“Gasp… becoming a couple?”
Han-gyeom, having completely misunderstood the suggestion to pretend it never happened, gave another wildly off-base answer.
“No! Are you crazy?”
Startled, Won-hyeok shouted.
“Th-then what do you mean…?”
“I mean that condition. Let’s just act like it never existed.”
Won-hyeok let out a long sigh. Honestly, he still wasn’t sure whether this was the right thing to do, but the condition already felt practically meaningless anyway. Besides, thinking about how much he’d suffered because Kang Han-gyeom had misunderstood that one thing made the whole thing itself a source of stress.
Then again, if he thought about it another way, Han-gyeom had witnessed several decisive moments where his true nature had come out for various reasons, and he needed to keep an eye on him because of that too, so maybe it was better not to have a condition like that at all.
“Is that okay?”
“Yeah.”
“Then? Is there another condition you want?”
Han-gyeom understood his own feelings very well. If someone asked whether he liked Won-hyeok, he could answer yes without the slightest hesitation, and if they asked who he liked, he could say only one name: Do Won-hyeok.
But that was purely how he felt, and he never took it for granted that Won-hyeok felt the same way. He knew the size of people’s feelings could never be equal, and he didn’t particularly dwell on that or become depressed over it.
Han-gyeom just liked things as they were now. Talking with Won-hyeok, seeing his face, walking side by side—moments like these were simply precious to him. So if Won-hyeok wanted something from this relationship, or wanted to add some other condition in order to keep it going, Han-gyeom was more than willing to accept it.
“There’s no condition. Nothing at all. So you stop worrying about what I said too, got it?”
“O-okay, I will.”
“You really understood, right?”
“Yes!”
Han-gyeom answered boldly, but for some reason, Won-hyeok didn’t find it convincing at all.
“The whole ‘let’s not interfere in each other’s lives’ thing—we’re pretending that never existed, okay?”
Han-gyeom nodded hard as if he truly understood, but Won-hyeok’s expression refused to relax. What that meant was that they could interfere in each other’s lives a little more than before, and he seriously wasn’t sure whether Kang Han-gyeom had actually understood that properly.
“The strawberry smoothie here is really good. I think it’s because you bought it for me, sunbae.”
“…Yeah. As long as it tastes good.”
Won-hyeok’s lips parted like he was about to say something, but in the end, he only nodded with a tired look and roughly ruffled Han-gyeom’s hair.
***
<Free Board – Hankuk University>
[English Department, guys]
Does Do Won-hyeok from the third years have a boyfriend/girlfriend…?
—Why does a post like this show up on a regular basis?
—I’m not in the English Department, but I’ll answer anyway: no, he doesn’t
⌙ Are you sure?
⌙⌙ I dunno, but every time posts like this go up, everyone in the comments says he doesn’t
⌙⌙⌙ LOLOL Then doesn’t that just mean nobody knows?
—Isn’t he famous for not having one?
—Yeah yeah, he has a boyfriend/girlfriend
⌙ Huh?
⌙⌙ Holy shit, really?
⌙⌙⌙ Yeah, I think he got one recently
—He has one. For reference, I’m in the English Department, and the rumor spread all through our department. Everyone, give up
⌙ Damn, do you even know who it is?
⌙⌙ Yeah. I’ll only say it’s someone from the same department
—I heard it from a friend in English too. He has someone, and I heard they’re insanely pretty
⌙ An omega?
⌙⌙ The anti-discrimination law on traits has been in effect for how long now, and you’re still asking stuff like that?
***
That post had only been up for a few minutes before it shot straight to the “Hot Board” and hit number one in views. Thanks to that, the story that had already become a hot topic inside the English Department quickly spread to an unspecified mass of people as well.
Han-gyeom took a deep breath in front of the classroom. It was one of the habits he’d developed lately. Right before going in, he braced himself.
Han-gyeom opened the door as quietly as possible and tried to slip into a decent seat without making any noise—
“Han-gyeom!”
“Kang Han-gyeom’s here?”
Just like always these days, the moment his classmates spotted him, they all swarmed him at once. Like beasts who had found prey, their movements were utterly uninhibited.
In truth, this was an incredibly unfamiliar sight for Han-gyeom. The old him had been, quite literally, a student with zero presence. As someone who’d often heard, “Oh, there was someone sitting next to me?” there was no way he could be used to this kind of attention.
Han-gyeom, who had spent all this time unnoticed by his classmates, tucked away in a corner, had gradually started making his presence known after cutting his hair and switching to contact lenses. Faced with his dramatically changed style, his classmates approached him with curious eyes and open friendliness, like explorers who had discovered a gem in barren land.
Han-gyeom didn’t dislike it either. Actually, he liked that people talked to him. But there was a separate reason why all this attention had been feeling a little overwhelming lately.
“Did your boyfriend walk you to class again today?”
“Huh? Ah, no. I came by myself.”
“Is he going to wait in front again when class ends today?”
“Of course he is.”
“Uh, well…”
It was because of Won-hyeok. Recently, a rumor had started spreading through the English Department, turning the place upside down. Namely, that the English Department idol had gotten a partner.
After all, what was an idol? The object of everyone’s admiration and longing, wasn’t that what it meant? Even if people didn’t like that person in a sexual sense, someone like that naturally drew attention and inspired fond feelings.
That was why whether Won-hyeok was dating anyone had been fairly well-known in the department. Because ever since he enrolled, not once had he ever dated anyone.
People questioned whether it even made sense that someone that exceptional, with not a single flaw to be found, didn’t have a partner, but those who had feelings for him secretly felt reassured. Some speculated that he was dating someone in secret, or that he was seeing a working adult rather than another college student, but whatever the case, officially, there had never been any talk of him seeing anyone.
“But seriously, how did you two end up together?”
And then recently, rumors started spreading that that Do Won-hyeok—the unicorn idol Do Won-hyeok who seemed like he should only exist in legends—had finally gotten someone he was dating. And that the other person was none other than Kang Han-gyeom, a second-year in the same department.
All of this was the collaborative work of Sun-woo and Yubin, who, much like Won-hyeok, had wide social circles within the English Department.
The students’ reactions varied quite a bit. Students outside the second-year class mostly responded with, “Who even is that?” while Han-gyeom’s second-year classmates reacted with astonishment, saying, “Wait, that Kang Han-gyeom? The one I know?”
“Huh? Um…”
“I’m curious. Tell us your dating story.”
Anyway, because of that whole chain of events, Han-gyeom had now become, at least among his classmates, an incredibly famous figure.
“A d-dating story?”
Han-gyeom gave an awkward smile as he looked at the curiosity-filled eyes gathered around him. Was this how people normally reacted when they heard two people were dating? Was this some kind of rite of passage you had to go through when you started dating? But then again, if the other person was that Won-hyeok, all of this immediately felt understandable.
“Hey, hey, don’t do that.”
At that moment, one of his classmates raised her voice. It was none other than their class representative, Ye Ji-won.
“We’ve got our class dinner tonight, remember?”
“Yeah. Right. Midterms are over too.”
“Then how about inviting Han-gyeom too? Han-gyeom.”
As the conversation suddenly escalated, Han-gyeom’s eyes wavered awkwardly.
“You absolutely have to come. Got it? Change your vote in the group chat to attending, hurry.”
Overwhelmed by the force of it all, Han-gyeom nodded without thinking. He scrolled up through the group chat and easily found the attendance poll. Since he’d never gone to one of these class dinners before, he had always voted not attending, and he’d done the same this time too.
Han-gyeom was about to change his vote to attending, then hesitated for a moment.
***
“So what was it you were saying earlier?”
Won-hyeok asked as he returned with the food and naturally sat down across from Han-gyeom.
“So, um…”
“Wow, it’s true. They really are dating.”
“No way. So the rumor was true.”
At that moment, murmurs rose from the nearby tables. A few students seated nearby kept stealing glances at the table where Han-gyeom and Won-hyeok were sitting side by side. Which was understandable, because this was the school cafeteria, the place where the largest number of enrolled students gathered at lunchtime.
“Sunbae.”
“Yeah?”
“Why did you want to eat at the cafeteria today?”
Han-gyeom was curious. Until now, Won-hyeok had always eaten lunch somewhere near campus, or else somewhere quite a distance away from here. Come to think of it, ever since they started dating, they hadn’t come here even once, yet today he had suddenly suggested cafeteria food.
“Because I felt like eating it for the first time in a while?”
Won-hyeok leisurely looked around at the people nearby.
“It tastes good when you have it once in a while.”
Then he answered with a satisfied smile.
“That’s true. I like cafeteria food.”
“Yeah. Let’s eat. But what were you trying to say earlier?”
Won-hyeok pushed all of the stir-fried sausages that came as a basic side dish onto Han-gyeom’s plate. He’d already figured out that, just as his looks suggested, Han-gyeom liked food with childish tastes like that.
“Ah, I got invited to the department dinner today.”
“…Dinner? Why? Is there some event or something?”
“No. It’s just the classmates getting together to eat, but I-I ended up getting called in too…”
Han-gyeom scratched the back of his head as if even saying something like this felt unfamiliar. It was the first time since entering college that he’d ever been invited to a gathering like that.
Even when he attended official events like the freshman welcome, year-end gathering, or orientation party, there had always been an unspoken sense that attendance was basically mandatory, so he’d only gone reluctantly. And most of the time, all he did was quietly slip out in the middle of the first round. It wasn’t as though anyone would go looking for someone as faintly present as him anyway.
“Getting called in?”
“A few classmates said they really wanted me to come.”
“…Then are you going to be drinking too?”
“Mm, it is a drinking gathering, yes!”
At that moment, a scraping sound came from somewhere. Looking closer, Won-hyeok was clenching his chopsticks and dragging them pointlessly across the bottom of the stone bowl.
“Han-gyeom. Even if it’s a department gathering, you know these days it’s not mandatory, right? If you’re being forced to go…”
“Ah, no, it’s not like that. Actually…”
Han-gyeom bent slightly at the waist. As the distance between them narrowed a little, Won-hyeok’s gaze landed once again on Han-gyeom’s clear, beautiful eyes. Why was it that no matter how many times he looked at them, he never got tired of them?
“It’s just… this is my first time going to a gathering where classmates get together like this, so I’m kind of excited.”
For the first time in a while, Won-hyeok’s mouth twitched as though convulsing. Surrounded on all sides by people from school, it really wasn’t easy to keep his expression under control, no matter how hard he tried.
“Ah, but if you don’t really like the idea, sunbae, then I won’t go. I heard somewhere that when you go to a drinking gathering, y-you have to get your boyfriend’s permission.”
He’d told his classmates he would think about it a little more before changing his vote. Because he wanted to get Won-hyeok’s permission first. Of course, his classmates had begged him not to skip no matter what.
Won-hyeok relaxed the hand gripping his chopsticks. Han-gyeom’s eyes moving up and down were noisy. Even while Han-gyeom was trying to read his mood, Won-hyeok could still clearly read the anticipation shining all over that face, and once again he cursed viciously to himself.
“Of course you can go.”
“Really?!”
Han-gyeom’s voice brightened at once.
“Of course. I’m not the kind of person who stops you from doing that. Go and have fun.”
