that and grinned broadly.
“Hup.”
For a moment, Hakyoung felt a hand touching his waist and gasped.
“What’s wrong?”
“No, hey.”
Yumyeong had his arm around Hakyoung’s waist, hugging him. The part where the hand touched tickled wildly. Not only that. With his characteristic affectionate gestures, Yumyeong kneaded Hakyoung’s back here and there. He hooked his arm around the narrow waist, then fiddled with the broadly spread lats.
Hakyoung quietly blinked and looked at the rain.
He thought he understood why everyone ended up liking Yumyeong. Though occasionally noisy, bothersome, annoying, seeming endlessly frivolous, and especially more troublesome when not on your side, why he couldn’t be hated.
Even when he made enemies, there were valid reasons. The seniors were an example of that.
Also, he knew how to get angry at the injustice others faced, and didn’t calculate well things like the losses he would incur in that process. Just look at stopping the group punishment training or rescuing Lee Sunmin who was being bullied.
Above all, he didn’t want the other person to be hurt by his trivial words and knew how to apologize. It was an unexpected aspect of the boy he had expected to be self-centered.
The image of the child he liked in childhood had faded, but Yumyeong had grown in his own way. At the center seemed to remain a consistently good part.
Realizing this, his heart that had been rippling in a complicated way until now became much more comfortable. Though he was still wandering, not knowing how to treat the current Yumyeong, and had merely found one reason to want to like him.
Hakyoung lowered his head a bit. The nape of his neck where Yumyeong’s hair touched felt somehow ticklish. Clearing his throat to shake off the ticklishness, Hakyoung quietly murmured.
“No. When you think about it, I started it first.”
“Hm?”
“I said harsh things when I saw you getting dumped. There’s no way the first impression was good.”
“Do you still think I’m ugly?”
At that question, Hakyoung’s expression became complicated. Yumyeong opened his eyes innocently and tried hard, hoping Hakyoung would see him prettily, but stopped when he saw Hakyoung clench his fists.
“This guy, even if it’s disgusting, still.”
“That’s not it, haa…….”
“Anyway, well, it’s true that I got dumped…….”
Yumyeong moved his arm, the one not wrapped around Hakyoung’s waist, to brush back his hair.
“But I’m done for, but you still have hope, don’t you?”
“What do?”
“To work out with Lee Sunmin, I’ll push for it hard. I really have no prejudice about that!”
Saying that, Yumyeong grinned broadly. Hakyoung, who had been looking at that face for a moment, lost strength in his face.
“I don’t need it.”
Yumyeong laughed loudly without being discouraged at all.
Before long, murmuring sounds came from inside the gym. Having filled the time, the first-years were streaming out.
“Sunbae-nim, you were here.”
“We’ll be heading in.”
“Sleep well.”
“Yeah, you’re done? Go in.”
While leaning on Hakyoung, Yumyeong waved his hand to the juniors who came to greet him. After that too, every first-year who made eye contact greeted them. In the hands of the first-years who came out in pajamas dragging slippers, there were sometimes leftover snack bags.
The juniors who had come out with bewildered faces at first, but when leaving, as if clearly understanding the purpose of gathering today, had a strange sense of alliance in their eyes as they greeted Yumyeong.
Like that, until all the first-years had left, Yumyeong leaned on Hakyoung, and Hakyoung lent his shoulder to Yumyeong. When they left the gym, the hems of both their pants were dampened by the rain that had gradually splashed up.
***
The school building is largely divided into the East Wing and West Wing. Of these, the West Wing has classrooms for first through third years located by grade level, so it’s mainly where classes are held, and the East Wing had the school history museum, library, various practice rooms, and study rooms.
The study room was directly connected to the skybridge of the dormitory building, and was also a place Yumyeong passed through every morning. Just hearing the name “study room” might give the impression that it would be stuffy, but electronic device use was also possible, and since there was no control by teachers, it was also a place where students spent the second most time after the dormitory. In the study room, each person was given one desk so large that even if you spread your arms wide to both sides, they wouldn’t reach. Students each decorated this place cutely according to their own tastes.
Yumyeong was just crossing this study room. With a huge mattress on his back.
“Shin Yumyeong, what are you doing?”
A friend stuck his head out seeing Yumyeong looking like Jesus carrying the cross.
“I’m taking it to a club room.”
“A club room? Were you in the basketball club?”
“No, Ryu Hakyoung created an astronomy club.”
“Ah.”
The recently established astronomy club was assigned one empty club room. It was still a place completely empty without even one chair. Seeing it, Yumyeong immediately knew what he had to fill that empty room with.
“Help me?”
“No thanks. Just study.”
Then Yumyeong again went “ugh” and carried the mattress on his back.
If you keep walking down this study room corridor, you reach the end of the East Wing. There, small rooms with partition walls were stuck tightly together. A place called ‘club rooms.’ Unless it was a club with a separately designated space like the broadcasting club’s broadcasting room or the music appreciation club’s music room, they would usually be assigned to club rooms at the end of this study room.
The astronomy club’s room was at the very end, in a position where the terrace was visible through the outer window. By the time he almost arrived, Yumyeong’s back had broken out in a light sweat.
‘Should I have asked Hanju to help?’
But he soon shook his head. He had casually mentioned it yesterday, but Hanju had vehemently opposed. He was originally a guy who extremely hated falling out of teachers’ favor. He nagged about things that hadn’t even happened, asking what if they got in trouble for moving dormitory supplies to school.
‘As long as I don’t get caught.’
Thinking that, Yumyeong ended up moving the mattress alone. Pulling down the large mattress from the bunk bed wasn’t too difficult, but carrying it was the problem. Because he didn’t want it to get dirty and tried not to drag it on the ground, it was no ordinary task. At first he thought he could do it alone, but gradually wanted to give up, and by the time he arrived, he unavoidably dragged it on the floor.
“Phew.”
Yumyeong wiped the sweat from his temples and opened the club room door with a clatter.
‘As expected, it’s still bare.’
