“Huff, hah, huff…”
Leaning his back against the wall, Jaeyoon tried to calm his rising breath. Oh my, I’m exhausted. Feeling his pounding heart, he rolled his eyes to look at Jung Jinhoo. Like him, Jinhoo was also leaning against the wall, gasping for breath.
That kid had incredible persistence… Recalling the bespectacled third-year student who had been chasing him and Jinhoo, Jaeyoon smiled bitterly. Like a lion…
A scene from the harsh savanna that he sometimes watched on TV when bored had played out in the hallway. Jaeyoon now understood very well how a deer fleeing from a lion must feel.
Up and down the stairs, hiding in empty classrooms, ducking into bathrooms—they had barely managed to shake off the third-year student who had pursued them tirelessly.
“Sorry, are you okay…?”
As Jaeyoon closed his eyes with his head leaning against the wall, Jinhoo called out in a worried voice. Gently opening his eyes, Jaeyoon smiled slightly.
“I’m fine. But what’s going on?? And also…”
Jaeyoon’s gaze moved to the hairpins neatly holding Jinhoo’s hair in place. Where do you even get things like that? The sparkling dessert-shaped hairpins were quite large. Most people would probably look tacky with just one, but Jinhoo wore four of them—two on each side—and still looked good. Rather, they made his beauty shine even more.
‘As expected of my sweet rice cake. He’s so handsome.’
When Jaeyoon’s gaze shifted to the hairpins, Jinhoo’s face turned red and he hurriedly removed them. Ah! Jaeyoon exclaimed with a voice tinged with disappointment.
“They suited you so well…”
With snow-white hair and a face that had turned into a bright red strawberry cake, Jinhoo hung his head low. Steam seemed to be escaping from the strawberry cake.
Jaeyoon pressed his lips together to suppress the laughter that was about to burst out.
“Why did you wear hairpins? And you were wearing makeup too…?”
Recalling the pink eyeshadow applied around his eyes, Jaeyoon asked, and Jinhoo lowered his head even more.
“Ah, it was pretty! It really suited you…?”
“Ugh…!”
Eventually, Jinhoo buried his face between his knees. Oh, this… what should I do?
As Jaeyoon was wondering how to comfort him, Jinhoo turned his head sideways. Seeing him staring with golden eyes that appeared through his disheveled bangs, Jaeyoon raised his hand and gently lifted the soft silver hair.
Indeed, he had makeup on.
As Jaeyoon quietly gazed at the sparkling pink eyeshadow, Jinhoo’s whining voice was heard.
“…A makeup club member did my makeup without permission…”
“Why?”
“They said they’re aiming for first place in sales… and that to do that, even boys need to wear makeup and look pretty… they grabbed students from our class and did makeup on everyone they caught…”
“Ah-.”
Students who had been caught and made up exercised the Korean spirit of “I can’t die alone” and sacrificed other students as victims, eventually catching Jinhoo too. When the makeup club student saw Jinhoo’s face, they exclaimed, “Oh my, this beauty must be enhanced!” and with professional zeal, gave Jinhoo more intense makeup than the others, until he couldn’t stand it anymore and ran away.
“…It was a disaster.”
“Yes…”
Jaeyoon stroked the slumped head of Jinhoo. Like a puppy. Jinhoo’s shoulders flinched slightly. When Jaeyoon smiled in response to Jinhoo’s wide-eyed gaze, Jinhoo’s ears turned red as he quietly accepted the petting.
As they remained there quietly in the empty corridor, looking at the night sky through the window, Jaeyoon turned his head to look sideways and his blue eyes met Jinhoo’s eyes, which were also looking at him.
Their eyes widened. His heart was loud, as if malfunctioning. Unconsciously biting his lip, Jaeyoon turned his head away.
It’s hot. Summer was still far away, but his face was already burning.
“C-come to think of it, what did your class finally decide to do, Sunbae? Since you said you’re aiming for first place in sales, is it a café?”
Breaking the awkward silence, Jaeyoon asked, and Jinhoo, who had been staring blankly at him, answered hurriedly in surprise.
“Ah, not a café, we decided to do a crepe shop! We’ll also sell tea or juice, but mainly it’s a crepe shop!”
“I-I see!”
“Yeah, so we’ve been practicing making crepes since last week!”
“Making crepes…?”
“Yes.”
“You, Sunbae…?”
“Yes.”
Jinhoo nodded as he answered.
Jinhoo Sunbae making crepes? Imagining Jinhoo diligently baking crepes and topping them with whipped cream, fruit, and chocolate syrup, Jaeyoon unconsciously bit his lip hard. So cute!
“Ah, don’t bite your lip so hard. You’ll bleed!”
Jinhoo’s snow-white hand approached Jaeyoon’s lips. This caused their shoulders to touch as they moved closer. Their body heat transferred to each other. Both of their eyes widened simultaneously, and as they quickly returned to their original positions, an awkward silence enveloped them again.
His heart was not just noisy—it was painful. Jaeyoon’s brow furrowed. Not knowing how to respond to this unfamiliar sensation he had never felt before, Jaeyoon was about to bite his lip out of habit but stopped. After a moment’s hesitation, he licked his lips instead of biting them.
“…I-I’ll come try it! Please make one for me yourself, Sunbae.”
“Y-yes! I’ll make you a delicious one!”
After this conversation, they both fell silent again. What broke the awkward silence between them was the appearance of the third-year makeup club member who still hadn’t given up and was searching for them.
In the dark night, unlike the main building that was still bustling with students preparing for the festival, the quiet annex building continued to witness a not-quite-dispute centered around Jung Jinhoo.
***
Wearing a light blue dopo over a deep navy cheollik, with a silver belt around his waist, Jaeyoon alternately looked at the hanbok embroidered with flower patterns and at Lee Heejun’s face with its dark circles, before giving Heejun a thumbs up. Heejun nodded and accepted the praise with an expression that suggested it was only natural.
“Heejun, why don’t you get some sleep?”
“I can’t… Mom told me to check how people react to the hanboks.”
“I see…”
Jaeyoon gazed sympathetically at Heejun, who was struggling to keep his eyes open. The class president patted Jaeyoon’s shoulder. It meant everything was fine.
Looking as if he might collapse at any moment, Heejun handed Jaeyoon a gat (traditional Korean hat) with blue bead strings attached.
Although his hair length was slightly inadequate, Jaeyoon awkwardly looked at himself dressed from head to toe in hanbok, as if he had time-traveled to the Joseon Dynasty, and a smile formed on his lips.
“Don’t boil the tea in advance.”
“Okay~”
“Take the desserts out of the boxes so they’re easy to serve. Ah, but don’t open the bags. They’ll dry out.”
“Yes-sir!”
The students moved according to Jaeyoon’s instructions, who was completely in charge of the food. He deliberately ignored the satisfied smile of the class president behind him. The preparations before the festival started were almost complete.
Seating arrangement. Cup and tableware setup. Commemorative photo click… Already? Jaeyoon smiled slightly at the sight of his classmates taking photos in front of the blackboard and turned on his smartphone screen to check the time.
3 minutes left… 2 minutes… 1 minute…
Bang!
BOOM!
The sound of fireworks announcing the start of the festival came from outside the school. The Cherry Blossom Festival would last for three days, and this was the start of the first day.
***
“Excuse me, we’d like to order!”
Hearing a voice calling him with a raised hand, Jaeyoon approached the table where two girls who appeared to be in their late teens were sitting, with a smile on his face.
Oh my! Oh my! The girls covered their mouths and murmured something. The voice was so small that he couldn’t hear it properly. As he tilted his head slightly to hear better, the blue bead strings of his gat swayed near his cheek.
“Have you decided on your order?”
“Yes… What? Oh, y-yes!”
Jaeyoon smiled with crinkled eyes at the sight of the girls whose cheeks had turned as red as apples. How cute. Not knowing that because of him, the girls’ faces had changed from fresh apples to steaming baked apples, he wrote down their orders on a notepad.
“Is there anything else you need?”
“A p-photo!”
“A photo?”
“Can we take a photo with you?”
Jaeyoon smiled with a troubled expression at the girl who was carefully holding up her phone.
“I’m sorry. School regulations don’t allow photos.”
“Oh…”
“Instead, here’s something on the house.”
Jaeyoon took out chocolates from inside his sleeve and handed one to each of them, smiling slightly as he watched the delighted girls.
‘Chocolate fairy.’
‘The chocolate fairy has appeared.’
‘The chocolate fairy is going around enchanting customers.’
Not knowing what his classmates were thinking as they glanced at him, Jaeyoon headed toward the back of the classroom where curtains were drawn.
As he lifted the curtain and entered, he saw students assigned to kitchen duty busily working, boiling tea or setting up desserts on plates.
“Do you need anything?”
“A set of hangwa and one cup each of citron tea and persimmon leaf tea.”
“Just a moment.”
With slightly clumsy hands, the student arranged the traditional Korean sweets as beautifully as possible on a plate and poured citron tea and persimmon leaf tea into paper cups, handing them to Jaeyoon, who thanked the hardworking student and went back outside through the curtain.
‘Quite a crowd has gathered.’
He could see people waiting outside in the corridor. The tea café with hanbok was a huge success. Especially effective was wearing the gat on his head. Jaeyoon cheerfully took off his gat for a customer who asked if they could try it on as a souvenir, and watched with pleasure as both children and adults enjoyed taking photos with it.
“If we keep this up, we might aim for first place in sales!”
Jaeyoon smiled along with the class president, who was laughing brightly with joy. The blood had returned to his face, which had been marked by dark circles—perhaps the effect of having him rest in the infirmary yesterday.
“Is there some kind of prize for getting first place in sales?”
“Of course!”
The class president said with shining eyes. Could it be gift certificates? As Jaeyoon was trying to calm down the excited class president, his body froze at the unbelievable words that came from the president’s mouth.
“…100,000 won?”
“Yes!”
“Per person…?”
“Yep!”
Even for a rich school setting, isn’t that too generous?
‘Ah, so that’s why…’
Jaeyoon recalled the third-year student who had desperately chased him and Jinhoo last night. Now he understood the reason behind that student’s tremendous determination to put makeup on Jinhoo.
‘I wonder if Jinhoo Sunbae was eventually caught and made up…? Of course people would flock if my sweet rice cake was serving…’
Although he was worried about Jinhoo, who disliked unnecessary attention from people, Jaeyoon couldn’t leave his position right now.
As Jaeyoon was about to go take more orders without even having time to massage his stiff shoulders, Heejun suddenly handed him a phone. When Jaeyoon looked up blankly, Heejun grinned.
“Go take a walk around the school. Poster boy.”
“Poster… boy…?”
‘Who? Me?’
Whether Jaeyoon understood or not, Heejun pushed him out of the classroom door. Having suddenly been expelled despite working well, Jaeyoon stared blankly at the classroom before shifting his gaze to the phone in his hand. It was a school-issued device with a QR code displayed on the screen.
If you installed the Cherry Blossom Festival app created by the school on your phone and scanned this QR code, it would show the location and detailed information about what was happening there.
‘Is he asking me to go around promoting with this…? I think we already have plenty of people…’
After quietly observing the people lined up in the corridor, Jaeyoon let out a small sigh. 100,000 won, right, 100,000 won. Might as well make sure we get as many people as possible.
‘Since it’s come to this, I should go see Jinhoo Sunbae. All I need to do is roam the school in hanbok. I can go wherever I want, right?’
Imagining Jinhoo making crepes, a smile spread across Jaeyoon’s face without him realizing it. Humming a tune, as he was heading to the fifth floor where the third-year classrooms were gathered, his eyes met Im Hangyeol, who was crouching in a corner of the stairway.
Ohhh…
An exclamation escaped from Jaeyoon’s lips. After scanning Im Hangyeol from head to toe, he gave him a look of sympathy.
“Why, why of all times do I have to meet you now!”
Im Hangyeol let out a desperate cry as he covered his face with both hands.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
