Thanks to the monthly evaluation being held on Friday, they were automatically given a two-day break. Normally, they were only allowed to stay within the dorms even on weekends, but if it was a holiday during the week of an evaluation, they were allowed to go out.
Sihyeon, who had promised to go buy clothes with Haru, diligently got ready to head out from Saturday morning. Then Haeun, who normally slept until at least 11 on weekends, pushed himself up from bed at the rustling noise.
“Where are you going?”
“To buy clothes for Haru-hyung.”
“I wanna come too!”
“Do you really have to?”
“Yup!”
Boing—Haeun jumped down from the second bunk. The impact made the floor go thud! and shake, and Sihyeon reflexively smacked Haeun on the upper arm with a frown.
“Keep it down.”
Didn’t they say people had killed over upstairs noise? As he scolded him for being so careless, Haeun made a teary face as if the spot he’d been hit hurt, then crawled right into Hamin’s bed.
“You said we’re all going together?”
“Yeah, I was gonna bring Min-i too.”
“…That guy sleeps until two on weekends. Just let him sleep.”
“Nope, Min-i and I are soulmates!”
…Are you?
From Sihyeon’s point of view, it didn’t seem like such a bad thing for his “soulmate” to stay deep in sweet sleep.
Looking at Hamin with pity, already doomed to suffer again today, Sihyeon gave up on stopping Haeun. If he tried to interfere at times like this, the sparks would just fly back onto him, so it was better to offer Hamin up as the sacrifice.
Press, press—despite being 173 centimeters tall, the guy kneaded away insistently, and Hamin tossed in his sleep, making miserable little groaning sounds. Then at last he snapped awake, throwing the blanket back irritably. Haeun beamed and spammed him with “good morning.” It didn’t take even one second for Hamin’s freshly awakened face to crumple.
“Ah, what now?!”
When Hamin shouted harshly, Sihyeon clicked his tongue. Since he’d been woken up too, he could sympathize a little. Besides, for Hamin this wasn’t a one-time thing.
Keep a reasonable distance from Kang Haeun.
Though it wasn’t exactly by his own choice that he’d gotten closer to him, if they became any closer than this, he felt like he would end up taking over that role. Horrified, Sihyeon finished pulling on his hoodie and put on his socks. Even though it was already April, it was still too cold for short sleeves and shorts, so Sihyeon’s blue eyes slid quietly toward Hamin. Hamin, already looking irritated enough, was in the middle of bickering with Haeun.
He already looks pissed off, so if I ask to borrow clothes too, he’ll probably get even madder.
After hesitating, Sihyeon quietly gathered Haru and went up to the third floor. It looked like he’d have to borrow outerwear for Haru from Seowoo or Geonwoo today.
Sihyeon had been to the second floor before when they came down, but this was his first time going up to the third floor himself, so he climbed the stairs with a slightly unfamiliar gaze. Before long, he reached Geonwoo’s room and knocked at the door.
The knock knock had barely sounded twice before the door opened immediately. At the same time, a half-naked boy came into view, and Sihyeon blinked.
“……”
Three seconds of silence passed. Geonwoo, who had opened the door, let out a small exclamation as he looked at Sihyeon, and at the exact same time, Sihyeon—done assessing the situation—slammed the door shut.
Bang!
“Kang Sihyeon?”
“Put some clothes on first, you lunatic.”
No matter how much Baek Geonwoo’s face was a masterpiece, a work of art, half-naked was not okay. What if the one knocking had been a girl? Why was he just wandering around half-dressed like that? There were limits to indecency. As Sihyeon sighed, the door creaked open again a little later. Thankfully, Baek Geonwoo was wearing clothes now.
Still, his body was pretty nice.
Thinking back on the fairly solid build he’d seen—probably because the guy ate well and slept well—Sihyeon’s gaze dropped without him realizing it, then he quickly lifted his head again. Seeing it for no reason was just making it linger in his mind.
“What is it?”
“Ah… I need clothes for Haru-hyung to wear.”
“…Come in.”
He could’ve just brought them out…. Since Geonwoo was specifically telling him to come inside, Sihyeon hesitated for a moment over whether to just wait at the entrance, then nodded. Telling Haru, He said to come in and wait, he led him inside and sat on the edge of a bed he didn’t know belonged to whom, while Geonwoo opened the wardrobe and rummaged through his clothes.
“Outerwear?”
“Yeah.”
The rustling of clothes stopped for a moment, then Geonwoo’s hands moved again. While Sihyeon was looking around the room, he realized Geonwoo’s room felt unusually quiet and spoke up.
“Where are Yoo Seowoo and the others?”
“Bathroom. The rest were expelled.”
“Ah….”
So they’d apparently shared a room with Class C. Since two people were gone, the room looked drastically emptier. As he sat quietly through the waiting, the bathroom door suddenly opened.
Wearing a bathrobe, Seowoo came out of the steamy bathroom with heat still wafting after him, toweling his hair dry. It looked like he’d just showered.
“Hm? Sihyeon?”
And Sihyeon’s partner too.
He refused to call him Haru-hyung to the bitter end. Seeing him still call Haru “your partner” even after a full month, Sihyeon found himself wondering what he’d call him after six months had passed, and looked at Seowoo as he approached. If he was going to close it, he should close it all the way, but the half-loosened bathrobe entered his field of vision. Sihyeon’s neatly set brow narrowed.
“Close your robe a little.”
“It’s just us, what does it matter?”
When Sihyeon scolded him in a low voice, Seowoo answered in a tone mixed with laughter. At those playful words, Sihyeon looked between Seowoo and Geonwoo and let out a sigh, thinking they really were all the same kind of bastard. So that was why Baek Geonwoo kept wandering around half-dressed too—because there was another half-dressed person in here.
“So, what is it?”
“I’m going out with Haru-hyung, but he doesn’t have any outerwear.”
“You two are going out somewhere?”
“To buy clothes for Haru-hyung.”
He answered mechanically while glancing around the room, and then a low little hum reached his ears. Sihyeon turned his blue gaze toward the sound. Seowoo was looking straight at him like he had something to say.
“What.”
“I need clothes too, Sihyeon.”
“You do?”
“Yeah.”
Yoo Seowoo answered without a trace of hesitation. Sihyeon, who knew from Haeun that Seowoo had the most clothes out of the Four Heavenly Kings, could only be dumbfounded.
So this is that thing, huh. The psychology of people who say they have nothing to wear while owning tons of clothes and still going shopping.
It was a mindset he would never understand, not even if he died and came back to life.
“…Then I guess you can buy clothes too.”
“With you?”
“…Sure, whatever.”
“Thanks.”
Was this really something to thank him for? While looking at Seowoo, whose eyes curved into crescents, Sihyeon was still mulling it over when he heard a short sigh from behind him. Only then did he think, Ah, right, and turn to Haru, his lips parting. Come to think of it, he hadn’t even asked what Haru wanted.
“Um, hyung.”
“Yeah.”
“Is it okay if he comes too?”
“…Yeah.”
Somehow, the gap before that second answer felt a little longer. Wondering if he disliked it, Sihyeon examined Haru’s expression, and then Haru abruptly lowered his head. Feeling like he understood what he wanted, Sihyeon stroked Haru’s hair. His red eyes curved softly. He hadn’t realized it before Haru cut his hair, but Haru often made that kind of expression whenever Sihyeon patted his head.
“He’s not a dog, so why do you pet him so much?”
Haru had grown used to it, and Sihyeon had too, so he was casually ruffling his hair when Seowoo, who had been watching, said that. At the words, Sihyeon replied, “It’s just become a habit,” and quietly lowered his hand. Another small sigh followed.
…Could it be that I’ve really treated him so much like a dog that he got trained into it?
Hearing that sigh the moment he stopped petting him, Sihyeon found himself seriously considering it when Seowoo suddenly slipped off his bathrobe. It was only when the white robe slid halfway down below his shoulders that Sihyeon hurriedly covered Haru’s eyes and frowned at Seowoo.
“Couldn’t you go inside and get changed?”
“Where, the bathroom?”
This is my room, Sihyeon.
With the bathrobe hanging over one arm, Seowoo laughed quietly. The low laugh spread through the room. Thinking, Well, he’s not wrong, Sihyeon shut his eyes, and heard another chuckle.
He pressed a little more firmly with the hand covering Haru’s eyes for no reason.
Only after a little time had passed did he hear that it was done, so he lowered his hand and opened his eyes. Seowoo, now wearing a spring coat, came into view. He’d said he needed clothes, but out of the four of them, he was dressed the best.
“You don’t look like you need to buy clothes at all.”
“Who knows. There’s no guarantee I’m only buying clothes for myself.”
“Do whatever you want.”
He didn’t see what right he had to interfere in someone else buying clothes.
After getting the clothes from Geonwoo and heading back down to the second floor, there was now one more person following them. Sihyeon tilted his head, wondering if Baek Geonwoo was coming too, then accepted it easily—Baek Geonwoo always followed wherever the Four Heavenly Kings went, like thread following a needle.
Saying he just needed a moment to grab a hat, Sihyeon went back into the room and saw the two boys changing clothes, Haeun apparently having finally won against Hamin. He took a baseball cap out of the wardrobe.
“On a weekend too, seriously….”
He could hear Hamin sounding thoroughly annoyed. Maybe he was trying to pin all the responsibility on him, because the purple eyes turned on Sihyeon were pretty sharp, so Sihyeon pulled the cap lower over his head. He felt about three spoonfuls of guilt for not having stopped Haeun.
“Shall we go?”
“Yeah.”
“Nice!”
“Wanna eat too?”
“You people are seriously insane….”
The question had only been directed to Haru, but several answers came back. Used to this kind of situation by now, Sihyeon shoved his hands into his hoodie pocket.
It was an unplanned group outing with the Four Heavenly Kings.
And exactly thirty minutes later, Sihyeon came to understand down to his bones just how careless it had been to bring the Four Heavenly Kings along.
“Aaaaah! Hamin! Geonwoo!”
Thirty minutes. Exactly thirty minutes after leaving school and heading into town, people started swarming them. And there were so many of them—at the level of an idol performance. Faced with a scene that looked like a celebrity fan meeting, Sihyeon pressed a hand to his throbbing head.
Why had he forgotten?
They’d spent about a month together, and it seemed that without even realizing it, he’d briefly forgotten. Forgotten that if you went out with those four—the Four Heavenly Kings—incidents and trouble were inevitable.
He had briefly forgotten that this place was a web novel, and that tiny lapse had caused all this mess. Eyes full of unease stared at the sea of people packed tightly together.
What if delinquents from a neighboring school come rushing over next?
For a moment, Sihyeon imagined some fictional delinquents spouting lines like, So you’re the Four Heavenly Kings of Strongest High? Then let’s settle this right here. He frowned.
If that happened, the Four Heavenly Kings would obviously show off some flashy fighting skills, then get dragged to the police station for Awakened assaulting civilians. And if they ended up locked in a holding cell, Hamin’s secretary or family would come bail them out, and an article with a headline like Lee Hamin, son of S Group, assaults civilians… would go up in the press for about ten minutes before getting taken down.
Having just filmed an entire morning drama inside his head, Sihyeon gave a tiny shudder. He very much preferred not to appear in the photo attached to that article. What broke through his spiraling thoughts was the surrounding commotion.
“Hamin, look over here!”
“OMG, Sihyeon!”
“Holy shit, who’s the one next to Sihyeon?”
“Isn’t that the guy who’s supposed to be his partner?”
“Sihyeon! Noona’s been your fan since your track athlete days!”
That’s not me, though.
The Four Heavenly Kings were already attention magnets to begin with, and with both him and Haru there too, the interest only kept growing. Feeling overwhelmed as more and more people crowded in, he looked toward Hamin. Apparently finding it annoying, Hamin’s violet eyes had turned cold. Sihyeon had just started thinking, At this rate he really is going to punch somebody, and was about to try to redirect the attention when a black Benz suddenly appeared out of nowhere, gliding smoothly to a stop right in front of Sihyeon.
Click. The door opened, and the moment the man stepped out of the car, the shrill screaming died away. The people who had gathered began slowly backing off. It was strange.
“It was noisy, so I came to see what was going on.”
After saying that much, the man looked at Hamin.
“I didn’t expect you to be here.”
Hamin.
The voice was gentle, yet paradoxically cold. The words had come from a man who looked somewhat similar to Lee Hamin, yet incomparably softer in appearance.
