Yi-hyeon stared back and forth between the cookies and Yeon-seo with eyes full of disbelief. The teddy bear cookie, cradling a heart-shaped strawberry-colored chocolate, looked far better than anything sold in stores—setting aside how perfectly it was baked into a delicious hue, its overall quality was simply on another level.
“This? No way. That’s insane. You must be really good at cooking.”
“I’m not bad.”
“I’m seriously terrible at cooking. So whenever I see someone who’s good at it, it feels kind of amazing.”
“I’m good at pasta too!”
“Really? Whoa…… Do you learn from YouTube or something?”
“No, from my dad. My dad’s really good at cooking.”
“Even cookies?”
“Yeah!”
“That’s incredible!”
When Yi-hyeon reacted with genuine surprise, Yeon-seo grew excited, her voice rising with enthusiasm.
“If you have time later, come hang out at my place. I’ll make pasta for you!”
“Sure. And wow, the cookie is really cute. I’ll enjoy it.”
Repeating his thanks, Yi-hyeon slipped the cookie into his front pocket.
***
Yi-hyeon waited in the science lab after saving Han Jun’s seat. A little while later, he stretched and waved his hand, calling out, “Over here,” when Han Jun appeared, casually swinging a tumbler in his hand. As Han Jun approached, Yi-hyeon deliberately pulled out the cookie he’d tucked into his pocket.
“I thought it’d go well with iced Americano. Let’s share.”
He split the cookie—now warmed by body heat—in half and handed it over. Han Jun smiled faintly as he reached out to take it, but then his expression suddenly turned slightly sulky as he asked,
“This isn’t from our school convenience store.”
“Obviously. It’s homemade.”
“Homemade? You made it?”
“No. The kid I saw before gave it to me.”
“Who did you see?”
“You know, the one from the basketball club whose bracelet I helped find. You don’t remember?”
The sulky look faded into a blank expression. Han Jun flipped his hand over and pushed the cookie away with the back of it, turning his gaze aside as he replied coldly,
“Why are you sharing something someone gave you with me?”
“It’s big. I can’t eat it all by myself.”
“Forget it.”
Puzzled by Han Jun’s curt response, Yi-hyeon took a bite of the cookie himself. It crumbled with a pleasantly crisp texture, and soon a rich peanut butter flavor spread through his mouth.
“Whoa.”
“Huh? It’s really good. Then at least eat this much. It’s seriously delicious. It’s homemade, too.”
“Homemade my ass. You can tell at a glance it’s from a bakery.”
“No, really. If she can make pasta that well, then cooking—”
“Hah.”
At the dry scoff that escaped Han Jun’s lips, Yi-hyeon stopped mid-sentence.
“You said you weren’t close with her.”
“Yeah.”
“Then how do you know she makes pasta well? Did you eat it?”
“No, Yeon-seo told me herself.”
“Wow, damn it. You even know her name?”
“She told me earlier.”
“I don’t like cookies. You eat it yourself.”
Han Jun knocked away the cookie Yi-hyeon held out once more, mercilessly, then turned his back. He opened a textbook he normally never touched and kept flipping through pages that weren’t even part of today’s lesson.
“Okay.”
Thrown off by Han Jun’s sudden prickliness, Yi-hyeon stayed silent. Just as he was about to bring the cookie back to his mouth, Han Jun suddenly spun around and snatched the cookie that was about to go between Yi-hyeon’s lips. Then he stuffed all of it into his own mouth and chewed hard, grinding it down between his teeth.
Crunch, crunch. As Han Jun glared at Yi-hyeon while working his jaw, the sound from his mouth was like sand being crushed.
***
As the weather grew hotter, Yi-hyeon’s condition took a sharp downturn. Feeling the onset of a seasonal cold, he asked his homeroom teacher if he could do self-study alone in the infirmary just in case—and received permission without any fuss.
The moment he opened the infirmary door, a blast of cold air rushed out.
Thinking it was better to be a little cold than to sweat, Yi-hyeon stepped inside and lay down on the bed, pulling the blanket up to his shoulders. However, with the air conditioner mounted directly above the bed, goosebumps soon rose along the bare skin exposed beneath his short sleeves.
Yi-hyeon got up and glanced around before walking over to the nurse’s desk, which sat in a sunlit spot. Luckily, the teacher was out, so Yi-hyeon sat down there, opened his workbook, and gathered his stationery.
After solving a couple of problems, the sunlight streaming through the window carried with it the scent of freshly dried laundry.
Ah, that smells so good.
Without realizing it, he sniffed the air, wiggling his hips slightly.
Whenever Yi-hyeon felt especially good or emotionally buoyant, his body grew light—like a puppy’s, his hips always giving him away.
What do I do… it smells so nice, I’m getting really sleepy…
Pushing his chair back, Yi-hyeon stretched long and wide, as if trying to wake his drowsy body. But he couldn’t fight the wave of sleepiness. Thinking he’d just close his eyes for exactly ten minutes and then get back up to study, he curled up like a puppy under the spring sunlight. Using his arm as a pillow, he fell asleep. When the brightness bothered him, he wrinkled his nose and slipped his face between his rounded arms.
“Huh—what time is it…?”
Startled awake, Yi-hyeon felt something slide off his shoulder. Jumping, he picked it up and found that the familiar scent lingered on the clean fabric.
“When did you come and leave… If you were here, you should’ve woken me up.”
Thinking of Han Jun’s gentle face, Yi-hyeon brushed off the dust and buried his face into Han Jun’s shirt. As always, a refreshing scent—just like his smile—flowed out, making him feel good.
***
The moment Yi-hyeon received his joint evaluation report card, his body collapsed inward. His grades had collapsed right along with it. Slumping into his chair, he clutched at his head and let out a low groan of “Ah…”
There goes my scholarship, and summer vacation part-time work is basically guaranteed now.
After becoming Louis, he’d fallen behind by nearly a month, unable to keep up with the curriculum. On top of that, the sudden physical changes had completely distracted him, leaving him unable to focus on anything for a long while. As if that weren’t enough, he’d even gone and started a one-sided crush. Knowing all too well why his grades had taken a backward step only made it hurt more.
“Haah……”
After the groan came a deep sigh.
Even in the middle of all this, Yi-hyeon felt Han Jun’s refreshing scent drawing closer, and there was no way to suppress the fluttering in his chest. While muttering “damn one-sided crush,” his eyes stayed fixed straight ahead on the approaching Han Jun.
“How bad did they drop for your sighing to reach all the way to my seat?”
While Yi-hyeon was off guard, busy staring at his face, Han Jun swiftly snatched the report card from his hand. Then, as if the paper itself stank, he frowned deeply.
“What’s up with your English?”
Ashamed of his disastrous grades, Yi-hyeon quickly crumpled the long report card in Han Jun’s hand. Then he let out another deep sigh and sprawled face-down over his desk.
“Did you mess up and shift your answers?” Han Jun asked.
All Yi-hyeon could do was resent his grades, which made it look exactly like he’d misaligned his answers. Clutching his head, he groaned in misery.
“…If I’d shifted my answers, it honestly would’ve hurt less. At least that’d mean I knew them and just made a mistake.”
“Were you always this weak in English?”
“I didn’t think I was. But seeing how it fell apart the most… I guess I’ve been compensating for my weak spots with sheer diligence all this time.”
“How diligent do you have to be to pull that off?”
“I don’t know. I’m screwed. My life’s screwed.”
Watching Yi-hyeon tug at his hair in despair, Han Jun casually sat down in the empty seat beside him.
“Want me to teach you English?”
Yi-hyeon stopped pulling at his hair, which now stuck out like a bristling hedgehog’s spines, and his eyes lit up.
“You?”
“I lived in the States, remember? Teaching you would be nothing.”
