Chapter 42
“Finished early, I see?”
“Huh? Yes. Yes. Yes.”
Flustered, Kwon-ju repeated the same answer three times as his vision caught a hand waving above his left shoulder. Though they’d been close for a month, that closeness only extended to having lots of conversations and spending time together—they’d barely touched each other physically. Except for when he dozed off and leaned against Ji-won on the bus to the MT. So technically, this was the first time Ji-won had come this close to him first.
“How about udon? There’s a place just five minutes away.”
But the heart-pounding moment was brief. Finding it difficult to keep his arm on Kwon-ju’s shoulder, which was higher than his own, Ji-won quickly withdrew it. Unable to hide his disappointment at the suddenly lightened shoulder, Kwon-ju followed Ji-won’s falling hand with his eyes before forcibly tearing his gaze away, worried he might be caught, and answered.
“You’re paying, hyung, so anything is fine with me.”
“That’s true.”
With Ji-won grinning at him, Kwon-ju lost all confidence to meet his eyes and walked all the way to the udon restaurant staring only at the ground.
He’s being shy again. Kwon-ju had a tendency to freeze up when approached too closely. Even during normal conversations, if Ji-won suddenly brought his face close or nearly made physical contact, Kwon-ju would visibly stiffen—something Ji-won couldn’t possibly miss.
But having realized from past experiences that Kwon-ju had a different personality from his other friends, Ji-won walked silently beside him rather than scolding him for looking at the ground. Everyone has their own personality. Having shared quarters with a similarly shy fellow soldier in the military, he could understand completely.
Besides, they were sunbae and hoobae. Even after reuniting after three years, it would naturally take more time to become completely comfortable with each other.
“What would you like to eat?”
Ji-won entered the udon restaurant with Kwon-ju and casually pointed at the menu. Kwon-ju quickly glanced up, following the direction of Ji-won’s finger.
Though it pricked his conscience to be treated after having saved money in his account even after buying the item, Ji-won was so insistent on paying, and being able to have dinner together made Kwon-ju happy enough that he didn’t refuse. Today marked the fifth day in a row he’d been treated to meals, each time suppressing the urge to take out his wallet.
Ji-won surely knew he had money. And he must have noticed that Kwon-ju wouldn’t say anything even if he never paid him back. Recalling how some people who approached him to hang out would naturally leave him with the bill, Kwon-ju selected a reasonably priced menu item.
“I’ll have the shrimp tempura udon.”
“Get extra noodles with that.”
One portion is plenty. Suddenly made into a big eater, Kwon-ju picked up the freshly served udon noodles and popped them into his mouth in one go. He really eats so neatly. Ji-won briefly admired him. It was a stark contrast to Mingyu, who had the bizarre belief that noodle dishes should be eaten with splashing and slurping. How many times had soup splattered when eating with him?
Before eating together, Ji-won had the prejudice that Kwon-ju might pick at his food, but Kwon-ju ate better than Ji-won expected. Normally, Ji-won would focus solely on his own meal, but strangely, he kept finding his gaze drawn to the person across from him. He felt like he could somewhat understand the psychology behind watching celebrities’ mukbang videos.
“Sorry, just a moment.”
However, that focus was short-lived, as Ji-won kept checking his phone instead of concentrating on the person in front of him. Though he knew it was impolite to use his phone while dining with someone, he couldn’t take his eyes off it after receiving replies to messages he’d sent last night that had gone unread until now.
About five minutes had passed. One of his group members, who had said they would check the presentation outline he’d set up, came back with feedback first.
[Isn’t the font too rigid….]
[And there seems to be too little text, shouldn’t we add more?? The viewers need something to read, right??]
[Like this]
[(Photo)]
“Is a PowerPoint supposed to be a script?”
Ji-won inadvertently voiced his frustration, then clamped his mouth shut when he remembered he was in the middle of a meal with Kwon-ju. He should just forget about the assignment and focus on eating.
“Is something wrong?”
“Just someone being annoying…”
“Who?”
There hadn’t seemed to be anyone hovering around and irritating him. Was it someone from the game? Reflexively gripping his chopsticks tightly, ready to call a hit squad on whoever it was, Kwon-ju asked—only to receive a question rather than a sigh-laden complaint.
“Kwon-ju, don’t you have any group projects?”
“Um… group projects? All of mine are individual assignments.”
“You’re lucky… Never take classes with group projects. It feels like they shave half your life expectancy with stress.”
It was half-serious but admittedly exaggerated. However, taking Ji-won’s statement about “half your life expectancy” literally, Kwon-ju couldn’t help but look shocked. What kind of group projects was he doing to suffer like that? The senior’s face looked visibly exhausted as he firmly advised against ever taking them, which made Kwon-ju feel concerned.
“Who are you working with?”
“Who was it again?”
Though Kwon-ju asked ready to storm off and confront them, Ji-won ended the conversation by saying they were from a different department so he didn’t really know who they were. Not much help after all… If they were friends, he might have at least vented to me properly. Ji-won, completely unaware of Kwon-ju’s disappointment, took a spoonful of broth and said:
“Wonder when the semester ends.”
“When is it?”
“Mid-June?”
That soon? With midterms right around the corner, they were already halfway through. Having spent every day with Ji-won since the first day, Kwon-ju, who had never once looked forward to the end of the semester, didn’t even know how long university breaks lasted. He had thought it would be mid-July like in high school… The period he could see Ji-won’s face every day was shorter than he expected.
“You didn’t check?”
“No… I had no idea.”
Ji-won found it strange to see the expression of someone hearing this for the first time. Having only ever seen students who marked the end date and desperately waited for exams to finish, this case was a first for him and quite interesting.
“Doesn’t time just drag on?”
“It does…”
Far from dragging, time was flowing too quickly—that was the problem. After the semester ended, he wouldn’t be able to see Ji-won’s face. Suddenly losing his appetite, Kwon-ju momentarily stopped using his chopsticks. Then, belatedly taking a bite of the shrimp tempura that had become soggy from soaking in the broth, he fell into thought.
If they were just friends, they could meet during the break to drink or travel, but no matter how he looked at it, he and Ji-won weren’t that kind of relationship. Even now, despite being called close and spending a significant portion of the day together, he deeply felt that the senior-junior dynamic inevitably created a wall between them.
How could they become close enough to meet during the break? Game and school weren’t enough. It would be nice to arrange to meet outside personally, but he doubted any senior would want to spend their precious vacation hanging out alone with a male junior.
“Wish I could blink and be at the end of the semester.”
As Ji-won mumbled according to his stream of consciousness while waiting for his junior to finish diligently chewing the tempura, Kwon-ju, still without a solution, desperately wished: Please go slowly. It would be fine if it never came at all.
But Kwon-ju’s worries found a solution sooner than expected, thanks to Ji-won suddenly speaking up in the middle of their meal.
“Oh, right. After we eat, want to go to the PC café for a bit?”
“Now?”
“Yes, now. They say the PC café login rewards have changed—let’s just log in for an hour, claim the rewards, and go.”
With that suggestion, Kwon-ju had a great realization. There’s the PC café. A place where it wouldn’t be strange to go with a male junior, where they could play games that Ji-won enjoyed. This could definitely serve as a pretext to meet during the break.
“Let’s go.”
Kwon-ju’s chopstick movements quickened, reflecting his excitement. Apart from going to restaurants to eat together, this was the first time they were going to a location outside of school. Just as they were about to head to Ji-won’s regular PC café after their quick meal, Ji-won suddenly stopped walking.
“This is the biggest one in the area.”
“Ah…”
It doesn’t look that big. Kwon-ju stared at the narrow entrance and the stairs leading underground, then nodded as if it didn’t matter. The interior layout wasn’t important, but with smokers around, he wanted to get inside as quickly as possible.
“Hold on.”
Just as they were about to enter, Mingyu’s name appeared on Ji-won’s phone screen. For Ji-won, who typically enjoyed chatting with friends via KakaoTalk or messages, a phone call meant someone had something urgent to discuss.
“Go in first and grab seats. I’ll join you after taking this call.”
“Okay.”
Who could it be? A hint of curiosity crossed Kwon-ju’s face, but he showed no sign of it as he shuffled into the PC café. Ji-won stepped slightly away from the entrance and pressed the answer button, bringing the phone to his ear.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
