* * *
“Sunbae, is your stomach okay?”
“It’s fine.”
Since the free period wasn’t very long, they had to return to school without even emptying half of that good food. As the saying goes, those who’ve eaten meat before eat it again—in reality, Wooyeon couldn’t eat much except for the porridge.
“I feel bad. Sunbae barely ate anything.”
“No.”
“Next time I’ll buy you something even more delicious.”
Normally one might think it was just something to say, but with Jeonghan, it seemed like he wouldn’t be. Wooyeon was suddenly afraid that this kind of situation might happen again. This kind of luxury was burdensome, but more than anything, he shouldn’t get used to him.
“You don’t need to buy me anything.”
Wooyeon, who had been looking out the car window, turned his head to look at Jeonghan. He didn’t want to repeat this kind of moment again.
“Don’t be too good to me.”
“Why not? You’re the first person to tell me not to be good to them. Isn’t it usually the opposite?”
“It’s burdensome. Because I can’t do the same for you.”
“Mm… I’m not asking you to repay me. I’m not doing this hoping for that either.”
The car was already entering the campus. Wooyeon lowered his head without answering, then fixed his gaze out the window again. The freshness of the new semester was spreading across the campus.
“Where should I drop you off?”
“Drop me off in front of the Liberal Arts Building.”
“Okay.”
The car smoothly curved and went up the hill. The path that had been so difficult when walking. Soon the car slowly stopped in the parking lot in front of the Liberal Arts Building.
“Today, thank you for buying me food. But don’t do it again from now on.”
Wooyeon said while looking at Jeonghan. When he reached his hand to the side of the seat and pressed the button, the seatbelt released with a click. And in that moment, Jeonghan’s hand caught the releasing seatbelt. As if bound by the seatbelt, Wooyeon looked at Jeonghan with a surprised face.
“Then what should I do so that you won’t feel burdened, sunbae?”
“…Just don’t do anything.”
Don’t buy me food, don’t greet me like we’re close, and don’t remember me…
Wooyeon swallowed these words inside. Nevertheless, he didn’t avoid Jeonghan’s eyes that stared at him piercingly. Wooyeon reached his hand down toward the seat again and carefully grabbed and unfolded Jeonghan’s fingers that were holding the passenger seat’s seatbelt. The already released seatbelt was pulled helplessly and found its place.
“Thank you for today. I mean it.”
“Sunbae.”
It was really just a moment when Jeonghan’s face came close. As if caught in a trap, Wooyeon couldn’t avoid his face or move. It was as if time had stopped.
Jeonghan, who had gotten closer like that, raised his hand and touched under Wooyeon’s eyes.
“Your eyelash fell off.”
“Ah…”
What on earth had he been thinking? He could feel his cheeks heating up as if his face was on fire. Wooyeon immediately grabbed his bag and opened the car door.
Without saying goodbye, he got out of the car and walked quickly to the lecture hall where his next class was, when a large shadow fell behind him. When Wooyeon turned around, Jeonghan was following him.
“What are you doing?”
“Ah.”
Jeonghan smiled with his eyes curving.
“I have class here too.”
Jeonghan said while pointing at the door of the lecture hall Wooyeon was about to enter.
“What?”
“I also corrected this one this time, I didn’t know sunbae was taking this too.”
Absurd, Wooyeon couldn’t answer and just blinked. During the course correction period, two of the courses he corrected overlapped with his own. Trying to think if this was probabilistically possible, Wooyeon decided to give up.
“But sunbae, you have a mole under your eye.”
“…”
“Sexy.”
Jeonghan muttered softly as if talking to himself.
The area under his eye where Jeonghan’s fingertip had touched still felt hot.
4.
The bakery opening shift part-time job’s main duties were preparing for the bakery opening, packaging fresh bread, and coffee orders during commute hours.
After commute hours passed, the stream of customers that had kept them too busy to breathe stopped, and they did the first round of bread organizing and cleaning. Since it was a franchise bakery and a large-scale place, there were two opening shift part-time workers including Wooyeon, and sometimes a manager-turned-store-manager also worked during those hours.
Today, the cleaning finished a bit earlier than usual, so there was some leisure time. Inside the bakery where customers had flowed in like a flood and receded like low tide, the manager sprawled on the counter as if exhausted and looked at Wooyeon.
“Your face looks a bit better these days?”
“What?”
At the manager’s words, Wooyeon turned around while about to enter the staff room. In his hand was a cup of coffee, and in his mouth was a red bean bun the manager had put there.
The manager was a young woman in her thirties, and although her speech and behavior weren’t particularly gentle or affectionate, she was someone who felt like she cherished Wooyeon like a younger sibling. The manager, who knew Wooyeon’s situation well, always put bread in his mouth like this when working together with Wooyeon. She was the only person who made sure Wooyeon had breakfast, which he rarely took care of.
Wooyeon, still with the red bean bun in his mouth, put down the coffee and bent down to properly put on his sneakers that he’d been wearing with the backs folded down.
“Until recently you had a face like you were about to die, but you’ve gotten better these past few days.”
“Ah… really?”
It was the beginning of the semester when even two bodies wouldn’t be enough, but his face looked better? Maybe his stamina had improved. Wooyeon slowly chewed and munched on the red bean bun while lost in thought. The sweetness of red bean spread throughout his mouth.
“Your already pretty face has bloomed more? Lucky you, man.”
The manager said cheekily while resting her chin on the counter.
“Besides me, someone else must be treating Seo Wooyeon nicely.”
Wooyeon pushed the remaining red bean bun into his mouth and smiled silently while taking off his apron. When he entered the staff room to change out of his uniform, Wooyeon’s phone screen was glowing. In the middle of changing his uniform, Wooyeon picked up his phone to check the message.
“Sunbae, I found people to do the group project with.”
“Jang Hyeonjun, Yoon Wiseung. They’re both from our department, is that okay?”
It was a message from Jeonghan. Jang Hyeonjun, Yoon Wiseung? Since they said they were from the same department, he felt like he’d heard both names before. Wooyeon, who had taken off his uniform top, put on his own clothes he’d taken off, and leaned his back against the locker to send a reply.
“I’m fine with it. Thanks.”
He didn’t have anyone he was close with in that class anyway, so maybe it was fortunate that Jeonghan suggested doing the group project together first. The process of deciding on the presentation topic was clean, and in many ways, it was true that it was comfortable because Jeonghan considered Wooyeon.
As soon as he sent the reply, Wooyeon closed the messenger window and placed his phone on top of the locker while changing his bottoms. While organizing the changed uniform, his phone flashed again.
“Want to eat together?”
It was a message from Jeonghan. Wooyeon quietly stared at the message notification that appeared on his phone screen. Soon, Jeonghan’s message that had appeared large in the center was pushed up small to the top notification bar.
Wooyeon sighed softly and put his phone in his pocket. He planned to pretend he didn’t see the message and pass lunch time. It was not long ago that he decided not to get involved with Jeonghan beyond the group project. Jeonghan’s momentary curiosity would soon disappear like everyone else’s. Like sugar dissolving in water, slowly and so quickly that its form couldn’t be recognized.
When Wooyeon came out of the staff room wearing his padding and carrying his bag, another part-time worker handed him the Americano Wooyeon had left before entering the staff room. The manager just waved her hand toward Wooyeon with a tired face.
“I’ll be going first.”
“Okay, study hard.”
When he opened the bakery door, along with the jingling bell sound, cold wind poured onto Wooyeon’s face. Although it wasn’t far from school, since the class time was a bit tight to walk, Wooyeon stood at the bus stop not far from the bakery and waited for the bus.
When he buried his face in the scarf wrapped tightly around him, he could feel warm breath touching his cheeks. When had Ipchun passed already, yet it still seemed far from spring coming. Warm heat was transmitted from the takeout cup touching the inside of his palm.
Soon, a city bus going into school stopped in front of Wooyeon. The bus past commute hours was relatively empty. Wooyeon sat in his favorite seat where the sunlight came in well. When he leaned his head against the bus window, the bus started with a rattle. He felt the inside of his padding pocket vibrate once more.
“Sunbae.”
This time too, it was a message from Jeonghan. Wooyeon blinked slowly and turned his gaze from the phone to outside the window. The phone went back into Wooyeon’s pocket this time too.
[This stop is S University Business School, S University Business School. The next stop is…]
When Wooyeon, who had pressed the bell, stood in front of the bus exit, the bus stopped before long.
A familiar scene.
Unable to completely ignore the continuously vibrating phone, Wooyeon eventually checked his phone once more on the way to the lecture hall. There was a missed call from Kwon Jeonghan, and as soon as Wooyeon checked, a new message arrived right away.
“Sunbae, where are you?”
