“…Do I look that awful?”
Even to my own ears, my voice sounded strangely foreign.
Kang Taeyoon looked at me like that, then slipped his phone back into his pocket. Tilting his head slightly, he asked in a languid, indifferent tone,
“You. Something happened, didn’t it?”
I wanted to answer, but I didn’t even know the reason myself, so I couldn’t say anything. My chest felt tight.
Why all of a sudden? Was it because I ran into someone I knew? It felt like the tension had drained out of me.
Kang Taeyoon, who had been looking this way, shoved his hands into his pants pockets in a loose, cocky stance.
As if he’d noticed that my awareness had snapped back to reality, Kang Taeyoon took a few steps and came right up close to me. The movement jolted me fully awake.
“Well, now that I look again, you seem the same as usual.”
“By the way, what are you doing here? Doesn’t look like you came to smoke….”
Keeping silent only made what had just happened resurface in my mind, leaving me unsettled. Thinking it’d be better to say something, anything, I threw a question back at Kang Taeyoon instead.
He didn’t look much like a student today. Shouldn’t he at least be carrying a bag? Both his hands were empty, like he’d come to campus with nothing on him.
With his hands casually shoved into his pockets, he looked more like someone out for a stroll near his house.
…Wait, empty? Come to think of it, there was one more thing you couldn’t separate from him.
The owner of that clear, bright face who used to help keep the conversation from going quiet—my classmate, Go Heemin.
In the midst of the swirling images of Min Siheon and that woman, Kim Yu-joo, Go Heemin’s face suddenly brushed through my mind.
…Ah, this really isn’t good. I told myself not to think about it and shook my head vigorously.
Kang Taeyoon, who happened to catch that, narrowed his brows. He shot me a disinterested look, as if he didn’t want to get dragged into anything troublesome.
“Where’s Go Heemin? Hey, could you maybe not glare like that? Everyone else can manage it—why can’t you?”
I kept rambling in an attempt to break the mood, but at my question, his eyes swept across empty air. Just as I thought—Go Heemin seemed to be a trigger point for Kang Taeyoon.
“Seeing how you’re running your mouth, guess you’ve fully recovered.”
“What are you even saying? Just answer what I asked.”
“Home.”
“Home?”
“Said he went to a family event.”
After answering me, Kang Taeyoon glanced down at his pants pocket. Now that I thought about it, he’d been checking his phone the whole time.
It seemed like he’d been trying to contact Go Heemin, who had gone back home. Contrary to Kang Taeyoon’s wishes, though, his phone remained silent.
So did he just leave his bag in the lecture hall? Was he trying to escape reality or something? Curiosities I normally would never have continued to surface.
“What about your bag? You don’t exactly look like a college student who came to class.”
“Didn’t bring it.”
Even though he looked annoyed with me, Kang Taeyoon answered everything in his slow, drawn-out voice.
I’d thought he was the type to hold grudges, but maybe he couldn’t completely ignore someone he disliked either. Listening to his low voice, I nodded.
“…And you’re even confident about it. It’s exam period for me—guess it’s not for you. If that’s the case, why not just skip? That’d be more efficient.”
“I was going to not come, but I came, so shut up.”
“…?”
“I’m not saying it twice.”
Kang Taeyoon’s gaze drifted away from me and wandered somewhere behind my back. There shouldn’t have been anyone else here but us.
His expression almost looked… awkward. Awkward? Kang Taeyoon, of all people? Thinking I must be imagining things, I ran my tongue over my dry lips.
To sum it up, it seemed Go Heemin couldn’t come to school today due to personal matters.
Kang Taeyoon—Go Heemin’s clingy shadow and a man madly in love who only had eyes for him—apparently hadn’t had any desire to come to school without Go Heemin there.
The problem, though, was that Go Heemin was an exceptionally diligent undergraduate. It seemed he had coaxed and persuaded Kang Taeyoon into coming to campus anyway, even if it meant dragging him there by force.
Up to that point, it must’ve worked somehow—but the issue came after. When I’d once asked him why he chose to enroll here, he’d answered without the slightest hesitation that it was because Go Heemin wanted to.
Now he’d come to campus empty-handed, not even attending class, just waiting for a message from Go Heemin.
From the looks of it, he had zero interest in the lecture.
“So you’re just going to stick it out like this?”
“No. I came because he told me to, but it’s not satisfying.”
“…You’re not about to go home now, are you? You came all the way here just to leave?”
“…….”
I’d taken a guess just in case—and it was correct. I caught the way Kang Taeyoon’s brows twitched. For some reason, I felt a headache creeping in right then.
You lunatics crazy about love…. No matter how smooth his life’s path might be, I hadn’t expected a choice like this.
When I stared at him with a look that said I had nothing to say, he seemed embarrassed and tried to leave me behind.
I knew he hated nagging, but I couldn’t predict what he’d do next. Once again, I found him strange in more ways than one.
“What?”
At that moment, my hand grabbed the collar of Kang Taeyoon’s shirt as he tried to escape. Normally, I wouldn’t have cared whether he left or not. Startled by my own unconscious action, I looked up.
“Ah, uh….”
It didn’t take long for me to realize the reason behind this impulsive move. …If it’s him, maybe he knows something about that female senior Min Siheon supposedly met.
Even though I dismissed it as a baseless rumor, deep down there was a desire to know the details.
“Hey, Kang Taeyoon.”
“What? Why are you being so damn annoying?”
“Annoying—…whatever. Just grant me one favor.”
“…What?”
Kang Taeyoon brushed the back of his neck and squinted one eye as he asked back.
“If you’ve got nothing to do, talk with me for a bit.”
Seeing how gloomily I’d sunk, Kang Taeyoon let out a shallow sigh.
***
It was all well and good that we moved to a café, but… I closed my eyes briefly as silence brushed past us.
On the table sat a drink so diluted by melted ice it was hard to even call it coffee anymore.
Beads of condensation rolled down the surface of the cup. It had gone relatively smoothly up until the point I dragged Kang Taeyoon—who’d been about to go home out of annoyance—into the café.
But an impulsive action like that had its flaws. I had absolutely no idea how to start the conversation.
What’s more, Kang Taeyoon seemed like he knew something. For all I called him dense, what he’d said at Go Heemin’s birthday party was proof enough.
Did I pick the wrong person to ask? Maybe I should just go to class now after all.
I’d told myself I wouldn’t get involved in other people’s love lives, yet I never realized I could be this spineless.
True to his brazen nature, Kang Taeyoon endured the awkward silence surprisingly well. He didn’t even look that uncomfortable as he stared at me.
With his long legs crossed, he sat in an arrogant posture, arms folded.
His heavy gaze pressed down on me with a strange sense of pressure. Then, out of nowhere, an incomprehensible word popped out of his mouth.
“Thirty minutes.”
“Huh?”
When I met his eyes in confusion, he tapped the top of his wrist with his finger.
“I’ll give you thirty more minutes. You’re not planning to sit like this all day, right? If you are, find someone else.”
“Cold bastard….”
“Want me to leave now?”
“Sorry. I took it too far.”
It was true—I was stealing Kang Taeyoon’s time for no good reason. Now I felt like I had no choice but to ask what I’d been so curious about.
Calming my pounding heart, I finally parted my lips. Noticing that, Kang Taeyoon’s eyes narrowed. For the first time today, he seemed to be actively trying to read my intentions.
“…Don’t think it’s weird. Just listen.”
“What is it, exactly?”
“…Min Siheon—do you know about his girlfriend from freshman year?”
I said it. Even though I’d steeled myself, it was a question that had taken me a long time to bring up. The moment the words left my mouth, a wave of self-awareness hit, and my head spun.
Feeling heat rise to my face, I raised my hand and scrubbed it dry. The warmth flooding into my palm made me imagine how flushed I must look, like I was burning up.
As I awkwardly fiddled with my ear, a scoff escaped Kang Taeyoon.
…Did I really choose the wrong person? Come to think of it, Kang Taeyoon wasn’t exactly someone who’d be well-versed in rumors like that.
More than that, there was no way he’d paid any particular attention to Min Siheon in the first place.
He was a guy whose vision was blocked by Go Heemin alone. Regret seeped in at my rash decision. Just as I resolved to tell him to forget it and send him home—
“You mean that girl, Kim Yu-joo or whatever.”
“You knew?”
“Heard it whether I wanted to or not.”
The mere fact that Kang Taeyoon knew made my heart drop. …Why? If I’d learned what I was curious about, shouldn’t I feel relieved? It was strange.
Shoving the unpleasant feeling aside, I decided to continue the conversation for now.
At that, Kang Taeyoon curled one corner of his lips upward, as if amused.
“First time hearing it? …Well, if you were that perceptive, you wouldn’t be like this.”
“I’ll tolerate you picking a fight, so just tell me. …It’s not for any other reason—I heard it today when I went to work on an assignment. If it was a misunderstanding, I need some information to correct it, don’t I?”
Even as I added that excuse, I felt more and more pathetic.
“Hmm.”
Overcome with self-loathing, I dragged a hand over my face and decided to shut my ears.
“…Yeah, even you probably think digging into a friend’s past like this isn’t great, right? …Sorry. I must’ve lost it for a moment. Forget it. It’s probably better not to hear it. I’ll apologize to Min Siheon later. …I’m such an idiot.”
I bowed my head, apologizing to Kang Taeyoon, and lifted my coffee cup. But as if he had no intention of letting it slide, Kang Taeyoon continued.
“There were rumors that that girl liked Min Siheon. But that bastard’s not the type to treat someone well just because she’s a woman.”
“…What are you talking about?”
“…Let’s skip that part. Don’t ask more. It’s a headache.”
I didn’t know the details, but was he saying they hadn’t actually dated? …But why was I even trying to find that out? Once again, I couldn’t understand my own psychology.
