Around dinner time, Hanju and Sunmin also arrived at the dormitory. Since Sunmin’s parents, who came to help move his luggage, offered to buy them dinner, Yumyeong, Hakyoung, and Hanju who had just arrived all went together to a nearby restaurant for dinner.
“Hey, you really look exactly like your parents.”
On the way to the restaurant, Yumyeong whispered to Sunmin, marveling alone. Just as he said, it was a face where you could tell exactly where each of Sunmin’s features came from. Sunmin’s mother, who seemed to have heard this, turned around and smiled.
“Thank you for looking after our Sunmin. Sunmin said he made a lot of good friends after becoming a second-year. You’re Yumyeong, right? You’re even more handsome than he described.”
“Yes, you heard about me? But I think Sunmin described my appearance too moderately?”
Yumyeong chatted with Sunmin’s parents with a friendly attitude. Thanks to him displaying his sociability without reserve even to his friend’s parents, Sunmin’s parents soon became completely taken with Yumyeong.
His parents were very kind people. They grilled meat directly and wanted to hear about their son’s school life. It seemed they knew all about Sunmin being bullied as a first-year.
Yumyeong took the lead in the conversation as if to dispel such parental worries. They looked so close that someone who didn’t know might think Yumyeong was a son of that family. On Sunmin’s face as he watched that scene, there was just a gentle smile.
Hakyoung took note of Sunmin’s face like that.
At the same time as being proud of Yumyeong, whom anyone would inevitably come to love, he also had this thought. Shouldn’t Sunmin know about his and Yumyeong’s relationship?
That’s because Sunmin had an unrequited love for Yumyeong. Even if it was closer to admiration for an outstanding classmate rather than serious lovesickness, from one perspective, he himself had inserted himself in the middle.
Moreover, since he even knew about those feelings, it would be right to honestly confess rather than hide it. That way, he wouldn’t feel deceived later. No matter how difficult it was to say, he didn’t want Sunmin to feel betrayed or hurt.
Of course, he should get Yumyeong’s consent before that.
Unlike Yumyeong’s harmonious table, the table where Hanju, Hakyoung, and Sunmin sat was relatively quiet. The children who had become docile lambs in the awkward atmosphere with adults present just ate diligently.
Among them, the first to speak was Sunmin.
“Right, what did you do during vacation? Only you two remained.”
Hakyoung quietly fell into thought.
“We watched movies, rode bikes… Ah, we went to the dam.”
“That must have been fun.”
“And because Yumyeong couldn’t sleep alone, we mostly slept in the same room.”
“I knew it. He whines about sleep paralysis, right? Isn’t Shin Yumyeong really annoying? Ha, second semester’s going to be a disaster too. He’s going to crawl right into my bed.”
Hanju sighed exaggeratedly. When his name was heard from nearby, Yumyeong narrowed his eyes and pretended to glare this way. Meanwhile, Hakyoung paused and pointed out the part that bothered him.
“Yumyeong slept in your bed too?”
“Ah, of course. And in first year…”
The fact that giving up his bed wasn’t something that happened only to him was a bit disturbing. And how many guys’ beds had he slept in during first year? While secretly feeling belated jealousy, Hakyoung firmly closed his mouth.
Come to think of it, sleeping together was over now too. It was regrettable that they had to be torn into different rooms again, and it was also regrettable that Yumyeong wouldn’t climb into his bed anymore. He was newly made aware of how many restrictions the dormitory environment had for dating.
It was then. During a brief silence, Yumyeong’s voice from the next table penetrated his ears.
“Ah, me? No, I don’t have a girlfriend.”
“Really? I find that hard to believe. You must be very popular. Well, studying comes first now, right?”
“Not really… I really, really wanted to date but I got rejected.”
“Oh my, did you?”
“Yeah. We were really close friends but they said let’s stay friends. I was shocked then, but thinking about it, they were completely right. Now we’re just close. It’s not even awkward.”
“Is that so? That’s too bad.”
“But I haven’t given up.”
“Are you going to confess to that friend again?”
“Ah, not like that. I have to grab opportunities when they come.”
What opportunity is he talking about grabbing?
When I’m right here…
He’s just casually talking to someone he doesn’t know, right?
Hakyoung’s mind was distracted by the conversation he could hear from nearby. He picked at the air with his chopsticks and missed the same food three times. Even while knowing that what Yumyeong was talking about now was what happened with Song Heeun during the first semester, and that he couldn’t say in front of another friend’s parents that he and Yumyeong were in that kind of relationship, it bothered him excessively. Maybe it was because his existence was completely erased.
“But Yumyeong-ah, you never know, you might keep being friends like that and then at some point see them as the opposite sex and get married.”
“Huh? Isn’t that possibly you two’s story?”
Yumyeong’s laughter was clear. Thanks to cleverly shifting the focus to the other party, the topic flowed to Sunmin’s parents’ love story. In the good atmosphere, only Sunmin let out a deep sigh, saying ‘I’m sick of my mom and dad’s dating story.’
After finishing the meal, Sunmin left to see his parents off. The three people returning to the dormitory first exchanged unsubstantial small talk.
It was mostly Yumyeong interrogating Hanju about what kind of studying he did during vacation and how he would prepare for second semester internal exams.
“Hey, what’s gotten into you? You’ve really settled down.”
At Hanju’s words, Yumyeong sheepishly murmured ‘I need to get my act together now.’
Throughout the way to the room, Hakyoung aimed for timing to be alone with Yumyeong again. However, that expectation was futilely shattered.
Their conversation didn’t end even by the time they arrived at the room. Yumyeong even seemed to have forgotten that Hakyoung was behind him. He naturally started to enter room 303, then turned around as if he’d almost forgotten,
“See you tomorrow.”
And lightly waving his hand was the last.
Watching the door close in front of him, Hakyoung had to feel an indescribable feeling.
***
Shin Yumyeong seemed to have nothing changed on the surface.
Even on the first day of school, he still dozed off while attending morning roll call and slept in to the very end, skipping breakfast. Of course, he secretly entered school with the cloud bridge key, pretending to arrive early, and went to his class with his hands stuck in his pockets nonchalantly.
When Yumyeong set foot in the classroom like that, not only classmates he met after a long time but even teachers he briefly encountered all commented ‘your hair got shorter.’
Hakyoung, who had arrived in the classroom first, silently watched Yumyeong’s boisterous arrival at school. He just walked through the door, but everyone pointed at him, paid attention, and let out exclamations.
“Wow, what’s with you? You used to go around like a beggar but this is way better.”
“Is that an insult or a compliment? Pick one.”
“Your face looks clearer.”
“You should’ve cut it ages ago.”
Yumyeong didn’t respond to everyone who was glad to see him one by one. He just stroked his cooled nape and plopped down in his seat. It was natural for him to receive others’ attention.
Several girls glanced at Yumyeong.
‘What’s this? Shin Yumyeong looks kind of good.’
‘When something’s too close, you don’t know its value. His face was always handsome. It’s just because we didn’t see him during vacation.’
‘Is that it? Ha, I thought my eyes went strange.’
The whispering faces were all flushed with excitement.
Hakyoung quietly agreed with his friends’ words.
But the long hair covering that nape was just as good. It was even more so when recalling the hot summer night when he’d tied it himself. The face smiling while turning to look at him with that half-up hair sticking out was vivid before his eyes.
When the other person is Shin Yumyeong, how could anything about him be dislikable?
Like that, the new semester began and everyone said ‘Shin Yumyeong seems to have gotten his act together.’ That he’d returned to normal. During every class, he maintained an upright posture, and his bright eyes were always directed at the blackboard. He even took meticulous notes in a graceful handwriting in a notebook he hadn’t taken out once during the first semester. After finishing class, he would usually spend time cooped up in the study room or language lab.
Watching that appearance made his heart feel stuffy in an indescribable way.
During the days that passed, Yumyeong absolutely didn’t give them a chance to be alone. Thinking that the beginning of the semester was originally hectic, he endured the first day or two. However, the sense of discord gradually intensified.
Everyone said he’d improved, but that’s not what he felt. Shin Yumyeong shouldn’t be like before. Especially in the relationship with himself. It felt like Yumyeong was quietly dismissing the changes that had occurred between them.
He wanted to think it was a misunderstanding, but clearly Yumyeong was avoiding him.
At first he denied that fact, then gradually became lethargic afterward. Maybe it was because they hadn’t clearly established things between them. Come to think of it, they’d never decided to date from any point. Was it because the other person was him, or was it normally like this, did Yumyeong think of that confession too lightly… While suffering from various suspicions, Hakyoung thought he should clarify the relationship. Though he didn’t want to act hasty, there was no reason to delay confirming the relationship either.
As soon as he returned to his class like that, Hakyoung thought the inside of the classroom was strangely bustling. Just as he sat down, puzzled by the excited air, he heard a conversation from nearby.
“Isn’t it amazing, how someone came to a sunbae’s classroom…”
“She was really pretty though, I’m jealous.”
“They must be dating, right?”
“You never know. Shin Yumyeong rejected a shit ton of girls.”
At Yumyeong’s name heard unexpectedly, Hakyoung’s head naturally turned.
“Who received a confession?”
