He clearly remembered that when he bought him the glasses, the lenses hadn’t been that big, but sitting on that face, they looked much larger.
Every time he typed, his hair swayed a little. When he’d first seen him, he’d thought it was so shaggy it might block his vision, but up close that wasn’t the case at all. Maybe his hair was in better condition than it looked, because his straight hair shimmered smoothly.
And through it, those large, round eyes visible in brief glimpses. When his gaze shifted a little farther to the side, the wound on the rim of his ear came into view. Even after having it disinfected several times and the bandages completely removed, the scar still remained on the skin.
“……”
Like a drop of red paint falling onto a blank white canvas, the torn wound looked strangely out of place. Won-hyeok slowly reached out and touched the wound—more precisely, Han-gyeom’s ear.
“Ugh.”
A moan slipped from Han-gyeom’s mouth. Startled out of his mind, Han-gyeom clutched his ear with one hand and scrambled off to the corner of the sofa.
“……Ah, sorry. I was trying to look at your ear injury. Does it still hurt if someone touches it?”
“Ah, i-it doesn’t hurt, I was just startled.”
Haha. Han-gyeom let out an awkward laugh. It was only his ear that had been touched, but as if he’d really been shocked, Han-gyeom pressed a hand to his heart.
“I get scared really easily…….”
Han-gyeom awkwardly blurted out whatever came to mind. The truth was, it had hurt a little, but much more than that, it was because his heart had reacted to Won-hyeok’s touch. He’d been so startled that cold sweat had broken out on his forehead. Han-gyeom took off his glasses for a moment, pushed back his bangs, and quickly wiped away the sweat that had formed.
“……”
Won-hyeok watched that whole sequence of actions with a deep, quiet gaze, like a beast of prey silently stalking its target.
“Ah, I fixed it the way you said, sunbae. What do you think?”
“Yeah, much better.”
The corners of Won-hyeok’s mouth curved smoothly upward again.
For about an hour, Won-hyeok gave Han-gyeom all sorts of advice about the assignment draft he’d written. He even passed on tips about the professor and chatted idly with him about trivial things.
“I’ll get the materials to you sometime next week.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
It was when he was packing up to leave. Han-gyeom’s laptop screen, which he hadn’t closed out of yet, suddenly turned bright blue.
“Huh?”
Startled, Han-gyeom pressed this and that and even tried turning it off, but it was completely unresponsive. Was this the so-called ‘blue screen’ he’d only ever heard about? Han-gyeom was so shocked he covered his mouth. There weren’t any especially important files on there, but the draft for this assignment—the file he’d revised while getting Won-hyeok’s advice—was saved on it.
“Han-gyeom, I think this thing’s totally dead.”
“W-what do I do…….”
Han-gyeom fidgeted with his fingers and let out heavy sighs. It was a laptop he’d bought cheap on a secondhand site, but he’d still been using it without any major problems for over a year. Of course, it loaded a little slowly and occasionally crashed on its own, but it had never frozen like this, not even once.
“You’ll probably have to take it to a repair shop, but honestly I don’t even know if it can be fixed in the first place. It’ll probably take quite a while too.”
“Haa…… w-well, I guess there’s nothing I can do. The assignment was still only a draft, anyway, and ah! Still, I remember everything you told me.”
Writing it all over again wouldn’t be easy, but well, what else could he do? This wasn’t a situation where he could back down. This was a matter involving his grade, after all, so somehow he had to make it work.
“Do you have another laptop at home?”
“……No.”
Even when he’d bought this laptop off a secondhand site, his hands had been shaking during the transaction. So there was no way he had another one.
“Then where are you going to work on it?”
“At a PC bang.”
Back in the beginning of his first year, when he hadn’t had a laptop, he’d often gone to a PC bang to do assignments, so it wasn’t something unfamiliar to Han-gyeom.
“Don’t go yet. Wait a second.”
At that, Won-hyeok strode into his room, then soon reappeared carrying a laptop in his hand. And then, unbelievably, he held it out toward Han-gyeom.
“Why are you giving me that…….”
“I’ll lend it to you.”
“What?! No, it’s okay! I’m really fine. Besides, if you give me this, then you won’t be able to use it, sunbae.”
“I have another one. I’ve got a desktop too. It’s a laptop I don’t really use, so feel free to use it comfortably.”
For something he claimed he didn’t really use, it was a high-end laptop Han-gyeom knew very well.
“Use it for your assignment, and return it whenever it’s convenient.”
While Han-gyeom stood there not knowing what to do, Won-hyeok slipped the laptop right into Han-gyeom’s bag. Carrying a bag made heavier by both his broken laptop and the borrowed one, Han-gyeom glanced at Won-hyeok, who was standing by the front door to see him off, while putting on his shoes.
“Get home safe.”
Han-gyeom gave a quick bow of his head and lowered his hand to the doorknob. The cheerful sound of the door lock releasing rang out, and the door opened.
“Um, sunbae!”
At that moment, Han-gyeom let go of the doorknob and scampered back over to Won-hyeok. The sound of the door lock activating again rang especially brightly in Won-hyeok’s ears.
“I won’t forget this kindness. I-I’ll definitely repay you.”
“……”
He lowered his head and fidgeted with his fingers like it was a habit. The rim of his ear turned a pale pink, like a well-ripened peach.
“I’ll look forward to it.”
Keeping his eyes on the fluttering hair, Won-hyeok slowly nodded.
***
The week after Han-gyeom visited Won-hyeok’s house, Won-hyeok really did bring him a thick stack of materials. On top of that, he even told him that if there was anything he didn’t know or got stuck on, he could contact him anytime. But with someone who had given him materials and even lent him a high-performance laptop, what more could he possibly ask for? And yet right now, only one thing stood out in Han-gyeom’s eyes.
“Sunbae, a-are you feeling sick by any chance?”
“Hm? Ah, maybe I’ve got the beginnings of a cold. It’s always like this around this time.”
Unlike usual, Won-hyeok was wearing a ball cap and even a mask. Han-gyeom wanted to say more, but Won-hyeok quickly disappeared, saying he had another class.
“His complexion looked really bad though……”
Making up his mind to ask him again later when he came to the club room, that day Han-gyeom bought rice porridge, an ion drink, and a few over-the-counter medicines from the convenience store near his house. He’d been determined to make sure he gave them to him next time he saw him, but—
“Huh? Where’s Won-hyeok sunbae?”
The next day, there was no sign of Won-hyeok in the club room.
“Who knows? I don’t think I’ve seen him today.”
At Bae Seok-woo’s words, Han-gyeom absentmindedly touched the strap of his bag. Inside, the plastic bag rustled loudly.
The next day, and the day after that, he still couldn’t see Won-hyeok. Not in the club room, not in the lounge, not in the cafeteria, not even in the College of Humanities building. Thinking maybe he was sick enough that he couldn’t come to school at all, Han-gyeom considered contacting him, but if he was resting, then reaching out might only bother him, so he kept hesitating.
Then on Friday, Han-gyeom stood on the first floor of the College of Humanities, looking around the lounge with grim determination, a bag slung over his shoulder containing the laptop Won-hyeok had lent him and the packet of materials.
With Won-hyeok’s help, he’d completed the assignment right in front of him without any trouble. He also had to return the things he’d been given, so today at least, he planned to search for him properly. Then, for a moment, an image of his past self secretly trailing after Won-hyeok just to see his face overlapped with the present—but this time, there was a perfectly legitimate “reason” for it.
Things that had been borrowed had to be returned to their owner. That was only natural.
Han-gyeom was walking around the lounge, searching the area thoroughly, when he spotted familiar faces farther inside. They were Kang Yubin and Kim Sun-woo, the two who often hung around with Won-hyeok.
Han-gyeom’s face visibly brightened. If they were here, he naturally thought Won-hyeok would be too. But unexpectedly, Won-hyeok wasn’t there.
“Um, e-excuse me…….”
Han-gyeom clenched his fist tightly, swallowed down his courage several times, and then walked over to the two of them.
“Ah, you startled me.”
When a student in a black hoodie with bangs long enough to cover his eyes approached cautiously, the two of them flinched as if on cue.
“Ah, hello. I’m Kang Han-gyeom, a second-year in the English Department.”
“Oh, second-year? Why? Is something up?”
Kim Sun-woo asked.
“I have something to return to Do Won-hyeok sunbae, so d-do you happen to know where he is?”
“Ah…… Won-hyeok?”
Kim Sun-woo nodded and naturally exchanged glances with Kang Yubin.
“He didn’t come to school today.”
“Huh?”
“He seemed kind of unwell for the past few days, and today I guess he wasn’t even in any condition to come to school at all.”
At Kang Yubin’s words, Han-gyeom lightly bit his lip. So he really had been sick this whole time. He should’ve stopped him then and asked if he was really feeling that bad.
“What is it you need to return? If it’s okay, we can hold onto it and pass it along for you.”
“Ah…….”
Han-gyeom kept rubbing the strap of his bag. There were valuables mixed in with the things inside, but these two were Do Won-hyeok’s close friends from the same year, and they’d probably have more chances to see him than Han-gyeom would, so entrusting it to them might actually be a pretty good option.
But Han-gyeom kept seeing Won-hyeok’s face from that day, wearing a mask and looking pale. And on top of that, the fact that he’d let him go without even properly asking.
“If he’s sick, then he’d be at home…… right?”
“Hmm, probably?”
As if he thought Han-gyeom’s way of speaking was cute, Kang Yubin echoed it teasingly with a grin.
“I think it’d be better if I return it to him myself after all. Thank you for telling me.”
Han-gyeom bowed quickly and ran toward the entrance. For a moment, the two of them blankly watched his retreating figure, moving like a puppy running off to find its owner.
