Chapter 33
“No.”
Feeling like he shouldn’t show that he couldn’t properly enjoy himself after coming all this way, Kwon-ju desperately smiled as if everything was fine. I look like I just jumped out of a TV show. After taking in Kwon-ju’s sunshine-like smile head-on, Ji-won blinked and observed the atmosphere around them. Fortunately, there seemed to be a few people interested in Kwon-ju.
This is how people become closer, by eating together like this. At a table full of freshmen, Ji-won personally picked up the tongs, pushed well-cooked pieces of meat to the side, and said to Kwon-ju, “If you’re not feeling sick, hurry up and eat. I’m really good at grilling.”
“That’s true. This guy’s a real master.”
One of Ji-won’s classmates whose name Kwon-ju didn’t know suddenly cut in, putting his arm around Ji-won’s shoulder and agreeing with him. …And so naturally too. While Kwon-ju was still unable to take his eyes off the fingers that hung down, Ji-won was already in conversation with another nameless student sitting across from him, not the classmate next to him. It was too noisy around them to notice, but it seemed like they were talking about him.
“Are you two the same age?”
“Yes, I took a gap year too! You’re Jang Kwon-ju, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“I’m a Jang too, so our names are next to each other in the group chat. I’m Jang Gi-yeong.”
“I see… Gi-yeong.”
Seeing that they seemed to be conversing well, Ji-won, relieved, slipped away from between them and moved to sit beside his other classmates. While Kwon-ju just sat there blankly, unable to stop Ji-won’s body from suddenly moving away, Gi-yeong’s other friends approached and greeted him.
“Say hi, this is, um, Jang Kwon-ju.”
“Hello!”
His handsome appearance easily attracted his peers’ goodwill. I can’t ruin the opportunity Ji-won created for me, thought Kwon-ju, and with just the small amount of sociability he desperately fabricated, they responded warmly. Even though he barely said anything and just sat there blankly, they said it was funny or complimented his looks several times. Thanks to everyone’s efforts, about 30 minutes had passed, but the atmosphere remained good.
“Let’s exchange numbers.”
Then five or six people asked for his number one after another. Kwon-ju, whose energy had long been drained by the smell of alcohol and the weight of people’s breaths pressing down on him, just handed over his phone as requested. If it had been his usual self, he would have just eaten silently or left the place, so this was the first time in his life he’d exchanged numbers like this. Not that he was impressed by it himself.
The classmates who somehow became his friends poured and drank, clinked glasses, and then collectively got drunk and either fell asleep right there or went to their rooms. Kwon-ju, who had just been tagging along drinking cola, finally raised his head and looked around. It seemed it wasn’t just his peers who were completely knocked out.
Is this a pension or a field of corpses? Frowning at the nauseating sight, Kwon-ju looked around but couldn’t see Ji-won among the collapsed people. Did he go to his room? After glancing at the tightly closed door of the men’s room, Kwon-ju got up and opened the front door. He felt like he needed some fresh air.
“Oh.”
When he had walked some distance from the pension, a familiar figure caught his eye. The other person seemed to recognize him too, waving with a welcoming face. It was Ji-won, whom he thought had gone to his room.
“Are they all asleep?”
“Yes.”
I’m glad I came out. Kwon-ju raised his gaze from the ground where he had been staring and tried hard to clear his foggy mind. Ji-won, who had approached with large strides, pointed at the bench behind Kwon-ju and said, “Want to sit?”
Nodding, Kwon-ju quickly went and sat down. Since the bench wasn’t very big, he sat on the very edge to avoid making it crowded, but Ji-won, who seemed to notice this with uncanny perception, grabbed the hem of Kwon-ju’s clothes and pulled him over so he could sit comfortably. Then, swinging his legs, Ji-won muttered, “Why is it so cold? It’s spring already.”
Thinking it wasn’t something someone wearing only a thin shirt should say, Kwon-ju glanced at him. It was only mid-March, and being late evening, it was only natural that it was cold. Without hesitation, Kwon-ju unzipped his hooded jacket but then paused briefly. Isn’t it a bit strange for a male junior to give his clothes to…
But thinking it would be better to be considered strange than to let him catch a cold, Kwon-ju placed his jacket on Ji-won’s lap.
“Wear this.”
“Weren’t you wearing it? You’ll be cold.”
“I’m starting to feel hot, I have a lot of body heat, so I’m fine.”
“Why are you lying? You were wearing long shirts even in May.”
Kwon-ju visibly flinched at the remark that accurately remembered what he had worn during their first meeting, which he thought only he remembered. He remembers that? It was such a trivial thing. Thinking Kwon-ju had stopped because his lie was caught, Ji-won took the opportunity to reach out again, but was rejected once more.
“I’m wearing thick layers underneath, so I’m really fine.”
“Well, I’m not fine. Won’t you come here?”
Why do I have to go through all this trouble just to give my junior a piece of clothing? Ji-won couldn’t understand, but his body kept moving, and eventually Ji-won tired out first and stopped. I was a soldier last year, and he was a student preparing for exams. Having spent his sergeant days too comfortably and enjoyably with his peers, it seemed both his mind and body had become lazy.
“I’ll just wear it… Thanks for lending it to me. Let me know right away if you get cold.”
“I’m really not cold.”
After staring at Ji-won, who now wore his spacious jacket, Kwon-ju hurriedly turned his head away. Why does it suit him so well? Until now, the Ji-won he had met at school was mostly dressed in mature clothes, so this was the first time seeing him in such casual attire.
It seemed better to turn his head away rather than continue receiving the visual shock. He was afraid that, just like how he suddenly mentioned name tags on graduation day, he might blurt out “I like you” without thinking first.
“…”
Seeing Kwon-ju suddenly turning his back to him, Ji-won tried to decipher the meaning behind the action. Is he actually cold? The clothes he was wearing seemed a bit thick, so Ji-won thought he might be okay, but if that were the case, he wouldn’t have been wearing a jacket on top in the first place.
Come to think of it, who gives their clothes to a male senior just because they’re cold… Unless it’s a girl you like, thinking about it again, it was an action that didn’t make sense by common standards.
“Let’s just go inside and sleep. It’s too late.”
Convinced that Kwon-ju was definitely pretending not to be cold, Ji-won dragged him back inside. Unlike the refreshing outdoors, the inside was covered with all sorts of smells, making Kwon-ju feel sick again, and he frowned where Ji-won couldn’t see.
“Need to ventilate this place…”
Ji-won must have had the same thought, as he immediately opened wide the large window connected to the outside. Though he wanted to sleep right away, since only the two of them were awake, someone had to clean up. As he crouched down to do so, Kwon-ju suddenly grabbed his wrist.
“I’ll clean everything up, so just sit down.”
“How can you do it all alone?”
“I can do it. Cleaning is my hobby.”
“Do you really have to lie like that…?”
Where in the world is there someone whose hobby is cleaning? As Ji-won let out a hollow laugh at the absurd lie, Kwon-ju didn’t wait and immediately started moving. He put on the vinyl gloves that were on the table, first cleared away the scattered snack bags, and then stacked the dishes and took them to the sink with movements that were not just diligent but perfect. Seeing how he didn’t miss even a small crumb and cleaned everything thoroughly made Ji-won feel at ease.
“Give me that trash.”
“I’ll throw it away.”
Why is he so nice? Ji-won, who hadn’t seen Kwon-ju frowning and kicking one of his collapsed classmates on the floor, was moved as he was about to get up to help. There really were, though rarely, people like this. People so nice they seemed foolish. Always losing out, giving in, taking on everything. Even telling lies like “I’m not cold” and “cleaning is my hobby.”
“All done. Now we can go to sleep.”
“Then I’ll go take a shower.”
After finishing the cleaning, while everyone else was busy collapsing and sleeping, Kwon-ju steadfastly took a shower, and Ji-won, who had seized the opportunity to log into Arc Serenity offline with his laptop and run a late-night dungeon, both fell asleep comfortably on the sofa.
* * *
Ji-won woke up feeling refreshed and was full of energy from the morning. Maybe it’s because I slept alone on the sofa. He stretched his body nicely, chatted and laughed with juniors whose faces were swollen, and soon the pension was filled with the smell of ramen.
While briefly helping Mingyu, who was mechanically adding noodles and soup base, Ji-won noticed Kwon-ju standing blankly in a corner. Why is he standing there looking so concerned? Ji-won put down the chopsticks he had been using to stir the nearly cooked ramen and approached Kwon-ju.
“Did you not sleep well?”
“No… I’m fine.”
He said he was fine, but his face looked haggard. Lying on an old blanket, he had tried to sleep by closing his eyes, but the snoring from both sides and the unnamed classmate from the same department who kept trying to put his leg on top of him at random moments made it impossible to fall asleep. He thought it might have been better to spend the night watching Ji-won’s sleeping face in the living room. …No. If discovered, it would likely get him treated as a terrible stalker.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
