#65
Bonoh earnestly prayed inwardly that his voice would sound as nonchalant as possible. Sure enough, when coming to the lecture hall, there were banners related to the festival hung up on campus. It was a banner with a large photo of the singer invited to the festival.
“Really?”
Taeseong responded but seemed indifferent about the festival. Bonoh had decided that after asking Taeseong to hang out together at the festival, if he accepted, he would definitely confess during the festival period. If Taeseong said no, he absolutely wouldn’t confess and would remain friends.
The probability that Taeseong, who hated crowded places and detested noise, would enjoy a crowded and noisy festival was very low. Knowing this and still making it a bet was quite a cowardly act. That’s how much Bonoh lacked courage. If Taeseong said no, there was nothing he could do about it. If he said yes, then I was going to confess too. It was no different from making an excuse to give himself.
“Yeah. Um… I don’t know if the festival will be fun. It’s been so long.”
Just as Taeseong was about to respond, the professor entered the lecture hall. The noisy classroom atmosphere settled down. The professor began calling attendance. These days everything was checked remotely, but the old professor preferred analog methods.
“Kim Bonoh?”
“Yes.”
While answering to his called name, Bonoh swallowed a sigh. Just one more word and it would have been done, but the timing was bad. But he couldn’t pretend the bet never happened or postpone it. He didn’t want to continue this tension any longer.
-I’m thinking of going to the festival this time, want to go together?
After thinking for a moment, Bonoh pulled out a pen and crumpled paper from the bottom of his bag. It was a handout from the beginning of the semester that had been rolling around because he hadn’t organized his bag. Bonoh wrote small letters on the edge of the crumpled paper and held it out toward Taeseong.
Bonoh immediately turned his gaze to the old professor, but he could feel Taeseong looking at him from the side. Bonoh’s leg trembled as he pretended not to notice. Even though he had made the bet thinking the probability of rejection was high, he was still nervous all the same.
Taeseong took the pen that Bonoh was holding in his hand. Bonoh, who was deliberately keeping his gaze fixed on the old professor, was a little startled when their hands brushed. Taeseong drew something on the paper with the pen and pushed the paper back toward Bonoh.
-I’m thinking of going to the festival this time, want to go together? O
He could see the circle that Taeseong had drawn after the question mark. He’s going together? Bonoh looked at Taeseong at the unexpected answer. His eyes met with Taeseong, who was looking at him. Bonoh asked with lip movements. Really?
“Joo Taeseong?”
“Yes.”
While answering to the timely called name, Taeseong nodded. It was an affirmation in response to Bonoh.
Not a single word of the old professor’s lecture entered Bonoh’s ears. He could only barely hold onto his distant consciousness, using it as white noise.
You’re going to the festival? You, Joo Taeseong?
He didn’t know what wind had blown, but instead of sending cold looks, Taeseong had drawn a circle. A small one like a cherry without any sharp corners. The lines didn’t even break. Bonoh pressed the paper with his palm and carefully smoothed out the wrinkled marks. He planned to look at it again when he returned to the dormitory alone.
Although he had nodded, he couldn’t believe it. Why would you, Joo Taeseong, want to go to the festival with me? When such thoughts suddenly came to him, his heart rate increased.
No, maybe Taeseong had originally wanted to go to the festival. He just couldn’t go until now because he had no friends. Maybe he actually wanted to be an extrovert but was forced to be an introvert because he had no friends? Bonoh began rambling to himself. When he thought that way, his heart rate returned to normal and his distant consciousness seemed to clear up.
“See you next week then.”
The old professor left the lecture hall with those final words. Caught up in other thoughts, the class time felt short to Bonoh. This was very rare for him.
As soon as class ended, students got up noisily. Since Taeseong really hated bumping into people, Bonoh waited for the students to rush out before getting up.
“Ah, wait a minute.”
Bonoh, who was about to leave, stopped and called Taeseong to a halt.
“Put your clothes back on.”
“This?”
“Yeah. It might be cold outside, so put it on now, quickly.”
Every time Taeseong moved, the shirt buttons seemed about to burst open tightly, making his chest prominent. Bonoh didn’t want to show that sight to others, so he urged him to put the sweater back on. Fortunately, Taeseong put on the sweater without saying anything.
“Why do you keep looking around like that?”
“Huh?”
Taeseong, who couldn’t stand Bonoh constantly looking around, spoke up. In Taeseong’s eyes, Bonoh seemed a little strange today. His inability to concentrate during class was the same as usual. But when class ended, Taeseong clearly heard Bonoh mutter quietly, “Already?”
He seemed lost in thought, and throughout coming to the restaurant after class, Bonoh looked around in all directions like a meerkat. He seemed to be on guard against something, or looking for someone.
“Looking for someone?”
Could he be looking for the woman from Saturday’s blind date? Since he heard they went to the same school, they could run into each other at restaurants around campus. Judging by his wariness, it seemed like it didn’t go well, but it might not be wariness but nervousness.
“Huh? Um, well.”
Is that a yes or no? At Bonoh’s ambiguous answer, Taeseong’s eyes briefly contorted. Taeseong swept his eyebrows with his hand, trying to relax his expression. He shouldn’t act according to his temper now. It was a time when even showing his best side wouldn’t be enough.
“Come to think of it, I’ve been so busy lately that I didn’t hear about the blind date story.”
“Ah, that… It was just like that.”
Bonoh answered carefully after thinking for a moment. Since he had never been on a blind date, naturally there was nothing to say about its results. So he chose an answer that would sound safe. Not knowing that it looked even more suspicious to Taeseong.
“…If you don’t want to answer, I guess there’s nothing I can do. I thought we were pretty close…”
Taeseong said, resting his elbow on the table where food hadn’t arrived yet and propping his chin. He pretended to be calm, but his insides seemed to be burning. If things were going well, leaving the dormitory would have been for nothing. Maybe he should have watched the situation more before leaving.
“Ah, no! It’s not that I don’t want to talk about it, there’s just nothing to say. I answered Joo Taeseong’s call while eating and just left.”
Bonoh answered hurriedly. Taeseong was very satisfied with that answer. He thought it was good that he had pressured him until the end that time.
“I’ll bring it! You sit here!”
Just then, the buzzer rang, indicating that the food they had ordered was ready. The restaurant they went to was a Japanese franchise. The food taste was on the ordinary side, but as a franchise, the store was clean, so it was one of the few restaurants that didn’t upset Taeseong while also satisfying Bonoh’s taste. Uniquely, being a franchise, it was like a fast food restaurant where you had to go get the food yourself when the buzzer rang.
Bonoh told Taeseong to stay seated to avoid delving deeper into the blind date topic. Taeseong understood this well, but since he was satisfied with Bonoh’s answer, he decided to let it slide. If things hadn’t gone well anyway, he could easily pretend not to know about this much.
Taeseong’s generous behavior like this was only until they started dating. If their relationship was established as boyfriends, he planned to strictly control things. Taeseong wasn’t someone who was lenient about his lover’s wandering eye.
However, Taeseong was watching Bonoh, thinking it might be difficult to carry two trays. He thought it would have been easier if he had asked him to carry both.
Sure enough, Bonoh carrying the food on one tray after transferring two dishes looked somewhat unstable. His steps slowed down, probably worried about spilling it himself. Seeing this, Taeseong was about to get up from his seat.
“Oh!”
Someone who had just received their food was about to turn around quickly and almost collided with Bonoh. Taeseong quickly approached and blocked between them. Fortunately, they didn’t collide, but the other person’s food happened to be kimchi udon, and its broth stained Taeseong’s sweater.
“Kim Bonoh, are you okay?”
Taeseong checked on Bonoh first. Bonoh almost dropped the tray he was carrying, but except for spilling some soup broth on the tray, he was fine.
“Yeah yeah, I’m fine but… Holy shit, Joo Taeseong, isn’t it hot?”
Bonoh, who had been bewildered, discovered the part with the broth while checking on Taeseong and put the tray he was holding on any table.
Due to the spilled broth, the chest area of the sweater Taeseong was wearing was stained with red broth. Bonoh frantically took off Taeseong’s sweater. The denim shirt underneath the sweater also had fist-sized stains. Bonoh pulled out napkins and tried to wipe off the broth on the denim shirt. But the more he wiped, the more the stain spread.
“Excuse me, are you okay?”
The person who almost collided asked, holding out wet wipes, probably feeling sorry. Taeseong was about to say something, but Bonoh was faster.
“Does this look okay to you? You should have been careful when carrying hot food, especially with broth. It’s fortunate that he’s wearing a thick sweater, but what if he had gotten burns! On this chest!”
Bonoh said angrily. The person who almost collided didn’t know what to do and kept apologizing. Bonoh roughly took the wet wipes he offered and snapped at him to be careful next time.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
