#78
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A message from the questioner came, but Bonoh couldn’t give any advice. Does Joo Taeseong feel this way too? Lying that he remembered to get through the moment had been a mistake. It might have been a better choice for both Taeseong and himself to honestly admit he didn’t remember and convey his feelings sincerely again.
Bonoh’s heart grew heavy. Just because they were dating didn’t mean he should be purely happy about it. However, if something was wrong, he could fix it. If Taeseong would spend time with him at the festival, Bonoh had decided to confess before the festival ended. Taeseong had drawn a perfect circle, and the festival wasn’t over yet.
After leaving the chat with the questioner, Bonoh found “Joo Taeseong♥” in his contacts list.
“Hon-!”
Bonoh spotted Taeseong from afar and was about to call out loudly but stopped mid-word. If he called out “honey” here, he would undoubtedly debut on the school community forum. Having no choice, instead of calling out to Taeseong, Bonoh quietly approached him.
“Kim Bonoh.”
Taeseong also noticed Bonoh and gave a light greeting with his eyes. Bonoh looked around and stood close beside Taeseong.
“Hon, honey…”
Then he stood on his tiptoes and whispered to Taeseong.
“But why am I the only one calling you honey?”
Now that he thought about it, it was unfair. Bonoh was calling Taeseong by the awkward and embarrassing term “honey,” but Taeseong still called Bonoh “Kim Bonoh.” Not even just “Bonoh,” but being called by his full three-syllable name seemed too cold, didn’t it?
“You said you’d call me honey.”
“Then what about you? You keep calling me Kim Bonoh.”
“I never said I would do that.”
What…? Bonoh was dumbfounded by Taeseong’s nonchalant response.
How could that be? So he had to keep calling Joo Taeseong “honey” while getting nothing in return? This was too unfair. What was I thinking when I said I’d call him honey? Like most people in their early twenties, Bonoh had things he wanted to try when dating someone. But terms of endearment weren’t among them.
Even though he wanted to ask Taeseong to back down from this, Bonoh couldn’t because he had no idea what situation led him to make such a promise. What if asking him to back down revealed it was tied to some condition?
For instance… maybe he’d said he’d call him honey in exchange for dating. Could it really have been a condition he set while clinging to Taeseong? It was a plausible hypothesis. According to Taeseong, he’d even said “I’d die without you” during his confession. He might have clung to someone who wasn’t interested and made a scene, crying and begging to date.
Something had felt strange about it. He couldn’t understand why Taeseong had accepted his confession, but maybe Taeseong hadn’t intended to accept it in the first place. That would mean Joo Taeseong was forcing himself to date him even though he didn’t like him.
Bonoh’s face turned white. The elated feeling he’d had since hearing from Taeseong that they were dating plummeted to the ground and felt like it was being ground into the asphalt. His chest churned, and Bonoh stopped in place, covering his mouth with his hand.
“What’s wrong, Kim Bonoh. Are you sick?”
Then Taeseong approached him. Just moments ago, Taeseong’s expression had been stiff with slightly furrowed brows. He’d seemed in a bad mood all day, but when Bonoh appeared to be in pain, his hardened face was colored with worry.
Bonoh had been too excited to think about Taeseong’s mood. But now everything was clear. You couldn’t be in a bad mood when spending time with someone you’d just started dating. And although Taeseong seemed like a cold, heartless person who didn’t care about others, when someone looked sick like this, he’d worry enough to show he wasn’t completely heartless. So maybe he couldn’t coldly push away someone clinging to him while drunk, begging to date.
“Joo Taeseong…”
What should I do…
“What’s wrong? Is your stomach upset from drinking yesterday?”
Kind Joo Taeseong didn’t ignore Bonoh even when called by his name. He supported him and tried to check what was wrong. The more he did this, the sadder Bonoh became.
Joo Taeseong… You do like me, right?
While wandering around campus with Taeseong, Bonoh was half out of his mind. Taeseong said he looked very sick and suggested they go home for today and meet next time, but Bonoh stubbornly refused. If he was going to honestly confess that he didn’t remember and confess again before the festival ended, time was running out.
He couldn’t concentrate at all, but it wasn’t completely fruitless. Bonoh dragged Taeseong to the fortune-telling cafe run by the Philosophy Department and made him get his love fortune read. Fortunately, Taeseong was told that his destined partner would come this month, and Bonoh hinted from the side that it would be him.
“Wait a minute…”
While walking, Bonoh spotted a dart board and stopped Taeseong. This was an opportunity. A chance to show his charm to Taeseong. While Bonoh was above average at any sport, he’d discovered in the military that he was also good at shooting. With 20 rounds, his accuracy rate easily exceeded 90% when he was in good condition, and he maintained over 80% even when his concentration was slightly scattered. He’d earned reward leave three times: twice for team shooting and once for a perfect individual shooting score.
Of course, dart throwing was different from shooting, but they were similar in that you aimed and hit a target. He’d tried dart throwing a few times at pubs near school, and it wasn’t as difficult as expected. Usually these games had prizes, but Bonoh rushed to the dart board without even checking what the prizes were.
“…I want to try that.”
“What? No…”
He’d started to call Taeseong but skipped the term of endearment because there were too many people around. Before Taeseong could respond, Bonoh raised his hand high and expressed his intention to participate in dart throwing. Taeseong seemed like he was trying to say something, but Bonoh didn’t hear properly as he moved forward.
Rules were posted in front of the booth.
Dart Challenge: Score total with 5 pins!
1st place 300+ points – Giant rabbit doll
2nd place 250-299 points – 5 cafeteria meal tickets
3rd place 200-249 points – Drink coupon
4th place 150-199 points – Small snack
5th place Under 150 points – Participation prize (candy)
There were no competitors. Prizes were simply determined by score. After reading the rules, Bonoh carefully examined the dart board. A student approached him. From the orange vest, he seemed to be one of the organizers.
“Are you going to play darts?”
“Yes, I’ll play.”
When Bonoh paid the participation fee, the organizer handed him five dart pins. As he confidently headed to his position, the students chatting in the booth began to gather their attention one by one. Passing students also slowed their steps with “what’s going on?” looks.
“Next participant! Kim Bonoh from Japanese Language and Literature!”
A student wearing the same orange vest appeared with a Bluetooth microphone. Bonoh, who had just planned to quietly throw darts, was a bit surprised by the host’s appearance but didn’t back down. Bonoh glanced at Taeseong. Standing tall among the people, Taeseong’s expression didn’t look pleasant at all.
Joo Taeseong, please watch me. See how well I throw… Bonoh even rolled up his sleeves. Then he subtly flexed his forearms to show them off. It was a bit disappointing that his muscles weren’t as built up as before since it had been a while since he was discharged.
Bonoh glared at the dart board in front of him. It was an ordinary dart board commonly seen, probably bought from a discount general store. The areas got narrower toward the center, and each section had scores written on it. To Bonoh right now, those scores looked no different from Taeseong’s affection level.
Bonoh took a deep breath and checked his foot position. He spread his feet shoulder-width apart while checking the tape stuck long on the floor. He smoothly raised the hand holding the pin to eye level, then moved it back and forth lightly to balance. Then he threw it toward the target.
“Ah, that’s unfortunate…”
The moment the pin stuck in the dart board, a sigh burst from the host’s mouth. The first pin hit the single line. He’d aimed for the triple line with the highest score but missed. Bonoh couldn’t even look toward where Taeseong was. He worried that if he stepped forward unnecessarily and couldn’t do it properly, Joo Taeseong would lose interest in him.
It’s okay, there are still four left. Bonoh shook his head and tried to steady his wavering mentality. Was it because he’d flexed his arms to show off his forearms? Bonoh pulled his sleeves back down to cover his arms. Trying to appeal with muscles now might just make him look more ridiculous.
He relaxed the tension in his arms and wrists and lightly gripped the pin with his fingertips. He supported himself with his legs to keep his body steady and threw the pin again. The second pin stuck exactly in triple 20.
“Oh, 60 points at once…! Kim Bonoh is pretty good, isn’t he?”
The host’s voice got much louder, perhaps surprised after not expecting much. This caused the seemingly poor-quality Bluetooth microphone to screech. There was an unpleasant crackling sound, but Bonoh didn’t even frown once and immediately threw the next pin.
When he felt he’d found his rhythm, he had to finish quickly. He stuck pins in the triple line of 20 points three times in a row, leaving only one pin in his hand. Just as Bonoh was about to throw the last pin, raising his hand—
“Wait, wait! Before throwing the last pin, how about we hear about Kim Bonoh’s ideal type?”
The host urgently stopped him, and he almost stuck the dart pin in the ground. Bonoh, who barely managed not to drop the pin, was rolling his eyes at the unexpected development when he suddenly made direct eye contact with Taeseong.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
