Chapter 27

Chapter 27

Doyeon scratched his ear when Hyunoh smiled warmly at him. He didn’t know why Hyunoh’s confession that he’d run all the way here just to brag sounded so sweet to him.

He felt proud. He felt like he just became Hyunoh’s best friend.

The two continued to discuss some meaningless things before parting ways. They were things like what Doyeon ate for dinner and how Doyeon and his friends visited the PC room.

Doyeon waved Hyunoh away after their chat and walked back into his shared house. The moment he stepped foot over the front door, he realized something.

“This is Hyunoh’s jacket.”

He had forgotten to return it to him. In a rush, he quickly looked out of his window but found no one. Hyunoh seemed to be long gone. Doyeon called him.

“Hey, I came home with your jacket on. I’ll be out soon, can you wait a sec?”

“You can give it back later.”

“What? You’re going to go home like that? Aren’t you cold?”

“No, I don’t get cold easily. Good night.”

“Oh...”

Doyeon hung up and hung Hyunoh’s jacket neatly on a hanger. He stared at it for a while from his bed, then went back on to the Kurendin website.

People were still talking about Hyunoh, even though it was hours after the finals. After scrolling through several posts, Doyeon clicked on one as though he was lured in.

[The winner’s gf is next to me rn.]

He knew Hyunoh didn’t have a girlfriend, but he still clicked on the post. But the post finished with [She’s looking at herself in the mirror right now lol], which made him laugh.

He was fooled.

Instead of going back, Doyeon scrolled down to the comments. There were a lot, despite the post being a gag post.

[User 1: I bet this dude has an amazing gf irl. fck I’m mad now]

⤷ [User 2: You think? He’s a gamer lol]

⤷ [User 3: YOU are the gamer,, I go to school with this guy and he’s the smartest kid in the whole school]

⤷⤷ [User 4: ?? Who r u? I’m the same yr as him and his gf’s name is YSJ]

⤷⤷ [User 3: Woah u frm JungHan middle school? I heard Hyunoh Gong dated another girl frm another school too, she’s pretty]

⤷⤷⤷ [User 5: Date what? Damn, kids these days. they do things early]

⤷⤷⤷⤷ [User 3: Put your dentures away ^^ ]

Doyeon stopped there and turned off his phone.

He felt strange. Those comments were talking about Hyunoh Gong without Hyunoh Gong knowing, and he had just read them secretively after having a real conversation with Hyunoh Gong in real life.

“He’s had several girlfriends?”

And they were all pretty? Doyeon recalled the time when Hyunoh said he liked people who ate well, and he realized he liked pretty people who ate well.

Doyeon rubbed the black screen of his phone. The boy on the screen looked upset. Doyeon sighed and buried his face in the pillow.

* * *

Students gathered around Hyunoh Gong when the next Monday arrived.

“Dude! What the heck?!”

“What did the trophy look like?”

“Can you bring it to school tomorrow?”

Hyunoh only smiled and commented on how good he was at everything he did. Doyeon dropped his bag and sauntered over to Kangbin.

“Hyunoh’s popular,” he whispered, staring at the crowd around Hyunoh. He wasn’t Hyunoh’s desk partner anymore, so talking to Hyunoh meant fighting through that crowd.

“Obviously. He won.”

“Right, he did.”

He suddenly felt a distance between himself and Hyunoh Gong, whom he’d seen last night.

He’d read about Hyunoh’s past on the internet, and today, seeing Hyunoh’s face hovering over the crowd like this... he felt like a stranger.

The bell rang in the middle of the chaos. Doyeon walked back to his seat.

* * *

The moment lunchtime came around, Hyunoh approached him and lifted him up.

“Doyeon, let’s go eat.”

Startled out of his doze, Doyeon snapped his head up. Hyunoh had shoved his hands beneath his armpits, dragging him out the door and through the corridor like some doll.

“When did class end?” Doyeon asked with sleep still stuck to his face. He had no idea.

More importantly, Doyeon couldn’t believe he nodded off in class when he’d lived as a role model for most of his life.

Kangbin sorted through Doyeon’s messy hair.

“Did you go to sleep late while watching M-rated stuff? The teacher told us to leave you alone, saying you were probably tired from studying... It must be so nice to be a role model. You looked like a hardworking student while dozing.”

“Then why don’t you live like me and study hard to become a role model that gets excused from things?”

Doyeon pulled Hyunoh’s arms out from under him and stretched.

He hadn’t slept well last night because he kept thinking of Hyunoh. The lack of sleep was making him tired, causing his mind to leave blanks.

Sunwoo stopped walking ahead and stuck next to Hyunoh.

“Hyunoh, you know Sumin Yoon, right? The pretty girl who goes to the same tutoring center as us? She’s really, really pretty.”

“Yeah.”

Doyeon also nodded when Hyunoh answered. Sumin Yoon. He knew her too because she had been in the same advanced class as they were in throughout summer.

“Well, Sumin uploaded your picture on Stargram.”

“My picture?”

“Yeah. It’s of you during your final round. She introduced you as a kid in her tutoring class.”

“Really?” Hyunoh sounded bored. He didn’t seem interested in what she did. Sunwoo laughed meaningfully and elbowed Hyunoh.

“She’s making it so obvious she likes you. Apparently she said your name while playing a celebrity game.”

“Oh, I heard about that.”

“So you know? And you’re reacting like this? It’s Sumin, you know. What do you think of her?”

“What do you think? I guess I’m grateful she thinks so well of me.”

“But what if she asks you out on a date?”

“I don’t think she will.”

“There’s an if here! What if Sumin Yoon asks you on a date?”

“I’ll go, and if she’s okay, we’ll date for real I guess?” Hyunoh’s answer was surprisingly simple. He didn’t seem to prioritize dating at all or seem interested in it.

“If she’s okay”? Was that how he dated people? Doyeon felt something inside him twist as he turned to look at Hyunoh.

Sunwoo shook his head with a disgusted look. “Damn, you’re so annoying, you lucky bastard...”

Hyunoh only smiled.

Sunwoo screeched and slung his arm around Kangbin’s shoulders, looking more and more frustrated. “See, this is the problem with the handsome ones. They’re not desperate at all! Don’t you agree, Kangbin?”

“Yeah, but Hyunoh’s always been like that,” Kangbin agreed immediately with a smile. Sunwoo stared at Kangbin’s face for a while, then lowered his arm.

“Who the hell am I complaining to? You are the same breed of crud as Hyunoh... Doyeon, you understand me, don’t you? Don’t you? You’ve never had a girlfriend.”

Sunwoo moped, clinging to Doyeon instead.

“No, I totally get it.” Doyeon nodded. He was probably more similar to Sunwoo than those two who’d already dated several girls.

Sunwoo’s expression finally brightened.

“They’re the ones in the wrong! They’re meant to be thirsty, starved, and desperate for something! But no, they’re being hand fed... They don’t need to dig themselves in a hole or try at all.”

“Right.” Doyeon nodded again, this time with a faint smile. He felt something building inside him, too.

“I’ll go, and if she’s okay, we’ll date for real I guess.”

Since he’d heard Hyunoh’s boring answer—no, since he found out Hyunoh’d had several ex-girlfriends—he realized it was easy for Hyunoh to date around.

He hadn’t known because Hyunoh had been single the whole time they’d been friends, but according to the community posts, Hyunoh constantly dated someone. Well, it would’ve been hard not to with his looks.

Hyunoh’s girlfriend...?

Doyeon imagined a girl on Hyunoh’s arm, like a near-future experience. Then, he imagined Hyunoh with that girl, holding the girl’s hand, playing with the girl’s hair, and Facetiming the girl before falling asleep.

Doyeon, who knew Hyunoh’s fingers in his hair and Hyunoh’s soft smile, could do nothing but smile bitterly.

He could imagine how gentle and kind Hyunoh would be when he was already so nice to his friends.

At that point, he sighed to himself. He didn’t know why he felt frustrated, and that made him more confused.