Kim Yeonwoo, his eyes red as if he’d been crying, looked back and forth between the two of them. “Why?” His trembling voice flowed from between his lips.
“Ah, no… this is, um…”Â
Im Hangyeol’s flustered voice came from beside him. Haah, a sigh escaped from Jaeyoon’s mouth involuntarily. As they say, there’s always another mountain beyond the mountain. After avoiding Han Doyoon, now Kim Yeonwoo shows up.
Jaeyoon smiled bitterly at the glimpse of resentment in those brown eyes. What misunderstanding was he creating on his own again…
“Ye-Yeonwoo… th-this is, um…”
“We just had a meal together as friends.”
“Y-yes! That’s right!”
Hangyeol agreed with Jaeyoon’s words. In reality, what he said was true. Rather, Jaeyoon couldn’t understand why he had to make such excuses while receiving that kind of look from Kim Yeonwoo.
“Were you two close enough to eat meals together?”
‘Hmm…? Is that sarcasm?’
Jaeyoon narrowed his brows at the sight of Kim Yeonwoo glaring at him with furrowed eyebrows. Kim Yeonwoo flinched and lowered his gaze.
Tears gradually welled up in Kim Yeonwoo’s brown eyes as his shoulders trembled. “Yeonwoo?” Hangyeol got up from his seat in surprise and approached Kim Yeonwoo.
“What’s wrong? Are you sick somewhere?”
At Hangyeol’s worried questioning, Kim Yeonwoo just kept his head down as tears fell one by one. Hangyeol fidgeted anxiously before carefully embracing Kim Yeonwoo and slowly patting his back.
‘How touching.’
Jaeyoon gazed at the two with an emotionless stare. Knowing why Kim Yeonwoo was crying, his behavior was extremely uncomfortable to Jaeyoon.
Being comforted by another guy he was casually seeing because things weren’t working out with yet another guy he was seeing… it was truly unconscionable behavior.
Jaeyoon stood up and brushed the grass off his pants. Then he tried to leave, abandoning the two who were embracing tenderly as if filming a movie.
“W-where are you going?”
If only Hangyeol hadn’t tactlessly called out to him.
‘Why does he keep paying attention to me when he should be focusing on Kim Yeonwoo?’
“You’re not alone anymore. So there’s no need for you to go sightseeing with me, right?”
“Ah, that’s…”
“Play with your boyfriend. My break time is almost over anyway.”
“Ah…”
Jaeyoon turned around and walked away briskly. Fortunately, Hangyeol didn’t tactlessly try to stop him again.
After entering the school building, Jaeyoon let out a deep sigh. Indeed, nothing good comes from getting involved with the protagonist and his romantic interests.
‘I just experienced unnecessary trouble.’
“Jaeyoon…?”
Jaeyoon, who was staring blankly outside with his arms resting on the windowsill, unknowingly frowned at the voice calling his name.
‘We keep meeting endlessly…’
Haah, after letting out a small sigh, he turned his head to look at Lee Minho. Contrary to his expectation that Minho’s face would be a mess from crying over breaking up with Kim Yeonwoo, Minho looked as neat as usual. While Jaeyoon was confused by the lack of any trace of crying, Minho examined Jaeyoon’s face with a worried expression.
“You don’t look well. Do you want to leave early? I can talk to the teacher for you.”
“…Are you okay?”
“Of course, leave it to hyung!”
“No, that’s not what I meant…”
“Huh?”
Seeing Minho’s puzzled expression, Jaeyoon shook his head, saying it was nothing. Is he surprisingly calm after a breakup?
If he hadn’t accidentally overheard their conversation in the bathroom, he wouldn’t have thought Minho had broken up with Kim Yeonwoo since he looked the same as usual. No, perhaps he even looked more vibrant than usual?
“Jaeyoon?”
“Huh? Ah, I’m just a little tired. Not enough to leave school early.”
“Really…?”
“Yes, really.”
Minho wore a slightly doubtful expression but didn’t press the issue. He simply took out a red ginseng candy from his pocket and handed it to Jaeyoon.
‘…Why does he keep giving me red ginseng…?’
Has he gotten into red ginseng lately? While Jaeyoon was glaring at the red ginseng candy with a serious expression, Minho rummaged through his pockets and placed three or four more red ginseng candies on Jaeyoon’s hand.
‘I wasn’t staring because I wanted more!’
***
“Ah, Jaeyoon. I was just about to change shifts, what good timing…”
“Sunbae…”
“Jaeyoon?”
Jung Jinhoo blinked blankly at the sight of Jaeyoon walking unsteadily towards him and leaning his head on Jinhoo’s chest.
It hadn’t been a long time since they parted until they met again, but Jaeyoon, who had left so energetically, returned looking pale.
“Did something happen?”
After pondering for a moment, Jaeyoon shook his head from side to side. Many things had happened, but he didn’t want to share his exhaustion with Jinhoo by telling him about it all.
Jinhoo, who had been quietly looking at Jaeyoon, grabbed both his shoulders and bent his waist slightly to meet his eyes.
“Should we go somewhere to rest if you’re tired?”
After thinking for a moment, rolling his eyes, Jaeyoon nodded. At that, Jinhoo smiled gently, untied the apron around his waist, hung it on the chair, and took hold of Jaeyoon’s wrist, leading him away.
Following Jinhoo’s back as he led the way through waves of people, Jaeyoon blinked blankly at the place where Jinhoo had stopped.
“…The infirmary.”
Jinhoo opened the infirmary door and brought Jaeyoon inside. Unlike the noisy hallway filled with people’s noise, the infirmary was as quiet as a mouse.
‘Where is the school nurse again?’
Thinking that the nurse seemed to be absent every time he came here, Jaeyoon blinked rapidly as Jinhoo laid him on the bed.
“No, I’m not sleepy…”
As Jaeyoon raised his upper body, Jinhoo gently pressed his forehead to stop him. After laying Jaeyoon back down on the bed, Jinhoo smiled as he covered him with the blanket up to his chest.
“Sleep just a little. I’ll wake you up when break time is over.”
“No, I’m really okay…”
“We don’t have anywhere to go anyway, and it’s nice and quiet here, so let’s stay for a while.”
Looking blankly at Jinhoo who was smiling broadly, Jaeyoon eventually nodded with a small smile on his lips. Watching Jinhoo pull up the chair used by the school nurse to sit down, Jaeyoon pulled back the blanket, pointed to the space beside him, and said,
“Sunbae, don’t just sit there, lie down here with me.”
“Uh, uhh?”
Jaeyoon giggled softly at the sight of Jinhoo jumping up from his seat in surprise. It was cute how his ears turned red to the tips just from this little joke.
“I-I’m fine!”
“It makes me feel bad if I’m the only one lying down. Come on, there’s plenty of room here, lie down.”
“I-I’m really fine!”
“Hmm~”
Jaeyoon narrowed his eyes at Jinhoo, who was frantically waving his hands in the air and refusing. Then, with a mischievous expression, he stretched out his arm. Jaeyoon grabbed Jinhoo’s wrist and pulled, causing the unsuspecting Jinhoo to fall face-first onto the bed.
“Woah?”
“Were you caught off guard?”
Having successfully laid Jinhoo on the bed, Jaeyoon smiled brightly as he looked at him lying next to him. In his blue eyes full of mischief, he caught the image of Jinhoo looking at him with a flushed face.
“Ah…”
Jaeyoon’s pupils shook. It’s too close. Finding Jinhoo’s face right in front of his nose, closer than he expected, Jaeyoon turned his gaze away.
“I-I’m sorry… Was my joke too much?”
As Jaeyoon got up from the bed with an awkward smile, Jinhoo grabbed his wrist and pulled. This caused Jaeyoon to fall flat on the bed again, and he blinked rapidly to assess the situation.
“A-are you angry?”
When he asked, looking at Jinhoo with a surprised voice, Jinhoo, who had been staring at Jaeyoon with a pouty face, eventually muttered in a sulky voice.
“No, now that I’m also lying down, you should go to sleep too.”
“L-like this?”
“Yes.”
Is he really angry? As Jaeyoon examined Jinhoo’s expression, he noticed that the tips of his ears were still red, and he bit the soft flesh inside his mouth to keep from laughing.
‘He’s embarrassed but pretending not to be.’
After blinking his eyes and thinking for a moment, Jaeyoon eventually pulled the blanket up to cover his nose.
“Then, I’ll sleep just a little…”
“Yes.”
Looking at Jinhoo, who was smiling brightly, Jaeyoon felt his face growing hotter and covered himself with the blanket all the way to the top of his head.
‘What am I being embarrassed about at this age!’
***
Every time precious people left his side, he felt lonely, and the loneliness was unbearable. Every day, his mind was filled with resentment that they chose someone else over him, and self-blame wondering if he was bad, what he had done wrong.
Whenever he saw them looking happy at school, his chest tightened and it became difficult to breathe.
His precious people seemed happy even without him.
If he disappeared from this world, would there even be one person who would be sad?
Day by day, the sense of despair kept swallowing him up.
‘If only that guy hadn’t existed! If only that guy hadn’t appeared!’
Even though he was aware that he was gradually becoming a person he didn’t want to be, he simply couldn’t control himself.
If he didn’t blame that person, if he didn’t deny him like this, he couldn’t bear it at all.
‘This is the worst.’
In the end, he was such an insignificant human being. A meaningless human being without anything special.
The tears that had been welling up in his eyes eventually rolled down his cheeks.
‘I’m lonely, lonely, lonely.’
So isolated that it was impossible to breathe…
“Are you okay…?”
When he was standing precariously at the edge of a cliff, he met “that person.”
The one person who helped him endure that time when he was lonely with no one to rely on. The only person who helped him breathe when he couldn’t.
Thanks to him being by his side, he was able to hold on a little longer.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
