Together, the curry that came out little by little was really delicious as rumored, so he ate it all without leaving a single bit. By the time we were about to leave, talking about coming back again, it was already getting dark outside.
The academy wasn’t far from the tonkatsu restaurant. Approaching the familiar building, Yuwon briefly grabbed Hyun Gyujin’s arm and then let go.
“I’ll be back soon.”
“Take your time. Don’t rush and fall over.”
“Yeah!”
With a wave of his hand and a quick greeting, Yuwon hurried into the academy. Although Hyun Gyujin said there was no need to rush, Yuwon felt impatient. He wanted to find his earphones quickly and spend time with Hyun Gyujin. He hadn’t been able to properly talk to him all this time, let alone spend time together. It seemed like it would be fun to just chat with Hyun Gyujin while sipping on something refreshing without doing anything grand.
As expected, when he entered the empty self-study room and headed to the seat he sat in yesterday, his earphones were still in the drawer. Ah, what a relief. Yuwon quickly put the case containing the earphones into the pocket of his school uniform jacket and quietly left again.
Gotta go fast, but not too fast. Slowly, but quickly. Yuwon, who was thinking really strange thoughts, encountered himself and chuckled softly on the stairs. Today was weird in many ways, but as weird as it was, it felt good, so he decided not to think too strangely about having such thoughts.
If they’re going to talk about weird things, the fact that Hyun Gyujin, who was his friend for 18 years, is dating so easily was the strangest thing of all.
As Yuwon descended the stairs and approached the door, he stopped when he saw several other girls in school uniforms standing around Hyun Gyujin. They weren’t there just a moment ago when he went up, so he couldn’t figure out where they suddenly appeared from. Judging by their uniforms, they seemed to be girls from a nearby girls’ high school.
“You really don’t use Instagram? I sent you a DM last time.”
The pretty girl in front asked, but Hyun Gyujin, leaning against the wall, just kept his gaze on his phone and didn’t respond.
“Do you know Choi Haeyeong? I saw your photos on Choi Haeyeong’s phone before. We’re meeting next week, are you coming? Or do you want to meet separately?”
When Choi Haeyeong’s name was mentioned, Hyun Gyujin’s gaze shifted slightly. At that moment, as if there was nothing around him, Hyun Gyujin, who had just glanced at the expectant eyes of the girl, turned his head to look at Yuwon.
“Oh? When did you arrive?”
With eyes meeting, Hyun Gyujin, who stepped forward as if nothing was around him, smiled at Yuwon.
“…Who’s that?”
“I don’t know. Annoyingly talking and acting all high and mighty.”
Yuwon, surprised by Hyun Gyujin’s loud voice that could be heard by everyone, glanced at the girls. Naturally, the girls who were feeling upset just left, and whether they did or not, Hyun Gyujin didn’t take his eyes off Yuwon.
“Did you find your earphones?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
“Yeah, luckily they were in the drawer.”
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“Don’t you want to go eat ice cream waffles?”
“Waffles?”
“Yeah… Seungjun said it’s really good there, but we didn’t go last time even though he suggested it.”
Hyun Gyujin, with an unfamiliar name, lightly touched Yuwon’s cheek with his chubby face. For mental stability, he had to touch something soft and squishy.
“Why didn’t we go? You must have wanted to go. You like that kind of thing.”
“…Because I wanted to go with you. You like waffles too, don’t you?”
Ah, what to do. How did I spend time with this guy as a friend? Hyun Gyujin took a deep breath as he looked at Yuwon’s blushing face and ear. With just that one sentence saying he wanted to go with me, all the worries disappeared.
“You wanted to go with me?”
“…Yeah.”
“Then let’s go. Where to?”
“If you go a bit further into the alley behind the bubble tea shop, there’s supposedly a place. We haven’t been there before, so maybe we missed it. They say the churros there are delicious too.”
“Let’s have churros then.”
Seeing Yuwon smile happily, Hyun Gyujin followed suit and lifted his hand that had been lightly stroking Yuwon’s cheek to pat his hair. It still felt a bit surreal to be dating Yuwon, and it didn’t quite sink in yet, but still, having their relationship restored like this was truly fortunate. Just knowing that he doesn’t have to worry about Yuwon being taken away by those academy people anymore made him happy.
“Oh, look over there. They have waffles drawn on the sign.”
They went to the back of the bubble tea shop that they usually go to. There, they saw a sign with waffles drawn on it. Hyun Gyujin entered the quite spacious store and found a nice corner to sit and chat with Yuwon. They ordered ice cream waffles, churros, and warm lemon tea, as Yuwon didn’t want to only have cold things.
Yuwon quickly took pictures of the waffles with three scoops of ice cream—strawberry, vanilla, and chocolate—and the churros that arrived not long after. Hyun Gyujin also captured Yuwon taking photos of desserts. He was always cute, but today, he seemed so adorable that Hyun Gyujin couldn’t help but smile seriously.
“This is really delicious… You should try it too.”
Yuwon’s eyes widened as he cut the waffle into small pieces with a fork and took a bite with strawberry ice cream. Finding his reaction cute, Hyun Gyujin shamelessly opened his mouth wide. Although it wasn’t a rare behavior, whenever Yuwon was in a good mood, Hyun Gyujin would really put food into his mouth.
Out of ten times, about seven times Yuwon would just put an empty fork into his mouth or try to stuff a tissue in, but today he seemed to be in a good mood. Hyun Gyujin smiled as he watched Yuwon cut the waffle into perfect bite-sized pieces, topped with vanilla ice cream. He opened his mouth again to receive something warm, cool, and sweet. Then he smiled at Yuwon’s eyes shining with anticipation.
“It’s really delicious. Let’s come here again next time.”
“Yeah, it’s delicious. Do you want to try the churros too?”
Yuwon eagerly took a long churro and took a bite with a hopeful expression. Then he also offered it to Hyun Gyujin’s lips. Hyun Gyujin opened his mouth again and took a bite from the part Yuwon had just eaten. The warm and sweet churros, just like Yuwon’s reaction, were really delicious.
“This is tasty too. We could come here often.”
“Yeah, we could grab this on our way home after academy. How about that?”
“Yeah. Eat plenty.”
Yuwon took another bite and then fed Hyun Gyujin again. Matching Yuwon’s behavior of sharing one bite at a time, Hyun Gyujin obediently opened his mouth. While part of it was because the churros were delicious, he also just wanted to do whatever Yuwon suggested in this simple and peaceful moment they had found again.
Hyun Gyujin put the remaining bit of churro into Yuwon’s mouth and gently wiped the sugar on his lips with his fingertips. Then he licked the sugar off his thumb where it had transferred. Yuwon’s face flushed at the seemingly casual gesture.
“I have so many things I’m curious about.”
“…”
“If I ask, will you tell me everything?”
“…Yeah.”
“What should I ask first? Um…”
Hyun Gyujin lightly held Yuwon’s fingertip, which was resting on the table without picking up the fork, and gently traced his fingernail. Yuwon’s gaze shifted from that hand to the waffle and back again. His blinking increased, and the temperature of the breath between his parted lips rose slightly.
“When did you realize… that you liked me?”
“Oh… um… Whenever I suddenly see you, I get so nervous. You’re always the same, but I’m not… When you come even a little closer, I get so embarrassed… So suddenly… I thought about it and realized. It was around… um, when I left early because I was sick?”
“Oh… that time. So, when you said you dreamed about me, was it because you liked me?”
When the topic of dreams came up, Yuwon’s fingertips curled inward. Hyun Gyujin gently uncurled the bent fingertips and enclosed them in his own hand, ensuring that they couldn’t escape or run away anymore.
“…From one day, you just… started appearing in my dreams every day. I wondered how you could appear every single day, but you did… So, it must be because I like you, right?”
“Did anything… intimate happen between us in the dreams?”
Hyun Gyujin, now completely enclosing Yuwon’s finger in his hand, was now gently touching Yuwon’s wrist with his fingertip. He applied pressure to Yuwon’s foot, curled up inside white socks.
“Shall we save that question for later?”
“…Yeah.”
“Got it. Then let’s talk about something else.”
Seeing Yuwon sigh in relief and take a deep breath, Hyun Gyujin smiled and moved from his seat to sit beside Yuwon. Whether there was anyone else around or not, it didn’t matter.
“Give me your hand again.”
As he reached out to grab the hand that had slipped away while changing seats, Yuwon’s hand obediently returned when he stretched out his fingers. Hyun Gyujin wrapped his hand around it to capture the warmth.
“Why did you start liking me?”
“…I’m not really sure about that myself…”
“What? There’s no reason?”
“At the time, in front of the school store… Lee Woojun said something weird to me, and you ended up fighting him.”
Hyun Gyujin tried hard to recall Lee Woojun’s face. It wasn’t easy to remember the face of such an unremarkable lunatic.
“Yeah, that’s right.”
“When I told you to stop then, you looked at me and… asked if I was feeling okay.”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“…When I heard that, my heart… skipped a beat.”
Ah, crazy. He said his heart skipped a beat. Hyun Gyujin made a groaning sound.
Yuwon said, his heart did a “Kung!” beat, and he said it very cutely. I wanted to mention this, so that we can feel how Hyun Gyujin is feeling at that moment (just dying from Yuwon’s cuteness ><)
Why is Yuwon so cute??? It’s unfair 😭😭😭
i know right, i just want to squeeze him up 🥺🥰
Exactly!!