Bae Jung-yoon whispered softly.
In that instant, Go Hoon felt his heart plummet to the pit of his stomach.
Without realizing it, he stopped breathing. A rush of emotions swirled through him—surprise, because he hadn’t expected to come face-to-face with Bae Jung-yoon like this; relief, because seeing him standing there looking okay eased something deep in his chest.
His face looked better than expected. Except for that giant bandage stuck to his forehead.
Wait a second—did I just hear that wrong?
It sounded like Bae Jung-yoon called me Kkongddeok-i.
But that made no sense. The human Go Hoon shouldn’t have had even the smallest clue to trigger recognition from someone who once knew him as Kkongddeok-i.
And yet, Bae Jung-yoon simply continued staring at him without saying another word.
…Yeah. Must’ve heard wrong.
Reaching that conclusion, Go Hoon straightened up and stepped back. Bae Jung-yoon’s jet-black eyes moved slowly across his face, as if licking it clean. He forced himself to ignore the skin-crawling sensation and returned the gaze.
Their eyes were nearly level now—Bae Jung-yoon’s slightly higher.
When he was still a cat, he’d had to crane his neck all the way back just to meet this gaze. Seeing him from a similar height like this felt strangely surreal.
“That’s mine.”
Go Hoon steadied his racing pulse and calmly pointed at the coin. Thankfully, he managed to keep his expression in check.
But Bae Jung-yoon didn’t respond. He just kept staring, his gaze unrelenting. Why is he looking at me like that? Just as the thought formed, someone called out loudly from ahead.
“Hey, Go Hoon!”
Both of them turned their heads toward the voice. The figure running over from afar came into focus—it was Jo Seong-il.
Among Go Hoon’s college classmates, Jo Seong-il was the only one he still occasionally communicated with. Not that they were particularly close. Seong-il would sometimes message first, but Go Hoon’s replies were always slow, so their conversations rarely lasted long.
Since their freshman year, Jo Seong-il had been the department rep every year—outgoing, sociable, and famous for being a major social butterfly.
“Go Hoon?”
Bae Jung-yoon’s voice came from beside him, low and deliberate. The way he rolled Go Hoon’s name on his tongue made it sink sticky and slow into his ear canal. For some reason, Go Hoon’s mouth went dry.
“Long time no see, man! How’ve you been?”
“Hey.”
Go Hoon responded curtly. Jo Seong-il glanced sideways.
“Oh, what the—Bae Jung-yoon’s here too.”
Finally noticing Bae Jung-yoon standing next to him, Seong-il greeted him as well.
“You been doing okay over break?”
“Yeah. Took some real time off for once. What about you, Seong-il?”
“Me? I was all over the place, you know how it is. Bae Jung-yoon, did you seriously stay cooped up at home all break? I hit you up so many times to come out for drinks. You’re impossible to get ahold of, you know that?”
Apparently, the two of them were close. There wasn’t the slightest hint of awkwardness in their exchange.
“You guys have fun even without me.”
Bae Jung-yoon responded with a soft smile, brushing off the scolding. Seong-il, in his usual easygoing way, pointed to the big bandage on Jung-yoon’s forehead.
“What happened to your forehead? You get hurt?”
Only then did Go Hoon’s gaze slowly drift to the same spot.
“A bit.”
“How?”
“Dropped something on my head while getting stuff off a shelf.”
“Jeez, be more careful. If something happens to your face, you’re not the only one who’d be upset, man.”
Bae Jung-yoon squinted his eyes and laughed, responding smoothly.
“Maybe I should get insurance on it.”
“You should. And go for the most expensive one while you’re at it. You can afford it.”
Jo Seong-il nodded earnestly at his own joke, urging Jung-yoon to actually go for it. He could pass for an insurance salesman at this point. Feeling awkward just standing between them, Go Hoon looked like he was about to disappear when Seong-il finally remembered him and changed the subject.
“Right, what were you guys doing just now?”
Bae Jung-yoon’s gaze returned to him.
“He dropped a coin. I was just picking it up for him.”
Still staring at him, Jung-yoon stepped forward.
“Here’s your coin.”
His voice was low. Only then did Go Hoon remember his precious 100 won. He let out a soft ah and reached out his hand.
The coin landed in his palm. Bae Jung-yoon’s fingertips brushed his own.
It was just a fleeting touch, but a cold shiver ran up the back of his neck. Even though Jung-yoon’s skin had felt unusually warm.
“Thanks.”
Go Hoon spoke in a flat tone.
Seong-il’s eyes went wide as he cut in between them.
“Wait, do you two not really know each other? Why are you using honorifics? You at least recognize each other’s faces, right?”
“Hmm, I don’t think I’ve seen him before.”
Bae Jung-yoon glanced briefly at Jo Seong-il, then turned his gaze back to Go Hoon, studying his face as if trying to dissect it. Go Hoon held his stare in silence.
He didn’t feel particularly hurt that Bae Jung-yoon didn’t recognize him. Honestly, it would’ve been weirder if he had.
“Oh, right. This guy just got back from the army not long ago. Came back to school this year.”
Jo Seong-il filled in the silence, answering for Go Hoon. Even then, those pitch-black eyes kept boring into him.
Why the hell is he staring like that? It’s unnerving.
“Oh yeah—Bae Jung-yoon, didn’t you say you lost a cat? Still haven’t found it?”
Right on cue, Seong-il switched topics. Go Hoon was relieved the attention shifted, but the subject couldn’t have been worse. Of all the things to bring up, why that?
A pang of guilt twisted in Go Hoon’s gut as he turned his eyes toward the face of his former owner.
“Yeah. Still haven’t found him.”
“Damn. Don’t worry too much. You’ll find him soon. You’re still putting up flyers, right?”
With a more subdued expression, Bae Jung-yoon nodded. Seong-il reached out and gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
“Yeah. I have to find him.”
A faint smile formed on Jung-yoon’s face as he nodded. Watching that, guilt reared its head inside Go Hoon. He hadn’t realized Jung-yoon was still out there, actively searching, putting up flyers for him.
Then, Bae Jung-yoon’s gaze landed on him again.
“Go Hoon, right?”
He almost flinched but managed to hold still, nodding slightly.
“Yeah.”
“It must be fate, running into you like this. Let’s get along.”
Bae Jung-yoon casually extended a hand for a handshake. Go Hoon stared at the large hand stretched toward him for a moment before finally reaching out to grasp it.
His palms were damp with nervous sweat. Afraid the other might notice, he tried to pull away quickly —but the hand didn’t let go.
What the hell? What’s going on?
A chill slid down Go Hoon’s spine. He furrowed his brow to hide the discomfort rising inside, and only then did the tight grip loosen.
When he pulled away, pale pressure marks were imprinted on the back of his hand. He clenched and opened his tingling fingers a few times before pulling out his phone to check the time, pretending to be nonchalant.
“I’ve got class soon. I’m heading off first.”
“Oh, me too. What class do you have, Go Hoon?”
“Investment Theory.”
“Oh! Same here. Perfect, let’s go together. See you next time, Bae Jung-yoon.”
“Yeah. See you.”
Seong-il gave a light wave and threw an arm around Go Hoon’s shoulder, tugging him forward. Since the guy was shorter, Go Hoon had to hunch a little to match his pace.
“Dude, you grew your hair out a lot. Who’d believe you just got back from the army, huh?”
Seong-il ruffled Go Hoon’s hair until it looked like a bird’s nest.
“Quit it, asshole. You’re messing up my hair.”
Go Hoon shoved the hand away irritably.
Even as they walked off, something about the back of his head kept prickling like it was being watched. Still, he refused to turn around. Convinced it was just his imagination, he stared stubbornly ahead.
***
Go Hoon frowned as he stared at his phone, a faint crease forming between his brows. A class with Bae Jung-yoon… Please let there be none.
His original plan was to go completely unnoticed by Bae Jung-yoon— blend in, live like a ghost on campus. But that had clearly gone down the drain on the very first day.
After exchanging names and a handshake, pretending not to exist was out of the question. At the very least, he’d have to say hello whenever they crossed paths.
He couldn’t shake the memory of the way Bae Jung-yoon had stared at him. It lingered in his head like a smudge he couldn’t wipe clean.
While staring blankly at his schedule, Go Hoon tapped Seong-il on the arm.
“Hey.”
“Huh?”
“How’d you know Bae Jung-yoon has a cat?”
“Oh, that.”
Seong-il didn’t look up from his phone as he spoke.
“He made an Xstar account recently. Caused a bit of a stir, actually—everyone rushed to follow him. Funny thing is, he didn’t post a single picture of himself. Only uploaded pics of his cat.”
Cat pictures? If it was the cat he raised, it could only mean Kkongddeok-i.
Now that he thought about it, Bae Jung-yoon did take a lot of pictures of him. Used to shove his phone right in his face every chance he got.
At first, Go Hoon had found it annoying and ran away constantly— but eventually, he gave up and just ignored it.
So he’d been posting all that on social media?
Realizing that his face had been out there on the internet without his knowledge made him feel weirdly gross. What about his right to his own image? Where the hell had that gone?
“He’s got like, over fifty thousand followers, I think.”
“…Fifty thousand?”
Go Hoon sucked in a shaky breath.
Seriously? Just cat photos? That many people follow that? He couldn’t understand the hype.
But Seong-il seemed to misread his reaction.
“What, do you like cats too? Interested? Want me to show you?”
“No. That’s okay.”
“Hold on, I’ll pull it up for you.”
Go Hoon declined with a grimace, but Seong-il ignored him and opened the app, shoving the phone toward him.
“Here, look.”
Reluctantly, Go Hoon glanced at the screen. And then he let out a dry laugh.
“…He uploaded this many?”
He took the phone and started scrolling down— and scrolling— and scrolling.
It just kept going. As Seong-il had said, every single post was of the same cat.
“Cute, right? Apparently, he was a rescue. Can’t believe something that elegant-looking got abandoned. Anyway, people who dump their pets—dogs or cats—those bastards deserve to be abandoned too.”
Seong-il muttered angrily, and Go Hoon scratched his neck awkwardly.
Technically, he hadn’t been abandoned. He just collapsed on the street one day and… couldn’t go home. But there was no way he could explain that.
“Here, gimme. I’ll show you something even crazier.”
Without warning, Seong-il grabbed the phone back and started scrolling rapidly, looking for something else to show him.
