At Han-ul’s words, which very clearly carried the nuance of taking him somewhere, Han-gyeom hesitated. Right now, he needed to wait for Won-hyeok. It wasn’t like they had explicitly promised every single day in words that they would go to the library together, but they had been going to study together for several days in a row, so there was a good chance they would today too.
Besides, if he wanted to apologize for yesterday, he had to see Won-hyeok. He had considered asking over text, but he’d read in a book that if you wanted to convey something sincere, you absolutely had to say it face-to-face.
He was just about to reluctantly tell Han-ul that he already had plans when he felt a faint vibration from inside his bag.
[Looks like I won’t be able to go to the library with you today.]
“……”
“Han-gyeom?”
Han-gyeom, staring at the disappointing text from Won-hyeok, took a deep breath and raised his head.
“Yeah. I’ve got time.”
Han-ul’s face brightened. After that, the two of them headed out of the student union building. Whatever place Han-ul was planning to take him to, he even called a taxi to get there.
After riding for a while and then getting out and walking some more, Han-gyeom, who had been led into an inner alley even within a busy district, finally realized the destination when he stopped in front of a certain building.
“A hair salon?”
“Yep.”
The place with “Salon” written on it in English was, at a glance, obviously a hair salon. Han-ul just gave him a small smile and went inside without much explanation, so Han-gyeom had no choice but to hurry after him.
It was quite an extraordinary place. The inside was much bigger than it had looked from outside. There were a lot of employees, and there were even several separate rooms. At a long table in the center, people wearing salon capes sat leisurely, each drinking coffee or reading magazines.
This was on a completely different level from the barbershops Han-gyeom had gone to a few times as a child. He’d only ever seen places like this on TV. And even then, only on reality shows with celebrities.
Just then, someone working at the front desk seemed to recognize Han-ul and approached him quite warmly. At unfamiliar places, Han-gyeom had the habit of shrinking into himself like a timid puppy, so he instinctively pressed himself closer to the wall.
“You’re here for a haircut? Would you come this way?”
After finishing talking with Han-ul, the person in a casual charcoal-gray suit approached Han-gyeom. His eyes landed on the gold name tag pinned to her chest, with the title Director written on it.
“Uh, well…….”
Han-gyeom looked at Han-ul as if sending out an SOS.
“What? You wanted to cut your hair, didn’t you? They’re good at cuts here.”
“I-I did, but…….”
After getting Won-hyeok’s text, it had felt like he’d been hit over the head and gone blank. He still had no idea why Won-hyeok was angry, but even so, now that he’d started his first-ever relationship at the age of twenty-one, the thought had suddenly come to him from that text that something needed to change.
He wanted to become someone Won-hyeok wouldn’t be embarrassed by. For Han-gyeom, that was the unusual reason he’d been willing to accept help from someone he’d only met for the first time today. He had a feeling that if not now, somehow the opportunity would never come.
“Han-ul, isn’t this place expensive?”
Han-gyeom honestly admitted that he was sorry, but he didn’t have the money to use a place this pricey right now. Just from one look, the inside was fancy enough that it felt like even one haircut would cost tens of thousands of won.
“It’s okay. I’ll help you out this one time with a family connection. I also misspoke earlier.”
“Family?”
At that, Han-ul pointed to the designer who had been standing by next to Han-gyeom.
“She’s my cousin noona. She’s a director here. A reservation before yours got canceled, so she says she can do it right now.”
“Oh.”
“Everything’s settled, right? Come this way.”
Even as he followed along in a daze, Han-gyeom wondered whether it was really okay to just accept kindness like this so readily. To think there were people besides Won-hyeok who were this kind to others too. The world really was still worth living in.
The place she led him to was a private room for one-on-one service. As befitted a salon, the mirror in front of him was large and spotless, and the lighting was bright too.
“Wasn’t your hair uncomfortable? It looks like you’ve grown it out quite a bit.”
“No, it wasn’t really that uncomfortable.”
“Hmm, do you have any particular style in mind?”
Han-ul’s cousin noona skillfully rolled over a cart and took out a fine-toothed comb.
“I don’t have anything like that. I just don’t want it too short, and I’d like it to look neat.”
Even through the mirror, Han-gyeom’s voice, as he cautiously answered, carried clear tension. She smiled with satisfaction, then began to run her fingers through his hair, seemingly checking its texture.
“Your hair is in really good condition. Have you never dyed it or gotten a perm even once—”
As she lifted his bangs and checked the condition of his hair, she suddenly stopped speaking mid-sentence. Wondering if something had gone wrong, Han-gyeom glanced at her through the mirror with worried eyes.
She had simply gotten a look at Han-gyeom’s bare face reflected in the mirror. Letting out a disbelieving little laugh, she shook her head with a baffled expression.
“Why on earth have you been going around hiding this face? This is unbelievable.”
Did she mean his face looked unbelievable in a weird way? Her tone sounded like she was genuinely dying to know, or else like she found it utterly absurd.
“Anyway, this is nice.”
“Huh? Wh-what is?”
“It’s been a while since I’ve felt this fired up.”
She patted Han-gyeom on the shoulder. With a confident assurance that he should just trust her, the bangs that had been his longtime companion through most of his life were snipped away with a soft shhk, shhk.
***
It was uncomfortable, feeling like people’s eyes kept landing on him from somewhere. But every time he turned his head, everyone walking by was just going their own way. Some of the students he happened to make eye contact with widened their eyes a little and whispered to the friend beside them.
“I guess it really is weird.”
Han-gyeom came to a stop and muttered.
It had been yesterday. The day he’d followed Han-ul and gotten a haircut he’d never planned on. Well, since he had been thinking about it already, saying it had been completely unplanned would be a little inaccurate, but it still surprised him. Because if he was going to cut his hair, he had simply planned to go to the ordinary barbershop near his house.
Yesterday, Han-ul’s cousin noona, who had gone on and on about passion and about how this was the greatest enthusiasm of her career as a designer, cleanly cut away the length that had been covering his eyes and neatly trimmed it. His opinion that he didn’t want it too short had been well reflected, so now Han-gyeom’s bangs were in a see-through bang style, just long enough to cover his eyebrows.
His field of vision was definitely much clearer, and the feeling of stuffiness had lessened, but still, there was no helping how awkward it felt. On top of that, another problem was that with his hair shorter, his face showed much more than usual, and he couldn’t tell at all whether that was a minus or a plus for him.
Han-ul’s cousin noona and Han-ul had both looked startled when they saw Han-gyeom’s finished hairstyle and had even clapped, saying it suited him well, but anyone could say polite things like that.
Han-gyeom needlessly pushed up his glasses. Still, having his glasses on his face gave him at least the tiniest bit of comfort.
Feeling uncomfortable from all the glances he kept sensing, Han-gyeom fled into the College of Humanities building like he was escaping.
“Sunbae’s classroom is room 306……”
Han-gyeom muttered while looking at Won-hyeok’s schedule. The classroom numbers were written next to each subject on it.
Yesterday, he hadn’t gotten to see Won-hyeok’s face at all.
People’s hearts really were fickle. Before, not seeing him for a day was something that happened all the time, but now that they were dating, not seeing him for even one day and not hearing his voice made him unbearably impatient.
So this time, Han-gyeom was planning to camp out right in front of Won-hyeok’s classroom. He had considered texting him that he’d wait in the club room, but what if Won-hyeok really was that angry and avoided him, just like yesterday when he said they couldn’t go to the library together?
He had even already prepared an excuse that wouldn’t look strange to others. If he said, like last time, that he had something to return to Won-hyeok and so had come to wait for him, no one else would think a younger club member coming all the way to the classroom was weird.
After arriving on the third floor, Han-gyeom killed time for a while sitting in one of the lounge chairs placed here and there. Then, five minutes before class ended, he went and waited in front of the classroom. Leaning against the wall and hoping to catch sight of Won-hyeok, he felt a faint vibration through the wall and heard the loud scraping of chairs from inside.
Class seemed to be over. The professor came out first through the front door, and a little later, students began pouring out in droves through the back door. Han-gyeom stood near the front door and carefully looked over the crowd coming out.
As he kept turning his head, waiting for Won-hyeok to appear, he spotted one tall man slowly walking out through the back door, standing out even among the many students. The moment he saw him leave the classroom while rubbing around his eyes as if tired, Han-gyeom hurried over.
“Won-hyeok sunbae.”
At the sound of someone calling him, Won-hyeok unconsciously turned his head.
“……”
“H-hello.”
Han-gyeom awkwardly scratched the back of his neck. Because of the freshly trimmed hair, even the back of his neck felt a little too exposed. Come to think of it, this was the first time he was facing Won-hyeok after cutting his hair. Not knowing how he’d look in Won-hyeok’s eyes, Han-gyeom’s head naturally lowered like ripe grain drooping downward.
Won-hyeok said nothing. The only thing was the way he stared so intently that the gaze stung a little.
“Well, the reason I came is……”
“You, fuck. What is this?”
Won-hyeok abruptly grabbed Han-gyeom by the chin and tilted his face up.
“Nh—? Th-this, it hurths…….”
Pain came with the hand that had tightened slightly, and with his chin being held, his words slurred out. Won-hyeok’s face twisted frighteningly. Was he still very angry? Han-gyeom timidly grabbed hold of the wrist holding his chin.
At that, the grip slowly began to loosen.
“Um…… I came because I wanted to see you.”
At the tiny whisper, as if conscious of the people around them, Won-hyeok’s eyebrows twitched so hard they looked about ready to start dancing.
“Hey, what should we eat for lunch?”
Just then, Kim Sun-woo’s voice came from the back door. Kang Yubin seemed to be with him too.
“Do Won-hyeok, why are you just standing here blankly?”
The moment the two of them tilted their heads and stepped forward, Won-hyeok grabbed the back of Han-gyeom’s head and buried it against his shoulder.
“Mmph, sunbae?”
Han-gyeom reflexively tried to lift his head, but the force pressing the back of his head down was considerable.
“Stay still. Don’t lift your face. Just look at the floor.”
A grim voice dropped over his head. Won-hyeok didn’t let go. It was as if he were trying to hide Han-gyeom’s face, making full use of his broad shoulder for exactly that purpose.
