“Wake up, the person who’s sleeping. Do you plan to sleep without even going home?”
As the homeroom teacher, Mr. Kim, tapped the desk, the students who were lying down stood up. Yuwon turned his head, looking at Hyun Gyujin, who also stood up. He then looked ahead again.
He had told them to do their private tutoring homework, but in the meantime, they couldn’t resist going to smoke and sleep until the end of class. It was a real worry.
While lost in other thoughts, the noise of chairs scraping and shuffling echoed loudly as the closing ceremony seemed to end everywhere. Yuwon put his bag on the desk, picked up the textbook for his homework, and put a shadow over his head as he closed the zipper of his pencil case, placing the sharpener, pen, and eraser inside.
As his head turned, he suddenly felt a shadow falling over him. Although Yuwon habitually knew that Hyun Gyujin had come, his body didn’t sense it right away. The hand that moved while brushing his back grabbed his shoulder, and at the moment the voice echoed in his ear, Yuwon was taken aback.
“Oh, so tired even if I sleep.”
Hyun Gyujin’s head touched his from above, and the hand gripping his shoulder felt the pressure. Yuwon’s shoulder shrunk, and at the same time, the pencil case in his hand fell to the floor.
“Surprised?”
Although he could hear Hyun Gyujin’s voice, he couldn’t make out what he was saying. Even though his shadow fell on the desk and touched the school jacket, the warmth and something distinct could be felt, confusing Yuwon.
Yuwon wanted to confirm this situation with his own eyes. He wanted to know if it was a tangible reaction, and if so, what about Hyun Gyujin made him act like this.
“Yuwon, are you okay?”
Eyes met from a much closer distance than expected. Yuwon’s heart plummeted without giving him a chance to grasp it. It raced away from where it had fallen. It was so arbitrary that he felt helpless about how to calm himself.
It was an intense vibration that couldn’t be expressed with the words “thump thump.” Yuwon felt the blurriness as the focus became distorted due to the proximity. He stared blankly at Hyun Gyujin.
The eyes without any tremor, quite long eyelashes, the warmth and strength still felt from the shoulders, and the shadow of Hyun Gyujin.
One second, two seconds, three seconds. Precisely three seconds.
“Why are you so surprised?”
The body that Yuwon thought had come closer remained where it was. Hyun Gyujin, who had bent down to pick up the pencil case, poked Yuwon’s cheek with his finger.
“Daydreaming again, Yuwon. You were surprised, right?”
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.
“Y-yes, I was. Suddenly…”
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“Your face is a bit red again. Seems like you have a fever.”
Hyun Gyujin’s hand, filled with worry, touched his forehead, and Yuwon was extremely embarrassed. Now he knew that the reason he had been acting so strangely was all because of Hyun Gyujin.
“Just a bit… It’s hot, that’s all.”
“You said it was cold earlier. It was hot, cold, and whatnot. Oh, this might be a fever. Let’s go for now.”
Watching Hyun Gyujin talking to him like dealing with a child, Yuwon, who had laughed softly, followed him after crossing the schoolyard. The sound of his footsteps on the sand seemed unusually loud today. It was similar to when he heard the sound of him taking off his slippers at the snack bar earlier.
With both of their bags casually slung over one shoulder, Hyun Gyujin walked out of the classroom, and Yuwon, who had been absentmindedly watching him, followed suit. The warmth from a little earlier when Hyun Gyujin patted his back and gripped his shoulder seemed to linger. Even the recent eye contact felt like a sharp pain just by thinking about it.
Ah… why is this happening all of a sudden? Yuwon was so bewildered because he had never experienced anything like this before. He thought it might be just a momentary thing during lunch, but even after several hours, the reaction continued.
“Choi Haeyoung got scolded by his girlfriend over text.”
“They broke up over a text message?”
“Yeah. How on earth do you get scolded over text? He’s making a fuss, crying and everything.”
“Haeyoung cried? I can’t imagine that.”
“It’s better not to imagine. Seriously.”
Watching Hyun Gyujin talk like he’s dealing with a child, Yuwon chuckled softly, then crossed the schoolyard while still laughing. The sound of the sand crunching under Hyun Gyujin’s footsteps seemed unusually loud today, similar to the sound of slippers being taken off at the snack bar earlier.
“Is the girl he broke up with the one he saw when eating the hamburger last time?”
“When eating a hamburger? Ah, during that summer vacation?”
“Yeah.”
“No, it ended a long time ago.”
“Then did he meet someone else, date, and break up again?”
“Yeah, that guy is really not normal.”
It wasn’t Yuwon’s business how others approached relationships, but the quick cycles of meeting, dating, breaking up, and starting with someone new seemed a bit fascinating.
“But it seems like he really liked her this time. So, he’s crying.”
“He probably won’t last that way a week.”
“Yeah… there’s Haeyoung.”
On the way to the apartment complex, Haeyoung was with a girl in front of a cafe on the first floor of a large shopping mall. Without a greeting, Hyun Gyujin, as if predicting this, passed by Yuwon and Haeyoung.
“That guy is completely insane.”
Smiling at Hyun Gyujin’s cursing, Yuwon took out his vibrating phone from his pocket. The screen displayed the name ‘Dad.’
“Hello, Dad. It’s Yuwon.”
-Yeah, our little puppy. Is school over?
“Yes, I’m on my way home now. How about you, Dad? Are you at the filming location?”
-Yeah, we should have finished shooting by now, but it got delayed for a few hours. It might end in the early morning. Even after it ends, it seems I have to go to House 2 because it’s closer. Can you handle being alone?
“That’s okay. I’m fine by myself.”
Yuwon’s dad, Jung Kijun, was the manager for the actress Lee Haein. They met when Haein was 25, and after dating for five years, they got married. Following the establishment of a small agency, Kijun’s independence, several people, influenced by him, gradually joined his agency. ‘Jun Actors’ became a solid planning agency, producing many successful actors.
While managing the growing agency, Yuwon’s dad still insisted on being Hae-yeon’s manager. So, whenever Yuwon’s mom was on a shoot, the house was almost empty throughout the filming period. At first, it was scary and lonely to suddenly be left alone in a big house, but now it had become a familiar routine.
-Is Gyujin with you? Is it the day for tutoring?
“Yes, that’s right.”
-Eat dinner together, and if you’re scared to be alone, let Gyujin sleep over.
“Yes, I will.”
-Okay, Dad needs to go now. I’ll call you again tonight. Love you, son.
“I love you too, Dad.”
After ending the call and putting the phone back in his pocket, Yuwon, with Hyun Gyujin’s arm still on his shoulder, couldn’t exhale. The arm felt heavy, and the hand that touched him felt unnaturally hot, making him feel strange.
“You didn’t come in today?”
“Yeah… I think the filming got delayed. It’s probably going to end in the early morning, and I have to go to a place near there because we’ll be shooting there for a few days.”
“Oh, then I’ll have to sleep alone again.”
“That’s fine.”
“See you, then.”
Shaking off Hyun Gyujin’s hand, Yuwon entered building 119. Hyun Gyujin followed him, and as they got into the elevator, Yuwon pressed the buttons for the 6th floor, where he lived, and then for the 12th floor where Hyun Gyujin lived.
“I’ll change and be back. I’m thinking about what to have for dinner.”
“Yeah.”
Before getting off on the 6th floor, Yuwon handed his bag to Hyun Gyujin. In the elevator, Hyun Gyujin waved and greeted Yuwon.
“Bye.”
Waving back, Yuwon was relieved when the elevator door closed. Once he saw the numbers going up after the door closed, he felt the tension in his body, as if he had been holding his breath, gradually dissipating.
‘They met when Yuwon was 25’ Is there some kind of mistake? I thought Yuwon was still in high school. Also, how could his biological parents have met when he was an adult?
sorry it should be haein, yuwon’s mom! i fixed it :))
Cute story tho