Chapter 19.
“Think carefully. Even if it looks similar to what he does to other kids, if you dig deep, it’s different, okay?”
“No matter how much I think about it, I don’t know. That person’s personality just seems like that.”
“It’s not! Kwon Jeongwoo, don’t you know his eyes widen first whenever your story comes up? That hyung is definitely……”
If it were a joke, he would at least curse, but both people looking at him really had faces that didn’t know anything, so Sejong buried his face in his palms.
When he dry-washed his face in frustration, the two who had been waiting for the rest opened their mouths simultaneously.
“Definitely what?”
“Why start talking and then stop.”
“Phew.”
“Don’t just sigh, talk, talk.”
Sejong, who couldn’t even sigh comfortably because of the two urging him, pressed his forehead with one hand and waved the other saying forget it.
He was only frustrated trying to talk with kids who didn’t know even the ‘r’ in romance. If they understood right away when he said something, he’d decide whether to talk or not.
“How do you study with that head, how do you exercise?”
The eyes looking alternately at Jeongwoo and Hyewoon dripped with pathetic contempt.
“Ugh, you frustrating things!”
Seeing their innocent and clear eyes as if they didn’t understand at all, Sejong, whose anger burst, hit his own chest and shouted.
“This is why people say you learned love from books!”
“That’s the same for you too, Woo Sejong.”
Hyewoon said sulkily. Jeongwoo also nodded in agreement.
Sejong, who was about to get angry saying that’s not what’s important now, swallowed his anger with a deep breath.
“Am I the same as you guys? Let’s not talk, let’s not.”
“Ah, what is it.”
“Are you guys that clueless? Huh?”
Hyewoon, who was about to refute but lost his words because there wasn’t a single wrong thing said, firmly closed his mouth.
“So what are you saying? You have to explain properly for us to know.”
Jeongwoo, who was the most frustrated here, couldn’t stay still and grabbed Sejong’s arm.
Sejong, who sharply swatted that arm away, cut it off sharply saying forget it when he’d said this much and they still didn’t understand. Saying with such cluelessness, they wouldn’t understand even if he said more.
“I don’t know either. I guess my eyes and your eyes are different. Well, realizing it yourself is more important than someone teaching you.”
Sejong, who muttered audibly or inaudibly, opened Hyewoon’s homework again.
“Explain so we can understand properly……”
Jeongwoo’s words couldn’t finish because Sejong glared.
Jeongwoo, who was about to bring up Jihan’s name to Sejong who wouldn’t talk about this topic anymore, had to bow his head without catching anything.
Whether Hyewoon gave it, the problem book he’d thrown earlier was in front of Jeongwoo. There was no way the problems would enter his eyes.
He tried to understand its meaning by ruminating on Sejong’s words again, but just thinking of Jihan made him angry.
It was already annoying that he made him misunderstand and worry, but why did he have to worry about this even on the weekend and have his time taken away?
Jeongwoo, who tried to empty his frustrated heart saying he had no time to devote to Jihan, concentrated on the problems that didn’t enter his eyes well.
***
Sejong, who had been looking over Hyewoon’s homework, raised his head. That gaze reached Jeongwoo who was looking as if to pierce through the problem book.
‘He seemed to be worrying, but in the end it’s studying?’
Sejong, who was watching Jeongwoo’s hair swaying gently following the head movements as he read the problem, clicked his tongue. Unlike boring through the paper, the hand holding the pen was stopped.
‘He says he doesn’t care, but all his attention is focused on that hyung.’
Sejong grasped his state just by looking at Jeongwoo’s actions. He stared piercingly at Jeongwoo while resting his chin, but his hand was still in place.
Sejong slightly frowned, frustrated at his friend who didn’t know anything.
‘Are these guys this clueless? Where did Kwon Jeongwoo’s usually quick wits go?’
Maybe if it was Hyewoon who had no sense at all.
Jeongwoo was usually quick-witted, but at times like this, he acted like a blockhead. He wondered if he was sharp about others’ business and dull about his own, but it wasn’t quite like that either.
If it had been Hyewoon who was originally so clueless, he would have understood and passed it over thinking that’s just how he is. It was more frustrating because the other party was Jeongwoo.
‘How can he not know? To anyone, what he does to Kwon Jeongwoo and what he does to other people are so different.’
Because of Jeongwoo who seemed like he wouldn’t know even if explained for a hundred days, Sejong clicked his tongue for a long time. At the tongue-clicking sound, Hyewoon watched Jeongwoo’s reaction, but Jeongwoo, whose mind was already elsewhere, didn’t hear that sound.
***
He talked about his worries but only heard he was clueless and nothing was resolved.
Jeongwoo, who spent an unsettling weekend, was very uncomfortable. Hyewoon was preparing for the competition on Wednesday, and Sejong was on errands. For today’s lunch alone again, Jeongwoo tried to eat quickly and quietly and leave.
“Jeongwoo, let’s eat together.”
But somehow he found him. Jihan, who found Jeongwoo in the noisy and crowded cafeteria, sat in front of Jeongwoo as if it were his seat. At this point, he wondered if there was a radar to find Jeongwoo.
If not that, maybe there were people planted everywhere. Since Jihan had wide connections, it was sufficiently possible.
Jeongwoo, who glanced at the tray without even raising his head, stuffed rice into his mouth.
‘Because of who did I ruin the weekend that should have been peaceful? The culprit who ruined it is grinning and acting friendly again today.’
Jeongwoo, who even solved problem books until late trying not to think about Jihan, was late for the first time. Though it wasn’t very late, it was somewhat shocking for Jeongwoo who had never been late even once.
Jeongwoo, who had thorough self-management, decided to study harder today as much as he was late.
It was true he was going to study during lunch, but Jihan occupied a considerable part of the reason he was trying to eat quickly and leave.
Because he knew if he knew he was eating alone, he’d come find him somehow.
As expected, Jeongwoo, who couldn’t escape his radar network, ignored him and forcibly stuffed rice and side dishes into his mouth.
“Eat slowly. You’ll get indigestion.”
Jihan pushed a water cup toward Jeongwoo. Jeongwoo, whose rice got stuck in his throat whether surprised by the suddenly appearing hand, gulped down water.
Jihan smiled contentedly watching such Jeongwoo.
Jeongwoo, who was looking down and couldn’t see Jihan, lightly nodded instead of saying thanks.
If it were someone else, they would have complained that he didn’t greet properly, but Jihan was smiling looking at the black head visible before his eyes.
Amid the conversation-less meal.
What should I say? Jihan, who was worrying with chopsticks in his mouth, tapped the table.
“Jeongwoo, when are you going to sit in your seat? I’m so lonely.”
“……”
“And bored. Can’t you come back?”
“……”
“I’ll only talk a little. Really just a little. But Jeongwoo, you don’t even answer me anyway, so can’t I at least chatter alone?”
Though he wasn’t blaming Jeongwoo, Jihan’s voice was slightly grumbling. Jeongwoo gave a brief glance to Jihan who didn’t hide his disappointment.
However, seeing him happy that their eyes met, he turned his head as if he’d seen something he shouldn’t have.
Perhaps satisfied just by getting a reaction, Jihan talked even more.
It was confusing whether he was eating rice or eating Jihan’s words, when suddenly Jihan’s voice was cut off.
“Excuse me, sunbae-nim.”
Instead of Jihan’s voice that had become familiar, an unfamiliar female voice was heard.
When he slightly turned his head, what he saw was a female student hesitating behind Jihan. Seeing the different name tag color, she was a 2nd year. Jeongwoo, who couldn’t know how a 2nd year came into the cafeteria during 3rd year lunch time, looked at that female student curiously.
At Jeongwoo’s school, eating times were different for each grade. 3rd years were earliest, then 2nd years, and lastly 1st years.
Generally, 1st and 2nd years even ate in different cafeteria buildings. He was curious how a 2nd year who had no reason to come to this cafeteria came to a cafeteria swarming with 3rd years.
Jeongwoo was more curious because he never set foot here in 1st and 2nd year, wanting to avoid encountering seniors as much as possible.
But that curiosity was resolved before long.
“Um, Moon Jihan sunbae-nim.”
The female student with faintly flushed cheeks carefully poked Jihan’s back who wasn’t looking at her and opened her mouth.
All the students in the cafeteria glanced this way.
A shy female student, and Moon Jihan in front of her. To anyone, it looked like a situation where she was about to confess.
“Oh? A 2nd year. Did you call me?”
“Yes.”
At her swaying hair, people were busy whispering here and there. Whether this situation was familiar, Jihan’s friends were making bets on whether he’d accept the confession or not.
Looking the part. Jeongwoo glared with displeased eyes at his friends who were enjoying themselves making bets with people’s hearts as if it were nothing.
Only Yumin and Seowon, who read Jeongwoo’s gaze, raised their voices louder and enjoyed themselves more. At their behavior more childish than elementary schoolers, Jeongwoo withdrew his gaze. Not even worth looking at more.
“After you eat lunch, do you have time?”
Even hearing the content of the bet that echoed in the cafeteria, the 2nd year female student firmly said what she had to say. Her courage was commendable.
But whether that courage didn’t capture Jihan’s interest, Jihan made a troubled face.
“Sorry. I have plans with him after eating.”
‘What plans?’
When Jeongwoo’s eyes widened, Jihan winked. As if asking him to agree.
He felt bad because Jihan was trying to escape the situation using him as an excuse. Why of all people was it him? He couldn’t understand why he had to be involved with Jihan and the female student, and didn’t want to.
Jeongwoo’s face, whose mood had worsened, gradually stiffened.
The female student, who misunderstood that Jeongwoo was angry about trying to intercept a prior engagement, watched Jeongwoo’s reaction.
There wasn’t a student who didn’t know the Disciplinary Committee head. Since Jeongwoo was notorious for being sharp and scary, the female student’s face turned slightly pale.
“Then, may I talk now?”
After watching for reactions, the female student who squeezed her eyes shut threw it out.
“Are you okay doing it here?”
Jihan, who thought she’d just leave, asked as if surprised, and the female student who nodded confessed she liked him as everyone expected.
Her courage to come all the way here and convey her feelings was remarkable.
However, the female student’s courage and Jeongwoo himself were separate matters.
Jeongwoo, who didn’t welcome this uncomfortable atmosphere and the situation of being caught between the two, picked up his tray even though he hadn’t finished eating and stood up.
“Wait. Jeongwoo, did you finish eating?”
Jihan, who asked the female student’s understanding, grabbed the hem of Jeongwoo’s shirt.
Jeongwoo, who shook off his hand, didn’t even pretend to hear the following words saying let’s go together if he finished eating and escaped that place.
Jihan, who was watching Jeongwoo distancing himself with fast steps as if telling him not to grab him, sighed. Then he looked at the female student beside him.
“Sorry. I have someone I like.”
He smiled awkwardly looking at the junior who couldn’t keep her fingers still as if anxious.
The female student, who had been staring with vacant eyes as if enchanted, blinked and came to her senses.
“Ah, ah……”
She only heard that 3rd year Moon Jihan sunbae didn’t date, but didn’t hear that he separately had someone he liked.
The female student who came with the mindset to at least confess expected rejection. But what she expected and being directly rejected were different.
“Th-thank you.”
The female student, who bowed without knowing what she was saying, quickly disappeared from the cafeteria.
In the cafeteria that became noisy again, only Jihan’s friends were having a field day. They crowded around asking how many times this makes it a confession, half envious and half joking, raising the mood. Whether friends came or not, Jihan picked up his tray that wasn’t even half empty.
At the same time as looking at his tray, he recalled Jeongwoo who left without eating even half.
He thought Jeongwoo was finally looking at him and they’d exchange some words after a long time.
The confession timing was really awkward.
“She should have come a bit later. Or do it next time.”
It was when Jihan, who muttered, tried to pass by the approaching friends. Yumin caught him.
“Hyung, where are you going?”
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
