“It’s a secret.”
“That’s so mean.”
“You said you came because of the assignment, didn’t you? Go talk to Yoo In-ho. Look over there—don’t you see him slacking off?”
“Hm, now that I’m actually here, I kind of don’t feel like doing it.”
“What are you even saying….”
Overwhelmed by the guy’s composure—no, his downright relaxed air—the two freshmen looked completely subdued.
The same went for the classmates by the window. Except for Yoo In-ho and the other guy sitting on the sofa, the female students couldn’t take their eyes off Min Siheon.
Maybe it was because we were always hanging out together, but he really was ridiculously good-looking. When I lightly flicked his forehead with my finger as a joke, he raised his upper body and rubbed the spot as if it actually hurt.
“By the way, why didn’t you call? If you’d phoned, he would’ve come right out.”
“Oh, I heard you guys headed this way. I wanted to see your face, so I came in person. And In-ho checks his phone later than you’d think.”
“That’s his fault, then. Hey, Yoo In-ho! You’ve got time until your next class, right? If you’ve got any conscience, go work on the assignment with Min Siheon.”
Hooking my arm over the back of the chair, I turned around. Yoo In-ho, who had been half-lying against the sofa, came into view.
Contrary to his appearance, Yoo In-ho was actually pretty diligent. But hearing that he’d been unreachable while he was with me made it feel like it was all my fault.
After all, he’d become Min Siheon’s group partner half-forced because of me. A heavy sense of responsibility washed over me. I shot him a look that said, Do better, and he picked up the bag he’d tossed aside.
“Yes, yes~ It’s all my fault. Now that I’m checking my phone, I see a few texts~ Min Siheon, I didn’t see them. Sorry.”
“It’s fine. There’s still time. Hmm, though doing it in the club room feels a bit… Want to go to a café or a nearby restaurant? Jungwoo, you should come too.”
“Oh~ We were actually about to head to Dream Port anyway. Hey, Cha Jung! Get up!”
“Why me….”
The moment Yoo In-ho finished speaking, Min Siheon, who was sitting beside him, looked at me intently. He was still rubbing the spot on his forehead where I’d flicked him earlier.
It didn’t feel like I’d hit him that hard—just a light flick with my finger—yet he was so good at acting pitiful.
I sighed, muttering that they could just go by themselves instead of dragging me along, and picked up my things.
“Fine, fine. I’m going.”
“Let’s go together. Ah, and… sorry. I’m going to borrow Jungwoo for a bit.”
As I stood up, Min Siheon, who had already gathered his belongings, apologized to the two freshmen sitting in front of him. Though with how relaxed his attitude was, it didn’t really feel like an apology.
“Huh? Oh….”
“What are you doing?”
“If I’m stealing you away, I should at least apologize.”
“Unbelievable.”
After thoroughly bewitching the freshmen with his signature sly behavior, Min Siheon leisurely left his seat.
Seeing him arrive and leave like the wind, the two classmates by the window spoke up regretfully.
“Wow, he really disappears like a gust of wind. I’m going to post on Everytime today. I saw the rare sight of Cha Jungwoo and Min Siheon together~”
“What about me? Why am I excluded?”
“Yoo In-ho, you’re always roaming around. You’ve got no mystery. No mystique.”
“Those bastards and me—it’s all the same. Ugh, filthy, petty lookism.”
“Stop whining and hurry up. Two people are moving because of you.”
As I approached the door, Yoo In-ho, lips sticking out in a pout, turned around.
After our classmates waved their hands, the two freshmen at the table bowed at the waist. The girl who’d been trying to ask me something earlier hesitantly waved her hand.
I didn’t know what she’d been so curious about, but it tugged at me a little, so I gave her a faint smile in return.
“G-goodbye! …Jungwoo sunbae-nim.”
“Yeah. Sorry about today. Let’s talk again sometime.”
“Yes, yes.”
At the loud response from the freshman, the two classmates by the window whispered to each other with amused expressions.
Meanwhile, Min Siheon, who had been holding the door open, looked back at me. With the faintest curve to his lips, he placed his hand on my shoulder.
When I felt the heat and sheer size of his grip, I followed his arm up to his face. The moment I met his glossy, inorganic-looking eyes, it felt like I wouldn’t be able to move.
…What? I mouthed silently. He shook his head as if it were nothing. Though for someone saying it was nothing, he tightened his grip slightly and pulled me closer with ease.
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Despite his smiling face, something about it left me with an uneasy feeling. He really was a mysterious person.
Even Kang Taeyoon, the so-called main top, hadn’t seemed this difficult to interpret. I found myself regretting not listening more closely to what Cha Seung-ah had said.
Was it because I’d seen Min Siheon in the club room? A fleeting memory brushed past my mind, and I closed the mouth I’d opened.
With that forgotten memory resurfacing, I thought it might be better to just follow the guys to the cafeteria.
In the end, I left the club room in step with Min Siheon’s guiding hand.
The sweltering air outside, not much different from indoors, made the season’s heat unmistakable. Yet the warmth radiating from the shoulder he was still holding felt even hotter.
***
The café was packed with undergraduates seeking refuge from the heat. I slowly stirred the ice in my cup with a straw.
Across from me sat Yoo In-ho, staring at his laptop and tugging at his hair. Beside him was Min Siheon, glasses lowered, pressing at the bridge of his nose.
It seemed he had truly come all the way to the club room just to work on the assignment. Since arriving at the café, Min Siheon had been busy with his books. Contrary to his claim that he had time, his schedule must’ve been fairly tight.
If I’d known this would happen, I would’ve slipped away naturally. Having been dragged along with nothing to do, I quietly observed the two of them.
Even that grew boring after more than thirty minutes.
It felt like a waste of the money I’d already paid to move somewhere else. Scratching my brow, I glanced out the window. With the straw between my lips, I drew in air, and the cold iced Americano slid down my throat.
“Are you bored?”
“Huh? Well, kind of. No, it’s fine. I’ll just study too.”
I hadn’t even noticed when Min Siheon had looked over at me. Feeling oddly awkward under his soft question, I denied it.
I rummaged through my bag, pulled out a random file, and waved my hand as if to say he could ignore me. I didn’t want to be a distraction after tagging along so ambiguously.
I flipped through the papers with a light fluttering motion, and only then did Min Siheon’s gaze return to where it had been.
Letting out a quiet sigh, I marveled at my own situation.
Maybe I should’ve just stayed in the club room. Then again, that might not have been such a great choice either.
So instead of the assignment, I pulled out a blank sheet of scrap paper and picked up my pen.
At first, my plan had simply been not to get deeply entangled between Go Heemin and Min Siheon. I’d intended to maintain just enough friendship as a classmate and graduate quietly.
But with Min Siheon awkwardly inserting me into things, I felt like I couldn’t remain a bystander anymore.
How had I ended up as a jealousy totem? It seemed the mistake had been being there at their first meeting in the first place.
Using this spare time as an excuse, I decided to organize what I knew of the original story and the parts I remembered.
Slowly, I wrote down the memory of that day on the scrap paper—the day we ran into Go Heemin at the restaurant Min Siheon and I had gone to together.
***
The first meeting between Go Heemin and Min Siheon had been similar to that of any ordinary college students. Under the accompaniment of a mutual acquaintance, they ended up exchanging names.
I just hadn’t expected that mutual acquaintance to be me, which was why I stared at Go Heemin in surprise as he stood there in the restaurant uniform.
Perhaps I looked amusing, because Go Heemin scratched at the glass tabletop with his finger and urged me to order.
“What are you doing? Not picking a menu?”
“Oh, right. Tomato risotto and….”
I hurriedly lowered my gaze to the menu and listed the dishes I’d already decided on, sneaking glances at Go Heemin in between.
As the unexpected host of the novel’s two protagonists’ first meeting, I had no idea what I was supposed to do.
Even eating with Min Siheon had been a coincidence, so the whole situation left me dazed.
“Tomato risotto, gorgonzola pizza, and a grapefruit ade. That’s right, sir?”
“Yes, that’s right~”
Thinking I might try to shift the topic, I looked at Go Heemin. He was leaning toward me with one hand braced on the table.
Maybe it was because Kang Taeyoon wasn’t there. He felt a bit more at ease than usual. Since that was rare, it even felt somewhat refreshing.
At that rather close distance, I muttered that he was gross and lightly pushed at his apron.
I was curious how Go Heemin had ended up working part-time, and in many ways, the current situation still felt unreal.
I wondered whether, in the original story, Go Heemin and Min Siheon had also met like this.
Excluding me—who hadn’t existed in the novel—had they encountered each other as server and customer in a restaurant like this?
“Hey, but you got a part-time job? This is the first I’m hearing of it.”
“Substitute shift~ This place belongs to Kim Sunwoo hyung. We have a morning class together, and he forgot he had a group meeting today, so he practically begged me. Well, Kang Taeyoon didn’t come to school today, so I said okay to earn some pocket money. He just asked me to cover for two or three hours during a slow time. One-day special part-timer~”
“You crazy bastard, that’s disgusting. You learned that from Yoo In-ho, didn’t you?”
“That’s harsh. Anyway, Cha Jungwoo, you know who Kim Sunwoo is, right?”
“Even if I’m indifferent to people around me, I’m not that bad, okay??”
Just as I was grasping the rough circumstances and chatting lightly with Go Heemin, a steady gaze poured over me from across the table.
When I glanced sideways, I saw Min Siheon sitting there with his head tilted slightly toward me, lips closed.
The moment our eyes met, I saw the corner of Min Siheon’s mouth lift faintly.
…Is this where it finally begins? The fated first meeting between the main bottom and the sub-top.
What on earth did they say to each other for this guy to fall for that guy? It felt strangely curious.
The instant Min Siheon called my name, I reflexively grabbed the hem of Go Heemin’s apron.
Go Heemin, who had been about to turn and leave, looked down at his tugged apron and straightened again.
“Jungwoo.”
“Sorry. We were talking just among ourselves. Hey, Go Heemin. Let me introduce you.”
“Huh? I’m busy.”
“Cut the crap. Siheon, this is Go Heemin. You might already know him…. He’s our classmate from the same year, though I didn’t know he worked here part-time. He’s filling in today.”
Blinking his large eyes, Go Heemin awkwardly waved at Min Siheon. It was rare to see him alone like this, so in that sense, Min Siheon was really lucky.
Then again, if Kang Taeyoon had been there, the very existence of a sub-top might have been impossible.
“Hi… um, I’m Go Heemin. Didn’t we have a few classes together in freshman year? You look familiar.”
“Yeah. I’ve seen you before.”
Was the first meeting in BL novels usually this awkward? Unlike what I’d expected, there wasn’t a trace of romance in the scene.
If anything, it felt like there’d been more atmosphere when I first met him. I watched the two of them while making that ridiculous joke to myself.
